trace of testicles, either in the scrotum or abdomen, although the
seminal vesicles were filled with some fluid.[34] Sprengle, in his
"History of Medicine," relates of the complete removal of both testicles
from an old man of seventy years of age, on account of inordinate sexual
desire, the operation having no perceptible effect in subduing the
disease.[35] These cases are analogous to those exceptionable cases in
which, after extirpation of the ovaries, both menstruation and
fecundation have still taken place.

Modern civilization and its unnatural mode of dressing inflict great
harm on men by keeping these parts too warm and constricted. Much of
the irritability of these organs, as well as their _decadence_ at an age
some generation or two before the time when they should still possess
all their virile attributes, can be directly attributed to this cause. A
more intelligent way of dressing would result in less moral and physical
wreckage, and require less galvanic belts and aphrodisiacs in men under
fifty. If those who habitually swath their scrotums in the heavy folds
of their flannel shirts, to which are superadded the cotton shirts,
drawers, and outer clothes in which civilized man incases himself, would
cast a backward eye into the dim and misty past, and see the priest of
some of the old Pagan gods soaking the scrotum in hot water, and then
gradually rubbing the testicles within, by gentle but firm friction, _to
make the testicles disappear_, a process by which many of the heathen
priests prepared themselves for the discharge of their sacerdotal duties
and the strict observance of those rules of chastity and celibacy which
they were henceforth to live up to, they would find _one_ explanation of
why civilized man does not possess that vigor and retain that
procreative power into advanced age that was one of the characteristics
of our ancient progenitors in the days that breeches were as abbreviated
as those now worn by the Sioux Indians. These are really but leggins,
which run only to the perineum and are simply tied by outer points to a
strap from each hip. Finely and comfortably cushioned chairs may be a
luxury to sit on, but they will have, on the man who uses them in youth
and in his prime, a wonderful sedative and moral influence later on,
about as effectual as the miniature warm baths for the scrotum and
gentle pressure to the testicles that were used by the heathen priests
of old, who preferred a gradual dis