onveying ducts. The sperm is imperfectly elaborated and totally
unfit for procreative purposes. Sometimes the spermatozoa are entirely
absent, and, when present, are very few in number, incomplete in
structure, diseased, and deficient in power as well as in organization.
Fig. 3 represents the spermatozoa in a healthy condition, and Fig. 4,
when they are sickly, deficient and inanimate. The husband may appear to
be healthy, and _his_ inability to procreate may be erroneously
considered a defect in his wife.

SYMPTOMS OF SPERMATORRHEA. The indications of abuse of the sexual organs
are loss of nervous energy, dullness of the mental faculties, and
delight in obscene stories. The expression of the face becomes coarse,
and the movements slow; the eye is sunken, the face bloated and pale,
and the disposition is fretful and irritable; the appetite is
capricious, the throat irritated, and the patient makes frequent
attempts to clear it, in order to speak distinctly. There are pains in
the chest, wakefulness, and during the night lascivious thoughts and
desires. The relish for play or labor is gone, and a growing distaste
for business is apparent; there is a determination of blood to the head,
headache, noises and roaring sounds in the ears, the eyes may be
blood-shot and watery, weak or painful, the patient imagines bright
spots or flashes passing before them, and there may be partial
blindness. There is increasing stolidity of expression, the eye is
without sparkle, and the face becomes blotched and animal-like in its
expression. The victim is careless of his personal appearance, not
unscrupulously neat, and not unfrequently a rank odor exhales from the
body.

There are troublesome sensations, as of itching and crawling, in and
about the scrotum. Subsequently, there is obstinate constipation, and
all the symptoms of dyspepsia follow. Gradually the pallor deepens, the
patient becomes emaciated. There is a shortness of breath, palpitation
after even moderate exercise, trembling of the knees, and eruptions on
the skin. There may also be cough, hoarseness, stitch in the side, loss
of voice. The sleep is not refreshing, the patient has frequent
nightmare, or the dreams are lascivious, and the involuntary emissions
of semen become more frequent. The weakness increasing, the sufferer
experiences a weakness in his legs and staggers like a drunken man, his
hands tremble and he stammers.

[Illustration: Fig. 3.
Microscopic appearance