, will, in the course of the
following hours or days, be reabsorbed, thus making for virility. The
small advance guard of spermatozoa that may have made their way to the
ampullae will undergo a gradual decrease of their nascent activity, as
the days go by. On the occasion of the next nocturnal emission the
ampullae will empty along with the seminal vesicles and these
spermatozoa pass out. If they be examined under the microscope as a
part of a normal nocturnal emission, they will be found to be almost
motionless or very greatly lacking in typical spermatozoon activity.

Now let us suppose that the young man, instead of curbing his sexual
appetite, resorts, after a season of erotic imaginations, to the act
of masturbation. We may picture the seminal ducts, vasa deferentia and
ampullae as being gorged with the secretion of the testes, including,
of course, myriads of just released and nascent spermatozoa, together
with several cubic centimeters of the liquid portion of the testicular
secretion. The act of masturbation causes an orgasm and leads to a
complete emptying of all these ducts. Thus we note that in this case
the virile fluid is wasted, not being used in the procreative act or
reabsorbed to exert its influence on virility. Nature's ends have been
defeated. The system suffers a certain degree of depletion from which
it recovers only after hours or even days. It must be evident from
this picture of the processes that go on in the male sexual apparatus
incident to the act of masturbation that the act cannot be performed
repeatedly, as it naturally is when it becomes a habit, without
interfering with the virility of the adolescent male.

In the study of a large number of cases the author has found that the
principal _physical_ changes that occur in a young man as the result
of this habit are, flabbiness of muscle and clamminess of hands. The
really virile man possesses firm muscles and clear, direct eyes and a
strong grip; usually also a warm grip.

It has been thought by some that pimples on the face are a sign of
masturbation in the youth, but such is not the case. They are a sign
of lack of elimination through the kidneys and bowels and are not to
be interpreted as having any essential relation to masturbation. There
may possibly be an incidental relation growing out of the fact that in
some cases of masturbation that habit seems to affect the nutrition
and that in turn may cause the appearance of pimples on the