A practical treatise on the causes, symptoms, and treatment of spermatorrhoea / by M. Lallemand ; translated and edited by Henry J. McDougall.

  • Claude François Lallemand
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on the causes, symptoms, and treatment of spermatorrhoea / by M. Lallemand ; translated and edited by Henry J. McDougall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    but in such cases spermatorrhoea has not become a confirmed disease, and the health is not seriously disordered. On the other hand, I have met with cases in which diurnal pollu- tions brought on by old standing and obstinate costiveness, continued after the bowels had been restored to their normal action. Case nineteen is a striking example of this. The means generally employed to relieve constipation are so well known, that I need not consider them separately. Ascending douches are in my opinion by far the most efficacious and useful in all cases.1 Purgatives on the other hand are injurious, however administered and of whatever nature they may be; laxatives, such as castor oil, magnesia, &c, are less injurious, but these possess the notable in- convenience of adding to the gastric disorder. Saline purgatives, such as sulphate of soda and magnesia, irritate the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal, which is generally very easily affected in these cases. Aloetic purgatives have, in addition to this, the great objection that they act chiefly on the lower intestines, especially the rectum. I have formerly stated that active purges may excite pollutions in persons previously free from them, from the facility with which spas- modic contractions of the rectum extend to the seminal vesicles; and I have shown that pollutions brought on in this way may continue after the action of the exciting cause has passed away, so that a serious case of spermatorrhoea may remain, the progress of which afterwards becomes independent. It is, therefore, evident enough that the abuse of purgatives may seriously increase previously exist- ing involuntary discharges, which were more the cause than the ef- fect of the constipation. On the other hand, most of these patients are in the constant habit of swallowing purgatives, not only because they are obstinately cos- tive, but also because, from the remotest records of medical science, it has been laid down as a rule that hypochondriacs cannot be too much purged—most persons affected with spermatorrhoea, as I have before said, being more or less hypochondriacal. The profession cannot, therefore, be too much on their guard against yielding to the solicitations of such patients—who perhaps, only complain, or com- plain chiefly, of constipation. 1 The power of the douche bath in relieving constipation, has been very generally overlooked in this country. Ascending douches directed against the anus seem, from the experience 1 have at present had of their use, likely to be a very valuable remedy in cases of deficient action of the colon and rectum. The temperature of the douche should be from £0° to 90° Fah. and it should be continued about ten minutes. The direction of the spout may be varied, and the water thrown on the abdominal parietes, with very good effect. [H. J. McD.]