A practical treatise on impotence, sterility and allied disorders of the male sexual organs / by Samuel W. Gross.

  • Gross, Samuel W. (Samuel Weissell), 1837-1889.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on impotence, sterility and allied disorders of the male sexual organs / by Samuel W. Gross. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    I Erections are probably produced from irritation both of the spinal and cerebral portions ol the nervous system. Lallemand's case of the soldier who from a fall had spinal paralysis, demonstrates clearly that while the spinal cord may be paralyzed, continued and violent priapism may result, and it is well known that tumors or clots of the brain will also produce satyriasis. Hence, it would appear that probably the power of erection is a mixed one. derived from both the brain and the spine.] From the preceding considerations it is obvious that erec- tions in the lower animals can be produced by stimulation of the brain, the spinal cord, and the peripheral nerves; and ample observations, both in health and disease, demonstrate that they originate in the same localities in man. The in- fluence of certain emotional conditions of the mind over erection is illustrated by its being induced by sexual desires, or even by. the sight or thought of certain women ; while it may be arrested or prevented by mental preoccupation, or by depressing emotions, as fear of inability to consummate the venereal act, the loss of the object of one's affections, modesty, disgust, or frigidity. Irritation of the cord, and particularly of its cervical portion,1 from disease, concussion, effusion of blood, or fracture or dislocation of the vertebrae, frequently occasions erections ; and these may constitute the first sign of incipient ataxia,2 or general paralysis of the insane, and other spinal affections. As illustrations of erections from peripheral irritation, those arising from the morning fulness of the bladder, from affections of the rec- tum, and from inflammation of the prostatic urethra and of the seminal vesicles may be mentioned. The capacity for coition is most marked between the 1 Ollivier, Traite des Maladies de la Moelle Epiniere, 3d ed., t. iii. p. 316. ' Trousseau, Clin. Med. de l'Hotel-Dieu de Paris, t. ii. p. 511 ; and Erb, Ziemssen's Cyclopaedia, Amer. ed., vol. xiii. p. 545.