Diseases affecting various parts by their action on the organs mentioned, that is on the cerebellum, spinal marrow and the genital system, may cause a kind of a state of rutting and thus become the occasion of venereal excesses. For instance an unusual venereal excitement is sometimes a forerunner of an attack of gout, which may be explained by considering that the invasion of the local symptoms of this disease, is usually preceded by the irritation of several mucous membranes. Does not the salacity which all authors have mentioned as being peculiar to phthisical persons depend on the part which the genito-urinary membrane takes in the general excitement of the mucous membranes which is so common in the tuberculous affection of the lungs? Pathological anatomy has thrown no light on the subject. Of forty patients affected with phthisis, where the prostate gland, seminal vesicles, and vasa deferentia were carefully examined by Louis, three only presented an alteration of these parts; this consisted in the deposition of a quantity of tuberculous matter in the prostate gland: in one of them this matter was found in the seminal vesicles and vasa deferentia. (_Recherches anatopath. sur la phthisie_, 1825, p. 132.) Louis says nothing in regard to the amatory passions of these individuals.
The affection of the genito-urinary mucous membrane, accounts also for the venereal sensations which many authors have mentioned as a symptom of the elephantiasis of the Greeks, otherwise termed lepra tubercularis. The frequency of this symptom was so remarkable, that the ancients confounded elephantiasis with satyriasis. Sonnini saw at Cana, in the island of Candia, a great many individuals of both sexes, affected with this kind of leprosy. They were confined according to custom, in barracks without the walls of the city, and there they indulged in the most unbridled licentiousness. Even the old men were very lascivious. He gives an instance of a leper who, on the night of his death, indulged his desires. Niebuhr speaks of another leper who carried away by his ardor, imparted his disease to a woman of Bagdad, who was admitted with him into the lazaretto of that city. Vidal and Joannis assert that they have seen this _libido_ in those Greek sailors affected with elephantiasis. After these proofs, it required some boldness to deny the possibility of this symptom, which to us seems easily explained. Consider the nature of elephantiasis: while it affects the skin, it extends to the mucous membranes, where we find tubercles, ulcerations, softenings, &c. Why should the membrane, lining the genito-urinary passages, be exempt from these alterations? Is it not then probable that this membrane was diseased in some way or other, in those individuals affected with libido? We can easily imagine, too, that as these alterations cannot be constant in lepra tubercularis, the symptom of which we are speaking must often be deficient, which explains why different authors who have observed cases of elephantiasis, particularly Alibert, Rayer and Cazenave, have not met with it. An affection of the genital organs may produce results completely opposite to libido: it may arrest the development of the genital organs when it appears before puberty. The individuals then present the marked characters of eunuchs, which has been observed by Adams, (Obs. on morbid poisons.) and probably Pallas, who asserts that the Tartans affected with elephantiasis, are averse to the pleasures of love. Farther, in lepra tubercularis, the sexual parts are often, and according to Alibert, most generally affected; this would necessarily extinguish all venereal desires. This probably was the case in the patient mentioned by Cazenave, in whom the testicles, glands and prepuce were found converted into a lardaceous tissue; and where, too, the corpora cavernosa were destitute of blood, and presented an evident hypertrophy of their septa.