The loss of strength generally follows the loss of flesh and returns also with it. At first debility only follows the act temporarily, but afterward it continues longer: new emissions of semen take place, and even before the subject of them has regained the strength exhausted by a previous indulgence. In the morning he rises from his bed with difficulty: during the day he is idle, stupid, and indolent, and pursues his avocations without any spirit. If he goes up stairs, or ascends a hill, his heart beats forcibly, and he pants very much. This debility, if the cause which produces it does not cease to act, may increase to a frightful degree. We have seen onanists whose bodies were bent down by the weight of the head and chest and curved as in old men: these individuals could not stand erect, their lower extremities could not support their weight, and at the least motion they felt giddy and faint, and finally terminated the remnant of their existence on a sofa or bed which they could not leave. Many authors, Sanctorius and Tissot among others, have asserted that this debility is greater or less according to the position of the body during the act of venery; but we attach but slight importance to this circumstance, although they may have some effect. We think more of Sainte Marie’s opinion, that the lower part of the body is frequently weaker than the upper, because the spinal marrow is affected by seminal emissions. As the flesh returns when the onanist ceases from his bad habits, so too does his strength, and generally rapidly. But there are many, who are affected during their whole lives with great debility, which unfits them for many occupations. It is very common to find individuals who complain of being incapable of any physical effort, and who request their physician to give them strength. On questioning them, almost all admit that in their youth they have been addicted to onanism. Some do not wait to be questioned but refer to their former excesses as the source of their troubles and denounce them as the cause of their actual debility. Most invalids however do not refer so far back to the origin of their illness or even do not dream of it: they remain at peace with themselves and their ignorance might deserve to be respected, if they were not or would not probably be fathers, and if it did not become us to excite their vigilance in regard to their children. Thus then venereal abuses may cause not only a transient debility, but an exhaustion which may be continued, as long as life lasts.