Another kind of strangulation--which is much less serious, however, than those we have mentioned--may result from masturbation and coition, in those individuals where the opening of the prepuce is too narrow. This prolongation of the skin, after being drawn violently back behind the corona glandis, strangles the penis, as would be done by a foreign body, and cannot be brought again to its primitive situation: there is then a paraphimosis. All authors who have treated of this affection, have placed among the causes of it that which we have mentioned. We have seen several instances of this character. I will cite that of a young boy, seven or eight years old, in whom this accident was produced during masturbation. The glans was tumefied, and the prepuce formed a large fold around it. The frightened parents sent for our assistance. Methodical and long continued pressure soon brought things to their proper state.
_Herpes praeputialis_, another affection of the prepuce, may arise from the constant excitement of this part. Fortunately, this eruption is a slight disease, and generally terminates in a week or two, even without medical treatment.
Persons who indulge in lascivious ideas, are often affected with a discharge from the end of the penis--and this though there has been no masturbation--of a viscid, whitish mucus, which leaves on the linen spots similar to those produced by the white of an egg. The edges of the meatus urinarius may also be glued together, by the drying of this mucus. This discharge, which has been described by John Hunter, is not a disease, although it has all the appearance of it; and it keeps some people in constant fear, lest they have contracted gonorrhœa. It, however, results from an unusual excitement of the mucous membrane, lining the glans and urethra. Now, if the simple excitement of the venereal sense can cause such an effect, what might not be expected from excesses in coition or masturbation? Thus, these causes are mentioned, whenever the causes of balanitis and blenorrhagia are alluded to. All authors agree on this subject; and if but few cases are brought forward in support of this opinion, it is because the subject has not been disputed. The following is found in a dissertation of Closs. The patient was a young man addicted to masturbation, who had been affected for more than six months with a gonorrhœal discharge, which had been neglected because it occasioned no suffering. The matter of the discharge, however, becoming acrid, green, and yellow, he was obliged to ask medical advice. He protested, under oath, that he had never been exposed to contract disease; and Closs, therefore, considered this blenorrhea as the result of masturbation, in which the patient had indulged even before puberty.