_Case._――R. confided to me his history, which was, he had been a debauché and masturbator. He was tall, slender, anæmic, beard thin; was suffering from too much medicine, which he had received from unprincipled specialists, as he had been three years in their hands. There was spinal anæmia, judging from the spinal soreness, and formication at times. He thought he would become paralyzed, as his hands and feet often became numbed. He was impotent, and often lost semen. His urine contained spermatozoa. As soon as his mind could be put at ease he began to improve, under formula No. 1, with cold local bathing, as directed, with Faradisation. I discharged him after thirteen months.
_Aspermatism._――Since Roubaud’s description of this condition, and especially the application of the above term, much has been said in regard to the causation and true nature of this peculiar deficiency. Whenever sexual orgasm occurs in the male, after puberty, without ejaculation, the condition known as aspermatism may be said to exist, and may be considered as a symptom of disease. This may be partial or complete. I have known a number of individuals who failed to ejaculate semen at the time of sexual orgasm, and the semen would pass away in jets some time after the penis had become flaccid. These cases exist where there is no sign of organic stricture of the urethra, or any other organic trouble within the prostate gland or ejaculatory ducts.
Dr. Van Buren is the author of a paper which appeared in the _New York Med. Journal_, November, 1868, in which he attempts to establish the cause as a spasmodic condition of the urethra, forcing the seminal fluid, by reflux action, into the bladder. I can not, at present, think that this is always the case. Only a little attention to physiology will familiarize any person with the calibre-contractions that follow a column of urine from the bladder to the meatus. This same muscular contraction exists in the veins, and is what constitutes the venous wave. The same wave exists in the ejaculation of semen; and where the muscles that perform accelerating movements are paralyzed, the natural consequence must be, that the fluid will remain in its reservoir until its place is supplied by new, and a portion is forced out along the urethra, which drips away when the penis returns to flaccidity. Then, I can but regard this condition, often, as one of paralysis, in which are affected the muscles of ejaculation and acceleration. This condition often exists where the genitals are not impaired as to potence. That such a condition is present, should not be declared until after bougies have proven, to entire satisfaction, the absence of organic stricture or spasmodic contraction.