The dangers of the genuine running are very considerable. In the beginning of the first Section, _On the Symptoms_, the description by ARETÆUS has been quoted. “How (says he, in the same place) can one avoid the being weakened, when that which is so essential to the vital forces is continually slipping away, in waste. It is in the seminal liquid alone that eminently resides the strength of man.”
CELSUS, who lived before the times of ARETÆUS, says positively, “That the running of the seed without venereal sensation, brings on a consumption[151].”
JOHN, son of ZACHARIAS, more commonly known by the name of ACTUARIUS, in a work which he composed for the service of the Ambassador whom the Emperor of Constantinople was sending to the North, is, upon this point, of the same opinion with the authors I have already quoted. “If (says he) the running of the seed, which proceeds without erection, and without sensation, sails for any time, it produces necessarily a consumption and death; for the most balsamic part of the humors and the animal spirits are thereby dissipated and lost[152].”
Some of the most modern authors agree also, on this head, with the antients. “The whole body (says SENNERTUS) becomes emaciated, and especially the back; the patients grow weaker and weaker; they languish; they have pains in the loins; they turn hollow-eyed[153].”
BOERHAAVE ranks this _gonorrhœa_ among the causes of the palsy; and it may be remarked, that he admits in this place a _gonorrhœa_ of pure seed. “The palsy (says he) which comes from a _gonorrhœa_, is incurable, because the body is exhausted[154].”
On this matter there may also, in an excellent dissertation of M. KOEMPF, be found some interesting observations[155].
This disorder may draw its origin from many remote causes. The proximate cause is always unitedly constituted of a defectiveness or depravity in the liquids, of which the running consists, they being too thin, and often too acrid; and of a great relaxation of the parts. The defect in the liquids denotes a want of elaboration, which is owing to a general weakness; this requires tonic remedies, which the weakness of the organs also indicates; the coincident circumstances determine the choice of them. It would be out of place to enter here on all the relative particulars, and upon which there may be found instructive lights in many medical writers, and especially in SENNERTUS, author of the best compendium of practical physic that we have.