University of Virginia Library

14. A Short Chapter for Old Men.

WHEN has a man reached that age at which he may be said to be an old man? There is a wonderful difference in individuals in respect to the period at which symptoms of decline make their appearance, much being due to previous habits of life, as well as individual peculiarities and hereditary predisposition. It may be said, however, that the average man enters upon that portion of his life usually denominated as old age, at about the age of fifty years. At this period his physical powers begin to show evidence of decline. His reserve fund of vitality, which is considerably less than at an earlier age, may still be sufficient to enable his system to perform all the functions of life with regularity, but he is unable to endure hardships as in previous years, and suffers sensibly whenever any extreme demand is made upon his vitality.

He is a wise man who at this period of life, while his vital functions are still well performed, and the system subject to no special disease or debility, recognizes the fact that he is no longer young, and regulates himself accordingly. Such a man will lay down as his rule of life the greatest moderation in everything demanding vital expenditure, and will resolutely set his face against every form of unnecessary expenditure of vital

A Dangerous Waste. — As has been pointed out elsewhere in this work, the exercise of the sexual function is accompanied by the most exhausting expenditure of nervous and vital energy of which the body is capable. Such expenditures are entirely unnecessary to the health of the body, and hence it is evident that at this period of life, when the vital forces should be in every way economized, such indulgences should be discontinued.

Physiology, on this account, prohibits the marriage of old men with young women and old women with young men. An old man who forms a union with a young girl scarce out of her teens, or even younger, can scarcely have any very elevated motive for his action, and he certainly exposes himself to the greatest risk of sudden death, while insuring his premature decay. A king once characterized such a course as "the pleasantest form of suicide." It is doubtless suicidal; but we suspect there are some phases of such an unnatural union which are not very enjoyable.

One reason of the great danger of such marriages to the old, is the exhaustive effects of the sexual act. As previously noted, in some animals it causes immediate death. Dr. Acton makes the following pertinent remarks: —

"So serious, indeed, is the paroxysm of the nervous system produced by the sexual spasm, that its immediate effect is not always unattended with danger, and men with weak hearts have died in the act. Every now and then we learn that men are found dead on the night of their wedding."

"However exceptional these cases are, they are

warnings, and should serve to show that an act which may destroy the weak, should not be tampered with, even by the strong."

"There are old men who marry young wives, and who pay the penalty by becoming martyrs to paralysis, softening of the brain, and driveling idiocy."

Dr. Gardner quotes the Abbe Maury as follows: "I hold as certain that after fifty years of age a man of sense ought to renounce the pleasures of love. Each time that he allows himself this gratification is a pellet of earth thrown upon his coffin."

Dr. Gardner further says: "Alliances of this sort have taken place in every epoch of humanity, from the time of the patriarchs to the present day, — alliances repugnant to nature, between men bordering on decrepitude and poor young girls, who are sacrificed by their parents for position, or who sell themselves for gold. There is in these monstrous alliances something which we know not how to brand sufficiently energetically, in considering the reciprocal relations of the pair thus wrongfully united, and the lot of children which may result from them. Let us admit, for an instant, that the marriage has been concluded with the full consent of the young girl, and that no external pressure has been exerted upon her will, — as is generally the rule, — it will none the less happen that reflection and experience will tardily bring regrets, and the sharper, as the evil will be without remedy; but if compulsion, or what is often the same thing, persuasion, had been employed to obtain the consent which the law demands, the result would have been more prompt and vehement. From this moment the common life becomes odious to the unhappy victim,

and culpable hopes will arise in her desolate heart, so heavy is the chain she carries. In fact, the love of the old man becomes ridiculous and horrid to her, and we cannot sufficiently sympathize with the unfortunate person whose duty [?] it is to submit to it. If we think of it an instant, we shall perceive a repulsion such as is only inspired by the idea of incest. . . . So what do we oftenest observe? Either the woman violently breaks the cursed bands, or she resigns herself to them, and then seeks to fill up the void in her soul by adulterous amours. Such is the somber perspective of the sacrilegious unions which set at defiance the most respectable instincts, the most noble desires, and the most legitimate hopes. Such, too, are the terrible chastisements reserved for the thoughtlessness or foolish pride of these dissolute grey-beards, who prodigalize the last breath of their life in search of depraved voluptuousness."

The parents, the perpetrators of such an outrage against nature, are not the only sufferers. Look at the children which they bring into the world! Let Dr. Gardner speak again: —

"Children, the issue of old men, are habitually marked by a serious and sad air spread over their countenances, which is manifestly very opposite to the infantile expression which so delights one in the little children of the same age engendered under other conditions. As they grow up, their features take on more and more the senile character, so much so that every one remarks it, and the world regards it as a natural thing. The old mothers pretend that it is an old head on young shoulders. They predict an early death to these chil-

dren, and the event frequently justifies the horoscope. Our attention has for many years been fixed upon this point, and we can affirm that the greater part of the offspring of these connections are weak, torpid, lymphatic, if not scrofulous, and do not promise a long career."

In old age the seminal fluid becomes greatly deteriorated. Even at the best, its component elements could only represent decrepitude and infirmity, degeneration and senility. In view of such facts, says Dr. Acton, —

"We are therefore forced to the conclusion that the children of old men have an inferior chance of life; and facts daily observed confirm our deductions. Look but at the progeny of such marriages; what is its value? As far as I have seen, it is the worst kind-spoilt childhood, feeble and precocious youth, extravagant manhood, early and premature death."

Cicero on Old Age. — Cicero, in his essay on Old Age, makes the following remarks, bearing directly on this subject: —

"Another charge against old age is that it deprives us of sensual gratifications. Happy effect, indeed, to be delivered from those snares which allure youth into some of the worst vices! `Reason,' said Archytas, `is the noblest gift which God or nature has bestowed on man. Now nothing is so great an enemy to that divine endowment as the pleasures of sense; for neither temperance, nor any of the more exalted virtues, can find place in that breast which is under the dominion of voluptuous passions. Imagine yourself a man in the actual enjoyment of the highest gratifications mere animal nature is capable of receiving; there can be no

doubt that during his continuance in that state, it would be utterly impossible for him to exert any one power of his rational faculties.' The inference I draw from this is, that if the principles of reason and virtue have not proved sufficient to inspire us with proper contempt for mere sensual pleasures, we have cause to feel grateful to old age for at last weaning us from appetites it would ill become us to gratify; for voluptuous passions are bitter enemies to all the nobler faculties of the soul; they hold no communion with the manly virtues, and they cast a mist before the eye of reason. The little relish which old age leaves for enjoyments merely sensual, instead of being a disparagement to that period of life, considerably enhances its value."

Says Parise, a distinguished French physician, in his work on old age: —

"Love, at the decline of life, should take quite a moral character, freed from all its animal propensities. In the elderly man, it is paternal, conjugal, patriotic attachment, which, without being so energetic as the love experienced in youth, still warms old hearts and old age; and, believe me, these have their sweet privileges, as well as sometimes their bitter realities. These autumn roses are not without perfume; perhaps less intoxicating than that arising from first love, but presenting none of its dangers.

"Unfortunately, there are those who, either more infatuated, more helplessly drifting on the tide of passion, or more depraved, use all their endeavors to realize desires which it is no longer possible to satisfy, unless by a forced compliance of the organs. Not only has the energy, the superfluous vitality of early days,

disappeared, but the organic power of reproduction is nearly obliterated. Is all over then? Credat Judæus, non ego. It is now that Venus Impudica lavishes on her used-up votaries her appetizing stimulants to vice and debauchery. The imagination, polluted with impurities, seeks pleasure which reason and good sense repudiate. There are instances of debauched and shameless old age which, deficient in vital resources, strives to supply their place by fictitious excitement; a kind of brutish lasciviousness, that is ever the more cruelly punished by nature, from the fact that the immediately-ensuing debility is in direct proportion to the forced stimulation which has preceded it.

"Reduced to the pleasures of recollection, at once passionate and impotent, their sensuality may kill, but cannot satiate. There are such old libertines who are constantly seeking after the means of revivifying their withered, used-up organism, as if that were possible without imminent danger. The law of nature is without appeal. To submit to it is the result of good, sound judgment, and the reward is speedy. But submission is no invariable rule, and persons of prudence and chastity have but a faint conception of the devices to evade it, of the folly, caprice, luxury, immodesty, the monstrous lewdness and indescribable saturnalia of the senses which are the result. The surgeon alone knows from the confession of his patients, or surmises from his experience, to what a depth corruption will descend, and the evils which will follow, particularly in large capitals. One of the most common means of excitement employed by these senile Lovelaces is change, variety in the persons they pursue. What is more fatal to the

organism? Extreme youth is sacrificed to these shameless old men. The full-blown charms of fine women no longer suffice; they address themselves to mere children, to the great scandal of our manners, and of all that these victims of debauchery hold dear and sacred. Nevertheless, let it be remarked, it is seldom, very seldom, that punishment comes pede claudo; old age, which disease changes every day into decrepitude — often sudden death, and death that lasts for years, a consequence of cruel infirmities — proves the justice of nature."

A distinguished physician speaks upon this same subject as follows: —

"When a young man, without any redeeming qualities, has run through a career of debauchery, when his adult age is but a new lease of similar associations, the necessity for additional excitement appears to goad him on. Fictitious desires increase, until it is impossible to say where shall be his acme of debauchery, or what devices may be invented by those in his pay `to minister to a mind diseased.' This is particularly the case when such a pampered, ill-directed, unrestrained will is accompanied by unlimited wealth. For such an one, youth, innocence, and beauty soon cease to have attraction. Well has it been said of him, that `the beast has destroyed the man.' Variety may for a time satisfy or stimulate his failing powers, but not for very long. Local stimulants are tried, and, after a short repetition, these also fail. As a last resource, unnatural excitement is brought to bear, and now public decency is forgotten, and we probably find that the first check to the lust of the opulent satyr is his finding himself the hero of some filthy police case, — then, maybe, a convict or a voluntary exile.

"As school-boys, we may have been accustomed to laugh at the fables of the grotesque sylvan monsters of antiquity, ignorant of what hideous truths of human nature their half-animal forms were the symbols. Even after sad experience has enlarged our knowledge of the possibilities of vice, few of us, happily, have any idea of how completely these bestial forms of ancient art represent the condition of the satyrs who so notoriously affect the seclusion and the shade of the parks and gardens in modern cities. I question if a prison is the proper place for such debased individuals. As far as I have noticed their organization, I should say an uncontrolled giving way to the sexual passion has used up a frame never very strong. A constant drain on the nervous power has produced an effect which renders its subject indifferent to consequences, provided his all-absorbing pursuit, namely, ministering to the excitement of his sexual passion, can be indulged in. Doubtless, in many instances, the brain has become affected, particularly when there exists a strong hereditary tendency to disease. This, together with deficiency of occupation, has caused many of these victims to their own feelings to make the pandering to their vile desires, and gratification of every sensuality their imagination can devise, the chief occupation of life. The medical man would hardly feel justified in certifying their fitness for a lunatic asylum, as in all other respects their conduct appears to be sane. Observing, as these persons do, all the other usual convenances of society, there is yet a something about them which marks them as thralls of a debasing pursuit. It is an error, however, to suppose that they often suffer from venereal disease. Your old débauchés know too

well the parties they have to deal with, and every precaution is taken to avoid the consequences. They are living and suffering specters whom, as some clever writer has observed, `Death seems to forget to strike, because he believes them already in the tomb.'

"It may, perhaps, be thought singular in my suggesting a moral based upon such vile practices as the above, but allusion to them may not be without benefit to those beginning life; and I would say, Let those persons take warning who with an active imagination once enter upon a career of vice, and dream that at a certain spot they can arrest their progress. It is an old tale, and often told, that, although the slope of criminality be easy and gradual, it is still `le premier pas qui coute;' and he who launches himself on such a course, will acquire, as he goes velocity and force, until at last he cannot be stayed."

From quite extensive observation, the author has no doubt that a large number of the inconveniences of advanced age, mental and physical, as well as numerous local difficulties, including bladder disorders and irritability of the prostate, etc., are frequently the result of sexual excesses, not only during middle life, but continued during advanced years. The following incident speaks for itself: —

A Case in Point. — Some time ago a man of some prominence in the legal profession, sought an interview with the author. An hour was fixed, and at the time appointed he presented himself at the office, and after a few preliminary remarks, made the following statement: "I have been a man of great physical vigor, and for many years have devoted myself with great earnestness

to my profession, and with most satisfactory results. I have suffered very little from bodily infirmities of any sort, until a few years back. Some four or five years ago I began to experience discomfort in the region of what I supposed to be the neck of the bladder, requiring me to relieve the bladder very frequently, both during the daytime and in the night. I sought relief by various means, but unsuccessfully, and had come to the belief that I was suffering with some serious disease of the bladder or the prostate. Remedies addressed to these organs did no good. I obtained a copy of one of your works [an early edition of this work], and found out the cause of my troubles. I am now between fifty and sixty years of age. From mere force of habit, I had continued indulging myself sexually as in early life, never thinking of the possibility of harm, just as I supposed most men did. While reading your work, I became convinced that this was the cause of my suffering, particularly as I at once recalled that my suffering was greatly aggravated by indulgences of this sort, and that when an absence from home for some time necessitated abstinence, most of the symptoms disappeared. I at once adopted the principle of total abstinence which you recommend to men of my age, and with most gratifying results. I had thought to employ your services as a physician, but find myself entirely well, and not in need of treatment."

Other cases of the same sort might be recounted. Undoubtedly there are thousands of elderly men suffering in a similar way from the same cause.