A Solemn Appeal - James White

" 'I could give you a vast number of facts that
have come to my knowledge. A few days ago, a
young man who had been a gentleman, called upon
me, in a state of mind and body truly wretched--the
mere wreck of a man. His head was affected and
painful, the back part of it in particular; and his
mind was literally distracted with these horrors
which this indulgence always induces. His mind
was flighty, his appetite destroyed, and the tones of
his voice the very personification of grief. Both his
head and his conversation gave evidence of
superior talents in ruins. Fifty times, in the course
of an hour, did he exclaim, "O my God, what shall
I do! I am mad, I know it. What can I do?"
" 'In laying open his case, in order that I might
give him advice, he mentioned his having been
much addicted to this habit, and would often bring
his hand to these parts, an invariable sign of their
being in a fevered state, either by secret
indulgence, or indulgence with the other sex. His
anxiety was, to escape the madhouse, and regain
self-control; because on this he had always prided
himself. On inquiring of him as to the prevalence
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