Pollution

POLLUTION (from Lat. pollutio—soiling), the emission of semen that usually occurs during sleep; pollution is ordinarily a precursor to a dream of erotic content; when pollution occurs without such a dream, one must consider that the dream may have been forgotten upon waking. Pollution takes place with an erect penis and is accompanied by orgasm, which may not reach consciousness during deep sleep. In most cases, during pollution or immediately after it, awakening from sleep occurs. A preparatory pollution is occasionally suppressed upon waking from sleep by the exertion of will (“interrupted pollution,” pollutio interrupta). During pollution, less semen is emitted than during coitus. The appearance of the first pollution can be considered an indication of the onset of sexual maturity. This occurs approximately at 15–16 years of age. From this time, pollution can occur in a man living chastely or rarely emptying his semen by other means (coitus, masturbation). After pollution, satisfaction or relief is experienced; in any case, after pollution there are neither subjective nor objective disorders. The former division of pollution into daytime and nighttime is not appropriate; it is more correct to distinguish between pollution during sleep and pollution in a waking state. The frequency of pollution depends on constitution, temperament, age, general state of health, way of life, occupation, and direction of thought. On average, pollution occurs with intervals of 10 to 60 days. Frequent pollution is caused most often by neurasthenia or local changes in the genitourinary apparatus, in particular changes in the posterior part of the urethra, in the prostate gland, and in the seminal vesicles. Often in cases of frequent pollution, there are no accompanying general phenomena or they are weakly expressed; however, in a group of cases, a whole series of general phenomena is observed, such as a feeling of physical fatigue and being worn out, mental depression, sleep disturbance, headache, digestive disorders, chronic constipation, urinary disturbances, back pain, hypochondriacal mood, etc. The harm to the body from frequent pollution is probably not in the loss of semen, but in the fact that frequent excitation of the ejaculation center increases the irritability of the nervous system; in other words, this is a process that not only supports itself and thereby in particular harms the sexual sphere, but can also involve the nervous system in disorder to an ever-increasing extent. As for the relationship of frequent pollution to sexual impotence, it should be borne in mind that frequent pollution and impotence are caused by the same etiological factors; moreover, frequent pollution can intensify impotence, as they make it difficult to fill the seminal vesicles due to their frequent emptying; meanwhile, the emptiness of the seminal vesicles lowers the excitability of the spinal centers of erection and ejaculation. The prognosis in frequent pollution is good in mild cases in the absence of central disease. Cases are worse where pollution continues despite regular sexual life; this phenomenon indicates strong sexual irritability. Treatment of pollution consists of a regular way of life, the elimination of exciting psychological moments, and a limitation of the amount of food and liquid taken at night. Cooling the prostate with water at 15–10° using Arzberger’s rectal cooler (see Arzberger apparatus) and the application at night of suppositories containing heroin, 0.01 each (first for several days in a row, and later several times a day) are beneficial. Pollution in women. By pollution in women is meant the ejaculation occurring in her outside of sexual and masturbatory acts, during which a secretion from the uterus and Bartholin’s glands is emitted; ejaculation is accompanied by orgasm; it is preceded by a peristaltic contraction of the genital tube. Pollution occurs more often in women deprived of their habitual sexual life, especially young widows; sometimes it occurs in women who do not reach orgasm during coitus. Pollution most often appears in the morning; Heine, who surveyed 452 women and girls on the subject of erotic dreams and pollution, established that more than half of the persons surveyed had regular erotic dreams with ejaculation and orgasm; relatively often they also occurred in virgins who had not engaged in prolonged sexual stimulation with men. The condition after pollution is good for most women and girls; in isolated cases there is some, quickly passing, feeling of being worn out. Prevention of pollution in women consists of eliminating all exciting moments. In treatment, psychotherapy is especially appropriate; its task is to calm the woman in case of fear of “harmful consequences” of pollution.