(31) She shows that belief in spermatorrhoea as a real disease was widely held by the medical profession and not just the obsession of a few cranks; she points out that "cures" were often modelled on treatments originally devised for uterine disorders, including the insertion of needles into the perineum and testicles, and the urethral cauterisation recommend ed by Lallemand, favoured by Acton and widely employed in both Britain and the USA.
Lallemand recommended circumcision for serious cases of spermatorrhoea, and this idea caught on in the USA, where castration (not unusual in cases of epilepsy and insanity) was obviously too extreme a measure to become popular.
Milton's Spermatorrhoea reached its 12th edition in 1887.