in general, signifies defilement, or the rendering a person or place unclean or unholy. Pollution For the Jewish pollutions, see the article IMPURITY.

The Romanists hold a church to be polluted by the effusion of blood or of seed therein; and requires its being consecrated anew. And the Indians are so superstitious on this head, that they break all the vessels which those of another religion have drank out of, or even only touched; and drain all the water out of a pond in which a stranger has bathed.

medicine, a disease which consists in an involuntary emission of the seed in time of sleep. This, in different persons, is very different in degree; some being affected with it only once in a week, a fortnight, three weeks, or a month, and others being subject to it almost every night. The persons most subject to it, are young men of a languid temperament, who feed high and lead a sedentary life. When this happens to a person but once in a fortnight or a month, it is of no great consequence; but when it happens almost every night, it greatly injures the health; the patient looks pale and sickly; in some the eyes become weak and inflamed, are sometimes affected with violent defluxions, and are usually at last incircled with a livid appearance of the skin. This distemper is to be cured rather by a change of life than by medicines. When it has taken its rise from a high diet, and a sedentary life, a coarser food and the use of exercise will generally cure it. Persons subject to this disease should never take any stimulating purges, and must avoid as much as possible all violent passions of the mind; and though exercise is recommended in moderation, yet if this be too violent, it will rather increase the disorder than contribute to its cure.

Self-Pollution. See ONANISM.

Pollux. See CASTOR.