in a general sense, denotes a person who cheats by a fictitious character.

Religious IMPOSTORS, are such as falsely pretend to an extraordinary commission from heaven; and who terrify and abuse the people with false denunciations of judgments. These are punishable in the temporal courts with fine, imprisonment, and infamous corporal punishment.

IMPOBENCE, or IMPOTENCY, in general, denotes want of strength, power, or means, to perform anything.

Divines and philosophers distinguish two sorts of impotence; natural and moral. The first is a want of some physical principle, necessary to an action; or where a being is absolutely defective, or not free and at liberty to act: The second only imports a great difficulty; as a strong habit to the contrary, a violent passion, or the like.

IMPOBENCY is a term more particularly used for a natural inability to coition. Impotence with respect to men is the same as sterility in women; that is, an inability of propagating the species. There are many causes of impotence; as, a natural defect in the organs of generation, which seldom admits of a cure: accidents or diseases; and in such cases the impotence may or may not be remedied, according as these are curable or otherwise.—The most common causes are, early and immoderate venery, or the venereal disease. We have instances, however, of unfitness for generation in men, by an impediment to the ejection of the semen in coition, from a wrong direction which the orifice at the verumontanum got, whereby the seed was thrown up into the bladder. M. Petit cured one patient under such a difficulty of emission, by making an incision like to that commonly made in the great operation for the stone.

On this subject we have some curious and original observations by the late Mr John Hunter in his Treatise on the Venereal Disease *. He considers impotence as depending upon two causes. One he refers to the &c. ad edit. mind; the other to the organs.

1. As to impotence depending upon the mind, he observes, that as the parts of generation are not necessary for the existence or support of the individual, but have a reference to something else in which the mind has a principal concern; so a complete action in those parts cannot take place without a perfect harmony of body and of mind; that is, there must be both a power of body and disposition of mind; for the mind is subject to a thousand caprices, which affect the actions of these parts.

"Copulation is an act of the body, the spring of which is in the mind; but it is not volition: and according to the state of the mind, so is the act performed. To perform this act well, the body should be in health, and the mind should be perfectly confident of the powers of the body; the mind should be in a state entirely disengaged from every thing else: it should have no difficulties, no fears, no apprehensions, not even an anxiety to perform the act well: for even this anxiety is a state of mind different from what should prevail; there should not be even a fear that the mind itself may find a difficulty at the time the act should be performed. Perhaps no function of Impotency the machine depends so much upon the state of the mind as this.

"The will and reasoning faculty have nothing to do with this power; they are only employed in the act, so far as voluntary parts are made use of; and if they ever interfere, which they sometimes do, it often produces another state of mind which destroys that which is proper for the performance of the act; it produces a desire, a wish, a hope, which are all only diffidence and uncertainty, and create in the mind the idea of a possibility of the want of success, which destroys the proper state of mind or necessary confidence.

"There is perhaps no act in which a man feels himself more interested, or is more anxious to perform well; his pride being engaged in some degree, which if within certain bounds would produce a degree of perfection in an act depending upon the will, or an act in voluntary parts; but when it produces a state of mind contrary to that state on which the perfection of the act depends, a failure must be the consequence.

"The body is not only rendered incapable of performing this act by the mind being under the above influence, but also by the mind being, though perfectly confident of its power, yet conscious of an impropriety in performing it; this, in many cases, produces a state of mind which shall take away all power. The state of a man's mind respecting his filter takes away all power. A conscientious man has been known to lose his powers on finding the woman he was going to be connected with unexpectedly a virgin.

"Shedding tears arises entirely from the state of the mind, although not so much a compound action as the act in question; for none are so weak in body that they cannot shed tears; it is not so much a compound action of the mind and strength of body joined, as the other act is; yet if we are afraid of shedding tears, or are desirous of doing it, and that anxiety is kept up through the whole of an affecting scene, we certainly shall not shed tears, or at least not so freely as would have happened from our natural feelings.

"From this account of the necessity of having the mind independent respecting the act, we must see that it may very often happen that the state of mind will be such as not to allow the animal to exert its natural powers; and every failure increases the evil. We must also see from this state of the case, that this act must be often interrupted; and the true cause of this interruption not being known, it will be laid to the charge of the body or want of powers. As these cases do not arise from real inability, they are to be carefully distinguished from such as do; and perhaps the only way to distinguish them is, to examine into the state of mind respecting this act. So trifling often is the circumstance which shall produce this inability depending on the mind, that the very desire to please shall have that effect, as in making the woman the sole object to be gratified.

"Cases of this kind we see every day; one of which I shall relate as an illustration of this subject, and also of the method of cure.—A gentleman told me, that he had lost his virility. After above an hour's investigation of the case, I made out the following facts: that he had at unnecessary times strong erections, which showed that he had naturally this power; that the erections were accompanied with desire, which are all the natural powers wanted; but that there was still a Impotency, defect somewhere, which I supposed to be from the mind. I inquired if all women were alike to him? his answer was, No; some women he could have connection with as well as ever. This brought the defect, whatever it was, into a smaller compass: and it appeared that there was but one woman that produced this inability, and that it arose from a desire to perform the act with this woman well; which desire produced in the mind a doubt or fear of the want of success, which was the cause of the inability of performing the act. As this arose entirely from the state of the mind produced by a particular circumstance, the mind was to be applied to for the cure; and I told him that he might be cured, if he could perfectly rely on his own power of self-denial. When I explained what I meant, he told me that he could depend upon every act of his will or resolution. I then told him, that, if he had a perfect confidence in himself in that respect, he was to go to bed to this woman, but first promise to himself that he would not have any connection with her for six nights, let his inclinations and powers be what they would; which he engaged to do, and also to let me know the result. About a fortnight after, he told me, that his resolution had produced such a total alteration in the state of his mind, that the power soon took place; for instead of going to bed with the fear of inability, he went with fears that he should be possessed with too much desire, too much power, so as to become uneasy to him; which really happened; for he would have been happy to have shortened the time; and when he had once broke the spell, the mind and powers went on together, and his mind never returned to its former state."

2. Of impotency from a want of proper correspondence between the actions of the different organs. Our author, in a former part of his Treatise, when considering the diseases of the urethra and bladder, had remarked, that every organ in an animal body, without exception, was made of different parts, whose functions or actions were totally different from one another, although all tending to produce one ultimate effect. In all such organs, when perfect (he observes), there is a succession of motions, one naturally arising out of the other, which in the end produces the ultimate effect; and an irregularity alone in these actions will constitute disease, at least will produce very disagreeable effects, and often totally frustrate the intention of the organ. This principle Mr Hunter, on the present occasion, applies to the "actions of the testicles and penis: for we find that an irregularity in the actions of these parts sometimes happens in men, producing impotence; and something similar probably may be one cause of barrenness in women.

"In men, the parts subservient to generation may be divided into two; the essential and the accessory. The testicles are the essential; the penis, &c. the accessory. As this division arises from their uses or actions in health, which exactly correspond with one another, a want of exactness in the correspondence or susceptibility of those actions may also be divided into two: where the actions are reversed, the accessory taking place without the first or essential, as in erections of the penis, where neither the mind nor the testicles are stimulated to action; and the second is where the testicles perform Impotency, the action of secretion too readily for the penis, which has not a corresponding erection. The first is called priapism; and the second is what ought to be called seminal weakness.

"The mind has considerable effect on the correspondence of the actions of these two parts: but it would appear in many instances, that erections of the penis depend more on the state of the mind than the secretion of the semen does; for many have the secretion, but not the erection; but in such, the want of erection appears to be owing to the mind only.

"Priapism often arises spontaneously; and often from visible irritation of the penis, as in the venereal gonorrhoea, especially when violent. The sensation of such erections is rather uneasy than pleasant; nor is the sensation of the glans at the time similar to that arising from the erections of desire, but more like to the sensation of the parts immediately after coition. Such as arise spontaneously are of more serious consequence than those from inflammation, as they proceed probably from causes not curable in themselves or by any known methods. The priapism arising from inflammation of the parts, as in a gonorrhoea, is attended with nearly the same symptoms; but generally the sensation is that of pain, proceeding from the inflammation of the parts. It may be observed, that what is said of priapism is only applicable to it when a disease in itself, and not when a symptom of other diseases, which is frequently the case.

"The common practice in the cure of this complaint is to order all the nervous and strengthening medicines; such as bark, valerian, musk, camphor, and also the cold bath. I have seen good effects from the cold bath; but sometimes it does not agree with the constitution, in which case I have found the warm bath of service. Opium appears to be a specific in many cases; from which circumstance I should be apt, upon the whole, to try a soothing plan.

"Seminal weakness, or a secretion and emission of the semen without erections, is the reverse of a priapism, and is by much the worse disease of the two. There is great variety in the degrees of this disease, there being all the gradations from the exact correspondence of the actions of all the parts to the testicles acting alone; in every case of the disease, there is too quick a secretion and evacuation of the semen. Like to the priapism, it does not arise from desires and abilities; although when mild it is attended with both, but not in a due proportion; a very flight desire often producing the full effect. The secretion of the semen shall be so quick, that simple thought, or even toying, shall make it flow.

"Dreams have produced this evacuation repeatedly in the same night; and even when the dreams have been so flighty, that there has been no consciousness of them when the sleep has been broken by the act of emission, I have known cases where the testicles have been so ready to secrete, that the least friction on the glans has produced an emission: I have known the simple action impotency of walking or riding produce this effect, and that repeatedly, in a very short space of time.

"A young man, about four or five and twenty years of age, not so much given to venery as most young men, had these last mentioned complaints upon him. Three or four times in the night he would emit; and if he walked fast, or rode on horseback, the same thing would happen. He could scarcely have connection with a woman before he emitted, and in the emission there was hardly any spasm. He tried every supposed strengthening medicine, as also the cold bath and feasting, but with no effect. By taking 20 drops of laudanum on going to bed, he prevented the night emissions; and by taking the same quantity in the morning, he could walk or ride without the before-mentioned inconvenience. I directed this practice to be continued for some time, although the disease did not return, that the parts might be accustomed to this healthy state of action; and I have reason to believe the gentleman is now well. It was found necessary, as the constitution became more habituated to the opiate, to increase the dose of it.

"The spasms, upon the evacuation of the semen in such cases are extremely slight, and a repetition of them soon takes place; the first emission not preventing a second; the constitution being all the time but little affected (A). When the testicles act alone, without the accessory parts taking up the necessary and natural consequent action, it is still a more melancholy disease; for the secretion arises from no visible or sensible cause, and does not give any visible or sensible effect, but runs off similar to involuntary stools or urine. It has been observed that the semen is more fluid than natural in some of these cases.

"There is great variety in the diseased actions of these parts; of which the following case may be considered as an example. A gentleman has had a stricture in the urethra for many years, for which he has frequently used a bougie, but has of late neglected it. He has had no connection with women for a considerable time, being afraid of the consequences. He has often in his sleep involuntary emissions, which generally awake him at the paroxysm; but what surprizes him most is, that often he has such without any semen passing forwards through the penis, which makes him think that at those times it goes backward into the bladder. This is not always the case, for at other times the semen passes forwards. At the time the semen seems to pass into the bladder, he has the erection, the dream; and is awakened with the same mode of action, the same sensation, and the same pleasure, as when it passes through the urethra, whether dreaming or waking. My opinion is, that the same irritation takes place in the bulb of the urethra without the semen that takes place there when the semen enters, in consequence of all the natural preparatory steps, whereby the very same actions are excited as if it came into the

(A) "It is to be considered, that the constitution is commonly affected by the spasms only, and in proportion to their violence, independent of the secretion and evacuation of the semen. But in some cases even the erection going off without the spasms on the emission, shall produce the same debility as if they had taken place." Impotency the passage; from which one would suppose, that either femen is not secreted; or if it be, that a retrograde mo- tion takes place in the actions of the accelerators urin- ae. But if the first be the case, then we may suppose, that in the natural state the actions of those muscles do not arise simply from the stimulus of the femen in the part, but from their action being a termination of a preceding one, making part of a series of actions. Thus they may depend upon the friction, or the imagination of a friction, on the penis; the testicles not doing their part, and the spasm in such cases arising from the friction and not from the secretion. In many of those cases of irregularity, when the erection is not strong, it shall go off without the emission; and at other times an emission shall happen almost without an erection; but these arise not from debility, but affections of the mind.

"In many of the preceding cases, washing the penis, scrotum, and perineum, with cold water, is of- ten of service; and to render it colder than it is in some seasons of the year, common salt may be added to it, and the parts washed when the salt is almost disso- lved."