He was a young and handsome boy…his Mother’s pride and joy.
Let’s follow the Science….
Once-upon-a-time, Scientists and Physicians believed masturbation was a “heinous sin” of “self-pollution” which led to madness, disease, and an early death. In 1716, Doctor Balthazar Bekker published a medical pamphlet entitled Onania which warned the reader masturbation caused:
Disturbances of the stomach and digestion, loss of appetite or ravenous hunger, vomiting, nausea, weakening of the organs of breathing, coughing, hoarseness, paralysis, weakening of the organ of generation to the point of impotence, lack of libido, back pain, disorders of the eye and ear, total diminution of bodily powers, paleness, thinness, pimples on the face, decline of intellectual powers, loss of memory, attacks of rage, madness, idiocy, epilepsy, fever and finally suicide.
In 1745, Doctor Robert James a noted and respectable physician claimed in A Medicinal Dictionary onanism was responsible for “the most deplorable and generally incurable disorders.”
While in France, physician Samuel-Auguste Tissot was of the belief semen was an essential body oil. In his book L’Onanisme Tissot wrote masturbation was responsible for:
….a perceptible reduction of strength, of memory and even of reason; blurred vision, all the nervous disorders, all types of gout and rheumatism, weakening of the organs of generation, blood in the urine, disturbance of the appetite, headaches and a great number of other disorders.
So now we know!
These doctors and scientists weren’t quacks but were respected and trusted like today’s esteemed medical authorities Anthony Fauci and Chris Whitty….ahem!
In 1830, another medical book Le livre sans titre (The Book With No Title or The Book With No Name) detailed in gory colour illustrations the horrors awaiting the self-polluter. Here was the story of young boy (his Mother’s pride and joy, no less…) who fell in the thrall of self-abuse and died a hideous death at the age of seventeen.
I wonder if this book was left casually about the house as a warning to the curious? Or perhaps read as a book at bedtime to terrify the children? Alas, despite the good intentions it appears to have had little effect as the World seems over-populated by wankers…
But he soon he became corrupted and his crime made him old before his time. His back is hunched, his posture aged.
A devouring fire burns through his entrails; he suffers from agonising stomach pains.
Look at his eyes once so pure, so clear and brilliant: their gleam has sadly gone! A red band of fire surrounds them.
He can no longer walk; his legs are weakened and give way.
Dreadful dreams disturb his sleep; he can no longer rest!
If this was not enough, his teeth became rotten and started to fall out.
Then his chest became afire and he coughed-up blood…
His locks once long and lustrous are falling out, he’s balding like a frail old man.
He is hungry and wants to eat; but no food will stay in his stomach.
He is wracked with pain, his chest buckles and heaves, he vomits blood.
His body once young and lithe is now covered with suppurating sores that burst and leak! He is a horrible sight!
He languishes as a fever slowly consumes him–he feels his body pained by fire.
The Death rattle is upon him, as his body becomes rigid and his senses leave him.
He raves, he curses; nothing can save him now!
He expired in horrible torment–Dead at seventeen!
Prints: The Metamorphosis of Male Masturbation – date unknown
Prints: The Metamorphosis of Female Masturbation – date unknown
H/T Dittrick Museum.
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