I was going through an article on Victorian views of masturbation, and perhaps they were correct after all, particularly this section… “Once the foul habit has set in firmly, the young pleasure-seeker faces the risk that a few years down the line, he will be nothing more than a debauched elder.” * Does that ring true?; ) Picturing the Victorians with affordable chastity devices makes one wonder what other engineering marvels they could have built! For those who struggle to sleep at night, take this guidance… * “[If] a man is plagued by wicked thoughts during the night. He should cross his arms over his chest and stretch out as though he were lying in his coffin. He must try to picture himself as he will be one day laid out in death. If these grave reflections fail to banish evil imaginings, let him get up from his bed and sleep on the floor.” ** Here is more of the article… ** --------------------------------------------------------------------------** In Victorian times, masturbation—also called self-pollution, self-abuse, or onanism—was seen as both a moral and physical wrong. Medical guides of the period treated it with utmost severity, attributing male masturbation, along with the depletion of vital humors, to countless ailments ranging from blindness, impotence, and epilepsy to chronic fatigue, mental instability, and even early death. Many of these ideas trace back to two books published in the 18th century, most notably Samuel Tissot’s renowned 1760 medical essay On Onania: or A Treatise upon the Disorders Produced by Masturbation, which states: “Frequent emissions of semen relax, weaken, dry out, and enervate the body, leading to numerous other evils such as apoplexy, lethargy, epilepsy, loss of sight, trembling, paralysis, and all sorts of painful conditions.” By the 19th century, worries about the harmful effects of masturbation had grown enormous. The solitary vice was being debated in medical journals and religious essays. And the Victorians—who valued self-discipline and restraint as moral virtues—were compelled to create various methods to discourage and control it. The Crime According to doctors R. and L. Perry in their 1847 book The Silent Friend: A Medical Work on the Disorders Produced by the Dangerous Effects of Onanism: “The practice of the solitary vice, onanism, manustupration or masturbation has been condemned by all writers, whether medical men, philosophers, or divines, from the earliest ages of mankind. One of its names, onanism, is derived from the saddening example of Onan the second son of Judah, who was struck dead by his Creator for the commission of this heinous sin.”
In his 1845 book, The Secret Companion: A Medical Work on Onanism or Self-Pollution, consulting surgeon R. J. Brodie describes masturbation as a twisted inclination and a harmful habit which “destroys the germ of manhood.” Meanwhile Dr. William Acton, in his 1894 work The Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs, refers to masturbation as a “melancholy and repulsive habit” that is “degrading and debilitating to the child” and injurious to the adult. Acton advises young men to abandon the practice as soon as possible, warning them that: “When once the vile habit has become confirmed, the young libertine runs the risk of finding himself, a few years later, but a debauched old man.” Brodie is equally severe. He blames self-abuse on “licentiousness and unrestrained indulgence of the passions,” writing: “Sages and moral writers of every age, have described in glowing terms the direful and awful result of Masturbation a passion that captivates the imagination of its victim imperceptibly, step by” subject: "", post_id”: 305046 } ],
“step, till every moral feeling is obliterated, and all the physical powers destroyed.”* The Consequences Many Victorian-era medical and moral texts argued that masturbation didn’t just weaken the mind and body; it also harmed the soul. As Brodie explains (quoting M. Hoffman): “We can easily comprehend how closely connected are the brain and testicles; for these two organs secrete from the blood a very subtle and exquisite lymph, which is meant to provide strength and motion to the parts, and even help in the functions of the soul. It seems likely that excessive loss of these fluids may ruin both body and soul.”
Although masturbation was viewed as a moral wrong capable of destroying the soul, most believed its consequences primarily affected the body. In an 1843 issue of the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, Dr. William Mackenzie, Surgeon-Oculist to Queen Victoria, writes: “…masturbation is often followed by loss of appetite, indigestion, headache[sic], vertigo, tinnitus aurium, rigors, flushings, constant clamminess of the hands, want of sleep, signs of congestion or chronic inflammation of the brain, apoplectic symptoms, palpitation of the heart, and emaciation, leading to a suspicion of phthisis. Palsy and insanity are not unfrequent consequences of masturbation.” In The Secret Companion, Brodie includes several case studies of people suffering terribly from over-indulgence in this solitary vice. Most patients picked up the habit while still schoolboys. For example, Brodes describes one patient as: “R.I., aged twenty, of slender form, sunken eyes, pallid countenance, and considerable emaciation, stated that when placed at a public school, at the age of twelve, he had been induced by his school-fellows to indulge in the habit of self-pollution…” Sounds like many members of fetlife! In another case, Brodie describes a gentleman of “profound learning” who declared “with deepest anguish” that: “…the fruits of his academical labours would never compensate for the mischief incurred from a solitary vice taught him by a depraved companion when he was about thirteen years old.”
Many similar cases existed where the patient learned self-abuse from schoolfellows and continued it as an adult, causing their health to inevitably decline. In one instance, Brodie describes a man so affected by self-pollution that he “less resembled a living creature than a corpse.” Confined to a straw mattress and languishing in considerable pain, the patient spent all day reflecting on the evils of masturbation. Brodie writes: “Thus overwhelmed in misery, he languished almost without any assistance for some months, and was the more to be pitied, because what memory remained—and which he eventually entirely lost—served only to take an incessant retrospect of the cause of his misfortunes, increased by the aggravating horrors of remorse.” The Cure According to Brodie, a patient seeking relief from masturbation’s consequences must first: “…entirely discontinue this dreadful practice, however difficult it may be due to habit…” ]( This was often easier said than done, especially for those patients who reported engaging in the solitary vice multiple times each day. To aid the process, doctors frequently recommended changes in diet, an increase in physical activity, and prayer. Visualization exercises were also sometimes recommended. For instance, Acton quotes the advice of a clergyman on dealing with unhealthy impulses at night, writing: “[If a] man is tormented by evil thoughts at night. Let him be directed to cross his arms upon his breast, and extend himself as if he were lying in his coffin. Let him endeavor to think of himself as he will be one day stretched in death. If such solemn thoughts do not drive away evil imaginations, let him rise from his bed and lie on the floor.”
For desperate cases, doctors sometimes recommended desperate measures. There were cordials and various patent medicines (Brodie’s medical practice sold Cordial Balm of Zeylanica). There were also more invasive types of “cures” such as spiked rings or electric shock devices for the genitals. According to the book Sexualities in Victorian Britain, by the 1850s some doctors were even beginning to recommend circumcision as a treatment for masturbation. A Few Final Words… Opinions on the physical and moral dangers of the solitary vice did not change rapidly. Even today, there are some for whom the subject is still a controversial one. However, rather than address modern day arguments, I will close this article by taking you back to the 19th century. In his 1872 book on Male Continence, American preacher John Humphrey Noyes addresses masturbation in one particularly hilarious paragraph, writing: “…it is obvious that before marriage men have no lawful method of discharge but masturbation; and after marriage it is as foolish and cruel to expend one’s seed on a wife merely for the sake of getting rid of it, as it would be to fire a gun at one’s best friend merely for the sake of unloading it. If a blunderbuss must be emptied, and the charge cannot be drawn, it is better to fire into the air than to kill somebody with it.”