ONAN ESCHEWED - Rick Grunder

109 WALLING, William H. . . . SEXOLOGY. Edited by Prof. Wm. H. Walling,
A.M., M.D. Prof. Gynecology, Eastern College; Late Wills Hospital; Prof. Electrotherapeutics,
Medico-Chirurgical College, Etc. [at head: "Family Medical Edition"].
Philadelphia, and Hanley, England: Printed and Published by Puritan Publishing
Company, [c. 1904].
18½ cm. 232 pp., counting the frontispiece portrait of the author. Orig. olive
green ribbed cloth; gilt-lettered spine, artistically-lettered front board. A very
good copy. $65
A much shorter version (20 cm., 138 pp.) first appeared in 1902, issued from the
same Puritan publishing firm, followed by the expanded edition offered here.
Further editions followed in 1909 and 1912, with an Arno Press reprint in 1974.
A
GRAND(ly disappointing) relic of old-school mentality, exaggerated even
for its day. "MASTURBATION, MALE." pp. 34-40; "MASTURBATION, FEMALE."
pp. 41-47. The author's approach here is of the most narrow and backwardlooking
stance possible, offering principally condemnation, little hope, and no
remedies that I can see. The tone is clear from Walling's first paragraph on the
subject:
114
Viewing the world over, this shameful and
criminal act is the most frequent, as well as
the most fatal, of all vices. In our country,
however, it is second in frequency—though
not, surely, in importance—only to the crime
of libertinism. It is encountered in all ages,
from the infant in the cradle to the old man
groaning upon his pallet. But it is from the
age of fourteen to twenty that its ravages are
most frequent and most deplorable. Nothing
but a sense of inexorable duty, in the hope of
effecting a radical reform by awakening the
alarm of parents and teachers to the
enormous frequency and horrible consequences
of this revolting crime, could induce
the author to enter upon the sickening
revelation. [p. 34]
Those who persist will surely die the death
most horrible of all deaths; and those who
practice the most limited and most occasional
acts of onanism will surely be punished in proportion to their crimes; while the very
individuals who seem to escape, are those who most surely carry the punishment for the
remainder of their lives, never live to attain old age, and most frequently fall victims to
some grave chronic disease, the terms of which they owe to this detestable vice. [pp. 39]