ONAN ESCHEWED - Rick Grunder

(5 locations), 1909 in one volume (6 locations), and on in various editions through
1929. I find no copy of any edition listed for sale on the Internet (November 1,
2010, checking three major independent search engines).
Certainly a delightful set (a kind gift from Dr. Hugh J. McKell years ago), with
advice and remedies that may sometimes amuse - or anger - but always intrigue.
The latter portion of the second volume turns to the care of horses and other
domestic animals. Volume II, pp. 153-57, reproduces five X-Ray photographs,
the first one being a "(Skiagraph) of a lady's hand . . . held for one-half minute
before the camera." "HOW TO BECOME FAT OR PLUMP," as a desirable quality, is
explained with extensive diet and regimen on pp. II:378-381. The authors are
alarmed that people are getting thinner, and elsewhere they give us speculative
plates illustrating how people may look by the 1950s - anorexic and elongated to
a comical degree, with even the men wearing corsets.
Palmistry, hypnotism, and phrenology creep in (including phrenological
divisions in the colored folding head diagram). Page II:185 shows a heavilyretouched
photograph of a frankly fine and noble-looking young man (by today's
standards) whose apparent "weak points" of character must be exhibited in his
"physiognomy." "NEVER MARRY A MAN OF THIS TYPE," warns the caption,
adding that the woman who marries such a man "is likely to have a life full of
trouble and to rest in a premature grave. Mothers, caution your daughters." If this
seems a bit unjust, we must not be surprised to find even more injustice in the
section on masturbation . . .
120
AT LEFT, "D.S. Burton of Harris, Pa., before the habits of secret vice had begun to
tell on him." (p. 126). AT RIGHT, ". . . the same young man three years later taken
when he had become an inveterate victim of the vice," p. 127. "The doctor's