ONAN ESCHEWED - Rick Grunder

"I inferred it," I said, "from your foolishness in supposing that because you
belonged to the church and had family worship your son could not be guilty of
such a practice. I suspect the sons of all such foolish parents."
He finally agreed not to punish his son, so I called the boy back. An
instrumental examination detected three strictures in the urethra as well as
organic changes in the rectum. The boy remained in the institution for six weeks,
when he returned home cured, though, of course, not fully recovered from the
effects of the nerve waste. [pp. 166-167]
The narrative continues with further anecdote and nonsense - and yet, I think we
should read a bit of Dr. Hartman's subsequent, kindly admonition, which I find
quite original . . .
Parents, let me entreat you on behalf of your children, win their confidence.
Govern them by love, not fear. Do not whip or scold them. Be their friends, and
teach them to regard you as such,
instead of thinking of you as their
master, as they will surely do if they
meet with harsh, ungentle treatment.
You are responsible for their being; in
point of fact, you owe them more than
they owe you. They did not ask you to
create them. They did not come into
this world by their own consent or at
their own desire. They were not
consulted in the matter. You gave them
their being and are responsible for their
existence here, with passions, vices,
mental and bodily inclinations inherited
from you, and when the evil that is in
them, inherited from you, crops out, you blame them, scold them, and possibly
beat them, all for bad temper, and bad habits, and traits of character which come
to them by natural inheritance, and for which, not they, but you yourselves, are
to blame. [168]
44 HAYES, Albert H[amilton]. THE SCIENCE OF LIFE; Or, Self-Preservation. A
Medical Treatise on Nervous and Physical Debility, Spermatorrhœa, Impotence, and
Sterility, With Practical Observations on the Treatment of Diseases of the Generative
Organs. With Illustrations. By Albert H. Hayes, M.D., No. 4 Bulfinch Street, Boston,
(Opposite Revere House,) Doctor of Medicine, chief Consulting Physician of Peabody
Medical Institute; Author of a Treatise on Diseases of the Throat and Lungs, Sexual
Physiology of Woman and her Diseases, a Treatise on Nervous and Mental Diseases; late
Surgeon in the U.S. Army &c. Boston: Published by the Peabody Medical Institute,
[c. 1868 by A. H. Hayes] (but 1876?).
48