ONAN ESCHEWED - Rick Grunder

50 HORN, M. A., ed. THE MANUAL OF HYGIENE FOR "FATHER AND SON."
Edited by M. A. Horn. Prepared from Information Compiled by Eminent Medical and
Hygiene Authorities of Three Continents. Wilmington, Ohio [and elsewhere]:
Published and Distributed Exclusively by Hygienic Productions, [c. 1947;
Twenty-Third Printing].
23 cm. 92, [4 (ads)] pp. Orig. rose-colored printed wrappers. Wrappers wormed
around edges; text very good. $20
OCLC shows versions of this pamphlet published 1946-57, locating no copies of
this precise printing offered here, but a few examples of slightly later printings of
the same year.
MASTURBATION, pp. 10-11, 13-16. This is a rather backward-looking treatment,
discouraging the practice entirely. "There is nothing to be said in favor of
masturbation," we read, "even though it is no longer looked upon as the horrible
evil it once was. For one thing, it is an entirely unnatural habit and for another, it
is one which can be so easily practiced, anywhere, anytime, that it can be
indulged in so frequently as to become exceedingly dangerous to mind and
health." (p. 16)
51 HOWE, Joseph W. EXCESSIVE VENERY[,] MASTURBATION AND
CONTINENCE. The Etiology, Pathology and Treatment of the Diseases Resulting from
Venereal Excesses, Masturbation and Continence. By Joseph W. Howe, M.D. . . . New
York and Chicago: E. B. Treat & Co., 1899 [c. 1887].
20½ cm. [2]ff.; [xi]-xv, [17]-299 pp. Index, pp. [293]-299. Orig. maroon cloth,
dull and quite shaken with inner hinges breaking; some dampstains and foxing.
$40
Apparently the final contemporary edition published, and surely ready for
retirement. OCLC shows versions and editions 1883, '84, '87, '88, '92, '96, '97 and
'99, with an Arno Press reprint in 1974.
MASTURBATION and its effects, pp. 92-182 and probably elsewhere. Howe's
credentials listed on the title page would seem to place him at the top of his field,
and the preface explains that this book is based on "a course of lectures delivered
in the Medical Department of the University of New York," supplemented by
"the peculiar methods of treatment employed by various authorities in Europe
and America, thus making the volume complete as a book of reference for the
student and practitioner of medicine." (page following title leaf)
Browsing across the extensive content on masturbation, however, we must be
disappointed to see the author little advanced beyond the preconceptions of his
age. He simply uses bigger words to perpetuate the same mis-information and
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