ONAN ESCHEWED - Rick Grunder

which are caused by masturbation. This scarcely reduces the potential horrors
arising from self-abuse . . .
Conscious now of the injury wrought, he resolves to abandon the habit, when,
to his horror and amazement, he finds himself polluted by nocturnal emissions
accompanied by lascivious dreams; and as the weakness progresses the semen
passes away without dreams, and he wakes in the morning tired and
unrefreshed, and finds the stains upon his linen.
Then his agony begins in earnest. He becomes nervous and despondent and
irritable in temper, and longs to be free from the body of death which chains him
to its foul carcass. [pp. 137-38]
54 JENKS, Jeremiah W. LIFE QUESTIONS OF HIGH SCHOOL BOYS. By Jeremiah
W. Jenks, Ph.D., LL.D. Professor of Political Economy and Politics, Cornell University.
New York: Young Men's Christian Association Press, 1910.
17 cm. 143; followed by a bibliography of readings on the various topics,
entitled "Teachers' Supplement . . . ," [1]-18, [1] pp. Printed on fine, semi-glossy
paper. Many of the pages throughout are blank except for caption at head:
"NOTES."
Original green illustrated wrappers lettered on the spine and the front wrapper.
Generally very good but for modest wear or soil, plus some damage to bottom of
backstrip paper. $40
OCLC shows editions in 1908, 1910 (offered here), 1924, and a modern reprint in
2010. Of this 1910 edition, OCLC locates only two copies, at the University of
Wisconsin and University of Idaho.
Clearly intended as a student's textbook on everything from manners and
fraternities, drinking, gambling, etc., to politics, religion, and chapter IX, "The
Sex Problem," pp. 83-87. The treatment of MASTURBATION is surprising brief, and
reads in its entirety as follows:
5. Passion needs to be kept well in hand or the habit of self-abuse may lead to
results almost or [p. 86 ends] quite as harmful to the individual as illicit relations.
Excess in any of these directions leads to physical weakness as well as to mental
and moral degeneracy. An athlete must be continent and abstemious in all ways.
[pp. 86-87]
How many boys must have guffawed at the unintended pun that occurs at the
beginning of this selection?
58