ONAN ESCHEWED - Rick Grunder

MASTURBATION, pp. 286-87, 772-802, including endless recommendations from
anonymous satisfied patients. It would be difficult to evaluate how legitimate
Dr. Pierce was by the standards of his day, but he certainly warned against
charlatans and quacks (or competitors? –while promoting his own hospital in
Buffalo with alluring illustrations and constant quoted praises). The problems
caused by masturbation are many . . .
The Practice of Onanism squanders the vitality and bankrupts the constitution.
Indigestion, innutrition, emaciation, shortness of breath, palpitation, nervous
debility, are all symptoms of this exhaustion. Subsequently, the yellow skin
reveals the bones, the sunken eyes are surrounded by a leaden circle, the
vivacious imagination becomes dull, the active mind grows insipid—in short, the
spring, or vital force, having lost its tension, every function wanes in
consequence. [p. 772]
Dr. Pierce goes on with sections headed "Seminal Weakness, Nocturnal or
Night Emissions, Wasting Away of the Testicles [with diagrams], Stricture of
the Urethra [with three cross-section diagrams elsewhere in the text], Hydrocele
(Dropsy of the Scrotum), Variocele . . . a dilation of the veins of the spermatic cord
and scrotum, . . . frequently a result of masturbation, . . . Disease of the Prostate
Gland . . . frequently caused by solitary indulgence . . . , Prostatorrhea,
Impotency, A Peculiar Form of Impotency, Spermatorrhea, Epilepsy, Paralysis,
Softening of the Brain, [and] Insanity." (pp. 773-80).
The doctor warns of "Quackery Rampant," complaining that "This country is
flooded with cheap circulars and pamphlets, circulated openly and broad-cast,
wherein ignorant, pretentious, blattant [sic] quacks endeavor to frighten young
men who may never have practiced self-abuse, or been guilty of excesses in any
way, and yet who experience now and then, at long intervals, nocturnal seminal
emissions." (p. 780)
For those truly afflicted, the cure starts with "daily physical exercise and regular
habits" of mind and body. The diet must be "plain" and "wholesome," with no
"Hearty or late suppers," p. 782; total abstinence from alcohol, tea, coffee and
tobacco; the patient should sleep on his side, on a hard bed. (Lying on one's
back makes "nightly emissions" more likely.) Rise early and take a cold bath. "It
is beneficial to apply a towel saturated with cold water to the genital organs
fifteen minutes before leaving the bed. Douching, or showering the genital
organs with cold water once or twice a day will also be beneficial." It won't hurt
to bathe your head with cold water, too, so keep your hair cut short for
convenience of applying this remedy. No horseback riding or climbing, of
course (this rubs the genitals), but cold enemas, harmless amusements and good
moral company, p. 783. Avoid patent medicines, electrical cure devices, and
those useless brass cylinder pumps designed to enlarge and invigorate the penis
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