OF
ONANISM
AND
OTHER ABUSES.
PART FIRST.
EFFECTS OF EXCESS IN VENERY.
Can the power possessed by man of indulging in the act of venery be abused? or, in other words, can any injury arise to the health or constitution, by indulgence in this act. It is sufficient to observe, that the affirmative has never been doubted by any author, that no medical man has ever been found at any time, or in any country, so deficient in intelligence as to doubt that venereal enjoyments were attended by venereal excess, and no one has ever disputed that masturbation or coition may be injurious.
The act of venery, then, may be followed by bad effects. But is it so, and to what extent? This question is the only one which has been debated, the only one to be debated. Let then those, who think that venereal indulgences are followed only by the remembrance of them, know, that deceived by their desires, and perhaps by their necessities, they are rushing blindly toward a fatal precipice, which is to be sure at a greater or less distance from them, but which however exists, and to which those who do not take warning will arrive more quickly.
It is generally thought that venereal excesses, particularly those of masturbation, contribute in a considerable proportion to the ills of suffering humanity.
