or Onanism, terms lately framed to denote the crime of self-pollution, mentioned in scripture to have been committed by Onan, and punished in him with death.
This practice, however common, hath among all nations been reckoned a very great crime. In scripture, besides the instance of Onan abovementioned, we find self-polluters termed effeminates, unclean, filthy, and abominable. Even the heathens, who had not the advantage of revelation, were of the same opinion, as appears from the following lines of Martial.
Hoc nihil esse putes / facius est; mihi credo, sed ingens Quantum vix animo concipis ipse tuo. You think 'tis nothing! 'tis a crime, believe! A crime so great you scarcely can conceive.
Dr Tiffof has published a treatise on the pernicious effects of this shameful practice, which appears to be no less baneful to the mind than to the body. He begins with observing, that, by the continual waste of the human body, aliments are required for our support. These aliments, however, require certain preparations in the body itself; and when by any means we become so altered that these preparations cannot be effected, the best aliments then prove insufficient for the support of the body. Of all the causes by which this morbid alteration is brought on, none is more common than too copious evacuations; and of all evacuations, that of the semen is the most pernicious when carried to excess. It is also to be observed, that though excess in natural venery is productive of very dangerous disorders, yet an equal evacuation by self-pollution, which is an unnatural way, is productive of others still more to be dreaded. The consequences enumerated by Dr Tiffof are as follow.
1. All the intellectual faculties are weakened; the memory fails; the ideas are confused, and the patient sometimes even falls into a slight degree of insanity. They are continually under a kind of inward reflexiveness, and feel a constant anguish. They are subject to giddiness; all the senses, especially those of seeing and hearing, grow weaker and weaker, and they are subject to frightful dreams.
2. The strength entirely fails, and the growth in young persons is considerably checked. Some are afflicted with almost continual watching, and others do almost perpetually. Almost all of them become hypochondriacs or hysterics, and are afflicted with all the evils which attend these disorders. Some have been known to spit calcareous matter; and others are afflicted with coughs, slow fevers, and consumptions.
3. The patients are affected with the most acute pains in different parts of the body, as the head, breast, stomach, and intestines; while some complain of an obtuse sensation of pain all over the body, on the slightest impression.
4. There are not only to be seen pimples on the face, which are one of the most common symptoms; but even blotches, or suppurative pustules, appear on the face, nose, breast, and thighs; and sometimes fleshy excrescences arise on the forehead.
5. The organs of generation are also affected; and the semen is evacuated on the slightest irritation, even that of going to stool. Numbers are afflicted with an habitual gonorrhoea, which entirely destroys the vigour of the constitution, and the matter of it resembles a fetid faeces. Others are affected with painful priapisms, dysuries, stranguries, and heat of urine, with painful tumours in the testicles, penis, bladder, and spermatic cord.
6. The functions of the intestines are sometimes totally destroyed; and some patients complain of costiveness, others of diarrhoea, piles, and the running of a foetid matter from the fundament.
With regard to the cure, the first step is to leave off those practices which have occasioned the disease; which our author asserts is no easy matter; as, according to him, the soul itself becomes polluted, and can dwell on no other idea; or if she does, the irritability of the parts of generation themselves quickly recalc ideas of the same kind. This irritability is no doubt much more to be dreaded than any pollution the foul can have received; and by removing it, there will be no occasion for exhortations to discontinue the practice. The principal means for diminishing this irritability are, in the first place, to avoid all stimulating, acrid, and spiced meats. A low diet, however, is improper, because it would further reduce the body already too much emaciated. The food should therefore be nutritive, but plain, and should consist of flesh rather roasted than boiled, rich broths, &c. It is cer- tain, however, that as these foods contribute to restore the strength of the body, the stimulus on the organs of generation will be proportionably increased, by the semen which is constantly secreted, and which will now be in larger quantity than even in healthy persons, owing to the great evacuations of it which have preceded. Some part of the semen is gradually absorbed by the lymphatics; in consequence of which, the remainder becomes thick, acrid, and very stimulating. To remedy this, exercise is to be used, and that not only for pleasure, but till it is attended with a very considerable degree of fatigue. The sleep also must be no more than is barely sufficient to repair the fatigues occasioned by the exercise, or other employment; for an excess in sleep is as bad as idleness or stimulating foods. Excess in wine or intoxicating liquors is also to be avoided; or rather such liquors ought never to be taken, unless as a medicine to restore the exhausted spirits; and to all this ought to be joined the Peruvian bark, which hath this admirable property, that, with little or no stimulus, it restores the tone of the system, and invigorates the body in a manner incredible to those who have not observed its effects. If these directions are followed, the patient may almost certainly expect a recovery, provided any degree of vital strength remains; and those who desire a life of celibacy on a moral account, will find them much more effectual than all the vows of chastity they can make.