1
A
TREATISE ON THE DISEASES
PRODUCED BY
ONANISM, MASTURBATION,SELF-POLLUTION,
AND OTHER EXCESSES.
BY
L. DESLANDES, M. D.,
MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF MEDICINE AT PARIS,
AND OTHER LEARNED SOCIETIES.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH,
WITH MANY ADDITIONS.
Second Edition.
BOSTON:
OTIS, BROADERS, AND COMPANY.
1839.2
Entered, according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1838, byOTIS, BROADERS & COMPANY,In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.3
PREFACE.
To those who would complain of the publicationof a work upon the delicate subject to whichthe following pages refer, we would remark, thatthe evil here depicted, is one of great magnitude.This cause of disease is often entirely overlookedeven by medical men, either from false notionsof delicacy, or because their attention has notbeen drawn by fearful experience to cases whichare ascribable merely to onanism. The patientis unconscious of his danger, and perseveres inhis vicious habit—the physician treats him symptomatically,and death soon closes the scene.“Many a young man,” remarked a physician,who had seen much of disease from this cause,“many a one has come to me, totally unconsciousthat his criminal act was sapping to the veryfoundation his health and strength.”
To call the attention of medical men to thissource of disease, and to point out to such persons4not of the profession as may meet with thisbook, and who indulge in this habit, the fatalprecipice to which they wend their way, hasbeen the object of publishing it here. Howvery many cases of consumption, that diseasewhich annually destroys its thousands, could, ifthe truth were known, be referred to this cause!How many minds have been ruined by self-indulgence!
If any apology were needed for this publication,it may be found in the last annual reportof the State Lunatic Asylum of Massachusetts,which states that of the number of insane receivedat that institution during the last year, no lessthan THIRTY-TWO lost their senses from thiscause.5