Adult
content. Please enjoy, and please be
guided accordingly.
A French
physician, Joseph Henri Reveille-Parise, was quoted in the 1854 issue of The
New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal for what he said in 1828: “In my
opinion, neither plague, nor war, nor small-pox, nor a crowd of similar evils,
have resulted more disastrously for humanity, than the habit of masturbation:
it is the destroying element of civilized society.”
Masturbation worse
than the plague or smallpox? WTF. This doctor was nuts, although he really
wasn’t by the standards of his day.
Even if we
organize Earth Wanking Day where everyone in the world wanks simultaneously at
a given time, say 5 p.m., the world will be inundated with secretions at most
(maybe a quake here and there), but global synchronized wanking certainly can
not be worse than the plague or smallpox.
Forty years later
(1894), in another issue of The New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal,
Dr. A.J. Bloch performed clitoridectomy (removal of clitoris, female
circumcision) on a girl who liked to masturbate. Bloch referred to women who masturbated as
moral lepers and to masturbation as psychopathia sexualis.
Why unearth
Victorian-era mindset backed by documented medical thought of the day?
Because even
today, people – including medical doctors – with such mentality can still be
found among us. Sad eh. (Is it possible that these modern-day
Victorians are closet wankers? H’m.)
Lubricate. Pace.
Breathe. Masturbating causes no
harm if enjoyed and done in moderation.
REFERENCES
“Review of
European Legislation for Control of Prostitution.” The New Orleans Medical and
Surgical Journal 11.1 (1854): 667-705.
Bloch, A.J. “Sexual Perversion in the Female.” The New Orleans Medical and
Surgical Journal 22 (1894-95): 1-7.
Evans, Hilary and
Robert E. Bartholomew. Outbreak! The
Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior. San Antonio, TX: Anomalist Books, 2009. 393.
