A Treatise on the Diseases Produced By Onanism, Masturbation, Self-Pollution, and Other Excesses.Deslandes, L. (Léopold)
Science
A Treatise on the Diseases Produced By Onanism, Masturbation, Self-Pollution, and Other Excesses.
Deslandes, L. (Léopold)
Masturbation
These facts established, let us consider their consequences; do they
not prove, that an artificial climate may develope the venereal sense
prematurely or too vividly? That on the coming of winter a young man
ought not to be clothed too warm? That too many quilts should not be
put on the bed at night? That the cold should be braved? That we should
forbid too long a continuance in warm rooms? These principles are
deduced naturally from observations on the seasons. It is unnecessary
to say, that these rules, good as they are, are more particularly
applicable to those who are suspected or convicted of masturbation.
In our preceding remarks we have paid regard only to the temperate
zones of the two hemispheres, that is, to those countries where there
are four distinct seasons nearly equal in length. But if we approach
the equinoctial line, those regions of the globe where the year is
divided into a very long summer and a very short winter, the influence
of seasons is effaced by that of _climate_. We shall not repeat in
this place all that has been said in regard to the precocity of the
inhabitants of warm countries, their ardor in love, the excesses to
which they are addicted, the rapidity with which they grow old; all
these facts are well known. But we will make a remark which seems
to us important: if the habitual and long continued action of solar
heat, hastens the appearances of the venereal sense, and gives it so
much power, why will not the continued action of any other heat, for
instance of clothing, dwellings, baths, &c., produce a similar result?
It seems to us that the admission of the first fact necessarily implies
the other. Thus whether we regard the influence of seasons exerted
around us, or that of climates which are far distant, we always arrive
at the conclusion that by a delicate education, and by taking care to
preserve children from the slightest cold, we hasten the excitement
of their sensual feelings, to which they are more liable to become
victims. Hence in prescribing a change of scene for a young man
addicted to onanism, we should be careful not to expose him to hot
climates.
Are there any emanations which have the power of deadening the
venereal sense? From a case already mentioned, and which we owe to M.
Villermé, we might suspect that emanations from stagnant waters have
this effect: but it is probable that if procreation is less active in
marshy countries during the most unhealthy seasons, it is because the
number of sick is greater. It is well known that notwithstanding all
emanations, the venereal sense may be very precocious, and may lead
whole communities to indulge in excesses: we might cite as instances
the inhabitants of the marshy parts of the Landes of Bordeaux, and the
Solognese.
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