In addition to such abuses, there were worships quite as degrading. Phallus was a figure of the virile member, which was carried about at the festival of _Bacchus_ as a symbol of the generative powers of nature. The _Athenians_, who refused to show proper respect to Phallus, were punished by Bacchus with a severe disease of the penis. Such may be concluded from the “_History of the Phallus in Greece_.” Priapus is now supposed to have been a venereal specialist, differing in no respect from such modern specialists, to whom, it is said, votive offerings were donated, and his great skill caused him to be worshipped and deified; hence the term priapismus, which is commonly applied to morbid erections, so frequently occurring in gonorrhœa and paralysis of the insane, and which is also applied to the active stage of the condition otherwise known as satyriasis. CHAPTER III. _Onanism._――I have adopted the term Onanism, more especially to illustrate a class of conjugal sins, and shall not use it, as generally applied, as a synonym for masturbation, but will define the term as it should be used. That the meaning of the word may be fully understood I will quote the two verses from _Genesis_ xxxviii, 8, 9: “And Judah said unto Onan, go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. “And Onan knew that the seed should not be his. And it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled _it_ on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.” It must not be supposed that Onan used his hand to facilitate an emission, but that he simply withdrew his penis and allowed the semen to be lost on the ground, to prevent conception. Onanism is practised more at the present day by married males than may at first be imagined. It is the commonest of all means used as a preventive of conception. The majority of so-called society women are wives of men who practice Onanism. The word has come to signify masturbation, or any intentional process of wasting the seminal fluid. But I have preferred its use here as it explains a practice which I have no other word for. The very common practice of withdrawing the organ before ejaculation is often a very hurtful one, as the orgasm is often incomplete, and there are more satisfactory ways of accomplishing what is intended by such a practice. Under the strict signification of the term, a child cannot be an Onanist, until after puberty, but he may be a masturbator. A woman cannot properly be called an Onaness, but she may masturbate nevertheless. To present, in a true light, this conjugal vice, I excerpt, from the _Ohio Med. and Surg. Reporter_, the following most excellent paragraph, which illustrates in the pithy and elegant style that speaks volumes of argument, and should be a lasting hint to cultured and scientific students in the learned profession of medicine: