Works on phrenology, physiology, etc / edited by J. Barker.

Orson S. Fowler

Date:: 1850

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Works on phrenology, physiology, etc / edited by J. Barker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

12/632 (page 4)

our institutions of learning ; because there, the absence of exercise, the seclusion from female society, and the character of their studies, especially those that cultivate (vitiate) the imagination, all tend to in- duce and increase the evil.’ The following is from Dr. Alcott:— < We believe that there is not a town in New England, whose bills of mortality, from year to year, are not greatly increased by this fearful and wide wasting scourge. We believe that a majority of our diseases and infirmities—our aches, our pains, and our deformities too—after the age of puberty, are either induced or aggravated in this way.’ The following is from Dr. Snow, of Boston :— < Self-pollution is undoubtedly one of the most common causes of ill health that can be found among the young men of this country. From the observations that I have been able to make, I am satisfied that the practice is almost universal. Boys commence it an early age ; and the habit once formed, like that of intemperance,. becomes almost un- conquerable. In boarding schools and colleges, it obtains oftentimes without an exception. Hence the many sickly students, and the many young men of the most brilliant and promising talents, who have broken their constitutions and ruined their health, as it is said, 4 by hard study! ’ Mr. Fowler adds, that even females do not escape the infection of this horrible vice. He says,— ‘ They may be less infected, yet women, young and modest, are dying by thousands of consumption, of female complaints, of nervous or spinal affections, of general debility, and of other ostensible complaints innumerable, and some of insanity, caused solely by this practice. On this point. Dr. Woodward again thus speaks out :— ‘About two years ago, a young woman, aged twenty-two years, came under my care, in a state of the worst form of insanity. She was furious, noisy, filthy, and, apparently, nearly reduced to idiocy. She had been in this condition many months, and continued so for some time while with me. She was pale and bloodless, had but little appe- tite, frequently rejected her food, and was reduced in flesh and strength. Finding her one day more calm than usual, I hinted to her the subject of masturbation [self-pollution], and informed her that, if she practised it, she could not get well—if she abandoned it, she might. She did not deny the charge, and promised to follow my advice strictly. In two or three weeks from this time, she was perceptibly better ; her mind improved as her health gained ; and both were much better in the course of a few weeks. The recovery was very rapid in this case. At the end of six months she had excellent health, was quite fleshy, and became perfectly sane ; and has continued so, so far as we have known, to this time. ‘Not long since, a case of periodical insanity came under my obser- vation, the subject of which was a young lady. The disease had existed ten years without any material change. Suspecting that masturbation was the cause, I directed her mother to ascertain, if possible, and inform me. Some months after, 1 received intelligence that my patient was better, and that my suspicions of the habit were confirmed by the ob- servation of her friends. The case is not without hope, although of so long standing, if the cause is removed. ‘ Three or four similar cases have been under my care recently in which individuals of the same sex have been reduced to the same de- graded state. They are now, and will continue to be while life remain® a melancholy spectacle of human misery, without mind, without deli- cacy oi modesty, constantly harassed by the most ungovernable passion, and under the influence of propensities excited to morbid activity by a vice fai moie pie valent than has been supposed. A large proportion of the ‘bed-ridden cases, of which there are so many in the community, will be found to have originated m this cause/ 4 ?