Sexual continence : [a plea for sexual continence in the unmarried, an argument in defense of the single standard of sexual morals, a reply to Dr. W.J. Robinson's statement that 'absolute continence is injurious to the male'] / by J.P. Warbasse.
- James Peter Warbasse
- Date:
- 1911
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Sexual continence : [a plea for sexual continence in the unmarried, an argument in defense of the single standard of sexual morals, a reply to Dr. W.J. Robinson's statement that 'absolute continence is injurious to the male'] / by J.P. Warbasse. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
6/8
![nous excitement or local stimulation. Involuntary emissions, masturbation, or coitus empty the vesicles; but without some preliminary causative influence ejaculation does not take place. The dogmatic statement is sometimes made that these emissions are necessary for the health of the man. This contention is not substantiated. The idea is kept alive by those who wish to believe it in order to justify their own practices, by those who perpetuate a •tradition, and by those who actually regard it as a scientific fact. 1 do not believe that continence is injurious to the male, provided that his continence is real. The common mistake is to think of coitus as synonymous with incontinence. 1 have tried to show the difference. It is undoubtedly true that idle men, living under the abnormal and unhealthful conditions of city life, lending themselves to erotic stimuli of great variety, thinking lustfully of women, and rolling their eyes about for libidinous suggestions, are promoted in health by completing the sexual act which they always have in process of beginning. It is not coitus that preserves their health: it is the preliminary vicious habits that are damaging it. Coitus is called u])on as the remedy. Having begun the se.xual act, it is normal that it should be completed. Hut the healthy man, whose mind is occupied with wholesome thoughts, who has interests and activities for the working hours and enough knowledge and intellect to make relaxation a joy, —such a man does not suffer from mere lack of coitus. The vacant mind, ennui, tobacco, alcohol, and other promoters of defective oxidation are often the precursors of the sexual neces- sity. An unmarried young man of the above described healthy ty])c. who argues that some day he shall marry, who thinks that somewhere in the world the woman is waiting for him, who does not harbor the delusion of the se.xual necessity, who has resolved that he shall expect virginity of his bride and that she may e.xpect the same of him, who is aware of the harm and dangers of extra-marital coitus, and who, having thus fortified himself, dismisses from his mind the whole question as settled for him—such a man has clear sailing. The fellow who gets in trouble is the weak man, who vacillates, w’ho entertains erogenous thoughts with himself as a party, and who goes half way and attempts to recede—he has no business with the single standard of se.xual morals; it will make a fool of him. Dalliance is not abstinence. I do not conceive of a man suffering from the ills of con- tinence or growing impotent who has been cast away on a desert island, with no immediate prospect of relief, and whose mind and hands arc occupied with raising grain, catching fish for sub- sistence. and constructing a boat for escape. Examinations of many unmarried men show congestion of the prostate and prostatic urethra, due to just these uncompleted](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22460664_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
