We have already seen that an unusual irritation of the genito-urinary mucous membrane may develop venereal excitement capable of causing satyriasis and nymphomania. This irritation may also act in another manner. The itching it occasions may cause the hands to be carried to the genital organs; unknown sensations are produced, and masturbation is accidentally discovered. We see by this how necessary it is in young patients to protect these parts from all sources of itching. Sometimes, too, a knowledge of this vice comes from accident. Hence children at an early age should be taught habits of modesty; all handling of the genital organs should be prohibited. Children should not be allowed to keep their hands in their pockets. Neither should they be left alone long: the necessity of observing, which is so vivid at their age, is exercised on themselves, when they find nothing else to interest them, and they sometimes make dangerous observations. It is in bed particularly that this evil is most liable to happen; hence they should be taken from their beds as soon as they awake, and the hour of rest should not long precede that of sleep. Many children have been led to onanism by their efforts to resist the wish to urinate. The pressure exercised on the penis by pressing the thighs firmly against each other, has excited sensations which they have attempted to re-produce. We mention this cause of onanism as being much more common than is generally supposed.
There is another cause, which is much more rare, but which deserves to be known: domestic animals, as cats and dogs, have sometimes licked the sexual parts of young children, particularly girls, and have excited a sense which ought to sleep. Hufeland publishes a remarkable case of this character in support of some peculiar views on venereal disease, and adds that Ruggieri some years before, published in the medical journals, a case where, by the licking of a dog, ulcers of a bad character were developed in the genitals of two old maids. (Bibliot. Med., May, 1821, p. 250.)
Most frequently, however, the habit of onanism arises from direct provocation, from instruction. Sometimes this provocation can be attributed only to imprudence. Thus nurses sometimes titillate the genital organs in children to stop their cries. We have already stated, from Biett, the instance of a young girl who had thus contracted this bad habit, and who was cured by the amputation of the clitoris: this case arose probably only from ignorance. Sometimes, however, servants teach their masters’ children from wilfulness. One should be particularly careful of female servants, as it is to them that young children are generally entrusted. Male domestics are generally to be feared, only for those young persons who are near the age of puberty. The wish to please their young master, often induces them to give the most disgusting lessons. Most frequently, however, these lessons come from their associates, the older boys teaching those who are younger.
If among young patients onanism is practised for itself, it is afterward only an apology for the want of more legitimate enjoyments. Celibacy, in adults, is with some few exceptions the only cause of onanism. This practice, and others still more revolting, are common among monastic orders, as the consequence and punishment of vows made contrary to the laws of nature. Polygamy, the quasi celibacy to which the females of many countries submit, also causes great derangements in the system. A kind of consumption has been described to which the Turkish women are subject, and which can be traced to no other cause. (Journal de Med., Vol. 44, p. 539.) It is in prisons, however, where there is no moral feeling, that this vice is most prevalent. Villermé remarks, that the amount of this vice in prisons, is almost incredible. Young and old abandon themselves to it so freely, that the physicians of the prisons of the department of the Seine, attribute the frequency of pulmonary consumption, of cramps in the stomach, muscular debility, weakness of sight, and of the intellectual faculties, to this cause alone. This physician considers onanism as one of the causes of the excessive mortality existing in the depots of mendicity. (Dict. des Sc. Med., art. Prison.)
Sailors also often abandon themselves during their long voyages to this vice. Many adults, and particularly females, seek in solitary indulgence a compensation for the restraints imposed on them by laws and customs. Even animals indulge. Montegre has published some interesting details on this subject. (Dict. des Sc. Med., art. Continence.)
We have said that onanism is performed so easily that it is much more to be feared than sexual intercourse. If then the physician has to choose between the two, he ought not to hesitate. In human things we cannot always choose between an injury and a benefit. Sometimes the selection is between a greater and a lesser evil. We may then without detriment to physical and moral laws, counsel the young man who indulges in onanism, to gratify his feelings in a less dangerous manner. This also was Rousseau’s opinion. He says, in his Emile, “If a tyrant must conquer you, I would prefer to yield you to that from which you can be released most easily: and you can be weaned from females more readily than from yourself.” The physician in these cases should recommend marriage.
This advice, too, is sanctioned by experience. Many young men after indulging in sexual intercourse, have commenced onanism; despising the latter, after exercising the former. “We have known a father,” say Fournier and Begin, “who finding his son disobeyed his advice, married him, and with success.” The same remedy has often been tried, and with good effect. A single coition has often sufficed to appease excessive ardor in females, and we could state several cases of nymphomania which have been thus immediately cured. Pregnancy also has been followed by the same results: this fact was known to the ancients and is mentioned in a work ascribed to Hippocrates. Panarolus, Matthew de Grado, and others, have related cases of females affected with nymphomania, who are never calm except during pregnancy. The following fact, observed by Esquirol, shows the influence of coition and pregnancy on the genital system. “A strong and healthy girl, of good family, nineteen years old, became affected with hysteria, with violent and almost constant convulsions. After a long and ineffectual course of medical treatment, this young woman disappeared from her father’s house, and all inquiries for her were in vain. After a few months, Esquirol, passing in the evening through a noted and dissipated quarter of Paris, was stopped by a female, whom he recognised to be his patient. On inquiring what she was doing, she answered, “Getting well.” For eighteen months this girl was a prostitute of the lowest order. She miscarried twice, and finally returned to her father’s house perfectly well. This woman is now married, a mother, and extremely circumspect in her conduct.” (Dict. des Sc. Med., art. Continence.)
§ 2. SECOND INDICATION. TO RESIST THE DESIRE OF ONANISM.
When a desire can be satisfied, and is not, it is because the will is enchained, or this is distracted by circumstances more powerful than desire. Thus then it is possible to inspire an individual with certain fears, or by distracting his thoughts to make his will resist his desires.
The fear of God and his ministers may have great influence over the minds of many, and preserve strict continence. The fear of confession has often, to our knowledge, produced a denial of desire in young persons. At the present day, however, this latter influence cannot be depended on much, and confessors, by their imprudent questions, have often excited curiosity in hearts yet innocent.