Thoughts on the Sin of Onan (1767)
THOUGHTS ON THE SIN OF ONAN:
CHIEFLY EXTRACTED FROM
A LA TE WRITER
(1767) An Introductory Comment Readers may well be surprised to find a tract on 'the sin of Onan' included among John Wesley's medical writings. The seeming incongruity of this placement arises on several levels.
To begin with, the specific behaviour of Onan that displeased God, as depicted in Genesis 38:6-10, was his failure to fulfill the intent of the 'levirate code' formalized in Deuteronomy 25:5-10.
This law obliged an Israelite man, in the event that he had a brother who married but died without siring a son, to take his brother's wife as his own and attempt to sire a son who would take the deceased brother's name, 'so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel' (v. 6). The law reflects a staunchly patriarchal social order, which is open to serious objections. But within that culture, at least a subsidiary intention of the law was to provide protection for the widow—who otherwise was left with no property and few options. Moreover if a son was born through the obliged union, this son apparently inherited the property of the deceased brother, thereby providing a continuing means of support for his mother.
This possibility is precisely what Onan took steps to avoid. He did not refuse to take Tamar, his dead brother's wife, as his own.1 Instead he took his pleasure with her while preventing the possibility of pregnancy, by 'spilling his seed on the ground'.2 3 In other words, he used the code for his benefit, while voiding its concern for both his elder brother and Tamar.2
While eighteenth-century English society remained patriarchal in major ways, it (unlike ancient Israel) provided widows with ' The code allowed for such a refusal, though with some dishonour; see Deut.
25:7-10.
2Cf. Gen. 38:9.
3 See Leonard Mars, "What Was Onan's Crime?" Comparative Studies In Society And History 26 (1984): 429-39.
Medical and Health Writings inheritance rights. In the absence of this possible rationale for the levirate code, the notion of required marriage to one's brother-inlaw was morally objectionable to most in Wesley's time. The first thing to make clear about the tract that follows is that Wesley was not concerned to affirm the principle of levirate marriage, nor to encourage his followers to practice it. Neither does he undertake the more sophisticated task of explaining the protective intent of the original law and challenging his followers to care for widows in ways appropriate for their social setting. If any of these goals had been the topic of Wesley's Thoughts on the Sin of Onan, it would belong in the volume devoted to his social ethics.
But Wesley does not even mention widows in Thoughts on the Sin of Onan. Following a long tradition of Jew ish and Christian moral reflection, Wesley was invoking Genesis 38:6-10 as biblical warrant for condemning masturbation (or, as he referred to it, 'selfpollution'), despite the lack of explicit connection in the text.4 This tradition developed, in part, from the assumption that the chief purpose of sex was procreation (which rendered masturbation, like Onan's behaviour, a sinful attempt to thwart God's design). As Clement of Alexandria put it in the second century of the Christian age, 'Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted.'5 Wesley's concurrence is indicated by the comment on Genesis 38:6-10 in Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, published in 1765. He reproduced the comment of Matthew
Henry that Onan's act was a 'great abuse of his own body, of the wife he had married, and the memory of his brother that was gone', including Henry's warning that 'sins that dishonour the body are very displeasing to God'. Wesley then added in his own voice: 'And it is to be feared thousands, especially single persons, by this very thing still displease the Lord and destroy their own souls.'6 That same year Wesley published Thoughts on a Single Life, in which he allowed that marriage was an honourable estate, but encouraged his
4 It is debatable whether masturbation is ever mentioned specifically in Jewish or Christian scripture; at most, some scholars see a veiled reference in the mention of 'hand' in Matt. 5:29-30, Mark 9:42-48, and Matt. 18:6-9.
5 Clement of Alexandria, Paedagogus (or The Instructor of Children), Book II, Chap. 10. For broader treatment see Michael S. Patton, 'Masturbation from Judaism to VictorianismJournal of Religion and Health 24 (1985): 133-46.
''Compare JW, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, Gen. 28:6-10 (emphasis added), to Matthew Henry, An Exposition of the Old Testament in Four Volumes
(1706), Gen. 28:6-10.
Thoughts on the Sm of Onan followers (particularly his lay preachers!) to remain single, devoting their lives to the service of God and humanity. When he turned in this tract to advice about how to remain pure in the single state, his opening line included the comment that they should obviously
'avoid the sin of Onan, seeing Satan will not cast out Satan1.7
Clearly Wesley deemed masturbation to be a serious personal vice—or, as it was termed in a tract published by the Society for the Reformation of Manners at the beginning of the eighteenth century, an 'odious sin1.8 But this would still argue for placing Thoughts on the Sin of Onan among Wesley's ethical writings. To understand why it is placed here among his medical works we need to turn to a book that was published in English in 1766, the year after Wesley issued both Thoughts on a Single Life and Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament. But first, I need to provide a bit of context.
Prior to the eighteenth century masturbation was seldom treated in medical works, and there was no general belief that it was distinctively harmful to health.9 At most it was one of several acts that contributed to the negative health effects of excessive sexual indulgence. Then in 1708 John Marten, an apothecary in London, published the sixth edition of a treatise on venereal disease, to which he added a section that mentioned some specific health dangers of masturbation in passing.10 A few years later, an anonymous author published a tract titled Onania; Or, The Heinous Sin of Self-Pollution and all its Frightful Consequences f In addition to spiritual and moral consequences, this author drew heavily on Marten in listing health consequences of masturbation, including hernias, epilepsy, physical emaciation, and (for women) barrenness. While the author added no evidence to the anecdotes cited by Marten for these claims, the popularity of his presentation was such that Onania went through fifteen editions by 1730, and continued to be published throughout the century.
One of those who read Onania about mid-century was SamuelAuguste Andre David Tissot (1728-97), a young Swiss Calvinist,
7JW, Thoughts on a Single Life (1765), §13 (vol. 15 in this edn.).
8Josiah Woodward, A Rebuke to the Odious Sin of Uncleanness (London: Downing, 1701).
9 See Thomas W. Laqueur, Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation (New York: Zone Books, 2003), esp. pp. 83—84.
10 See John Marten, A Treatise of all the Degrees and Symptoms of the Venereal Disease, in Both Sexes, sixth edition enlarged (London: S. Crouch, 1708), 393ff.
"The British Library catalogue lists a copy dated 1710, but the volume is missing. The earliest surviving copy of Onania is a third edition (London: P. Varene,
1716).
Medical and Health Writings who took his medical degree at Geneva in 1749 and would become an honoured Professor of Medicine at Lausanne. 1 issot had interest in neurology and did pioneering work on migraines. But he was also deeply concerned with improving public health. This concern drew Onania to his attention, but he found the work far from convincing as a medical text. In response Tissot prepared his own treatise on the harmful health consequences of masturbation. He targeted a medical audience, publishing the work in Latin in 1758.12
Almost immediately a third party published a defective French translation. This led Tissot to enlarge the treatise and publish it for the general public a year later, under the title, L'Onanisme. Dissertation Stir Les Maladies Prodmtes Par La Masturbation.13 This popular version reached its third French edition by 1764, which served as the source of two competing English translations, both of which appeared in London in 1766.14 Wesley read one of these English translations, A Treatise on the Crime of Onan, within a year of its appearance and shortly thereafter published Thoughts on the Sin of Onan (which is largely an abridgement of this translation of Tissot).
In the preface to Thoughts Wesley indicated his awareness of both Onania and Tissot's Treatise, and his reservations about some of the explicit descriptions in each work. Flis decision to publish a version of Tissot's Treatise, purged of objectionable material, rather than
Onania (which was currently more popular in England) must be considered in light of the key difference between these two works—
Tissot's Treatise was decidedly more 'medical' in nature.
John Marten (the main source of the health reflections in Onania) was an apothecary; the vocation of the anonymous author of Onania is unclear, but he consulted with an apothecary and by the fourth edition was publishing his tract in part to advertise two medicines.15
By contrast, Tissot wrote as a physician, with impeccable credentials: he was a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and member of both the Medico-Physical Society of Basel and the Oeconomical
Society of Berne. In keeping with their differing vocations, Onania 12 S. A. D. Tissot, Tentamen de morbis ex manustupratione ortis (Lausanne, 1758).
''(Lausanne: A. Chapuis, 1760). It was also issued in a German translation: Versuch von denen Krankenheiten, welche aus der Selstbefleckung entstehen (Frankfort:
Fleischerischen Buchhandlung, 1760).
HOne by an anonymous translator, titled A Treatise On The Crime of Onan; Illustrated with A Variety of Cases, Together with The Method of Cure (London: B.
Thomas, 1766); and the second translated by A. Hume, titled An Essay On Onanism, Or a Treatise Upon the Disorders produced by Masturbation (London: J. Pridden,
1766).
'■'See Onania (London: P.Varene, 1718), 63-65, 83-88.
Thoughts on the Sm of Onan simply enumerated health disorders attributed to masturbation (before moving to treatments), while Tissot traced the history of how physicians accounted theoretically for the connection of various ills to this practice. Moreover, although Tissot incorporated a few of the anecdote accounts in Onania into L'Onanisme, he added a number of formal cases reported by prominent Continental physicians.
Their difference in approach carried over to recommendations about treatment. In Onania a chapter titled 'Spiritual and Physical Advice' focused mainly on the first type of advice, stressing the need for repentance and amendment of action.16 Near the end of the chapter the author considered briefly suggestions by others about diet and regimen, before reminding readers that the divinely approved remedy was to marry, and finally touting the two medicines that he did commend. Tissot characterized these reflections as 'theological and moral trivialisms'.17 This was not a summary dismissal of moral and theological convictions. Rather, it reflected
Tissot's theological conviction that God typically works through 'secondary causes'; thus a medical account of disease and treatment should focus on physical causes, instead of appealing to direct divine agency in either the origin or cure of ailments.18 Accordingly,
Tissot's section considering the possibility of curing those prone to masturbation surveyed and assessed the advice of several physicians about diet, regimen, and specific medical remedies (none of which he tried to sell).19 The underlying tone of this section was pessimistic because, as Tissot noted tow ard the end, the effectiveness of treatment was dependent upon patients following their physician's advice.20
As the preceding comparisons suggest, the trajectory began by Marten reached a tipping point in Tissot. Prior to Marten, tracts arguing against masturbation based their warrant almost entirely on supposed biblical injunctions and negative spiritual/moral effects of the practice.21 Marten raised the spectre of health consequences.
Onania drew on Marten to place such health considerations alongside the traditional biblical, spiritual, and moral warrants. In Tissot l6Ibid., 35-65.
17Tissot, Treatise, 21.
18See ibid., 86.
19'Article III, Curative Indications'; ibid., 106-94.
20 Ibid., 193-94.
21A case in point is the first known booklet devoted solely to this topic: Letters of Advice from Two Reverend Divines to a Young Gentleman about a Weighty Case of Conscience (London: J. Collins, 1676).
Medical and Health Writings health consequences became the primary focus, pushing traditional warrants into the background (he assumed them, but did not appeal to them directly). Thereby he inaugurated a 'medicalization' of anti-masturbation morals that characterized public consideration for the next two centuries, as his work was endorsed by figures like
Immanuel Kant and Frangois Marie Arouet de Voltaire.22 Challenges from the medical community to this emphasis on negative health consequences of masturbation were rare in the later eighteenth century. The most prominent exception was the surgeon
John Hunter (1728-93), who charged that works like Onania and Tissot's L'Onanisme had 'done more harm than good'.23 The full nature of this harm was realized over the next two centuries. Viewing masturbation as an instrumental cause of insanity, wasting diseases like consumption, and disorders such as epilepsy led to the development of mechanical restraints and surgical interventions.24
To be sure, there is no direct support in Tissot's L'Onanisme for such invasive medical treatments; his main emphasis was personal accountability. The other major characteristic of his treatise that scholars have noted is howTissot shifted focus from the traditional hydrodynamic model of circulation (in which spermal fluid were associated with spinal fluid) to the effects of masturbation on the nervous system—an emerging paradigm of medical investigation.25
We are now in position to consider why Wesley was drawn to publish an extract of Tissot's Treatise in 1767. To begin with, this decision cohered with his persistent concern for health of body and of soul. Wesley's 1765 comment on Genesis 38:6-10 in Explanatory
Notes upon the Old Testament expressed concern only that masturbation contributed to the destruction of a person's soul. When in22 See Ludmilla Jordanova, 'The Popularization of Medicine: Tissot on Onanism', Textual Practice 1 (1987): 68-79; Antoinette Emch-Deriaz, Tissot: Physician of the Enlightenment (New York: Peter Lang, 1992), 43-53; James G. Donat, 'The Rev. John Wesley's Extractions from Dr. Tissot: A Methodist Imprimatur', History of Science 39 (2001): 285—98; and Michael Stolberg, Experiencing Illness and the Sick Body in Early Modern Europe (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011),
195-202.
''John Hunter, A Treatise On the Venereal Disease (London, 1786), 200.
24 See Gerhart S. Schwarz, 'Devices To Prevent Masturbation', in Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality (May 1973), 141-53; the description of castrations of epileptics in Martin W. Barr, Alental Defectives; Their History, Treatment, and Training (Philadelphia: Blakiston, 1904), 196; and John Duffy, 'Masturbation and Clitoridectomy: A Nineteenth Century View', Journal of the American Medical Association 186 (1963), 246-48.
2'See Stolberg, Experiencing Illness, 199-202.
Thoughts on the Sin of Onan
troducing his extract of Tissot, Wesley broadened this concern to include the 'bodily disorders, whereof this sin is the cause'.26 The case might also be made that the decision reflected Wesley's distrust of 'solitary' models of Christian life—he encouraged his followers to remain single, but cautioned against anything that might isolate them from supportive communities.27
But neither of these motivations explain Wesley's selection of Tissot's Treatise for republication, rather than Onania. Surely the more rigorous medical nature of Tissot's work was attractive to Wesley, serving as an example of his expectation that careful rational consideration of general human experience would cohere with and reinforce Scripture and tradition.28 Wesley also shared Tissot's interest in the emerging medical focus on the nervous system and the connection between the nerves and health (see his 'Thoughts on Nervous Disorders').
One other conviction that Wesley shared with Tissot was that God typically works through secondary causes. He could speak of God as the 'spring' of every creaturely action and the 'only agent in the material world'.29 But he was quick to add that we should not conceive of God's agency as displacing our human accountability; rather we should responsibly 'work out' what God is 'working in' us.30 Thus Wesley was comfortable with Tissot's attention to various regimens, and his emphasis on a person's responsibility to follow the instructions of their physician. But Wesley balked at Tissot's total exclusion of spiritual means of treatment. Thus, the longest addition within his extract of Tissot's Treatise was an exhortation to faithful use of the 'general means of grace' as essential to freeing oneself from this habitual vice (§§17-18).
In addition to this exhortation, the other portions of Thoughts on the Sin of Onan that are in Wesley's voice include the opening instructions 'To the Reader', a closing exhortation (§34), and a few
26 See 'To the Serious Reader'; and his conclusion in §34.
27 See JW's rejection of'holy solitaries' in HSP (\739), Preface, §5, 13:39 in this edn. Cf. the suggestion that part of Tissot's concern with masturbation was that it endangered the ideal of the affectionate nuclear family, in Emch-Deriaz, Tissot,
234-35.
28 See Randy L. Maddox 'Honoring Conference: Wesleyan Reflections on the Dynamics ofTheological Reflection', Methodist Review 4 (2012): 77-116.
29JW, Sermon 26, 'Sermon on Mount VI', III.7, 1:581 in this edn. See also his discussion of the 'laws of nature' in A Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation
(4th ed.; London: Paramore, 1784), 2:258-59.
30 See JW, Thoughts upon Necessity, 13:528M6 in this edn.; and Sermon 85, 'On Working Out Our Own Salvation', 3:199-209 in this edn.
Medical and Health Writings scattered comments. The remainder is drawn from Tissot's Treatise. Wesley transformed this 232-page book into a twenty-page pamphlet. As in the Desideratum, he distilled whole sections to a few sentences, and frequently rewrote material to improve grammar and clarity. Accordingly, our annotation is typically by paragraph, indicating the portion of Tissot's Treatise being distilled or rewritten.
Thoughts on the Sin of Onan was reprinted only twice; once with slight alterations in 1774, and in an abridged form under the title A Word to Whom it may Concern in 1779. Wesley clearly remained uncomfortable with the delicacy of the topic of the tract, as his name is absent from all three printings, and he did not include the pamphlet in his collected Works published in the early 1770s. He allowed the tract to go out of print when the 1779 version was exhausted.
For a stemma showing the relation of the three editions, and the substantive variant readings arising in them, see Appendix A, pp. 642-44. For further details see Bibliography, No. 304.
THOUGHTS
. "A. A: : A ' A C H Itr l Y :T ; ATWaA-TA Extra&ed from a late Writer, London: Printed in the Year 1767,
Medical and Health Writings Thoughts on the Sin of Onan:
Chiefly Extracted from a Late Writer To the Serious Reader
1 never yet saw anything wrote on this subject which a modest person could well bear to read. The well-known English treatise entitled Onania is a most fulsome and shocking performance.1 And the French tract lately translated is, if possible, more immodest and 10 fulsome still.2 Some parts of it most of the London street-walkers would be ashamed to read aloud. So gross, so indelicate, so more than beastly is his manner of treating this most delicate subject!
What was useful in his treatise you have in this extract, and what was wanting in that is here supplied. And how necessary is a tract
15 of this kind! For thousands both of men and women groan under bodily disorders, whereof this sin is the cause, and they never suspect it. Such are many, I had almost said 'most', of the disorders of the nervous kind. But till the cause of them is removed, the effect of it must remain. And thousands 'make shipwreck of the faith',3
20 and are again weak and 'faint in their mind',4 from the very same cause, which is equally destructive to the soul and body. If this has been your case, arise, shake yourself from the dust; the grace of God is sufficient for you!5 Give not place to the devil a moment longer!6 From this instant, escape for your life! And 'when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren'!7 Labour to help them in particular who are still in that fatal 'snare of the devil', still 'taken captive at his will'.8
'Anonymous, Onania; Or, The Heinous Sin of Self-Pollution (London: P.Varene, 1716).
2 JW is referring specifically to the anonymous translation of Tissot's L Onanisme that was titled^ Treatise On The Crime of Onan; Illustrated with A Variety of Cases, Together with The Method of Cure (London: B. Thomas, 1766). His extract draws on this English translation, rather than that by A. Hume An Essay
On Onanism, Or a Treatise Upon the Disorders produced by Masturbation (London:
J. Pridden, 1766).
3Cf. 1 Tim. 1:19.
+ Cf. Heb. 12:13.
5 See 2 Cor. 12:9.
6 See Eph. 4:27.
7 Luke 22:32.
8 2 Tim. 2:26.
Thoughts on the Sin of Onan
Thoughts, etc. l.9 By self-pollution the young of both sexes frequently contract the infirmities of old age. They become pale, effeminate, dull, inactive. They lose their appetite, weaken their sight, their memory, their understanding, and contract all the disorders attending weak nerves. Many bring on thereby a general weakness and paralytic disorders of all kinds—yea, lethargies, epilepsies, madness, blindness, convulsions, dropsies, and the most painful of all gouts.10
2. Dr. Hoffman* 11 observes, 'After a long course of this kind, not only the strength diminishes, the body is emaciated, the face turns pale. But moreover the memory fails. A sensation of cold seizes all the limbs, the sight dims, the voice loses its clearness, the sleep is disturbed by uneasy dreams, and the whole body decays. I have seen many who had hereby drawn upon themselves not only redness and extreme pain in the eyes, but such a weakness that they could not read. I have seen two instances even of a g-utta serena produced by this cause.'12
3. 'I have seen', says Dr. Zimmermann,13 'a man twenty-three years old who, by this practice, fell into a complete epilepsy. Nevertheless I had so far cured him that he had recovered his sleep, his strength, and his natural colour. But returning to his infamous practice, he came at length to be taken with fits in the streets. And he was found one morning dead, fallen out of bed, and bathed in his own blood.'
Are such as cut their own throats, more guilty of self-murder than this man?14
4. A child of Montpelier, not above six or seven years old, taught by a maid servant, practised it so frequently as to bring on an hectic fever, which soon cut him off.
9 JW used Roman numerals in all editions.
10 Distilling Tissot, Treatise, 2-6; but refocused specifically on masturbation!
Tissot was summarizing the negative effects that classical authors attributed to excessive sexual indulgence ('venery') in general.
11 Friedrich Hoffmann (1660-1742). All physicians named in this tract are derived from Tissot's book. Hoffmann is one of the few for whom there is independent evidence that JW knew of his writings; see John Robertson to JW, Nov.
22, 1748, 26:342 in this edn. There is also an edition of Hoffmann's Opera omnia
Physico-Medica (Geneva: DeTournes, 1748) in MARC that likely belonged to JW
(MAW CW330-32).
12 See Tissot, Treatise, 6-7.
13Johann-Georg Zimmermann (1728-95).
14 See Tissot, Treatise, 17-18.
Medical and Health Writings I subjoin two instances, communicated by Dr. Mieg,b a celebrated physician in Basel.
The son of M-, aged fifteen years, died of an epilepsy which was caused by self-pollution, and that notwithstanding all the help that could be administered by the most experienced physicians.
I know also a young lady of twelve or thirteen years old who had already, by this execrable practice, drawn upon herself a tympany, and incontinence of urine, the fluor a/bus, and a consumption. She is still in a languishing condition, and I dread a fatal consequence.16
5. Several have also observed that hereby the sense of hearing is weakened. The growth of those who have not done growing is checked. Many become hypochondriac to the highest degree, with melancholy, tears, sighs, palpitations; yea, suffocations and frequent fainting-fits,17 never to be removed while the cause continues. And many times even when that subsists no more, they are not to be cured but by death.18
6. The most acute pains are likewise caused by this detestable practice. Some who have been guilty hereof, complain of their head, others of their stomach or bowels, others of external pains, and some of a dull pain in all parts of the body. It occasions also not only pimples on the face, nose, breast, thighs, with cruel itchings on those parts. Numbers are attacked with a gonorrhoea, with stranguries, heat of urine, incontinence of urine, with very painful tumours in or near the parts, and some with the piles, or stubborn costiveness.19 Let all who are troubled with any of these complaints consider if they are not owing to this cause.20
7. I shall now mention what has occurred to my own observations.21 L. D—,22 a watch-maker, had enjoyed good health till the
15 Achilles Mieg (1731-99).
16SeeTissot, Treatise, 17-20.
''SeeTissot, Treatise, 22 (drawing on Onania). Note that JW omits a paragraph listing possible intellectual impairments, including pangs of conscience and remorse that might even be considered 'slight degrees of insanity'.
This last sentence and the concluding clause of the prior sentence are JW's addition.
19 See Tissot, Treatise, 23-24 (drawing on Onania).
2llThis concluding sentence is again added by JW.
The sentence appears in Tissot; none of the cases in this text are observed bv JW.
-Karl Braun identified this fatal case from the death register of the city of Lausanne for June 1757, as Pierre Isaac Daret (Duret), age twenty-two; see Braun, Die
Krankheit Onania (Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 1995), 95.
Thoughts on the Sin of Onan
age of seventeen, when he gave himself up to self-pollution, which he repeated every day. There had not passed a whole year before he began to feel a remarkable decay of strength. Yet in spite of this, he repeated his crime more frequently than before, till he was seized with a kind of convulsion just at the time, which at first lasted but a few moments but in a while became habitual, and often attacked him without any apparent cause, with such violence too that during the time of the fit, which sometimes lasted fifteen hours, and never less than eight, he suffered in the nape of his neck so violent pains that his outcries sounded like piteous howlings, and it was impossible for him, while the fit lasted, to swallow anything, liquid or solid.
He totally lost his strength. Incapable of everything, he languished for some months, being the more to be pitied for that some remains of memory only served constantly to recall to him the causes of his wretchedness. I was told of his condition. I went to him and found him lying upon a straw, meagre, pale, sallow, sending forth an infectious smell, and almost incapable of any motion. He bled at the nose a pale and watery blood, and was continually foaming at the mouth. Attacked too with a diarrhoea, his excrements came from him without his perceiving.
The disorder of his mind was not less than that of his body, without any other sensation but that of a pain, which returned with every fit, at least once in three days. I procured for him quickly relief from those violent fits. Being satisfied with having mitigated his tortures,
I discontinued remedies, which could have no efficacy on the main of his disorder. He died at the end of a few weeks, in June 1757.23
8. Not all those who give themselves up to this odious habit are, it is true, so severely punished. But there are none that do not suffer for it in a less or greater degree.
The pernicious consequences that have fallen under my observation are: First, a disorder of the stomach, which in some discovers itself by loss of appetite or by a depravation or irregularity of its cravings; in others, by acute pains, especially in the time of digestion, by habitual nauseas or vomitings, which resist all remedies while the cause is continued. Secondly, a weakening of the organs of respiration, whence frequently result dry husky coughs, almost always a hoarseness, and shortness of breath on any little violence of motion. Thirdly, a total relaxation of the nervous system.
It does not require deep knowledge to be sensible that these three causes are capable of producing all the diseases of languor. The first
23SeeTissot, Treatise, 24-27.
Medical and Health Writings ill consequences of them, to such as are guilty of self-pollution, besides those I have just pointed out, are a diminution of strength, a less or greater paleness, sometimes a slight but continual jaundice, often pimples (which come and disappear only to make room for fresh ones all over the face, but especially in the forehead, the temples, and about the nose), a notable leanness and astonishing sensibility of changes of the weather, especially of cold, a weakening of the sight, and a great impairment of the faculties, especially of memory.24
9. I beg leave to insert here part of two or three letters, which confirm this observation.
I had the misfortune (says one), like too many other young people, to suffer myself to be carried away by the violence of the habit, as pernicious to the body as to the soul. Age, indeed, has for some time past corrected this wretched inclination. But the ill is done. The disorder and extraordinary sensibility of the nervous system, and the accidents resulting therefrom, are accompanied with a weakness, a restlessness, a sense of distress, that vie with each other to afflict me. I am consumed by an almost continued loss of seed.25 My face is become pale and livid. The weakness of my body renders all my motions labourious. That of my legs is often so great that they can hardly support me. My breast is stuffed with phlegm, the load of which throws me into a state of faintness. Here you have a succinct account of my complaint, still aggravated by the certainty that every day will yet be worse than the preceding.
Another writes,
I had the misfortune in my tenderest youth, being to the best of my remembrance not above eight or ten years of age, to contract that pernicious habit of self-pollution, which very early ruined my constitution. But especially for some years past, I find mvself under an extraordinary oppression. My nerves are extremely weak, my hands without strength, always shaking, and in a perpetual sweat.
I have violent pains in my stomach, arms, legs, sometimes in mv loins, and in my breast. I am often troubled with a cough. My eyes are weak and dim. I have a devouring appetite, and yet I grow' very lean.
24Ibid., 27-28.
2T.e., semen.
Thoughts on the Sin of Onan
Another writes, I cannot walk two hundred paces without resting. My weakness is extreme. I have continual pains all over my body, but especially in my shoulders. I preserve my appetite, but that is rather a misfortune as I have pains of the stomach the moment I have eaten, and throw up whatever I have got down.26
10. A consequence, and not a rare one, of this practice is the hypochondriac disorder, and if those who are hypochondriac from other causes abandon themselves to it, all the symptoms are exasperated and it becomes incurable. I have seen the most cruel inquietude, agitations, anxieties result from these two causes united. And repeated observations have proved to me that, in those hypochondriacs who are subject sometimes to attacks of frenzy, self-pollution always hastens on the fits. The brain, weakened by this double cause, successively loses its faculties, and the patients fall at length into a state of idiotism, which is seldom interrupted but by attacks of madness.27
11. Nor is this execrable practice less mischievous to the female sex. Besides these symptoms which I have already described, women are particularly exposed hereby to hysteric fits, or dreadful vaporous affections; to incurable jaundices; to cruel cramps of the stomach and back; to sharp prickings of the nose; to fluor albus, which is a perpetual source of the most torturous pains; to the falling down, yea, to ulcerations of the womb, and to all the infirmities which are the consequences of those two disorders; to tht furor uterinus,28 which, depriving them at once of modesty and reason, puts them on a level with brutes, till a desperate death delivers them from pain and infamy.
The face is the first part that gives outward signs of the inward disorders. The plumpness and fresh colour fade away, and leanness and paleness succeed. The eyes lose their lustre, the lips their Vermillion, and the teeth their whiteness. Nay, it is not rare that the whole figure receives damage by the total deformation of the shape.29
12. The rickets is a disorder as to which Boerhaave30 is mistaken, when he says it does not attack persons after the age of three years.
26Ibid., 29-33.
27Ibid., 34-35.
"Nymphomania; or uncontrolled sexual desire.
29SeeTissot, Treatise, 46-48.
30Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738).
Medical and Health Writings It is not uncommon to see young people of both sexes, but especially the female, who after their having been well-shaped to the age of eight, ten, twelve or fourteen, and even sixteen years, fall by little and little into a distortion of shape through the curvature of the spine; and this disorder sometimes becomes very considerable. It is not here the place for entering into an enumeration of the causes which produce it. But I ought not to omit that self-pollution holds the first rank among them. And it produces numberless other disorders.31
13. It is not long since a girl of about eighteen years of age, who had enjoyed very good health, fell into an astonishing weakness: her strength decayed daily, she was all night tormented with want of sleep, her appetite was gone, and whitish swellings spread over her whole body. She consulted an able surgeon, who, having satisfied himself as to other things, suspected self-pollution. His suspicion was soon turned into certainty by the cessation of the patient.
He made her sensible of the danger of this practice, a cessation of which, and some remedies, stopped in a few days the progress of the evil, and produced some degree of health.32
14. And undoubtedly all the same disorders flow from that abomination common among the heathen Romans (we may hope not so common among us, though it is to be feared there are now some such monsters in England) when 'women among themselves change the natural use into that which is against nature'.33 The consequences of this are equally pernicious to the body and to the soul.
All these deviations from the course of nature lead to weakness, pain, diseases, death.34
15. Young people of a weak constitution have, on a parity of crimes, worse consequences to fear than others. Those especially who have reason to apprehend any hereditary disease by the father or mother's side, such as the gout, the stone, the consumption, the king's-evil. Those who have any touches of a cough, an asthma, spitting of blood, the headache, or the epilepsy. All these ought to remember that every act of this sort gives a severe blow to their con-
31 See Tissot, Treatise, 48.
32Ibid., 51-52.
33 Rom. 1:26.
brief section is JW's discrete summary of three pages where Tissot related female same-sex relations to clitoral masturbation, and suggested that such relationship typically arise from aggressive seduction; see Tissot, Treatise, 52-54.
JW's discomfort with the topic is further evidenced by his omission of §§13-14 from the 1779 edn.
Thoughts on the Sin of Onan
stitution, hastens the attack of the evils they dread, and will throw them in the flower of their youth into all the infirmities of decrepit old age.35
16. But notwithstanding all these miseries caused thereby, how hard is it to break loose from this accursed practice! As soon as the habit has gained strength, both body and soul concur in solicitation to it. The soul is so accustomed to loose ideas that they continually recur, whether you will or no. And the very humours of the body affect the soul, and drag her back into the mire. What pity but those who are yet untainted could foresee that one false step naturally brings on another. That in a while they will become absolute slaves, reason and religion having quite lost their force. And that in a little time they will find themselves cast away in a sea of misery, perhaps without the aid of a plank, to bring them again to the shore!36
17. So long as any continues in this practice it is impossible to remove the effects of it. And what can enable one, habituated thereto, to break it off? Nothing less than the mighty power of God. This is only to be expected by those who labour, in every other instance, to preserve 'a conscience void of offence, toward God and toward man'.37 For while a man indulges himself in any sin whatever, he will never conquer his besetting sin. But supposing he is really 'exercising himself' in universal 'godliness',38 he will find the grace of God is sufficient to preserve him from this, in the use of proper means.
18. Some of those means are: 1) The avoiding all temptations with the utmost care—all such pictures, books, company, as recall those ideas which he wishes to forget forever. 2) The having as little intercourse with the other sex, especially in private, as possible, and abstaining sacredly from all those familiarities which to others might be innocent. 3) The refraining from wine and strong drink, and all salt and high seasoned meats; likewise from oysters, eggs
(unless physically used39), and whatever other food has a tendency to inflame. 4) Let them use the most plain and simple diet, and as little of it as will suffice nature. 5) Let them eat either none, or at least easy and light, suppers. 6) Let them lie either on a hard bed or on the ground, and never on their back. 7) Let them take no more sleep than nature requires, and never lie in bed longer than they
35SeeTissot, Treatise, 54-55.
36 Ibid., 90-92.
37 Acts 24:16.
38 Cf. 1 Tim. 4:7.
391.e., unless used as part of a remedy.
Medical and Health Writings sleep. 8) If they are in health, let them use constant fasting, not less than once a week. 9) Let them take as much exercise every day as their strength will bear. If they add to these constant watching and prayer they shall not easily be overcome.4"
19. But suppose the bodily health is destroyed, by what means can it be recovered?
If a person is much weakened and tending to a consumption, he must immediately leave off tea, using in its place either mint, balm, water-gruel, milk, or thin chocolate. 'I begin', says Dr. Storck,41
'with nourishing broth: beef-tea (so called) is the best of all. Rice, oatmeal, barley boiled with broth, or milk, are all very serviceable; but it must be observed, to let him eat but little at a time, and often.
Should the stomach be so weakened that it cannot bear even these light aliments without pain, the patient should be put to the female breast, a recourse which has retrieved many out of the most desperate condition. To restore strength and activity to the relaxed fibres,
I would recommend the use of wine heated with a hot iron, bark, cinnamon. As soon as the patient has strength enough to walk, it will be of infinite service to him to go into the pure air of the country.'42
20. A consumption of this kind is known by the name of tabes dorsalis.43 It arises from a general relaxation of the fibres, a weakness of the nervous system, and a depravation of the fluids. It depends on the weakening of all the parts; the great requisite is to restore strength to them.
In order to this, I first advise the patient as soon as possible to remove into the country. But it would be of no use to fix on a place with a good air, if one does not choose to breathe it. The air of chambers, if it is not continually renewed, is nearly the same in all.
It can hardly be called a change of air, from a close room in town to a close room in the country. There is no enjoying the benefits of a healthy atmosphere but in the open fields. If infirmities hinder the going or being carried out, at least the air of the chamber should be renewed several times in a day; not simply by opening a door or a window, which renew it only a little, but in letting into the chamber a torrent of fresh air by opening at once two or three opposite inlets.
41 §§17-18 are original to JW, and comprise an exhortation to the 'general means of grace' made specific to this situation. Cf. Minutes, Aug. 2, 1745, q. 11, 10:155 in this edn.; and 'Large' Minutes (1753-63), §40.7, 10:857 in this edn.
41 Baron Anton von Storck (1731-83), ofVienna.
+2SeeTissot, Treatise, 118-21.
A slow degeneration of the spinal cord; in lact, typically resulting from untreated syphilis.
Thoughts on the Sin of Onan
There is no disorder that does not require this precaution. But do not expose the sick person to the current of air, and it is always very easy to place him out of the power of it.44
21. It is also extremely important to breathe the morning air.
Those who deprive themselves of it, for the sake of remaining in a stifling atmosphere between four curtains, renounce the most agreeable, and perhaps the most strengthening, of all remedies. The freshness of the night will, by morning, have restored to the air all its vivifying principles. And the dew which evaporates, by degrees, after having loaded itself with all the balm of the flowers, renders the air truly medicinal. You solace yourself in a vaporous bath of the essence of plants, of which nothing can be equivalent.
I have seen the most sensible effects of it on some valetudinarians, and especially on such as were hypochondriacs. These experienced, in the clearest manner, that if they breathed the morning air they were the more cheerful, the more lively, all the day.45
22. In the choice of aliments I would recommend the two following rules:
First, to take no aliments but what under a small compass contain a great deal of nourishment, and are of easy digestion.
Secondly, to avoid all that have any acridity.
It is of great importance to restore to the stomach all its strength, but the dilatation of the stomach by abundance of aliments would daily weaken it. Besides, if it is too full, weak persons feel an uneasiness and melancholy that augment all their disorders.
Upon these principles may be formed a catalogue of such as are proper, and of those which should be excluded. In this last class are all flesh meats naturally hard and indigestible; such as all flesh of old animals, all that has been hardened by salt or smoke, and all that are too fat or greasy.
Indeed there is nothing which persons of a weak digestion ought more carefully to avoid than fat or greasy food. Rich pie-crust, is another sort of aliment much above the strength of a weak stomach.
Flatulent garden stuff is also noxious; such are all sorts of cabbage, and such plants as have a taste and smell remarkably acrid. Yea, fruits, which are so salutary in other disorders, are seldom proper in this. And if they are taken at all, must be taken quite ripe, and exceeding sparingly.46
44SeeTissot, Treatise, 122, 129-30.
45 Ibid., 130-31.
46 Ibid., 131-34.
Medical and Health Writings 23. The proper food is the flesh of all young animals, fed in healthy places, and wholesomely fed; such as veal, lamb or young mutton, young beef, fowl, pigeon, turkey, partridge. But lark, thrushes, quails, and other wild-fowl, with most sort of fish, are to be used more sparingly.
The best way to prepare these is to roast them by a gentle fire, so as to preserve their gravy and not dry them up too much, or to stew them slowly in their own juices.
But some persons cannot digest even these. To such we must give broth, extracted by a gentle boiling. It may be accompanied with some bread, and a dash of lemon juice if they like it. And besides, the use of it is indispensably necessary to prevent that putridity which would be the consequence of mere animal food.47
24. The best garden-stuff is the tender roots, herbs of the endive kind, artichokes, asparagus. Farinaceous grains, prepared and boiled in light broth, are an aliment not to be slighted, as it combines everything that is nourishing in the two kingdoms, animal and vegetable, while their mixture prevents the danger from each aliment given single—the broth hinders the meal from turning sour; the meal, the broth from putrefying.
Eggs are an aliment of the animal kind, and an aliment extremely nourishing. They strengthen greatly, and are easy of digestion, provided that they have but little or even no preparation by fire, for if the white is once hardened it does not easily dissolve again. The best way of eating them is just as they are, new laid from the fowl, without any preparation, or in the shell after only three or four dips in boiling water, or stirred into warm and not boiling broth.48
25. There remains to mention milk, which unites all the qualities that can be desired, without having any of the inconveniences that are to be dreaded. It is the most simple, and the quickest, of all restoratives. Only, it is to be observed, that there are some stomachs which cannot bear it—at least, unless under the following regulations.
First the female that furnishes it should be healthy, and live regular. Secondly, during the time of taking it, all aliments should be avoided that can turn it sour; such are all fruits, raw or prepared, and in general everything that is acid. Thirdly, it must be taken at times distant from other aliments, it not taking kindly any mixture.
Fourthly, take only a little of it at a time. Fifthly, all the while take care of keeping the breast, the bowels, and the legs extremely warm.
47 Ibid., 134-36.
48 Ibid., 136-38.
Thoughts on the Sin of Onan 385
And above all, sixthly (for without this precaution all the others would be useless), be very moderate as to the quantity of even the best chosen aliments. During this recourse to milk, there should be no trouble given to the stomach. The smallest overload, the slightest indigestion, leaves in it a principle of corruption which presently turns the milk and may, of the most wholesome of aliments, make a violent poison.49
26. Hardly any kinds of milk are now in use but women's, ass's milk, goat's, or cow's. Each has its different qualities. Yet there are few cases in which milk from the cow may not be used for all the others. That from women is generally believed the most strengthening. The noble cures wrought by the use of it leave no doubt of its efficacy. But there is one inconvenience, that it must be taken immediately from the breast. And this very thing might expose the patient to temptation.
It is thought that ass's milk has the nearest analogy to this, but this is rather matter of opinion than of experience. It is the most serous, and from that very quality, the most laxative. It is a most pernicious error the imagining it the most strengthening. Daily observations demonstrate the contrary, and prove not only that it is not the most efficacious, but that it is, perhaps, the least so. I have rarely seen any good effects from it; sometimes I have seen bad ones.50
27. Before I quit this subject of aliments, I add the important counsel to avoid mixtures.
It is obvious how impossible it is for the very different aliments to undergo, within the same time, a perfect digestion. This mixture it is which is one of the causes that ruin the healthiest constitutions, and is mortal to weak ones.
Another circumstance equally necessary, and almost equally neglected, is a thorough chewing. This is a help to digestion, of which even the most vigorous stomachs cannot be long deprived without a notable decline; and without which the digestion, in weak ones, is extremely imperfect.'1
28. The liquid part of aliments is an article of the regimen almost as important as the solid.
All liquids should be forbidden that can augment the relaxation and diminish the little that remains of the digestive powers, that can convey any acridity into the humours, or hurt the nervous system.
49 Ibid., 138-41.
50 Ibid., 141-43.
51 Ibid., 143-45.
Medical and Health Writings All hot waters have the first effect of relaxing. Tea, with that, has also all the others. Coffee has the two last. So that one ought rigorously to abstain from them.
Spirituous liquors, which, at the first view might appear serviceable, are still more hurtful, and ever attended with great inconveniencies. Their action is too violent. They irritate more than they strengthen. And if they sometimes strengthen, the weakness which succeeds is greater than before. Besides, they give to the papilla of the stomach a hardness that robs them of that sensibility necessary to the creation of an appetite, and take from the liquids that degree of fluidity which they ought to have in aid of that sensation.
The best drink is water from the purest spring, mixed with a wine neither too heady nor too acid. The heady kinds irritate the nervous system; the acid weaken the digestions and procure over-copious urines, which exhaust the patients.
In places where good water is not to be had, it may be corrected by filtration, by a hot iron, or an infusion of some agreeable aromatic, such as cinnamon, aniseed, or lemon-peel.52
29. Common beer is noxious. Mum,53 which is properly an extract from grain, both nourishing and strengthening, may be of great use. It enlivens as much as wine, and is more nutritious. It may serve for meat and drink.
Among the useful drinks may be ranked chocolate; the cocoa contains a great deal of nutritious substance, and the mixture with it of sugar and aromatics corrects any detriment from its oiliness.
'Chocolate made with milk' (says Mr. Lewis) 'in such quantities as to pass easy off the stomach, is an excellent breakfast for a tabid constitution. I knew a child twelve years old who was in the last stage of a consumption, when given over by a physician, recovered by the mother's giving her chocolate only, in small quantities, often repeated.'54
30. What is to be said of sleep may be reduced to three points: its duration, the time of taking it, and the precaution necessary for quiet sleep.
In grown persons seven hours of sleep, or at the most eight, are sufficient for anyone; there is even a danger in sleeping longer, and in remaining longer a bed, which throws one into the same dis-
52 Ibid., 147-49.
''A kind of beer brewed from wheat malt and flavoured with aromatic herbs.
Ibid., 149-50. Tissot believed 'Lewis' was the name of the author of an anonymous publication, A Practical Essay Upon The 'Tabes Dorsalis' (London: J. Robinson, 1748), 27; note that in the original the child is three years old.
Thoughts on the Sin of Onan
orders as too much sleep. That term ought never to be exceeded, unless one should be fallen into such a degree of weakness as not to have the strength necessary left for the being long up.
It stands demonstrated that the air of the night is less healthy than that of the day, and that the weakly are more susceptible of its influences in the evening than the morning. Therefore it is best to go to bed early and rise early. This is a precept so commonly known that it may appear trivial to mention it. But it is so much neglected, and the consequence of it seems to be so little felt, though infinitely greater than it is believed to be, that it is very allowable to re-inculcate it by an insistence on its importance, especially to valetudinarians.
In order to sleep quietly, we should take care: First, not to be in a hot air, and to be neither too much nor too little covered. Secondly, not to have the feet cold at lying down, an accident common to weak persons. Thirdly, not to lie down upon a full stomach— nothing more disturbs the sleep, or contributes more to render it disquieting, heavy, or overwhelming. Therefore it is best to sup on the lightest food, and that two hours before we go to bed, that the first digestion may be over before we lie down to sleep.55
31. But exercise is as necessary as sleep. Walking is good, but for weak persons riding is better. The weakest may use a carriage.
And when the weather does not allow of going out, some means of motions should be contrived in the house, as the battledore and shuttle-cock,56 which diffuses through the whole body an equable motion. A wooden horse is better still.57
But observe, use no violent motion immediately after a meal. And do not eat while hot from exercise—which should be taken before a meal, allowing some moments of rest before we eat.58
32. The noblest of all restorative medicines are the Peruvian bark and the cold bath.591 order the former to be taken three times a day.
I time the cold bath in the evening, when the dinner is fully digested. It contributes much to procure quiet sleep. I knew a young
55 Ibid., 151-55.
561.e., badminton.
57 JW added the commendation of a wooden horse. In the second and third editions the reference to badminton is omitted, leaving the focus on the wooden horse.
S8SeeTissot, Treatise, 155-57.
59 This combination comes from Tissot (p. 169). JW was generally more hesitant about Peruvian bark (the source of quinine), placing it among the 'Hurculean medicines' to be used only with great care (see Primitive Physic, Postscript I, §3
(above in this vol.). By contrast, JW considered cold bathing to have numerous health benefits (see the list at the end of Primitive Physic).
Medical and Health Writings man, accustomed to self-pollution, who used to pass the night in the most sleepless disquiet, and who was every morning bathed in sweat. The night that followed the sixth time of his using the coldbath he slept five hours, and got up in the morning without sweat and much refreshed.60
I prescribed also for a young man, whose case is described above, pills of which myrrh was the basis, with a decoction of the bark, and this was attended with the happiest success. Except in this, that he had not, nor perhaps ever will have, the strength he would have had but for his misconduct. The check which the machine receives in its growing season has consequences which are irreparable. Oh that this truth were but strongly imprinted on the minds of youth!61
33. But the best of all medicines, where it will agree, is milk. And where it does not otherwise agree, it may be mixed with some absorbent powders. Some spoonfuls of mint-water, nay, often only a little sugar, will make it agree.
But if still it will not agree, I advise trying butter-milk. I prescribed it with success for a young man to whom I durst not give milk itself. The bilious drink the butter-milk with pleasure, and are always the better for it. And indeed, it ought always to be preferred to milk where there is any feverishness. It calms, it dilutes, it sweetens, it assuages the thirst, it refreshes, and at the same time nourishes and strengthens.62
34.1 have now only to remind you once more, who have well nigh destroyed your souls and bodies together, that you cannot escape out of this snare of the devil but by the mighty power of God.63
Forget not this then among all your remedies. Call fervently on him against whom you have sinned. Study to please him in all things, and he will heal your soul, and do with your body as he knows is best for you.64
60SeeTissot, Treatise, 169-72.
61 Ibid., 173-76.
"Ibid., 178-81.
"See Luke 9:43.
I his closing exhortation is original to JW. Note how his confidence in God's healing concern and ability replaces the more pessimistic conclusion of Tissot on pp. 193-94.