A letter to John Hunter : respecting his Treatise on the venereal disease, shewing him to be highly erroneous in his observations on impotence, and more particularly pointing out the absurdity and immorality of his doctrine in favour of onanism or masturbation / By Duncan Gordon.

  • Gordon, Duncan.
Date:
1786
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to John Hunter : respecting his Treatise on the venereal disease, shewing him to be highly erroneous in his observations on impotence, and more particularly pointing out the absurdity and immorality of his doctrine in favour of onanism or masturbation / By Duncan Gordon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Jiave named Hippocrates’ fecond dorfal confumptlon ; this lie defcribes in a. nother place f, and it is in Ibmc degree analogous to the firft. But the pre- fervation of the powers, which he particularly ftscifies, appears to me a con- vincing proof, that this diforder does not depend upon the fame caufe as the firft j it rather feems to be a rheumatic complaint. Celfus m his excellent book upon the prefervation of health, fays, “ thefc ' pleafures are always hurtful to weak people, and the frequent indul- “ gcnce in them weakens thofe of ftronger conftitutions.” Derc mcdica lib. I. c. 9, and 11. Galen has obferved that the fame caufes occafion diforders of the brain, and of the nerves, and deftroy the powers; and he, in another place, relates that a man who was not cured of a violent diforder, died the fame night that he paid the conjugal tribute to his wife. . ° ' Pliny, the anatomift, informs us, that Cornelius Callus, the ancient prator, and Titus Etherius, the Roman knight, died in the very acft of coition. Hijioria mundi, lib. VII, c. 5.3,/. 124.. ‘‘ The ftomachis difordcred,” fays Aetius, “ all the body is weakened,; palenefs, bodily decay, and emaciation fucceed, and the eyes fink into the “ head.” Thefe teftimonies of the rnoft refpedtable ancients, are confirmed by in- numerable modern writers. Sandlorius, who has examined with the greatefr attention, all the caufes which aduate our bodies, has obferved, that this weakens Ac fiomach, deftroys digeftion, obfiruds that infenfible perfpira- tion, the irregularity of which produces the moft fatal confcquences occa fions the liver and reins to be overheated, gives a difpofuion for the ftone in De Glandulis Foes, 9, 2^1^