The secret companion, a medical work on onanism ... and on venereal and syphilitic diseases ... followed by observations on marriage.

  • R.J. Brodie & Co.
Date:
[1845]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The secret companion, a medical work on onanism ... and on venereal and syphilitic diseases ... followed by observations on marriage. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    “ P.S. I wish you very much to publish my case in the next edition of your valuable book, “ The Secret Companion,” as I am aware tliat a great number of young people practise this horrid vice (as I once did), in complete ignorance of its baneful effects, and I only wish they may be as fortunate as I have been, viz., to fall into hands from whom they may receive proper treatment.” CASE 3. “ Dear Sirs, “ I am one of those unfortunate beings wdio have brO’Ught themselves into circumstances wliich require your best attention. I have offended against the laws of God, and injured my own body from indulging in that abominable and odious sin of self-pollution: I shall lay the whole circumstances before you as briefly as possible, so that you may judge of my case the better. I have indulged in self-pollution now for twelvemonths past; at first I did not commit the act more than once or twice a week, but after a short time it gained such ascendancy over me, that I prac- tised it very frequently, in fact, every opportunity. No ill effect follov/ed the first commission, except that I experienced a kind of stoppage in my head; but recently, after every commission, the stoppage in my head is accompanied with a great pain in my back and testicles, also in my thighs. I find myself weak and faint; my intellectual faculties are greatly impaired, my memory is very