Onanism, or, A treatise upon the disorders produced by masturbation, or, the dangerous effects of secret and excessive venery / By M. Tissot ; translated from the last Paris edition, by A. Hume.

  • Tissot, S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David), 1728-1797.
Date:
1781
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Onanism, or, A treatise upon the disorders produced by masturbation, or, the dangerous effects of secret and excessive venery / By M. Tissot ; translated from the last Paris edition, by A. Hume. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    164/204 (page 148)
    ‘ out, joined to a defcription of thofe dlforders inct- ‘ dent to impurity, would be worth all the moral ‘ treatifes written upon the i'ubjed.’ He is certainly very right ; nothing can be more interefting than the addition he délires ; and at the fame time nothing can be more didicult than to fepa- rate it from the other parts of education, as well moral as phylical. To treat this fubjedl in the abftradt, a great number of principles lliould be eftabliflied, which would fwell too much the fize of this bttle work, and which are belides quite foreign to it. Some general precepts, feparated from the principles and necelTary divilions, would not only be of very little life, but might even tend to dangerous confequences : for thefe rcafons it were better to incorporate this treatife with a more extenfive one upon the means of forming a good^'onliitution, and giving to youth a Iteady health : a fubjedt which, though treate4 by eminent men, is not yet exhaufted, but fo far from it, that a multitude of important things may be added, as well as upon the diforders incident to that time of life. I fliall therefore commit a kind of violence upon my inclination by ftipprelfing it here. All that can with propriety be faid in this place is, that idlenefs and inadlivity, lying too long a bed, over foft beds, fucculent aromatics, fait and vinous diet, fufpicious friends, licentious produdlions, being the caufes which moll: immediately produce thefe excelles, they H’ould feduloully be avoided. Diet is particularly important, and fufticient attention is not paid to it. Thofe who are intrulled with bringing up youth, fliould have conftantly in view that excellent obfervation of St. Jerome. ‘ The forges of Vulcan, and the volcanoes ‘ of %