Scientists and physicians once believed masturbation was a “heinous sin” of “self-pollution” that caused madness, disease, and early death. In 1745, Doctor Robert James, a noted and respectable physician, claimed in a medicinal dictionary that masturbation was responsible for “the most deplorable and generally incurable disorders.” A prominent and respected physician claimed in A Medicinal Dictionary that onanism was to blame for “the most deplorable and generally incurable disorders.”
A medical book published in 1830, titled ‘Le livre sans titer’, detailed in gory color illustrations the horrors were awaiting the self-polluter. He was a young boy (his mother’s pride and joy, no less.) who fell victim to self-abuse and died at seventeen.
