_Onanism._――I have adopted the term Onanism, more especially to
illustrate a class of conjugal sins, and shall not use it, as generally
applied, as a synonym for masturbation, but will define the term as it
should be used. That the meaning of the word may be fully understood I
will quote the two verses from _Genesis_ xxxviii, 8, 9:
“And Judah said unto Onan, go in unto thy brother’s wife, and
marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
“And Onan knew that the seed should not be his. And it came to
pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled
_it_ on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his
brother.”
It must not be supposed that Onan used his hand to facilitate an
emission, but that he simply withdrew his penis and allowed the semen
to be lost on the ground, to prevent conception. Onanism is practised
more at the present day by married males than may at first be imagined.
It is the commonest of all means used as a preventive of conception.
The majority of so-called society women are wives of men who practice
Onanism. The word has come to signify masturbation, or any intentional
process of wasting the seminal fluid. But I have preferred its use
here as it explains a practice which I have no other word for. The very
common practice of withdrawing the organ before ejaculation is often
a very hurtful one, as the orgasm is often incomplete, and there are
more satisfactory ways of accomplishing what is intended by such a
practice. Under the strict signification of the term, a child cannot
be an Onanist, until after puberty, but he may be a masturbator. A
woman cannot properly be called an Onaness, but she may masturbate
nevertheless. To present, in a true light, this conjugal vice, I
excerpt, from the _Ohio Med. and Surg. Reporter_, the following most
excellent paragraph, which illustrates in the pithy and elegant style
that speaks volumes of argument, and should be a lasting hint to
cultured and scientific students in the learned profession of medicine:
“The sexual instinct has been given to man for the perpetuation
of his species; but in order to refine this gift and set
limits to its abuse, it has been wisely ordered that a purely
intellectual quality――that of love――should find its most
passionate expression in the gratification of this instinct.
Dissociate the one from the other, and man sinks below the
level of a brute. Destroy the reciprocity of the union, and
marriage is no longer an equal partnership, but a sensual
usurpation on the one side and a loathsome submission on the
other. Consider the moral effects of such shameful manœuvres:
wedlock lapses into licentiousness; the wife is degraded
into a mistress; love and affection change into aversion and
hate. Without suffering some penalty, man cannot disturb
the conditions of his well-being or trespass beyond its
limitations. Let him traverse her physical laws and Nature
exacts a forfeit: dare he violate his moral obligations, an
offended Deity stands ready to avenge them. That this law
is immutable, witness, from the history read to you, the
estrangement between the husband and wife; witness his ill
health and ill temper, and the wreck of body and mind to which
she has been reduced.”
Again, from the _Medical Advance_ for 1876, we find the following
language written by Dr. Arnalt:
“There is one phase of sexual depravity to which I would, in
passing, call your attention.
“We are fully aware of the many devices used to avoid
impregnation. It may be well to remember that such desires may,
under certain circumstances, be excusable; but let us never
forget the fact that generally they are conceived in iniquity.
“Of the many ways of avoiding possible conception, there is one
so filthy, mean and degrading, and fraught with such fearfully
disastrous consequences to health, that I make special mention
of it. I have reference to the practice of withdrawing the male
organ from the vagina before the completion of the embrace.
“But when man brings to the marriage-bed so foul a nature that
he can repeatedly and constantly perpetrate such an outrage
upon nature’s most precious gifts, he places himself at once
beyond the desert of human sympathy.
“Just imagine, if you please, man and woman in the act of
cohabitation; their brain reeling under the powerful stimulus
of that all-pervading passion; the heart’s action increased
to a high state of intensity; the whole system, with all the
energy it is capable of exciting, getting ready for that
great act of reproduction; and just as the act is about to be
completed, when the soul of the man can almost feel and grasp
that of the woman, the evil genius of lust, being more of a
fool than a knave, must dash to the ground the chalice filled
with ambrosia of purest bliss, if tasted with a pure lip; must
turn into the vilest poison the sweetest and holiest gift of
nature to man.
“Why, I have wondered, long and often, that man could sink so
low, be so foolish. Just conceive of the intensity of such a
shock upon the system, and then have this repeated time after
time, year after year. Why there are married people who never
once, in all their married life, completely and unreservedly
finished the act of cohabitation.
“No wonder that nervousness, peevishness, and all kinds of
distempers show themselves. No wonder we get spermatorrhœa and
impotence in the male, and a perfect host of troubles, insanity
included, in the woman. No wonder homes are broken up and human
lives made desolate.”