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The respected Swiss physician S. A. A. D. Tissot published
his Onanism in 1760 to warn of what he saw as the
health dangers of masturbation. Tissot wrote that the
loss of spermatic fluid causes weakness that can lead to
diseases like tuberculosis, blindness, and even pimples. Tissot dismissed Onania
because it had used Biblical arguments. As
ludicrous as it may seem today, Tissot felt that his
position was solidly grounded in medical practice, and was
therefore a far cry from the religious prohibitions that Onania
was based on. Because he was well respected, his book
was translated into many languages and reprinted so often
that it became a Bible of the anti-masturbatory hysteria
that developed in 19th Century medicine. Successors
like the English doctor William
Acton went beyond Tissot when they invented wholly
imaginary diseases like spermatorrhea.
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