Stephen Perkins in Plantarchy
Degeneracy theory replaced its predecessor, demon-possession theory, as a multipurpose theory of disease. It dominated medicine without challenge until germ theory encroached upon it in the 1870's, and opened the door to scientific theories of the cause of disease. For over a century, degeneracy theory had been used to explain just about every ill except fractures and wounds — and even then it served to explain defective or impaired healing.
*
The two great cornerstones of degeneracy theory are the secret vice and the social vice, masturbation and prostitution, respectively. Both wasted the vital fluid, semen, which was believed to be made from the most precious drops of the blood. They also overstimulated and drained the nervous system from lustful thoughts and carnal desire.
*
The most articulate exponent of this theory was a Swiss physician, Simon Andre Tissot (1729-1797). By assimilating degeneracy theory into the medical teaching of the day, he gave it medical respectability and immense influence that persists even to the present. The first edition of his book "A Treatise on the Disease Produced by Onanism," was published in 1758. Tissot believed that all sexual activity was dangerous because it forced blood to rush to the head, leaving too little in the rest of the body, so that nerves and other vital tissues slowly degenerated. In keeping with the scientific knowledge of his time, he was certain that this form of nerve damage caused insanity.
*
Women really did not fit into degeneracy theory, since they do not lose a vital fluid corresponding to semen. However, lust saved the day, since women as well as men could degenerate themselves harboring the thoughts and fantasies of carnal desire that drove them into the excesses of the secret or the social vice, awake or in dreams.
*
Our modern belief in immediate circumcision of newborn males is partly a carryover from the Victorian conviction that this surgery discouraged masturbation. The foreskin made the penis difficult to wash, and the removal of it lessened the amount of time the genitals had to be handled.
*
The 19th century medical profession in America attacked masturbation with zest. The battle was fought on two main fronts — diet and physical constraint. Gravies, alcohol, oysters, salt, pepper, fish, jelly, chocolate, ginger, and coffee were forbidden to masturbators (both male and female) as it was thought that they irritated the nerves and increased sexual desire.
*
Vatican declaration on sexual ethics, 12/29/75 …. Masturbation is an intrinsically and seriously disordered act…even if it cannot be proved that Scripture condemns this sin by name, the tradition of the Church has rightly understood it to be condemned in the New Testament when the latter speak of "impurity," "unchasteness" and "other vices contrary to chastity and continence."
*
According to the ancient Egyptians the world was believed to have been created through an act of divine masturbation by the God Atum, whose hand was his celestial spouse. The earth god Geb is sometimes depicted as performing autofellation.
*
Masturbation can be defined as sexual self-pleasuring that involves some form of direct physical stimulation. Most often, masturbation is done by rubbing, stroking, fondling, squeezing, or otherwise stimulating the genitals, but it can be carried out by self-stimulation of other body parts such as the breasts, the inner thighs, or the anus. The term masturbation refers to the act of self-stimulation without regard to the outcome; that is, sexual self-stimulation need not lead to orgasm to be masturbation.
*
Some masturbatory myths…
1. Masturbation is sinful
2. Masturbation is unnatural
3. Masturbation may be a part of growing up, but adults who masturbate are psychologically immature
4. Masturbation tends to be habit-forming and may prevent the development of healthy sexual functioning*
As recently as 1930, a medical authority continued to warn of the dangers of "onanism" which could lurk in activities like rope-climbing, bicycle riding, or running a sewing machine. He argued that this "path leads to imbecility and premature senility," "loss of spirit," "apathy," "languor," "irratibility," "headaches," "neuralgias," "dimness of vision," "hair on the palm of your hand," and so on.
*
In America the first public crusader for degeneracy theory was the Rev. Sylvester Graham. The three big principles of his health crusade, in the 1830's, were food, fitness, and abstinence. His name has become associated with Graham crackers, which being sweetened, would not have been included in his brown-flour diet.
*
A disciple of the Rev. Sylvester Graham was a physician called John Harvey Kellogg. Kellogg's medical hobby was dietary health. He processed cereals and nuts as substitutes for meat, to suppress carnal desire induced by the eating of meat. Dr. Kellogg was degeneracy theory's most ardent anti-masturbation advocate. Few of today's eaters of Kellogg's Corn Flakes know that he invented them, almost literally, as anti-masturbation food.
*
Sources for texts:
Masters, William H., et al. Human Sexuality Boston/Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1985. Money, John Lovemaps. New York: Irvington Publishers, Inc., 1986
