Humpjones

Classics Illustrated: “Plain Facts For Old and Young”

Posted May 07, 2007 11 comments

Young persons often labor under the erroneous impression that in order to be agreeable they must talk “small talk;” this literally means, “silly twaddle,” which disgusts everybody, and yet which all seek to imitate. ...nothing is more execrable than the frivolous, silly, often absolutely senseless observations which make up the great bulk of the conversation of young people in fashionable society.

So far, I agree with John Harvey Kellogg, and in fact, the man sounds almost sane.  Those of you who have stuck with Hump Jones since the beginning, though, will remember Kellogg as “that guy who advocated using carbolic acid to burn off the clitoris of young women, and sewing the foreskin of young men shut with wire so that even slight erections were unspeakably painful and probably bloody as well.”

Yeah....this is the same Kellogg who gave us Corn Flakes.  I have in my posession his Magnum Opus, a tract on sexual morality entitled “Plain Facts for Young and Old: embracing the natural history and hygiene of organic life.” (You can find an online copy here.) It’s truly a masterpiece, and at least a full century ahead of it’s time.  With no further ado, let’s begin—everything from here was written by Kellogg, not me:

Solitary Vice

If illicit commerce of the sexes is a heinous sin, self-pollution, or masturbation, is a crime doubly abominable. As a sin against nature, it has no parallel except in sodomy (see Gen. 19:5; Judges 19:22). It is the most dangerous of all sexual abuses because the most extensively practiced. The vice consists in an excitement of the genital organs produced otherwise than in the natural way. It is known by the terms, self-pollution, self-abuse, masturbation, onanism, manustupration, voluntary pollution, and solitary or secret vice. The vice is the more extensive because there are almost no bounds to its indulgence. Its frequent repetition fastens it upon the victim with a fascination almost irresistible! It may be begun in earliest infancy, and may continue through life.

Even though no warning may have been given, the transgressor seems to know, instinctively, that he is committing a great wrong, for he carefully hides his practice from observation. In solitude he pollutes himself, and with his own hand blights all his prospects for both this world and the next.

Alarming Prevalence of the Vice.—The habit is by no means confined to boys; girls also indulge in it, though, it is to be hoped, to a less fearful extent than boys, at least in this country. A Russian physician, quoted by an eminent medical professor in New York, states that the habit is universal among girls in Russia. It seems impossible that such a statement should be credible; and yet we have not seen it contradicted. It is more than probable that the practice is far more nearly universal everywhere than even medical men are willing to admit. Many young men who have been addicted to the vice, have, in their confessions, declared that they found it universal in the schools in which they learned the practice.

The extent to which the vice is practiced by an individual is in some cases appalling. Three or four repetitions of the act daily are not uncommon; and the following from Dr. Copland is evidence of much deeper depravity:

“There can be no doubt that the individual who has once devoted himself to this moloch of the species becomes but too frequently its slave to an almost incredible degree. A patient who was sent to London for my advice, confessed that he had practiced this vice seven or eight times daily from the age of thirteen until twenty-four; and he was then reduced to the lowest state of mental weakness, associated with various bodily infirmities; indeed, both mental power and physical existence were nearly extinguished.”

Testimony of Eminent Authors

Says a medical writer, “In my opinion, neither the plague, nor war, nor small-pox, nor similar diseases, have produced results so disastrous to humanity as the pernicious habit of Onanism; it is the destroying element of civilized societies, which is constantly in action, and gradually undermines the health of a nation.”

“The sin of self-pollution, which is generally considered to be that of Onan, is one of the most destructive evils ever practiced by fallen man. In many respects it is several degrees worse than common whoredom, and has in its train more awful consequences, though practiced by numbers who would shudder at the thought of criminal connection with a prostitute.”
---Dr. Adam Clarke.

Causes of the Habit

Sexual precocity, idleness, pernicious literature, abnormal sexual passions, exciting and irritating food, gluttony, sedentary employment, libidinous pictures, and many abnormal conditions of life are potent causes in exciting the vile practice; but by far the most frequent causes are evil associations, wicked or ignorant nurses, and local disease, or abnormality.

In not a few instances the “hired man” has been the means of communicating to innocent little boys the infamous knowledge which, fortunately, they had not acquired in babyhood. With no knowledge of the evil they are committing, they begin the work of physical damnation which makes a hell of life, and leads to endless death.

The “hired girl” is often an equally efficient agent for evil in the instruction of little girls in this debasing vice. Some time ago, the very intelligent parents of a bright family of children were awakened to the importance of this subject by the perusal of the first edition of this work, and upon investigation were horrified to find that their oldest child, a promising daughter of ten, was already a victim to the vile practice, having been initiated by a “hired girl.”

After using in vain every means he could bring to bear upon the case, the father brought her to us, and with tears in his eyes gave his story. After telling of his unsuccessful attempts to effect a reform, he declared that he would far prefer to place his daughter in the grave than to see her grow up a wretched victim of this vice.

Other Physical Causes.

Constipation, piles irritable bladder, fissure of the anus, local uncleanliness, and pruritis of the genital organs, will produce the habit in both males and females in the manner described. Sleeping on feather beds increases the local congestion, and thus favors the exciting influences of all the above-named causes. It may, perhaps, itself be the exciting cause.

Lying upon the back or upon the abdomen frequently leads to self-abuse, by provoking sexual excitement. Certain kinds of exercise, climbing in particular, have been attended by the same results. It is said that children sometimes experience genital excitement amounting to pleasure as the result of whipping.

A FINAL WARNING

As the disease progresses, the irritation and weakness of the organs become so great that an erection and emission occur upon the slightest sexual excitement. Mere proximity to a female, or the thought of one, will be sufficient to produce a pollution, attended by voluptuous sensations. But after a time the organs become so diseased and irritable that the slightest mechanical irritation, as friction of the clothing, the sitting posture, or riding horseback, will produce a discharge which may or may not be attended by sensation of any kind. Frequently, a burning or more or less painful sensation occurs. After a time, erection no longer takes place.

MORE TOMORROW

...and by “tomorrow” I actually mean “tomorrow” this time.  I love you all.

Filed in: The War on Sex

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