Samuel Auguste‎ Tissot - ‎L'onanisme. Dissertation sur les maladies produites par la masturbation - 1781

Seventh edition of this major classic by Tissot on the subject, originally published in Latin in 1758, as an appendix to a treatise on bilious fevers (Dissertatio de febribus biliosis, Lausanne, 1758).
A classic of 18th-century medical literature published from 1763 until 1905... The first French version, significantly expanded, appeared in 1760.

The renowned practitioner from Lausanne analyzes symptoms, causes, and remedies (those of other doctors and his own), as well as similar diseases: nocturnal emissions and simple gonorrhea. Tissot invokes the theory of humors to explain illnesses resulting from masturbation: they are related to the fact that semen is 'the essential oil of animal spirits,' indispensable for the 'play of the organs,' and if it is insufficient in quantity, it no longer fulfills its role as a stimulus on digestion, cooking, and sweating; 'evacuations no longer occur properly.' A procession of ailments appears: strength, memory, and understanding diminish; vision darkens; urine becomes bloody, etc.

Tissot (1728-1797) completed his studies in Montpellier, where he was awarded a doctorate in 1749. He settled in Lausanne, where he practiced medicine until his death. His fame extended throughout Europe. His interest in the issue of masturbation stemmed from a famous encounter with the masturbating watchmaker, which he recounts in the first part of the work (p. 32): a young man, D***, engaged in daily masturbation from the age of 17, to such an extent that he found himself in a state that made him fear death; each ejaculation caused him great pain and loss of consciousness. Tissot went to his bedside: 'I found less a living being than a corpse lying on straw, thin, pale, dirty, emitting an offensive odor, almost incapable of any movement. He often lost pale, watery blood from his nose, saliva was continuously flowing from his mouth; attacked by diarrhea, he was passing his excrements into his bed without noticing; the flow of semen was continuous (...) Being well below the brute, a sight that cannot be conceived as horrific, it was hard to recognize that he had once belonged to the human species.' Despite his care, the patient died a few days later, 'edematous all over the body.' This terrible case remained famous and was cited in many treatises against masturbation.

Conserved in a modern full calf binding, with a spine featuring raised bands decorated with a red title piece, and gold initials. The binding is solid and in excellent condition. The interior is in good condition, showing a few very rare scattered brown spots.

TISSOT, Samuel Auguste
Onanism. Dissertation on the diseases caused by masturbation. Third edition.
Lausanne, at Marc Chapuis and Company, 1781
in-12 (16.5 x 10cm); XX-266 pages.

Subject: Tissot Medicine on Onanism, Masturbation, Sexology 1781