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JAMESBJOHNSON
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1897 - Many measures were tried to stop boys (and men) from masturbating. When pious exhortation failed, sterner tactics had to be adopted. The most trivial of these were to ensure that boys slept with their hands tied; even adults were counseled by William Acton to adopt the "common practice" of sleeping with the hands tied. Milton suggested a chastity belt. S. G. Vogel had advocated infibulation, i.e., inserting a silver wire through the foreskin, in his Unterricht fur Eltern (1786): such a practice was in fact adopted. If a recalcitrant mental patient tore out the wire, he should simply be tied up. Milton also suggested blistering the penis with red mercury ointment; and cauterisation of the spine and genitals were recommended as late as 1905. The most severe cure for masturbation of a man was surely the penile amputation inflicted on a Texan toward the end of the 19th century (R. D. Potts, Texas Medical Practitioner, 1897-8, Vol. 2, p. 7).
1895 - Fifteen percent of the U.S. male population was circumcised.
“In all cases of masturbation circumcision is undoubtedly the physicians’ closest friend and ally . . . To obtain the best results one must cut away enough skin and mucous membrane to rather put it on the stretch when erections come later. There must be no play in the skin after the wound has thoroughly healed, but it must fit tightly over the penis, for should there be any play the patient will be found to readily resume his practice, not begrudging the time and extra energy required to produce the orgasm. It is true, however, that the longer it takes to have an orgasm, the less frequently it will be attempted, consequently the greater the benefit gained . . . The younger the patient operated upon the more pronounced the benefit, though occasionally we find patients who were circumcised before puberty that require a resection of the skin, as it has grown loose and pliant after that epoch.” E. J. Spratling, Masturbation in the Adult, Medical Record, vol. 24 (1895): pp. 442-443.
“In all cases in which male children are suffering nerve tension, confirmed derangement of the digestive organs, restlessness, irritability, and other disturbances of the nervous system, even to chorea, convulsions, and paralysis, or where through nerve waste the nutritive facilities of the general system are below par and structural diseases are occurring, circumcision should be considered as among the lines of treatment to be pursued.” Charles E. Fisher, Circumcision, in A Hand-Book On the Diseases of Children and Their Homeopathic Treatment. Chicago: Medical Century Co., 1895. p. 875. 52
1894 - Like men, women were also forced to undergo spinal and genital cauterization and to wear chastity belts in a vain attempt to prevent masturbation. Krafft-Ebing referred to a girl who "at the age of ten was giving up to the most revolting vices," e.g., masturbation. He adds that "Even a white hot iron applied to the clitoris had no effect in overcoming this practice." After this sort of treatment the Moodie girdle of chastity, designed for a similar purpose, seems almost mild. In 1894, a surgeon was asked at St. John's Hospital in Ohio to bury a girl's clitoris with silver wire sutures (clitoral masturbation not having been effectively stopped by means of severe cauterization). The girl tore the sutures and resumed the habit. The entire organ was then excised. Six weeks after the operation the "patient" was reported as saying, "You know there is nothing there now, so I could do nothing." Holt's Diseases of Infancy and Childhood, as late as 1936, was not averse to circumcision in girls or cauterization of the clitoris.
1895 - Fifteen percent of the U.S. male population was circumcised.
“In all cases of masturbation circumcision is undoubtedly the physicians’ closest friend and ally . . . To obtain the best results one must cut away enough skin and mucous membrane to rather put it on the stretch when erections come later. There must be no play in the skin after the wound has thoroughly healed, but it must fit tightly over the penis, for should there be any play the patient will be found to readily resume his practice, not begrudging the time and extra energy required to produce the orgasm. It is true, however, that the longer it takes to have an orgasm, the less frequently it will be attempted, consequently the greater the benefit gained . . . The younger the patient operated upon the more pronounced the benefit, though occasionally we find patients who were circumcised before puberty that require a resection of the skin, as it has grown loose and pliant after that epoch.” E. J. Spratling, Masturbation in the Adult, Medical Record, vol. 24 (1895): pp. 442-443.
“In all cases in which male children are suffering nerve tension, confirmed derangement of the digestive organs, restlessness, irritability, and other disturbances of the nervous system, even to chorea, convulsions, and paralysis, or where through nerve waste the nutritive facilities of the general system are below par and structural diseases are occurring, circumcision should be considered as among the lines of treatment to be pursued.” Charles E. Fisher, Circumcision, in A Hand-Book On the Diseases of Children and Their Homeopathic Treatment. Chicago: Medical Century Co., 1895. p. 875. 52
1894 - Like men, women were also forced to undergo spinal and genital cauterization and to wear chastity belts in a vain attempt to prevent masturbation. Krafft-Ebing referred to a girl who "at the age of ten was giving up to the most revolting vices," e.g., masturbation. He adds that "Even a white hot iron applied to the clitoris had no effect in overcoming this practice." After this sort of treatment the Moodie girdle of chastity, designed for a similar purpose, seems almost mild. In 1894, a surgeon was asked at St. John's Hospital in Ohio to bury a girl's clitoris with silver wire sutures (clitoral masturbation not having been effectively stopped by means of severe cauterization). The girl tore the sutures and resumed the habit. The entire organ was then excised. Six weeks after the operation the "patient" was reported as saying, "You know there is nothing there now, so I could do nothing." Holt's Diseases of Infancy and Childhood, as late as 1936, was not averse to circumcision in girls or cauterization of the clitoris.
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