It will be seen, with how much reserve these authors speak. The injury arising from this habit, say they, is very great, but it has been overrated. Let us now examine upon what grounds they and others have been led to consider these fears as too great: we shall see by what reasoning they have been governed, and if they are correct.
Montègre was struck by the instances of individuals who were addicted to onanism from early childhood, and who, however, in the prime of vigour and health, had attained an age to which men do not generally arrive, or to whom advanced age comes loaded with troubles. But do we not see old soldiers who have always escaped bullets? Now what do these facts prove except that such individuals exist? It has also been stated, that influenced with what they have read in books, which contain the most formidable cases, as those only are printed, many physicians have attributed too much importance to the diseases caused by onanism. But admitting this, may we not conclude also, that many severe affections which it produces are not referred to it? That in attending cases of dorsal consumption, epilepsy, paralysis, loss of sight, &c., less dangerous diseases are overlooked, and that their origin is not suspected? How often, for instance, are we ignorant of the true cause of these affections whose characters are constantly changing, which are seen every day, which at first produce uneasiness, but with which one soon becomes familiar; which are not the symptoms of a disease having its name and place among other diseases, so much as the indication of constitutional affections, which appear from a variety of influences, and are referred to each one of them. And yet this kind of affection, as we shall state hereafter, is that presented most frequently by individuals addicted but for a short time to onanism, who indulge in it but seldom, or whose constitution resists this kind of excess.
Appeal has been made also to direct observation; the number of those who have fallen victims to onanism has been cited. It has been said, call to mind every thing which has occurred to you in the course of a long practice, you will doubtless find deplorable and even numerous instances of the diseases attending onanism; but does this number approximate that of the individuals who abandon themselves to this vice? There are few persons who are not addicted to masturbation; very well, are there many whose constitutions are impaired and whose health is destroyed? It is admitted that premature and too frequent and too often repeated indulgences may injure and sometimes have caused great detriment, yet those who live through them are very numerous, and the distance between the use and abuse of the act of venery, is greater than is generally admitted.