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CHAPTER NINE

Wickedness, as tho' he should tear the Fœtus out of its Mother's Womb, and kill it: For altho' it be not the destroying of a Real Being, yet it is preventing of a Possible and Probable Being, and that produced in a lawful and commendable Way; its the basest and most presumptuous Wickedness, scarce to be named among the Gentiles."[1]

Another interesting volume on the same theme by Нume[2] contains observations which really include many of the essential ideas of the hormone theory of the sex organs, although they are of course expressed in a simple way and in unscientific language.

It appears to me that the very terrifying warnings against "onanism" translated h(illegible text)ne Latin into French by Tissot[3] may still be traced as influences colouring the popular ideas on the "sinfulness" of birth

  1. ↑ Philo-Castitatis (1723): "Onania Examined, and Detected, or, the Ignorance, Error, Impertinence, and Contradiction of a Book called Onania, Discovered and Exposed, &c." Pp. x, 120 + ? (B. M. Copy not complete.) London, 1723.
  2. ↑ A. Hume (1746) "Onanism or a Treatise upon the Disorders produced by Masturbation: or, the Dangerous Effects of Secret and Excessive Venery." Pp. xii, 184. London, 1746.
  3. ↑ Dr. Tissot (1760) "L'Onanisme, ou Dissertation physique, sur les maladies produits par la Masturbation." Pp. xii, 231. Lausanne, 1760.

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