In November 1872, Police Officer Ezra P. Higgins arrested the owner of a Cincinnati cabinet factory on a charge of indecent exposure while standing in Carter Alley. Officer Higgins claimed that the man (unnamed by the newspapers at the time) had masturbated in full view of pedestrians walking by on Walnut Street. The masturbator was found guilty in Police Court despite the testimony of Dr. Zoheth Freeman that the defendant suffered from bladder disease requiring frequent urination.

Cincinnati knew a lot about autoerotic pleasure during the 1800s. It was nearly impossible to read any Cincinnati newspaper from the 1850s well into the 1890s without running into advertisements about masturbation or, as they usually called it back then, “self-abuse” or “youthful errors.” Several Cincinnati doctors specializing in “private diseases” offered to cure the unfortunate victims of this practice. Here is an advertisement from Dr. Lewis Hall in the Cincinnati Commercial [30 November 1854]:

“Dr. H. devotes a great part of his time to the treatment of these cases, caused by a habit which boys teach each other in youth and at school which ruins both body and mind, unfitting the unfortunate individual for business or society. Some of the sad and melancholy effects produced are weakness of the back and limbs, dizziness of the head, dimness of sight, palpitation of the heart, dyspepsia, nervousness, great constipation of the bowels, symptoms of consumption, & c. The effects on the mind are fearful to contemplate, viz: Loss of memory, confusion of ideas, depression of spirits, fearful forebodings, aversion to female society, wandering of the mind, and frequently insanity closes the career of the unhappy victim of self-abuse.”

Doctors J.D. Kennedy and J.D. Kergan, in an advertisement in the Cincinnati Post [20 December 1898] called upon their dissipated readers to “Rouse Yourself and Be a Man.” They made clear that this moral failure was widespread:

“The result of ignorance and folly: over-exertion of both mind and body induced by lust and exposure, are continually wrecking thousands of promising young men. Some fall before they enter the active duties of life, while others, undermined by the results of self-abuse or lust, after a few years are forced to drag out a weary, fruitless and melancholy existence. The victims are found in all stations of life – the farm, the office, the pulpit, the trades, the professions – all supply them.”

Kennedy & Kergan practiced at the tony address of 122 West Fourth Street, very close to the offices of Cincinnati’s top bankers, lawyers and merchants.

Dr. A.B. Spinney lumped self-abuse among a horrific roster of “private diseases” that he treated in his office at 518 Race Street. According to his ad in the Cincinnati Post [30 Nov 1897], Dr. Spinney claimed 35 years of successful experience:

“We positively cure sexual and nervous debility, emissions, drains of power, wasted organs, self-abuse, impotency, varicocele, hydrocele, syphilis, gonorrhea, gleet, stricture, pimples, and all blood and skin, bladder and kidney diseases, quickly and permanently, without detention from business.”

It has likely been some time since a Cincinnati doctor diagnosed gleet (a watery discharge) or stricture (narrow urinary tract), but varicocele (distended scrotal veins) and hydrocele (fluid build-up in the scrotum) are still medical terms in common use.

Doctor Edward McLeod, practicing at 719 Vine Street, cautioned his readers [Cincinnati Post 11 November 1898] that “lascivious dreams” are a sure sign of imminent debility:

“You may be in the first stage, but you are fast approaching the last. Do not let false pride or sham modesty prevent you from obtaining relief now.”

But could a patient trust these guys with, you know, the family jewels, as it were?

Several of the men who advertised cures for self-abuse hastened to assure readers that they were real doctors. Dr. Clark Jacques, for example, used the very first sentence in his advertisement [Cincinnati Enquirer 22 April 1871] that visitors to his office at 130 West Sixth Street could examine his diploma on full display.

If a young man took the bait and visited one of these doctors, what treatment could he expect? Most advertisements were heavy on promises and light on details, but most involved electric belts and herbal supplements. At least one specific cure was touted, “Helmbold’s Fluid Extract Buchu.” It is still possible to find buchu, the extract of a South African plant, at herbal emporiums today. It is sold as a diuretic and antiseptic and still appears in modern formularies, though it has been supplanted by more effective concoctions. H.D. Helmbold was quite proud of his remedy and swore it would cure some overly graphic effects of self-abuse. He asked [Cincinnati Gazette 3 July 1869]:

“Is your urine sometimes thick, milky or flocky; or is it ropy on settling? Or does a thick scum rise to the top? Or is a sediment at the bottom after it has stood a while?”

That, apparently was the urinary wages of “youthful errors.”

Cincinnati’s medical community did not ignore the possibility that women also engaged in self-pleasure. The effects, as described in the Cincinnati medical journal, The Lancet [1867], were much more benign than those men suffered:

“Dr. [Robert] Greenhalgh considered that the frequency and evil effects of self-abuse in the female had been greatly exaggerated. He did not believe that it led to idiocy and epilepsy as had been assumed; that girls suffering from these affections were occasionally addicted to such a habit he did not deny. He did not believe that the clitoris or nymphae had anything to do with the habit, but that it must be rather referred to a peculiar mental condition requiring moral control.”

Soon after 1900, all such advertising disappeared from the Cincinnati newspapers.

