Masturbation was once considered more offensive than child abuse

If the sexual organs are handled it brings too much blood to these parts, and this produces a diseased condition; it also causes disease in other organs of the body, because they are left with a less amount of blood than they ought to have. The sexual organs, too, are very closely connected with the spine and the brain by means of the nerves, and if they are handled, or if you keep thinking about them, these nerves get excited and become exhausted, and this makes the back ache, the brain heavy and the whole body weak. It lays the foundation for consumption, paralysis, and heart disease. It weakens the memory, makes a boy careless, negligent and listless. It even makes many lose their minds; others, when grown, commit suicide. [Melendy]

DISEASES THAT RESULT FROM SEXUAL EXCESS AND MASTURBATION.

Cerebral anemia

Significance of loss of memory

Local paralysis

Hemorrhage in the cerebellum

Sclerosis of nerve fibers of cerebellum

Concussion of the spinal cord

Softening of spinal cord

Impotence from sun-stroke [Excessive Venery, Masturbation and Continence]

Nymphomania is apt to occur between the ages of 16 and 25. Blondes are more frequently subject to it than brunettes. It is characterized by an uncontrollable appetite for lascivious pleasures, exhibited (in its worst forms) in public and private, without regard to time, place, or surroundings….The only cure for the affection is marriage, or amputation of the clitoris. [Excessive Venery, Masturbation and Continence]

The child, boy or girl, should sleep alone on a rather hard mattress. The covering should be light. A coverlet may be put over the feet. The child should always sleep with the arms, not under, but on the cover or blanket. [A Practical Treatise]

I believe that with children, to whom reasoning and moral suasion make no appeal, physical punishment is the only alternative and is morally fully justifiable. Only there must be no spanking, for spanking has a distinctly sexually exciting effect on many children. [A Practical Treatise]

The masturbating child's arms should be put in long sleeves, which should be so pinned or tied, that the child's hands could not reach the genitals. In some cases, it is also necessary to put on long drawers, buttoning in back, and spread the legs apart attaching them to the bedclothes or the bedpost, so that one thigh cannot be rubbed against the other. There are also specially made appliances of metal, made differently for male and female children, which are put on over the genitals, and protect them so that the child cannot handle them (see illustrations). [A Practical Treatise]

In two or three cases I have found it necessary to apply rapidly a red hot wire to the child's genitals, to the prepuce in a boy, to the labia majora in a little girl. Whether because it was too painful to handle the parts, or because the shock of the application made a strong impression, or whether it was the fear of a repetition of the same treatment, but this little rather brutal procedure proved effective: The child ceased to masturbate. [A Practical Treatise]

In obstinate cases, very severe means must be sometimes adopted. We were once obliged after every other measure had failed, to perform a surgical operation before we were able to break the habit in the case of a young girl of 8 or 10 years who had become addicted to the vice to a most extraordinary degree. [Ladies Guide in Health and Disease]

A sudden, marked decline in health...

When a girl who has formerly been truthful, happy, obliging, gentle, and confiding, becomes within a short period of time peevish, irritable, morose, disobedient, and restrained in her manner.

Unnatural boldness in a little girl who has been previously been retiring and reserved...

A forward or loose manner in company with little boys is suspicious conduct, especially in one who has previously shown no disposition of this sort...

The presence of leucorrhoea [discharge] in a young girl accompanied by a relaxed condition of the vagina is presumptive evidence of the existence of this vice, if there is no other cause to which this unnatural condition can be attributed...

The blank, dull, lustreless, expressionless eye, surrounded by a dark ring, habitually given to staring into vacancy, frequently tells the tale of sin which its possessor vainly imagines to be unknown to any but herself. [Ladies Guide in Health and Disease]

- Pain, itching, bruises, bleeding, or discharges in the genital, vaginal, or anal areas;

- Compulsive interest in sexual activities;

- Exceptional secrecy;

- Being overly compliant or withdrawn;

- In-depth or unusual sexual knowledge or behavior with peers that is developmentally inappropriate;

- Masturbation. [ChildWelfare.gov]

In a case which came under our observation a few years ago a little girl, naturally bright and unusually attractive and intelligent, had become the victim of this soul-and-body-destroying habit, which had brought on a serious nervous disease that threatened to destroy both body and mind before she had reached the age of 10 years. Her first instruction was received from a hoary-headed fiend in human shape who had enticed her to a secluded place, and there introduced her to all the nastiness which his depraved and sensual nature could devise. [Ladies Guide in Health and Disease]

A child whose mind has been contaminated by evil communications may be rescued, but cannot be restored to the innocence which when once lost is gone forever. A scar will always remain which cannot be effaced. Our observation has been that the cases of vicious depravity in young women are almost exclusively confined to those whose minds have been corrupted in early childhood so that their evil tendencies have grown and strengthened with their years. [Ladies Guide in Health and Disease]