Onanism Display'd: Being, I. an Enquiry into the True Nature of Onan's Sin. II. of the Modern Onanists. III. of Self-Pollution, Its Causes, and Consequences; With Three Extraordinary Cases, of Two Young Gentlemen and a Lady, Who Were Very Much Addicted to This Crime. IV. of Nocturnal-Pollutions Natural and Forc'd. V. the Great Sin of Self-Pollution, with the Judgment of the Most Eminent Divines Upon This Subject. VI. a Dissertation Concerning Generation, with a Curious Description of the Parts, and of Their Proper Functions, &c. According to the Latest, and Most Approv'd Anatomical Discoveries

This is where the modern moral panic over masturbation begins. Published in 1719 by the notorious Grub Street publisher Edmund Curll, this sprawling treatise represents one of the first printed works to systematically frame solitary pleasure as a deadly sin and a grave medical danger. Drawing on mangled biblical interpretation, fabricated anatomical 'discoveries', and three sensational 'case studies' of ruined young gentlemen and one unfortunate lady, the text constructs an elaborate edifice of religious terror and pseudo-medical warning. Curll mixes earnest theological argument with grotesque speculation about the 'proper functions' of reproductive anatomy, all while insisting that self-pollution leads inevitably to madness, impotence, and spiritual damnation. The result reads now like an artifact from a more paranoid age: a window into how Enlightenment-era moralists grappled (often hilariously) with the body's most private rebellions. For historians of sexuality, scholars of 18th century print culture, or anyone who enjoys dark comedy about our ancestors' most fervent anxieties, this remains an indispensable curiosity.