from Clitoridectomy: A Nineteenth Century Answer to Masturbation
…In 1866 an American medical journal discussed the work of a British physician, Dr. Isaac Brown Baker, who claimed success in treating epilepsy and other nervous disorders in female patients- by excising the clitoris. After noting that the great mass of English medical opinion was strongly opposed to Baker’s ideas and had “unqualifiedly condemned” his operation, the American editor concurred with the English medical profession, declaring that to remove the clitoris “to allay sexual irritability is about as unphilosophical as to remove the analogous organ of the male.” (4)
While the clitoridectomy was only rarely performed in the English-speaking nations, the subject of female masturbation continued to intrigue the public and the medical profession. As the century drew on, more articles on the subject began appearing in medical journals and the clitoridectomy was revived. In 1889, Dr. Joseph Jones, a former president of the Louisiana State Board of Health and a medical professor, stated that “hopeless insanity” was one of the many consequences of masturbation and that the child of a masturbator was liable to hereditary insanity.(8). …
