Onania, as the tract came to be known, sold like hotcakes. By the turn of the century, all of industrialized Europe and North America viewed masturbation as a sin with spiritual and physical ramifications. Intellectuals such as C.G Salzmann, Samuel Tissot, Johann Zimmermann, Immanuel Kant, and Sigmund Freud, among others, wrote of its dangers. The medical professionals assigned several ailments, including, but not limited to, Down’s syndrome and epilepsy as the result of masturbation.