author
L. (Léopold) Deslandes
1796–1850
A 19th-century French physician, he wrote practical and widely circulated books on hygiene and sexual health at a time when medicine was trying to explain both body and behavior. His work gives a vivid glimpse into how doctors of his era understood health, morality, and self-control.
1 Audiobook
A Treatise on the Diseases Produced By Onanism, Masturbation, Self-Pollution, and Other Excesses.
by L. (Léopold) Deslandes
About the author
Léopold Deslandes was a French doctor born in 1796 and died in 1850. Library and catalog records connect him with several medical works, and contemporary editions describe him as a physician and member of medical societies in Paris.
He is best known for writing De l'onanisme et des autres abus vénériens considérés dans leurs rapports avec la santé, a book later translated into English as A Treatise on the Diseases Produced by Onanism, Masturbation, Self-Pollution, and Other Excesses. He also wrote on public and private hygiene, showing a broad interest in prevention, bodily care, and everyday health.
Today, Deslandes is mainly remembered as part of the history of 19th-century medicine. His books reflect the medical ideas and moral concerns of his time, which makes them useful not just as medical texts, but as historical windows into how people once thought about health and human behavior.