Tissot, Samuel Auguste Andre David

He graduated from the medical faculty of the University of Montpellier , after which he practiced in Lausanne , in 1766 he headed the department of medicine of the local university. He was then a professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Pavia University .

Various works of Tissot enjoyed wide popularity in the second half of the 18th century and were translated into many European languages. Especially famous was the book “Advice to people about health” ( Fr. Avis au peuple sur la santé ; 1760 ), which spoke about medicine in a simple and popular language. The Treatise on Epilepsy by Tissot ( French: Traite de l'epilepsie ; 1770 ) contained a description of almost all forms of epilepsy , and this work became one of the foundations of all subsequent epileptology. ^[four]

For the development of neurology, the Treatise on Nerves and Their Diseases ( Fr. Traite des nerfs et de leur maladies ; 1780 ) was important. ^[five]

In Russian, his books are known mainly in translations of Johann Kerchens .

Ironically, however, Tissot's discoveries, and his speculations, received the longest fame. In 1759 , he published the book "Masturbation" ( Fr. L'onanisme. Dissertation sur les maladies produites par la masturbation ), in which, based on an anonymous brochure published in 1723 in London , he proved that masturbation (more precisely, to say , unlimited waste of seed ) has an extremely negative effect on the nervous system up to migraine , seizures and drying out of the brain tissue. This book of Tissot had the widest resonance in Europe, withstood 63 editions over a century and a half and largely laid the foundation for the onanophobia described by modern sexologists.