William Acton
Encyclopedia
William Acton was a British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 medical
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

 doctor and book writer. He was known for his books on masturbation
Masturbation
Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...

.

Biography

Acton was a native of Shillingstone
Shillingstone
Shillingstone is a village in the Blackmore Vale area of north Dorset, England, situated on the River Stour between Sturminster Newton and Blandford Forum...

 and he enrolled as a resident apprentice at St Bartholomew's Hospital
St Bartholomew's Hospital
St Bartholomew's Hospital, also known as Barts, is a hospital in Smithfield in the City of London, England.-Early history:It was founded in 1123 by Raherus or Rahere , a favourite courtier of King Henry I...

.

In 1836, Acton, by then twenty-three years old, moved to Paris, where he met the well-known American doctor Philippe Ricord. Acton learned about the functions of the generative and urinary organs under Ricord's supervision, and he decided to concentrate on gynecology. Acton spent some time in Paris working at the women's venereal hospital.

At the age of twenty-seven, Acton returned to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, already a recognized expert in the gynecological field. In part because of his previous experience in the field, Acton was accepted into the Royal College of Surgeons
Royal College of Surgeons of England
The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body and registered charity committed to promoting and advancing the highest standards of surgical care for patients, regulating surgery, including dentistry, in England and Wales...

. At about the same time, Acton began working on his first written work, a book named A Practical Treatise on Diseases of the Urinary and Generative Organs in Both Sexes, where he discussed the relationship between the human brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...

 and children's sexuality
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...

.

Acton dedicated himself exclusively to his practice as a gynecologist for the next seventeen years, until he published another book in 1857. The Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs, in Childhood, Youth, Adult Age, and Advanced Life, Considered in the Physiological, Social, and Moral Relations, discussed male reproductive functions exclusively, mentioning women twice but only in the context of their uninterest in sex and their responsibility in cases of male impotence. Acton was a strong proponent of the closed-body system, in which human bodies possessed only a finite amount of energy (sexual and otherwise) which is why masturbation and the expenditure of semen was considered so dangerous. He, like many of his contemporaries, was of the opinion that women were by nature sexually uninterested. Acton claimed that: "The majority of women (happily for them) are not very much troubled with sexual feeling of any kind." He further stated that "As a general rule, a modest woman seldom desires any sexual gratification for herself. She submits to her husband's embraces, but principally to gratify him; and, were it not for the desire of maternity, would far rather be relieved from his attentions." According to Acton, a small percentage of "normal" women felt sexual desire when they menstruated, but he primarily described sexual desire in women as a symptom of nymphomania.

Acton was also well known for his views on moral
Moral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...

 issues. An outspoken writer, Acton published his next book, Prostitution, Considered in its Moral, Social, and Sanitary Aspect, in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and other large cities and Garrison Towns, with Proposals for the Control and Prevention of Attendant Evils
, almost immediately after The Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs.... Acton's book on prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

 proved controversial: while he meant to expose this profession as a risky one healthwise both for prostitutes and clients alike, and as an immoral practice, many considered that Acton actually humanized prostitutes by denouncing low wages for women as one of the reasons why they would turn to prostitution. This was in contrast to the dominant perception among members of the middle and upper classes that women decided to become prostitutes because an innate lustfulness and sinful nature. Acton concluded that "Vanity, giddiness, greediness, love of dress, distress, hunger, marke women prostitutes, but not general sensuality."

Acton spent the rest of his life trying to teach upper-class English citizens how to manage the idea of child masturbation. This was referred to as the masturbation hysteria at the time, and people had several beliefs, such as that masturbation could lead to blindness
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...

.

Acton died in 1875.
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