Edward H. Dixon

Edward H. Dixon

Dr. Edward H. Dixon, M.D., (31 December 1808 in New York County (Manhattan), NY – 7 December 1880 ibid), was a New York City surgeon. He was also author of various surgical papers, and lecturer on the operative surgery of the eye.

Curriculum vitae

Dixon earned his M.D. from Rutgers Medical College in 1829 or 1830, and then studied material medica, theory and practice, and therapeutics under Dr. John Francis; and surgery under Dr. Alexander Mott. Afterwards, Dixon accepted positions at the Deaf and Dumb Asylum and House of Refuge. Later, he opened his own practice as a consulting surgeon, as well as a private surgical hospital.

Circumcision promotion

In 1845, Dixon claimed that circumcision prevents masturbation in males:

“

There are two conditions of the prepuce, or that moveable part that can be drawn over the glans, and retracted again, that occasions, during syphilis and gonorrhea, the greatest annoyance, and demands the interference of the surgeon. The enlightened nations of the earth, should surely adopt the ancient rite of circumcision, as admirably adapted, not only to prevent these minor evils, but, in all probability, by facilitating cleanliness, the existence of diseases themselves, as well as other serious affectios of the same parts. – Edward H. Dixon (A Treatise on Diseases of the Sexual Organs (see publication))

Michael Moon, a Whitman scholar, wrote:

“

Whitman cultivated acquaintances with a number of New York physicians during the 1840s and 1850s, including several who wrote anti-onanist works. Representative of these was Edward H. Dixon, author of a number of quasi-popular articles on "Onanism" and "Spermatorrhea" which appeared in book form in the years preceding the first Leaves of Grass…. Whitman frequently reviewed and reprinted Dixon's pronouncements on sexuality and hygiene during his editorship of the Brooklyn Daily Times in the 1840s, and he entered the addresses of the physician's home and office in a notebook in 1856. Dixon was a leading American 'expert' on 'spermatorrhea,' a diagnostic category which commanded much attention in the medical literature (and patent medical advertising) of the time. The sufferer of this 'disorder' had supposedly (owing to excessive masturbation) lost any ability to control his seminal flow and become subject to continual debilitating seminal "discharges." Thousands of male victims of gonorrheal or other urinary-tract infections, as well as men who were simply anxious about experiencing 'wet-dreams,' must have misdiagnosed their 'complaints' (or been misdiagnosed by physicians) and relied on 'spermatorrhea' remedies, which included such extreme and painful practices as cauterization of the urethra. – Michael Moon (WhitmanArchive)

Publications

• Dixon EH (1845): Ch. IX: Phimosis and Circumcision, in: A Treatise on Diseases of the Sexual Organs. New York: William Taylor. Pp. 158-65. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
• Authors: Dixon, Edward H. 1808-1880, National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
• Edward H. Dixon, Google Books. Retrieved 30 October 2021.