One of these was Sylvester A. Graham (for whom Graham Crackers are named because he advocated unsifted flour). In his Lecture to Young Men (1834), he wrote on the dangers of excessive sex saying:
Languor, lassitude, muscular relaxation, general debility and heaviness, depression of spirits, loss of appetite, indigestion, faintness and sinking at the pit of the stomach, increased susceptibilities of the skin and lungs to all the atmospheric changes, feebleness of circulation, chilliness, headache, melancholy, hypochondria, hysterics, feebleness of all the senses, impaired vision, loss of sight, weakness of the lungs, nervous cough, pulmonary consumption, disorders of the genital organs, weakness of the brain, loss of memory, epilepsy, insanity, apoplexy – and extreme feebleness and early death of offspring – are among the too common evils which are caused by sexual excesses between husband and wife.
He recommended having intercourse only once a month and certainly not more than once a week.
Source:
Stephens, John Richard. “Weird Literature.” Weird History 101: Tales of Intrigue, Mayhem, and Outrageous Behavior. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2006. 219. Print.
Further Reading:
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