Many of the doctors who wrote anti-masturbation texts were well-respected with the medical community. Pancoast himself was "Professor of Microscopic Anatomy, Physiology, and the Institutes of Medicine, in Penn Medical University, Philadelphia." In their role as doctors, Pancoast and others made a concerted effort to connect masturbation and other sexual practices they deemed excessive to the very real venereal diseases--such as gonorrhea and syphilis. The illustration on the left shows, which shows (in rather exaggerated terms) the effects of these venereal diseases, was placed between illustrations that show the effects of "onanism" (the illustrations already displayed on the main "Representations of Men" page).