Wednesday, December 1, 2010 11:47:59 PM
It was also considered a health issue, but that was mainly because masturbation was being preached as the main cause of bad health. Circumcision was promoted as stopping masturbation and therefore stopping all the bad health caused by masturbation, and was seen as a health issue on that basis.
Just read the stuff from ~1800 to ~1900 and you'll see what I mean. They blamed masturbation for almost every health issue.