1. Another word is onanism.

2. The story of Onan (Genesis 38:7-10) is always cited as an example of how God will punish masturbators; this is where we get the term "Onanism," which refers to masturbation.

3. Commentators questioned why the poorest region in Spain was paying for a campaign to promote onanism.

4. In a "Science" column first published last summer and reprinted below, Daniel Engber examined onanism across the animal kingdom.

5. My Slate colleague William Saletan points out that a recent paper has laid the groundwork for a pro-life defense of onanism.

6. Not so long ago, doctors gave dire warnings about masturbation, writing all manner of treatises on the vice of onanism and its physically deleterious effects.