Henry knew it was wrong, a sin, criminal even, but he couldn’t help himself. Surrounded by sleeping boys, he lay on a straw filled mat.

Raising his head, he glanced at the boys next to him. To his left, Tobias Wright lay on his back, his mouth open, snoring softly. On the other side, Archie Pearson lay on his side facing Henry, but his eyes were closed. Henry watched him for a moment, measuring his breathing. It was slow and regular. He’s asleep, Henry thought.

But why shouldn’t Archie be asleep? Worked fourteen hours a day, the boys were always tired, and most fell asleep soon after lying down. Henry would be asleep himself if not for his hard, aching, cock. It throbbed, yearning for the touch of his hand. He hadn’t stroked it for four days, and he knew he wouldn’t sleep until he had.

“Masturbation is a sin,” Dr. Blandford told them. “Engaging in this despicable practice will ruin your health and drive you insane. Any boy caught masturbating will be severely punished.”

Henry had been caught masturbating on several occasions, and he had been punished. He had scars on his back from the lashings he’d received, and one of his balls, small and hard, was half the size of the other. Rats – they never called him that to his face, of course – Mr. Ratcliff, had struck him in the balls with the encourager, a stick a foot and a half long, which he used on any boy he felt wasn’t working hard enough.

Along with other boys, Henry had been in the woods behind the workhouse chopping firewood.

Needing to shit, he had stepped behind a bush. It had been days since he’d masturbated, and his cock was hard. Seemingly, on its own, his hand had found his cock and had begun stoking it. Lost in the sensation, Henry hadn’t seen Ratcliff until Ratcliff had jerked him up by his collar and had begun striking him in the balls with his stick.

Henry had awakened in the infirmary, his balls swollen, each the size of a peach. Dr. Blandford hadn’t expected his balls to recover, and one of them hadn’t, but one had, and the need to stoke his cock hadn’t diminished with the loss of one of his balls.

Dr. Blandford said masturbating would drive him insane, but Henry felt he would go insane, if he didn’t masturbate. How could something that felt so good be so bad?

Henry slid his hand into his trousers, wrapping it around his hard cock. He squeezed his cock, closing his eyes, relishing the sensation. I won’t do it, he told himself, but he knew he would.

He didn’t know when he began stroking his cock; it wasn’t a conscious decision. “Oh, oh, oh,” he heard someone moan, not realizing it was he, lost in his orgasm, conscious only of the hot seed spurting onto his stomach. When at last, he opened his eyes, he stared into Archie’s blue eyes.

Henry could smell the pungent odor of his sperm, and no doubt, Archie could, too. Besides, Henry’s hand still clutched his cock.

“You say anything, and I’ll fix you,” he told Archie, but he wasn’t certain that would do any good. Archie had been castrated for masturbation, and the intact boys, Henry included, teased and bullied him. Everyone suspected that Archie was a snitch.

Dr. Blandford had threatened Henry with castration, but no boy had been castrated for over a year, not since two newly castrated boys had died. Also, castrated boys lost much of their strength and stamina and couldn’t do the work intact boys could. Henry suspected that was the real reason Dr. Blandford no longer castrated boys.

Without replying to Henry’s threats, Archie rolled over onto his other side, facing away from Henry, who watched him, intending to keep watching until he was certain Archie was asleep; but it had been a long day, and Henry soon fell asleep.

What seemed but a moment later, he was jerked awake, his torso raised off the mat, the front of his shirt clasped in Ratcliff’s hand. Ratcliff’s other hand pulled down Henry’s trousers. The cum on Henry’s front hadn’t yet dried. Archie stood grinning behind Ratcliff.

“Go back to sleep,” Ratcliff growled at boys awakened by the noise. “This boy is a masturbator, and he’s about to suffer the fate of all masturbators.” Ratcliff grinned once the boys had looked away. With the board’s approval, Dr. Blandford had a new cure in mind for masturbators and had instructed Ratcliff to bring him those boys most urgently in need of being cured of the need to masturbate.

All along, Ratcliff had intended for Henry Donegan to be one of the boys subjected to the cure. He had tried imposing his own cure by smashing the boy’s balls, but had only half succeeded, killing but one of the boy’s balls. The boy was some Irish whore’s get, and Ratcliff hated the Irish.

He didn’t need to catch Henry in the act, but Henry hadn’t been caught masturbating since Ratcliff had busted his balls, and Dr. Blandford had thought that might have cured him. Blandford required active, proven, masturbators on whom to demonstrate his cure. That’s why Ratcliff had set Archie Pearson to watching Henry. The effort had paid off. Now, the little shit would get his comeuppance.

Only that day, Dr. Blandford had appeared before the board. “As you know,” he said, masturbation is evil and can lead to insanity and death. The practice of it is rampant in our institution. It is suspected that all our pubescent boys engage in this evil practice from time to time. Whereas an occasional masturbator might not suffer immediate physical or mental consequences, he does put his soul at risk, and chances are, he will eventually become a habitual masturbator.”

“A habitual masturbator or onanist,” he continued, “presents an aspect of languor, weakness, and thinness. His countenance is pale, sunken, flabby - often leaden - with dark circles around sunken eyes. His voice is feeble and hoarse, and he experiences fatigue at the least exertion. He also suffers from palpitations, obscured vision, dizziness, painful cramps, convulsive, epileptic like, movements, pains in the limbs or at the back of the head, pains in the spine, breast, or stomach, great weakness in the back, and loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, leading to progressive emaciation. Sometimes the body is bent, and often there are all the appearances of pulmonary consumption.”

“But while the physical symptoms are grave, the moral degradation goes further. Prominent characteristics are loss of memory and intelligence, morose and unequal disposition, aversion or indifference to legitimate pleasures and sports, mental abstractions, and stupid stolidity. According to the distinguished German physician, Gottlieb Wogel, ‘The masturbator gradually loses his moral faculties: he acquires a dull, silly, listless, embarrassed, sad, effeminate exterior. He becomes indolent, adverse to and incapable of all intellectual exertion. All presence of mind deserts him. He is discountenanced, troubled and in quiet in company; he is taken by surprise and even alarmed by a child’s simple question; his feeble soul succumbs to the lightest task; his memory diminishes daily; previously acquired knowledge is forgotten; and the most exquisite intelligence becomes naught.’”

“According to Dr. Franck masturbators are not only a charge upon society, but are even dangerous.”

Dr. Blandford continued, “Consider this poor creature, the habitual masturbator, this degraded being; behold him bent under the weight of crime and infamy, dragging in darkness a remnant of material and animal life. He has sinned against God, against nature, and against himself. He has disfigured the image of God in his own person and has changed it into that of the beast. His dull and stupid glance can no longer raise itself toward Heaven; he descends little by little into death, and a last convulsive crisis comes at last, bringing to close this strange and horrible drama.”

“It is our duty, Gentlemen,” Blandford said, looking around the table at the board members, “it is our God given responsibility to stop this dreadful practice however we can, by whatever means at our disposal.”

“Can’t we just geld them?” asked Roger Abernathy, one of the board members. “Won’t that stop them from masturbating?”

“In most cases it will,” said Dr. Blandford, “but removal of the testes results in the loss of strength and stamina, and in many instances, results in feminization of the gelded boy. Too, it’s a risky operation. We lose five to ten percent of the boys we geld either to blood loss or infection.”

“And this procedure you propose?” asked Harrington Smyth, the director of Covington House, a workhouse for orphan and wayward boys. “Does it work and are there fewer negative consequences?”

“Yes,” said Blandford. “Dr. T. Batty Tuke tells us that the amputation of the glans alone was attended with the best of results. Full amputation will, of course, have the desired result, but it incurs a much greater risk of complications. When the entire penis is removed it is difficult to keep the urethra from closing and suturing is required to prevent excessive blood loss. We might lose a full twenty percent of such boys, whereas in an examination of 455 cases admitted into the Royal Edinburgh Asylum all save two recovered rapidly and perfectly after the glans was removed using the Eames Guillotine method. The prognosis is generally favorable; most cases recover within two months of treatment without any complications from surgery. My own experience confirms this.”

“Do you propose using this method only on habitual masturbators?” asked Smyth. He already knew and approved of Blandford’s expected answer, but he wanted it voiced for the other board members.

“No,” said Blandford, “once I prove the efficacy of the use of the Eames Guillotine, I propose we use it on all our boys, even on those not yet pubescent. We need to nip this problem in the bud.” He smiled at his own small joke. “If we use it on prepubescent boys, they might never begin this onerous practice once they’ve achieved puberty.”

“Besides, some prepubescent boys masturbate even though they are unable to achieve ejaculation. At the present, we geld such boys, gelding not so risky for younger boys, but it doesn’t always stop the behavior, and never going through puberty, they don’t develop the muscle and strength required for strenuous labor. They’re better suited for the girl’s workhouse. If we subject them to the Eames Guillotine, they’ll be unable to masturbate but will still achieve puberty.”

“And you propose to use this thing,” an Eames Guillotine lay on the table, “on all boys, masturbators or not?” asked Donald Pickering, another member of the board. “Is that ethical?”

“All boys masturbate,” said Blandford.

“My sons do not,” said Pickering.

“Of course not, Mr. Pickering,” said Blandford. “I never meant to imply they did. I was referring to our boys, the boys housed in this institution, keeping in mind their lowly origins. Certainly, no well bred boy would masturbate.”

Blandford had masturbated as a boy, but that he had was a shameful secret he kept to himself. He had survived, but remembering the anguish and guilt he’d felt, he wished the Eames Guillotine had been around then. Perhaps, he would have used it on himself. Using it on the boys at Covington would be doing them a service. Someday, they would thank him for it.

The vote by the board allowing Blandford to use the guillotine on Covington’s boys was unanimous. Abernathy summed up the thoughts of the others, when he said, “What can it hurt? Even if it doesn’t work, what has it cost us?”

That it would cost each of the boys an inch and a half or so of his penis, was of no concern to any of the men.

“Go slow,” Smyth cautioned. “I take it there will be some recovery time, and we have contracts to fulfill. Use it on – say – six boys at a time. Once a boy is back to work, you can perform the procedure on another.”

“I have more than six that are in urgent need of this procedure,” said Blanford. “If we don’t stop their habitual masturbation soon, it may be too late.”

“How many then?” asked Smyth.

“Twelve,” said Blandford, “possibly thirteen. Mr. Ratcliff is recommending use of the device on young Donegan. The boy was definitely a masturbator, but after he sustained considerable injury to his testicles, I thought the problem had been solved. Apparently, however, one of his testicles survived, and according to Mr. Ratcliff, he is once again masturbating.”

Now, that night, Ratcliff stood in front of Blandford’s door, one hand gripping the arm of a half naked Henry Donegan. Henry's trousers had been left behind on the sleeping mat.

“I caught him masturbating,” Ratcliff said, when Blandford opened the door. He pointed to the dried semen on the boy’s front. “Do ye want to do him now?”

Blandford thought for a minute. “The board members want to see a demonstration of the use of the device, but it won’t hurt for me to practice on a boy or two first. Bring him in.” He led the way to the table he used, when he gelded and penectomized boys.

“No,” said Henry, when he saw the table. He’d heard other boys describe the table. It had straps for a boy’s arms and legs and straps for his chest and hips. “Don’t cut my balls off,” he pleaded. He struggled, but Ratcliff was too strong for him. With some assistance from Dr. Blandford, Henry was soon strapped to the table. “Don’t cut off my balls,” he said again.

“Hush, Boy,” said Blandford, “No one is cutting off your testicles.”

“Are you cutting off my cock, then?” asked Henry. He would rather lose his balls than his cock.

“Not all of it,” said Blandford, placing Henry’s penis into the guillotine, fitting it so the glans and another half inch of Henry’s penis extended beyond the front wall or fence of the guillotine. “This will hurt some, but it will be over quickly,” said Blandford, holding a blade at an angle to the guillotine fence, poised above Henry’s penis.

With a swift downward motion, the blade cut through the boy’s penis. The end of it fell onto his abdomen. Henry screamed. It didn’t hurt as much as having his balls smashed, but it hurt. It didn’t hurt as much as a beating hurt, but it hurt.

Blandford kept the end of Henry's penis compressed lessening the flow of blood from it. He nodded to Ratcliff. “Unstrap him,” he said. Once Henry was loose, Blandford said, “Hold the end of it together with your fingers, else you might bleed to death.” He showed Henry how to hold it.

“But it hurts,” said Henry.

“I’m certain you’ve had worse hurts than that,” said Blandford, looking at Henry’s scarred back. “Now, do as I say, or I might decide to remove your testicles while you’re here.”

Henry kept the end of his penis compressed. It looked strange missing the last inch and a half, missing its head. He sat, holding it compressed for a good half hour, after which Blandford bandaged it, and Ratcliff took him to the infirmary.

The next day, twelve other boys joined him in the infirmary. They, too, had shortened, bandaged penises.

A month later, Henry had his first orgasm since being subjected to the guillotine, but he hadn’t masturbated. It had occurred while he was asleep, during a dream. In the dream, his cock had been placed in the guillotine, and as Blandford cut off its end, he had ejaculated. He had awakened, his stub of a cock hard, hot cum spurting from it.

He had long before felt the need to masturbate, but the end of his cock hadn’t healed, and rubbing what was left of it produced little pleasurable sensation. He hadn’t been able to ejaculate.

Over the next several months, more and more boys were subjected to the guillotine. Once all the pubescent boys had been subjected to it, Blandford started on the prepubescent boys. Finally, every boy at Covington House had the end of his penis lopped off, and every new boy spent the first few days in the infirmary recovering from the ministrations of the guillotine.

A couple of boys hadn’t survived the guillotine, but their loss was acceptable to the board, and for the most part, the procedure worked. Few boys, unable to achieve orgasm without the ends of their cocks, masturbated.

Henry had, once his cock was healed, finding that by sticking a his middle finger up his ass while he pumped his stub, he could ejaculate, but he had been caught, and Blandford had cut off his balls and the rest of his penis.

That had cured Henry. Without balls, he no longer felt a need to masturbate. Without a cock, he couldn’t.