Étude sur la Flagellation

A Medical Treatise or Erotic Bible?

Published in Paris in 1899 by Dr. Jean Martin Charcot’s circle (anonymously, under the pseudonym Docteur Jaf), Étude sur la Flagellation à travers le monde au point de vue médical, historique, religieux, domestique et conjugal is the most exhaustive 19th-century study of spanking, birching, and ritual punishment ever written. At 400+ pages with over 100 illustrations, anatomical diagrams, historical engravings, and staged photos of birch rods in action it masquerades as a medical dissertation. But make no mistake: this is erotica disguised as science.

Inside the Pages

Chapter 1: L’Histoire – Flagellation from ancient Greece to the Victorian boudoir
Chapter 3: La Flagellation Domestique – Spanking in marriage, illustrated with real birch bundles
Chapter 5: La Flagellation Religieuse – Monks, nuns, and the ecstatic whip
Appendix: 20 full-page plates of implements — canes, martinets, Scottish tawses

The rod is not merely punishment — it is communication between flesh and soul.
Docteur Jaf, p. 287

The Anonymous Author

Likely Dr. Jacobus Landouzy or a Charcot disciple, the author hides behind initials to avoid scandal. Yet the text is obsessively detailed: Measurements of ideal birch length (60–75 cm), skin reaction charts after 10, 20, 30 strokes & case studies of “flagellomanie” in Parisian high society.
Only 500 copies were printed in 1899. In 1900 the book was banned in France. It is very rare book to find (as collectors item).

Carrington’s Flagellation Offshoots

From the unillustrated 1899 Étude, Charles Carrington spun a clandestine series of illustrated editions and thematic derivatives—each expanding the original’s “medical” survey into visual erotica. Below: galleries from the key expansions, be sure to check the larger collection via Vintage Bdsm Art.

Scenes (1899) perhaps illustrated by Adolphe Lalouze (1838 – 1906)_{Vintage Bdsm Art}