In the Encyclopédie (1765), the anonymous author of the article, “Manstupration” [“Masturbation”] states: “Masturbation that is not habitual, not prompted by impulsive and passionate desires, and is, all things considered, motivated only by need is not in any way harmful and, therefore, in no way wrong (10:51, col. 2). This bold assertion appears again in Denis Diderot's La Suite de I'Entretien [Continuation of the Discussion] (1769) in a delightfully impudent manner: “Nature tolerates nothing useless, how then am I to blame for assisting her when called to do so by unmistakable promptings? Rather than resisting nature, should we not lend a helping hand when the need arises?”

More attentive perhaps to the similarity of theme than to the differences in style, J. Assézat and Maurice Tourneux included the article in their edition of Diderot's Oeuvres Complètes (16:97), at the cost, however, of a small but vital alteration. When annotating the same passage of La Suite, Jean Varloot wrote: “Diderot had placed in the Encyclopédie the article “Manstupration” in which the same ideas are expressed.” Varloot mistook the article's cogent manner of expression as Diderot's (“la phrase diderotienne”), whereas the article's substance is actually a faithful resumé of Samuel Tissot's treatise, L'Onanisme, ou dissertation physique sur les maladies produities par la manstupration [Onanism, or scientific dissertation on illnesses caused by masturbation] (Lausanne, 1760). Meanwhile, Jean Mayer pointed out the false assertion of Assézat-Tourneaux but mistakenly attributed the article in question to Hugues Maret, secretary of the Académie de Dijon.