He devoted an 83-page chapter to the study of migraine in his Traité des nerfs et de leurs maladies (Treatise on the nerves and nervous disorders).

[3] Citing case studies of young male masturbators amongst his patients in Lausanne as basis for his reasoning, Tissot argued that semen was an "essential oil" and "stimulus" that, when lost from the body in great amounts, would cause "a perceptible reduction of strength, of memory and even of reason; blurred vision, all the nervous disorders, all types of gout and rheumatism, weakening of the organs of generation, blood in the urine, disturbance of the appetite, headaches and a great number of other disorders."

The authority with which the work was subsequently treated — Tissot's arguments were even acknowledged and echoed by Kant and Voltaire — arguably turned the perception of masturbation in Western medicine over the next two centuries into that of a debilitating illness.

[4] Tissot's most famous work in his lifetime was Avis au peuple sur sa santé (1761), arguably the greatest medical best-seller of the eighteenth century.

[5] On 1 April 1787, Napoleon Bonaparte wrote to Dr. Tissot complimenting him on spending his “days in treating humanity” noting that his “reputation has reached even into the mountains of Corsica” and describing “the respect I have for your works…"[6]