Obscene
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
Offensive to the general moral sense of the community, by reason of tendency to excite the lustful passions of the sensual; indecent; lewd; prurient. Obscenity: the character or quality of thus offending; also, the offence of disseminating, exhibiting, or uttering, in public, that which is indecent, lewd, or prurient.
Obscene publication
The question whether a publication is obscene does not depend upon its being true or false, but upon its tendency to inflame the passions and debauch society. That which offends modesty, is indecent and lewd, and tends to the creation of lascivious desires, is obscene; and this tendency is matter of fact, to be judged by the jui-y. A book purporting to give medical instruction may be amenable to the law as an obscene publication; and the testimony of scientific men, that its statements and descriptions are true, will not be a justification, if debauch society for the purpose of gain, rather than to benefit the public.
See Commonwealth v. Landis, 8 Phila. 453.