.
Frequently the climbing of the pole in the gymnasium is regarded as
being the etiological factor in the induction of premature masturbation.
Experience shows that occasionally the first voluptuous sensations do
actually arise during the act of climbing the pole. A similar report is
made also in regard to the climbing of trees and of gymnastic exercises
on the parallel and horizontal bars. It is obvious that pressure on the
genital organs will very readily arise in these ways. But cases are
reported in which the child experiences sexual excitement from
exercising on the horizontal bar, not when he is straddling the bar, but
when he is hanging to it by the hands. It must in these cases remain
doubtful whether the sexual excitement results from the pressure of the
breeches, or is a direct result of the hanging posture. Where pressure
is exerted on the genital organs, it is not always the _strength_ of the
stimulus which is most significant. A nursemaid may do much more harm by
gently tickling a child's genital organs than by pressing them forcibly.
Nor have we to think only of the quality of the stimulus, but also of
its newness; for an unfamiliar stimulus may cause sexual excitement
simply because it is unfamiliar. Various stimuli have to be considered,
in addition to those previously enumerated. I may refer here to
flagellation. It is well known that in many children the first
experience of sexual excitement results from a whipping; indeed, a
perverse mode of sexual sensibility lasting throughout the whole of life
may thus originate. I shall return to this matter in the chapter on
Sexual Education. I will merely refer here to certain other stimuli
which have in many cases aroused sexual excitement for the first time.
Penta reports the case of a girl twelve years of age who first
experienced sexual excitement during a railway journey. Certain men have
informed me that they became sexually excited for the first time while
driving over a rough stone pavement. It is obvious in these cases that
the rapidly repeated succussion stimulates the peripheral genital
organs, and that in this way sexual sensibility is awakened. Havelock
Ellis[76] reports cases in which boys first experienced sexual pleasure
when wrestling. Thus, a physician wrote regarding a boy of twelve or
thirteen, that he experienced an extraordinarily pleasant sensation
whilst wrestling with another boy, and that thenceforward he sought
every opportunity to wres