Krafft-Ebing's own cases of genuine Urnings that early onanism is by no
means more frequent among them than among normal males. Five marked
specimens showed no inclination for self-abuse. The first (p. 128) says:
"As I never masturbated and felt no inclination for it, I sometimes had
a nocturnal pollution." The second (p. 155): "You will be surprised to
hear that before my twenty-eighth year I never had any ejaculation of
semen, either by nocturnal emissions, or by masturbation, or by contact
with a man." The third (p. 172): "Onanism is a miserable makeshift, and
pernicious, whereas homosexual love elevates the moral and strengthens
the physical nature." The fourth (p. 163): "I had an internal horror of
onanism, although from the very first appearance of puberty I was
sensually very excitable and troubled with persistent erections." The
fifth (p. 142) is not so clear; but it is obvious from his remarks that
the first ejaculation of semen which happened to him did so at the sight
of a handsome soldier: "feeling my parts moistened, I was horribly
frightened and thought it was a haemorrhage." Some of the cases do not
mention the subject at all. A good many seem to have begun to masturbate
early; but the proportion is not excessive to the whole number. One
Urning explains the _faute de mieux_ system (p. 115): "If we have no
friend, whose sexual company has become needful to the preservation of
our health, and if we abandon ourselves at last to masturbation alone
with our imagination, then indeed do we become ill." Another speaks as
follows (p. 151): "Homosexual indulgence with a man gave me enjoyment
and a consequent feeling of well-being, whereas onanism _faute de mieux_
produced an opposite result."

[27] P. 82. Herodotus called it "the female disease."

[28] P. 86, _et seq._

[29] P. 88, _et seq._

[30] Henceforward we may use the word Urning without apology; for
however the jurists and men of science repudiate Ulrichs' doctrine, they
have adopted his designation for a puzzling and still unclassified
member of the human race. A Dr. Kaserer, of Vienna, is said to have
invented the term Urning.

[31] This is a hit at Westphal, Krafft-Ebing's predecessor, who laid
down the doctrine that Urnings are conscious of their own morbidity. Of
course, both authorities are equally right. Approach an Urning with
terrors of social opinion and law; and he will confess his dreadful
apprehensions. Approach him from the point of view