mention one instance known to me: a married
lady who is a leader in social-purity movements and an enthusiast for
sexual chastity, discovered, through reading some pamphlet against
solitary vice, that she had herself been practicing masturbation for years
without knowing it. The profound anguish and hopeless despair of this
woman in face of what she believed to be the moral ruin of her whole life
cannot well be described. It would be easy to give further examples,
though scarcely a more striking one, to show the utter confusion into
which we are thrown by leaving this matter in the hands of blind leaders
of the blind. Moreover, the conditions of modern civilization render
auto-erotism a matter of increasing social significance. As our
marriage-rate declines, and as illicit sexual relationships continue to be
openly discouraged, it is absolutely inevitable that auto-erotic phenomena
of one kind or another, not only among women but also among men, should
increase among us both in amount and intensity. It becomes, therefore, a
matter of some importance, both to the moralist and the physician, to
investigate the psychological nature of these phenomena and to decide
precisely what their attitude should be toward them.

I do not purpose to enter into a thorough discussion of all the aspects of
auto-erotism. That would involve a very extensive study indeed. I wish to
consider briefly certain salient points concerning auto-erotic phenomena,
especially their prevalence, their nature, and their moral, physical, and
other effects. I base my study partly on the facts and opinions which
during the last thirty years have been scattered through the periodical
and other medical literature of Europe and America, and partly on the
experience of individuals, especially of fairly normal individuals.

Among animals in isolation, and sometimes in freedom--though this can less
often be observed--it is well known that various forms of spontaneous
solitary sexual excitement occur. Horses when leading a lazy life may be
observed flapping the penis until some degree of emission takes place.
Welsh ponies, I learn from a man who has had much experience with these
animals, habitually produce erections and emissions in their stalls; they
do not bring their hind quarters up during this process, and they close
their eyes, which does not take place when they have congress with mares.
The same informant observed that bulls and goats produce emissions by