using their forelegs as a stimulus, bringing up their hind quarters, and
mares rub themselves against objects. I am informed by a gentleman who is
a recognized authority on goats, that they sometimes take the penis into
the mouth and produce actual orgasm, thus practicing auto-fellatio. As
regards ferrets, the Rev. H. Northcote states: "I am informed by a
gentleman who has had considerable experience of ferrets, that if the
bitch, when in heat, cannot obtain a dog she pines and becomes ill. If a
smooth pebble is introduced into the hutch, she will masturbate upon it,
thus preserving her normal health for one season. But if this artificial
substitute is given to her a second season, she will not, as formerly, be
content with it."[179]

Stags in the rutting season, when they have no partners, rub themselves
against trees to produce ejaculation. Sheep masturbate; as also do camels,
pressing themselves down against convenient objects; and elephants
compress the penis between the hind legs to obtain emissions.[180]
Blumenbach observed a bear act somewhat similarly on seeing other bears
coupling, and hyenas, according to Ploss and Bartels, have been seen
practicing mutual masturbation by licking each other's genitals. Mammary
masturbation, remarks Fere, is found in certain female and even male
animals, like the dog and the cat.[181] Apes are much given to
masturbation, even in freedom, according to the evidence of good
observers; for while no female apes are celibates, many of the males are
obliged to lead a life of celibacy.[182] Male monkeys use the hand in
masturbation, to rub and shake the penis.[183]

In the human species these phenomena are by no means found in civilization
alone. To whatever extent masturbation may have been developed by the
conditions of European life, which carry to the utmost extreme the
concomitant stimulation, and repression of the sexual emotions, it is far
from being, as Mantegazza has declared it to be, one of the moral
characteristics of Europeans.[184] It is found among the people of nearly
every race of which we have any intimate knowledge, however natural the
conditions under which men and women may live.[185] Thus, among the Nama
Hottentots, among the young women at all events, Gustav Fritsch found that
masturbation is so common that it is regarded as a custom of the country;
no secret is made of it, and in the stories and legends of the race it is
treated as one of the most ordinary fact