incter or
orifice, though not always so limited. E.H. Smith, indeed, considers that
"the urethra is the part in which the orgasm occurs," and remarks that in
sexual excitement mucus always flows largely from the urethra.[198] It
should be added that when once introduced the physiological mechanism of
the bladder apparently causes the organ to tend to "swallow" the foreign
object. Yet for every case in which the hair-pin disappears and is lost
in the bladder, from carelessness or the oblivion of the sexual spasm,
there must be a vast number of cases in which the instrument is used
without any such unfortunate result. There is thus great significance in
the frequency with which cases of hair-pin in the bladder are strewn
through the medical literature of all countries.

In 1862, a German surgeon found the accident so common that he invented a
special instrument for extracting hair-pins from the female bladder, as,
indeed, Italian and French surgeons have also done. In France, Denuce, of
Bordeaux, came to the conclusion that hair-pin in the bladder is the
commonest result of masturbation as known to the surgeon. In England cases
are constantly being recorded. Lawson Tait, stating that most cases of
stone in the bladder in women are due to the introduction of a foreign
body, very often a hair-pin, adds: "I have removed hair-pins encrusted
with phosphates from ten different female bladders, and not one of the
owners of these bladders would give any account of the incident."[199]
Stokes, again, records that during four years he had four cases of
hair-pin in the female urethra.[200] In New York one physician met with
four cases in a short experience.[201] In Switzerland Professor Reverdin
had a precisely similar experience.[202]

There is, however, another class of material objects, widely employed for
producing physical auto-erotism, which in the nature of things never
reaches the surgeon. I refer to the effects that, naturally or
unnaturally, may be produced by many of the objects and implements of
daily life that do not normally come in direct contact with the sexual
organs. Children sometimes, even when scarcely more than infants, produce
sexual excitement by friction against the corner of a chair or other piece
of furniture, and women sometimes do the same.[203] Guttceit, in Russia,
knew women who made a large knot in their chemises to rub against, and
mentions a woman who would sit on her naked heel and rub it against he