to take place more frequently in
men, although in women, as we have found ground for concluding, they
reverberate much more widely and impressively on the waking psychical
life.

We owe to Restif de la Bretonne what is perhaps the earliest
precise description of a woman masturbating. In 1755 he knew a
dark young woman, plain but well-made, and of warm temperament,
educated in a convent. She was observed one day, when gazing from
her window at a young man in whom she was tenderly interested, to
become much excited. "Her movements became agitated; I approached
her, and really believe that she was uttering affectionate
expressions; she had become red. Then she sighed deeply, and
became motionless, stretching out her legs, which she stiffened,
as if she felt pain." It is further hinted that her hands took
part in this manoeuvre (_Monsieur Nicolas_, vol. vi, p. 143).

Pictorial representations of a woman masturbating also occur in
eighteenth century engravings. Thus, in France, Baudouin's "Le
Midi" (reproduced in Fuchs's _Das Erotische Element in der
Karikatur_, Fig. 92), represents an elegant young lady in a
rococo garden-bower; she has been reading a book she has now just
dropped, together with her sunshade; she leans languorously back,
and her hand begins to find its way through her placket-hole.

Adler, who has studied masturbation in women with more care than
any previous writer, has recorded in detail the auto-erotic
manifestations involved in the case of an intelligent and
unprejudiced woman, aged 30, who had begun masturbating when
twenty, and practiced it at intervals of a few weeks. She
experienced the desire for sexual gratification under the
following circumstances: (1) spontaneously, directly before or
after menstruation; (2) as a method to cure sleeplessness; (3)
after washing the parts with warm (but not cold) water; (4) after
erotic dreams; (5) quite suddenly, without definite cause. The
phenomena of the masturbatory process fell into two stages: (1)
incomplete excitement, (2) the highest pleasurable gratification.
It only took place in the evening, or at night, and a special
position was necessary, with the right knee bent, and the right
foot against the knee of the extended left leg. The bent index
and middle fingers of the right hand were then applied firmly to
th