d excitable temperament, who could not find
sexual satisfaction with her lover, but only when masturbating,
which she did once or twice a day, or oftener; without
masturbation, she said, she would be in a much more nervous
state. A friend tells me of a married lady of 40, separated from
her husband on account of incompatibility, who suffered from
irregular menstruation; she tried masturbation, and, in her own
words, "became normal again;" she had never masturbated
previously. I have also been informed of the case of a young
unmarried woman, intellectual, athletic, and well developed, who,
from the age of seven or eight, has masturbated nearly every
night before going to sleep, and would be restless and unable to
sleep if she did not.

Judging from my own observations among both sexes, I should say that in
normal persons, well past the age of puberty, and otherwise leading a
chaste life, masturbation would be little practiced except for the
physical and mental relief it brings. Many vigorous and healthy unmarried
women or married women apart from their husbands, living a life of sexual
abstinence, have asserted emphatically that only by sexually exciting
themselves, at intervals, could they escape from a condition of nervous
oppression and sexual obsession which they felt to be a state of hysteria.
In most cases this happens about the menstrual period, and, whether
accomplished as a purely physical act--in the same way as they would
soothe a baby to sleep by rocking it or patting it--or by the co-operation
of voluptuous mental imagery, the practice is not cultivated for its own
sake during the rest of the month.

In illustration of the foregoing statements I will here record a
few typical observations of experiences with regard to
masturbation. The cases selected are all women, and are all in a
fairly normal, and, for the most part, excellent, state of
health; some of them, however, belong to somewhat neurotic
families, and these are persons of unusual mental ability and
intelligence.

OBSERVATION I.--Unmarried, aged 38. She is very vigorous and
healthy, of a strongly passionate nature, but never masturbated
until a few years ago, when she was made love to by a man who
used to kiss her, etc. Although she did not respond to these
advances, she was thrown into a state of restless sexual
excitement; on one occasion, when