wenfeld believes that epileptic
attacks are certainly caused by masturbation. Fere thought that both
epilepsy and hysteria may be caused by masturbation.

[334] Ziemssen's _Handbuch_, Bd. XI.

[335] _Adolescence_, vol. i, p. 441.

[336] See a discussion of these points by Rohleder, _Die Masturbation_,
pp. 168-175.

[337] The surgeons, it may be remarked, have especially stated the
harmlessness of masturbation in too absolute a manner. Thus, John Hunter
(_Treatise on the Venereal Disease_, 1786, p. 200), after pointing out
that "the books on this subject have done more harm than good," adds, "I
think I may affirm that this act does less harm to the constitution in
general than the natural." And Sir James Paget, in his lecture on "Sexual
Hypochondriasis," said: "Masturbation does neither more nor less harm than
sexual intercourse practiced with the same frequency, in the same
conditions of general health and age and circumstances."

[338] It is interesting to note that an analogous result seems to hold
with animals. Among highly-bred horses excessive masturbation is liable to
occur with injurious results. It is scarcely necessary to point out that
highly-bred horses are apt to be abnormal.

[339] With regard to the physical signs, the same conclusion is reached by
Legludic (in opposition to Martineau) on the basis of a large experience.
He has repeatedly found, in young girls who acknowledged frequent
masturbation, that the organs were perfectly healthy and normal, and his
convictions are the more noteworthy, since he speaks as a pupil of
Tardieu, who attached very grave significance to the local signs of sexual
perversity and excess. (Legludic, _Notes et Observations de Medecine
Legale_, 1896, p. 95.) Matthews Duncan (_Goulstonian Lectures on Sterility
in Women_, 1884, p. 97) was often struck by the smallness, and even
imperfect development, of the external genitals of women who masturbate.
Clara Barrus considers that there is no necessary connection between
hypertrophy of the external female genital organs and masturbation, though
in six cases of prolonged masturbation she found such a condition in three
(_American Journal of Insanity_, April, 1895, p. 479). Bachterew denies
that masturbation produces enlargement of the penis, and Hammond considers
there is no evidence to show that it enlarges the clitoris, while Guttceit
states that it does not enlarge the nymphae; this, however, is doubtful. It
would not suffice