case not till the age of 40, and then only occasionally. In
at least 8 it was only practised at puberty; in at least 8, however, it
began before the age of puberty; at least 9 left off before about the age
of 20. Unfortunately, as yet, we have little definite evidence as to the
prevalence and extent of masturbation among normal individuals.

Among the women masturbation is found in at least 5 cases out of 7. In 1
case there was no masturbation until comparatively late in life, and then
only at rare intervals and under exceptional circumstances. In another
case, some years after the homosexual attraction had been experienced, it
was practised, though not in excess, from the age of puberty for about
four years, and then abandoned; during these years the physical sexual
feelings were more imperative than they were afterward felt to be. In 2
cases masturbation was learned spontaneously soon after puberty, and in 1
of these practised in excess before the manifestations of inversion became
definite. In all cases the subjects are emphatic in asserting that this
practice neither led to, nor was caused by, the homosexual attraction,
which they regard as a much higher feeling, and it must be added that the
occasional practice of masturbation is very far from rare among fairly
normal women.[192]

While this is so, I am certainly inclined to believe that an early and
excessive indulgence in masturbation, though not an adequate cause, is a
favoring condition for the development of inversion, and that this is
especially so in women. The sexual precocity indicated by early and
excessive masturbation doubtless sometimes reveals an organism already
predisposed to homosexuality. But, apart from this, when masturbation
arises spontaneously at an early age on a purely physical basis it seems
to tend to produce a divorce between the physical and the psychic aspects
of sexual love. The sexual manifestations are all diverted into this
physical direction, and the child is ignorant that such phenomena are
normally allied to love; then, when a more spiritual attraction appears
with adolescent development, this divorce is perpetuated. Instead of the
physical and psychic feelings appearing together when the age for sexual
attraction comes, the physical feelings are prematurely twisted from their
natural end, and it becomes abnormally easy for a person of the same sex
to step in and take the place rightfully belonging to a person of the
opposite s