ind the evil results for posterity from such an
accumulation of the sexual appetite.

MASTURBATION OR ONANISM

The term onanism is derived from the name of Onan, son of Juda and
Suah and grandson of Israel. According to the Old Testament, Onan's
father wished him to marry his brother's widow and have children by
her; but this did not please Onan, and he provoked ejaculation of
semen by friction, in order to avoid having children by his
sister-in-law. "This offended God who slew him."

We have already shown that in the child the sexual appetite manifests
itself in a kind of obscure presentiment and vague sensations in the
genital organs. If a young man cannot satisfy his sexual appetite
naturally, the latter when it increases in strength provokes erotic
dreams and nocturnal emissions; or artificial excitation of the penis
may be practiced to produce orgasms: the latter phenomenon is called
_masturbation_.

Masturbation in man is performed by friction of the penis with the
hand or against some soft body. In the latter case especially erotic
images of naked women or female sexual organs is associated with
onanism. This kind of masturbation may be called _compensatory_,
because it does not depend on an anomaly of the sexual appetite, but
serves to satisfy a natural want by compensation. There are a whole
series of manipulations employed for the same object, which constitute
the psychic equivalent of compensating masturbation. _In remote
garrisons and in boys' schools the more libidinous individuals,
usually those mentally tainted, often practice mutual masturbation or
sodomy. This is the sex complex of the degenerate individual and in an
effort to exterminate these pathological manifestations, they are
being penalized by law, throughout the civilized world. It is
unnecessary to prolong this enumeration. Those we have mentioned are
the most common and it is agreed that men who are addicted to these
practices are decidedly psychopathic, whether it may be caused by
faulty heredity or anomaly in the psychology of the individual, this
still remains to be proven. In reality they are often normal in other
respects, but simply affected with sexual hyperaesthesia. Sometimes
they are feeble-minded individuals who have recourse to such practices
because they are derided by women. Others are cynics, more or less
vicious in other respects._

Compensatory masturbation is extremely widespread, but it is as a rule
neither recogniz