ed nor admitted because it is easy to conceal.
Although depressing for those whose will power is overcome by an
excitation which they cannot conquer, it is relatively the least
dangerous form of onanism. At the most it leads to a certain amount of
nervous and mental exhaustion by abuse of the facility of thus
procuring a venereal orgasm. The loss of substance from frequent
seminal ejaculations is also more or less weakening, although the
secretion from the prostate plays a much greater part than the semen.
But what especially affects the nervous system, is the repeated loss
of the will, and the failure of resolutions made many times to
overcome the desire for orgasm.

Here, as elsewhere, effect is too often confounded with cause. Because
men of feeble will power are addicted to onanism, it is imagined that
the latter is the cause of the weakness of will. In itself, a seminal
ejaculation provoked by masturbation is no more dangerous than a
nocturnal emission; both are often accompanied by nervous sensations
which are more disagreeable and exhausting than normal coitus. I must,
however, point out that the effects of moderate masturbation in the
adult have been greatly exaggerated, either by confounding the effect
with its cause, or for mercenary objects, by driving timid persons to
charlatans or to prostitutes.

The active sexual appetite of man, increased by the accumulation of
semen, is absent in woman. She does not have nocturnal emissions
accompanied by voluptuous sensations which spontaneously awaken sexual
desire. For this reason a pathological sexual excitability is
necessary to spontaneously provoke in woman voluptuous dreams or
masturbation. For the same reason we cannot speak of compensatory
masturbation in woman. Onanism, however, is not uncommon among women,
although less frequent than in men. It results either from artificial
and local excitations, from bad example, or from pathological
hyperaesthesia. When once the habit is acquired, repetition is produced
by the difficulty of resisting voluptuous desires.

Women perform masturbation by friction of the clitoris with the
finger, or by introducing various hard and rounded objects into the
vagina and imitating the movements of coitus; often also by rubbing
the crossed thighs against each other. In the insane, masturbation is
sometimes practiced to an excessive extent. Some hysterical women
introduce objects into the urethra during masturbation and cause
sev