unt
of that purely physical effect to which attention has already
been called. In the same way self-beating with a switch or whip
has sometimes been spontaneously discovered as a method of
self-excitement preliminary to masturbation. I am acquainted with
a lady of much intellectual ability, sexually normal, who made
this discovery at the age of 18, and practised it for a time.
Professor Reverdin, also, speaks of the case of a young girl
under his care who, after having exhausted all the resources of
her intelligence, finally discovered that the climax of enjoyment
was best reached by violently whipping her own buttocks and
thighs. She had invented for this purpose a whip composed of
twelve cords each of which terminated in a large chestnut-burr
provided with its spines. (A. Reverdin, _Revue Medicale de la
Suisse Romande_, January 20, 1888, p. 17.)

FOOTNOTES:

[107] The discipline or scourge was classed with fasting as a method of
mastering the flesh and of penance. See, e.g., Lea, _History of Auricular
Confession_, vol. ii, p. 122. For many centuries bishops and priests used
themselves to apply the discipline to their penitents. At first it was
applied to the back; later, especially in the case of female penitents, it
was frequently applied to the nates. Moreover, partial or complete nudity
came to be frequently demanded, the humiliation thereby caused being
pleasant in the sight of God.

[108] Dulaure, _Des Divinites Generatrices_, ch. xv; Lea, _History of
Sacerdotal Celibacy_, 3d ed., vol. ii, p. 278; Kiernan, "Asceticism as an
Auto-erotism," _Alienist and Neurologist_, Aug., 1911.

[109] This is the opinion of Loewenfeld, _Ueber die Sexuelle Konstitution_,
p. 43.

[110] Thus, Duehren (Iwan Bloch) remarks (_Der Marquis de Sade und Seine
Zeit_, 1901, p. 211): "It is well known that England is today the classic
land of sexual flagellation." See the same author's _Geschlechtsleben in
England_, vol. ii, ch. vi. In America it appears also to be common, and
Kiernan mentions that in advertisements of Chicago "massage shops" there
often appears the announcement: "Flagellation a Specialty." The reports of
police inspectors in eighteenth century France show how common
flagellation then was in Paris. It may be added that various men of
distinguished intellectual ability of recent times and earlier are
reported as addicted to passive flagellation; this was the case