through the influence of evil thoughts, was recognized as a sin, though usually only if it occurred in church.  In Egbert’s Penitential of the eighth or ninth century (cap.  IX, 12), the penance assigned for this offence in the case of a deacon, is 25 days; in the case of a monk, 30 days; a priest, 40 days; a bishop, 50. (Haddon and Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, vol. iii, p. 426.)

The frequency of spontaneous orgasm in women seems to have been recognized in the seventeenth century.  Thus, Schurig (Syllepsilogia, p. 4), apparently quoting Riolan, states that some women are so wanton that the sight of a handsome man, or of their lover, or speech with such a one, will cause them to ejaculate their semen.

There is, however, a closely allied, and, indeed, overlapping form of auto-erotism which may be considered here:  I mean that associated with revery, or day-dreaming.  Although this is a very common and important form of auto-erotism, besides being in a large proportion of cases the early stage of masturbation, it appears to have attracted little attention.[226] The day-dream has, indeed, been studied in its chief form, in the “continued story,” by Mabel Learoyd, of Wellesley College.  The continued story is an imagined narrative, more or less peculiar to the individual, by whom it is cherished with fondness, and regarded as an especially sacred mental possession, to be shared only, if at all, with very sympathizing friends.  It is commoner among girls and young women than among boys and young men; among 352 persons of both sexes, 47 per cent. among the women and only 14 per cent. among the men, have any continued story.  The starting-point is an incident from a book, or, more usually, some actual experience, which the subject develops; the subject is nearly always the hero or the heroine of the story.  The growth of the story is favored by solitude, and lying in bed before going to sleep is the time specially sacred to its cultivation.[227] No distinct reference, perhaps naturally enough, is made by Miss Learoyd to the element of sexual emotion with which these stories are often strongly tinged, and which is frequently their real motive.  Though by no means easy to detect, these elaborate and more or less erotic day-dreams are not uncommon in young men and especially in young women.  Each individual has his own particular dream, which is always varying or developing, but, except in very imaginative persons, to no great extent.  Such a day-dream is often founded on a basis of pleasurable personal experience, and develops on that basis.  It may involve an element of perversity, even though that element finds no expression in real life.  It is, of course, fostered by sexual abstinence; hence its frequency in young women.  Most usually there is little attempt to realize it.  It does not necessarily lead to masturbation, though it often causes some sexual congestion or even spontaneous sexual orgasm.  The day-dream