[288] There is no doubt an element of real truth in this ancient belief, though it mainly holds good of minor cases of hysteria.  Many excellent authorities accept it.  “Hysteria is certainly common in the single,” Herman remarks (Diseases of Women, 1898, p. 33), “and is generally cured by a happy marriage.”  Loewenfeld (Sexualleben und Nervenleiden, p. 153) says that “it cannot be denied that marriage produces a beneficial change in the general condition of many hysterical patients,” though, he adds, it will not remove the hysterical temperament.  The advantage of marriage for the hysterical is not necessarily due, solely or at all, to the exercise of sexual functions.  This is pointed out by Mongeri, who observes (Allgemeine Zeitschrift fuer Psychiatrie, 1901, Heft 5, p. 917):  “I have known and treated several hysterical girls who are now married, and do not show the least neuropathic indications.  Some of these no longer have any wish for sexual gratification, and even fulfil their marital duties unwillingly, though loving their husbands and living with them in an extremely happy way.  In my opinion, marriage is a sovereign remedy for neuropathic women, who need to find a support in another personality, able to share with them the battle of life.”

III.

The Prevalence of Masturbation—­Its Occurrence in Infancy and Childhood—­Is it More Frequent in Males or Females?—­After Adolescence Apparently more Frequent in Women—­Reasons for the Sexual Distribution of Masturbation—­The Alleged Evils of Masturbation—­Historical Sketch of the Views Held on This Point—­The Symptoms and Results of Masturbation—­Its Alleged Influence in Causing Eye Disorders—­Its Relation to Insanity and Nervous Disorders—­The Evil Effects of Masturbation Usually Occur on the Basis of a Congenitally Morbid Nervous System—­Neurasthenia Probably the Commonest Accompaniment of Excessive Masturbation—­Precocious Masturbation Tends to Produce Aversion to Coitus—­Psychic Results of Habitual Masturbation—­Masturbation in Men of Genius—­Masturbation as a Nervous Sedative—­Typical Cases—­The Greek Attitude toward Masturbation—­Attitude of the Catholic Theologians—­The Mohammedan Attitude—­The Modern Scientific Attitude—­In What Sense is Masturbation Normal?—­The Immense Part in Life Played by Transmuted Auto-erotic Phenomena.

The foregoing sketch will serve to show how vast is the field of life—­of normal and not merely abnormal life—­more or less infused by auto-erotic phenomena.  If, however, we proceed to investigate precisely the exact extent, degree, and significance of such phenomena, we are met by many difficulties.  We find, indeed, that no attempts have been made to study auto-erotic phenomena, except as regards the group—­a somewhat artificial group, as I have already tried to show—­collected under the term “masturbation” while even here such attempts have only been made among abnormal classes of people, or have been conducted in a manner scarcely likely to yield reliable results.[289] Still there is a certain significance in the more careful investigations which have been made to ascertain the precise frequency of masturbation.