and I vowed that each time should be the last.  I was often able to keep the resolution for two or three weeks.”  Some four years later she gradually succeeded in breaking herself of the practice in so far as it had become a habit; she has, however, acquired a fuller knowledge of sexual matters, and, though she has still a great dread of masturbation as a vice, she does not hesitate to relieve her physical feelings when it seems best to her to do so.  “I am usually able to direct my thoughts from these sensations,” she writes, “but if they seem to make me irritable or wakeful, I relieve myself.  It is a physical act, unassociated with deep feeling of any kind.  I have always felt that it was a rather unpleasant compromise with my physical nature, but certainly necessary in my case.  Yet, I have abstained from gratification for very long periods.  If the feeling is not strong at the menstrual period, I go on very well without either the sensation or the gratification until the next period.  And, strange as it may seem, the best antidote I have found and the best preventive is to think about spiritual things or someone whom I love.  It is simply a matter of training, I suppose,—­a sort of mental gymnastics,—­which draws the attention away from the physical feelings.”  This lady has never had any sexual relationships, and, since she is ambitious, and believes that the sexual emotions may be transformed so as to become a source of motive power throughout the whole of life, she wishes to avoid such relationships.

OBSERVATION V.—­Unmarried, aged 31, in good health, with, however, a somewhat hysterical excess of energy.  “When I was about 26 years of age,” she writes, “a friend came to me with the confession that for several years she had masturbated, and had become such a slave to the habit that she severely suffered from its ill effects.  At that time I had never heard of self-abuse by women.  I listened to her story with much sympathy and interest, but some skepticism, and determined to try experiments upon myself, with the idea of getting to understand the matter in order to assist my friend.  After some manipulation, I succeeded in awakening what had before been unconscious and unknown.  I purposely allowed the habit to grow upon me, and one night—­for I always operated upon myself before going to sleep, never in the morning—­I obtained considerable pleasurable satisfaction, but the following day my conscience awoke; I also felt pain located at the back of my head and down the spinal column.  I ceased my operations for a time, and then began again somewhat regularly, once a month, a few days after menstruation.  During those months in which I exercised moderation, I think I obtained much local relief with comparatively little injury, but, later on, finding myself in robust health, I increased my experiments, the habit grew upon me, and it was only with an almost superhuman effort that I broke myself free.  Needless to say that I gave no assistance to my suffering