The practice was, however, by no means thus dismissed.  Some time later the subject writes:  “I have again restarted masturbation for the relief of localized feelings.  One morning I was engaged in reading a very heavy volume which, for convenience sake, I held in my lap, leaning back on my chair.  I had become deep in my study for an hour or so when I became aware of certain feelings roused by the weight of the book.  Being tempted to see what would happen by such conduct, I shifted so that the edge of the volume came in closer contact.  The pleasurable feelings increased, so I gave myself up to my emotions for some thirty minutes.

“Notwithstanding the intense pleasure I enjoyed for so long a period, I maintain that it is wiser to refrain, and, although I admit in the same breath that, by gentle treatment, such pleasure may be harmless to the general health, it does lead to a desire for solitude, which is not conducive to a happy frame of mind.  There is an accompanying reticence of speech concerning the pleasure, which, therefore, appears to be unnatural, like the eating of stolen fruit.  After such an event, one seems to require to fly to the woods, and to listen to the song of the birds, so as to shake off after-effects.”

In a letter dated some months later, she writes:  “I think I have risen above the masturbation habit.”  In the same letter the writer remarks:  “If I had consciously abnormal or unsatisfied appetites I would satisfy them in the easiest and least harmful way.”

Again, eighteen months later, she writes:  “It is curious to note that for months this habit is forgotten, but awakens sometimes to self-assertion.  If a feeling of pressure is felt in the head, and a slight irritation elsewhere, and experience shows that the time has come for pacification, exquisite pleasure can be enjoyed, never more than twice a month, and sometimes less often.”

OBSERVATION VI.—­Unmarried, actively engaged in the practice of her profession.  Well-developed, feminine in contour, but boyish in manner and movements; strong, though muscles small, and healthy, with sound nervous system; never had anaemia.  Thick brown hair; pubic hair thick, and hair on toes and legs up to umbilicus; it began to appear at the age of 10 (before pubic hair) and continued until 18.  A few stray hairs round nipples, and much dark down on upper lip, as well as light down on arms and hands.  Hips, normal; nates, small; labia minora, large; and clitoris, deeply hooded.  Hymen thick, vagina, probably small.  Considerable pigmentation of parts.  Menstruation began at 15, but not regular till 17; is painless and scanty; the better the state of health, the less it is.  No change of sexual or other feelings connected with it; it lasts one to three days.

“I believe,” she writes, “my first experience of physical sex sensations was when I was about 16, and in sleep.  But I did