[328] Maudsley dealt, in his vigorous, picturesque manner, with the more extreme morbid mental conditions sometimes found associated with masturbation, in “Illustrations of a Variety of Insanity,” Journal of Mental Science, July, 1868.

[329] See, e.g., Loewenfeld, Sexualleben und Nervenleiden, 2d. ed., Ch.  VIII.

[330] Marro, La Puberta, Turin, 1898, p. 174.

[331] E.C.  Spitzka, “Cases of Masturbation,” Journal of Mental Science, July, 1888.

[332] Charles West, Lancet, November 17, 1866.

[333] Gowers, Epilepsy, 1881, p. 31.  Loewenfeld believes that epileptic attacks are certainly caused by masturbation.  Fere thought that both epilepsy and hysteria may be caused by masturbation.

[334] Ziemssen’s Handbuch, Bd.  XI.

[335] Adolescence, vol. i, p. 441.

[336] See a discussion of these points by Rohleder, Die Masturbation, pp. 168-175.

[337] The surgeons, it may be remarked, have especially stated the harmlessness of masturbation in too absolute a manner.  Thus, John Hunter (Treatise on the Venereal Disease, 1786, p. 200), after pointing out that “the books on this subject have done more harm than good,” adds, “I think I may affirm that this act does less harm to the constitution in general than the natural.”  And Sir James Paget, in his lecture on “Sexual Hypochondriasis,” said:  “Masturbation does neither more nor less harm than sexual intercourse practiced with the same frequency, in the same conditions of general health and age and circumstances.”

[338] It is interesting to note that an analogous result seems to hold with animals.  Among highly-bred horses excessive masturbation is liable to occur with injurious results.  It is scarcely necessary to point out that highly-bred horses are apt to be abnormal.

[339] With regard to the physical signs, the same conclusion is reached by Legludic (in opposition to Martineau) on the basis of a large experience.  He has repeatedly found, in young girls who acknowledged frequent masturbation, that the organs were perfectly healthy and normal, and his convictions are the more noteworthy, since he speaks as a pupil of Tardieu, who attached very grave significance to the local signs of sexual perversity and excess. (Legludic, Notes et Observations de Medecine Legale, 1896, p. 95.) Matthews Duncan (Goulstonian Lectures on Sterility in Women, 1884, p. 97) was often struck by the smallness, and even imperfect development, of the external genitals of women who masturbate.  Clara Barrus considers that there is no necessary connection between hypertrophy of the external female genital organs and masturbation, though in six cases of prolonged masturbation she found such a condition in three (American Journal of Insanity, April, 1895, p. 479).  Bachterew denies that masturbation produces enlargement of the penis, and Hammond considers there is no evidence to show that it enlarges the clitoris, while Guttceit states that it does not enlarge the nymphae; this, however, is doubtful.  It would not suffice in many cases to show that large sexual organs are correlated with masturbation; it would still be necessary to show whether the size of the organs stood to masturbation in the relation of effect or of cause.