Case C.—­A boy of fourteen came to me.  He was a miserable specimen in every way—­pale, lethargic, stupid almost beyond belief.  He had no mother; and the father, though a man of leisure, evidently found it difficult to make the lad much of a companion.  I felt certain from the first that the boy was an exceptionally bad victim of self-abuse; And this I told his father, advising him to investigate the matter.  He was horrified at my diagnosis, and committed the great indiscretion of taxing the boy with self-abuse as though it were a conscious and grave fault.  The father wrote during the vacation saying that he found I was entirely mistaken:  not, content with the lad’s assurance, he had watched him with the utmost care.  As soon as the boy returned to school I interviewed him.  He admitted readily that he had long masturbated himself daily—­sometimes oftener.  He had first—­as far as he could remember, at about six—­had his private parts excited by his nurse, who apparently did this to put an irritable child into a good temper!  My warning had little effect upon him, as he had become a hopeless victim.  He was too delicate a boy for us to desire to keep; and after a brief stay at school, during which we nursed him through a critical illness, he left to finish his education under private tuition at home.

Case D.—­This boy came to me at thirteen.  He was always a conscientious and amiable boy, but was nervous and dull.  By fifteen his dullness had increased, and he complained of brain-strain and poorness of memory.  Finally he began to develop St. Vitus’s dance.  I sent him to our school doctor, who returned him with a note saying that his condition was serious—­that he must stop all work, &c. &c.  I was in my study when the lad came back, and I at once told him what was the matter.  He frankly admitted frequent self-abuse, which he had learned from an elder brother.  He had not the least suspicion that the habit was injurious; but was very apprehensive about his future until I reassured him.  He wanted me to write at once and warn a younger brother who had fallen into the habit.  By great effort he got himself rapidly under control.  His nervous twitchings disappeared, his vitality improved, the brain-fag gradually ceased; and when he left, eighteen months later, he was fairly normal.  His improvement continued afterwards, and he is now a successful man of business and a married man.

Case E.—­This boy entered at twelve.  He was very weak physically and highly nervous—­owing, his people thought, to severe bullying at a previous school.  He was an able boy, of literary and artistic tastes, and almost painfully conscientious.  He was very shy; always thought that he was despised by other boys; and was a duffer at games, which he avoided to the utmost.  With my present experience I should have known him to be a victim of self-abuse.  Then, I did not suspect him; and it was not until he was leaving at eighteen for the University that