hat the occurrence of these phenomena in normal
coitus may be hindered or completely inhibited.

Some writers contend that sexual perversions, homosexuality, for
example, may be induced by masturbation, but I myself doubt this. For
such a development to be possible, it is necessary that very special
influences should be in operation, more particularly a congenital
predisposition, or the cultivation of the perversion by perverse
imaginative processes--this latter, indeed, occurring very readily in
masturbators. But masturbation to excess is far more likely to induce
general neurasthenia than to give rise to sexual perversions. When I
speak of excessive masturbation, however, it must be admitted that the
term is a relative one. What is harmful excess in one person is not
necessarily excess in another. This is true of children as well as of
adults. I have seen children who, owing to premature awakening of the
sexual life, have begun to masturbate at a very early age, without any
serious effect upon health. Having seen such children again in adult
life, after the lapse of more than fifteen years, I consider that I have
had opportunities for forming a sound judgment upon this point. We have
to take into account the fact that when a youthful masturbator
subsequently exhibits nervous manifestations, these often result from
the anxiety he has experienced on being informed of the serious
consequences of masturbation. Not masturbation itself, but fear of the
effects of the practice, is here responsible for the resulting injury to
health. Experience teaches that a certain sort of popular literature has
an especially unfavourable influence in this respect. Moreover, in many
cases, self-reproach on _moral_ grounds, it may be in childhood, but
more often later in life, must in such persons be regarded as the cause
of the appearance of nervous and mental symptoms. The dread of having
committed a deadly sin, or an extremely immoral act, explains a part of
the results which are commonly referred directly to masturbation. The
dangers of masturbation must not be underestimated, but exaggeration
must equally be avoided. I do not believe that in children masturbation
is, generally speaking, more dangerous than it is in adults; but I
consider that masturbation resulting from a spontaneous impulse is less
harmful, than when artificial bodily and mental stimuli are freely
employed. And though the dangers are slightest when masturbation is not