er cent., or more than 1
in 3; while among 150 of these cases who were neurasthenic, the proportion
reached 56 per cent., even when minor or doubtful enlargements were
disregarded. Bergh, in about 16 per cent. cases, found very enlarged
nymphae, the height reached in about 5 per cent. of the cases of
enlargement being nearly six centimeters. Ploss and Bartels, in a full
discussion: of the "Hottentot apron," come to the conclusion that this
condition is perhaps in most cases artificially produced. It is known that
among the Basutos it is the custom for the elder girls to manipulate the
nymphae of younger children, when alone with them, almost from birth, and
on account of the elastic nature of these structures such manipulation
quite adequately accounts for the elongation. It is not necessary to
suppose that the custom is practiced for the sake of producing sexual
stimulation--though this may frequently occur--since there are numerous
similar primitive customs involving deformation of the sexual organs
without the production of sexual excitement. Dickinson has come to a
similar conclusion as regards the corresponding elongation of the nymphae
in civilized European women. In 361 out of 1000 women of good social class
he found elongation or thickening, often with a notable degree of
wrinkling and pigmentation, and believes that this is always the result of
frequently repeated masturbation practiced with the separation of the
nymphae; in 30 per cent. of the cases admission of masturbation was
made.[91] While this conclusion is probably correct in the main, it
requires some qualification. To assert that whenever in women who have
not been pregnant the marked protrusion of the inner lips beyond the outer
lips means that at some period manipulation has been practiced with or
without the production of sexual excitement is to make too absolute a
statement. It is highly probable that the nymphae, like the clitoris, are
congenitally more prominent in some of the lower human races, as they are
also in the apes; among the Fuegians, for instance, according to Hyades
and Deniker, the labia minora descend lower than in Europeans, although
there is not the slightest reason to suppose that these women practice any
manipulations. Among European women, again, the nymphae sometimes protrude
very prominently beyond the labia majora in women who are organically of
somewhat infantile type; this occurs in cases in which we may be convinced
that n