asional slight
excitement from early years; in yet other cases complete sexual anaesthesia
until the age of puberty. That the latter condition is not due to mere
absence of peripheral irritation is shown by a case I am acquainted with,
in which a boy of 7, incited by a companion, innocently attempted, at
intervals during several weeks, to produce erection by friction of the
penis; no result of any kind followed, although erections occurred
spontaneously at puberty, with normal sexual feelings.[306]

I am indebted to a correspondent for the following notes:--

"From my observation during five years at a boarding-school, it
_seems_ that eight out of ten boys were more or less addicted to
the practice. But I would not state _positively_ that such was
the proportion of masturbators among an average of thirty pupils,
though the habit was very common. I know that in one bedroom,
sleeping seven boys, the whole number masturbated frequently. The
act was performed in bed, in the closets, and sometimes in the
classrooms during lessons. Inquiry among my friends as to onanism
in the boarding-schools to which they were sent, elicited
somewhat contradictory answers concerning the frequency of the
habit. Dr. ----, who went to a French school, told me that _all_
the older boys had younger accomplices in mutual masturbation. He
also spoke with experience of the prevalence of the practice in a
well-known public school in the west of England. B. said _all_
the boys at his school masturbated; G. stated that _most_ of his
schoolmates were onanists; L. said 'more than half' was the
proportion.

"At my school, manual masturbation was both solitary and mutual;
and sometimes younger boys, who had not acquired the habit, were
induced to manipulate bigger boys. One very precocious boy of
fifteen always chose a companion of ten 'because his hand was
like a woman's.' Sometimes boys entered their friend's bed for
mutual excitement. In after-life they showed no signs of
inversion. Another boy, aged about fourteen, who had been seduced
by a servant-girl, embraced the bolster; the pleasurable
sensations, according to his statement, were heightened by
imagining that the bolster was a woman. He said that the
enjoyment of the act was greatly increased during the holidays,
when he was able to spread a pair of his sister's drawers upon