e., my dreams are usually about a pretty fair specimen
of a six-foot three-inch biped."
[228] The case has been recorded of a married woman, in love with her
doctor, who kept a day-dream diary, at last filling three bulky volumes,
when it was discovered by her husband, and led to an action for divorce;
it was shown that the doctor knew nothing of the romance in which he
played the part of hero. Kiernan, in referring to this case (as recorded
in John Paget's _Judicial Puzzles_), mentions a similar case in Chicago.
[229] _Uranisme_, p. 125.
[230] The acute Anstie remarked, more than thirty years ago, in his work
on _Neuralgia_: "It is a comparatively frequent thing to see an unsocial,
solitary life (leading to the habit of masturbation) joined with the bad
influence of an unhealthy ambition, prompting to premature and false work
in literature and art." From the literary side, M. Leon Bazalgette has
dealt with the tendency of much modern literature to devote itself to what
he calls "mental onanism," of which the probable counterpart, he seems to
hint, is a physical process of auto-erotism. (Leon Bazalgette, "L'onanisme
considere comme principe createur en art," _L'Esprit Nouveau_, 1898.)
[231] Pausanias, _Achaia_, Chapter XVII. The ancient Babylonians believed
in a certain "maid of the night," who appeared to men in sleep and roused
without satisfying their passions. (Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia_, p.
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