[294] Moraglia, who made inquiry of 200 women of the lower
class in Italy, found that 120 acknowledged either that they still
masturbate or that they had done so during a long period.[295] Gualino
found that 23 per cent. men of the professional classes in North Italy
masturbate about puberty; no account was taken of those who began later.
"Here in Switzerland," a correspondent writes, "I have had occasion to
learn from adult men, whom I can trust, that they have reached the age of
twenty-five, or over, without sexual congress. '_Wir haben nicht dieses
Beduerfniss_,' is what they say. But I believe that, in the case of the
Swiss mountaineers, moderate onanism is practiced, as a rule." In hot
countries the same habits are found at a more precocious age. In
Venezuela, for instance, among the Spanish creoles, Ernst found that in
all classes boys and girls are infested with the vice of onanism. They
learn it early, in the very beginning of life, from their wet-nurses,
generally low Mulatto women, and many reasons help to foster the habit;
the young men are often dissipated and the young women often remain
single.[296] Niceforo, who shows a special knowledge of the working-girl
class at Rome, states that in many milliners' and dressmakers' workrooms,
where young girls are employed, it frequently happens that during the
hottest hours of the day, between twelve and two, when the mistress or
forewoman is asleep, all the girls without exception give themselves up to
masturbation.
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