[300] In a larger group of 180
prostitutes, belonging to Genoa, Turin, Venice, etc., and among 23
"elegant cocottes," of Italian and foreign origin, Moraglia obtained the
same results; everyone admitted masturbation, and not less than 113
preferred masturbation, either solitary or mutual, to normal coitus. Among
the insane, as among idiots, masturbation is somewhat more common among
males, according to Blandford, in England, as also it is in Germany,
according to Naecke,[301] while Venturi, in Italy, has found it more common
among females.[302]
There appears to be no limit to the age at which spontaneous masturbation
may begin to appear. I have already referred to the practice of
thigh-rubbing in infants under one year of age. J.P. West has reported in
detail 3 cases of masturbation in very early childhood--2 in girls, 1 in a
boy--in which the practice had been acquired spontaneously, and could only
be traced to some source of irritation in pressure from clothing,
etc.[303] Probably there is often in such cases some hereditary lack of
nervous stability. Block has recorded the case of a girl--very bright for
her age, though excessively shy and taciturn--who began masturbating
spontaneously at the age of two; in this case the mother had masturbated
all her life, even continuing the practice after marriage, and, though she
succeeded in refraining during pregnancy, her thoughts still dwelt upon
it, while the maternal grandmother had died in an asylum from
"masturbatory insanity.
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