The relaxation that follows the act constitutes its real
attraction.... Both masturbation and sexual intercourse should be classed
as typical sedatives."[346]
Gall (_Fonctions du Cerveau_, 1825, vol. iii, p. 235) mentioned a
woman who was tormented by strong sexual desire, which she
satisfied by masturbation ten or twelve times a day; this caused
no bad results, and led to the immediate disappearance of a
severe pain in the back of the neck, from which she often
suffered. Clouston (_Mental Diseases_, 1887, p. 496) quotes as
follows from a letter written by a youth of 22: "I am sure I
cannot explain myself, nor give account of such conduct.
Sometimes I felt so uneasy at my work that I would go to the
water-closet to do it, and it seemed to give me ease, and then I
would work like a hatter for a whole week, till the sensation
overpowered me again. I have been the most filthy scoundrel in
existence," etc. Garnier presents the case of a monk, aged 33,
living a chaste life, who wrote the following account of his
experiences: "For the past three years, at least, I have felt,
every two or three weeks, a kind of fatigue in the penis, or,
rather, slight shooting pains, increasing during several days,
and then I feel a strong desire to expel the semen. When no
nocturnal pollution follows, the retention of the semen causes
general disturbance, headache, and sleeplessness.
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