Sexology/Part 5
PART V.
Masturbation, Female.
Alas, that such a term is possible! 0, that it were as infrequent as it is monstrous, and that no stern necessity compelled us to make the startling disclosures which this chapter must contain! We beseech, in advance, that every young creature into whose hands this book may chance to fall, if she be yet pure and innocent, will at least pass over this chapter, that she may still believe in the general chastity of her sex; that she may not know the depths of degradation into which it is possible to fall. We concede that only a wide-spread existence of the crime could justify this public description of its consequences. We believe that a smaller proportion of girls than of boys are addicted to it, but the number is nevertheless enormous, and the dangers are all the greater, that their very existence is so generally ignored.
Beyond all dispute the crime exists. We translate the following from an acknowledged high medical authority, the "Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales:"
"Naturally more timid and more secret than boys, the effects of their reunion, although very fatal, are less than in the latter. At the same time a culpable negligence in the boarding-schools of 'young ladies,' too frequently allows to be introduced there the disorders of masturbation. This practice is dissembled from the impenetrative or careless eyes of the teacher under the guise of friendship, which is carried, in a great number of cases, to a scandalous extent. The most intimate liaisons are formed under this specious pretext; the same bed often receives the two friends. . . .
"We have seen letters from these young persons to each other, scarcely eleven or twelve years of age, the burning and passionate expressions of which made us shudder. The clandestine reading of certain books in which abject authors have traced, in the liveliest colors, the deplorable deviations of the senses, is another no less fatal circumstance which hastens the corruption of girls. One can affirm that this reading of romances, which so easily becomes the object of a veritable passion with young persons, is to-day one of the most active causes of their depravation."
With them, as with boys, the genital organs may be constitutionally endowed with excessive predominance of action, which masters all the affections, all the movements of the economy, and causes them to titillate incessantly that part of those organs which is the seat of the keenest sensibility. Very little girls are often thus borne along, by a kind of instinct, to commit masturbation. The famous Dr. Deslandes makes the astounding statement, which can only be true of the French nation, that "a great number of little girls, and the majority of adolescents, commit this crime!"
Human nature, however, is much the same the world over, and a habit so easily acquired and practiced, so little suspected, or entirely ignored, and which, for these and certain physical reasons, girls are even more liable to contract than boys, may well excite astonishment and alarm, and render the distinguished Frenchman's caution equally appropriate here: "There is no young girl who should not be considered as already addicted to or liable to become addicted to this habit." All physicians admit that it is very difficult—almost impossible, in fact—to ascertain the origin of many of the diseases of unmarried women which they are called upon to treat, and, if the cause be perpetually in operation, they will prescribe with fruitless results. The broken health, the prostration, the great debility, the remarkable derangements of the gastric and uterine functions, too often have this origin, and when the cause is investigated the subject alleges great exertions, intense trouble, unhappiness, etc., but is silent as to the real cause, which, perhaps, after all, she does not herself associate with her maladies. The utmost penetration can only cause one to suspect the truth, but a question skillfully put will generally reveal all.
One of the most celebrated surgeons in the world has related the following case: "A young girl of ten or twelve years, sole heiress of a considerable fortune, was unsuccessfully treated by the most skillful physicians of Paris. At length the physician who has furnished this narration was summoned. He was not more fortunate than his colleagues. Unable to explain this general failure to relieve, and the constantly increasing debility of the patient, he imparted to the mother his suspicions of the cause of all these accidents that nothing subdued. The mother, exceedingly astonished and almost indignant at an assertion which appeared to her so rash, earnestly maintained that the thing was impossible, as the child had always been under her own eye, or confided to a governess incapable of teaching her evil. This governess was an old woman who had reared the mother, and who had never excited her suspicions in any respect. The physician, however, caused the child to be separated from both mother and governess. She was sent to her aunt in the country, in order the better to watch her in this intentional isolation. This aunt, taking advantage of the ascendency which she had obtained over the girl's mind, subjected her to a secret interrogation. She was moved, embarrassed, discountenanced, but confessed nothing. Her embarrassment had already betrayed her, and from that moment, in the estimation of the aunt, her fault was assured. Soon the doctor arrived, who directed against the poor child a last and vigorous attack. 'Mademoiselle,' said he, with a tone of authority, certainty, and conviction, 'the solemn moment has arrived to tell us here the truth, and nothing but the truth. Your aunt and I now understand the whole matter. It only remains to inform us who taught you this detestable habit, which has totally ruined your health, and how long since this fatal secret was revealed to you, for it certainly did not originate with yourself.' At this severe and unexpected language the young girl was much affected. Being urged, she hesitated, looked at her aunt, and avowed all. It was her old governess who had taught her masturbation. The aid of medicine proved powerless to restore the health which she had lost."
After this, trust women, trust nurses, trust governesses, believe mothers! Nolite confidere in mulieribus. The symptoms which enable you to recognize or suspect this crime are the following: A general condition of languor, weakness, and loss of flesh; the absence of freshness and beauty, of color from the complexion, of the vermilion from the lips, and whiteness from the teeth, which are replaced by a pale, lean, puffy, flabby, livid physiognomy; a bluish circle around the eyes; which are sunken, dull, and spiritless; a sad expression, dry cough, oppression and panting on the least exertion, the appearance of incipient consumption. The menstrual periods often exist, at least, in the commencement, and so the alteration in health cannot be attributed to their derangement or suppression. It is not uncommon to see the shape impaired.
The moral symptoms are similar to those of the opposite sex. They are sadness or melancholy, solitude or indifference, an aversion to legitimate pleasures, and a host of other characteristics common to the two sexes. The condition called "nymphomania" sometimes ensues, in which the most timid girl is transformed into a termagant, and the most delicate modesty to a furious audacity which even the effrontery of prostitution does not approach.
Let it not be supposed that the absence of the seminal secretion in woman, renders this vice less destructive than in man. Ubi irritatio ibi fluxus (where there is irritation there is increased secretion), is a medical maxim, and the increase of the proper secretions of the female organs under habitual irritation, is enormous and extremely debilitating. Witness the sad examples of leucorrheal discharge (called the "whites"), now so common as to be well nigh the rule rather than the exception.
Deslandes says: "I have reason to believe, from a great number of facts presented to me in practice, that of every twenty cases of leuchorrhea ('whites'), or of inflammation of the vulva or vagina in children and young girls, there are at least fifteen or eighteen which result from masturbation!" And again: "Repeated admissions have also convinced me that leucorrhea and chronic inflammation of the womb, so common with the women of our cities, most frequently owe their origin to former, and sometimes to recent, excesses of this nature!"
We have termed onanism a solitary vice, and nothing is more just. It has also been termed a contagious vice, and nothing is more true. The example of a single masturbator never fails to bear its fruit. At first the novelty, and then the pleasure, explains the contagiousness. This furnishes the explanation for its frequency in establishments where a great number of young subjects are gathered together—schools, boarding-houses, colleges; in short, all places where education is in common—and great care, watchfulness, and supervision should be, and to a certain extent are exercised, in order that this horrible evil may not entirely depopulate these establishments.
There is among children a sort of instinct, which leads them to hide and to dissimulate their maneuvers before even they have found them to be illicit and shameful. The art with which they elude watchfulness and evade questions is often inconceivable. They cannot be too strongly suspected. The nature of the habits of a young person should awaken suspicion; for masturbation leads them to solitude. Have an eye, then, upon those who prefer darkness and solitude; who remain long alone without being able to give good reasons for this isolation. Let vigilance attach itself principally to the moments which follow the retirement to bed, and those which precede the rising. It is then especially that the masturbator may be surprised in the act. Her hands are never outside the bed, and generally she prefers to hide her head under the coverlet. She has scarcely gone to bed ere she appears plunged in a profound sleep. This circumstance, which to a practiced observer is always suspicious, is one of those which most frequently contributes to the cause, or to nourish the false security of parents. The affectation that the young person carries into pretended sleep, the marked exaggeration with which she pretends to sleep, may often serve to betray her. Often, when suddenly approached, she may be seen to blush, and to be covered with perspiration unaccounted for by the temperature of the room, the warmth of the covering, or any other observable cause. The breathing is at the same time more precipitate, the pulse more developed, harder, and quicker, the blood-vessels fuller, and the heat greater than in the natural condition. There is, in short, that sort of fever which ordinarily accompanies the venereal act.
We could give facts almost without number in reported cases, to show the prevalence and destructive nature of this vice among girls in our own country, but we forbear; the subject is painful and revolting even to contemplate. We believe that we have said enough to terrify parents into the needful precautions against it. If so much has been accomplished our object is fully realized. We remark, however, in conclusion, that it is not sufficient to use merely ordinary precautions of a judicious watchfulness; direct and skillful interrogation must be from time to time employed, at least in every suspected case. The subject should never be avoided through false delicacy, and such lessons should be imparted on the dreadful consequences of the habit, as shall effectually deter the perpetrators from persisting in it. It were far better to acquaint even pure-minded and perfectly innocent girls with the existence of such a vice, while teaching them its horrible consequences, than, through a false modesty or mistaken motives of delicacy, to fail in imparting the requisite information in a single case.