It is worthy of remark, in those onanists who become idiots, that, while the external senses and the intelligence diminish, the genital activity is increased: all these faculties seem to be blended in one, the proportions of which seem much greater, as the others are diminished. This opposite state of things, found in all cases produced by onanism, is particularly remarkable in a case observed at the Hospital St. Louis, by Alibert. The patient was a peasant-girl twenty-two years old, who was constantly employed in tending sheep. The seclusion of this girl’s situation favored the development of onanism. She concealed herself in retired and quiet situations, to indulge this horrid inclination. Two years elapsed, during which her intellectual faculties were progressively enfeebled: she became stupid, while the venereal sense was excited to the highest degree. Things came to such an extent, that she fell, as it were, into a species of nymphomania, for which she was carried to the hospital. The unfortunate girl presented a kind of automatic motion, which she could not repress. Her head, chest, and upper half of her body were excessively thin, while the other half was remarkably plump. The sight, and much more the contact of a male, caused in her a state which was soon terminated by a pollution. By merely touching this girl, her whole person could be agitated and convulsed to a distressing degree, and it was thought expedient to send her home. (_Dict. des Sc. Med., Vol. XXXVI., p. 582._) Are the alternate states of excitement and collapse experienced by the brain, during and after the act of venery, the only cause of weakness in onanists? Does not the constant state of their mind contribute also, as Tissot and many other authors think, to this unfortunate result? Of this, we have no doubt. The yoke which onanism imposes on those who are completely abandoned to it, is such, that they have constantly before them a certain set of ideas. All their study is confined to avoid the looks of others, and to call to mind all the remembrances, and to create all the illusions, upon which their senses revel: their strength of mind is consecrated to these objects alone. To dissemble, and enjoy themselves, is all they wish. The intellectual faculties, being thus neglected, must remain imperfect; or even, if we may be allowed the expression, must lose their vigour, and waste. We can understand well how the necessity arising from this state of things may aid the development of the most wicked thoughts. Was not this the case with a young girl, whose history, as stated by Parent Duchatelet, is as follows:--