[AR] Even very small children with scanty knowledge of right or wrong, and without any rebuke or reprimand by parents or guardians, seem to have a conscious idea that masturbation is reprehensible and try to hide their activities. [AS] One of the author’s patients, Mr. X., in his struggle against the habit, while a student in college, vowed never to fall back into the habit. As a reminder of this vow, he wrote upon a piece of cardboard the celebrated words of Darius, “μέμνησο τοῦ ὅρκου,” and hung it up over the desk. One day a college-friend, Mr. Y., came to see him and noticed the Greek sentence. Mr. Y. asked his host what kind of a vow he has taken. When he received no satisfactory answer Mr. Y. said: “I know the nature of your vow. It was that you will never masturbate again. But you did it in spite of your solemn oath.” This correct guess shows that Mr. Y. had the same struggle on his hands as his friend Mr. X. [AT] The word onanism in this treatise is always used in the true Biblical sense, i. e., it always designates the practice of coitus interruptus; for this is what Onan did (Genesis xxxviii, 9). All other kinds of self-abuse, especially the practice where the hands are used, are called masturbation or manusturpation, but never onanism. [AU] Timidity may cause actual shrinkage of the penis to half the size of its ordinary flaccid condition. [AV] In small doses alcohol is stimulating to the desires and is creating power, but chronic alcoholism causes loss of desire and power. Acute alcoholic intoxication also often paralyses the nerves of erection. [AW] Without this instinct, tumescence is impossible, and tumescence must be obtained in men for erection and in women for orgasm, before detumescence is possible. Hence coition must be in some slight degree desired by the man, or it cannot take place at all. The potency of man’s voluptas is, therefore, a condition sine qua non for copulation. Not so in woman, she may submit without desire or excitement and allow the man to enjoy complete satisfaction. But a man’s pleasurable excitement is the necessary condition of woman’s sexual gratification. The male potencies of voluptas and of erection are the conditions of copulation even for the woman, but the reverse is not the case. [AX] The Romans distinguished four different kinds of castrates and designated them by four different names. (1) Castrati, in whom testicles and penis have been removed, (2) Spadones, in whom the testicles only have been removed, (3) Thlibiae, in whom the testicles were only crushed but not removed, (4) Thlasiae, in whom the spermatic cord was simply cut.