More lamentable still is the effect of inordinate sexual excitement of the
young and unmarried. It is not very uncommon to find a confirmed onanist,
or, rather, masturbator, who has not yet arrived at the period of puberty.
Many cases are related in which young boys and girls, from eight to ten
years of age, were taught the method of self-pollution by their older
playmates, and had made serious encroachments on the fund of constitutional
vitality even before any considerable degree of sexual appetite was
developed.