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.