Throughout the East masturbation is prevalent, especially among young girls. In Cochin-China it is most practised by married women.
The Japanese women use two hollow balls of the size of a pigeon’s egg. One is empty, the other contains a small, but heavy metal ball, or some quicksilver, so that if the balls are held in hand side by side there is a continuous movement. Pila inanis primo in vaginam immittitur eo modo ut uterum tangat, deinde altera inducitur. The slightest movement of the pelvis or the thighs causes the metal or the mercury ball to roll, and the resulting vibration produces a prolonged voluptuous titillation, a gentle shock, as from a weak electric inductive apparatus. Pilae in vagina arboris lana retinentur. The women then delight to swing themselves in hammocks or rocking chairs, the delicate vibrations of the balls slowly producing the highest degree of libido.
Thus the phenomenon of spontaneous sexual emotion is found in animals as well as among savages, and in every period of human history. No wonder that the conditions of modern civilization, with its artificial mode of living, render auto-erethism a frequent occurrence.
The extent of this practice among women may be judged from the occasionally resulting mishaps that reach the surgeon’s hands. Bananas are often used feminandi causa. Country girls often use cucumbers in stuprando.
The author once removed a carrot from the vagina, which a young woman had used to obtain erotic gratification.
In another case, while trying to dilate the cervical canal preliminary to curettage for persistent leucorrhoea, he found a hair-pin in the canal which, as the girl afterwards confessed, had slipped out of her hand while tickling the external os of the cervix.
At another occasion, as house-physician in a European surgical clinic, the author assisted in the removal of a hair-pin from the bladder of a young woman, which was used to produce a tickling sensation of the clitoris, and which accidentally slipped into the urethra, and then entered the bladder.
Other objects removed by surgeons are pencils, bodkins, knitting-needles, crochet-needles, penholders, quills, etc.
Some women produce sexual excitement by frictions against the corner of a chair, table, etc.
Morris relates of a lady, a devout church member, who never had allowed herself to entertain any sexual thoughts referring to men. Tamen se stuprabat every morning while standing before the mirror by rubbing against a key in the bureau drawer.
One of the most common means to produce voluptificam titillationem, that is even found in use by children, when scarcely more than infants, is the voluntary pressure of the thighs. They are placed together and firmly crossed while the pelvis is rocked, so that the sexual organs are pressed against the inner and posterior parts of the thighs. Townsend records five cases of thigh friction in children less than one year old.
The manipulation of the sewing machine with the body on the edge of the seat is sometimes used by young women as a means to produce sexual excitement, leading to orgasm. Horseback riding is sometimes employed as a means for inducing orgasm and ejaculation in women. The stimulation caused by bicycle riding is not seldom prolonged by women until orgasm is induced.