There is copious evidence (much of it quoted by Kinsey) of children masturbating at all ages from a few months old onwards.

Kinsey mentions one record of a seven-month-old infant and records of five infants under one year of age who were observed in masturbation. Some of the cited evidence includes Townsend (five cases under one year of age); Talmey (one case of nine months); Spitz (rocking and genital play observed in over half of 248 children under one year of age), etc.

Just as Sacher-Masoch gave his name to masochism so the Marquis de Sade gave his name to sadism. There is controversy as to the extent to which de Sade was a practising sadist. Did he in reality act out his fantasies or were his novels the main vehicles for his sexual imaginings?

The English Aphrodites comprised an eighteenth-century Love Club - which arranged wife-swapping and a variety of other sexual diversions. Membership was £10,000 for a gentleman and £5,000 for a lady, plus a gift compatible with economic status. Fortunately the journal of a female member has been preserved. She provides a list of 4,959 amorous rendezvous for a period of twenty years. Among her lovers were princes and prelates

We have already met the fellatrice: the fricatrice, her younger sister, concentrates on rubbing the male genitals - which can be nice. The Jewesses of North Africa are supposed to have enjoyed a reputation for this sort of thing. Such females were also found among the inhabitants of Lesbos and were described by Catullus as standing at crossways and in alleys "to jerk off the high-souled sons of Rome." In eighteenth century France the skilled fricatrice was well-known. In the United States, by contrast, "the fricatrice has never enjoyed any vogue. Practical

F. Hugues (d'Hancarville): From Monuments of the Secret Cult of Roman Ladies, Rome, 1787.

This form of cannibalism has featured in a number of court cases. Ornella Volta gives us a number of graphic cases in which cannibalism has been linked to sexual pleasure. Gilles Garnier killed a young girl with his hands and teeth, and took a piece of her flesh home to his wife. A certain Andrea Bichel murdered little girls and was recorded as saying, "as I tore open their chests I was so excited that I wanted to tear off a piece of flesh and eat it." Tirsch boiled human flesh before eating it, and Antoine Leger ate it raw. The following court dialogue has been quoted by Volta

Not many women fantasise about sexual contact with animals. In the Kinsey survey only one per cent of women masturbated while fantasising about animals. Four times as many as this had sadomasochistic fantasies during "self-stimulation."

There have been many sadistic inventions: the mediaeval torture chambers were full of them. We need not give a list here. Suffice it to mention that the inquisitors, with full theological sanction, thought it proper to introduce a clamp specially devised for the torture of pregnant women. In more recent times, electrical generators have been used on all parts of the bodies of men and women. And Chapman Pincher mentions (in "Sex in Our Time") a pair of binoculars in the Black Museum of Scotland Yard - "These were sent anonymously through the post

Prostitution in China is certainly as old as human life in that part of the world. But as a thorough-going institutionalised form it can first be dated to the Feudal Period of 841-221 B.C. At that time the aristocracy keep huge numbers of courtesans, paid companions, actors and musicians, not merely for use but as status symbols. The courtesans were chosen for abilities which could be sexual, musical, poetic, etc.