LOVE
A Treatise on the Science of
Sex-Attraction

For the Use of Physicians and Students of Medical
Jurisprudence

BY
BERNARD S. TALMEY, M. D.

With forty-seven cuts, eighty-four drawings, in the text

THIRD REVISED EDITION

Einstweilen, bis den Bau der Welt

Philosophie zusammenhält,

Erhält sie das Getriebe

Durch Hunger und durch Liebe.

—Schiller, “Die Weltweisen.”

Practitioners’ Publishing Company
New York City

Copyrighted, 1919, by
Cecilia Talmey

PREFACE

Not only among laymen but also among serious thinkers and writers on medical topics the opinion is generally prevalent, that there is a vast difference in the degree of intensity of the sex-impulse in men and women. Upon this supposition rests the justification of the double standard of sexual morality of the two sexes. If the intensity of the amatory emotions is the same in both sexes, then there is no justification for a double standard of sexual morality.

Now, an emotion is, in its nature, subjective. Its intensity can never be objectively determined. Men and women may dispute the question of the different degree of intensity of the amatory emotions till the end of time, still they will never reach a definite conclusion. The only way to determine the nature of an emotion is to study its pathology. If it can be shown that the same pathological entities of the sex-instinct are found in men and women, the inference is justified that the normal emotions are also the same or similar in both sexes.

To prove the similarity or identity of the intensity of the sex-impulse in both sexes, the author published in the winter of 1906-1907 his book “Woman, A Treatise on the Normal and Pathological Emotions of Feminine Love.” Since the publication of “Woman” he received numerous letters with requests to write a similar treatise on the amatory emotions of men. In 1910 the author published “Genesis, A Manual for the Instruction of Children in Matters Sexual.” He thought that the Description of the evolution of sex in plant and animal in “Genesis” might supply the demand. Still the requests continued to arrive. He then published, in 1912, “Neurasthenia Sexualis, A Treatise on Sexual Impotence in Men and Women.” In this treatise the anatomy and physiology of the male organs of generation were thoroughly discussed. Still it did not fill the demand. The chapter on pathology dealt only with impotence.

When the author finally decided to write the counterpart of “Woman”, it occurred to him that if the amatory emotions are the same in men and women, they ought to be treated together in one volume. Hence the present work “Love, A Treatise on the Science of Sex-Attraction.” Naturally the present volume recapitulates all that the author has previously written in his three books, “Woman,” “Genesis,” and “Neurasthenia Sexualis.” The three previous works are mere chapters of the present treatise. Still every author grows with his work. After years of study of the subject of sex, he was able to expand the sphere of his previous lessons, so that even those readers who have read his three previous books will still find some new points in this work. If the readers should agree with this opinion, the author will consider himself well paid for his labors.

The Author.

New York, May, 1915.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

The main criticism of “Love” by the reviewers of the first edition was directed against the frequency of Latin words and phrases used in veiling some of the more unpleasant aspects of the normal and especially the pathological sex-activities.

Still it was not prudery which dictated this course. The ancient language was used as a protection against the criticism of those who would take umbrage to plain sex expressions. There is quite a number of people who are not only possessed of the Oedipus complex or the Electra complex, but who are also obsessed of the obscenity complex. For the impure everything is impure. Fortunately such people’s knowledge of Latin is, as a rule, very slight, and for them this treatise will remain a sealed book. Physicians and lawyers for whom this book was written know enough Latin grammar, enabling them to apprehend the meaning of all those phrases necessary for the understanding of the main points of the treatise. To facilitate the reader’s task the following vocabulary of the Latin words often used has been appended.

With this small vocabulary on hand, the author hopes every college-bred man will be able to read this treatise without difficulty.

The Author.

New York, October, 1916.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

[PART I]: INTRODUCTION.

Hunger and love, love and civilization, sex-worship, phallicism, yonism, mount of Venus, horseshoe, lingam, the cross, temple-courtesans, Christianity and sex, fashion and sex, female bosom, psychology of clothes, prudery, physician’s ignorance, morbid fiction, change in sex discussions.

[PART II]: EVOLUTION OF SEX.

[Chapter 1]—Organic evolution.

Mechanistic and vitalistic theories, teleology, creative evolution, Lamarckism, Darwinism, variation, amphimixis, protozoa, morula, coelenterata, blastula, gastrula, primitive membranes, worms, chorda dorsalis, coelom, echinodermata, mollusca, arthropoda, vertebrates.

[Chapter 2]—Evolution of the genital system.

Wolffian body, cloaca, ducts of Muller, ureter, kidney, genital ridge, sex-gland, allantois, bladder, urachus, sinus urogenitalis, urethra, perineum, anal membrane, male internal sex-organs, female internal sex-organs, genital swelling, genital tubercle, groove, male external genitals, female external genitals.

[PART III]: ANATOMY OF SEX.

[Chapter 3]—The male genitals.

The male genitals, scrotum, testicles, descent of testicles, vas deferens, spermatic cord, seminal vesicles, ductus ejaculatorii, urethra, prostate, colliculus, sinus pocularis, penis.

[Chapter 4]—Female genitals.

Mons of Venus, labia majora, minora, vestibule, bulbs, clitoris, Bartholinian glands, hymen, vagina, uterus, broad and round ligaments, tubes, ovaries, Graafian follicle, ovum.

[Chapter 5]—Secondary sexual characteristics.

Man’s figure, skeleton, laryngeal projection, shoulders, pelvis, limbs, skin, steps, gait, voice, woman’s figure, head, hair, face, neck, chest, abdomen, thighs, respiration.

[PART IV]: PHYSIOLOGY OF SEX.

[Chapter 6]—General physiologic phenomena.

Cell-division, maturition, impregnation, mitosis, polar bodies, Mendel’s law, unit-characters, segregation, zygote.

[Chapter 7]—Functions of the male generative organs.

Function of testicles, spermatogenesis, maturition, function of seminal vesicles, prostate, Cowpers glands, urethral glands, semen, erection, ejaculation, nervous control, orgasm.

Chapter 8[Chapter 8]—Functions of female sex-organs.

Function of ovaries, ovum, Graafian follicle, tubes, menstruation, function of uterus, female ejaculation, function of vagina, Bartholinian glands, of clitoris, course of the sexual act.

[Chapter 9]—Libido sexualis.

Quality of pleasure, symptoms of pleasure, orgasm, symptom of after-lust, intensity of libido, the senses in its service, inhibition of libido, duration of copulation, post-orgastic stage.

[PART V]: PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.

[Chapter 10]—Psychology of sex-attraction.

Nature of the instincts, children’s affections, puberty, sex instinct in animals, mechanism of sex activity, emotions of puberty.

[Chapter 11]—Development of reproductive impulse.

Conjugation in unicellular animals, in metazoa, binary fission, budding, sporulation, conjugation in chilodon, in monads, hermaphrodites, self-fertilization, in phanerogamous plants, genitals of plants, sex differentiation, erotic chemotropismus in fishes, birds, mammals, attraction of mates, permanent mating, protection of the young, monogamy.

[Chapter 12]—Sensual love.

Egotism of sensual love, fondness, attachments, hatred.

[Chapter 13]—Sentimental love.

Conscious altruism, mental characters, psychic qualities, true friendship, love and passion, development of individual love, characteristic of the ideal woman’s love, obstructions in the development of love, tension at puberty, reasons for the disturbances in love’s development, disillusion of sensuality.

[Chapter 14]—Eros and libido.

Emotions of Eros and libido, in men, and in women, jealousy, transcendental attraction, two desires of Eros, difference in the two sexes, emotion of jealousy, its causes, vanity, woman’s former love-affairs.

[PART VI]: PATHOLOGY OF SEXUALITY.

[Chapter 15]—Paradoxia.

Sexual desires in the old, in infants, causes of early masturbation.

[Chapter 16]—Anaesthesia.

Etiology of impotence in male, chain of sex-act, satyriasis, nymphomania, troubles in bladder, in menstruation, nervous debility, consensualism, break in chain, continence and impotence, woman’s sexuality, impotence in women, clitoris sexuality, excesses in copulation, hysteria, practice of withdrawal, four impotencies in males, aspermia, azoospermia, four types of impotence of copulation, atonic impotence, partial impotence, premature ejaculation, symptoms of the impotent, pollutions, paralysis of bladder, urinary symptoms, female impotence, frigidity, sterility, impotence of libido, orgasmus retardatus, nymphomania, orgasmus praecox, diminished frequency.

[Chapter 17]—Hyperaesthesia.

Mixoscopy, its emotions, obscene sights, erotomania, in men, in women, satyriasis, nymphomania, priapism, masturbation, in animals, in women, incest in men, in women.

[Chapter 18]—Paraesthesia.

Masochism, submission to pain, in men, in women, sadism, platonic sadism, four degrees in men, in women, fetichism, in men, in women, exhibitionism, homosexuality, in animals, in savages, in history, in men, in women, perversity, four kinds homosexual perversion, psychic hermaphrodism, in men, in women, effemination, viraginity, transvestism, in men, in women, zoöerastia in men, in women.

[PART VII]: SEXUAL HYGIENE.

[Chapter 19]—Hygiene of childhood.

Necessity of early instruction, hygiene in infants, in children, in period of puberty, menstruation, pollutions, prevention of masturbation, syphilis, gonorrhoea, prostitution, alcohol, vanity, pleasure-seeking, prophylaxis against infection.

[Chapter 20]—Eugenics.

Aim of eugenics, methods of elimination of the undesirables, marriage of defectives, personal liberty in marriage, segregation, sterilization, castration.

[Chapter 21]—Sex-hygiene for adults.

Engagement-rules, selection of partner, wedding day, bed-room, positions of conjugation, frequency of conjugation, sequels of great frequency, in general health, in special organs, in the emotions, in sex pleasure, pain of defloration, conjugation during menstruation, conjugation during pregnancy, after confinement, conjugation during lactation, conjugation of nervous people, duration of conjugation, preparation of the woman’s muliebria in partial frigidity, offspring and sexual life, interval between two confinements, sterile time for conjugation, time of day for conjugation, dispareunia, impeditio of conception, sequels of withdrawals, of preventatives, abortion, abstinence, means of sexual excitement.

[PART VIII]: MORALITY.

[Chapter 22]—Standard of morality.

Moral standard of revealed religion, law, ethics, custom, Supreme Intelligence, chaos in morality, economic determinism, the superman, ethics and work, morality of love, philosophy of pleasure, moral standard in nature, rationality in nature, aim of nature, altruism and morality.

[Chapter 23]—Sexual morality.

History of marriage, promiscuity, consanguineous family, punaluan family, pairing family, patriarchal family, female chastity, adultery, law of obstacles, modesty, coyness, female morality and reason.

[Chapter 24]—Male chastity.

Two reasons for male chastity, syphilis and gonorrhoea, prevalence of gonorrhoea in men, infection of mothers and children, sterility, syphilis, its complications, alimentary canal, respiratory tract, circulatory system, genito-urinary system, skeleton, muscles, nervous system, prostitution, clandestine vice, injury of abstinence, ethics of evolution.

LOVE

PART I.

INTRODUCTION

Two intense desires rule and govern mankind and control all man’s thoughts, his joys and sorrows. They are man’s two appetites, hunger for food and craving for love. Curiously enough, while man takes great pains in the education of the young to prepare them for the gratification of hunger, the much tabooed question of sex has been excluded, in our present civilization, from every discussion.

Yet love lies at the foundation of society, it permeates unconsciously the thoughts, aspirations and hopes of mankind. Love is glorified as the source of the most admirable productions of art, of the sublime creations of poetry and music; it is accepted as the mightiest factor in human civilization, as the basis of the family and state. The egoism of passion and the power of love are absorbing all other considerations. Virgil calls love the greatest conqueror:

“Omnia vincit amor, nos et cedamus amori.”

Solomon sings, “Love is strong as death.”

In its right appreciation, love has been exalted by the ancients in song and story and extolled by priest and philosopher. “To the Spirit, to Heaven, to the Sun, to the Moon, to Earth, to Night, to the Day, and to the Father of all that is and will be, to Eros.” Such an invocation was possible only among the ancient civilized nations. They recognized the importance of sexuality in life. They could not see any moral turpitude in actions, regarded by them as the design of nature and as the acme of felicity. They discovered in Love the focus of life. For this reason sexuality among the ancients was an object of pure reverence as the fundamental force of life. The divine adoration of sex was the practice of every tribe and nation of prehistoric antiquity. Even the organs of sex were considered beautiful and pleasurable objects, and were admired accordingly. The phallus, or the male sex-organ, and the yoni, the external female genitals, were symbols of the worship of the ancients and were objects of special religious rites.

In the remotest antiquity the worship of the generative principle was the only religion known to men. Sex-worship was not confined to any one race. It was the form of worship common to all primeval nations of the globe. The Hindus, Chaldeans, Hebrews, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Gauls, Celts, Teutons, Britons and Scandinavians, all shared in phallicism and yonism.

The study of sexual activities and of generation was the basis of ancient Hindu theology. Siva had on his left arm a ring on which was portrayed the sex organs in the act of procreation. The Greek bacchanalia, and the Roman saturnalian mysteries, the free love that prevailed during the festivities in honor of Mylitta, Anaitis, and Aphrodita were still relics of sex-worship. Herodotos’ statement that in Babylon women offered themselves, once at least in their lives, in the Temple of Venus, and that only after so doing were they considered free to marry, and his further report that the women on the vessels sailing for Bubastis to the festivals of Iris uncovered themselves in the presence of the men, show that sex-worship was not unknown among Assyrians and Egyptians.

In the historic time sex worship was almost replaced by other forms of religion. Yet there are traces of the cult of the phallus to be found everywhere in ancient profane and sacred history. The temple in which the emperor Elgabal was brought up was represented on a bronze coin of his reign; an ionic peristyle with a peek into the Cella, but instead of the statue of a god was a gigantic phallus. Even the Hebrews worshipped in the phallus the principle of the production of life before the adoption of the cult of Jehovah. Records of phallicism can still be found in the Old Testament. Instead of invoking the Deity in taking a solemn oath, Abraham orders his servant to place his hand upon his phallus, because the phallus was still kept in its former high veneration. The slain enemy was, for this reason, deprived of his phallus. David bought Saul’s daughter with a trophy of two hundred phalli, taken from the slain Philistines. Circumcision also shows the incorporation of phallic ritual with religion.

In the same light and with the same veneration as the phallus was the yoni worshipped. In the yoni was worshipped the receptacle of life, the divine ark, within the hidden enclosure of which was contained the mystery of life. Its interior was considered the holy of holies. The yoni was for that reason often represented by an ark, which was the holiest of all symbols in the worship of the Ancients. The worship of Osiris took place before an ark; the sanctum sanctorum of Jehovah’s temple harbored an ark.

Yonism was the adoration of the vulva, as the organ through which the sexual powers are manifested. It is through the woman that the divine sexual emotions are aroused; it is the sight or thought of her that calls into activity the man’s generative nature and powers.

The female principle in nature was hence not considered simply as a passive medium, but was exalted and worshipped as a potent factor in the mystery of creation and reproduction. The earth itself was considered feminine, and all natural orifices have been regarded as typical of that part which characterizes woman. The vulva, therefore, was the sacred symbol of the female principle in nature.

The Ashereh, so often mentioned in the Bible, was nothing but the image of the yoni. It was a symbol of Ashtoreth, or of the union of Baal and Ashtoreth. The Ashereh was made of wood and had in its centre an opening or fissure as the door of life. Above the fissure was a small elevation as an emblematical representation of the clitoris.

The most common forms of the feminine symbol were those made in representation of the mons Veneris. The mountain of Venus was represented by mounds, columns and pyramids. Mounds and hills were considered holy. The graves of Egyptian kings were erected in form of huge pyramids in honor of the feminine creative deity. The yoni worshippers of the Old Testament had the temples of their feminine deity on high hills. The obelisk, pillar, column, altar, mount and cave, all have their origin in the pristine symbolism of yonic worship.

Even the present belief in the lucky horseshoe is connected with the ancient emblems of the female genitals, the yoni. In Ireland the yoni seem to have been the symbol of sex-worship most in use. Even in the arches over the doorways of Christian churches a female figure, with the person fully exposed, was so placed that the external organs of generation at once caught the eye. In olden times, the people were in the habit of making charcoal drawings of the female genitals over the doors of their houses to ward off ill luck. Now, the horseshoe has a great resemblance with the form of the vulva. Hence the drawings over the doors resembled a horseshoe. From this symbol originates the horseshoe’s alleged power to ward off evil and to bring luck. Father Dubois found that the lingam which the devout Hindus attach either to their hair or arms or is suspended from the neck is a small amulet representing the organs of both sexes in activity. Even the symbol of the cross has been identified with the earliest records of sex-worship. The cruciform symbol on the Assyrian relics and in the temples of Vishnu typifies the sacredness of Love’s physical expression.

Thus with the ancients the passion of sex and the fervor of religion were closely interwoven. Accordingly every ancient temple had within its confines a number of consecrated women whose office it was to submit to the embraces of any man upon the payment of a specified sum. The money was used for religious purposes. To the mind of the Ancients no more appropriate nor holy means could be devised for raising money for the maintenance of the temple than a sanctified indulgence in the divine act. It was the most sacred and sublime of all human functions. Hence the temple-courtesan was held in high honor and was considered as sacred as the priest. The Old Testament calls the temple-courtesan “Hakdeshoh,” the consecrated, the holy; and it was not in the least degrading to associate with her, in the early history of the Hebrews, as the story of Juda and Tamar shows. Later on, Amos (ii, 7) complains that the Hebrew maidens received the embraces of men at every altar. Hosea (iv, 14) distinguishes between the common prostitute and the temple-courtesan.

The lapse of Israel into the former sex-worship, at the time of these prophets, caused a reaction against any sex-manifestations. This reaction is especially noticeable among the faithful adherents of the religion of Jehovah in the latter days of the second temple. The pious men sought the greatest virtue in chastity and celibacy and looked with contempt upon sexuality. In the beginning only individual persons took to celibacy, as did Elijah and Elisha. Later on these celibates became more numerous and formed different orders, of which the order of the Essaeans was the most important, because Christianity took its origin within the folds of this order.

In accordance with its origin, Christianity never looked with favor upon sexuality of any kind. The immaculate virgin is the ideal. Even holy matrimony was only tolerated. “It is good for a man not to touch a woman,” writes Paul to the Corinthians (Cap. vii). Christianity, therefore, always surrounded with a halo those who vowed chastity. To overcome the passion of sex was always praised as the highest virtue, and asceticism was held in high veneration. Justinus says that total sexual abstinence is a high virtue, and that sexual activity is unnecessary to life. Hieronymus claims that God and the Church requested singleness and only permitted marriage. Christianity entirely overlooked the tremendous strain upon the physical, mental and moral forces such an unnatural life must carry with it. For though complete abstinence is possible and feasible during the period of adolescence, men and women, when mature in years, suffer under such enforced abstinence, and although the final act, or the culmination of the sex-attraction, may be suppressed by the will, yet its emotions are irresistible. The neurotic nun who imagines herself being embraced by a saint thinks that she has subjugated the instinct of sex, but in reality her emotions have a sexual origin.

Actions caused by great sexual excitement may be found in the life of many a saint. Augustinus, in his confessions, says: “My heart was burning, boiling and foaming with unchastity; it was poured out, it overflowed, it went up in licentiousness.”

Origines found sexual abstinence too difficult and castrated himself. For that reason he never was canonized. For the spirit should kill the flesh. Parkman’s report about Marie de l’Incarnation is highly interesting in this respect. She heard, while in a trance, a miraculous voice, Christ promising to become her spouse. Months and years passed, when again the voice sounded in her ear, this time with the assurance that the promise was fulfilled, that she was indeed his bride. Now ensued phenomena which are not infrequent among female devotees, when unmarried or married unhappily. In her excited imagination, the divine spouse became a living presence, and her language to him, as recorded by herself, is of intense passion. Her prayer is, “O! my Love! when shall I embrace you? Have you no pity on the torments which I suffer? Alas, alas, my Love, my Beauty, my Life! Instead of healing my pain you take pleasure in it. Come, let me embrace you and die in your sacred arms.”

A curious instance of perversion in religio-sexual feeling, bordering on zoöerastia, is the case of St. Veronica. According to Friedrich she was so enamored of the divine lion, symbolizing St. Mark, that she took a lion whelp to her bed, fondled it, kissed it “et præbebat ei mammas.”

Thus the preaching of the Church on the subjugation of the flesh was no great success even among the saints. If the ascetics are not frigid they remain subject to the emotions of sex. Mankind at large is surely ruled by the dictates of the sex-urge, in our day no less than at the time of sex-worship. Especially do all feminine thoughts, aspirations and pursuits aim, though sometimes unconsciously, at love, in spite of our false modesty, prudery and conspiracy of silence about the fundamental facts of reproduction.

One glance at the fashions in dress will bear out this contention. The question of dress surely rules the thoughts and actions of a majority of our modern women. Now what is the meaning of dress? Grosse in his “Anfänge der Kunst” shows that the desire for clothes was originally an irradiation of the sex instinct. The man adopted dress for the purpose of decoration, the woman for the purpose of attraction through covering. The first coverings of the private parts served as an ornament of the same and to render the parts covered more conspicuous. For where nudity generally prevails, the practice of covering certain parts of the body excites curiosity and solicits the observation of the other sex. Mortimer reports that in Australia girls cast off their aprons after marriage, being no longer anxious to engage the notice of men.

This fact serves to prove that clothes, which originated from the first coverings, were originally worn to allure. It was not the feeling of shame that caused resort to coverings and created clothes, but the very coverings provoked in time the feeling of shame.[A]

Clothes owing their introduction to the irradiation of sex-attraction, fashion never disowned their origin. Fashion, says Bloch, bears witness of its intimate relationship to the vita sexualis, in that it always started from the ranks of courtesans and at the instance of opulent demi-mondaines. Gunther says: The demi-monde has always, since fashions are in existence, dictated them, in Rome, in Venice and now in Paris.

Fashion has in two ways introduced a sensual element in dress. Either it renders conspicuous certain parts of the body and exaggerates their size, by the shape of the garment, its drapery and trimmings, or it leaves uncovered these parts to catch the eye. Both manoeuvers aim at the production of a sensual effect. The stretching of the skirt over the abdomen and legs in such a way that the outlines of the hips and thighs obtrude themselves upon the eye was surely invented by a Parisian demi-mondaine to serve sensuality. The corset, says Bloch, aims to render conspicuous and prominent the specific female organ, the bosom. It tries to effect an exciting contrast between the form of the bosom and the slimness of the waist, increased by tight lacing. At the same time, fashion dictates for a great number of occasions an ample nudity of this most alluring female organ.

The bosom of the woman, says Berg, is the organ by which she is able to express herself most ingeniously. Its undulations were always her most expressive and skilful rhetoric. The bosom represents the woman’s language and her poetry, her history and her music, her purity and her longing, her policy and her religion, her worship and her art, her secret and her convention, her character and her pride, her consciousness, her magic mirror and her mystery. The bosom is the central organ of all female ideas, desires and humors. No wonder, therefore, that fashion concentrates its greatest endeavors and painstaking effort upon this particular part of the female body. Being Cupid’s most faithful servant, fashion selects this part which it expects to serve best as the target of the winged god’s arrows. To be sure, the individual refined and chaste woman is unaware of the underlying principle of the creators of fashions. She is convinced that clothes were adopted for esthetic reasons, although the sculptor who knows most of beauty seldom covers up the naked body. By heredity and social custom, clothing for refined women has become a mere side current of irradiation of the sensual. Clothes are used, by a majority of women, mainly as a means of beautifying. Ornamental clothing is not any longer a simple lure. It is a sign or symbol of a greater refinement of perception and delicacy of feeling. By the use of clothes the attention is directed rather to the personality than to the person. It is an attempt to display psychical rather than physical features. The impulse of the normal woman to attribute an exaggerated value to clothes is more an imaginative radiation and far remote from the desire of physical exhibition. But as far as fashion is concerned, the original close connection between clothes and the attraction of the sexes is still the commanding principle. Fashion is still standing in the service of sensuality. This explains its modern fickleness. In previous epochs the same mode of dress was worn for centuries, as the European peasant’s dress shows. The present feverishly frequent change of fashion is a pathological phenomenon, betraying the diseased eagerness for ever stronger and more original sensual stimulations.

Love and sex attraction being the chief objects in the lives of a considerable part of mankind, it is surprising that until recently sexuality was not looked upon with great favor, and that a sane knowledge of sex and reproduction was assiduously withheld from the people. While our ancestors considered the sex functions sacred, by a strange mental process it is now considered shameful. So deeply is the sense of shame morbidly associated with the sensual desire that most people, and especially women, frequently disavow their propensity and attempt to hide their ardor from the world. They do not recognize that normal, well-ordered amativeness is a physiological and moral virtue, while manifestations of spurious spirituality are often induced by certain perversions. Indifference to amatory pleasures is frequently professed by those who resort to artificial stimulants. Only those most occupied with amatory delights feign to look with contempt upon sex and to despise its wonderful functions.[B] To the really innocent and pure all things are pure. The result of this morbid sense of shame is that there is scarcely any other subject so completely ignored as the sex function, although so much of the health and happiness of the race depends upon it. This false sense of shame is the cause of our modern fig-leaf modesty and prudery, which attributes a particular obscene meaning to everything sexual. It has created that diseased imagination, depraved beyond all hope, which can find any prurient gratification in the cold, chaste nakedness of ancient marble. The mere nude arms or legs of a small school girl, the furnishings of a public bath-house, the naked limbs of a Tirolian peasant, or the grandest works of art awaken in them lascivious thoughts. Individuals with such traits are accustomed to interject their own diseased imagination, guilty conscience and obscene sentiments into the purest artistic creations, be they sculptured, painted, written or spoken.

The prudery and obscenity of these victims of a diseased imagination and perverted moral sense have succeeded in distorting our judgment on questions of sex in such a way that any desire for scientific instruction in these subjects has become inextricably confused with ideas of prurience and impropriety. Matters pertaining to the generative functions are, as a rule, excluded even from treatises on physiology. But for the anatomists and alienists, nothing would be known about the physiology of normal Love. The zealots wish to persuade us that the population of the earth increases by the stork-method.

Even the physician who is often called upon for advice about things pertaining to the psychological phase of sex, prudishly ignores the mightiest of human instincts which is so intimately related to human weal and woe. He is conversant with the sexual question by virtue of its anatomical and physiological knowledge, and he is well aware of its hygienic, sociological and ethical importance. But when he is to furnish enlightenment on psychic or pedagogic questions of sex, he is embarrassed because of a lack of knowledge of sex psychology. The great teachers in our medical schools, who ought to impart to their pupils all their knowledge about the nature of things concerning Love that they have gathered in their long and extensive experience, seem either to consider Love a subject too sacred for physiological and psychological analysis, or are really afraid to arouse the anger of the zealots who made of the sanctuary of sex-attraction a “noli me tangere.”

Only the writers of fiction and poetry are allowed to approach the sanctuary of Love, because with their abnormal imagination they sang dithyrambs on this natural sentiment and morbidly transformed it into a supernatural, obscure phenomenon. The hyperaesthetic writers of this morbid fiction are encouraged to continue their practice of elevating the natural sentiment of love to the height of a fetich, which only the lover is capable of understanding. The scientist who dared to analyze this sentiment, so important to the human race, and tried to enlighten us about the nature of the attraction of the sexes, was met with the cry, “To the Tarpeian rock.” The unbiased observer was declared incapable of feeling and comprehending this natural sentiment. Even philosophers, such as Schopenhauer, Hartman and Spencer, though they touched upon the subject only from a philosophical point of view, without probing it with the anatomist’s scalpel, have been decried as heartless and soulless cynics whom nature denied the possession of this sublimest of sentiments, because they dared to attack the majesty of Love.

No wonder, therefore, that no other physical function has been treated with so stepmotherly a regard and scant attention as the important instinct of the preservation of the species, no wonder that no other physiological phenomenon has been approached with such hesitancy as the study of love in man. The works on physiology and gynaecology are significantly silent on the subject of this important sentiment, and the practitioner who so often has to deal with the pathological side of love looks in vain for light in his text-books.

In the last decennium, a certain change has taken place in this respect. A wave of sex discussion is sweeping over the civilized countries of the world. The former taboo on the discussion of sexual matters has been more or less removed and the veil lifted. Things which not very long ago could not have been mentioned in polite society except in whispers and with low breath, are now publicly discussed in season and out of season. As it is often the case, we have turned from the one extreme of complete darkness to the other extreme of too glaring light. Sex enlightenment runs rampant at present. It haunts the stage, lurks in innumerable societies and crops out in newspapers and magazines.

But, although the world is full of sex discussion, the emphasis is generally laid upon sex-hygiene and upon the knowledge of the relations of the sex function to mental and physical development. Sex-hygiene is nowadays held to be a proper subject of pedagogy and is taught in many schools and colleges. But the emotion of Love is still very little studied, and it is still wrapped in complete darkness. A great deal of ignorance still prevails in regard to this important emotion. Few people understand under this much-abused word one and the same emotion. The same word is used to designate entirely different feelings. The ancient Greeks had three different words to express the different emotions that go under the name of love. One of the highest emotions is expressed by the word ἀγαπάω. It is the love man feels for God, parents or country. It is the love founded upon worship, adoration, gratitude and habit. The other kind of love was expressed by the word φιλέω. It designates the love founded on sympathy and liking, as the love of friends, of humanity, of wisdom. The last, amatory emotion, was expressed by the word ἐράω. It is the love founded upon sex-attraction. It is a purely instinctive emotion, found throughout the animal kingdom and even among some plants. Hence it is just the feeling which should not be treated with such besotted reverence. True enough sexual passion is the passion of creation, the most important function in the universe. Sympathy, affection, fidelity, sacrifice, indeed, all those noble traits, included under the term altruism, spring from the reproductive instinct. Still the two emotions, love, sung by poetry and exalted by art, and sex-attraction, found in animals and plants as well as in man, can not be identical. Still they are both generally confounded even by the best writers.

To spread more light upon this important subject is the aim of this treatise. It has been written for the elucidation of the normal amatory emotions, considering the pathological changes only by way of contrast, for the perusal of the profession of medicine and of students of medical jurisprudence.

[PART II.]
EVOLUTION OF SEX

[CHAPTER I]
ORGANIC EVOLUTION

The emotion of love, like any other psychic trait, is subject to the laws of evolution. Its history is written on the pages of Life’s book. The amatory emotions have followed step by step the evolution of plant and animal.

The fact of organic evolution is nowadays tacitly accepted even by those powers who in a not very remote period fought against the theory of the heliocentric system. What is still sub judice is the method of evolution. Here we have two main theories:

1. The mechanistic.

(a) Neo-Lamarckians.
(b) Neo-Darwinians.

2. The vitalistic.

(a) Teleology.
(b) Creative evolution.

According to the mechanistic theory, all life can be accounted for through the application of the laws of physics and chemistry, while the claim of the vitalistic theory is that physics and chemistry do not explain all. Teleology holds that life is carrying out a prearranged plan; creative evolution postulates a blind primordial energy, a psychic force, a life impetus, without any prearranged plans. The Neo-Lamarckians hold that acquired characteristics during the lifetime of the individual are transmitted to its offspring. This transmission is the method of evolution. The Neo-Darwinians deny the transmission of acquired characteristics and claim that evolution has been and is effected by natural selection. The animal’s germ-cells being a product of its own soma-cells and the parents’ germ-cells, they must change continually, since the soma-cells are being continually changed. Those germ-cells which are beneficial to the organism are selected by nature for preservation. The claim of the Lamarckians is that environment gives rise to variation, while the Darwinians maintain that a given variation is selected by environment for survival.

All four theories assume evolution as a fact. That the neck of the giraffe, for example, has been evolved to reach the leaves of high trees is admitted by all of them; they only differ in the principle underlying this evolution. According to teleology, the faculty to evolve a long neck has been infused into the protoplasm by the creative power, according to a prearranged plan. Creative evolution assumes a blind primordial vital impetus without purpose, end or aim. Organic life is an infinite addition, a continuance without conclusion. Creation, once started, the long neck has evolved without any previously arranged plan. The Neo-Lamarckian explains the evolvement of the long neck by the continual stretching of the organ to reach the leaves of high trees. The increase in length was then transmitted from generation to generation, each generation contributing its quota. In this way the present long neck has been evolved. The Neo-Darwinian assumes an accidental variation. At one time in the animal’s history an animal with a long neck has been accidentally bred. This variation with its higher survival value survived during a scarcity of food, while the low-necked varieties disappeared.

Neither of the four theories gives entire satisfaction to the fastidious critic. The mechanistic theory denies or rather ignores the presence of an intelligence in the universe, and the human mind, as now constituted, can not understand how the power, that could create a substance with the potentiality to develop into the human intellect, could itself be devoid of intellect. If, on the other hand, the creative power is endowed with intelligence, then its working without aim or purpose is equally unthinkable. The vitalistic theory offers other difficulties. Teleology, for instance, does not answer the question why an intelligence, unlimited by space and time, omnipotent and omniscient, should need the vast machinery of evolution to accomplish its end; why could it not create a full-fledged Adam of the theologist? Moreover, the human mind can not grasp the How, Whence and the Where of the Supreme Intelligence, except by faith, and science has no dealing with faith. The same objection may be raised against creative evolution, whence this initial, vital impetus, whence this original life?

The part of the mechanistic theory enunciated by the Neo-Lamarckians seems quite probable. Nature, or environment, does sometimes change organic beings either by chemical or by physical influences, and these changes are not seldom transmitted to the offspring. Antonio Marro (First Eugenic Congress) cites a case where a bull while leaving the stable had its tail cut off, the door suddenly closing; all the calves born through the impregnation of this bull were tailless. Marro also made guinea-pigs epileptic by the resection of the sciatic nerve, and the offspring of the animals were also epileptic. Climate, temperature, moisture, nutrition and unusual activity produce effects upon the organism, and the offspring of the new generation have in their blood and brain the consequences of the habits of their ancestors. Prolonged disuse of an organ causes its degeneration and often its disappearance. High temperature changes the color of insects which is then inheritable or racial. Poisons such as alcohol, syphilis, arthritic diathesis, intoxicants of contagious diseases do also change the germ-plasma. Franz Boas (“The Immigration Commission. Changes in bodily form of descendants of Immigrants”) has found that none of the characteristics of the human types that come to America remain stable. Not even those characteristics of a race which have proved to be most permanent in their old home, as the form of the head, remain the same under the new surroundings. The length of the head of the brachycephalic Hebrews is increased, the width of the head and of the face is decreased. On the other hand, the length of the head of the dolichocephalic Sicilians is decreased, while the width of the head is increased. The effect of these changes is the development of a greater similarity of the descendants of Sicilians and Hebrews, one to the other. The height of body of the American-born Hebrew is increased. This influence of American environment upon the descendants of immigrants shows that acquired characteristics are transmissible. On the other hand, many facts tend to show that acquired characteristics, as a rule, are not transmitted to the offspring. Since the beginning of history circumcision has been practised among the Jews, still the Jewish boy is born with an intact prepuce.

For the reason that in the majority of cases acquired characters are not transmissible, the Darwinian rejects the explanation of evolution by appetency, or the use and disuse of certain organs, and assumes a quasi “deus ex machina” in the form of variation.

Ordinary variation is a fact that can not be disputed. No two plants or animals are exactly alike. The amphimixis or the blending of the inheritances of two individuals is, according to Weismann, the great factor in the production of variations. The two parents of every animal or plant have the species-character in common, but there are certain distinctive traits that hybridize. Hence ordinary variation is a fact, and Nature by selection may evolve, in a slow way, new species, just as Luther Burbank creates new kinds by artificial selection. Favorable variations are then bound to furnish the possessor with a greater power of resistance and with higher possibilities of life and propagation. Evolution, accordingly, occurs primarily through sudden mutations or sports which are the fittest for survival.

While the principle upon which the Lamarckian doctrines rest is the power of adaptation, the basis of evolution for the Darwinian is the transmissibility of unlikeness or individuality just as likeness. Acquired characters are not transmitted; each generation has to make a fresh start. It does not begin where the last generation has left off. But variations are transmitted to the offspring, and evolution proceeds by sports or by the transilient variation.

A serious objection to this theory is the tendency of Nature to revert to the normal average of the race. The law of Galton means the return to the mean of the species. The children of the sport tend to return towards the mean of the race.

Thus the four explanations do not satisfactorily explain, and the subject of the method of evolution is not yet decided. Neither teleology with the initiatory psychic energy working towards definite ends, nor Bergson’s vital impulse or original profound cosmic force, nor Lamarck’s appetency or use and disuse, nor Darwin’s natural selection, furnish an unobjectionable satisfactory explanation of organic evolution. Still the world’s thinkers and scientists have accepted organic evolution as a fact which may be proven by embryonic development, in conformity with Haeckel’s biogenetic axiom that ontogeny is only a short recapitulation of phylogeny.

The ovum or even the zygote (i. e., the impregnated ovum) is a single-celled organism and resembles the animals of the first or lowest type in the animal kingdom. The protozoa are nothing else than single-celled animals. Some of them have even a lower structure than the common cell. The Monera, e. g., has neither nucleus nor membrane. The manifestations of life are recognizable only by the possession of the faculties of the assimilation of food and of propagation by segmentation and division.

CUT I.

a, cell; b, morula; c, blastula; d, gastrula; ec, ectoblast; en, endoblast.

Like the protozoon, the ovum, immediately after its impregnation, begins to undergo a certain division, by a series of successive segmentations, into 2, then 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, etc., cells. By continuous cell segmentations a great mass, the morula or mulberry, is produced. The structure of the morula corresponds with that of the coelenterata, or the animals of the second type. To this type belong the animals with gemmiparous reproduction, or multiplication by means of buds. The divided animals remain together and form colonies, as e. g. in sponges or corals.

The next event in the formation of the embryo is the blastula. The solid spherical mass of cells becomes hollow like a rubber ball. In the subsequent stage the blastula becomes flat at one pole. By degrees a depression is formed at this point, which becomes deeper step by step, until the inner layer reaches the outer layer, representing half a sphere of two layers, like a collapsed rubber ball. In the farther growth the edges approach the middle line till they finally meet and fuse together. The oval body, called the gastrula, thus consists of two layers, the primitive germinal membranes, the ectoderm and entoderm. The gastrula resembles in its structure that of the worms, or the third type of the animal kingdom.

CUT II.

Diagram, showing the development of the organs.
ek, ektoderm; mp, medulary plate; ms, mesoderm just forming from the ed, entoderm; c, coelom or body cavity; nt, nerve-tube or spinal cord; ac, abdominal cavity; cd, chorda dorsalis; it, intestinal cavity.

By certain foldings of the ento- and ectoderm transformations arise, and new organs develop. Two folds of the entoderm grow higher, approach each other and finally meet. In this way the embryo consists of four germinal membranes. A certain folding of the ectoderm marks the position of the future backbone in the primitive stripe. A longitudinal furrow marks the origin of the nerve-tube. The different membranes have thus formed several tubes, the chorda dorsalis, the definitive intestinal canal and the abdominal cavity or coelom. The structure of the embryo resembles now more or less that of the animals of the fourth type or the echinodermata.

The membranes which include the intestinal canal soon overgrow on both sides the nerve-tube and the chorda and are then differentiated partly into the bones of the skeleton and partly into the muscles. In the meantime, the vascular spaces develop. At one point of the vascular tube a rhythmical pulsation is observed, representing the primitive heart, similar to that of the mollusca.

A certain fold, the head-fold, arises at the front end of the embryo by the bending of the spinal column. Beneath the head-fold arise five processes or gills, as in fishes, which later on are transformed into the face of the fetus. Four other processes are budded off from the trunk and subsequently become the extremities. A furrow at the ventral side of the embryo shows the origin of later trachea and lungs. On both sides of the head-fold can be seen two pits for the eyes. At this point, the embryo is in the same stage of development as many arthropoda.

The skeleton begins now to ossify. The heart tube begins to bend and takes the form of an “S.” In this way the tube is turned into an auricle and ventricle as in the amphibia. The ventricle is then divided by a partition as in the reptiles. One part of the nerve-tube is differentiated into three cerebral vesicles, as in birds.

Thus the embryo resembles in its structure at different stages the structure of the different types of the animals of the animal kingdom. The different formations do not follow the chronological order as described, but, as a rule, they take place synchronously. At the end of the fourth month the fetus is about sixteen centimeters or six inches long and has reached its definite human shape.

[CHAPTER II]
EVOLUTION OF THE GENITAL SYSTEM

A. The Indifferent Stage

Before the last described stage has been reached, there has developed simultaneously with the other organs a set of organs, known under the name of the genito-urinary system, which deserves here our special attention.

The urinary secretion is effected throughout the animal kingdom by three systems: the pronephros or the head-kidney; mesonephros, or primitive kidney, or Wolffian body, “Urniere”; and metanephros, or true kidney. The pronephros must be regarded as the phylogenetically oldest part, since only traces of it are found in the human embryo. Here in the earlier stages of embryonic development, the Wolffian body is the organ for the urinary secretion.

The Wolffian body, or mesonephros, appears in the shape of two longitudinal protuberances on either side of the mesentary along the spinal column. The protuberances consist of a series of transverse excretory tubules or nephrides. These tubules open into two pronephric ducts, or Wolffian ducts, which are running alongside the abdominal aorta. These two Wolffian or primitive male ducts open at the caudal end of the embryo into the hind-end of the alimentary canal, or the cloaca (Cut III, Fig. 2).

When the Wolffian body has almost reached its greatest development a second longitudinal duct makes its appearance by the evagination of the ventral surface of the Wolffian body. These ducts lie in close proximity of the Wolffian ducts, along the dorsal aspect of the coelom, or body-cavity, and are known as the ducts of Müller, or the primitive female ducts. The function of these canals in lowly organized animals is that of receiving from the body-cavity the ova and of evacuating them from the body. The Müllerian ducts also open into the cloaca. At the lower end the Müllerian and Wolffian ducts run in close apposition and form the genital cord. At this stage of development the embryo is thus hermaphroditic like the worms.

CUT III.

Fig. 1, horizontal cut through embryo; Fig. 2, vertical cut; schema of indifferent stage.
Wb, Wolffian body; Wd, Wolffian duct; Md, Müllerian duct; gg, genital gland; m, mesentery; i, intestine; sc, spinal cord; ch, chorda; ao, aorta; a, allantois; clo, cloaca; k, kidney.

The metanephros, or the true kidney, appears first as an epithelial or renal evagination of the Wolffian duct on the dorsal side of the latter and near its opening into the intestinal canal or cloaca. This bud grows forward, extends headward toward the position of the Wolffian body and becomes a long, narrow tube, the ureter. The blind end branches into different tubules, each having a sacculated end. They soon assume a tortuous and convoluted form and represent the permanent kidney. The Wolffian body is now replaced in its function by the true kidney, and enters into special relations with the sexual organs, by being transformed into the genital apparatus of the male.

Before the Wolffian body has yet degenerated the mesothelial cells overlying the free surface of that body, at its upper part, and at the ventro-mesial side, assume a high columnar form and form an elongated swelling, known as the internal genital ridge. As the degeneration of the Wolffian body proceeds the genital ridge is differentiated into the indifferent sexual gland, by producing a projection upon the wall of the coelom or body cavity. This prominence is attached to the surface of the Wolffian body by a fold of the peritoneum. At this stage there is no distinction of sex. The sexual gland represents the indifferent type of the sexual apparatus.

While this metamorphosis is going on at the head-end of the sexual ducts, the caudal ends undergo also a certain degree of development.

In the early embryonic life the intestinal canal is in communication with the allantois. In fact, both form one continuous canal. When the caudal, pointed end of the intestine becomes obliterated, the allantois-duct on the ventral side, and the intestine on the dorsal side, both open into a kind of pouch, the cloaca. When the body-cavity of the embryo closes in the course of farther development, the allantois, which is the connecting link between the embryo and the placenta, enters the embryo by the small opening known as the umbilicus. Very soon the middle segment of the intra-embryonic allantois dilates and assumes the form of a spindle-shaped sac, the later urinary bladder. The portion of the intra-embryonic allantois, connecting the summit of the bladder with the umbilicus, soon becomes an impervious cord, known as the urachus. The portion of the allantois intervening between the bladder and the intestine is designated as Sinus Urogenitalis.

Into this sinus opens the short canal, connecting the lower end of the bladder with the upper end of the urogenital sinus which becomes later on the urethra. The sinus also receives the genital ducts, the Müllerian and the Wolffian ducts, and the latter’s evaginations, the ureters. Later on, owing to alterations through unequal growth, the orifices of the ureters, which originally lie in close apposition with the openings of the Wolffian ducts, change their position and are moved toward the bladder. The interval between the two pairs of ducts, the Wolffian ducts and the ureters, increases, until the ureters finally open into the bladder.

The intra-embryonic allantois has thus furnished the following organs: the solid cord urachus, or ligamentum vesico-umbilicale, the urinary bladder, the urethra and the urogenital sinus. The latter is still in communication with the intestine by means of the cloaca.

At the next step ridges or folds spring from each side of the cloaca, grow toward each other, until they finally coalesce and form a complete septum. By farther development the original epithelial septum becomes the permanent perineum. Since the intestine is now no longer in communication with the urogenital sinus, the cloaca as such disappears. At this stage the intestine ends in a blind sac. It is closed up towards the exterior by the anal membrane. Neither are urethra and genital canal in communication with the exterior. They both open into the urogenital sinus, and the latter is closed up towards the exterior by the urogenital membrane. The anal membrane soon breaks through and the rectum opens to the exterior by the way of the anus.

B. The Internal Male Sexual Organs

After the genital ridge had made its appearance, columns of cells begin to grow down into the substance of the Wolffian ridge. The columns are composed of two kinds of cells, small epithelial cells and large spherical cells, known as sex-cells. Two regions may be now recognized in the ridge, the rete-region and the sex-gland region. The cell-columns of the rete region are termed “rete-cords,” and the cell columns of the sex-gland region are called “sex-cords.” The sex-cords unite to form a complicated network and the rete-cords grow backward to the Wolffian ridge. They then develop a lumen and send off branches to the sex-cord reticulum.

The genital portion of the Wolffian body persists in the male in its entirety and serves as the efferent ducts of the testis. They open into the upper part of the Wolffian duct. The latter is retained complete. The portion nearest the testis is thrown into coils and forms a part of the epididymis, the remainder is converted into the vas deferens and the ductus ejaculatorius and the lateral outpouching of the wall, the vesicula seminalis.

The Müllerian ducts disappear completely in the male. Only the lower ends of the ducts fuse to form the sinus pocularis, or utriculus prostaticus.

C. The Internal Female Sex Organs

In the female the Wolffian body and ducts degenerate. The remainder of the body is known as the parovarium, an organ without any apparent function, while the remainder of the ducts are designated the ducts of Gartner.

The ovary is produced from the asexual stage by the following metamorphosis. The mesothelial cells on the peritoneal surface of the sexual gland change into the germinal epithelium and form the so-called egg-columns or sexual cord which represent the primitive ova.

CUT IV.

Vertical cut through male and female embryos, Schema; Fig. 1, male; Fig. 2, female.
a, allantois duct; b, bladder; u, urethra; ur, ureter; su, sinus urogenitalis; sp, sinus pocularis; cd, cloacal depression; ad, anal depression; t, testicle; hy, hyatide; e, epididymis; vd, vas deferens; Md, Müllerian duct; de, ductus ejaculatorius; k, kidney; i, intestine; va, vagina; ov, ovary; pa, parovarium; Ft, Fallopian tube; Wd, Wolffian duct; ut, uterus.

At the caudal end, the Müllerian ducts fuse together into one, the walls, along the entire line of the union, degenerate, and the two ducts thus form a single duct, the later vagina and uterus. Until the fifth month there is no distinction between
vagina and uterus, the two organs form a single sac-like structure. At the beginning of the fifth month, a circular ridge in the wall of the sac makes its appearance and marks the division between the vagina and the uterus. When the lower portion of the two Müllerian ducts have fused to form a single canal, the utero-vaginal sac, the lumen of the vagina is still obliterated, being filled with epithelial cells. By the breaking down of the central epithelial cells, the cavity is established.

At this period a little semicircular crescentic fold attached to the dorsal margin of the aperture of the vagina arises and forms the hymen, an organ which has always played such an important rôle in the fancy of all nations.

The upper blind ends of the Müllerian ducts, with their expanded funnel-shaped mouths, diverge and form the oviducts, or the Fallopian tubes.

D. The External Genitals

At the time when the urethra, the sexual ducts and the intestine still open into the sac-like tube, the so-called cloaca, there is distinguishable on the exterior surface of the body, corresponding to the position of the cloaca, a certain depression called the cloacal depression. When the intestine is separated from the cloaca by the septum, the later perineum, the exterior cloacal depression is cut into two, the anal and the urogenital depressions. Between the urogenital depression, later called the genital groove, exteriorly and the urogenital sinus interiorly, there is only a dividing membrane, the urogenital membrane which later on breaks through and transforms the entire sinus into a shallow depression, termed the vestibule.

CUT V.

Six stages of the development of the external genitals. Fig. 1 and 2, two in different stages; m and M, two male stages, f and F, two female stages after O. Hertwig.
pl, posterior limbs; clo, cloacal depression; gt, genital tubercle; gs, genital swelling; gf, genital fold; gg, genital groove; gp, glans penis; p, perineum; a, anus; pr, prepuce; sc, scrotum; r, raphe; cl, clitoris; su, entrance to sinus urogenitalis; lm, labia majora; ny, nymphæ; vv, vestibule of vagina.

Before the urogenital sinus has opened to the exterior the mesenchym surrounding the urogenital depression exteriorly begins to thicken and produces an encircling elevation, the genital swelling. On the ventral side within this swelling appears a projection, the genital tubercle, which is thus surrounded by the genital swelling. The tubercle soon increases in size, so that the urogenital depression, now called the genital groove, becomes partly situated at its under aspect (Cut 5, Fig. 2). The lips of
this genital groove thicken and form the two genital folds. All these four organs are common in both sexes and represent the asexual or bisexual state of the external genital organs.

E. The Male External Genitals

In the male the genital tubercle increases enormously in size to form the penis. Its extremity becomes bulbously enlarged and forms the glans penis. The lips of the groove or rather of the vestibule, since by this time the urogenital membrane had broken through and had transformed the sinus urogenitalis into the vestibule, the so-called genital folds, meet together and fuse, thus converting the vestibule and the groove into the terminal portion of the male urethra and bringing it about, that the ductus ejaculatorii and the sinus pocularis open upon the floor of that passage. The prostate, consisting of several independent glands, has also its openings at this point. In its development the prostate belongs to the urethra as well as to the sinus urogenitalis. The two genital swellings are brought closer together in the male and form the scrotum, a sac containing two separate pouches into which the testes descend.

F. The Female External Genitals

In the female the vestibule, or the shallow depression which was formed through the breaking through of the urogenital membrane, remains open throughout life, and is termed the vestibule of the vulva. From the sides of the lower part of the sinus a pair of evaginations are formed and give rise to the Bartholinian glands. The vestibule being in fact the open sinus urogenitalis, the urethra and the vagina naturally have their orifices in the same.

The genital tubercle ceases to grow in the female and becomes the clitoris. The genital folds or the lips of the vestibule become prolonged and form the labia minora or the nymphae. The genital swelling increases in size through adipose and fibrous tissue. The part situated on the ventral side of the clitoris becomes the mons veneris, while the lateral parts are converted into the labia majora of the vulva.

[PART III.]
ANATOMY

[CHAPTER III]
THE MALE GENITALS

The knowledge of the anatomy of the genitals, of the mechanism of erection and ejaculation, and the nervous centres which preside over these functions, is essential for a clear comprehension of sex-attraction in men and in women. It will, therefore, be of some profit even to medical men briefly to recall to memory those parts of the human anatomy which have a particular bearing upon the subject of this treatise.

Scrotum.—The main generative glands in the male, the testicles, are situated within a bag, the so-called scrotum, outside of the abdominal cavity. This bag or pouch, hanging between the thighs, below the symphysis, consists of two compartments which are separated by the septum scroti. The scrotum may be considered as a diverticle of the anterior abdominal wall. Before the descent of the testicles from the abdominal cavity, two diverticles of the abdominal wall are formed, at two points anteriorly to the genital swelling, where later on the inguinal canals are found. The diverticles extend to the swelling and coalesce to form the bag. The raphe, or last, at the point of their union, can be observed through the entire life of the individual. This median raphe runs from the perineum to the penis, indicating the inner division of the scrotum.

The scrotum being a derivative of the abdominal wall, it follows that its wall will consist of the same elements as the abdominal wall. The first layer of the abdominal wall, the epidermis or cutis, forms also the epidermis of the scrotum. The fascia superficialis abdominis constitutes the second layer of the scrotum, or the tunica dartos. The musculus obliquus abdominis externus goes to make up the third layer, the so-called Cooper’s fascia. The musculus obliquus abdominis internus forms the fourth layer, or the musculus cremaster externus. The musculus transversalis abdominis furnishes the cremaster internus muscle, and the tunica vaginalis communis, or the fifth layer. Finally, the double layer of the abdominal peritoneum forms the tunica vaginalis propria of the scrotum. Between the two lamina of this tunica is found some fluid which, when pathologically increased, constitutes the anomaly called hydrocele.

Testicle.—The testicle is an ovoid organ with two surfaces, a median and lateral, with two poles, an upper and lower pole, and two margins, an anterior convex and a posterior straight margin. In the natural position, the upper pole is somewhat anteriorly inclined. The average weight of the testicle is 15 to 25 grammes, average length 5 centimeters, breadth 2 to 5 centimeters and thickness 3 centimeters. The superior pole and the posterior margin of the testicle are covered by the epididymis. The left testicle, as a rule, hangs deeper than the right.

Descent of testicles.—In embryonic life already, the testicle is connected, at its lower pole, with the bottom of the scrotal diverticle, the latter ventricle of the scrotum, by a cord containing unstriped muscular fibres, the so-called gubernaculum testis. This cord does not grow in length, hence, with the growth of the embryo, the testicle has to descend from its position, on either side of the mesentary along the spinal column. Thus, in the seventh month of embryonic life, each testicle descends through its respective inguinal canal into its compartment in the scrotum. In this descent the testicle takes along its peritoneal covering. When the bottom of the scrotum has been reached this peritoneal covering, together with the lining of the scrotum coalesce, and the two lamina form the above-mentioned tunica vaginalis propria.

Structure of testicles.—The testicle is covered with a thick, white, fibrous coat, the tunica albuginea. This tunica sends off about 200 to 400 septa or trabeculae testis. These trabeculae divide the parenchymatous tissue of the testicle into numerous conical lobules, and, converging towards the posterior margin of the testicle, form a solid fibrous mass, the so-called corpus Highmori.

The parenchymatous tissue of the testicles consists of numerous fine tubules, the canaliculi seminiferi. Each lobule contains a number of these fine tubules. In the beginning and through their entire course the seminal tubules or canaliculi are tortuous; towards their ends, however, they become straight. When they reach the corpus Highmori, the thickened, enlarged part of the tunica albuginea, they collect and unite, to form a network, the rete vasculosum. This rete sends off 12 to 14 large tubules, the vasa efferentia, which, running in a straight line, pass the corpus Highmori and enter the epididymis. The corpus Highmori serves as a point of entrance for the arteries and nerves and as an exit for the veins of the testicles.

CUT VI.

Schema of the seminiferi tubules. After Brösike.
1, tubuli contorti; 2, tubuli recti; 3, rete vasculosum; 4, vasa efferentia; 5, coni vasculosi; 6, epididymis; 7, vas deferens.

Epididymis.—The epididymis is the excretory duct of the testicle. It is situated at the posterior margin of the same, covering this margin and the upper pole of the testicle. The upper end of the epididymis tapers off to pass into the vas deferens. The epididymis is divided into the head, middle piece and tail. At the lower point, the tail turns directly upwards and backwards, and is now called vas deferens. The vasa efferentia enter the epididymis at the head. The unfolded vas epididymis is about six meters long. Its diameter is about 0.5 millimeter. It gradually dilates as it approaches the vas deferens.

Vas deferens.—The vas deferens runs down the posterior wall of the epididymis and turns upwards to enter the abdominal cavity through the inguinal canal. It then runs between bladder and rectum to end as the ductus ejaculatorius. Before the vas deferens receives the duct of the seminal vesicle it forms a spindle-like enlargement, the so-called ampulla. The vas deferens opens under the name of ductus ejaculatorius into the prostatic urethra.

The length of the vas deferens is about 60 centimeters, its diameter is about 3 millimeters. The wall of the vas deferens is very thick, giving on palpation the feeling of a piece of rope. It is lined inside with a light cylindrical epithelium which rests upon a layer of fibrous connective tissue. This fibrous substratum is surrounded by a thick, muscular coat of non-striated fibres. The muscular coat is composed of two longitudinal layers, which include between them a circular layer. The muscular coat is surrounded by a layer of connective tissue, the so-called adventitia.

Spermatic cord.—In its course from the testicle to the internal ring of the inguinal canal the vas deferens is accompanied by the arteria and vena spermaticae internae. The three organs form the spermatic cord. But although the three organs are intimately connected, still the vas deferens is recognizable without difficulty by its rope-like consistency and is easily severed, as in the operation for the sterilization of the male. The vein forms a tendril-like tress-work, which is called the plexus pampiniformis. In pathological conditions the plexus forms the varicocele.

Seminal vesicles.—The seminal vesicles may be considered as diverticles of the vasa deferentia. The vesicles are lying in the sulcus, between the prostate and the bladder, and extend obliquely outward and backward. The length of the seminal vesicles is about 8 centimeters, their diameter is about 7 millimeters. The vesicles form a bulbous mass of convoluted tubes. Being a derivative from the vas deferens, the wall of the tubes consists of the same strata as the vas deferens, i. e., of an adventitia followed by the muscular coat, then by the fibrous substratum, and finally by a layer of cylindrical epithelia. The mucous membrane possesses numerous tubulous glands. In this way the vesicles serve not only as reservoirs for the sperma, but may be considered as veritable glands. By the junction of the pointed ends of the seminal vesicles with the vasa deferentia, the ejaculatory ducts are formed.

CUT VII.

Male genital apparatus, side view. After Zucherkandel and Testut.
b, bladder; p, al, ml, the three lobes of the prostatic gland; u, ureter; sv, seminal vesicle; vd, vas deferens; ed, ejaculatory duct.

Ductus ejaculatorii.—The ejaculatory ducts traverse the prostate and open, by slit-like orifices, into the sinus pocularis. The wall of the ducts is much thinner than that of the vas deferens. The muscular fibres of the latter are gradually substituted in the ducts by cavernous tissue. The mucous membrane differs little from that of the vas deferens and of the seminal vesicles.

CUT VIII.

Male urethra
1, bladder; 2, prostate; 3, colliculus; 4, orifice of the sinus pocularis; 5, orifices of the prostatic ducts; 6, orifices of Cowper’s glands; 7, corpus cavernosum urethræ; 8, corpora cavernosa penis; 9, præputium; 10, glans; 11, fossa navicularis.

Urethra.—The urethra is divided into three parts, the prostatic, the membranous and the cavernous parts. The prostatic part is the widest portion of the entire urethra. It is surrounded by an unstriped muscular layer and the muscles of the prostate. The membranous part is the narrowest, shortest, and most thin-walled portion of the three parts of the urethra. It is entirely surrounded by the muscular fibres of the diaphragma urogenitale, which takes here a circulatory course. It is in this way situated on the border-line of the abdominal cavity and the exterior, within the abdominal wall. The cavernous portion of the urethra is surrounded by the corpus cavernosum urethrae. This portion shows two dilatations, one in the bulbous part, just anterior to the termination of the membranous part, where the ducts of the two Cowper’s glands open; the other dilatation is near the end, behind the meatus, forming the so-called fossa navicularis. The meatus itself is the narrowest part of the entire urethra. Numerous mucous crypts, the glands of Littré and certain lacunae, the largest among them near the fossa, open into the lumen of this part of the urethra. The entire urethra is lined with a cylindrical epithelium, except at the fossa navicularis. The latter is covered by a layer of pavement epithelia. The length of the urethra is about 18 centimeters. In the usual state the urethra possesses only a virtual lumen, i. e., the walls touch each other.

CUT IX.

Schema of sagittal cut through penis. After Testus.
1, bladder; 2, vas deferens; 3, colliculus; 4, prostate; 5, urethra; 6, bulbus urethræ; 7, symphysis.

Prostate.—The prostate is a gland, chestnut-like in shape. Its greatest diameter is in average about 4 centimeters. The diameter from the base to the apex is about 3 centimeters. The thickness of the prostate is about 2 centimeters, and its weight is about 18 grammes. The upper broad margin, the basis, is adjacent to the bladder, the lower, narrower end, or the apex, rests on the diaphragma urogenitale. It thus lies completely within the abdominal cavity. The anterior surface is connected with the lower end of the symphysis pubis by the ligamenta puboprostatica, the posterior surface is connected with the rectum by loose connective tissue. The prostate is lobulated and generally divided into three lobes, a median and two lateral lobes. The prostate embraces the neck of the bladder and the first portion of the urethra.

The structure of the prostate is a framework of muscular fibres, in which are embedded numerous racemous glands. The latter collect and open into the prostatic ducts. The main substance of the prostate is glandular. The mucous lining of the prostate, which forms at the same time the mucous membrane of the prostatic urethra, shows upon the posterior wall a linear elevation of the mucous membrane which covers a fold of erectile tissue, the so-called colliculus seminalis.

CUT X.

Colliculus
1, orifice of the sinus pocularis; 2, orifices of the prostatic ducts.

Colliculus.—The colliculus is a massive button, 3 millimeters in height and in breadth, and lies anteriorly to the fossa prostatica. On the summit of the colliculus there is an opening which leads to a pear-shaped pouch, the so-called sinus pocularis, a remnant of the Müllerian ducts. The two orifices of the ejaculatory ducts are found within the pouch, near its opening into the urethra. The orifices of the prostatic ducts are situated in the furrows, on either side of the colliculus. In the state of erection the colliculus fills out the urethra completely and closes it up tightly and absolutely, so that not a drop of urine can pass out of the bladder or escape during ejaculation.

Cowper’s glands.—Cowper’s glands are two acinose glands of the size of a pea. They are embedded between the muscular fibres of the musculus transversus perinei profundus. The ducts run between the two leaflets of the diaphragma urogenitale to the posterior end of the bulbus, hence within the cavernous tissue near the septum and open on either side of the bulbus on the floor of the bulbous urethra.

CUT XI.

Crosscut through the penis.
1, vena dorsalis; 2, arteriæ dorsales; 3, septum; 4, corpora cavernosa; 5, tunica albuginea; 6, vena profunda; 7, urethra; 8, corpus cavernosum urethræ.

Penis.—The penis is chiefly made up of three erectile bodies, the corpus cavernosum urethrae and the two porpora cavernosa penis. The latter arise each from the ramus descendens ossis pubis, by strong fibrous processes, the crura. The crura converse and coalesce at the inferior margin of the symphysis to which they are fastened by the ligamentum suspensorium penis mediale. The anterior ends of the corpora cavernosa are rounded. They are situated in the furrow of the glans of the penis. After their coalescence the two corpora are divided only by a fibrous septum. The lower surface of the corpora shows a deep furrow which serves as a receptacle for the corpus cavernosum urethrae. The latter thus occupies the same relation to the corpora cavernosa penis as does the ramrod to a double-barreled gun.

The corpus cavernosum urethrae forms two expansions. The anterior expansion is represented by the glans penis, the posterior expansion by the bulb, a tuberous enlargement, situated between the diverging crura of the corpora cavernosa penis. The bulb is covered by the musculus bulbo-cavernosus.

Structure of the corpora cavernosa.—The walls of the corpora cavernosa are made up of a dense fibrous elastic membrane, the tunica albuginea. From this tunica arise numerous trabeculae, composed of fibrous tissue and non-striped muscular fibres. In this way a sponge-like tissue is formed in which the spongy superstructure consists of elastic fibres. The mesh-spaces are filled with circulating blood. The spaces of these cavernous bodies are covered with an endothelial lining like blood-vessels. The caverns communicate with each other by the arteriae helicinae, short arterial branches, anastomosing in the cavernous spaces. The arteries, capillaries, and veins pass along the trabeculae of the spongy tissue and open into the caverns. The caverns may thus be considered as enlarged capillaries. The arteria and vena profundae penis run through the middle of the corpus.

The arteries within the trabeculae possess not only circular muscular fibres, as all other arteries, but also longitudinal fibres. These muscular fibres are normally contracted and thus prevent the blood from flowing into the cavernous spaces. If by some inhibitory influence the muscles are relaxed, the caverns are immediately filled with blood. This blood has to return by the vena profunda communis which passes through the unstriped muscular fibres of the musculus transversus perinei profundus. Hence by the contraction of this muscle the veins are compressed, and the blood is prevented from flowing off. As a result, the spongy and cavernous bodies become turgid and the corpora cavernosa penis become stone hard. The blood of the corpus cavernosum urethra, on the other hand, returns through the vena dorsalis penis which enters the abdomen through connective tissue parts, beneath the symphysis. For this reason the corpus cavernosum urethrae remains compressible even during erection.

The main muscles of the penis are the erector penis and the bulbo-cavernosus. The latter arises from the central perineal tendon and inserts by embracing the bulb. The erector penis muscle arises at the inner surface of the tuberositas ossis ischii and inserts into the sides of the crura.

The penis is covered with an integument which forms the continuation of the skin of the abdominal wall, but it is somewhat darker than the latter. At the anterior end a fold of skin forms the prepuce which covers the glans penis.

Genital nerves.—The genital nerves are of three different kinds. There are first the efferent nerves, or centripetal nerves. They are the sensitive terminal branches of the nervus pudendus and end, or rather arise, in the genital nerve bulbs. They are richly distributed throughout the prostatic part of the urethra. These centripetal nerves are connected with the Pacinian corpuscles, within the prostate, and with the extensive nerve-plexus, interspersed with ganglia, which are found in the superficial layers of the urethral mucosa as well as in the cortical layers of the prostate. These nerves return to the centres in the spinal cord and in the brain through the rami of the nervus pudendus.

The second kind of nerves are the centrifugal nerves, which arise by two roots at the sacral plexus, from the first to the third pair of sacral nerves. This sacral plexus sends off anastomosing branches to the vesical plexus. The latter is made up of branches from the hypogastric plexus of the sympathetic nerve and of filaments from the sacral ganglia, the pudendal plexus and the sacral nerves. The latter innervates the bladder, seminal vesicles, the urethra, and the prostate. The nervi erigentes are vasodilator-nerves. Their centre, in the lumbar part of the spinal cord, is connected with the centre of the vasodilators of the medulla oblongata by filaments, running within the spinal cord. When these nerves or their centre are irritated, as in diseases of the cord, or excited by electricity, erections will ensue.

The third kind of nerves are those of ejaculation. They are centripetal and centrifugal nerves and run through the nervi perinei, the latter being branches of the nervus pudendus communis. They innervate the ejaculatory ducts, the seminal vesicles, vasa deferentia and testicles. The centre of these nerves has also its seat in the lumbar portion of the spinal cord.

Genital centres.—The centres for the genital nerves are six in number, three cerebral, one in the medulla oblongata and two spinal centres. There is first the cerebral centre of voluptas or cupido. It is the seat of the sexual instinct or of sex desire. The second centre is the centre of libido. It is the centre for experiencing pleasure. The third centre is that of inhibition. It is the centre where, under certain circumstances, sexual activity is prevented. The vasodilator centre in the medulla oblongata and the two spinal centres regulate erection and ejaculation. Connecting fibres are passing between the cerebral centres and the spinal centres. Hence psychic stimulation may cause erection and ejaculation.

[CHAPTER IV]
THE FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION

Vulva.—The main female generative organs are entirely situated within the pelvis. The less important external organs are those comprised in the name vulva (derived from the Latin word valva, the folding door). When the woman is in erect position, the vulva runs horizontally from the mons veneris to the frenulum of the fossa navicularis.

CUT XII.

Vulva, the nymphae separated.
1, mons veneris; 2, labium majus; 3, prepuce of clitoris; 4, glans of clitoris; 5, urethral orifice; 6, nympha; 7, orifice of the Bartholinian gland; 8, vaginal orifice; 9, hymen; 10, frenulum; 11, perineum; 12, anus.

Mons veneris.—The mons veneris is the name of the fatty cushion which rests upon the anterior surface of the symphysis pubis. After puberty, the mountain is covered with a growth of hair. In the female sex the hairs occupy a triangular area, the base corresponding with the upper margin of the symphysis. This sign is sometimes of value for the determination of the real sex of an apparent hermaphrodite.

Labia majora.—The labia majora are a pair of integumentary folds, extending from the mons veneris to the perineum, or the triangular partition between the anus and the vagina. Each labium has two surfaces, an outer one pigmented and covered with strong, crisp hair as on the mons veneris, and an inner one, usually lying in close apposition with its fellow. The fissure between the two labia is termed rima pudendi. The inner surfaces are moist and resemble a mucous membrane in appearance. The outer surface has the same structure as the skin. Beneath the skin there is found a layer of connective tissue, rich in elastic fibres and fatty tissue. The next layer is a dense mass of adipose tissue, which is supplied with an abundant plexus of veins. The labia are richly supplied with sebaceous glands.

CUT XIII.

Labium majus and sebaceous gland.
g, gland; sc, stratum corneum; e, layers of pavement epithelium; f, fibrous tissue; v, blood vessel.

Nymphae.—The nymphae or the labia minora, are two triangular structures which run parallel to the labia majora, from the clitoris to either side of the vaginal aperture. Their free borders are crenulated or lobed. The nymphae consist of thin folds of tissue, are smooth, and when protected, as in the child, of a pale rose color, resembling a mucous membrane in appearance. They contain numerous papillae and sebaceous follicles. Their interior contains connective tissue, some muscular fibres and erectile tissue. Hence they take part in the female erection. They are extremely sensitive, being abundantly supplied with nerve-ends. At the side of the clitoris, each nympha is divided into two lamellae. The two anterior lamellae unite at the glans of the clitoris and form the praeputium clitoridis. The posterior lamellae fuse at the back of the clitoris and form the frenulum. The nymphae diverge backwards and terminate in the middle of the rima.

CUT XIV.

Nympha and vagina.
pe, pavement epithelium; v, vagina; sc, stratum corneum; n, nympha; p, papilla.

Vestibulum.—The vestibule is the area inclosed between the two nymphae, extending from the clitoris to the fourchette. Some authors call vestibule only the space from the clitoris to the vaginal opening, the rest from the vaginal orifice to the fourchette is then called fossa navicularis. On either side of the vestibule, beneath the mucous membrane, embracing the urethra, are situated the vestibular bulbs, two pyriform, thick, erectile vein-plexus.

Bulbs.—The bulbs are under the influence and partly covered by the ischio-cavernosus and constrictor vagina muscles. The lower ends terminate at the middle of the vaginal aperture. Hence during the engagement under sexual excitement they help to narrow the entrance of the vagina. The anterior ends of the bulbs extend toward the clitoris and unite with the cavernous tissue of this organ.

Clitoris.—The clitoris is a small organ situated between the branched anterior extremities of the nymphae which furnish the praeputium and frenulum of the clitoris. It is rarely, even in the state of erection, larger than two centimeters. The clitoris consists of two crura, a corpus, and a small glans, which is rarely exceeding a small pea in size. The crura arise from the inferior surface of each ischio-pubic ramus of the pubic bone, and after fusing below the pubic arch form the body of the clitoris. The clitoris is sharply bent on itself, the glans looking downward and backward towards the vaginal aperture.

The clitoris is the analogue of the male penis, with the only difference that it is not perforated by the urethra. The latter opens into the vestibule, midway between the clitoris and vaginal orifice, and is surrounded by a fold of mucous membrane. The clitoris is equipped with two erectile organs, the corpora cavernosa, and two muscles, the musculi ischio-cavernosi, and is, therefore, very erectile. The clitoris is supplied with an abundance of delicate sensory nerve-ends, including the end-bulbs and the Pacinian and Meissner’s corpuscles, and is therefore extremely sensitive.

CUT XV.

External genitals after removal of skin. After Martin.
1, clitoris; 2, plexus of veins in the vaginal wall; 3, glans of clitoris; 4, bulbus vestibuli; 5, orifice of vagina; 6, constrictor cunni; 7, sphincter ani; 8, anus.

Bartholinian glands.—On either side of the vaginal orifice open the ducts of the Bartholinian glands. The two small glands are of the racemose type and not larger in size than a small pea. They are situated beneath the bulbs of the vestibule.

Hymen.—The vaginal orifice, in the virginal state, is partly closed by an imperfect septum, the hymen. The hymen is a fold of tissue, presenting a structure similar to that of the vagina. The fold is usually attached to the posterior vaginal wall. The hymen closes only incompletely the vaginal entrance, leaving an opening which varies in size from the head of a pin to a calibre which will admit the tip of one or two fingers. The opening of the hymen is, as a rule, semilunar and reaches the anterior vaginal wall. After defloration or sometimes only after the first confinement, the hymen is torn at several points and shows only remnants, the so-called carunculae myrtiformes.

CUT XVI.

Genitals of a girl at puberty.
1, right labium majus; 2, duct of Bartholinian gland; 3, Bartholinian gland; 4, rima pudendi.

Vagina.—The vagina is a musculo-membranous tube, extending from the vulva to the uterus. The lumen is only virtual, i. e., at rest the vaginal walls are in contact with each other, and the passage appears as a fissure, the latter assuming on a crosscut the form of the letter “H.” The walls of the vagina are composed of three coats, an exterior connective tissue coat, a thick muscular coat and a mucous membrane. The muscular coat comprises two layers of strong unstriped muscular fibres, the outer longitudinal, the inner circular. The latter, being more largely developed near the vaginal aperture, forms a part of the sphincter vaginae. The mucous membrane is covered with a pavement epithelium and is equipped with a great number of papillae, but is devoid of glands. The entire vagina is surrounded by a strong net of venous blood-vessels. The anterior vaginal wall is about seven centimeters long and presents at the mucous surface a median longitudinal ridge; the posterior wall is about ten centimeters long and has two ridges, from which a number of transverse rugae pass, the columnae rugarum. Only a small part of the posterior vaginal wall is in contact with the floor of the pelvis and is covered with peritoneum. The entire vaginal tube lies between the bladder and the rectum.

“Inter faeces et urinas nascimur”

laments the pious father of the Church. A part of the musculus constrictor ani surrounds the orifice of the vagina and is known under the name of constrictor cunni.

CUT XVII.

Diagram of the pelvic organs.
1, labia majora; 2, nympha; 3, clitoris; 4, symphysis; 5, urethra; 6, bladder; 7, vagina with columna rugarum; 8, orificium utero-vaginale; 9, internal os; 10, body of uterus; 11, perineum; 12, anus; 13, rectum; 14, peritoneum; 15, vertebra.

CUT XVIII.

Diagram of the uterus.
1, fundus; 2, cavum uteri; 3, body; 4, internal os; 5, cervix; 6, external os.

When the woman is in an erect position, the vaginal orifice looks directly to the ground, the course of the vagina being almost vertical, with a slight inclination from the front to the back toward the vaginal vaults. The vault or fornix is divided by the projecting cervix into two lateral vaults, an anterior shallow and a posterior deep vault.

CUT XIX.

Uterus of a four-year-old child.
ce, cylindrical epithelium; mt, muscular tissue; g, uterine gland.

Uterus.—The uterus is a hollow, pyriform, flattened, thick muscular organ. It is divided into the upper thick end, or fundus, the body, and the neck or cervix. The uterine cavity has somewhat the shape of a triangle, its basis corresponding to the uterine base. The uterine cavity communicates with the canals of the Fallopian tubes by two openings at the angles of the basis. The lower angle is continued into the cervical canal and opens into the vagina. The median part of the cervical canal is widened. The narrow opening into the cavity of the uterus is known under the name of os internum, while the opening into the vagina is called os externum. The uterine cavity is coated with a mucous membrane, covered with columnar epithelia of the ciliated type, which bears a great number of tubular glands.

The mucous membrane of the cervical canal shows a system of small folds, the arbor vitae. The covering of the cervical canal is also a high columnar, ciliated epithelium. The latter changes into a pavement epithelium at the external os.

CUT XX.

Cervix uteri from a day-old infant.
pe, pavement epithelium of the vaginal portion of the cervix; c, border-line of the portio and the cavity of the cervix; CE, cylindrical epithelium of the cavity of the cervix; v, blood-vessels.

The second uterine coat consists of non-striated muscular fibres. The uterus has no submucosa. There is an inner circular and an outer longitudinal muscular layer. The larger uterine blood-vessels lie chiefly between these two layers.

The cervix is composed mainly of connective tissue in which is found a large amount of elastic fibres. The cervix contains also erectile tissue of the same kind as the clitoris and the bulbs.

The entire uterus, as far as it is not situated between other organs, is covered with peritoneum. The anterior surface of the uterus is almost flat and is covered with a layer of peritoneum which is inflected upon the bladder at the level of the os internum. The posterior surface is convex and covered, in its whole extent, with a layer of peritoneum which is prolonged downward for a short distance upon the posterior wall of the vagina. The anterior and posterior peritoneal coverings unite laterally and form the broad ligaments.

The uterus is fixed in its place by the round ligaments. The latter are the continuations of the uterine tissue. They run between the folds of the broad ligaments and through the inguinal canals and terminate within the tissue of the labia majora.

CUT XXI.

Schema of the internal female genital apparatus.
a, Fallopian tube; b, ovary; c, cervix; d, round ligament; e, vagina; f, uterus.

The uterus is normally anteflected, the fundus lying forward near the symphysis, and the cervix to the rear. The average length of the uterus is about seven centimeters, the breadth is about four centimeters.

Fallopian tubes.—The Fallopian tubes are two serpentine, trumpet-shaped tubes, of about twelve centimeters in length. They lie at the upper margin of the broad ligaments, between the two layers of the same. The uterine half of the tubal canal is narrow, about three millimeters in diameter, and opens into the basic uterine angle; the distal half is of a width of about eight millimeters in diameter, widens into the ampulla and opens into the abdominal cavity. This opening is surrounded with fringes, one of which touches almost the ovary and probably furnishes the road the ovum takes to reach the tube.

CUT XXII.

Crosscut of a Fallopian tube of a child four years old.
E, epithelium; mc, mucosa; ml, muscular layer; p, peritoneum; v, blood-vessel.

The tube is composed of three coats, the outer peritoneal coat, the middle muscular coat, consisting of two layers—the outer longitudinal and the inner circular layer—and the mucous membrane coat. The latter is covered with a high ciliated, columnar epithelium. The ciliar motion is toward the uterine cavity. The mucous membrane forms a large number of plications in the adult.

Ovaries.—The ovaries are two flattened almond-shaped organs of about four centimeters in length and two centimeters in breadth. They lie on the posterior surface of the ligamentum latum, on either side of the uterus, with which they are connected by the ligamenta ovarii. The ligament running between the two lamellae of the ligamentum latum, leaves the latter through a fissure in the posterior lamella and enters the ovary at the pointed end, the so-called hilus. The ovarian ligament furnishes the fibrous tissue elements for the fibrous skeleton, the stroma ovarii. The vessels and nerves also enter the ovary at the hilus.

CUT XXIII.

Ovary from a girl one year old.
E, germinal epithelium; PO, primitive ova; G, Graafian follicles; S, stroma ovarii.

The ovary is covered with a cubical genital epithelium. The epithelia put forth solid nests of epithelial cells into the fibrous stroma. These nests represent the primitive ova. Some of these cells become larger and, surrounded by the other unchanged or follicular cells, are finally changed into permanent ova. The entire crust of the ovary, the zona parenchymatosa, consists of fibrous and epithelial elements. The interior part, the zona vasculosa, consists of fibrous elastic tissue and of non-striated muscular fibres.

Graafian follicle.—The ovum surrounded by the follicular epithelium is called the Graafian follicle. The ripe Graafian follicles lie usually near the periphery of the ovary. The Graafian follicle is bubble-shaped and is surrounded by a fibrous sheath, the theca folliculi. The cavity contains a light yellow fluid, liquor folliculi. The interior of the cavity is coated with several layers of follicular epithelia. This coat is called the membrana granulosa. The follicular epithelia form at one point a disc of cells, the discus oophorus, which includes in its midst the ovum.

CUT XXIV.

Graafian follicle, found by the author in a woman of forty, operated for cancer of the uterus.
vg, vesicula germinativa; mg, macula germinativa; o, ovum; zp, zona pellucida; cr, corona radiata; l, liquor in a coagulated state; a, antrum folliculi; t, theca folliculi.

Ovum.—The ovum is a modified cell with a membrane, called zona pellucida, a cytoplasm, called vitelus, a nucleus called vesicula germinative, and a nucleolus, called macula germinative.

At the time of menstruation the Graafian follicle bursts; the ovum thus freed, is taken up by the current, called forth by the ciliar motion of the tubal epithelia, and brought through the tubes into the uterus.

Nerves and their centres.—The centres of the female genital nerves are, just as in the male, six in number, three cerebral, two spinal and one in the medulla oblongata. There is, in the first place, the centre of voluptas or cupido, or the centre for the sexual instinct; secondly the centre for experiencing libido or pleasure, and thirdly the centre of inhibition, which under certain circumstances, as in fear, disgust, grief, etc., prevents the erection of clitoris, bulbs, and cervix. The inhibitory centre, however, plays a secondary rôle in the female. The two spinal centres are the centres of erection and of ejaculation.

CUT XXV.

Schema of a cell.
a, cell membrane; b, cell-body or cytoplasm; c, nucleus.

The nerve-supply of the genitals is furnished by the spinal nerves and the nervus sympathicus. The lumbar plexus, formed by the four lumbar nerves, sends off the nervus ilio-inguinalis, the terminal branches of which are distributed in the mons veneris. The sacral plexus, formed by a part of the fourth and the entire fifth lumbar nerves and the four upper sacral nerves, sends off the nervus pudendus communis, which is distributed in the clitoris, as nervus dorsalis clitoridis and in the labia, as nervi labiales posteriores. The nerves of the vagina are derived from the hypogastric plexus, the fourth sacral nerve and the pubic nerve. The nerves of the uterus are derived from the ovarian plexus, and from the third and fourth sacral nerves. The nerves of the ovary are derived from the hypogastric, pelvic and ovarian plexus. The oviducts are supplied by the ovarian plexus. The nervi erigentes, distributed in the corpora cavernosa of the clitoris, in the bulbs and in the erectile tissue of the vagina and cervix, are derived from the hypogastric plexus.

[CHAPTER V]
THE SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERISTICS

In the preceding two chapters there were described the primary sexual characteristics of man and woman which are already found in early foetal life. The secondary sexual characteristics, by which we are able to distinguish the male from the female, quite irrespective of the essential organs of reproduction and by which the sexes are made more attractive to each other, begin to develop at the time of puberty.

At this period of life certain changes take place in the body of the child, and the differences between the sexes become more pronounced. The stamp of sex is no longer confined to the pelvis, but is impressed on every part of the body. In the first years of existence the child is almost asexual, in physical as well as in mental relation. The child is yet neutral; it is only a spinal being or a digestive tube. All its actions are directed upon one aim, the preservation of the individual. Hence there is no great physical difference in children of the different sexes. The differences begin to show with the beginning of puberty and are definite at the close of this period. In the animal kingdom, especially among birds and mammals, nature has distinguished the male with the greater beauty. Man’s galantry designates women as the beautiful sex.

The man’s figure is characterized by a relative robustness, the forms are sinewy, the contours less rounded. The bony prominences are more conspicuous and the muscles more clearly defined. The skeleton is relatively larger, the stature is higher and the form is erect. The head is much larger, and the growth of the hair on it less pronounced. The male skull is more tilted back, the occipital protuberance larger. The glabella or the projection over the nose is more pronounced. The superciliary ridges more prominent. The eyes, therefore, appear much smaller. The lower jaw is markedly larger, the lips are thicker
and the mouth is larger. Hence the face appears less delicately cut. The chin and upper lip are covered with hair. Man’s neck is less cylindrical than woman’s and presents four slightly flattened surfaces. The laryngeal projection is highly pronounced.

CUT XXVI.

Showing proportions of man and woman.

Man’s shoulders are not sloping but square, showing traces of sinews and muscles. The thorax is longer. The beautifully rounded form of the female bosom is missing. The breasts appear atrophic, the mammillae insignificant. The trunk is relatively shorter.

The pelvis is higher and smaller. The circumference of the hips is relatively smaller. The angle formed by the superior plane of the pelvis with the horizon, when standing, is relatively smaller. Hence the buttocks are less protuberant.

The limbs are longer. The forearm is more in a straight line with the arm. The muscles are highly developed, hence no traces of the pleasant rotundity of the female arm. The hands are larger, the fingers thicker. The thigh is more columnar and does not taper so rapidly as in woman. The obliquity is less emphasized. The feet are larger and more sinewy. The skin is of coarser texture, darker, lacking of smoothness and softness, and is more hairy. The figure shows a lack of curves through the paucity of the paniculus adiposus.

Man’s steps are longer, his gait is less swinging. Man’s voice is vibrant and deep. Man’s respiration is of the lower costal type.

Woman’s figure is ordinarily characterized by a relative gracility, the forms are more delicate, the contours more rounded, and the waist narrower than in man. The skeleton is more delicate, the stature lower. The head is smaller and covered with more hair. The hairs are luxuriant. The features of the face are more delicately cut, the beard is wanting, the eyes are more beautiful and lustrous, the cheeks are rounder, and the lips daintily curved. The neck is round and long, lacking the laryngeal projection. The chest is narrower, the shoulders sloping. The hemispheric form of the breasts with the well-pronounced mammilae render the bosom highly attractive. The abdomen is longer, hence the distance between the navel and the pubes is greater than in men. The pelvis is lower and larger than in the male, and surpasses the line of the shoulders. The inclination of the pelvis is more pronounced, hence the buttocks are more protuberant. The woman’s body thus seems to be somewhat more reminiscent of the quadrupedal posture than man’s. There is a greater obliquity and conicity of the thighs. The calves are very pronounced. The skin, in general, is of a finer texture, whiter, smoother and less hairy than in men. The paniculus adiposus is abundant, hence the figure is all curves and does not show the angles, as in man. The limbs are relatively short, more delicate, more rounded, tapering and less muscular than in man. The feet are smaller and more daintily shaped. The hands are comely and the fingers slender.

The woman’s steps are shorter, her gait more graceful. The woman’s voice differs in pitch as well as in timbre from man’s. It has a higher note and sweeter tone. The woman’s respiration is of the upper costal type.

[PART IV.]
PHYSIOLOGY OF SEX

[CHAPTER VI]
CELL-DIVISION, MATURITION, IMPREGNATION

CUT XXVII.

Fissiparous reproduction of the amoeba.
The single-celled animal “a” is divided after different steps into two animals, “f” and “g.”

The main function of the genital glands is the production of germ-cells, the spermatozoa in the male and the ova in the female. This production is effected by means of cell-division. The division may be direct as found in the fissiparous reproduction of the amoeba. As soon as the cell reaches a certain size, it divides itself into two cells. The more complicated form of cell-division is the indirect division called “Mitosis” or “Karyokynesis.”

As shown before the cell consists of two main parts, the smaller part called the nucleus and the larger portion called the cytoplasm. The nucleus shows in its interior a linin net and deeply staining granules. Because of this quality they are called “chromatin.” The cytoplasm in the close proximity of the nucleus contains minute granules, situated either singly or in pairs which are called “centrosomes.”

In the indirect division the nucleus is divided by a complicated process. Simultaneously the cytoplasm and the membrane are also cleft in two parts. In the typical cell division two parallel series of changes occur nearly simultaneously, one affecting the nucleus, the other the cytoplasm. The chromatin which is usually (Fig. A, Cut XXVIII) in form of scattered granules, arranged along the linin network, becomes aggregated together in certain definite areas (Fig. B), forming usually a convoluted thread or skein. This skein appears either in form of a long filament or divided up into a series of segments called “chromosomes” (Fig. C). The number of chromosomes is constant for each species of plant and animal. Thus, in the common mouse these chromosomes are twenty-four in number, in the onion sixteen, in the sea-urchin eighteen, etc. The number is always an even one. By this time the nuclear membrane has disappeared, and the chromosomes appear usually as a collection of bands lying free in the cytoplasm (Fig. D).

At the same time, another series of changes has gone through the centrosome and the cytoplasm in the cell-body. The centrosome assumes an ellipsoid form, constricts transversely into a dumb-bell-shaped figure (Fig. B), and divides into two daughter centrosomes. Around each of them is gradually developed a stellate figure composed of a countless number of delicate fibrils, radiating out in all directions from the centrosome as a centre. The entire constellation is called “aster.” The two asters grow in size progressively as the two centrosomes
move apart toward the poles of the cell (Fig. C). Between the two asters a spindle-shaped system of delicate fibrils appears stretching from one aster to the other which is called “central-spindle” (Fig. D). The two asters together with the central-spindle represent the “Amphiaster”.

CUT XXVIII.

Mitosis or indirect division of a cell.
cy, cytoplasm; n, nucleus; c, centrosome; nu, nucleolus; l, linin; sk, skein; a, aster; cs, central spindle; ch, chromosome; u, U-shaped loops; mf, mantle fibres; cf, connecting fibrils.

At this point the centrosomes or the asters and the chromosomes begin to work together. A system of fibrils grows out from each aster which attach themselves to the individual chromosomes. The latter bent into U-shaped loops arrange themselves in a circle around the centre of the spindle and form the “equatorial plate” (Fig. E).

The chromosomes are now longitudinally split, and the halves move toward the poles as if drawn by the mantle fibres (Fig. F). The loops are still connected with each other by these connecting mantle fibres (Fig. G and H).

The new U-shaped loops form now new skeins at each pole (Fig. I). The chromatin granules now separate along the thread of the linin network, and the new nuclear membranes are formed (Fig. K).

Simultaneously with the forming of the two daughter nuclei the cell-body constricts across the middle of the somewhat elongated cell. The constriction increases until a complete division in the equatorial plane of the spindle has taken place. The result is the formation of two separate daughter cells (Fig. L).

Maturition.—This mode of cell division is made use of by the organism in the maturing of the germ cells into gametes. Before the conjugation of the ovum with the spermatozoön takes place, most ova extrude two polar bodies in the following way. Twice a division of the ovum takes place, each time into two quite unequal parts. The smaller, called polar bodies, remain near the periphery of the egg cell and are extruded later on. The same phenomenon is observed in the spermatocytes. The immature germ cell can neither impregnate nor become impregnated respectively, until, by a twice repeated cell division, a part of the nuclear substance has been cast off. Only after this has been effected does the germ cell become a gamete (a marriageable cell, from the Greek word γαμέω, I marry), i. e., a cell capable to impregnate or being impregnated.

This maturition of the germ cell has hitherto been veiled in a mystery, which did not admit any plausible explanation. Why is the loss of half of the chromosomes necessary? Nowadays it has been accepted by most of the biologists that maturition stands in close connection with Mendel’s law of segregation.

The learned monk Mendel, in his convent garden, made several important discoveries concerning the heredity of living organisms. He first discovered the quality which he called “unit characters”. Unit characters are, in the first place, the characteristics of the species, such as the number of the fingers. Unit characters are further characteristic of the sex, as the beard in the male and the breast in the female. Lastly there are the individual unit characters, as black hair or blue eyes. Unit characters are controlled by determiners which are either dominant or recessive. Unit characters, for this reason, do not blend. The color of the eyes, for example, is a unit character, and black is the dominant color. Hence when a black animal or plant is crossed with a white one, the hybrid is always black. The black type predominates in the influence upon the hybrid, while the type of white exercises the lesser influence.

The second phenomenon Mendel discovered is that of segregation. By segregation is understood the separation of opposite determiners. Every unripe ovum or spermatocyte in the hybrid plant or animal, contains, for example, white and black determiners, but the ripe ovum or spermatozoön contains only one kind of determiner, either white or black, that is, during the ripening of the germ cell into the gamete one kind of the determiners has been eliminated.

Segregation, therefore, means that the gamete, or sex cell after maturition, has either dominant or recessive determiners, never both. Segregation thus affects the purity of the gametes. The matured ovum and spermatozoön are always pure, even in the hybrid plants or animals. Accordingly, when a spermatozoön, with a white determiner impregnates an ovum with a white determiner, although both originated in black hybrids, the zygote, or the impregnated cell, will be a pure white. When a black ovum is impregnated by a black spermatozoön, the zygote will be a pure black. If the ovum is black and the spermatozoön is white or the ovum is white and the spermatozoön is black, the zygote will also be black, but a black hybrid.

Black + black = black, 25% pure.
Black + white = black, 25% hybrid.
White + black = black, 25% hybrid.
White + white = white, 25% pure.

Thus, when a black bean e. c. is crossed with a white bean, all the offspring in the first generation will be black but hybrids. When two of these hybrids are then crossed, the dominant color black will be represented by 75 per cent. of the offspring and the recessive color white by 25 per cent., i. e., the offspring in the second generation, although both parents are black, will be three-fourths black and one-fourth white. For the gamete of two hybrid parents is always pure. The zygote of two hybrid parents is either pure or hybrid. When the two gametes are similar, the zygote is pure and is called homozygous, when the two gametes are dissimilar, the zygote is heterozygous. Hybrids, by the faculty of segregation, produce in the first generation of hybridism, fifty per cent. homozygous zygotes (25% pure whites and 25% pure blacks) and fifty per cent. heterozygous zygotes (all hybrid blacks). Hence the apparent paradoxical phenomenon that when a pure blond is married to a pure brunette, all the children are brunette, while when both the parents are brunette, but hybrids, the offspring will be twenty-five per cent. blond and only seventy-five per cent. brunette. The blond being recessive can only be pure, while the brunette being dominant, may be either pure or hybrid.

CUT XXIX.

Diagram illustrating the fertilization of the egg after Boveri.
A, egg surrounded by spermatazoa, one penetrating the membranes, the cytoplasm sending at “p” a hill-like processus to meet the spermatozoön; B, the tail of the spermatozoön is vanished, the sperm nucleus preceded by its centrosome is moving towards the egg nucleus which shows a chromatin reticulum; C, egg nucleus and sperm nucleus are near each other, between them the aster fibrils; D, the centrosome has divided, the chromatin has taken the form of chromosomes; E, first cleavage of the chromosomes, the splitted chromosomes are lying on the equatorial line; F, the cleavage is complete, the two-celled stage; s, spermatazoa; on, nucleus of the ovum; p, hill-like processus; sn, spermatozoön-nucleus; sc, spermatozoön centrosome; cn, chromatin-net; af, aster fibrils; cho, chromosome of the ovum; chs, chromosome of the spermatozoön; dc, divided centrosome; spc, splitted chromosomes, the lighter that of the spermatozoön and the darker those of the ovum; nn, new nuclei, each containing four chromosomes, two from the ovum and two from the spermatozoön.

This law, that the determiner in the protoplasm of the parent cell, or rather in the nucleus of the cell, always fixes the character of the progeny, holds good only of the unit character. Many individual characters are fluctuations and play no part in Mendelian heredity. Bodily modifications, resulting from environing conditions, are not Mendelized. Most of the human traits Mendelize, such as stature, span, size of head, shades of color of hair and eyes, hair curliness, pulse rate, digestion and the psychic traits, such as determination, cheerfulness, alertness, resistance to fatigue. Some anomalies also depend upon the determiners and Mendelize, such as colorblindness,
ness, night blindness, albinoism, brachydactylism (only two finger joints instead of three), syndactylism, polydactylism, keratosis, hemophilia, cataract, deaf-mutism, imbecility, Hutchinson’s chorea, epilepsy, and some forms of insanity.

The Mendelian law of segregation has somewhat lifted the veil in which maturition was wrapped. Every germ cell, being a product of two parent cells, is in one way or other a hybrid. By casting off half of the chromosomes during its maturing, it becomes pure. The gamete is thus always pure and ready for impregnation.

Impregnation.—The process of impregnation is about the same in most many-celled animals. As soon as the head of a single spermatozoön enters the egg-cytoplasm, a new membrane is formed around the ovum which effectually prevents the entrance of any other spermatozoa. The head and the middle piece penetrate now into the egg, the tail usually remaining imbedded in the membrane where it soon degenerates.

A few moments after the spermatozoön has entered the egg, a system of radiation appears around the middle piece which develops into an aster, surrounding the centrosome of the sperm cell (Cut 29, Fig. B.).

The sperm nucleus now increases in size, and its chromatin changes into a reticulate form. Sperm aster and sperm nucleus, the aster preceding, now move toward the egg nucleus. As the nuclei approach each other the sperm nucleus increases still more in size, until both become almost of the same size (Fig. C.).

The chromatin network of each nucleus now breaks up into a number of chromosomes and the nuclei come into contact and fuse together. The centrosome, together with its aster, divide now into two parts, and the two daughter centrosomes move apart to the opposite poles of the ovum, and the typical amphi-aster of cell division, as above described, is formed (Fig. D.).

The nuclear membranes now disappear and the chromosomes are drawn together into the equatorial plate where each splits longitudinally. The halves are drawn by the mantle fibrils toward the opposite poles where they are transformed into two daughter nuclei (Fig. E.). In the meantime the cytoplasm has also divided. The result are two new cells. This process of division is repeated continuously in each of the resulting generations of cells. From the mass of cells thus formed develops the new organism.

[CHAPTER VII]
THE FUNCTION OF THE MALE GENERATIVE ORGANS

Testicles.—The function of the testicles is threefold. There is first the inner secretion of certain substances, spermines, which are the cause of the male secondary characteristics. Eunuchs who have been operated upon before puberty show feminine traits in their appearance throughout their lives. They have sloping shoulders, flabby muscles, beardless faces, high-pitched, squeaky voices and festoons of fat on breasts and hips. Secondly, certain stimuli starting from the testicles serve to increase the tonus of the centres of erection. The main function of the testicles is the production of spermatozoa.

CUT XXX.

Spermatogenesis.
1, basement membrane; 2, Sertoli’s or sustentacular cell; 3, spermatogone; 4, spermatocytes; 5, spermatids; 6, heads of spermatozoa.

Spermatogenesis.—The testicles belong to the class of tubulous glands. The tubules are through the greater part of their course convoluted, tubuli contorti, toward the end they become straight, tubuli recti. The wall of the convoluted tubules consists of three layers, (1) an external connective tissue layer, (2) a middle basement membrane, and (3) interiorly, an epithelial lining. The epithelium consists of two kinds of cells, first the supporting or the sustentacular or Sertoli’s cells and secondly the glandular cells.

When in activity, the glandular cells show three different strata, which represent the three different stages of spermatogenesis. The first stratum, the spermatogones, lie against the basement membrane. They soon begin to increase by cell division and move toward the centre of the tubule. During this movement they increase in size and show the different stages of mitotic division. These enlarged cells are called spermatocytes and form the second stratum. The cells produced by the mitosis of the spermatocytes constitute the third stratum and are called spermatids.

During the transformation of the spermatocyte into a spermatid a reduction of its chromosomes to one-half the number, specific for the species, takes place. This reduction represents the maturition of the sperm-cell, when the segregation of the unit characters is effected. A spermatid is, therefore, already a gamete, i. e., a reproductive cell in the reduced condition.

The spermatids are small round cells which line the lumen of the seminiferous tubules. The spermatids soon become ovoid. The nucleus forms the head, and the cytoplasm is drawn into a tail-like processus. In this stage the spermatids are called spermatozoa. A Sertoli’s cell, together with a group of developing spermatozoa attached to its central end, is called spermatoblast.

The epithelium of the tubuli contorti thus consists of three strata, first of the stratum of the spermatogones, lying against the basement membrane, secondly of the stratum of spermatocytes which are spermatogones in the state of mitosis, and thirdly of the stratum of spermatids which are transformed spermatocytes. The spermatozoa are spermatids which have assumed their permanent shape.

The spermatozoön is divided into three parts, the head, which is the modified nucleus of the male reproductive cell, the intermediate segment, which is the cytoplasm of the cell, and the tail, which is a veritable vibrating cilium, as found in ciliated epithelial cells.

CUT XXXI.

Spermatozoön.
a, head; b, intermediate segment; c, tail.

The spermatozoa soon detach themselves from the spermatoblasts and wander into the seminiferous tubules toward the rete vasculosum and epididymis. The spermatozoa possess their own motion. The head is propelled forward by a whip-like wriggling of the tail. The rate of movement is 1.2 to 3.6 millimeters a minute. Water checks the movement and causes the tail to curl up. Concentrated solutions of salts, sugar, albumen and urea may revive the spermatozoa to former activity. Metal salts and acids arrest the movements, while caustic potash and soda invigorate them. Even thin and weak acid solutions, as urine and the vaginal contents,[C] are harmful, while alkaline solutions are favorable to the spermatozoa. In spermatozoa, which have died gradually after ejaculation, the tail is outstretched or slightly curved, while in those discharged dead, the tail is rolled up in a spiral.

Seminal vesicles.—The seminal vesicles have several functions. The internal secretions serve directly as an excitans of the sexual impulse. The distension of the vesicles reflectorily stimulates the sexual centres. It is a well-known fact that the distention of the vesicles in strict continence gives rise to frequent erections, just as well as the full bladder, constipation, lithiasis, and diseases of the prostate or of the rectum.

The main functions of the vesicles are three in number. The vesicles serve, in the first place, as a reservoir for the testicular secretions. The other function consists in the reabsorption of the unejaculated sperma. The third function is to furnish a fluid for the dilution of the very thick testicular secretion and a medium where the spermatozoa can best carry out their motions.

The seminal vesicles secrete a peculiar mucus, which is thick, fibrinous, glairy, and albuminous. This secretion constitutes the bulk of the semen.

Prostate.—The prostatic gland has a double function. It is the main point wherefrom the stimuli for the sexual impulse start. The internal secretions of the prostatic parenchyma send libidinogenous substances into the blood. The colliculus, rich in nervous elements, sends also out nervous libidinogenous stimuli. The principal function of the prostate is its secretion which imparts to the otherwise sluggish spermatozoa their lively movements.

The secretion of the prostate is thin, milky, translucent, amphoteric or slightly acid. It contains the base spermin which causes the peculiar seminal odor. The secretion gives to the inert spermatozoa their peculiar motion and life.

Cowper’s glands.—The Cowper’s glands secrete a mucous albuminous fluid of alkaline reaction. The secretion takes place before the ejaculation of the semen.

Urethral glands.—The urethral glands secrete a viscid clear fluid. The secretion of these glands, together with that of Cowper’s glands, serve first as a lubricant for the walls of the urethra. The other function is to neutralize the contents covering the urethral walls. The latter are ordinarily bathed in acid urine. This acidity would harm the spermatozoa.

CUT XXXII.

Normal sperma.
1, Boettcher’s crystals; 2, amyloid bodies; 3, hyaline bodies; 4, testicular cells; 5, urethral epithelia; 6, lecithin bodies; 7, spermatozoa.

Semen.—The semen is composed of the secretions of the testicles, seminal vesicles, prostatic gland, Cowper’s glands and the urethral glands. The semen is a thick, colorless, gelatinous, opalescent, non-transparent, viscid fluid, resembling boiled starch. It possesses a specific odor sui generis, due to the presence of phosphate of spermin. Its specific gravity is higher than that of water, its reaction is alkaline. It is soluble in water and acids, and is coagulated in alcohol. If it is let stand in a test tube, two layers will be formed, a lower one opaque, consisting of spermatozoa and other cellular elements, and an upper one turbid and translucent, with only a few cells and detritus. The two layers are of about equal thickness.

The semen consists of about ninety per cent. water and ten per cent. solids. Of the solids sixty per cent. are organic substances, thirty per cent. earthly phosphates, and ten per cent. sodium chloride. When a drop of fresh semen is observed under the microscope, it is found full of motion, as if an anthill had been stirred up. This motion lasts for about twelve hours. It is caused by the living spermatozoa. The number of spermatozoa in an ordinary emission, of about ten grammes, is about two hundred to three hundred millions. Besides the moving spermatozoa, there are found a certain number of lecithin globules. Their size is about half the size of a red blood corpuscle. When semen is let stand for a certain time, Boettcher’s crystals, consisting of phosphate of spermin, are formed from the base which gives to the semen its peculiar smell and which is derived from the prostatic secretions. The semen also shows the presence of different kinds of epithelia, the pavement epithelia from the fossa navicularis urethra, the round cells from the prostate, and the columnar epithelia from Cowper’s glands.

Erection.—The male sexual activity consists in the essential features, intromission and ejaculation. For intromission erection is an absolute necessity. The lumen of the vagina is only virtual, there is no real lumen. It follows that only an unflexible body could penetrate into this organ, where the semen has to be deposited for the production of the new being. For this reason, it is prerequisite to copulation that the penis, which is normally in a state of flaccidity, should obtain the required rigidity. This rigidity is gained in the following way.

The tonus, which is present in all the blood-vessels of the body, is the cause that the arteries of the corpora cavernosa penis have only a virtual and not a real lumen. For between the layers of the circular muscular fibres of these vessels is found a layer of longitudinal fibres which narrow the lumen and almost entirely compress it.

When the tonus relaxes, the blood precipitates into the enlarged vessels and the cavernous spaces, and an active increase in the amount of arterial blood is the result. Through the increase of the lumen of the arteries and caverns, the veins are compressed and the blood cannot flow out of the cavernous bodies. Thus the active increase of arterial blood serves as a check of the reflux of the blood through the veins by the pressure of the distended arteries and caverns upon these veins. Besides this check, the vena profunda cummunis, by which the blood of the corpora cavernosa penis has to return, passes through the unstriped muscular fibres of the musculus transversus perinei profundus. Now, this muscle contracts synchronously through the same influence of the nervi erigentes which caused the relax of the tonus in the arteries. The contraction of the muscle causes the compression of the vena profunda and prevents the blood from flowing off. Besides the muscular transversus perinei, the musculus ischio-cavernosus which arises from the os ischii and encircles the radix of the penis, as well as the musculus bulbo-cavernosus by compressing the bulbus urethrae will, both, at their contraction, prevent the blood from flowing off. In this way there is not only an active increase in the amount of arterial blood, but also an abrupt decrease in the amount of venous blood, flowing out of the penis. The corpora cavernosa, therefore, become of almost cartilaginous hardness, and the penis reaches the state of rigidity, necessary to the performance of the male sex-act. When erection is complete the contraction of the musculus erector penis draws the organ up against the abdomen and gives it the same direction as that of the vagina.

Colliculus.—With the erection of the corpora cavernosa, the colliculus also swells and almost fills up the entire lumen of the prostatic urethra. In this way the bladder which has already been closed by the contraction of the sphincter, is closed up more tightly, so that not a drop of urine could escape. The erection of the colliculus also causes the orifices of the ejaculatory ducts to take the direction forwards toward the pars membranacea.

Urethra.—At this stage the urethra obtains an actual lumen. Through the net of veins which surround the mucous membrane of the urethra and through the turgescence of the corpus cavernosum urethrae, the canal of the urethra opens and remains gaping through the entire duration of the erection. In this way it is admirably fitted to give a free passage for the semen. In the mean time the urethral glands are constantly secreting their viscid clear fluid, which, together with the secretion of the Cowper’s glands, provide a lubricating and protecting coat for the urethra and neutralize the contents of the urethral walls which are otherwise bathed in acid urine.

Ejaculation.—The last important step of the male sexual act is ejaculation. The spermatozoa leave the lining of the tubuli contorti and wander through the tubuli recti to the rete vasculosum and hence through the vasa efferentia to the head of the epididymis. They continue their wanderings through the epididymis and vasa deferentia until they reach the seminal vesicles and the ejaculatory ducts. During sexual tranquility and in a normal state of health, the ejaculatory ducts, owing to the narrowness of their diameter and the oblique direction of their orifices, are sufficiently compressed to prevent the semen from reaching the urethra. The semen, therefore, remains in the seminal vesicles until needed for ejaculation. If not needed in due time, it is, as a rule, reabsorbed, and the overflow, if there be any, is discharged during sleep, accompanied by libidinous dreams.

Coincident with erection the entire situation changes. Before ejaculation the testicles are forcibly drawn up to the external rings of the inguinal canal, by the action of the cremaster muscle. Through the contraction of the epididymis and the coni vasculosi, the seminal fluid is propelled toward the vasa deferentia. Through the peristaltic movement of the vasa deferentia and the seminal vesicles, the semen is pressed into the ejaculatory ducts. The latter, by means of the muscular layer in their walls, forward the semen to the prostatic urethra. The action of the ducts is at this moment facilitated by the changed direction of their orifices. The change takes place through the turgescence of the colliculus. The swelling of the colliculus and the contraction of the external sphincter of the bladder prevent the semen from flowing backward into the bladder.

At this stage the muscular substance of the prostate contracts and squeezes out the prostatic fluid into the urethra. The fluid had been stowed up in the follicles until there was a demand for it. All these secretions of the testicles, seminal vesicles, and prostate, meet synchronously in the prostatic urethra and are there temporarily stowed up.

The muscular layer which surrounds the membranous portion of the urethra is a veritable sphincter, the contractions or dilatations of which will propel or retain the semen. The semen pouring from the ejaculatory ducts and the secretion of the prostate are steadily forced forward. But, retained by the contracted sphincter externus, the semen is forced into the bulb of the urethra, as the place of least resistance. In this way the bulbous part of the urethra becomes distended and serves as a temporary reservoir for the semen before ejaculation. By reflex excitation, this distention causes spasmodic contractions of the musculus bulbo-cavernosus and clonic contractions of the accelerator urinae. The contractions of these two muscles overcome the contractions of the sphincter, i. e., the muscular layer of the membranous portion of the urethra, and the semen is driven forward and gushes out of the meatus, in several jets, through the open and well-lubricated canal of the urethra.

Nervous control of erection.—The mechanism of erection and ejaculation is controlled by six centres, the three cerebral, one in the medulla oblongata, and the two spinal. Erection may be caused by the stimulation of the cerebral centre of voluptas. Impressions originating in the brain, as sexual thoughts, may evoke vigorous erections. There is no function of the human economy over which the mind exerts a more powerful influence than over that of sex. The imagination, says Hammond, is always a more potent stimulant of sexual desires than the physiological incentive supplied by nature. Besides by imagination, the cerebral centre may be excited by impressions conveyed through the senses. Sight, smell, hearing, and in some pathological states even taste are well known to convey sexual stimulation to the brain. The sense of touch has such an influence over the generative function that it is considered the inseparable companion of sexual activity.

CUT XXXIII.

Diagram of nerves and centres.[D]
1, brain; 2, centre of inhibition; 3, centre of libido; 11, centre of voluptas; 4, vasodilatory centre in the medulla oblongata; 16, centre of erection; 7, centre of ejaculation; 10, genitals at the periphery. The broken lines designate centripetal nerves, the solid lines denote centrifugal nerves.

Erection may further be stimulated by excitation of the centre in the spinal cord. The direct electrical excitation of the spinal cord in dogs evokes vigorous erections. The irritation of the spinal cord in some spinal diseases often produces erections. Sleep, while lying on the back, is known to produce vigorous erections, by increasing the flow of blood to the spinal cord and by allowing the blood to settle in the medulla oblongata and in the cord, so as to produce a passive congestion.

Erections may finally be evoked by the stimulation of the peripheral nerves at the genitals as on the glans and on the skin of the penis. Especially the prostatic urethra and the colliculus are recognized as the most sensitive area, the focal point of the nervous impressions on the genital system. Pressure of the metal sound on the prostate or its cauterization, tumors, calculi and inflammations, e. c., gonorrhoea, may often excite erections. The prostatic mucous membrane is supposed to be the seat of the pleasurable sensations. During any kind of sexual activity, the prostatic area is intensely congested, and its nerves are in a high state of tension. Excitations at the neighboring parts of the genital organs, as evoked by hemorrhoids, stone in the bladder, full bladder, worms or full rectum, may also produce erections.

The peripheral excitations of the genitals are transmitted to the central nervous system, i. e., the centres in the pons and in the medulla, by reflex action. From these centres the stimulus is conveyed to the centres of erection in the lumbar region. If the individual is in a state of unconsciousness as in sleep, the stimulus at the periphery takes the direct road to the centre of erection. The excitation of this centre is then carried by the way of the nervi erigentes to the corpora cavernosa.

Centre of inhibition.—All the nervous elements, the cerebral centre of voluptas or sex-desire, the spinal centre of erection, and the nerves at the periphery, not only at the genitals, but the nerve endings of the skin through the entire body, work in perfect harmony. Hence a man in full vigor of virility would have vigorous erections at the slightest touch or even sight of a comely woman. Given our present mode of life, with the ubiquitous opportunities for such sights at all times, normal healthy men would have to walk around on the streets in a state of permanent priapism, but for the cerebral centre of inhibition. The influence emanating from this inhibitory centre works upon the spinal centre to prevent erection. When the influence of this centre is removed, erection is facilitated. When the spinal cord of a dog is severed in the lumbar region, the irritation of the genitals more readily provokes erection. With the removal of the inhibitory influence during sleep, the least excitation of the genitals causes vigorous erections. When the stimulation of the inhibitory centre is unusually increased, as in neurasthenics and other nervous disorders, erections fail to appear, when they are most desired.

Thus, by the inhibitory action of the brain, the tonus of the centre of erection preserves the equilibrium, and it requires longer preparations and more intense excitations than is ordinarily furnished in social intercourse to evoke erections, necessary for the performance of the sexual act. When cerebral inhibition is removed, as in sleep, erections are facilitated. On the other hand, when the inhibitory influences are increased, as in a state of intense mental occupation or of depressing emotion, as fear of inability to consummate the act, or fear of detection, or at the loss of the object of one’s affections, or in cases of extreme modesty or disgust, etc., erections may be prevented or entirely arrested. Hence the normal accomplishment of the sex-act requires complete absence of doubts, apprehensions, of any anxiety whatever, and want of confidence in one’s own power. Otherwise the inhibitory influences will prevent a perfect erection.

Centre of ejaculation.—The centre of ejaculation has its seat in the level of the fourth lumbar vertebra. In a state of perfect health, the excitability of this centre is much lower than that of erection. Hence it requires more intense stimuli and longer preparation to produce an ejaculation than an erection. The best stimulus for this centre is the tender, soft, warm vaginal mucosa, when rubbing against the glans and the skin of the penis.

Orgasmus.—The complicated reflex nerve phenomena taking place in a complete and perfect male sexual act may be described as follows:

At the first voluptuous thrill of a physical pleasurable sensation, and at the first tactile excitation of the sensual organs, the cerebral centre of inhibition is at once paralyzed and its influence is removed. The centre of erection has now opportunity for the full display of its vasodilatory influences. The tonus of the genital vessels is removed, and an increased amount of blood flows into the arteries and caverns so as to render the penis stone hard. Through the increased blood supply and under the greatly increased nervous tension, the genital glands, the testicles, seminal vesicles, and prostate secrete an increased amount of their respective fluids. These secretions pour into the urethral bulb and distend the same. The excitations, radiating from this distension, serve to stimulate the centre of ejaculation, and the contractions of the muscles bulbo-cavernosus and accelerator urinae take place. The result of these contractions is the phenomenon of ejaculation.

Simultaneously with the ejaculation, the nervous tension, which was increased to the highest degree through the excitations of the different organs, is also removed. This explosion of the nervous tension during the crisis produces the pleasurable sensations which are known under the name orgasm[E] (from the Greek word ὀργᾶν, to swell with lust).

After ejaculation and the removal of the genital congestion, the paralysis of the inhibitory centre ceases, and the normal nerve tonus of the blood vessels gradually reappears. The influx of blood into the genital vessels is thus cut off, and the erection of the corpora cavernosa ceases. Only the colliculus remains yet swelled, for some time. For this reason micturition is impossible immediately after ejaculation. After the act follows a state of exhaustion, weariness, weakness and inclination to sleep. Although the frantic condition and the semi-delirium generally lasts a short time only, still it is sufficiently long to exhaust completely the strength of the ordinary organism. After a certain time of rest, sex connection in a healthy person is followed by a joyous feeling and fresh vigor. The head feels more free and easy, the body more elastic, and a greater disposition to physical and intellectual labor results.

[CHAPTER VIII]
THE FUNCTIONS OF THE FEMALE GENITAL ORGANS

Functions of the ovary.—The ovary is lined by a layer of genital epithelia (“Keimepithel”), which undergo certain changes during the entire sexual life of the woman. The epithelia are continually transformed into ova. When a single genital epithelium leaves the ovarian lining to be transformed into an ovum it moves from the periphery toward the centre. It then surrounds itself with follicular epithelia and forms the Graafian follicle. Through its growth the Graafian follicle approaches again the periphery. All ripe Graafian follicles are, therefore, situated near the periphery of the ovary.

Ovulation.—About once a month a general congestion of the entire genital system takes place.[F] This congestion causes an effusion of serum and blood into the Graafian follicle and the rupture of the same. In this way the ovum is set free and is seized by the fimbriae of the Fallopian tube. The ovum begins now its journey towards the uterus. During its progress through the oviduct the maturition of the ovum, or the reduction of its chromosomes to half the number peculiar to its species, takes place by a double segmentation. The ovum is divided, twice in succession, each time into two quite unequal parts. The smaller segments, called polar bodies, remain near the periphery of the ovum and are extruded later on. The ovum is now ripe for fertilization.

According to Bischoff and Hiss, the impregnation takes place in the distal end of the tube. After impregnation the zygote continues its wandering by the current of the ciliated epithelia of the tube, towards the uterus. The ovum needs, according to Hensen, from three to five days, according to Bischoff eight days, to transverse this way, in the woman. It could not last any longer, says Von Winckel, because the uterine end of the tube, in the human female, has a diameter of only two to three millimeters, while the diameter of the ovum, in the second week of pregnancy, is three to six millimeters already. Hence, when a retardation, for one cause or another, takes place, a tubal pregnancy will be the result.

When the impregnated ovum has reached the cavity of the uterus it penetrates through the epithelium into the submucous fibrous tissues of the uterus, where it completes its development.

Internal ovarian secretion.—Besides the function of preparing the ova, the ovary has an internal secretion which is the cause of the female secondary characteristics. When both ovaries are removed before puberty, the time when the stamp of sex is becoming impressed on every part of the body, the essential feminine features fail to develop. The absence of the ovaries leads to the development of a colorless, neuter creature of angular form, strident voice, striding gait, and even of bearded chin.

Function of the Fallopian tubes.—The function of the ducts is to furnish a path for the ovum in its passage towards the uterus and for the spermatozoa on their way to meet the ovum. The current of the tubal ciliated epithelia is directed towards the uterus. In this way the ovum which does not possess self-motion, as do the spermatozoa, is carried towards its destination, while the spermatozoa have to swim against the current.

Menstruation.—The main function of the uterus is to serve as a couch or resting place for the fertilized ovum during its development. For this end a wound has to be set in the lining of the uterus to facilitate the grafting of the fertilized ovum, just as the gardner makes a slit for ingrafting the young shoot. The preparation of the ingrafting of the young animal is accomplished by the monthly changes in the uterus preceding menstruation. The monthly general congestion of the genital organs, necessary for the ovum to leave the Graafian follicle, also causes the uterine mucous membrane to swell from one to three millimeters in the thickness.[G] The mucosa becomes thus turgid and velvety. The epithelial cells of the endometrium swell and multiply. The openings of the uterine glands are enlarged, and a whitish, opaque mucus is poured out. The glandular cells are enlarged, and there is a multiplication of the round cells of the stroma. The cells are cloudy and filled with fat granules. This fatty degeneration involves the glandular cells, the cells of the inter-glandular tissue, and the cells of the blood vessels which are distended with blood. The endometrium or lining is thus prepared for the reception of the impregnated ovum. These alterations develop independently of the haemorrhage. The swelling begins a long time before the period and reaches its maximum only at this time.

If the ovum has become impregnated it is ready to respond to these preparations. If, however, nature’s attempt to reproduce an individual of the species has been frustrated, and the ovum has not been impregnated, the latter has to be cast out, and all the preparations are eliminated. The exuberant epithelial cells are exfoliated. The delicate capillaries, engorged with blood, sweat drops of blood by diapedesis or burst and discharge their contents. The congested and engorged glands secrete and excrete profusely.

This mingled mass of epithelial cells, blood and mucus leaves the body in form of menstrual discharges. Menstruation, therefore, is a retrograde process, in consequence of the failure of the impregnation of the ovum. The monthly flow is like the shedding of the leaves by the tree, the getting rid of some material the function of which has been frustrated and for which the economy has no more use.

Menstruation is thus the manifest phenomenon of the retrograde metamorphosis which ensues at the failure of the ovum to become fertilized. Where there is fertilization there is no menstruation. Hence, those women who marry immediately after menstruation sets in, at puberty,[H] and are impregnated and those women who are impregnated immediately after they finished nursing their babies, will seldom show the phenomenon of menstruation. This is the reason why menstruation is so rarely observed among animals.[I]

The concubitalis function of the uterus.—Another highly important function of the uterus is to serve as an organ of copulation. During the orgasm, at the moment of the highest excitement, the uterus descends deeper into the small pelvis.[J] It is assisted in the descent by the pressure of the abdominal muscles. The uterus, usually flattened in the sagittal direction, assumes a round, pear-shaped form during the orgasm and for some time afterwards. In this way a real cavum uteri is produced, and through the vacuum thus produced, the uterus is able to suck in the semen by means of aspiration. Furthermore, through the excitation, the circular fibres of the cervix contract at the same time as the longitudinal fibres. The result is a dilatation of the cervical orifice. The formerly flat opening becomes round. At the same time the uterine orifices of the tubes, which are generally closed, open widely and challenge the entrance of the spermatozoa.

Female ejaculation.—The contraction of the cervical fibres also causes the erection of the vaginal portion and of the neck of the uterus. This erection, at the moment of the highest orgasm, serves to expel Kristeller’s slimy plug from the cervix. This expulsion represents female ejaculation. After the expulsion the cervix becomes soft and flabby. The erection and sudden relaxation of the cervix cause the external os to open, sometimes to the extent of fully three centimeters, and to make several successive gasps. Each time the gasp draws powerfully the external os into the cervix and causes the aspiration of the semen.

Function of the vagina.—The function of the vagina is to serve as a receptacle of penis and semen. The erectile tissue which runs along the entire length between the different membranes, forming the vaginal wall, helps the vagina to adjust itself to the volume of the penis and to augment its turgescence. The muscular fibres, situated within the tunica media of the vaginal mucous membrane, contract during the ejaculation of the semen. The contraction is of a peristaltic nature, starting from the vaginal aperture. In this way the semen is stowed toward the uterine orifice under a certain pressure and is prevented from flowing off.

Previous to this contraction the sphincter cunni, the analogous muscle to the musculus bulbo-cavernosus in the male, also contracts and clinches the penis, pressing, at the same time, upon the two bulbs of the vestibule. In this way the vaginal orifice is more firmly compressed.

Function of the Bartholinian glands.—Through the activity of the constrictor cunni, the Bartholinian glands are also compressed. Normally these glands are inactive. They only secrete on irritation.[K] At the first voluptuary thrills, the lubricating fluid gushes forth from the Bartholinian glands, moistens the sexual organs, prepares the way for the painless entrance of the male organ and furnishes the ante-orgastic libido which is second only to the orgasm itself, and is the only libido experienced by many women throughout their lives.

The alkaline lubricating fluid from the Bartholinian glands serves the further purpose of neutralizing the vaginal contents which are of an acid reaction. But for the alkaline secretions, before the male ejaculation, the spermatozoa would be killed by the acids, or, at least, checked in their movements. The secretion of the Bartholinian glands has, therefore, a threefold purpose: it facilitates the frictions, neutralizes somewhat the vaginal contents, and increases or furnishes the ant-orgastic libido.

Function of the clitoris.—The most sensitive organ of the female genital apparatus is the clitoris. In the female child the clitoris, analogous to the penis in the male, represents the main erogenous zone, and its activity manifests itself by frequent twitchings and erections. After puberty the main function of the clitoris is, according to Freud, to transmit the stimuli to the other genital organs.

The erection of the clitoris is produced in the same way as the erection of the penis, by the relaxation of the arteries of the corpora cavernosa of the clitoris, which are thus filled with blood. The erection is further helped by the contraction of the muscles ischio-cavernosus and constrictor cunni. The clitoris has a direction, inverse to that of the erected penis, namely, downward. By virtue of its direction and its angle, the erected clitoris is able to yield and descend to meet the dorsal face of the glans and body of the penis, without being in a position to rise again during its action. The contraction of the two last named muscles will, therefore, help to press the right-angled clitoris on the dorsal side of the penis. The erection and the bending of the clitoris are further helped by the action of the bulbs of the vestibule which, through the pressure of the penis, send their fluid to the corpora cavernosa and the glans of the clitoris and thus increase the sensitiveness.

Ordo rei.—According to the functions of the different organs, the initus muliebris takes the following course. As soon as the mentula reaches the vestibule, the glans of the clitoris is pressed down to the vaginal edge of the orifice of the vagina to meet the glans fascini. Under the influence of the erotic irritation, the tonus of the blood vessels of the corpora cavernosa clitoridis and of the bulbs is removed, and the organs fill with blood. The erected clitoris, bent down and pressing upon the dorsal surface fascini, is thus unable to rise again.

At the first touch of these sensitive organs, the lubricating fluid gushes forth from the Bartholinian glands, moistens the vaginal orifice, and prepares the way for the painless entrance fascini. The glans fascini passes now the two edges of the vaginal bulbs, et collum corpusque fascini are seized by the protruding parts of these bulbs. The constrictor cunni now clinches the vaginal orifice, and the vagina, by means of its erectile tissue, adjusts itself to the volume mentulæ. At the moment of the male ejaculation a peristaltic contraction of the vagina takes place, by which the sperma is stowed toward the uterus and is prevented from flowing off until the female ejaculation has taken place.

In the meantime the uterus descends deeper into the small pelvis, and its muscles open the three uterine orifices. The secretions of the cervical glands, or Kristeller’s plug, are now expressed through the open external os, and a suction of small amounts of sperma into the cervical canal ensues. The expression of the cervical secretions represents the female ejaculation and takes place at the moment of the highest orgasm.

[CHAPTER IX]
LIBIDO SEXUALIS

During the entire sexual spasm, especially at the height of the venereal crisis, certain pleasurable or lustful sensations, or libido, are experienced by both mates. The quality of the libido is different in different individuals. In some people the pleasure may be excessive, furious, overpowering. Some people are thrown by the violence of their emotional manifestations in a state of syncope or convulsions.[L] Hence the speculation whether the quality of sexual libido is higher in the male or in the female is entirely futile. Libido being a subjective feeling, no one will ever be able to measure the same in another individual, just as he is unable to measure the amount of pleasure his fellowman has gained at any other occasion of enjoyment (e. c. banquet, dance, theatre, etc.). Hence, we will never be able to decide about the quality of libido in the two sexes. But the symptoms of libido being in both sexes almost identical, the inference may be drawn that the quality will also be similar.

Symptoms of libido.—The normal libido and orgasm show certain defined symptoms by which the presence of the larger lust may be easily diagnosed. While in libido corpora conjugum are in a state of excitement, caused by the irritation of the fibres of the sympathetic nerves. The irritation spreads over the entire extent of the vasomotor system and causes a paralysis of the vasomotor nerves. The result is the widening of the coronary arteries, hyperaemia of the heart muscles, and hence an increased excitation of the heart ganglia and palpitation of the heart. The circulation is accelerated, the arteries beat strongly, and the venous blood, arrested in the vessels, augments the animal heat. The stagnation of the blood, more pronounced in the brain by contraction of the muscles of the neck and the retraction of the head, causes a momentary cerebral congestion. During its continuance the intellectual faculties are held in abeyance. The eyes are markedly injected, the bulbi of the eyes protuberate, and the pupils are enlarged almost twice their normal size. The eyes become haggard, and the sight is dimmed, or the eyes are spasmodically closed in order to shut out light. The respiration is rapid and panting, coming in short and quick intervals, the air being expelled spasmodically. Some times the respiration is entirely suspended by a convulsive contraction of the larynx, and the breath is ejected in the shape of babbling, incoherent words. The congested nerve-centres communicate only vague and confused outside sensations. Mobility and sensibility are held in suspension. The limbs are convulsively agitated or are subject to clonic contractions. The nostrils are dilated, the jaws are firmly set, and the teeth are ground one against the other.

These different expressions of the summa libido are accompanied by caressing words. Ovid, the master in matters of sensuality, sings in his “Ars Amandi”:

“Nec blandae voces jucundaque murmura cessent

“Nec taceant mediis improba verba jocis

“Adspicies oculos tremulos fulgore micantes

“Ut sol a liquida saepe refulget aqua

“Accedent questus, accedet amabile murmur

“Et dulces gemitus aptaque verba joco.”

Where these symptoms are wanting, the absence of the potency of experiencing libido may be assumed.

The orgasm.—Simultaneously with the objective phenomena of erection and ejaculation, runs the course of the subjective pleasurable feelings. The libido may be divided into three phases: the ant-orgastic, orgastic and post-orgastic phases. During the ant-orgastic stage, the lustful sensation grows by degrees in intensity up to the moment of commencing ejaculation. The libido remains then relatively constant for some time. The largest lust swells then suddenly to the maximum and reaches its acme, the orgasm, at the instant of emission. After the ejaculation the libido disappears rapidly. It falls to zero and is followed by a phase of indifference and in some individuals even of depression. In the female the pleasurable feelings occur later than in the male, come on more slowly, and generally outlast the act of ejaculation. The female post-orgastic libido does not rapidly disappear, as in the male, but dies away as the tune of the tuning-fork.[M]

CUT XXXIV.

Curve illustrating the course of the orgasm.
1, ant-orgastic; 2, orgastic; 3, post-orgastic phases.

After the orgasm the sexual excitement gives place in the male to a state of exhaustion and to an inclination to sleep, and to a comfortable feeling of lassitude in the normal woman. “Omne animal post coitum triste est praeter mulierem gallumque,” says Galen. After a few moments rest a comfortable lassitude takes possession of the whole body in both mates.

“Cum pariter victi faemina virque jacent.”

At this period, even if the man would be in a position ad pergendam commixtionem (e. c. eunuches and in priapism), further permulsiones are not wanted and their discontinuance is demanded by the normal woman.

“Aspiciem dominae victos amantis ocellos

“Langueat et tangi se vetet illa diu.”

A woman desiring the continuance of uninterrupted penetrations, or who even allows them, plainly shows that, while she may have felt ant-orgastic libido, she has surely not experienced the supreme gratification which is found in the state of orgasm. Except in early youth, and then only after a protracted continence, it is impossible even for a woman to experience further libido immediately after the orgasm. The general notions about the great feminine potency are erroneous. They are based upon the confusion of the potency of cohabitation with the potency of experiencing the orgasm, which is not one and the same even in the male. So far as cohabitation is concerned it is true that the weakest, most delicate woman, is able to tire out the strongest man. Playing the passive part, she could stand concarnatio continua for a long time, in fact, as long as the mucous membrane of the vagina will last, and the vaginal pavement epithelia are by nature very strong. Even Ovid knew this fact. He says in his “Ars Amoris”:

“Conteritur ferrum, silices teneantur ab usu

“Sufficit et damni pars caret illa metu.”

But in regard to the potency of experiencing libido the woman is generally inferior to the man. After three complete orgasms in one night even a young, strong woman will be completely enervated during the following day, and the woman who regularly experiences a daily orgasm, for a protracted period, will, no less than her active partner, fall a victim to neurasthenia after some time.

Intensity of libido.—The intensity of the pleasure varies in different individuals. With some the intensity reaches a very high degree. There are those who cry and bite at the height of orgasm.[N] On the other hand, there are individuals who scarcely have any lustful feelings, or, if capable of experiencing ant-orgastic libido, are lacking in the feeling of orgasm. Normally the intensity of libido and orgasm increases with the number and dignity of the points which produce the pleasure.

The source of any kind of pleasure lies in the five senses. Of these the sense of touch is best adapted to provoke sexual pleasure. The tactile sense is the fundamental and generic sense from which all others take their rise, and by which they are verified. All the perceptions of our senses have to be supplemented by our tactile sense. The foetus, within the uterus, receives the first knowledge of its own individuality, of its own ego, by the tactile sense. In touching with its body the wall of the womb, it receives one impression, while in touching one part of its body with another part, it receives two impressions, at both points of contact. In this way it learns by repeated experience of the existence of bodies outside of his own. Thus it differentiates its own ego from the outside world by the sense of touch, at a time when the other senses could not as yet functionate. Touch is, therefore, the primary sense. The other senses are only modified tactile senses. Waves of sound touch the tympanic membrane of the ear: rays of light touch the retina in the eye; odors touch the nerve-endings of the olfactory nerve, and food the taste-papillae.

The sense of touch is, therefore, the sense above all others to evoke pleasurable sensations. The touch of a soft and smooth surface pleases; that of a rough object displeases. Many people like to feel smooth objects, such as velvet. Others prefer smooth plants; yet others are fond of caressing animate beings, such as cats or dogs with a smooth fur. There are those who delight to touch the soft, smooth skin of babies. Now the softest and smoothest skin in the human body is found on the parts covered with a mucous membrane. The pleasurable sensations, therefore, increase when two individuals touch each other at parts covered with such a membrane. Hence, kissing on the lips, by reason of their covering, is accompanied by pleasure. This undoubtedly accounts for the origin of kissing.

The same reason is responsible for the universal tendency among lovers to approach and touch one another’s lips. For, affection fed by sight, sound, taste and odor, reaches its climax in touch. The combined power of contact with softness and warmth amounts to a considerable pitch of material pleasure, and a predisposed affection, as among lovers, renders the contact thrilling. Love pleasure, therefore, begins and ends in sensual contact. The intensity of the sensual pleasure will be proportional with the area of contact and with the dignity of the organs touched. Nudity with the greater area of direct contact will increase the pleasure.

The values of the organs producing sexual libido are successively: in the male, glans et corpus penis, scrotum, labia oris, lingua, palma manus, and the gluteal region; in the female, clitoris, vulva, labia majora, nymphae, vestibule, vagina, vaginal portion of cervix, mamillae, labiae oris, lingua, palma manus and the gluteal region.[O] The more points of the highly sensible organs are touched, the larger the extent of the skin-surface that enters into the realm of touch, the more the frictions are conducive to excitation, the better the function of the sphincter cunni,[P] the greater will be the intensity of the sensual libido in both mates. If more special senses are excited, such as sight by beauty, the smell by sweet odors, the touch by soft, smooth skin, if imagination coöperates, and if inhibitory effects are absent, then the intensity is much greater.

Inhibition of libido.—The inhibitory effects upon the libido have various causes, and are mostly brought on by the different senses. The most inhibiting effects emanate from the sense of smell. The sense of smell plays an important rôle in provoking or inhibiting sexual desire. For that reason women are possessed of certain odors to attract their mates.[Q] The vaginal mucus, or rather contents, have a stale, characteristic odor. This odor belongs to the class of the capryl-odors, which may be designated as the specifically erotic odors. The natural vaginal odor becomes stronger during the menstrual period. Some women transpire at the time of menstruation the disagreeable odor of trimethyl-amin.

In some country-districts in Europe, it is reported, the young peasants, when going to a dance, place their handkerchiefs into their arm-pits to imbibe the peculiar odor of the man, and, unaware to the girls, hand over the same to the women they are in love with to smell. The peculiar odor is supposed to excite the girls to love.

All this serves to show that the quality of the odor is not a matter of indifference to the excitation of sexual voluptas. The disagreeable smell from any part of the body of one mate will act as an inhibition upon the libido of the other. The sense of sight, if offended, works much the same way. Ugliness will, therefore, act as a check not only upon the voluptas, but also upon the libido. Pain or cold have also inhibitory effects. Hence defloration, accompanied by more or less pain, checks the libido of the woman.

Hatred has a great inhibitory influence upon voluptas and libido. In men, it is self-evident that where there is no voluptas there is no erection and consequently no congress or libido. But even in women where sexual conjugation is possible against her will, libido can seldom be compelled. She may be debauched, physically, and even ejaculation may take place, for when fully excited, the muscular contractions become independent of the will, but the excitation can not induce full libido.[R] Virtually, a woman can rarely be violated. If in a case of rape the woman experiences complete orgasm, then she consented physiologically, though she may have morally struggled against the impropriety of the act.

Spatium concarnationis.—Spatium temporis concubitus, to a certain extent, depends upon the will. The man and the woman are able to delay the orgasm for a certain time. It is in the individual’s power, if it be not neurasthenic or tabetic, to induce the orgasm earlier or later. But this power is limited. It is not altogether voluntary to induce orgasm or prevent it.

The duration varies in different animals as well as in different individuals. In some animals a single stimulant suffices to induce orgasm; other animals remain in conjugio for hours or even days. If the duration of the ant-orgastic stage is too short in the female, analogous to the ejaculation ante portas in the male, the deficiency must be corrected. Though the precipitate orgasm in the female has not the same importance as in the male, because her orgasm does not of necessity terminate congressum as in the male. Yet it may, sometimes, have a damaging effect upon the potency of procreation. For the ideal intercourse, in the interest of procreation, is the one in which the female ejaculation occurs immediately after the male emission or simultaneously with the same. Besides, the longer duration creates greater intensity of libido, which is desirable for the well-being of both mates. For this reason Ovid advises in his “Ars Amandi”:

“Crede mihi, non est veneris properanda voluptas,

“Sed sensim tarda prolicienda mora.”

The post-orgastic stage.—Soon after the orgasm the libido ceases, and a state of languor ensues.

“Cum pariter victi faemina virque jacent.”

In normal individuals and in affectionate lovers the lassitude is of an agreeable nature. The serenity of the mind depends largely upon the intensity of the experienced libido. If the act is executed with great pleasure, it will give the nervous system a pleasurable excitement and will act as a helpful tonic upon the nerves. The blood under its animating influence flows more freely through the capillary vessels of the skin. The countenance becomes expanded, its expression brightens and its whole surface acquires the ruddy tint and genial glow of health. Every function seems to be gladdened by the tonic. It causes a universal expansion of vital action. The body feels buoyant and lively, and there is a consequent disposition to quick and cheerful muscular motions, as running, jumping, dancing, laughing, and singing. Furthermore, the act executed with a great intensity of pleasure serves to appease the sexual desire for a time and naturally leads to moderation. The serenity and well-being, following such an act, have a great influence upon the continuance of the lovers’ affections. An agreeable calmness will increase and even create attachment. Some conventional marriages turn for that reason into affectionate love-affairs.

If the intensity of the libido is insignificant, a depression of the mind post concarnationem will result. Where coition is performed with aversion, without affection for the mate or with fear of infection or conception, it will act as a nerve-depressor, and a state of dejection will be the result. Such an act does not satisfy and appease the sexual desire. Like a distasteful meal that does not satiate, concubitus without pleasure or great affection creates desires for more sexual indulgences, keeps the nerves in a state of sexual excitement, and leads to many kinds of debauchery. Even if originally a good deal of affection existed, a sexually unsuitable match may reduce the intensity of the libido to a minimum. If then the languor is disagreeably felt, if the individual remains excited and is unable to sleep, and the following morning feels enervated, the former affection will gradually disappear, and a romantic love-affair of long duration may turn out a complete failure after marriage.[S]

[PART V.]
PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX

[CHAPTER X]
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX ATTRACTION

A law regulating and governing phenomena is only possible on the assumption that the law is the expression of the modus operandi of the governing power which has established the fixed rules for the performance of a certain action leading to a certain end. The law governing the phenomena of sex has evidently been prescribed for the purpose of the preservation of the species. This preservation is at the basis of sexual desire, and because the ultimate aim is unknown to the agent, the desire is instinctive in nature. For every instinct is an inward impulse, an unconscious, involuntary prompting to action, without a distinct apprehension of the end which nature has designed should be accomplished thereby. Hunger for love and hunger for food are both based upon the two instincts of preservation, the instinct of the preservation of the individual and the instinct of the preservation of the kind.

The hunger for food, manifested already by the new-born baby,[T] is based upon the instinct of the preservation of the individual, the sex-urge, manifested by youths and maidens at the time of puberty, before they have ever experienced any copulative libido, is based upon the instinct of the preservation of the species. The active principle of the mind, which is energetically devoted to the gratification of the sensual desire and the state of mind which is constantly yearning to satisfy the sensual want, are the promptings of this instinct. They exist at this early period independent of all experience. The absorbing feeling which seeks the consummation of its purpose, as well as the selection of the means to be employed, is not based upon previous experience. They are internal, unconscious messages which give rise to the conscious impulses, without waiting for the external stimuli which, later on, coöperate with the impulse to affect the nervous centres.

The conscious impulses, composing the sexual instinct, are, according to Moll, the impulse of contrectation, or the desire to effect a real or a virtual contact with an individual of the opposite sex, and the impulse of detumescence, or the desire to effect a certain material and nervous discharge. Any inclination, to become an impulse, must possess two qualities: it must move the individual to commit an act in which logic and calculation have no part; and secondly, while committing the act, the individual must be conscious of its immediate aim. The two component impulses of the sex-instinct possess these two qualities. They are unreasoning promptings to actions, the end of which is present in the individual’s consciousness.

Impulse of contrectation.—The impulse of contrectation is the conscious desire of the individual to obtain a contact with an individual of the opposite sex, if possible by the tactile sense proper; if not, at least, by the visual or aural senses, or by the imagery, by looking at a comely individual of the other sex, by listening to its voice, or by thinking of the person. This impulse is at the basis of the lovers’ desire to caress and fondle each other. This impulse is entirely distinct from the desire for sensual conjugation. It is found in children who have as yet no knowledge of sex. An individual may have the wish to touch an individual of the opposite sex, as for instance, in a public conveyance or at a dance, without any thought of sex-congress, and where sensual conjugation is entirely out of the question.

During the gratification of this impulse of contrectation (from the Latin word contrectare, to touch with lust), a certain tumescence (from the Latin word tumescere, to swell), or congestion of all the organs of the body, particularly of the genital organs, and an increased amount of nervous energy throughout the entire organism, takes place.

Impulse of detumescence.—At this stage the second component of the sexual instinct, the impulse of detumescence (from the Latin word detumescere, to diminish in swelling) comes into play. Tumescence causes a certain oppression, and the individual is impelled to cause a discharge of the material congestion and a spasmodic relief of the nervous tension. The procedure of this material and nervous discharge is specific. The man’s impulse is “penem in vaginam intromittere et semen ejaculare,” and the woman’s impulse is “membrum viri atque semen in vaginam suscipere eodemque tempore detumescere.” If the opportunity for the specific discharge is lacking, other unnatural means for emission are employed, or the organism rids itself of the oppression during the state of unconsciousness, as in sleep. Ejaculation, hence, gives pleasure because it relieves the mechanical as well as the nervous tension and causes a change both in the blood and the nerve supply. Hence, the impulse of detumescence is less a craving to gain a positive lust feeling as the impulse of contrectation.

Children’s affection.—The impulse of contrectation is already met with in small children. The desire to effect a physical contact is often observed among very small children. There are some children who are even susceptible to sexual excitement, but these are the exceptions, their emotions are pathological. Normally there appears to be no erethism of the sexual organs in children during the process of love-making. They have no knowledge of the meaning of sex. With them the caressing contact is an end in itself.

In the love-making of children we can distinguish two different modes, according to the age of the child. In the first period, between three and eight years of age, the child is perfectly ignorant of the meaning of sex. Still it may indulge in the pleasure of bodily contact with an individual of the opposite sex. During the second period, between eight to twelve years of age, the children are aware of the difference and even meaning of sex, still the erethism in the organs is still absent.

The presence of the emotion of love in children of the first period is shown in many ways. Children of the opposite sex fall in love with one another. They seek each other’s company. They sit close to each other and indulge in kissing, embracing, and lifting each other. They often present gifts to, and make sacrifices for each other. Even jealousy is not absent. The lover tries to monopolize the allegiance of the beloved one. This love in early childhood is characterized by the absence of shyness or of any sense of shame, which shows the complete sexual anaesthesia.

With the appearance of shyness and modesty in children of the second period, the love-making may be traced to the conscious sex instinct. The instinct is manifested by the tendency to conceal the love affairs. Modesty is a characteristic trait of the young lovers. When in each other’s presence they feel embarrassed and ill at ease. They appear awkward when left alone to themselves. They try to avoid each other and may even appear to the casual observer to hate each other. Especially does the boy try to simulate resentment. The girl is, on the whole, more aggressive in these early love affairs. The woman’s innate love of being wooed comes to surface later on when she has reached maturity. Yet even the boy’s emotions are discernible by the keen observer. The emotions of infatuated children may assume all the appearances of true love, with its joys and sorrows. Yet any thought of the reproductive organs is entirely absent.

Puberty.—Before puberty the sexual activity of the child consists thus in the desire and gratification of the impulse of contrectation. This contrectation does not cause yet a state of tumescence in the child, and without tumescence the impulse of detumescence is also absent. The first state of spontaneous tumescence is called into existence by internal messages.

At the time of puberty, the generative centre or the centre of voluptas begins rapidly to grow and comes into increased activity. The internal messages become then so frequent that they charge the entire body with a considerable amount of nerve energy and cause in the generative organs a certain congestion, stimulation and irritation. This spontaneous tumescence, produced with the growth of the centre of voluptas in the brain, is then the cause of calling to life the impulse of detumescence. The individual has the strong desire to free itself of the material congestion and of the nervous tension. In animals the impulse of detumescence is, with a very few exceptions, identical with the sex-instinct. Most animals have no desire for contrectation. In man the impulse of contrectation is the more important. If the individual practises total abstinence, i. e., if he abstains even from the gratification of the impulse of contrectation, then the state of spontaneous tumescence would return through the internal messages, at certain periods, just as rut periodically appears in the animal. As a rule, however, total abstinence from the gratification of the impulse of contrectation, material or mental, is very rarely or never found in the civilized adult man or woman. Hence the state of tumescence in man is not given the chance to reach its periodicity, but is always produced by the gratification of the impulse of contrectation.

Mechanism of sex-activity.—The mechanism of sex-activity may thus be compared with the charging of a Leyden jar with electricity. The generative organs must first be charged, like the jar, with a certain material turgescence and with nervous energy, in order to evoke the impulse of detumescence. The comparison with the Leyden jar may be moved even a step farther. Just as the charge of the jar with electricity is of a longer duration, compared with the instantaneous discharge at its contact with the earth, so is the charge of the organism with nervous sex-tension usually of longer duration in comparison with the short duration of the discharge.

During the gratification of the impulse of contrectation, by imagination, look, word or actual contact, the organs are charged with nervous energy and vital fluids. This charging is connected with a certain kind of fore-pleasure and may last considerable time, from a few minutes to several hours or even days. The satisfaction of the impulse of detumescence when the vital fluids and nervous energy is discharged by coition, pollution or any other way, is of very short duration, normally lasting a few minutes only. Sexual activity, hence, consists in the charging and discharging of the vital fluids and nervous tension. The sexual act and copulation are not synonymous. The act begins with the satisfaction of the impulse of contrectation, which comprises by far the greatest part of sex activity. Copulation, on the other hand, represents only the final stage of the drama and is of short duration.

Emotions of puberty.—The state of tumescence is a necessary condition of sexual gratification, and in ordinary life is effected by contrectation, i. e., it is, as a rule, voluntarily produced. The case is different at the time of puberty. At this period, the tumescence is evoked by internal promptings.

With the beginning of pubescence, the stepping-stone between the child and the man or woman, the secondary characteristics, as beard, enlarged larynx, musculature in man, and filling out and rounding of the body, development of the breasts, enlargement of the pelvis in woman, are becoming noticeable. It is the period of the rapid acceleration in the growth of the centres of generation, and indefinable yearnings and moods, wishes and fears assume domination of the growing child. Sweet inexpressable emotions of wonder, awe, and amazement disturb the thoughts and actions of the awakening consciousness. Mysterious sensations, foretastes and impulses fill the heart of the ripening individual. For the man it is the beginning of the period of “storm and stress.” It is the time when the elemental cosmic fire of love is bestowed upon the eyes of youth, and an infinite yearning is implanted into his soul by an invisible power. At the approach of this time, a tender fledgeling of longing is implanted into the heart of the girl. She becomes quiet and shy. She shows a shrinking timidity and coyly takes flight at the least approach of him at whose sight her hungry emotions are profoundly stirred.

With the increase in size and vigor of the generative organs, the bodings of sexual desires and the cravings of the natural instinct take possession of the individual’s thoughts and fancy and awaken in him erotic ideas and lustful feelings and the strong impulse for the organs to function.

When the genital centres have been fully developed, the individual gets a conscious realization of its sexual power, and the psychological reactions of animal passion manifest themselves in the irresistible desire for intimacy with an individual of the opposite sex. This desire is inscrutable and transcendental. There is no knowable reason for its existence present. Ordinarily the idea of a desire is realized by bringing vividly to the mind the memory of a former desire gratified. But at this time the individual has not as yet had the experience of carnal pleasure, neither is it conscious of the ultimate object of the sexual instinct, the propagation of the species. Yet it is instinctively drawn towards the person of the opposite sex, and at its sight the hungry emotions are peeping through every action. The individual’s nature is both chaste and voluptuous. It is chaste because the individual has no knowledge as yet of libido or lust, yet it is voluptuous, it is all-impulse.

The impulse of contrectation is the first to impress itself upon the mind of the individual. With the intimacy, the impulse of detumescence becomes also imperious, and the desire to enjoy the full possession of the beloved object begins to manifest itself. These are, then, the two desires the individual is henceforth well aware of and which it is anxious to gratify. The real purpose of the instinct of sex has been hidden to man. Seldom or never is amativeness guided by the desire to propagate the race. Sex-activity is chiefly desired for the satisfaction of the sensual cravings.[U] The animal in its sex-relations is largely or exclusively guided by the impulse of detumescence. The same is the case with men in a low state of civilization, with their promiscuous admiration of the opposite sex. What such savages desire is a relaxation of the nervous tension and a discharge of the genital congestion. In men of high culture the impulse of contrectation is the more imperious, and mental attraction is added as a factor in the love-game, i. e., civilized men are more erotic than libidinous in their nature.

The different phenomena appear in the just described order, if no disturbances interrupted the natural course. If the individual was allowed to reach adolescence without interference, then at the period of puberty, when the centres of generation begin to increase very rapidly, and the generative organs reach their full development, a certain kind of material congestion and nervous tension would ensue. But the congestion and tension would be of slight intensity to require a specific discharge. The absorptive power of the seminal vesicles and of the uterus would easily master the increased secretions, or the overflow would be discharged once or twice a month during sleep, mostly without even awakening the sleeper. Such a frequency of nocturnal emissions, especially if not accompanied by bad effects the next day, are perfectly normal.

But in ordinary life natural development without disturbance is rarely or never met with. Hence the sexual activities take an entirely different course. Boys and girls are brought up promiscuously in flats, in schools or on the streets. The first component of the sex-instinct, the impulse of contrectation, has an early opportunity to develop, even before puberty, as may be seen in the early attachment of children. By the time puberty is reached this impulse has been completely developed. The opportunity for the gratification of this impulse is everywhere present. Hence the tumescence is not evoked by internal messages and natural promptings but through the actual contact. With the beginning of the contact, be it in thought, look, word, or touch, simultaneously also begins the sex-act. Having begun the act it is natural and normal for the lovers to have it completed. If the stimulation of the erogenous zones is prolonged beyond a reasonable space of time without relaxation by an emission, a sense of incompleteness and dissatisfaction will ensue.

By some strange quirk of the human mind the error and fallacy have been fixed, even among thinkers, that sex-activity begins and ends with copulation.[V] The charging of the body with the necessary energy is considered a negligible quantity. We have taken out the final part of the act and elevated it to a fetich, in law as well as in sentiment, and consider all other sex activities as of no consequence. Yet the stimuli received through the other senses, causing the libidinous turgescence of the body, are the main part of the sexual chain of activities. The sexual act begins with the amorous caress, be it a caress in thought, look, or touch, as hugging or kissing. For contrectation or tumescence and detumescence represent only one act. One impulse is the sequel of the other. The Sermon on the Mount, preaching, “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew v, 28), is nearer the physiological truth than the common accepted view.

The same disturbances which cause a break in the chain of sexual activity during childhood, puberty and adolescence are also responsible that in civilized men we can hardly speak any longer of an instinct of sex. If the instinct has not been disturbed by the intrusion of the stimuli of the senses and of the imagery before the period of maturity, the instinct of sex should enter into play at the time of puberty. But, as a rule, the stimulation of the erogenous zones is effected already before the time has arrived for the sex-instinct to make its appearance. During this stimulation, which, as we have seen, is already a part of the sex-act, a certain fore-pleasure is experienced. Henceforth the individual is desirous of the repetition of this experience. Especially when the orgasm has once been tasted, the memory of the same causes the individual to look for a repetition of the highest lustful sensation in human experience. Sexual activity is henceforth chiefly desired for the positive lust-feeling connected with it. This means to say that calculation enters into the activity, and with the entrance of calculation the activity ceases to be instinctive. Hence in modern men and women neither sex-activity nor propagation partake of the nature of an instinct. Normal sex-attraction being an offshoot of the reproductive impulse, it is perfectly natural that if the parent impulse loses its instinctive nature, the offspring will also lose it.

[CHAPTER XI]
DEVELOPMENT OF THE REPRODUCTIVE IMPULSE

The instinct of propagation is normally derived from the impulse for the satisfaction of protoplasmatic hunger. In lower animal life the incipient sexual union is effected by two exhausted cells coming together for the mutual exchange of nuclear material. This mode represents the first step in the scale of conjugation.

In the lowest form of unicellular life, as the schizomycetes (yeast) or bacteria, the necessity for conjugation does not appear to exist. In the reproduction of these unicellular organisms the animal simply divides into two, the division of the nucleus, as a rule, preceding that of the cytoplasm by a more or less karyokynetic method.

The ordinary protozoon does not form a composite structure. It divides and multiplies, but the products of the division do not remain together, they leave each other and lead a separate existence. Hence there is no real death in these animals. In the metazoa, or many-celled animals, only the reproductive cells may escape death and continue to live in the offspring. The somatic cells, or the body, die after a longer or shorter period. The unicellular animals do not possess any somatic cells, they are all reproductive cells. Hence we may rightly speak of the “immortality” of the protozoa.

The method of binary fission or splitting, by which the body of the parent becomes divided into two equal parts, into halves, is the simplest method of multiplication. This method is made use of in the amoeba. In this kind of reproduction there is no parent nor child. The children, the new amoebae, are simply the parent cut in two (vide Page 60).

The next simple generation is budding, which is the breaking off of a part smaller than half from a certain individual. The budded-off part has the capacity of growing into a new individual like the parent. This mode of reproduction is found in the hydra.

Another simple mode of generation is that of sporulation. Here the interior of the body of the individual subdivides into more than two parts. Sometimes the parts number many hundreds and are called spores. These three methods are the simplest modes of generation and are exclusively found in the lowest forms of unicellular organisms.

When we go a step farther, in the class of unicellular protozoa, the simple mode of multiplication continues, in most forms, only for a certain number of generations. Then the necessity for conjugation, i. e., for a temporary or permanent fusion with another individual, sets in. If this conjugation be prevented, the animal soon degenerates and dies.[W]

CUT XXXV.

Infusorium reproducing by sporulation.

The simplest terms of conjugation are found in Chilodon, a minute fresh-water infusorium, which multiplies for a considerable length of time by transverse division. After a time, however, the physiological necessity for conjugation sets in. The different animals place themselves side by side, in pairs, and partly fuse together. The nucleus of each individual divides now into two portions, one of which passes from each infusorium into the other to unite with the half of the nucleus that remained stationary. The two animals then separate, each having received a half of the nucleus of the other. Thereupon a period of renewed activity for each ensues, manifested by rapid growth and multiplication by division, until a certain weakening in the vital activities indicates the periodically recurring necessity for conjugation.

The next step in conjugation is found in those animals in which after their fusion the two animals do not separate any more, as found in the fission of monads, which is preceded by the absorption of one form by another. One monad is fixed upon the sarcode of another, and the substance of the lesser, which is the lower one, passes into the upper one. In about two hours the merest trace of the lower one is only left, and in four hours fission and multiplication of the larger one has taken place.

From these two modes of generation it is easily seen that the impelling force leading to conjugation is, as Rolph puts it, simply cell hunger. These modes of multiplication are also found in the simpler forms of colonial protozoa,[X] where the cells are not yet differentiated and all the members of the colony take part in reproduction.

In the next higher class of colonial protozoa, the first differentiation of the members or cells of the colony takes place. One part of the cells is set apart to continue the task of reproduction, while the main body of the colony does not participate any longer in the function of generation. As a rule, the reproductive cells are divided into two kinds, and these two kinds of cells conjugate with each other. The conjugation takes place either between different members of the same colony or between members of different colonies of the same species.

The conjugating individuals are similar in the simpler kinds of colonies. In the higher forms the two conjugating cells are easily seen to be very different from each other. One kind of cells is large, spherical and inactive. They are for this reason called egg-cells. The other kind of cells is small, with ovoid head and tapering tail and free-swimming. For this reason they are called sperm cells.

When the differentiation between the reproductive cells into two kinds has taken place, they are called sex cells. The sex cells are usually situated in groups, and the groups are called sexual glands. The groups of sperm cells are called testicles and those of egg cells are called ovaries.

In the lower classes in the animal kingdom the male and female glands are situated at different parts of the same animal, or near each other. Sometimes the same gland is producing both kinds of cells, male and female. In the hermaphroditic species of round worms, for instance, it is found that, when the reproductive organ is fully formed, it functions first as a testicle. The germ-cells at the anterior end of the sexual gland begin to divide rapidly and become small spermatozoa which are stored up in a receptacle of the uterus. Later on other cells, also situated at the anterior end of the sex-gland, begin to grow larger, store up yolk and become large egg-cells. They then enter the uterus and become fertilized by their own spermatozoa. This mode of fertilization is the so-called self-fertilization. It is found in the slightly complex animals, as the tape-worm or the leech, where one and the same individual produces both egg-cells and sperm-cells. In colonial jelly-fishes certain members of the colony produce only sperm cells, and certain other members produce only egg-cells.

In the hermaphroditic animals the sperm cells of the same individual may fertilize their own egg-cells or ova, as in the feat-worm (self-fertilization), while in the earth worm, although it is also hermaphroditic, cross-fertilization takes place. Two earth-worms mutually fertilize each other, the sperm cells of one fertilize the ova of the other, and the sperm cells of the latter fertilize the ova of the former.

Fertilization in plants.—This mode of cross-fertilization is the one generally found in phanerogamous (φανερός = apparent and γάμος = marriage) plants.

In the lower forms of the organic world the line of demarkation between plant and animal is somewhat blotted, and the identity of the mode of fertilization does not need to be particularly emphasized. In the higher forms the division is generally made by the mode of the assimilation of food and of motion. Plants generally break up the inorganic compounds into separate elements and recombine them into organic compounds, or potential energy. These organic compounds serve then the animal as food or as source of energy. The inorganic compounds being, as a rule, ubiquitous, the plants have hence a certainty of food supply and do not depend upon the facility of motion. They are, therefore, marked by a fixity to the soil. They are also surrounded by an outer skeleton, or a coat of cellulose and are less affected by outer stimuli; hence they possess slight consciousness. For the animals the food-supply is more uncertain, hence they need greater movement. For this reason they generally lack the external skeleton and hence possess higher consciousness.

Apart from this division plant and animal are closely related cousins, and the mode of fertilization of most of the higher plants is about the same as in the hermaphroditic animals.

The sexual organs of the phanerogamous plants are represented by the flowers.[Y] Showy flowers consist usually of four sets of organs, pistils, stamens, petals, and sepals. The sepals taken together constitute the calyx, the petals taken together constitute the corolla.

The essential organs of the flower are the stamens and pistils. The stamen represents the male organ, and the pistil the female organ of the plant, while the calyx and corolla form the floral envelopes, or the so-called perianth and are analogous to the external genital organs in the animal. Flowers which contain all the four sets of organs are said to be complete flowers, those which have the essential organs only are called perfect flowers.

CUT XXXVI.

A complete flower.
st, stamen; pi, pistil; pe, petal; s, sepal; ca, calyx; c, corolla. After Bergen.

Complete and perfect flowers are hermaphroditic. The male organ or the androcele and the female organ or the gynocele are situated in one and the same flower. The unisexual flowers are those where the stamens and the pistils are produced on separate flowers, as in the willow. Stamen and pistil may not only be produced on separate flowers, but the staminate and pistillate flowers themselves may be borne on different plants, as in hickory, hazel, or Indian corn. Such plants are called dioecious or of two households. When both kinds of flowers appear on the same individual, the plant is called monoecious or of one household.

CUT XXXVII.

Stamen.
a, anther; f, filament. After Bergen.

CUT XXXVIII.

Pollen grains.
s, spots where the inner coat bursts. After Bergen.

The stamen, or the male sexual organ of the flower, consists of a hollow portion called the anther, which is borne on a stalk called the filament. Inside of the anther is found a powdery or pasty substance called the pollen. The shape of the anther and the way in which it opens depend largely upon the way in which the pollen is to be discharged and how it is carried from flower to flower. As a rule, the anther opens by the cells being split length-wise, or by little holes at the top.

The pollen in many plants is a fine dry powder, in others it is somewhat sticky or pasty. The forms of the pollen grains are various. Each pollen-grain consists of a single cell and is covered by a thick outer and a thin inner wall or coat. At the outer coat there are spots at which the inner coat of the grain is finally to burst through the outer one, pushing its way out in the form of a slender thin-walled tube. The contents of the pollen is a thickish protoplasma, full of little opake particles, and usually containing grains of starch and little drops of oil.

CUT XXXIX.

Pistil.
sti, stigma; sty, style; ov, ovule. After Bergen.

The pistil, or the female sexual organ of the flower, usually consists of a small hollow chamber called the ovary, which contains the ovules, and of a slender portion or stalk, called the style. At the top of the latter is found a ridge, knob, or point which is called the stigma.

The stigma consists of cells loosely arranged over the surface. These cells secrete a moist substance, to which the pollen grains adhere when they come in contact with the stigma. Beneath these superficial cells, running down through the style, there are found long cells, with intermediate spaces, through which the pollen tube reaches the ovary.

CUT XL.

Stigma of thorn-apple with pollen.
p, pollen forming into a pollen-tube; i, intermediate space. After Bergen.

The ovules are not borne indiscriminately by any part of the lining of the ovary. They grow in a line running along one side of the ovary, as may be seen in the pea pod. This ovule-bearing line is called the placenta.

The ovule usually exists as a roundish or egg-shaped mass, with a small opening leading into the apex. This opening leads to a sac inside the ovule, which is filled with a soft protoplasmatic material and cells and is known as the embryo sac. Minute cells are found at the apex of the ovule from the development of which the embryo is produced, after the union of the pollen with a cell at the apex of the embryo sac of the ovule has taken place.

CUT XLI.

Fertilization of the ovule.
st, stigma; p, pollen; pt, pollen-tube; o, ovary; e, embryo-sac. After Bergen.

Fertilization.—As soon as the pollen grain lodges on the stigma, it begins to form into a pollen tube. In more or less time it makes its way through the style into the ovary. It then penetrates the opening at the apex of the ovule, reaches one of the cells and transfers its nucleus into an egg-cell. The latter begins at once to form cell-walls and increases by continued subdivision to the plant embryo. Only one pollen tube is necessary to fertilize each ovule. Still plants produce more pollen than ovules—the ratio is from 1:8 to 1:1000—because so many pollen are lost on their way to the ovules.

The mechanism of the forwarding of the pollen to the ovule varies in different plants. In self-fertilization or in those plants in which the ovule may be impregnated by the pollen of the same flower, fertilization is comparatively easy. But in a great many plants cross-fertilization is the rule. In order to accomplish the most successful fertilization, the pollen must come from another plant of the same species. Here nature has devised different ways to carry the pollen from one plant to another.

In the first place, there is the wind which accomplishes the task of forwarding the pollen. The wind-fertilized flowers have dry and powdery pollen, and the pistils are feathery, adapted to catch flying pollen grains. The flowers are characterized by their inconspicuousness. They are usually greenish, without any odor or nectar.

Another device to forward the pollen is by way of insects. Most of the showy, sweet-scented or otherwise conspicuous kinds of flowers are entirely dependent for fertilization on the transference of pollen from one plant to another by insects. The showy colors and odors serve to attract insects to visit them for their nectar. Insects and flowers are interdependent upon one another. For many insects depend mainly upon the nectar and pollen of flowers for their food. These insects usually visit only one kind of flower during the day and thus carry only one kind of pollen. Butterflies, moths, and most of the bees go straight from one flower to another and carry a good deal of pollen entangled in the scales or hairs of their bodies. On its way, the insect leaves a good deal of the pollen on the stigma of the pistil and becomes dusted with new pollen to be carried to other flowers.

The means to attract insects are threefold: nectar, odor and color. The nectar is a sweet liquid which the flower secretes by means of nectar glands. The latter are usually situated near the base of the flower. Other plants attract insect visitors by giving up a sweet scent. These are especially the small flowers, like the mignonette or evening primrose. The color is another means by which the flower attracts insects and birds. The color of the flower is, as a rule, due to showy petals. Different kinds of insects are especially attracted by different colors. Some flowers with very long tubulated corollas depend entirely upon birds with long beaks to carry their pollen for them.

In complete and perfect flowers, where stamen and pistil are present in the same flower, self-fertilization would be the rule, if there were not certain means for its prevention. In the first place the pollen of another plant frequently prevails over that which the flower may shed over its own pistil. When both kinds are placed over the stigma, at the same time, it is the foreign pollen which causes fertilization. Another means to prevent self-fertilization consists in the stamens and pistils maturing at different times. The insect visitor, on its way to the nectary, brushes against the ripe stamens of a certain flower in its earlier stage. It cannot deposit the acquired pollen upon the stigma of the same flower and thus cause self-fertilization because the pistil is not ripe yet. But, in flying to a flower in the later stage, when the stigma has already ripened and the stamens have shed all their pollen, the insect will lodge the pollen first acquired on the ripe stigma, and in this way produce the desired cross-fertilization.

Sex-differentiation.—When we rise higher in the scale of animal life we find that the egg-cells and sperm-cells are almost always produced by different individuals. Those which produce egg-cells or ova are called female, and those which produce sperm-cells or spermatozoa are called male animals. The formation of a new being results in these species from the conjugation of two cellular elements of two different animals. In this way the origin of the organism, or the zygote from which the new individual develops is composed of parts of two different individuals, and a difference between the offspring and parents is insured. The intermixing of body-substance from two distinct individuals and the development therefrom of the new individual produce variation.[Z]

When the scale of animal life is reached where egg-cell and sperm-cell have their habitats in different individuals, the attraction between ovum and spermatozoön, which is based upon a kind of erotic chemotropismus, is transferred to the two hosts who harbor the two different sex-cells. Thus the erotic chemotropismus between two cells has now grown to sex-attraction between two animals. But even at this stage the attraction sometimes exists only between the sex-cells, namely when fertilization takes place outside of the mother’s body. The best example of outside fertilization are the fishes. The female fish contains the roe, which is a mass of small eggs. At the proper time the female lets the roe fall on the ground of rivers or the dark bottom of lakes, etc., at a favorable place called spawning bed, secure against enemies. The male fishes swim over the spawn and pour their semen or milt over it. The two kinds of cells attract each other like iron and magnet. When the milt has reached the spawn, the eggs are fertilized and develop into new fishes.

In the next higher class, in birds, fertilization is internal, and only the development is external. The female bird has an ovary containing a large number of eggs or ova, within its body. The male animal possesses an organ serving for the introduction of the semen into the body of the female. The fertilized egg is laid and develops outside, either by the sun-heat or hatched by the mother’s warmth.

The last step in generation is reached in the mammals. Here not only fertilization is accomplished within the body of the female, but also the entire development of the fertilized ovum is carried out in the uterus, inside the female body. Hence mammals give birth to living mature young.

In these higher animals the attraction of the sex cells has been definitely transferred to, or rather changed into, the attraction of the hosts of these cells or into the sexual instinct. The sex-instinct is, therefore, if not identical with the instinct of propagation, thus an offshoot of the latter instinct.

In the more advanced species of the higher animals the instinct relating to the preservation of the kind is composed of three definite impulses. There is first the impulse relating to the act of conjugation, universal in all organic life. The average individual grows up surrounded by others of the opposite sex and normally unexcited by this difference until the age of puberty approaches. Then some day, the boy or girl find arising within an incipient impulse which, naturally, were there no artificial restrictions, would lead them to exercise their sexual powers, just as found among animals.

The second impulse relates to the pursuit and attraction of mates. It is first found among the lower types of the animal kingdom. The sweet odors and showy colors found in flowers are nothing else but the means of attracting the insects that carry the pollen for fertilization. The bright colors of some animals, especially among birds, and other animal adornments also serve to attract the mates. The woman’s love for finery also emanates from no other source than from the impulse of pursuit and attraction of mates.

The third impulse stands in relation to permanent mating and the protection of the young. It is the impulse relating to the germs of family life, and is present among those animals that have gained a higher place in the ascending scale of complexity and whose young are more difficultly provided for.[AA]

Through the whole range of animal life, where the period of infancy is comparatively short (e. g. horse, dog, cat, etc.), the male part is ended with impregnation or copulation. The nursing of the young is left to the female,[AB] and she will sacrifice her own life in the protection of her breed. In animals whose young are not easily provided for (e. g. fox, wildcat, eagle, sparrow, pigeon, stork, etc.), not only the mother will sacrifice her own existence in the protection of her offspring, but also the father will do his utmost in the interest of his young ones. In these animals the males remain attached to the females they have secured at the first period of oestrum even after the time of propagation has passed, provide mutually for their offspring until the latter can provide for themselves, and at each succeeding period of rut, yield again to love and never seek a new mate until the old one dies. Ernest Thompson Seton found that hawks practise monogamy and that wolves consort for life, and, in case of death, the survivor remains alone. The Canadian wild goose, when it has lost its mate, will never seek another. Thus the instinct of permanent mating or of monogamic marriage, is a phenomenon already found among many animals.

Now, among all animals, the prenatal period and the period of the maternal feeding are almost the longest in man. The helplessness of the human infant is unique among the creatures of the animal kingdom. The new-born baby is devoid of nearly all instinctive capacities, except the taking-in and assimilation of food. It is unable to stand or wander in search of food. It is nearly blind and deaf. It is perfectly naked, without fur or feathers, and hence is in need of a certain amount of heat, being injured by the least draught. It is in need of the utmost cleanliness, still it is unable to keep itself clean. It is unable to fast longer than a few hours. In short, the human infant is the most complete picture of helpless dependence. Hence without the help and strength of fatherhood, afforded to motherhood, the human race could not have survived the primitive stage, when couples still lived separated. The length and feebleness of human infancy required a union of male and female of considerable duration. By the time the last child was able to emancipate itself from the parental protection, the period of sexual activity had been passed. Permanent mating among men, especially in the prehuman stage, was a condition sine qua non, all the preachings of the free-lovers to the contrary notwithstanding.[AC]

Permanent mating is, therefore, a natural impulse among human beings. It is necessary for the protection and preservation of the lives of a lesser number of offspring of a higher grade. Permanent mating is, hence, of fundamental racial value. In man this impulse is of a more complex form and broader range, which leads the individual to wish not for momentary excitement, but for a permanent union, for a home, for a family. Even to the man who regularly indulges in meretricious venery there comes a time when these bonds of mere passion do not satisfy any longer. He begins to crave for a permanent mate and a home. This impulse appears later in life and is not present in the earlier impulse for mere conjugation, arising at the period of puberty. The amatory feelings at that time of life are bestowed upon the first pleasing individual of the opposite sex and are seldom of long duration. They are transferred from individual to individual. Later in life, after character is formed, there comes for men and women the dawn of a deeper affection, which involves bonds of stronger form and more permanent type than any that mere passion can arouse. This unconscious and involuntary craving for a permanent mate and home is of an altruistic nature. It has been wisely implanted in the interest of the race. There is nothing egotistical connected with this impulse. Personal gratification does not enter into consideration, for the joy and pleasure connected with personal satisfaction may be found with any temporary mate.

[CHAPTER XII]
SENSUAL LOVE

Permanent mating is altruistic in character, but the altruism extends only to the future generation. Even the fastidiousness found in permanent mating is in the interest of the unborn. The mates are only tools in the hands of the commanding Spirit, whose all-governing principle has only one thought, only one prosaic aim, the propagation of the human species. The attachment between both mates cannot, therefore, be properly called love. For in love the mate is of primary importance. But the permanent-mating impulse is the stepping-stone to love which is first found in the human race. In human love a distinction must be made, according to Finck, between two different kinds; love as an instinct, or sensual love[AD] and love as a sentiment, or sentimental love.

Sensual love is the only kind of love the greater part of humanity knows.[AE] This love has no depth or duration, and when satisfied, cares no longer for the object for which it temporarily hungered. For when sense forms the chief part of the compound feeling, love will not long survive possession. There may be a strong individual preference in sensual love. The charm exuding from the personality of one individual may possess a kind of personal magnetism for another of the opposite sex. The luscious intoxicating essences, exhaling from one person, may have a particular idiosyncratical attraction for the other. Hence sensual love may be as fastidious as pure love. It may temporarily focus its interest on one person only. Yet in sensual love the intense desire for exclusive possession, the jealousy toward rivals, the coy-resistance, and the moods of doubt and hope are only emanations of selfish lust, of eagerness to gratify an appetite with a particular victim for whom the lover has no adoration or self-sacrificing devotion. Such a lover loves only himself; his one object is to please his own beloved “I,” without any regards for the feelings of his mate. The latter figures only as a means to the end, that end being his own gratification. To such a lover, “I love you” means “I long for you, covet you, and am eager to enjoy you.” All indulgences and favors shown to the mate are only meant as means to gain a certain end, and when this cannot be attained, sensual love will change into the contrary passion of hatred. In sentimental love such a thing as hatred is impossible. For to understand a thing thoroughly, forever puts that thing beyond the pale of hatred; to love a thing merely is to subject oneself to the possibility of hating that thing.

Sensual love, says Duboc, starts as an ideal notion and fancy from the sensual enjoyment which the sexual feeling promises. Whoever promises to satisfy to perfection appears as an ideal, by being the representative of this enjoyment; he becomes the object of the highest wish and desire. But as soon as he loses this significance, this symbol of sexual union, he immediately is deprived of his ideal character. By no means can, therefore, sensual love renounce, because with the resignation and renunciation the deposition of the ideal immediately begins, while true love can only prove its genuineness by the very renunciation.

Sensual love is thus characterized by the egoism that lies at its foundation. Joy and sorrow, hope and fear, which may be found in sensual love, are only the selfish aspects of passion. The moods of hope and despair may disquiet or delight also those who love only as a carnal appetite. A desire which is the most violent and the most engrossing of all passions, a craving which next to hunger and thirst is the most powerful and imperious of all appetites may cause all kinds of selfish pleasures and selfish pains. Even attachment and fondness are no proof of the existence of pure love. The manifestations of attachment may spring from selfish interest, they may be the rewards for favors to come. Fondness, displaying a silly extravagance or unseemly demonstrativeness, does not prove true love; it may be only a foolish, doting indulgence. The old maid is also fond of her dog and the little girl of her doll. Some men love their wives as children love dolls, and, as a natural result, treat them just as dolls are treated. They dress them in all the finery they are able to procure, pet and exhibit them until they become old, and then they turn aside for their neighbors’ dolls. Even the doll’s admired beauty is valued not for the pure artistic delight of loveliness, but as an incentive to the chase. This is not true love. The person is here only valued as an object without which the beloved “ego” could not have its selfish indulgence. Even adoration is no proof of true love. Husbands are often adored for their coldness, hardness, arrogance and contemptuousness, and beaten wives do often most warmly adore. Yet such husbands are certainly not truly loved.

Fondness, liking and attachment even to the degree of committing suicide upon the loss of the person coveted, may not be true love withal. Suicide is no test of true love. Many a man commits suicide after losing his wealth, yet money is not loved for its own sake, but for the power it possesses of procuring the means for enjoyment. A person may take his own life because it feels lonely after the failure to secure the desired union. An individual may risk life and comfort to obtain possession of a coveted body for its own enjoyment. Such actions are no indication of genuine love and, generally, they prove just the contrary, just as the unrestrained, unlimited desire which ignores all considerations of honor, prosperity and peace, does not prove true love but, on the contrary, the urgings of the primal instinct. Neither should the sacred term “true love” be applied to the feeling that animates selfish and impulsive idiots to assassinate cowardly an unresponding mate. Such designs just prove the selfish lust. The gross, sensual infatuation which leads a man to shoot a woman who rejects him, or which leads a woman to throw acid in the face of the beloved man, is absolutely antithetic to refined, ardent, sentimental love, which impels the lover to sacrifice his own life and comfort rather than let any harm come to the one beloved.

This true love is only possible among the refined and cultured. Hence the greater part of humanity has never known the emotions of sentimental love. The only love it knows is sensual love.[AF] Men and women with blunt intellects also have blunt feelings and are incapable of experiencing true love. They can only be inspired by the love of the body. This love, to be sure, is not necessarily coarse or obscene, yet it is a stranger to true sentimental love.

[CHAPTER XIII]
SENTIMENTAL LOVE

Sentimental, or true love, is a conscious altruism and is the antithesis of the egotistic sensual love. Before applying the term true love to the relation of both mates, the test of disinterested affection, as found in the instinctive parental love, must be applied. The distinction between sensual and sentimental love is the selfish desire of libido in the former and the self-sacrificing ardor of altruistic affection in the latter.

The two emotions have some characteristics in common, and for that reason, sensual love is, as a rule, mistaken for sentimental love, even by the greatest thinkers and best poets. An essential and invariable ingredient in sentimental, as well as in sensual love, is the imperative desire for an absolute monopoly of the beloved person. But while in sensual love this desire springs from an egotistic source, selfish elements are foreign to this desire in sentimental love. The latter knows only devotion and sympathy, which urge the lover to seek the welfare of the one beloved, if need be at the expense of his own.

The only true index of genuine love lies, therefore, in the sacrifice of one’s own happiness for another’s sake. Pure love is always ready to lose its own life in an effort to save another’s. The sentimental lover is, indeed, not less overjoyed to have his affection returned; but if it is not reciprocated, his love is, unlike sensual love that turns into resentment, none the less affectionate. He never slakes his thirst with the blood of his beloved, even if he is rejected. His constant solicitude is how he can make the beloved happy and save the adored person from grief, at whatever cost to his own comfort. He feels the joys and sorrows of his beloved, as if they were his own. He has completely surrendered himself and his own peculiarity to the other and has, in a certain respect, died as something specific and individual.[AG]

True love, therefore, was slow in coming and is a child of a higher civilization, and is, even then, known only to the cultured. Only when humanity has reached that state of civilization when men and women show not only their respective physical but also mental secondary characters, then admiration and respect enter into the relation of the sexes. Love becomes more and more fastidious and more regardful of intellectual worth and moral beauty, and sentimental love is made possible. For true love cannot exist without respect, and genuine affection is chiefly evoked by intellectual, emotional and moral qualities.

The secondary mental characters in the man are strength, hardiness, robustness, courage, aggressiveness, activity, creativeness, stern justice, gallantry, generosity, manly will, manly grace, tenderness, and intelligence. The feminine qualities are gentleness, kindness, patience, tenderness, benevolence, sympathy, self-sacrifice, meekness, sensitiveness, emotionality, modesty, demureness, coyness, and domesticity. The highest phases of genuine love are possible only where the secondary psychic qualities are highly developed. Such persons do not care to possess in the low, coarse way that characterizes sensual love. They are content to love and be silent, to worship even at a distance.

Love, says Horowicz, growing up as a mighty passion from the substratum of sexual life has, under the repressing influences of habits and customs, taken on an entirely new, supersensual, ethereal character, so that to the true lover every thought of naturalia seems indelicate and improper. True love is, therefore, only possible between refined and cultured people, between a man capable of adoration, sympathy and affection and a woman equipped with mental and moral charms. In true love the woman must show the same traits as in her maternal capacity. She has to be a real mother to the man she loves. The man starts life at a woman’s knees, and it is to a woman’s knees that he returns when he marries. Woe to him and her, if the second woman’s love is less selfish and sacrificing than that of the first.

A sympathetic disposition is as essential to the individual who wishes to be loved truly and permanently as all the other secondary psychic qualities. Cruel indifference is not incompatible with sensual love, but it is fatal to love based upon sentiment. Ordinary, sensual infatuation could be strong and unprincipled enough to lead a person to sacrifice honor and self-respect for the caprices of another. But true love would turn into contempt for the one who could wantonly subject it to persistent insults and degradation; and contempt is the death of genuine love, though yet compatible with sensual love.[AH]

True love is, therefore, characterized by patience, kindness, generosity, humility, unselfishness, good temper, and sincerity. This spectrum of true love shows the same elements as does that of genuine friendship. True love, therefore, can only be acquired in the same way as true friendship, namely, after a long probationary interval. Then only will the true love supply the universal need of friendship. Marriage is no barrier to the existence of unselfish and sexless love, which is the essence of the truest and purest friendship. If a husband be truly the friend of his wife, his love for her as a friend would be just as strong, just as tender, just as permanent and unswerving as if she were not his wife, nor ever might be. Nay, it may be said with Tolstoy that unless married people have been united by pure love, without a mixture of animal passion, the time must come when they will become weary of each other.

Duboc had only sensual love in mind when he said: To be adored and admired is, in distinction from friendship, the criterion of love, while the criterion of friendship, in distinction from love, is to be understood and esteemed; the latter is delighted in its illusions, the former harbors an element inimical to all illusions. Sentimental love is also an enemy to illusions. Sentimental love, as distinguished from friendship, is dependent upon sexual differentiation. Pure oxygen would burn the lungs after a very short time, pure nitrogen suffocates every animal, but “both combined maintain life,” says Ellen Key. Mere sensual attraction is not love, nor is friendship love; in combination they are the air of life. When two souls have joys which the senses share, and when the senses have delights which the souls ennoble, then the result is neither desire nor friendship, it is a new feeling. The only distinction between true love and pure friendship is that the most ideal relation between man and man in friendship is transferred to man and woman in love. Hence these two relationships must possess the same qualities. Paternal, filial and fraternal love partake each, in some degree, of instinct and are, to that extent, impulsive and blind. But in true love, instinct and sensuality have no place. “She is sacred to me,” says Goethe’s Werther, “all desire is silent in her presence.” A gleam of such wedded friendship transcends all other kinds of love. Wherever there is a pure and unselfish love for another for that other’s own sake, a love contingent neither on its return nor on its recognition, there is true friendship.

Sentimental love, like its comrade friendship, furthers the display of nobility and native virtues of the human soul. To love one’s soul for its beauty, grace and truth, to be inspired by the charm of its character to an affection which is pure and chaste, is to open the way to appreciate all beautiful and true and gracious souls. It offers the most refined of the pleasures which make life worth living. Joy demands that its joy should be shared.[AI] We need sympathy; hence we crave friendship and love. By the devotion of the other we feel our own power, our own value enhanced. Love tends to make man kinder and better through his complete identification with the existence of another. In the beauty of a loving attachment, man learns to comprehend all his fellowmen and to value and look at all the world by the glorious light of an inner community of emotions.

Such love must be proved and purified by the fire of reasoning. It is only possible after a thorough study of the character. The subtle elective affinity, of which we hear so much praised on the lecture platform, on the stage, in the magazines and in the papers, cannot be relied upon; its thrill is uncertain and needs to be tested and corrected by a long trial, whether it is really spiritual kinship or only emotional impulse. If after the veil of fantasy has been removed, the beloved object is still found worthy of the highest and warmest esteem, the emotion will be far nobler than, and different from, the unconscious fondness which overlooks the exact estimation of the beloved. In all love, considered as a virtue or grace, there must always be the conscious will, which is also the foundation of morality.

Such love may also reach the highest state of passion, but in distinction from sensual love, it seeks its own happiness in the felicity of the other, and conscious of its own disinterested purity, considers its desires as noble and above general motives of human action. Such emotions can only exist between men and women of pure souls.

True love is, therefore, rational, conscious, unselfish, deep, enduring, constant, refined, self-denying, and is willing to make the greatest sacrifices for the sake of the happiness of another. It is conscious altruism, never faltering in its ethical sense of duty. It is love tested and purified in the fire of the intellect; it comes slowly, but it endures; it gives more than it takes, and has a tinge of tender gratitude for a thousand kind actions. It is, therefore, an ideal sentiment which has hitherto been reached only by a very few select.

But if we look at love in the light of evolution, when we find how cell-division developed into sexuality, conjugation, permanent mating, sensual love and, finally, into sentimental love, there is reason for hope that the still rare fruits of an apparently more than earthly paradise of love, which only the forerunners of the race have been privileged to gather, will some day, when humanity has reached the state of Nietzsche’s Superman, become the universal food of the human race.

Development of love in the individual.—The evolutionary trend in this world can be detected not only in the mere preservation, but also in increasing perfection. Not only the preservative instinct, i. e., the will to live and the will to reproduce, has contributed to the advancement of organic life to higher forms, but the two perfective human instincts, i. e., the will to act and the will to rule, have also served as a means for the evolution of human activities, as science, art, economics, etc.[AJ] One of such activities is sentimental love which had to pass through all the different stages of evolution before it reached the complexity of its present structure. Evolution is a truly universal principle. The meaning of life is its advance towards higher forms. There is not a trait, physical, psychical or spiritual that is wholly finished. The higher emotions as love and hate, fear and shame, etc., are not born with the child; they are evolved slowly by degrees.

According to Nordau every individual is in love with his own ideal, throughout his entire life. Every man and woman falls in love with the representative identical with, or at least most resembling, his or her ideal. The craving for love is the desire to possess the organic ideal.

The ideal of the mate begins to be distinctly evolved by the organism at the time of puberty and is complete only late in life. The ideal, except in its general features, is not stationary; it grows with the individual’s physical and mental development. With the beginning of the material growth of the centre of generation, the imagination begins to receive from the mysterious depths of the cells and tissues the conception of the image of the mate. The organism hears indistinctive voices, all telling the tale of the future partner in life. In this way the image of the ideal grows up in the brain during the individual’s amatory life.

Higher eroticism requires, then, the beloved to be a vehicle of a projected personality. Love for a man or a woman is the attempt to realize one’s ideal in the man or the woman. The impulse to love is the search after the incarnation of the inward ideal, and falling in love is the instinctive conviction that the ideal has been found. The lower and simpler the individual himself, the simpler will be the qualities of his ideal in corporate form. Among people of a low state of civilization the qualities required of the ideal are so few that almost every individual of one sex represents the ideal of the other sex. They may both be paired like animals, and love does not yet exist. The more cultivated a person becomes, the more complicated become the qualities demanded of his ideal, and the harder it is for him to find the same. A person looking for physical qualities in his ideal or for external beauty only, will easily find them, and a case of love at first sight, about which romantic dreamers go into such raptures, is naturally possible. But such love is only sensual and does not deserve to be thus extolled. For true love among men and women of a higher state of culture is an ideal symphony of tones of all kinds.

Generally bodily perfection and a retiring, tender, beneficent, confiding nature in woman constitute an attractive ideal for the man, while mental superiority in man constitutes the attractive power for the cultured woman. In her love the regard for masculine beauty usually forms an unimportant ingredient. The woman, says Kant, has an exquisite feeling for the beautiful, so far as she herself is concerned, but for the noble so far as it is found in the man. The man, on the contrary, has a decided feeling for the noble, which belongs to his own qualities, but for the beautiful so far as it is met with in the woman. Hence it follows that the aims of nature are directed through love upon making men still nobler and women more beautiful.

The masculine virtues which impress true women are physical strength, courage, nobility of mind, chivalry and self-confidence. These virtues constitute the beauty which arouses the woman’s love, these are the conspicuous features of her ideal. The female virtues that impress the man are beauty, tenderness, goodness, refinement, truth and patience. These are the virtues his ideal possesses. The more highly cultivated mentally and physically he or she are, the more complex and differentiated are the qualities of their ideals. Hence refined and complex natures experience a great deal of difficulty in meeting with their ideals or any one closely approximating them. But when two happen to perfectly compliment each other, when each happens to represent the ideal of the other, then there is true and lasting love. Such people know their ideal when they meet it and have been given time to study it, and they also know that they will never find another one in this world; they know that only this being and no other is suited to them as one triangle is to its congruent.

This knowledge can only be gained after a long study of the qualities of the person found, as to whether they really coincide with the mental qualities of the ideal; and it takes such noble beings longer to fall in love. Coarser natures are readily able to fall in love. The sensual qualities which attract a man or a woman to a paramour are easily discovered. When the affections mount no higher than mere feeling, a true communion of hearts is not indispensable. When the union of the man and the woman is regarded only from the physical basis, when the object is only self-gratification, the finer phases may be and really are ignored. Mere sensual enjoyment can be experienced by two persons who otherwise despise each other.[AK] But true love has far nobler aspirations than sensual enjoyment, and promises a union of heart and soul.

Among intellectual persons mere instinct becomes more and more powerless until it is almost totally extinguished. True love among them is, then, a voluntary act. The plans for its accomplishment are elaborated in the mind slowly and intelligently. It has then all the qualities of true friendship, combined with an affection in which sensual desire is working to a greater or less extent only unconsciously. As fusing body and mind it may become one of the strongest, deepest and most influential of the passions of our nature. It opens up horizons above and beyond the earth so vast that this mundane sphere dwindles into insignificance.

Woman’s love.—In emotional natures love exerts a predominant and frequently even supreme influence upon the whole consciousness of the individual. It produces effects upon his judgment, his fantasy and his will. It excites conceptions borrowed from the domain of sex and gives to all the work of the brain an erotic tendency and a sexual polarity.

Now, the woman lives more by her emotions than the man. The part she plays in the propagation of the kind is also by far the more important one. She has to supply the whole material for the formation of the new being; the man only supplies the stimulation to this heroic work. The woman’s centre of sexual activity is, therefore, more developed. The activity of the generative centres occupies an important position in the activity of her brain as a whole. Sexual life concerns her more nearly, more deeply and more lastingly than the man. She is able to do nothing else but love. Sexual matters imperiously mingle with all her motives and influence all her aims. To her love is life. Marriage is her highest ideal, and domestic happiness is and ever will be her ultimate aim.[AL]

Women, even maidens, says Hume, take more offence at satires upon matrimony than taunts upon their sex. Woman knows the attraction her sex has upon the other, and smiles at the insincerity of sex-criticism. But matrimony is holy to her. She has a natural tendency to regard wedded love as the single aim and substance of the life of human beings. Sexual consciousness is stronger in her than in man, and her need of true love is greater. She lives largely in her affections, and her constant desire is to attract and please.

In her natural state the woman, therefore, possesses a more distinctly developed ideal. On dissecting and analyzing the female heart at any age, and however married, we should probably find that the original ideal is still lingering there. Woman is constantly groping and making experiments, whereby she attempts to realize the ideal of her dreams in the actual men of her acquaintance. The instinct of selection is very important to her. By it she recognizes her affinity, the man best fitted by nature to father her children. She unconsciously feels the need of a partner who will organically compliment her. She possesses an instinctive sensation of what is organically necessary to her for the continuation and intensification of her qualities in the offspring.

For the woman the step of choosing a partner is the most important act of her life. She has an instinctive sensation that she ought not to make a mistake, and is extremely careful to avoid the least likelihood of error. She instinctively feels that her mistakes cannot be corrected. She is monoandric in character. She is aware that purely sensual love cannot last. Hence she looks more for mental merits, and has a high appreciation of a fine character. She is looking for qualities that will outlive the freshness of physical charms. Her innate solicitude is to continue the love-charm all through married life. Hence she is governed by ideas of the sublime and the beautiful. Only a man endowed with such qualities can inspire in her true love and its unsurpassed pleasure and joy in life. When so inspired, she surrounds the object of her love with the halo of perfection.

The man, says Dessoir, is able to accomplish and find pleasure in sex activity without his soul partaking in it, but the woman does not find gratification in this activity if the soul has not been first excited by the beauty, strength and personality of her partner.

Love to a woman is an exalted and noble thing; she stakes her life upon it. She has, therefore, to be more fastidious in her choice of a consort than the man. This partly explains the mystery of modesty and coyness. She remains passive while she is wooed for her favor. Love, says Walker, is the empire of woman. The consciousness of weakness in woman leads her instinctively to her dissimulation, her finesse, her little contrivances, her manners, her graces and her coquetry. By these means she simultaneously endeavors to create love, and not to show what she feels, while by means of modesty she feigns to refuse what she desires to grant.

By an imperious power and charming tyranny she tries to prevent the man she loves from stirring from her side. She is ever desirous to fascinate and bewitch him. She feels herself to be a powerful centre of love and attraction around which everything ought to revolve. The woman, says Kant, has from early girlhood the confidence in her ability to please; the youth, the fear to displease. He is, therefore, shy in the presence of women. His desire is to be governed—before marriage—hence the chivalry of youth, while the woman’s desire is to rule. She wants man to surround her with an insatiable desire. She wishes to be loved and yearns to evoke man’s admiration for her by all her womanly qualities. She gives herself up entirely and irrevocably and never forgives the chosen possessor for examining too little the value of his treasure.

Obstructions of love’s development.—Healthy and natural love is always clearly conscious of its purpose, the ideal is always in existence, waiting for the opportunity to meet the materialized duplicate. Men and women have an unconscious sensation of the qualities of their ideals of the other sex, that by their union their respective qualities may be transmitted in an intensified degree to their offspring. Hence if the instinct has not become dulled by monetary considerations, if social reasons, religious prejudices or customs do not rise to confuse and pervert the instinct, men and women will, should there be many from whom to choose, select with unerring certainty the one who most closely approximates the psychic ideal which they have elaborated within themselves at the moment of sexual maturity.

But true love is only possible if the natural development has not been disturbed nor the natural course interrupted, and the young people have been given the opportunity to develop their ideals. If the development is arrested, if the growth of the erotic instinct is disturbed, at the time of restlessness and nerve-irritability, then the image of the ideal in the mind is confused and the discovery of its organic counterpart is impossible. Now, the whole nervous system is under great tension during the formation period. Inquietude, vague unrest and dissatisfaction disturbs the boy’s equanimity. His heart is tremulous with emotion and represents a volcano of agitation in perpetual eruption. He exudes intense feeling and passion. The mind of the girl is confused with vague dissatisfaction and vaguer desires which she vainly endeavors to define even to herself. Her heart is wildly stirred and issues from its chrysalis to renewed dreams of chimerical bliss. Joy and sorrow, exultation and depression alternate like dawn and dusk. All the complex subtleties of the feminine heart give rein to a single emotion. She lives in the realm of romance, her soul keeps soaring in the land of glamor. Hence the least disturbance will be fatal to the development of a clear and distinct image of the ideal.

Such disturbances are ever present in our advanced civilization. The early intimate association with the other sex, among the poorer classes, gives palpable suggestions of the libido connected with the functions of reproduction, at a time when mystery ought to shroud its object. Animal passion, especially in great cities, obtrudes itself upon the attention of young children, and they become conscious of the greatest of all human needs through the desire of the flesh, and not by a gradual growing sympathy for a noble being, possessing lasting gifts of sentiment and thought. The sentiments are, therefore, not of true love but of lust; and to transform lust into love is a difficult task.

Besides the unfavorable environment, certain radical doctrines, widely spread among the laboring classes, also prevent true love from taking root. In the literature, often read by these classes, excuses are readily made for the supremacy of the passions. Dithyrambs are sung upon the crudest emotions. The rational ethics of these radical moralists teach that “love worketh no evil.” True love may really do no evil, but gross passion, which these teachers of the new sex-morality call love, is capable to do all the harm in the world. Temporary sexual attraction, which is sensuality pure and simple, is called by the name of love and is made the basis of the new morality. The name of the sublimest emotion which appeals to the grandest impulses, to the noblest sentiments of men and women, which makes chivalrous, gentle, refined and helpful all who are touched by its magic wand, which informs its disciples with the spirit of honor (Walker), the name of this noble emotion is conferred upon the coarse emotion of sensuality, as if sensuality ever possessed all these ennobling qualities. The greater part of humanity is declared to be polygamous in nature. According to these radical doctrines only few men and women possess the instinct of exclusiveness, all other are naturally varietists. Consequently promiscuity is the ordained order of nature, and the monogamic marriage is decried as forced upon humanity by priest and tyrant.[AM]

Among the cultured and exclusive classes there is another danger lurking to the development of true sentimental love. It is the literary fiction of our time which is thoroughly imbued with the most unwholesome forms of love. The first knowledge of the world and of life is usually derived by the children of these classes from novels, and these novels deal from the first line to the last with nothing but love. The heroes and heroines in these novels are usually the creations of pathological brains, in different stages of degeneration, and are represented as worthy of emulation. These heroes change with every novel, and the children admire every day another ideal, imposed upon them from without, before their imaginations had the time for the conception of an ideal from the mysterious depths of the cells of the growing centre of generation. Besides, the authors of these novels are, as a rule, dealing with a perverted kind of love, which they call holy, beneficent, infallible, and which they consider above all laws. Their teachings are to obey the impulse of love with a fanaticism that disregards all bounds and barriers, codes and warnings of the sages. All obstacles, such as duty, modesty, honor, respect for the family and the rights of fellow men, that weave around everyone of us a firm and massy weft, all of them are treated like cobwebs that love tears away and treads upon to gain its end.

The eroding operations carried on by these mongrel degenerated brains cannot help but have a poisonous effect, especially upon the minds of young girls. While in the literature of half a century ago the heroine represented the fundamental type of woman, who is a mother of men, calling out men’s sacrifice and sacrificing herself for them, without calculation or barter, the heroine of the contemporary novel gives herself up to voluptuous excesses. The absence of chastity is considered a sign of the warmth of her feeling, moral decrepitude is called by the doubtful name “self-assertion,” and the exaggerated taste for self-indulgence is termed “self-expression.” Feminine selfishness is represented as an enviable instead of a base quality. Under such circumstances true love must, indeed, be a rare occurrence.

More fatal even to true love are the activities of the immoral plays, because they are so deceptive and disingenuous and sail under the guise of moral reforms. There are first the comic plays, nowadays filling most of the stages, which treat immorality as a subject for jocularity, and where an unchaste situation is made the subject of a jest. Then there are some serious plays where sin and the life of immorality are idealized. The career of the courtesan is pictured as a life of gentleness, refinement and renunciation. (La Dame aux Camélias.) In recent times a third kind of immoral plays has made its appearance upon the stage where immoral situations are portrayed, without regard to time-honored conventionalities, with such exactness that the warnings against the evils fail to fulfill their purpose.

Another blow fatal to true love, caused by the reading of contemporary literature, is the increase of the young girl’s natural vanity.[AN] The constant descriptions in most modern novels of the struggle over women and the enthusiasm felt at gaining her, says Nordau, increase her natural tendency to regard love as the single aim and substance of the life of human beings and intensify her natural partiality for herself to the degree of ambitious mania and self-deification. She actually imagines that the possession of her would be providential of more than earthly bliss. The pampered overcivilized modern woman finds in this pseudo-literature only lovers who are sacrificing to the divinity of beauty and who are constantly listening to the music of the stars, and she imagines that she also ought to be wooed by gods and spend her life in an earthly paradise. When after the wedding the mirage, she once thought was the eternal land of promise, has faded, she remains permanently shocked at finding only a man where she was looking for an angel as mate. When the longing for sensual satisfaction has been appeased, both lovers find that they have no more to discover and grow fickle and hunger for a change.

Another part of contemporary literature which is continually undermining the foundation of true love is the feministic branch. These writers are not satisfied to preach equality of the sexes. They constantly emphasize the superiority of the female sex. From this notion to the sermon of sex-antagonism is only one step, and this has been quickly enough made. Mutual admiration, trust and love have given place to the duel of the sexes. Even the father has been thrown overboard. These modern daughters act as if they had come to this world by the way of parthenogenesis. The sermon of the enmity of the sexes thus destroys not only true love, but the entire conception of the family and serves to blight the brightest and sweetest flowers, springing in the garden of the human heart. No wonder that the girl who has been influenced by such ideas has been made unfit for true love. Her judgment has become confused by overestimating her own worth and valuing the man solely for his capacity to supply the luxuries of life and to satisfy sensual desires. She has little love even for the man of her choice, and is not reluctant to show it on every occasion. A bride objecting to the word “obey” in the wedding ceremony—even granted that such a word does not and never did belong there—reveals at once her lack of true love. A girl truly in love with the man laughs at the word, because she feels that she would rather be his slave than any other man’s queen. To the lover the bride’s promise to obey seems mere folly, for he is determined that she should always remain the autocratic queen of his heart and actions. But when love is absent, and the wedding represents nothing more than a contract to legalize sensuality, which is otherwise considered immoral, every objection to the wording of the contract is justified and perfectly natural.

The female sex, says Kant, may be characterized by two inclinations, the desire to dominate, and the desire for pleasure. These two tendencies may be mitigated by true love. The truly loving woman will gladly and voluntarily share material misfortune and social degradation with her lover. She will overcome her egotism, she will labor hard to overcome her old faults and cheerfully give up what she once looked upon as necessaries for the love of a true man. But the modern woman looks upon the man only as a slave to provide for her, and as a thing affording her enjoyment. Hence she regards the miserable weakling, whose imbecile brain has not the power of resistance, as touching and charming, while vigorous strength of character, which is schooled in self-control and which places as high a value on the affection afforded as on that received, seems to her repulsive roughness. This blending of her judgment becomes fatal to her love, so important to the female heart.

Love, in its ideal form, must be founded on mental qualities. In man the mental qualities are of the greatest value. The supreme survival value for man is his intelligence. The possessors of artistic or literary composition, of mechanical skill, of calculating ability, of energy or general mental ability are seldom or never endowed at the same time with physical qualities. It was brain not brawn that saved man in his struggle for existence. The cult of the muscle as against intelligence would destroy man. The physically fittest is not always the best of men. Even the animals, in their natural surroundings, live by their wits rather than by force of bone and muscle; and it was man’s wits and will that enabled him to increase and multiply as no other animal. Physical weapons of defense and offense have disappeared in man because his intelligence makes them superfluous. In the human species mind is master of matter. Man has staked his all upon mind. The emergence and dominance of mind have enabled the human species to ascend through struggle and internecine war to the highest scale of animal life, although it is physically one of the feeblest among the species of the higher animals. The increasing dominance of mind over matter is the reason that nowadays mental qualities dominate all else in man’s living activities. Hence ideal love must also be based upon mental qualities. Then it will be everlasting. The soul once allied with its mate can change no more. One of the mysteries of true love is the absolute impossibility to duplicate the lover. The soul is thus the essential part in true love. But when in the selection of the mates the physical factors only, such as stature, beauty, strength and health, play the most important rôle, when the senses form the chief part of the compound feeling, love will not long survive possession, and matrimonial happiness, founded upon monetary or social considerations, will pass like a shadow. The idol is soon destroyed. When, thereupon, the heart is disillusioned by the contact with the grim realities of existence, when it is deadened by the habitude of a fixed affection, coupled with incompatibility of tastes, when hardened by experience with the meanness of the world, then men and women attempt to find elsewhere a soul which they hope will desire to know more of their own, and in which they trust to discover a greater and more lasting happiness. But not being able to ask their own hearts, and guided only by the contradictory ideals they have been imbued with in their youth, the second choice and all the others, following the same, will generally turn out to be also delusions in which the perfect communion of hearts will again be absent. Men will then try to bury their unsatisfied longing for true affection in the exaggerated occupation with business or to drown their vehement unrequited love-yearnings in drink and other narcotics. The fate of the woman is even more tragic. Woman’s idea of happiness is a sort of ecstatic bliss. She is looking for perennial joy and beauty, for a joy as only the angels know. Hence when she learns to know the illusory nature of the heart’s greatest desire, when she makes the discovery of the futility of this desire, the wine of life grows sour. She becomes self-centered and selfish. The fountain ordained to yield such perennial sweets is soon drained and she bestows all her feminine faculties upon mere inanities. Hence the astonishing aspect of restlessness, and agitation which we now behold in her mania for dress, her indulgence in drink and nerve-deadening drugs, and in her quest of other vain luxuries in which she desires to drown the emptiness of her heart and her spiritual isolation.

[CHAPTER XIV]
EROS, LIBIDO, JEALOUSY

Eros and libido.—Eros and libido are the two components of sensual love and are also integral parts of sentimental love, by which the latter differs from pure friendship. Libido represents the material pleasure enjoyed by the contact; eros represents the spiritual enjoyment experienced by the knowledge of loving and being loved. Hence libido is of a somatic nature, eros is a psychic phenomenon. The libidinous individual has an increased desire for sexual gratification, the erotic looks chiefly for love. The erotic individual loves with its mind, it is a craving for love by a particular individual, or by a certain class of individuals, e. g., actors or actresses. The libidinous individual is satisfied with any partner and even with other practices, serving sensual gratification, such as contrectatio, stuprum manu, paederastia, tribady, bestiality, etc. The erotic individual never thinks of the sensual pleasure, the libidinous desires to wallow in sensual enjoyment and lust.

Libido is more a masculine sex trait, eros more a feminine. For the ordinary man the libidinous part of love is of primary importance. When this emotion has been destroyed by some accident, he considers himself emasculated. He will never reveal the loss of his testicles, while a woman will openly and freely talk of ovariotomy, performed upon her, although the loss of the ovaries generally produces the impotence of experiencing orgasm, as in men the loss of the testicles. She seems not to mind this loss, provided, always, that her eros has remained intact.

In this indifference for sexual libido, so often found in women, lies the cause of woman’s superiority in sensual love. The woman rules over the man as long as he is in love. That man is henpecked who from the beginning, by reason of his excessive sexual needs, came under his wife’s authority and is continually kept under her rule by the same sensual needs. A man’s dependence upon his wife can only be explained upon a sensual basis. As soon as the man’s power and intelligence gain the victory over his sensual impulses, his independence is secured.

This is the reason why the woman is continually bent upon keeping the man’s libido alive. Her constant desire is to influence him by her charms. Her passivity, says Marro, is the passivity of the magnet, which in spite of its apparent immobility and rest attracts the iron, be the latter willing or not, and in a way enslaves it. An intense energy lies behind such passivity, says Ellis, an absorbed preoccupation in the end to be attained. But for her passivity and cunning coyness she would become the real slave of brutal force, and nothing short of adoration of her lord and master would satisfy him. As it is, she keeps the man in due bounds, even in countries where her legal status is not much higher than that of the real slave. The pride of the woman, says Kant, to keep at a distance all the importunities of men by the respect she inspires and the right to demand respect for her person, even without merits, belong to her by the title of her sex. The man has to woo for her favor even where he could command. The indulgence with an unwilling or unreciprocating mate is not satisfactory to the normal man. This is the reason why the mere satisfaction of the physical appetite in meretricious venery is so unsatisfactory to him.

Eros is a purely psychic phenomenon. It is the transcendental attraction of the two sexes, even when lust is not thought of. In being attracted to one another, the sexes seem to obey a higher will, unknown to either of them. The attraction probably emanates from the spermatozoa and ova. The little cells know what they want and take it. But their will is unknown to the lovers themselves. Their attraction appears to be as mysterious as the attraction of the two poles of the magnet, which no scientist has yet been able to elucidate. This mysterious erotic attraction is healthy and invigorating. While so attracted, the sexual glands increase the secretion of the testines or ovarines, and these chemical products have a tonic effect and make the individual happy. This accounts for the happy excitement the sight of a perfect specimen of the opposite sex, or even its conception in the fantasy, is able to awake in the heart of the individual.

Two desires of eros.—Eros consists of two desires, to love and to be loved. The man is more anxious to love, the woman to be loved. She desires to feel that she is admired or rather coveted by men. That woman withers who, in all her life, was never once loved by some man. Even the woman who for moral or morbid reasons renounces libido, will still have the desire to be admired and loved. In her day-dreams the girl pictures to herself an ideal man by whom she wishes to be loved, the man portrays in his imagination the girl he wishes to love. When he meets with his ideal he knows his own mind about his love. He recognizes the goddess upon whose altar he intends to burn his choicest incense. The girl has first to ask her oracle. She plucks the petals of her marguerite, lisping: “He loves me, he loves me not.” The man, more concerned about his own love, wears his heart on his sleeve and feels eager to have the beloved see how passionately it throbs for her. The woman, having first to discover the man’s love, will try to conceal her own emotion in the innermost recesses of her bosom, lest the lover discover her feelings prematurely. The woman is, therefore, a comma, in love affairs, the man a full stop; here, you know where you are; there, read further.

The woman is anxious to be loved by the man of her choice, the man mainly asks for the privilege to love her. This difference is mainly based upon the different value love possesses in the eyes of the two sexes. With the man the imagination does not need to come into play before he can look for joys and sorrows, hopes and fears that make up the sum and substance of love. The woman gives far more than her body, she gives her soul, her very self, her all. Another reason for the woman’s desire to be loved lies in her feminine vanity. In the relations of friends the one who desires to be loved rather than to love, is the more egotistic. The preference of the passive part of love to the active unquestionably springs from the root of egotism in human nature. In the relation of the sexes, the desire to be loved arises more or less from the wish to satisfy personal vanity. It is tacitly, although, as a rule, among civilized men erroneously, assumed that personal excellence is the cause of a particular individual of one sex being loved by the other, and that one sex is the better judge of the excellence of the other. Hence the person most deeply loved must of necessity excel his rivals. He must at least possess greater sexual charms which men and women are chiefly proud of. Vain men, for that reason, will boast of the large number of their love affairs and the many hearts broken. For the same reason a woman’s vanity is flattered to be openly preferred and loved by a good, respectable man. In present society only matrimony can satisfy her vanity. For free love can only be clandestine, and clandestine love satisfies only her libido, but not her vanity.

Jealousy.—The desire for the satisfaction of personal vanity and the commonly erroneous assumption of the better judgment of one sex about the excellence of the other, are of the greatest importance in the psychology of jealousy.

Sexual jealousy[AO] consists of three different emotions: 1) anguish at the suspicion or knowledge of violated chastity or outraged affection; 2) rage at a rival, and 3) revenge for the violation of a vested right. Anguish is the primary emotion, rage and revenge are its results. There are always three actors in every case of jealousy, the outraged victim, the mate and the rival. Of the three emotions anguish relates to the male, rage to the rival, and revenge concerns both the rival and the mate. In the analysis of the different emotions in the train of jealousy it is found that anguish, anxiety, fear and despair, which accompany jealousy and apparently constitute its essence, are not caused by outraged affection only, for the highest degree of jealousy is often found where love has long ceased to exist, and even when hatred has already entered into the relation of the mates. Anguish over violated chastity does not explain jealousy either, for jealousy is found among savages, who unhesitatingly lend their wives to others, or offer them as a courtesy to other men without any thought of their wives’ chastity. Neither does interference with one’s enjoyment explain jealousy. For the husband is always jealous of his wife’s lover, while the lover is rarely jealous of the husband. Yet the husband’s opportunity of interfering with the lover’s possession is by far greater than that of the latter with the husband’s. Thus fear of interference cannot play any great part in the emotion of jealousy. The revenge for the violation of vested rights cannot alone explain the terrible emotion of jealousy, which the royal poet of the “Song of Songs” declares to be “as cruel as the grave.” Besides, jealousy is often found where there are no vested rights at all, only a pretended claim.

The cause of jealousy must, therefore, be sought elsewhere. There must be a reason for the husband’s jealousy of a lover and the absence of this emotion in the mind of the lover towards the husband and the presence of jealousy in the heart of the lover in relation to any other succeeding lover. There must be a reason why the lover usually feels a kind of exultation at deceiving the husband or any other lover who has a previous claim upon the woman’s affection.

The cause of jealousy is mainly personal vanity. Just as the satisfaction to be loved, where one does not love himself, lies in satisfied vanity, so is jealousy based unconsciously upon the anguish of wounded vanity. This explains the psychological difference between husband and lover, or between first and second lover. The woman who loves one man is supposed to confer a certain honor upon him, but her indulgence with two men honors the one who has the lesser right upon her love. He who has the greater or the first claim is made an object of ridicule. Man in a natural state, not influenced by motives of civilization—and there it may really be true—considers the abandoned or deceived person the less charming and the less worthy. This original notion has been transmitted to us from our remote ancestors and unconsciously governs us even at the present day. The man who is loved by a married woman or the woman who is loved by a married man are supposed to possess certain excellencies which are lacking in their respective married partners. The latter are, therefore, exposed to ridicule.

Jealousy, therefore, is simply wounded vanity. The individual possessing a greater deal of vanity will also be jealous to a greater degree. Hence, as a rule, woman is more jealous than man, although the latter may be more brutal when in that mood.

Vanity and exposure to ridicule explain also why the wife, betrayed by her husband, when she confronts the culprits, generally attacks her rival. Vanity does not allow her to admit even to herself that her husband has preferred the other to her. Consequently her rival must have used some seductive means to entice her poor, worthy husband and to lead him astray. The rival is hence the one who deserves punishment. The husband, on the other hand, if betrayed by his wife, will attack first his wife, who has exposed him to ridicule; her lover generally concerns him in a lesser degree.

If personal vanity is not wounded, jealousy is also absent. A great man, acknowledged by the world as such, like Alexander or Caesar, is not jealous if his wife betrays him with an ordinary mortal. In this case the world sees the stupidity of the woman. She is not able to recognize the value of her husband and exposes herself to ridicule. A great man may, therefore, grieve over the loss of cherished affections, but he will rarely be jealous. A comely and cultured woman will never be jealous of her coarse and ignorant maid-servant. She has only pity for her husband’s aberration of taste.

A woman will seldom or never be jealous of the women her husband has consorted with before their marriage. She is not exposed to ridicule through his former love affairs. He did not marry the others but her. She was preferred. But for the possible impairment of his health and vigor, the more love affairs he had the more the wife is honored. The man has not been changed by his former love affairs. His wife has hence no palpable reason for resentment, and she may pardon her husband’s former love affairs without any derogation to her dignity. Not so man.

The woman’s anatomy is changed by defloration. The sperma is partly absorbed within her,[AP] and through her veins circulate material parts of her lover. She may have been pregnant for some time, and pregnancy changes the woman’s entire anatomy. She has partly nourished her system with blood owing half its nature to her child’s father. The woman has, therefore, a perennial impression left by her former mate.[AQ] This is the reason why aesthetic and fastidious men refrain from marrying a widow or a divorced woman. This is also the reason why the husband consciously or unconsciously resents his wife’s former escapades. This resentment is not jealousy, although it is commonly so called. Sorrow over his wife’s former violated chastity, which conventionality considers as the biggest crime a woman could commit, is not jealousy. He is only grieved that her former impurity has lowered her value. A woman really gives herself up, soul and body, to her first lover. The virginity of her heart is no longer intact. The fragrance has departed from the rose. The earnest man who actually gives up his soul to the wife of his choice and to the mother of his children expects in return a pure and virgin heart.

[PART VI.]
PATHOLOGY OF SEXUALITY

[CHAPTER XV]
PARADOXIA

The pathology of love treats only of sensual love or of sensuality. The anomalies of sentimental love lie more properly within the province of the metaphysician or sociologist. Hence only the pathologic aspect of sensuality will be considered in the following part.

The analysis of sexuality has revealed the great complexity of the sexual instinct. No wonder, therefore, that the intricacies of love show many and varied anomalies. The anomalies based upon anatomical defects may easily be omitted. The number of works written on this subject is legion. They could fill whole libraries. But the psychical anomalies of love have enjoyed until very recently scanty attention at the hands of medical writers. Especially has modern gynaecology hitherto entirely neglected the psychical part of its specialty and has directed its attention only upon diseases that require surgical interference or other local manipulation.

The anomalies of the sexual impulse which will be analyzed in the following chapters are those based upon some defects in either of the three regions of the sexual sphere, the spinal cord, where the centres of erection and ejaculation are situated; the cerebellum, the seats of the impulses of voluptas and of libido and of the sensations of touch, sight, smell, and hearing, which usually provoke the impulses; and the cerebrum, with the higher sensations, as the sentiment of beauty, of affection, of admiration, of worship and of respect.

The anomalies based upon defects in these nervous centres properly belong within the province of the neurologist and alienist. Yet in a treatise on sex-attraction such anomalies should not be passed in silence. All the peculiarities of the woman’s body and mind, her nutrition and nerve activity are only a dependency of the ovary. The same may be justly said of the man. Almost all of the activities of the normal man stand in some relation to the testicular functions. The knowledge of the abnormal psychical elements of the sexual instinct is, therefore, of such importance to the general health and well-being of the public and to the whole social structure, that every physician and student of law or pedagogy ought to acquire a general knowledge of the anomalies of sexual affections. The man and woman who do not experience connubial satisfaction will often seek a substitute for their unrequited love. The whole foundation of society, the family, will begin to sag, if in our nervous age the anomalies of sexuality are prudishly overlooked and their study neglected.

The pathology of the sexual affections is, therefore, not only a proper study for every student of medicine but for every student of education, law and sociology as well. Krafft-Ebing’s general classification of the anomalies of the sexual instinct will also be followed here with more or less minor modifications. Krafft-Ebing divides the pathology of sexuality into four parts.

I. PARADOXIA.

It means sexual activity in individuals who should normally present no sexual manifestations, as the occurrence of sexual excitation before the physiological age.

II. ANAESTHESIA.

It signifies partial or total absence of sexual feeling, i. e., impotence of voluptas. It also comprises all other kinds of impotency, as impotence of libido or of copulation.

III. HYPERAESTHESIA.

It signifies the abnormal intensity of the sexual desire and impulse, 1) Mixoscopy, 2) Erotomania, 3) Satyriasis, 4) Nymphomania, 5) Masturbation, 6) Incest.

IV. PARAESTHESIA.

It covers all possible forms of perversion of sexual feeling and sexual activity. A) Heterosexuality: Inclination to persons of the opposite sex, but with perverse activity. 1) Masochism, 2) Sadism, 3) Fetichism, 4) Exhibitionism. B) Homosexuality: The sexual feeling is directed toward the same sex. a) Perversity, 1) out of lust, 2) as a profession, 3) through necessity, 4) out of fear, b) Perversion, 1) psychical hermaphrodism, 2) strict homosexuality, 3) effemination or viraginity, 4) transvestism. C) Bestiality: The sexual feelings are directed in conjugium cum animalibus.

Paradoxia.—Paradoxia signifies the sexual activity in individuals who should normally present no sexual manifestations. The occurrence of sexual excitement at an age when the individual should ordinarily be without it belongs to this part of the pathology of sexuality.

The continuance of the same degree of sexual desire in very old men or in women after the climacterium, as it existed before, is certainly unusual; yet it cannot be called pathological. The occurrence of pregnancies in wives of very old men and in women after the climacteric period proves that the ovaries continue to secrete ova even after menstruation has ceased, and that the testicles do not cease producing spermatozoa even beyond the limit of three scores and ten. Now, the sexual desire depends more upon the activity of the sexual glands than upon the physiological changes in the nervous apparatus of the generative organs in men or upon any changes in the uterus, which is only a repository for the development of the foetus. Hence the absence of erection in men or of menstruation in women does not necessarily imply absence of sexual desire.

The appearance of sexual desire in boys before puberty and in girls long before menstruation has set in is also, as yet, within the limits of the normal; it becomes pathological only when the sexual desire is manifested in infants or very small children. Complete sexual development has been witnessed in children as early as the second year. The precocity of development in the organs of generation is usually accompanied by corresponding precocity in sexual desire.

The writer saw a baby who had a sanguineous discharge from her genitals, for the first time, when she was only five days old. This discharge appeared afterwards regularly every four weeks. At the autopsy of another child one year old, one ovary was so enlarged that it awakened the writer’s curiosity. At the microscopical examination he found a ripe Graafian follicle. The writer also observed erections in a boy eight days old, immediately after the ritual circumcision. In the beginning he attributed these erections to the irritation of the wound. But the erections continued even after the wound was completely healed. The penis had the size of that of a boy four to five years of age.

But even where the development of the genital organs conforms with the age of the child, many cases are recorded of children of great precocity. At this period of early childhood there can be naturally no other sex activity except the habit of autoeroticism. The natural curiosity of children leads them to an examination and finally to a titillation of their private organs, often without the aid of any vicious instruction. When the child has thus found that a certain mode of handling these organs is attended with pleasurable sensations, he repeats the action, and the habit is established.

Hirschsprung (Berl. Klin. Wochenschr. 1866, No. 38) observed three cases of sexual activity in boys in the earliest childhood. The youngest child was only sixteen months old. Membro mentulato, the boy continued for over an hour to make rocking or wriggling movements, until it would fall back exhausted and bathed in perspiration. Deep sleep terminated the attacks which were repeated daily.

Rohleder (Die Masturbation, 3d Edit., p. 58) describes a case of a boy, fifteen months old, qui faciebat motiones voluptarias fricando virilia sua contra mammam matris. The attacks were marked by staring eyes, burning face and oppressed breathing. At the acme of the attack the child would break out in loud sobbing. The paroxysm would last about ten minutes. Thereupon the child would fall asleep.

The early aberration of the sexual instinct in childhood is more frequently met with in girls than in boys. Probably because the means for sensual gratificaton at the disposal of the infant girl are more numerous than that of the boy. The mere thigh-crossing of the infant girl will serve the purpose.

Townsend reports five cases of stuprum manu in girls under one year of age. One, an infant, eight months old, would cross her right thigh over the left, close her eyes, clench her fists, and after a minute or two there would be complete relaxation, with perspiration and redness of face. This would occur once a week or oftener.

In Lombroso’s case a girl of three years of age faciebat stuprum manu aperte et pæne jugiter until marriage, and even afterwards. She bore twelve children, neque desistebat a stupro manu even during pregnancy. Of her twelve children, five died in infancy, four were hydrocephalous, and the three surviving children were confirmed masturbators, the oldest having begun the practices at seven, the youngest at four years of age.

One of the writer’s patients, a young woman of twenty-four years of age, incipiebat masturbari, tres annos nata, ponendo pulvinum in femoribus et premendo eum quoad muliebria humescebant.

In Blackmer’s case, a girl eight years of age impudenter se stuprabat from her fourth year and, at the same time, sollicitans pueros of ten to twelve years of age ad stuprum. She planned to kill her parents that she might devote herself completely to such enjoyment.

Zambaco relates the histories of two sisters, one of whom at the age of seven feminabat cum pueris, corrumpebat sororem, quattuor annos natam, ad stuprum manu, and at the age of ten was given to the practice of cunnilingus.

In Moll’s case, a girl of seven had an impulsive inclination to her brother, three and a half years of age, cujus virilia amabat contrectare et quem inducebat ad contrectandum muliebria sua.

Jacobi (A. Am. Jour. of Obstetr. 1876, p. 597) relates the history of a case of a girl of three who, at irregular intervals, had attacks of stuprum when sitting down. She began by keeping her thighs closely joined or by crossing her legs. She then started to move and rub her limbs violently. The face became purple, and there was twitching about the eyes which looked excited, and the child perspired freely. After the attack she used to lean back exhausted, sighing and breathing hurriedly.

In another case Jacobi saw thigh friction, up and down movements, quick breathing, perspiration, in a female infant of nine months.

Magnan cites a case of a seven-year-old girl who jugiter se stuprabat with great violence. Even in the moment of being photographed, she turned up her petticoat and gave herself up to her favorite pastime.

Rachford (Archive of Pediatry, 1907) has collected 52 cases, 48 occurring in female and 4 in male children, of pseudomasturbation, as he calls it. But since the same symptoms of orgasm, as interrupted panting respiration, flushed cheeks, redness of face, staring eyes, large immobile pupils, perspiration and exhaustion are seen in the infant during its practice, as are found in the masturbating practices of older children, there is no reason to call these infantile manipulations by any other name than masturbation.

Precocity of sexual activity is usually based upon a neuropathic predisposition. Such children are, as a rule, tainted hereditarily. The following case is very instructive on account of the severity of the attacks and the attending circumstances:

Little L’s mother left her husband and went to live with a very rich man. The child is the product of this concubinage. Some time after the death of her legal husband, the mother left the father of the child, deserted the child and married another man. The foundling has been since taken care of by a children’s aid society. The foster-mother, with whom the child has been living for the last six months, brought her to the author for examination, with the following history:

Soon after Mrs. L. received the child she noticed that the same was suffering from hysterical attacks. It sometimes whined and cried for several days in succession. It was always very restless and fidgety, giving the impression as if it was suffering from chorea minor. It was frequently running to the water-closet without any apparent necessity. Mrs. L. went to the society to find out what was the matter with the child and was told there that the child has been a confirmed masturbator since she was two and a half years old. Two other families, to whom the child has been successively given for adoption, have returned her to the society on account of this perversity. She was also told that if she refused to keep the child, the society will have to send it to an insane asylum as the last resort. For this reason, Mrs. L., who in the meantime had become attached to the child, resolved to try to break up the bad habit before she adopted it. Mrs. L., who is a highly intelligent lady and seems to possess an unusual power of observation, describes the attacks as follows:

The usual mode of the child’s practice is volvulam manibus permulcere. The acme of the attack is manifested by the rigidity of the entire body, by the panting respiration, the staring eyes, the immobile pupils, redness of face, perspiration and general excitement. After a short interval of exhaustion, she gives herself again to her favorite pastime. In this way the child jugiter stuprum manu faciebat, even in the presence of others. All punishments by Mrs. L. and in the institution, where her little hands were even burned with hot iron, were of no avail. When her hands were tied so that she could not use them, fricabat muliebria sitting on a chair, by violent circular motions of her pelvis, which simply frightened her foster-mother. When lying in bed the child crosses her legs and rubs the thighs violently against each other.

When the child was asked how it happened to start the performance of such practices, it answered that it had been first taught by her unnatural mother ut tractaret matris muliebria stupri causa. Also the matron of a certain institution is said to have taken the child into a dark closet et adduxit puellam ad matronæ manustuprum. The truth of these assertions cannot be proven, but by some experimenting, undertaken with the child, it has been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that some adult woman abusa est puella ad stuprum suum.

The examination of the five-year-old girl shows a bright, nervous child, pale, with deeply set eyes, surrounded by dark rings, and somewhat enlarged cervical and inguinal glands. The entire body is covered with blond soft hair of unusual length. The same long hair covers the somewhat enlarged labia majora, so that they make the appearance of that of a girl near puberty. They are quite separated from each other, as found in the adult. The clitoris is somewhat elongated, but the prepuce is not adherent to the glans. Otherwise the genitals do not show any marked anomaly.

Sometimes the masturbatic practices are provoked by irritation at the peripheric region. The boy who has the impulse to touch and pull everything will, if not prevented by mother or nurse, surely play with his little organ. Sometimes there is a phimosis or an inflammation of the prepuce, or an accumulation of smegma in the infant boy; in girls there may be uncleanliness in the vulva, worms, eczema or pruritus. All these anomalies cause a certain itching which incites the child to touching and rubbing these parts. These manipulations produce an agreeable tickling sensation and awaken the feeling of lust. This feeling operates in the memory and excites the child to a state of activity before sexual consciousness has had time to awaken.

The habit of masturbation is sometimes contracted in infancy, by the laxness of stupid servants or ignorant mothers. They often try to calm the infant by tickling the child’s genitals and thus awaken lustful feelings which later on drives the child to renew the manipulation without outside help. In this way masturbation is found in the best and purest homes.

Another practice resorted to by nurse-girls and mothers is to amuse the child by gently striking its buttocks, a region which is highly erogenous. Every one who has read “Les Confessions,” by Rousseau, knows how this savant, when a boy, became sexually excited when his nurse punished him by whipping him on his buttocks. Thus nurses, and even mothers, innocently induce the child to the habit of masturbation. A still greater danger lurks from vicious servants and voluptuous nurse-girls who deliberately handle the infant’s or the very young child’s lumbus libidinis causa. They touch and strike the genitals of boys as well as that of girls for their own pleasure. There are few nurse-girls, says Parke, who do not delight to initiate the boy, committed to their care, in sexual matters. He relates many histories of patients who were induced to abnormal practices by their nurses in early youth. Lawson-Tait, in warning parents against allowing children to sleep with their nurses or with servants, says that in every instance where he found a number of children affected by masturbation, the contagion could be traced to a servant. Freund relates several examples of severe youthful hysteria where the starting-point could be traced to some sexual manipulations by servants, nurse-girls and governesses.

Sexual precocity is, therefore, not seldom caused by tactile stimulation. Still in the majority of cases precocity may be easily traced to a hereditary taint.

[CHAPTER XVI]
ANAESTHESIA

Under the caption of sexual anaesthesia will be treated here not only the deficiency of sexual emotion or the absence of the sexual feeling, i. e., the impotence of voluptas or the lack of erotic desire, but all other deficiencies, declines or abatements in the realm of sex, such as absence of experiencing satisfaction, impotency of copulation and of propagation.

Etiology of male impotence.—In the etiology of impotence three main causes must be taken into consideration. Impotence is almost always met with in congenital or acquired malformation. Such anomalies lie more in the province of surgery and need not be considered here any further. Impotence is also found as a symptom in certain constitutional diseases. The patients suffering from these troubles, are seeking medical advice more for their causative anomaly than for the symptom of impotence, which in these cases is of secondary importance. Hence the consideration of these cases may also be omitted. The anomaly of impotence par excellence and for which medical advice is mostly sought is nervous impotence. This impotence from nervous collapse is the commonest and complicates all other kinds.

The patients of this class have always been normal in their sex-life. Suddenly, one day, they find themselves impotent. The cause of this kind of impotence is, in the majority of cases, sexual excesses, and four different kinds of excesses may be taken into consideration, excesses in copulation, in masturbation, in mental erethism, or commonly called day-dreaming, and finally excesses in tactile eroticism, or the common sexual dalliance or caresses of young lovers.

Copulation excesses.—During coition all the parts of the genital apparatus are in a state of extreme congestion. If such congestions are too often provoked they have a more or less deleterious effect upon the organs. Especially the colliculus and the prostatic portion of the urethra are affected by such repeated congestions. While the other parts assume their normal state soon after ejaculation and the cessation of erection, the colliculus remains still in a state of turgescence for some time. Now, the prostatic urethra is very rich in sensible nerves, and by its congestion all the generative organs are kept in a state of erethism. The irritation of this area is also capable of deranging the spinal genital centres. It either increases excitability and causes ejaculatio praecox, or it decreases excitability, and erections are no longer evoked.

Besides affecting the special nerves, the repeated orgasm, through the mental vertigo, the muscular convulsion, the cardiac and respiratory excitement, must lead to nervous disorders. As a matter of fact, venereal excesses are followed by malaise, nervousness, mental depression, lassitude, fatigue, satiety, heaviness in the head, disposition to sleep, dulness of intellect, indisposition to exercise, want of decision, regrets and ill humor, and the other symptoms of general neurasthenia.

Masturbatic excesses.—Still excesses in copulation are not so harmful as excesses in masturbation. In the first place excesses in copulation are self-limited. Indulgence in intercourse requires the consent of the partner, and where a second person is needed, there is always a limit put to the will of the first party. Furthermore, excesses in coition require each time a complete erection, and abused nature will finally deny erections. If the young and vigorous individual should in the beginning be able to command quite a number of erections in one night, after a certain time, he will be glad if he could have one complete erection during a night, or even once a week. In this way Nature herself regulates such excesses and takes care that “the trees should not sweep the stars down.”

The case is different with masturbation. No limit is set here to the excesses. Self-abuse does not require cooperation of a second person, and what is of more importance, erection is not requisite. Thus even Nature is here powerless. Hence when there is a propensity to masturbatory excesses, there is nothing to prevent the individual from abusing its favorite pastime.

Besides the harm to the greater frequency, excesses in masturbation offers additional injury through the youth of the individual. Copulation excesses are indulged in by individuals after puberty, i. e., by persons with fully developed generative organs and in full virility. The practice of masturbation, on the other hand, is often begun by mere children, before the genital organs have had time to fully develop, and it is easily seen that excesses will cause greater damage to these undeveloped organs. Hence when young individuals are given to inordinate masturbation, they harm the organs in a higher degree than excesses in copulation.

Furthermore, ejaculation in masturbation is forced through purely local manipulation. There is only a local excitation of the nerves. The help of the psyche and phantasy is missing, and the lumbar centres are tasked to the utmost. When the masturbator tries to supply the psychic means, he relies on the fertility and the extravagance of the lewd images which he presents to his mind to increase the libido. Hence masturbation is more injurious because it is generally effected through the influence of an exalted imagination.

Very soon the masturbator discovers that visions, once sufficient to produce the requisite excitement, have lost their power, and that the images need to be of a more extravagant salacity. In this way, the masturbator accustoms himself to extraordinary means of sexual gratification, so that attempts of normal copulation are no longer successful. When he attempts coition, he finds that reality is so much less than his imagination has led him to believe and that it is incapable of rousing his appetite.

Another injury done to the character of the masturbator is the guilty conscience. Almost every masturbator seems to feel that his acts degrade his manhood.[AR] He seems to know by intuition that his practice is injurious to his health and is morally wrong, because it is not in accord with the general plan of the creative power in the universe. Still in spite of himself, he continues to indulge in it. The will seems to have entirely lost its control. The masturbator is thus engaged in a conflict between moral conviction and sensual indulgence. Herein lies one of the most harmful effects of masturbation. It is undermining the individual’s will-power and destroying his character. Every masturbator resolves again and again, after each exercise, to resist henceforth the inclination and to overcome the temptation,[AS] each time with the same futile result. A paralyzing sensation arises in him, a feeling of shame and self-contempt overtakes him, because he has again failed to show enough energy, has again been too weak to resist the impulse. Finally these disturbing and paralyzing sensations give rise to the conviction of his being lacking in will-power and to the feeling of being generally deficient in everything else in life. In this way, excesses in masturbation harm the generative organs not only directly but also indirectly by first injuring the individual’s entire nervous system, and the different kinds of impotencies are only symptoms of the general neurasthenia.

Mental erethism.—The other kind of sexual excesses, those of mental erethism and frustrate eroticism, are even more harmful than excesses in copulation and masturbation.

By mental erethism or, as it is generally called, or rather misnamed, mental masturbation, is understood the filling of the phantasy with lascivious pictures. The dreamers give themselves up to sensual thoughts, allowing the mind to dwell constantly on sexual ideas, or erotic subjects of connubial enjoyments, conjuring before the unruly imagination extravagant and voluptuous visions and bawdry portrayals. The mind is fixed on images of individuals of the other sex, all in lustful positions, on pictures of the nude and of their genitals and of couples in actione coeundi.

The voluptuous day-dreamers, not needing material manipulation, may busy themselves with their favorite thoughts while seemingly conversing with their friends or on the most solemn occasions, as when listening to a sermon, etc. These erogenous thoughts, these libidinous images, these constant broodings on sex-matters create a habit which secures such a hold upon the individual that he cannot overcome it. The habit becomes so rooted in some instances that it is impossible for the patients to free their thoughts from fancies and pictures of lustful situations, while alone. Not even with the greatest efforts are they able to rid themselves from imagining erotic scenes of various kinds. Their minds are constantly preoccupied with a single engrossing subject to the exclusion of all other topics and are perpetually turned on sexual subjects, so that they are unable to concentrate their attention upon any other matters.

These perennial broodings on sex subjects keep the genital organs in a permanent state of sexual excitation and erethism. While in masturbation the material congestion of the generative organs is removed with each ejaculation, in mental erethism relief by ejaculation is missing. In the first stage of the vicious habit, the morbid mental lubricity and the lascivious unlicensed thoughts may occasionally provoke an ejaculation. But later on, when the genitals have undergone a certain weakness, ejaculation is not brought on any longer by these images, and the genital organs remain in a continual state of material congestion and nervous tension. In this way not only the colliculus and prostratic urethra, as in excesses of copulation and masturbation, but all the genital organs are in a state of chronic inflammation, which in time becomes the cause of impotence.

Tactile eroticism.—Worse than mental erethism is tactile eroticism. By tactile eroticism is understood, keeping the genital organs constantly irritated by dalliance with individuals of the other sex, stopping short of the act of copulation. On a walk through the city parks, any summer evening, or on a trip on the Sunday excursion boats, young men and women may be observed lying in each other’s arms in a continual caress, kissing, hugging, and fondling each other for hours, scarcely confining themselves within the limit of decency. These couples are actually exercising the sexual act, although they do not obtain sexual congress. These tremors and ecstasies, these amorous ardors and intoxications, these sensual joys which stimulate with rapture the higher centres and infuse the mind with sexual gratification, are all a part of the chain of the sexual act. The interruption of this chain of impulses short of copulation may satisfy the moral conscience of the young people, but it does not make such excesses less injurious. On the contrary, the generative organs are deprived of the relief which ejaculation lends to these organs. The genital tube remains surcharged with blood, and the hyperaemia subsides but slowly. The normal outlet of the sex-activity has been cut off by a special process of repression. If these frustrate stimulations are frequently repeated, they perpetuate the genital congestion, and through the retention of the secretions, a catarrh of the genital organs ensues, just as inflammations often originate in the mammary glands through the accumulation of the milk after weaning the child.

These perennial congestions are the cause of prostatic inflammations not seldom met with in young men who never were infected by gonorrhoea. The ulcerations of the cervix so often found in young girls and young mothers of one child may often be attributed to no other cause than to frustrate eroticism in the young girls and to onanism[AT] in the young mothers. The cervix is damaged in the same way as the soil, burned by the sun, in the absence of a beneficent rain, cracks and slits.

The frequently repeated engorgements of the blood vessels which do not receive the normal physiological relief by ejaculation provoke in both parties an exaggerated sex-sense and produce the emotions, known as satyriasis in men and as nymphomania in women. The exaggeration is followed later on by exhaustion of the libidinous impulses, and the men become hypochondriacs and impotent and women neurotic and shallow.

The continual congestion in the genitals causes also a continued feeling of heaviness and discomfort in the lower abdomen. Urination becomes frequent in both sexes, and in women menstruation is irregular. The patients complain of profuse pains in the back, legs, sides, and of weakness, nervousness and sleeplessness. These troubles cause general debility and a complete breakdown of the nervous system.

The generative centres are particularly damaged by the constant congestion of the genitals. The frequent stimuli keep the lumbar centres in a condition of constant irritation. The nervous system, presiding over the function of erection, thus becomes worn out and exhausted, and the nerves do not respond even to the strongest stimulations, which would otherwise set them in action. In this way, the centres get accustomed, so to say, of not responding any longer with erection to the proper stimuli, or in other words, the consensualism between the genital nerves and their centres is broken.

Hence, besides the harm done to the nerves by the general debility, there is great damage done to the genital nerves and centres by the break in the chain of the reflex mechanism. In no other sex-activity, except in actual copulation, are the generative organs in such a constant and intense excitement as in dalliance with individuals of the other sex, no other erotic stimuli create such libidinous turgescence of the organs and such a high degree of sex-tension, exciting with rapture the higher centres, no other excitations cause such a consumption of nerve power as this gratification of the impulse of contrectation by tactile manoevres. The erections of penis and clitoris are vigorous and violent. The organs are set in a state of expectancy for the final act. If the act is not terminated within a certain limited time, the state of expectancy cannot last for ever. The mode of action is limited in length of time. Except in the abnormal state, known as priapism, the duration of erection is relatively short in the normal individual. Its beginning is synchronous with the onset of the material congestion and nervous tension of the genital parts, and its subsidence should normally be synchronous with ejaculation. If the latter be prevented, erection has to cease sooner or later, even when congestion and tension remain unabated. Hence after long and lasting amorous caresses the erections fail.

If these manœuvres are often repeated, the excitations finally do not effect the proper response, and erection fails from the outset. The strong and continuous stimulations render the nerves and their centres inert in reaction and weak in power. The centres of erection and ejaculation become blunted, the inhibitory centres get very sensitive, and erection cannot be provoked. When the nerve centres presiding over the function of erection get into the habit of not responding to the highest excitations of the tactile stimuli, they do not respond even to the stimulations concarnationis. The cooperating nerve-apparatus has been affected, and a perverted innervation is created. The close interdependence of the mechanism of erection and the centres is removed, and an abnormal reflex-excitability is produced. The consensualism between the corpora cavernosa and the centre of erection is interrupted.

Before the indulgence in frustrate caresses has become a habit, i. e., in the beginning of the practice, erections are vigorous and of considerable duration. But the duration diminishes with each repetition. After a few months or years of these nerve-destroying practices, according to the patient’s nervous constitution, there is no response by erection even to the strongest stimuli. The consentaneous action, which, otherwise, connects the excitement of the organs with erection and completion of the act, does not take place. This lack of consensualism on the part of the several factors which go to make up the orgasm leads finally to complete impotence.

Continence, if long continued, has been claimed to be the cause of impotence. But there is no valid reason for this belief. To prove the harmfulness of continence, an analogue is brought forward between the atrophy of a muscle in enforced idleness and the injury to the sex organs in enforced abstinence. But the proof is somewhat feeble. The essential organs of generation are not muscles but glands, and who has ever heard of a tear gland atrophying for lack of crying. Furthermore, abstinence does not condemn the generative organs to absolute rest. Every individual, especially when abstinent, has frequently nocturnal erections through the entire period of his sexual activity, and there is no reason why such erections should not keep the genitals in the required exercise and should not prevent the alleged atrophy. As far as the exercise to prevent atrophy is concerned, nocturnal erections ought to be of the same service as erections followed by intromissions. The nocturnal erections seem to be even more harmless. The engorgement of the colliculus is less pronounced in these erections. Micturition, on awakening with an erection, is immediately possible, while there is a pronounced inability of micturition after an erection and ejaculation either through initu aut stupro manu.

The histories of patients are cited to prove the deleterious effects of total abstinence. Cases are known of alleged abstinent neurasthenics, on the point of a complete breakdown, who recovered perfect health after marriage. But even this proof cannot stand a closer scrutiny. Who can prove the total abstinence of these patients? The layman is prone to regard the actual intromission only as sexual activity. If he has abstained from this final phase, he considers himself abstinent. But chastity is not continence by any means. Absolute continence is abstinence not only from the gratification of the impulse of detumescence concarnatione, but also from that of contrectation, i. e., from mental and tactile caresses and from all other abnormal practices. We must distinguish between chastity and abstinence. Those who are chaste out of fear of venereal infection or for lack of opportunity are not always abstinent. They are just the individuals who are indulging immoderately in mental erethism or even masturbation.

The mere assertion of the patient that he never indulged in unnatural practices does not count. The patient’s veracity is very questionable. All venereal troubles seem to exert an inhibitory influence upon the truth-centres. The propensity of the masturbator to conceal the truth is notorious. If such a patient claims that he has never masturbated, it is likely that he is still practising it. A special psychical element, associated with this habit, prompts the majority of patients to gross and intemperate prevarication.

But even if such a “rara avis,” who has abstained from actual manusturpation, should exist, still mental erethism cannot entirely be excluded. The elicitation of a history of mental erethism is connected with great difficulty. Masturbation with these patients means only the indulgence in manual practices; the voluptuous day-dreams are considered of no account, and the peculiar type of mendacity prevents them from revealing the truth even to him, upon whom they called to consult.

Hence the loss of sexual power in these patients may not have been effected by continence but, on the contrary, by continual erethism. The examination of such patients really shows, as a rule, the prostatic urethra in a state, which is usually caused by prolonged erethism. After marriage, with its regulated sexual activity and the removal of the inclination to the wild erotic fancies, the neurasthenia is soon cured, not because the patient has given up abstinence, as interpreted by the anti-abstinence advocates, but, on the contrary, because he has now become real abstemious from the excesses of mental erethism. Hence the cure of neurasthenia by marriage is no proof against sexual abstinence. The patients who seek medical advice for their neurasthenic troubles may be those who have only abstained from coition but have freely and immoderately indulged in the unnatural modes of sensualism, whence their troubles originated. The real continent individuals who avoid any kind of erotic practices remain sound and healthy and do not require medical help. Their cases remain hence unknown to the profession.

If total abstainers from every kind of sexual erethism should sometimes become neurasthenic, this fact would not prove yet that the nervous trouble was caused by total abstinence from the gross sexual gratification. Even the man about town may become neurasthenic for lack of the gratification of the impulse of permanent mating. The apologists of promiscuous intercourse forget or are ignorant of the fact that the impulse of permanent mating in normal men and women cannot be satisfied by promiscuity. The craving for a permanent mate, home and family unconsciously demands gratification even from him who leads a promiscuous sexual life. If this impulse is not gratified, as in cranky old bachelors or hysterical old maids, it may lead to severe attacks of neurasthenia. Such cases will not be cured by the association with venal women or by promiscuous sensuality, but they may be cured by a permanent mate, home, and family life. Hence the cure of the total abstainer from his nervousness by marriage is again no proof against total abstinence. The cause of the trouble may have been the unsatisfied impulse of permanent mating which has been now satisfied by marriage. Promiscuous relations would not have cured the neurasthenia, but marriage with its accompanying emotional tones.

There is, therefore, no valid proof of the harmfulness of total abstinence in a healthy individual without a hereditary taint. If total abstinence ever harmed anybody, the patient was either a congenial weakling or has acquired his lack of resistance through indulgence in early eroticism. A perfectly healthy man is never injured by abstinence. At least there is no sufficient proof that it ever did. But there are unmistakable proofs that total abstinence does not harm the individual. The best proof is furnished by many chaste and healthy women. Few women seem to suffer from total abstinence. The rejoinder that woman’s sexual desires are very feeble, that the female sex has no sexual needs, that it is more or less frigid, are mere masculine assertions without objective proofs. Women writers, who ought to know best the feelings of their own sex, claim just the opposite. Johanna Elberskirchen (in Sexualempfindung bei Weib und Mann) has well satirized the masculine impertinence which tries to teach woman what her emotions are or are not. The fact that many a young woman runs the risk, in the present state of sex-morality, of ruining her entire future by the indulgence in extra-marital sexuality, under conditions where pecuniary or other considerations are entirely out of the question, would tend to show that the sexual impulse is by no means so weak in women, as many would lead us to believe. It is simply incomprehensible that the female sexual needs should be less urgent than those of the male sex. Woman has by far the greater part of labor in the sex-performance. With the ejaculation the man’s biological part is at an end. He may leave now the scene of his activity, while the woman’s part just begins and is continued through nine months of pregnancy and about a year of nursing of the new being. Dr. M. Glasgow, as a woman perfectly competent to judge, says (Review of Reviews, 1912, p. 319): “The strong sexuality displayed by a sex whose contribution to the germ of the race is discharged in a brief moment of enjoyment must be greatly less than exhibited by the other party, whose contribution is made through long months of patient endurance.” The prominent part woman takes in the propagation of the race forces to the logical conclusion that her erotic needs are of necessity stronger, although, as Ellen Key puts it, they may be calmer than that of man’s. Woman is able in a quite extraordinary way to produce the impression that she herself is really non-sexual and that her sexuality is only a concession to man. But the seeming reluctance of the female is intended to increase the sexual activity in both mates. The passivity of the female throughout nature is only apparent, it is the passivity of the magnet. As a matter of fact, women experience during the orgasm an ecstasy of feeling greater than in men, involving the whole system in an ecstatic nervous erethism.

Still the normal woman can stand absolute continued continence without any injury to her body and mind (e. g. nuns). Hence there is no reason why the human male, if left to himself, and nothing comes to disturb the natural course of his sexual development, should be harmed by abstinence. Until the impulse of permanent mating enters into play, and this comes relatively late in life, abstinence will harm neither men nor women, if they live in an atmosphere free from the influence of artificial stimulation.

If the animal kingdom could be taken as proof for or against total abstinence in man, we find that pet animals, as canary birds or dogs, who rarely have the opportunity to exercise their sexual powers, are generally as healthy and live as long as those living in freedom.

Hence the claim that abstinence is the cause of impotence has absolutely no ground to stand upon. If the young man kept his thoughts pure and avoided exciting amusements which create emotional disturbances, impotence would be an unusual occurrence. If the young woman would avoid puttering over her genitalia, pelvic obsession with its accompanied hysterical conditions of hyperesthetic or paresthetic erethism would be rarely met with.

The only cause for impotence remains sexual excesses. They are very seldom the immediate cause of the impotence. But they leave such weakness in the genital organs and in the nervous system that it requires only the least disturbance to provoke total impotence. Such disturbances, as remorse over the formerly committed irregularities, or distrust in one’s powers, or the mental attitude of the woman to whom sexual approaches are a matter of real or assumed indifference, are sufficient to render the weakened neurotic man total impotent.

Next to excesses, gonorrhoea, in a great many cases, leaves the genitals in a similar weakened condition. Gonorrhoea often causes acute inflammation of the prostatic urethra, and the mucous membrane not seldom undergoes the changes characteristic of chronic catarrh. The sensory nerves reflexly keep the centres for erection and ejaculation in a condition of hyperesthesia. This condition finally leads to the paralysis of the centres and nerves, and reflex-erection cannot be produced.

Psychic causes of impotence are mental fatigue, overwork, preoccupation with mathematical or financial problems, fear,[AU] anger, grief, and disgusting sights or odors. Prolonged excitement before attempting coition may also lead to temporary impotence.

The other causes of impotence are the symptomatic ones. Impotence is met with in tabes dorsalis, diabetes, nephritis, obesitas, oxalic diathesis, haemorrhoids, fissures of the anus, seat worms, etc. Excesses in the consumption of certain drugs may also lead to impotence. Such drugs are alcohol,[AV] morphine, cocaine, tobacco and the bromides.

Etiology of impotence in women.—The same causes, at work in producing impotence in men, are also affecting impotence in women. The only modification lies in the fact that impotence of copulation, which is the impotence par excellence in men, is of a negligible quantity in women. The main mode of impotence found in women is that of experiencing libido. This impotence may be either idiopathic or also caused by excesses as the impotence of copulation in men. Idiopathic impotence of libido is oftener met with in women than in men. Still even in women this insensibility is much rarer than is generally believed. The explanation for the greater frequency of impotence of libido in women than in men has first been given by Freud (Sig. Drei Abhandlungen über Sexualtheorie).

The autoerotic activity of the erogenous zones in children is the same in both sexes. It may be asserted, says Freud, that the sexuality of the little girl has entirely a male character. The chief erogenous zone in the female child is the clitoris which is homologous to the male penis. The frequent spontaneous discharges of sexual excitement in little girls manifest themselves in twitching and erections of the clitoris. But while in the male the erogenous zone remains the same after puberty as before, namely in the penis, puberty is distinguished in the girl by a wave of repression of the clitoris-sexuality and in the change of the erogenous zones. The rôle of the clitoris is henceforth to conduct the excitation to the adjacent parts. It often takes some time to affect this transference. During this time the young woman remains anaesthetic to stimulations of the internal organs as vagina or cervix. This anaesthesia may become permanent if the clitoris zone refuses to transfer its excitability. This anaesthesia in women is often only apparent and local. They are anaesthetic at the vagina and cervix, but not at all unexcitable through the clitoris or even through other erogenous zones, such as the lips or the nipples. The women are impotent of experiencing libido in coition but potent when the clitoris is excited by any other stimuli.

The refusal to transfer the clitoris sexuality is, as a rule, caused by an excessive irritation of the clitoris by manusturpation during childhood. The excesses which cause impotence of libido in women are the same which cause impotence of copulation in men, namely excesses in copulation, masturbation, mental erethism, and tactile eroticism. In women the excesses in copulation are more harmful than in men. While in men these excesses are self-limited by the impossibility of provoking any erections, after a certain time of continuous indulgence; in women there is no limitation to the practice. Playing the passive rôle, she can stand congressum continuum for a considerable length of time and tire out a number of men in succession. The vaginal pavement-epithelial lining is very strong.

“Conteritur ferrum, silices teneantur ab usu.

“Sufficit et damni pars caret illa metu.”

sings Ovid in his “Ars Amandi.” Hence when a woman has any proclivity for excesses in initu, there is no natural limit to her indulgence. Through the influence of the frequent irritation in copulative excesses, the vaginal mucous membrane undergoes considerable changes. It becomes a veritable skin, a stiff parchment, and thus loses sensitiveness.

The other cause for impotence of libido are excesses in masturbation. The evil results of these practices in women are fully as great as in men, although with women it is the orgasm alone that does the damage, since there is no seminal discharge or loss of vital fluids. Through the frequent application of friction to the parts, they become first hypersensitive and later hyposensitive and non-responsive to normal excitations. Accustomed to excite the genitals by manual stimuli, which may be kept up for a considerable length of time, the masturbator is, later on, impotent to reach the acme through the normal, relatively short excitations, as they take place through the internal organic events in the genitals in normal sex-activity.

In women, the same as in men, the greater damage through excesses in masturbation is done by the greater frequency, because it requires no help, from an outsider, because it is not bound by time and locality, and may be practised by the undeveloped child, and last but not least, because of the constant conflict and struggle of the masturbator between the sensual impulse and the inability to desist and the feeling of womanly unworthiness, dissatisfaction and shame.

Excesses in mental erethism and excessive dalliance with members of the other sex have no less injurious effects in women than in men. In the long run these excesses cause in the woman a number of nervous troubles which take the form of hysteria or assume the character of neurasthenia. These excessive practices of erethism or tactile eroticism are, also in women, worse than excesses in copulation and masturbation, because the former do not lead to the orgasm and to the relief of the nervous tension and material congestion.

Another cause of impotence of libido in women is onanism or the practice of withdrawal. This coitus interruptus which rarely leads to orgasm in the woman, has the same effect upon her as excessive mental erethism or tactile eroticism, because it does not lead to relief from the nervous tension and the congestion. Excesses in onanism are, therefore, very harmful in women, while they are of lesser consequence in men. The repeated congestions of the parts in all these practices lead first to chronic hyperaemia and stasis, and in its further progress to chronic inflammations of the tissues, known under the respective names of metritis, perimetritis, parametritis, endometritis, salpingitis, and ovaritis. The inflammations constantly irritate the nerves and their centres and in this way blunt their normal sensibility. Besides the dulling of the nervous elements, these conditions give rise to great pain in commixtione, and pain and fear are the greatest enemies of libido.

Other causes of impotence of libido in women are excesses in alcohol, bromides, cocaine, morphine and other narcotics and stimulants. Sometimes impotence of libido is the result of a hard confinement. During such confinements extensive lesions in the erectile tissues of the bulbs and in the sphincter cunni muscles are apt to occur. Now, the integrity of the vaginal bulbs, of the sphincter cunni, of the intermediary net of vessels, and of the clitoris is necessary for the normal experiencing of libido. If a serious lesion occurs, the blood current is interrupted, and the blood is prevented from leaving the bulbs and from entering the corpora cavernosa of the clitoris. The following case will serve as an illustration:

The patient, twenty years of age, married twenty months, has a baby ten months old. She states that since her confinement she has no libido during coition. Before this event she always found perfect gratification. The examination shows a first-degree laceration of the perineum.

Absence or smallness of the clitoris and an adherent prepuce may also often diminish the feeling of libido.

Pathology of male impotence.—The minute penetration into the different causes of sexual anaesthesia in the preceding pages was of particular importance, in order to fully understand the pathology of the different kinds of impotence.

The accomplishment of the physiological act of copulation and impregnation requires from the man the possession, first of the desire to associate with the other sex, or of the instinct of voluptas,[AW] secondly the power of effecting intromission or the potency of erection, thirdly the potency of ejaculating a healthy sperma for impregnation, and finally it requires that libido or pleasure accompanies the emission to assure the repetition of the act.

From these requirements it follows that the individual must command over four potencies, the potency of voluptas, which compels the individual to seek the society of the other sex, the potentia coeundi, which depends upon strong normal erections, the potentia generandi, depending upon normal secreting testicles, and upon the perviousness of the entire seminal canal, from the testicle to the meatus of the urethra, and finally over the potency of libido, which depends upon the intact centripetal nerves and normal centres of generation in the brain. If any of these potencies are missing, the individual will be impotent. Hence four kinds of impotencies may be distinguished in both sexes:

(1) The impotence of voluptas, or the absence of sexual desire.

(2) The impotence of immission, or absence of the power of erection in men and the anomalies at the entrance into the vagina in women.

(3) The impotence of impregnation, or the absence of spermatozoa in men and of ova in women.

(4) The impotence of libido, or absence of the ability to experience pleasure at the moment of emission.

Impotence of voluptas.—The impotence of voluptas, or male frigidity, unassociated with the two other impotencies of copulation and impregnation, is very rare in men.

Physiological impotence of voluptas exists in childhood and in old age. In the latter period the desires disappear pari passu with the power. Although the feeling of desire is of purely mental origin, the generative organs playing only a secondary part, still when these organs are powerless or absent, the desire is generally also absent.

Impotence of voluptas is found in eunuchs and in castrates,[AX] who have been operated upon before puberty. Such castrates, even if the penis has not been removed, show not only impotentia coeundi, but also complete frigidity. Their habitus and feelings differ entirely from those of normal men. Castrates, who have been operated upon later in life, retain the habitus of normal men and also the impulse of contrectation. The potency of immission is even greatly enhanced, at least for the first few years after the operation. In normal men erection subsides immediately after the ejaculation. In eunuchs ejaculation does not take place. Hence the erections may last for hours or even days. In the course of time the potentia coeundi even of these castrates begins also to decrease and later on becomes entirely extinct.

Impotence of voluptas is also found in severe cases of neurasthenia, where the entire nervous system is in a low state of efficiency. The history of the following case may serve to illustrate the symptoms of the neurasthenic impotence of voluptas.

Mr. B., 35 years of age, unmarried, had gonorrhoea several times, never lues. Since puberty until about two years ago he was a typical rounder and had an abundance of femininity at his disposal. He is now suffering from general debility and shows all the symptoms of severe neurasthenia, as headaches, pains in the back and abdomen, dyspepsia, constipation, anorexia, insomnia, etc. In addition he has lost all desire for sexual gratification. While in the days of unimpaired vigor his sensual activities were of great frequency, several initus almost every day, at present the necessity for concarnatio is entirely lacking. When he does associate cum muliere, erection and ejaculation are perfectly normal, but the sense of libido is greatly diminished. Sese injungit nowadays only once every three to four months, out of curiosity to try his potency, but not because he feels any necessity for the same.

The case is thus one of pure male frigidity combined with a certain diminution of libido.

Male frigidity or impotence of voluptas is also found among psychopathics, as low idiots and cretins. These patients lack the understanding of the opposite sex. No mental excitations will, therefore, have any effect upon them.

Sexual perversion is another psychosis connected with impotency of voluptas to the opposite sex.

Impotence of voluptas is also often found in dementia. Sometimes impotence of voluptas is congenital with an individual otherwise normal. The impotence is then analogous to colorblindness. Such cases are exceedingly rare.

Impotence of libido.—Similar to impotence of voluptas is the impotence of libido. Here the desire is powerful, the erections are vigorous, yet ejaculation takes place without the usual accompanied libido. It is analogous to the loss or impairment of the sense of taste. Idiopathic impotence of libido in men is very rare. It is mostly found as a symptom of some other anomaly.

Impotence of libido exists in cases of loss of testicles, as in castrates and eunuchs.

As a rule, impotence of libido is met with in men who have severely over-taxed their brains and hence are less impressionable than when in a normal state of health. The impotency is an indication of an exhausted brain where the centres for experiencing libido reside.

Sometimes the centripetal nerves which serve for transmission of the pleasurable sensations to the centres have their impressionability obtunded by excesses in venere. When the nerves are deranged, the desire is strong, the erectile power is sufficient, the mind is in concurrence, emission occurs at the right moment, yet scarcely a vestige of pleasurable sensation is experienced during emission. The following case may serve as a proper illustration of the nature of this anomaly.

Mr. X., fifty years of age, was seduced to the practice of manusturpation when about thirteen years old. The exercises were carried out daily. After puberty, from about sixteen to nineteen years of age, he was given less to these practices, still once a week he could not resist of indulging in his favorite pastime. At this time he began to associate with meretricious women. This activity alternated with manusturpation until he was forty years old. There were periods of months or even years, while living in localities where the opportunity for normal sex activity was entirely lacking, when he took refuge to weekly practices of manusturpation. At the same time he indulged in excesses of mental erethism. His day-dreams on his long walks and in sleepless nights were filled with images, all taken from the realm of sex. Sometimes he also indulged in excesses of tactile eroticism (manibus ludere cum genitalibus mulierum). At the age of forty he married a very attractive young woman, and although he is greatly in love with his wife and two children, who arrived in the course of time, and is leading a regular sex-life, still the pleasure experienced at the ejaculation is practically nil. What induces him to still keep up his sexual activity is to please his young wife.

Here is a case where the three potencies of voluptas, copulation and procreation are perfectly intact, and where the patient is only suffering from the impotency of experiencing pleasure or libido during his sex-activity. In another case the impotency of libido is complete every time the patient practises coition, but is less pronounced when the act is repeated within an hour after the first exercise.

Mr. N., thirty-five years of age, a prominent lawyer, is suffering from a severe attack of neurasthenia for the last three years, the greater part of which he spent in sanitaria. As a boy he practised masturbation to some extent, but quite moderately. The symptoms are greatly pronounced in the morning, and are manifested by a general malaise, pressure in the head, bulging of the eyes, tremor of the hands, pressure in the rectum, in the prostatic region, and burning at the tip of the penis after urinating. The pressure in the rectum is relieved the day following coition, but returns in aggravated form on the second day. At the same time a mucus-like sediment appears in the urine which, on repeated examinations, showed to consist of oxalate of lime.

For the last few years, ejaculation, in concarnatione, takes place without any trace of libido. But if the act is repeated within an hour, the patient experiences some pleasure. For this reason the patient always exercebat concubitum bis in hora which served to aggravate his neurosis.

In some patients the libido is only diminished. In extreme narrowness of the prepuce the pleasure incident to sexual relation is slight. The author had only recently performed on a man, thirty-two years old, circumcision to cure this anomaly, although, it is said, that in persons who have been circumcized for ritual considerations, the libido is much slighter than in those not circumcized. In the latter, the covering of the glans is almost a mucous membrane and is very sensitive, while in circumcized people the covering of the glans is almost a veritable skin and has lost its finer sensibilities.

Impotence of procreation.—The type of impotence, most frequently met with but rarely complained of by men, is the impotence of propagation. Almost fifty per cent. of all cases of absolute sterility in married couples are caused by this anomaly in men.

Congenital and acquired deformities of the genitals may often cause impotence of procreation. All castrates, even those operated later in life, as the Skoptzies in Russia, are, of course, impotent for procreation, although if the penis has been left intact, they are very vigorous sexually, for a certain time, and are very salacious. Anorchismus, cryptorchismus, atrophy of the testicles, tumors of the testicles, compression by hydrocele, inflammation, ossification, tuberculosis, and cancer of the prostate may cause impotence of procreation without impairing the power of copulation.

Some epispadias and hypospadias may cause impotence of procreation. When the opening is very far back, the emission will take place outside of the vagina.

Aspermia, whether idiopathic or acquired, will always cause impotence of procreation. In the congenital form of aspermia all the genital organs seem to functionate normally, still no ejaculation takes place.

In the acquired form of aspermia both ejaculatory ducts are obliterated, as a rule, through suppurative prostatitis or tuberculosis of the prostatic gland. In both diseases the glandular tissue is frequently destroyed.

Aspermia may also be due to neurasthenia as the following case may show:

Mr. S., twenty-four years of age, has been treated about two years previously for nocturnal pollutions. They happened every night once or twice and weakened the patient in such a degree that he was unable to perform any kind of work. Electric treatment, hydrotherapeutics, and some medicinal tonics restored him to health. The pollutions happened once in three to four weeks only. A year later the patient called again, this time complaining of weakness in sexual power. After a few weeks’ treatment the improvement was such that the patient was lost sight of.

Six months later the patient returned with the complaint of suffering from aspermia and lack of orgasm. He is erotic, and he has strong vigorous erections, but no matter how long he remains in initu, ejaculation does not take place. The patient falls back from sheer exhaustion, sometimes mentulato membro, without being able to bring it to an ejaculation and orgasm.

In this case the aspermia is due to a certain nervous weakness of a neurasthenic nature. The patient has no strictures, and his testicles are intact.

Aspermia is sometimes found in strictures of the urethra.

In such cases the semen flows backward into the bladder.

In comparison with azoospermia, as a cause of impotence of procreation, all the other described anomalies are of a great rarity.

In azoospermia ejaculation and orgasm are perfectly normal, but the semen shows, under the microscope, the absence of spermatozoa. Azoospermia is sometimes temporarily found after excesses in initu aut stupro manu.

CUT XLII.

Azoospermia.
1, Boettcher’s crystals; 2, amyloid bodies; 3, hyaline bodies; 4, lecithin; 5, testicular cells; 6, prostatic epithelium; 7, urethral epithelium.

Permanent azoospermia is, as a rule, caused by inflammations of the testicles or of the epididymis. These bilateral inflammations of the testicles or of the vasa epididymis are almost always the result of gonorrhoea. The vasa deferentia are obliterated and impervious. The ejaculated semen consists only of the secretions of the seminal vesicles, of the prostatic glands and of the urethral glands.

The spermatozoa being absent, the sperma is much thinner than in the normal state. The absence of the spermatozoa and their movements is also the cause why the Boettcher’s crystals usually form much earlier; they appear within half an hour after ejaculation and in a considerable amount. They often cover almost the entire microscopical field. In the normal semen the movement of the spermatozoa prevents the early formation of the crystals; they appear after several hours’ standing and are fewer in number. The thin azoospermatic semen is more transparent and watery and contains more epithelia and fat than normal semen.

The patient is, as a rule, unaware of his anomaly. It is often discovered after his wife has undergone innumerable treatments for her supposed sterility. If the anomaly has been caused by gonorrhoea with the accompanying inflammation of the testicles, epididymitis, or spermatic funiculitis, the loss is almost irremediable. The revelation to the couple of their doom to childlessness is one of the many tragedies played in the doctor’s office.

Impotence of copulation.—The anomaly, most complained of, which drives the patient to seek medical help is the impotence of copulation. It is the anomaly which strikes the hardest blow to masculine vanity. It is a psychological fact that most men are proud of their potency of copulation and feel greatly humiliated when the same is impeded. A woman will not seldom discuss with her friends the double ovariotomy performed upon her, but the man deprived of his testicles will never mention the fact of his castration to his closest friends.

The impotence of copulation is best divided into four types:

1) Organic impotence.

2) Symptomatic, or paralytic impotence.

3) Psychic, a) transitory, b) relative, c) temporary impotence.

4) Atonic impotence.

Organic impotence may be congenital or acquired. Among the congenital forms are total absence of the penis. Smallness of the penis may also be the cause of impotence, although this cause has been somewhat exaggerated by most writers. The male generative organs on the Greek statues are in comparison with the size of the other parts quite small. Still, if the smallness goes beyond a certain degree it will cause impotence. In the same way enlargement of the penis beyond a certain degree will also result in impotence. Adhesions of the penis to the neighboring parts or torsion of the penis will render intromission impossible. Congenital absence of the testicles is always accompanied by loss of power.

Among the acquired deformities are counted neoplasms of the penis, elephantiasis, and the destruction of the penis through ulceration. Syphilis and tuberculosis of the testicles are generally destructive to virility. Removal of the testicles, even if operated later in life, is, after a certain time, followed by atrophy of the penis and impotence. Indurations and ossifications of the cavernous bodies lead, as a rule, to impotence.

Symptomatic impotence.—The organic type of impotence is relatively very rare. The other type, symptomatic impotence, is oftener met with. It is found in cerebral diseases, diabetes, tabes dorsalis, chronic nephritis, extreme obesitas, chronic rheumatism, chronic alcoholism and in the cachexies of anaemia, cholaemia and uraemia. But since the desire fails with the failure of power, such patients rarely seek medical aid for this anomaly. They consult the physician for their original ailment which is of far greater importance to them than the loss of power. They mention this anomaly only in the course of the anamnesis.

Symptomatic impotence is, as a rule, paralytic in form. Libido is more or less absent, and if emissions ever occur they take place without erection or pleasure. In the paralytic form of impotence nocturnal erections are absent, nor do erections occur at any other time. This sign is almost pathognomonic of this type. If the vagina is very wide, and intromission with semi-erection should be effected, ejaculation does not come in jets but slowly. The function of the bulbo-cavernosus muscle is impaired, hence no ejaculation with force in a jet is possible, but a slow dribbling from the meatus takes place.

In paralytic impotence the genitals are more or less withered. The skin of penis and scrotum is almost anaesthetic. The entire urethra is insensible, the sound passes into the bladder with the greatest ease. The skin of the thigh in the vicinity of the genitals is more sensitive to electric currents than that of penis and scrotum. The following history well illustrates a typical case of paralytic symptomatic impotence:

Mr. H., 45 years of age, a widower with one child, contracted lues fifteen years previously and was apparently cured after two years’ treatment. For the last two to three years he began to suffer from shooting pains around the abdomen (Gürtelschmerz) and in his legs. Micturition is frequently urging, and the stream is slow. The knee-jerks are greatly exaggerated. The patient’s gait is still normal, and he does not show any other sign of tabes dorsalis. About the time when the pains first appeared, he also noticed a certain weakness in erection and premature ejaculation. He began then to associate with meretricious women who practised on him fellatricia, or insertio fascini in os. From this time the impotence increased and is now complete. For the last two years he never had even nocturnal erections. The penis is in a state of atrophy, and is now of the size of a boy’s, fourteen to fifteen years of age. The skin of the penis is shriveled and cold. The glans is pale. The entire skin of the penis and scrotum is quite anaesthetic to the galvanic current. An application of about fifteen milliamperes in strength, which produced an ulceration by burning, was scarcely felt by the patient. The faradic reaction is normal.

Psychic impotence.—The mode of impotence known as psychic is a very frequent anomaly. It is the disease of the cultured classes. The action of the nervi erigentes is incomplete in psychic impotence, and the complete relaxation of the corpora cavernosa does not take place. Hence a sufficient quantity of blood can not enter the erectile tissue to exert pressure on the outgoing veins. The corpora cavernosa become smaller and harder at the critical moment and do not admit the entrance of the blood. The diameter of the penis becomes less than that of the glans. The penis feels cartilaginous, and the skin is found in transverse folds through the contraction of the corpora cavernosa. Hence erections are feeble or entirely wanting at the critical moment. When the patient is lying in bed alone he has, in distinction from atonic impotence, quite vigorous erections.

Psychic impotence is transitorily found also in healthy individuals when they are in a state of agitation. The more agitated the patient is, the more the penis shrinks. In psychic impotence, if the wife is of an exceedingly passionate disposition, she will make advances and may often evoke powerful erections, whereas the wife’s indifference would cause impotence.

In this way this form of impotence is often only relative. With one woman the inability injungendi is complete, while the virile power is exuberant in concarnatione with another. As a rule, the patient who has reached the critical age of fifty to sixty, does not succeed in his conjugal duties but is able commisceri meretricis auxilio. The indifference of the wife who, as a rule, is about forty to fifty years of age and has either passed or is very near the climacterium, accounts for the husband’s impotence in her company. Such men are able to perform the act only when the woman actively or at least cheerfully and willingly yields herself. The sullen, supine position of the frigid wife is not enough to hold a man’s love forever.

Temporary psychic impotence of short duration is sometimes met with in newly married men through lack of confidence. When about to be married, the broodings over things to come overstimulate the inhibitory centres in the brain. As a result, at the critical moment, the penis gradually shrinks, grows smaller and moves in a worm-like manner in the course of its diminution.

The following case may serve as an illustration for such cases:

Mr. S., 23 years of age, had suffered from gonorrhoea a few years previously. He has practised stuprum manu moderately at the time of puberty. Later on he associated cum meretricibus. He always considered himself healthy. The seminal discharge was somewhat precipitated, but the patient attributed this phenomenon to his extraordinary strength and was rather proud of it. When he became engaged to his present wife he abstained henceforth from illicit relations. Two days before the consultation the patient married and, upon approaching his young bride, found that the erection was too weak to transgress the virginal portals. After his first failure, every repeated attempt caused the penis to shrink almost half the normal size of the flaccid condition. The wife’s genitals were perfectly normal. She did not suffer from vaginism. Therapeutic suggestion and a medicinal tonic (ut aliquid fiat) removed the anomaly in a few days.

In this case the anaphrodisiac of fear after the first failure was the cause of the impotence.

Psychic impotence is sometimes present for a short time after long continued abstinence in men who for some reason have interrupted their regular sexual relations. Young men who have never had yet any sex relations are never affected by mere abstinence. Psychic impotence is not seldom found in men with a certain vocation requiring great mental strain, as literary men, bookworms, mathematicians, engineers, etc.

Extreme excitement and desire may cause temporary impotence. The number of stimuli arriving from the brain is too vast and paralyzes the centre of erection. A violent lover, who has for a long time repressed his desires, plunges his entire organism, in the moment of their realization, into a kind of ecstasy. His soul, i. e., the immaterial part of his being, concentrates in the object of his desires all his force and vitality. He appears entirely to forget his organs which ordinarily serve to transmit his desires. It is hence first necessary for him that everything be restored to the ordinary channel, that the moral over-excitation ceases or that it returns at least to the normal type of simple excitation, before the centre of erection will have power to exercise its function.

Want of responsiveness from the mate has sometimes a disadvantageous effect upon the man. Hence obstacles, on the side of the woman, will not seldom cause psychic impotence. The history of the following case is characteristic of this kind of disturbances:

A young medical student made the acquaintance of a young girl who had previously given birth to a child. The girl did not want to reveal her secret to her lover, and fearing that, as a medical student, he might discover her secret in initu, she refused to grant him her favor. One evening while alone with her in his room, he tried hard to accomplish his desire by persuasion, caresses, and other means. When just at the point to break her resistance, the erection suddenly ceased, and the penis shrunk to half its normal size. From this moment he suffered from complete impotence. Even nocturnal erections did not take place any longer. The impotence resisted every kind of treatment, until, one day, the girl wrote the patient that she was now willing to yield to his desires. At the first meeting following the letter, puella tentavit actively to arouse his passion, and he succeeded in having a powerful erection actionis peragendo. From this moment he was cured from his ailment and enjoyed his full virile power of former days.

This case shows the vast influence the psyche is wielding even upon the unconscious state of the brain during sleep. The stimulation of the inhibitory centre was so strong as to prevent even the occurrence of nocturnal erections.

In illicit relations, the fear of surprise or of infection, shame or loathing may have inhibitory effects upon the centre of erection and cause psychic impotence.

Violent shocks to the nervous system, as great fright, pain, or grief, etc., and all other strong emotions which often affect the urinary system by causing temporary frequent micturition, polyuria, or glycosuria, may also give rise to disturbances of the sexual functions and cause psychic impotence of a transitory nature.

Over-estimation of the difficulties of defloration sometimes causes temporary impotence in nervous newly married men. The timidity of inexperience may in the same way have the effect of an anaphrodisiac.

Sometimes the exaggerated veneration of his young wife may cause temporary loss of vigor in the young husband. The thought that such an exalted personality, as his young innocent wife, should have to submit to such an indignity (not a few have this strange opinion of the conjugal act), works as an inhibition of the proper performance of the act.

The most frequent cause of psychic impotence is the thought of failure. An accidental single failure through the temporary abuse of alcohol, tobacco, coffee, or tea or through intense desire may occur, some day, which in the healthy man would pass unnoticed. But the nervous man will begin to brood over this failure, and this brooding will prevent the formation of associative paths in the brain at every subsequent attempt of coition. In nervous men, the imagination, having once become impressed with groundless fears, may retain them with extreme tenacity and busy itself with constant brooding in solitude over the fancied ills. Thus a disorder of adjustment is established, and a psychic trauma is created, through the subconscious effects of cryptogrammic nerve-currents. This psychic trauma is translated into fear again. The subconscious cerebral processes lead to the formation of ideas, later recallable in memory. These morbid ideas become the substratum of future anxiety-attacks. A pathological state is thus induced where the natural course of erection fails to follow the sexual excitement. In this way a veritable disease is produced, where there is a strong desire without full power. Every additional failure provokes more intense broodings which are naturally again the cause of failure. Thus a vicious circle is created which may render an occasional innocent failure a permanent impotency.

Atonic impotence.—The most frequent form of impotence of copulation, in fact, the impotence “par excellence,” is the atonic impotence. This is the impotency which is generally caused by venereal excesses, either in copulation, masturbation, mental erethism, frustrate eroticism, or last but not least, conjugal onanism or coitus interruptus. These excesses cause the exhaustion of the centre of erection, irritation of the centre of ejaculation and a debilitation and enervation of the genital nerves. For when the lumbar centre of erection fails to respond, there is a deficiency in activity, excitability, mobility, and tonicity of the entire genital apparatus.

In the atonic form of impotence conditions of absolute impotency are quite rare. Absolute impotence is mostly found in the paralytic form which is caused by cerebrospinal and nervous diseases. In the atonic anomaly the vast majority of cases are of partial impotence.

The impotence due to weakness is distinguished by premature ejaculation and the subsequent immediate subsidence of erection. Sometimes a vigorous erection ceases suddenly before emission has occurred, and the penis becomes completely flaccid and shrivels to half its normal size before the entrance into the vagina. When ejaculation does later occur it takes place without erection or pleasurable sensations. Not seldom the entrance into the vagina is effected with good erection, but when about to begin the act, the penis suddenly wilts, the wilting either followed by ejaculation or not. The following case illustrates the ordinary symptoms:

Mr. L., 45 years of age, happily married, and father of several children, was always healthy and strong and had never had gonorrhoea or syphilis, but had freely masturbated when he was young. He always considered himself a powerful man. He is given to athletics, horseback riding, ball playing, swimming, rowing, etc. For the last year the patient noticed a certain weakness in his potency. As soon as he enters the vagina, ejaculation takes place at once and is followed by immediate flaccidity of the penis. Sometimes, while trying intromission, the erection ceases like a shot ante portas. When he does not try congressus the erection lasts much longer. The patient’s wife has been of a rather frigid nature, never asking or caring for concarnatio. But recently she seems at times to have rather a certain longing for the embrace. This fact makes the patient feel doubly miserable, not to succeed, when the partner seems to desire and enjoy the initus.

This case is one of those where objectively there is very little to discover. In some cases of atonic impotence the patients show neurasthenic or cerebrasthenic symptoms. The underlying cause of the impotence, as a rule, determines the symptom-complex of the case. If the cause of the impotence is excess in masturbation, the case will show all the symptoms of the typical masturbator. The latter is generally small, emaciated, hollow-chested, thin-necked and weak-kneed. He shows deep-set eyes and pale hollow cheeks. The penis and testicles are small. The penis is cold and shriveled. The patient has a bad taste in his mouth, and suffers from winds in his stomach. He also suffers from obstinate constipation and colicky pains in the bowels. He complains of palpitation of the heart, shortness of breath and of a burning sensation in his arms. He suffers from loss of memory and from tinnitus aurium. The patient also shows a certain moral abasement, incontrollable restlessness, carelessness in dress and person and shambling in gait. The history of the following case is that of a typical masturbator:

Mr. C. is 31 years of age and unmarried. At the time of puberty, when he was 14 years old, he began to practise stuprum manu. Se stuprabat manu three to four times daily. When twenty years of age he began to associate cum meretricibus. But the natural initus did not seem to satisfy him. Post omnem initum manu se stuprabat, in addition, as soon as he reached his residence. Three years ago he contracted gonorrhoea, from which he suffered a whole year. Since a year he noticed a certain weakness in his potency. He is able to effect intromission, but before he can begin the act, ejaculation without the least trace of libido takes place, followed by immediate flaccidity of the penis. He has some erections in the morning but they are not complete as in former times.

When the cause of the atonic impotence was venereal excesses or gonorrhoeal prostatitis, the long-kept-up congestion of the prostatic urethra and of the colliculus leads to general reflex excitability, to a high degree of nervousness, cerebrasthenia, and neurasthenia. The colliculus being an organ which finds its analogue in the female uterus, its constant irritation will show phenomena in men, usually found in intensely hysterical women only.

The impotent men generally change their entire psychic nature. They become timid, morose, solitary, melancholic, hypochondrical and despondent. They are discontented, peevish, ill-humored, and evince either blunted or inordinate sexual desires. They show profound agitation at the slightest excitement. The patients are troubled with insomnia or unrefreshed sleep and with a feeling of heaviness on rising. The mind is enfeebled and the memory impaired. The mental debility and dulness cause inability to collect their thoughts and thus enfeebles the mind in its power of concentration. The patients suffer from vertigo, singing in the ears, from a feeling of fulness in the head, from asthenopia, depression, anxiety and irritability. They often suffer from palpitation of the heart, sick headaches, coldness of the hands and feet, dull heavy feelings, a sense of fatigue and a loss of flesh. They also complain of creeping sensations in the loins, of pricking in the back, of twitching and jerking of the muscles, of muscular weakness, of lumbar pain and asthma. The intestinal canal shows a general derangement, as coated tongue, poor appetite, sense of weight in the epigastrium after eating, flatulence, sluggishness of the bowels and constipation. The general health of the patient is broken, the countenance is vacant and the gait feeble.

Besides the general symptoms, the genito-urinary organs are especially affected in atonic impotence. The external genitals show a certain flaccidity, shrinkage, paleness of the mucous membranes and a diminution of the sensibility and electrical irritability. The skin of the penis is cold, shriveled and somewhat insensible to electrical stimulation. The electrical irritability of the skin of the two halves of the scrotum is of a different degree, the right half being sometimes more sensitive than the left.

The testicles are often very painful and tightly drawn up against the external abdominal rings. The spermatic cord often shows an enlargement of the veins (varicocele). The vas deferens and the ampulla are in a state of inflammation.

The seminal vesicles are plainly felt indurated, nodular and distended with fluid. In a large proportion of cases the repeated congestion causes a veritable seminal vesiculitis. This inflammation is not seldom extended to the ejaculatory ducts and occludes the same. Through this occlusion spermatic colic, i. e., a severe pain in the region of the vesicles, often seizes the patient, especially after some sexual excitement, as dancing, caressing, and even flirting. After such excitement a dull pain in the region of the prostate and in the perineum as well as in the testicles, spermatic cords and in the rectum is very annoying to the patient. Ejaculation often removes these pains. For that reason the patient tries to relieve himself from the painful sensations by masturbation. Ejaculation also removes the irritations of the thighs, hips, anus, hypogastric region and in the smalls of the back.

The entire urethra is often in a state of hyperaesthesia and paraesthesia, and the prostatic portion shows congestion and not seldom an inflammation of the mucous membrane. Especially the colliculus is often in a severe inflammatory condition. There is thickening sponginess or puffiness of the parts immediately involving the ejaculatory ducts. The urethra manifests great sensibility. The introduction of a bougie produces unbearable pains. The withdrawal of the sound is often followed by several drops of blood. This hypertrophy and inflammation of the colliculus seminalis is the cause of the ejaculatio praecox in the beginning of the disease. Later on the condition provokes weak erections and finally ejaculation with flaccid member before entrance into the vagina.

The irritation of the urethra causes hypersecretion of the glands of Littré and Cowper which is manifested by the so-called urethrorrhoea. In urethrorrhoea the secretion is thin, transparent, perfectly clear and sticky. The secretion has no spermatic odor and does not stain the linen, but stiffens it. It is seen as a drop in the morning at awakening with an erection. The drop is sticky and tenacious. The meatus urethrae sticks together. The drop is not rarely found in healthy men after violent and continuous erections. The secretions show under the microscope nothing beyond free mucous and columnar and pavement epithelia.

Besides the hypersecretion of the urethral glands, there is also a hypersecretion of the prostate, especially in patients who have indulged in excesses in masturbation and in onanism (coitus interruptus). Masturbation as well as onanism do not give the same satisfaction as normal coition, hence constant hankering for more and overindulgence. Prostatorrhoea is often found after gonorrhoea, when the yellowish drop gradually becomes whitish, flocculent, and finally a colorless watery drop of clear, slightly viscid fluid. It is best seen when the lips of the meatus are held apart.

In prostatorrhoea the discharge is never milky, white or purulent as in pure prostatitis. Microscopically the slowly dried slide shows the characteristic crystals of sodium chloride, but no spermatozoa. In prostatorrhoea the orifice of the urethra shows constant moisture. The copious evacuations occur while straining in the water-closet. The patients are, as a rule, constipated. The discharge is attended with peculiar sensations, sometimes of a pleasurable nature, sometimes of a dropping sensation, weight in the region of the prostate, anus and rectum. Examination per rectum often shows hard points and nodules in the prostatic gland.

The most frequent anomaly caused by venereal excesses is spermatorrhoea and nocturnal pollutions. The excesses provoke a chronic hypertrophy of the prostatic gland, and this hypertrophy renders the ejaculatory ducts insufficient.

In spermatorrhoea there is an oozing of semen from the urethra without erection or pleasurable sensations. The rhythmic muscular contractions, found in normal ejaculations, are missing here. The failure of the normal contractions is due to a paresis of the muscular fibres of the ejaculatory ducts.

Spermatorrhoea usually takes place after micturition or during defecation. Sometimes spermatorrhoea is caused by the slightest excitement. The sight of a woman’s bust or of her leg, the touch of her hand, the smell of her perfume, the glance at a lascivious painting, or a voluptuous thought may cause a precipitate discharge, without an erection or with an imperfect erection. The discharge taking place at a complete relaxation of the ejaculatory ducts, the voluptuous sensations are, as a rule, entirely absent.

Spermatic discharges sometimes occur in affections of the central nervous system, where the usual inhibitions through consciousness are ineffectual.

Microscopically the discharge in spermatorrhoea shows amyloid bodies, lecithin and prostatic epithelia. The fluid has the seminal odor which is peculiar to the spermin reaction; the amount of spermatozoa is somewhat diminished.

The testicles and the skin of patients, suffering from spermatorrhoea, are less sensitive to electrical stimulation, while the urethra is hypersensitive.

Nocturnal emissions constitute the other anomaly of ejaculation. Physiologically all healthy continent men between the ages of fifteen to fifty, with very few exceptions, have nocturnal emissions at intervals of about four weeks (male menstruation). The pollutions arise during sleep and are accompanied by erotic dreams and erections. They usually awaken the sleeper. Normal pollutions occur only in sleep and are accompanied by vigorous erections, erotic dreams and orgasm. They also cause a sensation of relief. When pollutions are frequent, two or three times a week, they become pathological. They are then followed by lassitude, dizziness, faintness, dragging pains in the occipital region, mental depression, disinclination for mental effort, sense of fatigue, lessening of physical strength, pain in the back and reflex irritability. The patients are startled at the least noise. They change color every moment. The eyeballs run unsteadily. There is often found a disturbance of speech, difficulty in breathing, and palpitation of the heart.

The following case will best illustrate the symptoms in nocturnal pollutions:

Mr. A., 25 years of age, was always well and never had gonorrhoea or syphilis. When a boy he practised stuprum manu in a moderate degree, as he says. A few years ago he noticed a certain weakness in erection. The emission took place soon after the entrance into the vagina and was followed by the immediate flaccidity of the penis. Sometimes the ejaculation occurred ante portas. The patient, therefore, gave up trying intercourse. Since then he is suffering from nocturnal pollutions, which occur every night or at least three to four times a week. The following day the patient feels very weak, as to prevent him from performing his usual work in his trade. He suffers from headaches and pains in the lumbar region and in the legs. He is engaged to be married and is looking forward with great apprehension to the approaching time of this momentous event.

Pathological pollutions are caused by a paralysis of the circular muscular fibres of the ejaculatory ducts. This paralysis may be either of a purely nervous nature or caused through inflammatory processes. Atony of the mouths of the ejaculatory ducts not seldom produces nocturnal pollutions. Sometimes pollutions are also due to a spasm of the detrusors of the seminal vesicles.

When the seminal vesicles and the ejaculatory ducts are thus affected, very little is needed to cause a nocturnal emission. Any diurnal excitement will be followed by nocturnal erotic images and pollutions. Sleeping on the back, by causing a fluction of blood to the spinal cord, will also produce pollutions.

Besides the genitals, the urinary system is also greatly affected in atonic impotence. The hyperaesthesia and hyperaemia of the prostatic urethra and of the colliculus, usually found in atonic impotence, are the cause of a continual irritation of the bladder.

The irritation of the neck of the bladder provokes a spasm of the detrusor vesicae. To this spasm is due the frequent painless impulse to urinate, by day when under mental activity, and in sleepless nights.

Sometimes the detrusor is in a paretic condition. In paresis of the bladder the patient has to wait for the urine to come and has to use abdominal pressure to effect urination. The urine falls without force perpendicularly from the urethra. There is often desire to urinate, but never a feeling of satisfaction after urinating. When catheterization is attempted, there is a powerful resistance at the neck of the bladder, through a certain spasm of the sphincter.

In spasm of the sphincter of the bladder there is also frequent impulse to urinate. Not seldom such patients are unable to urinate in the presence of others. Sometimes the urine cannot be passed at all. The spasm of the sphincter creates a certain difficulty in starting the act of micturition. The stream is often interrupted and, at the end, a dribbling of urine takes place. Through the spasmodic contraction of the muscular fibres of the sphincter the urethra represents a rigid open tube in which one end is closed; it thus resembles a pipette which retains the fluid as long as one end is closed. When the relaxation takes place, the fluid contained in the urethral tube dribbles out of the meatus.

In paralysis or paresis of the sphincter the patient urinates often but in small quantities. In paresis of the sphincter there is no resistance to catheterization at the neck of the bladder. In the beginning of the paresis there is incontinence of urine during the night. Later on when the disease has progressed, and a perfect paralysis has ensued, the incontinence of the urine is constant even in daytime.

In enuresis nocturna, often found in masturbating children, there is an imperfect innervation of the sphincter, while the innervation of the detrusor of the bladder is perfect.

In all these anomalies the urethra is very sensitive. The passage of an instrument causes unbearable anguish. The patient acts as mad when the sound is introduced. There is often found a troublesome burning in the urethra, especially in the fossa navicularis, during or after micturition.

Besides the frequent urgency to urination, in all these troubles, there is not seldom an actual polyuria present. The urine is pale, clear, watery, with low specific gravity, often as low as 1002. The urine is not seldom loaded with phosphates. Sometimes oxaluria, with high specific gravities up to 1050, is discovered. Transient glycosuria as high as two to three per cent. is also found. At times vesical tenesmus is met with. Sometimes anuria is observed, although the kidneys are in perfect order.

The pathology of female impotence.—The same four kinds of impotencies found in men are also met with in women, with the only difference that the frequency of one or the other of the impotencies is different in the different sexes. They are: 1) impotence of voluptas, 2) impotence of copulation, 3) impotence of reproduction, and 4) impotence of libido.

Impotence of voluptas.—The entire absence of the sense of sex, or impotence of voluptas, where the individual has absolutely no sexual inclination to any individual of the other sex, is more frequently met with in women than in men. Still even in women this idiopathic frigidity, this insensibility where the woman is completely frigid by temperament, is much rarer than is generally believed. In fact, it is extremely difficult to find a woman who is without aptitude of sexual emotion.

Physiological frigidity exists in infants and in very old age. After a regular and satisfactory orgasm the woman is physiologically more or less anaesthetic for some time. The ablation of both ovaries before puberty causes total anaesthesia, while the operation after puberty produces, for a certain time, at least, only an impairment of libido, or orgasmus retardatus. Congenital degeneration of the ovarian glands will be accompanied by total absence of the sense of sex. As in men, the total absence of sexual desire is found in severe cases of neurasthenia, where the entire nervous system is in a low state of efficiency. Idiopathic impotence of voluptas is further found in low idiots and in dementia, where there is lack of understanding of the opposite sex. The sexual perversity of homosexuality, as a rule, causes total impotence of sexual desire for the opposite sex. Sometimes the cause for the anaesthesia lies in the centre, otherwise the patient is perfectly normal, as in the following case:

The patient, forty years of age, twenty years married, is a highly cultured lady. She never had a child or was pregnant while living with her two first husbands. A prominent gynaecologist, who had examined her several years previously, attributed the cause of her sterility to an infantile uterus. She has never, in her life, experienced any sexual desire and seems to be proud of it. She attributes this lack of passion to her great mental activity. An examination revealed a pregnancy of about four months.

Impotence of copulation, except in the anomaly known as vaginism, is very rarely found in women. Conjugation is, of course, impossible in the rare cases of total absence of the vagina. In hypospadia, where the vaginal orifice is situated within the rectum, vaginal conjugation is well-nigh impossible. Adhesions of the labia majora or minora, a rigid imperforated hymen, an extreme vaginal atresia near the orifice and elephantiasis of the vulva will cause impotence of conjugation. All acute inflammations of the vulva, vagina, rectum, uterus tubes, or ovaries may render approach painful and impossible. Urethral caruncles, urethritis, fissures at the neck of the bladder, rectal fissures or hemorrhoids may also render conjugation difficult. The tetanic contraction of the sphincter cunni and the tetanic spasm of the perineal muscles, constrictor cunni, transversus perinei, sphincter and levator ani which close tightly the orifices of the vagina and the entire vaginal canal will also be the cause of impotentia coeundi. The solitary tetanic contraction of the sphincter cunni, known under the name of vaginism, will make conjugation impossible until the hymen is removed. The following case operated by the author illustrates this anomaly:

Mrs. X., twenty-two years of age, for three months married to a physician, was unable to be approached by her husband. As soon as the penis touched the labia, the sphincter cunni contracted so tightly that there was an utter impossibility to transverse the virginal portals. During the examination, at the least touch of the nymphae, the sphincter could be observed contracting, just as seen in animals after defecation when the sphincter ani contracts. The ablation of the hymen cured the anomaly. This fact shows that it was only a reflex-irritation, started at the highly sensitive hymen. The sphincter itself was perfectly normal.

Impotence of reproduction.—More frequent than impotence of copulation is female impotence of reproduction. This anomaly is naturally found in all those cases where there is impotence of copulation. It is sometimes met with in excessive acid reaction of the vaginal contents, where the spermatozoa are killed before they reach the uterus.

When one lip of the cervix is considerably elongated, covering apron-like the external os, the spermatozoa will not be able to enter the cervix, and sterility will result. Sterility is also found in the obliteration of the cervical canal, produced by caustics or scars after tears during confinements and after curettings. Ectropion, stenosis of the external or internal os of the cervical canal, endocervicitis, causing an increased cervical secretion, and the swelling of the plicae palmatae may prevent the entrance of semen into the uterus and thus cause impotence of propagation.

The anomalies of the uterus are also sometimes responsible for sterility. Uterus foetalis and obliterations of the lumen of the uterus will result in absolute sterility. Uterus infantilis, hypoplasia of the uterus, atresia of the uterus or polypi, hypertrophic chronic metritis, degeneration of the uterus or uterine deviations may often be the cause of sterility.

The anomalies of the tubes which cause sterility are absence of the tubes, rudimentary tubes, total or even partial obliteration of their lumen, as in salpingitis nodosa, closing of the ends of the tubes in bilateral salpingitis, and adherences of the tubes to the neighboring parts, as found in pelviperitonitis, perimetritis, perisalpingitis, and perioöphoritis.

The anomalies of the ovaries, causing impotence of procreation, are absence of the ovaries, hypoplasia of the parenchymatous tissue of the ovaries, fibrous degeneration of the ovaries, alteration of their position, as extreme prolapsus and hernia of the ovaries.

All these anomalies may produce either absolute or relative sterility. In regard to frequency they are of slight significance in comparison with endometritis and pelviperitonitis after gonorrhoea. The gonorrheic infection is, therefore, the cause par excellence of the impotence of procreation in women as in men.

Impotence of libido.—While in men the common form of impotence is inability of conjugation, the common form of impotence in women is failure to experience the orgasm, or the impotence of libido. In this anomaly two grades may be distinguished, total anaesthesia and partial anaesthesia or orgasmus retardatus.

In absolute anaesthesia there is not even a vestige of a libidinous sensation during intercourse. The woman likes caressing, hugging, kissing, etc., because the potency of voluptas is intact. But there is no vestige even of the fore-pleasure, or the ant-orgastic libido. The woman is devoid of sexual sensation, her genitals have no more excitability for pleasurable sensations than her fingers. Hence no desire for coition exists. On the contrary, there is, as a rule, a pronounced disinclination to the act. Where there is complete absence of pleasurable feelings, the act becomes naturally loathsome to the individual. If coition is granted it is done either from a sense of duty or for gain.

Physiological anaesthesia exists in children until puberty, and in adults in old age. Even after menstruation has set in, the girl is, as a rule, anaesthetic in regard to libido, although she may be erotic. “The girl has to be kissed into a woman.” After the climacterium the woman generally becomes again more or less anaesthetic. Some women may continue to experience libido years after this period, and may manifest symptoms of great sexual excitement as seen in the following case:

Mrs. X., married to an elderly man, looked upon the marital relations more as a duty than as a pleasure during her entire married life. But since the climacterium has set in, the rare approaches of her husband are impatiently awaited and they cause her great sexual excitement and satisfaction, never experienced before during the entire period of her active sexual life.

Such cases are extremely rare. Generally there is a close connection between the activity of the generative glands and the degree of libido.

After a regular and satisfactory coition the woman is, physiologically, more or less anaesthetic for some time. The length of the neutral period varies in different individuals. Intense mental activity, emotional depression and long sexual continence also diminish the sensual pleasure.

Apart from this temporary anaesthesia, there are many women who are impotent to experience libido throughout their lives. There is a total absence of pleasurable feelings during coition or any other kind of sexual stimulation.

A young lady, twenty-two years of age, complains that while during the time of her engagement she greatly enjoyed her fiancé’s caresses and became sexually excited when fondled by him, since her marriage she is unable to experience any libido in coition, although her husband is possessed of great potency. The patient is a beautiful brunette, with fiery eyes, and is a picture of health. Examination shows a uterus infantilis.

The potency of voluptas in this case is wholly intact. The patient enjoys being fondled and caressed. The cause of the impotency of libido lies in the periphery, although uterus infantilis is seldom accompanied by impotence of libido.

In some cases the woman is normally developed in every respect, menstruates regularly and is frequently quite prolific. The power of procreation is sometimes even very great. The woman is generally quite erotic and falls in love easily. Yet she never experiences the least libido.

A young lady, twenty-eight years of age, mother of two healthy children, was sent by her family physician from Chicago to consult the author for her impotence of libido. The husband stated that he is sure of his wife’s attachment to him. She enjoys his company and likes to be caressed by him. Still during the eight years of their married life she never showed the least sign of libido at coition. She remains cold and indifferent, and only submits conjugationi to please her husband. The examination showed the genitals to be in perfect order.

In the following case, too, no cause whatsoever could be found for the anaesthesia in regard to libido.

Mrs. L., twenty-nine years of age, is seven months married. Her menstruation set in when she was fifteen years of age and was always regular of about six days’ duration. At that time she began to satisfy herself by manusturpation and found some libido in the manipulation. But soon she read in a book about the ill effects of this practice and stopped it.

In the beginning of her married life coitus caused her great pain, which diminished by degrees after a few weeks. At present, coition causes her only disgust. The day after she feels tired and weak.

The examination shows a feminine habitus, breasts well developed, clitoris normal. The hymenal rests are very sensitive to the touch. The painful sensation and the feeling of disgust increase when the anterior vaginal wall is touched. The uterus is enlarged to the size of a goose-egg, the cervix is soft, and the external os narrowly closed. Diagnosis, two months’ pregnancy.

In this case some traces of libido were present at the time of puberty, which later on entirely disappeared. In some cases the patient is very prolific, as the following history shows:

The author recently performed a perineorrhaphy on an otherwise healthy woman, mother of five children, who confided in him that she has never experienced the slightest libido in intercourse. Yet, she added, if her husband would not take precautions, she would give birth to a child every year, as was the case in the beginning of their married life.

Anaesthesia in women is, as a rule, due to inexcitability of the genital nerves and to lack of excitation at the centre of libido. Sometimes anatomical anomalies of the genitals may cause impotence of libido. The integrity and the free exercise of the generative organs are necessary for the integrity of the libidinous feeling, although sexual pleasure is experienced at the nervous centres, and the generative organs play only a secondary part. The vaginal bulbi and their muscle, the constrictor cunni, the intermediary net of veins between the bulbs and the clitoris, and the free part of the latter, the glans of the clitoris, must functionate normally in order to give full satisfaction in intercourse.

Hence diminution or extinction of the sense of libido will be caused by castration, degeneration of the ovarian glands, marasmus, sexual excesses and overindulgence in alcoholic beverages or cocaine.

In the following case the erotic feeling increased in such a degree after the castration, probably through the extinction of the libido, as to deceive the family physician and lead him to make the diagnosis nymphomania.

Miss X., a school teacher, over thirty years of age, was always chaste and indifferent not only to any carnal pleasure, but also to male company. On account of a uterine fibroid, a total extirpation of uterus and ovaries was performed. Since the operation the patient complains of great sexual excitability she had never experienced before the operation. She is so excited sexually that she is possessed of the almost imperative impulse to kiss every male person she meets on the street, and but for her position, she would have long ago yielded to this impulsive desire.

In another case of diminution of the potency of libido, only uterine inflammation and pregnancy could be discovered.

Mrs. M., thirty-five years of age, four months married, had always suffered pain in the back during menstruation. The patient complains that she only experienced libido twice since she has been married. Since the last experience in the first weeks of her married life, she has no pleasure at all. Coition, though not painful, causes her a disagreeable feeling. An examination revealed anteflexio uteri, enlargement and catarrh of the cervix, erosions and a three months’ pregnancy.

In the following case castration caused inability to experience libido.

Mrs. M., thirty-five years of age, for the last fifteen years married but sterile. When she was only two years married she began to suffer from attacks of headaches and vomiting, which repeated almost every other day. Her menstruation was regular. After having tried all the stomach specialists in the city without finding any relief from the vomiting spells, she consulted a gynaecologist, and he promptly found an ovary to be the cause of all her troubles. She had been previously operated upon for gall stones, which were not found and for appendicitis, when the presumably diseased appendix was removed. She now submitted to ovariectomy on the left side. Three months after the operation the vomiting spells returned, and she submitted again to a removal of the right ovary. But even this double castration did not relieve her. When she first consulted the author she was still suffering from these spells, especially before menstruation, which is still present although irregular. The patient declares that previous to the ovariotomies she experienced full libido and was able to induce orgasm. After the second ovariotomy this potency was lost. She gets excited during coition, but the orgasm cannot be produced. The following day she feels nervous and weak.

In another case of impotence of libido nothing else but anteflexio could be discovered.

Mrs. H., twenty-four years of age, four years married, was confined by the author a year ago of a healthy girl. The patient complains of never having experienced any libido. Before her confinement coition caused her great pain and misery. Since her confinement she suffers no more pain during the act, but libido is still absent. She complains of great dryness of the parts, so that vaseline has to be used to facilitate walking. At the examination there was found redness of the vulva, catarrh and erosion of the cervix and anteflexio.

In the following case of anaesthesia the author could discover no other cause but general weakness.

Mrs. W., twenty-six years of age, was always pale and weak. Menstruation set in at twelve years of age. At nineteen she was married, and ten months later gave birth to her first child. Four years later gave birth to another child. For the last year she complains of stomach trouble and weakness, pain in the back and abdomen. Menstruation is now four to six days ahead of time and lasts five days. She never experienced orgasm but twice. Both times the intercourse was followed by pregnancy. Other times coition only excites her but never brings full satisfaction. The following day she suffers from severe headaches. An examination only revealed a catarrh of the cervix. The patient received a tonic, and the husband was given some hygienic rules to observe in initu. Five weeks later the husband informed the author that the anaesthesia had disappeared.

Sometimes sexual anaesthesia is the result of a hard confinement producing lesion of the muscle bulbo-cavernosus or of the erectile tissue of the bulbs themselves. The blood is then prevented from leaving the bulbs and from entering the corpora cavernosa of the clitoris. In this way the erection of the clitoris, which is more or less necessary for the full and normal inducement of the orgasm, is rendered impossible.

The author recently treated a young lady, twenty years of age. She had her first menstruation when she was sixteen years old and was always regular. She had been married eighteen months, and her baby was eight months old. The patient called to be treated for leucorrhoea, but her husband called the following day and stated that his wife has no pleasurable feeling during initus since her confinement. Before this event, she found perfect gratification. An examination revealed nothing but a catarrh of the cervix and a slight enlargement of the left ovary.

Roubaud also relates the confidences of a patient who wished se stuprare manu a few days after her confinement, but could not, with all her manipulations, induce the desired orgasm. The normal potency returned only after a long rest.

The number of women afflicted with the anomaly of impotence of libido is considerable. It is claimed by many authorities that ten to twenty per cent. of all women are afflicted with this anomaly. The symptoms of total anaesthesia are subjective and objective. There is first the statement of the husband about his wife’s indifference and coldness during the conjugal embrace. The woman complains of lack of orgasm and ejaculation and of the immediate flowing off of the sperma after coition. The peristaltic contractions of the vaginal walls, beginning at the vaginal orifice, and the aspirating movements of the uterus, as they take place in the normal woman, during the orgasm, are missing here. Hence the sperma is immediately discharged from the vagina.

One of the most conspicuous objective symptoms is a relaxation of the entire genital tract. The glans of the clitoris is often undeveloped or wholly adherent to the prepuce. In some women old lacerations of the perineum are present. The genital muscles, the levator ani and constrictor cunni as well as the perineum, are languid and withered. The mucous membrane of the entire genital tract is in a state of hypersecretion, as in true chronic inflammations. The vagina is wide and flabby, the walls are lacking elasticity. The portio vaginalis uteri is flabby and pointed. The uterine walls are weak and soft, and the cavity is wide. The uterus is extremely movable and generally lies in retropositio, the relaxation of the uterine ligaments allowing it to fall downward and backward. The patient’s general health is often poor, she is anemic, nervous and weak. Sometimes there is only hypoplasia of some of the genital organs, otherwise the woman enjoys good health.

Women suffering from anaesthesia may without sacrifice refuse their favors to their husbands and render them submissive to their will and henpecked. Single women, having no pleasure in and hence no desire for conjugation, if they are not induced to give themselves for pecuniary considerations, easily remain virtuous and seem to be very proud of this enforced purity. Even among married women there are wives who pride themselves on repugnance or distaste for their conjugal obligations. They speak of their coldness and the calmness of their senses as though they were not defects but great virtues. Yet the sour, shallow, sexless shrew is surely an imposture as a wife. Her marriage is nothing else but a fraud. In congenital anaesthesia the therapy is valueless, although electricity by Apostoli’s method and massage may be tried in uterus infantilis and in undeveloped ovaries. In prolific women the only advice the physician may give is that, in harmony with Ovid’s recommendation,

“Tu quoque cui Veneris sensum natura negavit,

“Dulcia mendaci gaudia finge sono.”

for the sake of matrimonial peace, simulation of libido and orgasm is a justifiable fraud. Even to resort to some lubricant to simulate the secretion from the Bartholinian and cervical glands is permissible. The man is easily deceived in this respect. He does not in any way feel the ejaculation of the woman. He only surmises her orgasm by her bearing during the culmination of the libido.[AY] The woman also does not feel immediately the male ejaculation, but she perceives it soon by the increase of moisture. Then the effect naturally increases the excitement, as the following case shows:

A young woman of twenty-two, who has practised stuprum manu from her early childhood, confided to the author that she derived more libidinem de stupro manu quam de initu. Yet, she added, after some abstinence from regular initus, although she is fully indulging in her favorite pastime, she has a veritable sitim seminis.

Patients afflicted with congenital impotence of libido are very seldom seen by the physician. They are not aware of their anomaly, and being otherwise normal and in full possession of the power of procreation, they never ask for treatment. The physician learns of such cases only by chance. It is different in acquired impotence of libido. Here the patient knows what she has lost, and the physician is often asked for advice and for a remedy. Hence the study of this anomaly is very important for the physician, although this impotence has not the same importance in women as it has in men, where it causes impotence of copulation and destroys the marriage relations of the couple.

Orgasmus retardatus.—The other grade in the impotence of libido is partial anaesthesia, in which the patient is able to experience the ant-orgastic pleasure, but cannot induce real orgasm. The intensity of the pleasurable feeling does not reach the sudden climax and does not diminish abruptly. The climax is never reached, and the ant-orgastic libido decreases gradually and slowly, it dies away. In idiopathic partial anaesthesia, where the anomaly is congenital, the patient has never experienced an orgasm, and hence is not aware of her anomaly.

It is different in the acquired form of partial anaesthesia or in the so-called orgasmus retardatus. The sexual excitement of the woman suffering from orgasmus retardatus is never abated, her libido is unimpeded, but the potency of experiencing orgasm is diminished or entirely absent. The following extracts of a letter from a patient suffering from a certain degree of orgasmus retardatus well illustrates the complaints of this class of patients:

I have been married over a year now, and have never experienced any satisfaction in initu. The glands seem to secrete the fluids, and the cupido congressus is there, but no satisfaction. I am always sleepless and nervous afterwards and sometimes suffer from headaches the following morning. I am at times bothered with leukorrhoea. When a child faciebam stuprum manu, but not since my sixteenth year of age, and I am at present twenty-five years old. I have never been pregnant.

The following case is extremely interesting, because the patient is able to induce orgasm only in one certain position. In all other positions she is impotent of experiencing libido. In March, 1908, the patient consulted the author about her anomaly. Being a highly educated woman (she was a school teacher before she married) she was asked to write in a letter the history of her case, and the following are the contents of her letter:

I am forty-one years of age, eleven years married, have two children, one ten, the other eight years old. I began to menstruate at the age of thirteen and was always regular, the menstruation lasting three to four days. The flow was always scanty.

As a child I was sad and dreamy. I can recall times when I would weep, I scarcely knew for what. When I was nearing puberty coepi me stuprare manu. No one taught me. I could not help it; I did not know what I did it for (I was reared on a farm). The method was sitting on a chair and moving to and fro. I must have continued till I was eighteen or nineteen years old. I stopped it long before I knew it was wrong, long before I have ever read it in books. No one told me it was wrong. I was a good girl in the eyes of every one.

At the age of twenty I went to college. I think the reason I stopped stuprum manu was that my mind was greatly engrossed in my studies. True, I often had the desire, but the association with the opposite sex would lessen it. I was fond of men in a silent way. I never, even though in their company, was familiar with them.

When twenty-three years of age I met one towards whom I was changed. I could not keep away from his presence. I remained a virgin till we married, when I was thirty years of age. I had known him seven years, but only saw him often, say three or four times a week, for the last two years. We spent only one or two evenings each week together. I allowed and deeply enjoyed all caresses, but they were not of the lewd fashion. I must have been excited sexually, for I would experience excessive humorem ut in initu.

At the age of forty-one, libidinem capio ex initu, yet experience no orgasm save in the position “vir infra,” and in this position very, very little sensation till the orgasm comes. I am fond of the concarnatio, but aside from the position just mentioned, I have not the least libido inter initum. It is a pleasure, you know, to give, but my own libido is wanting in any of these positions. My husband prefers alios positus to the one in which I have orgasm; præbente majorem libidinem.

Multum humesco in initu. Quamquam comisceor quot noctibus præferrem longum quam parvum temporis spatium concarnationi.

I am never ill, no aches or pains. The only premonition I have of the approach of the menses is a fulness and tenderness of the breasts. I menstruate very regularly.

Believe me when I say that once only in the seven years I knew the one I eventually married—I must have been twenty-three and a half years old, when I had spent hours in his company, with no more familiarity than a kiss at parting—I was so excited ut pulvillum premerem usque ad orgasmum. I could not have helped it, no matter what had occurred. Often I have been excited thus, but I never before or since did the same.

I never yielded to desire, though gently pressed to do so. Had I been urged beyond my power of endurance I cannot tell what I would have done. Yet I trust my virtue was due to a predominance of will-power and not a lack of passion.

I cannot say the lapse of years has changed my desires or lessened what I call my passions. I am affectionate by nature, but I trust my emotions are more than affection.

The patient makes these last remarks because she is unable to bring in accord her own feelings with the diagnosis frigidity,[AZ] received from several physicians whom she had consulted. She herself knows well that she is passionate enough to exclude any possibility of frigidity. Hers is a typical case of orgasmus retardatus of a slight degree (for, in the position “vir infra” orgasm is possible, for in this position coition lasts considerable longer), due probably to masturbation but mostly to the tactile eroticism, practised during the seven years of her engagement.

In pronounced orgasmus retardatus the sexual impulse is very vivid, but the patient can never find the acme of gratification in coition. It may often require hours concarnationis continuæ before the orgasm is induced, and sometimes it may never be experienced. While there is a strong desire and a theoretical ability to induce the orgasm,—the patients are able to experience the orgasm in all its intensity by masturbation—in practice it is seldom or never attained, because the male will always reach the acme of coition before the woman has arrived at this point. Her nervous system remains, therefore, excited to the highest pitch and brought to a state of expectancy which is not realized.

This lack of orgasm may also happen in normal women. The woman is generally slower to reach the height of the venereal paroxysm than the man. Ab initio commixtionis, she experiences a certain degree of libido that is of greater intensity than that of the man, i. e., the ant-orgastic libido is of higher value in women than in men. But this libido is not developed to its utmost extent, the orgasm, as rapidly as it is with the man. Still in the normal woman normal conditions will finally ensue after some experience—it is known that in women lustful feelings are not always brought about by the first contact,—while the conditions are entirely different in the partially impotent woman. No one man, except he be a eunuch, is ever able to satisfy her in a natural way. Her nervous system remains in a constant state of excitement to the highest degree, analogous to satyriasis in men. Her active potency appears to the superficial observer to be increased, it is almost inexhaustible. The following case will illustrate this point:

A young lady, twenty-one years of age, for six months pregnant with her first child, showed at the examination normal internal genital organs, but small nymphae and an undeveloped clitoris. The patient coepit stuprum manu facere, tres annos nata, femora commissa fricando ultro citroque aut pulvillum aut aliam rem inter ea. As far as she can remember she always felt humorem in genitalibus suis after such manipulations. She practised stuprum manu several times daily until her marriage. Her husband left her in the first months of her pregnancy and she began to indulge in her favorite practices. “In coitione usitata frictiones continuas poscit”, and can endure them for hours. She claims to have the feeling of becoming wet several times during the “copulatione longa et continua,” but the libido does not materially increase cum humorem sentiat. The intensity of the libido remains always the same. She is continually uttering endearing words to her mate and is begging him, ne patiatur ejaculationem cito venire. She remains excited “postquam frictiones cessaverunt” and is always showing her disappointment when the penis “retractus est.” After a little while, her excitement gradually subsides, and the patient falls asleep. When she awakes she immediately “coitionem iterum poscit.”

Here we have a case of a partially impotent woman whose anaesthesia and slight development of the clitoris was in all probability the result of her early practice of masturbation. The orgasm cannot be induced, but the ant-orgastic state is accompanied by libido of a considerable degree. The glands furnish enough secretion to give the feeling of moisture; there is no real ejaculation as in normal congressus.

While the totally anaesthetic woman has no natural desire for coition, and in this respect resembles the woman who is suffering from idiopathic frigidity or impotence of voluptas, the woman with the power of experiencing libido, but afflicted with the anomaly of orgasmus retardatus, has an intense desire for conjugation. She seeks it oftener than the normal woman, for the reason that her desire is seldom satisfied. She demands, therefore, commixtionem continuam per horas et pæne quot noctibus. Such a Messalina is able commisceri centies in una nocte and yet be unsatisfied. Even if she had it in her power, like Katherine of Russia, to order cubili suo a whole regiment of soldiers quot noctibus, she would still remain unsatisfied. This anomaly, for these reasons, may often be confounded with the perversion of nymphomania, where a normal orgasm is induced with every copulation, but where an immediate reawakening of desires, after normal satisfaction, takes place. Through the similarity of the symptoms of orgasmus retardatus and nymphomania great mistakes in treatment have often been committed. The wisdom of amputating the clitoris in a case of nymphomania is very questionable, but the advice to amputate it in a case of impossible or retarded orgasm and permanently damage the already weakened nerves is a mistake that borders almost to malpractice. For the amputation of the clitoris will impede the inducement of the orgasm even to a greater extent than before. The genital apparatus, which was weakened by excesses in venere or in narcotics, is now irreparably destroyed for all time.

The case of Barrus shows what clitoridectomy may sometimes do. The patient, a young woman, stuprum faciebat manu more or less, all her life, and finally after suffering from several attacks of nymphomania decided to have the clitoris amputated. The result was not only failure to relieve the alleged nymphomania, but even an increase in its severity, causing a shameless and, almost literally, continuous indulgence in the habit.

The cause of orgasmus retardatus is almost always self-abuse, either in form of masturbation, mental erethism, or tactile eroticism. The excitability of the clitoris is so increased through these practices that it refuses to transfer its excitability upon the internal genital organs for the inducement of orgasm by coition. The ant-orgastic pleasure is hence intact or even increased, but the orgasm is seldom or never provoked.

The unsatisfied intercourse will in the long run cause a number of nervous troubles which take the form of hysteria or assume the character of neurasthenia. The unsatisfied initus repeatedly practised, in not leading to the acme of libido and to the relief from the congestion by the ejaculation, is the cause of chronic hyperaemia and stasis. This leads, in its farther progress, to chronic inflammations of the tissues, which are known under the respective names of metritis, perimetritis, parametritis, endometritis, salpingitis and ovaritis. The labia are tumefied and dry, the meatus urinarius inflamed and the urethra pouted out. The clitoris is elongated, inflamed and often abraded. The external genitals are in a state of burning heat. The vaginal mucous membrane is hard and excoriated, the cervix is congested and the external orifice inflamed.

Apart from these pathological changes caused by the failure or the retarding of the orgasm, the anomaly is of grave social importance. The woman with whom orgasm is impossible generally repels her husband. Her nerves never being exhausted, as in the normal woman (it is little known that a woman is more affected and fatigued by a real orgasm than a man), spatium congressus may last as long as the vaginal epithelia can endure it, which means a considerable length of time. This is mistaken by the husband for increased potency. He believes her to be more potent than he is, and, in the long run, a man dislikes a lascivious woman. What he wishes is a modest woman who never asks for conjugal embrace when he is not disposed to it, and at times even knows gently and tactfully to refuse her favors when they are asked. Orgasmus retardatus is hence not simply a question for the physician; it is a matter of serious social importance.

The correct treatment for this anomaly is, in the first place, total abstinence from sexual excitement in any form, and then strengthening of the nerves by tonics, hydrotherapeutics and electricity by Apostoli’s method.

Orgasmus praecox.—The exact opposite to orgasmus retardatus is the anomaly of orgasmus praecox. In men, suffering from this anomaly where ejaculation occurs before the penis has time to enter the vagina, the precipitated orgasm has the same effect as the real impotence of concubitus. In women suffering from orgasmus praecox, the orgasmus is induced as soon as the mentula reaches the vestibule.

In some women the excitability of the genital nerves reaches such a degree that the mere touch of the gynaecologist’s finger during an examination will immediately induce orgasm. Since erection ceases in both sexes after the orgasm, this anomaly is of great importance in men, because the conjugal embrace cannot be consummated. In women, on the other hand, with their passive rôle during concarnatio, and with whom erection of the clitoris is not requisite for sexual congress, the act may be continued as in the normal woman. The anomaly is hence of less importance in women. Still it has some bearing upon the woman’s fecundity. In the ideal commixtione the female orgasm ought to take place immediately after that of the male, so that aspiration of some amounts of sperma could be effected. In the anomaly of orgasmus praecox the spermatozoa have to rely upon their own power of motion to reach the interior of the uterus. The anomaly may, therefore, sometimes lead to sterility. Otherwise medical aid is never sought for. The pathological condition is extremely rare, anyway.

In the same way the anomaly of a diminished frequency is of no importance to the physician when occurring in women. He may be asked for advice when it is met in men, for it may lead to some incongruities in the matrimonial life of the couple, especially when the wife is of a sensual nature. But a woman who is able even very rarely to experience orgasm will never seek the advice of her physician.

[CHAPTER XVII]
HYPERAESTHESIA

Sexual hyperaesthesia signifies an abnormal intensity of the sexual instinct. The intensity of the impulse of voluptas varies in different individuals, and the line of demarkation between the physiological and the pathological increase of the impulse is not always distinctly pronounced. With some individuals the intensity may reach a high degree and still be within the physiological bounds. This is especially the case where the intensity of experiencing libido is correspondingly increased. But when there is a conflict between the two potencies, the potency of voluptas and that of libido, the least exaggeration in the intensity of voluptas becomes pathological. Such an anomaly where there is a decrease of the intensity of libido and at the same time an increase of a higher or lesser degree in the intensity of voluptas, is the phenomenon of mixoscopy. Mixoscopy thus stands upon the border-land of anaesthesia and hyperaesthesia.

Mixoscopy.—Literally, mixoscopy means assisting or rather looking at animals or at persons while they are in concarnatione. In this degree the anomaly is a very rare occurrence. In a broader sense, however, mixoscopy means every active interest in the erotic relations of others in so far as this interest bears an erotic character. In this broader sense, mixoscopy is a widely spread anomaly.

The mixoscopic complex or the system of connected ideas, having a strong emotional tone and displaying a tendency to produce or influence thought or action in a definite direction, is more or less present in every person, especially in its youth. All the world loves the lover, when the world is allowed to assist at the scene of the love-making and partake of the erotic delights of the lover. When the lover is alone, nobody notices him. This love to assist at erotic scenes is based upon the desire of procuring for oneself sensual gratification in an indirect way, by the aid of a third party, with whom one identifies himself and in whom one submerges his ego so as to experience this person’s emotions.

The erotic scenes may not be of the gross and the vulgar variety. Every desire to assist physically or mentally at scenes with an erotic coloring, even of the most refined, airy and ethereal nature has a mixoscopic foundation. Mixoscopy is responsible for the avidity of youth to devour novels and to assist at plays which generally revolve upon erotic plots. Especially the desire of those readers who are so impatient as to read the last chapter first to see if it ends in marriage, is only the refined way of satisfying the craving for mixoscopy. The gratification is secured by the reader’s identification of himself or herself with the hero or heroine. It is often self-deception of many a youth or maiden when they are petting themselves and boasting of their love of belles-lettres, as though all their reading is done in the interest of education and culture. The reader deceives himself and unconsciously changes the egotistic desire into the refined longing for mental improvement, rationalization.

Thus in a slight degree mixoscopy is a normal phenomenon. It is especially found in women, in their eagerness and talent for match-making. In the interest of others, woman is allowed to display the activity for sensual gratification which modesty denies her to develop in her own interest.

Mixoscopy becomes pathological when it degenerates into panderism or bawdry for the sole purpose of sensual gratification. The main motives of catering for the lust of others, by aiding and patronizing an existent love-affair or by calling such an affair into being, says Meller (O. Sexual Probleme, 1912, p. 480), are of three different kinds. There is 1) the pecuniary motive or the motive of avarice, found in the professional matchmaker and in the procurer; 2) there is the motive of toadyism, the sycophant will descend so low in his degradation even to the point of becoming the pander or bawd of his or her superior; 3) the erotic motive, when the pander or bawd acts out of love of the subject. The first two motives are more or less to be counted among the vices, the third motive has a pathological basis. When an erotic interest is at play only, the activity of the pander or bawd becomes pathological in nature. It is found in persons who through old age, disease, ugliness, poverty, shyness, etc., cannot themselves share in the enjoyments of love and who, by assisting at the gratification of lust by others, try to procure themselves an opportunity of experiencing a certain part of the pleasure by identifying themselves with or entering into the spirit of those whom they aided to the lust.

The emotions connected with mixoscopy or the bawdry complex is oftener found in women than in men. There are even mothers who aid and favor the love-affairs of their daughters, where no material advantage could in any way accrue to themselves or to their daughters, simply out of lust which they expect to experience when being present at or thinking of the erotic incidents between their children and their lovers. The following history well illustrates this point:

Mrs. O., forty-five years of age, married for the last twenty-five years, never had a child. She was operated upon a few years after she was married, and uterus and ovaries were removed at that operation. Twenty years after her castration, when the impotence of libido must have been complete, a nephew of hers, nineteen years old, came to live with his aunt and uncle. The aunt soon induced the mere boy to engage himself with a young lady of twenty-three years of age. Although the aunt well knew that certain legal obstacles prevented the boy from marrying the young lady, still, in order to enjoy the love-making of the young people, she did not rest until she effected the engagement. When the young fiancée left for the West where she was to stay for a considerable length of time, the aunt induced the boy to dissolve the engagement and procured him another young lady with whom he again had to become engaged. When the nephew left for a foreign country where he was to stay several years, the castrated aunt had no use any longer for the second fiancée either, began to quarrel with her and finally forbade her to enter her house.

These actions plainly show that her interest in the young people was founded upon the selfish longing to participate in their pleasure at the lovers’ dalliance, caressing, kissing, etc., which, as an old castrate, she could not experience any longer. Hers was, therefore, the kind of bawdry from love of the subject. It was the only way this voluptuous woman—but impotent of experiencing libido—could yet partake of any sexual pleasure by identifying herself with the female lovers of her young nephew. She had no other advantage to gain by her match-making.

Panderism or bawdry presumes a complete absence of jealousy of any kind. Patients, suffering from this anomaly, love to assist at erotic scenes, enacted between females among themselves where the emotion of jealousy is absent.

The love of sensual people to look at obscene pictures or to read obscene books is also based upon the impulse of mixoscopy. Sometimes the intensity of the desire to assist at erotic scenes reaches such a degree that the patients hire furnished rooms in fornicibus observandi causa actiones between the inmates and their callers, through holes in the walls of adjoining rooms, and thus participate in their libido.

To this impulse of mixoscopy may also be attributed the indulgent behavior of many a husband towards the family friend. If the world is ignorant of their wives’ relations, and ridicule is avoided, some husbands not only close their eyes to their wives' doings but even favor their flirtations. The history of the following case shows how far a husband can go in his indulgence, as to himself procuring a lover for his wife:

Mr. E., twenty-four years of age, decides to leave his country and go to America. While waiting a few days for his boat to clear the port, he spent one evening in a restaurant. After sitting there for some time, he noticed a couple entering the same hostelry. The woman was about thirty years of age, the man about twenty-five her senior. The couple soon left the place. About an hour later the man returned, sat down at the same table where E. was sitting and soon entered into a conversation with him. In the course of their talk, the old man asked E. whether he would like to have female company for the evening. Upon the affirmative answer, the old man took E. to an aristocratic apartment in a distinguished part of the city. There E. met with the young lady he saw entering the restaurant, et cum ea pernoctavit, the old man spending all this time in an adjoining room. The following day the old man prevailed on E. to give up the trip to America for a while and stay with them. E. stood this idle life for six months, but finally his rôle as a commaritus or rather as a fornicator came home to his conscience and he left for America. While he was staying there he learned that the elderly man and the young woman were husband and wife. E. gave the author the assurance that during the entire six months the husband, this he is positively sure, never approached his wife sexually. He left her to E. without manifesting the least trace of jealousy.

The only explanation for such a strange phenomenon is that the husband was impotent and that the only way for him to experience at least some pleasure from his wife was by identifying himself with the lover. Such cases represent the extreme degree of mixoscopy.

Erotomania.—The increased sexual desire in hyperaesthesia is not always directed upon the physical gratification. Sometimes it is more of an ideal nature, as in erotomania.

Physiological erotomania is often found in individuals of both sexes, especially in young girls, at the time of puberty. Many a youth and maiden are highly erotic, at this period, although, if reared in purity and attended with vigilance, they never think yet of the physical contact.

The erotomaniac individual’s love is of a platonic nature. Erotomania constitutes a diseased form of ideal love. The physical sexual appetite is generally foreign to the erotomaniac. The object of the individual’s love occupies the mind only. It is a continual obsession of the spirit. The erotomaniac individual makes an abstraction of the physical personality of the adored. It is pursuing an ideal. The erotomaniac is the victim of a mental exaltation which moves the lover to write poetry and love-letters to the object of his or her dreams, without ever sending them off. If possible the erotomaniac follows his or her lover, but never addresses a word to him or her. The erotomaniac wishes to be in possession of the beloved being, to be wedded to the beloved one, but it never thinks of the sensual part. It is after the mental possession of the beloved one.

The love of the erotomaniac individual rests upon a vague and hazy ideal. It is the purest love possible. The relation is sacred and beautiful. It is a kind of cult. The beloved object is a divinity whom the patient worships upon his or her knees and whom he and she takes care not to profane even by a carnal kiss.

The following case of a fellow-worker in the pathological institute of a university in Switzerland is not uninstructive in this respect:

While working over the microscope at the same table, the young physician told the author the following story of his life when he was a boy of sixteen. He was at that time attending college in a middle-sized city in Germany. One day a college friend took him to his home, where he saw his friend’s sister, a young lady of twenty-three years of age, and immediately fell in love with her.

Although he was, already at that time, far enough advanced in the ways of the world to see the hopelessness of his love, still the incongruity between the ideal and reality was entirely forgotten. He was altogether oblivious of the material world and imagined himself floating in the realms of the spirits, while dreaming of exquisite harmonies.

Day and night he saw before him the object of his adoration. He was filled with ecstasy over her perfection which was greatly exaggerated and only existed in his imagination. For now, with a clearer judgment, he can see distinctly that she must have had noticed at that time his childish emotions and, out of vanity, was somewhat playing with them. In his diaries he finds pledges of perennial veneration and worship and vows of eternal resignation. His memoirs are filled with descriptions of his hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, wishes and despairs.

While in her company, he became entirely unconscious of the flight of time; when she was talking about the most trivial incidents, he imagined that he was listening to the music of the spheres. Every word, every motion of her was able to awaken in him either excessive joy and excitement or to throw him into a state of despair and rob him of his appetite and sleep for a number of days.

Happily, the young lady soon married a judge, and this marriage broke the boy’s spell. It may be added that the hero of our story, now a promising pathologist, is still of a very nervous temperament, and though possessed of a strictly logical mind, he loves to frequent spiritualistic séances and to participate in spiritualistic practices.

The erotomaniac woman shows often characteristics not always found in men. She is generally well satisfied with herself and extremely vain. She is, as a rule, in love with a person of high social and intellectual position. He is a prince, a celebrated statesman, a victorious general, a famous actor, a brilliant preacher, or a great scientist. In religious mania, it is not seldom a saint who inspires the erotomaniac woman with a chaste love. Sometimes a picture or a statue may become the object of her adoration.

As a general rule, the wish for the possession of a certain man is provoked by his character, by his intellectual, moral or physical qualities. If the man she fancies fails to attain to the standard of her ideals she nevertheless attributes to him all the charms her mind is able to conjure up. A case recorded by Reuardin is a good example of erotomania in women.

The patient, a well-educated lady, thirty-two years of age, notices some time after her marriage a man of higher social standing than her husband. She at once falls in love with this man, begins to grumble at her low social position, and speaks of her husband only with contempt. Her beloved one only has all the best qualities. No one is above him. She writes letters to him, in which she reveals the most ardent passion and, at the same time, the chastest emotions. Sometimes she is found in ecstasy, with eyes fixed upon some chimerical vision, the pupils in a state of hallucination and the lips murmuring the beloved one’s name. She recoils from her husband’s caresses, refuses to share his bed, to sit near him, speak to him and to see him. Her whole life is centered in her love; her eyes are constantly fixed upon the beloved image. Finally she becomes entirely insufferable and commits so many extravagances that her husband is forced to separate from her and later on to send her to an asylum.

Ball distinguishes two categories of erotomaniacs. Some are discreet lovers. They never accost the object of their love and do not even feel the need to approach the divine hearth, whence the spark started that inflamed their hearts. It is a pure immaterial fire that feeds on itself. The other category, the indiscreet lovers, feel the necessity to impart the knowledge of their passion to the object that gave it rise.

Satyriasis and nymphomania.—Contrary to erotomania, the sexual impulse in satyriasis and in nymphomania is directed upon the physical side of love. In these cases the impulse of detumescence is greatly increased. The desires are directed upon the physical, pleasurable titillations of the sexual organs.

The dividing line between the normal and pathological increase of libido is not readily found. The libido sexualis normally varies in different individuals. Married life bridles, as a rule, sexual desire, while intercourse with different persons increases it. Total sexual abstinence may cause in certain individuals, with a neurotic taint, increased sexual desire, continuous excitement, diseased, unconquerable impulse for sexual congress, and the preoccupation of the entire attention upon the sensual act.

The immediate reawakening of desire after normal satisfaction and the excitation of libido by the sight of persons and things which in themselves should have but indifferent or no sexual effects, are decidedly abnormal.

If the increase of the impulse is only moderate, so that increased frequency of conjugal embrace is able to appease somewhat the increased desire, the anomaly generally finds expression in a desire for female respectively male society, in the reading of erotic or obscene literature, in dancing, flirting, etc. But if the increase of the sexual desire has reached the degree of true satyriasis in men or nymphomania in women, the anomaly is characterized by an irresistible exaltation and an insatiable appetite for sexual gratification. At the mere sight of a woman satyriasis gets into such a state of excitement, as to experience real orgasm.

Satyriasis is not seldom confounded with priapism. But the latter is in no respect a psycho-sexual anomaly at all. It is a nervous trouble of one of the genital organs and has nothing in common with satyriasis. On the contrary, in priapism the potencies of voluptas as well as that of experiencing libido are generally decreased, as Tarnowsky’s case shows (L’instinct sexuel, p. 150).

Benj. Tarnowsky observed a case of priapism in a soldier which had lasted for over two years and had prevented the patient from absolving his active military service. The complete erection of the organ continually existed in a chronic state and never ceased for a moment. The organ did not wilt even after several coitions, which, in the beginning of his sickness, were tried by the patient in order to free himself from the annoying state of affairs. In the course of his sickness, coition, and especially ejaculation, caused him such violent pains that commixtio was never tried again. Voluptuous thoughts and sexual desire had entirely disappeared. Even the thought of coition caused the patient disagreeable sensations.

Priapism, therefore, if it were at all a disease of a sexual nature, would more properly belong among the anomalies of sexual anaesthesia. Satyriasis, on the other hand, is a psycho-sexual anomaly of increased sexual desire. Scarcely has the desire been appeased, when it returns with the same force and vigor as before. The following case may serve as an illustration of such class of cases.

Mr. X., a soldier, twenty-three years of age, in prostibulum meretricem visit, qua concubit, pretium usitatum resolvit et relinquit. Scarcely did he reach the door of her room, cum voluptas resurgeret. Itaque revenit, iterum eam comprimit, resolvit et relinquit. This time he managed to descend half the stairs, cum voluptas experrecta esset. Qua re redit, actionem repetit, resolvit et relinquit. But he had no time to come down the stairs, cum concitatus esset. Quo modo sexies ad puellam reveniebat, until he had no more money for her services and had to leave her, but not yet entirely satisfied.

Such a case represents a true sexual neurosis of insatiable lust. In the pronounced cases of satyriasis, the individual is the personification of sexuality. In his proximity everything turns upon sex. Nothing is suffered to prevail but sexual emotions. Every glance, motion or word of his has a sex coloring. He is nothing but a demoniac sex-creature. Every word he utters has an obscene emotional tone. His exclamations of surprise, fear, anger, etc., are all borrowed from the realm of sex. He is a screaming vortex of lubescent lubricity. A continual lustful scent exudes from him. He is perennially in quest for sexual gratification. He tries to excite every woman he comes in contact with and is himself excited by her. Moral consideration is an unknown quantity for him. The inhibitions, normally emanating from the cerebral centre, are destroyed in him. He is continually bent on new sensations.

This picture of the evil spirit of satyriasis is still surpassed by nymphomania. The woman suffering from nymphomania is more excessive in her demands than the man afflicted with satyriasis.

The border-line between the normal and pathological increase of libido in women is also somewhat blotted. A considerable piece of sexuality dwells in the feminine soul of every woman. It is only covered by inhibitory counter-emotions. But we recognize her true sexuality by its pathological exaggeration. Never is there uncovered in insane men such an abundance and monstrosity of the sexual imagery as in insane women. In dreams and in the dusky twilight of insanity men and women abandon themselves to their true impulses and desires without the restraining influences of conventionality. The normal woman has learned by education to hide her true sexual feelings and was forced by tradition to produce in a quite extraordinary way the impression that she herself is nearly non-sexual, and her sexuality is only a concession to the man. But judging from her sexual emotions in abnormal states, the intensity of woman’s sexuality is of a higher degree than that of the man’s, and herein lies woman’s superior morality. Morality is the arrest of the instincts by the intellect. The intensity of her desires being greater, her higher chastity is more laudable. In certain periods, such as pregnancy and lactation, when woman is really more or less non-sexual, her chastity has no merit. But in the other states of her life when woman’s desires possess a higher degree of intensity, her chastity is of a superior kind.

Thus the determination, when the normal increase of woman’s sexual desire ceases and the abnormal state begins, is wrought with great difficulty. Sexual inclination is normally increased immediately before and after the menses. Still it may be laid down as a rule that an overweening sexual desire in a woman, considering her natural modesty and coyness, should arouse suspicion of its pathological significance.

The nymphomaniac woman seeks to attract men by indecent language, by lascivious conduct, by personal adornment, perfumes, talk of marriage, by the exhibition of her feet, legs, neck, breasts and other parts of her body, and, at the height of her excitement by invitation ad congressum, aperto stupro manu, nudatione muliebrium et motionibus initus pelve. She is often seen in the physician’s office and desires gynaecological examinations for the gratification of her excitement. Such a case was recently observed by the author.

The patient, about forty years of age, was suffering from endometritis and came to the office for treatment. At the first touch of the introitus vaginae by the finger, the patient suddenly agitata est. She tightly closed her eyes, the respiration became panting, the abdominal muscles contracted, which made the combined examination impossible, her face became red, her entire body was seized by a convulsive tremor, and her pelvis made omnes motiones commixtionis vehementis. At the end of one or two minutes the paroxysm ended with a deep sigh, and the examination could be continued. The attacks were repeated at the beginning of every treatment, and the same had to be discontinued. Without offending the patient, she was told that she needs a curettage. This advice caused her to stay away from the office.

In the pronounced cases of nymphomania, the woman will accept the embraces of any man and will solicit even boys. To him who yields to her wiles she brings misery and calamity. She is an object of attraction and carries ruin in her lap for those who become the slaves of her eroticism. A piece of destructive sexuality dwells in the bosom of these women, something of the Delilah-nature, for all who come in contact with them. They consume men’s strength and vigor physiologically and psychologically.

The nymphomaniac woman is not able to free herself from the thraldom of eroticism. Her sexual instinct is irresistible and untamable. Nymphomania leads the sufferer to any degradation, to the practice assidui stupri manu and even to bestiality.

Magnan mentions the case of a lady of forty-seven years of age, who from her early childhood manifested excessive voluptas. She was always nervous, eccentric, and of a romantic disposition. When she was only ten years old she began to practice concarnationem. At the age of nineteen she got married, but although her husband was sexually perfectly normal, he could not satisfy her often enough. Qua re jugiter cum aliis viris commiscebatur, and although this infidelity made her entirely unhappy and miserable, she was powerless to overcome her insatiable desires.

In another case of Magnan, the patient had a passion for men from her earliest youth. She was of good family, well bred, of pleasant disposition, and exceedingly modest. As a little girl she was the terror of the family. Scarcely was she alone with any male, child or adult, statim aperiebat muliebria et poscebat satisfactionem voluptatis, even going so far as to lay hold of the person. Marriage did not cure her intense desire. She loved her husband passionately, yet indiscriminately petebat placationem voluptatis a quovis viro with whom she happened to be alone, were he her servant, laborer, or even school-boy. This insatiable passion continued to possess her after she had become a grandmother. At the age of sixty-five she was yet recklessly passionate as before.

The anomaly of nymphomania is generally due to a cerebral lesion. Hence little relief can be afforded by the removal of the clitoris or the ovaries, or by any other therapeutic measure. The affection shows all the stigmata of degeneration and moral insanity. The nymphomaniac woman belongs to the type of the “deliquenta nata.”

Nymphomania is often found in periodical insanity. The case of Anjel is a good illustration.

The patient, near the climacteric period, is nowise of a passionate nature, sexually, but after a hystero-epileptic attack has the impulse to embrace and kiss boys, about ten years of age et contrectare virilia. She has no desire for coition while suffering from the attack. In the intervals she is very modest.

This paedophilia in women, suffering from hyperaesthesia, is not rare. The patients are intensely excited by young boys, while they possess only normal inclination toward adults.

Magnan’s case is interesting in this respect. The patient was a lady twenty-nine years of age. For eight years she had a strong desire complexus venerei with one of her five nephews. First her desire went toward the oldest boy, when he was five years of age. Then she transferred this desire to each of them in turn as they grew up. The sight of the child in question was sufficient to produce ejaculation and orgasm.

The case of Kisch is interesting for the coincidence of paedophilia with traces of homosexuality.

The patient is thirty years of age, married nine years, but sterile. Coition gives her not only no pleasure, but on the contrary, it causes her a feeling of disgust. But she feels irresistibly impelled contrectare pudibilia of children, no matter whether male or female. These manipulations induce ejaculation and orgasm. At the time of her menstruation this impulse is stronger than her power of resistance.

In Krafft-Ebing’s case the patient, a teacher, thirty years of age and of strict morality, enticed a boy of five who happened to play nearby, under the promise of money and food ut veniret in cubiculum. “Ibi genitalibus pueri aliquamdiu lusit, denique introductionem penis in vaginam tentavit.”

In hysterical women hyperaesthesia sexualis is of frequent occurrence.[BA] Giraud’s case is of great interest, showing how far the aberration may proceed.

The girl, a domestic servant, was always moral before her illness. When she began suffering from hysterical attacks, amato liberos in fidem suam commissos exhibebat ad constuprandum et noctu spectatores rerum turpium eos faciebat, while the whole household was asleep under the influence of narcotics. When she was discovered and driven out of the house, the formerly modest girl became shameless and finally meretricium fecit.

Another type of hyperaesthesia which borders on a real psychosis, is represented by one of Schrenk-Notzing’s cases.

The patient would become sexually excited to a high degree at the mere sight or touch of a man, et se satiebat congressu imaginali aut stupro manu fricando femora ultro citroque. For a long time attacks of genital erethism were brought on every morning. Once it happened in the physician’s office. Notwithstanding the presence of three male witnesses, she threw herself on a lounge and, in hysterical convulsions, se feminavit several times before their eyes.

Brouardel relates the case of a girl of sixteen who would lie in the ditch of a highway and, aperiens muliebria lacessebat præterientes viros ad concarnationem. Nothing could be done to make her desist and she had to be sent to a house of correction.

In another case, the daughter of a physician, a friend of Brouardel’s, ran away from her father’s home at the age of sixteen and in fornicem iniit in Paris to appease her sexual desires. Nothing could induce her to return home.

This case throws some light upon the etiology of prostitution. Not all prostitutes are driven to their degrading trade by idleness or necessity, as some philanthropists or socialists would like to make us believe. Not a few choose this life to satisfy their nymphomaniac desires.

Trélat tells of a young girl, the daughter of a professor who, at the age of fifteen, milites noctu fenestra cubiculi admittebat ad satiandam voluptatem.

The best and most careful rearing of girls, suffering from nymphomania, can not save them from downfall. In their wild passion, casting all moral and social considerations aside, they throw themselves into the arms of sin. The more they abandon themselves to the gratification of their lust, the greater is the desire of their morbidly excited nerve-centres for lecherous satisfaction. Every indulgence increases the desire and lessens the capacity, as Horace truly says:

“Crescit indulgens sibi durus hydrops.”

The woman loses control of her passions, and can not restrain herself from stuprum manu aut concubitus. She becomes absorbed in sexual gratification, as seen in the case reported by Reti:

The patient lived happily with her husband until after the birth of her first child. From that moment she became a slave of her insatiable lust. An irresistible craving suddenly took hold of her, an indomitable lust seized her to embrace men. She felt a morbid itching in muliebribus, an inexplicable excitement, a burning desire for sexual gratification. In the beginning her husband tried to satisfy her until he discovered his impossibility to do so. She did not allow an hour of the day to pass without demanding gratification from her husband. He was terrified to see her premere muliebria to the edge of the table or against the door or any other hard subject, in order to satisfy her sensual appetite. When she became worse from day to day, her husband took her to the hospital for examination. At the introduction of the speculum, a morbid contraction of the constrictor cunni muscle occurred suddenly. The touch of the carunculae myrtiformes provoked intense pain. After surmounting the obstacle, however, the pain ceased and a blissful rapture appeared. “Now! Now!” exclaims the patient, when the entire speculum was within the vagina. A convulsive movement seized her entire body, a thrill went through her, et motiones vehementis congressus fecit.

Some nymphomaniac women have illusions of coition. Such a case has been reported by Rosse.

A comely young woman who suffered from nymphomania practised stuprum manu to excess and declared one day that several persons, among them her clergyman, se constupraverunt. The sexual excitability in this case was exaggerated to such an extent that the mere sight of a man, even of the attending physician, suggested a repetition of the act to provoke the venereal spasm. So persistent was the habit that on tying her hands se feminavit with her heel. To prevent this her feet were secured, but she succeeded in bringing about an orgasm fricando femora ultro citroque ita ut clitoridem excitaret. The patient died at a retreat.

If the hyperaesthetic woman is unable to satisfy her desires she shows all the symptoms of general neurasthenia. Especially does she suffer from neuralgia of the ovaries. The case of Rohleder is the best example of the disturbances unsatisfied nymphomania may cause.

The patient, a girl of eighteen, and a member of a family of good social standing, was engaged to be married. Until she was sixteen and a half years of age she was always well. At that time she made the acquaintance of her intended. Then a great change took place in her disposition. She became very nervous and moody. Now she was very gay, but a moment later became deeply melancholy. Her menstruation was regular, but at that period she suffered great pains at the ovaries, especially before the menses set in. When she met with her fiancé her pains increased so that they caused convulsions. She could find some relief stupro manu. After she got married, all the symptoms disappeared.

Masturbation.—The anomaly of masturbation is the most common sexual aberration, and if found in the very young it assumes the dignity of a perversity. In the adult, masturbation, if practised with moderation, can not be considered pathological. According to Paget masturbation causes no more nor less harm than normal coitus, if practised with the same frequency and under the same conditions with regard to health, age and circumstances.

Prof. Oscar Berger (Archiv f. Psychiatrie, Vol. VI, 1876) says masturbation is such a frequent manipulation that out of a hundred boys and girls ninety-nine have temporarily been addicted to it, and the hundredth, the so-called pure individual, is concealing the truth. Moll quotes a physician as saying: “Whoever denies having masturbated, has often only forgotten it; whoever claims of never having masturbated is still doing it.”

Now, giving due allowance to the exaggeration of these authors in the heat of the discussion, the truth remains that the greater part of humanity has one time or another practised autoeroticism. If what the quacks and ignoramuses tell us about its dangers be true, humanity ought to have passed into oblivion long ago, or at least ought to have entirely degenerated. But we are all still alive, hale and healthy, hence moderate masturbation can not have the disastrous effects which some authors are pleased to describe.

Erb (Handbuch für Rückenmarkkrankheiten, p. 163) says, the effects upon the nervous system in a man must be essentially the same, whether the frictions of the glans take place in the vagina or are carried out in any other way. The nervous shock of ejaculation remains the same, and the nervous excitement ought to be greater where the female is used. Hence masturbation, moderately practised, exercises no direct destroying effects upon a good constitution.

Moderate masturbation seems to be almost a natural phenomenon. Even among animals various forms of spontaneous solitary sexual excitement are observed.

Dogs masturbate by rubbing the organ with their hind-feet, or by crossing the hind-legs or lambendo fascinum lingua.

The stag, when in heat, rubs his penis against trees until he effects ejaculation.

Porocz saw in a zoological garden an elephant, who was in the habit of masturbating himself so often that he undermined his health and had to be sold.

Prange (Revue vétér. 1856) describes a stallion that with his mentulato fascino could reach his forelegs and thus rub the organ against them. In this way he induced three to four ejaculations daily.

The author observed a baboon in the zoological park se constuprantem by quickly and repeatedly pulling with his fore-foot or hand the prepuce until ejaculation took place.

Masturbation is further found among peoples of nearly every race, however natural the conditions are under which men and women live. Masturbation was known among all races at every period of history. It is reported that the great Cynic Diogenes practised autoeroticism publicly in his tub.

Schools, academies, educational institutions, dormitories of colleges, factories or prisons are hot-beds of masturbation. Prof. Schiller published the observations in a certain gymnasium (collegiate high school) where the boys had holes in the pockets of their trousers ad stuprum mutuum faciendum during the lessons, in the presence of their professors.

Thomalla knows of a boarding school where bets are made among the boys on the skill of their exercitatio stuprosa. The boy who can induce the ejectio seminis the quickest receives the prize.

Walter Benseman (Public School and Gymnasium) describes the most deplorable conditions existing in a great many boarding schools in England.

In France, Deville and Tarnowsky found the spread of masturbation in schools, colleges and pensionates to be enormous.

Male masturbation, as a rule, is effected by fricando glandem manu. Hence such mishaps, as often happen in woman, are of rare occurrence. Still many queer objects were found in the male urethra or bladder, such as quills, pencils, penholders, blades of straw, knitting needles, pieces of bougies or of catheters, ear-spoons, tooth-picks, all introduced for masturbating purposes. Senn removed in a young man, nineteen years of age, a stem of a plant from the bladder, which was introduced into the bladder for autoerotic purposes. The author removed a pencil from the pars membranacea of a boy of eighteen, through an incision in this part.

Such cases are exceedingly rare in the male. As a rule, autoeroticism in men is accomplished by the hand alone, hence the name “masturbation.” In some cases neither the hand nor any other means is needed to obtain the desired end. The fancy of concarnatio alone will produce the orgasm, as in the following case, told the author in confidence:

A young man, twenty years of age, while sitting behind an attractive young lady in theatre, was in the habit of allowing his fancy free rein by imagining himself of being in complexu venereo with his fair neighbor. This thought alone sufficed to induce ejaculation and orgasm. One Sunday while sitting near a fair worshipper in church, he got so excited that he had to practise ideal congressum cum ea during the sermon.

The causes of masturbation are different at the different periods of the individual’s life. In early childhood, a neuropathic predisposition, eczema, pruritus, phimosis, accumulation of smegma, early retiring and late rising, spicy food and exciting drinks, absolute ignorance of sex and seduction by vicious servants will be the principal causes for autoeroticism. During the time of school-life seduction is the cause par excellence of masturbation. Self-abuse is widely spread in schools. No institution is free from it. In nearly every school there is at least one lecherous boy who is apt to be peculiarly fascinating to his fellows and who will promulgate the habit. In some schools the evil reaches a wide extension. The tradition of the school and the material of the pupils is of great influence. Particularly dangerous, as hatcheries and divulgers of the evil, are those institutions in which numerous pupils are present who have passed the normal age by several years. They come, as a rule, from the country to enter the advanced classes. The time of puberty is another period favorable for acquiring the habit of masturbation. When the genital centres are fully developed, the individual gets a conscious realization of its sexual power, and the psychological reactions of animal passion manifest themselves in the desire to cause a relaxation and a discharge of the nervous tension and of the physical genital congestion. The opportunity for the natural discharge being connected with great difficulties, especially for the girl, there is danger that the child will resort to masturbation to be relieved from the nervous tension and the material congestion.

During the post-puberty period which in men reaches to the twenty-fourth year and in women to the twentieth year of age, the extension of the masturbatic practices gradually decreases, and by the time manhood and womanhood have been reached, masturbation has almost entirely disappeared. Its presence after this period may be considered pathological except it is practised out of necessity as in the following case:

Mr. A., thirty-five years old, married twelve years, father of two healthy children, was always well. Three years ago he left his native country and came to America. Faute de mieux, he began to practise autoeroticism inordinately and continued in this practice until he became a nervous wreck, showing all the symptoms of neurasthenia besides impotence and nocturnal emissions.

In this case the patient became perfectly well after his wife arrived in this country.

While moderate masturbation at certain periods of life is almost a natural phenomenon, masturbation practised inordinately is the most disastrous psycho-sexual disease. There is in the first place general neurasthenia, with all its accompanying symptoms, as photopsias, glistening and dazzling before the eyes, photophobias, dry conjunctivitis, particularly found among masturbating girls and old maids, and functional sexual disturbances, as diurnal pollutions and spermatorrhoea. Other symptoms are indolence, lack of energy, shyness in demeanor, want of self-reliance, disinclination to study, incapacity of serious work, shortness of memory, absent-mindedness, unsteadiness of character, hypochondria and melancholia.

The children become peevish and irritable, they are reserved in conversation, apathetic in manner, hesitating in actions, slovenly in dress, and contradictory. Cerebral anemia is of common occurrence among those addicted to excesses in masturbation. Vertigo is hence a common symptom, and fainting spells are not rare. Girls especially are liable to be affected by syncope. Palpitation and arythmia of the heart is very common. Perspiration breaks forth on the slightest exertion, and the slightest exercise occasions shortness of breath. Neuralgia of the testicles, ovaries and the bladder is frequently found in these patients. The patient is frequently seized with the desire to pass water. The calls to urinate are particularly frequent in the morning hours, while in the afternoon and in the night-time the calls are less urgent. Particular danger of long-continued masturbation lies in the development of impotency in men and frigidity in women.

One of the most disastrous effects of excessive masturbation, an effect which has also a sociological bearing, is that it renders the patient unfit for marriage, not only because it is so often the cause of impotence, but because the dreams which accompany the masturbatic acts are not realized in marriage, and the patient returns to his former pastime.

Another most harmful effect of excessive masturbation is the weakness of the will which becomes more and more pronounced until it finally ends in aboulia. The patient is affected by a complete inability to act as he feels.