^^
STUDIES
Psychology of Sex
BY
HAVELOCK ELLIS
HAYELOCK ELLIS'S
STUDIES IN THE
PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
(Complet* in Six Volume*.)
TITLES
I. The Evolution of Modesty, the Phenomena
of Sexual Periodicity and Auto-erotism.
II. Seiual Inversion.
III. Analysis of the Sexual Impulse.
IV. Sexual Selection in Man.
V. Erotic Symbolism. The Mechanism of Deto-
mescence. The Psychic State in Pre|-
nancy.
VI. Sex in Relation to Society.
Each volume is complete in itself
Sold in Sets or Single Volumes
This is the only edition in English pub-
lished by the author's permission.
STUDIES
IN THB
PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX
EROTIC SYMBOLISM
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE
THE PSYCHIC STATE IN PREGNANCY
BY
HAVELOCK ELLIS
PHILADELPHIA
F. A. DAVIS COMPANY, PUBLISHERS
1923
COPYRIGHT, 1906,
BT
F. A. DAVIS COMPANY
PRINTED IN U. 8. A.
PRESS OF
. A. DAVIS COMPANY
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
PEEFACE.
In this volume the terminal phenomena of the sexual pro-
cess are discussed, before an attempt is finally made, in the con-
cluding volume, to consider the bearings of the psychology of
sex on that part of morals which may be called "social hygiene."
Under "Erotic Symbolism" I include practically all the
aberrations of the sexual instinct, although some of these have
seemed of sufficient importance for separate discussion in pre-
vious volumes. It is highly probable that many readers will
consider that the name scarcely suffices to cover manifestations
so numerous and so varied. The term "sexual equivalents"
will seem preferable to some. While, however, it may be fully
admitted that these perversions are "sexual equivalents" — or at
all events equivalents of the normal sexual impulse — that term
is merely a descriptive label which tells us nothing of the phe-
nomena. "Sexual Symbolism" gives us the key to the process,
the key that makes all these perversions intelligible. In all of
them — very clearly in some, as in shoe-fetichism ; more ob-
scurely in others, as in exhibitionism — it has come about by
causes congenital, acquired, or both, that some object or class
of objects, some act or group of acts, has acquired a dynamic
power over the psycho-physical mechanism of the sexual process,
deflecting it from its normal adjustment to the whole of a
beloved person of the opposite sex. There has been a trans-
mutation of values, and certain objects, certain acts, have ac-
quired an emotional value which for the normal person they do
not possess. Such objects and acts are properly, it seems to me,
termed symbols, and that term embodies the only justification
that in most cases these manifestations can legitimately claim.
"The Mechanism of Detumescence" brings us at last to
the final climax for which the earlier and more prolonged stage
(V)
n PREFACE.
of tumescence, which has occupied us so often in these Studies,
is the elaborate preliminary, "The art of love," a clever woman
novelist has written, "is the art of preparation." That "prepa-
ration" is, on the physiological side, the production of tumes-
cence, and all courtship is concerned in building up tumescence.
But the final conjugation of two individuals in an explosion of
detumescence, thus slowly brought about, though it is largely
an involuntary act, is still not without its psychological impli-
cations and consequences; and it is therefore a matter for
regret that so little is yet known about it. The one physiological
act in which two individuals are lifted out of all ends that cen-
ter in self and become the instrument of those higher forces
which fashion the species, can never be an act to be slurred over
as trivial or unworthy of study.
In the brief study of "The Psychic State in Pregnancy"
we at last touch the point at which the whole complex process
of sex reaches its goal. A woman with a child in her womb is
the everlasting miracle which all the romance of love, all the
cunning devices of tumescence and detumescence, have been
invented to make manifest. The psychic state of the woman
who thus occupies the supreme position which life has to offer
cannot fail to be of exceeding interest from many points of
view, and not least because the maternal instinct is one of the
elements even of love between the sexes. But the psychology
of pregnancy is full of involved problems, and here again, as
so often in the wide field we have traversed, we stand at the
threshold of a door it is not yet given us to pass.
Havelock Ellis.
Carbis Water, Lelant, Cornwall.
CONTENTS.
Erotic Symbolism.
I.
The Definition of Erotic Symbolism. Symbolism of Act and Sym-
bolism of Object. Erotic Fetichism. Wide Extension of the
Symbols of Sex. The Immense Variety of Possible Erotic
Fetiches. The Normal Foundations of Erotic Symbolism. Class-
ification of the Phenomena. The Tendency to Idealize the
Defects of a Beloved Person. Stendhal's "Crystallizatioa". . . . 1
II.
Foot-fetichism and Shoe-fetichism. Wide Prevalence and Normal
Basis. Restif de la Bretonne. The Foot a Normal Focus of
Sexual Attraction Among Some Peoples, The Chinese, Greeks,
EomanB, Spaniards, etc. The Congenital Predisposition in Erotic
Symbolism. The Influence of Early Association and Emotional
Shock. Shoe-fetichism in Relation to Masochism. The Two
Phenomena Independent Though Allied. The Desire to be Trod-
den On. The Fascination of Physical Constraint. The Symbol-
ism of Self-inflicted Pain. The Dynamic Element in Erotic
Symbolism. The Symbolism of Garments 15
m.
Scatalogic Symbolism, Urolagnia. Coprolagnia. The Ascetic Atti-
tude Towards the Flesh. Normal Basis of Scatalogic Symbolism.
Scatalogic Conceptions Among Primitive Peoples. Urine as a
Primitive Holy Water. Sacredness of Animal Excreta. Scatal-
ogy in Folk-lore. The Obscene as Derived from the Mythological.
The Immature Sexual Impulse Tends to Manifest Itself in
Scatalogic Forms. The Basis of Physiological Connection Be-
tween the Urinary and Genital Spheres. Urinary Fetichism
Sometimes Normal in Animals. The Urolagnia of Masochists.
The Scatalogy of Saints. Urolagnia More Often a Symbolism of
Act Than a Symbolism of Object. Only Occasionally an Olfac-
tory Fetichism. Comparative Rarity of Coprolagnia. Influence
of Nates Fetichism as a Transition to Coprolagnia. Ideal Copro-
(vii)
VUl CONTENTS.
lagnia. Olfactory Coprolagnia. Urolagnia and Coprolagnia as
Symbols of Coitus 47
IV.
Animals as Sources of Erotic Symbolism. Mixoscopic Zoophilia.
The Stuff-fetichisms. Hair-fetichism. The Stuff-fetichisms Mainly
on a Tactile Base. Erotic Zoophilia. Zooerastia. Bestiality.
The Conditions that Favor Bestiality. Its Wide Prevalence
Among Primitive Peoples and Among Peasants. The Primitive
Conception of Animals. The Goat. The Influence of Familiarity
With Animals. Congress Between Women and Animals. The
Social Reaction Against Bestiality 71
V.
lEIxliibitionism. Illustrative Cases. A Symbolic Perversion of Court-
ship. The Impulse to Defile. The Exhibitionist's Psychic Atti-
tude. The Sexual Organs as Fetiches. Phallus Worship. Ado-
lescent Pride in Sexual Development. Exhibitionism of the
Nates. The Classification of the Forms of Exhibitionism. Na-
ture of the Relationship of Exhibitionism to Epilepsy 89
VI.
The Forms of Erotic Symbolism are Simulacra of Coitus. Wide Ex-
tension of Erotic Symbolism. Fetichism Not Covering the Whole
Ground of Sexual Selection. It is Based on the Individual Fac-
tor in Selection. Crystallization. The Lover and the Artist.
The Key to Erotic Symbolism is to be Found in the Emotional
Sphere. The Passage to Pathological Extremes 105
The Mechanism of Detumescence.
The Psychological Significance of Detumescence. The Testis and the
0%'ary. Sperm Cell and Germ Cell. Development of the Em-
bryo. The External Sexual Organs. Their Wide Range of
Variation. Their Nervous Supply. The Penis. Its Racial
Variations. The Influence of Exercise. The Scrotum and Tes-
ticles. The Mons Veneris. The Vulva. The Labia Majora
and their Varieties. The Public Hair and Its Characters. The
Clitoris and Its Functions. The Anus as an Erogenous Zone. The
Nymphse and their Function. The Vagina. The Hymen. Vir-
ginity. The Biological Significance of the Hymen 115
CONTENTS. IX
II.
The Object of Detumescence. Erogenous Zones. The Lips. The Vas-
cular Characters of Detumescence. Erectile Tissue. Erection in
Woman. Mucous Emission in Women. Sexual Connection. The
Human Mode of Intercourse. Normal Variations. The Motor
Characters of Detumescence. Ejaculation. The Virile Keflex.
The General Phenomena of Detumescence. The Circulatory and
Respiratory Phenomena. Blood Pressure. Cardiac Disturbance.
Glandular Activity. Distillatio. The Essentially Motor Char-
acter of Detumescence. Involuntary Muscular Irradiation to
Bladder, etc. Erotic Intoxication. Analogy of Sexual Detum-
escence and Vesical Tension. The Specifically Sexual Move-
ments of Detumescence in Man. In Woman. The Spontaneous
Movements of the Genital Canal in Woman. Their Function
in Conception. Part Played by Active Movement of the Sperma-
tozoa. The Artificial Injection of Semen. The Facial Expres-
sion During Detumescence. The Expression of Joy. The Oc-
casional Serious Effects of Coitus 142
III.
The Constituents of Semen. Function of the Prostate. The Prop-
erties of Semen. Aphrodisiacs. Alcohol, Opium, etc. Ana-
phrodisiacs. The Stimulant Influence of Semen in Coitus.
The Internal Effects of Testicular Secretions. The Influence
of Ovarian Secretion 171
IV.
The Aptitude for Detumescence, Is There an Erotic Temperament ?
The Available Standards of Comparison. Characteristics of the
Castrated. Characteristics of Puberty. Characteristics of the
State of Detumescence. Shortness of Stature. Development of
the Secondary Sexual Characters. Deep Voice. Bright Eyes.
Glandular Activity. Everted Lips. Pigmentation. Profuse
Hair. Dubious Significance of Many of These Characters.... 182
The Psychic State in Pbegnancy.
The Relationship of Maternal and Sexual Emotion. Conception and
Loss of Virginity. The Anciently Accepted Signs of This Con-
dition. The Pervading Effects of Pregnancy on the Organism.
Pigmentation. The Blood and Circulation. The Thyroid.
Changes in the Nervous System. The Vomiting of Preg-
X CONTENTS.
nancy. The Longings of Pregnant Women. Mental Impres-
sions, Evidence for and Against Their Validity. The Question
Still Open. Imperfection of Our Knowledge. The Significance
of Pregnancy 201
APPENDIX.
Histories of Sexual Development 231
Index of Authoes 275
Index of Subjects 281
EROTIC SYMBOLISM.
The Definition of Erotic Symbolism — Synibolism of Act and
Symbolism of Object — Erotic Fetichism — Wide extension of the symbols
of Sex — The Immense Variety of Possible Erotic Fetiches — The Normal
Foundations of Erotic Symbolism — Classification of the Phenomena — The
Tendency to Idealize the Defects of a Beloved Person — Stendhal's
"Crystallization."
By '^erotic symbolism" I mean that tendency whereby the
lover's attention is diverted from the central focus of sexual
attraction to some object or process which is on the periphery
of that focus, or is even outside of it altogether, though recall-
ing it by association of contiguity or of similarity. It thus hap-
pens that tumescence, or even in extreme cases detumescence,
may be provoked by the contemplation of acts or objects which
are away from the end of sexual conjugation.^
In considering the phenomena of sexual selection in a
previous volume,^ it was found that there are four or five main
factors in the constitution of beauty in so far as beauty deter-
mines sexual selection. Erotic symbolism is founded on the
factor of individual taste in beauty; it arises as a specialized
development of that factor, but it is, nevertheless, incorrect to
merge it in sexual selection. The attractive characteristics of
a beloved woman or man, from the point of view of sexual selec-
tion, are a complex but harmonious whole leading up to a desire
for the complete possession of the person who displays them.
^The term "erotic symbolism" has already been employed by
Eulenburg {Sexuale Neiiropathie, 1895, p. 101). It must be borne in
mind that this term, implying the specific emotion, is much narrower
than the term "sexual symbolism," which may be used to designate a
great variety of ritual and social practices which have played a part
in the evolution of civilization.
* Sexual Selection in Man, iv, "Vision."
(1)
2 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
There is no tendency to isolate and dissociate any single char-
acter from the individual and to concentrate attention upon that
character at the expense of the attention bestowed upon the
individual generally. As soon as such a tendency begins to show
itself, even though only in a slight or temporary form, we may
say that there is erotic symbolism.
Erotic symbolism is, however, by no means confined to the
individualizing tendency to concentrate amorous attention upon
some single characteristic of the adult woman or man who is
normally the object of sexual love. The adult human being
may not be concerned at all, the attractive object or act may
not even be human, not even animal, and we may still be con-
cerned with a symbol which has parasitically rooted itself on
the fruitful site of sexual emotion and absorbed to itself the
energy which normally goes into the channels of healthy human
love having for its final end the procreation of the species.
Thus understood in its widest sense, it may be said that every
sexual perversion, even homosexuality, is a form of erotic sym-
bolism, for we shall find that in every case some object or act
that for the normal human being has little or no erotic value,
has assumed such value in a supreme degree; that is to say, it
has become a symbol of the normal object of love. Certain
perversions are, however, of such great importance on account
of their wide relationships, that they cannot be adequately
discussed merely as forms of erotic symbolism. This is notably
the case as regards homosexuality, auto-erotism, and algolagnia,
all of which phenomena have therefore been separately dis-
cussed in previous studies. We are now mainly concerned with
manifestations which are more narrowly and exclusively sym-
bolical.
A portion of the field of erotic symbolism is covered by
what Binet (followed by Lombroso, Krafft-Ebing, and others)
has termed ''erotic fetichism," or the tendency whereby sexual
attraction is unduly exerted by some special part or peculiarity
of the body, or by some inanimate object which has become asso-
ciated with it. Such erotic symbolism of object cannot, how-
ever, be dissociated from the even more important erotic sym-
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 3
holism of process, and the two are so closely bound together that
we cannot attain a truly scientific view of them until we regard
them broadly as related parts of a common psychic tendency.
If, as Groos asserts,^ a symbol has two chief meanings, one in
which it indicates a physical process which stands for a psychic
process, and another in which it indicates a part which repre-
sents the whole, erotic symbolism of act corresponds to the first
of these chief meanings, and erotic symbolism of object to the
other.
Although it is not impossible to find some germs of erotic
s}Tnbolism in animals, in its more pronounced manifestations
it is only found in the human species. It could not be other-
wise, for such symbolism involves not only the play of fancy
and imagination, the idealizing aptitude, but also a certain
amount of power of concentrating the attention on a point out-
side the natural path of instinct and the ability to form new
mental constructions around that point. There are, indeed, as
we shall see, elementary forms of erotic s}Tnbolism which are
not uncommonly associated with feeble-mindedness, but even
these are still peculiarly human, and in its less crude mani-
festations erotic symbolism easily lends itself to every degree
of human refinement and intelligence.
"It depends primarily upon an increase of the psychological pro-
cess of representation," Colin Scott remarks of sexual symbolism
generally, "involving greater powers of comparison and analysis as
compared with the lower animals. The outer impressions come to be
clearly distinguished as such, but at the same time are often treated
as symbols of inner experiences, and a meaning read into them which
they would not otherwise possess. Symbolism or fetichism is, indeed,
just the capacity to see meaning, to emphasize something for the sake
of other things which do not appear. In brain terms it indicates an
activity of the higher centers, a sort of side-tracking or long-circuiting
of the primitive energy; . . . Rosetti's poem, 'The Woodspurge,'
'•K. Groos, Der JEstlieiisclie OemiHS, p. 122. The psychology of the
associations of contiguity and resemblance through which erotic sym-
bolism operates its transference is briefly discussed by Eibot in the
Psychology of the Emotions, Part I, Chapter XII; the early chaptersof
the same author's Logique des Sentiments may also be said to deal with
the emotional basis on which erotic spnbolism arises.
4 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
gives a concrete example of the formation of such a symbol. Here the
otherwise insignificant presentation of the three-cupped woodspurge,
representing originally a mere side-current of the stream of conscious-
ness, becomes the intellectual symbol or fetich of the whole psychosis
forever after. It seems, indeed, as if the stronger the emotion the more
likely will become the formation of an overlying symbolism, which
swerves to focus and stand in the place of something greater tlian itself;
nowhere at least is symbolism a more characteristic feature than as an
expression of the sexual instinct. The passion of sex, with its immense
hereditary background, in early man became centered often upon the
most trivial and unimportant features. . . . This symbolism, now
become fetichistic, or symbolic in a bad sense, is at least an exercise
of the increasing representative power of man, upon which so much of
his advancement has depended, while it also served to express and help
to purify his most perennial emotion." (Colin Scott, "Sex and Art,''
American Journal of Psychology, vol. vii, Ko. 2, p. 189.)
In the study of "Love and Pain" in a previous volume, the
analysis of the large and complex mass of sexual phenomena
which are associated with pain, gradually resolved them to a
considerable extent into a special case of erotic symbolism;
pain or restraint, whether inflicted on or by the loved person,
becomes, by a psychic process that is usually unconscious, the
symbol of the sexual mechanism, and hence arouses the same
emotions as that mechanism normally arouses. We may now
attempt to deal more broadly and comprehensively with the nor-
mal and abnormal aspects of erotic symbolism in some of their
most typical and least mixed forms.
"When our human imagination seeks to animate artificial
things," Huysmans writes in La-has, "it is compelled to repro-
duce the movements of animals in the act of propagation. Look
at machines, at the play of pistons in the cylinders; they are
Romeos of steel in Juliets of cast-iron." And not only in the
work of man's hands but throughout Nature we find sexual
symbols which are the less deniable since, for the most part,
they make not the slightest appeal to even the most morbid
human imagination. Language is full of metaphorical symbols
of sex which constantly tend to lose their poetic symbolism and
to become commonplace. Semen is but seed, and for the Latins
especially the whole process of human sex, as well as the male
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 5
and female organs, constantly presented itself in symbols de-
rived from agricultural and horticultural life. The testicles
were beans (fabce) and fruit or apples (poma and mala); the
penis was a tree {arhor), or a stalk (thyrsus), or a root (radix),
or a sickle (falx), or a ploughshare (vomer). The semen, again,
was dew (ros). The labia majora or minora were wings (aim) ;
the vulva and vagina were a field (ager and campus), or a
ploughed furrow (sulcus), or a vineyard (vinea), or a fountain
(fans), while the pudendal hair was herbage ( plantar ia).^ In
other lanuages it is not difficult to trace similar and even iden-
tical imagery applied to sexual organs and sexual acts. Thus
it is noteworthy that Shakespeare more than once applies the
term "ploughed" to a woman who has had sexual intercourse.
The Talmud calls the labia minora the doors, the labia majora
hinges, and the clitoris the key. The Greeks appear not only to
have found in the myrtle-berry, the fruit of a plant sacred to
Venus, the image of the clitoris, but also in the rose an image of
the feminine labia; in the poetic literature of many countries,
indeed, this imagery of the rose may be traced in a more or less
veiled manner.^
The widespread symbolism of sex arose in the theories and
conceptions of primitive peoples concerning the function of
generation and its nearest analogies in Nature ; it was continued
for the sake of the vigorovis and expressive terminology which
it furnished both for daily life and for literature; its final sur-
vivals were cultivated because they furnished a delicately aesthetic
method of approaching matters which a growing refinement of
sentiment made it difficult for lovers and poets to approach in
a more crude and direct manner. Its existence is of interest to
us now because it shows the objective validity of the basis on
^A number of synonyms for the female pudenda are brought
together by Schurig — cunnus, hortus, concha, navis, fovea, larva, cani-;,
annulus, focus, cymba, antrum, delta, myrtus, etc. — and he discusses
many of them. (Ihtliehria, Section I. cap. I.)
•Kleinpaul, Spraehe Ohne 'SVorte, pp. 24-29: cf. K. Pearson, on
the general and special words for sex, Chances of Death, vol. ii, pp. 112-
245; a selection of the literature of the rose will be found in a volume
of translations entitled Eos Rosanim.
6 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
which erotic symbolism, as we have here to understand it, de-
velops. But from first to last it is a distinct phenomenon, hav-
ing a more or less reasoned and intellectual basis, and it scarcely
serves in any degree to feed the sexual impulse. Erotic sym-
bolism is not intellectual but emotional in its origin; it starts
into being, obscurely, with but a dim consciousness or for the
most part none at all, either suddenly from the shock of some
usually youthful experience, or more gradually through an in-
stinctive brooding on those things which are most intimately
associated with a sexually dsirable person.
The kind of soil on which the germs of erotic symbolism may
develop is well seen in cases of sexual hypersethesia. In such cases all
the emotionally sexual analogies and resemblances, which in erotic
symbolism are fixed and organized, may be traced in vague and passing
forms, a single hypersesthetic individual perhaps presenting a great
variety of germinal symbolisms.
Thus it has been recorded of an Italian nun (whose sister became
a prostitute) that from the age of 8 she had desire for coitus, from
the age of 10 masturbated, and later had homosexual feelings, that the
same feelings and practices continued after she had taken the veil,
though from time to time they assumed religious equivalents. The
mere contact, indeed, of a priest's hand, the news of the presentation
of an ecclesiastic she had known to a bishopric, the sight of an ape, the
contemplation of the crucified Christ, the figure of a toy, the picture
of a demon, the act of defecation in the children entrusted to her care
(whom, on this account, and against the regulations, she would accom-
pany to the closets), especially the sight and the mere recollection of
flies in sexual connection — all these things sufficed to produce in her a
powerful orgasm. {ArcMvio di Psichiatria, 1902, fasc. II-III, p. 338.)
A boy of 15 (given to masturbation), studied by Macdonald in
America, was similarly hypersesthetic to the symbols of sexual emotion.
"I like amusing myself with my comrades," he told Macdonald, "rolling
ourselves into a ball, which gives one a funny kind of warmth. I have
a special pleasure in talking about some tilings. It is the same when
the governess kisses me on saying good night or when I lean against
her breast. I have that sensation, too, when I see some of the pictures
in the comic papers, but only in those representing a woman, as when
a young man skating trips up a girl so that her clothes are raised
a little. When I read how a man saved a young girl from drowning, so
that they swam together, I had the same sensation. Looking at the
statues of women in the museum produces the same effect, or when I
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. /
see naked babies, or when a mother suckles a child. I have often hacj
that sensation when reading novels I ought not to read, or when looking
at a new-born calf, or seeing dogs and cows and horses mounting on
each other. When I see a girl flirting with a boy, or leaning on liis
shoulder or with his arm round her waist, I have an erection. It is
the same when I see women and little girls in bathing costume, or when
boys talk of what their fathers and mothers do together. In the
Natural History Museum I often see things which give me that sensa-
tion. One day when I read how a man killed a young girl and carried
her into a wood and undressed her I had a feeling of enjoyment. When
I read of men who were bastards the idea of a woman having a child
in that way gives me this sensation. Some dances, and seeing young
girls astride a horse, excited me, too, and so in a circus when a woman
was shot out of a cannon and her skirts flew in the air. It has no effect
on me when I see men naked. Sometimes I enjoy seeing women's
underclothes in a shop, or when I see a lady or a girl buying them,
especially if they are drawers. Wlien I saw a lady in a dress which
buttoned from top to bottom it had more efi'ect on me than seeing
underclothes. Seeing dogs coupling gives me more pleasure than looking
at pretty women, but less than looking at pretty little girls." In order of
increasing intensity he placed the phenomena that affected hira thus:
The coupling of flies, then of horses, then the sight of women's under-
garments, then a boy and a girl flirting, then cows mounting on each
other, the statues of women with naked breasts, then contact with the
governess's body and breasts, finally coitus. (Arthur Macdonald, Le
Criminel-Type, pp. 126 et scq.)
It is worthy of remark that the instinct of nutrition, when re-
strained, may exhibit something of an analogous symbolism, though
in a minor degree, to that of sex. The ways in which a hyperaesthetic
hunger may seek its symbols are illustrated in the case of a young
woman called Xadia, who during several years was carefully studied
by Janet. It is a case of obsession ("maladie du scrupule"), simulating
hysterical anorexia, in which the patient, for fear of getting fat, reduced
her nourishment to the smallest possible amount. "Nadia is generally
hungry, even very hungry. One can tell this by her actions; from time
to time she forgets herself to such an extent as to devour greedily
anything she can put her hands on. At other times, when she cannot
resist the desire to eat, she secretly takes a biscuit. She feels horrible
remorse for the action, but, all the same, she does it again. Her confi-
dences are very curious. She recognizes that a great effort is needed
to avoid eating, and considers she is a heroine to resist so long. 'Some-
times I spent whole hours in thinking about food, I was so hungry; I
swallowed my saliva, I bit my handkerchief, I rolled on the floor, I
wanted to eat so badly. I would look in books for descriptions of meals
8 PSYCnOLOGY OF SEX.
and feasts, and tried to deceive my hunger by imagining that I v/as
sharing all these good things.'" (P. Janet, "La Maladie du Scrupule,"
Revue Philosophiquc, May, 1901, p. 502.) The deviations of the instinct
of nutrition are, however, confined within narrow limits, and, in the
nature of things, hunger, unlike sexual desire, cannot easily accept
a fetich.
"Tliere is almost no feature, article of dress, attitude, act,"
Stanley Hall declares, "or even animal or perhaps object in
nature, that may not have to some morbid soul specialized ero-
genic and erethic power."^ Even a mere shadow may become a
fetich. Goron tells of a merchant in Paris — a man with a
reputation for ability, happily married and the father of a
family, altogether irreproachable in his private life — ^who was
returning home one evening after a game of billiards with a
friend, when, on chancing to raise his eyes, he saw against a
lighted window the shadow of a woman changing her chemise.
He fell in love with that shadow and returned to the spot every
evening for many months to gaze at the window. Yet — and
herein lies the fetichism — ^he made no attempt to see the woman
or to find out who she was ; the shadow sufficed ; he had no need
of the realty.^ It is even possible to have a negative fetich, the
absence of some character being alone demanded, and the case
has been recorded in Chicago of an American gentleman of aver-
age intelligence, education, and good habits who, having as a
boy cherished a pure affection for a girl whose leg had been am-
putated, throughout life was relatively impotent with normal
women, but experienced passion and affection for women who had
lost a leg; he was found by his wife to be in extensive corre-
spondence with one-legged women all over the country, expend-
ing no little money on the purchase of artificial legs for his
various protegees.^
It is important to remember, however, that while erotic
symbolism becomes fantastic and abnormal in its extreme mani-
^ G. S. Hall, Adolescence, vol. i, p. 470.
* Goron, Les Parias de rA7nour, p. 45.
'A. R. Reynolds, Medical Standard, vol. x, cited by Kieman, "Re-
sponsibility in Sexual Perversion," American Journal of Neurology and
Psychiatry, 1882.
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. y
festations, it is in its essence absolutely normal. It is only in
the very grossest forms of sexual desire that it is altogether
absent. Stendhal described the mental side of the process of
tumescence as a cr3fstallization, a process whereby certain feat-
ures of the beloved person present points around which the emo-
tions held in solution in the lover's mind may concentrate and
deposit themselves in dazzling brilliance. This process inevi-
tably tends to take place around all those features and objects
associated with the beloved person which have most deeply im-
pressed the lover's mind, and the more sensitive and imagina-
tive and emotional he is the more certainly will such features
and objects crystallize into erotic symbols. "Devotion and love,"
wrote Mary Wollstonecraft, "may be allowed to hallow the gar-
ments as well as the person, for the lover must want fancy who
has not a sort of sacred respect for the glove or slipper of his
mistress. He would not confound them with vulgar things of
the same kind." And nearly two centuries earlier Burton, who
had gathered together so much of the ancient lore of love,
clearly asserted the entirely normal character of erotic sym-
bolism. "Not one of a thousand falls in love," he declares, "but
there is some peculiar part or other which pleaseth most, and
inflames him above the rest. . . . If he gets any remnant
of hers, a busk-point, a feather of her fan, a shoe-tie, a lace,
a ring, a bracelet of hair, he wears it for a favor on his arm,
in his hat, finger, or next his heart; as Laodamia did by Pro-
tesilaus, when he went to war, sit at home with his picture be-
fore her: a garter or a bracelet of hers is more precious than
any Saint's Eelique, he lays it up in his casket (0 blessed
Eelique) and every day will kiss it: if in her presence his eye
is never off her, and drink he will where she drank, if it be
possible, in that very place," etc.^
Burton's accuracy in describing the ways of lovers in his century
is shown by a passage in Hamilton's M6moires de Gramont. Miss
Price, one of the beauties of Charles II's court, and Dongan were ten-
* R. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Part III, Section II, Mem. II,
Subs. II, and Mem. Ill, Subs. I.
10 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
derly attached to each other; when the latter died he left behind a
casket full of all possible sorts of love-tokens pertaining to his mistress,
including, among other things, "all kinds of hair." And as regards
France, Burton's contemporary, Howell, wrote in 1627 in his Familiar
Letters concerning the repulse of the English at Rhe: "A captain told
me that when they were rifling the dead bodies of the French gentlemen
after the first invasion they found that many of them had their mis-
tresses' favors tied about their genitories."
Schurig (SpermatoJogia, p. 357) at the beginning of the eighteenth
century knew a Belgian lady who, when her dearly loved husband died,
secretly cut off his penis and treasured it as a sacred relic in a silver
casket. She eventually powdered it, he adds, and found it an efficacious
medicine for herself and others. An earlier example, of a lady at the
French court who embalmed and perfumed the genital organs of her
dead husband, always preserving them in a gold casket, is mentioned
by Brantome. Mantegazza knew a man who kept for many years on
his desk the skull of his dead mistress, making it his dearest compan-
ion. "Some," he remarks, "have slept for months and years with a
book, a garment, a trifle. I once had a friend who would spend long
hours of joy and emotion kissing a thread of silk which she had held
between her fingers, now the only relic of love." (Mantegazza, Fisiologia
dell' Amove, cap. X.) In the same way I knew a lady who in old ago
still treasured in her desk, as the one relic of the only man she h;ul
ever been attracted to, a fragment of paper he had casually twisted vip
in a conversation with her half a century before.
The tendency to treasure the relics of a beloved person,
more especially the garments, is the simplest and commonest
foundation of erotic symbolism. It is without doubt absolutely
normal. It is inevitable that those objects which have been in
close contact with the beloved person's body, and are intimately
associated with that person in the lover's mind, should possess
a little of the same virtue, the same emotional potency. It is
a phenomenon closely analogous to that by which the relics of
saints are held to possess a singular virtue. But it becomes
somewhat less normal when the garment is regarded as essential
even in the presence of the beloved person.^
While an extremely large number of objects and acts may
be found to possess occasionally the value of erotic symbols, such
^Numerous examples are given by Moll, Kontrare Sexualempfind-
ung, third edition, pp. 265-268.
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM. 11
symbols most frequently fall into certain well-defined groups.
A vast number of isolated objects or acts may be exceptionally
the focus of erotic contemplation, but the objects and acts which
frequently become thus symbolic are comparatively few.
It seems to me that the phenomena of erotic symbolism may
be most conveniently grouped in three great classes, on the basis
of the objects or acts which arouse them.
I. Parts of the Body. — A. Normal: Hand, foot, breasts,
nates, hair, secretions and excretions, etc.
B. Abnormal: Lameness, squinting,, pitting of smallpox,
etc. Paidophilia or the love of children, presbyophilia or the
love of the aged, and necrophilia or the attraction for corpses,
may be included under this head, as well as the excitement
caused by various animals.
II. Inanimate Objects.* — A. Garments: Gloves, shoes
and stockings and garters, caps, aprons, handkerchiefs, under-
linen.
B. Impersonal Objects: Here may be included all the vari-
ous objects that may accidentally acquire the power of exciting
sexual feeling in auto-erotism. Pygmalionism may also be in-
cluded.
III. Acts and Attitudes. — A. Active: Whipping, cruelty,
exhibitionism. B. Passive: Being whipped, experiencing cruelty.
Personal odors and the sound of the voice may be included under
this head. C. Mixoscopic: The vision of climbing, swinging,
etc. The acts of urination and defecation. The coitus of ani-
mals.
Although the three main groups into which the phenomena
of erotic symbolism are here divided may seem fairly distinct,
they are yet very closely allied, and indeed overlap, so that it
^Chevalier (De VInversion, 1885; id. VInversion Scruclle, 1892,
p. 52), followed by E. Laurent (L'Aviour Morhide, 1891, Chapter X),
separates this group from other fetichistic perversions, under the head
of "azoophilie." I see no adequate ground for this step. The various
forms of fetichism are too intimately associated to permit of any group
of them being violently separated fi'om the others.
12 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
is possible, as we shall see, for a single complex symbol to fall
into all three groups.
A very complete kind of erotic symbolism is furnished by
Pygmalionism or the love of statues.^ It is exactly analogous
to the child's love of a doll, which is also a form of sexual
(though not erotic) symbolism. In a somewhat less abnormal
form, erotic symbolism probably shows itself in its simplest
shape in the tendency to idealize unbeautiful peculiarities in a
beloved person, so that such peculiarities are ever afterward
almost or quite essential in order to arouse sexual attraction. In
this way men have become attracted to limping women. Even
the most normal man may idealize a trilling defect in a beloved
M'oman. The attention is inevitably concentrated on any such
slight deviation from regular beauty, and the natural result of
such concentration is that a complexus of associated thoughts
and emotions becomes attached to something that in itself is
unbeautiful. A defect becomes an admired focus of attention,
the embodied symbol of the lover's emotion.
Thus a mole is not in itself beautiful, but by the tendency to
erotic symbolism it becomes so. Persian poets especially have lavished
the richest imagery on moles (Anls El-OcJichaq in Bibliotheque des
Eaiites Etudes, fasc, 25, 1875) ; the Arabs, as Lane remarks {Arahian
Society in the Middle Ages, p. 214), are equally extravagant in their
admiration of a mole.
Stendhal long since well described the process by which a defect
becomes a sexual symbol. "Even little defects in a woman's face," he
remarked, "such as a smallpox pit, may arouse the tenderness of a man
who loves her, and throw him into deep reverie when he sees them in
another woman. It is because he has experienced a thousand feelings
in the presence of that smallpox mark, that these feelings have been
for the most part delicious, all of the highest interest, and that, what-
ever they may have been, they are renewed with incredible vivacity on
the sight of this sign, even when perceived on the face of another
woman. If in such a case we come to prefer and love iigliness, it is only
because in such a case ugliness is beauty. A man loved a woman who
' This has already been considered as a perversion founded on
vision, in discussing 8exual Selection in Man. IV.
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 13
was very thin and marked by smallpox; lie lost lier by death^ Three
years later, in Rome, he became acquainted with two women, one very
beautiful, the other thin and marked by smallpox, on that account, if
you will, rather iigly. I saw him in love with this plain one at the end
of a week, which he had employed in effacing her plainness by his
memories." (De I'Amour, Chapter XVII.)
In the tendency to idealize the unbeautiful features of a
beloved person erotic symbolism shows itself in a simple and
normal form. In a less simple and more morbid form it appears
in persons in whom the normal paths of sexual gratification are
for some reasons inhibited^ and who are thus led to find the
symbols of natural love in unnatural perversions. It is for this
reason that so many erotic symbolisms take root in childhood
and puberty, before the sexual instincts have reached full devel-
opment. It is for the same reason also, that, at the other end
of life, when the sexual energies are failing, erotic symbols some-
times tend to be substituted for the normal pleasures of sex. It
is for this reason, again, that both men and women whose nor-
mal energies are inhibited sometimes find the symbols of sexual
gratification in the caresses of children.
The ease of a schoolmistress recorded by Penta instructively shows
how an erotic symbolism of this last kind may develop by no means as
a refinement of vice, but as the one form in which sexual gratification
becomes possible when normal gratification has been pathologically
inhibited. F. R., aged 48, schoolmistress; she was some years ago in
an asylum with religious mania, but came out well in a few months. At
the age of 12 she had first experienced sexual excitement in a railway
train from the jolting of the carriage. Soon after she fell in love with
a youth who represented her ideal and who returned her affection.
Wlien, however, she gave herself to him, great was her disillusion and
surprise to find that the sexual act which she had looked forward to
could not be accomplished, for at the first contact there was great pain
and spasmodic resistance of the vagina. There was a condition of
vaginismus. After repeated attempts on subsec|uent occasions her lover
desisted. Her desire for intercourse increased, however, rather than
diminished, and at last she was able to tolerate coitus, but the pain
was so great that she acquired a horror of the sexual embrace and no
longer sought it. Having much will power, she restrained all erotic
impulses during many years. It was not until the period of the meno-
pause that the long repressed desires broke out, and at last found a
14 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
symbolical outlet that was no longer normal, but was felt to supply a
complete gratification. She sought the close physical contact of the
young children in her care. She would lie on her bed naked, with two
or three naked children, make them suck her breasts and press them to
eveiy part of her body. Her conduct was discovered by means of other
children who peeped through the keyhole, and she was placed under
Penta for treatment. In this case the loss of moral and mental inhibi-
tion, due probably to troubles of the climacteric, led to indulgence, under
abnormal conditions, in those primitive contacts which are normally the
beginning of love, and these, supported by the ideal image of the early
lover, constituted a complete and adequate symbol of natural love in a
morbidly perverted individual. (P. Penta, Archivio delle Pricopatie
Sessuale, January, 189G.)
II.
Foot-fetiehism and Shoe-fetichism — Wide Prevalence and Normal
Basis — Restif de la Bretonne — The Foot a Normal Focus of Sexual
Attraction Among Some Peoples — The Chinese, Greeks, Romans, Span-
iards, etc. — The Congenital Predisposition in Erotic Symbolism — Tlie
Influence of Early Association and Emotional Shock — Shoe-fetichism in
Relation to Masochism — The Two Phenomena Independent Though
Allied — The Desire to be Trodden On — The Fascination of Physical
Constraint — The Symbolism of Self-inflicted Pain — The Dynamic Element
in Erotic Symbolism — The Symbolism of Garments .
Of all forms of erotic symbolism the most frequent is that
which idealizes the foot and the shoe. The phenomena we here
encounter are sometimes so complex and raise so many inter-
esting questions that it is necessary to discuss them somewhat
fully.
It would seem that even for the normal lover the foot is
one of the most attractive parts of the body. Stanley Hall
found that among the parts specified as most admired in the
other sex by young men and women who answered a question-
naire the feet came fourth (after the eyes, hair, stature and
size).^ Casanova, an acute student and lover of women who
was in no degree a foot fetichist, remarks that all men who share
his interest in women are attracted by their feet; they offer
^ G. Stanley Hall, Adolescence, vol. ii, p. 113. It will be noted that
the hand does not appear among the parts of the body which are
normally of supreme interest. An interest in the hand is by no means
uncommon (it may be noted, for instance, in the course of History XII
in Appendix B to vol. iii of these Studies), but the hand does not
possess the mystery which envelops the foot, and hand-fetichism is very
much less frequent than foot-fetichism, while glove-fetichism is remark-
ably rare. An interesting case of hand-fetichism, scarcely reaching
morbid intensity, is recorded by Binet, Etudes de Psi/choloffie Exp6ri-
mentale, pp. 13-19; and see Kraii't-Ebing, Op. cit., pp. 214 et seq.
(15)
-o
16 PSYCnOLOGY OF SEX.
the same interest, lie considers, as the question of the particular
edition offers to the book-lover.^
In a report of the results of a questionnaire concerning children's
sense of self, to which over 500 replies were received, Stanley Hall thus
summarizes the main facts ascertained with reference to the feet: "A
special period of noticing the feet comes somewhat later than that in
which the hands are discovered to consciousness. Our records afford
nearly twice as many cases for feet as for hands. The former are more
remote from the primary psychic focus or position, and are also more
often covered, so th\t the sight of them is a more marked and excep-
tional event. Some children become greatly excited whenever their feet
are exposed. Some infants show signs of fear at the movement of their
own knees and feet covered, and still more often fright is the first
sensation which signalizes the child's discovery of its feet. . . .
Many are described as playing with them as if fascinated by strange,
newly-discovered toys. They pick them up and try to throw them away,
or out of the cradle, or bring them to the mouth, where all things tend
to go. . . . Children often handle their feet, pat and stroke them,
ofTer them toys and the bottle, as if they, too, had an independent
hunger to gratify, an ego of their own. . . . Children often develop
[later] a special interest in the feet of others, and examine, feel them,
etc., sometimes expressing surprise that the pinch of the mother's toe
hurts her and not the child, or comparing their own and the feet of
others point by point. Curious, too, are the intensifications of foot-
consciousness throughout the early years of childhood, whenever chil-
dren have the exceptional privilege of going barefoot, or have new shoes.
The feet are often apostrophized, punished, beaten sometimes to the
point of pain for breaking tilings, throwing the child down, etc. Several
children have habits, which reach great intensity, and then vanish, of
touching or tickling the feet, with gales of laughter, and a few are
described as showing an almost morbid reluctance to wear anything
upon the feet, or even to having them touched by others. . . .
Several almost fall in love with the great toe or the little one, especially
admiring some crease or dimple in it, dressing it in some rag of silk or
bit of ribbon, or cut-ofT glove fingers, winding it with string, prolonging
it by tying on bits of wood. Stroking the feet of others, especially if
they are shapely, often becomes almost a passion with young children,
and several adults confess a survival of the same impulse which it is an
exquisite pleasure to gi'atify. The interest of some mothers in babies'
toes, the expressions of which are ecstatic and almost incredible, is a
factor of great importance." (G. Stanley Hall, "Some Aspects of the
Mdmoires, vol. i, Chapter VII.
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 17
Early Sense of Self," American Journal of Psychology, April, 1898.) In
childhood, Stanley Hall remarks elsewhere (Adolescence, vol. ii, p. 104),
"a. form of courtship may consist solely in touching feet under the desk."
It would seem that even animals have a certain amount of sexual con-
sciousness in the feet ; I have noticed a male donkey, just before coitus,
bite the feet of his partner.
At the same time it is scarcely usual for the normal lover,
in most civilized countries to-day, to attach primary importance
to the foot, such as he very frequently attaches to the eyes, though
the feet play a very conspicuous part in the work of certain
novelists.^
In a small but not inconsiderable minority of persons, how-
ever, the foot or the boot becomes the most attractive part of a
woman, and in some morbid cases the woman herself is regarded
as a comparatively unimportant appendage to her feet or her
boots. The boots under civilized conditions much more fre-
quently constitute the sexual symbol than do the feet them-
selves; this is not surprising since in ordinary life the feet are
not often seen.
It is usually only under exceptionally favoring conditions that
foot-fetichism occurs, as in the case recorded by Marandon de Montyel
of a doctor who had been brought up in the West Indies. His mother
had been insane and he himself was subject to obsessions, especially of
being incapable of urinating; he had had nocturnal incontinence of
urine in childhood. All the women of the people in the West Indies
go about with naked feet, which are often beautiful. His puberty
evolved under this influence, and foot-fetichism developed. He especially
admired large, fat, arched feet, with delicate skin and large, regular
toes. He masturbated with images of feet. At 1.5 he had relations
with a colored chambermaid, but feared to mention his fetichism,
though it was the touch of her feet that chiefly excited him. He now
gave up masturbation, and had a succession of mistresses, but was
always ashamed to confess his fancies until, at the age of 33, in Paris,
a very intelligent woman who had become his mistress discovered his
^ Among leading English novelists Hardy shows an unusual but
by no means predominant interest in the feet and shoes of his heroines;
see, e.g., the observations of the cobbler in Under the Greemcood Tree,
Chapter III. A chapter in Goethe's Wahlverwandschaften (Part I. Chap-
ter II) contains an episode involving the charm of the foot and the
kissing of the beloved's shoe.
2
18 PSTOHOLOaX OF SEX.
mania and skillfully enabled hira to yield to it without shock to his
modesty. He was devoted to this mistress, who had very beautiful feet
(he had been horrified by the feet of Europeans generally), until she
finally left him. (Archives de Neurologic, October, 1904.)
Probably the first case of shoe-fetichism ever recorded in any
detail is that of Restif de la Bretonne (1734-1806), publicist and novelist,
one of the most remarkable literary figures of the later eighteenth
century in France. Eestif was a neurotic subject, though not to an
extreme degree, and his shoe-fetichism, though distinctly pronounced,
was not pathological; that is to say, that the shoe was not itself an
adequate gratification of the sexual impulse, but simply a highly im-
portant aid to tumescence, a prelude to the natural climax of de-
tumescence; only occasionally, and faute de mieux, in the absence of
the beloved person, was the shoe used as an adjunct to masturbation.
In Restif's stories and elsewhere the attraction of the shoe is frequently
discussed or used as a motive. His first decided literary success, Le Pied
de Fanchctte, was suggested by a vision of a girl with a charming foot,
casually seen in the street. While all such passages in his books are
really founded on his own personal feelings and experiences, in his
elaborate autobiography. Monsieur Nicolas, he has frankly set forth
tlie gradual evolution and cause of his idiosyncrasy. The first remem-
bered trace dated from the age of 4, when he was able to recall having
remarked the feet of a young girl in his native place. Restif was a
sexually precocious youth, and at the age of 9, though both delicate in
health and shy in manners, his thoughts were already absorbed in the
girls around him. "While little Monsieur Nicolas," he tells us, "passed
for a Narcissus, his thoughts, as soon as he was alone, by night or by
day, had no other object than that sex he seemed to flee from. The
girls most careful of their persons were naturally those who pleased
him most, and as the part least easy to keep clean is that which touches
the earth it was to the foot-gear that he mechanically gave his chief
attention. Agathe, Reine, and especially Madeleine, were the most
elegant of the girls at that time ; their carefully selected and kept shoes,
instead of laces or buckles, which were not yet worn at Sacy, had blue
or rose ribbon, according to the color of the skirt. I thought of these
girls with emotion ; I desired — I knew not what ; but I desired some-
thing, if it were only to subdue them." The origin Restif here assigns
to his shoe-fetichism may seem paradoxical; he admired the girls who
were most clean and neat in their dress, he tells us, and, therefore, paid
most attention to that part of their clothing which was least clean and
neat. But, however paradoxical the remark may seem, it is psycho-
logically sound. All fetichism is a kind of not necessarily morbid
obsession, and as the careful work of Janet and others in that field has
shown, an obsession is a fascinated attraction to some object or idea
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM. 19
which gives the subject a kind of emotional shock by ita contrast to his
habitual moods or ideas. The ordinary morbid obsession cannot usually
be harmoniously co-ordinated with the other experiences of the subject's
daily life, and shows, therefore, no tendency to become pleasurable.
Sexual fetichisms, on the other hand, have a reservoir of agreeable
emotion to draw on, and are thus able to acquire both stability and
harmony. It will also be seen that no element of masochism is involved
in Restif's fetichism, though the mistake has been frequently made of
supposing that these two manifestations are usually or even necessarily
allied. Restif wishes to subject the girl who attracts him, he has no
wish to be subjected by her. He was especially dazzled by a young girl
from another town, whose shoes were of a fashionable cut, with buckles,
"and who was a charming person besides." She was delicate as a fairy,
and rendered his thoughts unfaithful to the robust beauties of his native
Sacy. "No doubt," he remarks, "because, being frail and weak myself,
it seemed to me that it would be easier to subdue her." "This taste for
the beauty of the feet," he continues, "was so powerful in me that it
unfailingly aroused desire and would have made me overlook ugliness.
It is excessive in all those who have it." He admired the foot as well
as the shoe: "The factitious taste for the shoe is only a reflection of
that for pretty feet. When I entered a house and saw the boots
arranged in a row, as is the custom, I would tremble with pleasure; 1
blushed and lowered my eyes as if in the presence of the girls them-
selves. With this vivacity of feeling and a voluptuousness of ideas
inconceivable at the age of 10 I still fled, with an involuntary impulse
of modesty, from the girls I adored."
We may clearly see how this combination of sensitive and pre-
cocious sexual ardor with extreme shyness, furnished the soil on which
the germ of shoe-fetichism was able to gain a finn root and persist in
some degree throughout a long life very largely given up to a pursuit
of women, abnormal rather by its excessiveness than its perversity. A
few years later, he tells us, he happened to see a pretty pair of shoes
in a bootmaker's shop, and on hearing that they belonged to a girl whom
at that time he reverently adored at a distance he blushed and nearly
fainted.
In 1749 he was for a time attracted to a young woman very much
older than himself; he secretly carried away one of her slippers and
kept it for a day; a little later he again took away a shoe of the same
woman which had fascinated him when on her foot, and, he seems to
imply, he used it to masturbate with.
Perhaps the chief passion of Ecstif's life was his love for Colette
Parangon. He was still a boy {ll'yl), .she was the young and virtuous
wife of the printer whose apprentice Restif was and in whose house
he lived. Madame Parangon, a charming woman, as she is described,
20 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
was not happily married, and she evidently felt a tender affection for
the boy whose excessive love and reverence for her were not always
successfully concealed. "Madonna Parangon," he tells us, "possessed a
charm which I could never resist, a pretty little foot; it is a charm
which arouses more than tenderness. Her shoes, made in Paris, had
that voluptuous elegance which seems to communicate soul and life.
Sometimes Colette wore shoes of simple white drugget or with silver
flowers; sometimes rose-colored slippers with green heels, or green with
rose heels; her supple feet, far from deforming her shoes, increased
their grace and rendered the form more exciting." One day, on entering
the house, he saw Madame Parangon elegantly dressed and wearing
rose-colored shoes with tongues, and with green heels and a pretty
rosette. They were new and she took them off to put on green slippers
with rose heels and borders which he thought equally exciting. As soon
as she had left the room, he continues, "carried away by the most
impetuous passion and idolizing Colette, I seemed to see her and touch
her in handling what she had just worn; my lips pressed one of these
jewels, while the other, deceiving the sacred end of nature, from excess
of exaltation replaced the object of sex (I cannot express myself more
clearly). The warmth which she had communicated to the insensible
object which had touched her still remained and gave a soul to it; a
voluptuous cloud covered my eyes." He adds that he would kiss with
rage and transport whatever had come in close contact with the woman
he adored, and on one occasion eagerly pressed his lips to her cast-off
underlinen, vela secretiora penetralium.
At this period Restif's foot-fetichism reached its highest point of
development. It was the aberration of a highly sensitive and very pre-
cocious boy. While the preoccupation with feet and shoes persisted
throughout life, it never became a complete perversion and never re-
placed the normal end of sexual desire. His love for Madam Parangon,
one of the deepest emotions in his whole life, was also the climax of his
shoe-fetichism. She represented his ideal woman, an ethereal sylph
with wasp-waist and a child's feet; it was always his highest praise for
a woman that she resembled Madame Parangon, and he desired that her
slipper should be buried with him. (Restif de la Bretonne, Monsieur
Nicolas, vols, i-iv, vol. xiii, p. 5; id, Mes Inscriptions, pp. ci-cv.)
Shoe-fetichism, more especially if we include under this term all
the cases of real or pseudo-masochism in which an attraction to the
boots or slippers is the chief feature, is a not infrequent phenomenon,
and is certainly the most frequently occurring form of fetichism. Many
cases are brought together by Krafft-Ebing in his Psychopathia Sexualis.
Every prostitute of any experience has known men who merely desire
to gaze at her shoes, or possibly to lick them, and who are qviite willing
to pay for this privilege. In London such a person is known as a "boot-
man," in Germany as a "Stiefelfrier."
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM. 21
The predominance of the foot as a focus of sexual attrac-
tion, while among us to-day it is a not uncommon phenomenon,
is still not sufficiently common to be called normal; the ma-
jority of even ardent lovers do not experience this attraction in
any marked degree. But these manifestations of foot-fetichism
which with us to-day are abnormal, even when they are not so
extreme as to be morbid, may perhaps become more intelligible
to us when we realize that in earlier periods of civilization, and
even to-day in some parts of the world, the foot is generally
recognized as a focus of sexual attraction, so that some degree
of foot-fetichism becomes a normal phenomenon.
. The most pronounced and the best known example of such
normal foot-fetichism at the present day is certainly to be found
among the Southern Chinese. For a Chinese husband his wife's
foot is more interesting than her face. A Chinese woman is as
shy of showing her feet to a man as a European woman her
breasts; they are reserved for her husband's eyes alone, and to
look at a woman's feet in the street is highly improper and in-
delicate. Chinese foot-fetichism is connected with the custom
of compressing the feet. This custom appears to rest on the
fact that Chinese women naturally possess a very small foot and
is thus an example of the universal tendency in the search for
beauty to accentuate, even by deformation, the racial character-
istics. But there is more than this. Beauty is largely a name for
sexual attractiveness, and the energy expended in the effort to
make the Chinese woman's small foot still smaller is a measure
of the sexual fascination which it exerts. The practice arose
on the basis of the sexual attractiveness of the foot, though it
has doubtless served to heighten that attractiveness, just as the
small waist, which (if we may follow Stratz) is a characteristic
beauty of the European woman, becomes to the average Euro-
pean man still more attractive when accentuated, even to the
extent of deformity, by the compression of the corset.
Referring to the sexual fascination exerted by the foot in China,
Matignon writes: "My attention has been drawn to this point by a
large number of pornographic engravings, of which the Chinese are very
fond. In all these lascivious scenes we see the male voluptuously fond-
22 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
ling the woman's foot. When a Celestial takes into his hand a woman's
foot, especially if it is very small, the effect upon him is precisely the
same as is provoked in a European by the palpation of a young and
firm bosom. All the Celestials whom I have interrogated on tliis point
have replied unanimously: 'Oh, a little foot! You Europeans cannot
understand how exquisite, how sweet, how exciting it is!' The contact
of the genital organ with the little foot produces in the male an inde-
scribable degree of voluptuous feeling, and women skilled in love know
that to arouse the ardor of their lovers a better method than all Chinese
aphrodisiacs — including 'giusen' and swallows' nests — is to take the
penis between their feet. It is not rare to find Chinese Christians
accusing themselves at confession of having had 'evil thoughts on look-
ing at a woman's foot.' " (Dr. J. Matignon, "A propos d'un Pied de
Chinoise," Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle, 1898.)
It is said that a Chinese Empress, noted for her vice and having a
congenital club foot, about the year 1100 B.C., desired all women to
resemble her, and that the practice of compressing the foot thus arose.
But this is only tradition, since, in 300 B.C., Chinese books were de-
stroyed (Morache, Art. "Chine," Dictionnalre EncyclopMiqne des Sciences
Mcdicalcs, p. 191). It is also said that the practice owes its origin to
the wish to keep women indoors. But women are not secluded in China,
nor does foot compression usually render a woman unable to walk.
Many intelligent Chinese are of opinion that its object is to promote
the development of the sexual parts and of the thighs, and so to aid
both intercourse and parturition. There is no ground for believing that
it has any such influence, though Morache fovmd that the mons veneris
and labia are largely developed in Chinese women, and not in Tartar
women living in Pekin (who do not compress the foot). If there is any
correlation between the feet and the pelvic regions, it is more probably
congenital than due to the artificial compression of the feet. The
ancients seem to have believed that a small foot indicated a small
vagina. Restif de la Bretonne, who had ample opportunities for forming
an opinion on a matter in which he took so great an interest, believed
that a small foot, roimd and short, indicated a large vagina (Monsieur
Nicolas, vol. i, reprint of 1883, p. 92). Even, however, if we admit that
there is a real correlation between the foot and the vagina, that would
by no means suflSce to render the foot a focus of sexual attraction.
It remains the most reasonable view that the foot bandage must
be regarded as strictly analogous to the waist bandage or corset which
also tends to produce deformity of the constricted region. Stratz has
ingeniously remarked (Franenkleidiinff, third edition, p. 101) that the
success of the Chinese in dwarfing trees may have suggested a similar
attempt in regard to women's feet, and adds that in any case both
dwarfed trees and bound feet bear witness in the Mongolian to the same
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 23
love for small and elegant, not to say deformed, things. For a China-
man the deformed foot is a "golden water-lily."
Many facts (together with illustrations) bearing on Chinese de-
formation of the foot will be found in Ploss, Das Weib, vol. i, Section
IV.
The significance of the sexual emotion aroused by the female
foot in China and the origin of its compression begin to become
clear when we realize that this foot-fetichism is merely an ex-
treme development of a tendency which is fairly well marked
among nearly all the peoples of yellow race. Jacob y, who has
brought together a number of interesting facts bearing on the
sexual significance of the foot, states that a similar tendency is
to be found among the Mongol and Turk peoples of Siberia, and
in the east and central parts of European Eussia, among the
Permiaks, the Wotiaks, etc. Here the woman, at all events when
young, has always her feet, as well as head, covered, however
little clothing she may otherwise wear.
"On hot nights or on baking days," Jacoby states, "you may see
these women with uncovered breasts, or even entirely naked without
embarrassment, but you will never see them with bare feet, and no male
relations, except the husband, will ever see the feet and lower part of
the legs of the women in the house. These women have their modesty in
their feet, and also their coquetry; to unbind the feet of a woman is
for a man a voluptuous act, and the touch of the bands produces the
same effect as a corset still warm from a woman's body on a European
man. A woman's beauty, that which attracts and excites a man, lies
in her foot; in Mordvin love poems celebrating the beauty of women
there is much about her attire, especially her embroidered chemise, but
as regards the charms of her person the poet is content to state that
'her feet are beautiful;' with that everything is said. The young
peasant woman of the central provinces as part of her holiday raiment
puts on great woolen stockings which come up to the groin and are
then folded over to below the knee. To uncover the feet of a person of
the opposite sex is a sexual act, and has thus become the symbol of
sexual possession, so that the stocking or foot-gear became the emblem
of marriage, as later the ring. (It was so among the Jews, as we see
in the book of Ruth, Chapter III, v. 4, and Chapter IV, vv. 7 and 8). St.
Vladimir the Great asked in marriage the daughter of Prince Rogvold;
as Vladimir's mother had been a serf, the princess proudly replied that
she 'would not uncover the feet of a slave.' At the present time in the
24 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
east of Russia when a young girl tries to find out by divination whom
she will have as a husband the traditional formula is 'Come and take
my stockings oflF.' Among the populations of the north and east, it is
sometimes the bride who must do this for her husband on the wedding
night, and sometimes the bridegroom for his wife, not as a token of
love, but as a nuptial ceremony. Among the professional classes and
small nobility in Russia parents place money in the stocking of their
child at marriage as a present for the other partner, it being supposed
that the couple mutually remove each other's foot raiment, as an act
of sexual possession, the emblem of coitus." (Paul Jaeoby, Archives
d'Anthropologie Criminelle, December, 1903, p. 793.) The practice among
ourselves of children hanging up their stockings at night for presents
would seem to be a relic of the last-mentioned custom.
While we may witness the sexual symbolism of the foot,
with or without an associated foot-fetichism, most highly devel-
oped in Asia and Eastern Europe, it has by no means been
altogether unknown in some stages of western civilization, and
traces of it may be found here and there even yet, Schinz
refers to the connection between the feet and sexual pleasure as
existing not only among the Egyptians and the Arabs, but among
the ancient Germans and the modern Spaniards,^ while Jaeoby
points out that among the Greeks, the Eomans, and especially
the Etruscans, it was usual to represent chaste and virgin god-
desses with their feet covered, even though they might be other-
wise nude. Ovid, again, is never weary of dwelling on the sexual
charm of the feminine foot. He represents the chaste matron
as wearing a weighted stola which always fell so as to cover her
feet ; it was only the courtesan, or the nymph who is taking part
in an erotic festival, who appears with raised robes, revealing
her feet.^ So grave a historian as Strabo, as well as Ji^lian,
^Schinz, "Philosophic des Conventions Sociales," Revue Philosoph-
ique, June, 1903, p. 626. Mirabeau mentions in his Erotika Biblion
that modern Greek women sometimes use their feet to provoke orgasm
in their lovers. I may add that simultaneous mutual masturbation by
means of the feet is not unknown to-day, and I have been told by an
English shoe-fetichist that he at one time was accustomed to practice
this with a married lady (Brazilian) — she with slippers on and he with-
out — who derived gratification equal to his own.
'Jaeoby (loo. cit. pp. 790-7) gives a large number of references to
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM. 25
refers to the story of the courtesan Ehodope whose sandal was
carried off by an eagle and dropped in the King of Egypt's lap
as he was administering justice, so that he could not rest until
he had discovered to whom this delicately small sandal belonged,
and finally made her his queen. Kleinpaul, who repeats this
story, has collected many European sayings and customs (includ-
ing Turkish), indicating that the slipper is a very ancient sym-
bol of a woman's sexual parts.^
In Rome, Dufour remarks, "Matrons having appropriated the use of
the shoe (soccus) prostitutes were not allowed to use it, and were
obliged to have their feet always naked in sandals or slippers (crepida
and solea), which they fastened over the instep with gilt bands. Tibul-
lus delights to describe his mistress's little foot, compressed by the band
that imprisoned it: Ansaque compressos colligat arcta pedes. Nudity
of the foot in woman was a sign of prostitution, and their brilliant white-
ness acted afar as a pimp to attract looks and desires." (Dufour,
Histoire de la Prostitution, vol. II., ch. xviii.)
This feeling seems to have survived in a more or less vague and
unconscious form in medigeval Europe. "In the tenth century," accord-
ing to Dufour {Eistoire de la Prostitution, vol. VI., p. 11), "shoes d la
poulaiiie, with a claw or beak, pursued for more than four centuries by
the anathemas of popes and the invectives of preachers, were always
regarded by mediaeval casuists as the most abominable emblems of im-
modesty. At a first glance it is not easy to see why these shoes — ter-
minating in a lion's claw, an eagle's beak, the prow of a ship, or other
metal appendage — should be so scandalous. The excommunication in-
flicted on this kind of footgear preceded the impudent invention of some
libertine, who wore poulaines in the shape of the phallus, a custom
adopted also by women. This kind of poulaine was denounced as mandite
de Dicu (Ducange's Glossary, at the word Poulainia) and prohibited by
royal ordinances (see letter of Charles V., 17 October, 1367, regarding
the garments of the women of Montpellier). Great lords and ladies con-
tinued, however, to wear poulaines." In Louis XI.'s court they were
still worn of a quarter of an ell in length.
Spain, ever tenacious of ancient ideas, appears to have preserved
Ovid's works bearing on this point. "In reading him," he remarks, "one
is inclined to say that the psychology of the Romans was closely allied
to that of the Chinese."
^ R. Kleinpaul, Sprache ohne Worte, p. 308. See also Moll, Kontrdre
Sexualempfindung, third edition, pp. 306-308. Bloch brings together
many interesting references bearing on the ancient sexual and religious
symbolism of the shoe, Beitrdge zur ^tiologie der Psychopathia Sex-
ualis, Teil II, p. 324.
26 PSTCnOLOGY OF SEX.
longer than other countries the ancient classic traditions in regard to
the foot as a focus of modesty and an object of sexual attraction. In
Sjianish religious pictures it was always necessary that the Virgin's feet
should be concealed, the clergy ordaining that her robe should be long
and flowing, so that the feet might be covered with decent folds. Pa-
checo, the master and father-in-law of Velasquez, writes in 1649 in his
Arte de la Pintura: "What can be more foreign from the respect which
we owe to the purity of Our Lady the Virgin than to paint her sitting
down with one of her knees placed over 'the other, and often with her
sacred feet uncovered and naked. Let thanks be given to the Holy
Inquisition which commands that this liberty should be corrected!" It
was Pacheco's duty in Seville to see that these commands were obeyed.
At the court of Philip IV. at this time the princesses never showed
their feet, as we may see in the pictures of Velasquez. "When a local
manufacturer desired to present that monarch's second bride, Mariana
of Austria, with some silk stockings the offer was indignantly rejected
by the Court Chamberlain: "The Queen of Spain has no legs!" Philip
V.'s queen was thrown from her horse and dragged by the feet; no one
ventured to interfere until two gentlemen bravely rescued her and then
fled, dreading punishment by the king: they were, however, graciously
pardoned. Reinach ("Picds Pudiqvies," Cultes, Mythcs et Reliffions, pp.
105-110) brings together several passages from the Countess D'Aulnoy's
account of the Madrid Court in the seventeenth century and from other
sources, showing how careful Spanish ladies were as regards their feet,
and how jealous Spanish husbands were in this matter. At this
time, when Spanish influence was considerable, the fashion of Spain
seems to have spread to other countries. One may note that in Van-
dyck's pictures of English beauties the feet are not visible, though in
the more characteristically English painters of a somewhat later age it
became usual to display them conspicuously, while the French custom
in this matter is the farthest removed from the Spanish. At the
present day a well-bred Spanish woman shows as little as possible of her
feet in walking, and even in some of the most characteristic Spanish
dances there is little or no kicking, and the feet may even be invisible
throughout. It is noteworthy that in numerous figures of Spanish
women (probably artists' models) reproduced in Ploss's Das Weib the
stockings are worn, although the women are otherwise, in most cases,
quite naked. Max Dessoir mentions ("Psychologic der Vita Sexualis,"
Zeitschrift fiir Psychiatrie, 1894, p. 954) that in Spanish porno-
graphic photographs women always have their shoes on, and he con-
siders this an indication of perversity. I haA'e seen the statement (at-
tributed to Gautier's Vo]/age en Espar/ne, where, however, it does not oc-
cur) that Spanish prostitutes uncover their feet in sign of assent, and
Madame d' Aulnoy stated that in her time to show her lover her feet
was a Spanish woman's final favor.
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM, 27
The tendency, which we thus find to be normal at some
earlier periods of civilization, to insist on the sexual symbolism
of the feminine foot or its coverings, and to regard them as a
special sexual fascination, is not without significance for the
interpretation of the sporadic manifestations of foot-fetichism
among ourselves. Eccentric as foot-fetichism may appear to us,
it is simply the re-emergence, by a pseudo-atavism or arrest of
development, of a mental or emotional impulse which was prob-
ably experienced by our forefathers, and is often traceable among
3^oung children to-day.^ The occasional reappearance of this
bygone impulse and the stability which it may acquire are thus
conditioned by the sensitive reaction of an abnormally nervous
and usually precocious organism to influences which, among the
average and ordinary population of Europe to-day, are either
never felt, or quickly outgrown, or very strictly subordinated in
the highly complex crystallizations which the course of love and
the process of tumescence create within us.
It may be added that this is by no means true of foot-fetichism
only. In some other fetichisms a seemingly congenital predisposition is
even more marked. This is not only the case as regards liair-fetichism
and fur-fetichism (see, e.g., Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Scrualis, English
translation of tenth edition, pp. 233, 255, 262). In many cases of
fetichisms of all kinds not only is there no record of any commencement
in a definite episode (an absence which may be accounted for by the
supposition that the original incident has been forgotten), but it would
seem in some cases that the fetichism developed very slowly.
In this sense, it will be seen, although it is hazardous to
speak of foot-fetichism as strictly an atavism, it may certainly
be said to arise on a congenital basis. It represents the rare
development of an inborn germ, usually latent among ourselves,
which in earlier stages of civilization frequently reached a nor-
mal and general fruition.
^Jacoby {loc. cit. p. 797) appears to regard shoe-fetichism as a
true atavism: "The sexual adoration of feminine foot-gear," he con-
cludes, "perhaps the most enigmatic and certainly the most singular of
degenerative insanities, is thus merely a form of atavism, the return of
the degenerate to the very ancient and primitive psychology which we
no longer understand and are no longer capable of feeling."
28 PSTCHOLOQT OF SEX.
It is of interest to emphasize this congenital element of
foot symbolism, because more than any other forms of sexual
perversion the fetichisms are those which are most vaguely con-
ditioned by inborn states of the organism and most definitely
aroused by seemingly accidental associations or shocks in early
life. Inversion is sometimes so fundamentally ingrained in the
individual's constitution that it arises and develops in spite of
the very strongest injfiuence in a contrary direction. But a
fetichism, while it tends to occur in sensitive, nervous, timid,
precocious individuals — that is to say, individuals of more or less
neuropathic heredity — can usually, though not always, be traced
to a definite starting point in the shock of some sexually emo-
tional episode in early life.
A few examples of the influences of such association may here be
given, referring miscellaneously to various forms of erotic symbolism.
Magnan has recorded the case of a hair-fetichist, living in a district
where the women wore their hair done up, who at the age of 15 experi-
enced pleasurable feelings with erection at the sight of a village beauty
combing her hair; from that time flowing hair became his fetich, and
he could not resist the temptation to touch it and if possible sever it,
thus becoming a hair-despoiler, for which he was arrested but not sen-
tenced. (Archives de I'Anthropologie Criminelle, vol. v, No. 28.)
I have elsewhere recorded the history of a boy of 14, having already
had imperfect connection with a grown-up woman, who associated much
with a young married lady; he had no sexual relations with her, but
one day she urinated in his presence, and he saw that her mons veneris
was covered by very thick hair; from that time he worshiped this
woman in secret and acquired a life-long fetichistic attraction to women
whose pubic hair was similarly abundant {Studies in the Psychology of
Sex, vol. iii. Appendix B, History V).
Roubaud reported the case of a general's son, sexually initiated
at the age of 14 by a blonde young lady of 21 who, in order to avoid
detection, always retained her clothing: gaiters, a corset and a silk
dress; when the boy's studies were completed and he was sent to a
garrison where he could enjoy freedom he found that his sexual desires
could only be aroused by blonde women dressed like the lady who had
first aroused his sexual desires ; consequently he gave up all thoughts of
matrimony, as a woman in nightclothes produced impotence (Trait6 de
VImpuissance, p. 439). Kraff't-Ebing records the somewhat similar case
of a nervous Polish boy of old family seduced at the age of 17 by a
French governess, who during several months practiced mutual mastur-
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 29
bation with him; in this way his attention bcame attracted by her very
elegant boots, and in the end he became a confirmed boot-fetichist
{Psychopathia Sexualis, English translation, p. 249).
A boy of 7, of bad heredity, was taught to masturbate by a servant
girl; on one occasion she practiced this on him with her foot without
taking off her shoe; it was the first time the manoeuvre gave him any
pleasure, and an association was thus established which led to shoe-
fetichism (Hammond, Sexual Impotence, p. 44). A government oflScial
whose first coitus in youth took place on a staircase; the sound of his
partner's creaking shoes against the stairs, produced by her efforts to ac-
celerate orgasm, formed an association which developed into an audi-
tory shoe-fetichism; in the streets he was compelled to follow ladies
whose shoes creaked, ejaculation being thus produced, while to obtain
complete satisfaction he would make a prostitute, otherwise naked, sit in
front of him in her shoes, moving her feet so that the shoes creaked.
(Moraglia, ArcJiivio di Psichiatria, vol. xiii, p. 568.)
Bechterew, in St. Petersburg, has recorded the case of a man who
when a child used to fall asleep at the knees of his nurse with his head
buried in the folds of her apron; in this position he first experienced
erection and voluptuous sensations; when a youth he had no attraction
to naked women, and in real life and in dreams was only excited sex-
ually under conditions recalling his early experience; in his relations
with women he preferred them dressed, and was excited by the rustling
sound of their skirts; in this case there was no traceable neuropathic
taint nor any other personal peculiarity. (Summarized in Journal de
Psychologie Normale et Pathologique, January-February, 1904, p. 72.)
In a curious case recorded in detail by Moll, a philologist of sensi-
tive temperament but sound heredity, who had always been fond of
flowers, at the age of 21 became engaged to a young lady who wore large
roses fastened in her jacket; from this time roses became to him a
sexual fetich, to kiss them caused erection, and his erotic dreams were
accompanied by visions of roses and the hallucination of their odor; the
engagement was finally broken off and the rose-fetichism disappeared
(Untersuchungen iiber Libido Sexualis, bd. i, p. 540).
Such associations may naturally occur in the early experi-
ences of even the most normal persons. The degree to which
they will influence the subsequent life and thought and feeling
depends on the degree of the individual's morbid emotional
receptivity, on the extent to which he is hereditarily susceptible
of abnormal deviation. Precocity is undoubtedly a condition
which favors such deviation; a child who is precociously and
30 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
abnormally sensitive to persons of the opposite sex before puberty-
has established the normal channels of sexual desire, is pecul-
iarly liable to become the prey of a chance symbolism. All
degrees of such symbolism are possible. While the average in-
sensitive person may fail to perceive them at all, for the more
alert and imaginative lover they are a fascinating part of the
highly charged crystallization of passion. A more nervously
exceptional person, when once such a symbolism has become
firmly implanted, may find it an absolutely essential element
in the charm of a beloved and charming person. Finally, for
the individual who is thoroughly unsound the symbol becomes
generalized; a person is no longer desired at all, being merely
regarded as an appendage of the symbol, or being dispensed with
altogether; the symbol is alone desired, and is fully adequate
to impart by itself complete sexual gratification. While it must
be considered a morbid state to demand a symbol as an almost
essential part of the charm of a desired person, it is only in the
final condition, in which the symbol becomes all-sufficing, that
we have a true and complete perversion. In the less complete
forms of symbolism it is still the woman who is desired, and
the ends of procreation may be served; when the woman is
ignored and the mere symbol is an adequate and even preferred
stimulus to detumescence the pathological condition becomes
complete.
Krafft-Ebing regarded shoe-fetichism as, in large measure,
a more or less latent form of masochism, the foot or the shoe
being the symbol of the subjection and humiliation which the
masochist feels in the presence of the beloved object. Moll is
also inclined to accept such a connection.
"The very numerous class of boot-and-shoefetiehists," Krafft-
Ebing wrote, "forms the transition to the manifestations of another
independent perversion, i.e., fetiehisra itself; but it stands in closer
relationship to the former. ... It is highly probable, and shown
by a correct classification of the obsen'ed eases, that the majority, and
perhaps all of the cases of shoe-fetichism, rest upon a basis of more or less
conscious masochistic desire for self-humiliation. . . . The majority
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM. 31
or all may be looked upon as instances of latent masochism (the motive
remaining unconscious) in wliich the female foot or shoe, as the maso-
chist's fetich, has acquired an independent significance." {Psychopathia
Sexualis, English translation of tenth edition, pp. 159, et seq.) "Though
Krafft-Ebing may not have cleared up the Avhole matter," Moll remarks,
"I regard his deductions concerning the connection of foot-and-shoe
fetichism to masochism as the most important progress that has been
made in the theoretic study of sexual perversions. ... In any case,
the connection is very frequent." (Kontrdre Sexualemppidung , third
edition, p. 306.)
It is quite easy to see that this supposed identity of mas-
oehism and foot-fetichism forms a seductive theory. It is also
undoubtedly true that a masochist may very easily be inclined
to find in his mistress's foot an aid to the ecstatic self-abnega-
tion which he desires to attain.^ But only confusion is attained
by any general attempt to amalgamate masochism and foot-
fetichism. In the broad sense in which erotic symbolism is here
understood, both masochism and foot-fetichism may be coordi-
nated as symbolisms; for the masochist his self -humiliating
impulses are the symbol of ecstatic adoration; for the foot-
fetichist his mistress's foot or shoe is the concentrated symbol
of all that is most beautiful and elegant and feminine in her
personality. But if in this sense they are coordinated, they re-
main entirely distinct and have not even any necessary tendency
to become merged. Masochism merely simulates foot-fetichism ;
for the masochist the boot is not strictly a symbol, it is only an
instrument which enables him to carry out his impulse ; the true
sexual symbol for him is not the boot, but the emotion of self-
subjection. For the foot-fetichist, on the other hand, the foot
or the shoe is not a mere instrument, but a true symbol; the
focus of his worship, an idealized object which he is content to
contemplate or reverently touch. He has no necessary impulse
to any self-degrading action, nor any constant emotion of subjec-
^Moll has reported in detail (Untersuchungen ilher die Lihido
Sexualis, bd. i, Teil II, pp. 320-324) a case which both he and Krafft-
Ebing regard as illustrative of the connection between boot-fetichism
and masochism. It is essentially a case of masochism, though manifest-
ing itself almost exclusively in the desire to perform humiliating acts in
connection with the attractive person's boots.
32 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
tion. It may be noted that in the very typical case of foot-
fetichism which is presented to us in the person of Kestif de la
Bretonne (ante, p. 18), he repeatedly speaks of "subjecting"
the woman for whom he feels this fetichistic adoration, and
mentions that even when still a child he especially admired a
delicate and fairy-like girl in this respect because she seemed to
him easier to subjugate. Throughout life Eestif's attitude toward
women was active and masculine, without the slightest trace of
masochism.^
To suppose that a fetichistic admiration of his mistress's
foot is due to a lover's latent desire to be kicked, is as unreason-
able as it would be to suppose that a fetichistic admiration for
her hand indicated a latent desire to have his ears boxed. In
determining whether we are concerned with a case of foot-
fetichism or of masochism we must take into consideration the
whole of the subject's mental and emotional attitude. An act,
however definite, will not suffice as a criterion, for the same act
in different persons may have altogether different implications.
To amalgamate tlie two is the result of inadequate psychological
analysis and only leads to confusion.
It is, however, often very difficult to decide whether we are
dealing with a case which is predominantly one of masochism
or of foot-fetichism. The nature of the action desired, as we
have seen, will not suffice to determine the psychological char-
acter of the perversion. Krafft-Ebing believed that the desire
to be trodden on, very frequently experienced by masochists, is
absolutely symptomatic of masochism.^ This is scarcely the
case. The desire to be trodden on may be fundamentally an
1 Krafft-Ebing goes so far as to assert {Pspchnpathia Sexualis,
English translation of tenth edition, p. 174) that "when in cases of
shoe-fetichism the female shoe appears alone as the excitant of sexual
desire one is justified in presuming that masochistic motives have re-
mained latent. . . . Latent masochism may always be assumed as
the unconscious motive." In this way he hopelessly misinterprets some
of his own cases.
1 Krafft-Ebing goes so far as to assert (Psi/chopathia Sexualis,
English translation, pp. 159 and 174). Yet some o-f the cases he brings
forward (e.g., Coxe's as quoted by Hammond) show no sign of maso-
chism, since, according to Krafft-Ebing's o\\ti definition (p. 116), the
idea of subjugation by the opposite sex is of the essence of masochism.
EKOTIC SYMBOLISM. 33
erotic symbolism, closely approaching foot-fetichism, and such
slight indications of masochism as appear may be merely a para-
sitic growth on the symbolism, a growth perhaps more suggested
by the circumstances involved in the gratification of the abnor-
mal desire than inherent in the innate impulse of the subject.
This may be illustrated by the interesting case of a very intelli-
gent man with whom I am well acquainted.
C. P., aged 38. Heredity good. Parents both healthy and normal.
Several children of the marriage, all sexually normal so far as is known.
C. P. is the youngest of the family and separated from the others by an
intei-val of many years. He was a seven-months' child. He has always
enjoyed good health and is active and vigorous, both mentally and
physically.
From the age of 9 or 10 to 14 he masturbated occasionally for the
sake of physical relief, having discovered the act for himself. He was,
however, quite innocent and knew nothing of sexual matters, never
having been initiated either by servants or by other boys.
"When I encounter a woman who very strongly attracts me and
whom I very greatly admire," he writes, "my desire is never that I may
have sexual connection with her in the ordinary sense, but that I may
lie down upon the ffoor on my back and be trampled upon by her. This
curious desire is seldom present unless the object of my admiration is
really a lady, and of fine proportions. She must be richly dressed —
preferably in an evening gown, and wear dainty high-heeled slippers,
either quite open so as to show the curve of the instep, or with only one
strap or 'bar' across. The skirts should be raised sufficiently to afford
me the pleasure of seeing her feet and a liberal amount of ankle, but in
no case above the knee, or the effect is greatly reduced. Although I
often greatly admire a woman's intellect and even person, sexually no
other part of her has any serious attraction for me except the leg, from
the knee downwards, and the foot, and these must be exquisitely clothed.
Given this condition, my desire amoimts to a wish to gratify my sexual
sense by contact with the (to me) attractive part of the woman. Com-
paratively few women have a leg or foot sufficiently beautiful to my
mind to excite any serious or compelling desire, but when this is so, or I
suspect it, I am willing to spend any time or trouble to get her to tread
upon me and am anxious to be trdmpled on with the greatest severity.
"The treading should be inflicted for a few minutes all over the
chest, abdomen and groin, and lastly on the penis, which is, of course,
lying along the belly in a violent state of erection, and consequently
too hard for the treading to damage it. I also enjoy being nearly
strangled by a woman's foot.
3
34 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
"If the lady finally stands facing my head and places her slipper
upon my penis so that the high heel falls about where the penis leaves
the scrotum, the sole covering most of the rest of it and with the other
foot upon the abdomen, into which I can see as well as feel it sink as
she shifts her weight from one foot to the other, orgasm takes place
almost at once. Emission under these conditions is to me an agony of
delight, during which practically the lady's whole weight should rest
upon the penis.
"One reason for my special pleasure in this method seems to be
that first the heel and afterwards the sole of the slipper as it treads
upon the penis greatly check the passage of the semen and consequently
the pleasure is considerably prolonged. There is also a curious mental
side to the affair. I love to imagine that the lady who is treading upon
me is my mistress and I her slave, and that she is doing it to punish me
for some fault, or to give herself (not me) pleasure.
"It follows that the greater the contempt and severity with which
I am 'punished,' the greater becomes my pleasure. The idea of 'punish-
ment' or 'slavery' is seldom aroused except when I have great difficulty
in accomplishing my desire and the treader is more than usually hand-
some and heavy and the trampling mercilessly inflicted. I have been
trampled so long and so mercilessly several times, that I have flinched
each time the slipper pressed its way into my aching body and have
been black and blue for days afterwards. I take the greatest interest
in leading ladies on to do this for me where I think I will not oflfend,
and have been surprisingly successful. I must have lain beneath the
feet of quite a hundred women, many of them of good social position,
who would never dream of permitting any ordinary sexual intercourse,
but who have been so interested or amused by the idea as to do it for
me — many of them over and over again. It is perhaps needless to say
that none of my own or the ladies' clothing is ever removed, or dis-
arranged, for the accomplishment of orgasm in this manner. After a
long and varied experience, I may say that my favorite weight is 10 to
II stone, and that black, very high-heeled slippers, in combination with
tan silk stockings, seem to give me the greatest pleasure and create in
me the strongest desires.
"Boots, or outdoor shoes, do not attract me to anything like the
same degree, although I have, upon several occasions, enjoyed myself
fairly well by their use. Nude women repel me, and I find no pleasure
in seeing a woman in tights. I am not averse to normal sexual connec-
tion and occasionally employ it. To me, however, the pleasure is far
inferior to that of being trampled upon. I also derive keen pleasure —
and usually have a strong erection — from seeing a woman, dressed as
1 have described, tread upon anything which yields under her foot — such
as the seat of a carriage, the cushions of a punt, a footstool, etc., and I
enjoy seeing her crush flowers by treading upon them. I have often
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 35
strolled along in the wake of some handsome lady at a picnic or garden
party, for the pleasure of seeing the grass upon which she has trodden
rise slowly again after her foot has pressed it. I delight also to see
a carriage sway as a woman leaves or enters it — anything which needs
the pressure of the foot.
"To pass now to the origin of this direction of my feelings.
"Even in early childhood I admired pretty feminine foot-gear, and
in the contemplation of it experienced vague sensations which I now
recognize as sexual. When a lad of 14 or so, I stayed a good deal at the
house of some intimate friends of my parents, the daughter of the house
— an only child — a beautiful and powerful girl, about six years my senior,
being my special chum. This girl was always daintily dressed, and having
most lovely feet and ankles not unnaturally knew it. Whenever possible
she dressed so as to show off their beauty to the best advantage — rather
short skirts and usually little high-heeled slippers— and was not averse
to showing them in a most distractingly coquettish manner. She seemed
to have a passion for treading upon things which would scrunch or yield
under her foot, such as flowers, little windfallen apples and pears, acorns,
etc., or heaps of hay, straw or cut grass. As we wandered about the gar-
dens — for we were left to do exactly as we liked — I got quite accustomed
to seeing her hunt out and tread upon such things, and used to chaff
her about it. At that time I was — as I am still — fond of lying at full
length on a thick hearthrug before a good fire. One evening as I was
lying in this way and we were alone, A. crossed the room to reach a
bangle from the mantelpiece. Instead of reaching over me, she play-
fully stepped upon ray body, saying that she would show me how the
hay and straw felt. Naturally 1 fell in with the joke and laughed.
After standing upon me a few moments she raised her skirt slightly and,
holding on to the mantelpiece for support, stretched out one dainty foot
in its brown silk stocking and high-heeled slipper to the blaze to warm,
while looking down and laughing at my scarlet, excited face. Slie was
a perfectly frank and charming girl, and I feel pretty certain that,
although she evidently enjoyed my excitement and the feeling of my
body yielding under her feet, she did not on this first occasion clearly
understand my condition; nor can I remember that, though the desire
for sexual gratification drove me nearly mad, it appeared to awaken in
her any reciprocal feeling. I took hold of her raised foot and, after
kissing it, guided it by an absolutely irresistible impulse on to my penis,
which was as hard as wood and seemed almost bursting. Almost at the
moment that her weight was thrown upon it, orgasm took place for
the first time in my life thoroughly and effectively. No description can
give any idea of what I felt — I only know that from that moment my
distorted sexual focus was fixed forever. Numberless times, after that
evening, I felt the weight of her dainty slippers, and nothing will ever
36 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
cause the memory of the pleasure she thus gave me to fade. I know
that A. came to enjoy treading upon me, as much as I enjoyed having
her do it. She had a liberal dress allowance and, seeing the pleasure
they gave me, she was always buying pretty stockings and ravishing
slippers with the highest and most slender Louis heels she could find
and would show them to me with the greatest glee, urging me to lie
down that she might try them on me. She confessed that she loved to
see and feel them sink into my body as she trod upon me and enjoyed
the crunch of the muscles under her heel as she moved about. After
some minutes of this, I always guided her slipper on to my penis, and
she would tread carefully, but with her whole weight — probably about
9 stone — and watch me with flashing eyes, flushed cheeks, and quivering
lips, as she felt — as she must have done plainly — the throbbing and
swelling of my penis under her foot as emission took place. I have
not the smallest doubt that orgasm took place simultaneously with
her, though we never at any time spoke openly of it. This went on for
several years on almost every favorable opportunity we had, and after
a month or two of separation sometimes four or five times during a
single day. Several times during A.'s absence I masturbated by getting
her slipper and pressing it with all my strength against the penis while
imagining that she was treading upon me. The pleasure was, of course,
very inferior to her attentions. There was never at any time between
us any question of normal sexual intercourse, and we were both well
content to let things drift as they were.
"A little after 20 I went abroad, and on my return about three
years later I found her married. Although we met often, the subject
was never alluded to, though we remained firm friends. I confess I
often, when I could do so without being seen, looked longingly at her
feet and would have gladly accepted the pleasure she could have given
me by an occasional resumption of our strange practice — but it never
came.
"I went abroad again, and now neither she nor her husband are
alive and leave no issue. From time to time I have had occasional
relations with prostitutes, but always in this manner, though I much
prefer to find some lady of or above my own social position who will
do the treading for me. This is, however, interestingly difficult.
"Out of say a hundred women (which at home and abroad is what
I should estimate must have stood upon my body) I should say quite
80 or 85 were not prostitutes. Certainly not more than 10 to 12 shared
any sexual excitement, but while they were evidently excited they wer«
not gratified. A. alone, so far as I know, had complete sexual satisfac-
tion of it. I have never asked a woman in so many words to tread
upon me for the purpose of gratifying my sexual desires (prostitutes
excepted), but have always tempted them to do it in a jocular or teasing
manner, and it is very doubtful if more than a few (married) women
EBOTIC SYMBOLISM. 37
really understood, even after they had given me the extreme pleasure,
that they had done so, because any flushing and movement on my part
under their feet was not unnaturally put do-ftTct to the trampling to
which they were subjecting me, and it was easy for me to guide the
foot as often as was necessary on to the penis till orgasm took place,
and even to keep it there by laying hold of the other one to kiss it or
on some other pretext during emission. Of course many understood
after once doing it (most have done it only once) what I was at, and,
although they did not ever discuss it nor did I, they were not unwilling
to give me as many treadings as I cared to playfully suggest. I don't
think they got any pleasure sexually out of it themselves, though they
could see plainly that I did, and they did not object to give it me. 1
have spent as long as twelve months with some women working gradu-
ally nearer and nearer to my desire — often getting what I want in the
end, but more often failing. I never risk it till I am certain it Avould
be safe to ask it, and have never had a serious rebuff. In very many
cases I should say the doing of what I want has simply been regarded
by the woman as gratifying a silly and perhaps amusing whim, in which,
beyond the novelty of treading on a man's body, she has taken but little
interest.
"As in normal seduction, the endeavor to win the woman over to
do what I want without arousing her antagonism is a great part of the
charm to me, and naturally the better her social position the more
difficult this becomes — and the more attractive. I have found that in
three instances prostitutes have performed the same office for other
men and knew all about it. It is not uninteresting to note that these
three women were all of fine, massive build — one standing about 5 feet
10 inches and weighing nearly 14 stone — but with comparatively un-
interesting faces. The weight, build and clothing count for a good deal
in exciting me. I find that a sudden check to a man at the supreme
moment of sexual pleasure tends to heigluAm and prolong the pleasure.
My physical satisfaction is due to the fact that by getting the lady to
stand with all her weight upon my penis (as it lies between her foot
and the soft bed of my own body into which it is deeply pressed) the
act of emission is enormously prolonged, with corresponding enjoyment.
For this reason also I prefer a very high-heeled slipper. The seminal
fluid has to be forced past two separate obstacles — the pressure of the
heel close at the root of the penis and afterwards the ball of the foot
which compresses the outer half, leaving a free portion between them
under the arched sole of the slipper. I may add that the pleasure
is greatly increased by the retention of the urine, and I always try to
retain as much water as I dare. I have an unconquerable aversion to
red in slippers or stockings ; it will even cause impotence. ^^Tiy, I know
not. Strange as it may seem, although pain and bruising are often in-
38 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
flieted by a severe treading, I have never been in any way injured by the
practice, and my pleasure in it seems not to diminish by constant repeti-
tion. The comparative difficulty of obtaining the pleasure from just the
woman I want has a never-ending, if inexplicable, charm for me."
It will be observed that in this case special importance is attached
to shoes with high heels, and the subject considers that the pressure of
such shoes is for mechanical reasons most favorable for procuring ejacu-
lation. Nearly all heterosexual shoe-fetichists seem, however, to be
equally attracted by high heels. Eestif de la Bretonne frequently refer-
red to this point, and he gave a number of reasons for the attractiveness
of high heels: (1) They are imlike men's boots and, therefore, have a
sexual fascination; (2) they make the leg and foot look more charm-
ing; (3) they give a less bold and more sylph-like character to the walk;
(4) they keep the feet clean. (Restif de la Bretonne, Nuits de Paris,
vol. V, quoted in Preface to his Mcs Inscriptions, p. ciii.) It is doubt-
less the first reason — the fact that high heels are a kind of secondaiy
Bexual character — which is most generally potent in this attraction.
The foregoing history, while it very distinctly brings before
us a case of erotic symbolism, is not strictly an example of shoe-
fetichism. The symbolism is more complex. The focus of beauty
in a desirable woman is transferred and concentrated in the re-
gion below the knee ; in that sense we have foot-f etichism. But
the act of coitus itself is also symbolically transferred. Not only
has the foot become the symbol of the vulva, but trampling has
become the symbol of coitus; intercourse takes place symbolic-
ally per pedem. It is a result of this symbolization of the foot
and of trampling that all acts of treading take on a new and
symbolical sexual charm. The element of masochism — of pleas-
ure in being a woman's slave — is a parasitic growth; that is to
say, it is not founded in the subject's constitution, but chances
to have found a favorable soil in the special circumstances under
which his sexual life developed. It is not primary, but second-
ary, and remains an unimportant and merely occasional element.
It may be instructive to bring forward for comparison a
case in which also we have a symbolism involving boot-fetichism,
but extending beyond it. In this case there is a basis of in-
version (as is not infrequent in erotic symbolisms), but from
the present point of view the psychological significance of the
case remains the same. r
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM. 39
A. N., aged 29, unmarried, healthy, though not robust, and without
any kno\vn hereditary taint. Has followed various avocations without
taking great interest in them, but has shown some literary ability.
"I am an Englishman," his own narrative runs, "the third of three
children. At my birth my father was 41 and my mother 34. My mother
died of cancer when I was 15. My father is still alive, a reserved man,
who still nurses his sorrow for his wife's death. I have no reason to
believe my parents anything but normal and useful members of society.
M}'^ sister is normal and happily married. My brother I have reason to
believe to be an invert.
'"A horoscope cast for me describes me in a way I think correct,
and so do my friends: 'A mild, obliging, gentle, amiable person, with
many fine traits of character; timid in nature, fond of society, loving
peace and quietude, delighting in warm and close friendships. There is
much that is firm, steadfast and industrious, some self-love, a good deal
of diplomacy, a little that is subtle, or what is called finesse. You are
reserved with those you dislike. There is a serious and sad side to your
character; you are very thoughtful and contemplative when in these
moods. But you are not pessimistic. You have superior abilities, for
they are intuitively intellectual. There is a cold reticence which re-
strains generous impulses and which inclines to acquisitiveness; it will
make you deliberate, inventive, adding self-esteem, some vanity.'
"At an early age I was left much alone in the nursery and there
contracted the habit of masturbation long before the age of puberty.
I use the word 'masturbation' for want of a better, though it may not
quite describe my case. I have never used my hand to the penis. As
far back as I can remember I have had what a Frenchman has described
as 'le fetichisme de la chaussure,' and in those early days, before I waa
6 years old, I would put on my father's boots, taken from a cupboard
at hand, and then tying or strapping my legs together would produce
an erection, and all the pleasurable feelings experienced, I suppose, by
means of masturbation. I always did this secretly, but couldn't tell
why. I continued this practice on and off all my boyhood and youth.
When I discovered the first emission I was much surprised. I always
did this thing without loosening my trousers. As to how these feelings
arose I am totally unable to say. I can't remember being without such
feelings, and they seem to me perfectly normal. The sight, or even
thought, of high boots, or leggings, especially if well polished or in
patent leather, would set all my sexual passions aflame, and does yet.
As a boy my great desire was to wear these things. A soldier in boots
and spurs, a groom in tops, or even an errand-boy in patent leather
leggings, fascinated me, and to this day, despite reason and everything
else. The sight of such things produced an erection. An emission I
could always produce by tightly tying my legs together, but only when
wearing boots, and preferably leggings, which when I had pocket money
4U PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
I bought for this purpose. (At the present moment I have five pairs
in the house and two pairs of high boots, quite unjustified by ordinary
use.) This habit I lapse into yet at times. The smell of leather affects
me, but I never know how far this may be due to association with boots;
the smell suggests the image. Restraint by a leather strap is more
exciting than by cords. Erotic dreams always take the form of re-
straint on the limbs when booted.
"Uniforms and liveries have a great temptation for me, but only
when of a tight-fitting nature and smart, as soldiers', grooms', etc., but
not sailors'; most powerfully when the person is in boots or leggings
and breeches.
"I Avas a quiet, sensitive boy, taking no part in games or sports.
Have always been indifferent to them. I made few friends, but didn't
want them. The craving for friendship came much later, after I was 21.
I was a day boy at a private school, and never had any conversation
with any boy on sexual matters, though I was dimly aware of much
'nastiness' about the school. I knew nothing of sodomy. But all these
things were repulsive to me, notwithstanding my secret practices. I was
a 'good boy.'
"Up to the age of 21 I was perfectly satisfied with my own society,
something of a prig, fond of books and reading, etc. I was and ever
have been absolutely insensible to the influence of the other sex. I am
not a woman hater, and take intellectual pleasure in the society of
certain ladies, but they are nearly all much older than myself. I have
a strong repulsion from sexual relations with women. I should not
mind being married for the sake of companionship and for the sake of
having boys of my own. But the sexual act would frighten me. I could
not in my present frame of mind go to bed with a woman. Yet I feel
an immense envy of my married friends in that they are able to give
out, and find satisfaction for, their affection in a way that is quite
impossible for me. I picture certain boys in the place of the wife.
"I am now only happy in the society of men younger than myself,
age 17 to (say) 23 or 24, youths with smooth faces, or first sign of
hair on lip, well groomed, slightly effeminate in feature, of sympathetic,
perhaps weak nature. I feel I want to help them, do something for
them, devote myself entirely to their welfare.
"With such there is no fixed line between friendship and love. I
yearn for intimacy with particular friends, but never dare express it.
I find so many people object to any strong expression of feeling that I
dare not run the risk of appearing ridiculous in the eyes of these desired
intimates.
"I have no desire for paedicatio, but the idea itself does not repulse
me or seem unnatural, though personally it repels me a little. But I
think this to be mere prejudice on my part, which might be broken
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 41
down if the loved, person showed a willingness to act a passive part. I
should never dare to make an advance, however.
"I am restrained by moral and religious considerations from making
my real feelings known, and I feel I should sink in my own estimation
if I gave way, though my natural desire is to do so. In the face of
opportunities (not I mean of pacdicatio, but of expression of excessive
affection, etc.), or what might be such, I always fail to speak lest I
should forfeit the esteem of the other person. I have a feeling of sur-
prise when any one I like evinces a liking for me. I feel that those I
love are immeasurably my superiors, though my reason may tell me it is
not so. I would grovel at their feet, do anything to win a smile from
them, or to make them give me their company.
"Ordinary bodily contact with the boy I love gives me most ex-
quisite pleasure, and I never lose an opportunity of bringing such con-
tact about when it can be done naturally. I feel an immense desire to
embrace, kiss, squeeze, etc., the person, to generally maul him, and say
nice things — the kind of things a man usually says to a woman. A
handshake, the mere presence of the person, makes me happy and
content.
"I can say with the Albanian: 'If I find myself in the presence of
the beloved, I rest absorbed in gazing on him. Absent, I think of nought
but him. If the beloved unexpectedly appears I fall into confusion. My
heart beats faster. I have eyes and ears only for the beloved.*
"I feel that my capacity of affection is finer and more spiritual
than that which commonly subsists between persons of different sexes.
And so, while trying to fight my instincts by religion, I find my natural
feeling to be part of my religion, and its highest expression. In this
sense I can speak from experience in my own case, and more especially
m that of my brother, that what you have said about philanthropic
activity resulting from repressed homosexuality is very true indeed. I
can say with one of your female cases: 'Love is to me a religion. The
very nature of my affection for my friends precludes the possibility of
any element entering into it which is not absolutely pure and sacred.' I
am, however, madly jealous. I want entire possession, and I can't bear
for a moment that any one I do not care for should know the person
I love.
"I am never attracted by men older than myself. The youths who
attract me may be of any class, though preferably, I think, of a class a
little lower than myself. I am not quite sure of this, however, as cir-
cumstances may have contributed more than deliberate choice to bring
certain youths under my notice. Those who have exercised the most
powerful influence on me have been an Oxford undergraduate, a barber's
assistant, and a plumber's apprentice. Though naturally fond of intel-
lectual society, I do not ask for intellect in those I love. It goes for
nothing. I always prefer their company to that of the most educated
persons. This preference has alienated me to some extent from more
refined and educated circles that formerly I was intimate with.
42 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
"I have been led entirely out of my old habits by association with
younger friends, and now do things which before I should never have
dreamed of doing. My thoughts now are always with certain youths,
and if they speak of leaving the town, or in any way talk of a future
that I cannot bhare, I sulfer horrid sinkings of the heart and depression
of spirits."
This case, while it concerns a person of quite different tem-
perament, with a more innate predisposition to specific perver-
sions, is 3^et in many respects analogous to the previous case.
There is boot-fetichism ; nothing is felt to be so attractive as the
foot-gear, and there is also at the same time more than
this ; there is the attraction of repression and constraint devel-
oped into a sexual symbol. In C. P.'s case that symbolism arises
from the experience of an abnormal heterosexual relationship;
in A. N.'s case it is founded on auto-erotic experiences associated
with inversion; in both alike the entire symbolism has become
diffused and generalized.
In the two cases just brought forward we have an erotic
symbolism of act founded on, and closely associated with, an
erotic symbolism of object. It may be instructive to bring for-
ward another case in which no fetichistic feeling toward an
object can be traced, but an erotic symbolism still clearly exists.
In this case pain, even when self-inflicted, has acquired a sym-
bolic value as a stimulus to tumescence, without any element of
masochism. Such a case serves to indicate how the sexual
attraction of pain is really a special case of the erotic symbolism
with which we are here concerned.
A. W., aged 50, a writer and lecturer, physically and mentally
energetic and enjoying good health. He is, however, very emotional
and of nervous temperament, but self-controlled. Though physically
well developed, the sexual organs are small. He is married to an attrac-
tive woman, to whom he is much attached, and has two healthy children.
At 10 or 12 years of age he had a frequent desire to be whipped,
his parents never having struck him, and on one occasion he asked a
brother to go with him to the closet to get him to whip him on the
posterior; but on arrival he was too shy to make the request. He did
not recognize the cause of these desires, knowing nothing of such things
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM. 43
except from the misinformation of bis schoolfellows' talk. As far a3
he can remember, be was an entirely normal, healthy boy up to the age
of about 15, when his attention was arrested by an advertisement of a
quack medicine for the results of "youthful excesses."
Being a city boy, he was unfamiliar with the coupling even of
animals, had never had a conscious erection and did not know of fric-
tional excitement. Experiment, however, resulted in an orgasm, and,
though believing that it was wicked or at least weak and degrading, he
indulged in masturbation at intervals, usually about six times a month,
and has continued even up to the present.
He had an abnormally small opening in the prepuce, making the
uncovering of the glans almost impossible. (At the age of about 37, he
himself slit the prepuce by three or four cuts of a scissors at intervals
of about ten day?. This was followed by a marked decrease in desire,
especially as he shortly afterwards learned the importance of local
cleanliness.) While in college at about the age of 19 he began to have
nocturnal emissions occasionally and once or twice a week when at
stool. Alarmed by these, he consulted a physician, who warned him of
the danger, gave him bromide and prescribed cold bathing of the parts,
with a hard, cool bed. These stopped the emissions.
He never had connection with women until the age of about 2.5,
and then only three times until his marriage at 30 years of age, being
deterred partly by conscientious scruples, but more by shyness and
convention, and deriving very little pleasure from these instances. Even
since marriage he has derived more pleasure from sexual excitement
than from coitus, and can maintain erection for as long as two hours.
He has always been accustomed to torture himself in various in-
genious ways, nearly always connected with sex. He would burn his
skin deeply with red hot wire in inconspicuous places. These and
similar acts were generally followed by manual excitation nearly always
brought to a climax.
He considers that he is attracted to refined and intellectual women.
But he is without very ardent desires, having several times gone to bed
with attractive women who stripped themselves naked, but without
attempting any sexual intercourse with them. He became interested in
the "Karezza" theory and has tried to practice it with his wife, but
could never entirely control the emission.
He has hired a masseur to whip him, as children are whipped, with a
heavy dog whip, which caused pleasurable excitement. During this time
he had relations with his wife generally about once a week without any
great ecstasy. She was cold and sexually slow, owing to conventional
sex repression and to an idea that the whole thing was "like animals"
and to fear of child-bearing, usually necessitating the use of a cover or
withdrawal. It was only eight years after their marriage that she
desired and obtained a child. During these years he would often stick
44 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
pins through his mammse and tie them together by a string round the
pins drawn so short as to cause great pain and then indulge himself in
the sexual act. He used strong wooden clips with a tack fixed in them,
so as to pierce and pinch the mammae, and once he drove a pin entirely
through the penis itself, then obtaining orgasm by friction. He was
never able to get an automatic emission in this way, though he often
tried, not even by walking briskly during an erection.
In another class of cases a purely ideal symbolism may be
present by means of a fetich which acts as a powerful stimulus
without itself being felt to possess any attraction. A good illus-
tration of this condition is furnished by a case which has been
communicated to me by a medical correspondent in New Zealand.
"The patient went out to South Africa as a trooper with the con-
tingent from New Zealand, throwing up a good position in an office to
do so. He had never had any trouble as regards connection with women
before going out to South Africa. "VMiile in active service at the front
he sustained a nasty fall from his horse, breaking his leg. He was
unconscious for four days, and was then invalided down to Cape Town.
Here he rapidly got well, and his accustomed health returning to him he
started having what he terms 'a good time.' He repeatedly went to
brothels, but was unable to have more than a temporary erection, and
no ejaculation would take place. In one of these places he was in
company with a drunken trooper, who suggested that they should per-
form the sexual act with their boots and spurs (only) on. My patient,
who was also drunk, readily assented, and to his surprise was enabled
to perform the act of copulation without any difficulty at all. He has
repeatedly tried since to perform the act without any spurs, but is quite
unable to do so; with the spurs he has no difficulty at all in obtaining
all the gratification he desires. His general health is good. His mother
was an extremely nervous woman, and so is his sister. His father died
when he was quite young. His only other relation in the colony is a
married sister, who seems to enjoy vigorous health."
The consideration of the cases here brought forward may
suffice to show that beyond those fetichisms which find their
satisfaction in the contemplation of a part of the body or a
garment, there is a more subtle symbolism. The foot is a center
of force, an agent for exerting pressure, and thus it furnishes
a point of departure not alone for the merely static sexual fetich,
but for a dynamic erotic symbolization. The energy of its move-
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM. 45
ments becomes a substitute for the energy of the sexual organs
themselves in coitus, and exerts the same kind of fascination.
The young girl (page 35) "who seemed to have a passion for
treading upon things which would scrunch or yield under her
foot," already possessed the germs of an erotic symbolism which,
under the influence of circumstances in which she herself took
an active part, developed into an adequate method of sexual
gratification.^ The youth who was her partner learned, in the
same way, to find an erotic symbolism in all the pressure reac-
tions of attractive feminine feet, the swaying of a carriage be-
neath their weight, the crushing of the flowers on which they
tread, the slow rising of the grass which they have pressed.
Here we have a symbolism which is altogether different from
that fetichism which adores a definite object; it is a dynamic
symbolism finding its gratification in the spectacle of move-
ments which ideally recall the fundamental rhythm and pressure
reactions of the sexual process.
We may trace a very similar erotic symbolism in an abso-
lutely normal form. The fascination of clothes in the lover's
eyes is no doubt a complex phenomenon, but in part it rests on
the aptitudes of a woman's garments to express vaguely a
dynamic symbolism which must always remain indefinite and
elusive, and on that account always possess fascination. No
one has so acutely described this symbolism as Herrick, often
an admirable psychologist in matters of sexual attractiveness.
Especially instructive in this respect are his poems, "Delight in
Disorder," "Upon Julia's Clothes," and notably "Julia's Petti-
coat." "A sweet disorder in the dress," he tells us, "kindles in
clothes a wantonness ;" it is not on the garment itself, but on the
^ Her actions suggest that there is often a latent sexual con-
sciousness in regard to the feet in women, atavistic or pseudo-atavistic,
and corresponding to the sexual attraction which the feet formerly
aroused, almost normally, in men. This is also suggested by the case,
referred to by Shufeldt, of an unmarried woman, belonging to a family
exhibiting in a high degree both erotic and neurotic traits, who had "a
certain uncontrollable fascination for shoes. She delights in new shoes,
and changes her shoes all day long at regular intervals of three hours
each. She keeps this row of shoes out in plain sight in her apartment,"
(R, W, Shufeldt, "On a Case of Female Impotency," 1S96, p. 10.)
46 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
character of its movement that he insists ; on the "erring lace,"
the "winning wave" of the "tempestuous petticoat;" he speaks
of the "liquefaction" of clothes, their 'Tjrave vibration each way
free," and of Julia's petticoat he remarks with a more specific
symbolism still,
"Sometimes 'twould pant and sigh, and heave,
As if to stir it scarce had leave;
But having got it, thereupon,
'Twould make a brave expansion."
In the play of the beloved woman's garment, he sees the
whole process of the central act of sex, with its repressions and
expansions, and at the sight is himself ready to "fall into a
swoon."
III.
Scatalogic Symbolism — Urolagnia — Coprolagnia — The Ascetic Atti-
tude Towards the Flesh — Normal basis of Scatalogic Symbolism — Scata-
logic Conceptions Among Primitive Peoples — Urine as a Primitive Holy
Water — Sacredness of Animal Excreta — Scatalogy in Folk-lore — The
Obscene as Derived from the Mythological — The Immature Sexual Im-
pulse Tends to Manifest Itself in Scatalogic Forms — The basis of
Physiological Connection Between the Urinary and Genital Spheres — ■
Urinary Fetichism Sometimes Normal in Animals — The Urolagnia of
Masochists — The Scatalogy of Saints — Urolagnia More Often a Sym-
bolism of Act Than a Symbolism of Object — Only Occasionally an
Olfactory Fetichism — Comparative Rarity of Coprolagnia — Influence of
Nates Fetichism as a Transition to Coprolagnia — Ideal Coprolagnia —
Olfactory Coprolagnia — Urolagnia and Coprolagnia as Symbols of Coitus.
We meet with another group of erotic symbolisms — alike
symbolisms of object and of act — in connection with the two
functions adjoining the anatomical sexual focus: the urinary
and alvine excretory functions. These are sometimes termed the
scatalogical group, with the two subdivisions of urolagnia and
coprolagnia.^ Inte?' faces et urinam nascimur is an ancient text
which has served the ascetic preachers of old for many discourses
on the littleness of man and the meanness of that reproductive
power which plays so large a part in man's life. "The stupid
bungle of Nature," a correspondent writes, "whereby the genera-
tive organs serve as a means of relieving the bladder, is doubtless
responsible for much of the disgust which those organs excite in
some minds."
At the same time, it is necessary to point out, such reflex in-
fluence may act not in one direction only, but also in the reverse
^Fuchs {Das Erotische Element in dsr Karikatur, p. 26), distin-
guishing sharply between the "erotic" and the "obscene," reserves the
latter term exclusively for the representation of excretory organs and
acts. He considers that this is etymologically the most exact usage.
However that may be, it seems to me that, in any ease, "obscene" has
become so vague a term that it is now impracticable to give it a re-
etrieted, and precise sense.
(47)
48 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
direction. From the standpoint of ascetic contemplation eager
to belittle humanity, the excretory centers may cast dishonor
upon the genital center which they adjoin. From the more
ecstatic standpoint of the impassioned lover, eager to magnify
the charm of the woman he worships, it is not impossible for
the excretory centers to take on some charm from the irradiating
center of sex which they enclose.
Even normally such a process is traceable. The normal
lover may not idealize the excretory functions of his mistress,
but the fact that he finds no repulsion in the most intimate con-
tacts and feels no disgust at the proximity of the excretory ori-
fices or the existence of their functions, indicates that the ideal-
ization of love has exerted at all events a neutralizing influence ;
indeed, the presence of an acute sensibility to the disturbing in-
fluence of this proximity of the excretory orifices and their func-
tions must be considered abnormal; Swift's "Strephon and
Chloe" — with the conviction underlying it that it is an easy
matter for the excretory functions to drown the possibilities of
love — could only have proceeded from a morbidly sensitive
brain.^
A more than mere neutralizing influence, a positively ideal-
izing influence of the sexual focus on the excretory processes ad-
joining it, may take place in the lover's mind without the normal
variations of sexual attraction being over-passed, and even with-
out the creation of an excretory fetichism.
Reflections of this attitude may be found in the poets. In the
Song of Songs the lover says of his mistress, "Thy navel is like a round
goblet, wherein no mingled wine is wanting;" in his lyric "To Dianeme,"
Herrick says with clear reference to the mons veneris: —
"Show me that hill where smiling love doth sit.
Having a living fountain under it;"
and in the very numerous poems in various languages which have more
' In this connection we may profitably contemplate the hand and
recall the vast gamut of functions, sacred and profane, which that organ
exercises. Many savages strictly reserve the left hand to the lowlier
purposes of life; but in civilization that is not considered necessary,
and it may be wholesome for some of us to meditate on the more humble
uses of the same hand which is raised in the supreme gesture of benedic-
tion and which men have often counted it a privilege to kiss.
EEOTIO SYMBOLISM. 49
or less obscurely dealt with the rose as the emblem of the feminine
pudenda there are occasional references to the stream which guards or
presides over the rose. It may, indeed, be recalled that even in the name
nymphw anatomists commonly apply to the labia minora there is gen-
erally believed to be a poetic allusion to the Nymphs who presided over
streams, since the labia minora exert an influence on the direction of
the urinary stream.
In Wilhelm Meister( Part I, Chapter XV), Goethe, on the basis of
his own personal experiences, describes his hero's emotions in the humble
surroundings of Marianne's little room as compared with the stateliness
and order of his own home. "It seemed to him when he had here to
remove her stays in order to reach the harpsichord, there to lay her
skirt on the bed before he could seat liimself, when she herself with
unembarrassed frankness would make no attempt to conceal from him
many natural acts wMch people are accustomed to hide from others out
of decency — it seemed to him, I say, that he became bound to her by
invisible bands." We are told of Wordsworth (Findlay's Recollections
of De Quincey, p. 36) that he read Wilhelm Meister till "he came to the
scene where the hero, in his mistress's bedroom, becomes sentimental
over her dirty towels, etc., which struck him with such disgust that he
flung the book out of his hand, woidd never look at it again, and de-
clared that surely no English lady would ever read such a work." I
have, however, heard a woman of high intellectual distinction refer to
the peculiar truth and beauty of this very passage.
In one of his latest novels, Les Rencontres de M. de Br6ot, Henri
de R$gnier, one of the most notable of recent French novelists, narrates
an episode bearing on the matter before us. A personage of the story
is sitting for a moment in a dark grotto during a night f§te in a noble-
man's park, when two ladies enter and laughingly proceed to raise their
garments and accomplish a natural necessity. The man in the back-
ground, suddenly overcome by a sexual impulse, starts forward; one
lady runs away, the other, whom he detains, offers little resistance to
his advances. To M. de Breot, whom he shortly after encounters, he
exclaims, abashed at his own actions: "\Miy did I not flee? But could
I imagine that the spectacle of so disgusting a function would have
any other eflfect than to give me a humble opinion of hiunan nature?"
M. de Breot, however, in proceeding to reproach his interlocutor for his
inconsiderate temerity, observes : "'S^Tiat you tell me, sir, does not entirely
surprise me. Nature has placed very various instincts within us, and the
impulse that led you to what you have just now done is not so peculiar
as you think. One may be a very estimable man and yet love women
eyen in what is lowliest in their bodies." In harmony with this passage
from Regnier's novel are the remarks of a correspondent who writes to
me of the function of urination that it "appeals sexually to most normal
individuals. My own observations and inquiries prove this. Women
50 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
themselves instinctively feel it. The secrecy surrounding the matter
lends, too, I think, a sexual interest."
The fact that scatalogic processes may in some degree exert an
attraction even in normal love has been especially emphasized by Bloch
(Beitrdge zur ^tiologie der Psychopathia Sexualis, Teil II, pp. 222, et
seq.) : "The man whose intellect and aesthetic sense has been 'clouded
6y the sexual impulse' sees these things in an entirely different light
from him who has not been overcome by the intoxication of love. For
him they are idealized (sit venia verbo) since they are a part of the
beloved person, and in consequence associated with love." Bloch quotes
the Memoiren drier Sdngerin (a book which is said to be, though this
seems doubtful, genuinely autobiographical) in the same sense:
"A man who falls in love with a girl is not dragged out of his poetic
sphere by the thought that his beloved must relieve certain natural
necessities every day. It seems, indeed, to him to be just the opposite.
If one loves a person one finds nothing obscene or disgusting in the
object that pleases me." The opposite attitude is probably in extreme
cases due to the influence of a neurotic or morbidly sensitive tempera-
ment. Swift possessed such a temperament. The possession of a similar
temperament is doubtless responsible for the little prose poem, "L'Ex-
tase," in which Huysmans in his first book, Le Dragcloir d Epices, has
written an attenuated version of "Strephon and Chloe" to express the
disillusionment of love; the lover lies in a wood clasping the hand of
the beloved with rapturous emotion; "suddenly she rose, disengaged
her hand, disappeared in the bushes, and I heard as it were the rustling
of rain on the leaves." His dream has fled.
In estimating the significance of the lover's attitude in this
matter, it is important to realize the position which scatologic
conceptions took in primitive belief. At certain stages of early
culture, when all the emanations of the body are liable to possess
mysterious magic properties and become apt for sacred uses, the
excretions, and especially the urine, are found to form part of
religious ritual and ceremonial function. Even among savages
the excreta are frequently regarded as disgusting, but under the
influence of these conceptions such disgust is inhibited, and those
emanations of the body which are usually least honored become
religious symbols.
Urine has been regarded as the original holy water, and many
customs which still survive in Italy and various parts of Europe, involv-
ing the use of a fluid which must often be yellow and sometimes salt,
possibly indicate the earlier use of urine. (The Greek water of aspersion.
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM. 51
according to Theocritus, was mixed with salt, as is sometimes the
modern Italian holy water. J. J. Blunt, Vestiges of Ancient Manners
and Customs, p. 173.) Among the Hottentots, as Kolbein and others
have recorded, the medicine man urinated alternately on bride and
bridegroom, and a successful young warrior was sprinkled in the same
way. Mungo Park mentions that in Africa on one occasion a bride
sent a bowl of her urine which was thrown over him as a special mark
of honor to a distinguished guest. Pennant remarked that the High-
landers sprinkled their cattle with urine, as a kind of holy water, on the
first Monday in every quarter. (Eourke, Scatalogic Rites, pp. 228, 239;
Brand, Popular Antiquities, "Bride- Ales.")
Even the excreta of animals have sometimes been counted sacred.
This is notably so in the case of the cow, of all animals the most
venerated by primitive peoples, and especially in India. Jules Bois
{Visions de Vlnde, p. 80) describes the spectacle presented in the temple
of the cows at Benares: "I put my head into the opening of the holy
stables. It was the largest of temples, a splendor of precious stones
and marble, where the venerated heifers passed backwards and forwards.
A whole people adored them. They take no notice, plunged in their
divine and obscure unconsciousness. And they fulfil with serenity their
animal functions; they chew the offerings, drink water from copper
vessels, and when they are filled they relieve themselves. Then a ster-
coraceous and religious insanity overcomes these starry-faced women
and venerable men; they fall on their knees, prostrate themselves, eat
the droppings, greedily drink the liquid, which for them is miraculous
and sacred." (Cf. Bourke, Scatalogic Rites, Chapter XVII.)
Among the Chevsurs of the Caucasus, perhaps an Iranian people, a
woman after her confinement, for which she lives apart, purifies herself
by washing in the urine of a cow and then returns home. This mode of
purification is recommended in the Avesta, and is said to be used by the
few remaining followers of this creed.
We have not only to take into account tlie frequency with
which among primitive peoples the excretions possess a religious
significance. It is further to be noted that in the folk-lore of
modern Europe we everywhere find plentiful evidence of the
earlier prevalence of legends and practices of a scatalogical
character. It is significant that in the majority of cases it is
easy to see a sexual reference in these stories and customs. The
legends have lost their earlier and often mythical significance,
and frequently take on a suggestion of obscenity, while the
scatalogical practices have become the magical devices of love-
lorn maidens or forsaken wives practiced in secrecy. It has hap-
b'l PSYCnOLOGY OF SEX.
pened to scatalogical rites to be regarded as we may gather from
the Clouds of Aristophanes^ that the sacred leathern phallus
borne by the women in the Bacchanalia was becoming in his
time, an object to arouse the amusement of little boys.
Among many primitive peoples throughout the world, and among
the lower social classes of civilized peoples, urine possesses magic proper-
ties, more especially, it would seem, the urine of women and that of people
who stand, or wish to stand, in sexual relationship to each other. In a
legend of the Indians of the northwest coast of America, recorded by Boas,
a woman gives her lover some of her urine and says: "You can wake
the dead if you drop some of my urine in their ears and nose." (Zeit-
schrift filr Ethnologie, 1894, Heft IV, p. 293.) Among the same Indians
there is a legend of a woman with a beautiful white skin who found on
bathing every morning in the river that the fish were attracted to her
skin and could not be driven off even by magical solutions. At last she
said to herself: "I will make water on them and then they will leave
me alone." She did so, and henceforth the fish left her. But shortly
after fire came from Heaven and killed her. (/&., 1891, Heft V,
p. 640.) Among both Christians and Mohan?medans a wife can attach
an unfaithful husband by privately putting some of her urine in hia
drink. (B. Stern, Medizin in der Tiirkei, vol. ii, p. II.) This practice is
world-wide; thus among the aborigines of Brazil, according to Martins,
the urine and other excretions and secretions are potent for aphrodi-
siacal objects. (Bourke's Scatalogic Rites of All Nations contains many
references to the folk-lore practices in this matter; a study of popxilar
beliefs in the magic power of urine, published in Bombay by Professor
Eugen Wilhelm in 1889, I have not seen.)
The legends which narrate scatalogic exploits are numerous in the
literature of all countries. Among primitive peoples they often have a
pui-ely theological character, for in the popular mythologies of all coun-
tries (even, as we learn from Aristophanes, among the Greeks) natural
phenomena such as the rain, are apt to be regarded as divine excretions,
but in course of time the legends take on a more erotic or a more
obscene character. In the Irish Booh of Leinster (written down some-
where about the twelfth century, but containing material of very much
older date) we are told how a number of princesses in Emain Macha, the
seat of the Ulster Kings, resolved to find out which of them eoiild by
urinating on it melt a snow pillar which the men had made, the woman
who succeeded to be regarded as the best among them. None of them
succeeded, and they sent for Derbforgaill, who was in love with Cuchul-
lain, and she was able to melt the pillar; whereupon the other women,
jealous of the superiority she had thus shown, tore out her eyes.
(Zimmer, "Keltische Beitriige," Zeitschrift filr Deutsche Alterthum, toI.
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 53
xxxii, Heft II, pp. 216-219.) Rhys considers that Derbforgaill was really
a goddess of dawn and dusk, "the drop glistening in the sun's rays,"
as indicated by her name, which means a drop or tear. (J. Rhys, Lec-
tures cm the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Celtic
Heathendom, p. 466.) It is interesting to compare the legend of Derbfor-
gaill with a somewhat more modern Picardy folk-lore conte which ia
clearly analogous but no longer seems to show any mythologic element,
"La Princesse qui pisse par dessus les Meules." This princess had a
habit of urinating over hay-cocks; the king, her father, in order to
break her of the habit, offered her in marriage to anj^one who could
make a hay-cock so high that she could not urinate over it. The young
men came, but the princess would merely laugh and at once achieve the
task. At last there came a young man who argued with himself that
she would not be able to perform this feat after she had lost her
virginity. He therefore seduced her first and she then failed ignobly,
merely wetting her stockings. Accordingly, she became his bride.
( K/aiwrrdSta, vol. i. p. 333.) Such legends, which have lost any myth-
ologic elements they may originally have possessed and have become
merely contes, are not uncommon in the folk-lore of many countries. But
in their earlier more religious forms and in their later more obscene
forms, they alike bear witness to the large place which scatalogic concep-
tions play in the primitive mind.
It is a notable fact in evidence of the close and seemingly
normal association with the sexual impulse of the scatalogic
processes, that an interest in them, arising naturally and spon-
taneously, is one of the most frequent channels by which the sex-
ual impulse first manifests itself in young boys and girls.
Stanley Hall, who has made special inquiries into the matter,
remarks that in childhood the products of excretion by bladder and
bowels are often objects of interest hardly less intense for a time than
eating and drinking. ("Early Sense of Self," American Journal of
Psychology, April, 1898, p. 361.) "Micturitional obscenities," the same
writer observes again, "which our returns show to be so common before
adolescence, culminate at 10 or 12, and seem to retreat into the back-
ground as sex phenomena appear." They are, he remarks, of two
classes: "Fouling persons or things, secretly from adults, but openly
with each other," and less often "ceremonial acts connected with
the act or the product that almost suggest the scatalogical rites of
savages, unfit for description here, but of great interest and import-
ance." (G. Stanley Hall, Adolescence, vol. i, p. 116.) The nature of such
scatalogical phenomena in childhood — which are often clearly the in-
64 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
stinctive manifestations of an erotic symbolism — and tlicir wide prev-
alence among both boys and girls, are very well illustrated in a narra-
tive which I include in Appendix B, History II.
In boys as they approach the age of puberty, this attrac-
tion to the scatalogic, when it exists, tends to die out, giving
place to more normal sexual conceptions, or at all events it takes
a subordinate and less serious place in the mind. In girls, on
the other hand, it often tends to persist. Edmond de Goncourt, a
minute observer of the feminine mind, refers in Cherie to "those
innocent and triumphant gaieties which scatalogic stories have
the privilege of arousing in women who have remained still chil-
dren, even the most distinguished women.'' The extent to which
innocent young women, who would frequently be uninterested or
repelled in presence of the sexually obscene are sometimes at-
tracted by the scatalogically obscene, becomes intelligible, how-
ever, if we realize that a symbolism comes here into play. In
women the more specifically sexual knowledge and experience of
life frequently develop much later than in men or even remains
in abeyance, and the specifically sexual phenomena cannot there-
fore easily lend themselves to wit, or humor, or imagination. But
the scatalogic sphere, by the very fact that in women it
is a specially intimate and secret region which is yet always
liable to be unexpectedly protruded into consciousness, furnishes
an inexhaustible field for situations which have the same charac-
ter as those furnished by the sexually obscene. It thus happens
that the sexually obscene which in men tends to overshadow the
scatalogically obscene, in women — partly from inexperience and
partly, it is probable, from their almost physiological modesty —
plays a part subordinate to the scatalogical. In a somewhat
analogous way scatalogical wit and humor play a considerable
part in the work of various eminent authors who were clergymen
or priests
In addition to the anatomical and psychological associations
which contribute to furnish a basis on which erotic symbolisms
may spring up, there are also physiological connections be-
tween the genital and urinary spheres which directly favor
such symbolisms. In discussing the analysis of the sexual im-
EKOTIC SYMBOLISM. 65
pulse in a previous volume of these Studies^ I have pointed out
the remarkable relationship — sometimes of transference, some-
times of compensation — which exists between genital tension
and vesical tension, both in men and women. In the histories
of normal sexual development brought together at the end of
that and subsequent volumes the relationship may frequently be
traced, as also in the case of C. P. in the present study (p. 37).
Vesical power is also commonly believed to be in relation with
sexual potency, and the inability to project the urinary stream in
a normal manner is one of the accepted signs of sexual impo-
tency.^ Fere, again, has recorded the history of a man with
periodic crises of sexual desire, and subsequently sexual obsession
without desire, which were always accompanied by the impulse
to urinate and by increased urination.^ In the case, recorded
by Pitres and Kegis, of a young girl who, having once at the
sight of a young man she liked in a theater been overcome by
sexual feeling accompanied by a strong desire to urinate, was
afterward tormented by a groundless fear of experiencing an
irresistible desire to urinate at inconvenient times,^ we have an
example of what may be called a physiological scatalogic sym-
bolism of sex, an emotion which was primarily erotic becoming
transferred to the bladder and then remaining persistent. From
such a physiological symbolism it is but a step to the psycho-
logical s}Tnbolisms of scatalogic fetichism.
It is worthy of note, as an indication that such phenomena are
scarcely abnormal, that a urinary symbolism, and even a strictly sexual
fetichism, are normal among many animals.
' See, e.g., Morselli, Una Causa di Nullitd, del Matrimonio, 1902,
p. 39.
^ F^r^, Comptes-Rmdus Societe dc Bioloqie, July 23, 1904.
•Transactions of the International Medical Congress, Moscow, vol.
iv, p. 19. A similar symbolism may be traced in many of the cases in
which the focus of modesty becomes in modest women centered in the
excretory sphere and sometimes exaggerated to the extent of obsession.
It must not be supposed, however, that every obsession in this sphere
has a symbolical value of an erotic kind. In the case, for instance,
which has been recorded by Raymond and Janet (Les Obsessions, vol. ii,
p. 306) of a woman who spent much of her time in the endeavor to
urinate perfectly, always feeling that she failed in some respect, the
66 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
The most familiar example of this kind is furnished by the dog,
who is sexually excited in this manner by traces of the bitch and himself
takes every opportunity of making his own path recognizable. "This
custom," Espinas remarks (Dcs Societes Animales, p. 228), "has no other
aim than to spread along the road recognizable traces of their presence
for the benefit of individuals of the other sex, the odor of these traces
doubtless causing excitement."
It is noteworthy, also, that in animals as well as in man, sexual
excitement may manifest itself in the bladder. Thus Daumas states
(Chevaux de Sahara, p. 49) that if the mare urinates when she hears
the stallion neigh it is a sign that she is ready for connection.
It is in masochism, or passive algolagnia, that we may most
frequently find scatalogic symbolism in its fully developed form.
The man whose predominant impulse is to subjugate himself to
his mistress and to receive at her hands the utmost humiliation,
frequently finds the climax of his gratification in being urinated
on by her, whether in actual fact or only in imagination.
In many such cases, however, it is evident that we have a
mixed phenomenon ; the symbolism is double. The act becomes
desirable because it is the outward and visible sign of an in-
wardly experienced abject slavery to an adored person. But it
is also desirable because of intimately sexual associations in the
act itself, as a symbolical detumescence, a simulacrum of the
sexual act, and one which proceeds from the sexual focus itself.
Krafft-Ebing records various cases of masochism in which the
emission of urine on to the body or into the mouth formed the climax
of sexual gratification, as, for instance {Psychopathia SexuaHs, English
translation, p. 183) in the case of a Russian official who as a boy had
fancies of being bound between the thighs of a woman, compelled to
sleep beneath her nates and to drink her urine, and in later life experi-
enced the greatest excitement when practicing the last part of this
early imagination.
In another case, recorded by Krafft-Ebing and by him termed
"ideal masochism" {Op. cit., pp. 127-130), the subject from childhood
indulged in voluptuous day-dreams in which he was the slave of a beau-
tiful mistress who would compel him to obey all her caprices, stand over
him with one foot on his breast, sit on his face and body, make him
obsession seems to have risen fortuitously on a somewhat neurotic basis
without reference to the sexual life.
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 57
wait on her in her Ijath, or when she urinated, and sometimes insist on
doing this on his face ; though a higlily intellectual man, he was always
too timid to attempt to carry any of his ideas into execution; he had
been troubled by nocturnal enuresis up to the age of 20.
Neri, again {Ai-chivio delle Psicopatie Sessuali, vol. i, fasc. 7 and 8,
1896), records the case of an Italian masochist who experienced the
greatest pleasure when both urination and defecation were practiced in
this manner by the woman he was attached to.
In a previous volume of these Studies ("Sexual Inversion," History
XXVI) I have recorded the masochistic day-dreams of a boy whose
impulses were at the same time inverted; in his reveries "the central
fact," he states, "became the discharge of urine from my lover over my
body and limbs, or, if I were very fond of him, I let it be in my face."
In actual life the act of urination casually witnessed in childhood be-
came the symbol, even the reality, of the central secret of sex: "I stood
rooted and flushing with downcast eyes till the act was over, and was
conscious for a considerable time of stammeiing speech and bewildered
faculties. ... I was overwhelmed with emotion and could barely
drag my feet from the spot or my eyes from the damp herbage where he
had deposited the waters of secrecy. Even to-day I cannot dissociate
myself from the shuddering charm that moment had for me."
It is not only the urine and the faeces which may thus ac-
quire a symbolic fascination and attractiveness under the influ-
ence of masochistic deviations of sexual idealization. In some
cases extreme rapture has been experienced in licking sweating
feet. There is, indeed, no excretion or product of the body
which has not been a source of ecstasy : the sweat from every part
of the body, the saliva and menstrual fluid, even the wax from
the ears.
Krafft-Ebing very truly points out {Psychopathia Sexualis, English
translation, p 178) that this sexual scatalogic symbolism is precisely
paralleled by a religious scatalogic symbolism. In the excesses of devout
enthusiasm the ascetic performs exactly the same acts as are performed
in these excesses of erotic enthusiasm. To mix excreta with the food,
to Uck up excrement, to suck festering sores — all these and the like are
acts which holy and venerated women have performed.
Not only the saint, but also the prophet and medicine-man have
been frequently eaters of human excrement; it is only necessary to
refer to the instance of the prophet Ezekiel, who declared that he was
commanded to bake his bread with human dung, and to the practices of
medicine-men at Torres Straits, in whose training the eating of human
excrement takes a recognized part. (Deities, notably Baal-Phegor, were
58 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
sometimes supposed to eat excrement, so that it was natural that their
messengers and representatives among men should do so. As regards
Baal-Phegor, see Dulaure, Des Divinit6s G^n6ratriccs, Chapter IV, and
J. G. Bourke, ^cataloyic Rites of All Nations, p. 241. See also Ezekiel,
Chapter IV, v. 12, and Reports Anthropological Expedition to Torres
Straits, vol. v, p. 321.)
It must be added, however, that while the masochist is overcome
by sexual rapture, so that he sees nothing disgusting in his act, the
medicine-man and the ascetic are not so invariably overcome by religious
rapture, and several ascetic writers have referred to the horror and
disgust they experienced, at all events at first, in accomplishing such
acts, while the medicine-men when novices sometimes find the ordeal too
severe and have to abandon their career. Brgnier de Montmorand, while
remarking, not without some exaggeration, that "the Christian ascetics
are almost all eaters of excrement" ("Ascetisme et Mystieisme," Revue
PliilosopMque, March, 1904, p. 24.5), quotes the testimonies of Mar-
guerite-Marie and Madame Guyon as to the extreme repugnance which
they had to overcome. They were impelled by a merely intellectual
symbolism of self-mortification rather than by the profoundly felt emo-
tional symbolism which moves the masochist.
Coprophagic acts, whether under the influences of religious exalta-
tion or of sexual rapture, inevitably excite our disgust. We regard them
as almost insane, fortified in that belief by the undoubted fact that
eoprophagia is not uncommon among the insane. It may, therefore, be
proper to point out that it is not so very long since the ingestion of
human excrement was carried out by our own forefathers in the most
sane and deliberate manner. It was administered by medical practition-
ers for a great number of ailments, apparently with entirely satisfactory
results. Less than two centuries ago, Schurig, who so admirably gath-
ered together and arranged the medical lore of his own and the imme-
diately preceding ages, wrote a very long and detailed chapter, "De
Stercoris Humani Usu Medico" (Chylologia, 1725, cap. XIII; in the
Paris Journal de Medecine for February 19, 1905, there appeared an
article, which I have not seen, entitled "Medicaments oubliees: I'urine
et la fiente humaine.") The classes of cases in which the drug was found
beneficial would seem to have been extremely various. It must not be
supposed that it was usually ingested in the crude form. A common
method was to take the faeces of boys, dry them, mix them with the best
honey, and administer an an electuary. (At an earlier period such drugs
appear to have met with some opposition from the Church, which seems
to have seen in them only an application of magic; thus 1 note that in
Burchard's remarkable Penitential of the fourteenth century, as repro-
duced by Wasserschleben, 40 days' penance is prescribed for the use of
human urine or excrement as a medicine. Wasserschleben Die Buss-
ordmingen der AhcndldndUclwr Eirchc, p. 651.)
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 69
The urolagnia of masochism is not a simple phenomenon;
it embodies a double symbolism: on the one hand a symbolism
of self-abnegation, such as the ascetic feels, on the other hand
a symbolism of transferred sexual emotion. Krafft-Ebing was
disposed to regard all cases in which a scatalogical sexual attrac-
tion existed as due to "latent masochism." Such a point of view
is quite untenable. Certainly the connection is common, but in
the majority of cases of slightly marked scatalogical fetichism
no masochism is evident. And when we bear in mind the various
considerations, already brought forward, which show how wide-
spread and clearly realized is the natural and normal basis fur-
nished for such symbolism, it becomes quite unnecessary to
invoke any aid from masochism. There is ample evidence to
show that, either as a habitual or more usually an occasional act,
the impulse to bestow a symbolic value on the act of urination
in a beloved person, is not extremely uncommon; it has been
noted of men of high intellectual distinction; it occurs in
women as well as men; when existing in only a slight degree,
it must be regarded as within the normal limits of variation of
sexual emotion.
The occasional cases in which the urine is drunk may possibly
suggest that the motive lies in the properties of the fluid acting on the
system. Support for this supposition might be found in the fact that
urine actually does possess, apart altogether from its magic virtues
embodied in folk-lore, the properties of a general stimulant. In compo-
sition (as Masterman first pointed out) "beef-tea differs little from
healthy urine," containing exactly the same constituents, except that
in beef-tea there is less urea and uric acid. Fresh urine — more especially
that of children and young women — is taken as a medicine in nearly all
parts of the world for various disorders, such as epistaxis, malaria and
hysteria, with benefit, this benefit being almost certainly due to its
qualities as a general stimulant and restorative. William Salmon's
Dispensatory, 1678 (quoted in British Medical Journal, April 21, 1900,
p. 974), shows that in the seventeenth century urine still occupied an
important place as a medicine, and it frequently entered largely into the
composition of Aqua Divina.
Its use has been known even in England in the nineteenth century.
(Masterman, Lancet, October 2, 1880; R. Neale, "Urine as a Medicine,"
Practitioner, November, 1881 ; Bourke brings together a great deal of
evidence as to the therapeutic uses of urine in his Scatalogic Rites,
60 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
especially pp. 331-335; Lusini has shown that normal urine invariably
increases the frequency of the heart beats, Archivio di Farmacologia,
fascs. 19-21, 1893.)
But it is an error to suppose that these facts account for the
urolagnic drinking of urine. As in the gratification of a normal sexual
impulse, the intense excitement of gratifying a seatalogic sexual impulse
itself produces a degree of emotional stimulation far greater than the
ingestion of a small amount of animal extractives would be adequate to
eflfect. In such cases, as much as in normal sexuality, the stimulation
is clearly psychic.
When, as is most commonly the case, it is the process of
urination and not the urine itself which is attractive, we are
clearly concerned with a symbolism of act and not with the
fetichistic attraction of an excretion. When the excretion, apart
from the act, provides the attraction, we seem usually to be in
the presence of an olfactory fetichism. These fetichisms con-
nected with the excreta appear to be experienced chiefly by indi-
viduals who are somewhat weak-minded, which is not necessarily
the case in regard to those persons for whom the act, rather than
its product apart from the beloved person, is the attractive sym-
bol.
The sexually symbolic nature of the act of urination for many
people is indicated by the existence, according to Bloch, who enumerates
various kinds of indecent photographs, of a group which he terms "the
notorious pisseuses." It is further indicated by several of the repro-
ductions in Fuch's Erotsiche Element in der Kankatur, such
as Delorme's "La Necessity n'a point de Loi." (It should be added that
such a scene by no means necessarily possesses any erotic symbolism, as
we may see in Rembrandt's etching commonly called "Le Femme qui
Pisse," in which the reflected lights on the partly shadowed stream
furnish an artistic motive which is obviously free from any trace of
obscenity.) In the case which Krafift-Ebing quotes from Maschka of a
young man who would induce young girls to dance naked in his room, to
leap, and to urinate in his presence, whereupon seminal ejaculation would
take place, we have a typical example of urolagnic symbolism in a form
adequate to produce complete gratification. A case in which the uro-
lagnic form of seatalogic symbolism reached its fullest development as a
sexual perversion has been described in Russia by Sukhanoff (summa-
rized in Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle, November, 1900, and An-
nates Medico-psychologiques, February, 1901), that of a young man of
27, of neuropathic temperament, who when he once chanced to witness a
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 61
woman urinating experienced voluptuous sensations. From that moment
he sought close contact with women urinating, the maximum of gratifi-
cation being reached when he could place himself in such a position that
a woman, in all innocence, would urinate into his mouth. All his
amorous adventures were concerned with the search for opportunities
for procuring this difficult gratification. Closets in which he was able
to hide, winter weather and dull days he found most favorable to suc-
cess. (A somewhat similar case is recorded in the Archives de Neuro-
logie, 1902, p. 462.)
In the case of a robust man of neuropathic heredity recorded by
Pelanda some light is shed on the psychic attitude in these manifesta-
tions; there was masturbation up to the age of 16, when he abandoned
the practice, and up to the age of 30 found complete satisfaction in
drinking the still hot urine of women. When a lady or girl in the
house went to her room to satisfy a need of this kind, she had hardly
left it but he hastened in, overcome by extreme excitement, culminating
in spontaneous ejaculation. The younger the woman the greater the
transport he experienced. It is noteworthy that in this, as possibly in
all similar cases, there was no sensory perversion and no morbid attrac-
tion of taste or smell; he stated that the action of his senses was sus-
pended by his excitement, and that he was qifite unable to perceive the
odor or taste of the fluid. (Pelenda, "Pomopatice," ArcMvio di PsicM-
atria, facs. iii-iv, 1889, p. 356.) It is in the emotional symbolism that
the fascination lies and not in any sensory perversion.
Magnan records the spontaneous development of this sexual sym-
bolism in a girl of 11, of good intellectual development but alcoholic
heredity, who seduced a boy younger than herself to mutual masturba-
tion, and on one occasion, lying on the ground and raising her clothes,
asked him to urinate on her. {International Congress of Criminal
Anthropology, 1889.) This case (except for the early age of the subject)
illustrates sporadically occurring urolagnie symbolism in a woman, to
whom such symbolism is fairly obvious on account of the close resem-
blance between the emission of urine and the ejaculation of semen In
the man, and the fact that the same conduit serves for both fluids.
(A urolagnie day-dream of this kind is recorded in the history of a
lady contained in the third volume of these Studies, Appendix B, His-
tory VIII.) The natural and inevitable character of this symbolism
is shown by the fact that among primitive peoples urine is sometimes
supposed to possess the fertilizing virtues of semen. J. G. Frazer in
his edition of Pausanias (vol. iv, p. 139) brings together various stories
of women impregnated by urine. Hartland also (Legend of Perseus,
vol. i, pp. 76, 92) records legends of women who were impregnated by
accidentally or intentionally drinking urine.
The symbolic sexual significance of urolagnia has hitherto usually
been confused with the fetichistic and mainly olfactory perversion by
62 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
which the excretion itself becomes a source of sexual excitement. Long
since Tardieu referred, under the name of "renilleurs," to persons who
were said to haunt the neighborhood of quiet passages, more esijecially
in the neighborhood of theatres, and who when they perceived a woman
emerge after urination, would hasten to excite themselves by the odor
of the excretion. Possibly a fetichism of this kind existed in a case
recorded by Belletrud and Mercier (Annales d'Hygidne Publique, June,
1904, p. 48). A weak-minded, timid youth, who was very sexual but
not attractive to women, would watch for women who were about to
urinate and immediately they had passed on would go and lick the spot
they had moistened, at the same time masturbating. Such a fetichistic
perversion is strictly analogous to the fetichism by which women's
handkerchiefs, aprons or underlinen become capable of afTording seXual
gratification. A very complete case of such urolagnic fetichism — com-
plete because separated from association with the person accomplishing
the act of urination — has been recorded by Moraglia in a woman. It
is the case of a beautiful and attractive young woman of 18, with thick
black hair, and expressive vivacious eyes, but sallow complexion. Mar-
ried a year previously, but childless, she experienced a certain amount
of pleasure in coitus, but she preferred masturbation, and frankly ac-
knowledged that she was highly excited by the odor of fermented urine.
So strong was this fetichism that when, for instance, she passed a street
urinal she was often obliged to go aside and masturbate; once she went
for this purpose into the urinal itself and was almost discovered in the
act, and on another occasion into a church. Her perversion caused her
much worry because of the fear of detection. She preferred, when she
could, to obtain a bottle of urine — which must be stale and a man's (this,
she said, she could detect by the smell) — and to shut herself up in her
own room, holding the bottle in one hand and repeatedly masturbating
with the other. (Moraglia, "Psicopatie Sessuali," Archivio di Psichiatria,
vol. xiii, fasc. 6, p. 267, 1892.) This case is of especial interest because
of the great rarity of fully developed fetichism in women. In a slight
and germinal degree I believe that cases of fetichism are not uncommon
in women, but they are certainly rare in a well-marked form, and
Krafft-Ebing declared, even in the late editions of his Psychopathia
Sexualis, that he knew of no cases in women.
So far we have been concerned with the urolagnic rather
than the coprolagnic variety of scatalogical symbolism. Al-
though the two are sometimes associated there is no necessary
connection, and most usually there is no tendency for the one
to involve the other. Urolagnia is certainly much the more
frequently found ; the act of urination is far more apt to suggest
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM. 63
erotieally symbolical ideas than the idea of defecation. It is
not difficult to understand why this should be so. The act of
urination lends itself more easily to sexual symbolism; it is
more intimately associated with the genital function; its repe-
tition is necessary at more frequent intervals so that it is more
in evidence; moreover, its product, unlike that of the act of
defecation, is not offensive to the senses. Still coprolagnia occurs
and not so very infrequently. Burton remarked that even the
normal lover is affected by this feeling : "immo nee ipsum amicae
stercus foetet."^
Of Caligula who, however, was scarcely sane, it was said
"et quidem stercus uxoris degustavit."- In Parisian brothels
(according to Taxil and others) provision is made for those who
are sexually excited by the spectacle of the act of defecation
(without reference to contact or odor) by means of a "tabouret
de verre," from under the glass floor of which the spectacle of
the defecating women may be closely observed. It may be added
that the erotic nature of such a spectacle is referred to in the
Marquis de Sade's novels.
There is one motive for the existence of coprolagnia which
must not be passed over, because it has doubtless frequently
served as a mode of transition to what, taken by itself, may well
seem the least aesthetically attractive of erotic symbols. I refer
to the tendency of the nates to become a sexual fetich. The
nates have in all ages and in all parts of the world been fre-
quently regarded as one of the most ffisthetically beautiful parts
of the feminine body.^ It is probable that on the basis of this
entirely normal attraction more than one form of erotic sym-
^ Anatomy of Melancholy, Part ITI, Section II, Mem. Ill, Subs. I.
' It may be remarked here that while the eating of excrement
(apart from its former use as a magic chai-ra and as a therapeutic
agent) is in civilization now confined to sexual perverts and the insane,
among some animals it ia normal as a measure of hygiene in relation to
their young. Thus, as, e.g., the Rev. Arthur East writes, the mistle
thrush swallows the droppings of its young. {Knowledge, June 1, 1899,
p. 133.) In the dog I have observed that the bitch licks her puppies
shortly after birth as they urinate, absorbing the fluid.
» See, e.g.. the previous volume of these mudies, "Sexual Selection
in Man," pp. 165 et seq., and Duhren, GescJdectslehen in England, bd. ii,
pp. 258, et seq.
64 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
holism is at all events in part supported. Diihren and others
have considered that the aesthetic charm of the nates is one of
the motives vfliich prompt the desire to inflict flagellation on
women. In the same way — certainly in some and probably in
many cases — the sexual charm of the nates progressively extends
to the anal region, to the act of defecation, and finally to the
feces.
In a case of Kraflft-Ebing's {Op. cit., p. 183) the subject, when a
child of 6, accidentally placed his hand in contact with the nates of the
little girl who sat next to him in school, and experienced so great a
pleasure in this contact that he frequently repeated it; when he was
10 a nursery governess, to gratify her own desires, placed his finger in
her vagina; in adult life he developed urolagnic tendencies.
In a case of Moll's the development of a youthful admiration for
the nates in a coprolagnic direction may be clearly traced. In this case
a young man, a merchant, in a good position, sought to come in con-
tact with women defecating; and with this object would seek to conceal
himself in closets; the excretal odor was pleasurable to him, but was
not essential to gratification, and the sight of the nates was also ex-
citing and at the same time not essential to gratification; the act of
defecation appears, however, to have been regarded as essential. He
never sought to witness prostitutes in this situation; he was only
attracted to young, pretty and innocent women. The coprolagnia here,
however, had its source in a childish impression of admiration for
the nates. When 5 or 6 years old he crawled under the clothes of a
servant girl, his face coming in contact with her nates, an impression
that remained associated in his mind with pleasure. Three or four
years later he used to experience much pleasure when a young girl
cousin sat on his face; thus was strengthened an association which
developed naturally into coprolagnia. (Moll, Vntersiichungen uher die
Libido Scxualis, bd. i, p. 837.)
It is scarcely necessary to remark that an admiration for the
nates, even when reaching a fetichistic degree, by no means necessarily
involves, even after many years, any attraction to the excreta. A corre-
spondent for whom the nates have constituted a fetich for many years
writes: "I find my craving for women with profuse pelvic or posterior
development is growing and I wish to copulate from behind; but I
would feel a sickening feeling if any part of my person came in contact
with the female anus. It is more pleasing to me to see the nates than
the mons, yet I loathe everything associated with the anal region."
Moll has recorded in detail a case of what may be described
as "ideal coprolagnia" — that is to say, where the symbolism,
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 65
though fully developed in imagination, was not carried into real
life — which is of great interest because it shows how, in a very
intelligent subject, the deviated symbolism may become highly
developed and irradiate all the views of life in the same way as
the normal impulse. (The subject's desires were also inverted,
but from the present point of view the psychological interest of
the case is not thereby impaired.) Moll's case was one of sym-
bolism of act, the excreta offering no attraction apart from the
process of defecation. In a case which has been communicated
to me there was, on the other hand, an olfactory fetichistic at-
traction to the excreta even in the absence of the person.
In Moll's case, the patient, X., 23 years of age, belongs to a family
which he himself describes as nervous. His mother, who is anaemic, has
long suffered from almost periodical attacks of excitement, weakness,
syncope and palpitation. A brother of the mother died in a lunatic
asylum, and several other brothers complain much of their nerves. The
mother's sisters are very good-natured, but liable to break out in furious
passions; this they inherit from their father. There appears to be no
nervous disease on the patient's father's side. X.'s sisters are also
healthy.
X. himself is of powerful undersized build and enjoys good health,
injured by no excesses. He considers himself nervous. He worked hard
at school and was always the first in his class; he adds, however, that
this is due less to his own abilities than the laziness of his school-
fellows. He is, as he remarks, very religious and prays frequently, but
seldom goes to church.
In regard to his psychic characters he says that he has no specially
prominent talent, but is much interested in languages, mathematics,
physics and philosophy, in fact, in abstract subjects generally, "While
I take a lively interest in every kind of intellectual work," he says, "it
is only recently that I have been attracted to real life and its require-
ments. I have never had much skill in physical exercises. For external
things until recently I have only had contempt. I have a delicately
constituted nature, loving solitude, and only associating with a few
select persons. I have a decided taste for fiction, poetry and music;
my temperament is idealistic and religious, with strict conceptions of
duty and morality, and aspirations towards the good and beautiful. I
detest all that is common and coarse^ and yet I can think and act in the
way you will learn from the folloAving pages."
Regarding his sexual life, X. made the follo^ving communica-
tion: "During the last two years I have become convinced of the per-
version of my sexual instinct. I had often previously thought that in
6
66 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
me the impulse was not quite normal, but it is only lately that I have
become convinced of my complete perversion. I have never read or
heard of any case in which the sexual feelings were of the same kind.
Although I can feel a lively inclination towards superior representatives
of the female sex, and have twice felt something like love, the sight or
the recollection even of a beautiful woman have never caused sexual
excitement." In the two exceptional instances mentioned it appears that
X. had an inclination to kiss the women in question, but that the thought
of coitus had no attraction. "In my voluptuous dreams, connected witli
the emission of semen, women in seductive situations have never ap-
peared. I have never had any desire to visit a puella publica. The love-
stories of my fellow-students seemed very silly, dances and balls were
a horror to me, and only on very rare occasions could I be persuaded to
go into society. It will be easy to guess the diagnosis in my case: I
suffer from the sexual attraction of my own sex, I am a lover of boys.
"You cannot imagine what a world of thoughts, wishes, feelings
and impulses the words 'knabe,"5rots,' 'garcon,' 'boy,' 'ragazzo' have for
me; one of these words, even in an unmeaning clause of a translation-
book, calls before me the whole sum of associations which in course of
time have become bound up with this idea, and it is only with an effort
that I can scare away the wild band. This group of thoughts shows a
wonderful mixture of warm sensuality and ideal love, it unites my
lowest and highest impulses, the strength and the weakness of my
nature, my curse and my blessing. My inclination is especially towards
boys of the age of 12 to 15; though they may be rather younger or
older. That I should prefer beautiful and intelligent boys is compre-
hensible. I do not want a prostitute, but a friend or a son, whose soul
I love, whom I can help to become a more perfect man, such as I myself
would willingly be.
"When I myself belonged to that happy age (i.e., below 15) I had
no dearer wish than to possess a friend of similar tastes. I have sought,
hoped, waited, grieved, and been at last disillusioned, overcome by desire
and despair, and have not found that friend. Even later the hope often
reappeared, but always in vain, and I cannot boast of that sure recogni-
tion which one reads of in the autobiographies of Urnings. I do not
know personally a single fellow-sufferer. It is also doubtful whether
such an acquaintanceship would greatly help me, for I have a very
peculiar conception of homosexuality. As you will see, I haye little more
in common with what are called paederasts than sexual indifference to
the female sex, and I often ask myself: 'Does any other man in the
whole world feel like you? Are you alone in the earth with your morbid
desires? Are you a pariah of pariahs, or is there, perhaps, another
Boul with similar longings living near you ? How often in summer have
I gone to the lakes and streams outside cities to seek boys bathing;
but I always came back unsatisfied, whether I found any or not. And
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 67
in winter I have been irresistibly impelled to return to the same spots,
as if it were sanctified by the boys, but my darlings had vanished and
cold winds blew over the icy floods, so that I would return feeling as
though I had buried all my happiness.
"It must be borne in mind, therefore, that what I have to say
regarding my sexual impulses only refers to fancies and never to their
practical realization. My sensual impulses are not connected with the
sexual organs; all my voluptuous ideas are not in the least connected
with these parts. For this reason I have never practiced onanism and
immissio memhri in anum is as repulsive to me as to a normal man.
Even every imitation of coitus is, for me, without attraction. In a boy's
body two things specially excite me: his belly and his nates, the first
as containing the digestive tract, the second as holding the opening of
the bowels. Of the vegetable processes of life in the boy none interest
me nearly so much as the progress of his digestion and the process of
defecation. It is incredible to what an extent this part of physiology
has occupied me from youth. If as a boy I Avanted to read something
of a piquantly exciting character I sought in my father's encyclopaedia
for articles like: Obstruction, Constipation, Hsemorrhoids, Faeces, etc.
No function of the body seemed to be so significant as this, and I
regard'ed its disturbances as the most important in the whole mechanism
of life. The description of other disorders I could read in cold blood,
but intussusception of the bowels makes me ill even to-day. I am
always extremely pleased to hear that the digestion of the people around
me is in good condition. A man who did not sufficiently watch over his
digestion aroused distrust in me, and I imagined that wicked men must
be horribly indifferent regarding this weighty matter. Even more than
in ordinary persons was I interested in the digestion of more mysterious
beings, like magicians in legends, or men of other nations. I would
willingly have made an anthropological study of my favorite subject,
only to my annoyance books nearly always pass over the matter in
silence. In history and fiction I regretted the absence of information
concerning the state of my heroes' digestion when they languished in
prison or in some unaccustomed or unhealthy spot. For this reason I
held no book more precious than one which describes how a young man
after being shipwrecked lived for a long time in a narrow snow-hut, and
it was conscientiously stated that he became aware of digestive disturb-
ances. No immorality angers me more than the foolish practice of
ladies who in society neglect the satisfaction of their natural needs
from misplaced motives of modesty. On a railway journey I suffer
horribly from the thought that one of my fellow-travelers may be
prevented from fulfilling some imperative natural necessity.
"I naturally devote the greatest attention to my own digestion.
With painful conscientiousness I go to stool every day at the same
68 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
hour; if the operation does not come off to my satisfaction I feel not
so much physical as mental discomfort. To this quite useful hygienic
interest became associated at puberty a sensual interest. Since my four-
teenth year I have had no greater enjoyment than to defecate undressed
(I do not do so now) after having first carefully examined the disten-
sion of my abdomen. In summer I would go into the woods, undress
myself in a secluded spot and indulge in the voluptuous pleasures of
defecation. I would sometimes combine with this a bath in a stream.
1 would exhaust my imagination in the effort to invent specially enjoy-
able variations, longed for a desert island where I could go about naked,
fill my body with much nourishing food, hold in the excrement as long
as possible and then discharge it in some subtly-thought-out spot. These
practices and ideas often caused erections and later on emissions, but
the genitals played no part in my conceptions; their movements were
uncomfortable and gave no pleasure.
"I soon longed to be associated in these orgies with some boy of the
same age, but I wanted not only a companion in my passion, but also a
real friend. Since there could be no question of masturbation or paeder-
asty, our love would have been limited to kisses, embraces, and — as a
compensation for coitus — defecation together. That would have been
perfect bliss to me. I will spare you the unsesthetic contents of my
voluptuous dreams. But I remained without a companion, and, there-
fore, without real enjoyment. [He has, however, on various occasions
experienced erections, and even emissions, on seeing, by chance, men or
boys defecate.] Hinc illfe lacrimae; the excitement over my own de-
fecation only took place fatite de mieux.
"I knew very well that my thoughts and practices were impure and
contemptible. Ah! how often, when the intoxication was over, have
I thrown myself remorsefully on my knees, praying to God for pardon!
For some weeks I repressed my longing; but at last it was too strong
for me, I tried to justify myself and fell into my vice anew. That I was
guilty of licentiousness and loved boys sexually first became clear to me
later on, when I knew the significance of erection as a sign of sexual
ex:citement.
"No one can imagine with what demoniacal joy I am possessed at
the thought of a beautiful naked boy whose abdomen is filled as tlie
result of long abstinence from stool. The thought powerfully excites
me, a flood of passion goes through my blood and my limbs tremble. I
would never grow tired of feeling that belly and looking at it. My
passion would express itself in tempestuous caresses, and the boy would
have to assume various positions in order to show off the beauty of
his form, i.e., to bring the parts in question into better view. To observe
defecation would still further increase this peculiar enjoyment. If the
boy's bowels were not sufficiently filled I would feed him with all sorts
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 69
of food which produces much excrement, such as potatoes, coarse bread,
etc. If possible I would seek to delay defecation for two or three days,
so that it might be as copious as possible. When at last it occurred it
would be an unspeakable joy for me to watch the faeces — which would
have to be fairly firm — emerging from the anus."
X. would like to be a teacher and thinks he could exert a beneficial
influence on boys. In spite of the pain he has suffered he does not think
he would like to be cured of his perverse inclinations, for they have
given him joy as well as pain, and the pain has chiefly been owing to
the fact that he could not gratify his inclinations. X. smokes and
drinks in moderation, and has no feminine habits. (The foregoing is a
condensed summary of the case which is fully reported by Moll, Kontrdre
Sextialempfindung, third edition, pp. 295-305.)
The case of coprolagnia communicated to me is that of a married
man, normal in all other respects, intellectually brilliant and filling
successfully a very responsible position. When a child the women of
his household were always indifferent as to his presence in their bed-
rooms, and would satisfy all natural calls without reserve before him.
He would dream of this with erections. His sexual interests became
slowly centered in the act of defecation, and this fetich throughout life
never appealed to him so powerfully as when associated with the par-
ticular type of household furniture which was used for this purpose in
his own house. The act of defecation in the opposite sex or anything
pertaining to or suggesting the same caused uncontrollable sexual ex-
citement; the nates also exerted a great attraction. The alvine excreta
exerted this influence even in the absence of the woman; it was, how-
ever, necessary that she should be a sexually desirable person. The per-
version in this case was not complete; that is to say, that the excite-
ment produced by the act of defecation or the excretion itself was not
actually preferred to coitus; the sexual idea was normal coitus in the
normal manner, but preceded by the visual and olfactory enjoyment of
the exciting fetich. When coitus was not possible the enjoyment of the
fetich was accompanied by masturbation (as in the analogous case of
urolagnia in a woman summarized on p. 62.) On one occasion he was
discovered by a friend in a bedroom belonging to a woman, engaged in
the act of masturbation over a vessel containing the desired fetich. In
an agony of shame he begged the mercy of silence concerning this episode,
at the same time revealing his life-history. He has constantly been
haunted by the dread of detection, as well as by remorse and the con-
sciousness of degradation, also by the fear that his unconquerable
obsession may lead him to the asylum.
The scatalogic groups of sexual perversions, urolagnia and
coprolagnia, as may be sufficiently seen in this brief summary,
70 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
are not merely olfactory fetiches. They are, in a larger propor-
tion of cases, dynamic symbols, a preoccupation with physiolog-
ical acts which, by associations of contiguity and still more of
resemblance, have gained the virtue of stimulating in slight cases,
and replacing in more extreme cases, the normal preoccupation
with the central physiological act itself. We have seen that
there are various considerations which amply suffice to furnish
a basis for such associations. And when we reflect that in the
popular mind, and to some extent in actual fact, the sexual act
itself is, like urination and defecation, an excretory act, we can
understand that the true excretory acts may easily become sym-
bols of the pseudo-excretory act. It is, indeed, in the muscular
release of accumulated pressures and tensions, involved by the
act of liberating the stored-up excretion, that we have the closest
simulacrum of the tumescence and detumescence of the sexual
process.^
In this way the erotic symbolism of urolagnia and copro-
lagnia is completely analogous with that dynamic symbolism of
the clinging and swinging garments which Herrick has so ac-
curately described, with the complex symbolism of flagellation
and its play of the rod against the blushing and trembling nates,
with the symbols of sexual strain and stress which are embodied
in the foot and the act of treading.
*In the study of Love and Pain in a previous volume (p. 130) I
have quoted the remarks of a lady who refers to the analogy between
sexual tension and vesical tension — "Cette volupt6 que ressentent les
bords de la mer, d'etre toujours pleins sans jamais dSborder" — and its
erotic sismificance.
IV.
Animals as Sources of Erotic Symbolism — Mixoscopic Zoophilia —
The Stuff-fetichisms— Hair-fetichism— The Stuff-fetichisms Mainly on a
Tactile Base — Erotic Zoophilia — Zooerastia — Bestiality — The Conditions
that Favor Bestiality — Its Wide Prevalence Among Primitive Peoples
and Among Peasants — The Primitive Conception of Animals — The Goat
— The Influence of Familiarity with Animals — Congress Between Women
and Animals — The Social Reaction Against Bestiality.
The erotic symbols with which we have so far been con-
cerned have in every case been portions of the body, or its phys-
iological processes, or at least the garments which it has endowed
with life. The association on which the symbol has arisen has
in every case been in large measure, although not entirely, an
association of contiguity. It is now necessary to touch on a
group of sexual symbols in which the association of contiguity
with the human body is absent: the various methods by which
animals or animal products or the sight of animal copulation
may arouse sexual desire in human persons. Here we encoun-
ter a symbolism mainly founded on association by resemblance;
the animal sexual act recalls the human sexual act; the animal
becomes the symbol of the human being.
The group of phenomena we are here concerned with in-
cludes several sub-divisions. There is first the more or less sex-
ual pleasure sometimes experienced, especially by young persons,
in the sight of copulating animals. This I would propose to call
Mixoscopic Zoophilia ; it falls within the range of normal varia-
tion. Then we have the cases in which the contact of animals,
stroking, etc., produces sexual excitement or gratification; this
is a sexual fetichism in the narrow sense, and is by Krafft-Ebing
termed Zoophilia Erotica. We have, further, the class of cases
in which a real or simulated sexual intercourse with animals is
desired. Such cases are not regarded as fetichism by Krafft-
(71)
72 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
Ebing/ but they come within the phenomena of erotic symbolism
as here understood. This ch^ss falls into two divisions: one in
which the individual is fairly normal, but belongs to a low grade
of culture; the other in which he may belong to a more refined
social class, but is affected by a deep degree of degeneration. In
the first case we may properly apply the term bestiality; in the
second case it may perhaps be better to use the term zooerastia,
proposed by Krafft-Ebing.-
Among children, both boys and girls, it is common to find
that the copulation of animals is a mysteriously fascinating spec-
tacle. It is inevitable that this should be so, for the spectacle
is more or less clearly felt to be the revelation of a secret which
has been concealed from them. It is, moreover, a secret of which
they feel intimate reverberations within themselves, and even in
perfectly innocent and ignorant children the sight may produce
an obscure sexual excitement.^ It would seem that this occurs
more frequently in girls than in boys. Even in adult age, it
may be added, women are liable to experience the same kind of
emotion in the presence of such spectacles. One lady recalls, as
a girl, that on several occasions an element of physical excite-
ment entered into the feelings with which she watched the
coquetry of cats. Another lady mentions that at the age of
about 25, and when still quite ignorant of sexual matters, she
saw from a window some boys tickling a dog and inducing sexual
excitement in the animal; she vaguely divined what they were
doing, and though feeling disgust at their conduct she at the
same time experienced in a strong degree what she now knows
was sexual excitement. The coupling of the larger animals is
^ For Kraflft-Ebing's discussion of the subject see Op. cit., pp. 530-
539.
* In England it is not uncommon to use the term "unnatural
oflFence;" this is an awkward and possibly misleading practice which
should not be followed. In Germany a similar confusion is caused by
applying the term "sodomy" to these cases as well as to pederasty.
Krafft-Ebing considers that this error is due to the jurists, while the
theologians have always distinguished correctly. In this matter, he
adds, science must be ancilla thcologicc and return to the correct usage
of words.
• This childish interest, with later abnormal developments, may be
seen in History I of the Appendix to this volume.
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 73
often an impressive and splendid spectacle which is far, in-
deed, from being obscene, and has commended itself to per-
sons of intellectual distinction;^ but in young or ill-balanced
minds such sights tend to become both prurient and morbid. I
have already referred to the curious case of a sexually hyper-
sesthetic nun who was always powerfully excited by the sight or
even the recollection of flies in sexual connection, so that she
was compelled to masturbate ; this dated from childhood. After
becoming a nun she recorded having had this experience, fol-
lowed by masturbation, more than four hundred times,^ Animal
spectacles sometimes produce a sexual effect on children even
when not specifically sexual ; thus a correspondent, a clergyman,
informs me that when a young and impressionable boy, he was
much affected by seeing a veterinary surgeon insert his hand
and arm into a horse's rectum, and dreamed of this several times
afterward with emissions.
While the contemplation of animal coitus is an easily intel-
ligible and in early life, perhaps, an almost normal symbol of
sexual emotion, there is another sub-division of this group of
animal fetichisms which forms a more natural transition from
the fetichisms which have their center in the human body: the
stuff-fetichisms, or the sexual attraction exerted by various tis-
sues, perhaps always of animal origin. Here we are in the pres-
ence of a somewhat complicated phenomenon. In part we have,
^ The Countess of Pembroke, Sir Philip Sidney's sister, appears to
have found, sexual enjoyment in the contemplation of the sexual prowess
of stallions. Aubrey writes that she "was very salacious and she had a
contrivance that in the spring of the year . . . the stallions . . .
were to be brought before such a part of the house where she had a
vidette to look on them." {Short Lives, 1898, vol. i, p. 311.) Although
the modern editor's modesty has caused the disappearance of several
lines from this passage, the general sense is clear. In the same century
Burchard, the faithful secretary of Pope Alexander VI, describes in his
invaluable diary how four race horses were brought to two mares in a
court of the Vatican, the horses clamorously fighting for the possession
of the mares and eventually mounting them, while the Pope and his
daughter Luerezia looked on from a window "cum magno risu et delecta-
tione." (niarium, ed Thuasne, vol. Ill, p. 169.)
'Archivio di Psichiatria, 1902, fasc. ii-iii, p. 338. In the case of
pathological sexuality in a boy of 15, reported by A. MacDonald, and
already summarized, the sight of copulating flies ia also mentioned
among many other causes of sexual excitation.
74 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
in a considerable number of sucb cases, the sexual attraction of
feminine garments, for all such tissues are liable to enter into
the dress. In part, also, we have a sexual perversion of tactile
sensibility, for in a considerable proportion of those cases it is
the touch sensations which are potent in arousing the erotic
sensations. But in part, also, it would seem, we have here the
conscious or sub-conscious presence of an animal fetich, and it
is notable that perhaps all these stuffs, and especially fur, which
is by far the commonest of the groups, are distinctively animal
products. We may perhaps regard the fetich of feminine hair —
a much more important and common fetich, indeed, than any
of the stuff fetichisms — as a link of transition. Hair is at once
an animal and a human product, while it may be separated from
the body and possesses the qualities of a stuff. Krafft-Ebing
remarks that the senses of touch, smell, and hearing, as well as
sight, seem to enter into the attraction exerted by hair.
The natural fascination of hair, on which hair-fetichism is founded,
begins at a veiy early age. "The hair is a special object of interest with
infants," Stanley Hall concludes, "which begins often in the latter part
of the first year. . . . The hair, no doubt, gives quite unique tactile
sensations, both in its own roots and to hands, and is plastic and yield-
ing to the motor sense, so that the earliest interest may be akin to that
in fur, which is a marked object in infant experience. Some children
develop an almost fetichistic propensity to pull or later to stroke the
hair or beard of every one with whom they come in contact." (G.
Stanley Hall, "The Early Sense of Self," American Journal of PstjcJiology,
April, 1898, p. 359.)
It should be added that the fascination of hair for the infantile and
childish mind is not necessarily one of attraction, but may be of repul-
sion. It happens here, as in the case of so many characteristics which
are of sexual significance, that we are in the presence of an object which
may exert a dynamic emotional force, a force which is capable of
repelling with the same energy that it attracts. Fer§ records the in-
structive case of a child of 3, of psychopathic heredity, who when he
could not sleep was sometimes taken by his mother into her bed. One
night his hand came in contact with a hairy portion of his mother's
body, and this, arousing the idea of an animal, caused him to leap out
of the bed in terror. He became curious as to the cause of his terror
and in time was able to observe "the animal," but the train of feelings
which had been set up led to a life-long indifference to women and a
tendency to homosexuality. It is noteworthy that he was attracted to
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM. 75
men in whom the hair and other secondary sexual characters were well
developed. (Fere, L' Instinct Sexucl, second edition, pp. 2G2-267.)
As a sexual fetich hair strictly belongs to the group of parts of
the body; but since it can be removed from the body and is sexually
effective as a fetich in the absence of the person to whom it belongs, it
is on a level with the garments which may serve in a similar way, with
shoes or handkerchiefs or gloves. Psychologically, hair-felichism presents
no special problem, but the wide attraction of hair — it is sexually the
most generally noted part of the feminine body after the eyes — and the
peculiar facility with which when plaited it may be removed, render
hair-fetichism a sexual perversion of specially great medico-legal interest.
The frequency of hair-fetichism, as well as of the natural admira-
tion on which it rests, is indicated by a case recorded by Laurent. "A
few years ago," he states, "one constantly saw at the Bal Bullier, in
Paris, a tall girl whose face was lean and bony, but whose black hair
was of truly remarkable length. She wore it flowing down her shoul-
ders and loins. Men often followed her in the street to touch or kiss
the hair. Others would accompany her home and pay her for the mere
pleasure of touching and kissing the long black tresses. One, in con-
sideration of a relatively considerable sum, desired to pollute the silky
hair. She was obliged to be always on her guard, and to take all sorts
of precautions to prevent any one cutting off this ornament, which
constituted her only beauty as well as her livelihood. (E. Laurent,
L' Amour Morhide, 1891, p. 164; also the same author's F6tichistes et
Erotomanes, p. 23.)
The hair despoiler {Coupenr des Nattes or Zopfabschneider) may
be found in any civilized country, though the most carefully studied
cases have occurred in Paris. (Several medico-legal histories of hair-
despoilers are summarized by Krafft-Ebing, Op. cit., pp. 329-334).
Such persons are usually of nervous temperament and bad heredity; the
attraction to hair occasionally develops in early life; sometimes the
morbid impulse only appears in later life after fever. The fetich may
be either flowing hair or braided hair, but is usually one or the other,
and not both. Sexual excitement and ejaculation may be produced In
the act of touching or cutting off the hair, which is subsequently, in
many cases, used for masturbation. As a rule the hair-despoiler is a
pure fetichist, no element of sadistic pleasure entering into his feelings.
In the case of a "capillary kleptomaniac" in Chicago — a highly intelli-
gent and athletic married j'oung man of good family — the impulse to
cut off girls' braids appeared after recovery from a severe fever. He
would gaze admiringly at the long tresses and then clip them off with
great rapidity; he did this in some fifty cases before he was caught
and imprisoned. He usually threw the braids away before he reached
home. {Alienist and 'Neurologist, April, 1889, p. 325.) In this case there
76 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
is no history of sexual excitement, probably because no proper medico-
legal examination was made. (It may be added that hair-despoilers
have been specially studied by Motet, "Lea Coupeurs de Nattes," An-
nales d'Hygiine, 1890.)
The stuff-fetiches are most usually fur and velvet; feath-
ers, silk, and leathers also sometimes exert this influence; they
are all, it will be noted, animal substances.^ The most inter-
esting is probably fur, the attraction of which is not uncommon
in association with passive algolagnia. As Stanley Hall has
shown, the fear of fur, as well as the love of it, is by no means
uncommon in childhood; it may appear even in infancy and
in children who have never come in contact with animals.^ It
is noteworthy that in most cases of uncomplicated stuff-fetichism
the attraction apparently arises on a congenital basis, as it ap-
pears in persons of nervous or sensitive temperament at an early
age and without being attached to any definite causative incident.
The sexual excitation is nearly always produced by the touch
rather than by the sight. As we found, when dealing with the
sense of touch in the previous volume, the specific sexual sensa-
tions may be regarded as a special modification of ticklishness.
The erotic symbolism in the case of these stuff-fetichisms would
seem to be a more or less congenital perversion of ticklishness in
relation to specific animal contacts.
A further degree of perversion in this direction is reached
in a case of erotic zoophilia, recorded by Krafft-Ebing.^ In this
case a congenital neuropath, of good intelligence but delicate and
anaemic, with feeble sexual powers, had a great love of domestic
animals, especially dogs and cats, from an early age; when pet-
ting them he experienced sexual emotions, although he was in-
nocent in sexual matters. At puberty he realized the nature of
his feelings and tried to break himself of his habits. He suc-
ceeded, but then began erotic dreams accompanied by images of
' Krafft-Ebing presents or quotes typical cases of all these fetiches,
Op. cit., pp. 255-266.
*G. Stanley Hall, "A study of Fears," American Journal of
Psychology, 1897, pp. 213-215.
*0p. cit., p. 268.
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM. 77
animals, and these led to masturbation associated with ideas of
a similar kind. At the same time he had no wish for any sort
of sexual intercourse with animals, and was indifferent as to the
sex of the animals which attracted him; his sexual ideals were
normal. Such a case seems to be fundamentally one of fetichism
on a tactile basis, and thus forms a transition between the stuff-
fetichisms and the complete perversions of sexual attraction
toward animals.
In some eases sexually hypersesthetic women have informed me
that sexual feeling has been produced by casual contact with pet dogs
and cats. In such eases there is usually no real perversion, but it seems
probable that we may here have an occasional foundation for the some-
what morbid but scarcely vicious excesses of affection which women are
apt to display towards their pet dogs or cats. In most cases of this
affection there is certainly no sexual element; in the case of childless
women, it may rather be regarded as a maternal than as an erotic
symbolism. (The excesses of this non-erotic zoophilia have been dis-
cussed by Fer§, U Instinct Sexuel, second edition, pp. 166-171.)
Krafft-Ebing considers that complete perversion of sexual
attraction toward animals is radically distinct from erotic zoo-
philia. This view cannot be accepted. Bestiality and zooerastia
merely present in a more marked and profoundly perverted form
a further degree of the same phenomenon which we meet with
in erotic zoophilia; the difference is that they occur either in
more insensitive or in more markedly degenerate persons.
A fairly typical case of zooerastia has been recorded in
America by Howard, of Baltimore. This was the case of a boy
of 16, precociously mature and fairly bright. He was, however,
indifferent to the opposite sex, though he had amp^e opportunity
for gratifying normal passions. His parents lived in the city,
but the youth had an inordinate desire for the country and was
therefore sent to school in a village. On the second day after
his arrival at school a farmer missed a sow which was found
secreted in an outhouse on the school grounds. This was the
first of many similar incidents in which a sow always took part.
So strong was his passion that on one occasion force had to be
used to take him away from the sow he was caressing. He did
78 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
not masturbate, and even when restrained from approaching
sows he had no sexual inclination for other animals. His noc-
turnal pollutions, which were frequent, were always accompanied
by images of wallowing swine. Notwithstanding careful treat-
ment no cure was effected; mental and physical vigor failed,
and he died at the age of 23.^
It is, however, somewhat doubtful whether we can always
or even usually distinguish between zooerastia and bestiality.
Dr. G. F. Lydston, of Chicago, has communicated to me a case
(in which he was consulted) which seems fairly typical and is
instructive in this respect. The subject was a young man of 21,
a farmer's son, not very bright intellectually, but very healthy
and strong, of great assistance on the farm, very capable and
industrious, such a good farm hand that his father was un-
willing to send him away and to lose his services. There was no
history of insanity or neurosis in the family, and no injury or
illness in his own history. He had spells of moroseness and irri-
tability, however, and had also been a masturbator. Women had
no attraction for him, but he would copulate with the mares
upon his father's farm, and this without regard to time, place,
or spectators. Such a case would seem to stand midway between
ordinary bestiality and pathological zooerastia as defined by
Krafft-Ebing, yet it seems probable that in most cases of ordi-
nary bestiality some slight traces of mental anomaly might be
found, if such cases always were, as they should be, properly
investigated.-
' W. Howard, "Sexual Perversion," Alienist and Neurologist, Jan-
uary, 189G. Krafft-Ebing (op. clt., p. 532) quotes from Boeteau the
somewhat similar ease of a gardener's boy of 16 — an illegitimate child
of neuropathic heredity and markedly degenerate — who had a passion,
of irresistible and impulsive character, for rabbits. He was declared
irresponsible. Moll (Untersuchungen iibcr die Libido Sexualis, bd. i, pp.
431-433) presents the case of a neurotic man who from the age of 15
had been sexually excited by the sight of animals or by contact with
them. He had repeatedly had connection with cows and mares; he was
also sexually excited by sheep, donkeys, and dogs, whether female or
male; the normal sexual instinct was weak and he experienced very
slight attraction to women.
*Moll also remarks ("Pen^erse Sexualcmpfindung," in Senator's and
Kaminer's Krankhcitcn nnd Elie) that in this matter it is often hardly
possible to draw a sharp line betweeen vice and disease.
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 79
We have here reached the grossest and most frequent per-
version in this group ; bestiality, or the impulse to attain sexual
gratification by intercourse, or other close contact, with animals.
In seeking to comprehend this perversion it is necessary to divest
ourselves of the attitude toward animals which is the inevitable
outcome of refined civilization and urban life. Most sexual
perversions, if not in large measure the actual outcome of civil-
ized life, easily adjust themselves to it. Bestiality (except in
one form to be noted later) is, on the other hand, the sexual
perversion of dull, insensitive, and unfastidious persons. It
flourishes among primitive peoples and among peasants. It is
the vice of the clodhopper, unattractive to women or inapt to
court them.
Three conditions have favored the extreme prevalence of
bestiality: (1) primitive conceptions of life which built up no
great barrier between man and the other animals; (2) the
extreme familiarity which necessarily exists between the peasant
and his beasts, often combined with separation from women;
(3) various folk-lore beliefs such as the efficacy of intercourse
with animals as a cure for venereal disease, etc.^
The beliefs and customs of primitive peoples, as well as their
mythology and legends, bring before us a community of man
and animals altogether unlike anything we know in civilization.
Men may become animals and animals may become men; ani-
mals and men may communicate with each other and live on
terms of equality; animals may be the ancestors of human
tribes; the sacred totems of savages are most usually animals.
There is no shame or degradation in the notion of a sexual rela-
tionship between men and animals, because in primitive con-
ceptions animals are not inferior beings separated from man by
a great gulf. They are much more like men in disguise, and in
some respects possess powers which make them superior to men.
^ Instances of this widespread belief — found among the Tamils of
Ceylon as well as in Europe — are quoted from various authors by
Eloch, Beitnige ziir JEtiologie der PsijchopatJiia Sexualis, Teil II. p. 278,
and Moll, Vntersucliungen iibcr die Libido Sexualis, bd. i, p. 700. On
the frequency of bestiality, from one cause or another, in the East, see,
e.g., Stem, Medizin und Geschlechtsleben in der Tiirkei, bd. ii, p. 219.
80 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
This is recognized in those plays, festivals, and religious dances,
so common among primitive peoples, in which animal disguises
are worn.^ When men admire and emulate the qualities of ani-
mals and are proud to believe that they descend from them, it
is not surprising that they should sometimes see nothing derog-
atory in sexual intercourse with them.^
A significant relic of primitive conceptions in this matter
may perhaps be found in the religious rites connected with the
sacred goat of Mendes described by Herodotus. After telling
how the Mendesians reverence the goat, especially the he-goat,
out of their veneration for Pan, whom they represent as a goat
("the real motive which they assign for this custom I do not
choose to relate"), he adds: "It happened in this country, and
within my remembrance, and was indeed universally notorious,
that a goat had indecent and public communication with a
woman."^ The meaning of the passage evidently is that in the
ordinary intercourse of women with the sacred goat, connection
was only simulated or incomplete on account of the natural in-
difference of the goat to the human female, but that in rare
cases the goat proved sexually excitable with the woman and
capable of connection.* The goat has always been a kind of
sacred emblem of lust. In the middle ages it became associated
with the Devil as one of the favorite forms he assumed. It is
significant of a primitively religious sexual association between
men and animals, that witches constantly confessed, or were
made to confess, that they had had intercourse with the Devil
in the shape of an animal, very frequently a dog. The figures
^Sometimes (as among the Aleuts) the animal pantomime dances
of savages may represent the transformation of a captive bird into a
lovely woman who falls exhausted into the arms of the hunter. (H. H.
Bancroft, Nat we Races of the Pacific, vol. i, p. 93.) A system of beliefs
which accepts the possibility that a human being may be latent in an
animal obviously favors the practice of bestiality.
' For an example of the primitive confusion between the inter-
course of women with animals and with men see, e.fj.. Boas, "Sagen aus
British-Columbia," ZeitscJirift fiir Ethnologic, heft V, p. 558.
' Herodotus, Book II, Chapter 46.
*Dulare {Des Divinit6s Geniratrices, Chapter II) brings together
the evidence showing that in Egypt women had connection with the
sacred goat, apparently in order to secure fertility.
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 81
of human beings and animals in conjunction carved on temples
in India, also seem to indicate the religious significance which
this phenomenon sometimes presents. There is, indeed, no need
to go beyond Europe even in her moments of highest culture to
find a religious sanction for sexual union between human beings,
or gods in human shape, and animals. The legends of lo and
the bull, of Leda and the swan, are among the most familiar in
Greek mythology, and in a later pictorial form they constitute
some of the most cherished works of the painters of the Eenais-
sance.
As regards the prevalence of occasional sexual intercourse
between men or women and animals among primitive peoples
at the present time, it is possible to find many scattered refer-
ences by travelers in all parts of the world. Such references by
no means indicate that such practices are, as a rule, common,
but they usually show that they are accepted with a good-humored
indifference.^
Bestiality is very rarely found in towns. In the country
this vice of the clodhopper is far from infrequent. For the
peasant, whose sensibilities are uncultivated and who makes but
the most elementary demands from a woman, the difference
between an animal and a human being in this respect scarcely
seems to be very great. "My wife was away too long,^' a German
peasant explained to the magistrate, "and so I went with my
sow.^^ It is certainly an explanation that to the uncultivated
peasant, ignorant of theological and juridical conceptions, must
often seem natural and sufficient.
Bestiality thus resembles masturbation and other abnormal mani-
festations of the sexual impulse which may be practiced merely faute
de mieux and not as, in the strict sense, perversions of the impulse.
Even necrophily may be thus practiced. A young man who when assist-
ing the grave-digger conceived and carried out the idea of digging up
the bodies of young girls to satisfy his passions with, and whose case
^Various facts and references bearing on this subject are brought
together by Blumenbach, Anthropological Memoirs, translated by Bendy-
she, p. 80; Block, Bitrlige zur Mtiologie der Psycliopathia Sexualis,
Teil II, pp. 276-283; also Ploss and Bartels, Das Weib, seventh edition,
p. 520.
6
82 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
has been recorded by Belletrud and Mercier, said: "I could find no
young girl who would agree to yield to my desires; that is why I have
done this. I should have preferred to have relations with living persons.
I found it quite natural to do what I did: I saM' no harm in it, and I
did not think that any one else could. As living women felt nothing but
repulsion for me, it was quite natural I should turn to the dead, who
have never repulsed me, I used to say tender things to them like 'my
beautiful, my love, I love you.'" (Belletrud and Mercier "Perversion de
rinstinet Gen^sique," Annales d'Eygicne Piiblique, June, 1903.) But
when so highly abnormal an act is felt as natural we are dealing with a
person who is congenitally defective so far as the finer developments
of intelligence are concerned. It was so in this case of necrophily; he
was the son of a weak-minded woman of unrestrainable sexual inclina-
tions, and was himself somewhat feeble-minded j he was also, it is instruc-
tive to observe, anosmic.
But it is by no means only their dulled sensibility or the
absence of women, which accounts for the frequency of be-
stiality among peasants. A highly important factor is their
constant familiarity with animals. The peasant lives with ani-
mals, tends them, learns to know all their individual characters ;
he understands them far better than he understands men and
women; they are his constant companions, his friends. He
knows, moreover, the details of their sexual lives, he witnesses
the often highly impressive spectacle of their coupling. It is
scarcely surprising that peasants should sometimes regard ani-
mals as being not only as near to them as their fellow human
beings, but even nearer.
The significance of the factor of familiarity is indicated by
the great frequency of bestiality among shepherds, goatherds,
and others whose occupation is exclusively the care of animals.
Mirabeau, in the eighteenth century, stated, on the evidence of
Basque priests, that all the shepherds in the Pyrenees practice
bestiality. It is apparently much the same in Italy .^ In South
^ Mantegazza mentions (Gli Amori degli Uomini, cap V) that at
Rimini a young goatherd of the Apennines, troubled with dyspepsia and
nervous symptoms, told him this was due to excesses with the goats in
his care. A finely executed marble group of a satyr having connection
with a goat, found at Herculaneum and now in the Naples Museum
(reproduced in Fuchs's Erhtische Element in dcr Karikatur), perhaps
symbolizes a traditional and primitive practice of the goatherd.
EKOTIC SYMBOLISM. 83
Italy and Sicily, especially, bestiality among goatherds and peas-
ants is said to be almost a national custom.^ In the extreme
north of Europe, it is reported, the reindeer, in this respect,
takes the place of the goat.
The importance of the same factor is also shown by the fact
that when among women in civilization animal perversions ap-
pear, the animal is nearly always a pet dog. Usually in these
cases the animal is taught to give gratification by cunnilinctus.
In some cases, however, there is really sexual intercourse between
the animal and the woman.
Moll mentions that in a case of cunnilinctns by a dog in Germany
there was a difficulty as to whether the matter should be considered
an unnatural offence or simply an offence against decency; the lower
court considered it in the former light, while the higher court took the
more merciful view. (Moll, Untersuchungen iiber die Libido Sexualis,
bd. i, p. 697.) In a case reported by Pfaff and mentioned by Moll, a
country girl was accused of having sexual intercourse with a large dog.
On examination Pfaff found in the girl's thick pubic hair a loose hair
which under the microscope proved to belong to the dog. {Log. cit., p.
698.) In such a case it must be noted that while this evidence may be
held to show sexual contact with the dog, it scarcely suffices to show
sexual intercourse. This has, however, undoubtedly occurred from time
to time, even more or less openly. Bloch {Op. cit., pp. 277 and 282)
remarks that this is not an infrequent exhibition given by prostitutes
in certain brothels. Maschka has referred to such an exhibition between
a woman and a bull-dog, which was given to select circles in Paris.
Rosse refers to a case in which a young unmarried woman in Washing-
ton was surprised during intercourse with a large English mastiff, who
in his efforts to get loose caused such severe injuries that the woman
died from haemorrhage in about an hour. Rosse also mentions that some
years ago a performance of this kind between a prostitute and a New-
foundland dog could be witnessed in San Francisco by paying a small
sum; the woman declared that a woman w'ho had once copulated with
a dog would ever afterwards prefer this animal to a man. Rosse adds
that he was acquainted with a similar performance between a woman
^Bayle {Dictionary, Art, Bathyllus) quotes various authorities
concerning the Italian auxiliaries in the south of France in the sixteenth
century and their custom of bringing and using goats for this purpose.
Warton in the eighteenth century was informed that in Sicily priests in
confession habitually inquired of herdsmen if they had anything to do
with their sows. In Normandy priests are advised to ask similar
questions.
84 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
and a donkey, which used to take place in Europe (Irving Rosse,
"Sexual Hypochondriasis and Perversion of the Genesic Instinct," Vir-
ginia Medical Monthly, October, 1892, p. 379). Juvenal mentions such
relations between the donkey and woman (vi, 332). Krauss (quoted by
Bloch, Bitriige zur ^tiologie der Psycliopatliia Sexualis, Teil II, p. 276)
states that in Bosnia women sometimes carry on these practices with
dogs and also — as he would not have believed had he not on one occa-
sion observed it — with cats. "It seems to me," writes Dr. Kiernan, of
Chicago, (private letter) "that what Eosse says of the animal exhibitions
in San Francisco is true of all great cities. The animal employed in such
exhibitions here has usually been a donkey, and in one instance death oc-
curred from the animal trampling the girl partner. The practice des-
cribed occurs in country regions quite frequently. Thus in a case reported
in the suburbs of Omaha, Nebraska, a sixteen-year-old boy engaged in
rectal coitus with a large dog. In attempting to extricate his swollen
penis from the boy's rectum the dog tore through the sphincter ani an
inch into the gluteus muscles. [Omaha Clinic, March, 1893.) In a
Missouri case, which I verified, a smart, pretty, well-educated country
girl was found with a profuse offensive vaginal discharge which had been
present for about a week, coming on suddenly. After washing the ex-
ternal genitals and opening the labia three rents were discovered, one
through the fourchette and two through the left nymphse. The vagina
was excessively congested and covered with points bleeding on the slightest
irritation. The patient confessed that one day while playing with the
genitals of a large dog she became excited and thought she would have
slight coitus. After the dog had made an entrance she was unable to
free herself from him, as he clasped her so firmly with his fore legs. The
penis became so swollen that the dog could not fi-ee himself, although
for more than an hour she made persistent efforts to do so. (Medical
Standard, June, 1903, p. 184). In an Indiana case, concerning which I
was consulted, the girl was a hebephreniac who had resorted to this
procedure with a Newfoundland dog at the instance of another girl,
seemingly normal as regards mentality, and had been badly injured; a
discharge resulted which resembled gonorrhoea, but contained no gono-
cocci. These cases are probably more frequent than is usually assumed."
Women are known to have had intercourse with various other
animals, occasionally or habitually, in various parts of the world.
Monkeys have been mentioned in this connection. Moll remarks that
it seems to be an indication of an abnormal interest in monkeys that
some women are observed by the attendants in the monkey-house of
zoological gardens to be very frequent visitors. Near the Amazon the
traveler Castelnau saw an enormous Coati monkey belonging to an
Indian woman and tried to purchase it; though he offered a large sum,
the woman only laughed. "Your efforts are useless," remarked an
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 85
Indian in the same cabin, "he is her husband." (So far as the early
literature of this subject is concerned, a number of facts and fables
regarding the congress of women with dogs, goats and other animals
was brought together at the beginning of the eighteenth century by
Schurig in his Qymvcologia, Section II, cap. VII; I have not drawn on
this collection.)
In some cases women, and also men, find gratification in the sexual
manipulation of animals without any kind of congress. This may ba
illustrated by an observation communicated to me by a correspondent,
a clergyman. "In Ireland, my father's house adjoined the residence of an
archdeacon of the established church. 1 was then about 20 and was still
kept in religious awe of evil ways. The archdeacon had two daughters,
both of whom he brought up in great strictness, resolved that they
should grow up examples of virtue and piety. Our stables adjoined, and
were separated only by a thin wall in which was a doorway closed up
by some boards, as the two stables had formerly been one. One night
I had occasion to go to our stable to search for a garden tool I had
missed, and I heard a door open on the other side, and saw a light
glimmer through the cracks of the boards. I looked through to ascer-
tain who could be there at that late hour, and soon recognized the
stately figure of one of the daughters, F. F. was tall, dark and hand-
some, but had never made any advances to me, nor had I to her. She
was making love to her father's mare after a singular fashion. Strip-
ping her right arm, she formed her fingers into a cone, and pressed on
the mare's vulva. I was astonished to see the beast stretching her
hind legs as if to accommodate the hand of her mistress, which she
pushed in gradually and with seeming ease to the elbow. At the same
time she seemed to experience the most voluptuous sensation, crisis
after crisis arriving." My correspondent adds that, being exceedingly
curious in the matter, he tried a somewhat similar experiment himself
with one of his father's mares and experienced what he describes as "a
most powerful sexual battery" which produced very exciting and ex-
hausting effects. Nacke (Psych iatriscJie en Neurologische Bladen, 1899,
No. 2) refers to an idiot who thus manipulated the vulva of mares in
his charge. The case has been recorded by Guillereau (Journal de
Medicine THerinaire et de Zootechnie, January, 1899) of a youth who
was accustomed to introduce his hand into the vulva of cows in order
to obtain sexual excitement.
The possibility of sexual excitement between women and animals
involves a certain degree of sexual excitability in animals from contact
with women. Darwin stated that there could be no doubt that various
quadrumanous animals could distinguish women from men — in the first
place probably by smell and secondarily by sight — and be thus liable
to sexual excitement. He quotes the opinions on this point of Youatt,
86 PSYCIIOLOGT OF SEX.
Brehm, Sir Andrew Smith and Cuvier {Descent of Man, second edition,
p. 8). Moll quotes the ojiinion of an experienced obsei^ver to the same
effect (Ulster sueliungen iibcr die Libido Sexualis, Bd. i, p. 429). Huf eland
reported the case of a little girl of three who was playing, seated on a
stool, with a dog placed between her thighs and locked against her.
Seemingly excited by this contact the animal attempted a sort of copu-
lation, causing the genital parts of the child to become inflamed. Bloch
(Op. cit., p. 280, et seq.) discusses the same point; he does not consider
that animals will of their own motion sexually cohabit with women,
but that they may be easily trained to it. There can be no doubt that
dogs at all events are sometimes sexually excited by the presence of
women, perhaps especially during menstruation, and many women are
able to bear testimony to the embarrassing attentions they have some-
times received from strange dogs. There can be no difficulty in believing
that, so far as cunnilinctus is concerned dogs would require no training.
In a case recorded by Moll {Kontrdre Sexualempfindiing, third edition,
p. 560) a lady states that this was done to her when a child, as also to
other children, by dogs who, she said, showed signs of sexual excite-
ment. In this case there was also sexual excitement thus produced in
the child, and after puberty mutual cunnilinctus was practiced with
girl friends. Guttceit (Dreissig Jahre Praxis, Theil I, p. 310) remarks
that some Russian officers who were in the Turkish campaign of 1828
told him that from fear of veneral infection in Wallachia they refrained
from women and often used female asses which appeared to show signs
of sexual pleasure.
A very large number of animals have been recorded as hav-
ing been employed in the gratification of sexual desire at some
period or in some country, by men and sometimes by women.
Domestic animals are naturally those which most frequently
come into question, and there are few if any of these which can
altogether be excepted. The sow is one of the animals most
frequently abused in this manner.^ Cases in which mares, cows,
and donkeys figure constantly occur, as well as goats and sheep.
Dogs, cats, and rabbits are heard of from time to time. Hens,
ducks, and, especially in China, geese, are not uncommonly em-
ployed. The Eoman ladies were said to have had an abnormal
^ It is worth noting that in Greek the work x^'P"' means both
a sow and a woman's pudenda; in the AcJiarnians Aristophanes plays
on this association at some length. The Romans also (as may be
gathered from Varro's De Re Rustica) called the feminine pudenda
porcus.
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM. 87
affection for snakes. The bear and even the crocodile are also
mentioned.^
The social and legal attitude toward bestiality has reflected
in part the frequency with which it has been practiced, and in
part the disgust mixed with mystical and sacrilegious horror
which it has aroused. It has sometimes been met merely by a
fine, and sometimes the offender and his innocent partner have
been burnt together. In the middle ages and later its frequency
is attested by the fact that it formed a favorite topic with
preachers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is signifi-
cant that in the Penitentials, — which were criminal codes, half
secular and half spiritual, in use before the thirteenth century,
when penance was relegated to the judgment of the confessor, —
it was thought necessary to fix the periods of penance which
should be undergone respectively by bishops, priests and deacons
who should be guilty of bestiality.
In Egbert's Penitential, a document of the ninth and tenth cen-
turies, we read (V. 22) : "Item Episcopus cum quadrupede fornicans
VII annos, consuetudinem X, presbyter V, diaconus III, clerus II."
There was a great range in the penances for bestiality, from ten years
to (in the case of boys) one hundred days. The mare is specially men-
tioned (Haddon and Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Dncuments, vol.
iii, p. 422). In Theodore's Penitential, another Anglo-Saxon document
of about the same age, those who habitually fornicate with animals are
adjudged ten years of penance. It would appear from the Penitentiale
Pseudo-Romanum (which is earlier than the eleventh century) that one
year's penance was adequate for fornication with a mare when com-
mitted by a layman (exactly the same as for simple fornication with a
widow or virgin), and this was mercifully reduced to half a year if lie
had no wife. (Wasserschleben, Die Bussordmingen der Abcndlandlicfien
Kirche, p 366). The Penitentiale Eiihertense (emanating from the
monastery of St. Hubert in the Ardennes) fixes ten years' penance for
sodomy, while Fulbert's Penitential (about the eleventh century) fixes
seven years for either sodomy or bestiality. Burchard's Penitential,
'Schurig, GijnfTocolopia, pp. 280-387; Bloch, op. cit., 270-277.
The Arabs, according to Kocher, chiefly practice bestiality with goats,
sheep and mares. The Annamites, according to MondiSre, commonly
employ sows and (more especially the young women) dogs. Among the
Tamils of Ceylon bestiality with goats and cows is said to be very
prevalent-
88 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
which is always detailed and precise, specially mentions the mare, the
cow and the ass, and assigns forty days bread and water and seven
j^ears penance, raised to ten years in the case of married men. A
woman having intercourse with a horse is assigned seven years penance
in Burchard's Penitential. (Wasserschleben, ib., pp. 651, 659.)
The extreme severity which was frequently exercised toward
those ginlty of this offense, was doubtless in large measure due
to the fact that bestiality was regarded as a kind of sodomy, an
offense which was frequently viewed with a mystical horror apart
altogether from any actual social or personal injury it caused.
The Jews seem to have felt this horror ; it was ordered that the
sinner and his victim should both be put to death (Exodus, Ch.
22, V. 19; Leviticus, Ch. 20, v. 15), In the middle ages, espe-
cially in France, the same rule often prevailed. Men and sows,
men and cows, men and donkeys were burnt together. At
Toulouse a woman was burnt for having intercourse with a dog.
Even in the seventeenth century a learned French lawyer, Claude
Lebrun de la Eochette, Justified such sentences.^ It seems prob-
able that even to-day, in the social and legal attitude toward
bestiality, sufficient regard is not paid to the fact that this offense
is usually committed either by persons who are morbidly abnor-
mal or who are of so low a degree of intelligence that they border
on feeble-mindedness. To what extent, and on what grounds, it
ought to be punished is a question calling for serious reconsid-
eration.
* Mantegazza {GU Amnri degli TJomini, cap. V) brings together
some facts bearing on this matter.
V.
Exhibitionism — Illustrative Cases — A Symbolic Perversion of Court-
ship — The Impulse to Defile — The Exhibitionist's Psychic Attitude —
The Sexual Organs as Fetichs — Phallus Worship — Adolescent Pride in
Sexual Development — Exhibitionism of the Nates — The Classification of
the Forms of Exhibitionism — Nature of the Relationship of Exhibition-
ism to Epilepsy.
There is a remarkable form of erotic symbolism — very
definite and standing clearly apart from all other forms — in
which sexual gratification is experienced in the simple act of ex-
hibiting the sexual organ to persons of the opposite sex, usually
by preference to young and presumably innocent persons, very
often children. This is termed exhibitionism.^ It would appear
to be a not very infrequent phenomenon, and most women, once
or more in their lives, especially when young, have encountered
a man who has thus deliberately exposed himself before them.
The exhibitionist, though often a young and apparently
vigorous man, is always satisfied with the mere act of self-exhibi-
tion and the emotional reaction which that act produces; he
makes no demands on the woman to whom he exposes himself;
he seldom speaks, he makes no effort to approach her ; as a rule,
he fails even to display the signs of sexual excitation. His
desires are completely gratified by the act of exhibition and by
the emotional reaction it arouses in the woman. He departs
satisfied and relieved.
A case recorded by Schrenck-Notzing very well represents both the
nature of the impulse felt by the exhibitionist and the way in which it
may originate. It is the case of a business man of 49, of neurotic
" Lasegue first drew attention to this sexual perversion and gave
it its generally accepted name, "Les Exhibitionistes," UUnion Mrdicale,
May, 1877. Magnan, on various occasions (for example, "Les Exhibi-
tionistes," Archives de I'Anthropologie Criminelle, vol. v, 1890, p. 456),
has given further development and precision to the clinical picture of
the exhibitionist.
(89)
90 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
heredity, an aflfectionate husband and father of a family, who, to his
own grief and shame, is compelled from time to time to exhibit his
sexual organs to women in the street. As a boy of 10 a girl of 12 tried
to induce him to coitus; both had their sexual parts exposed. From
that time sexual contacts, as of his own naked nates against those of
a girl, became attractive, as well as games in which the boys and girls
in turn marched before each other with their sexual parts exposed, and
also imitation of the copulation of animals. Coitus was first practiced
about the age of 20, but sight and touch of the woman's sexual parts
were always necessary to produce sexual excitement. It was also
necessary — and this consideration is highly important as regards the
development of the tendency to exhibition — that tfie woman should be
excited by the sight of his organs. Even when he saw or touched a
woman's parts orgasm often occurred. It was the naked sexual organs
in an otherwise clothed body which chiefly excited him. He was not
possessed of a high degree of potency. Girls between the ages of 10 and
17 chiefly excited him, and especially if he felt that they were quite
ignorant of sexual matters. His self-exhibition was a sort of psychic
defloration, and it was accompanied by the idea that other people felt
as he did about the sexual eflfects of the naked organs, that he was
shocking but at the same time sexually exciting a young girl. He was
thus gratifying himself tlirough the belief that he was causing sexual
gratification to an innocent girl. This man was convicted several times,
and was finally declared to be suffering from impulsive insanity.
(Schrenck-Notzing, Kriminal-psychologisclie und Psycho-patJioIogische
Studien, 1902, pp. 50-57.) In another case of Schrenck-Notzing's, an
actor and portrait painter, aged 31, in youth masturbated and was fond
of contemplating the images of the sexual organs of both sexes, finding
little pleasure in coitus. At the age of 24, at a bathing establishment,
he happened to occupy a compartment next to that occupied by a lady,
and when naked he became aware that his neighbor was watching him
through a chink in the partition. This caused him powerful excitement
and he was obliged to masturbate. Ever since he has had an impulse
to exhibit his organs and to masturbate in the presence of women. He
believes that the sight of his organs excites the woman {lb., pp. 57-68).
The presence of masturbation in this case renders it untypical as a case
of exhibitionism. Moll at one time went so far as to assert that when
masturbation takes place we are not entitled to admit exhibitionism,
(XJntersucluingen iiber die Libido Sexualis, bd. i, p. 661), but now accepts
exhibitionism with masturbation ("Perverse Sexualempfindung," Krank-
Jiciten und Ehe) . The act of exhibition itself gratifies the sexual impulse,
and usually it suffices to replace both tumescence and detumescence.
A fairly typical case, recorded by Krafi"t-Ebing, is that of a Ger-
man factory worker of 37, a good, sober and intelligent workman. His
PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. 91
parents were healthy, but one of his mother's and also one of his
father's sisters were insane; some of his relatives are eccentric in
religion. He has a languishing expression and a smile of self-com-
placency. He never had any severe illness, but has always been eccentric
and imaginative, much absorbed in romances (such as Dumas's novels)
and fond of identifying himself with tlieir heroes. No signs of epilepsy.
In youth moderate masturbation, later moderate coitus. He lives a
retired life, but is fond of elegant dress and of ornament. Though not
a drinker, he sometimes makes himself a kind of punch which has a
sexually exciting effect on him. The impulse to exhibitionism has only
developed in recent years. When the impulse is upon him he becomes
hot, his heart beats violently, the blood rushes to his head, and he is
oblivious of everything around hira that is not connected with his own
act. Afterwards he regards himself as a fool and makes vain resolu-
tions never to repeat the act. In exhibition the penis is only half erect
and ejaculation never occurs. (He is only capable of coitus with a
woman who shows great attraction to him.) He is satisfied with self-
exhibition, and believes that he thus gives pleasure to the woman, since
he himself receives pleasure in contemplating a woman's sexual parts.
His erotic dreams are of self-exhibition to young and voluptuous women.
He had been previously punished for an offense of this kind; medico-
legal opinion now recognized the incriminated man's psychopathic condi-
tion. (Krafft-Ebing, Op. cit., pp. 492-494.)
Trochon has reported the case of a married man of 33, a worker
in a factory, who for several years had exhibited himself at intervals
to shop-girls, etc., in a state of erection, but without speaking or making
other advances. He was a hard-working, honest, sober man of quiet
habits, a good father to his family and happy at home. He show^ed not
the slightest sign of insanity. But he was taciturn, melancholic and
nervous; a sister was an idiot. He was arrested, but on the report of
the experts that he committed these acts from a morbid impulse he
could not control he was released. (Trochon, Archives de I'Anthropologie
CrimineUe, 1888, p. 256.)
In a case of Freyer's (Zeitschrift fiir Medisinalheamte, third year,
No. 8) the occasional connection of exhibitionism with epilepsy is well
illustrated by a barber's assistant, aged 35, whose father suffered from
chronic alcoholism and was also said to have committed the same kind
of offense as his son. The mother and a sister suffered nervously.
From ages of 7 to 18 the subject had epileptic convulsions. From 16
to 21 he indulged in normal sexual intercourse. At about that time he
had often to pass a playground and at times would urinate there; it
happened that the children watched him with curiosity. He noticed
that when thus watched sexual excitement was caused, inducing erec-
tion and even ejaculation. He gradually found pleasure in this kind of
92 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
sexual gratification; finally he became indifTerent to coitus. His erotic
dreams, though still usually about normal coitus, were now sometimes
concerned with exhibition before little girls. When overcome by the
impulse he could see and hear nothing around him, though he did not
lose consciousness. After the act was over he was troubled by his deed.
In all other respects he was entirely reasonable. He was imprisoned
many times for exhibiting himself to young schoolgirls, sometimes
vaunting the beauty of his organs and inviting inspection. On one
occasion he underwent mental examination, but was considered to be
mentally sound. He was finally held to be a hereditarily tainted indi-
vidual with neuropathic constitution. The head was abnormally broad,
penis small, patellar reflex absent, and there were many signs of neuras-
thenia. (Krafft-Ebing, Op. cit., pp. 490-492.)
The prevalence of epilepsy among exhibitionists is shown by the
observations of Pelanda in Verona. He has recorded six cases of this
perversion, all of which eventually reached the asylum and were either
epileptics or with epileptic relations. One had a brother who was also
an exhibitionist. In some cases the penis was abnormally large, in
others abnormally small. Several had very weak sexual impulse; one,
at the age of 62, had never effected coitus, and was proud of the fact
that he was still a virgin, considering, he would say, the epoch of
demoralization in which we live. (Pelanda, "Pornopatici," ArcMiHo di
Psichiatria, fasc. ii-iv, 1889.)
In a very typical case of exhibitionism which Garnier has recorded,
a certain X., a gentleman engaged in business in Paris, had a predilec-
tion for exhibiting himself in churches, more especially in Saint-Roch.
He was arrested several times for exposing his sexual organs here before
ladies in prayer. In this way he finally ruined his commercial position
in Paris and was obliged to establish himself in a small provincial town.
Here again he soon exposed himself in a church and was again sent to
prison, but on his liberation immediately performed the same act in the
same church in what was described as a most imperturbable manner.
Compelled to leave the town, he returned to Paris, and in a few weeks'
time was again arrested for repeating his old oflfense in Saint Roch.
When examined by Garnier, the information he supplied was vague and
incomplete, and he was very embarrassed in the attempt to explain
himself. He was unable to say why he chose a church, but he felt that
it was to a church that he must go. He had, however, no thought of
profanation and no wish to give offense. "Quite the contrary!" he
declared. He had the sad and tired air of a man who is dominated by a
force stronger than his will. "I know," he added, "what repulsion my
conduct must inspire. Why am I made thus? Who will cure me?"
(P. Garnier, "Perversions Sexuelles," Comptes Rendus, International
Congress of Medicine at Paris in 1900, Section de Psychiatrie, pp.
433-435.)
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 93
In some cases, it would appear, the impulse to exhibitionism may
be overcome or may pass away. This result is the more likely to come
about in those cases in which exhibitionism has been largely conditioned
by chronic alcoholism or other influences tending to destroy the inhibit-
ing and restraining action of the higher centers, which may be overcome
by hygiene and treatment. In this connection I may bring forward a
case which has been communicated to me by a medical correspondent in
London. It is that of an actor, of high standing in his profession and
extremely intelligent, 49 years of age, married and father of a large
family. He is sexually vigorous and of erotic temperament. His general
health has always been good, but he is a high-strung, neurotic man, with
quick mental reactions. His habits had for a long time been decidedly
alcoholic, but two years ago, a small quantity of albumen being found
in the urine, he was persuaded to leave off alcohol, and has since been
a teetotaller. Though ordinarily very reticent about sexual matters, he
began four or five years ago to commit acts of exhibitionism, exposing
himself to servants in the house and occasionally to women in the
country. This continued after the alcohol had been abandoned and
lasted for several years, though the attention of the police was never
attracted to the matter, and so far as possible he was quietly supervised
by his friends. Nine months after, the acts of exhibitionism ceased, ap-
parently in a spontaneous manner, and there has so far been no relapse.
Exhibitionism is an act which, on the face of it, seems non-
sensical and meaningless, and as such, as an inexplicable act of
madness, it has frequently been treated both by writers on in-
sanity and on sexual perversion. "These acts are so lacking in
common sense and intelligent reflection that no other reason than
insanity can be offered for the patient," Ball concluded.^ Moll,
also, who defines exhibitionism somewhat too narrowly as a con-
dition in which "the charm of the exhibition lies for the sub-
ject in the display itself," not sufficiently taking into considera-
tion the imagined effect on the spectator, concludes that "the
psychological basis of exhibitionism is at present by no means
cleared up."-
We may probably best approach exhibitionism by regarding
it as fundamentally a symbolic act based on a perversion of
courtship. The exhibitionist displays the organ of sex to a
' B. Ball, La Folic Erotique, p 86.
*Moll, Untersuchungcn iiher die Libido Sextialis, bd. i, p. 661.
94 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
feminine witness, and in the shock of modest sexual shame by
which she reacts to that spectacle, he finds a gratifying similitude
of the normal emotions of coitus.^ He feels that he has effected
a psychic defloration.
Exhibitionism is thus analogous, and, indeed, related, to the im-
pulse felt by many persons to perform indecorous acts or tell indecent
stories before young and innocent persons of the opposite sex. This is
a kind of psychic exhibitionism, the gratification it causes lying exactly,
as in physical exhibitionism, in the emotional confusion which it is felt
to arouse. The two kinds of exhibitionism may be combined in the same
person: Thus, in a case reported by Hoche (p. 97), the exhibitionist
an intellectual and liighly educated man, with a doctor's degree, also
found pleasure in sending indecent poems and pictures to women, whom,
however, he made no attempt to seduce; he was content with the
thought of the emotions he aroused or believed that he aroused.
It is possible that within this group should come the agent in the
following incident which was lately observed by a lady, a friend of my
own. An elderly mail in an overcoat was seen standing outside a large
and well-known draper's shop in the outskirts of London; when able
to attract the attention of any of the shop-girls or of any girl in the
street he would fling back his coat and reveal that he was wearing over
his own clothes a woman's chemise {or possibly bodice) and a woman's
drawers; there was no exposure. The only intelligible explanation of
this action would seem to be that pleasure was experienced in the mild
shock of interested surprise and injured modesty which this vision was
imagined to cause to a young girl. It would thus be a comparatively
innocent form of psychic defloration.
It is of interest to point out that the sexual symbolism of
active flagellation is very closely analogous to this symbolism
of exhibitionism. The flagellant approaches a woman with the
rod (itself a symbol of the penis and in some countries bearing
names which are also applied to that organ) and inflicts on an
^ "Exhibitionism in its most typical form is," Gamier truly says,
"a systematic act, manifesting itself as the strange equivalent of a
sexual connection, or its substitution." The brief accovmt of exhibition-
ism (pp. 433-437) in Garnier's discussion of "Perversions Sexuelles" at
,the International Medical Congress at Paris in 1900 (Fiection de Pstj-
chiatrie: Comptes-Rendus) is the most satisfactory statement of the
psychological aspects of this perversion with which I am acquainted.
Garnier's unrivalled clinical knowledge of these manifestations, due to
his position during many years as physician at the Depot of the
Prefecture of Police in Paris, adds great weight to his conclusions.
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM. 95
intimate part of her body the signs of blushing and the spas-
modic movements which are associated with sexual excitement,
while at the same time she feels, or the flagellant imagines that
she feels, the corresponding emotions of delicious shame.^ This
is an even closer mimicry of the sexual act than the exhibitionist
attains, for the latter fails to secure the consent of the woman
nor does he enjoy any intimate contact with her naked body.
The difference is connected with the fact that the active flagel-
lant is usually a more virile and normal person than the ex-
hibitionist. In the majority of cases the exhibitionist's sexual
impulse is very feeble, and as a rule he is either to some degree
a degenerate, or else a person who is suffering from an early
stage of general paralysis, dementia, or some other highly en-
feebling cause of mental disorganization, such as chronic alco-
holism. Sexual feebleness is further indicated by the fact that
the individuals selected as witnesses are frequently mere children.
It seems probable that a form of erotic symbolism somewhat
similar to exhibitionism is to be found in the rare cases in which sexual
gratification is derived from throwing ink, acid or other defiling liquids
on women's dresses. Thoinet has recorded a case of this kind {Atten-
tats aux Moeiirs, 1898, pp. 484, et seq.). An instructive case has been
presented by Moll. In this case a young man of somewhat neuropathic
heredity had as a youth of 16 or 17, when romping with his young sister's
playfellows, experienced sexual sensations on chancing to see their white
underlinen. From that time white underlinen and white dresses became
to him a fetich and he was only attracted to women so attired. One day,
at the age of 25, when crossing the street in wet weather with a young
lady in a white dress, a passing vehicle splashed the dress with mud.
This incident caused him strong sexual excitement, and from that time
he had the impulse to throw ink, perchloride of iron, etc., on to ladies'
white dresses, and sometimes to cut and tear them, sexual excitement
and ejaculation taking place every time he effected this. (Moll,
"Gutachten iiber einem Sexual Pen'ersen [Besudelungstrieb]," Zeitschrift
fiir Medizinalbeamte, Heft XIII, 1900). Such a case is of considerable
psychological interest. Thoinet considers that in these eases the fleck
is a fetich. That is an incorrect account of the matter. In this case the
' The symbolism of coitus involved in flagellation has been touched
on by Eulenburg {Se.ruaJe Nevropathie, p. 121), and is more fully de-
veloped by Duhren (Geschlechtslchen in Enc/land, bd. ii, pp. 360, et seq.).
96 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
white garments constituted the primary fetich, but that fetich becomes
more acutely realized, and at the same time both parties are thrown
into an emotional state which to the fetichist becomes a mimicry of
coitus, by the act of defilement. We may perhaps connect with this
phenomenon the attraction which muddy shoes often exert over the
shoe-fetichist, and the curious way in which, as we have seen (p. 18),
Restif de la Bretonne associates his love of neatness in women with his
attraction to the feet, the part, he remarks, least easy to keep clean.
Garnier applied the term sadi-fcticJiism to active flagellation and
many similar manifestations such as we are here concerned with, on the
grounds that they are hybrids which combine the morbid adoration for
a definite object with the impulse to exercise a more or less degree of
violence. From the standpoint of the conception of erotic symbolism I
have adopted there is no need for this term. There is here no hybrid
combination of two unlike mental states. We are simply concerned with
states of erotic symbolism, more or less complete, more or less complex.
The conception of exhibitionism as a process of erotic sym-
bolism, involves a conscious or unconscious attitude of attention
in the exhibitionist's mind to the psychic reaction of the woman
toward whom his display is directed. He seeks to cause an emo-
tion which, probably in most cases, he desires should be pleasur-
able. But from one cause or another his finer sensibilities are
always inhibited or in abeyance, and he is unable to estimate
accurately either the impression he is likely to produce or the
general results of his action, or else he is moved by a strong im-
pulsive obsession which overpowers his judgment. In many
cases he has good reason for believing that his act will be pleasur-
oble, and frequently he finds complacent witnesses among the
low-class servant girls, etc.
It may be pointed out here that we are quite justified in
speaking of a penis-fetichism and also of a vulva-fetichism. This might
be questioned. We are obviously justified in recognizing a fetichism
which attaches itself to the pubic hair, or, as in a case with which I am
acquainted, to the clitoris, but it may seem that we cannot regard the
central sexual organs as symbols of sex, symbols, as it were, of them-
selves. Properly regarded, however, it is the sexual act rather than the
sexual organ which is craved in normal sexual desire; the organ 13
regarded merely as the means and not as the end. Regarded as a means
the organ is indeed an object of desire, but it only becomes a fetich
when it arrests and fixes the attention. An attention thus pleasurably
fixed, a vulva-fetichism or a penis-fetichism, is within the normal range
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 97
of sexual emotion (this point has been mentioned in the previous volume
when discussing the part played by the primary sexual organs in sexual
selection), and in coarse-grained natures of either sex it is a normal
allurement in its generalized shape, apart from any attraction to the
person to whom the organs belong. In some morbid cases, however, this
penis-fetichism may become a fully developed sexual perversion. A
typical case of this kind has been recorded by Howard in the United
States. Mrs. W., aged 39, was married at 20 to a strong, healthy man,
but derived no pleasure from coitus, though she received great pleasure
from masturbation practiced immediately after coitus, and nine years
after marriage she ceased actual coitus, compelling her husband to adopt
mutual masturbation. She would introduce men into the house at all
times of the day or night, and after persuading them to expose their
persons would retire to her room to masturbate. The same man never
aroused desire more than once. This desire became so violent and
persistent that she would seek out men in all sorts of public places and,
having induced them to expose themselves, rapidly retreat to the nearest
convenient spot for self-gi'atification. She once abstracted a pair of
trousers she had seen a man wear and after fondling them experienced
the orgasm. Her husband finally left her, after vainly attempting to
have her confined in an asylum. She was often arrested for her actions,
but through tlie intervention of friends set free again. She was a highly
intelligent woman, and apart from this perversion entirely normal.
(W. L. Howard, "Sexual Perversion," Alienist and Neurologist, January,
1896.) It is on the existence of a more or less developed penis-fetichism
of this kind that the exhibitionist, mostly by an ignorant mstinct, relies
for the eflTects he desires to produce.
The exhibitionist is not usually content to produce a mere
titillated amusement; he seeks to produce a more power-
ful effect which must be emotional whether or not it is
pleasurable. A professional man in Strassburg (in a case re-
ported by Hoche^) would walk about in the evening in a long
cloak, and when he met ladies would suddenly throw his cloak
back under a street lamp, or igniting a red-fire match, and thus
exhibit his organs. There was an evident effort — on the part
of a weak, vain, and effeminate man — to produce a maximum of
emotional effect. The attempt to heighten the emotional shock
is also seen in the fact that the exhibitionist frequently chooses
a church as the scene of his exploits, not during service, for he
' A. Hoche, Neurologische Centralhlatt, 1896, No. 2.
7
98 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
always avoids a concourse of people, but perhaps toward even-
ing when there are only a few kneeling women scattered through
the edifice. The church is chosen, often instinctively rather than
deliberately, from no impulse to commit a sacrilegious outrage —
which, as a rule, the exhibitionist does not feel his act to be — but
because it really presents the conditions most favorable to the
act and the effects desired. The exhibitionist's attitude of mind
is well illustrated by one of Garnier's patients who declared that
he never wished to be seen by more than two women at once,
"just what is necessary," he added, "for an exchange of impres-
sions." After each exhibition he would ask himself anxiously:
"Did they see me? What are they thinking? What do they
say to each other about me ? Oh ! how I should like to know !"
Another patient of Garnier's, who haunted churches for this pur-
pose, made this very significant statement : "Why do I like going
to churches ? I can scarcely say. But I know that it is only there
that my act has its full importance. The woman is in a devout
frame of mind, and she must see that such an act in such a place
is not a joke in bad taste or a disgusting obscenity ; that if I go
there it is not to amuse myself; it is more serious than that!
I watch the effect produced on the faces of the ladies to whom
I show my organs. I wish to see them express a profound joy.
I wish, in fact, that they may be forced to say to themselves:
How impressive Nature is ivhen thus seen!"
Here we trace the presence of a feeling which recalls the phenomena
of the ancient and world-wide phallic worship, still liable to reappear
sporadically. Women sometimes took part in these rites, and the
osculation of the male sexual organ or its emblematic representation by
women is easily traceable in the phallic rites of India and many other
lands, not excluding Europe even in comparatively recent times. (Du-
laure in his DiviniUs Gincratices brings together much bearing on these
points; c/.: Ploss and Bartels, Das We/ft, vol. i, Chapter XVII, and
Bloch, Beitrtige ::ur Psychopathia Sexualis, Teil I, pp. 115-117. Colin
Scott has some interesting remarks on phallic worship and the part it
has played in aiding human evolution, "Sex and Art," American Journal
of Psychology, vol. vii, No. 2, pp. 191-197. Irving Rosse describes some
modern phallic rites in which both men and women took part, similar
to those practiced in vaudouisra, "Sexual Hypochondriasis," Virginia
Medical Monthly, October, 1892.)
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 99
Putting aside any question of phallic worship, a certain pride and
more or less private feeling of ostentation in the new expansion and
development of the organs of virility seems to be almost normal at
adolescence. "We have much reason to assume," Stanley Hall remarks,
"that in a state of nature there is a certain instinctive pride and osten-
tation that accompanies the new local development. I think it will be
found that exhibitionists are iisually those who have excessive growth
here, and that much that modem society stigmatizes as obscene is at
bottom more or less spontaneous and perhaps in some cases not ab-
normal. Dr. Seerley tells me he has never examined a young man
largely developed who had the usual strong instinctive tendency of
modesty to cover himself with his hands, but he finds this instinct
general with those whose development is less than the average." (G.
Stanley Hall, Adolescence, vol. ii, p. 97.) This instinct of ostentation,
however, so far as it is normal, is held in check by other considerations,
and is not, in the strict sense, exhibitionism. I have observed a full-
grown telegraph boy walking across Hampstead Heath with his sexual
organs exposed, but immediately he realized that he was seen he con-
cealed them. The solemnity of exhibitionism at this age finds expression
in the climax of the sonnet, "Oraison du Soir," written at 16 by Rim-
baud, whose verse generally is a splendid and insolent manifestation of
rank adolescence: —
"Doux comme le Seigneur du cedre et des hysopes,
Je pisse vers les cieux bruns tr&s haut et tr§s loin,
Avec I'assentiment des grands heliotropes."
(J. A. Rimbaud, (Euvres, p. 68.)
In women, also, there would appear to be traceable a somewhat
similar ostentation, though in them it is complicated and largely inhib-
ited by modesty, and at the same time diffused over the body owing to
the absence of external sexual organs. "Primitive woman," remarks
Madame Renooz, "proud of her womanhood, for a long time defended
her nakedness which ancient art has always represented. And in the
actual life of the young girl to-day there is a moment when by a secret
atavism she feels the pride of her sex, the intuition of her moral super-
iority, and cannot understand why she must hide its cause. At this
moment, wavering between the laws of Nature and social conventions,
she scarcely knows if nakedness should or should not affright her. A
sort of confused atavistic memory recalls to her a period before clothing
was known, and reveals to her as a paradisiacal ideal the customs of
that human epoch." (Celine Renooz, Psijchologie Compar6e de VHomme
et de la Femme, p. 85.) It may be added that among primitive peoples,
and even among some remote European populations to-day, the exhibi-
tion of feminine nudity has sometimes been regarded as a spectacle with
religious or magic operation. Ploss, Das Weib, seventh edition, vol. ii,
100 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
pp. 663-680; Havelock Ellis, Man and Wotnan, fourth edition, p. 304.)
It is stated by Gopcevic that in the long struggle between the Albanians
and the Montenegrians the women of the former people would stand in
the front rank and expose themselves by raising their skirts, believing
that they would thus insure victory. As, however, they were shot down,
and as, moreover, victory usually fell to the Montenegrians, this custom
became discredited. (Quoted by Bloch, Op. cit., Teil II, p. 307.)
With regard to the association, suggested by Stanley Hall, between
exhibitionism and an unusual degree of development of the sexual
organs, it must be remarked that both extremes — a very large and a
very small penis — are specially common in exhibitionists. The prev-
alence of the small organ is due to an association of exhibitionism with
sexual feebleness. The prevalence of the large organ may be due to the
cause suggested by Hall. Among Mahommedans the sexual organs are
sometimes habitually exposed by religious penitents, and I note that
Bernhard Stern, in his book on the medical and sexual aspects of life
in Turkey, referring to a penitent of this sort whom he saw on the
Stamboul bridge at Constantinople, remarks that the organ was very
largely developed. It may well be in such a case that the penitent's
religious attitude is reinforced by some lingering relic of a more fleshly
ostentation.
It is by a pseudo-atavism that this phallicism is evoked in
the exhibitionist. There is no true emergence of an ancestrally
inherited instinct, but by the paralysis or inhibition of the finer
and higher feelings current in civilization, the exhibitionist is
placed on the same mental level as the man of a more primitive
age, and he thus presents the basis on which the impulses be-
longing to a higher culture may naturally take root and develop.
Reference may here be made to a form of primitive exhibitionism,
almost confined to women, which, although certainly synibolic, is abso-
lutely non-sexual, and must not, therefore, be confused with the phe-
nomena we are here occupied with. I refer to the exhibition of the
buttocks as a mark of contempt. In its most primitive form, no doubt,
this exhibitionism is a kind of exorcism, a method of putting evil spirits,
primarily, and secondarily evil-disposed persons, to flight. It is the
most eflfective way for a woman to display sexual centers, and it shares
in the magical virtues which all unveiling of the sexual centers is be-
lieved by primitive peoples to possess. It is recorded that the women
of some peoples in the Balkan peninsula formerly used this gesture
against enemies in battle. In the sixteenth century so distinguished a
theologian as Luther when assailed by the Evil One at niglit was able
to put the adversary to flight by protruding his uncovered buttocks
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM. 101
from the bed. But the spiritual significance of this attitude is lost with
the decay of primitive beliefs. It survives, but merely as a gesture of
insult. The symbolism comes to have reference to the nates as the
excretory focus, the seat of the anus. In any case it ignores any sexual
attractiveness in this part of the body. Exhibitionism of this kind,
therefore, can scarcely arise in persons of any sensitiveness or aesthetic
perception, even putting aside the question of modesty, and there seems
to be little trace of it in classic antiquity when the nates were regarded
as objects of beauty. Among the Egyptians, however, we gather from
Herodotus (Bk. II, Chapter LX) that at a certain popular religious
festival men and women would go in boats on the Nile, singing and
playing, and when they approached a town the women on the boats
would insult the women of the town by injurious language and by
exposing themselves. Among the Arabs, however, the specific gesture
we are concerned with is noted, and a man to whom vengeance is
forbidden would express his feelings by exposing his posterior and
strewing earth on his head (Wellhausen, RcMe Arnbischen Heidentums,
1897, p. 195). It is in Europe and in mediaeval and later times that this
emphatic gesture seems to have flourished as a violent method of ex-
pressing contempt. It was by no means confined to the lower classes,
and Kleinpaul, in discussing this form of "speech without words," quotes
examples of various noble persons, even princesses, who are recorded thus
to have expressed their feelings. (Kleinpaul, Sprache ohne Worte, pp.
271-273.) In more recent times the gesture has become merely a rare
and extreme expression of unrestrained feeling in coarse-grained peas-
ants. Zola, in the figure of Mouquette in Germinal, may be said to have
given a kind of classic expression to the gesture. In the more remote
parts of Europe it appears to be still not altogether uncommon. This
seems to be notably the case among the South Slavs, and Krauss states
that "when a South Slav woman wishes to express her deepest contempt
for anyone she bends forward, with left hand raising her skirts, and
with the right slapping her posterior, at the same time exclaiming:
'This for you!'" (KpvirTadta, vol. vi, p. 200.)
A verbal survival of this gesture, consisting in the contemptuous
invitation to kiss this region, still exists among us in remote parts of
the country, especially as an insult ofl"ered by an angry woman who
forgets herself. It is said to be commonly used in Wales. ("Welsh
yEdoeology," KpvirTdSia, vol. ii, pp. 358, et seq.) In Cornwall, when
addressed by a woman to a man it is sometimes regarded as a deadly
insult, even if the woman is young and attractive, and may cause a life-
long enmity between related families. From this point of view the nates
are a symbol of contempt, and any sexual significance is excluded. (The
distinction is brought out by Diderot in Le Neveu de Rameau: "Lui: —
II y a d'autres jours oil il ne m'en cotlterait rien pour etre vil tant
102 PSTCHOLOQy OF SEX.
qu'on voudrait; ces jours-lil, pour un Hard, je baiserais le cul h la
petite Hus. Moi: — Eh! mais, I'ami, elle est blanche, jolie, douce, potel6e,
et c'est un acte d'humilitS auquel un plus delicat que vous pourrait
quelquefois s'abaisser. Lui: — Entendons-nous; c'est qu'il y a baiser le
cul au simple, et baiser le cul au figure.")
It must be added that a sexual form of exhibitionism of the nates
must still be recognized. It occurs in masochism and expresses the
desire for passive flagellation. Rousseau, whose emotional life was
profoundly aflfected by the castigations which as a child he received
from Mile Lambercier, has in his Confessions told us how, when a youth,
he would sometimes expose himself in this way in the presence of young
women. Such masochistic exhibitionism seems, however, to be rare.
While the manifestations of exhibitionism are substantially
the same in all cases, there are many degrees and varieties of the
condition. We may find among exhibitionists, as Gamier re-
marks, dementia, states of unconsciousness, epilepsy, general
paralysis, alcoholism, but the most typical cases, he adds, if not
indeed the cases to which the term properly belongs, are those
in which it is an impulsive obsession. Krafft-Ebing^ divides
exhibitionists into four clinical groups: (1) acquired states of
mental weakness, with cerebral or spinal disease clouding con-
sciousness and at the same time causing impotence; (2) epilep-
tics, in whom the act is an abnormal organic impulse performed
in a state of imperfect consciousness; (3) a somewhat allied
group of neurasthenic cases; (4) periodical impulsive cases with
deep hereditary taint. This classification is not altogether satis-
factory. Garnier's classification, placing the group of obses-
sional cases in the foreground and leaving the other more vaguely
defined groups in the background, is probably better. I am in-
clined to consider that most of the cases fall into one or other
of two mixed groups. The first class includes cases in which
there is more or less congenital abnormality, but otherwise a fair
or even complete degree of mental integrity; they are usually
young adults, they are more or less precisely conscious of the
end they wish to attain, and it is often only with a severe strug-
gle that they yield to their impulses. In the second class the
* Op. cit, pp. 478, et seq.
EKOTIC SYMBOLISM. 103
beginnings of mental or nervous disease have diminished the
sensibility of the higher centers; the subjects are usually old
men whose lives have been absolutely correct; they are often
only vaguely aware of the nature of the satisfaction they are
seeking, and frequently no struggle precedes the manifestation;
such was the case of the overworked clergyman described by
Hughes/ who, after much study, became morose and absent-
minded, and committed acts of exhibitionism which he could not
explain but made- no attempt to deny ; with rest and restorative
treatment his health improved and the acts ceased. It is in the
first class of cases alone that there is a developed sexual perver-
sion. In the cases of the second class there is a more or less
definite sexual intention, but it is only just conscious, and the
emergence of the impulse is due not to its strength but to the
weakness, temporary or permanent, of the higher inhibiting cen-
ters.
Epileptic cases, with loss of consciousness during the act,
can only be regarded as presenting a pseudo-exhibitionism. They
should be excluded altogether. It is undoubtedly true that many
cases of real or apparent exhibitionism occur in epileptics.^ We
must not, however, too hastily conclude that because these acts
occur in epileptics they are necessarily unconscious acts. Epi-
lepsy frequently occurs on a basis of hereditary degeneration,
and the exhibitionism may be, and not infrequently is, a stigma
of the degeneracy and not an indication of the occurrence of a
minor epileptic fit. When the act of pseudo-exhibitionism is
truly epileptic, it will usually have no psychic sexual content,
and it will certainly be liable to occur under all sorts of circum-
stances, when the patient is alone or in a miscellaneous concourse
of people. It will be on a level with the acts of the highly re-
spectable young woman who, at the conclusion of an attack of
petit mal, consisting chiefly of a sudden desire to pass urine, on
^C. H. Hughes, ''iforbid Exhibitionism," Alienist and Neurologist,
August, 1904. Another somewhat similar American case, also preceded
by overwork, and eventually adjudged insane by the courts, is recorded
by D. S. Booth, Alienist and Neurologist, February, 1905.
^ Exhibitionism in epilepsy is briefly discussed by Ferfi, Ulnstinct
Sexuel, second edition, pp. 194-195.
104 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
one occasion lifted up her clothes and urinated at a public enter-
tainment, so that it was with difficulty her friends prevented her
from being handed over to the police.^ Such an act is auto-
matic, unconscious, and involuntary; the spectators are not even
perceived ; it cannot be an act of exhibitionism. Whenever, on
the other hand, the place and the time are evidently chosen de-
liberately, — a quiet spot, the presence of only one or two young
women or children, — it is difficult to admit that we are in the
presence of a fit of epileptic uu consciousness, even when the sub-
ject is known to be epileptic.
Even, however, when we exclude those epileptic pseudo-
exhibitionists who, from the legal point of view, are clearly
irresponsible, it must still be remembered that in every case of
exhibitionism there is a high degree of either mental abnormality
on a neuropathic basis, or else of actual disease. This is true to
a greater extent in exhibitionism than in almost any other form
of sexual perversion. No subject of exhibitionism should be
sent to prison without expert medical examination.
* W. S. Colman, "Post-Epileptic Unconscious Automatic Actions/
Lancet, July 5, 1890.
VI.
The Forms of Erotic Symbolism are Simulacra of Coitus — Wide
Extension of Erotic Symbolism — Fetichisra Not Covering the Whole
Ground of Sexual Selection — It is Based on the Individual Factor in
Selection — Crystallization — The Lover and the Artist — The Key to
Erotic Symbolism to be Found in the Emotional Sphei'e — The Passage
to Pathological Extremes.
We have now examined several very various and yet very
typical manifestations in all of which it is not difficult to see
how, in some strange and eccentric form — on a basis of associa-
tion through resemblance or contiguity or both combined — there
arises a definite mimicry of the normal sexual act together with
the normal emotions which accompany that act. It has become
clear in what sense we are justified in recognizing erotic sym-
bolism.
The symbolic and, as it were, abstracted nature of these manifesta-
tions is shown by the remarkable way in which they are sometimes
capable of transference from the object to the subject. That is to say
that the fetichist may show a tendency to cultivate his fetich in his own
person. A foot-fetichist may like to go barefoot himself; a man who
admired lame women liked to halt himself; a man who was attracted
by small waists in women found sexual gratification in tight-lacing
himself; a man who was fascinated by fine white skin and wished to
cut it found satisfaction in cutting his own skin; Moll's coprolagnic
fetichist found a voluptuous pleasure in his own acts of defecation.
(See, e.g., Krafft-Ebing, Op. cit., p. 221, 224, 226; Hammond, Sexual
Impotence, p. 74 ; cf. ante, p. 68. ) Such symbolic transference seems
to have a profoundly natural basis, for we may see a somewhat similar
phenomenon in the well-known tendency of cows to moimt a cow in
heat. This would appear to be, not so much a homosexual impulse, as
the dynamic psychic action of an olfactory sexual symbol in a trans-
formed form.
We seem to have here a psychic process which is a curious reversal
of that process of EinfilMung — the projection of one's own activities
into the object contemplated— which Lipps has so fruitfully developed
as the essence of every sesthetic condition. (T. Lipps, JEsthetik, Teil I,
1903.) By EinfUhlung our own interior activity becomes the activity
(105)
106 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
of the object perceived, a thing being beautiful in proportion as it lends
itself to our Einfiihiiing. But by this action of erotic symbolism, on the
other hand, we transfer the activity of the object into ourselves.
When the idea of erotic symbolism as manifested in such
definite and typical forms becomes realized, it further becomes
clear that the vaguer manifestations of such symbolism are ex-
ceedingly widespread. When in a previous volume we were dis-
cussing and drawing together the various threads which unite
"Love and Pain," it will now be understood that we were stand-
ing throughout on the threshold of erotic symbolism. Pain it-
self, in the sense in which we slowly learned to define it in this
relationship — as a state of intense emotional excitement — may,
under a great variety of special circumstances, become an erotic
symbol and afford the same relief as the emotions normally
accompanying the sexual act. Active algolagnia or sadism is
thus a form of erotic symbolism; passive algolagnia or maso-
chism is (in a man) an inverted form of erotic symbolism.
Active flagellation or passive flagellation are, in exactly the same
way, manifestations of erotic symbolism, the imaginative mim-
icry of coitus.
Binet and also KrajEft-Ebing^ have argued in effect that the
whole of sexual selection is a matter of fetichism, that is to say,
of erotic symbolism of object. "Normal love," Binet states,
"appears as the result of a complicated fetichism." Tarde also
seems to have regarded love as normally a kind of fetichism.
"We are a long time before we fall in love with a woman," he
remarks; "we must wait to see the detail which strikes and de-
lights us, and causes us to overlook what displeases us. Only in
normal love the details are many and always changing. Con-
stancy in love is rarely anything else but a voyage around the
beloved person, a voyage of exploration and ever new discov-
eries. The most faithful lover docs not love the same woman
in the same way for two days in succession."^
* Binet, Etudes de Psycliologie Exp6rhnentale, esp., p. 84; Kraflft-
Ebing, Op. cit., p. 18.
' G. Tarde, "L' Amour Morbide," Archives de VAnthropologie
CrimineUe, 1890, p. 585.
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 107
From that point of view normal sexual love is the sway
of a fetich — more or less arbitrary, more or less (as Binet terms
it) polytheistic — and it can have little objective basis. But, as
we saw when considering "Sexual Selection in Man" in the pre-
vious volume, more especially when analyzing the notion of
beauty, we are justified in believing that beauty has to a large
extent an objective basis, and that love by no means depends
simply on the capricious selection of some individual fetich.
The individual factor, as we saw, is but one of many factors
which constitute beauty. In the study of sexual selection that
individual factor was passed over very lightly. We now see that
it is often a factor of great importance, for in it are rooted all
these outgrowths — normal in their germs, highly abnormal in
their more extreme developments — which make up erotic sym-
bolism.
Erotic symbolism is therefore concerned with all that is
least generic, least specific, all that is most intimately personal
and individual, in sexual selection. It is the final point in which
the decreasing circle of sexual attractiveness is fixed. In the
widest and most abstract form sexual selection in man is merely
human, and we are atttracted to that which bears most fully the
marks of humanity; in a less abstract form it is sexual, and
we are attracted to that which most vigorously presents the sec-
ondary sexual characteristics; still narrowing, it is the type of
our own nation and people that appeals most strongly to us in
matters of love; and still further concentrating we are affected
by the ideal — in civilization most often the somewhat exotic
ideal — of our own day, the fashion of our own city. But the
individual factor still remains, and amid the infinite possibili-
ties of erotic symbolism the individual may evolve an ideal which
is often, as far as he knows and perhaps in actuality, an abso-
lutely unique event in the history of the human soul.
Erotic symbolism works in its finer manifestations by means
of the idealizing aptitudes; it is the field of sexual psychology
an which that faculty of crystallization, on which Stendhal loved
to dwell, achieves its most brilliant results. In the solitary pas-
sage in which we seem to see a smile on the face of the austere
108 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
poet of the De Rerum Natura, Lucretius tells us how every lover,
however he may be amused by the amorous extravagances of
other men, is himself blinded by passion : if his mistress is black
she is a fascinating brunette, if she squints she is the rival of
Palhis, if too tall she is majestic, if too short she is one of the
Graces, tota merum sal; if too lean it is her delicate refinement,
if too fat then a Ceres, dirty and she disdains adornment, a chat-
terer and brilliantly vivacious, silent and it is her exquisite
modesty.^ Sixteen hundred years later Robert Burton, when de-
scribing the symptoms of love, made out a long and appalling
list of the physical defects which the lover is prepared to admire.^
Yet we must not be too certain that the lover is wrong in
this matter. We too hastily assume that the casual and hasty
judgment of the world is necessarily more reliable, more con-
formed to what we call "truth," than the judgment of the lover
which is founded on absorbed and patient study. In some cases
where there is lack of intelligence in the lover and dissimulation
in the object of his love, it may be so. But even a poem or a
picture will often not reveal its beauty except by the expendi-
ture of time and study. It is foolish to expect that the secret
beauty of a human person will reveal itself more easily. The
lover is an artist, an artist who constructs an image, it is true,
but only by patient and concentrated attention to nature; he
knows the defects of his image, probably better than anyone, but
he knows also that art lies, not in the avoidance of defects, but
in the realization of those traits which swallow up defects and
so render them non-existent. A great artist, Rodin, after a life
spent in the study of Nature, has declared that for art there is
no ugliness in Nature. "I have arrived at this belief by the
study of Nature," he said; "I can only grasp the beauty of the
soul by the beauty of the body, but some day one will come who
will explain what I only catch a glimpse of and will declare how
the whole earth is beautiful, and all human beings beautiful. I
have never been able to say this in sculpture so well as I wish
1 Lucretius, Lib. IV, vv. n50-1163.
'Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Part III, Section II, Mem. Ill,
Subs. I.
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 109
and as I feel it affirmed within me. For poets Beauty has always
been some particular landscape, some particular woman; but it
should be all women, all landscapes. A negro or a Mongol has
his beauty, however remote from ours, and it must be the same
with their characters. There is no ugliness. When I was young
I made that mistake, as others do; I could not undertake a
woman's bust unless I thought her pretty, according to my par-
ticular idea of beauty; to-day I should do the bust of any
woman, and it would be just as beautiful. And however ugly a
woman may look, when she is with her lover she becomes beau-
tiful; there is beauty in her character, in her passions, and
beauty exists as soon as character or passion becomes visible, for
the body is a casting on which passions are imprinted. And even
without that, there is always the blood that flows in the veins
and the air that fills the lungs."^
The saint, also, is here at one with the lover and the artist.
The man who has so profoundly realized the worth of his fellow
men that he is ready even to die in order to save them, feels
that he has discovered a great secret. Cyples traces the "secret
delights" that have thus risen in the hearts of holy men to the
same source as the feelings generated between lovers, friends,
parents, and children. "A few have at intervals walked in the
world," he remarks, "who have, each in his own original way,
found out this marvel. . . . Straightway man in general
has become to them so sweet a thing that the infatuation has
seemed to the rest of their fellows to be a celestial madness.
Beggars' rags to their unhesitating lips grew fit for kissing,
because humanity had touched the garb; there were no longer
any menial acts, but only welcome services. . . . Eemember
by how much man is the subtlest circumstance in the world ; at
how many points he can attach relationships ; how manifold and
perennial he is in his results. All other things are dull, meager,
tame beside him."^
'Judith Cladel, Auguste Rodin Pris sur la Vie, 1903, pp. 103-104.
Some slight modifications have been made in the translation of this
passage on account of the conversational form of the original.
' W. Cyples, TJie Process of Hviiwn Experience, p. 462. Even if (as
we have already seen, ante, p. 58) the saint cannot always feel actual
110 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
It may be added that even if we still believe that lover and
artist and saint are drawing the main elements of their con-
ceptions from the depths of their own consciousness, there is
a sense in which they are coming nearer to the truth of things
than those for whom their conceptions are mere illusions. The
aptitude for realizing beauty has involved an adjustment of the
nerves and the associated brain centers through countless ages
that began before man was. When the vision of supreme beauty
is slowly or suddenly realized by anyone, with a reverberation
that extends throughout his organism, he has attained to some-
thing which for his species, and for far more than his species, is
truth, and can only be illusion to one who has artificially placed
himself outside the stream of life.
In an essay on "The Gods as Apparitions of the Race-Life," Edward
Carpenter, though in somewhat Platonic pliraseologj', thus well states
the matter: "The youth sees the girl; it may be a chance face, a chance
outline, amid the most banal surroundings. But it gives the cue. There
is a memory, a confused reminiscence. The mortal figure without pene-
trates to the immortal figure within, and there rises into consciousness
a shining form, glorious, not belonging to this world, but vibrating with
the agelong life of humanity, and the memory of a thousand love-
dreams. The waking of this vision intoxicates the man; it glows and
burns within him; a goddess (it may be Venus herself) stands in the
sacred place of his temple; a sense of awe-struck splendor fills him, and
the world is changed." "He sees something" (the same writer continues
in a subsequent essay, "Beauty and Duty") "which, in a sense, is more
real than the figures in the street, for he sees something that has lived
and moved for hundreds of years in the heart of the race; something
which has been one of the great formative influences of his own life, and
which has done as much to create those very figures in the street a^s
qualities in the circulation of the blood may do to form a finger or other
limb. He comes into touch with a very real Presence or Power — one of
those organic centers of gro^vth in the life of humanity — and feels this
larger life within himself, subjective, if you like, and yet intensely
objective. And more. For is it not also evident that the woman, the
mortal woman who excites his Vision, has some closest relation to it,
and is, indeed, far more than a mere mask or empty formula which
reminds him of it? For she indeed has Mathin her, just as much as the
physical pleasure in tlie intimate contact of humanity, the ardor of
devoted service which his vision of humanity arouses remains unaffected.
EKOTIC SYMBOLISM. Ill
man has, deep subconscious Powers working; and the ideal which has
dawned so entrancingly on the man is in all probability closely related
to that which has been working most powerfully in the heredity of the
woman, and which has most contributed to mold her form and outline.
No wonder, then, that her form should remind him of it. Indeed, wlien
he looks into her eyes he sees through to a far deeper life even than she
herself may be aware of, and yet which is truly hers — a life perennial
and wonderful. The more than mortal in him beholds the more than
mortal in her; and the gods descend to meet." (Edward Carpenter, The
Art of Creation, pp. 137, 186.)
It is this mighty force which lies beliind and beneath the
aberrations we iiave been concerned with, a great reservoir from
which they draw the life-blood that vivifies even their most
fantastic shapes. Eetichism and the other forms of erotic sym-
bolism are but the development and the isolation of the crystal-
lizations which normally arise on the basis of sexual selection.
Normal in their basis, in their extreme forms they present the
utmost pathological aberrations of the sexual instinct which can
be attained or conceived. In the intermediate space all degrees
are possible. In the slightest degree the symbol is merely a
specially fascinating and beloved feature in a person who is,
in all other respects, felt to be lovable; as such its recognition
is a legitimate part of courtship, an effective aid to tumescence.
In a further degree the symbol is the one arresting and attract-
ing character of a person who must, however, still be felt as a
sexually attractive individual. In a still further degree of per-
version the symbol is effective, even though the person with whom
it is associated is altogether unattractive. In the final stage the
person and even all association with a person disappear alto-
gether from the field of sexual consciousness; the abstract sym-
bol rules supreme.
Long, however, before the symbol has reached that final
climax of morbid intensity we may be said to have passed be-
yond the sphere of sexual love. A person, not an abstracted
quality, must be the goal of love. So long as the fetich is sub-
ordinated to the person it serves to heighten love. But love must
be based on a complexus of attractive qualities, or it has no
112 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
stability.^ As soon as the fetich becomes isolated and omnipo-
tent, so that the person sinks into the background as an unim-
portant appendage of the fetich, all stability is lost. The fet-
ichist now follows an impersonal and abstract symbol wither-
soever it may lead him.
It has been seen that there are an extraordinary number of
forms in which erotic symbolism may be felt. It must be remem-
bered, and it cannot be too distinctly emphasized, that the links
that bind together the forms of erotic symbolism are not to be
found in objects or even in acts, but in the underlying emotion.
A feeling is the first condition of the symbol, a feeling which
recalls, by a subtle and unconscious automatic association of
resemblance or of contiguity, some former feeling. It is the
similarity of emotion, instinctively apprehended, which links
on a symbol only partially sexual, or even apparently not sexual
at all, to the great central focus of sexual emotion, the great
dominating force which brings the symbol its life-blood.^
The cases of sexual hypersesthesia, quoted at the beginning
of this study, do but present in a morbidly comprehensive and
sensitive form those possibilities of erotic symbolism which, in
some degree, or at some period, are latent in most persons. They
are genuinely instinctive and automatic, and have nothing in
common with that fanciful and deliberate play of the intelli-
gence around sexual imagery — not infrequently seen in abnor-
mal and insane persons — which has no significance for sexual
psychology.
It is to the extreme individualization involved by the devel-
opments of erotic symbolism that the fetichist owes his morbid
and perilous isolation. The lover who is influenced by all the
elements of sexual selection is always supported by the fellow-
feeling of a larger body of other human beings; he has behind
him his species, his sex, his nation, or at the very least a fashion.
Even the inverted lover in most cases is soon able to create
*"To love,'^ as Stendhal defined it {De V Amour, Chapter TI), "is to
have pleasure in seeing, touching, and feeling by all the senses, and as
near as possible, a beloved object by whom one is oneself loved."
*PiIlon'8 study of "La Memoire Affective" (Revue Philosofihique,
February, 1901) helps to explain the psychic mechanism of the process.
EEOTIC SYMBOLISM. 113
around him an atmosphere constituted by persons whose ideals
resemble his own. But it is not so with the erotic symbolist. He
is nearly always alone. He is predisposed to isolation from the
outset, for it would seem to be on a basis of excessive shyness
and timidity that the manifestations of erotic symbolism arc
most likely to develop. When at length the s}Tnbolist realizes
his own aspirations — which seem to him for the most part an
altogether new phenomenon in the world — and at the same time
realizes the wide degree in which they deviate from those of the
rest of mankind, his natural secretiveness is still further rein-
forced. He stands alone. His most sacred ideals are for all
those around him c childish absurdity, or a disgusting obscenity,
possibly a. matter calling for the intervention of the policeman.
We have forgotten that all these impulses which to us seem so
unnatural — this adoration of the foot and other despised parts
of the body, this reverence for the excretory acts and products,
the acceptance of congress with animals, the solemnity of
self-exhibition — were all beliefs and practices which, to our re-
mote forefathers, were bound up with the highest conceptions of
life and the deepest ardors of religion.
A man cannot, however, deviate at once so widely and so
spontaneously in his impulses from the rest of the world in
which he himself lives without possessing an aboriginally abnor-
mal temperament. At the very least he exhibits a neuropathic
sensitiveness to abnormal impressions. Not infrequently there
is more than this, the distinct stigmata of degeneration, some-
times a certain degree of congenital feeble-mindedness or a ten-
dency to insanity.
Yet, regarded as a whole, and notwithstanding the fre-
quency with which they witness to congenital morbidity, the
phenomena of erotic symbolism can scarcely fail to be pro-
foundly impressive to the patient and impartial student of
the human soul. They often seem absurd, sometimes disgust-
ing, occasionally criminal; they are always, when carried to an
extreme degree, abnormal. But of all the manifestations of
sexual psychology, normal and abnormal, they are the most
specifically human. More than any others they involve the
114 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
potently plastic force of the imagination. They bring before
us the individual man, not only apart from his fellows, but in
opposition, himself creating his own paradise. They constitute
the supreme triumph of human idealism.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE.
I.
The Psychological Significance of Detumescenee — The Testis and
the Ovary — Sperm Cell and Germ Cell — Development of the Embryo —
The External Sexual Organs — Their Wide Range of Variation — Their
Nervous Supply — The Penis — Its Racial Variations — The Influence of
Exercise — The Scrotum and Testicles — The Mons Veneris — The Vulva —
The Labia Majora and their Varieties — The Pubic Hair and Its Char-
acters — The Clitoris and Its Functions — The Anus as an Erogenous Zone
— The Nymphae and their Function — The Vagina — The Hymen — Virgin-
ity — The Biological Significance of the Hymen.
In analyzing the sexual impulse we have seen that the
process whereby the conjunction of the sexes is achieved falls
naturally into two phases: the first phase, of tumescence, dur-
ing which force is generated in the organism, and the second
phase, of detumescenee, in which that force is discharged dur-
ing conjugation.^ Hitherto we have been occupied mainly with
the first phase, that of tumescence, and with its associated
psychic phenomena. It was inevitable that this should be so,
for it is during the slow process of tumescence that sexual selec-
tion is decided, the crystallizations of love elaborated, and, to
a large extent, the individual erotic symbols determined. But
we can by no means altogether pass over the final phase of
detumescenee. Its consideration, it is true, brings us directly
into the field of anatomy and physiology; while tumescence is
largely under control of the will, when the moment of detumes-
cenee arrives the reins slip from the control of the will; the
more fundamental and uncontrollable impulses of the organ-
"Analysis of the Sexual Impulse," in vol. iii of these Studies.
(116)
116 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
ism gallop on unchecked; the chariot of Phaethon dashes
blindly down into a sea of emotion.
Yet detumescence is the end and climax of the whole
drama; it is an anatomico-physiological process, certainly, but
one that inevitably touches psychology at every point.^ It is,
indeed, the very key to tlie process of tumescence, and unless
we understand and realize very precisely what it is that happens
during detumescence, our psychological analysis of the sexual
impulse must remain vague and inadequate.
From the point of view we now occupy, a man and a woman
are no longer two highly sensitive organisms vibrating, volup-
tuously it may indeed be, but vaguely and indefinitely, to all
kinds of influences and with fluctuating impulses capable of
being directed into any channel, even in the highest degree
divergent from the proper ends of procreation. They are now
two genital organisms who exist to propagate the race, and
whatever else they may be, they must be adequately constituted
to effect the act by which the future of the race is ensured. We
have to consider what are the material conditions which ensure
the most satisfactory and complete fulfillment of this act, and
how those conditions may be correlated with other circum-
stances in the organism. In thus approaching the subject we
shall find that we have not really abandoned the study of the
psychic aspects of sex.
The two most primary sexual organs are the testis and
tlie ovary; it is the object of conjugation to bring into contact
the sperm from the testis with the germ from the ovary. There
is no reason to suppose that the germ-cell and the sperm-cell are
essentially different from each other. Sexual conjugation thus
remains a process which is radically the same as the non-sexual
mode of propagation which preceded it. The fusion of the
nuclei of the two cells was regarded by Van Beneden, who in
1875 first accurately described it, as a process of conjugation
comparable to that of the protozoa and the protophyta. Boveri,
• "The accomplishment of no other function," Hyrtl remarks, "is so
intimately connected with the mind and yet so independent of it."
THE MECHANISM OF DETTJMESCENCE. 117
who has further extended our knowledge of the process, con-
siders that the spermatozoon removes an inhibitory influ-
ence preventing the commencement of development in the ovum ;
the spermatozoon replaces a portion of the ovum which has
already undergone degeneration, so that the object of conjuga-
tion is chiefly to effect the union of the properties of two
cells in one, sexual fertilization achieving a division of labor
with reciprocal inhibition; the two cells have renounced their
original faculty of separate development in order to attain a
fusion of qualities and thus render possible that production of
new forms and qualities which has involved the progress of the
organized world. ^
While in fishes this conjugation of the male and female
elements is usually ensured by the female casting her spawn
into an artificial nest outside the body, on to which the male
sheds his milt, in all animals (and, to some extent, birds, who
occupy an intermediate position) there is an organic nest, or
incubation chamber as Bland Sutton terms it, the womb, in
the female body, wherein the fertilized egg may develop to a
high degree of maturity sheltered from those manifold risks of
the external world which make it necessary for the spawn of
fishes to be so enormous in amount. Since, however, men and
women have descended from remote ancestors who, in the man-
ner of aquatic creatures, exercised functions of sperm-extrusion
and germ-extrusion that were exactly analogous in the two
sexes, without any specialized female uterine organization, the
early stages of human male and female foetal development still
display the comparatively undifferentiated sexual organization
of those remote ancestors, and during the first months of foetal
life it is practically impossible to tell by the inspection of the
genital regions whether the embryo would have developed into
a man or into a woman. If we examine the embryo at an early
stage of development we see that the hind end is the body stalk,
this stalk in later stages becoming part of the umbilical cord.
^ The process is still, however, but imperfectly understood; see Art.
"Fgcondation," by Ed. Retterer, in Richet's Dictionnaire de Physiologic,
vol. vi. 1905.
118 PSTCnOLOGY OF SEX.
The urogenital region^ formed by the rapid exteBsion of the
hind end beyond its original limit, which corresponds to what
is later the umbilicus, develops mainly by the gradual differen-
tiation of structures (the Wolffian and Miillerian bodies) which
originally exist identically in both sexes. This process of sex-
ual differentiation is highly complex, so that it cannot yet be
said that there is complete agreement among investigators as
to its details. When some irregularity or arrest of development
occurs in the process we have one or other of the numerous mal-
formations which may affect this region. If the arrest occurs
at a very early stage we may even find a condition of things
which seems to approximate to that 'which normally exists in
the adult reptilia.^ Owing to the fact that both male and female
organs develop from more primitive structures which were sex-
ually undifferentiated, a fundamental analogy in the sexual or-
gans of the sexes always remains; the developed organs of one
sex exist as rudiments in the other sex; the testicles correspond
to the ovaries; the female clitoris is the homologue of the male
penis; the scrotum of one sex is the labia majora in the other
sex, and so throughout, although it is not always possible at
present to be quite certain in regard to these homologies.
Since the object to be attained by the sexual organs in the
human species is identical with that which they subserve in
their pre-human ancestors, it is not surprising to find that these
structures have a clear resemblance to the corresponding struc-
tures in the apes, although on the whole there would appear to
be in man a higher degree of sexual differentiation. Thus the
uterus of various species of semno pith ecus seems to show a note-
worthy correspondence with the same organ in woman. ^ The
somewhat less degree of sexual differentiation is well shown in
the gorilla; in the male the external organs are in the passive
state covered by the wrinkled skin of the abdomen, while in the
^Thus a male foetus showing reptiliaa. characters in sexual ducts
was exhibited by Shattock at the Pathological Society of London, Feb-
ruary 19, 1895,
* J. Kohlbrugge, "Die Umgeetaltung des Uterus der Affen nach den
Geburt," Zeitschrift filr MorpTiologie, bd. iv, p. 1, 1901.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 119
female, on the contrary, they are very apparent, and in sexual
excitement the large clitoris and nymphge become markedly
prominent. The penis of the gorilla, however, more nearly re-
sembles that of man, according to Hartmann, than does that of
the other anthropoid apes, which diverge from the human type in
this respect more than do the cynocephalic apes and some species
of baboon.
From the psychological point of view we are less interested
in the internal sexual organs, which are most fundamentally
concerned with the production and reception of the sexual ele-
ments, than with the more external parts of the genital appa-
ratus which serve as the instruments of sexual excitation, and
the channels for the intromission and passage of the seminal
fluid. It is these only which can play any part at all in sexual
selection; they are the only part of the sexual apparatus which
can enter into the formation of either normal or abnormal
erotic conceptions; they are the organs most prominently con-
cerned with detumescence ; they alone enter normally into the
conscious process of sex at any time. It seems desirable, there-
fore, to discuss them briefly at this point.
Our knowledge of the individual and racial variations of the
external sexual organs is still extremely imperfect. A few monographs
and collections of data on isolated points may be found in more or less
inaccessible publications. As regards women, Ploss and Battels have
devoted a chapter to the sexual organs of women which extends to a
hundred pages, but remains scanty and fragmentary. {Das Weib, vol. i,
Chapter VI.) The most systematic series of observations have been
made in the case of the various kinds of degenerates — idiots, the insane,
criminals, etc. — but it would be obviously unsafe to rely too abso-
lutely on such investigations for our knowledge of the sexual organs
of the ordinary population.
There can be no doubt, however, that the external sexual organs
in normal men and women exhibit a peculiarly wide range of variation.
This is indicated not only by the unsystematic results attained by ex-
perienced observers, but also by more systematic studies. Thus Herman
has shown by detailed measurements that there are great normal varia-
tions in the conformation of the parts that form the floor of the female
pelvis. He found that the projection of the pelvic floor varied from
nothing to as much as two inches, and that in healthy women who had
borne no children the distance between the coccyx and anus, the length
120 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
of the perineum, the distance between the foiirchette and the symphysis
pubis, and the length of the vagina are subject to wide variations.
(Lancet, October 12, 1889.) Even the female urethral opening varies
very greatly, as has been shown by Bergh, who investigated it in nearly
700 women and reproduces the various shapes found; while most usually
(in about a third of the cases observed), a longtitudinal slit, it may be
cross-shaped, star-shaped, crescentic, etc. ; and while sometimes very small,
in about G per cent, of the cases it admitted the tip of the little linger.
(Bergh, MouatsJicft fiir Praktische Dcrmatologie, 15 Sept., 1897.)
As regards both sexes, Stanley Hall states that "Dr. F. N. Seerley,
who has examined over 2000 normal young men as well as many young
women, tells me that in his opinion individual variations in these parts
are much greater even than those of face and form, and that the range
of adult and apparently normal size and proportion, as well as function,
and of both the age and order of development, not only of each of the
several parts themselves, but of all their immediate annexes, and in
females as well as males, is far greater than has been recognized by any
writer. This fact is the basis of the anxieties and fears of morpho-
logical abnormality so frequent during adolescence." (G. S. Hall, Adoles-
cence, vol. i, p. 414).
In accordance with the supreme importance of the part
they play, and the intimately psychic nature of that part, the
sexual organs, both internal and external, are very richly sup-
plied with nerves. While the internal organs are very abun-
dantly furnished with sympathetic nerves and ganglia, the ex-
ternal organs show the highest possible degree of specialization
of the various peripheral nervous devices which the organism
has developed for receiving, accumulating, and transmitting
stimuli to the brain.^
"The number of conducting cords which attach the genitals to the
nervous centers is simply enormous," writes Bryan Robinson; "the
pudic nerve is composed of nearly all the third sacral and branches from
the second and fourth sacral. As one examines this nerve he is forced to
the conclusion that it is an enormous supply for a small organ. The
periphery of the pudic nerve spreads itself like a fan over the genitals."
The lesser sciatic nerve supplies only one muscle — the gluteus maximus
* There are, however, no special nerve endings (Krause corpuscles),
as was formerly supposed. The nerve endings in the genital region are
the same as elsewhere. The difference lies in the abundance of super-
posed arboreal ramifications. See, e.g., Ed. Retterer, Art. "Ejaculation,"
Richet's Dictionnaire de Physiologic, vol, v.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 121
— and then sends the large pudendal branch to the side of the penis, and
hence the friction of coitus induces active contraction of the gluteus
maximus, "the main muscle of coition." The large pudic and the
pudendal constitute the main supply of the external genitals. In women
the pudic nerve is equally large, but the pudendal much smaller, pos-
sibly, Bryan Robinson suggests, because women take a less active part
in coitus.. The neiTe supply of the clitoris, however, is three or four
times as large as that of the penis in proportion to size. (F. B. Robin-
son, "The Intimate Nervous Connection of the Genito-Urinary Organs
With the Cerebro-Spinal and Sympathetic Systems," islew York Medical
Journal, March 11, 1893; id. The Abdominal Brain, 1899.)
Of all the sexual organs the penis is without doubt that
which has most powerfully impressed the human imagination.
It is the very emblem of generation, and everywhere men have
contemplated it with a mixture of reverence and shuddering
awe that has sometimes, even among civilized peoples, amounted
to horror and disgust. Its image is worn as an amulet to ward
off evil and invoked as a charm to call forth blessing. The
sexual organs were once the most sacred object on which a man
could place his hands to swear an inviolate oath, just as now he
takes up the Testament. Even in the traditions of the great
classic civilization which we inherit the penis is fascinus, the
symbol of all fascination. In the history of human culture it
has had far more than a merely human significance ; it has been
the symbol of all the generative force of Nature, the embodi-
ment of creative energy in the animal and vegetable worlds
alike, an image to be held aloft for worship, the sign of all un-
conscious ecstasy. As a symbol, the sacred phallus, it has been
woven in and out of all the highest and deepest human concep-
tions, so intimately that it is possible to see it everywhere, that
it is possible to fail to see it anywhere.
In correspondence with the importance of the penis is the
large number of names which men have everywhere bestowed
upon it. In French literature many hundred synonyms may
be found. They were also numerous in Latin. In English the
literary terms for the penis seem to be comparatively few, but
a large number of non-literary synonyms exist in colloquial and
perhaps merely local usage. The Latin term penis, which has
122 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
established itself among us as the most correct designation, is
generally considered to be associated with pendere and to be
connected therefore with the usually pendent position of the
organ. In the middle ages the general literary term through-
out Europe was coles (or colis) from caulis, a stalk, and virga,
a rod. The only serious English literary term, yard (exactly
equivalent to virga), as used by Chaucer — almost the last great
English writer whose vocabulary was adequate to the central
facts of life — has now fallen out of literary and even colloquial
usage,
Pierer and Chaulant, in their anatomical and physiological Real-
Lexicon (vol. vi, p. 134), give nearly a hundred synonyms for the penis.
Ilyrtl {TopograpMsches Anatomie, seventh edition, vol. ii, pp. 67-69),
adds others. Sehurig, in his Spermatologia (1720, pp. 89-91), also
presents a number of names for the penis; in Chapter III (pp. 189-192) of
the same book he discusses the penis generally with more fullness than
most authors. Louis de Landes, in his Glossaire Erotique of the French
language (pp. 239-242), enumerates several hundred literary synonyms
for the penis, though many of them probably only occur once.
There is no thorough and comprehensive modern study of the penis
on an anthropological basis (though I should mention a valuable and
fully illustrated study of anthropological and pathological variations of
the penis in a series of articles by Marandon de Montyel, "Des Anomalies
des Organs Genitaux Externes Chez les Alienees," etc., Archives d' Anthro-
pologic Criminelle, 1895), and it would be out of place here to attempt
to collect the scattered notices regarding racial and other variations. It
may suffice to note some of the evidence showing that such variations
seem to be numerous and important. The Arab penis (according to
Kocher) is slender and long (a third longer than the average European
penis) and with a club-shaped glans. It undergoes little change when
it enters the erect state. The clothes leaves it quite free, and the Arab
practices manual excitement at an early age to favor its development.
Among the Fuegians, also, according to Hyades and Deniker (Cap
Horn, vol. vii, p. 153), the average length of the penis is 77 millimeters,
which is longer than in Europeans.
In men of black race, also, the penis is decidedly large. Thus Sir
H. H. Johnston {British Central Africa, p. 399) states this to be a
universal rule. Among the Wankenda of Northern Nyassa, for in-
stance, he remarks that, while the body is of medium size, the penis is
generally large. He gives the usual length as about six inches, reaching
nine or ten in erection. The prepuce, it is added, is often very long, and
circumcision is practiced by many tribes.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 123
Among the American negroes Hrdlicka has found, also (Proceedings
American Association for the Advancement of Science, vol. xlvii, p. 475),
that the penis in black boys is larger than in white boys.
The passages cited above suggest the question whether the penis
becomes larger by exercise of its generative functions. Most old authors
assert that frequent erection makes the penis large and long (Schurig,
Spermatologia, p. 107). Galen noted that in singers and athletes, who
were chaste in order to preserve their strength, the sexual parts were
small and rugrose, like those of old men, and that exercise of the organs
from youth develops them; Roubaud, quoting this observation {Traits
de Vim puissance, p. 373), agrees with the statement. It seems probable
that there is an element of truth in this ancient belief. At the same
time it must be remembered that the penis is only to small extent a
muscular organ, and that the increase of size produced by frequent
congestion of erectile tissues cannot be either rapid or pronounced.
Variations in the size of the sexual organs are probably on the whole
mainly inherited, though it is impossible to speak decisively on this
point until more systematic observations become customary.
The scrotum has 113113117, in the human imagination, been
regarded merely as an appendage of the penis, of secondary im-
portance, although it is the garment of the primary and essen-
tial organs of sex, and the fact that it is not the seat of any
voluptuous sensation has doubtless helped to confirm this posi-
tion. Even the name is merely a mediaeval perversion of scor-
tum, skin or hide. In classic times it was usually called the
pouch or purse. The importance of the testicles has not, how-
ever, been altogether ignored, as the very word testis itself
shows, for the testis is simply the ivitness of virility.^
It is easy to understand why the penis should occupy this
special place in man's thoughts as the supreme sexual organ.
It is the one conspicuous and prominent portion of the sexual
apparatus, while its aptitude for swelling and erecting itself
involuntarily, under the influence of sexual emotion, gives it a
peculiar and almost unique position in the body. At the same
time it is the point at which, in the male body, all voluptuous
sensation is concentrated, the only normal masculine center of
sex.2
'Hyrtl, Op. cit., vol. ii, p. 39.
* Sensations of pleasure without those of touch appear to be
124 PSYCHOLOGY OF BEX.
It is not easy to find any correspondingly conspicuous sym-
bol of sex in the sexual region of women. In the normal posi-
tion nothing is visible but the peculiarly human cushion of fat
picturesquely termed the Mons Veneris (because, as Palfyn said,
all those who enroll themselves under the banner of Venus must
necessarily scale it), and even that is veiled from view in the
adult by the more or less bushy plantation of hair which grows
upon it. A triangle of varyingly precise definition is thus
formed at the lower apex of the trunk, and this would some-
times appear to have been regarded as a feminine symbol.^ But
the more usual and typical symbol of femininity is the idealized
ring (by some savages drawn as a lozenge) of the vulvar open-
ing — the yoni corresponding to the masculine lingam — which is
normally closed from view by the larger lips arising from be-
neath the shadow of the mons. It is a symbol that, like the
masculine phallus, has a double meaning among primitive peo-
ples and is sometimes used to call down a blessing and some-
times to invoke a curse.^
This external opening of the feminine genital passage with
its two enclosing lips is now generally called the vulva. It
would appear that originally (as by Celsus and Pliny) this
term included the womb, also, but when the term "uterus"
came into use "vulva" was confined (as its sense of folding
doors suggests that it should be) to the external entrance. The
classic term cunnus for the external genitals was chiefly used by
the poets; it has been the etymological source of various Euro-
pean names for this region, such as the old French con, which
has now, however, disappeared from literature while even in
popular usage it has given place to lapin and similar terms. But
there is always a tendency, marked in most parts of the world,
for the names of the external female parts to become indecorous.
Even in classic antiquity this part was the pudendum, the part
normal at the tip of the penis, as pointed out by Scripture, quoted in
Alienist and Neurologist, January, 1898.
* See the previous volume of these Studies, "Sexual Selection in
Man," p 161.
' See, e.g., Ploss and Bartels, Das Weib, vol. i, beginning of chap-
ter VI.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 125
to be ashamed of, and among ourselves the mass of the popu-
lation, still preserving the traditions of primitive times, con-
tinue to cherish the same notion.
The anatomy, anthropology, folk-lore, and terminology of the ex-
ternal and to some extent the internal feminine sexual region may be
studied in the following publications, among others: Ploss, Das Wcib,
vol. i, Chapter VI; Hyrtl, TopograpJiisches Anatomie, vol. ii, and other
publications by the same scholarly anatomist; W. J. Stewart Mackay,
History of Ancient G-yncecology, especially pp. 244-250; R. Bergh, '"Syra-
bolae ad Cognitionem Genitalium Externorum Fceminearum" (in Danish),
Hospitalstidende, August, 1894; and also in Monatshefte fiir Praktische
Dermatologie, 1897. D. S. Lamb, "The Female External Genital Organs,"
New York Journal of GynoECology, August, 1894; R. L. Dickinson,
"Hypertrophies of the Labia Minora and Their Significance," American
Gynecology, September, 1902; UpvirrdSia (in various languages), vol. viii,
pp. 3-11, 11-13, and many other passages. Several of Schurig's works
(especially Gymrcologia, Mulicbria, and PartJienologia) contain full sum-
maries of the statements of the early writers.
The external or larger lips, like the mons veneris, are
specifically human in their full development, for in the anthro-
poid apes they are small as is the mons, and in the lower apes
absent altogether; they are, moreover, larger in the white than
in the other human races. Thus in the negro, and to a less
degree in the Japanese (Wernich) and the Javanese (Scherzer)
they are less developed than in women of white race. The
greater lips develop in the foetus later than the lesser lips, which
are thus at first uncovered; this condition thus constitutes an
infantile state which occasionally (in less than 2 per cent, of
cases, according to Bergh) persists in the adult. Their generally
accepted name, labia majora, is comparatively modern,^
The oviter sides of the labia majora are covered with hair, and on
the inner sides, which are smooth and moist, but are not true mucous
membrane, there are a few sweat glands and numerous large sebaceous
glands. Bergh considers that there is little or no hair on the inner
sides of the labia majora, but Lamb states that careful examination
shows that from one- to two-thirds of the inner surface in adult women
^ Hyrtl states that the name la7)ia was first used bv Haller in the
middle of the eighteenth century in his Elements of Phi/siologn, being
adopted by him from the Greek poet Erotion, who gave these structures
the very obvious name x^^^^"- ^ip*'- But this seems to be a mistake, for
the seventeenth century anatomists certainly used the name "labia" for
these parts.
126 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
show hairs like those of the external surface. In brunettes and women
of dark races this surface is pigmented; in dark races it is usually a
slate gray. From an examination of 2200 young Danish prostitutes
Bergh has found that there are two main varieties in the shape of the
labia majora, with transitional forms. In the first and most frequent
form the labia tend to be less marked and more effaced and separated
at the upper and anterior part, often being lost in the sides of the mons
and presenting a fissure which is broader in its upper part and showing
the inner lips more or less bare. In the second form the labia are
thicker and more outstanding and the inner edges lie in contact through-
out their whole length, showing the rima pudendl as a long narrow
fissure. Whatever the form, the labia close more tightly together in
virgins and in young individuals generally than in the deflowered and
the elderly. In children, as Martineau pointed out, the vulva appears
to look directly forward and the clitoris and urinary meatus easily
appear, while in adult women, and especially after attempts at coitus
have been made, the vulva appears directed more below and behind, and
the clitoris and meatus more covered by the labia majora; so that the
child urinates forward, while the adult woman is usually able to urinate
almost directly downwards in the erect position, though in some cases
(as may occasionally be observed in the street) she can only do so when
bending slightly forwards. This difference in the direction of the stream
fonnerly furnished one of the methods of diagnosing virginity, an uncer-
tain one, since the difference is largely due to age and individual varia-
tion. The main factor in the position and aspect of the vulva is pelvic
inclination. (See Havelock Ellis, Ma7i and Woman, fourth edition, p. 64;
Stratz, Die Schonheit des Weiblichen Ko7-pers, Chapter XII.) In the
European woman, according to Stratz, a considerable degree of pelvic
inclination is essential to beauty, concealing all but the anterior third
of the vulva. In negresses and other women of lower race the vulva,
however, usually lies further back, being more conspicuous from behind
than in European women; in this respect lower races resemble the apes.
Those women of dark race, therefore, whose modesty is focussed behind
rather than in front thus have sound anatomical considerations on
their side.
As Ploss and Bartels remark, a very common variation among
European women consists in an unusually posterior position of the vulva
and vaginal entrance, so that unless a cushion is placed under the
buttocks it is difficult for the man to effect coitus in the usual position
without giving much pain to the woman. They add that another
anomaly, less easy to remedy, consists in an abnormally anterior posi-
tion of the vaginal entrance close beneath the pelvic bone, so that,
although intromission is easy, the spasmodic contraction of the vagina
at the culmination of orgasm presses the penis against the bone and
causes intolerable pain to the man.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 127
The inons veneris and the labia majora are, after the age
of puberty, always normally covered by a more or less profuse
growth of hair. It is notable that the apes, notwithstanding
their general tendency to hairiness, show no such special devel-
opment of hair in this region. We thus see that all the external
and more conspicuous portions of the sexual sphere in woman
— the mons veneris, the labia majora, and the hair — represent
not so much an animal inheritance, such as we commonly mis-
represent them to be, but a higher and genuinely human develop-
ment. As none of these structures subserve any clear practical
use, it would appear that they must have developed by sexual
selection to satisfy the agsthetic demands of the eye.^
The character and arrangement of the pubic hair, investigated by
Esehricht and Voigt more than half a century ago, have been more
recently studied by Bergh. As these observers have pointed out, there
are various converging hair streams from above and below, the clitoris
seeming to be the center towards which they are directed. The hair-
covering thus formed is usually ample and, as a rule, is more so in
brunettes than in blondes. It is nearly always bent, curly and more
or less spirally twisted.^ There are frequently one or two curls at the
commencement of the fissure, rolled outwards, and occasionally a well
marked tuft in the middle line. In abundance the pubic hair corre-
sponds with the axillary hair; when one region is defective in hair the
other is usually so also. Strong eyebrows also usually indicate a strong
development of pubic hair. But the hair of the head usually varies
independently, and Bergh found that of 154 women with spare pubic hair
72 had good and often profuse hair on the head. Complete or almost
* Bergh tentatively suggests, as regards the pubic hair, that its
appearance may be due to the upright walk in man and the human
position during coitus, the hair preventing irritation of the genitals from
the sweat pouring down from the body and protecting the skin from
direct friction in coitus. (In both these suggestions he was, however,
long previously anticipated by Fabricius ab Aquapendente.) The fanciful
suggestion of Louis Robinson that the pubic hair has developed in order
to enable the human infant to cling securely to his mother is very
poorly supported by facts, and has not met with acceptance. It may be
mentioned that (as stated by Ploss and Bartels) the women of the
Bismarck Archipelago, whose pubic hair is very abundant, use it as a
kind of handkerchief on which to clean their hands.
^ Routh and Heywood Smith have noted that the pubic hair tends
to lose its curliness and become straight in women who masturbate.
{British Gynecological Journal, February, 1887, p. 505.)
128 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
complete absence of pubic hair is in Bergh's experience only found in
about 3 per cent, of women; these were all young and blonde.
Rothe, in his investigation of the pubic hair of 1000 Berlin
women, found that no two women were really alike in this
respect, but there was a tendency to two main types of arrange-
ment, with minor subdivisions, according as the hair tended to
grow chiefly in the middle line extending laterally from that
line, or to grow equally over the whole extent of the pubic
region; these two groups included half the cases investigated.
In men the pubic hair normally ascends anteriorly in a faint line
up to the navel, with tendency to form a triangle with the apex above,
and posteriorly extends backwards to the anus. In women these anterior
and posterior extensions are comparatively rare, or at all events are
only represented by a few stray hairs. Rothe found this variation in 4
per cent, of North German women, though a triangle of hair was only
found in 2 per cent.; Lombroso found it in 5 per cent, of Italian women;
Bergh found it in only 1.6 per cent, among 1000 Danish prostitutes,
all sixteen of whom with three exceptions were brunettes. In Vienna,
among 600 women, Coe found only 1 per cent, with this distribution of
hair, and states that they were women of decidedly masculine type,
though Ploss and Bartels, as well as Rothe, find, however, that hetero-
geny, as they term the masculine distribution, is more common in
blondes. The anterior extension of hair is usually accompanied by the
posterior extension around the anus, usually very slight, but occa-
sionally as pronounce . as in men. (According to Rothe, however,
anterior heterogeny [i comparatively rare.) These masculine variations
in the extension of the pubic hair appear to be not uncommonly asso-
ciated with other physical and psychic anomalies; it is on this account
that they have sometimes been regarded as indications of a vicious or a
criminal temperament; they are, however, found in quite noi-mal women.
The pubic hair of women is usually shorter than that of men, but
thick, and the individual hairs stronger and larger i i diameter than
those of men, as Pfaff first showed; dark hair is usually stronger than
light. In both length and size the individual variations are considerable.
The usual length is about 2 inches, or 3-5 centimeters, occasionally reach-
ing about 4 inches, or 9-10 centimeters, in the larg-er curls. In a series of
100 women attended during confinement in London and the north of
England I have only once (in a rather blonde Lancashire woman) found
the hair on labia reaching a conspicuous length of several inches and
forming an obstruction to the manipulations involved in delivery. But
Jahn delivered a woman whose pubic hair was longer than that of her
head, reaching below her knee; Paulini also knew a woman whose
THE MECHAXISM OF DETUMESCENCE, 129
pubic hair nearly reachea her knees and was sold to make wigs; Bar-
tholin mentions a soldier's wife who plaited her pubic hair behind her
back; while Brantume has several references to abnormally long hair
in ladies of the French court during the sixteenth century. In 8 cases
out of 2200 Bergh found the pubic hair fonning a large curly wig ex-
tending to the iliac spines. The individual hairs have occasionally been
found so stiff and brush-like as to render coitus difficult.
In color the pubic hair, wliile generally approximating to that of
the head, is sometimes (according to Rothe, in Germany, in one-third
cases) lighter, and sometimes somewhat darker, as is found to be the
case by Coe, especially in brunettes, and also by Bergh, in Denmark.
Bei'gh remarks that it is generally intermediate in color between
the eyebrows and the axillary hair, the latter being more or less decolor-
ized by sweat, and that, owing to the influence of the urine and vaginal
discharges, the labial hair is paler than that on the mons; blondes with
dark eyebrows usually have dark hair on the mons. The hair on this
spot, as Aristotle observed, is usually the last to turn gray.
The key to the genital apparatus in women from the psy-
chic point of view, and, indeed, to some extent, its anatomical
center, is to be found in the clitoris. Anatomically and devel-
opmentally the clitoris is the rudimentary analogue of the mas-
culine penis. Functional!}^, however, its scope is very much
smaller. While the penis both receives and imparts specific
voluptuous sensations, and is at the same time both the intro-
mittent organ for the semen and the conduit for the urine, the
sole function of the clitoris is to enter into erection under the
stress of sexual emotion and receive and transmit the stimula-
tory voluptuous sensations imparted to it by friction with the
masculine genital apparatus. It is so insignificant an organ
that it is only within recent times that its homology with the
penis has been realized. In 1844 Kobelt wrote in his important
book, Die Mannlichen und Weiblichen WoUust-Oj'gane, that in
his attempt to show that the female organs are exactly anal-
ogous to the male the reader will probably be unable to follow
him, while even Johannes Miiller, the father of scientific phys-
iology, declared at about the same period that the clitoris is
essentially different from the penis. It is indeed but three
centuries since the clitoris was so little known that (in 1593)
Realdus Columbus actually claimed the honor of discovering it.
9
130 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
Columbus was not its discoverer, for Fallopius speedily showed
that Avicenna and Albucasis had referred to it.^ The Arabs
appear to have been very familiar with it, and, from the various
names they gave it, clearly understood the important part it
plays in generating voluptuous emotion.^ But it was known
in classic antiquity; the Greeks called it fivprov. the myrtle-
berry; Galen and Soranus callled it vvfji(j)r] because it is cov-
ered as a bride is veiled, while the old Latin name was tentigo,
from its power of entering into erection, and columella, the
little pillar, from its shape. The modern term, which is Greek
and refers to the sensitiveness of the part to voluptuous titilla-
tion, is said to have originated with Suidas and Pollux.^ It
was mentioned, though not adopted, by Eufus.
"The clitoris," declared Haller, "is a part extremely sensible
and wonderfully prurient." It is certainly the chief though
by no means the only point through which the immediate call
to detumescence is conveyed to the female organism. It is,
indeed, as Bryan Eobinson remarks, "a veritable electrical bell
button which, being pressed or irritated, rings up the whole
nervous system."
The nervous supply of this little organ is very large, and the dorsal
nerve of the clitoris is relatively three or four times larger than that of
the penis. Yet the sensitive point of this organ is only 5 to 7 milli-
meters in extent. The length of the clitoris is usually rather over 2 cen-
timeters (or about an inch) and 3 centimeters when erect; a length of 4
centimeters or more was regarded by Martineau as within the normal
range of variation. It is not usual to find the clitoris longer than this
in Europe (for among some races like the negro the clitoris is gen-
erally large), but all degrees of magnitude may be found as rare excep-
tions. (See, e.g., Sir J. Y. Simpson, "Hermaphrodites," Obstetric
Memoirs and Contributions, vol. ii, pp. 217-226; also Dickinson, loc. cit.)
It was formerly thought that the clitoris is easily enlarged by mastur-
bation, and Martineau believed that in this way it might be doubled in
length. It is probable that slight enlargement of the clitoris may be
^ Schurig, Muliebria, p. 75. Plazzon in 1G21 said that in Italian it
had a popular name, il besneegio.
* Schurig brought together in his Ggncrcologia (pp. 2-4) various
early opinions concerning the clitoris as the seat of voluptuous feeling.
» Hyrtl, Op. cit., vol. ii, p. 193.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 131
caused by very frequent masturbation, but only to an insignificant
extent, and it is impossible to diagnose masturbation from the size of
the clitoris. Among the women of Lake Nyassa, as well as in the
Caroline Islands, special methods are practiced for elongating the
clitoris, but in Europe, at all events, it is probable that the variations
in the size of the organ are mainly congenital. It may well be that a
congenitally large clitoris is associated with an abnormally developed
excitability of the sexual apparatus. Tilt stated (On Uterine and
Ovarian Inflammation, p. 37) that in his experience there was a frequent
though not invariable connection between a large clitoris and sexual
proclivity. (Schurig referred to a case of intense and lifelong sexual
obsession associated with an extremely large clitoris, Gynwcologia, pp.
16-17.) Of recent years considerable importance has been attached by
some gynecologists (e.g., R. T. Morris, "Is Evolution Trying to Do Away
With the Clitoris?" Transactions American Association of Obstetricians
arid Gynecologists, vol. v, 1893) to preputial adhesions around the
clitoris as a source of nervous disturbance and invalidism in young
women.
While the clitoris is anatomically analogous to the penis,
its actual mechanism under the stress of sexual excitement is
somewhat different. As Lietaud long since pointed out, it
cannot rise freely in erection as the penis can; it is
apparently bound down by its prepuce and its frenulum.
Waldeyer, in his book on the pelvis, states more pre-
cisely that, unlike the penis, when erect it retains its angle,
only this becomes somewhat rounded so that the organ
is to some slight extent lifted and protruded. Waldeyer
considered that the clitoris was thus perfectly fitted to fulfill its
part as the recipient of erotic stimulation from friction by the
penis. Adler, however, has pointed out with considerable jus-
tice, that this is not altogether the case. The clitoris was devel-
oped in mammals who practiced the posterior mode of coitus;
in this position the clitoris was beneath the penis, which was
thus easily able in coitus to press it against the pubic bone
close beneath which it is situated, and thus impart the com-
pression and friction which the feminine organ craves. But in
the human anterior mode of coitus it is not necessarily brought
into close contact with the penis during the act of coitus, and
thus fails to receive powerful stimulation. Its restricted posi-
132 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
tion, which is an advantage in posterior coitus, is a disadvantage
in anterior coitus. Adier observes that it thus comes about that
the human method of coitus, while by bringing breast to breast
and face to face it has added a new dignity and refinement, a
fresh source of enjoyment, to the embrace of the sexes, has not
been an unmixed advantage to woman, for while man has lost
nothing by the change, woman has now to contend with an in-
creased difficulty in attaining an adequate amount of pressure
on that "electric button" which normally sets the whole mech-
anism in operation.^
We may well bring into connection with the ^langed con-
ditions brought about by anterior coitus the interesting fact that
while the clitoris remains the most exquisitely sensitive of the
sexual centers in woman, voluptuous sensitivity is much more
widely diffused in woman than in man. Over the whole body,
indeed, it is apt to be more distinctly marked than is usually
the case in man. But even if we confine ourselves to the genital
region, while in man that portion of the penis which enters the
vagina, and especially the glans, is normally the only portion
which, even during turgescence, is sensitive to voluptuous con-
tacts, in woman the whole of the region comprised within the
larger lips, including even the anus and internally the vagina
and the vaginal portion of the womb,^ become sensitive to vol-
uptuous contacts. Deprived of the penis the ability of a man
to experience specifically sexual sensations becomes very lim-
ited indeed. But the loss of the clitoris or of any other struc-
ture involves no correspondingly serious disability on women.
Ablation of the clitoris for sexual hyperaBsthesia has for this
reason been abandoned, except under special circumstances.
The members of the Eussian Skoptzy sect habitually amputate
^ O. Adler, Die Mangelhafte GescJilechtsempfindung des Weihes, 1904,
pp. 117-119.
' The voluptuous sensations caused by sexual contacts producing
movements of the womb are probably normal and usual. They may
even occur under circumstances unconnected with sexual emotion, and
Munde {International Journal of ^urgern, March, 1893) mentions inci-
dentally that in one case while titillating the cervix with a sound the
woman very plainly showed voluptuous manifestations.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 133
the clitoris, nymphas, and breasts, yet many young Skoptzy
women told the Eussian physician, Guttceit, that they were per-
fectly well able to enjoy coitus.
Freud believes that in very young girls the clitoris is the exclusive
seat of sexual sensation, masturbation at this age being directed to the
clitoris alone, and spontaneous sexual excitement being confined to
twitchings and erection of this organ, so that young girls are able,
from their own experience, to recognize without instruction the signs
of sexual excitement in boys. At a later age sexual excitability spreads
from the clitoris to other regions — just as the easy inflammability of
wood sets light to coal — though in the male the penis remains from
first to last normally the almost exclusive seat of specific excitability.
(S. Freud, Dixi Ahhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie, p. 62.)
The anus would, however, seem to be sometimes an erogenous
zone even at an early age. Titillation of tlie anus appears to be fre-
quently pleasurable in women; and this is not surprising considering the
high degree of erotic sensitivity which is easily developed at the body
orifices where skin meets mucous membrane. (Thus the meatus of the
urethra is a highly erogenous zone, as is sufficiently shown by the fre-
quency with which hair-pins and other articles used in masturbation
find their way into the bladder.) It is in this germinal sensitivity, un-
doubtedly, that we find a chief key to the practice ( I pedicatio. Freud
attaches great importance to the am; , as a sexually erogenous zone
at a very early age, and considers tha;, it very frequently makes its
influence felt in this respect. He believes that intestinal catarrhs in
very early life and haemorrhoids later tend to develop sensibility in the
anus. He finds an indication that the anus has become a sexually
erogenous zone when children wish to allow the contents of the rectum
to accumulate so that defecation may by its increased difficulty involve
voluptuous sensations, and adds that masturbatory excitation of the
anus with the fingers is by no means rare in older children. (S. Freud,
Op. cit., pp. 40-42.) A medical correspondent in India tells me of a Euro-
pean lady who derived, she said, "quite as much, indeed more," pleasure
from digitally titillating her rectum as from vulvo-vaginal titillation;
she had several times submitted to pedicatio and enjoyed it, though it
was painful during penetration. The anus may retain this erogenous
irritability even in old age, and Routh mentions the case of a lady of
over 70, the reverse of lustful, who was so excited by the act of defeca-
tion that she was invariably compelled to masturbate, although this
state of things was a source of great mental misery to her. (C. H. F.
Routh, British GijncccoJngical Journal, February, 1887, p. 48.)
Biilsche has sought the explanation of the erogenous nature of the
anus, and the key to pedicatio, in an atavistic return to the very
134 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
remote amphibian days when the anus was combined with the sexual
parts in a common cloaca. But it is unnecessary to invoke any vesti-
gial inheritance from a vastly remote past when Ave bear in mind that
the innervation of these two adjoining regions is inevitably very closely
related. The presence of a body exit with its marked and special
sensitivity at a point where it can scarcely fail to receive the nervous
overflow from an immensely active center of nervous energy quite ade-
quately accounts for the phenomenon in question.
The inner lips, the nymphae or labiai minora, running
parallel with the greater lips which enclose them, embrace the
clitoris anteriorly and extend backward, enclosing the urethral
exit between them as well as the vaginal entrance. They form
little wings whence their old Latin name, al(C, and from their
resemblance to the cock's comb were by Spigelius termed crista
galli. The red and (especially in brunettes) dark appearance
of the nymphae suggests that they are mucous membrane and not
integumentary; it is, however, now considered that even on
the inner surface they are covered by skin and separated from
the mucous membrane by a line.^ In structure, as described by
Waldeyer, they consist of fine connective tissue rich in elastic
fibers as well as some muscular tissue, and full of large veins,
so that they are capable of a considerable degree of turgescence
resembling erection during sexual excitement, while Ballantyne
finds that the nymphae are supplied to a notable extent with
nervous end-organs.
More than any other part of the sexual apparatus in either
sex, the lesser lips, on account of their shape, their position,
and their structure, are capable of acquired modifications, more
especially hypertrophy and elongation. By stretching, it is
stated, a labium can be doubled in its dimensions. The "Hot-
tentot apron," or elongated nymphae, commonly found among
some peoples in South Africa, has long been a familiar phe-
nomenon. In such cases a length or transverse diameter of 3
to 5 centimeters is commonly found. But such elongated
'Henle stated that fine hairs are frequently visible on the nymphre;
Stieda {Zeitschrift fiir Morphologic, 1902, p. 458) remarks that he has
never been able to see them with the naked eye.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 135
nymphse are by no means confined to one part of the world
or to one race; they are quite common among women of Euro-
pean race, and reach a size equal to most of the more reliably
recorded Hottentot cases. Dickinson, who has very carefully
studied this question in Xew York, finds that in 1000 consecu-
tive gynaecological cases the labia showed some form of hyper-
trophy in 36 per cent., or more than 1 in 3 ; while among 150
of these cases who were neurasthenic, the proportion reached
56 per cent., even when minor or doubtful enlargements were
disregarded. Bergh, in about 16 per cent, cases, found very en-
larged nymphae, the height reached in about 5 per cent, of the
cases of enlargement being nearly six centimeters. Ploss
and Bartels, in a full discussion of the "Hottentot
apron," come to the conclusion that this condition is per-
haps in most cases artificially produced. It is known that
among the Basutos it is the custom for the elder girls to man-
ipulate the nymphse of younger children, when alone with them,
almost from birth, and on account of the elastic nature of these
structures such manipulation quite adequately accounts for the
elongation. It is not necessary to suppose that the custom is
practiced for the sake of producing sexual stimulation — though
this may frequently occur — since there are numerous similar
primitive customs involving deformation of the sexual organs
without the production of sexual excitement. Dickinson has
come to a similar conclusion as regards the corresponding
elongation of the nj^mphte in civilized European women. In
361 out of 1000 women of good social class he found elon-
gation or thickening, often with a notable degree of wrink-
ling and pigmentation, and believes that this is always the result
of frequently repeated masturbation practiced with the separa-
tion of the nymphse; in 30 per cent, of the cases admission of
masturbation was made.^ While this conclusion is probably
correct in the main, it requires some qualification. To assert
' R. L, Dickinson, "Hypertrophies of the Labia Minora and Their
Significance," American Gyncrcologist, September, 1902. It is perhaps
noteworthy that Bergh found that in 302 cases in which the nymphaa
were of unequal length, in all but 24 the left was longer.
136 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
that whenever in women who have not been pregnant the marked
protrusion of the inner lips beyond the outer lips means that at
some period manipulation has been practiced with or without the
production of sexual excitement is to make too absolute a state-
ment. It is highly probable that the nymphoe, like the clitoris,
are congenitally more prominent in some of the lower human
races, as they are also in the apes; among the Fuegians, for
instance, according to Hyades and Deniker, the labia minora de-
scend lower than in Europeans, although there is not the slightest
reason to suppose that these women practice any manipulations.
Among European women, again, the nymphse sometimes pro-
trude very prominently beyond the labia majora in women who
are organically of somewhat infantile type; this occurs in cases
in which we may be convinced that no manipulations have ever
been practiced.^
It is difficult to speak very decisively as to the function of
the labia minora. They doubtless exert some amount of pro-
tective influence over the entrance to the vagina, and in this
way correspond to the lips of the mouth after which they are
called. They fulfill, however, one very definite though not 0I3-
viously important function which is indicated by the mytho-
logic name they have received. There is, indeed, some obscurity
in the origin of this term, nymphse, which has not, I believe,
been satisfactorily cleared up. It has been stated that the
Greek name vvfxfjirj has been, transferred from the clitoris to the
labia minora. Any such transfer could only have taken place
when the meaning of the word had been forgotten, and vvfjL<j>v
had become the totally different word nympJicB, the goddesses
who presided over streams. The old anatomists were much
exercised in their minds as to the meaning of the name, but
on the whole were inclined to believe that it referred to the
'-It may be remarked that Berfih believes that the nymphse, and
indeed the external genitals generally, are congenitally more strongly
developed in libidinous persons, and at the same time in brunettes, while
in public prostitutes this is not usually the case, which confirms the
belief that exalted sexual sensibility does not usually lead to prostitu-
tion. He adds that prostitution, unless carried on for many years, has
little effect on the shape of the external genitals.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCElSrCE. 137
action of the labia minora in directing the urinary stream.
The term nymphge was first applied in the modern sense, ac-
cording to Bergh, in 1599, by Pinceus, mainly from the influence
of these structures on the urinary stream, and he dilated in his
De Yirginitate on the suitability of the term to designate so
poetic a spot.^ In more modem times Luschka and Sir Charles
Bell considered that it is one of the uses of the nymphre to direct
the stream of urine, and Lamb from his own observation thinks
the same conclusion probable. In reality there cannot be the
slightest doubt about the function of the nymphas, as, in Hyrtl's
phrase, "the naiads of the urinary source," and it can be dem-
onstrated by the simplest experiment.^
The nymphge form the intermediate portal of the vagina,
as the canal which conducts to the womb was in anatomy first
termed (according to Hyrtl) by De Graaf.^ It is a secreting,
erectile, more or less sensitive canal lined by what is usually
considered mucous membrane, though some have regarded it as
integument of the same character as that of the external geni-
tals; it certainly resembles such integument more than, for
instance, the mucous membrane of the rectum. In the woman
who has never had sexual intercourse and has been subjected to
no manipulations or accidents affecting this region, the vagina
* Schurig {Mttliebria, 1729, Section II, cap. II) gives numerous
quotations on this point; thiis De Graaf wrote in his book on the
sexual organs of women: "Tales protuberantise nymphse appellantur
ea propter quod aquis e vesica prosilientibus proxime adstare reperi-
antur, quandoquidem inter illas, tanquam duos parietes, urina magno
impetu cum sibilo ssepe et absque labiorum irrigatione erumpit, vel quod
sint castitatis prsesides, aut sponsam- primo intromittant."
^Havelock Ellis, "The Bladder as a Dynamometer," American
Journal of Dcrmatolof/i/, May, 1902. If a woman who has never been
pregnant, standing in the erect position before commencing the act of
urination presses apart the labia minora with index and middle fingers
the stream will be projected forward so as to fall usually at a consider-
able distance in front of a vertical line from the meatus; if when the
act is half completed the fingers are removed, the labia close together and
the stream, though maintained at a constant pressure, at once changes
its character ?nd direction.
'In poetry this term was employed by Plautus, Psnidohis, Act TV,
Sc. 7. The Greek aidoTov sometimes meant vagina and sometimes the
external sexual parts; kSXttos was used for the vagina alone.
138 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
is closed by a last and final gate of delicate membrane — scarcely
admitting more than a slender finger — called the hymen.
The poets called the hymen "Ilos virginitatis," the flower of vir-
ginity, whence the medico-legal term defloratio. Notwithstanding the
great significance which has long been attached to the phenomena con-
nected with it, the hyinen was not accurately known imtil Vesalius,
Fallopius, and Spigelius described and named it. It was, however, recog-
nized by the Arab authors, Avicenna and Averroes. The early literature
concerning it is summarized by Schurig, Muliehria, 1729, Section II, cap.
V. The same author's Parthcnologia is devoted to the various ancient
problems connected with the question of virginity.
To say that this delicate piece of membrane is from the
non-physical point of view a more important structure than any
other part of the body is to convey but a feeble idea of the im-
mense importance of the hymen in the eyes of the men of many
past ages and even of our own times and among our own people.^
For the uses of the feminine body, or for its beaut}^ there is
no part which is more absolutely insignificant. But in human
estimation it has acquired a spiritual value which has made it
far more than a part of the body. It has taken the place of
the soul, that whose presence gives all her worth and dignity,
even her name, to the unmarried woman, her purity, her sexual
desirability, her market value. Without it — though in all phys-
ical and mental respects she might remain the same person —
she has sometimes been a mark for contempt, a worthless
outcast.^
So fragile a membrane scarcely possesses the reliability which
should be possessed by a structure whose presence or absence has often
meant so much. Its absence by no means necessarily signifies that a
woman has had intercourse with a man. Its presence by no means
signifies that she has never had such intercourse.
There are many ways in which the hymen may be destroyed apart
from coitus. Among the Chinese (and also, it would appear, in India
and some other parts of the East) the female parts are from infancy
* It is curious, however, that the European physicians of the seven-
teenth and even eighteenth centuries were doubtful of its value as a
sign of virginity and considered it often absent.
^ For a summary of the beliefs and practices of various peoples
with regard to the hvmen and virginity see Ploss and Bartels, Das
Weib, vol. i, Chapter XVI.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESOENCE. 139
kept so scrupulously clean by daily washing, the finger being introduced
into the vagina, that the hymen rapidly disappears, and its existence is
unknown even to Chinese doctors. Among some Brazilian Indians a
similar practice exists among mothers as regards their yoimg children,
less, however, for the sake of cleanliness than in order to facilitate sexual
intercourse in future years. (Ploss and Bartels, Das Weib, vol. i, Chap-
ter VI.) The manipulations of vaginal masturbation will, of course,
similarly destroy the hymen. It is also quite possible for the hymen to
be ruptured by falls and other accidents. (See, e.g., a lengthy study by
Nina-Rodrigues, "Des Ruptures de I'Hymen dans les Chutes," Annales
d' Hygiene Puilique, September, 1903.)
On the other hand, integrity of the hymen is no proof of virginity,
apart from the obvious fact that there may be intercourse without
penetration. (The case has even been recorded of a prostitute with
syphilitic condylomata, a somewhat masculine type of pubic arch, and
vulva rather posteriorly placed, whose hymen had never been pene-
trated.) The hymen may be of a yielding or folding type, so that
complete penetration may take place and yet the hymen be afterwards
found unruptured. It occasionally happens that the hymen is found
intact at the end of pregnancy. In some, though not all, of these cases
there has been conception without intromission of the penis. This has
occurred even when the entrance was very minute. The possibility of
such conception has long been recognized, and Schurig (Syllepsilogia,
1731, Section I, cap. VIII, p. 2) quotes ancient authors who have re-
corded cases. For some typical modern cases see Guerard (Centralblatt
fur GynlikoJogie, No. 15, 1895), in one of whose cases the hymen of the
pregnant woman scarcely admitted a hair; also Braun (!&., No. 23, 1895).
The hymen has played a very definite and pronounced part
in the social and moral life of humanity. Until recently it has
been more difficult to decide what precise biological function it
has exercised to ensure its development and preservation. Sex-
ual selection, no doubt, has worked in its favor, but that influ-
ence has been very limited and comparatively very recent. Vir-
ginity is not usually of any value among peoples who are en-
tirely primitive. Indeed, even in the classic civilization which
we inherit, it is easy to show that the virgin and the admiration
for virginity are of late growth; the virgin goddesses were not
originally virgins in our modern sense. Diana was the many-
breasted patroness of childbirth before she became the chaste
and solitary huntress, for the earliest distinction would appear
140 PSTCHOLOGY OF SEX.
to have been simply between the woman who was attached to
a man and the woman who followed an earlier rule of freedom
and independence; it was a later notion to suppose that the
latter woman was debarred from sexual intercourse. We cer-
tainly must not seek the origin of the hymen in sexual selection ;
we must find it in natural selection. And here it might seem
at first sight that we come upon a contradiction in Nature, for
Nature is always devising contrivances to secure the maximum
amount of fertilization. "Increase and multiply" is so ob-
viously the command of Nature that the Hebrews, with their
usual insight, unhesitatingly dared to place it in the mouth of
Jehovah. But the hymen is a barrier to fertilization. It has,
however, always to be remembered that as we rise in the zoolog-
ical scale, and as the period of gestation lengthens and the pos-
sible number of offspring is fewer, it becomes constantly more
essential that fertilization shall be effective rather than easy;
the fewer the progeny the more necessary it is that they shall
be vigorous enough to survive. There can be little doubt that,
as one or two writers have already suggested, the hymen owes
its development to the fact that its influence is on the side of
effective fertilization. It is an obstacle to the impregnation of
the young female by immature, aged, or feeble males. The
hymen is thus an anatomical expression of that admiration of
force which marks the female in her choice of a mate. So re-
garded, it is an interesting example of the intimate manner in
which sexual selection is really based on natural selection. Sex-
ual selection is but the translation into psychic terms of a proc-
ess which has already found expression in the physical texture
of the body.
It may be added that this interpretation of the biological function
of the hymen is supported by the facts of its evolution. It is unknown
among the lower mammals, with whom fertilization is easy, gestation
short and offspring numerous. It only begins to appear among the
higher mammals in whom reproduction is already beginning to take on
the characters which become fully developed in man. Various authors
have found traces of a rudimentary hymen, not only in apes, but in
elephants, horses, donkeys, bitches, bears, pigs, hyenas, and giraffes.
(Hyrtl, Op. cit., vol. ii, p. 189; G, Gellhoen, "Anatomy and Development
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 141
of the Hymen," American Journal ObstetiHcs, August, 1904.) It is in
the human species that the tendency to limitation of offspring is most
marked, combined at the same time with a greater aptitude for impreg-
nation than exists among any lower mammals. It is here, therefore,
that a physical check is of most value, and accordingly we find that in
woman alone, of all animals, is the feymen fully developed.
11.
The Object of Detumescence — Erogenous Zones — The Lips — ^The
Vascular Characters of Detumescence — Erectile Tissue — Erection in
Woman — Mucous Emission in Women — Sexual Connection — The Human
Mode of Intercourse — Normal Variations — The Motor Characters of
Detumescence — Ejaculation — The Virile Reflex — The General Phenomena
of Detumescence — The Circulatory and Respiratory Phenomena— Blood
Pressure — Cardiac Disturbance — Glandular Activity — Distillatio — The
Essentially Motor Character of Detumescence — Involuntary Muscular
Irradiation to Bladder, etc. — Erotic Intoxication — Analogy of Sexual
Detumescence and Vesical Tension — The Specifically Sexual Movements
of Detumescence in Man — In Woman — The Spontaneous Movements of
the Genital Canal in Woman— Their Function in Conception — Part
Played by Active Movement of the Spermatozoa — The Artificial Injection
of Semen — The Facial Expression During Detumescence — The Expression
of Joy — The Occasional Serious Effects of Coitus.
We have seen what the object of detumescence is, and we
have briefly considered the organs and structures which are
chiefly concerned in the process. We have now to inquire what
are the actual phenomena which take place during the act of
detumescence.
Detumescence is normally linked closely to tumescence.
Tumescence is the piling on of the fuel; detumescence is the
leaping out of the devouring flame whence is lighted the torch
of life to be handed on from generation to generation. The
whole process is double and yet single; it is exactly analogous
to that by which a pile is driven into the earth by the raising
and then the letting go of a heavy weight which falls on to the
head of the pile. In tumescence the organism is slowly wound
up and force accumlated; in the act of detumescence the accu-
mulated force is let go and by its liberation the sperm-bearing
instrument is driven home. Courtship, as we commonly terra
the process of tumescence which takes place when a woman
is first sexually approached by a man, is usually a highly pro-
(142)
THE MECHAXISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 143
longed process. But it is always necessary to remember that
every repetition of the act of coitus, to be normally and effec-
tively carried out on both sides, demands a similar double pro-
cess; detumescence must be preceded by an abbreviated court-
ship.
This abbreviated courtship by which tumescence is secured
or heightened in the repetition of acts of coitus which have
become familiar, is mainly tactile.^ Since the part of the man
in coitus is more active and that of the woman more passive,
the sexual sensitivity of the skin seems to be more pronounced
in women. There are, moreover, regions of the surface of a
woman's body where contact, when sympathetic, seems specially
liable to arouse erotic excitement. Such erogenous zones are
often specially marked in the breasts, occasionally in the palm
of the hand, the nape of the neck, the lobule of the car, the
little finger; there is, indeed, perhaps no part of the surface
of the body which may not, in some individuals at some time,
become normally an erogenous zone. In hysteria the erotic
excitability of these zones is sometimes very intense. The lips
are, however, without doubt, the most persistently and poig-
nantly sensitive region of the whole body outside the sphere of
the sexual organs themselves. Hence the significance of the kiss
as a preliminary of detumescence.^
The importance of the lips as a normal erogenous zone is shown
by the experiments of Gualino. He applied a thread, folded on itself
several times, to the lips, thus stimulating them in a simple mechanical
manner. Of 20 women, between the ages of 18 and 3u, only 8 felt this
as a merely mechanical operation, 4 felt a vaguely erotic element in the
proceeding, 3 experienced a desire for coitus and in 5 there was actual
sexual excitement with emission of mucus. Of 25 men, between the ages
of 20 and 30, in 15 all sexual feeling was absent, in 7 erotic ideas were
suggested with congestion of the sexual organs without erection, and in
3 there was the beginning '~r2 erection. It should be added that both
the women and the men in whom this sexual reflex was more especially
^ The elements furnished by the sense of touch in sexual selection
have been discussed in the first section of the previous volume of these
Studies.
='See Appendix A. "The Origins of the Kiss," in the previous
volume.
144 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX,
marked were of somewhat nervous temperament; in such persons
erotic reactions of all kinds generally occur most easily. (Gualino, "II
Rifflesso Sessuale nell' eccitamento alle labbre/' Archivio di Psichiatrla,
1904, p. 341.)
As turaescence, under the influence of sensory stimulation,
proceeds toward the climax when it gives place to detumescence,
the physical phenomena become more and more acutely localized
in the sexual organs. The process which was at first predomi-
nantly nervous and psychic now becomes more prominently vas-
cular. The ancient sexual relationship of the skin asserts itself;
there is marked surface congestion showing itself in various
ways. The face tends to become red, and exactly the same phe-
nomenon is taking place in the genital organs; "an erection/'
it has been said, "is a blushing of the penis." The difference
is that in the genital organs this heightened vascularity has a
definite and specific function to accomplisli — the erection of the
male organ which fits it to enter the female parts — and that
consequently there has been developed in the penis that special
kind of vascular mechanism, consisting of veins in connective
tissue with unstriped muscular fibers, termed erectile tissue.^
It is no. only the man who is supplied with erectile tissue
which in the process of tumescence becomes congested and
swollen. The woman also, in the corresponding external genital
region, is likewise supplied with erectile tissue now also charged
with blood, and exhibits the same changes as have taken place
in her partner, though less conspicuously visible. In the
anthropoid apes, as the gorilla, the large clitoris and the
nymphffi become prominent in sexual excitement, but the less
development of the clitoris in women, together with the specific-
ally human evolution of the mons veneris and larger lips, renders
this sexual turgescence practically invisible, though it is per-
ceptible to touch in an increased degree of spongy and elastic
tension. The whole feminine genital canal, including the
uterus, indeed, is richly supplied with blood-vessels, and is ca-
' See, e.g., Art. "Erection," by Better er, in Richet's Dictionnaire de
Physiologie, vol. v.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 145
pable during sexual excitement of a very iiigh degree of tur-
gescence, a kind of erection.
The process of erection in woman is accompanied by the
pouring out of fluid which copiously bathes all parts of the
vulva around the entrance to the vagina. This is a bland, more
or less odorless mucus which, under ordinary circumstances,
slowly and imperceptibly suffuses the parts. When, however,
the entrance to the vagina is exposed and extended, as during a
g}Ti£ecological examination which occasionally produces sexual
excitement, there may be seen a real ejaculation of the fluid
which, as usually described, comes largely from the glands of
Bartholin, situated at the mouth of the vagina. Under these
circumstances it is sometimes described as being emitted
in a jet which is thrown to a distance.^ This mucous
ejaculation was in former days regarded as analogous to
the seminal ejaculation in man, and hence essential to
conception. Although this belief was erroneous the fluid
poured out in this manner whenever a high degree of tumescence
is attained, and before the onset of detumescence, certainly per-
forms an important function in lubricating the entrance to the
genital canal and so facilitating the intromission of the male
organ.- Menstruation has a similar influence in facilitating
coitus, as Schurig long since pointed out.^ A like process
takes place during parturition when the same parts are being
lubricated and stretched in preparation for the protrusion of
the foetal head. The occurrence of the mucous flow in tumes-
cence always indicates that that process is actively affecting the
central sexual organs, and that voluptuous emotions are present.*
^ Guibaut, Traitc Cliniqiie dcs Maladies des Femmes, p. 242. Adler
discusses the sexual secretions in women and their significance, Die
Mangelhafte Geschleclitsempfindunfi des Weihes, pp. 19-26.
^ In some parts of the world this is further aided by artificial
means. Thus it is stated by Eiedel (as quoted by Ploss and Bartels)
that in the Gorong Archipelago the bridegroom, before the first coitus,
anoints the bride's pudenda with an ointment containing opium, musk,
etc. I have been told of an English bride who was instructed by her
mother to use a candle for the same imrpose.
' Parthenologia. pp. 302, et seq.
*The connection of this mucous flow with sexual emotion was dis-
146 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
The secretions of the genital canal and outlet in women are some-
what numerous. We have the odoriferous glands of sebaceous origin,
and with them the prepuce of the clitoris which has been described as
a kind of gigantic sebaceous follicle with the clitoris occupying its
interior. (Hyrtl.) There is the secretion from the glands of Bartholin.
There is again the vaginal secretion, opaque and albuminous, which
appears to be alkaline when secreted, but becomes acid under the de-
composing influence of bacteria, which are, however, harmless and not
pathogenic. (Gow, Obstetrical Society of London, January 3, 1894.)
There is, finally, the mucous uterine secretion, which is alkaline, and,
being poured out during orgasm, is believed to protect the spermatozoa
from destruction by the acid vaginal secretion.
The belief that the mucus poured out in women during sexual
excitement is feminine semen and therefore essential to conception had
many remarkable consequences and was widespread until the seven-
teenth century. Thus, in the chapter "De Modo coeundi et de regimine
eorum qui coeunt" of De Secretis MuUerum, there is insistence on the
importance of the proper mixture of the male semen with the female
semen and of arranging that it shall not escape from the vagina. The
Avoman must lie quiet for several hours at least, not rising even to
urinate, and when she gets up, be very temperate in eating and drinking,
and not run or jump, pretending that she has a headache. It was the
belief in feminine semen which led some theologians to lay down that
a woman might masturbate if she had not experienced orgasm in coitus.
Schurig in his Muliebria (1729, pp. 159, et seq.) discusses the opinions
of old authors regarding the nature, source, and uses of the female
genital secretions, and quotes authorities against the old view that it
was female semen. In a subsequent work (Sijllepsilonia, 1731, pp. 3,
et seq.) he returns to the same question, quotes authors who accept a
feminine semen, shows that Harvey denied it any significance, and him-
self decides against it. It has not seriously been brought forward since.
When erection is completed in both the man and the woman
the conditions necessary for conjugation have at hist been ful-
filled. In all animals, even those most nearly allied to man,
coitus is effected by the male approaching the female posteriorly.
In man the normal method of male approach is anteriorly, face
to face. Leonardo da Vinci, in a well-known drawing repre-
senting a sagittal section of a man and a woman connected in
this position of so-called Venus obversa, has shown how well
cussed early in the eighteenth century by Schurig in his GynoBCologia,
pp. 8-11; it is frequently passed over by more modern writers.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 147
adapted the position is to the normal position of the organs in
the human species.^
Among monkeys, it is stated, congress is sometimes performed
when the female is on all fours; at other times the male brings the
female between his thighs when he is sitting, holding her with his fore-
paws. Froriep informed Lawrence that the male sometimes supported
his feet on the female's calves. (Sir W. Lawrence, Lectures on Physiology,
1823, p. 186.) A summary of the methods of congress practiced by the
various animals below mammals will be found in the article "Copula-
tion" by H. de Varigny in Richet's Dictionnaire de Physioloyie, vol. iv.
The anterior position in coitus, with the female partner lying
supine, is so widespread throughout the world that it may fairly be
termed the most typically human attitude in sexual congress. It is
found represented in Egyptian graves at Benihassan, belonging to the
Twelfth Dynasty; it is regarded by Mohammedans as the normal posi-
tion, although other positions are permitted by the Prophet: "Your
wives are your tillage: go in unto your tillage in what manner soever
you will;" it is that adopted in Malacca; it appears, from Peruvian
antiquities, to have been the position generally, though not exclusively,
adopted in ancient Peru; it is found in many parts of Africa, and seems
also to have been the most usual position among the American
aborigines.
Various modifications of this position are, however, found. Thus,
in some parts of the world, as among the Suahelis in Zanzibar, the male
partner adopts the supine position. In Loango, according to Pechuel-
Loesche, coitus is performed lying on the side. Sometimes, as on the
west coast of Africa, the woman is supine and the man more or less
erect; or, as among the Queenslanders (as described by Eoth) the
woman is supine and the man squats on his heels with her thighs clasp-
ing his flanks, while he raises her buttocks with his hands.
The position of coitus in which the man is supine is without doubt
a natural and frequent variation of the specifically human obverse
method of coitus. It was evidently familiar to the Romans. Ovid
mentions it {Ars Amatoria, III, 777-8), recommending it to little women,
and saying that Andromache was too tall to practice it with Hector.
Aristophanes refers to it, and there are Greek epigrams in which women
boast of their skill in riding their lovers. It has sometimes been viewed
with a certain disfavor because it seems to confer a superiority on the
woman. "Cursed be he," according to a Mohammedan saying, "who
maketh woman heaven and man earth."
^The drawing is reproduced by Ploss and Bartels, Das Weib, vol. i,
Chapter XVII; many facts bearing on the ethnography of coitus are
brought together in this chapter.
148 PSYCnOLOGY OF SEX.
Of special interest is the wide prevalence of an attitude in coitus
recalling that which prevails among quadrupeds. The frequency with
which on the walls of Pompeii coitus is represented with the woman
bending forward and her partner approaching her posteriorly has led to
the belief that this attitude was formerly very common in Southern
Italy. However that may be, it is certainly normal at the present day
among various more or less primitive peoples in whom the vulva is
often placed somewhat posteriorly. It is thus among the Soudanese, as
also, in an altogether different part of the world, among the Eskimo
Innuit and Koniags. The New Caledonians, according to Foley, cohabit
in the quadrupedal manner, and so also the Papuans of New Guinea
(Bongu), according to Vahness. The same custom is also found in
Australia, where, however other postures are also adopted. In Europe
the quadrupedal posture would seem to prevail among some of the South
Slavs, notably the Dalmatians. (The different methods of coitus prac-
ticed by the South Slavs are described in KpvTrTddia vol. vi, pp. 220,
et seq.)
This method of coitus was recommended by Lucretius (lib. iv) and
also advised by Paulus ^ginetus as favorable to conception. (The
opinions of various early physicians are quoted by Schurig, Sperma-
tologia, 1720, pp. 232, et seq.). It seems to be a position that is not
infrequently agreeable to women, a fact which may be brought into
connection with the remarks of Adler already quoted (p. 131) con-
cerning the comparative lack of adjustment of the feminine organs to
the obverse position. It is noteworthy that in the days of witchcraft
hysterical women constantly believed that they had had intercourse
with the Devil in this manner. This circumstance, indeed, probably
aided in the very marked disfavor in which coitus a posteriori fell
after the decay of classic influences. The mediaeval physicians described
it as mos diaholicus and mistakenly supposed that it produced abor-
tion (liyrtl, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 87). Tlie theologians, needless to say,
were opposed to the mos diabolicus, and already in the Anglo-Saxon
Penitential of Theodore, at the end of the seventh century, 40 day.-)'
penance is prescribed for this method of coitus.
From the frequency with which they have been adopted by various
peoples as national customs, most of the postures in coitus here referred
to must be said to come within the normal range of variation. It is a
mistake to regard them as vicious perversions.
Up to the point to which we have so far considered it,
the process of detumescence has been mainly nervous and vas-
cular in character; it has, in fact, been but the more acute
stage of a process which has been going on throughout tumes-
THE MECHANISM OP DETUMESCENCE. 149
cence. But now we reach the point at which a new element
comes in : muscular action. With the onset of muscular action,
which is mainly involuntary, even when it affects the voluntary
muscles, detumescence proper begins to take place. Hencefor-
ward purposeful psychic action, except by an effort, is virtually
abolished. The individual, as a separate person, tends to disap-
pear. He has become one with another person, as nearly one as
the conditions of existence ever permit; he and she are now
merely an instrument in the hands of a higher power — by what-
ever name we may choose to call that Power — which is using
them for an end not themselves.
The decisive moment in the production of the instinctive
and involuntary orgasm occurs when, under the influence of the
stimulus applied to the penis by friction with the vagina, the
tension of the seminal fluid poured into the urethra arouses
the ejaculatory center in the spinal cord and the bulbo-cavern-
osus muscle surrounding the urethra responsively contracts in
rhythmic spasms. Then it is that ejaculation occurs.^
"The circulation quickens, the arteries beat strongly,"
wrote Eoubaud in a description of the physical state during
coitus which may almost be termed classic; "the venous blood,
arrested by muscular contraction, increases the general heat,
and this stagnation, more pronounced in the brain by the con-
traction of the muscles of the neck and the throwing of the
head backward, causes a momentary cerebral congestion, during
which intelligence is lost and the faculties abolished. The eyes,
violently injected, become haggard, and the look uncertain, or,
in the majority of cases, the eyes are closed spasmodically to
^Onanoff (Paris Soci6t6 de Biologie, May 3, 1890) proposed the
name of bulbo-cavernous reflex for the smart contraction of the ischio-
and bulbo-cavernosus muscles (erector penis and accelerator urinae)
produced by mechanical excitation of the glans. This reflex is clinically
elicited by placing the index-finger of the left hand on the region of the
bulb while the right hand rapidly rubs the dorsal surface of the glands
with the edge of a piece of paper or lightly pinches the mucous mem-
brane; a twitching of the region of the bulb is then perceived. This
reflex is always present in healthy adult subjects and indicates the
integrity of the physical mechanism of detumescence. It has been de-
scribed by Hughes. (C. H. Hughes, "The Virile or Bulbo-cavernous
Reflex," Alienist and "Neurologist, January, 1898.)
160 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
avoid the contact of the light. The respiration is hurried, some-
times interrupted, and may be suspended by the spasmodic con-
traction of the larynx, and the air, for a time compressed, is at
last emitted in broken and meaningless words. The congested
nervous centers* only communicate confused sensations and voli-
tions ; mobility and sensation show extreme disorder ; the limbs
are seized by convulsions and sometimes by cramps, or are
thrown wildly about or become stifE like iron bars. The jaws,
tightly pressed, grind the teeth, and in some persons the delir-
ium is carried so far that they bite to bleeding the shoulders
their companions have imprudently abandoned to them. This
frantic state of epilepsy lasts but a short time, but it suffices to
exhaust the forces of the organism, especially in man. It is,
I believe, Galen, who said: 'Omne animal post coitum triste
praster mulierem gallumque.' "^ Most of the elements that
make up this typical picture of the state of coitus are not abso-
lutely essential to that state, but they all come within the nor-
mal range of variation. There can be no doubt that this range
is considerable. There would appear to be not only individual,
but also racial, differences; there is a remarkable passage in
Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra describing the varying behavior of
the women of different races in India under the stress of sexual
excitement — Dravidian women with difficulty attaining ereth-
ism, women of the Punjaub fond of being caressed with the
tongue, women of Oude with impetuous desire and profuse flow
of mucus, etc. — and it is highly probable, Ploss and Bartels
remark, that these characterizations are founded on exact ob-
servations.^
The various phenomena included in Eoubaud's description
of the condition during coitus may all be directly or indirectly
reduced to two groups : the first circulatory and respiratory,
the second motor. It is necessary to consider both these aspects
of the process of detumescence in somewhat greater detail, al-
though while it is most convenient to discuss them separately,
*Roubaud, Traite dc VTmpuissance, 1855, p. 39.
* Das Weih, seventh edition, vol. i, p. 510.
THE MECHAXISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 151
it must be borne in mind that they are not really separable ; the
circulatory phenomena are in large measure a by-product of
the involuntary motor process.
With the approach of detumescence the respiration becomes
shallow, rapid, and to some extent arrested. This characteristic
of the breathing during sexual excitement is "vrell recognized ;
so that in, for instance, the Arabian Nights, it is commonly
noted of women when gazing at beautiful youths whose love
they desired, that they ceased breathing.^ It may be added that
exactly the same tendency to superficial and arrested respiration
takes place whenever there is any intense mental concentration,
as in severe intellectual work.^
The arrest of respiration tends to render the blood venous,
and thus aids in stimulating the vasomotor centers, raising
the blood-pressure in the body generally, and especially in the
erectile tissues. High blood-pressure is one of the most marked
features of the state of detumescence. The heart beats are
stronger and quicker, the surface arteries are more visible, the
conjunctivae become red. The precise degree of blood-pressure
attained during coitus has been most accurately ascertained in
the dog. In Bechterew's laboratory in St. Petersburg a mano-
meter was introduced into the central end of the carotid artery
of a bitch ; a male dog was then introduced, and during coitus
observations were made on the blood-pressure at the peripheral
and central ends of the artery. It was found that there was a
great general elevation of blood-pressure, intense hypersemia
of the brain, rapid alternations, during the act, of vasoconstric-
tion and vasodilatation of the brain, with increase and diminu-
tion of the general arterial tension in relation with the various
phases of the act, the greatest cerebral vasodilatation and hyper-
aemia coinciding with the moment following the intromission
of the penis; the end of the act is followed by a considerable
^ The influence of impeded respiration in exciting more or lese
perverted forms of sexual gratification has been discussed in a section
of "Love and Pain" in the third volume of these Studies.
- See, e.g., the experiments of Obici on this point, Revista Speri-
mentale di Freniatria, 1903, pp. 689, ct seq.
162 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
fall in the blood-pressure.^ I am not acquainted with any pre-
cise observations on the blood-pressure in human subjects dur-
ing detumescence, and there are obvious difficulties in the way
of such observations. It is probable, however, that the condi-
tions found would be substantially the same. This is indicated,
so far as the very marked increase of blood-pressure is con-
cerned, by some observations made by Vaschide and Vurpas with
the sphygmanometer on a lady under the influence of sexual
excitement. In this case there was a relationship of sympathy
and friendly tenderness between the experimenter and the sub-
ject, Madame X, aged 25. Experimenter and subject talked
sympathetically, and finally, we are told, while the latter still
had her hands in the sphygmanometer, the former almost made
a declaration of love. Madame X was greatly impressed, and
afterward admitted that her emotions had been genuine and
strong. The blood-pressure, which was in this subject habit-
ually 65 millimeters, rose to 150 and even 160, indicating a very
high pressure, which rarely occurs; at the same time Madame
X looked very emotional and troubled.^
Some authorities are of opinion that irregularities in the accom-
plishment of the sexual act are specially liable to cause disturbances in
the circulation. Thus Kisch, of Prague, refers to the ease of a couple
practising coitus interruptus — the husband withdrawing before ejacula-
tion — in which the wife, a vigorous woman, became liable after some
years to attacks termed by Kisch neurasthenia cordis vasomotoria, in
which there was at daily or longer intervals palpitation, with feelings of
anxiety, headache, dizziness, muscular weakness and tendency to faint.
He regards coitus as a cause of various heart troubles in women: (1)
Attacks of tachycardia in very excitable and sexually inclined women;
(2) attacks of tachycardia with dyspnoea in young women, with vagin-
ismus; (3) cardiac symptoms with lowered vascular tone in women
who for a long time have practised coitus interruptus without complete
sexual gratification (Kisch, "Herzbeschwerden der Frauen verursacht
'Summarized in Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle, March, 1903,
p. 188. The tendency to closure of the eyes noted by Roulaaud, to avoid
contact of the light, indicates dilatation of the pupils, for which we
need not seek other explanation than the general tendency of all peri-
pheral stimulation, according to SchifT's law, to produce such dilatation.
* Vaschide and Vurpas, "Du Coefficient Sexuel de I'lmpulsion Musi-
cale," Archives de Ncuroloffic, May, 1904.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCEJSTCE. 153
duich den Cohabitationsact," Munchener Medizinisches Wochenschrift,
1897, p. 617). In this connection, also, reference may probably be made
to those attacks of anxiety which Freud associates with psychic sexual
lesions of an emotional character.
Associated with this vascular activity in detumescence we
find a general tendency to glandular activity. Various secre-
tions are formed abundantly. Perspiration is copious^ and the
ancient relationship between the cutaneous and sexual systems
seems to evoke a general activity of the skin and its odoriferous
secretions. Salivation, which also occurs, is very conspicuous
in many lower animals, as for instance in the donkey,
notably the female, who just before coitus stands with mouth
open, jaws moving, and saliva dribbling. In men, corresponding
to the more copious secretion in women, there is, during the
latter stages of tumescence, a slight secretion of mucus — Fiir-
bringer's urethrorrhosa ex lihidine — which appears in drops at
the urethral orifice. It comes from the small glands of Littre
and Cowper which open into the urethra. This phenomenon was
well known to the old theologians, who called it distillatio, and
realized its significance as at once distinct from semen and an
indication that the mind was dwelling on voluptuous images ;
it was also known in classic times^; more recently it has often
been confused with semen and has thus sometimes caused need-
less anxiety to nervous persons. There is also an increased secre-
tion of urine, and it is probable that if the viscera were more
accessible to observation we might be able to demonstrate that
the glands throughout the body share in this increased activity.
The phenomena of detumescence culminate, however, and
have their most obvious manifestation in motor activity. The
genital act, as Vaschide and Vurpas remark, consists essentially
^ In the Priapeia is an inscription which has thus been translated: —
"You see this organ, after which I'm called
And which is my certificate, is humid;
This moisture is not dew nor drops of rain,
It is the outcome of sweet memory.
Recalling thoughts of a complacent maid."
The translator supposes that semen is referred to, but without doubt
the allusion is to the theologians' distillatio.
164 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
in ''a more and more marked tension of the motor state which,
reaching its maximum, presents a short tonic phase, followed
by a clonic phase, and terminates in a period of adynamia and
repose." This motor activity is of the essence of the impulse
of detumescence, because without it the sperm cells could not
be brought into the neighborhood of the germ cell and be pro-
pelled into the organic nest which is assigned for their conjunc-
tion and incubation.
The motor activity is general as well as specifically sexual.
There is a general tendency to more or less involuntary move-
ment, without any increase of voluntary muscular power, which
is, indeed, decreased, and Vaschide and Vurpas state that
dynamometric results are somewhat lower than normal during
sexual excitement, and the variations greater.^ The tendency
to diffused activity of involuntary muscle is well illustrated by
the contraction of the bladder associated with detumescence.
While this occurs in both sexes, in men erection produces a
mechanical impediment to any evacuation of the bladder. In
women there is not only a desire to urinate but, occasionally,
actual urination. Many quite healthy and normal women have,
as a rare accident supervening on the coincidence of an unusu-
ally full bladder with an unusual degree of sexual excitement,
experienced a powerful and quite involuntary evacuation of the
bladder at the moment of orgasm. In women with less normal
nervous systems this has, more rarely, been almost habitual.
Brantome has perhaps recorded the earliest case of this kind
in referring to a lady he knew who "quand on lui faisait cela
^A woman of 30, normal and intelligent, after conversing on love
and passion, and then listening to the music of Grieg and Schumann,
felt real and strong sexual excitement, increased by memories recalled
by the presence of a sympathetic person. When then tested by the
dynamometer the average of ten efforts with the right hand was found
to be 28.2 (her normal average being 31.1) and with the left hand 28.0
(the normal being 30.0). There was, however, great variability in the
individual pressures which sometimes equaled and even exceeded the
subject's normal efforts. The voluntary muscles are thus in harmony
with the approaching general sexual avalanche. (Vaschide and Vurpas,
"Quelques Donnees Experimentales sur I'Influence de TExcitation Sex-
uelle," Archlvio di PsicMatria, 1903, fasc. v-vi.)
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 155
elle se compissait a bon escient."^ The tendency to trembling,
constriction of throat, sneezing, emission of internal gas, and
the other similar phenomena occasionally associated with de-
tumescence, are likewise due to diffusion of the motor disturb-
ance. Even in infancy the motor signs of sexual excitement are
the most obvious indications of orgasm; thus West, describing
masturbation in a child of six or nine months who practiced
thigh-rubbing, states that when sitting in her high chair she
would grasp the handles, stiffen herself, and stare, rubbing her
thighs quickly together several times, and then come to herself
with a sigh, tired, relaxed, and sweating, these seizures, which
lasted one or two minutes, being mistaken by the relations for
epileptic fits.^
The essentially motor character of detumescence is well shown by
the extreme forms of erotic intoxication which sometimes appear as the
result of sexual excitement. Fere, who has especially called attention to
the various manifestations of this condition, presents an instructive case
of a man of neurotic heredity and antecedents, in whom it occasionally
happened that sexual excitement, instead of culminating in the normal
orgasm, attained its climax in a fit of uncontrollable muscular excite-
ment. He would then sing, dance, gesticulate, roughly treat his partner,
break the objects around him, and finally sink down exhausted and
stupefied. (Fere, L'Instinct Sexuel, Chapter X.) In such a case a
diffused and general detumescence has taken the place of the normal
detumescence which has its main focus in the sexual sphere.
The same relationship is shown in a case of impotence accompanied
by cramps in the calves and elsewhere, which has been recorded by
Briigelmann ("Zur Lehre vom Perversen Sexualismus," Zeitschrift fiir
Hypnotismns, 1900, Heft I). These muscular conditions ceased for sev-
eral days whenever coitus was effected.
An instructive analogy to the motor irradiations preceding the
moment of sexual detumescence may be found in the somewhat similar
motor irradiations which follow the delayed expulsion of a highly dis-
tended bladder. These sometimes become very marked in a child or
1 Cf. MacGillicuddy, Functional Disorders of the Nervous System
in Wo7n€n. p. 110; Fere, L' Instinct Seruel, second edition, p. 238; id,
"Note sur une Anomalic de I'instinct Sexuel," Belgique Mcdicale, 1905;
also "Analysis of the Sexual Impulse," in an earlier volume of these
Studies.
»J. P. West, "Masturbation in Early Childhood," Medical Stand-
ard, November, 1895.
156 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
young woman unable to control the motor system absolutely. The legs
are crossed, the foot swung, the thighs tightly pressed together, the toes
curled. The fingers are flexed in rhj^thmic succession. The whole body
slowly twists as though the seat had become uncomfortable. It is diffi-
cult to concentrate the mind; the same remark may be automatically
repeated; the eyes search restlessly, and there is a tendency to count
surrounding objects or patterns. When the extreme degree of tension is
reached it is only by executing a kind of dance that the explosive con-
traction of the bladder is restrained.
The picture of muscular irradiation presented under these circum-
stances differs but slightly from that of the onset of detumescence. In
one case the explosion is sought, in the other case it is dreaded; but
in both cases there is a retarded muscular tension, — in the one case
involuntary, in the other case voluntary — maintained at a point of acute
intensity, and in both cases the muscular irradiations of this tension
spread over the whole body.
The increased motor irritability of the state of detumescence some-
what resembles the conditions produced by a weak anaesthetic and there
is some interest in noting the sexual excitement liable to occur in anaes-
thesia. I am indebted to Dr. J. F. W. Silk for some remarks on this
point: —
"I. Sexual emotions may apparently be aroused during the stage of
excitement preceding or following the administration of any anaesthetic;
these emotions may take the form of mere delirious utterances, or may
be associated with what is apparently a sexual orgasm. Or reflex phe-
nomena connected with the sexual organs may occasionally be observed
imder special circumstances; or, to put it in another way, such reflex
possibilities are not always abolished by the condition of narcosis or
anaesthesia.
"II. Of the particular anaesthetics employed I am inclined to think
that the possibility of such conditions arising is inversely proportionate
to their strength, e.g., they are more frequently observed with a weak
anaesthetic like nitrous oxide than with chloroform.
"III. Sexual emotions I believe to be rarely observable in men, and
this is remarkable, or, I should say, particularly noticeable, for the
presence of nurses, female students, etc., might almost have led one to
expect that the contrary would have been the case. On the other hand,
it is among men that I have frequently observed a reflex phenomenon
which has usually taken the shape of an erection of the penis when the
structures in the neighborhood of the spermatic cord have been handled.
"IV. Among females the emotional sexual phenomena most fre-
quently obtrude themselves, and I believe that if it were possible to
induce people to relate their dreams they would very often be found to
be of a sexual character. "
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 157
Much more important than the general motor phenomena,
more purposive though involuntary, are the specifically sexual
muscular movements. From the very beginning of detunies-
cence, indeed, muscular activity makes itself felt, and the pe-
ripheral muscles of sex act, according to Kobelt's expression,
as a peripheral sexual heart. In the male these movements are
fairly obvious and fairly simple. It is required that the semen
should be expressed from the vesiculae seminales, propelled along
the urethra, in combination with the prostatic fluid which is
equally essential, and finally ejected with a certain amount of
force from the urethral orifice. Under the influence of the
stimulation furnished by the contact and friction of the vagina,
this process is effectively caried out, mainly by the rhythmic
contractions of the bulbo-cavernosus muscle, and the semen is
emitted in a jet which may be ejaculated to a distance varying
from a few centimeters to a meter or more.
With regard to the details of the psychic sides of this process a
correspondent, a psychologist, writes as follows: —
"I have never noticed in my reading any attempt to analyze the
sensations which accompany the orgasm, and, as I have made a good
many attempts to make such an analysis myself, 1 will append the
results on the chance that they may be of some value. I have checked
my results so far as possible by comparing them with the experience of
such of my friends as had coitus frequently and were willing to tell
me as much as they could of the psychology of the process.
"The first fact that I hit upon was the importance of pressure.
As one of my informants picturesquely phrases it — 'the tighter the fit
the greater the pleasure.* This agrees, too, with their unanimous testi-
mony that the pleasurable sensations were much greater when the
orgasm occurred simultaneously in the man and woman. Their analysis
seldom went further than this, but a few remarked that the distinctive
sensations accompanying the orgasm seem to begin near the root of
the penis or in the testes, and that they are qualitatively different from
the tickling sensations which precede them.
"These tickling sensations are caused, I think, by the friction of
the glands against the vaginal walls, and are supplemented by other
sensations from the urethra, whose nerves are stimulated by pressure
of the vaginal walls and sphincter. The specific sensation of the orgasm
begins, I believe, with a strong contraction of the muscles of the ure-
thral walls along the entire length of the canal, and is felt as a peculiar
15S PSYCHOLOaX OF SEX.
ache starting from the base of the penis and quickly becoming diffused
through the whole organ. This sensation reaches its climax with the
expulsion of the semen into the urethra and the consequent feeling of
distention, which is instantly followed by the rhythmic peristaltic con-
tractions of the urethral muscles which mark the climax of the orgasm.
"The most careful introspection possible under the circumstances
seems to show that these sensations arise almost wholly from the
urethra and in a far less degree from the corona. During periods of
great sexual excitement the nerves of the urethra and corona seem to
possess a peculiar sensitivity and are powerfully stimulated by the
violent peristaltic contractions of the muscles in the urethral walls
during ejaculation. It seems possible that the intensity and volume of
sensation felt at the glans may be due in part to the greater area of
sensitive, surface presented in the fossa as well as to the sensitivity of
the corona, and in part to the fact that during the orgasm the glans is
more highly congested than at any other time, and the nerve endings
thus subjected to additional pressure.
"If the foregoing statements are true, it is easy to see why the
pleasure of the man is much increased when the orgasm occurs at the
same time in his partner and himself, for the contractions of the vagina
upon the penis would increase the stimulation of all the nerve endings
in that organ for which a mechanical stimulus is adequate, and the
prominence of the corpus spongiosum and corona would ensure them
the greatest stimulation. It seems not improbable that the specific
sensation of orgasm rises from the stimulation of the peculiar form of
nerve end-bulbs which Krause found in the corpus spongiosum and in
the glans.
"The characteristic massiveness of the experience is probably due
largely to the great number of sensations of strain and pressure caused
by the powerful reflex contraction of so many of the voluntary muscles.
"Of course, the foregoing analysis is purely tentative, and I oft'er
it only on the chance that it may suggest some line of inquiry which
may lead to results of value to the student of sexual psychology."
In man the whole process of detumescence, when it has once really
begun, only occupies a few moments. It is so likewise in many animals;
in the genera Bos, Ovis, etc., it is very short, almost instantaneous, and
rather short also in the EquidaB (in a vigorous stallion, according to
Colin, ten to twelve seconds). As Disselhorst has pointed out, this is
dependent on the fact that these animals, like man, possess a vas
deferens which broadens into an ampulla serving as a receptacle which
holds the semen ready for instant emission when required. On the other
hand, in the dog, cat, boar, and the Canidse, Felidae, and Suidse generally,
there is no receptacle of this kind, and coitus is slow, since a longer
time is required for the peristaltic action of the vas to bring the semen
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 159
to the urogenital sinus. (R. Disselhorst, Die Accessorischen Geschlechts-
drusen der Wirbelthiere, 1897, p. 212.)
In man there can be little doubt that detumescence is more rapidly
accomplished in the European than in the East, in India, among the
yellow races, or in Polynesia. This is probably in part due to a delib-
erate attempt to prolong the act in the East, and in part to a greater
nervous erethism among Westerns.
In the woman the specifically sexual muscular process is
less visible, more obscure, more complex, and uncertain. Before
detumescence actually begins there are at intervals involuntary
rhythmic contractions of the walls of the vagina, seeming to
have the object of at once stimulating and harmonizing with
those that are about to begin in the male organ. It would ap-
pear that these rhythmic contractions are the exaggeration of
a phenomenon which is normal, just as slight contraction is
normal and constant in the bladder. JastrebofE has shown, in
the rabbit, that the vagina is in constant spontaneous rhythmic
contraction from above downward, not peristaltic, but in seg-
ments, the intensity of the contractions increasing with age and
especially with sexual development. This vaginal contraction
which in women only becomes well marked just before detumes-
cence, and is due mainly to the action of the sphincter cunni
(analogous to the bulbo-cavernosus in the male), is only a part
of the localized muscular process. At first there would appear
to be a refiex peristaltic movement of the Fallopian tubes and
uterus. Dembo observed that in animals stimulation of the
upper anterior wall of the vagina caused gradual contraction of
the uterus, which is erected by powerful contraction of its mus-
cular fiber and round ligaments while at the same time it de-
scends toward the vagina, its cavity becoming more and more
diminished and mucus being forced out. In relaxing, Aristo-
tle long ago remarked, it aspirates the seminal fluid.
Although the active participation of the sexual organs in
woman, to the end of directing the semen into the womb at the
moment of detumescence, is thus a very ancient belief, and
harmonizes with the Greek view of the womb as an animal in
160 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
the body endowed with a considerable amount of activity/ pre-
cise observation in modern times has offered but little confirma-
tion of the reality of this participation. Such observations as
have been made have usually been the accidental result of sexual
excitement and orgasm occurring during a gynaecological ex-
amination. As, however, such a result is liable to occur in
erotic subjects, a certain number of precise observations have
accumulated during the past century. So far as the evidence
goes, it would seem that in women, as in mares, bitches, and
other animals, the uterus becomes shorter, broader, and softer
during the orgasm, at the same time descending lower into the
pelvis, with its mouth open intermittently, so that, as one writer
remarks, spontaneously recurring to the simile which com-
mended itself to the Greeks, ''the uterus might be likened to
an animal gasping for breath."- This sensitive, responsive mo-
bility of the uterus is, indeed, not confined to the moment of
detumescence, but may occur at other times under the influence
of sexual emotion.
It would seem probable that in this erection, contraction,
and descent of the uterus, and its simultaneous expulsion of
mucus, we have the decisive moment in the completion of de-
tumescence in woman, and it is probable that the thick mucus,
unlike the earlier more limpid secretion, which women are some-
times aware of after orgasm, is emitted from the womb at this
time. This is, however, not absolutely certain. Some authori-
ties regard detumescence in women as accomplished in the pour-
ing out of secretions, others in the rhythmic genital contrac-
tions; the sexual parts may, however, be copiously bathed in
mucus for an indefinitely long period before the final stage of
detumescence is achieved, and the rhythmic contractions are
also taking place at a somewhat early period ; in neither respect
is there any obvious increase at the final moment of orgasm.
In women this would seem to be more conspicuously a nervous
manifestation than in men. On the subjective side it is very
* Cf. the discussion of hysteria in "Auto-Erotism/' vol. i of these
Studies.
» Hirst, Text-Book of Obstetrics, 1899, p. 67.
EROTIC SYMBOLISM. 161
pronounced, with its feeling of relieved tension and agreeable
repose — a moment when, as one woman expresses it, together
with intense pleasure, there is, as it were, a floating up into a
higher sphere, like the beginning of chloroform narcosis — but
on the objective side this culminating moment is less easy to
define.
Various observations and remarks made during the past two or
three centuries by Bond, Valisneri, Dionis, Haller, Giinther, and Bischoff,
tending to show a sucking action of the uterus in both women and other
female animals, have been brought together by Litzmann in R. Wagner's
Ilaudivdrterbuch dcr Phi/fsioloffie (1846, vol. iii, p. 53). Litzmann added
an experience of his own: "I had an opportunity lately, while ex-
amining a young and very erethic woman, to observe how suddenly the
uterus assumed a more erect position, and descended deeper in the
pelvis ; the lips of the womb became equal in length, the cervix rounded,
softer, and more easily reached by the finger, and at the same time a
high state of sexual excitement was revealed by the respiration and
voice."
The general belief still remained, however, that the woman's part
in conjugation is passive, and that it is entirely by the energy of the
male organ and of the male sexual elements, tlie spermatozoa, that con-
junction with the germ cell is attained. According to this theory, it
was believed that the spermatozoa were, as Wilkinson expresses it, in a
history of opinion on this question, "endowed with some sort of intuition
or instinct; that they would turn in the direction of the os uteri, wading
through the acid mucus of the vagina; travel patiently upward and
around the vaginal portion of the uterus; enter the uterus and proceed
onward in search of the waiting ovum." (A. D. Wilkinson, "Sterility
in the Female," Transactions of the Lincoln Medical Socictij, Nebraska,
189G.)
About the year 1S59 Fichstedt seems to have done something to
overthrow this theory by declaring his belief that the uterus was not,
as commonly supposed, a passive organ in coitus, but was capable of
sucking in the semen during the brief period of detumescence. Various
authorities then began to bring forward arguments and observations in
the same sense. Wernich, especially, directed attention to this point in
1872 in a paper on the erectile properties of the lower segment of the
uterus ("Die Erectionsfahigkeit des untern Uterus- Abschnitts," Beitrdge
siir Geiiirtshiilfe tind Gynwlcolocjic, vol. i, p. 296). He made precise
observations and came to the conclusion that owing to erectile properties
in the neck of the uterus, this part of the womb elongates during con-
gress and reaches down into the pelvis with an aspiratory movement,
as if to meet the glans of the male. A little later, in a case of partial
prolapse, Beck, in ignorance of Weniich's theory, was enabled to make
11
162 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
a very precise observation of the action of the uterus during excitement.
In this case the woman was sexually very excitable even under ordinary
examination, and Beck carefully noted the phenomena that took place
during the orgasm. "The os and cervix uteri," he states, "had been
about as firm as usual, moderately hard and, generally speaking, in a
natural and normal condition, with the external os closed to such an
extent as to admit of the uterine probe with difficulty; but the instant
that the height of excitement was at hand, the os opened itself to the
extent of fully an inch, as nearly as my eye can judge, made five or six
successive gasps as if it were drawing the external os into the cervix,
each time powerfully, and, it seemed to me, with a regular rhythmical
action, at the same time losing its former density and hardness and
becoming quite soft to the touch. Upon the cessation of the action,
as related, the os suddenly closed, the cervix again hardened itself, and
the intense congestion was dissipated." (J. R. Beck, "How do the
Spermatozoa Enter the Uterus?" American Journal of Obstetrics, 1874.)
It would appear that in the early part of this final process of detumes-
cence the action of the uterus is mainly one of contraction and ejacula-
tion of any mucus that may be contained; Dr. Paul Munde has
described "the gushing, almost in jets," of this mucus which he has
observed in an erotic woman under a rather long digital and specular
examination. (American Journal of Obstetrics, 1893.) It is during the
latter part of detumescence, it would seem, and perhaps for a short
time after the orgasm is over, that the action of the uterus is mainly
aspiratory.
While the active part played by the womb in detumescence
can no longer be questioned, it need not too hastily be assumed
that the belief in the active movements of the spermatozoa must
therefore be denied. The vigorous motility of the tadpole-like
organisms is obvious to anyone who has ever seen fresh semen
under the microscope ; and if it is correct, as Clifton Edgar states,
that the spermatozoa may retain their full activity in the female
organs for at least seventeen days, they have ample time to exert
their energies. The fact that impregnation sometimes occurs
without rupture of the hymen is not decisive evidence that there
has been no penetration, as the hymen may dilate without rup-
turing; but there seems no reason to doubt that conception has
sometimes taken place when ejaculation has occurred without
penetration ; this is indicated in a fairly objective manner when,
as has been occasionally observed, conception has occurred in
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 163
women whose vaginas were so narrow as scarcely to admit the
entrance of a goose-quill; such was the condition in the case
of a pregnant woman brought forward by Eoubaud, The stories,
repeated in various books, of women who have conceived after
homosexual relations with partners who had just left their hus-
br.nds' beds are not therefore inherently impossible.^ Janke
quotes numerous cases in which there has been impregnation in
virgins who have merely allowed the penis to be placed in con-
tact with the vulva, the hymen remaining unruptured until
delivery.^
It must be added, however, that even if the semen is effused
merely at the mouth of the vagina, without actual penetration,
the spermatozoa are still not entirely without any resource save
their own motility in the task of reaching the ovum. As we
have seen, it is not only the uterus which takes an active part
in detumescence ; the vagina also is in active movement, and
it seems highly probable that, at all events in some women and
under some circumstances, such movement favoring aspiration
toward the womb may be communicated to the external mouth
of the vagina.
Riolan {Anthropographia, 1626, p. 294) referred to the constriction
and dilation of the vulva under the influence of sexual excitement. It
is said that in Abyssinia women can, when adopting the straddling
posture of coitus, by the movements of their own vaginal muscles alone,
grasp the male organ and cause ejaculation, although the man remains
passive. According to Lorion the Annamites, adopting the normal
posture of coitus, introduce the penis when flaccid or only half erect, the
contraction of the vaginal walls completing the process; the penis is
very small in this people. It is recognized by gynaecologists that the
condition of vaginismus, in which there is spasmodic contraction of the
vagina, making intercourse painful or impossible, is but a morbid exag-
geration of the normal contraction which occurs in sexual excitement.
Even in the absence of sexual excitement there is a vague aflfection, occur-
ring in both married and unmarried women, and not, it would seem,
^The earliest story of the kind with which I am acquainted, that
of a widow who was thus impregnated by a married friend, is quoted
in Schurig's Spermatologia (p. 224) from Amatus Lusitanus, Curationum
CenturioB Septem, 1620.
' Janke, Die Willkiirliche Hervorbringen des Geachlechts, p. 238.
164 PSYCHOLOGT OF SEX.
necessarily hysterical, characterized by quivering or twitching of the
vulva; 1 am told that this is popularly termed "flackering of the shape"
in Yorkshire and "taittering of the lips" in Ireland. It may be added
that quivering of the gluteal muscles also takes placo during detumes-
cence, and that in Indian medicine this is likewise regarded as a sign of
sexual desire in women, apart from coitus.
A non-medical correspondent in Australia, W. J. Chidley, from whom
I have received many communications on this subject, is strongly of
opinion from his own observations that not only does the uterus take an
active part in coitus, but that under natural conditions the vagina also
plays an active part in the process. He was led to suspect such an ac-
tion many years ago, as well by an experience of his ow^n, as also by
hearing from a young woman who met her lover after a long absence
that by the excitement thus aroused a tape attached to the under-
clothes had been drawn into the vagina. Since then the confidences of
various friends, together with observations of animals, have confirmed
him in the view that the general belief that coitus must be eflTected by
forcible entry of the male organ into a passive vagina is incorrect. He
considers that under normal circumstances coitus should take place but
rarely, and then only under the most favorable circumstances, perhaps
exclusively in spring, and, most especially, only when the woman is
ready for it. Then, when in the arms of the man she loves, the vagina,
in sympathy with the active movements of the womb, becomes dis-
tended at the touch of the turgescent, but not fully erect, penis, "flashes
open and draws in the male organ." "All animals," he adds, "have
sexual intercourse by the male organ being draicn, not forced, into the
female. I have been borne out in this by friends who have seen horses,
camels, mules and other large animals in the coupling season. What is
more absurd, for instance, than to say that an entire penetrates the
mare? His penis is a sensitive, beautiful piece of mechanism, which
brings its light head here and there till it touches the right spot, when
the mare, if ready, takes it in. An entire's penis could not penetrate
anything; it is a curve, a beautiful curve which would easily bend. A
bull's, again, is turned down at the end and, more palpably still, would
fold on itself if pressed with force. The womb and vagina of a beautiful
and healthy woman constitute a living, vital, moving organ, sensitive to
a look, a word, a thought, a hand on the waist."
A well-known American author thus writes in confirmation of the
foregoing view: "In nature the woman wooes. When impassioned her
vagina becomes erect and dilated, and so lubricated with abundant
mucus to the lips that entrance is easy. This dilatation and erectile
expansion of vagina withdraws the hymen so close to the walls that
penetration need not tear it or cause pain. The more muscular, primi-
tive and healthy the woman the tougher and less sensitive the hymen.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 165
and the less likely to break or bleed. I think one great function of the
foreskin also is to moisten the glans, so that it can be lubricated for
entrance, and then to retract, moist side out, to make entrance still
easier. I think that in nature the glans penetrates within the labia, is
withstood a moment, vibrating, and then all resistance is withdrawn by
a sudden 'flashing open' of the gates, permitting easy entrance, and that
the sudden giving up of resistance, and substitution of welcome, with
its instantaneous deep entrance, causes an almost immediate male
orgasm (the thrill being irresistibly exciting). Certainly this is the
process as observed in horses, cattle, goats, etc., and it seems likely
something analogous is natural in man."
While it is easily possible to carry to excess a view which would
make the woman rather than the man the active agent in coitus (and it
may be recalled that in the Cebidae the penis, as also the clitoris, ia
furnished with a bone), there is probably an element of truth in the
belief that the vagina shares in the active part which, there can now be
little doubt, is played by the uterus in detumescence. Such a view cer-
tainly enables us to understand how it is that semen effused on the
exterior sexual organs can be conveyed to the uterus.
It was indeed the failure to understand the vital activity of the
semen and the feminine genital canal, co-operating together towards the
junction of sperm cell and germ cell, which for so long stood in the way
of the proper understanding of conception. Even the genius of Harvey,
which had grappled successfully with the problem of the circulation,
failed in the attempt to comprehend the problem of generation. Mainly
on account of this difficulty, he was unable to see how the male element
could possibly enter the uterus, although he devoted much observation
and study to the question. Writing of the uterus of the doe after
copulation, he says: "I began to doubt, to ask myself whether the
semen of the male could by any possibility make its way by attraction
or injection to the seat of conception, and repeated examination led me
to the conclusion that none of the semen reached this seat." (De-
Gcneratione Animalium, Exercise Ixvii.) "The woman," he finally con-
cluded, "after contact with the spermatic fluid in coitu, seems to receive
an influence and become fecundated without the co-operation of any
sensible corporeal agent, in the same way as iron touched by the magnet
is endowed with its powers."
Although the specifically sexual muscular process of de-
tumescence in women — as distinguished from the general mus-
cular phenomena of sexual excitement which may be fairly
obvious — is thus seen to be somewhat complex and obscure,
in women as well as in men detumescence is a convulsion which
166 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
discharges a slowly accumulated store of nervous force. In
women also, as in men, the motor discharge is directed to a
specific end — the intromission of the semen in the one sex, its
reception in the other. In both sexes the sexual orgasm and the
pleasure and satisfaction associated with it, involve, as their
most essential element, the motor activity of the sexual sphere.^
The active co-operation of the female organs in detumescence is
probably indicated by the difficulty which is experienced in achieving
conception by the artificial injection of semen. Marion Sims stated in
1866, in Clinical Notes on Uterine Surgery, that in 55 injections in six
women he had only once been successful; he believed that that was the
only ease at that time on record. Jacobi had, however, practiced arti-
ficial fecundation in animals (in 1700) and John Hunter in man. See
Gould and Pyle, Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, p. 43; also
Janke (Die Willkurliche Eervorhringcn des Geschlechts, pp. 230 et seq.)
who discusses the question of artificial fecundation and brings togetlier
a mass of data.
The facial expression when tumescence is completed is
marked by a high degree of energy in men and of loveliness in
women. At this moment, when the culminating act of life is
about to be accomplished, the individual thus reaches his su-
preme state of radiant beauty. The color is heightened, the eyes
are larger and brighter, the facial muscles are more tense, so
that in mature individuals any wrinkles disappear and youth-
fulness returns.
At the beginning of detumescence the features are fre-
quently more discomposed. There is a general expression of
eager receptivity to sensory impressions. The dilatation of the
pupils, the expansion of the nostrils, the tendency to salivation
and to movements of the tongue, all go to make up a picture
which indicates an approaching gratification of sensory desires;
it is significant that in some animals there is at this moment
erection of the ears.^ There is sometimes a tendency to utter
broken and meaningless words, and it is noted that sometimes
^Cf. Adler, Die MangelMfte OescJilecMsempfindung des Welies, pp.
29-38.
Tfirg, Pathologie des Emotions, p. 51.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 167
women have called out on their mothers.^ The dilatation of
the pupils produces photophobia, and in the course of detumes-
cence the eyes are frequently closed from this cause. At the
beginning of sexual excitement, Vaschide and Yurpas have ob-
served, tonicity of the eye-muscles seems to increase; the ele-
vators of the upper lids contract, so that the eyes look larger
and their mobility and brightness are heightened; with the in-
crease of muscular tonicity strabismus occurs, owing to the
greater strength of the muscles that carry the eyes inward.^
The facial expression which marks the culmination of tumescence,
and the approach of detumescence is that which is generally expressive
of joy. In an interesting psycho-physical study of the emotion of joy,
Dearborn thus summarizes its characteristics: "The eyes are brighter
and the upper eyelid elevated, as also are the brows, the skin over the
glabella, the upper lip and the corners of the mouth, while the skin at
the outer canthi of the eye is puckered. The nostrils are moderately
dilated, the tongue slightly extended and the cheeks somewhat expanded,
while in persons with largely developed pinnal muscles the ears tend
somewhat to incline forwards. The -whole arterial system is dilated, with
consequent blushing from this effect on the dermal capillaries of the face,
neck, scalp and hands, and sometimes more extensively even; from the
same cause the eyes slightly bulge. The whole glandular system like-
wise is stimulated, causing the secretions, — gastric, salivary, lachrymal,
sudoral, mammary, genital, etc. — to be increased, with the resulting rise
of temperature and increase in the katobolism generally. Volubility is
almost regularly increased, and is, indeed, one of the most sensitive and
constant of the correlations in emotional delight, . . . Pleasantness
is correlated in living organisms by vascular, muscular and glandular
extension or expansion, both literal and figurative." (G. Dearborn, "The
Emotion of Joy,"' Psychological Review Monograph Supplements, vol. ii,
No. 5, p. 62.) All these signs of joy appear to occur at some stage of
the process of sexual excitement.
In some monkeys it would seem that the muscular movement which
in man has become the smile is the characteristic facial expression of
sexual tumescence or courtship. Discussing the facial expression of
pleasure in children, S. S. Buckman has the following remarks: "There
* This is an instinctive impulse under all strong emotion in primi-
tive persons. "The Australian Dieri," says A. W. Howitt {Journal
Anthropological Institute, August, 1890), "when in pain or grief cry out
for their father or mother."
'Vaschide and Vurpas, Archives de 'Neurologic, May, 1904.
168 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
is one point in such expression which has not received due considera-
tion, namely, the raising of lumps of flesh each side of the nose as an
indication of pleasure. Accompanying this may be seen small furrows,
both in children and adults, running from the eyes somewhat obliquely
towards the nose. What these characters indicate may be learned from
the male mandril, whose face, particularly in the breeding season, shows
colored fleshy prominences each side of the nose, with conspicuous fur-
rows and ridges. In the male mandril these characters have been de-
veloped because, being an unmistakable sign of sexual ardor, they gave
the female particular evidence of sexual feelings. Thus such characters
would come to be recognized as habitually symptomatic of pleasurable
feelings. Finding similar features in human beings, and particularly in
children, though not developed in the same degree, we may assume
that in our monkey-like ancestors facial characters similar to those of
the mandril were developed, though to a less extent, and that they were
symptomatic of pleasure, because connected with the period of court-
ship. Then they became conventionalized as pleasurable symptoms."
(S. S. Buckmann, "Human Babies: What They Teach," Nature, July 5,
1900.) If this view is accepted, it may be said that the smile, having in
man become a generalized sign of amiability, has no longer any special
sexual significance. It is true that a faint and involuntary smile is
often associated with Ehe later stages of tumescence, but this is usually
lost during detumescence, and may even give place to an expression of
ferocity.
When we have realized how profound is the organic con-
vulsion involved by the process of detumescence, and how great
the general motor excitement involved, we can understand how
it is that very serious effects may follow coitus. Even in ani-
mals this is sometimes the case. Young bulls and stallions have
fallen in a faint after the first congress ; boars may be seriously
affected in a similar way; mares have been known even to fall
dead.^ In the human species, and especially in men — probably,
as Bryan Robinson remarks, because women are protected by
the greater slowness with which detumescence occurs in them —
not only death itself, but innumerable disorders and accidents
have been known to follow immediately after coitus, these results
being mainly due to the vavscular and muscular excitement in-
volved by the processes of detumescence. Fainting, vomiting,
^F. B. Robinson, Nctv York Medical Journal, March 11, 1893.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCB. 169
urination, defalcation have been noted as occurring in young
men after a first coitus. Epilepsy has been not infrequently
recorded. Lesions of various organs, even rupture of the spleen,
have sometimes taken place. In men of mature age the arteries
have at times been unable to resist the high blood-pressure, and
cerebral htemorrhage with paralysis has occurred. In elderly
men the excitement of intercourse with strange women has
sometimes caused death, and various cases are known of emi-
nent persons who have thus died in the arms of young wives or
of prostitutes.^
These morbid results, are, however, very exceptional. They
usually occur in persons who are abnormally sensitive, or who
have imprudently transgressed the obvious rules of sexual hy-
giene. Detumscence is so profoundly natural a process; it is so
deeply and intimately a function of the organism, that it is fre-
quently harmless even when the bodily condition is far from abso-
lutely sound. Its usual results, under favorable circumstances,
are entirely beneficial. In men there normally supervenes, to-
gether with the relief from the prolonged tension of tumescence,
with the muscular repose and falling blood-pressure,^ a sense of
profound satisfaction, a glow of diffused well-being,^ perhaps
an agreeable lassitude, occasionally also a sense of mental lib-
eration from an overmastering obsession. Under reasonably
* Fere deals fully with the various morbid results which may fol-
low coitus, L' Instinct Sexuel, Chapter X; id. Pathologie des Emotionft,
p. 99.
' With regard to the relationship of detumescence to the b'ood-
pressure Haig remarks: "I think that as the sexual act produces low
and falling blood-pressure, it will of necessity relieve conditions which
are due to high and rising blood-pressure, such, for instance, as mental
depression and bad temper; and, unless my observation deceives me,
we have here a connection between conditions of high blood-pressure,
with mental and bodily depression, and the act of masturbation, for this
act will relieve those condition*^, and will tend to be practiced for this
purpose." (A. Haig, Uric Acid, sixth edition, p. 154.)
' A medical correspondent speaks of subjective feelings of tempera-
ture coming over the body from 20 to 24 hours after congress, and
marked by sensations of cooling of body and glow of cheeks. In another
case, though lassitude appears on the second day after congress, the
first day after is marked by a notable increase in mental and physical
activity.
170 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
happy circumstances there is no pain, or exhaustion, or sadness,
or emotional re\ailsion. The happy lover's attitude toward his
partner is not expressed by the well-known Sonnet (CXXIX)
of Shakespeare: —
"Past reason hunted, and no sooner had
Past reason hated."
He feels rather with Boccaccio that the kissed mouth loses not
its charm,
"Bocca baciata non perde ventura."
In women the results of detumescence are the same, except
that the tendency to lassitude is not marked unless the act has
been several times repeated; there is a sensation of repose
and self-assurance, and often an accession of free and joyous
energy. After completely satisfactory detumescence she may
experience a feeling as of intoxication, lasting for several hours,
an intoxication that is followed by no evil reaction.
Such, so far as our present vague and imperfect knowledge
extends, are the main features in the process of detumescence.
In the future, without doubt, we shall learn to know more pre-
cisely a process which has been so supremely important in the
life of man and of his ancestors.
III.
The Constituents of Semen — Function of the Prostate — The Prop-
erties of Semen — Aphrodisiacs — Alcohol, Opium, etc. — Anaphrodisiacs —
The Stimulant Influence of Semen in Coitus — The Internal Effects of
Testicular Secretions — The Influence of Ovarian Secretion.
The germ cell never comes into the sphere of consciousness
and cannot therefore concern us in the psychological study of
the phenomena of the sexual instinct. But it is otherwise with
the sperm cell, and the seminal fluid has a relationship, both
direct and indirect, to psychic phenomena which it is now neces-
sary to discuss.
While the spermatozoa are formed in the glandular tissue
of the testes, the seminal fluid as finally emitted in detumes-
cence is not a purely testicular product, but is formed by mix-
ture with the fluids poured out at or before detumescence by
various glands which open into the urethra, and notably the
prostate.^ This is a purely sexual gland, which in animals only
becomes large and active during the breeding season, and may
even be hardly distinguishable at other times; moreover, if the
testes are removed in infancy, the prostate remains rudimentary,
so that during recent years removal of the testes has been
widely advocated and practiced for that hypertrophy of the pros-
tate which is sometimes a distressing ailment of old age. It is
the prostatic fluid, according to Fiirbringer, which imparts its
characteristic odor to semen. It appears, however, to be the
main function of the prostatic fluid to arouse and maintain
the motility of the spermatozoa; before meeting the prostatic
fluid the spermatozoa are motionless; that fluid seems to fur-
*The composite character of the semen was recognized by various
old authors, some of whom said, (e.g., WTiarton) that it had three con-
stituents, which they usually considered to be: (1) The noblest and
most essential part, from the testicles; (2) a watery element from the
vesiculae; (3) an oily element from the prostate. Schurig, Sperina-
tologia, 1720, p. 17.
(171)
172 PSYCHOLOGY OF BEX.
nish a thinner medium in which they for the first time gain
their full vitality.^
When at length the semen is ejaculated, it contains various
substances which may be separated from it,^ and possesses vari-
ous qualities, some of which have only lately been investigated,
while others have evidently been known to mankind from a very
early period. "When held for some time in the mouth/' re-
marked John Hunter, "it produces a warmth similar to spices,
which lasts some time."^ Possibly this fact first suggested that
semen might, when ingested, possess valuable stimulant quali-
ties, a discovery which has been made by various savages, notably
by the Australian aborigines, who, in many parts of Australia,
administer a potion of semen to dying or feeble members of the
tribe.* It is perhaps noteworthy that in Central Africa the
testes of the goat are consumed as an aphrodisiac.^ In eigh-
teenth century Europe, Schurig, in his Spermatologia, still
found it necessary to discuss at considerable length the possible
medical properties of human semen, giving many prescriptions
which contained it.® The stimulation produced by the ingestion
of semen would appear to form in some cases a part of the
attraction exerted by fellatio; De Sade emphasized this point;
and in a case recorded by Howard semen appears to have acted
as a stimulant for which the craving was as irresistible as is
that for alcohol in dipsomania.'^
It must be remembered that the early history of this subject is
more or less inextricably commingled with folk-lore practices of magical
' See, e.ff., C. Mansell Moulin, "A Contribution to the Morpholo,£;y
of the Prostate," Journal of Anatomy and Plvisiology, January, 1895;
G. Walker, " A Contribution to the Anatomy .and Physiolotjy of the
Prostate Gland, and a Few Observations on Ejaculation," Johns Hop-
kins Hospital BtiUetin, October, 1900.
* For a study of the semen and its constituents, see Florence, "Du
Sperme," Archives d' Anthropologic Criminelle, 1895.
'J. Hunter, Essai/s and Observations, vol. i, p. 189.
*A3 regards one part of Australia, Walter Roth, Ethnological
Studies Among the Queensland Aborigines, p. 174.
»Sir H. H. Johnston, British Central Africa, p. 438.
• Cap. VIT, pp. 327-357, "De Spermaticis virilis usu Medico."
' W. L. Howard, "Sexual Perversion," Alienist and Neurologist,
January, 1896.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 173
origin, not necessarily founded on actual observation of the physiological
effects of consuming the semen or testes. Thus, according to W. H.
Pearse (Scalpel, December, 1897), it is the custom in Cornwall for
country maids to eat the testicles of the young male lambs when they
are castrated in the spring, the survival, probably, of a very ancient
religious cult. (I have not myself been able to hear of this custom in
Cornwall.) In Burchard's Penitential (Cap. CLIV, Wasserschleben, op.
cit., p. 6G0) seven years' penance is assigned to the woman who swallows
her husband's semen to make him love her more. In the seventeenth
century (as shown in William Salmon's London Dispensatory, 1678)
semen was still considered to be good against witchcraft and also valu-
able as a love-philter, in which latter capacity its use still survives.
(Bourke, Scatalogic Rites, pp. 343, 355.) In an earlier age (Picart,
quoted by Crawley, The Mystic Rose, p. 109) the Manichaeans, it is said,
sprinkled their eucharistic bread with human semen, a custom followed
by the Albigenses.
The belief, perhaps founded in experience, that semen possesses
medical and stimulant virtues was doubtless fortified by the ancient
opinion that the spinal cord is the source of this fluid. This was not
only held by th« highest medical authorities in Greece, but also in
India and Persia.
The semen is thus a natural stimulant, a physiological aphrodisiac,
the type of a class of drugs which have been known and cultivated in all
parts of the world from time immemorial. (Dufour has discussed the
aphrodisiacs used in ancient Rome, Histoire de la Prostitution, vol. II,
ch. 21.) It would be vain to attempt to enumerate all the foods and
medicaments to which has been ascribed an influence in heightening the
sexual impulse. (Thus, in the sixteenth century, aphrodisiacal virtues
■were attributed to an immense variety of foods by Liebault in his
Thresor des Remcdcs Secrets pour les Maladies des Fcmmcs, 1585, pp. 104,
et seq.) A large number of them certainly have no such efl"ect at all,
but have obtained this credit either on some magical ground or from a
mistaken association. Thus the potato, when first introduced from
America, had the reputation of being a powerful aphrodisiac, and the
Elizabethan dramatists contain many references to this supposed virtue.
As we know, potatoes, even when taken in the largest doses, have not
the slightest aplirodisiac effect, and the Irish peasantry, whose diet con-
sists very largely of potatoes, are even regarded as possessing an un-
usually small measure of sexual feeling. It is probable that the mistake
arose from the fact that potatoes were originally a luxury, and luxuries
frequently tend to be regarded as aphrodisiacs, since they are consumed
under circumstances which tend to arouse the sexual desires. It is pos-
sible also that, as has been plausibly suggested, the misunderstanding
may have been due to sailors— the first to be familiar with the potato —
174 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
who attributed to this particular element of their diet ashore the gen-
erally stimulating qualities of their life in port. The eryngo (Eryngium
viaritimum), or sea holly, which also had an erotic reputation in Eliza-
bethan times, may well have acquired it in the same way. Many other
vegetables have a similar reputation, which they still retain. Thua
onions are regarded as aphrodisiacal, and were so regarded by the
Greeks, as we learn from Aristophanes. It is notewhorthy that Marro,
a reliable observer, has found that in Italy, both in prisons and asylums,
lascivious people are fond of onions {La Pubertd, p. 297), and it may
perhaps be worth while to recall the observation of Serieux that in a
woman in whom the sexual instinct only awoke in middle age there was
a horror of leeks. In some coimtries, and especially in Belgium, celery
is popularly looked upon as a sexual stimulant. Various condiments,
again, have the same reputation, perhaps because they are hot and be-
cause sexual desii'e is regarded, rightly enough, as a kind of heat. Fish —
skate, for instance, and notably oysters and other shellfish — are very
widely regarded as aphrodisiacs, and Kisch attributes this property to
caviar. It is probable that all these and other foods which have obtained
this reputation, in so far as they have any action whatever on the sexual
appetite, only possess it by virtue of their generally nutritious and
stimulating qualities, and not by the presence of any special principle
having a selective action on the sexual sphere. A beefsteak is probably
as powerful a sexual stimulant as any food; a nutritious food, however,
which is at the same time easily digestible, and thus requiring less ex-
penditure of energy for its absorption, may well exert a specially rapid
and conspicuous stimulant effect. But it is not possible to draw a line,
and, as Aquinas long since said, if we wish to maintain ourselves in a
state of purity we shall fear even an immoderate use of bread and water.
More definitely aphrodisiacal effects are produced by drugs, and
especially by drugs which in large doses are poisons. The aphrodisiac
with the widest popular reputation is cantharides, but its sexually
exciting effects are merely an accidental result of its action in causing
inflammation of the genito-urinary passage, and it is both an uncertain
and a dangerous result, except in skillful hands and when administered
in small doses. Nux vomica (with its alkaloid strychnia), by virtue of
its special action on the spinal cord, has a notably pronounced effect in
heightening the irritability of the spinal ejaeulatory center, though it
by no means necessarily exerts any strengthening influence. Alcohol
exerts a sexually exciting effect, but in a different manner; it produces
little stimulation of the cord and, indeed, even paralyzes the lumbar
sexual center in large doses, but it has an influence on the peripheral
nerve-endings and on the skin, and also on the cerebral centers, tending
to arouse desire and to diminish inhibition. In this latter way, as
Adler remarks, it may, in small doses, under some circumstances, be
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 175
beneficial in men with an excessive nervousness or dread of coitus, and
women, in whom orgasm has been difficult to reach, have frequently
found this facilitated by some previous indulgence in alcohol. The
aphrodisiac effect of alcohol seems specially marked on women. But
against the use of alcohol as an aphrodisiac it must be remembered that
it is far from being a tonic to detumescence, at all events in men, and
that there is much evidence tending to show that not only chronic
alcoholism, but even procreation during intoxication is perilous to the
offspring (see, e.g., Andriezen, Journal of Mental Science, January, 1905,
and cf. W. C. Sullivan, ''Alcoholism and Suicidal Impulses," ib., April,
1898, p. 268) ; it may be added that Bunge has found a very high propor-
tion of cases of immoderate use of alcohol in the fathers of women
unable to suckle their infants (G. von Bunge, Die Zunehniende Unfdhig-
keit der Frauen Hire Kinder zu Stillen, 1903) while even an approxima-
tion to the drunken state is far from being a desirable prelude to the
creation of a new human being. It is obvious that those who wish,for any
reason, to cultivate a strict chastity of thought and feeling would do
well to avoid alcohol altogether, or only In its lightest forms and in
moderation. The aphrodisiacal effects of wine have long been known;
Ovid refers to them (e.g., Ars Am., Bk. ill, 765). Clement of Alexandria,
who was something of a man of science as well as a Christian moralist,
points out the influence of wine in producing lasciviousness and sexual
precocity. {Poedugogus, Bk. II, Chapter il). Chaucer makes the Wife
of Bath say in the Wife of Bath's Prologue: —
"And, after wyn, on V'enus moste [needs] I thinke:
For al so siken as cold engendreth hayl,
A likerous mouth moste have a likerous tayl.
In womman vinolent is no defense.
This knowen lechours by experience."
Alcohol, as Chaucer pointed out, comes to the aid of the man, who is
imscrupulous in his efforts to overcome a woman, and this not merely
by virtue of its aphrodisiacal effects, and the apparently special influ-
ence which it seems to exert on women, but also because it lulls the
mental and emotional characteristics which are the guardians of person-
ality. A correspondent who has questioned on this point a number of
prostitutes he has known, writes: "Their accounts of the first fall were
nearly always the same. They got to know a 'gentleman,' and on one oc-
casion they drank too much ; before they quite realized what was
happening they were no longer virgins." "In the mental areas, under
the influence of alcohol," Schmiedeberg remarks (in his Elements of Phar-
macology), "the finer degrees of observation, judgment, and reflection
are the first to disappear, while the remaining mental functions remain
in a normal condition. The soldier acts more boldly because he notices
176 PSYCnOLOGY OF SEX.
dangers less and reflects over them less; the orator does not allow him-
self to be influenced by any disturbing side-considerations as to his
audience, hence he speaks more freely and spiritedly; self -consciousness
is lost to a very great extent, and many are astounded at the ease with
which they can express their thoughts, and at the acuteness of their
judgment in matters which, when they are perfectly sober, with diffi-
culty reach their minds ; and then afterwards they are ashamed at their
mistakes."
The action of opium in small doses is also to some extent aphro-
disiacal; it slightly stimulates both the brain and the spinal cord, and
has sensory effects on the skin like alcohol; these effects are favored
by the state of agreeable dreaminess it produces. In the seventeenth
century Venette (La Gl'ndration de VBomme, Part II, Chapter V)
strongly recommended small doses of opium, then little known, for this
purpose; he had himself, he says, in illness experienced its joys, "a
shadow of those of heaven." In India opium (as well as cannabis indica)
has long been a not uncommon aphrodisiac; it is specially used to di-
minish local sensibility, delaying the orgasm and thus prolonging the
sexual act. (W. D. Sutherland, "De Impotentia," Indian Medical Gazette,
January, 1900). Its more direct and stimulating influence on the sexual
emotions seems indicated by the statement that prostitutes are found
standing outside the opium-smoking dens of Bombay, but not outside the
neighboring liquor shops. (G. C. Lucas, Lancet, February 2, 1884.) Like
alcohol, opium seems to have a marked aphrodisiacal effect on women.
The case is recorded of a mentally deranged girl, with no nymphomania
though she masturbated, who on taking small doses of opium at once
showed signs of nymphomania, following men about, etc. {American
Journal Obstetrics, May, 1901, p 74.) It may well be believed that opium
acts beneficially in men when the ejaculatory centers are weak but
irritable; but its actions are too widespread over the organism to make
it in any degree a valuable aphrodisiac. Various other drugs have more
or less reputation as aphrodisiacs; thus bromide of gold, a nervous and
glandular stimulant, is said to have as one of its effects a heightening
of sexual feeling. Yohimbin, an alkaloid derived from the West African
Yohimbehe tree, has obtained considerable repute during recent years
in the treatment of impotence; in some cases (see, e.g, Tofi''s results,
summarized in British Medical Journal, February 18, 1905) it has pro-
duced good results, apparently by increasing the blood supply to the
sexual organs, but has not been successful in all cases or in all hands.
It must always be remembered that in cases of psychical impotence
suggestion necessarily exerts a beneficial influence, and this may work
through any drug or merely with the aid of bread pills. All exercise,
often even walking, may be a sexual stimulant, and it is scarcely neces-
sary to add that powerful stimulation of the skin in the sexual sphere.
THE MECHANISil OF DETUMESCENCE. 177
and more especially of the nates, is often a more effective aphrodisiac
than any drug, whether the irritation is purely mechanical, as by flog-
ging, or mechanico-chemical, as by urtication or the application of
nettles. Among the Malays (with whom both men and women often
use a variety of plants as aphrodisiacs, according to Vaughan Stevens)
Breitenstein states {21 Jahre in India, Theil I, p. 228) that both mas-
sage and gymnastics are used to increase sexual powers. The local
application of electricity is one of the most powerful of aphrodisiacs,
and McMordie found on applying one pole to a uterine sound in the
uterus and the other to the abdominal wall that in the majority of
healthy women the orgasm occurred.
Among anaphrodisiacs, or sexual sedatives, bromide of potassium,
by virtue of its antidotal relationship to strychnia, is one of the drugs
whose action is most definite, though, while it dulls sexual desire, it also
dulls all the nervous and cerebral activities. Camphor has an ancient
reputation as an anaphrodisiac, and its use in this respect was known
to the Arabs (as may be seen by a reference to it in the Perfumed
Garden); while, as Hyrtl mentions (loc. eit. ii, p 94), rue (Rata
graveolens) was considered a sexual sedative by the monks of old, who
on this account assiduously cultivated it in their cloister gardens to
make vinum rutce. Recently heroin in large doses (see, €.g, Becker,
Berliner KliniscJte Woclienschrift, November 23, 1903) has been found to
have a useful effect in this direction. It may be doubted, however,
whether there is any satisfactoiy and reliable anaphrodisiac. Charcot,
indeed, it is said, used to declare that the only anaphrodisiac in which he
had any confidence was that used by the uncle of Heloise in the case of
Abelard. "Cela (he would add with a grim smile) tranche la difficulte."
If semen is a stimulant when ingested, it is easy to suppose
that it may exert a similar action on the woman who receives it
into the vagina in normal sexual congress. It is by no means
improbable that, as Mattel argued in 1878, this is actually the
case. It is known that the vagina possesses considerable absorp-
tive power. Thus Coen and Levi, among others, have shown
that if a tampon soaked in a solution of iodine is introduced
into the vagina, iodine will be found in the urine within an
hour. And the same is true of various other substances.^ If
the vagina absorbs drugs it probably absorbs semen. Toff, of
Braila (Roumania), who attaches much importance to such
absorption, considers that it must be analogous to the ingestion
of organic extractives. It is due to this influence, he believes.
^Zentramatt fiir Q-ynukolouie, 1894, Xo. 49.
12
178 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
that weak and anasmic girls so often become full-blooded and
robust after marriage, and lose their nervous tendencies and
sh3'ness.^
It is, however, most certainly a mistake to suppose that
the beneficial influence of coitus on women is exclusively, or
even mainly, dependent upon the absorption of semen. This is
conclusively demonstrated by the fact that such beneficial in-
fluence is exerted, and in full measure, even when all precau-
tions have been taken to avoid any contact with the semen. In
so far as coitus reservatus or interruptus may lead to haste or
discomfort which prevents satisfactory orgasm on the part of
the woman, it is without doubt a cause of defective detumes-
cence and incomplete satisfaction. But if orgasm is complete
the beneficial effects of coitus follow even if there has been no
possibility of the absorption of semen. Even after coitus inter-
ruptus, if it can be prolonged for a period long enough for the
woman to attain full and complete satisfaction, she is enabled
to experience what she may describe as a feeling of intoxication,
lasting for several hours. It is in the action of the orgasm
itself, and the vascular, secretory, and metabolic activities set
up by the psychic and nervous influence of coitus with a beloved
person, that we must seek the chief key to the effects produced
by coitus on women, however these effects may possibly be still
~ further heightened by the actual absorption of semen.^
The positive action of semen, or rather of the testicular
products, has been much investigated during recent years, and
appears on the whole to be demonstrated. The notable dis-
' E. Toff, "Uber Impragnienmg," Zentrcflblatt fiir Gijmilcoloi/ie,
April, 1903. In a similar but somewhat more precise manner Dufoug&re
has argued ("La Chlorose, ses rapports avec le marriage, son traitement
par le liquide orchitique," These de Bordeaux, 1902) that semen when
absorbed by the A'agina stimulates the secretion of the ovaries and
thus exerts an influence over the blood in anaemia; in this way he seeks
to explain why it is that coitus is the best treatment for chlorosis.
' In this connection I may refer to an interesting and suggestive
paper by Harry Campbell on "The Craving for Stimulants" (Lancet,
October 21, 1899). No reference is made to coitus, but the author dis-
cusses stimulants as normal and beneficial products of the organi-^m,
and deals with the nature of the "physiological intoxication" they
produce.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 179
covery by Brown-Seqiiard, a quarter of a century ago, that tlie
ingestion of the testicular juices in states of debility and sen-
ility acted as a beneficial stimulant and tonic, opened the way
to a new field of therapeutics. Many investigators in various
countries have found that testicular extracts, and more espe-
cially the spermin as studied by Poehl,^ and by him
regarded as a positive katalysator or accelerator of metabolic
processes, exert a real influence in giving tone to the heart and
other muscles, and in improving the metabolism of the tissues
even when all influences of mental suggestion have been ex-
cluded.^
As the ovaries are strictly analogous to the testes, it was sur-
mised that ovarian extract might prove a drug equally valuable with
testicular products. As a matter of fact, ovarian extract, in the form
of ovarin, etc., would seem to have proved beneficial in various disorders,
more especially in anaemia and in troubles due to the artificial meno-
pause. In most conditions, however, in which it has been employed the
results are doubtful or uncertain, and some authorities believe that the
influence of suggestion plays a considerable part here.
There is, however, another use which is subserved by the
testicular products, a use which may indeed be said to be implied
in those uses to which, reference has already been made, but is
yet historically the latest to be realized and studied. It was
not until 1869 that Brown-Sequard first suggested that an im-
portant secretion was elaborated by the ductless glands and
received into the circulation, but that suggestion prcrved to be
epoch-making. If these glandular secretions are so valuable
when administered as drugs to other persons, must they not be
of far greater value when naturally secreted and poured out
into the circulation in the living body? It is now generally
^Spermin was first discovered in the sperm by Schreiner in 1878;
it has also been found in the thyroid, ovaries and various other glands.
"The spermin secreting and elaborating organs," Howard Kelly remarks
(British Medical Journal, January 29, 1898), "may be called the 'apothe-
caries* of the body, secreting many important medicaments, much more
active and more accurately representing its true wants than artificially
administered drugs."
* See, e.g., a summary of Buschan's comprehensive discussion of the
subject of organotherapy (Eulenburg's Real-Encyclopwdie der Gesammten
Eeilkunde) in Journal of Mental Science, April, 1899, p. 355.
180 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
believed, on the basis of a large and variotib body of evidence,
that this is undoubtedly so. In a very crude form, indeed, this
belief is by no means modern. In opposition to the old writers
who were inclined to regard the semen as an excretion which it
was beneficial to expel, there were other ancient authorities who
argued that it was beneficial to retain it as being a vital fluid
which, if reabsorbed, served to invigorate the body. The great
physiologist, Haller, in the middle of the eighteenth century,
came very near to the modern doctrine when he stated in his
Elements of Physiology that the sperm accumulated in the se-
minical vesicles is pumped back into the blood, and thus pro-
duces the beard and the hair together with the other surprising
changes of puberty which are absent in the eunuch. The re-
absorption of semen can scarcely be said to be a part of the mod-
ern physiological doctrine, but it is at least now generally held
that the testes secrete substances which pass into the circulation
and are of immense importance in the development of the or-
ganism.
The experiments of Shattock and Seligmann indicate that
the semen and its reabsorption in the seminal vesicles, or the
nervous reactions produced by its presence, can have no part in
the formation of secondary sexual characters. These investi-
gators occluded the vas deferens in sheep by ligature, at an early
age, rendering them later sterile though not impotent. The sec-
ondary sexual characters appeared as in ordinary sheep. Sper-
matogenesis, these inquirers conclude, may be the initial factor,
but the results must be attributed to the elaboration by the tes-
ticles of an internal secretion and its absorption into the gen-
eral circulation.^
When animals are castrated there is enlargement of the
ductless glands in the body, notably the thyroid and the supra-
renal capsules.^ It is evident, therefore, that the secretions of
' "Observations Upon the Acquirement of Secondary Sexual Char-
acters, Indicating the Formation of an Internal Secretion by tlie Tea-
tides," Proceedings Royal Society, vol. Ixxiii, p. 49.
•See, e.y., the experiments of Cecca and Zappi, summarized In
British Medical Journal, July 2, 1904.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 181
these ductless glands are in some degree compensatory to those
of the testes. But this compensatory action is inadequate to
produce any sexual development in the absence of the testes.
"We see, therefore, how extremely important is the function
of the testis. Its significance is not alone for the race, it is not
simply concerned with the formation of the spermatozoa which
share equally with the ova the honor of making the mankind of
the future. It also has a separate and distinct function which
has reference to the individual. It elaborates those internal
secretions T/hich stimulate and maintain the physical and mental
characters, constituting all that is most masculine in the
male animal, all that makes the man in distinction from the
eunuch. Among various primitive peoples, including those of
the European, race whence we ourselves spring, the most solemn
form of oath was sworn by placing the hand on the testes, dimly
recognized as the most sacred part of the body. A crude and
passing phase of civilization has ignorantly cast ignominy upon
the sexual organs; the more primitive belief is now justified by
our advancing knowledge.
In tlieac as in other respects the ovaries are precisely analogous
to the testes. They not only form the ova, but they elaborate for
internal use a secretion Avhich develops and maintains the special phys-
ical and mental qualities of womanhood, as the testicular secretion those
of manhood. Moreover, as Cecca and Zappi found, removal of the
ovaries h8.s exactly the same effect on the abnormal development of the
other ductless glands as has removal of the testes. It is of interest to
point out that the internal secretion of the ovaries and its important
functions seem to have been suggested before any other secretion than
the sperm was attributed to the testes. Early in the nineteenth cen-
tury Cabanis argued ("De I'lnfluence des Sexes sur le Caractere des
Idges et des Affections Morales," Rapport du Physique et du Moral de
V Homme, 1824, vol. ii, p. 18) that the ovaries are secreting glands,
forming a "particular humor" which is reabsorbed into the blood and
imparts excitations which are felt by the whole system and all its
organs.
IV.
The Aptitude for Detumescence — Is There an Erotic Temperament?
— The Available Standards of Comparison — Characteristics of the Cas-
trated — Characteristics of Puberty — Characteristics of the State of De-
tumescence — Shortness of Stature — Development of the Secondary
Sexual Characters — Deep Voice — Bright Eyes — Glandular Activity —
Everted Lips — Pigmentation — Profuse Hair — Dubious Significance of
Many of These Characters.
What, if any, are the indications which the body generally
may furnish as to the individual's aptitude and vigor for the
orgasm of detumescence? Is there an erotic temperament out-
wardly and visibly displayed ? That is a question which has
often occupied those who have sought to penetrate the more
intimate mysteries of human nature, and since we are here con-
cerned with human beings in their relationship to the process
of detumescence, we cannot altogether pass over this question,
difficult as it is to discuss it with precision.
The old physiognomists showed much confidence in dealinj» with
the matter. Possibly they had more opportunities for observation than
we have, since they often wrote in days when life was lived more nakedly
than among ourselves, but their descriptions, while sometimes showing
much insight, are inextricably mixed up with false science and super-
stition.
In the De Secretis MuUerum, wrongly attributed to Albertus
Magnus, we find a chapter entitled "Signa mulieris calidse naturse et
quae coit libenter," which may be summarized here. "The signs," we are
told, "of a woman of warm temperament, and one who willingly cohabits
are these: youth, an age of over 12, or younger, if she has been
seduced, small, high breasts, full and hard, hair in the usual positions;
she is bold of speech, with a delicate and high voice, haughty and
even cruel of disposition, of good complexion, lean rather than
stout, inclined to like drinking. Such a woman always desires coitus,
and receives satisfaction in the act. The menstrual flow is not abundant
nor always regular. If she becomes pregnant the milk is not abundant.
Her perspiration is less odorous than that of the woman of opposite
(182)
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 183
temperament; she is fond of singing, and of moving about, and delights
in adornments if she has any."
Polemon, in his Snlla Pliysionomia, has given among the signs of
libidinous impulse: knees turned inwards, abundance of hairs on the
legs, squint, bright eyes, a high and strident voice, and in women length
of leg below the knee. Aristotle had mentioned among the signs of
wantonness: paleness, abundance of hair on the body, thick and black
hair, hairs covering the temples, and thick eyelids.
In the seventeenth century Bouchet, in his Series (TroisiC-me
Seree), gave as the signs of virility which indicated that a man coul I
have children: a great voice, a thick rougli black beard, a large thick
nose.
G. Tourdes (Art. "Aphrodisie," Dictionnaire Encyclopediqite dcs
Sciences Medicales) thus summarized the ancient beliefs on this subject:
"The erotic temperament has been described as marked by a lean figure,
white and well-ranged teeth, a developed hairy system, a characteristic
voice, air, and expression, and even a special odor."
In approaching the question of the general physical indi-
cations of a special aptitude to the manifestation of vigorous
detumescence, the most obvious preliminary would seem
to be a study of the castrated. If we know the special
peculiarities of those who by removal of the sexual
glands at a very early age have been deprived of all ability to
present the manifestations of detumescence, we shall probably
be in possession of a type which is the reverse of that which we
may expect in persons of a vigorously erotic temperament.
The most general characteristics of eunuchs would appear
to be an unusual tendency to put on fat, a notably greater length
of the legs, absence of hair in the sexual and secondary sexual
regions, a less degree of pigmentation, as noted both in the cas-
trated negro and the white man, a puerile larynx and puerile
voice. In character they are usually described as gentle, con-
ciliatory, and charitable.
There can be little doubt that castration in man tends to lead to
lengthening of the legs (tibia and fibula) at puberty, from delayed ossi-
fication of the epiphyses. The hands and feet are also frequently longer
and sometimes the forearms. At the same time the bones are more
slender. The pelvis also is narrower. The eunuchs of Cairo are said
to be easily seen in a crowd from their tall stature. (Collineau, quoting
Lortet, Revue Mensuelle de VEcole d'Anthropologie, May, 1896.) The
184 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
castrated Skoptzy show increased stature, and, it seems, large ears, with
decreased chest and head (L. Pittard, Revue Scientifiqiie, June 20, 1903.)
Ferg shows that in most of these respects the eunuch resembles beard-
less and infantile subjects. ("Les Proportions des Membres et les
Caracteres Sexuels," Journal de VAnatomie et de la Physiologic, Novem-
ber-December, 1897.) Similar phenomena are found in animals generally.
Sellheim, carefully investigating castrated horses, swine, oxen and fowls,
found retardation of ossification, long and slender extremities, long,
broad, but low skull, relatively smaller pelvis and small thorax. ("Zur
Lehre von den Sekundiiren Geschlechtscharakteren," Beitrdge zur
Gehtirtshulfe vnd Gyndeologie, 1898, summarized in CcntralUatt filr
Anthropologie, 1900, Heft IV.)
As regards the mental qualities and moral character of the cas-
trated, Griffiths considers that there is an undue prejudice against
euunchs, and refers to Narses, who was not only one of the first generals
of the Roman Empire, but a man of highly estimable character. {Lancet,
March 30, 1895.) Matignon, who has carefully studied Chinese eunuchs,
points out that they occupy positions of much responsibility, and,
though regarded in many respects as social outcasts, possess very excel-
lent and amiable moral qualities (Archives CUniques de Bordeaux, May,
1896.) In America Everett Flood finds that epileptics and feeble-minded
boys are mentally and morally benefited by castration. ("Notes on the
Castration of Idiot Children," American Journal of Psychology, January,
1899.) It is often foi:gotten that the physical and psychic qualities
associated with and largely dependent on the ability to experience the
impulse of detumescence, while essential to the perfect man, involve
many egoistic, aggressive and acquisitive characteristics which are of
little intellectual value, and at the same time inimical to many moral
virtues.
We have a further standard — positive this time rather than
negative — to aid us in determining the erotic temperament:
the phenomena of puberty. The efflorescence of puberty is essen-
tially the manifestation of the ability to experience detumes-
cence. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that the individuals
in whom the special phenomena of puberty develop most mark-
edly are those in whom detumescence is likely to be most
vigorous. If such is the case we should expect to find the erotic
temperament marked by developed larynx and deep voice, a con-
siderable degree of pigmentary development in hair and skin,
THE MECHANISM OE DETUMESCENCE. 185
and a marked tendency to hairiness; while in women there
should be a pronounced growth of the breasts and pelvis.^
There is yet another standard by which we may measure
the individual's aptitude for detumescence : the presence of
those activities which are most prominently brought into play
during the process of detumescence. The individual, that is to
say, who is organically most apt to manifest the physiological
activities which mainly make up the process of detumescence,
is most likely to be of pronounced erotic temperament.
"Erotic persons are of motor type," remark Vaschide and
Vurpas, "and we may say generally that nearly all persons of
motor type are erotic." The state of detumescence is one of
motor and muscular energy and of great vascular activity, so
that habitual energy of motor response and an active circulation
may reasonably be taken to indicate an aptitude for the mani-
festation of detumescence.
These three types may be said, therefore, to furnish us
valuable though somewhat general indications. The individual
who is farthest removed from the castrated type, who presents
in fullest degree the characters which begin to emerge at the
period of puberty, and who reveals a physiological aptitude for
the vigorous manifestation of those activities which are called
into action during detumescence, is most likely to be of erotic
temperament. The most cautious description of the character-
istics of this temperament given by modern scientific writers,
unlike the more detailed and hazardous descriptions of the early
physiognomists, will be found to be fairly true to the standards
thus presented to us.
The man of sexual type, according to Bierent {LaPubertc, p. 148),
is hairy, dark and deep-voiced.
"The men most liable to satyriasis," Bouchereau states (art.
"Satyriasis," Dictionnaire Encyclop6dique des Sciences Medicales), "are
those with vigorous nervous system, developed muscles, abundant hair
on body, dark complexion, and white teeth."
^ See Bierent, La Ptiherti; Marro, La Puhertd, (and enlarged
French translation, La PiiherU), and portions of G. S. Hall's Adoles-
cence; also Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman (fourth edition, revised
and enlarged).
186 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
Mantegazza, in his Fisiologia del Piaccre, thus describes the sexual
temperament: "Individuals of nervous temperament, those with fine
and brown sivins, rounded forms, large lips and very prominent larynx
enjoy in general much more than those with opposite characteristics.
A universal tradition," he adds, "describes as lascivious humpbacks,
dwarfs, and in general persons of short stature and with long noses."
In a case of nymphomania in a young woman, described by Alibert
(and quoted by Laycock, Nervous Diseases of TTome??, p. 28) the hips,
thighs and legs were remarkably plump, while the chest and arms were
completely emaciated. In a somewhat similar case described by Marc
in his De la FoJie a peasant woman, who from an early age had experi-
enced sexual hypersesthesia, so that she felt spasmodic voluptuous feel-
ings at the sight of a man, and was thus the victim of solitary excesses
and of spasmodic movements which she could not repress, the upper
part of the body was very thin, the hips, legs and thighs highly
developed.
In his work on Uterine and Ovarian Inflammation (1862, p. 37)
Tilt observes: "The restless, bashful eye, and changing complexion, in
presence of a person of the opposite sex, and a nervous restlessness of
body, ever on the move, turning and twisting on sofa or chair, are the
best indications of sexual temperament."
An extremely sensual little girl of 8, who was constantly mastur-
bating when not watched, although brought up by nuns, was described
by Busdraghi {Archivio di Psichiatria, fas. i, 1888, p. 53) as having
chestnut hair, bright black eyes, an elevated nose, small mouth, pleas-
ant round face, full colored cheeks, and plump and healthy aspect.
A highly intelligent young Italian woman with strong and some-
what perverted sexual impulses is described as of attractive appearance,
with olive complexion, small black almond-shaped eyes, dilated pupils,
oblique thin eyebrows, very thick black hair, rather prominent cheek-
bones, largely developed jaw, and with abundant down on lower part
of cheeks and on upper lip. (Archivio di Psichiatria, 1899, fasc. v-vi.)
As the type of the sensual woman in word and act, led by her
passions to commit various sexual offenses, Ottolenghi describes
{Archivio di Psichiatria, vol. xii, fasc. v-vi, p. 496) a woman of 32 who
attempted to kill her lover. The daughter of parents who were neurotic
and themselves very erotic, she was a highly intelligent and vivacious
woman, with a pleasing and open face, very thick dark chestnut hair,
large cheek-bones, adipose buttocks almost resembling those of a Hot-
tentot, and very thick pubic hair. She was very fond of salt things.
Sexual inclination began at the age of 7.
Adler and Moll remark^ very truly, that, so far at least as
women are concerned, sexual anassthesia or sexual proclivity
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 187
cannot be unfailingly read on the features. Every woman de-
sires to please, and coquetry is the sign of a cold, rather than
of an erotic temperament.^ It may be added that a considerable
degree of congenital sexual anaesthesia by no means prevents a
woman from being beautiful and attractive, though it must
probably still always be said that, as Eoubaud points out,^ the
woman of cold and intellectual temperament, the "femme de
tete,^' however beautiful and skillful she may be, cannot com-
pete in the struggle for love with the woman whose qualities are
of the heart and of the emotions. But it seems sufficiently clear
that the practical observations of skilled and experienced ob-
servers agree in attributing to persons of erotic type certain
general characteristics which accord with those negative and
positive standards we may frame on the basis of castration, of
puberty, and of detumescence. It may be worth while to note
a few of these characteristics briefly.
The abnormal lengthening of the long bones at the age of
puberty in the castrated is, as we have seen, very pronounced.
There is little tendency to associate length of limb with an
erotic temperament, and a certain amount of data as well as of
more vague opinion points in the opposite direction. The Arabs
would appear to believe that it is short rather than tall people
in whom the sexual instinct is strongly developed, and we read
in the Perfumed Garden: "Under all circumstances little women
love coitus more and evince a stronger affection for the virile
member than women of a large size." In his elaborate investi-
gation of criminals Marro found that prostitutes and women
guilty of sexual offenses, as also male sexual offenders, tend to
be short and thick set.^ In European folk-lore the thick, bull
neck is regarded as a sign of strong sexuality.* Mantegazza
refers to a strong sexual temperament as being associated with
arrest or disorder of bony development, and Marro suggests that
* Adler, Die MangelJiaftc Creschlechtsempflndung des Weibes, p. 174;
Moll, "Perverse Sexualempfindung, Psychische Impotenz und Ehe" (Sec-
tion II), in Senator and Kaminer, KrankJwiten und Ehe.
*Roubaiid, Traitc de J'Inip7ii)isance, p. o24.
'Marro, Carattrri del DcUnquenti, p. 374.
* KpuTTTdSta, vol. ii, p. 258.
188 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
the proverbial salacity of rachitic individuals may be due to an
increased activity of the sexual organs.^ It may be added that
acromegaly, with its excessive bony growths^ tends to be asso-
ciated with premature sexual involution.
A further point which is frequently mentioned in tlie case
of women is the development of the chief secondary sexual re-
gions: the pelvis and the breasts. It is, indeed, almost in-
evitable that there should be some degree of correlation between
the aptitude lor bearing children and the aptitude for experienc-
ing detumescence. The reality of such a connection is not only
evidenced by medical observations, but receives further testi-
mony in popular beliefs. In Italy women with large buttocks
are considered wanton, and among the South Slavs they are
regarded as especially fruitful.^ Blumenbach asserted that pre-
cocious venery will enlarge the breasts, and believed that he had
found evidence of this among young London prostitutes.'
The association of the aptitude for detumescence with a
tendency to a deep rather than to a high voice, both in men and
women, has frequently been noted and has seldom been denied.
The onset of puberty always affects the voice; in general,
Bierent states, the more bass the voice is the more marked is
the development of the sexual apparatus; "a very robust man,
with very developed sexual organs, and very dark and abundant
hairy system, a man of strong puberty in a word, is nearly al-
ways a bass."* The influence of sexual excitement in deepening
the voice is shown by the rules of sexual hygiene prescribed to
tenors, while a bass has less need to observe similar precautions.
In women every phase of sexual life — puberty, menstruation,
coitus, pregnancy — tends to affect the voice and always by giving
it a deeper character. The deepening of the voice by sexual in-
tercourse was an ancient Greek observation, and Martial refers
to a woman's good or bad singing as an index to her recent
^Marro, La Puhertt, p. 196. In Italy, the sensuality of the lame
is the subject of proverbs.
^ Archivio di Psichiatria, 1896, p. 515; KpvTrrdSio, vol. vi, p. 212.
'Blumenbach, Anthropological Treatises, p. 248.
* Bierent, La Puberty, p. 148.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 189
sexual habits. Prostitutes tend to have a deep voice. Yenturi
points out that married women preserve a fresh voice to a more
advanced age than spinsters, this being due to the precocious
senility in the latter of an unused function. Such a phenom-
enon indicates that the relationship of detumescence to the deep-
ening of the voice is not quite simple. This is further indicated
by the fact that in robust men abstinence still further deepens
the voice (the monk of melodrama always has a bass voice),
while excessive or precocious sexual indulgence tends to be asso-
ciated with the same kind of puerile voice as is found in those
persons in whom pubertal development has not been carried very
far, or who are of what Griffiths terms eunuchoid type. Idiot
boys, who are often sexually undeveloped, tend to have a high
voice, while idiot girls (who often manifest marked sexual
proclivities) not infrequently have a deep voice.^
Bright dilated eyes are among the phenomena of detumes-
cence, and are very frequently noted in persons of a pronounced
erotic temperament. This is, indeed, an ancient observation,
and Burton says of people with a black, lively, and sparkling
eye, "without question they are most amorous," drawing his
illustrations mostly from classic literature.- Tardieu described
the erotic woman as having bright eyes, and Heywood Smith
states that the eyes of lascivious women resemble, though in a
less degree, those of the insane.' Sexual excitement is one
among many causes — intellectual excitement, pain, a loud noise,
even any sensory irritation — which produce dilatation of the
pupils and enlargement of the palpebral fissure, with some pro-
trusion of the eyeball. The influence of the sexual system upon
the eye appears to be far less potent in men than in women.'*
Sexual desire is, however, by no means the only irritant within
the sexual sphere which may thus influence the eye; morbid
irritations may produce the same effect. Milner Fothergill, in
his book on Indigestion, vividly describes the appearance of the
^Venturi, Degenerazioni Psico-sessuali, pp. 408-410.
* Anatomy of Melancholy, Part III, Section II, Mem. II, Sub. II.
* British GiitKVcnlnqical Journal, Febiiary, 1887, p. 505.
* Power, Lancet, November 2G, 1887.
190 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
eyes sometimes seen in ovarian disorder: "The glittering flash
which glances out from some female irides is the external indi-
cation of ovarian irritation, and 'the ovarian gleam' has features
quite its own. The most marked instance which ever came under
my notice was due to irritation in the ovaries, which had been
forced down in front of the uterus and been fixed there by ad-
hesions. Here there was little sexual proclivity, but the eyes
were very remarkable. They flashed and glittered unceasingly,
and at times perfect lightning bolts shot from them. Usually
there is a bright glittering sheen in them which contrasts with
the dead look in the irides of sexual excess or profuse uterine
discharges,"
The activity of the glandular secretions, and especially
those of the skin, during detumescence, would lead us to expect
that such secretory activity is an index to an aptitude for de-
tumescence. As a matter of fact it is occasionally, though not
frequently, noted by medical observers. It is stated that the
erotic temperament is characterized by a special odor.^ The
activity of the sweat-glands is seldom referred to by medical
observers in describing persons of erotic temperament, although
the descriptions of novelists not infrequently contain allusions
to this point, and the literature of an earlier age shows that the
tendency to perspiration, especially the moist hand, was regarded
as a sure sign of a sensual temperament. "The moist-handed
Madonna Imperia, a most rare and divine creature," remarks
Lazarillo in Middleton's comedy Blurt, Master-Constable, to
quote one of many allusions to this point in the Elizabethan
drama.
The lips are sometimes noted as red and everted, perhaps
thick^; Tardieu remarked that the typically erotic woman has
thick red lips. This corresponds with the characteristic type of
the satyr in classic statues as in later paintings; his lips are
' With regard to the sexual relationships of personal odor, see
the previous volume of these Studies, "Sexual Selection in Man," section
on Smell.
^ In European folk-lore thick lips in a woman are sometimes re-
garded as a sign of sensuality, KpuTrrdSia, vol, ii, p, 258,
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 191
always thick and everted. Fullness, redness, and eversion of
the lips are correlated with good breathing, the absence of anas-
mia, laughter, a well-fleshed face.
This kind of mouth indicates, perhaps, not so much a congenitally
erotic temperament, as an abandonment to impulse. The opposite type
of mouth — with inverted, thin, and retracted lips — would appear to be
found with especial frequency in persons who habitually repress their
impulses on moral grounds. Any kind of effort to restrain involuntary
muscular action may lead to retraction of the lips: the effort to over-
come anger or fear, or even the resistance to a strong desire to urinate
or defecate. In religious young men, however, it becomes habitual and
fixed. I recall a small band of medical students, gathered together from
a large medical school, who were accustomed to meet together for prayer
and Bible-readiflg; the majority showed this type of mouth to a very
marked degree : pale faces, with drawn, retracted lips. It may be termed
the Christian or pious fades. It is much less frequently seen in religious
women (unless of masculine type), doubtless because religion for women
is in a much less degree than for men a moral discipline.
It may be added that an interesting form of this contraction of the
lips, and one that is not purely repressive, is that which indicates the
state of muscular tension associated with the impulse to guard and
protect. In this form the contracted mouth is the index of tenderness,
and is characteristic of the mother who is watching over the infant she
is suckling at her breast. I have observed precisely the same expression
in the face of a boy of 14 with a large congenital scrotal hernia; when
the tumor was being examined his lower lip became retracted, well
marked lines appearing from the angles downwards, though the upper
lip retained its normal expression It was precisely the tender look we
may see in the faces of mothers who are watching anxiously over their
offspring, and the emotion is evidently the same in both cases: solicitude
for a sensitive and tenderly guarded object.
The degree of pigmentation is clearly correlated with sex-
ual vigor. "In general," Heusinger laid down, in 1823, "the
quantity of pigment is proportional to the functional effective-
ness of the genital organs." This connection is so profound tliat
it may be traced very widely throughout the organic world.
The connection between pigmentation and sexual activity
is very ancient. Even leaving out of account the wedding ap-
parel of animals, nearly always gorgeous in scales and plumage
and hair, the sexual orifice shows a more or less marked ten-
192 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
dency to pigmentation during the breeding season from fishes
upward, while in mammals the darker pigmentation of this
region is a constant phenomenon in sexually mature individuals.^
In the human species both the negative standard of cas-
tration and the positive standard of puberty alike indicate a
correlation of this kind. Those individuals in whom puberty
never fully develops and who are consequently said to be affected
by infantilism, reveal a relative absence of pigment in the sexual
centers which are normally pigmented to a high degree.^ Among
those Asiatic races who extirpate the ovaries in young girls the
skin remains white in the perineum, roimd the anus, and in the
armpits.^ Even in mature women who undergo ovariotomy, as
Kepler found, the pigmentation of the nipples and areola dis-
appears, as well as of the perineum and anus, the skin taking
on a remarkable whiteness.
Normally the sexual centers, and in a high degree the geni-
tal orifice, represent the maximum of pigmentation, and under
some circumstances this is clearly visible even in infancy. Thus
babies of mixed black and white blood may show no traces of
negro ancestry at birth, but there will always be increased pig-
mentation about the external genitalia.* The linea fusca, which
reaches from the pubes to the navel and occasionally to the
ensiform cartilage, is a line of sexual pigmentation sometimes
regarded as characteristic of pregnancy, but as Andersen, of
Copenhagen, has found by the examination of several hundred
children of both sexes, it exists in a slight form in about 75 per
cent, of young girls, and in almost as large a proportion of boys.
But there is no doubt that it tends to increase with age as well
as to become marked at pregnancy. At puberty there is a gen-
eral tendency to changes in pigmentation; thus Godin found
' The direct dependence of sexual pigmentation on the primary-
sexual glands is well illustrated by a true hermaphroditic adult finch
exhibited at the Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam (May 31, 1890) ;
this bird had a testis on the right side and an ovary on the left, and on
the right side its plumage was of the male's colors, on the left of the
female's color.
' See, e.(j., Papillault, Bulletin Socii'tA d'Atithropologie, 1899, p. 446.
'Guinard, Art. "Castration," Richet's Dictionnaire de Physiologic.
* J. Whitridge Williams, Obstetrics, 1903, p. 132.
THE MECHAXISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 193
that in 28 per cent, adolescent changes occurred in the eyes
and hair at this period, the hair becoming darker, though the
eyes sometimes become lighter. Ammon, in his investigation of
conscripts at the age of 20 {post, p. 196), discovered the sig-
nificant fact that the eyes and hair darken pari passu with sexual
development. In women, during menstruation, there is a gen-
eral tendency to pigmentation ; this is especially obvious around
the eyes, and in some cases black rings of true pigment form in
this position. Even the skin of the negro women of Loango
sometimes becomes a few shades darker during menstruation.^
During pregnancy this tendency to pigmentation reaches its
climax. Pregnancy constantly gives rise to pigmentation of
the face, the neck, the nipples, the abdomen, and this is especially
marked in bnmettes.
This association of pigmentation and sexual aptitudes has
been recognized in the popular lore of some peoples. Thus the
Sicilians, who admire brown skin and have no liking either for
a fair skin or light hair, believe that a white woman is incapable
of responding to love. It is the brown woman who feels love;
as it is said in Sicilian dialect: "Fimmina seura^ fimmina
amurusa.'^^
The dependence of pigmentation upon the sexual system is shown
by the fact that irritation of the genital organs by disease will fre-
quently suiBee to produce a high degree of pigmentation. This may
appear on the face, the neck, the trunk, the hands. Simpson long since
noted that uterine irritation apart from pregnancy may produce pig-
mentation of the areolae of the nipples (Obstetric Works, vol. i, p. 345).
Engelmann discussed the subject and gave cases, "The Hystero-Neu-
roses," pp. 124-139, in Gynecological Transactions, vol. xii, 1887; and a
summary of a memoir by Fouquet on this subject in La Gyn^cologie,
February, 1903, will be found in British Medical Journal, March 28, 1903,
i Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, 1878, p. 19.
*C. Pitre, Medicina Populare Siciliana, p. 47. In England, from
notes sent to me by one correspondent, it would appear that the propor-
tion of dark and sexually apt women to fair and sexually apt women
is as 3 to 1. The experience of others would doubtless give varying
results, and in anv case the fallacies are numerous. See, in the previous
volume of these Studies, "Sexual Selection in Man," Section IV.
13
194 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
Of all physical traits vigor of the hairy system has most
frequently perhaps been regarded as the index of vigorous sex-
uality. In this matter modern medical observations are at one
with popular belief and ancient physiognomical assertions.^ The
negative test of castration and the positive test of puberty point
in the same direction.
It is at puberty that all the hair on the body, except that
on the head, begins to develop ; indeed, the very word "puberty'^
has reference to this growth as the most obvious sign of the
whole process. When castration takes place at an early age all
this development of pubescent hair is arrested. When the pri-
mary sexual organs are undeveloped the sexual hair is also un-
developed, as in a case, recorded by Plant,^ of a girl with rudi-
mentary uterus and ovaries who had little or no axilliary and
pubic hair, although the hair of the head was long and strong.^
The pseudo-Michael Scot among the Signa mulieris calldw naturce
et qua; coit libenter stated that her hair, both on the head and body, is
thick and coarse and crisp, and Delia Porta, the greatest of the physio-
gnomists, said that thickness of hair in women meant wantonness.
Venette, in his Generation de I'Homme, remarked that men who have
much hair on the body are most amorous. At a more recent period
Roubaud has said that pubic hair in its quantity, color and curliness is
an index of genital energy. A poor pilous system, on the other hand,
Roubaud regarded as a probable though not an irrefragable proof of
sexual frigidity in women. "In the cold woman the pilous system is
remarkable for the languor of its vitality; the hairs are fair, delicate,
scarce and smooth, while in ardent natures there are little curly tufts
about the temples." {TraiU de Vlmpiiissance, pp. 124, 523.) Martineau
declared (LcQons sur les Deformations Yulvaires, p. 40) that "the more
developed the genital organs the more abundant the hair covering them;
^In Japan the same belief would appear to be held. In a nude
figure representing the typical voluptuous woman by the Japanese
painter Marugania Okio (reproduced in Floss's Das Weih) the pubic and
axillary hair is profuse, though usually sparse in Japan.
" Centralblatt fiir Gyndkologie, No. 9, 1896.
* It is important to remember that there is little correlation in this
matter between the hair of the head and the sexual hair, if not a certain
opposition. (See ante, p. 127.) According to one of the aphorisms of
Hippocrates, repeated by Buffon, eunuchs do not become bald, and
Aristotle seems to have believed that sexual intercourse is a cause of
baldness in men. (Laycock, Nervous Diseases of Women, p. 23.)
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 195
abundance of hair appears to be in relation to the perfect development
of the organs." Tardieu described the typically erotic woman as very
hairy.
Bergh found that among 2200 young Danish prostitutes those who
showed an unusual extension and amount of pubic hair included several
women who were believed to be libidinous in a very high degree. (Bergh,
"Symbolse," etc., Hospitalstidende, August, 1894.) Moraglia, again, in
Italy, in describing various women, mostly prostitutes, of unusually
strong sexual proclivities, repeatedly notes very thick hair, with down
on the face. (Archivio di Psichiatria, vol. xvi, fasc. iv-v.)
Marro, also, in Italy found that abundance of hair and down is
especially marked in women who are guilty of infanticide (as also Pasini
has found), though criminal women generally, in his experience, tend to
have abnormally abundant hair. (Caratterl del DeVinquenU, cap. XXII.)
Lombroso finds that prostitutes generally tend to be hairy {Donna
Delinquente, p. 320.)
A lad of 14, guilty of numerous crimes of violence having a sexual
source, is described by Arthur Macdonald in America as having hair on
the chest as well as all over the pubes. (A. Macdonald, Archives de
U Anthropologie Criminelle, January, 1893, p. 55.) The association of
hairiness with abnormal sexuality in the weak-minded has been noted at
Bicetre (Recherches Cliniques sur I'Epilepsie, vol. xix, pp. 69, 77.)
flypertrichosis universalis, a general hairiness of body, has been
described by Cascella in a woman with very strong sexual desires, who
eventually became insane. (Revista Mensile di Psichiatria, 1903, p. 408.)
Bucknill and Tuke give the case of a religiously minded girl, with very
strong and repressed sexual desires, who became insane; the only
abnormal feature in her physical development was the marked growth
of hair over the body.
Brantome refers to a great lady known to him whose body was
very hairy, and quotes a saying to the effect that hairy people are
either rich or wanton; the lady in question, he adds, was both. (Bran-
tome, Vie des Dames Galantes, Discours II.)
De Sade, whose writings are now regarded as a treasure house of
true observations in the domain of sexual psychology, makes the Rodin
of Justine dark, with much hair and thick eyebrows, while his very
sexual sister is described as dark, thin and very hairy. (Diihren, Uer
Marquis de Sade, third edition, p. 440.)
A correspondent who has always taken a special interest in the
condition as regards hairiness of the women to whom he has been
attracted, has sent me notes concerning a series of 12 women. It may
be gathered from these notes that 5 women were neither markedly
sexual nor markedly hairy (either as regards head or pubes), 6 cas«r
both hairy and sexual, 1 was sexual and not hairy, none were hsLu^
196 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
and not sexual. My correspondent remarks: "There may be women
with scanty pubic hair possessing very strong sexual emotions. My
own experience is quite the opposite." He has also independently
reached the conclusion, arrived at by many medical observers and
clearly suggested by some of the facts here brought together, that pro-
fuse hair frequently denotes a neurotic temperament.
It may be added that Mirabeau^ as we learn from an anecdote told
by an eye-witness and recorded by Legouv6, had a very hairy chest,
while the same is recorded of Restif de la Bretonne.
It is a very ancient and popular belief that if a hairy man
is not sensual he is strong: vir pilosus aut Uhidinosus aiit fortis.
The Greeks insisted on the hairy nates of Hercules, and Ninon
de I'Enclos, when the great Conde shared her bed without touch-
ing her, remarked, on seeing his hairy body : "Ah, Monseigneur,
que vous devez etre fort!'' It may be doubted whether there is
any exact parallelism between muscular strength and hairiness,
for strength is largely a matter of training, but there can be no
doubt that hairiness really tends to be associated with a gen-
erally vigorous development of the body.
Although the observations concerning hairiness of body as
an index of vigor, whether sexual or only generally physical,
are so ancient, until recent years no attempts have been made to
demonstrate on a large scale whether there is actually a corre-
lation between hairiness and sexual or general development of
the body. Some importance, therefore, attaches to Amnion's
careful observations of many thousand conscripts in Baden.
These observations fully justify this ancient belief, since they
show that on the one hand the size of the testicles, and on the
other hand girth of chest and stature, are correlated with hairi-
ness of body,
Ammon's observations were made on nearly 4000 conscripts of the
age of 20. From the point of view of the hairy system he divided them
into four classes: —
I. To which 6.1 per cent, of the men belonged, with smooth bodies.
II. Including 25.3 per cent., only slight hairiness.
III. 53.8 per cent., more developed hairy system, but belly, breast
and back smooth.
IV. 14.7 per cent., hair all over body.
V. 0.1 per cent., extreme cases of hairiness.
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCB. 197
The beardless were 12.1 per ceift., those "with no axillary hair 9
per cent., those with no hair on pubis 0.4 per cent. This corresponds
with the fact that hair appears first on the pubis and last on the chin.
In the first class 69 per cent, were beardless, 54 per cent, without
any axillary hair and 6 per cent, without pubic hair. In the second
class 24 per cent, were beardless, 17 per cent, without axillary hair. In
the third class 3 per cent, were beardless and 3 per cent without axillary
hair.
Below puberty the diameter of testicles is below 14 millimeters.
There were 13 conscripts having a testicular diameter of less than 14
millimeters. These infantile individuals all belonged to the first three
classes and mostly to the first. The average testicular diameter in the
first class was nearly 24 millimeters, and progressively rose in the
succeeding classes to over 26 millimeters in the fourth.
"While there was not much difference in height, the first class was
the shortest, the fourth the tallest. The fourth class also showed the
greatest chest perimeter. The cephalic index of all classes was 84.
(O. Ammon, "L'lnfantilisme et le Feminisme au Conseil de Rfivision,"
L' Anthropologic, May-June, 1896.)
We thus see that it is quite justifiable to admit a type of
person who possesses a more than average aptitude for detumes-
cence. Such persons are more likely to be short than tall ; they
will show a full development of the secondary sexual characters ;
the voice will tend to be deep and the eyes bright; the glandular
activity of the skin will probably be marked^ the lips everted;
there is a tendency to a more than average degree of pigmenta-
tion, and there is frequently an abnormal prevalence of hair on
some parts of the body. While none of these signs, taken sepa-
rately, can be said to have any necessary connection with the
sexual impulse, taken altogether they indicate an organism that
responds to the instinct of detumescence with special aptitude
or with marked energy. In these respects observation, both
scientific and popular, concords with the probabilities suggested
by the three standards in this matter which have already been
set forth.
No generalization, however, can here be set down in an
absolute and unqualified manner. There are definite reasons
why this should be so. There is, for instance, the highly im-
portant consideration that the sexual impulse of the individual
198 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
may be conspicuous in two quite distinct ways. It may
assume prominence because the individual possesses a highly
vigorous and well-nourished organism, or its prominence may
be due to mental irritation in a very morbid individual. In the
latter case — although occasionally the two sets of conditions are
combined — most of the signs we might expect in the former case
may be absent. Indeed, the sexual impulses which proceed from
a morbid psychic irritability do not in most cases indicate any
special aptitude for detumescence at all; in that largely lies
their morbid character.
Again, just in the same way that the exaggerated impulse
itself may either be healthy or morbid, so the various characters
which we have found to possess some value as signs of the im-
pulse may themselves either be healthy or morbid. This is
notably the case as regards an abnormal growth of hair on the
body, more especially when it appears on regions where normally
there is little or no hair. Such hypertrichosis is frequently de-
generative in character, though still often associated with the
sexual system. When, however, it is thus a degenerative char-
acter of sexual nature, having its origin in some abnormal fcetal
condition or later atrophy of the ovaries, it is no necessary indi-
cation of any aptitude for detumescence.
Idiots, more especially it would seem idiot girls, tend to show a
highly developed hairy system. Thus Voisin, when investigating 150
idiot and imbecile girls, found the hair long and thick and tending to
occupy a large surface; one girl had hair on the areolte of the mamma.
(J. Voisin, "Conformation des organes genitaux chez les Idiots," Annales
d'Bygi^Jie Publiqve, June, 1894.) It should be said that in idiot boys
puberty is late, and the sexual organs as well as the sexual instinct
frequently undeveloped, while in idiot girls there is no delay in puberty,
and the sexual organs and instinct are frequently fully and even abnor-
mally developed.
Hegar has described an interesting case showing an association, of
fcetal origin, between sexual anomaly and abnormal haimess. In this
case a girl of 16 had a uterus duplex, an infantile pelvis, very slight
menstruation and undeveloped breasts. She was very hairy on the face,
the anterior aspects of the chest and abdomen, the sexual regions, and
the thighs, but not specially so on the rest of the body. The hairs were
of lanugo-like character, but dark in color. (A. Hegar, Beitrage zur
THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE. 199
Gebiirtshulfe und Gyndkologie, vol. i, p. Ill, 1898.) Sometimes hiruties
of the face and abdomen begin to appear during pregnancy, apparently
from disease or degeneration of the ovaries. (A case is noted in British
Medical Journal, August 2 and 16, pp. 375 and 436, 1902.) Laycock
many years ago referred to the popular belief that women who have
hair on the upper lip seldom bear children, and regarded this opinion as
"questionless founded on fact." (Laycock, Nervous Diseases of Women,
p. 22.) When this is so, we may suppose that the abnormal hairy
growth is associated with degeneration of the ovaries.
There is another factor which enters into this question and
renders the definition of a physical sexual type less precise than
it would otherwise be. The sexual instinct is common to all
persons, and while it seems probable that there is a type of per-
son in whom sexual energies are predominant, it would also
appear that the people who otherwise show a very high level of
energy in life usually exhibit a more than average degree of
energy in matters of love. The predominantly sexual type, as
we have seen, tends to be associated with a high degree of pig-
mentation; the person specially apt for detumescence inclines
to belong to the dark rather than to the purely fair group of
the population. On the other hand, the active, energetic, prac-
tical man, the man who is most apt for the achievement of suc-
cess in life, tends to belong to the fair rather than to the dark
type.^ Thus we have a certain conflict of tendencies, and it be-
comes possible to assert that while persons with pronounced
aptitude for sexual detumescene tend to be dark, persons whose
pronounced energy in sexual matters tends to ensure success
are most likely to be fair.
The tendency of the fair energetic type, the type of the northern
European man, to sexuality may be connected with the fact that the
violent and criminal man who commits sexual crimes tends to be fair
even amid a dark population. Criminals on the whole would appear to
tend to be dark rather than fair; but Marro found in Italy that the
group of sexual offenders differed from all other groups of criminals
in that their hair was predominantly fair. (Caratteri dei Delinquentl,
^For some of the evidence on this point, see Havelock Ellis, "The
Comparative Abilities of the Fair and the Dark," Monthly Review,
August, 1901 J cf. id. A Study of British Genius, Chapter X.
200 PSYCHOLOGJ^ OF SEX.
p. 374.) Ottolenghi, in the same way, in examining 100 sexual oflfenders,
found that they showed 17 per cent, of fair hair, though criminals gen-
erally (on a basis of nearly 2000) showed only 6 per cent., and normal
persons (nearly 1000) 9 per cent. Similarly while the normal persons
showed only 20 per cent, of blue eyes and criminals generally 36 per
cent., the sexual offenders showed 50 per cent, of blue eyes. (Ottolenghi,
Archivio di PsicJiiatria, fasc. vi, 1888, p. 573.) Burton remarked
(Anatomy of Melancholy, Part III, Section II, Mem. II, Subs. II) that in
all ages most amorous young men have been yellow-haired, adding,
"Synesius holds every efTeminate fellow or adulterer is fair-haired." In
folk-lore, it has been noted ( KpuTrrdSta, vol. ii, p. 258), red or yellow
hair is sometimes regarded as a mark of sexuality.
In harmony with this fairness, sexual offenders would appear to
be more dolichocephalic than other criminals. In Italy Marro found the
foreheads of sexual offenders to be narrow, and in California Driihms
found that while murderers had an average cephalic index of 83.5, and
thieves of 80.5, that of sexual offenders was 79.
On the other hand, high cheek-bones and broad faces — a condition
most usually found associated with brachycephaly — have sometimes
been noted as associated with undue or violent sexuality. Marro noted
the excess of prominent cheek-bones in sexual offenders, and in America
it has been found that unchaste girls tend to have broad faces. {Peda-
gogical Seminary, December, 1896, pp. 231, 235.)
It will be seen that, when we take a comprehensive view
of the facts and considerations involved, it is possible to obtain
a more definite and coherent picture of the physical signs of a
marked aptitude for detumescence than has hitherto been usually
supposed possible. But we also see that while the ensemlU of
these signs is probably fairly reliable as an index of marked
sexuality, the separate signs have no such definite significance,
and under some circumstances their significance may even be
reversed.
THE PSYCHIC STATE IN PEEGNAKCY.
The Relationsliip of Maternal and Sexual Emotion — Conception and
Loss of Virginity — The Anciently Accepted Signs of This Condition — •
The Pervading Effects of Pregnancy on the Organism — Pigmentation —
The Blood and Circulation — The Thyroid — Changes in the Nervous Sys-
tem — The Vomiting of Pregnancy — The Longings of Pregnant Women —
Maternal Impressions — Evidence for and Against Their Validity — The
Question Still Open — Imperfection of Our Ivnowledge — The Significance
of Pregnancy.
In analyzing the sexual impulse I have so far deliberately
kept out of view the maternal instinct. This is necessary, for
the maternal instinct is specific and distinct; it is directed to
an aim which, however intimately associated it may be with
that of the sexual impulse proper, can by no means be con-
founded with it. Yet the emotion of love, as it has finally de-
veloped in the world, is not purely of sexual origin ; it is partly
sexual, but it is also partly parental.^
^ See, e.g., Groos, ^sfheUsclie Geniiss, p. 249. "We have to admit,"
Groos observes, "the entrance of another instinct, the impulse to tend
and foster, so closely connected with the sexual life. It is seemingly
due to the co-operation of this impulse that the little female bird during
courtship is so often fed by the male like a young fledgling. In man
'love' from the biological standpoint is also an amalgamation of two
needs; when the tender need to protect and foster and serve is lacking
the emotion is not quite perfect. Heine's expression, 'With my mantle
I protect you from the storm,' has always seemed to me very char-
acteristic." Sometimes the sexual impulse may undergo a complete
transformation in this direction. "I believe there is really a tendency
in women," a lady writes in a letter, "to allow maternal feeling to
take the place of sexual feeling. Very often a woman's feeling for her
husband becomes this (though he may be twenty years older than her-
self) ; sometimes it does not, remaining purely sex feeling. Sometimes
it is for some other man she has this curious self-obliterating maternal
feeling. It is not necessarily connected with sex intercourse. A pros-
titute, who has relations with dozens of men, may have it for some
feeble drunken fool, who perhaps goes after other women. _ I once
saw the change from sex feeling to mother feeling, as I call it, come
almost suddenly over a woman after she had lived about four years
(201)
202 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
In so far as it is parental it is certainly mainly maternal.
There is a drawing by Bronzino in the Louvre of a woman's head
gazing tenderly down at some invisible object; is it her child
or her lover? Doubtless her cliild, yet the expression is equally
adequate to the emotion evoked by a lover. If we were here
specifically dealing with the emotion of love as a complex whole,
and not with the psychology of the sexual impulse, it would
certainly be necessary to discuss the maternal instinct and its
associated emotions. In any case it seems desirable to touch
on the psychic state of pregnancy, for we are here concerned
not only with emotions very closely connected with the sexual
emotions in the narrower sense, but we here at last approach
that state which it is the object of the whole sexual process to
achieve.
In civilized life a period of weeks, months, even years, may
elapse between the establishment of sexual relations and the oc-
Avith a man who was unfaithful to her. Then, when all real sex feeling,
tlie hatred of the woman he followed, the desire he should give her
love and tenderness, had all gone, came the other feeling, and she said
to me, 'You don't understand at all; he's only my little baby; nothing
he does can make any difference to me now.' As I grow older and undei'-
stand women's natures better, I can see almost at once which relation
it is a woman has to her husband, or any given man. It is this feeling,
and not sex passion, that keeps woman from being free." Not only
is there a sexual association in the impulse to foster and protect,
there would appear to be a similar element !also in the response to
that impulse. Freud has especially insisted on the partly sexual
character of the child's feelings for those who care for it and
tend it and satisfy its needs. It is begun in earliest infancy; "whoever
has seen the sated infant sink back from the breast, to fall asleep with
flushed cheeks and happy smile, must say that the picture is adequate
to the expression of the sexual satisfaction of later life." The lips,
moreover, are the earliest erogenous zone. "There will, perhaps, be
some opposition," Freud remarks (Drei AhhamUungen sur Sexualtheorie,
pp. 36, 64), "to the identification of the child's feelings of tenderness
and appreciation for those who tend it with sexual love, but I believe
that exact psychological analysis will place the identity beyond doubt.
The relationship of the child Avith the person who tends it is for it a
continual source of sexual excitement and satisfaction flowing from the
erogenous zones, especially since the fostering person — as a rule the
mother — regards the child with emotions Avliich proceed from her sexual
life; strokes it, kisses it, rocks it, and very plainly treats it as a com-
pensation for a fully valid sexual object." Freud remarks that girls
who retain the childish character of their love for their parents to adult
age are apt to make cold wives and to be sexually anaesthetic.
THE PSYCHIC STATE IN" PEEGNANCY. 203
currence of conception. Under primitive conditions the loss of
the virginal condition practically involves the pregnant condi-
tion, so that under primitive conditions very little allowance is
made for the state, so common among civilized peoples, of the
woman who is no longer a virgin^ yet not about to become a
mother.
There is some interest in noting the signs of loss of virginity
chiefly relied upon by ancient authors. In doing this it is convenient
to follow mainly the full summary of authorities given by Schurig in
his Barthenologia early in the eighteenth century. The ancient custom,
known in classic times, of measuring the neck the day after marriage was
frequently practiced to ascertain if a girl was or was not a virgin. There
were various ways of doing this. One was to measure with a thread the
circumference of the bride's neck before she went to bed on the bridal
night. If in the morning the same thread would not go around her neck
it was a sure sign that she had lost her virginity during the night; if
not, she was still a A'irgin or had been deflowered at an earlier period.
Catullus alluded to this custom, which still exists, or existed until lately,
in the south of France. It is perfectly sound, for it rests on the intimate
response by congestion of the thyroid gland to sexual excitement.
(Parthenologia, p. 283; BiOrent, La Pu'bcrtd, p. 150; Havelock Ellis, Man
and Woman, fourth edition, p. 267.)
Some say, Schurig tells us, that the voice, which in the virgin is
shrill, becomes rougher and deeper after the first coitus. He quotes
Riolan's statement that it is certain that the voice of those who
indulge in venery is changed. On that account the ancients bound down
the penis of their singers, and Martial said that those who wish to pre-
serve their voices should avoid coitus. Democritus who one day had
greeted a girl as "maiden" on the following day addressed her as
'"woman," while in the same Avay it is said that Albertus Magnus,
observing from his study a girl going for wine for her master, knew
that she had had sexual intercourse by the way because on her return
her voice had become deeper. Here, again, the ancient belief has a
solid basis, for the voice and the larynx are really affected by sexual
conditions. {Parthenologia, p. 286; Marro, La Puhertc, p. 303; Havelock
Ellis, op. (it., pp. 271, 289.)
Others, again, Schurig proceeds, have judged that the goaty smell
given out in the armpits during the venereal act is also no imcertain
sign of defloration, such odor being perceptible in those who use much
venery, and not seldom in harlots and the newly married, while, as
Hippocrates said, it is not perceived in boys and girls. {Parthenologia,
p. 286; cf. the previous volume of these Studies, "Sexual Selection in
Man," p. 64.)
204 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
In A'irgins, Schurig remarks, the pubic hair is said to be long and
not twisted, while in women accubtomed to coitus it is crisper. But it
is only after long and repeated coitus, some authors add, that the pubic
hairs become crisp. Some recent observers, it may be remarked, have
noted a connection between sexual excitation and the condition of the
pubic hair in women. (Cf. the present volume, ante p. 127.)
A sign to which the old authors often attached much importance
■was furnished by tlie urinary stream. In the De Secretis Mulierum,
wrongly attributed to Albertus Magnus, it is laid down that "the virgin
urinates higher than the woman." Riolan, in his Anthropographia, dis-
cussing the ability of virgins to ejaculate urine to a height, states that
Scaliger had observed women Avho were virgins emit urine in a high
jet against a wall, but that married women could seldom do this. Bona-
ciolus also stated that the urine of virgins is emitted in a small stream
to a distance with an acute hissing sound, (Parthenologia, p. 281.) A
folk-lore belief in the reality of this influence is evidenced by the Picardy
conte referred to already (ante, p. 53), "La Princesse qui pisse au dessus
les Meules." There is no doubt a tendency for the various stresses of
sexual life to produce an influence in this direction, though they act
far too slowly and uncertainly to be a reliable index to the presence or
the absence of virginity.
Another common ancient test of virginity by urination rests on a
psychic basis, and appears in a variety of forms which are really all
reducible to the same principle. Thus we are told in De Secretis
Mulierum that to ascertain if a girl is seduced she should be given to
eat of powdered crocus flowers, and if she has been seduced she imme-
diately urinates. We are here concerned with auto-suggestion, and it
may well be believed that with nervous and credulous girls this test often
revealed the truth.
A further test of virginity discussed by Schurig is the presence of
modesty of countenance. If a woman blushes her virtue is safe. In
this way girls who have themselves had experience of the marriage bed
are said to detect the virgin. The virgin's eyes are cast down and
almost motionless, while she who has known a man has eyes that are
bright and quick. But this sign is equivocal, says Schurig, for girls are
different, and can simulate the modesty they do not feel. Yet this
indication also rests on a fimdamentally sound psychological basis.
(See "The Evolution of Modesty," in the first volume of these Studies.)
In his Syllepsilogia (Section V, cap. I-II), published in 1731,
Schurig discusses further the anciently recognized signs of pregnancy.
The real or imaginary signs of pregnancy sought by various primitive
peoples of the past and present are brought together by Ploss and
Bartels, Das Wcih, bd. i. Chapter XXVII.
THE PSYCHIC STATE IN PREG]SrANOY. 205
Both physically and psychically the occurrence of preg-
nancy is, however, a distinct event. It marks the beginning of
a continuous physical process, which cannot fail to manifest
psychic reactions. A great center of vital activity — practically
a new center, for only the germinal form of it in menstruation
had previously existed — has appeared and affects the whole or-
ganism. "From the moment that the embryo takes possession
of the woman,^' Eobert Barnes puts it, "every drop of blood,
every fiber, every organ, is affected."^
A woman artist once observed to Dr. Stratz, that as the
final aim of a woman is to become a mother and pregnancy is
thus her blossoming time, a beautiful woman ought to be most
beautiful when she is pregnant. That is so, Stratz replied, if
her moment of greatest physical perfection corresponds with
the early months of pregnancy, for with the beginning of preg-
nancy metabolism is increased, the color of the skin becomes
more lively and delicate, the breasts firmer.^ Pregnancy may,
indeed, often become visible soon after conception by the brighter
eye, the livelier glance, resulting from greater vascular ac-
tivity, though later, with the increase of strain, the face may
tend to become somewhat thin and distorted. The hair, Barnes
states, assumes a new vigor, even though it may have been fall-
ing out before. The temperature rises; the weight increases,
even apart from the growth of the foetus. The efflorescence of
pregnancy shows itself, as in the blossoming and fecundated
flower, by increased pigmentation.^ The nipples with their
areolae, and tlie mid-line of the belly, become darker;
brown flecks (lentigo) tend to appear on the forehead,
neck, arms, and body; while stride — at first blue-red,
then a brilliant white — appear on the belly and thighs.
^Esbach (in his TMse de Paris, published in 1876) showed that
even the finger nails are affected in pregnancy and become measurably
thinner.
* C. H. Stratz, Die Schonheit des Weibliclwii Kbrpers, Chapter VI.
* Iron appears to be liberated in the maternal organism during
pregnancy, and Wyehgel has shown {Zeitsclirift fur Gehurtshillfe und
Gynlllcologie, bd. xlvii, Heft IT) that the pigment of pregnant women
contains iron, and that the amount of iron in the urine is increased.
206 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
though these are scarcely normal, for they are not seen in women
with very elastic skins and are rare among peasants and savages.^
The whole carriage of the woman tends to become changed with
the development of the mighty seed of man planted within her;
it simulates the carriage of pride with the arched back and pro-
truded abdomen.^ The pregnant woman has been lifted above
the level of ordinary humanity to become the casket of an in-
estimable jewel.
It is in the blood and the circulation that the earliest of
the most prominent symptoms of pregnancy are to be found.
The ever increasing development of this new focus of vascular
activity involves an increased vascular activity in the whole
organism. This activity is present almost from the first — a few
days after the impregnation of the ovum — in the breasts, and
quickly becomes obvious to inspection and palpation. Before a
quite passive organ, the breast now rapidly increases in activity
of circulation and in size, while certain characteristic changes
begin to take place around the nipples.^ As a result of the
additional work imposed upon it the heart tends to become
slightly hypertrophied in order to meet the additional strain;
there may be some dilatation also.*
The recent investigations of Stengel and Stanton tend to show that
the increase of the heart's work during pregnancy is less considerable
that has generally been supposed, and that beyond some enlargement and
dilatation of the right ventricle there is not usually any hypertrophy
of the heart.
'Vinay, Maladies de la (Jrossesse, Chapter VIII; K. Hennig, "Ex-
ploratio Externa," Comptcs-rendus du XIIc. Conyrds International de
Mcdecinc, vol. vi, Section XIII, pp. 144-166. A bibliography of the litera-
ture concerning the physiology of pregnancy, extending to ten pages, is
appended by Pinard to his article "Grossesse," Dictionnaire encyclo-
pediqiie des Scienees mcdicales.
« Stratz, op. cit., Chapter XII.
*W. S. A. Griffith, "The Diagnosis of Pregnancy," British Medical
Journal, April 11, 1903.
*J. Mackenzie and H. 0. Nicholson, "The Heart in Pregnancy,"
British Medical Journal, October 8, 1904; Stengel and Stanton, "The
Condition of the Heart in Pregnancy," Medical Record, May 10, 1902
and TJniversitii Pennsi/lvania Medical Bulletin, Sept., 1904 (summarized
in British Medical Journal, August 16, 1902, and Sept. 23, 1905.)
THE PSYCHIC STATE IX PREGXAXCY. 207
The total quantity of blood is raised. While increased in
quantity, the blood appears on the whole to be somewhat depre-
ciated in quality, though on this point there are considerable
differences of opinion. Thus, as regards haemoglobin, some in-
vestigators have found that the old idea as to the poverty of
hffimoglobin in pregnancy is quite unfounded; a few have even
found that the haemoglobin is increased. Most authorities have
found the red cells diminished, though some only slightly, while
the white cells, and also the fibrin, are increased. But toward
the end of pregnancy there is a tendency, perhaps due to the
establishment of compensation, for the blood to revert to the
normal condition.^
It would appear probable, however, that the vascular phe-
nomena of pregnancy are not altogether so simple as the above
statement would imply. The activity of various glands at this
time — well illustrated by the marked salivation which sometimes
occurs — indicates that other modifying forces are at work, and
it has been suggested that the changes in the maternal circulation
during pregnancy may best be explained by the theory that there
are two opposing kinds of secretion poured into the blood in
unusual degree during pregnancy: one contracting the vessels,
the other dilating them, one or the other sometimes gaining the
upper hand. Suprarenal extract, when administered, has a vaso-
constricting influence, and thyroid extract a vaso-dilating in-
fluence; it may be surmised that within the body these glands
perform similar functions.^
The important part played by the thyroid gland is indi-
cated by its marked activity at the very beginning of pregnancy.
We may probably associate the general tendency to vaso-dilata-
tion during early pregnancy with the tendency to goitre ; Freund
found an increase of the thyroid in 45 per cent, of 50 cases.
The thyroid belongs to the same class of ductless glands as the
^ J. Henderson, "Maternal Blood at Term," Journal of Obstetncs
and Gynecology, February, 1902; C. Douglas, "The Blood in Pregnant
Women," British Medical Journal, March 26, 1904; W. L. Thompson,
"The Blood in Pregnancy," Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, June, 1904.
*H. O. Nicholson, "Some Remarks on the Maternal Circulation iu
Pregnancy," British Medical Journal, October 3, 1903.
208 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
ovary, and, as Bland Sutton and others have insisted, the anal-
ogies between the thyroid and the ovary are very numerous and
significant. It may be added that in recent years Armand
Gautier has noted the importance of the thyroid in elaborating
nucleo-proteids containing arsenic and iodine, which are poured
into the circulation during menstruation and pregnancy. The
whole metabolism of the body is indeed affected, and during the
latter part of pregnancy study of the ingesta and egesta has
shown that a storage of nitrogen and even of water is taking
place.^ The woman, as Pinard puts it, forms the child out of
her own flesh, not merely out of her food; the individual is being
sacrificed to the species.
The changes in the nervous system of the pregnant woman
correspond to those in the vascular system. There is the same
increase of activity, a heightening of tension. Bnmo Wolff,
from experiments on bitches, concluded that the central nervous
system in women is probably more easily excited in the pregnant
than in the non-pregnant state, though he was not prepared to
call this cerebral excitability "specific."^ Direct observations
on pregnant women have shown, without doubt, a heightened
nervous irritability. Eeflex action generally is increased. Neu-
mann investigated the knee-jerk in 500 women during preg-
nancy, labor, and the puerperium, and in a large nimiber found
that there was a progressive exaggeration with the advance of
pregnancy, little or no change being observed in the early
months; sometimes when no change was observed during preg-
nancy the knee-jerk still increased during labor, reaching its
maximum at the moment of the expulsion of the foetus; the
return to the normal condition took place gradually during the
puerperium. Tridandani found in pregnant women that though
the superficial reflexes, with the exception of the abdominal,
were diminished, the deep and tendon reflexes were markedly
increased, especially that of the knee, these changes being more
marked in primiparge than in multiparas, and more pronounced
as pregnancy advanced, the normal condition returning with
^J. Morris Slemans, "Metabolism During Pregnancy," Johns Bop-
kins Hospital Reports, vol. xii, 1904.
»B. Wolff, Zentralblatt fiir Gyndkologie, 1904, No. 26.
THE PSYCHIC STATE IN PREGNANCY. 209
ten days after labor. Electrical excitability was sensibly dimin-
ished.^
One of the first signs of high nervous tension is vomiting.
As is well known, this phenomenon commonly appears early in
pregnancy, and it is by many considered entirely physiological.
Barnes regards it as a kind of safety valve, a regulating func-
tion, letting off excessive tension and maintaining equilibrium.^
Vomiting is, however, a convulsion, and is thus the simplest
form of a kind of manifestation — to which the heightened nerv-
ous tension of pregnancy easily lends itself — that finds its ex-
treme pathological form in eclampsia. In this connection it is
of interest to point out that the pregnant woman here mani-
fests in the highest degree a tendency which is marked in women
generally, for the female sex, apart altogether from pregnancy,
is specially liable to convulsive phenomena.^
There is some slight difference of opinion among authorities as to
the precise nature and causation of the sickness of pregnancy. Barnes,
Horrocks and others regard it as pliysiological ; but many consider it
pathological; this is, for instance, the opinion of Giles. Graily Hewitt
attributed it to flexion of the gravid uterus, Kaltenbach to hysteria,
and Zaborsky terms it a neurosis. Whitridge Williams considers that it
may be (1) reflex, or (2) neurotic (when it is allied to hysteria and
amenable to suggestion ) , or ( 3 ) toxaemic. It really appears to lie on the
borderland between healthy and diseased manifestations. It is said to be
unkno^^^l to farmers and veterinary surgeons. It appears to be little
known among savages; it is comparatively infrequent among women
of the lower social classes, and, as Giles has found, women who habitu-
ally menstruate in a painless and normal manner suffer comparatively
little from the sickness of pregnancy.
We owe a valuable study of the sickness of pregnancy to Giles,
who analyzed the records of 300 cases. He concluded that about one-
third of the pregnant women were free from sickness throughout preg-
nancy, 45 per cent, were free during the first three months. When
sickness occurred it began in 70 per cent, of cases in the first month, and
was most frequent during the second month. The duration varied from
' Tridandani, Annali di Ostetrica, March, 1900.
' R. Barnes, "The Induction of Labor," British Medical Journal,
December 22, 1894.
* See, e.g., Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman, fourth edition, pp. 344,
et seq.
14
210 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
a few days to all through. Between the ages of 20 and 25 sickness was
least frequent, and there was less sickness in the third than in any-
other pregnancy. (This corresponds with the conclusion of Matthews
Duncan that 25 is the most favorable age for pregnancy.) To some
extent in agreement with Gueniot, Giles believes that the vomiting of
pregnancy is "one form of manifestation of the high nervous irritability
of pregnancy." This high nervous tension may overflow into other
channels, into the vascular and excretory system, causing eclampsia;
into the muscular system, cavising chorea, or, expending itself in the
brain, give rise to hysteria when mild or insanity when severe. But
the vagi form a very ready channel for such overflow, and hence the
frequency of sickness in pregnancy. There are thus three main factors
in the causation of this phenomenon: (1) An increased nervous irri-
tability; (2) a local source of irritation; (3) a ready eff'erent channel
for nervous energy. (Arthur Giles, "Observations on the Etiology of
the Sickness of Pregnancy," Transactions Obstetrical Society of London,
vol. XXV, 1894.)
Martin, who regards the phenomenon as normal, points out that
when nausea and vomiting are absent or suddenly cease there is often
reason to suspect something wrong, especially the death of the embryo.
He also remarks that women who suff'er from large varicose veins are
seldom troubled by the nausea of pregnancy. (J. M. H. Martin, "The
Vomiting of Pregnancy," British Medical Journal, December 10, 1904.)
These observations may be connected with those of Evans (American
Gynecological and Obstetrical Journal, January, 1900), who attributes
primary importance to the undoubtedly active factor of the irritation
set up by the uterus, more especially the rhythmic uterine contractions;
stimulation of the breasts produces active uterine contractions, and
Evans found that examination of the breasts sufliced to bring on a
severe attack of vomiting, while on another occasion this was produced
by a vaginal examination. Evans believes that the purpose of these
contractions is to facilitate the circulation of the blood through the
large venous sinuses, the surcharging of the relatively stagnant pools
with efl'ete blood producing the irritation which leads to rhythmic
contractions.
'It is on the basis of the increased vascular and glandular
activity and the heightened nervous tension that the special
psychic phenomena of pregnancy develop. The best known, and
perhaps the most characteristic of these manifestations, is that
known as "longings." By this term is meant more or less irre-
sistible desires for some special food or drink, which may be
digestible or indigestible, sometimes a substance which the
THE PSYCHIC STATE IN PREGN-ANCT. 211
■woman ordinarily likes, such as fruit, and occasionally one
which, under ordinary circumstances, she dislikes, as in one
case known to me of a young country woman who, when bearing
her child, was always longing for tobacco and never happy ex-
cept when she could get a pipe to smoke, although under ordi-
nary circumstances, like other young women of her class, she
was without any desire to smoke. Occasionally the longings lead
to actions which are more unscrupulous than is common in the
case of the same person at other times; thus in one case known
to me a young woman, pregnant with her first child, in-
sisted to her sister's horror on entering a strawberry field and
eating a quantity of fruit. These "longings" in their extreme
form may properly be considered as neurasthenic obsessions,
but in their simple and less pronounced forms they may well be
normal and healthy.
The old medical authors abound in narratives describing the long-
ings of pregnant women for natural and unnatural foods. This affection
was commonly called pica, sometimes ciira or malatia. Schurig, whose
works are a comprehensive treasure house of ancient medical lore,
devotes a long chapter {cap. II) of his Chylologia, published in 1725, to
pica as manifested mainly, though not exclusively, in pregnant women.
Some women, he tells us, have been compelled to eat all sorts of earthy
substances, of which sand seems the most common, and one Italian
woman when pregnant ate several pounds of sand with much satisfac-
tion, following it up with a draught of her own urine. Lime, mud,
chalk, charcoal, cinders, pitch are also the desired substances in other
cases detailed. One pregnant woman must eat bread fresh from the
oven in very large quantities, and a certain noble matron ate 140 sweet
cakes in one day and night. \\Tieat and various kinds of corn as well
as of vegetables were the foods desired by many longing women. One
woman was responsible for 20 pounds of pepper, another ate ginger m
large quantities, a third kept mace under her pillow; cinnamon, salt,
emulsion of almonds, treacle, mushrooms were desired by others. Cher-
ries were longed for by one, and another ate 30 or 40 lemons in one
night. Various kinds of fish — mullet, oysters, crabs, live eels, etc. — are
mentioned, while other women have found delectation in lizards, frogs,
spiders and flies, even scorpions, lice and fleas. A pregnant woman,
aged 33, of sanguine temperament, ate a live fowl completely with
intense satisfaction. Skin, wool, cotton, thread, linen, blotting paper
have been desired, as well as more repulsive substances, such as nasal
mucus and feces (eaten with bread). Vinegar, ice, and snow occur in
212 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
other cases. One woman stilled a desire for human flesh by biting the
nates of children or the anns of men. Metals are also swallowed, such
as iron, silver, etc. One pregnant woman wished to throw eggs in her
husband's face, and another to have her husband throw eggs in her face.
In the next chapter of the same work Schurig describes cases of
acute antipathy which may arise under the same circumstances (cap.
Ill, "De Nausea seu Antipathia certorum ciborum"). The list includes
bread, meat, fowls, fish, eels (a very common repulsion), crabs, milk,
butter (very often), cheese (often), honey, sugar, salt, eggs, caviar,
sulphur, apples (especially their odor), strawberries, mulberries, cin-
namon, mace, capers, pepper, onions, mustard, beetroot, rice, mint,
absinthe, roses (many pages are devoted to this antipathy), lilies, elder
flowers, musk (which sometimes caused vomiting), amber, coffee, opiates,
olive oil, vinegar, cats, frogs, spiders, wasps, swords.
More recently Gould and Pyle (Anomalies and Curiosities of
Medicine, p. 80) have briefly summarized some of the ancient and modern
records concerning the longings of pregnant women.
Various theories are put forward concerning the causation
of the longings of pregnant women, but none of these seems to
furnish by itself a complete and adequate explanation of all
cases. Thus it is said that the craving is the expression of a
natural instinct, the system of the pregnant woman really re-
quiring the food she longs for. It is quite probable that this is
so in many cases, but it is obviously not so in the majority of
cases, even when we confine ourselves to the longings for fairly
natural foods, while we know so little of the special needs of the
organism during pregnancy that the theory in any case is in-
susceptible of clear demonstration.
Allied to this theory is the explanation that the longings
are for things that counteract the tendency to nausea and sick-
ness. Giles, however, in his valuable statistical study of the
longings of a series of 300 pregnant women, has shown that the
percentage of women with longings is exactly the same (33 per
cent.) among women who had suffered at some time during
pregnancy from sickness as among the women who had not so
suffered. Moreover, Giles found that the period of sickness fre-
quently bore no relation to the time when there were cravings,
and the patient often had cravings after the sickness had ceased.
According to another theory these longings are mainly a
THE PSYCHIC STATE IN PREGNANCY. 213
matter of auto-suggestion. The pregnant woman has received
the tradition of such longings, persuades herself that she has
such a longing, and then becomes convinced that, according to
a popular belief, it will be bad for the child if the longing is
not gratified. Giles considers that this process of auto-sug-
gestion takes place "in a certain number, perhaps even in the
majority of cases."^
The Duchess d'Abrant^s, the wife of Marshal Junot, in her
Memoires gives an amusing account of how in her first pregnancy a
longing was apparently imposed upon her by the anxious solicitude of
her own and her husband's relations. Though suffering from constant
nausea and sickness, she had no longings. One day at dinner after the
pregnancy had gone on for some months her mother suddenly put down
her fork, exclaiming: "I have never asked you what longing you have!"
She replied with truth that she had none, her days and her nights being
occupied with suffering. "No enviel" said the mother, "such a thing
was never heard of. I must speak to your mother-in-law." The two
old ladies consulted anxiously and explained to the young mother how
an unsatisfied longing might produce a monstrous child, and the husband
also now began to ask her every day what she longed for. Her sister-
in-law, moreover, brought her all sorts of stories of children born with
appalling mother's marks due to this cause. She became frightened
and began to wonder what she most wanted, but could think of nothing.
At last, when eating a pastille flavored with pineapple, it occurred to
her that pineapple is an excellent fruit, and one, moreover, which she
had never seen, for at that time it was extremely rare. Thereupon she
began to long for pineapple, and all the more when she was told that
at that season they could not be obtained. She now began to feel that
she must have pineapple or die, and her husband ran all over Paris,
vainly offering twenty louis for a pineapple. At last he succeeded in
obtaining one through the kindness of Mme. Bonaparte, and drove home
furiously just as his wife, always talking of pineapples, had gone to
bed. He entered the room with the pineapple, to the great satisfaction
of the Duchess's mother. (In one of her own pregnancies, it appears, she
longed in vain for cherries in January, and the child was born with a
mark on her body resembling a cherry — in scientific terminology, a
nwvus.) The Duchess effusively thanked her husband and wished to
eat of the fruit immediately, but her husband stopped her and said that
Corvisart, the famous physician, had told him that she must on no
^Arthur Giles, "The Longings of Pregnant Women," Transactiong
Obstetrical Society of London, vol. xxxv, 1893.
214 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
account touch it at night, as it was extremely indigestible. She prom-
ised not to do so, and spent the night in caressing the pineapple. In the
morning the husband came and cut up the fruit, presenting it to her in
a porcelain bowl. Suddenly, however, there was a revulsion of feeling;
she felt that she could not possibly eat pineapple; persuasion was
useless; the fruit had to be taken away and the windows opened, for
the veiy smell of it had become odious. The Duchess adds that hence-
forth, throughout her life, though still liking the flavor, she was only
able to eat pineapple by doing a sort of violence to herself. (Memories
de la Diichesse d'Abrantcs, vol. iii. Chapter VIII.) It should be added
that, in old age, the Duchess d'Abrantes appears to have become insane.
The influence of suggestion must certainly be accepted as,
at all events, increasing and emphasizing the tendency to long-
ings. It can scarcely, however, be regarded as a radical and
adequate explanation of the phenomenon generally. If it is a
matter of auto-suggestion due to a tradition, then we should
expect to find longings most frequent and most pronounced in
multiparous women, who are best acquainted with the tradition
and best able to experience all that is expected of a pregnant
woman. But, as a matter of fact, the women who have borne
most children are precisely those who are least likely to be
affected by the longings which tradition demands they should
manifest. Giles has shown that longings occur much more fre-
quently in the first than in any subsequent pregnancy; there is
a regular decrease with the increase in number of pregnancies
until in women with ten or more children tlie longings scarcely
occur at all.
We must probably regard longings as based on a physiolog-
ical and psychic tendency which is of universal extension and
almost or quite normal. They are known throughout Europe
and were known to the medical writers of antiquity. Old Indian
as well as old Jewish physicians recognized them. They have
been noted among many savage races to-day : among the Indians
of North and South America, among the peoples of the Nile and
the Soudan, in the Malay archipelago.^ In Europe they are most
' Ploss and Bartels, Das Weib, Chapter XXX.
THE PSTCmC STATE IN PKEGNANCY. 215
common among the women of the people, living simple and
natural lives.^
The true normal relationship of the longings of pregnancy-
is with the impulsive and often irresistible longings for food
delicacies which are apt to overcome children, and in girls often
persist or revive through adolescence and even beyond. Such
sudden fits of greediness belong to those kind of normal psychic
manifestations which are on the verge of the abnormal into
which they occasionally pass. They may occur, however, in
healthy, well-bred, and well-behaved children who, under the
stress of the sudden craving, will, without compunction and
apparently without reflection, steal the food they long for or
even steal from their parents the money to buy it. The food
thus seized by a well-nigh irresistible craving is nearly always
a fruit. Fruit is usually doled out to children in small quan-
tities as a luxury, but we are descended from primitive human
peoples and still more remote ape-like ancestors, by whom fruit
was in its season eaten copiously, and it is not surprising that
when that season comes roimd the child, more sensitive than the
adult to primitive influences, should sometimes experience the
impulse of its ancestors with overwhelming intensity, all the
more so if, as is probable, the craving is to some extent the ex-
pression of a pliysiological need.
Sanford Bell, who has investigated the food impulses of children in
America, finds that girls have a greater number of likes and dislikes in
foods than boys of the same age, though at the same time they have less
dislikes to some foods than boys. The proclivity for sweets and fniits
shows itself as soon as a child begins to eat solids. The chief fruits
liked are oranges, bananas, apples, peaches, and pears. This strong pref-
erence for fruits lasts till the age of 13 or 14, though relatively weaker
from 10 to 13. In girls, however, Bell notes the significant fact from
our present point of view that at mid-adolescence there is a revived taste
for sweets and fruits. He believes that the growth of children in taste
in foods recapitulates the experience of the race. (S. Bell, "An Intro-
ductory Study of the Psychology of Foods." Pedagogical Seminary,
March, 1904.)
'Thus, in Cornwall, "to be in the longing way" is a popular
symonym for pregnancy.
216 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
The heightened nervous impressionability of pregnancy
would appear to arouse into activity those primitive impulses
which are liable to occur in childhood and in the unmarried
girl continue to the nubile age. It is a significant fact that the
longings of pregnant women are mainly for fruit, and notably
for so wholesome a fruit as the apple, which may very well have
a beneficial effect on the system of the pregnant woman. Giles,
in his tabulation of the foods longed for by 300 pregnant women,
found that the fruit group was by far the largest, furnishing
79 cases; apples were far away at the head, occurring in 34
cases out of the 99 who had longings, while oranges followed at
a distance (with 13 cases), and in the vegetable group tomatoes
came first (with 6 cases). Several women declared "I could
have lived on apples," "I was eating apples all day," "I used to
sit up in bed eating apples."^ Pregnant women appear seldom
to long for the possession of objects outside the edible class, and
it seems doubtful whether they have any special tendency to
kleptomania. Pinard has pointed out that neither Lasegue nor
Lunier, in their studies of kleptomania, have mentioned a single
shop robbery committed by a pregnant woman.^ Brouardel has
indeed found such cases, bu-t the object stolen was usually a food.
A further significant fact connecting the longings of preg-
nant women with the longings of children is to be found in the
fact that they occur mainly in young women. We have, indeed,
no tabulation of the ages of pregnant women who have mani-
fested longings, but Giles has clearly shown that these chiefly
^The apple, wherever it is known, has nearly always been a sacred
or magic fruit ( as J. F. Campbell shows. Popular Tales of ^Yest High-
lands, vol. I, p. Ixxv. et seq.), and the fruit of the forbidden tree which
tempted Eve is always popularly imagined to be an apple. One may per-
haps refer in this connection to the fact that at Rome and elsewhere the
testicles have been called apples. I may add that we find a curious proof
of the recognition of the feminine love of apples in an old Portuguese
ballad, "Donna Guiniar," in which a damsel puts on armour and goes to
the wars; her sex is suspected and as a test, she is taken into an orchard,
but Donna Guimar is too wary to fall into the trap, and turning away
from the apples plucks a citron.
*A. Pinard, Art. "Grossesse," Dictionnaire Eneyclopcdiqiie dcs
Sciences Mcdicales, p. 138. On the subject of violent, criminal and
abnormal impulses during pregnancy, see C'umston, "Pregnancy and
Crime," America7i Journal Obstetrics, December, 1903.
THE PSYCHIC STATE IX PREGNANCY. 217
occur in primiparte, and steadily and rapidly decrease in each
successive pregnancy. This fact, otherwise somewhat difiScult
of explanation, is natural if we look upon the longings of preg-
nancy as a revival of those of childhood. It certainly indicates
also that we can by no means regard these longings as exclusively
the expression of a physiological craving, for in that case they
would be liable to occur in any pregnancy unless, indeed, it is
argued that with each successive pregnancy the woman becomes
less sensitive to her own physiological state.
There has been a frequent tendency, more especially among primi-
tive peoples, to regard a pregnant woman's longings as something sacred
and to be indulged, all the more, no doubt, as they are usually of a
simple and harmless character. In the Black Forest, according to Ploss
and Bartels, a pregnant woman may go freely into other people's gardens
and take fruit, provided she eats it on the spot, and very similar
privileges are accorded to her elsewhere. Old English opinion, as re-
flected, for instance, in Ben Jonson's plays (as Dr. Harriet C. B. Alex-
ander has pointed out), regards the pregnant woman as not responsible
for her longings, and Kiernan remarks ("Kleptomania and Collectivism,"
Alienist and Neurologist, November, 1902) that this is in "a most natural
and just view." In France at the Revolution a law of the 28th Ger-
minal, in the year III, to some extent admitted the irresponsibility of
the pregnant woman generally, — following the classic precedent, by
which a woman could not be brought before a court of justice so long
as she was pregnant, — but the Napoleonic code, never tender to women,
abrogated this. Pinard does not consider that the longings of pregnant
women are irresistible, and, consequently, regards the pregnant woman
as responsible. This is probably the view most widely held. In any
case these longings seldom come up for medico-iegal consideration.
The phenomena of the longings of pregnancy are linked to
the much more obscure and dubious phenomena of the influence
of maternal impressions on the child within the womb. It is
true, indeed, that there is no real connection whatever between
these two groups of manifestations, but they have been so widely
and for so long closely associated in the popular mind that it is
convenient to pass directly from one to the other. The same
name is sometimes given to the two manifestations; thus in
France a pregnant longing is an envie^ while a mother's mark
on the child is also called an envie, because it is supposed to be
due to the mother's unsatisfied longing.
218 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
The conception of a "maternal impression" (the German
Verselien) rests on the belief that a powerful mental influence
working on the mother's mind may produce an impression, either
general or definite, on the child she is carrying. It makes a
great deal of difference whether the effect of the impression on
the child is general, or definite and circumscribed. It is not
difficult to believe that a general effect — even, as Sir x\rthur
]\Iitchell first gave good reason for believing, idiocy — may be
produced on the child by strong and prolonged emotional influ-
ence working on the mother, because such general influence may
be transmitted through a deteriorated blood-stream. But it is
impossible at present to understand how a definite and limited
influence working on the mother could produce a definite and
limited effect on the child, for there are no channels of nervous
communications for the passage of such influences. Our diffi-
culty in conceiving of the process must, however, be put aside if
the fact itself can be demonstrated by convincing evidence.
In order to illustrate the nature of maternal impressions, I will
summarize a few eases which I have collected from the best medical
periodical literature during the past fifteen years. I have exercised no
selection and in no way guarantee the authenticity of the alleged facts
or the alleged explanation. They are merely examples to illustrate a
class of cases published from time to time by medical observers in
medical journals of high repute.
Early in pregnancy a woman found her pet rabbit killed by a cat
which had gnawed off the two forepaws, leaving ragged stumps; she
was for a long time constantly thinking of this. Her child was bom
with deformed feet, one foot with only two toes, the other three, the os
calcis in both feet being either absent or little developed. (G. B. Beale,
Tottenham, Uinect, May 4, 1889).
Three months and a half before birth of the child the father, a
glazier, fell through the roof of a hothouse, severely cutting his right arm,
so that he was lying in the infirmary for a long time, and it was doubt-
ful whether the hand could be saved. The child was healthy, but on the
flexor surface of the radial side of the right forearm just above the
wrist — the same spot as the father's injury — there was a nsevus the size
of a sixpence. (W. Russell, Paisley, Lancet, May 11, 1889.)
At the beginning of pregnancy a woman was greatly scared by
being kicked over by a frightened cow she was milking; she hung on to
the animal's teats, but thought she would be trampled to death, and
THE PSYCHIC STATE IN PEEGNANCT. 219
was ill and nervous for weeks afterwards. The child was a monster,
with a fleshy substance — seeming to be prolonged from the spinal cord
and to represent the brain — projecting from the floor of the skull. Both
doctor and nurse were struck by the resemblance to a cow's teats before
they knew the woman's story, and this was told by the woman imme-
diately after delivery and before she knew to what she had given birth.
(A. Ross Paterson, Reversby, Lincolnshire, Lancet, September 29, 1889.)
During the second month of pregnancy the mother was terrified
by a bullock as she was returning from market. The child reached
full term and was a well-developed male, stillborn. Its head "exactly
resembled a miniature cow's head;" the occipital bone was absent, the
parietals only slightly developed, the eyes were placed at the top of the
frontal bone, which was quite flat, with each of its superior angles
twisted into a rudimentary horn. (J. T. Hislop, Tavistock, Devon,
Lancet, November 1, 1890.)
When four months pregnant the mother, a multipara of 30, was
startled by a black and white collie dog suddenly pushing against her
and rushing out when she opened the door. This preyed on her mind,
and she felt sure her child would be marked. The whole of the child's
right thigh was encircled by a shining black mole, studded with white
hairs; there was another mole on the spine of the left scapula. (C. F.
Williamson, Horley, Surrey, Lancet, October 11, 1890.)
A lady in comfortable circumstances, aged 24, not markedly emo-
tional, with one child, in all respects healthy, early in her pregnancy
saw a man begging whose arms and legs were ''all doubled up." This
gave her a shock, but she hoped no ill effects would follow. The child
was an encephalous monster, with the extremities rigidly flexed and the
fingers clenched, the feet almost sole to sole. In the next pregnancy
she frequently passed a man who was a partial cripple, but she was not
unduly depressed; the child was a counterpart of the last, except that
the head was normal. The next child was strong and well formed. (C.
W. Chapman, London, Lancet, October 18, 1890.)
When the pregnant mother was working in a hayfield her husband
threw at her a young hare he had found in the hay; it struck her on
the cheek and neck. Her daughter has on the left cheek an oblong
patch of soft dark hair, in color and character clearly resembling the
fur of a very young hare. (A. Mackay, Port Appin, N. B., Lancet,
December 19, 1891. The writer records also four other cases which have
happened in his experience.)
When the mother was pregnant her husband had to attend to a
sow who could not give birth to her pigs; he bled her freely, cutting a
notch out of both ears. His wife insisted on seeing the sow. The
helix of each ear of her child at birth was gone, for nearly or quite half
an inch, as if cut purposely. (R. P. Roons, Medical V^orld, 1894.)
220 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
A lady when pregnant was much interested in a story in which
one of the characters had a supernumerary digit, and this often recurred
to her mind. Her baby had a supernumerary digit on one hand. (J.
Jenkyns, Aberdeen, British Medical Journal, March 2, 1895. The writer
also records another case.)
When pregnant the mother saw in the forest a new-born fawn
which was a double monstrosity. Her child was a similar double mon-
strosity (cephalothora copagus). (Hartmann, Miinchener Medicinisches
Wochenschrift, No. 9, 1895.)
A well developed woman of 30, who had ten children in twelve
years, in the third month of her tenth pregnancy saw a child run over
by a street car, which crushed the upper and back part of its head. Her
own child was anencephalic and acranial, with entire absence of vault
of skull. (F. A. Stahl, American Journal of Obstetrics, April, 1896.)
A healthy woman with no skin blemish had during her third preg-
nancy a violent appetite for sunfish. During or after the fourth month
her husband, as a surprise, brought her some sunfish alive, placing them
in a pail of water in the porch. She stumbled against the pail and the
shock caused the fish to flap over the pail and come in violent contact
with her leg. The cold wriggling fish produced a nervous shock, but
she attached no importance to this. The child (a girl) had at birth a
mark of bronze pigment resembling a fish with the head uppermost
(photograph given) on the corresponding part of the same leg. Daugh-
ter's health good; throughout life she has had a strong craving for
sunfish, which she has sometimes eaten till she has vomited from re-
pletion. (C. F. Gardiner, Colorado Springs, American Journal Obstetrics,
February, 1898.)
The next case occurred in a bitch. A thoroughbred fox terrier
bitch strayed and was discovered a day or two later with her right
foreleg broken. The limb was set under chloroform with the help of
Rontgen rays, and the dog made a good recovery. Several weeks later
she gave birth to a puppy with a right foreleg that was ill-developed and
minus the paw. (J. Booth, Cork, British Medical Journal, September
16, 1899.)
Four months before the birth of her child a woman with four
healthy children and no history of deformity in the family fell and cut
her left wrist severely against a broken bowl; she had a great fright
and shock. Her child, otherwise perfect, was born without left hand and
wrist, the stump of arm terminating at lower end of radius and ulna.
(G. Ainslie Johnston, Ambleside, British Medical Journal, April 18,
1903.)
The belief in the reality of the transference of strong
mental or physical impressions on the mother into phy-
THE PSYCHIC STATE IN" PEEGNANOT. 221
sical changes in the child she is bearing is very ancient
and widespread. Most writers on the subject begin with
the book of Genesis and the astute device of Jacob in in-
fluencing the color of his lambs by mental impressions
on his ewes. But the belief exists among even more prim-
itive people than the early Hebrews, and in all parts of the
world,^ Among the Greeks there is a trace of the belief in Hip-
pocrates, the first of the world's great physicians, while Soranus,
the mose famous of ancient gynaecologists, states the matter in
the most precise manner, with instances in proof. The belief
continued to persist unquestioned throughout the Middle Ages.
The first author who denied the influence of maternal impres-
sions altogether appears to have been the famous anatomist,
Eealdus Columbus, who was a professor at Padua, Pisa, and
Eome at the beginning of the sixteenth century. In the same
century, however, another and not less famous ISTeapolitan, Delia
Porta, for the first time formulated a definite theory of ma-
ternal impressions. A little later, early in the seventeenth
century, a philosophic physician at Padua, Fortunatus Licetus,
took up an intermediate position which still finds, perhaps rea-
sonably, a great many adherents. He recognized that a very
frequent cause of malformation in the child is to be found in
morbid antenatal conditions, but at the same time was not pre-
pared to deny absolutely and in every case the influence of ma-
ternal impression on such conditions. Malebranche, the Platonic
philosopher, allowed the greatest extension to the power of the
maternal imagination. In the eighteenth century, however, the
new spirit of free inquiry, of radical criticism, and unfettered
logic, led to a sceptical attitude toward this ancient belief then
flourishing vigorously.^ In 1727, a few years after Malebranche's
death, James Blondel, a physician of extreme acuteness, who had
^See especially Ploss and Bartels, Das Weib, vol. i, Chapter XXXI.
Ballantyne in his work on the pathology of the foetus adds Loango
negroes, the Eskimo and the ancient Japanese.
'In 1731 Schurig, in his Syllepsilogia, devoted more than a hundred
pages (cap. IX) to summarizing a vast number of curious cases of
maternal impressions leading to birth-marks of all kinds.
222 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
been born in Paris, was educated at Leyden, and practiced in
London, published the first methodical and thorough attack on
the doctrine of maternal impressions. The Strength of Imagina-
tion of Pregnant Women Examined, and exercised his great
ability in ridiculing it. Haller, Eoederer, and Sommering
followed in the steps of Blondel, and were either sceptical
or hostile to the ancient belief. Blumenbach, however, ad-
mitted the influence of maternal impressions. Erasmus
Darwin, as well as Goethe in his W ahlverwandtshaften, even
accepted the influence of paternal impressions on the child.
By the beginning of the nineteenth century the majority of
physicians were inclined to relegate maternal impressions
to the region of superstition. Yet the exceptions were
of notable importance. Burdach, when all deductions were
made, still found it necessary to retain the belief in maternal
impressions, and Von Baer, the founder of embryology, also
accepted it, supported by a case, occurring in his own sister,
which he was able to investigate before the child's birth. L. W.
T. BischofP, also, while submitting the doctrine to acute criti-
cism, found it impossible to reject maternal impressions abso-
lutely, and he remarked that the number of adherents to the doc-
trine was showing a tendency to increase rather than diminish.
Johannes Miiller, the founder of modern physiology in Ger-
many, declared himself against it, and his influence long pre-
vailed; Valentin, Eudolf Wagner, and Emil du Bois-Eeymond
were on the same side. On the other hand various eminent
gynaecologists — Litzmann, Eoth, Hennig, etc. — have argued in
favor of the reality of maternal impressions.^
The long conflict of opinion which has taken place over this
opinion has still left the matter unsettled. The acutest critics
^ J. W. Ballantyne has written an excellent history of the doctrine
of maternal impressions, reprinted in his Manual of Antenatal Path-
ology: The Embryo, 1904, Chapter IX; he gives a bibliography of 381
items. In Germany the history of the question has been written by
Dr. Iwan Bloeh (under the pseudonym of Gerhard von Welsenburg), Das
Yersehen der Fratien, 1899. Cf., in French, G. Variot, "Origine des
Pr^juges Populaires sur les Envies," Bulletin Soeiete d" Anthropologie,
Paris, June 18, 1891. Variot rejects the doctrine absolutely, Bloch ac-
cepts it; Ballantyne speaks cautiously.
THE PSYCHIC STATE IN PEEGNAJs^CY. 223
of the ancient belief constantly conclude the discnssion ^vith an
expression of doubt and uncertainty. Even if the majority of
authorities are inclined to reject maternal impressions, the scien-
tific eminence of those who accept them makes a deeir^ive opinion
difficult. The arguments against such influence are perfectly
sound: (1) it is a primitive belief of unscientific origin; (2)
it is impossible to conceive how such influence can operate since
there is no nervous connection between mother and child; (3)
comparatively few cases have been submitted to severe critical
investigation; (4) it is absurd to ascribe developmental defects
to influences which arise long after the foetus had assumed its
definite shape^; (5) in any case the phenomenon must be rare,
for William Hunter could not find a coincidence between ma-
ternal impressions and foetal marks through a period of several
years, and Bischoff found no case in 11,000 deliveries. These
statements embody the whole of the argument against maternal
impressions, yet it is clear that they do not settle the matter.
Edgar, in a manual of obstetrics which is widely regarded as a
standard work, states that this is "yet a mooted question."^
Ballant}Tie, again, in a discussion of this influence at the Edin-
burgh Obstetrical Society, summarizing the result of a year's
inquiry, concluded that it is still "suh jiidice." In a subsequent
discussion of the question he has somewhat modified his opinion,
and is inclined to deny that definite impressions on the preg-
nant woman's mind can cause similar defects in the foetus ; they
are "accidental coincidences,'' but he adds that a few of the
^ J. G. Kiernan has shown how many of the alleged cases are
negatived by the failure to take this fact into consideration. [Journal
of American Medical Association, December 9, 1899.)
^ J. Clifton Edgar, TJie Practice of Obstetrics, second edition, 1904,
p. 296. In an important discussion of the question at the American
Gynaecological Society in 1886, introduced by Fordyce Barker, various
eminent gynaecologists declared in favor of the doctrine, more or less
cautiously. Transactions of the American Gi/nwcological Societij, vol. xi,
188G, pp.* 152-196.) Gould and Pyle, bringing forward some of the data
on the question (Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, pp. 81, et seq.)
state that the reality of the influence of maternal impressions seems
fullv established. On the other side, see G. W. Cook, American Journal
of Ohstetrics, September, 1889, and H. F. Lewis, i6., July, 1899.
' Transactions Edinhnrgh Obstetrical Society, vol. xvii, 1892.
224 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
cases are difficult to explain away. At the same time he fully
believes that prolonged and strongly marked mental states of the
mother may affect the development of the fcetus in her uterus,
causing vascular and nutritive disturbances, irregularities of
development, and idiocy.^
Whether and in how far mental impressions on the mother can
produce definite mental and emotional disposition in the child is a
special aspect of the question to which scarcely any inquiry has been
devoted. So distinguished a biologist as Mr. A. W. Wallace has, how-
ever, called attention to this point, bringing forward evidence on the
question and emphasizing the need of further investigation. "Such
transmission of mental influence," he remarks, "will hardly be held to
be impossible or even very improbable." (A. W. Wallace, "Prenatal
Influences on Character," Nature, August 24, 1893.)
It has already been pointed out that a large number of cases
of foetal deformities, supposed to be due to maternal impressions,
cannot possibly be so caused because the impression took place
at a period when the development of the foetus must already have
been decided. In this connection, however, it must be noted
that Dabney has observed a relationship between the time of
supposed mental impressions and the nature of the actual defect
which is of considerable significance as an argument in favor
of the influence of mental impressions. He tabulated 90 care-
fully reported cases from recent medical literature, and found
that 21 of them were concerned with defects of structure of the
lips and palate. In all but 2 of these 21 the defect was re-
ferred to an impression occurring within the first three months
of pregnancy. This is an important point as showing that the
assigned cause really falls within a period when a defect of de-
velopment actually could produce the observed result, although
the person reporting the cases was in many instances manifestly
ignorant of the details of embryology and teratology. There
was no such preponderance of early impressions among the de-
fects of skin and hair which might well, so far as development
is concerned, have been caused at a later period; here, in 7 out
*J. W. Ballantyne, Manual of Antenatal Pathology: The Emhryo,
p. 45.
THE PSYCHIC STATE IN PREGNANCY. 225
of 15 cases, it was distinctly stated that the impression was made
later than the fourth month.^
It would seem, on the whole, that while the influence of
maternal impressions in producing definite eft'ects on the child
within the womb has by no means been positively demonstrated,
we are not entitled to reject it with any positive assurance. Even
if we accept it, however, it must remain, for the present, an
inexplicable fact ; the modus operandi we can scarcely even guess
at. General influences from the mother on the child we can
easily conceive of as conveyed by the mother's blood ; we can
even suppose that the modified blood might act specifically on
one particular kind of tissue. We can, again, as suggested by
Fere, very well believe that the maternal emotions act upon the
womb and produce various kinds and degrees of pressure on the
child within, so that the apparently active movements of the
foetus may be really consecutive on unconscious maternal ex-
citations.^ We may also believe that, as suggested by John
Thomson, there are slight incoordinations in utero, a kind of
developmental neurosis, produced by some slight lack of har-
mony of whatever origin, and leading to the production of mal-
formations.^ We know, finally, that, as Fere and others have
repeatedly demonstrated during recent years by experiments on
chickens, etc., very subtle agents, even odors, may profoundly
affect embryonic development and produce deformity. But how
the mother's psychic disposition can, apart from heredity, affect
specifically the physical conformation or even the psychic dis-
position of the child within her womb must remain for the pres-
ent an insoluble mystery, even if we feel disposed to conclude
that in some cases such action seems to be indicated.
In comprehending such a connection, however at present undemon-
strated, it may well be borne in mind that the relationship of the mother
to the child within her womb is of a uniquely intimate character. It is
^W. C. Dabney, "Maternal Impressions," Keating's Cyclopwdia of
Diseases of Children, vol. i, 1889, pp. 191-216.
*r6r6, Sensation et Mouvement, Chapter XIV, "Sur la Psychologic
du Foetus."
'J. Thomson, "Defective Co-ordination in Utero," British Medical
Journal, September 6, 1902.
226 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
of interest in this connection to quote some remarks by an able
psychologist. Dr. Henry Rutgers Marshall; the remarks are not less
interesting for being brought forward without any connection with the
question of maternal impressions: "It is true that, so far as we know,
the nervous system of the embryo never has a direct connection with
the nervous system of the mother : nevertheless, as there is a reciprocity
of reaction between the physical body of the mother and its embryonic
parasite, the relation of the embryonic nervous system to the nervous
system of the mother is not very far removed from the relation of the
pre-eminent part of the nervous system of a man to some minor nervous
system within his body which is to a marked extent dissociated from
the whole neural mass.
"Correspondingly, then, and within the consciousness of the mother,
there develops a new little minor consciousness which, although but
lightly integrated with the mass of her consciousness, nevertheless has
its part in her consciousness taken as a whole, much as the psychic corre-
spondents of the action of the nerve which govern the secretions of
the glands of the body have their part in her consciousness taken as a
whole.
"It is very much as if the optic ganglia developed fully in them-
selves, without any closer connection with the rest of the brain than ex-
isted at their first appearance. They would form a little complex nervous
system almost but not quite apart from the brain system; and it would
be difficult to deny them a consciousness of their own; which would
indeed form part of the whole consciousness of the individual, but
which would be in a manner self-dependent." It must, if this is so, be
said that before bii'th, on the psychic side, the embryo's activities
"form part of a complex consciousness which is that of the mother and
embryo together." "Without subscribing to the strange stoi'ies of tele-
pathy, of the solemn apparition of a person somewhere at the moment
of his death a thousand miles away, of the unquiet ghost haunting the
scenes of its bygone hopes and endeavors, one may ask" (with the author
of the address in medicine at the Leicester gathering of the British Medi-
cal Association, BritisJi Medical Journal, July 29, 1905) "whether two
brains cannot be so tuned in sympathy as to transmit and receive a
subtile transfusion of mind without mediation of sense. Considering
what is implied by the human brain with its countless millions of cells,
its complexities of minute structure, its innumerable chemical composi-
tions, and the condensed forces in its microscopic and ultramicroscopic
elements — the whole a sort of microcosm of cosmic forces to which no
conceivable compound of electric batteries is comparable; considering,
again, that from an electric station waves of energy radiate through the
viewless air to be caught up by a fit receiver a thousand miles distant,
it ia not inconceivable that the human brain may send off still more sub-
THE PSYCHIC STATE IX PREGNAXCY. 227
tile waves to be accepted and interpreted by the fitly tuned receiving
brain. Is it, after all, mere fancy that a mental atmosphere or effluence
emanates from one person to affect another, either soothing sympatheti-
cally or irritating antipathically?" These remarks (like Dr. Marshall's)
■were made without reference to maternal impressions, but it may be
pointed out that under no conceivable circumstance could we find a
brain in so virginal and receptive a state as is the child's in the womb.
On the whole we see that pregnancy induces a psychic state
which is at once, in healthy persons, one of full development
and vigor, and at the same time one which, especially in indi-
viduals who are slightly abnormal, is apt to involve a state of
strained or overstrained nervous tension and to evoke various
manifestations which are in many respects still imperfectly un-
derstood. Even the specifically sexual emotions tend to be
heightened, more especially during the earlier period of preg-
nancy. In 24 cases of pregnancy in which the point was in-
vestigated by Harry Campbell, sexual feeling was decidedly in-
creased in 8, in one case (of a woman aged 31 who had had four
children) being indeed only present during pregnancy, when it
was considerable; in only 7 cases was there diminution or dis-
appearance of sexual feeling.^ Pregnancy may produce mental
depression ;- but on the other hand it frequently leads to a change
of the most favorable character in the mental and general well-
being. Some women indeed are only well during pregnancy.
It is remarkable that some women who habitually suffer from
various nervous troubles — neuralgias, gastralgia, headache, in-
somnia — are only free from them at this moment. This '^para-
dox of gestation," as Vinay has termed it, is specially marked
in the hysterical and those suffering from slight nervous dis-
orders, but it is by no means universal, so that although it is
possible, Vinay states, to confirm the opinion of the ancients as
^H. Campbell, Xervons Organization of Man and Woman, p. 206;
cf. Moll, Vntersuchungen iiber die Libido SexuaJis, bd. i, p. 264. Many
authorities, from Soranus of Ephesus onward, consider, however, that
sexual relations should cease during pregnancy, and certainly during
the later months. Cf. Brenot, De I'infiuence de la copulation pendant
la grosseisse, 1903.
' Bianchi terms this fairly common condition the neurasthenia of
pregnancy,
228 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX.
to the beneficial action of marriage on hysteria, that is only true
of slight cases and scarcely enables us to counsel marriage in
hysteria.^ Even a woman's intelligence is sometimes heightened
by pregnancy, and Tarnior, as quoted by A^inay, knew many
women whose intelligence, habitually somewhat obtuse, has only
risen to the normal level during pregnancy.^ The pregnant
woman has reached the climax of womanhood; she has attained
to that state toward which the periodically recurring menstrual
wave has been drifting her at regular intervals throughout her
sexual life^ ; she has achieved that function for which her body
has been constructed, and her mental and emotional disposition
adapted, through countless ages.
And yet, as we have seen, our ignorance of the changes
effected by the occurrence of this supremely important event —
even on the physical side — still remains profound. Pregnancy,
even for us, the critical and unprejudiced children of a civilized
age, still remains, as for the children of more primitive ages,
a mystery. Conception itself is a mystery for the primitive man,
and may be produced by all sorts of subtle ways apart from sex-
ual connection, even by smelling a flower.'' The pregnant woman
*Vinay, TraiU des Maladies de la Grossesse, 1894, pp. 51, 577;
Mongeri, "Nervenkrankungen und Sehwangerschaft," Allegemeine Zcit-
schrift fur Pui/chlatrie, bd. LVIII, Heft 5. Haig remarks (Uric Acid,
sixth edition, p. 151) that during normal pregnancy diseases with excess
of uric acid in the blood (headaches, fits, mental depression, dyspepsia,
asthma) are absent, and considers that tlie common idea that women
do not easily take colds, fevers, etc., at this time is well founded.
^ Founding his remarks on certain anatomical changes and on a
suggestion of Engel's, Donaldson observes: "It is impossible to escape
the conclusion that in women natural education is complete only with
maternity, which we know to effect some slight changes in the sym-
pathetic system and possibly the spinal cord, and which may be fairly
laid under suspicion of causing more structural modifications than are
at present recognized." H. H. Donaldson, -TJie Ch-oicth of the Brain,
p. 352.
*The state of menstruation is in many respects an approximation
to that of pregnancy; see, e.g., Edgar's Practice of Oistetrics, plates 6
and 7, showing the resemblance of the menstrual changes in the breasts
and the external sexual parts to the changes of pregnancy; cf. Havelock
Ellis, Man and Wotnan, fourth edition, Chapter XI, "The Functional
Periodicity of Woman."
* Thus the gypsies say of an unmarried woman who becomes preg-
nant, "She has smelt the moon-flower"— a flower believed to grow on
the so-called moon-mountain and to possess the property of impregnat-
ing by its smell. Ploss and Bartels, Das Weib, bd. I, Chapter XXVII.
THE PSYCHIC STATE IN rEEGNANCY. 229
was surrounded by ceremonies, by reverence and fear, often shut
up in a place apart.^ Her presence, her exhalations, were of
extreme potency ; even in some parts of Europe to-day, as in the
Walloon districts of Belgium, a pregnant woman must not kiss
a child for her breath is dangerous, or urinate on plants for she
will kill tliem.^ The mystery has somewhat changed its form;
it still remains. The future of the race is bound up with our
efTorts to fathom the mystery of pregnancy. "The early days
of human life," it has been truly said, "are entirely one with
the mother. On her manner of life — eating, drinking, sleeping,
and thinking — what greatness may not hang?"^ Schopenhauer
observed, with misapplied horror, that there is nothing a woman
is less modest about than the state of pregnancy, while Weininger
exclaims : "ISTever yet has a pregnant woman given expression in
any form — poem, memoirs, or gynaecological monograph — to her
sensations or feelings."* Yet when we contemplate the mystery
of pregnancy and all that it involves, how trivial all such con-
siderations become ! We are here lifted into a region where our
highest intelligence can only lead us to adoration, for we are
gazing at a process in which the operations of Nature become
one with the divine task of Creation.
^ This was a sound instinct, for it is now recognized as an extremely-
important part of puericiilture that a woman should rest at all events
during the latter part of pregnancy; see, e.g., Pinard, Gazette des
Eointaii.T, November 28, 1895, and Annales de Gynecologic, August, 1898.
*PIoss and Bartels, op. cit., Chapter XXIX; KpvTrrddia, vol. viii,
p. 143.
» Griffith Wilkin, British Medical Journal, April 8, 1905.
* Weininger, Geschlecht itrid Cliarakter, p. 107. I may remark that
a recent book, Ellis Meredith's Heart of My Heart, is devoted to a seem-
ingly autobiographical account of a pregnant woman's emotions and
ideas. The relations of maternity to intellectual work have been care-
fully and impartially investigated by Adele Gerhard and Helena Simon,
who seem to conclude that the conflict between the inevitable claims
of maternity and the scarcely less inevitable claims of the intellectual
life cannot be avoided.
APPENDIX.
HISTORIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT.
History I. — The following narrative has been written by a univer-
sity man trained in psychology: —
So far as I have been able to learn, none of my ancestors for at
least three generations have suffered from any nervous or mental dis-
ease; and of those more remote I can learn nothing at all. It appears
probable, then, that any peculiarities of my own sexual development
must be explained by reference to the somewhat peculiar environment.
1 was the first child and was, naturally, somewhat spoiled — a
process which tended to increase my natural tendency to sentimentality.
On the other hand, I was shy and undemonstrative with all except my
nearest relatives, and with them as well after my seventh or eighth year.
And here it may be well to describe my "mental type," as this is probably
the most important factor in determining the direction of one's mental
development. Of mental types the "visual" is, of course, by far the most
common, but in my own case visual imagery was never strong or vivid,
and has constantly grown weaker. The dominant part has been played
by tactual, muscular and organic sensations, placing me as one of the
"tactual motor" type, with strong "verbal motor" and "organic" ten-
dencies. In reading a novel I seldom have a mental picture of the char-
acter or situation, but easily imagine the sensations (except the visual)
and feel something of the emotions described. When telling of any event
I have a strong impulse to make the movements described and to gesticu-
late. 1 remember events in terms of movements and the words to be
used in giving an account of them; and in thinking of any subject I
can feel the movements of the larynx and, in a less degree, of the lips
and tongue that would be involved in putting my thoughts into words.
I am easily moved to emotion, even to sentimentality, but am seldom if
ever deeply affected and am so averse to any display of my feelings that
I have the reputation among my acquaintances of being cold, unfeeling
and unemotional. I am naturally quiet and bashful to a degree, which
has rendered all forms of social intercourse painful through much of my
life, and this in spite of a real longing to associate with people on terms
of intimacy. As a child I was sensitive and solitary; later I became
morbid as well. In a character so constituted the feelings and impulses
(231)
232 APPENDIX.
of the moment are likely to rule, and such has been my constant experi-
ence, though a large element of obstinacy in my character has kept me
from appearing impulsive, and slight influences will bring about reac-
tions which seem out of all proportion to their cause. For instance, I
cannot, even now, read the more erotic of Boccaccio's stories without a
good deal of sexual excitement and restlessness, which can be relieved
only by vigorous exercise or masturbation.
The first ten years of my life were passed on a farm, most of the
time without jjlaymates or companions of my own age.
As far back as I can i-emember I indulged in elaborate day-dreams
in which I figured as the chief character along with a few others who
were chiefly creatures of my imagination, but at times borrowed from
reality. These others were always boys until I learned the proper
function of the sexual organs, when girls usurped the whole stage in
numbers beyond the limits of a Turkish harem. Even at school my
day-dreams were scarcely interrupted, for my shyness and timidity made
me very unpopular among my schoolmates, who tormented me after
the fashion of small boys or neglected me, as the spirit moved them.
To make matters worse, I was brought up under the "sheltered life
system," kept carefully away from the "bad boys," which category
included nearly all the youngsters of the community, and deluged with
moral homilies and tirades on things religious until I was thoroughly
convinced that goodness and discomfort, the right and the unpleasant,
were strictly synonymous; and I was kept through much of the time
facing the prospect of an early death, to be followed by the good old
orthodox hell or the equal miseries of its gorgeous alternative. I may
say in all seriousness that this is a conservative and unexaggerated
account of one phase of my early life — the one, I think, that tended
most strongly to make me introspective and morbid. Later on, when
I was trying to abandon the habit of masturbation, this early training
greatly increased the despair I felt at each successive failure.
The first traces of sexual excitement that I can now recall occurred
when I was about 4 years old. I had erections quite frequently and
found a mild pleasure in fondling my genitals when these occuired,
especially just after waking in the morning. I had no notion of an
orgasm, and never succeeded in producing one until I was 13 years of
age. In the summer of my sixth year I experienced pleasurable sensa-
tions in daubing my genitals with oil and then fondling or rubbing them,
but I abandoned this amusement after getting some irritating substance
into the meatus. A year later my mother warned me that playing with
my penis would "make me very sick," but since experience had taught
me that this was not true, my conviction that what was forbidden must
necessarily be pleasant, sent me directly to my favorite retreat in the
barn loft to experiment. Since, however, I failed, in spite of persistent
HISTOEIES OF SEXUAL DEYELOPMENT. 233
effort, to produce any such pleasant results as I had expected, I soon
gave up my attempts for other kinds of amusement.
A few months after this, in midsummer, a very sensual servant
girl began a series of attempts to satisfy herself sexually with my help.
She came nearly every day into the loft where I was playing and did
her best to initiate me into the mysteries of sexual relationships, but
I proved a sorry pupil. She would rub my penis until it became erect
and then, placing me upon her, would insert the penis in her vulva and
make movements of her thighs and hips calculated to cause friction.
At times she varied the program by lying upon me and embracing me
passionately. I can remember distinctly her quick, gasping breath and
convulsive movements. She generally ended the seance by persuading
me to perform cunnilingus upon her. None of these performances were
intelligible to me and I invariably protested against being compelled to
leave my play to amuse her. Even her fondling of my genitals annoyed
me; and, stranger still, I preferred satisfying her by cunnilingus to the
attempts at coitus.
It was nearly a year later that I experienced the first unmistakable
manifestations of the sexual impulse — erections accompanied by lustful
feeling and vague desires of whose proper satisfaction 1 had no notion
whatever. It never occurred to me to associate my experiences with
the ser\'ant girl with these new sensations. The peculiar fact about
them was that they were generally occasioned by the infliction of pain
upon animals. I do not remember how I first discovered that they
could be evoked in this way, but I can clearly recollect many of my
efforts to arouse this pleasurable excitement by abusing the dog or the
cats, or by prodding the calves with a nail set in the end of a broom
handle. I seldom manipulated my genitals at this time, and when I
did it was for the purpose of causing sexual excitement rather than
allaying it.
During this same year I got my first idea of sexual intercourse by
watching animals copulate; but my powers of observation must have
been limited, for I supposed that the penis of the male entered the anus
of the female. In watching the coitus of animals I experienced lively
sexual excitement and lustful sensations, located not only in the
genitals, but apparently in the anus as well. I often excited myself
by imagining myself playing the part of the female animal — a peculiar
combination of passive pederasty and bestiality. A servant girl put
me to right on the error of obser\-ation just mentioned, but neglected
to apply the principle to human animals, and I remained for another
year m complete ignorance of the structure of woman's sexual organs
and of the intercourse between man and woman. In the meantime I
cultivated my fancies of intercourse with animals, often still perversely
imagining myself taking the part of the female; and the notion of such
234 APPENDIX.
relationships gradually became so familiar as to seem possible and
desirable. This is especially significant in view of later developments.
Up to my eleventh or twelfth year the erotic element in my day-
dreaming varied with the seasons. In the siimmer it played a dominant
part, while in the winter it was almost entirely absent, owing, it may be,
to the fact that most of my time was spent indoors or on long, tiresome
tramps to and from school, and the further fact that during the
winter I saw but little of the animals which had acted as a stimulus to
sexual excitement. So little was I troubled in winter and so ignorant
was I of normal intercourse that sleeping with a cousin, a girl of about
my own age (7 or 8 years), resulted in no addition to my knowledge of
things sexual.
It was early in my ninth year that I first learned something of the
anatomical difference between man and woman and of the functions of
the sexual organs in coitus. These were explained to me by a young
male servant, who, however, told me nothing of conception or pregnancy.
At first I was very little interested, as it did not immediately occur to
me to associate my own erotic experiences with the matter of these
revelations J but under the faithful tuition of my new instructor I soon
began to desire normal coitus, and my interest in the sexual affairs of
animals weakened accordingly. His teachings went still further, for he
masturbated before me, then persuaded me to masturbate him, and
finally practiced coitus inter femora upon me. He also tried to mastur-
bate me, but was unable to produce an orgasm, though I found the
experiment mildly pleasurable.
Early in my eleventh year we left the farm and lived in the city
for several months. In the meantime there had been no developments in
my sexual life beyond what has already been indicated. In the city I
found so much to interest and amuse me that 1 almost entirely forgot
my erotic day-dreams and desires. Though my chief playmates were
two girls of about my own age I never thought of attempting sexual
intercourse with them, as I might easily have done, for they were much
wiser and more experienced in these things than myself. Shortly before
the end of our stay in town an older schoolmate explained to me as
much of the process of reproduction as is usually known by a precocious
youngster of 12 years, but 1 firmly refused to credit his statements.
He adduced the fact of lactation in proof of the correctness of his
views, but I had been too thoroughly steeped in siipematuralism to be
very amenable to naturalistic evidence of this sort and remained ob-
durate. But the suggestion stayed with me and perplexed me not a
little; when we returned to the farm I began to watch the reproductive
process in animals.
The following two years were decidedly unpleasant. I was growing
rapidly and was sluggish, awkward and stupid. At school I was more
HISTOEIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 235
unpopular than ever and seemed to have a positive genius for doing
the "wrong thing. On the rare occasions when my companions admitted
me to their counsels I was a willing dupe and catspaw, with the result
that I was much in trouble with my teachers. Being morbidly sensitive
I suffered keenly under these circumstances and, as my health was not
at all good, I often made of my frequent headaches excuses to stay at
home, where I would lie abed brooding over my small troubles or, more
often, dreaming erotic day-dreams and making repeated attempts to
produce an orgasm. But though these efforts were accompanied by the
most lustful thoughts and my imagination created situations of oriental
extravagance, I was 13 years old when they first met with success. I
remember the occasion very distinctly, the more so because I thought
of it much and bitterly when shortly afterwards I tried to abandon a
habit which the family "doctor book" assured me must result in every
variety of damnation. At the moment, however, I was greatly surprised
and gratified and tried at once to repeat the delightful sensation, but
was unable to do so until the following day. From that time to the
present I think I have masturbated an average of ten times per week,
and this is certainly a very conservative estimate; for though up to
my sixteenth year I could seldom produce an orgasm more than once a
day I have often, during the last four or five years, produced it from four
to seven times per day without difficulty and this for days and even
weeks in succession. During these periods of excessive masturbation
very little liquid wag ejaculated and the pleasurable sensations were
slight or entirely lacking.
From the time when I began masturbating regularly practically
my whole interest centered in things pertaining to sex. I read the
chapters of the family "doctor book" which treated of sexual matters;
my day-dreams were almost exclusively erotic; I sought opportunities
to talk about sex-relationships with my schoolmates, witli whom 1 was
now slowly getting on better terms; I collected pictures of nude women,
learned a great number of obscene stories, read such obscene books as
I could obtain and even searched the dictionary for words having a
sexual connotation. Up to my fifteenth year, when ejaculation of semen
began, there was a strong sadistic coloring to my day-dreams. Through
this period, too, my bashfulness in the presence of the opposite sex
increased until it reached the point of absurdity.
When fifteen years old I began to practice coitus inter femora on
my brother and continued it intermittently for about two years. The
experience was disappointing, for I had confidently expected a great in-
crease of pleasure over masturbation in this act; and in casting about
for some stronger stimulus I recurred to the forgotten idea of inter-
course with animals. I promptly tried to put the idea to a test, but
failed several times, and finally succeeded, only to find that the result
236 APPENDIX.
fell far short of my expectations. Nevertheless I continued the practice
irregularly for about three years — or rather through that part of the
three years that I spent at home, for while I was at school opportunity
for such indulgence was lacking. Long familiarity with the idea of
intercourse with animals had made it impossible for me to feel the
disgust with the practice whicli it inspires in most people; and even
the perusal of Exodus xxii: 19 failed to make me abandon it. Firmly
as I believed in the Mosaic law the supremacy of the sexual impulse
was complete.
As early as my sixteenth year I tried to abandon "self-abuse" in all
its forms and have repeatedly made the same effort since that time
but never with more than very partial success. On two or three
occasions I have stopped for periods of several weeks, but only to begin
again and indulge more recklessly than before. The deep depression
which followed each failure, and often each act of masturbation, I
attributed solely to the loss of semen, leaving out of account tlia fact
that I expected to feel depressed and the utter discouragement and self-
contempt which accompanied the sense of failure and \7eakne5s when,
in the face of my resolution, I repeatedly gave way and yielded to the
temptation to an act whose consequences I firmly believed must be
ruinous. I am now convinced that by far the greater part of this
depression was due to suggestion and the humiliating sense of defeat.
And this feeling of moral impotence, this seeming helplessness against
an overpowering impulse which, on the other hand, seemed so trivial
when viewed without passion, eventually weakened my self-control to
a degree guessed by no one but myself and sapped the foundations of
my moral life in a way which I have constant occasion to deplore.
The foregoing paragraphs give, I think, a fair idea of my condition
when I left home for a boarding school at the beginning of my seven-
teenth year. From this time my experiences may be said to have run
on in two distinct cycles — that of the summer months when I was at
home, and that of the remainder of the year when I was at school. This
fact will make some confusion and apparent inconsistency in the rest
of this "history" unavoidable. When I left home I was shy, retiring,
totally ignorant of social usage, without self-confidence, unambitious,
dreamy, and subject to fits of melancholy. I masturbated at least once
a day, though I was in almost constant rebellion against the habit.
In my more idle moments I elaborated erotic day dreams in which there
was a peculiar mixture of the purely sensual and the purely ideal ele-
ment; which never fused in my experience, but held the field alternately
or mingled somewhat in the manner of air and water. One person usu-
ally served as the object of my ideal attachment, another as the center
round which I grouped my sensual dreams and desires.
At school I found more congenial companions than I had fallen in with
HISTOKIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 237
elsewhere, and the necessary contact with people of both sexes grad-
ually wore off some of the rougher corners and brought a measure of
self-confidence. I had two or three incipient love affairs which my back-
wardness kept from growing serious. Out of this change of environment
came a sense of expansion, of escape from self, which was distinctly
pleasant. I still masturbated regularly, but no longer experienced the
former depression except when at home during vacation. Relatively to
the past, life was now so varied and interesting that I had less and less
time for melancholy; and the discovery that I could lead my classes and
hold my own in athletic sports seemed to indicate that my past fears
had been exaggerated. Nevertheless I was never reconciled to the habit
and often rebelled at the weakness that kept me its slave.
When I entered the university the effects of my useless struggle
with the practice of masturbation were pretty well developed. I could
no longer fix my attention steadily upon my work and found that only
by "cribbing" and "bluffing" could I keep my place at the head of my
classes. I was troubled not a little by the shoddiness of my work, and
tried again and again during the course of the two years spent at this
college to shake off the habit. At the university I was introduced grad-
ually to a wider social circle and so far outgrew my bashfulness that I
began to seek the society of the opposite sex assiduously. As I gained
self-confidence I became reckless, getting at one time into serious trouble
with the authorities which came near resulting in my expulsion.
I became one of the more popular members of the clique to which I
belonged — much to my surprise and even more to that of my acquaint-
ances. The physical culture craze attacked me at this time and my pet
ambition was the attainment of strength and agility. My bump of
vanity also grew apace, but an unmeasured hatred of all kinds of fop-
pishness kept me on the safe side of moderation in my dress and be-
havior.
During my second year of university life I had two love affairs in
the course of which I found that my interest in any particular member
of the fair sex disappeared as soon as it was returned. The pursuit was
fascinating enough, but I cared nothing at all for the prize when once it
was within reach. I may add that the interest I had in tlie girls was
purely ideal. WTiile at this school I do not think I masturbated half as
often as while at the preparatory school.
WTien I left this college for University I took with me a
formidable catalogue of good resolutions, first among which was the
determination to abandon all kinds of "self-abuse." I think I kept this
one about a month. As I had gone from a comparatively small school
to one of the largest of American universities the change was great and
the revelations it brought me frequently humiliating. I was lonesome,
home-sick, and my bump of self-esteem was woefully bruised; and not
238 APPENDIX.
unnaturally I soon began to seek a partial solace in day-dreams and
masturbation. After I had become somewhat adapted to my new en-
vironment I indulged less frequently in either, and from that time to the
present I have masturbated very irregularly, sometimes but little and
again to excess.
Not long after I came to tliis place I met a young lady with whom
I soon became quite intimate. For over a year our friendship was
strictly platonic and then swung suddenly around to a sexual basis.
We were ardent lovers for a few weeks, after which I tired of the game
as I had before in other cases, and broke off all relations with her as
abruptly as was possible. Since then I have almost wholly withdrawn
from the society and companionship of women and have almost entirely
lost whatever tact and assurance I once possessed in. their company.
Things pertaining to sexual life have interested me rather more than
less, but have occupied my attention much less exclusively than before
this episode. Though I have never intended to marry, my breaking off
relations with this girl affected me much. At any rate it marked an
abrupt change in the character of my sexual experiences. The sexual
impulse seems to have lost its power to rouse me to action. Hitherto
I had practiced masturbation always under protest, as it were — as the
only available form of sexual satisfaction; while now I resigned myself
to it as all that there was to hope for in that field. Of course I knew
that a little effort or a little money would procure natural satisfaction
of my sexual needs, but I also knew that I would never, under any
ordinary circumstances, put forth the necessaiy effort, and fear of ven-
ereal disease has been more than enough to keep me away from houses
of prostitution.
Some months ago I refrained from masturbation for a period of
about six weeks and watched carefully for any change in my health or
spirits, but noticed none at all. The only impulse to masturbate was
occasioned by fits of restlessness accompanied by erections and a mildly
l^leasurahle feeling of fullness in the penis and scrotum. I think that
over 75 per cent, of my acts of masturbation are provoked by these fits
of restlessness and are unaccompanied by fancy images, erotic thoughts,
lustful desires, or marked pleasure. At other times the act is occa-
sioned by erotic thoughts and images, and is accompanied by a consid-
erable degree of lustful pleasure which, however, is never so intense as
in my earlier experiences and has steadily decreased from the first. Usu-
ally the orgasm is accompanied by a strong contraction of all the volun-
tary muscles, particularly the extensors, followed by a slight giddiness
and slight feeling of exhaustion. If repeated several times in the course
of a single day the acts are followed by dullness and lassitude; other-
wise the feeling of exhaustion passes away quickly and a sense of relief
and quiet takes its place. So natural or rather habitual has this resort
HISTORIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 239
to masturbation as a means of relief from nei"voiisness and restlessness
become that the act is almost instinctive in its unconsciousness.
I am extremely sensitive to all kinds of sexual influences, and have
an insatiable curiosity regarding everything that pertains to the sexual
life of men or women. I am not, however, excited sexually by conversa-
tion about sexual facts and relationships, no matter what its nature,
though in reading erotic literature my excitement is often intense.
The tendency to day dream has never left me, but there are no
longer any elaborate scenes or long-continued "stories," these having
been replaced by vaguely imagined incidents which are usually broken
off before they reach a satisfactoiy climax. They are always inter-
rupted by the intrusion of other matters, usually of more practical in-
terest; and the long-continued habit of satisfying myself by masturba-
tion has made erotic dreams rather tantalizing than pleasurable. I
dream very seldom at night — at least I can scarcely ever remember any
dreams upon waking — and practically never of sexual relations. 1 have
not had a nocturnal emission for over three years, and probably not
more than twenty-five in my life.
In my "love passages" with girls there has been no serious thought
of coitus on my part, and I have never had intercourse with a woman —
unless my early experiences with the servant girl be called such. Like
all masturbators I always idealized "love" to the utter exclusion of all
sensual cravings; and the notion that the physical act of coitus was
something degrading and destructive of I'eal love rather than its con-
summation was, of all prejudices I have ever formed, the most difficult
to escape — a circumstance due, I suppose, to the fact that all I had ever
been taught on the subject tended to the complete divorce of what was
called "love" from what was stigmatized as a "base sensual desire."
Judging from my own experience and observation I should say that
"ideal love" is a mere surface feelmg, bound to disappear as soon as it
has gained its object by arousing a reciprocal interest on the part of
the one to whom it is directed. So little did I "materialize" the objects
of my "love" that I have never cared for kissing or the wann embraces
in which lovers usually indulge. I have never kissed but one girl, and
her with far too little enthusiasm to satisfy her. My last sweetheart
was a very passionate girl, the warmth of whose embraces was some-
what torrid and, to me, both puzzling and annoying. The intensity of
feeling which demanded such strenuous expression was beyond my knowl-
edge of human nature. A somewhat peculiar cireiunstance in connection
with these experiences is the fact that I often found myself trying to
analyze my emotions with a purely psychological interest while playing
the part of the intoxicated lover in his mistress's amis.
There is but little left to say on the subject of my sexual develop-
ment. During the last two or three years my knowledge of the facts of
240 APPENDIX.
the sexual life has been very greatly increased, and I have become ac-
quainted with pliases of human nature which were wholly unknown to
me before. The part played by things sexual in my life is still, I sup-
pose, abnormally large; it is undoubtedly the largest single interest,
though my outer life is determined almost wholly by other considera-
tions.
Of course I know nothing of the effect which long-continued mas-
turbation may have had on my ability to perform normal coitus. I do
not think I am subject to any kind of sexual perversion, for all my in-
dulgence has been faute de mieux and, at least since I beagn masturba-
tion, all my desires and erotic day-dreams have had to do only with nor-
mal coitus. The mystery which surrounds the sexual act seems at times
to be regaining its former influence and power of fascination. I have
no doubt, however, but that I should be greatly disillusioned should I
ever perform coitus; and 1 greatly regret that I have not been able to
test this conviction and so round out and complete this "history."
It may be worth while to say a word about my religious experi-
ences, as, in many cases, they ai-e closely bound up with the sexual im-
pulse. I was never "converted," but on a dozen or more occasions ap-
proached the crisis more or less closely. The dominant emotion in these
experiences was always fear, sometimes with anger and despair inter-
mixed in varying proportions. A complete analysis of these experiences
is, of course, impossible, but the various pleasurable feelings of which
converts spoke in the revivals v/hich I attended were a closed book to
me. Following my revival-meeting experiences came a few days spent in
a sort of moral exaltation during which I eschewed all my habits of
which conventional morality disapproved, save masturbation, and felt
no small satisfaction with my moral conditions. I became a first-rate
Pharisee. Toward the women who had figured in my day dreams I sud-
denly conceived the chastest aflfection, resolutely smothering every sen-
sual thought and fancy when thinking of them, and putting in place of
these elements ideal love, self-sacrifice, knightly devotion — Sunday-school
Garden-of-Eden pictures with a mediaeval, romantic coloring. These day-
dreams were always sexual, involving situations of extreme complexity
and monumental silliness. Masturbation was always continued and usu-
ally with increased frequency. The end of these periods was always
abrupt and much like awaking from a dream in which the dreamer has
been behaving in a manner to arouse his own disgust. They were fol-
lowed by feelings of sheepishness and self-contempt mingled with anger
and a dislike of all things having to do with religion. My inability to
pass the conversion crisis and a growing contempt for empty enthusiasm
finally led me to a saner attitude toward religion, from which I passed
easily into religious scepticism; and later the study of philosophy and
science, and particularly of psychology, banished the last lingering rem-
HISTORIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 241
nant of faith in a supernatural agency and led me to the passion for
facts and indifference to values which have caused me to be often called
"dead to all morality."
History II. — C. A., aged 25, unmarried; tutor, preparing to take
Holy Orders: —
My paternal ancestry (which is largely Huguenot) is noteworthy
for its patriotism and its large families. My father, who died when I
was a year old, is remembered for the singular uprightness and purity
of his life from his earliest childhood. The photograph which I have
shows him as possessed of a rare classic beauty of features. He was an
ideal husband and father. At the time of his death he was a Master of
Arts and a school principal. My mother is an extraordinarily neurotic
woman, yet famed among her friends for her great domesticity, attach-
ment to her husbands, and an almost abnormal love of babies. She has
nobly borne the ill-treatment of her second husband, who for several
years has been in a state of melancholia. My mother has been "highly-
wrought" all her life, and has suffered intensely from fears of all kinds.
As a young girl she was somnambulistic, and once fell down a stair-
head during sleep. In spite of her bodily sufferings with indigestion,
eye-strain, and depression she retains her youthfulness. She has slight
powers of reasoning. She has had times of unconsciousness and rigidity.
I have never heard any mention of epilepsy. She has a horror of show-
ing prudishness in regard to the healthful manifestations of sex life, and
is always praising examples of what she terms "a natural woman."
I have heard that during my first year my mother detected my
nurse in the act of putting a morphine powder on my tongue for the
purpose of keeping me quiet. I was subject to convulsions at this period,
and narrowly escaped a permanent hernia. My family tell me that from
the beginning 1 was a well-developed and boyish boy, full of mischief,
impulsive, good to look upon, unusually affectionate, beloved by all.
In my third year I took pleasure in crawling under the bed with
my boy-cousin, who was nine months my senior, and after we had taken
down our drawers, in kissing each other's nates. I do not remember
which of us first thought of this pastime.
At the age of 4 I gave myself a treat by gazing upward through
a cellar window at the nates of a woman who was defecating from sev-
eral feet above into a cesspool that lay beneath. It was during this
summer also that I frightened myself by pulling back my prepuce far
enough to disclose the purple glans, which I had never seen before. But
this act gave me no desire to masturbate.
When 5 years old, and living in a great city, I drew indecent pic-
tures in company with a little girl and her younger brother. Th^e pic-
16
242 APPENDIX.
tures represented men in the act of urinating. The penes were drawn
large, and the streams of urine plainly indicated. One afternoon I in-
duced the boy to go to the bath-room, lie on his back, and allow me to
perform fellatio on him. I did not ask him to return the favor. I re-
member the curious tar-like smell of his clothing and the region about
his genitals. It is possible that I gained my knowledge of fellatio from
an unknown boy of 10, who had induced me, during the preceding siun-
mer to enter a sandy lot with him, watch him urinate, and then, kneel-
ing before him, commit fellatio. A year later, as I was walking home
in the rain to our summer cottage, with an open umbrella over my
shoulder, a boy of 15, who was leaning against our fence, exhibited a
large, erect penis, and when I had passed him urinated upon me and my
umbrella. I never saw the boy again. I felt peculiarly insulted by his
act. Back of the house there lived a 12-year-old boy who invited me to
watch him defecate in the out-door privy, and during the act told me a
number of indecent stories and words which I cannot remember.
About this time I fell in love with a little Jewish boy next door.
Often I cried myself to sleep over the thought that perhaps he was lying
on a sofa alone and crying with a stomach-ache. I longed to embrace
him ; and yet I saw little of him, and made little of him when I was with
him.
Living in a Western city a few months later, some girls of 12
and 14 led me to their barn, where they dressed themselves in
boys' clothing and made believe that they were cowboys. One of them
told me to "shut my eyes, open my mouth, and get a surprise." When
I opened my eyes once more a piece of hen-dung lay in my mouth. I
have a vague remembrance of one of the girls asking me to enter a
Avater-closet with her. She uttered some indelicate phrase, but I per-
formed no act with her. In the house where I lived I once entered the
bedroom of a half-grown girl while she was dressing. She knelt to
kiss me innocently enough, and I, by a sudden impulse, ran my hand
between her bare neck and her corset as far as I could reach. Appa-
rently she took no notice of ny movement. Although I did not mas-
turbate, yet during this winter I experienced a tickling sensation about
my genitals when I placed my hand beneath them as I lay on my stom-
ach in bed. One evening I pulled up my night-dress and, holding my
penis in my hand, I danced to and fro on the carpet. I imagined that I
was one of a line of naked men and women who were advancing toward
another similar line that faced them. I imagined myself as pleasurably
coming in contact with my female partner who possessed male genitals.
The following summer I lived in the woods. My next-door play-
mate was a little girl of my own age— G years. She sat down before me
in the barn and exposed her genitals. This was the first time I had seen
female organs, or had thought for a moment that they differed from
HISTOKIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 243
my own. In great perplexity I asked the little girl: "Has it been cut
oflF?" She and I defecated in peach baskets that we found in the upper
part of the barn.
When I was 7 years old and back in the Eastern city I lived in the
house of a physician. Alone with liis 3-year-old daughter one day, 1
showed her my erect organ, and felt a delicious gratification when she
stroked it with the words: "Nice! Nice!" 1 confessed my fault to
my guardian that night after I had said my prayers. I had complained
to my mother a year before of the inconvenience I found in my penis
being "so long sometimes." She said that she would "see about having
the end taken off." But I was never circumcised. Her words gave me
the doubly unpleasant impression that my glans was to be cut off.
There came occasionally to the kitchen of Dr. W.'s house a foul-
mouthed Irish laundress who used coarse language to me concerning uri-
nation. I loathed the woman, and yet one night 1 dreamed that I was
embracing her naked form and rolling over and over with her on the bed;
and in spite of my sight of female genitals a few months before, I
thought of her as having organs of my own kind and size. At my first
school I watched a red-haired boy of 12 expose the penis of a 7-year-old
boy as he lay on his back in the bath-room. I do not remember that the
sight gave me sexual pleasure.
I spent the summer before I was 8 in a double house. The adopted
daughter of our neighbor (a neurotic, retired physician) was a girl of
13 who had been taken from a poor laboring family. She got me to show
her my parts, touched them, and asked whether I urinated from my
scrotum. She also induced me to play with her genitals as we sat on a
sofa in the twilight, and to spank her naked nates with the back of a
hair-brush as she lay on a bed ; but from none of these performances did
I derive physical satisfaction. The girl E. and I took delight in "talking
dirty secrets," as she expressed it. Her young cousin H. (nephew of her
adopted mother) never heard me use the w^ord "thing" without sugges-
tively smiling. E. recalled the pleasant hours that she had spent with
her cousin when they were in their night-gowns. She did not particu-
larize these sexual relations. Under the board-walk the boy H. and I
once defecated in bottles. Some little girls who lived opposite us pulled
up their dresses one night and "dared" each other to dance out beyond
the end of the house, in full view of the road. We boys merely looked
on.
I now fell passionately in love with a remarkably handsome little
boy of my own age. I longed to kiss and hug him, but I did not dare
to do so, for he was haughty and intolerant of my attentions. I even
allowed him to stand with one foot on me and remark in a loud tone:
"I am Conqueror!" I endured no end of petty insults and much ill-
treatment from this boy. I reached the height of my passion on the
244 APPENDIX.
night that he appeared at our cottage in a tight-fitting suit of pepper-
and-salt. I gloried in his perfect legs and besought my guardian that she
would buy me a similar suit of clothes.
For the summer after I was 8 years old I lived in a cottage in a
country town. The servant maid M. was a young girl of IG who listened
eagerly to ray accounts of the "secrets" and actions in which the girl
E. and I had taken delight a year before. I think that M. arranged a
meeting between a little black-haired girl and me in order that we might
take a walk and play sexually with each other. Just as we were start-
ing on our walk one of my relatives said that I must not leave the yard.
The little girl and I had see-sawed together and I had been inter-
ested in her legs as she rose in the air. (When I was 13 years old and
see-sawing at a picnic with a stout girl, the motion of the board and
the sight of her straddled form filled me with longing to embrace her
sexually.) One afternoon M. took me to the house of an acquaintance
of hers. M.'s brother was in the room and made a number of unremem-
bered remarks which struck me as being rather "free," and M. told me
later that she and the girl once dressed as ballet dancers and danced
before M.'s brother. I felt that he was lascivious. I was always re-
markably intuitive.
I fell in love with a handsome, stout, black-haired boy who lived
on a farm ; but he was not a "farmer's son" in the common sense of the
word. I visited him for two or three days, and we slept with each other,
to my boundless joy. For his freckled girl cousin I did not care the
turn of my wrist, although she was a nice enough little thing. One
night when we three lay on a bed in the dark, and neither of us boys
had eyes or words for her, she silently left us. He and I never com-
mitted the slightest sexual fault. I left him with tears at the summer-
end, and I often kissed his photograpli uuring the following winter.
In the flat-house where I began to live when I was 8 years old, I
once practiced mutual tickling of a very slight character with a boy of
my own age. We sat on chairs placed opposite to each other and we
inserted our fingers through the openings in our trousers. Just as we
were beginning to enjoy the titillation we were interrupted by the ap-
proach of one of my family who, however, was not quick enough to dis-
cover us. Down cellar I often saw the genitals of the janitor's little
girls — they were fond of lifting their skirts and they did not wear
drawers — but I had no desire to attempt conjunction. I once caught an
older friend of mine (he was 13) in the act of leaving one of the girls.
The pair had been in a coal-compartment. The boy was buttoning his
trousers and I guessed what he had been doing. When I began to sleep
alone in my tenth year I had no desire to masturbate, and was loath to
do so by reason of ample warnings given me by my guardian and by the
family physician. One afternoon a stunted friend of mine sat down in
HISTOEIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 246
the back yard and astonished me by tying a piece of string to his penis.
At a large private school which I now attended 1 made the acquaintance
of the principal's son, and wondered why he had such a fancy for dress-
ing his 5-year-old sister in boy's clothes. He closed the door on me
while he was thus engaged. At my house we went to the bath-room
together, and he showed me his circumcised and much-ridged penis.
Neither of us made any mention of masturbating.
At this period I fell slightly in love with a 5-year-old boy with in-
tensely black eyes. I would kiss him whenever we were alone, but I
had no wish to seduce him. I was always interested in watching the
urination of younger children. When 1 was 5 years old I went on my
knees to a strange little boy in order to whisper in his ear an inquiry
as to whether he wanted to urinate. I experienced a pleasurable thrill
when I was 10 years old in leading a small girl cousin to the outdoor
privy, in helping her on and off the open seat, in buttoning and unbut-
toning her drawers, and in gazing at her vulva.
The summer before I was 10 I lived a wild life in the mountains.
My companions were a negro girl, the two daughters of a clergyman,
the two sons of a questionable woman hotelkeeper, and the daughter of
the Irish scavenger. All of these children were extraordinarily sensual.
Their leading pastime, from morning until night, was varying forms of
indecency, with the supreme caress — whicTi they termed "raising dickie"
— as the most frequent enjoyment. The 5-year-old daughter of the
scavenger explained to us how she had seen her father approaching her
stout mother with an erect penis, the pair standing up before the lamp-
light during the act. This curly-headed, rosy-cheeked child handled her
genitals so much that they were inflamed. I once saw her sitting in the
road and rubbing dust against her vulva. I saw little of the elder
daughter of the minister (she was 12 years old). She persuaded me to
expose myself before her in the cellar of a partially-built house. In re-
turn for my favor she allowed me to look at her genitals. She did not
ask for conjunctio. The two younger daughters were my intimates.
With the middle one I was forever performing a weak conjunction that
consisted in the laying of my member against her vulva. Notwithstand-
ing all the entreaties of my little friend, I could not be persuaded to
protrude my penis against her vagina; and not on one occasion can I
remember obtaining an erection or extreme pleasure. Up in the garret
she straddled slanting beams with her genitals exposed, and I followed
her example. The negro girl and my little friend both urinated on a
tent floor at my request. I did not fancy the odor of a girl's genitals,
nor the appearance of the vulva when the labia were held apart.
The following summer, when I was almost 11, I took a long walk
one day with my old friend, the girl E. We entered a patch of woods
and ate our lunch, but no sense of sexual drawing toward the girl came
246 ■ APPENDIX.
over me and she did not offer to entice me. I slept with her boy-cousin
one night, and her neuropathic aunt, a retired lady physician, bothered
us by repeatedly creeping into our room. I felt intuitively that she was
watching to see whether we would commit mutual masturbation — which
we had no thought of doing. Three years before I had opened the door
of her bedroom suddenly and saw E.'s naked form. The physician had
been examining her, E. told me later. My guardian also annoyed me
by repeated warnings not to play with myself.
Just before I turned 11 I was sent to a small and so-called "home"
boarding-school. Eight of us lived in the smaller dormitory. The ma-
tron roomed downstairs. There was no resident master — a serious error.
We small boys were told to strip one evening. We were then tied neck-
to-neck and made to dance a "slave-dance," which was marked by no
sexuality. A boy of 15, R., one afternoon gave me the astonishing in-
formation that my father had taken a part in my procreation. Up to
this moment I had known onlj' of the maternal offices, information of
which had been beautifully supplied to me by my guardian when I was
7 years old. At that time I talked freely about the coming of a baby
brother in a distant city; I watched the construction of baby clothes;
I named the newcomer, and I was momentarily disappointed when he
proved to be a girl. This same R., a strong boy with a large penis, got
into the custom of lying in bed with me just before lights were put out.
He would read to himself and occasionally pause to pump his penis
and make with his lips the sound of a laboring locomotive. I felt im-
pelled to handle his organ, for I was fascinated by its size, and stiffness,
and warmth. Rarely he would titillate my then small and unerect penis.
R. never ejaculated when he was with me; hence not until my third
year was I acquainted with the appearance of a flow of semen. Some-
times R. would stop during his dressing to manipulate his penis, but was
such a picture of rosy health that I doubt whether he brought himself
often to ejaculation. R. told me that he had been to a brothel where
his genitals were examined to determine whether they were large enough
and not diseased. He also related how he "played cow" with a girl of
his own age, she consenting to perform fellatio upon him. A dark-
skinned, unwashed, pimpled but fairly vigorous boy of 16, with an irri-
table domineering manner, told me the delights of coitus with a girl in
a bath-house, and I overheard his conversation with another "old" boy
concerning the purchase of a girl in a big city for the sum of five dollars.
No details were given.
I will now pass to my third year, when I was 13 years old. A
large, well-set-up boy of 16, A., became my idol. His toleration of my
presence in his room filled me with endless love. When I lied about a
matter in which he was concerned, his denunciation of me brought me
to a state of shuddering and weeping unspeakable. When our relations
HISTORIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 247
were established again A. allowed me to creep into his bed after the
lights were out, and there I passionately embraced him, but without
performing any definite act. When I turned over on my side with my
back to him he drew my prepuce back and forth until I experienced
orgasm, but not ejaculation. I would return his favor by pumping his
erect penis, but with no ejaculation on his part. He did not propose
fellatio, and I did not think of it. One night when he was in my bed
I began to masturbate very slightly, whereupon he laughed, saying:
"So that is the way you amuse yourself!" As a matter of fact the habit
was not fastened upon me. He always laughed when the rubbing of his
finger on my exposed glans caused me to shrink. Another boy, H., now
began to show me his erect penis and we practiced mutual manipula-
tions. A. laughingly told me how me had caught H. in tlie act of mas-
turbating as he stood in the bath-tub. A. told me a number of sexual
stories — how he enjoyed coitus in the bushes with a girl on the way
home from entertainments; how half a dozen boys and girls stiipped in
the basement of a church and performed coitus on the velvet chairs
w^hich stood behind the pulpit; and how he and a younger boy, who
camped out together, played with each other's genitals. F., a boy of
11, was highly nervous, subject to timidity and tears on the slightest
provocation, often morose, and under treatment for kidney trouble.
His penis was erect whenever I saw him undress. He told me that a
partially idiotic man taught F. and his companion how to masturbate.
The man invited the boys to his tent and there pumped his organ until
"some white stuff came out of it." F. also told me that an Indian
princess in his part of the country would permit coitus for fifty cents.
A. sometimes slept with F., and I could imagine their embraces. S., a
secretive, handsome boy of 13, wetted his bed with urine every night.
The only sign that he gave of an interest in sexuality was his laughing
remark concerning the coupling of rose-bugs. Of his chum, my beloved
C, I will speak later. My small room-mate handled himself only slightly.
I never had a desire to lie with him, since I disliked him, nor with my
first room-mate, a "chunky," fiery boy of 10, whose penis interested me
merely because it was circumcised and almost always erect. His mas-
turbation was also so slight as not to attract any particular attention.
A lusty German boy, B., showed no signs of sexuality until his third
year, when he laughed about his newly-appearing pubic hair, and told
several of us openly of how he enjoyed to play "a drum-beat" on his
penis before going to sleep. "I don't do it too much, though," he ex-
plained. He showed a mild curiosity when I gave him the resume of
a book on cohabitation which contained illustrations of the erect penis
and the female organs. I had found this book in the woods and I read
it eagerly during my third year.
I came to the point of agreeing with A., who said: "Everyone is
248 APPENDIX.
smutty." Indeed I lived in a lustful world, and yet my mind was bent
also on books, and writing, and the outdoor world. I Avas overgrown
and splendidly developed, with a medium-sized penis and a scant growth.
of pubic hair. My face wore a somewhat infantile expression. My
mouth was a perfect "Cupid's bow," my hair thin and light. I was
troubled about my snub-nose, which gave the boys a great deal of
amusement. As a matter of fact I exaggerated its upward tendency
out of my morbid self-consciousness and cowardice. My imagination
was extraordinarily intense, as it had always been. I was sensitive to
smells and sounds and colors and personalities, and to the subtle in-
fluence of the night. I was timid and easily moved to tears, but not
from any physical weakness until after. At the lower house there was
the boy Z., famed for his large penis; and the older G., a boy of 15,
who was the leader in sexuality at his dormitory. Z. showed me his
penis and exposed his glans often enough, but we did not manipulate
each other. G. told us to notice how large a space his penis occupied in
his trousers, and laughed over Z.'s custom of masturbating by means
of a narrow vase. G.'s special lover was a nervous boy of ten. It is
remarkable that none of us mentioned fellatio or pccdicatio. These acts
may have occurred at school, but not to my knowledge. We did not
have much to say sexually about the girls. We heard rumors of a
16-year-old, V., who had been sent away from school for coitus; and
my first room-mate was said to have obtained conjunctio with a girl
under cover of the chapel shed. Once A. and I pointed a telescope at
the open windows of the girls' domitory, but we saw nothing to interest
us. A day-scholar, J., a pale, nervous, bright boy of 13, took me into
the study of his uncle-physician and together we gloated over pictures of
the sexual organs. A. was with us on one occasion. J. told me how he
liked to roll over and over in bed with his hand placed under his scrotum.
This act, he said, made him imagine that he was obtaining coitus. He
advised me to slide my penis back and forth in the vagina whenever I
should actually obtain coitus. In my room at school J. once drew an
imaginary map of a bagnio, in which the water-closet was carefully dis-
played en suite with the bedrooms. J. and I never masturbated together.
Indeed, I cannot remember seeing his organ. A hulking boy of 16, who
lived opposite the school-grounds, became intimate with J., and we three
went on a walk up the railroad track. The big boy, W., tried to inflame
my passions by telling me how he and J. had had coitus with a hand-
some black-haired widow in town, but I remained cold.
During this year I fell in love with C., a popular, talkative, witty
boy of my own age, or perhaps a year younger. He fancied me and we
slept together one night under the most innocent circumstances. I never
dreamed of having sexual relations with him, and yet I fairly burned with
love for him. My stay at his beautiful home over Sunday while his
HISTORIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 249
parents were away was one long delight. We slept in each other's arms,
but there was no sexuality. En route to C.'s home he pointed with a
glove to a little working-girl, saying he would like to have intercourse
with her, but this was the only remark of the kind that ever passed his
lips in my presence. When undressed save for his undershirt, he laugh-
ingly held his unerect organ in his hand and made the motions of
obtaining conjunction with an imaginary partner. Once we spoke of
masturbation (I could recite the information of my good physician with
a marvelous show of virtue), and C. remarked: "Yes, doing that makes
boys crazy." C. finally grew tired of my deceptive, babyish nature and
ultra-interest in books and puzzles, but I cherished an undiminished
affection for him, and when he was detained at home for a fortnight
with a broken arm, I wrote him a passionate letter, which I sobbed over
and actually wetted with my tears. But the fervor of my passion died
at the close of the year. I consider this unsullied friendship to be the
only redeeming feature of my sensual days at school.
Versed as 1 was in the warnings against masturbation, I found
pleasure one afternoon when I was alone in slipping my penis through
the open handle of a pair of scissors and in violently flapping my par-
tially erect organ until a strange, sweet thrill crept over me from top
to toe and a drop of clear liquid oozed from my member. But I gave up
the manipulation with scissors, finding a greater-satisfaction in mastur-
bating while 1 was defecating or just after it. I either pumped my organ
by slipping the prepuce back and forth, or I grasped the organ at its root
and violently jerked it back and forth. I soon began to masturbate not
only every time that I defecated, but also at night just before I went to
sleep, and sometimes early in the morning. On the whole I preferred
the jerking just described. I always brought about ejaculation after
perhaps five minutes of violent exertion.
My penis became chafed at the root, but I did not especially care.
I remember the afternoon that I masturbated for the first time while I
was defecating in the school water-closet. I cannot recall that at first
1 thought of coitus while I masturbated. On one occasion I masturbated
over the vase de niiit after a delightful afternoon of tobogganning ex-
ploration up and down the mountain.
During this first year of abuse, I felt no ill effects whatsoever,
although I realized, in an unthinking way, that I was doing wrong. But
sexuality had assumed the proportion of a regular feature of our school
life. It was difficult for me to place a "universal" view in its true per-
spective. I used to smile at the glazed, dull morning eye of poor H., who
was a stunted boy of 15, and thus could not endure his losses so well as
I could endure them. The qualms of conscience which I suffered were lost
in my delight in my dawning sexual life. Sometimes I lay on my stom-
ach in bed, and by placing my hand under my scrotum, according to
250 ArPENDix.
the directions of J., brought vip a pretty girl to mind. Just before Sun-
day school G., our chief reprobate, and the rest of us would hunt out
what we considered to be nasty texts of Scripture. The chapter con-
cerning the whoredoms of Aholah and Aholibah gave me an especial
pleasure. T. mentioned the giggling that occurred at prayers in the
lower dormitory when the details of Esau's birth were read out. A few
days before G. was expelled — for exactly what cause I do not know — he
told me of how greatly he enjoyed coitus on his grandmother's sofa with
a girl of fifteen. When I went home on the boat for holidays I noted the
large, black-haired penis of the strong boy of our school. He occupied
a state-room with me, but made no sexual overtures.
Since my twelfth year I had been wrapped up all summer long in
a boy who was six months my senior. We slept together constantly,
but not once did we think of obtaining mutual gratification. On the
contrary, we held up high ideals to each other and frowned on mas-
turbation. I took delight in saying that 1 never had handled myself, and
never would do so. Even at the height of my "auto-erotic" period, I
skillfully concealed my habits from all my boy friends. A neurotic solo
choir boy friend once spoke of obtaining ejaculation, whereupon I ex-
pressed utter ignorance of such an act, little hypocrite that I was.
This boy told how the house servants joked with him about coitus and
made laughing lunges at his organs.
But much as I loved my chum, my most passionate regard went
out in my thirteenth year to N., a chubby, blue-eyed, choir-boy of 12.
He was a pretty boy to any eye. He was not gifted, except in water-
sports, and anything but popular either with girls or with boys; yet I
grew warm at the mention of his name. He did not care a fig for me.
From first to last I had no consciousness of the sexual nature of my
passion, and the thought of doing more than embrace and kiss him in
an innocent manner never crossed my mind. For two summers I had
nights of tossing on my bed (although I almost never was sleepless for
any cause) when I would see his dear face and form, in and out of the
swimming pool, or engaged perhaps in singing or in showing his beautiful
teeth. I seldom was smitten with little girls, and I found myself em-
barrassed in their company after my ninth year; yet I thought well
enough of their looks and ways to enjoy their company at dances. The
girls liked me in a platonic way, for I was accounted a good, big, kind,
blundering boy with a helping hand for the smallest fry.
During the summer after I wis 13, 1 imagined myself in the
early morning, when I was half awake, as persuading my wife to have
coitus with me. In the course of my spoken words I kept my hand
under my scrotum.
A plump girl-cousin of my own age was visiting at my uncle's
during the summer after I was 13. With her I greatly desired to
HISTORIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPilENT. 251
satisfy myself, but I could not be sure that my boy cousin (5 years
old) might not find us out, even though she should consent. Once when
we three were in the hay-loft a wave of lust rolled over me, but I made
no proposal. Night and gaslight greatly increased my libido. On one
occasion my aunt had gone to the village for ice-cream, and L. and I
were left alone in the dining-room. I took her on my lap and had a
powerful erection. I almost asked her to play sexually with me in the
barn, but instead I spoke of an imaginaiy girl, the first letters of whose
successive names spelled an indecent word for coitus — a word known to
almost every Anglo-Saxon child^ I fear. L. laughed, but gave no sign of
assent. For a neighboring girl of 15 I felt such a drawing that early in
the morning I would roll on the floor with my erect organ in my hand in
riotous imagining of coitus with her. I walked with her in the woods and
sat at her feet, but although I felt instinctively that she woiild satisfy me
without much persuasion, yet I could not ask her. One night I started
to church in order to walk home with her, and lead her (if possible) to a
field where we might gratify ourselves (1 picked out the exact grassy
spot where we might lie) ; but when I was almost at the church door
my "moral sense" (if that is what it was) rose and dragged me home
again.
During the swimming hour I watched the genitals of the boys,
comparing them carefully in the most minute details. Circumcised or-
gans affected me as being disagreeable, and men's hairy, coarse genitals
I abhorred.
When 13 I became acquainted with the new mail-boy at the inn.
He was a city "street-boy," and got me into smoking cigarettes occa-
sionally. I did not definitely take up smoking until I was 16. He told
me that a mason once offered him ten cents if he would masturbate the
man in a cellar. The boy said that he refused. I slept a few times with
an ill-favored boy of fine parentage. He was of my own age, and I had
played with hun in a natural way for several years, but my increasing
sexual desires led me to mutually masturbate with him, and even unsuc-
cessfully to attempt with him mutual ptedicatio. On the morning after
our nights of sensuality I felt "gone" and miserable, but not repentant.
By afternoon I was myself again. My relations with G. were purely
animal, for I disliked his jealous disposition, his horse-laugh, his features,
his form, his withdrawn scrotum and his under-sized penis. At home
in the evening I often found myself inflamed with a mental picture of
active fellatio with him, but I never performed this act, so far as I
remember.
One of my great sexual desires was to walk along a fence on which
a girl was seated. In order that I might feast my eyes on her pudenda
she must not wear di-awers.
When I turned 14 I had been, from my unusual size, in long trous-
252 APPENDIX.
ers for several months. I entered a private day-school and progressed
brilliantly in my studies. I kept up masturbation almost daily, some-
times twice a day, both in the water closet and in bed. I can remember
ejaculating before urination in the school cabinet. At night I often
found myself longing for the return of my sister, seven years my junior,
in order that I might embrace her in bed and fondle her genitals. I had
done these things during my Christmas vacation of the year before. I
mildly reproached myself for such incestuous desires, but they recurred
continually. I dreamed little. And I cannot remember the character of
my dreams. My waking libido spent itself mostly in longings to era-
brace (without lustful acts) the forms of little boys of exquisite blonde
beauty and thick hair. Narcissism may have been present, for in my
twelfth year I had been told that at the age of 5 and 6 I was an
extraordinarily beautiful little creature with long, lint-white hair. The
preferable age was from 6 to 9. My eye was alert on the streets for boys
answering to this description, and a street boy with long, white hair so
won my passion that I followed him to his home and asked his mother
if he might call on me and "play some games." As I did not even know
the boy's name and had never seen him before, I was wonderingly re-
fused. I sought in vain to find the whereabouts of another long-haired
street boy whom I burned to embrace and load with benefits. I had
a boundless desire for such a boy as this to idolize me — to look into my
face out of big eyes and lose himself in love for me — to call me by
endearing pet names — of his own accord to throw his arms around my
neck. This second actual boy disappeared from my horizon by pre-
sumably moving away from the vast city neighborhood. I took a fancy
to a small boy at school, who possessed the requisite delicacy, timidity,
and sweetness, if not the physical requisites, of my beau ideal. I walked
with him in the park and planned to have him at the house; but the
matter was not arranged. At boarding-school I had associated much
with younger and weaker boys, and had been ridiculed much for my
cowardice in sports, but at the city school I moved with my equals and
won their recognition. Our gymnasium director was middle-aged and
of an indolent disposition. He liked to recall his youthful erections and
to answer my sexual queries too fully, and cheerfully volunteered in-
formation on brothels. Yet I doubt whether he had an evil purpose in
conversing with me. I thought I should never dare or want to enter
one. I always conjured up the picture of a row of naked women from
whom I could take my pick, and the smell of the women I imagined to
be identical with the smell of my big friend A. at boarding-school. When
I was traveling down town on an elevated train one afternoon the
brakeman asked me whether I had ever been in a brothel, and told me
that disorderly houses abounded in my neighborhood. "I have had con-
nection with women," said this red-haired young man, waving his band
HISTOKIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 253
in greeting to a woman who nodded at him from a window, "since I was
15 years old. Not long ago a fine-looking, young woman in black offered
to pay all my expenses if I would live with her and connect with her,"
When a girl of perhaps 7, a distant cousin of mine, visited us for
a few days, I gratified my lust by placing my hand under her genitals
and swinging her to and fro. She giggled with pleasure. That summer
I began to experience the evil effects of the masturbation which I had
practiced daily for a year and a half. Pimples began to break out on my
chin (my complexion up to this time had been white and delicate). The
family ascribed my condition to digestive diOiculties. In playing with
the boys and girls I found myself seized with a terrible shyness and a
tendency to look down and weep. I had lost all the courage I had — it
had never been great — in the presence of a crowd of children. I was
fairly at ease with a single companion. My self-consciousness was some-
thing more painful to me than I can convey in words. At home I wept
in my room and cursed myself for a baby. I little realized the cause of
my nervous collapse. Yet I had too robust a frame not to be able to
sleep and to play hard. The sympathetic pleasure which I had found
in swinging my girl-cousin to and fro I now doubled by letting a 7-year-
old boy ride cock-horse on my feet. I experienced an erection during
the process, and I almost induced ejaculation when I tickled the boy
with my feet in the region of his genitals. To see his shrinking, gig-
gling joy gave me an exquisite sexual thrill. I longed to sleep with the
boy, but I was afraid of causing comment. At the new and large board-
ing school which I entered in the fall my most lustful dreams and
ejaculations were concerned with standing this little boy on the foot-
board of a bed, taking down his knickerbockers, and performing fellatio
on him. But I dreamed also of natural coitus. I fell in love with the
handsome, 12-year-old son of the aged headmaster. The boy, 0., sat next
me at the table, and I never tired of gazing at him. It gave me a special
sense of pleasure to look at him when he wore a certain flowing, scarlet,
four-in-hand necktie. But 0. was not attracted to me — for one thing
I was in a disagieeably pimpled condition — and I could not induce him
to linger in ray room nor to sleep with me. My passion for O. did not
diminish, and it rose to its supremacy on the evening when he appeared
in our hallway (he roomed on the girls' side of the house and hinted
at the sexual sights that he saw) in a costume of white satin, lace, and
wings. He was ready for a costume party.
I now masturbated less frequently, for I was beginning to appre-
ciate the horrible consequences of my indulgence. I had frequent pollu-
tions, with dreams. My day was one long agony of fear. How I dreaded
to go to sleep in the same bed with my older chum, who never made
any advances beyond embracing me passively cum erectione while he was
asleep. My day was one long agony of fear. At meal time my feet
254 APPENDIX.
constantly -writhed in agony for fear that the headmaster's gro\vn up
young ladies sliould make fun of me, or that my lack of facial com-
posure and my inability to look people in the eye might be commented
upon. I tingled with apprehension, especially in the region of my stom-
ach. Every nerve was taut in the effort I made to appear composed.
I masturbated with erections over nothing. Greek recitations were for
me an auto da fe. My heart beat like a trip-hammer at the thought of
getting up to recite, and once on my feet my voice shook and my mind
wandered. I hated the thought of people behind me looking at me. I
rarely summoned the courage to turn my head either one way or the
other. I vastly admired the "bravery" of the small, 15-year-old boy who
recited so calmly and so Avell. I was too cowardly to play foot-ball and
base-ball, and I dreaded even my favorite tennis because the spectators
put me in a state of scared self-consciousness. Knowing my own condi-
tion, I was yet so blind to it most of the time, and such a Jekyll-and-Hyde,
that I actually pitied a boy of 19 who was an eccentric and a scared
victim of masturbation. But in spite of my neuropathic condition I
developed intellectually. I do not touch upon this aspect of my life, how-
ever, because I am trying to limit myself strictly to sexual manifesta-
tions. At the present time I have not the courage to continue the
narrative.
History TIT. — The following narrative is written by a clergyman,
age 40, unmarried: —
My childliood and early boyhood were unmarked by sexual phe-
nomena, beyond occasional erections, which commenced when about 5
years of age, without any exciting causes. These were accompanied by
some degree of excitement, of the same nature as that which I experi-
enced in later years. T was absolutely ignorant of sexual matters, but
always had an idea that the essential difference between man and woman
was to be found in the genital organs. This was sometimes a matter
for thought and curiosity.
Being for many years an only child T saw little of other children,
and formed the habit of amusing myself with making things — boats,
houses, etc. — and acquired a taste for science. Wlien I could read I
preferred biography, history, and poetry to anything else.
When I was 13 years old and at a large school I heard for the first
time of coitus, but very imperfectly. For a few days it filled my
thoughts and mind, but feeling it was too engrossing a subject and one
which took me off better things, I put it out of my mind. Later, an-
other boy gave me a fuller description of the matter, and I began to
have a great desire to know more and to be old enough to practice it.
1 also discovered that boys masturbated, and about a year after tried
HISTOEIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMEXT. 255
the experiment for myself. This vice was largely indulged in by my
school-fellows. It never occurred to me that it was sinful, until I was
nearly 16, when I came across a passage in Kenus's Manual of Scliool-
boys, in which it was hinted such things were wrong morally and spirit-
ually. Previously I had felt it was an indelicate and shameful thing,
and bad for health. This last idea was held as a solemn fact by all my
boy friends. Gradually religion began to exert an influence over my
sexual nature, obtaining as years passed a greater and greater restrain-
ing power. It is simply impossible for me to write a history of my sex-
ual development without also describing the action which Christianity
has had in determining its growth. The two have been so intimately
bound together that my life history would not be a faithful record of
facts if I left religion out of it.
At school I took part, with gi'eat keenness, in cricket and foot-
ball, and was very ambitious to excel in everything in which I took an
interest, but I always had other tastes as well, which were more pre-
cious to me, for example, the love for science, history, and poetry. Until
I was past 16 years my desire was simply for coitus, girls and women
attracted me only as affording the means of gratifying this desire; but
when I was nearly 17 I began to regard girls as beautiful objects, apart
from this, and to desire their love and companionship. At the same time
it dawned upon me that life held much of joy in the love of women and
in domestic life — so henceforth I regarded tliem in a higher and purer
light, and apart from sexual gratification. In fact, from this period till
I was over 20, this idea so dominated my whole being that the lower side
of my nature was entirely held in subjection and abeyance by it. It
was rather repulsive to think of girls as objects of lust. This state of
mind was not brought about by any romantic attachment or through
any acquaintance or through circumstances. I was living in great seclu-
sion and had no girl friends. After this period the lower side of my
nature woke up as a giant refreshed with wine, and I underwent for
many years a constant struggle with ray nature, in which religion always
triumphed in the end. I never fell into fornication, though sometimesi
into the vice of masturbation. These outbursts of desire were periodic,
about ten or fourteen days apart, and would last several days. I must
record also the fact that from the time this awakening took place my
ideal views of woman no longer seemed incompatible with sexual rela-
tions. I noticed that at about 27 there was a lessening of the desire,
but that may have been due to overwork and consequent nervous ex-
haustion. I had a good deal of worry and studied daily for about eight
hours. In any case the impulse was strongest during the years above
mentioned. A little later in life, for a time, I became attached to a girl,
and eventually engaged. I then observed, greatly to my sorrow and
annoyance, that whenever I met this lady, or even thought of her,
256 APPENDIX.
erections took place. This was particularly painful to me, as my
thoughts were not of a lustful or impure character. Sometimes sitting
by her at a religious service this would occur, when certainly my mind
was far away from anything of the kind. That was the first woman
ever kissed by me, except of course members of my immediate family
circle. Later on my thoughts turned to marriage, and there was a
great longing at times for this event to take place. However, as this
attachment afterward became the great sorrow of my life for years, it
needs no more comment. This closes one chapter of my history, and
at present I do not propose to add another, as in a great measure it is
only partly written. It may be well here to state that there has never
been in me the slightest homosexual desire; in fact it has always ap-
peared as a thing utterly inconceivable and disgustingly loathsome. I
am fond of the society of both men and women, but on the whole prefer
the latter. I have had several warm and intimate though platonie
friendships, and get on exceedingly well with the other sex, although
not a good-looking man. I have always been attracted to women by
their spiritual or mental qualities, rather than by physical beauty, and
feel strongly that the latter alone would never cause me to desire
coitus. Unless there was an attraction other than that of the flesh, I
should feel that I was following simply a brute instinct, and it would
jar with my higher nature and cause revulsion. This was not the case
in my earlier years to the same extent. I have often wondered whether
the sexual impulse was strong in me or not, but if not, there is nothing
in my physical state or family history to account for it. I am fairly
cognizant with the lives of my ancestors, being descended from two old
families. The sexual instinct was certainly not weak or abnormal in
them. Personally, I am tall and healthy, well built, but sensitive and
highly strung. Smell has never played any part in my life as a stim-
ulant of sexual desire, and the mere thought of body odors would have a
very decided effect in the opposite direction. Touch and sight appeal to
me strongly, and of tlie two the former most.
I am convinced, after many years careful thought, that sexual vice
and perversion could be greatly reduced if the young were instructed in
the elements of physiology as they bear on this question. Personally,
had I been thus enlightened much sin would have been avoided in my
schoolboy days, and a perverted view of sexual matters would never
have arisen in my mind. It took years to overcome the feeling that all
such things were unclean and defiling. Eventually light came to me
through reading a passage in a tractate on the Creed by Rufinus. He
was defending the doctrine of the Incarnation against the pagan objec-
tion that it was an unclean and disgusting idea that God should enter
the world through the womb of tlie Blessed Virgin Mary, and he meets
it by showing that God created the sexual organs, therefore the objec-
HISTOEIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 257
tion is invalid — otherwise God would not be clean or pure, having Him-
self designed them and their functions. This passage is slight in itself,
but gave birth to a line of thought which has influenced me profoundly.
I no longer regard sexual matters as disgusting and unholy, but as in-
tensely sacred, being the outcome of the Divine Mind. Further, the
Incarnation of the Saviour has not only sanctioned motherhood and all
that is implied by it, but has eternally sanctified it as the means chosen
for the manifestation of God to the world. I should not obtrude my
theological conceptions, but for the fact that they have determined my
life-history in that aspect.
History IV. — Wlien I was 9 years old a boy at the preparatory
school, which I attended, showed me the act of masturbation, which he
said he had practiced for a long time, and which he urged me to imitate,
if I wished to become a father when I grew up, and married! Boy-like
I believed him and tried, but the sensation obtained was not a pleasant
one (I suppose that I was too rough with myself) and I desisted.
When I was about 12 years old, a schoolfellow told me that he
had seen his nurse copulating with the groom, and he and I used to haunt
the woods in the hope that we might see an amorous couple so engaged,
but without success. We often talked of the act, as to how it was done.
Neither he nor I had any clear ideas on the subject, save as to the organs
involved. I was about 15 when a maidservant of the house in which I
was a boarder, came to my bedroom one night and taught me how to
masturbate her. She said that this was a good thing for me to do, and
warned me never to "play with myself" as it would kill me, or drive
me mad. I told her that I had tried it, but could not bring on a pleasur-
able feeling, so she did it to me, and although I did not have an emis-
sion, I derived great pleasure from the act. She told me that it never
did a boy any harm to let a girl play with his parts, and promised that if
I would keep the secret, she would often do tliis for me. Naturally I
promised to say nothing, and she often came up to my room. Later on
she used to insert my penis into her vulva, while she was rubbing it, at
the same time giving me a pigeon kiss. This modus operandi was much
appreciated by me. One night, after we had been together thus, 1
dreamt of her and her maneuvers and had my first emission. I was
very proud of this, as I considered that I had at last attained to man's
estate, and told her of it. She never allowed me to insert my penis into
her vulva after that, alleging that she did not want to have a baby.
1 was about IGy, years old when I had my first real coitus, my
partner in the act being a girl some two years older than I, who lived
near us. I enjoyed the act very much, as she pennitted, nay insisted on,
emission intra vaginam, and told her that this was much nicer than my
17
258 APPENDIX.
amours with the maidservant which of course I had confided to her.
She laughed, and said: "Of course." We often copulated, as long as I
was at home, and then I lost sight of her. Of all the women with whom
I have had to do, save one, she had the most copious secretion of mucus,
which in those days I believed was the woman's semen. Her thighs used
to be wet with it.
At the University I had regular relations with women of all sorts,
rarely missing a week. Two of them were married women, one the wife
of a solicitor, the other of a doctor. How proud I felt of my first in-
trigue with a married woman! I felt that I was really a man of the
world now!
But though my friends used to tell me all about their love affairs,
and I longed to confide in them, I did not do so. This was because
•when I went up to the University, my uncle said that he would give me
a word of advice and hoped that I would follow it — never to give away
a woman, and never to refuse to respond to a woman's advances, who-
ever she were. To neglect this advice would, he said, be foolish, and to
break the rules "damned ungentlemanly." I wish I had always followed
advice proffered, as closely as I have followed this. One night, when
I was somewhat disguised in liquor, as our grandfathers would have put
it, I picked up a girl, who was a private prostitute, if the phrase be per-
missible. She declined copulation, and proposed other means of satisfac-
tion. I insisted, being stubborn in my cups. Had I been sober I should
have done as she suggested, for I have always made it a point to allow
the woman to choose the method of gratification, and not to demand, or
even suggest, anything myself. I like to please women, and I have al-
ways been curious as to their wants and desires, as revealed, without
outside influence, by themselves. The result of my refusing all methods
of gratification save the most ordinary was that the girl, who must
have known that she was not all right, but shrank from saying so in so
many words, gave me a gonorrhoea, which lasted nine weeks and much
interfered with my amours, as I naturally declined to run the risk of in-
fecting my partner, a risk which to my certain knowledge many a
young fellow has run, with disastrous consequence to the confiding
woman. As it was due to my tipsy obstinacy, 1 could not blame the
girl, but resolved never to drink too much again, a resolve which I have
kept, save once, unbroken. In those days we youngsters thought that
it was manly to be able to carry one's liquor well, and did all in our
power to attain to the seasoned head; but I considered that the risks
entailed were too serious to be neglected.
I was well on in my 26th year when I met a widow with whom I
fell in love, with the result that I married her. She is a most sensible
woman, and it was her intellectual gifts wliieh were the attraction to me.
In my amours intellect has never played a part. She has all along been
HISTOEIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 259
cognizant of, and lenient to, my polygamous tendencies; for she recog-
nizes the fact that whatever fredaine I may have on hand makes not the
slightest difference in my love and respect for her. Were she a more
sensual woman, perhaps things would be different.
In all I have had to do with 81 other women, of whose special
characteristics I kept a careful note at the time. Twenty-six were
normal women with whom my liasons have lasted long, so I know
more about them than I do about the other fifty-five, who were prosti-
tutes, and with some of whom my dealings were but for an afternoon.
The races represented have been these, for I have seen a bit of
the world: English, Scotch, Irish, Welsh, Fi-ench, German, Italian, Greek,
Danish, Hungarian, Roumanian, Indian, and Japanese. Taking tlfem all
round, the only difference that I found between old and young women
is that the older ones are less selfish, and more complaisant, and less
inclined to resent one's being unable to attain to the height of their
desire, for from time to time I have been unable to "come up to the
scratch" after a heavy night's labor, or when I was afraid of being
caught in the act of coition, a fear which, in my experience, acts as a
stimulus to desire in women, unlike its action in men. Of all the
women with whom I have had to do the nicest in every way have
been the French women. The English women of the town drink too
much, and are far too keen on getting as much money as they can
for as little as they can, to please me. Were the London girls to recognize
that men do not like a tipsy woman, and that where there is so much
competition the person who is most skillful and most polite gets the most
custom, the alien invasion in Regent street would soon come to an end.
Of the fifty-five prostitutes: eighteen informed me that they were
in the habit of masturbating; eight of their own free will, without asking
for reward, did fellatio; six asked me to do cunyiilingus, which I natu-
rally declined to do; three proposed anal coitus. Of those who did
fellatio, two (one French and one German) told me that they had
taken to it because they had heard that human semen was an excellent
remedy against consumption, which disease had carried off some of their
relatives, and that they had gradually come to like doing it. All who
told me that they masturbated, asked me whether I did so too, and two
desired me to show them the act, one alleging that she liked to see a
man do it; she had been married late in life, after a "stormy youth" and
had had, she said, a large experience of the male sex. They all seemed
to think that however much the practice of self-excitement might hurt
a man, and all thought that it would hurt him, a woman might mastur-
bate as often as she liked, failing better means of satisfaction, as she had
no such loss of substance as a man.
Of the twenty-six normal women, whom I knew more intimately
than I did the fifty-five prostitutes, thirteen, without being questioned
260 APPENDIX.
be me, blurted out the fact tliat tliey were habitual masturbators, ap-
parently all required to think of the loved person to obtain full satis-
faction. Fellatio was proposed, and fully performed, by nine, of whom
three experienced the orgasm as soon as they perceived that I had
attained to it. AH were more or less excited wiiile doing it. One pro-
posed anal coitus, "just to see what it was like;" and three proposed
cunnilingus, one having been initiated by a girl friend, and one by her
husband. The third had, I believe, evolved the act out of her own
inner consciousness in her desire to experience pleasure with me. My
relations with one of the twenty-six were confined to my masturba-
tion of her, the while she did fellatio, as she said that she "'had no
feeling inside down there."
With two exceptions my partings from these normal women have
not been tragic and all whom I have met in after life (seven) have been
very ready to resume relations Avith me, four of them having made the
proposal themselves.
One thing has struck me, and that is the, often great, difference that
exists between what a woman's looks lead one to think she is, and what
she is when one becomes her lover; the most sensual woman that I
have met might have sat for her portrait as the Madonna, and she was
the only one who took pleasure in hearing and relating "smoking-room
stories," a form of amusement which, perhaps from their want of ap-
preciation of humor and wit, women do not indulge in — at least in my
experience.
History V. — (A continuation of History III in Appendix B to
the previous volume.)
As I became better I commenced to dream of true love. I won-
dered, too, if my horrible past really could be lived down and a young
woman come to love me. I took pleasure in reading love poems, espe-
cially Browning's, and illustrated some with little water-colors. . . .
I was sitting in the stalls one night seeing a i^erformance by a com-
pany of English actors when one of them played so badly that I thought
to myself: "Why, hang it, I could play it better myself!" The next
minute another thought followed: "Why not try?" I came out of the
stalls the proverbial stage-struck youth. I was sitting in the same place
another night when the young man next to me entered into conversa-
tion. By a strange coincidence he knew a few young men, amateurs,
who were going to form a company, give up their situations and travel,
if they could induce a few more to join them and put a little money in.
I made an appointment for the following evening. . . .
There were lots of meetings in bedrooms and rehearsals between
the beds, but ultimately I was told a school-room had been engaged and
HISTORIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 261
a professional actress, A. F. I went to the school-room and found all
the boys there, and a young woman with a pale, rice-powder complexion.
On introduction she gazed at me as if struck diunb. If she had been
better-looking (I thought her vulgar and pufl'y) I would have been
flattered. I was disappointed, but rather frightened (she had a stage
presence) of her professional ability, especially when we commenced to
rehearse. I had to make love to her, too, which embarrassed me. She
had a good profile, I noticed, and would have been better looking, I
thought, if she were in better condition, for she was young, about my
own age, twenty-three or four. We were all young — enjoyed our re-
hearsals, and had lots of fun — but I did not respond to the advances
A. was evidently making to me. Finally we started on our tour. As
the weeks went on A. F., like the others, improved wonderfully in
health and appearance. If we had had anything like houses it would
have been a pleasant trip. My strangeness did not escape the notice of
the boys altogether, for I was still a bit strange in miud and nerves —
and deeplj^ religious, bowing my head before each meal and reading my
little Bible and prayer-book at odd times. I drank no alcohol. I spent
a good deal of time by myself or with my faithful companion A., who
was nearly always at my side, she and her appealing eyes. I was sur-
prised to see how quickly she had improved; she looked quite attrac-
tive and ladylike some evenings at meals, but 1 only tolerated her. I
was selfish and conceited.
Things had been going on like this for a week — always playing to
empty houses and our money lower and lower — when A. said to our
other lady, Mrs. T., on a train in my presence: "I shall have to give
him up, I suppose; he will have nothing to do with me." Mrs. T. said:
"You give him up, do you?' and looked at me as if she were going to
try her hand. A. said "Yes," and looked at me, smiling sadly. I don't
know what motive prompted me — whether my vanity was alarmed at
her threatened desertion or that she had really made some impression
on me by her love, probably a little of both — but I said: "No, don't;
come and sit down here," making way for her, and she joyfully came
and nestled against me. From that time I ceased to treat her with ridi-
cule, and kissed her at other times than when on the stage. I was
subject still to black moods, and would not speak to her for hours
sometimes, but she seemed content to walk with me and was infinitely
patient. I had heard she was living with — if not married to — an actor,
I asked her about him once, and she said she did not love him; she
loved me and had never loved before. Her face had a touching sadness;
her life had been unhappy and stormy, with no love and little rest in it.
Her face, when she had lost her dissipated look and unhealthy pallor,
was exquisite, delicate as a cameo. Love had improved her manners,
too; she was more gentle and refined. I let things drift without think-
262 APPENDIX.
iug of the future, when one night after the performance — I was lying
on the sofa and A. was sitting at my side, as usual — I suddenly thought,
with the brutality that characterized me in these matters — "I will ask
her to let me sleep with her." I still fought against any premonitory
thought of self-abuse, but here, 1 thought to myself, is a chance of
something better that will do me no harm and perhaps good. When
she understood me she turned very red and walked away, shaking her
head. But I let her understand that was the only way of retaining me,
and finally, when they had all gone to bed, she gave herself to me, re-
luctantly and sadly; for she, too, had been drifting on without thinking
of anything of this sort (she hated it at this time), but just living for
her love of me, her first true love.
Before this occurred, I must tell you, I had been so much better
that I sometimes felt capable of doing anything, a sense of power and
grasp of intellect which was combined with delicacy of feeling and sen-
sitiveness to beauty, to skies and clouds and flowers. I seemed to be
awakening to true manhood, to my true self. And at meals, it is worth
recording, I commenced to have a distaste for meat.
These glimpses of a better state of things left me on cohabiting
with A., and for a time my gloom and black religious mania came on me
once more. I now thought of my jjromise at confirmation, and it seemed
to me I had offended beyond pardon. When we came to the next town,
however, I openly slept with A. all night, leaving my own bed untouched.
When we returned to Adelaide one of our party remarked: "The only
man who had any success with the women on the tour was a Bible-
reading, praying, and good, pious, confirmed Christian."
A.'s nascent beauty and delicacy and improvement were gradually
impaired, too. My own conduct became so morose at times that, besides
increasing her misery, I offended the others, and bickerings ensued. I
heard the other actress say "He's mad; that what's the matter." And
I was so wrapped up in myself and my religious mania that I did not
mind their thinking so.
After the tour was over A. asked me to come and see her at her
home, and as I missed her very much I went one night to tea. She had
a room in her father's house to herself. A. was dressed in her best and
we had an affectionate meeting. After tea I asked her if she were mar-
ried to E. She said "No." Then I said: "Who are you married to?"
She commenced to cry then, and told me something of her life, the sad-
dest I ever heard. WTien only 17 she had been courted by a young man
she did not care for, but who prevailed on her parents by pretending he
had seduced her, but wished to marry her. Strange as it may seem, A.
did not know what marriage meant, her mother being one of those silly
women who don't like talking of these things and let their daughters
grow up in ignorance, expecting they will learn from some one. In nine
HISTOKIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 263
cases out of ten this happens, but A. was an exception. It was this,
and the fact that she had not a particle of love for her husband, that
gave her such a hatred of coition. "When her mother saw the sheets the
morning after the marriage she burst out crying; she did not like the
young man and saw she had been deceived.
A.'s husband soon showed his true character; he was in reality a
gaol-bird. He beat her, drank, and even wanted her to go on the streets
to earn money for him. She left him and went home; it was then she
began her theatrical career by entering the ballet. At intervals her hus-
band, drunk and desperate, would waylay and threaten her in the street.
One day after a rehearsal he attempted to stab her. She got on in spitei
of all, being a born actress, and played small parts in traveling com-
panies. Then E., who had also gone on the stage, courted her and
she listened to him, not because she cared for him, but he protected her
and offered her a home. She joined him; but his drunkenness and sen-
suality were so gross that he ruined his health and he attempted to
maltreat A. in a nameless way. And whenever she was in the family
way he would leave her alone and half-conscious in the cellar for days.
To add to her misery she had epileptic fits. Then sometimes they w.oiild
be out of an engagement and star\'ing. They had been so hungry as to
steal raw potatoes out of a sack and eat them thus, having no fire. She
would often have had engagements, but E. was jealous and would not
let her act without him. And he beat her as her husband had done, and
her health became undermined. It was just after one of the forced mis-
carriages that she joined our traveling company, and that accounted
for her yellow and puffy appearance. E. was now away up-country with
a circus, but was expected do^vn any time. A. told me a good deal of all
this, between her tears, while sitting at my feet, and her tone carried
conviction. When I ought to have gone home I persuaded her to let me
stay all night. We had been in bed some time when her mother knocked
at the door and wanted to come in for something in a chest of drawers
there. "Why don't you open the door, A.? ^Yllo have you got there?
Hasn't that fellow gone?" A. was confused and told me to get under
the bed, but I refused, and she covered me up with the bed clothes as
well as she could and opened the door. She had hid my clothes, but
missed one of my shoes, and her mother saw it. "Oh, A.," was all she
said; "you've got that fellow in bed," and went out crying. "Well,
Fred" (my stage name), "you've got me into a nice row," A. said. She
gave me my breakfast in the morning and I walked out of the front
door without being molested. Another night I entered her window by
a ladder and stayed all night. In the middle of the night E. came home
drunk. She would not let him in and told him she would have nothing
more to do with him. He attempted to break in the door, when A. called
to me, and hearing a man in the room he went away, saying, as he
264 APPENDIX.
went downstairs: "Oh, A.! Oh, A.!" as if he thought she would not
have done such a thing. He never molested us after that night.
I think it was my intention, at first, to break off with A. gradually.
I found, however, I could not keep away from her, and it commenced to
be evident to me that a bachelor's life in lodgings again would be dreary
and lonely. And all this time the fear that I had offended God troubled
me more than I have said, and it occurred to me (there may have been a
touch of sophistry in this, or not) that if I were a true husband to her
for the future — stuck to her and worked for her for the rest of my days
— perhaps it would find favor in God's sight and be an atonement for
my sin. Had she been free I would have married her, I believe. But she
began to be harassed by her mother and bothered about my incessantly
coming there and staying all night. It ended in my telling her I would
be a husband to her^ and she came and lived with me at my lodgings.
We had one room and our meals cost us sixpence each. Cheap as it was,
it was a struggle for me to earn money at all. I remember feeling ill
and anxious once, and sustaining myself by the thought of my father
wheeling the heavy truck up the street when he married my mother.
And I decided to wheel my truck, too.
A. seemed happy and her love increased, if possible ; at first, though,
she must have found me a trying lover, for I made her kneel and pray
with me two or three times a day, which she did with such a queer ex-
pression of face. Sometimes her feelings got the better of her, and she
would say: "Oh, damn it, Fred, you are always praying." And then I
would be shocked and she would be sorry. , . . Coitus was frequent;
she commenced to like it now. . . .
A. was not looking well one evening when she came in, and lay
down on the bed. Presently she commenced to make a strange noise,
and I saw her eyes were closed and her hands clenched. "Ah," said the
landlady, who came in to help me; "she has epileptic fits." When her
convulsions were over she looked blankly at us, knitting her brows and
evidently puzzling her poor brain to remember who we were. For many
years it was my fate to see her looking at me thus, at first stony and
estranged, like a dweller in another star, then half-recalling with ex-
tended hand, then forgetting again with hand to mouth, then the gradual
davpn of memory and love, and final full recognition. "It's Fred, my
Fred!" I never got used to it; it always moved me to tears. .
It was not to be thought that we had no quarrels. I still had fits of bad
temper, and sometimes they came into collision with A.'s temper. It
hurt my vanity considerably to see how soon she relinquished the re-
spectful, patient, spaniel-bearing she had when we were traveling. I said
some cruel things to her and she retorted. One would have thought, to
hear us, that all affection was over. But when the mood of rage wore
HISTOEIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 265
itself out we would both be sorry and make it up with tears, and be
very happy in spite of our poverty.
I think it was lust that prevented me from striving to fulfill my
ambitions. A. let me do anything I liked, at all times of day or night,
although she seemed surprised at my proceedings sometimes, for it was
becoming a fever of lubricity with me. She still thought only of her
love. 1 remember her coming in one day, tired, pale, perspiring, and
worried — we had hardly anything in the house and she had been to the
theater ineffectually — and when her eyes lighted on me the whole expres-
sion of her face changed, softened and brightened at once, and she came
and kissed me and said: "It is so strange, I was thinking all sorts of
nasty things coming along, but as soon as I see my pet's face 1 feel
happy — I don't care for anything — I would sooner share a crust with
him than have all the money in the world!"
I commenced to feel libidinous curiosity to examine her — this was
mostly on Sundays — and she let me, blushing at first, but laughing.
Then I would try new positions in coitus I had heard of. Still she did
not enter into my mood.
She was engaged at this time to play in a pantomime and I com-
menced to lead a miserable, jealous existence. I heard scandal about her,
baseless enough, but in the diseased, nervous, anxious state I had
brought myself to it nearly drove me mad. I would go with her some-
times to visit her mother, whom I began to like. Her brother I still
saluted coldly. It caused me horror and jealousy to see A. kissing him
and letting him tickle her. In my rage, when we came home, I even
said that perhaps she would let him do something else, naming it bru-
tally and coarsely. I remember her shame, astonishment, indignation
and tears. If ever a man tried a woman's love I did. But she forgave
me, even that.
We went to live in a little cottage. It was in this cottage that
A. first showed signs of lust, and in the diseased state of my mind, in-
stead of regretting it, I encouraged her. She told me one day that the
orgasm very often did not occur at the same time with her as with me,
and that it would not unless I put my little finger into the anus. This
her husband taught her, and she would rather have died than confess
it to me when we first met. We would often devote our Sundays to
having a picnic as we termed our lustful bouts, stimulating ourselves
with wine. Her temper was not improved thereby (though her fits en-
tirely stopped for a twelvemonth) — we had wordy warfares, but we
made it up again always with tears. Nor did I allow myself to deteri-
orate without reactions and excursions into better things. I was always
reading Emerson; it was he who rescued me from orthodox Christianity
and taught me to trust in myself and in Nature. I have never ceased
this struggle towards better things to this day. There, in a nutshell, 13
266 APPENDIX.
my life; I have always been defeated when temptation came, but I have
never ceased to struggle. 1 determined to be more abstemious in sexual
indulgence and asked her to help me. She agreed willingly, for she was
easily led. Whenever we fell back again into excess it was my fault.
At a theatrical performance we first met a Miss T., a young Ger-
man who sang. She was about 25, with modest, quiet and engaging man-
ners. A. and she became very friendly. I liked her; she was tall, dark
and lithe, but had bad teeth.
I had been ill and at this time A. and I had a quarrel, my temper
suddenly breaking out in murderous frenzy. I called her names and
finally put her outside the house, telling her to go to her mother. I suf-
fered a very hell of remorse and misery. Everything in the quiet, lonely
house reminded me of her, seemed fragrant of her; my anguish became so
keen I could not stop in the house, though I was just as wretched walking
about. I kept this up for two days, when I met her coming to look for
me. One look was enough — "A.!" "Pet!" in broken sobs — and in tears
we kissed and made it up. Miss T. was with her, and I greeted her, too,
with happy tears in my eyes. Another time, when A. was giving way to
her temper, and one would have thought all love was dead, I said "Don't
you love me then?" and the word alone was a talisman, her face changed,
she held out her arms and began to sob quietly. . . She accepted
an offer to travel with a small theatrical company who were going up-
country. She was not looking well when I left and after a time I re-
ceived a telegram telling me to come to her at once as she was ill.
Dreading all sorts of things I borrowed my fare and went to her. I
knew nothing of women, of their point of view and different code of
honor, and was very far from the attitude of Guy de Maupassant who
said he liked women all the better for their charmingly deceitful ways.
A. wanted to see me and had taken the surest means to ensure my
coming. I was angry at first, but she looked so well and was so loving
that I could not be angry long.
One day when I was working the landlady came in and began
talking about A. and her conduct before I came. She had gone into the
actors' rooms at all hours, the woman said, and drank and been as bad
as the rest in her conversation. It was the second time a married
woman had run her down to me, and I commenced to think there might
be something in it, and suffered all my mad jealousy over again. Not
knowing the freedom actors and actresses allow themselves on tour,
without there being necessarily anything in it, I worried till I thought
I had nothing to do but die. And then one of the great struggles of
my life occurred. Walking the country roads, I asked myself: "If it is
true, if she has been unfaithful, will you forgive her and help her to
arrive at her best?" For a long time the answer was "No!" But per-
haps my striving for unity with myself had done some good, and the
HISTORIES OF SEXFJ.L DEVELOPMENT. 267
final resolution was for forgiveness. I felt more peace of mind then,
and when I told a dying consumptive lodger in the house what the land-
lady had said, he replied, "Don't you believe a word of it. I know she
loves you!" ....
After an absence I found myself one evening in a town where A.
was performing. I went round to the back and they told me she had
gone to a room in the hotel to change for another part. I followed
and entered the room, with a glass of spirits I found that an effeminate
young actor was bringing to her. She was half undressed, her beautiful
arms and shoulders bare. My arrival was unexpected and she looked at
me surprised, I thought coldly, as I reproached her for not keeping a
promise she had made to me to touch no alcohol during the tour, but
soon her arms were round my neck. She cried like a child. She was
bigger and handsomer and healthier. There was not only an increased
strength and size, but an increased delicacy and sweetness; her eyes and
brows were lovely; there was an indescribable bloom and fragrance on
her, such as the sun leaves on a peach; the traveling, country air, and
freedom from coitus (had I known it) had enabled her to arrive at her
true self, not only a beautiful woman, but a woman of fascination, of wit,
vivacity and universal camaraderie. Her face was like the dawn; all
my fears and jealousy left me like a cloud that melts before the sun. I
remember the look on her face as she embraced me in bed that night. It
had just the very smallest touch of sensuality, but was more like some
beautiful child's who is being caressed by one she loves; this divine,
drowsy-eyed, adorable look I had never seen on her face before — nor
have I since.
We fell back into our old lustful ways. Later on A. became ill and
the black devil of epilepsy returned. I became gloomy. . . A rest-
lessness and selfish brutality came over me; our love and peace were
gone. I persuaded A. to go to Melbourne and look out for an engage-
ment. The day before she was to sail we went to Glenelg for a trip. The
sea air, as often happened, precipitated A.'s fits. We had gone down to
the pier and A. said she felt bad. 1 just managed to support her to the
hotel before she became stiff, and I made some impatient remark (for
she nearly dragged me do\vn) which she heard, not being quite uncon-
scious and said half incoherently and very pitiably: "Be kind, oh, be
kind!" repeating it after consciousness left her. Her heart had been
breaking all day at the prospect of parting, and also, I expect, because
I was so ready to part with her. That moment was a crisis in my life.
I was in a murderous humor, but she looked so unutterably wretched
that it seemed impossible to be anything but kind. I made myself speak
lovingly to her, in moments of partial consciousness, hired a room, car-
ried her up, and nursed her and petted her all night. The act of self-
268 APPENDIX.
control, and forcing myself to be kind whatever I felt, became a habit
in time, a sort of second nature.
In a few days she sailed. "When she had gone I was remorseful
and mad with myself. How could I let her go by herself? I resolved to
follow her as speedily as possible, and did so.
If I remember rightly I came to the conclusion about this time that
we ought not to have coition unless we felt great love for each other.
It seemed to corroborate this to a certain extent that A. always seemed
more electric and pleasant to the touch when we had connection for
love and not for lust. Leave it to Nature, I would say to myself. I
began to feel how much my struggles, efforts and temperate living
had improved me. I had more self-respect, though something of the old
self-consciousness was still left. I did not get better continuously, but
in an up-and-down zigzag. I still had moods of rage approaching mad-
ness and periods of neurotic depression. Long walks decidedly helped
to cure me, and the sea, sun, wind, clouds and trees colored my dreams
at night very sweetly. I frequently dreamed I was walking in orchards
or forests, and a deeper, slightly melancholy but potent savor, as of a
diviner destiny, was on my soul.
After a long absence, during which she had frequently been ill, A.
joined me. I could see she was recovering from fits, which I began to
realize that she had more frequently in absence from me, and also from
drinking, perhaps. She was small and thin, but fresh and sweet as honey,
and all signs of fits and tempers passed away from her face, so wonderful
in its changes. I had become so healthy through my abstinence, tem-
perance and long walks that our meeting was a new revelation to me
of how delicate, fragrant and divine a convalescent woman may be. She
was glad and surprised to see me looking so well, and if she put her hand
on my arm I felt a joyous thrill. I was certainly a better man for
abstaining and she a better woman and I determined not to have con-
nection imless we were carried away by our love. As a matter of fact
we did not give way to excess, though we were very loving. I tried to
persuade myself that we had not gone back to our old ways, but I
could not do so long.
Miss T. put in an appearance every day. She did not look so in-
nocent, but as it was no business of mine I did not trouble. She seemed
more attached to A. than ever. ... A. was still very loving with
me, but it was an effort to me to keep up to her pitch, and when A. pro-
posed to go to Melbourne with Miss T, to sell off the furniture before
settling in Adelaide, I was rather glad of the opportunity of abstaining
from coitus and of watching myself to see if I again improved. When
A. and Miss T. came to see me before going down to the steamer, A.
was nearly crying and Miss T., changed from the old welcome friend,
was not only pale and anxious, but looked guilty as if she had some
HISTOEIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 269
treachery in her mind; she could not meet my eye. I thought less of
it then than afterwards. And once more I took long walks at night
and rose early to catch the freshness of the mornings.
Some time before this I had read a book advocating a vegetarian
diet, arid at this time I chanced to read Pater's beautiful "Denys
L'Auxerrois," the imaginary portrait of a young vine-dresser, who was
attractive beyond ordinary mortals and lived, until his fall and deteri-
oration, on fruit and water. The words, "a natural simplicity in living^"
remained in my memory. I resolved to read more carefully the book on
scientific diet. Who can say, I thought, what changes for the better
may come to me if I live on a strictly scientific and natural diet?
I fasted one whole day, and then had a breakfast of cherries, in the
middle of the day a meal of fruit, and walking in the afternoon — a gray,
rainy day — I felt so light, so different, and the gray sky looked so sweet
and familiar, that I was reminded of the luminous visions of my boyhood.
It was a distinct revelation. This Pan-like, almost Bacchic feeling, did
not last, however, nor was I always able to maintain my new method of
diet, though I tried to do so. I made the attempt, however, but I
imagine I was more than usually run down. I would walk miles in the
hope of feeling less restless. One holiday I walked down to Glenelg,
having only had grapes for my dinner, and lying on the beach I looked
through a strong binocular glass I had borrowed at the girls bathing.
And the beauty of their faces in their frames of hair, of their arms, of
their figures, seen through their wet clinging dresses, satisfied me and
filled me with joy, gave me for a short time that peace and content — in
harmony with the strong sunlight on the waves and the rhythmic surf
on the shore — I was seeking. The summer evenings on the pier or along
the beach had a peculiar savor; one felt the youth and beauty there
even on dark nights, the air was fragant with them, white dresses and
summer hats disappearing down the beach or over the sand hills. It
was easy — doubtless justifiable sometimes — to put a lewd construction
on these disappearances; but 1 felt it need not have been so; that it
was not necessary that youth and beauty, even the sexual act itself if
led up to by love, should be a subject of giggling and sniggering. I
always left the beach and its flitting summer dresses with a sigh.
A., after writing once, ceased writing at all and once more her
mother and I were left in a state of anxiety and suspense. At last I
determined to go to Melbourne to look for her, the only clue I had being
a remark in her letter that a certain actor was giving her an engagement.
In Melbourne I could not find any traces of her for some days and what
traces I did find of her were not calculated to allay my anxious fears.
One hotel-keeper told me that some one of A's name had stayed there
■with another hussy (giving Miss T's stage name) : "There were nice
carryings on with the pair of them." I thought of Miss T's strange
270 APPENDIX.
looks, but could not imagine what hold she had on A., for A. loved me, I
knew. I seemed to be in an inextricable maze. I could settle to nothing
and was thinking of applying to the police when I heard that the actor
A. had mentioned had taken his company to the Gippsland lakes. 1
followed to Sale, found the actor and Avas told that A. was not there.
"She slipped me at the last moment," he said, "and remained in Mel-
bourne." I returned to my lodgings, with my anxiety and nervous rest-
lessness increased tenfold. But suddenly my fear and restlessness left
me like a cloud. I felt quiet, young, peaceful, able to enjoy the country.
A. was doubtless all right and would be able to explain her silence. I
undressed leisurely and happily, thinking of the stars.
The next day, Sunday, I awoke refreshed and still at peace. After
breakfast, hearing children's voices, I went out into the garden and there
was a collision of souls who somehow were affinities. A young girl
about twelve or younger with a fine presence and handsome face fixed
her eyes on me for half a minute and then came and sat on my knee.
She was one of those childi-en I am accustomed to call "love-children,"
because they are so much brighter, healthier, larger and more loving
than others. I always imagine more love went to their making. We
fell in love and she said, stroking my beard, "Oh, you are pretty!" and
I said, "And so are you!" We Avere so affectionate that the servant
called the child away and I went for a walk, finding my little sweet-
heart waiting for me on my return. The touch of her hand was electric
and her voice fresh and musical. I kissed her, but had become more
self-conscious since the morning and wondered if her mother or the ser-
vant were looking, or even of they would appear. I was not so frank
and natural as my little chum. I have often thought of her since. She
had the breadth of forehead, the strength and yet lightness of limb, to-
gether with the hands and feet, not too small, that I always imagine the
dwellers in Paradise will have.
I returned to Melbourne and continued trying to find A. At the
same time I commenced in earnest to live on fruit and brown bread only,
and enjoyed better tone and health every day, so that it was a joy to
walk down the street in the sun and exchange glances with passengers i
la old Walt. One day in the Botanical Gardens veils seemed to be lifted
off my eyes. I could look straight at the sun and taking my note of
color from that golden light I turned my eyes on the flowers, the mown
grass, the trees, and for the first time perceived what a heavenly color
green is, what divine companions flowers are, and what a blue sky really
means. For half an hour I was in Paradise, and to complete my joy
Nature revealed to me a new and imexpeeted secret.
I was lying on a bench, basking, and my silk shirt coming open
the strong sun made its way to my breast and presently I felt a totally
new sensation there. I had discovered the last joy of the skin. My
HISTOEIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 271
skin, fed by healthy fruit-made blood, must have functioned normally
under the excitation of the sun just then (for a brief space only, alas!).
I cannot describe the joy, any more than I could describe the taste of a
peach to one who has only eaten apples: it was satisfying, divine. I
opened my shirt wider, but the feeling only spread faintly, and indeed this
halcyon sunny hour terminated in a restlessness that sent me walking
Into town to look for A.
At last I heard, not of A., but of Miss T. She was in a ballet. I
went round during rehearsal and while waiting entered into conversation
with a little chorus girl with a good face, who was sewing. On my tell-
ing her whom I was seeking she stopped sewing and looked at me
quickly: "Oh, are you her husband? I know her. / have seen them
together." She looked as if she were going to tell me something, but
merely shook her old-fashioned head in a mournful, indescribable way,
saying "Why don't you keep your wife with you?" I went to the door
and presently saw Miss T. She tried to avoid me, I thought, and looked
more vicious than ever, but after a minute's thought reluctantly told
me where she and A. were staying. To liide my fears and suspicions I
had assumed a careless demeanor, but I think I should have strangled
her had she refused to tell me. I hastily went to the place indicated
and going up the stairs (to the astonishment of the people) opened the
door and found myself face to face with A. — but how changed! She had
the hard, harlot, loveless look I detested. I felt for a few minutes that
I did not love her, and she regarded me coldly too, but presently old
habits reinstated themselves. She put out her hands, very pitiably, and
then was sobbing in my arms. I could get nothing out of her but sobs,
and to this day do not know where she spent all these weeks nor why
she did not write. Miss T. came in after rehearsal, pale and hard-faced.
I greeted her politely, but was watching her, trying to puzzle out why
A. did not look as she usually did after long absence from coition. Miss
T. took another room in the same house and was soon joined by another
ballet girl, young and very pretty, Avho soon began to have tits. A. was
always crying until Miss T. went away with her pretty friend. I knew
nothing, could hardly be said to suspect anything definite, and yet I
pitied that pretty girl whose eyes looked so helpless and appealing.
I set to work again. But I continued to live on fruit and bread,
and taking oflf my clothes I would stand up at the window in the sun.
A lot of prostitutes, however, who lived at the back saw me and were
scandalized or shocked or thought me mad. The landlady heard of it
and spoke to A. So I had to desist from mj' glorious sun-baths.
We slept on a single bed, and though I did my best to avoid
coitus (1 wanted to wait and think out some theory of it). A., who knew
nothing of this, wanted to resume our old habits, and finally I surren-
dered. But my sufferings next day were intense, and I had the sense
272 APPENDIX.
of having fallen from some high estate. My thoughts were divided be-
tween two theories: one that our misery was caused by our diet, more
or less; the other that we had fallen into some error as regards coitus,
and this was becoming almost a certainty with me.
There is one incident I think worthy of note which happened before
the "fall" just mentioned and when I was living on fruit and in splendid
health. At a performance I saw a girl on the stage with handsome legs
in tights, and once as she straightened her leg the knee-cap going into
position gave me such a strange and keen joy — of that quality I call
divine or musical — that I was like one suddenly awakened to the
divinity and beauty of the female form. The joy was so keen and yet
peaceful, familiar, and subjective that I could not help comparing it to
a happy chemical change in the tissues of my own brain. Like the un-
expected functioning of my skin in the sun it was a sign of a partial
return to a normal condition, another glimpse of Paradise.
I stuck to my new diet and gained a fresh elation and joy in life.
Gradually clothes became insupportable, and I went down to the beach
as often as possible to take them ofT, and at nights, beside the patient
and astonished A., I would lie naked. One evening, passing some grass,
1 looked over the fence like a gipsy and felt a longing to take off my
clothes and sleep in the grass all night. It was of course impossible.
And A. looked unhappily in my face; she began to think her mother,
who now thought I was mad, must be right.
That night I woke up and found myself having coition. I was
angry and felt I had been put back in my progress, but a fever of lust
now came over me. I would sit under the tap and let the cold water run
over me to conquer the fever, but at the end of a week my hopes were
frustrated and I even turned against my natural diet, on which I had
made flesh. A., as I expected, went through her usual fits, and slowly
recovered. (If we had connection only once she in about three weeks
had a mild attack of fits ; if we had coition more than once the fits were
more severe.) I relapsed more than once and as a means of impressing
my resolution for future abstinence I would walk for miles in the middle
of pitch-black nights.
Miss T. came over to Adelaide and as I knew nothing definite
against her and heard that she was engaged, I thought perhaps my sus-
picions were unfounded and was friendly. But one day in town I saw
her and A. on a tram going out to our cottage. Even then my sus-
picions might not have been awakened, but I saw Miss T. say something
rapidly to A., and A. called out to me, "Will you be coming home soon?"
And I answered "No." When the tram had gone on I found myself
vaguely wondering what Miss T. wanted to know that for, for my per-
ceptions were becoming acute enough to understand women's ways. In
another minute I was walking rapidly home. When I came to the door
HISTOEIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 273
it was locked. I knocked and knocked and no one came. I called out
and threatened to kick in the door. Still no one came. Mad with rage
I commenced to put my threat into execution, when the door was
opened by Miss T., half-naked, in her petticoats, and pale as death, but
no longer defiant. "So I've caught you, have I?" I looked, but could
not trust myself to speak. Wondering why A. did not appear I went
into the bedroom. She was lying on the bed, just as Miss T. had left
her, on the verge of a fit, and on seeing me she held out her hands
piteously, and when I stooped over her she whispered, "Send her away,
send her away." Then she became unconscious and going into the next
room I ordered IVIiss T. (who had managed to scramble on her dress) out
of the house. I spoke scornfully as if addressing a dog, and she slinked
out with a malignant but cowed look I hope never to see on a woman's
face again. What they had been doing with their clothes oflf I do not
know; women will rather die than confess. WTien A. had recovered
from her fit she denied that there had been anything between them, and
stuck to it doggedly, but with such a forlorn look I had not the heart to
prosecute my inquiries.
For my part, all the efforts I had been making for so long seemed
for a time to be in vain; for some weeks I sank into a sort of satyriasis,
and even my anger against Miss T. turned to a prurient curiosity. At
the same time I was not always able to adhere to my diet. But both as
regards coition and diet I was still fighting, and on the whole success-
fully. My fits of temper, however, were excessive and my ennui became
gloomy despair. One day I blasphemed on crossing the Park and spoke
contemptuously of "God and his twopenny ha'penny revolving balls,"
referring to the planetary system. But for long walks I should have
gone mad. A. was drinking in the intervals of her fits. I found half-
empty bottles of wine hidden away. This did not improve my temper,
and one day — this was when she was well and up — I struck her a heavy
blow on the face, and she aimed a glass decanter at me. She went home
to her mother and I lived alone in the cottage. I heard soon afterwards
that her husband had come back and that they had made it up. Our
parting was not, however, destined to be final.
Even out of that month's sufferings I made capital. I was better
after my tendency to lubricity, my gloom, rage, restlessness and degrada-
tion. They had been but the irritations of convalescence.
IS
INDEX OP AUTHOES.
Abrant§s, duchesse d', 213.
Adler, 131, 145, 148, 166, 174, 186.
Albucasis, 130.
Alexander, H. C. B., 217.
Amatus Lusitanus, 163.
Ammon, 193, 196.
Andersen, 192.
Andriezen, 175.
Aquinas, 174.
Aristophanes, 52, 86, 147, 174.
Aristotle, 159, 183, 194.
Averroes, 138
Avicenna, 130, 138.
Aubrey, 93.
Aulnay, Madame d', 26.
Baer, 222.
Ball, 93.
Ballantyne, J. W., 221, 222, 223.
Bancroft, H. H., 80.
Barker, Fordvce, 223.
Barnes, R., 205, 209.
Bartholin, 129.
Bavle, 83.
Beale, G. B., 218.
Bechterew, 29, 151.
Beck, J. R., 161.
Becker, 177.
Bell, Sir C, 137.
Bell, Sanford, 215.
Belletrud, 62, 82.
Beneden, 116.
Bergh, 120, 125, 127, 129, 135, 136,
195.
Bianchi, 227.
Bierent, 185, 188, 203.
Binet, 2, 15, 106.
BischoflF, T. L. W., 222, 223.
Bloch, J., 25, 50, 60, 78, 81, 83, 84,
87, 98, 100, 222.
Blondel, 221.
Blumenbach, 81, 188, 222.
Blunt, J. J., 51.
Boas, 52, 80.
Boccaccio, 170.
Bolsche, 133,
Boiteau, 78.
Bois, J., 51.
Bois-Reymond, E. du, 222.
Booth, D. S., 103.
Booth, J., 220.
Bouchereau, 185.
Bouchet, 183.
Bourke, J. G., 51, 52, 58, 59, 173.
Boveri, 116.
Brand, 51.
Braun, 139.
Brantome, 10, 129, 195.
Brehm, 86.
Breitenstein, 179.
Brenier de Montmorand, 58.
Brenot, 227.
Brouardel, 216.
Brown-Sequard, 179.
Briigelmann, 155.
Buckman, S. S., 167.
Bucknill, 195.
Bunge, 175.
Burchard, 58, 87, 173.
Burdach, 222.
Burton, Robert, 9, 63, 108, 189, 200.
Buschan, 179.
Busdraghi, 186.
Cabanis, 181.
Campbell, J. F., 216.
Campbell, H., 179, 227.
Carpenter, E., 110.
Casanova, 15.
Cascella, 195.
Castelnau, 84.
Catullus, 203.
Cecca, 180.
Celsus, 124.
Chapman, C. W., 219.
Charcot, 177.
Chaucer, 122, 175.
Chaulant, 122.
Chevalier, 11.
Chidley, W., 164.
Cladel, J., 109.
Clement, of Alexandria, 175.
Coe, 128, 129.
Coen, 177.
Collineau, 183.
Colman, W. S., 104.
Columbus, R., 129, 221.
Cook, G. W., 223.
(275)
276
INDEX.
Crawley, 173.
Cumston, 216.
Cuvier, 86.
Cyples, 109.
Dabney, 224.
Darwin, C.j 85.
Darwin, E., 222.
Daunms, 56.
Dearborn, G., 167.
Dembo, 159.
Deniker, 122, 136.
Dessoir, Max, 26.
Dickinson, R. L., 125, 135.
Diderot, 101.
Disselhorst, 158.
Donaldson, H. H., 228.
Douglas, C, 207.
Drahms, 200.
Duhren, E., 63, 64, 95, 195 (and see
Bloch, J.).
Dufougere, 178.
Dufour, 25, 173.
Dulaure, 58, 80, 98.
Duncan, Matthews, 210.
East, A., 63.
Edgar, Clifton, 162, 223, 228.
Ellis, Havelock, 1, 63, 100, 126, 137,
185, 199, 200, 209, 228.
Engelmann, 193.
Erotion, 125.
Esbach, 205
Esehricht, 127.
Espinas, 56.
Eulenburg, 1, 95.
Evans, 210.
Ezekiel, 58.
Fabricius, 127.
Eallopius, 130, 138.
Ferg, 55, 74, 77, 103, 155, 166, 169,
184, 225.
Fichstedt, 161.
Flood, E., 184.
Florence, 172.
Fothergill, Milner, 189,
Frazer, J. G., 61.
Freud, 133, 153, 202.
Freyer, 91.
Froriep, 147.
Fuchs, 47, 60, 82.
Fiirbringer, 171.
Galen, 123, 130.
Gardiner, C. F., 220.
Gamier, 92, 94, 96, 98, 102.
Gautier, A., 208.
Gautier, T., 26.
Gellhoen, 140.
Gerhard, A., 229.
Giles, A., 210, 212, 214, 216.
Godin, 192.
Goethe, 17, 49.
Goncourt, E. de, 54.
Gopcevic, 100.
Goron, 8.
Gould, 166, 212, 223.
Gow, 146.
Graaf, de, 137.
Griffiths, 184, 189.
Groos, K., 3, 201.
Gualino, 143.
GuC-niot, 210.
Guibaut, 145.
Guillereau, 85.
Guinard, 192.
Guttceit, 86, 133.
Haddon, 87.
Haig, 169, 228.
Hall, G. Stanley, 8, 15, 16, 53, 74,
76, 99, 100, 120, 185.
Haller, 125, 130, 180, 222.
Hamilton, A., 9.
Hammond, 29.
Hardy, Thomas, 17.
Hartland, E. S., 61.
Harvey, 146, 165.
Hegar, 198
Henderson, J., 207.
Henle, 134.
Hennig, 206, 222.
Herman, 119.
Herodotus, 80, 101.
Hen-ick, 45, 48, 70.
Heusinger, 191.
Hewitt, Grailey, 209.
Hippocrates, 194, 203, 220
Hirst, 160.
Hislop, J. T., 219.
Hoche, 97.
Horrocks, 209.
Howard, W. L., 77, 97, 172.
Howell, 10.
Howitt, A. W., 167.
Hrdlicka, 123.
Hughes, C. H., 103, 149.
Hunter, John, 166, 172.
Hunter, William, 223.
Huysmans, 4, 50.
Hyades, 122, 136.
INDEX.
277
Hyrtl, 116, 122, 123, 125, 130, 137,
140, 148, 177.
Jacobi, 166.
Jacoby, P., 23, 27.
Jahn, 128.
Janet, 7, 55.
Janke, 163, 166.
Jastreboff, 159.
.Jenkyns, J., 220.
Johnston, G. A., 220.
Johnston, Sir H. H, 122, 172.
Jonson, I3en, 217.
Juvenal, 84.
Kaltenbach, 209.
Kelly, H., 179.
K-Cpler 192.
Kiernan, J.G., 8, 84, 217, 223.
Kisch, 152, 174.
Kleinpaul, 5, 25, 101.
Kobelt, 129.
Kocher, 87, 122.
Kohlbrugge, 118.
Kolbein, 51.
Krafft-Ebing, 2, 15, 20, 27, 28, 30,
32, 56, 57, 59, 60, 62, 64, 71, 72,
75, 76, 78, 90, 92, 102, 105, 106.
Krauss, 84, 101.
Lamb, D. S., 125, 137.
Landes, L. de, 122.
Lane, 12.
Lasegue, 89, 216.
Laurent, E., 11, 75.
Lawrence, Sir W., 147.
Laycock, 186, 194, 199.
Levi, 177.
Licetus, 221.
Li§bault, 173.
Li§taud, 131.
Lipps, 105.
Litzmann, 161, 222.
Lombroso, 2, 128, 195.
Lorion, 163.
Lortet, 183.
Lucas, J. C, 176.
Lucretius, 108, 148.
Lunier, 216.
Luschka, 137.
Lusini, 60.
Lydston, 78.
Macdonald, A., 6, 73, 195.
MacGillicuddy, 155.
McKay, A., 219.
Mackay, W. J. S.^ 125.
Mackenzie, J., 206.
Magnan, 28, 61, 89.
Melebranche, 221.
Mantegazza, 10, 82, 88, 186, 187.
Marandon de Montyel, 17, 122.
Marc, 186.
Marro, 174, 185, 187, 195, 199, 200.
Marshall, H. R., 225.
Martial, 203.
Martin, J. M. H., 210.
Martineau, 130, 194.
Maschka, 60, 83.
Masterman, 59.
Matignon, 21, 184.
Mattel, 177.
McMordie, 177.
Mercier, 62, 82.
Meredith, Ellis, 229.
Middleton, T., 190.
Mirabeau, 24, 82.
Mitchell, Sir A., 218.
Moll, 10, 25, 29, 30, 31, 64, 78, 79,
83, 84, 86, 90, 93, 95, 105, 186,
227.
Mongeri, 228.
Morache, 22.
Moraglia, 29, 62, 195.
Morris, R. T., 131.
Morselli, 55.
Motet, 76.
Moulin, J. Mansell, 172.
Miiller, J., 129, 222.
Mundg, P., 132, 162.
Nacke, 85.
Neale, R., 59.
Neri, 57.
Nicholson, H. 0., 206, 207.
Nina Rodrigues, 139.
Obici, 151.
Onanoff, 149.
Ottolenghi, 186, 200.
Ovid, 147, 175
Pacheco, 26.
Palfyn, 124.
Park, Mungo, 51.
Papillault, 192.
Pasini, 195.
Paterson, A. R., 219.
Paulini, 128.
Paulus ^ginetus, 148.
Pearse, W. H., 173.
Pearson, Karl, 5
278
INDEX.
Pechuel-Loesche, 147.
Pelanda, 61, 92.
Pennant, 51.
Penta, 13.
Pfaff, 83. 128.
Pierer, 122.
Pillon, 112.
Pinaeus, 137.
Pinard, 206, 216, 229.
Pitre, C, 193.
Pitres, 55.
Pittard, 184.
Plant, 194.
Plautus, laf.
Pliny, 124.
Ploss, 23, 26, 81, 98, 99, 119, 124,
126, 127, 128, 135, 138, 145,
147, 150, 204, 214, 216, 221, 228.
Poehl, 179.
Polemon, 183.
Pollux, 130.
Porta, Delia, 194, 221.
Power, 189.
Pyle, 166, 212, 223.
Raymond, 55.
Regis, 55.
Regnier, H. de, 49.
Reinach, S., 26.
Renooz, CelinCj 99.
Restif de la Bretonne, 18, 22.
Retterer, E., 117, 120, 144.
Reynolds, A. R., 8.
Rhys, J., 53.
Ribot, 3.
Riedel, 145.
Rimbaud, 99.
Riolan, 163, 204.
Robinson, Bryan, 120, 130, 168.
Robinson, Louis, 127.
Rodin, 108.
Roederer, 222.
Roons, R. P., 219.
Rosse, Irving, 83, 98.
Roth, W., 172.
Rothe, 128, 129.
Roubaud, 28, 123, 149, 163, 187,
194.
Rousseau, 102.
Routh, C. H. F., 127, 133.
Rufus, 130.
Russell, W., 218.
Sade, de, 63, 172, 195.
Salmon, W., 59, 173.
Scherzer, 125.
Schinz, 24.
Schmiedeberg, 175,
Schreiner, 179.
Schrencli-Notzing, 89.
Schurig, 5, 10, 58, 85, 87, 122, 123,
125, 130, 137, 138, 139, 145,
146, 163, 172, 203, 211, 221.
Scott, Colin, 3, 98.
Scripture, E. W., 124.
Seerley, 120.
Seligmann, 180.
Sellheim, 184.
Shakespeare, 170.
Shattock, 118, 180.
Shufeldt, 45.
Silk, J. E. W., 156.
Simon, H., 229.
Simpson, Sir J., 7, 130, 193.
Sims, Marion, IGO.
Smith, Sir A., 86.
Smith, Haywood, 127, 189.
Soemmering, 222.
Soranus, 130, 221, 227.
Spigelius, 134, 138.
St a hi, F. A., 220.
Stanton, 206.
Stendhal, 9, 12, 107, 112.
Stengel, 206.
Stern, B., 52, 79, 100.
Stevens, Vaughan, 177.
Stieda, 134.
Stratz, 21, 22, 126, 205.
Stubbs, 87.
Suidas, 130.
Sukhanoff, 60.
Sullivan, W. C, 175.
Sutherland, W. D., 176.
Sutton, Bland, 117, 208.
Swift, 48.
Tarde, 106.
Tardieu, 189, 190, 195.
Tarnier, 228.
Taxil, 63.
Theocritus, 51.
Thoinot, 95.
Thompson, W. L., 207.
Thomson, J., 225.
Tilt, 131, 186.
Toff, 176, 177.
Tourdes, G., 183.
Tridandani, 208.
Trochon, 91.
Turke, Hack, 195.
INDEX.
279
Vahness, 148.
Valentin, 222.
Varigny, H de, 147.
Variot, G., 222.
Varro, 86.
Vaschide, 152, 154, 167, 185.
Yatsyayana, 150.
Venette, 176.
Venturi, 189.
Vesalius, 138.
Vinay, 206, 227.
Vinci, L. da, 146.
Voigt, 127.
Voisin, J., 198.
Vurpas, 152, 154, 167, 185.
Wagner, R., 222.
Waldeyer, 131.
Walker, G., 172.
Wallace, A. W., 224.
Warton, 83.
Wasserschleben, 58, 87, 173.
Weininger, 0., 229.
Wellhausen, 101.
Werner, 125.
W^ernich, 161.
West, J. P., 155.
Wharton, 171.
Wilhelm, Eugen, 52.
Wilkin, G., 229.
Wilkinson, A. D., 161.
Williams, J. W. Wbitridge, 192,
209.
Williamson, C. F., 219.
Wolff, B., 208.
WoUstonecraft, Mary, 9.
Wordsworth, 49.
Wychgel, 205.
Youatt, 85.
Zaborsky, 209.
Zoppi, 180.
Zimmer, 52.
Zola, 101.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
Abyssinians, coitus among, 163.
Acquired element in erotic sym-
bolism, 28.
Acromegaly and sexual develop-
ment, 186.
Alcohol, aphrodisiac effects of, 174.
Algolagnia, in relation to scato-
logic symbolism, 5G; as a form
of erotic symbolism, 106.
Anaesthesia, sexual, 186.
Ansesthetics in relation to sexual
excitement, 156.
Anaphrodisiacs, 177.
Animal copulation, attraction of,
72.
Animals, detumescence in, 158,
160, 168.
Annamites, coitus among, 163.
Antipathies of pregnant women,
212.
Anus in relation to pubic hair, 128;
as an erogenous zone, 133.
Apes, sexual organs of, 125, 127,
136, 165; sexual congress in,
144, 147.
Aphrodisiacs, 172 et seq.
Apples, longings of women for,
216.
Arabs, penis in, 122.
Artist, compared to lover, 108.
Associations of contiguity and re-
semblance in erotic symbolism,
Australian method of sexual con-
gress, 147, 148.
Auto-suggestions, longings of preg-
nancy as, 213.
Bartholin, glands of, 145.
Beard in relation to sexual de-
velopment, 197.
Beauty, the objective element in,
107 et seq.
Bestiality, 77 et seq.
Bladder in relation to sexual ex-
citement, 56, 154, 155.
Blood during pregnancy, 206.
Blood-pressure during detumes-
cence, 151, 169.
Breasts, and erotic temperament,
188; during pregnancy, 206.
Bromide as an anaphrodisiac, 177.
Bulbo-cavernous reflex, 149, 157.
Camphor as an anaphrodisiac, 177.
Cantharides, effects of, 174.
Castration, results of, 180, 183.
Celery as an aphrodisiac, 174.
Children, attracted to foot, 16; to
scatology, 53; to copulation
of animals, 72; to hair, 74;
food impulses of, 215.
Chinese, foot-fetichism of, 21.
Circulatory conditions during coi-
tus, 151; during pregnancy,
207.
Clitoris, 118, 121, 126, 129 et seq.,
146.
Clothes, erotic fascination of, 45.
Coitus, the phenomena of. 111 et
seq.; the methods of, 146 et
seq.; ethnic variations in
methods of, 147, 151; respira-
tory and circulatory condi-
tions during, 151; interruptus
as a cause of vasomotor dis-
turbance, 152, 178; glandular
activity during, 153; motor
activity during, 153 et seq.;
psychic state during, 157; se-
rious effects of, 168.
Congenital element in erotic sym-
bolism, 27.
Contiguity in erotic symbolism, as-
sociations of, 3.
Coprolagnia, 47, 62 et seq.
Coprophagia, religious and sexual,
57.
Courtship, 142.
Crystallization, Stendhal's, 9, 107.
Defile, the impulse to, 95.
Distillatio, 153.
Dog, human sexual intercourse
with, 83.
Dynamometric experiments during
sexual excitement, 154.
(281)
282
INDEX.
Ejaculation, the mechanism of, 149.
Embryo, 117.
Epilepsy and exhibitionism, 91,
103; compared to coitus, 150;
as a result of coitus, 169.
Erectility during coitus, 144.
Erogenous zone, anus as, 133; lips
as, 143, 202.
Erotic intoxication, 155.
Erotic temperament, 182 et seq.
Eryngo as an aphrodisiac, 174.
Ethnic variations in coitus, 147,
150, 159, 103.
Etiiiscans, sexual significance of
foot among, 24.
Eunuchs, characteristics of, 183.
Exercise on sexual organs, influ-
ence of, 123.
Exhibitionism, 89 et seq.
Eyes during detumescence, 166; in
relation to erotic tempera-
ment, 189; darlier at puberty,
193.
Face during detumescence, expres-
sion of, 166.
Faeces as a drug, 58.
Fecundation, the phenomena of,
117; artificial, 166.
Feet as a sexual symbol, imcover-
ing, 15.
Fellatio, 172.
Fetichism, erotic, 2 et seq.
Flagellation, 64, 94, 102, 106.
Foot-fetichism, see Shoe-fetichism.
Fuegians, penis in, 122.
Fur as a fetich, 76.
Garments as fetiches, 10, 74.
Genital organs as fetiches, 10.
Goat as a human sexual fetich, SO,
82.
Greeks, sexual significance of foot
among, 24
Hair as a fetich, 74; despoilers of,
75; pubic, 125 et seq.; dark-
ens at puberty, 193; in rela-
tion to erotic temperament,
194 et seq.; in pregnancy, 205.
Hand as fetich, 15.
Heart during pregnancy, 206.
Homosexuality as a form of erotic
symbolism, 2. 1
Hottentot apron, 134.
Hymen, 138 et seq., 162.
Hyperesthesia, sexual, 6 et seq.
Hypertrichosis universalis, 195.
Hysteria, 143, 209, 227.
Ideal coprolagnia, 64.
Idiocy as result of maternal im-
pressions, 218, 224.
Idiots, sexual development of, 198.
Impregnation without rupture of
hymen, 162; without conjunc-
tions, 163; artificial, 166.
Impressions, maternal, 217 et seq.
Intellectual work, relation of preg-
nancy to, 229.
Intoxication, erotic, 155.
Japanese, labia majora in, 125.
Joy, the expression of, 167.
Kiss, the, 143.
Kleptomania and pregnancy, 216.
Knee-jerlc in pregnancy, 208.
Labia majora, 125 et seq.
Labia minora, 119, 134 et seq
Larynx in relation to sexual state,
203.
Linea fusca, 192.
Lips, as an erogenous zone, 143,
202; in relation to erotic tem-
perament, 190.
Longings of pregnancy, 210; the-
ories of, 212; as auto-sugges-
tions, 213; physiological basis
of, 214; relation to the long-
ings of childhood, 215.
Masochism, in relation to shoe-
fetichism, 31; in relation to
scatalogic symbolism, 56; in
relation to exhibitionism of
nates, 102; as a form of erotic
symbolism, 106.
Masturbation and pubic hair,
127; hypertrophy of clitoris
ascribed to, 131; part played
by clitoris in, 133; why some
theologians permitted, 146;
phenomena during, 155.
Maternal element in sexual love,
201.
Maternal impressions, 217 et seq.
INDEX.
283
Menstruation in relation to coitus,
145; metabolism during, 208;
in relation to sickness of preg-
nancy, 209; comjDared to preg-
nancy, 228.
Mental state during pregnancy,
208.
Metabolism during pregnancy, 208.
Mixoscopic zoophilia, 71.
Modesty a supposed sign of vir-
ginity, 204.
Mohammedan method of sexual
congress, 147.
Mole as a fetich, 12.
Mongol peoples, foot fetichism
among various, 23.
Mons veneris^ 124.
Mordvins, foot-fetichism among,
23;
Motor activity during coitus, 183
et scq.
Mouth in relation to erotic tem-
perament, 191.
Muscular movements during coi-
tus, 154.
Nates in relation to coprolagnia,
63; in relation to exhibition-
ism, 100, 102; in relation to
erotic temperament, 186.
Necrophilia, 11, 81.
Negative fetich, 8.
Negro, penis in, 122; labia majora
in, 125; clitoris in, 130; labia
minora in, 134; method of sex-
ual congress among, 147.
Nervous system during pregnancy,
208.
Neurasthenia cordis vasomotoria,
152.
Nipples, pigmentation of, 193.
Nudity, religious, 99.
Nurition, symbolism of, 7.
Nymphse, 119, 134 et seq.
Nymphomania, 186.
Obsessions of scruple, 7; longings
of pregnancy as, 211.
Obsessional exhibitionism, 102.
Odor an alleged sign of defloration,
203.
Onion as an aphrodisiac, 174.
Opium as an aphrodisiac, 176.
Organs, sexual, 119 €t seq.
Ova and spermatozoa, union of, 161
et seq.
Ovarian extract, effects of, 179.
Ovaries, function of, 181; analogy
of with thyroid, 208.
Paidophilia, 11, 13.
Pain and erotic symbolism, 106.
Pedicatio, 133.
Pelvic development and erotic tem-
perament, 186.
Pelvic floor, variability of, 119.
Pelvic inclination, 126.
Penis, 119, 121 et seq., 129.
Penis-fetichism, 96.
Phallic worship, 98.
Physiognomists and the erotic
temperament, 182.
Pica, 211.
Pigmentation in relation to erotic
temperament, 191; in preg-
nancy, 205.
Potatoes, the supposed aphrodisiac
effects of, 173.
Precocity, influence of, 29.
Pregnancy and pigmentation, 193;
psychic state in, 201 et seq;
sexual desire during, 227 ; rela-
tion of to intellectual _ work,
229.
Presbyophilia, 11.
Prostate, 171.
Prostitutes, external genitals of,
136; stature of, 187.
Psychic exhibitionism, 94.
Psychic condition during coitus,
157.
Puberty, the phenomena of, 184;
pigmentary changes at, 192.
Pubic hair, 125 et seq.; 204.
Puericulture, 229.
Pygmalionism, 11, 12.
Quadrupedal method of coitus in
man, 148.
Rachitic, sexual tendencies of the,
184.
Reflex, bulbo-cavernous, 149.
Reflexes during pregnancy, 208.
Religious scatalogic symbolism, 57.
Resemblance in erotic symbolism,
associations of, 3.
Respiration during coitus, 151.
Responsibility of pregnant wo-
men, 217.
284
INDEX.
Restif de la Bretonne's shoe-fetich-
ism, 18.
Romans, sexual significance of
foot among, 24; methods of
coitus among, 147, 148.
Rousseau, 102.
Rue as an anaphrodisiac, 177.
Sadism, 106.
Saint compared to lover, 109.
Salivation during coitus, 153.
Satyriasis, 185.
Scatalogic symbolism, 47 et seq.
Scrotum, 123.
Scruple, obsessions of, 7.
Secretions of genital canal, 146.
Semen, alleged female, 146 j in coi-
tus, 157; in female genital
canal, 159; vital activity of,
165; artificial injection of,
166; constituents of, 171; as
a stimulant, 172.
Sexual anaesthesia, 186.
Sexual conjugation, 116 et seq.
Sexual desire during pregnancy,
229.
Sexual organs, 119 et seq.
Sexual selection in relation to
erotic symbolism, 106; in rela-
tion to external sexual organs,
127; the probable cause of the
hymen, 140.
Shadow as a fetich, 8.
Shoe, sexual significance of, 25
Shoe-fetichism frequency of, 15;
normal basis of, 16, 27; illus-
trated by Restif de la Bre-
tonne, 18; prevalence of among
Chinese, etc., 21; former prev-
alence in Europe, 24; congen-
ital basis of, 27 ; acquired ele-
ment in, 28; favored by pre-
cocity, 29 ; relation to masoch-
ism, 30; illustrative cases of,
33 et seq.; dynamic element
in, 45.
Sickness of pregnancy, 209 et seq.
Skin, sexual significance of, 143,
177; condition of during coi-
tus, 144, 153; in relation to
erotic temperament, 190; sex-
ual pigmentation of, 193.
Slipper as a sexual symbol, 25.
Smile, origin of the, 167.
Sodomy, the term, 72.
Spain, sexual attractiveness of
foot in, 26.
Spermatozoa reach ova, how the,
161 et seq., 171.
Spermin, 179.
Sphygmanometer experiments dur-
ing sexual excitement, 152.
Stature and erotic temperament,
187.
Stimulants, 178.
StuflF-fetichisms, 73 et seq.
Strychnine, aphrodisiac effects of,
174.
Suggestion in relation to longings
of pregnancy, 214.
Symbols, nature of, 3; of sex in
language, 4.
Temperament, alleged erotic, 182
et seq.
Testicular juices, effects of, 179,
Testes, 123, 181, 197.
Thyroid, condition during sexual
excitement, 203; during preg-
nancy, 207.
Ticklishness in relation to stuff-
fetichisms, 76.
Tumescence in relation to detum-
escence, 115 et seq., 142.
Unnatural offence, the terra, 72.
Urethra, variability of female,
120; an erogenous zone, 133.
Urethrorrhoea ex libidinCj 153.
Urinary stream, in relation to
nymphge, 136; an alleged index
to virginity, 204.
Urine in religious rites, 50; pos-
sesses magical virtues, 52; in
legends, 52; in medicine, 59;
during coitus, 153, 154.
Urolagnia, 47 et seq.
Uterus, 118, 132, 159 et seq., 194,
210.
Vagina, 126, 137, 145, 159, 163, 177.
Vaginismus, 13, 163.
Vasomotor conditions during coi-
tus, 151.
Vaudonism, 98.
Virginity, ancient diagnosis of,
126, 138, 203 et seq.
Virile reflex^ 149.
INDEX.
285
Voice, in relation to erotic tem-
perament, 188; in relation to
virginity, 203.
Vomiting of pregnancy, 209 et seq.
Vulva, 124 et seq., 148, 163.
Vulva-fetichism, 96.
Waist, origin of admiration for
small, 21.
Yohinbin as an aphrodisiac, 176.
Zooerastia, 77 et seq.
Zoophilia erotica, 71, 76.
Zoophilia non-erotic, 77.
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