THE SEXUAL QUESTION
THE
SEXUAL QUESTION
A SCIENTIFIC, PSYCHOLOGICAL, HYGIENIC AND
SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY FOR THE
CULTURED CLASSES
BY
AUGUST JFOREL, M.D., PH.D., LL.D.
Formerly Professor of Psychiatry at and Director of the
Insane Asylum in Zurich (Switzerland)
ENGLISH ADAPTATION
C. F. MARSHALL, M.D., F.R.C.S.
Late Assistant Surgeon to the Hospital for
Diseases of the Skin, London
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
REBMAN COMPANY
1123 BROADWAY
1st to 2nd thousand
I^Ol
Copyright, 1908, by
REBMAN COMPANY
New York
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, Eng., 1908
All rights reserved
Printed in America
uoTmJL
fUls
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
Professor Forel is well known to English readers through
the medium of English translations of his other works, on Psy-
chiatry and kindred subjects. The present work has aheady
been translated into several European languages. Whether we
agree with all Professor Forel's conclusions or not, we must
admit that he has dealt with a difficult and delicate subject in
a masterly and scientific manner.
C. F. Marshall.
27 New Cavendish Street, London, W.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
This book is the fruit of long experience and reflection. It has
two fundamental ideas — the study of nature, and the study of
the psychology of man in health and in disease.
To harmonize the aspirations of human nature and the data
of the sociology of the different human races and the different
epochs of history, with the results of natural science and the
laws of mental and sexual evolution which these have revealed
to us, is a task which has become more and more necessary at
the present day. It is our duty to our descendants to con-
tribute as far as is in our power to its accomplishment. In
recognition of the immense progress of education which we owe
to the sweat, the blood, and often to the martyrdom of our
predecessors, it behoves us to prepare for our children a life
more happy than ours.
I am well aware of the disproportion which exists between
the magnitude of my task and the imperfections of my work.
I have not been able to study as much as should be done the
innumerable works which treat of the same subject. Others,
better versed than myself in the literature of the subject, will
be able later on to fill this regrettable lacuna. I have endeav-
ored, above all things, to study the question from all points of
view, in order to avoid the errors which result from any study
which is made from one point of view only. This is a thing
which has generally been neglected.
I must express my thanks to my friend. Professor Mahaim,
and especially to my publisher and cousin, S. Steinheil, for the
help and excellent advice which they have given me in the
revision of my work; also to Professor Boveri, who has been
kind enough to revise the figiues, 1 to 17.
De. a. Forel.
Chigny pres Merges (Suisse).
X PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
"I must thank you for the deep and unalterable impression
which your book has produced on me. I am a young girl of 21
years, and you know how difficult it is for us to see clearly into
those natural things which so closely concern us. I cannot,
therefore, thank you too much for the calm enlightenment which
has been produced in me, and for the just and humane words
which you devote to the education of our sex. I hope one day
to have the good fortune to apply to my children the ideas on
education with which you have inspired me.
"You ask me for the impression which your book has made on
me. It is true that I am still very young, but I have read much.
My mother has brought me up very freely, so that I can count
myself among the young girls who are free from prejudice. In
spite of this, a sort of internal anxiety or false shame has hin-
dered me from speaking of all the things of which you treat. All
that I knew I had read in books or derived by instinct. Although
I knew very well that my mother would always answer my ques-
tions I never asked any.
"I declare that latterly my mind had been in a state of veri-
table chaos. I was obsessed and tormented by a fear of every-
thing of which I was ignorant and some day ought to learn.
This is why I was anxious to read your book which a friend showed
me. I will now express myself more clearly.
"The first chapters were difficult for me, not because I could
not understand them, but owing to the strange and novel expe-
rience which the truth made in me when plainly and scientifically
expounded. Wishing to read everything I applied myself to the
book laboriously. My first impression was that of disgust for all
human beings and mistrust of everything. But I was soon glad
to find that I was a very normal young girl, so that this impres-
sion soon passed away. I was no longer excited over conversa-
tions which I heard, but took a real interest in them, and I was
happy to have become acquainted with some one who under-
stood us young girls.
"I am, therefore, a young girl whose sensations are neither
cold nor perverse, and I am always rejoiced, in reading your
book, to see with what truth you describe our sexual impressions.
Those who maintain that we feel in this way the same as men
make me smile. In your book ("Hygiene of ^larriage," p. 479)
you say that the idea of marriage awakens in a normal young
girl a kind of anguish and disgust, and that this feeling disap-
pears as soon as she has found some one whom she loves. This
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION XI
is extremely true and well observed. I am in complete agree-
ment with a friend with whom I have often discussed your book;
we young girls are very little attracted by the purely sexual side
of marriage, and we should prefer to see children come into the
world by some other way than that ordained by Nature. This
will, perhaps, make you laugh. However, I think you will un-
derstand my feelings.
"When I had finished reading your book I became absolutely
tranquil, and my ideas were enlightened. It goes without saying
that it is no longer possible for me to be ingenuous, but I should
like to know what one gains by such naivety. It is very easy to
be innocent when one knows nothing, and this is of no account,
I never thought for a moment to find your book immoral, and
that is why I do not think you have done me any harm. Excuse
me for having written at such length, but I could not abbreviate
when dealing with such a serious question."
The author of this letter has, at my request, authorized me
to publish it anonymously. I think that the candor, the loy-
alty and the maturity of judgment of the sentiments expressed
by this young girl are of much more value and are much more
healthy than all the prudishness and false shame of our con-
ventional morality.
Dr. a. Forel.
Chigny pr6s Merges (Suisse) .
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
The reproduction of living beings — History of the germ —
Cell-division — Parthenogenesis — Conjugation —
Mneme — Embryonic development — Difference of
sexes — Castration — Hermaphrodism — Heredity —
Blastophthoria ........ 6
CHAPTER II
The evolution or descent of living beings . . .39
CHAPTER III
Natural conditions of mechanism of human coitus — Preg-
nancy— Correlative sexual characters . . . .49
CHAPTER IV
The sexual appetite in man and woman — Flirtation . . 72
CHAPTER V
Love and other irradiations of the sexual appetite in the
human mind — Psychic irradiations of love in man:
Procreative instinct, jealousy, sexual braggardism, por-
nographic spirit, sexual hypocrisy, prudery and modesty,
old bachelors — Psychic irradiations of love in woman:
Old maids, passiveness and desire, abandon and exalta-
tion, desire for domination, petticoat government, desire
of maternity and maternal love, routine and infatuation,
jealousy, dissimulation, coquetry, prudery and modesty
— Fetichism and anti-fetichism — Psychological relations
of love to religion ....... 104
xiv CONTENTS
CHAPTER VI
Ethnology and history of the sexual life of man and of mar-
riage— Origin of marriage — Antiquity of matrimonial
institutions — Criticism of the doctrine of promiscuity —
Marriage and celibacy — Sexual advances and demands
of marriage — Methods of attraction — Liberty of choice
— Sexual selection — Law of resemblance — Hybrids —
Prohibition of consanguineous marriages — Role of senti-
ment and calculation in sexual selection — Marriage by
purchase — Decadence of marriage by purchase —
Dowry — Nuptial ceremonies — Forms of marriage — Dura-
tion of marriage — History of extra-nuptial sexual
intercourse ........
CHAPTER VII
Sexual evolution — Phylogeny and ontogeny of sexual life
CHAPTER VIII
Sexual pathology — Pathology of the sexual organs — Venereal
disease — Sexual psychology — Reflex anomalies — Psychic
impotence — Sexual paradoxy — Sexual anaesthesia — Sex-
ual hypersesthesia — Masturbation and onanism — Per-
versions of the sexual appetite: Sadism, masochism,
fetichism, exhibitionism, homosexual lo;^, sexual inver-
sion, pederosis, sodomy — Sexual anomalies in the insane
and psychopathic — Effects of alcohol on the sexual
appetite — Sexual anomalies by suggestion and auto-
suggestion— Sexual perversions due to habit
CHAPTER IX
The role of suggestion in sexual life — Amorous intoxication . 277
CHAPTER X
The relations of the sexual question to money and property —
Prostitution, proxenetism and venal concubinage . 293
CONTENTS XV
CHAPTER XI
PAGE
The influence of environment on sexual life — Influence of
climate — Town and country life — Vagabondage — Ameri-
canism— Saloons and alcohol — Riches and poverty —
Rank and social position — Individual life — Boarding
schools ......... 326
CHAPTER XII
Religion and sexual life ....... 340
CHAPTER XIII
Rights in sexual life — Civil law — Penal law — A medico-legal
case ......... 358
CHAPTER XIV
Medicine and sexual life — Prostitution — Sexual hygiene —
Extra-nuptial intercourse — Medical advice — Means of
regulating or preventing conception — Hygiene of mar-
riage— Hygiene of pregnancy — Medical advice as to
marriage — Medical secrecy — Artificial abortion — Treat-
ment of sexual disorders ...... 418
CHAPTER XV
Sexual morality ........ 445
CHAPTER XVI
The sexual question in politics and in political economy . 461
CHAPTER XVII
The sexual question in pedagogy ..... 470
CHAPTER XVIII
The sexual question in art ...... 489
CHAPTER XIX
Conclusions — Utopian ideas on the ideal marriage of the
future — Bibliographical remarks .... 499
THE SEXUAL QUESTION
THE SEXUAL QUESTION
INTRODUCTION
My object is to study the sexual question under all its aspects:
scientific, ethnological, pathological and social, and to seek the
best solution of the numerous problems connected with it.
Unfortunately, in publications dealing with this subject, eroti-
cism usually plays a considerable part, and it is difficult for an
author to abstract himself from this, for it is reflected uncon-
sciously in his thoughts. As all sentiment, more or less, warps
judgment, it is the duty of scientific criticism to eliminate eroti-
cism in order to be exact and impartial. We shall, therefore,
do all that is possible to free ourselves from it in the course of
the present study.
The sexual question is of fundamental importance for hu-
manity, whose happiness and well-being depend largely on the
best solution of this important problem. In dealing with such
a delicate subject I shall endeavor to avoid narrow-mindedness
and prejudice; I shall avoid tiresome quotations, and shall only
employ technical terms when necessary, as they rather interfere
with the comprehension of the subject. I shall take care to
explain all those which appear to me indispensable.
My opinions on the sexual question are based, on the one
hand, on my scientific study of the human brain, and on the
other hand on the long personal experience of an alienist who
has devoted himself almost as much to normal mentality and
questions of social hygiene as to pathological mentality. I
have, however, been obliged to rely on the fundamental work of
Westermark with regard to ethnology, this subject being strange
to me. Concerning sexual psycho-pathology I have followed
the classification of Krafft-Ehing .
The sexual question is extraordinarily complex, and we can-
not expect to find a simple solution for it as we can for the
questions of alcoholism, slavery, torture, etc. The latter are
3
4 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
solved in one word — suppression. Suppression of slavery and
torture; suppression of the usage of alcoholic drinks. We are
concerned here with ulcers artificially produced and preserved
in human society; ulcers which must be simply extirpated.
Their suppression is nothing but beneficial, since, far from
being connected with the normal conditions of human existence,
they place it in peril. Sexual instinct and sentiment, on the
contrary, have their roots in life itself; they are intimately
bound up with humanity, and therefore require quite a different
treatment. But human society has guided them into false and
pernicious ways. It is important to tm-n them from these in
order to tranquilize and regulate their course by damming
them up and canalizing them.
The fundamental axiom of the sexual question is as follows:
With man, as loith all living beings, the constant object of all
sexual function, and consequently of sexual love, is the reproduc-
tion of the species. It is therefore necessary to treat the question
from the point of view of the natural sciences, physiology, psy-
chology and sociology. This has already been done more than
once, but usually in erudite treatises which only look upon one
side of the question; or, on the other hand, in a superficial and
often frivolous manner.
To ensure happiness, humanity should desire to reproduce
itself in a manner which elevates progressively all the physical
and mental faculties of man, with regard to health and bodily
strength, as much as to sentiment, intelligence, will, creative
imagination, love of work, joy of living, and the sentiment of
social solidarity. Every attempt made to solve the sexual
question should, therefore, be directed toward the futm-e and
toward the happiness of our descendants.
It requires much disinterestedness to attempt seriously any
sexual reform. But, as the human subject is by nature ex-
tremely weak, as his views are limited, especially in the matter
which concerns us, it is absolutely necessary, if we would avoid
Utopia, to adapt the fundamental aim of sexual union to hap-
piness and joy, even to the natyral weakness of man.
The fundamental difficulty of the problem lies in the necessity
for such an adaptation, and this difficulty requires us to make
INTRODUCTION 5
a clean sweep of prejudices, traditions and prudery. It is this
which we wish to attempt.
Considered from an exalted point of view, sexual life is beau-
tiful as well as good. What there is in it which is shameful
and infamous is the obscenity and ignominy caused by the
coarse passions of egoism and folly, allied with ignorance, erotic
curiosity and mystic superstition, often combined with social
narcotic intoxication and cerebral anomalies.
We shall divide our subject into nineteen chapters. Chap-
ters I to VII deal with the natural history and psychology of
sexual life; Chapter VIII with its pathology, and Chapters IX
to XVIII with its social role, that is to say, its connection with
the different domains of human social life.
CHAPTER I
THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS
History of the Germ: — Oell-division — Parthenogenesis — Conjuga-
tion— Mneme — Embryological Development — Difference of the
Sexes — Castration — Her?7iaphrodism — Heredity — Blasto-
phthoria.
A GENERAL law of Organic life decrees that every living indi-
vidual is gradually transformed in the course of a cycle which is
called individual life, and which terminates with death, that is
by the destruction of the greater part of the organism. It then
becomes inert matter, and the germinative cells alone of all its
parts continue its life under certain conditions.
The Cells : Protoplasm. The Nucleus. — Since the time of
Schwann (1830) it is agreed that the cell is the most simple
morphological element which is capable of living. Among the
lower organisms this element constitutes the entire individual.
There is no doubt that the cell is already a thing of high organi-
zation. It is formed of infinitely small elements of very different
value and chemical constitution, which form what is called
protoplasm or the cell-substance. But these infinitely small
elements are so far absolutely unknown. It is in them that must
be sought the change from inanimate matter, that is the chemi-
cal molecule, to living matter, a change which was formerly be-
lieved to lie in the protoplasm itself, before its complicated
structure was known. We need not concern ourselves here with
this question which remains an open one.
Life being established, the cell remains its only known con-
stant element. The cell is composed of protoplasm which
contains a rounded nucleus formed of nucleo-plasina. The nu-
cleus is the most important part of the cell, and governs its life.
Cell -division. — ^The lowest unicellular organisms, as each cell
of a multicellular organism, reproduce themselves by division
6
Fig. 1. Cell before
division.
PLATE I
CELL DIVISION
Fig. 2. Division of
centrosome.
Fig. 3. Formation of
chromosomes.
Fig. 4. Dis.solution
of nucleus.
Fig. 5. Lining vip
of chromosomes.
Fig. (5. Division of
chromosomes.
Fig. 7. Division of
chromo.somes.
Fig. S. Attraction of chromosomes
by centrosomes.
Fig. 9. Concentration of nuclei.
Division of cell.
Fig. 10. Formation of new
chromatin.
THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS 7
or fission. Each cell originates from another cell in the follow-
ing manner : the cell divides in the center as well as its nucleus,
and in this way forms two cells which grow by absorbing by
endosmosis (filtration) the nutritive juices which surround them.
Death or destruction of the cell is therefore death of the entire
organism when this is unicellular. But it has been previously
reproduced.
We find here already the special and fundamental act of con-
jugation, that is the fusion of two cells into one, which serves to
strengthen reproduction. This act, common to all living things
including man, shows us that continuation of life is only possible
when from time to time different elements, that is elements
which have been exposed to different influences, combine to-
gether. If this conjugation is prevented and life is allowed to
continue indefinitely by means of fission or by budding {vide
infra), there results a progressive weakening and degeneration
which leads to the disappearance of the whole group thus repro-
duced.
It is necessary to explain here the results of recent scientific
work on the intimate phenomena of cell-division, for they are
closely allied to those of fecundation.
The nucleus of an ordinary cell presents itself in the form of a
nearly spherical vesicle. Delicate methods of staining have
shown that the nucleus encloses several round nucleolar corpus-
cles, and also a reticulum which is attached to its membrane and
spreads through 'its whole substance. The liquid part of the
nucleus fills the meshes of this reticular tissue, which stains
easily and for this reason is named chromatin. The phenomena
of cell division in well-developed cells with nuclei is termed
mitosis. Certain lower forms of cells exist in which the nucleus
is not well differentiated. Mitosis begins in the nucleus (Plate
I). Figure 1 represents the cell before division has commenced.
In the protoplasm, by the side of the nucleus, is formed a small
corpuscle (c) which is called the centrosome. The nucleus itself
is marked b. When the cell commences to divide, the meshes
of the network of chromatin contract and the centrosome di-
vides into two parts (Fig. 2) . Shortly afterward the particles of
chromatin concentrate in the form of convoluted rods called
8 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
chromosomes (Figs. 3 and 4). The number of these varies
according to the species of organism, but remains constant
for each animal or vegetable species. At the same time the
two centrosomes separate from each other on each side of the
nucleus. The chromosomes then become shorter and thicker
while the nucleus is completely dissolved in the protoplasm of
the cell, and its membrane disappears (Fig. 4).
Directly afterwards the chromosomes arrange themselves regu-
larly in line, like soldiers at drill, following one of the larger
diameters of the cell, and forming a barrier between the two
centrosomes (Fig. 5). Each of the chromosomes then divides
into two parallel halves of equal thickness (Fig. 6).
Figures 3 and 4 show that, while these changes are being pro-
duced, each of the two centrosomes is surrounded by stellate
rays. Some of these rays extending in the direction of the chro-
mosomes, become attached to one of their extremities and draw
it toward the corresponding centrosome (Fig. 7). Thus around
each centrosome are grouped as many chromosomes as the
mother cell possessed itself (Fig. 8). Simultaneously, the cell
enlarges and its protoplasm commences to become indented at
each end of the diameter previously formed by the chromosomes.
From this moment the nuclear liquid concentrates itself around
each of the groups of chromosomes, the rays disappear and the
cell divides into two halves, each containing a group of chromo-
somes (Fig. 9); the indentation increases so as to form a par-
tition across the protoplasm. The chromosomes then form a
new meshwork of nuclear chromatin, and we have then two cells
each with a nucleus and a centrosome like the mother cell
(Fig. 10).
This is what takes place in the reproduction of all cells of the
animal and vegetable kingdoms. In the simplest unicellular
organisms which are known fission constitutes the only means
of reproduction. In the complicated organisms of the higher
plants and animals each cell divides in the manner indicated
above, both in the embryonic period and later on during the
development of each of the organs which forms the organism.
This fact shows more than any other the intimate relationship
which connects all living organisms. The most remarkable thing.
THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS 9
perhaps, is the almost mathematical division of the chromosomes
into two halves, a division which results in the equal distribu-
tion of their substance through the whole organism. We shall
return to this point later on.
Reproduction by Budding. Parthenogenesis. In the animal
and vegetable kingdoms the higher organisms become more
and more complicated. They are no longer composed of a
single cell, but of an increasing number of these cells combined
in a whole, of which each part, adapted for a special purpose, is
itself formed of cells, differentiated as much by their organic
form as by their chemical and physical constitution. In this
way, in plants, are formed the leaves, flowers, buds, branches,
trunk, bark, etc.; and in animals the skin, intestine, glands,
blood, muscles, nerves, brain, sense organs, etc. In spite of the
great complication of the divers living multicellular organisms,
one often finds among them the power of reproduction by
fission or by budding. In certain animals and plants, groups
of cells vegetate in buds which separate from the body later on
and form a new individual; this occurs among the polypi and
plants with bulbs, etc. One can even form a tree by means of
a cutting. Ants and bees, which have not been fecundated,
are capable of laying eggs which develop by parthenogenesis
(virgin parturition) and become complete individuals. But
these degenerate and disappear if reproduction by partheno-
genesis or budding is continued during several generations.
Among the higher animals, the vertebrates and man, there is
no reproduction without conjugation; no parthenogenesis or
budding. So far as we have studied the question we see in the
animal and vegetable kingdoms sexual reproduction, or conju-
gation, as a sine qtm non for the indefinite continuation of life.
The Sexual Glands. The Embryo. However complicated the
organism, it always possesses a special organ, the cells of which,
all of the same form, are reserved for the reproduction of the
species and especially for conjugation. The cells of these or-
gans, called sexual glands, have the power of reproducing them-
selves so that they reconstruct the whole individual (the type
of the species) from which they arose, in an almost identical
form, by conjugation (sometimes also, for a certain time, by
10 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
parthenogenesis) under certain fixed conditions as soon as they
leave its body. We can thus say with Weismann, speaking
philosophically, that these germinal cells continue the life of
their parents, so that in reality death only destroys part of the
individual, namely, that wliich has been specially adapted for
certain exclusively individual ends. Each individual, therefore,
continues to live in his descendants.
The germinal cell divides into a number of .cells called embry-
onic, which become differentiated into layers or groups which
later on form the different organs of the body. The embryonic
period is the name given to the period between the exit of
the germinal cell from the maternal body and the final complete
development which it acquires in becoming the adult individual.
During this period the organism undergoes the most singular
metamorphoses. In certain cases it forms a free embryo which
appears to be complete, having a special form and mode of life,
but which finally becomes transformed into an entirely different
sexual individual. Thus from the egg of a butterfly there first
emerges a caterpillar, which lives and grows for some time, then
changes to a chrysalis and finally to a butterfly. The cater-
pillar and the chrysalis belong to the embryonic period. During
this period every animal reproduces in an abbreviated manner
certain forms which resemble more or less those tlirough which
its ancestors have passed. The caterpillar, for example, re-
sembles the worm which is the ancestor of the insects. Haeckel
calls this the fundamental hiogenetic law. We are not concerned
here with embryology, and will content ourselves with some of
the main points.
Germinal Cells. Hermaphrodites. We now come to conju-
gation. In order to avoid complications we will leave aside
plants and speak only of animals. Among multicellular ani-
mals, sometimes in the same individual, sometimes in different
individuals, occur two kinds of sexual glands, each containing one
kind of cells — the male cells and the female cells. When both
kinds of sexual glands occur in the same indi^ddual, the animal
is said to be nermaphrodite. When they develop in two different
individuals the animals are of distinct sexes. Snails, for exam-
ple, are hermaphrodite. There also exist lower multicellular
\
PLATE II
FERTILIZATION OF THE OVUM BY THE SPERMATOZOID
DIAGRAM OF OVUM AND SPERMATOZOID
Fig. 11. o, Vitelline membrane; ?>, protoplasm, or vitellus; c, nucleus ■with chromatin;
(1, spennatozoid penetrating egg; c, another spermatozoid arrested by the vitelline
membrane.
Fig. 12. Formation of
centrosome.
Fig. 13. Formation of male nucleus by |
spermatozoid. Division of centrosome.
Fig. 14.
Development of nucleus of
spermatozoid.
Fig. 15. Nucleus of spermatozoid attains
same size as that of ovum.
Fig.
16. Formation of male and
female chromosomes.
Fig.
17. Lining up of male and
female chromosomes.
THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS 11
animals which reproduce by budding, but among which conju-
gation takes place from time to time. We shall not consider
these animals any further, as they are too remote to interest us
here.
Spermatozoa and Ova. — In all the higher animals, including
the hermaphrodites, the male germinal cells, or spermatozoa are
characterized by their mobility. Their protoplasm is contractile
and their form varies according to the species. In man and
vertebrate animals they resemble infinitely small tadpoles, and
their tails are equally mobile. The female germinative cell, on
the contrary, is immobile and much larger than the male cell.
Conjugation consists in the movement of the male cell, by means
of variable mechanism, toward the female cell, or egg, into the
protoplasm of which it enters. At this moment it produces on
the surface of the egg a coagulation, which prevents the entrance
of a second spermatozoid.
The egg and the spermatozoid both consist of protoplasm
containing a nucleus. But, while the spermatozoid has only
a small nucleus and very little protoplasm, the egg has a large
nucleus and a large quantity of protoplasm. In certain species
the protoplasm of the egg grows in the maternal organism in a
regular manner to form the vitellus (yolk of egg) which serves as
nourishment for the embryo for a long period of its existence.
This occurs in birds and reptiles.
Conjugation. — ^The phenomena of conjugation were made
clear by van Beneden and Hertwig. These phenomena, as we
have seen, commence among unicellular organisms. In these
they do not constitute reproduction, but the vital reenf orcement
of certain individuals. Conjugation takes place in a different
maimer in different cases.
For example, a unicellular animal applies itself against one
of its fellows. The nucleus of each cell divides into two. Then
the protoplasm of the two cells fuses over the whole surface of
contact, and half the nucleus of the first cell penetrates the sec-
ond cell, while half the nucleus of the latter enters the first cell.
After this exchange the cells separate from each other and each
exchanged half of the nucleus fuses with the primitive half of
the nucleus remaining in the cell.
12 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
From this moment each cell continues to reproduce itself by
fission, as we have seen above. In another form, two cells meet
and fuse completely. Their nuclei become applied against each
other and each exchanges half its substance with the other as
in the preceding case, so that the final result is the same. In
both cases the two conjugated cells are identical, and one can-
not call them male and female.
Penetration of the Spermatozoid into the E^g. — In all the higher
animals in which the germinal cells are of two kinds, male and
female, conjugation takes place in rather a different manner.
Here, the female cell or egg only reproduces itself exceptionally
by parthenogenesis. It usually contains no chromosomes and
often too little chromatin, so that it perishes when conjugation
does not occur.
The spermatozoid swims by means of its tail to meet the egg.
As soon as it touches it it penetrates it and the coagulation
which we have mentioned is produced. This coagulation forms
the vitelline membrane, which prevents the entry of other sper-
matozoids. If, from pathological causes the entry of several
spermatozoids takes place, there results, according to Fol, a
double or triple monster.
In Fig. 11 on Plate II, we see the egg with its vitelline mem-
brane and nucleus, the chromatin network of which is marked
in blue: h shows the protoplasm of the egg or vitellus; a the
vitelline membrane; d the spermatozoid which has just entered,
and the nucleus of which, composed chiefly of chromatin, is
colored red, while its tail has performed its task and is about to
disappear. The letters e, /, and g, show a spermatozoid which
has arrived too late.
Before the head of the spermatozoid which has entered, ap-
pears a centrosome (Fig. 12) which it brings to the egg with its
small amount of protoplasm, and around this centrosome rays
form, as in the case of cellular fission. At the same time a
nuclear liquid arising from the protoplasm of the egg becomes
concentrated around the chromatin of the spermatozoid, while
the nucleus of the egg remains in place and does not change.
The nucleus of the spermatozoid, on the contrary, begins to
grow rapidly. It forms half the number of chromosomes cor-
THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS 13
responding to the cell of the species to which it belongs, and
grows at the expense of the vitellus of the egg. During this
, time the centrosome divides into two halves, which progress
slowly on each side toward the periphery of the egg, as in the
case of fission (see Plate I), while the chromatin of the chro-
; mosomes of the spermatozoid is dissolved in the network. The
! nucleus thus formed by the spermatozoid enlarges more and
: more (Figs. 13 and 14) till it attains the size and shape of that
of the egg (Fig. 15). The male and female chromatin are col-
ored red and blue respectively.
I Then only commences activity of the nucleus of the egg, at
the same time as fresh activity on the part of the nucleus of the
I spermatozoid. Before this, however, the nucleus of the egg
has thrown off a part of its chromatin called a polar body, and
it now possesses only half as much chromatin as the other cells
of the body of the individual. The nucleus of the egg and that
of the spermatozoid then begin at the same time to concentrate
their chromatin in the form of chromosomes (Fig. 16) which
arrange themselves regularly in the middle line exactly as shown
in Plate I, and divide longitudinally into two halves which are
then attracted in opposite directions by the rays of each of the
centrosomes (Fig. 17). Figure 17, of Plate II, thus corresponds
exactly to Fig. 6, of Plate I.
In fact, the growth of the nucleus of the spermatozoid has
given to its substance the same power of development as to that
of the nucleus of the egg. Both enter into conjugation in equal
parts, which symbolizes the social equality and the rights of
the two sexes!
The signification of these facts is as follows : as soon as, in the
course of development, the conjugated nuclei divide again into
two cells, as in Figs. 7 to 10, of Plate I, each of these two cells
contains almost the same quantity of paternal as maternal
chromatin. We do not say exactly as much, for the paternal
and maternal influences are not divided equally in the descend-
ants. This phenomenon may be explained by what Semon calls
alternating ecphoria in mnemic dichotomy. ( Vide infra.) As
cell division continues in the same way during embryonic life,
it follows that each cell, or at least each nucleus of the future
14 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
organism, will contain on the average half its substance and
energy from the paternal and half from the maternal side. I
Heredity. The Mneme. — The secret of heredity lies in the !
phenomena which have been just described. Hereditary influ- ;
ence preserves all its primary power and original qualities in the
chromosomes, which enlarge and divide, while the vitelline sulv
stance, absorbed by the chromosomes and transformed by the
vital chemical processes into the specific substance of the chro- '
mosomes, loses its specific and plastic vital energy, as completely
as the food which we swallow loses its energy in forming the
structure of our living organs. We do not acquire any of the
characters of the ox by eating beefsteaks; and the spermatozoid,
after eating much vitelline protoplasm, preserves its own hered-
itary energies, increased and fortified, but without change in ,
their qualities.
In this way the nuclear chromatin of our germinal cells be-
comes the carrier of all the hereditary qualities of the species I
(hereditary mneme), and more especially those of our direct
ancestors. The uniformity of the intracellular phenomena in
cell division and conjugation proves, however, that, without |
being capable of reproducing the individual, the other non-
germinal cells of the body may also possess these hereditary
energies, and that there exists, hidden behind all these facts,
an unknown law of life, the explanation of which is reserved for
the future.
However, a recent work based on an idea of the physiologist,
E. Hering, which looks upon instinct as a kind of memory of the
species, opens up a new horizon. I refer to the book of Richard
Semon: "Thewneme considered as the conservative principle
in the transmutations of organic life." {Die Mneme als erhalt-
endes Prinzip im Wechsel des organischen Geschehens, Leipzig,
1904.)
Conception of Irritation.*— By the aid of the fundamental
facts of morphological science, biological and psychological,
*I insert here some passages intended for more advanced readers, but
this does not imply that they are of less importance. On the contrary I
strongly advise all my readers to try and understand the theories of Hering
and Semon, which appear to me to throw a new light on the question of
transformation and heredity.
THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS 15
Semon proves that Hering's idea is more than an analogy, and
that there is a fundamental identity in the mechanism of or-
ganic life. In order to avoid the terminology of psychology
which tends to be equivocal, Semon employs some new terms to
designate his new ideas, based on the fundamental conception
of irritation in its physiological sense.
Semon defines irritation as an energetic action on the organism
which determines a series of complicated changes in the irritable
substance of the living organism. The condition of the organism
thus modified, which lasts as long as the irritation, is called by
Semon the state of irritation. Before the action of irritation, the
organism is in a condition which Semon calls the primary state
of indifference, and after its action, in the secondary state of
indifference.
Engram. Ecphoria. — If, when an irritation has entirely ceased,
the irritable substance of the living organism becomes modified
permanently during its secondary state of indifference, Semon
calls the action engraphic. To the modification itself he gives
the word engram. The sum of the hereditary and individual
engrams thus produced in a living organism is designated by the
term mneme. Semon gives the name ecphoria to the revival of
the engram by the repetition of part only of the original irritation,
or by the entire but weakened reproduction of the whole state of
irritation of the organism, which was originally produced in a
synchronous manner with the primary irritation.
Thus, an engram may be ecphoriated (that is to say, repro-
duced or revived) by the return of one part of the complex of
primary irritations which produced it. A young dog, for exam-
ple, is attacked by urchins who throw stones at it. It experiences
two kinds of irritation: (1) the urchins stooping down and throw-
ing stones (optic irritation); (2) the pain caused by the stones
(tactile irritation).
In its brain are produced two associated series of corresponding
engrams. Previously, this dog did not react when it saw people
stoop down. From this moment it will run away and howl at
the sight, without any stone being thrown at it. Thus the tactile
engram will be ecphoriated by the repetition of the original
associated irritation. In the same way, the image of a tree in
a known landscape will ecphoriate the entire landscape.
Moreover, an engram may be revived by the enfeebled return
of the primary irritating agent which produced it, or by an analo-
gous enfeebled irritation. Thus, the sight of a photograph will
16 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
revive the image of a known person. A certain kind of maize
imported for a long time into Norway and influenced in that
country during many generations by the sun of the long summer
days, finally accelerated its time of maturation. When imported
again to the south of Europe it first preserved its faculty of accel-
erated maturation in spite of the shortness of the days (Schubeler).
Semon gives a series of analogous examples which show how
engrams repeated during several generations accumulate and end
by becoming ecphoriated when they have acquired enough power.
Engrams may be associated simultaneously in space, such as
those of sight. But they may also be associated in succession,
such as those of hearing and of ontogen3\ Simultaneous en-
grams are associated in every direction with the same intensity.
Successive engrams, on the contrary', are associated more strongly
forwards than backwards, and have only two poles. In the
succession ab, a acts more strongly on b than b on a. In the suc-
cessions of engrams it often happens that two or more analogous
engrams are associated in a manner more or less equivalent to a
preceding engram. Semon calls this phenomenon dichotomy,
trichotomy, etc. But in the successions, two engrams cannot
be ecphoriated simultaneously. Hence the phenomenon which
Semon names alternating ecphoria; that is sometimes one, some-
times the other of the constituent engrams, for example, of a
dichotomy, which arrives at ecphoria. Similarly, the engram
of the ecphoriated dichotomy is most often that which has been
previously most often repeated.
In the laws of ontogeny and heredity alternating ecphoria plays
an important part. The branch less often repeated remains latent
and the other only is ecphoriated. But certain combinations
which reenforce the latent branch or paralyze the other may
induce ecphoria of the first to the second generation.
Semon also shows that the phenomena of regeneration in the
embryo, as well as those of the adult, obey the law of the mneme.
Homophony. — The terms engram and ecphoria correspond to
the well-known introspective phenomena in psychology of mem-
ory and the association of ideas. Engrams are thus ecphoriated.
At the time of such phenomena every mnemic irritation of the
engrams vibrates simultaneously with the state of synchronous
irritation produced by a new irritation. This simultaneous irri-
tation is named by Semon homophony. When a partial discord is
produced between the new irritation and the mnemic irritation,
the organism always tends to reestablish homophony (harmony).
THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS 17
This is seen in psychological introspection by activity of atten-
tion; in embryology by the phenomenon of regeneration; and in
phylogeny by that of adaptation.
Relying on these convincing facts, Semon shows that irritative
actions are only localized at first in their zone of entry (primary
zone); but that afterward they irradiate or vibrate, gradually
becoming weaker in the whole organism (not only in the nervous
system, for the}^ also act on plants). By this means, engraphia,
although infinitely enfeebled, may finally reach the germinal
cells. Semon then shows how the most feeble engraphias may
gradually arrive at ecphoria, as the result of numerous repeti-
tions (in phylogeny after innumerable generations). This is how
the mnemic principle allows us to conceive the possibility of an
infinitely slow heredity of characters acciuired by individuals, a
heredity resulting from prolonged repetition.
The facts invoked by Weismann against the heredity of ac-
quired characters lose nothing of their weight by this, for the in-
fluence of crossing (conjugation) and selection transforms the
material organic forms in an infinitely more rapid and intense
manner than individual mnemic engraphias. The latter, on the
other hand, furnish the explanation of the mutations of de Vries,
which appear to be only sudden ecphoria of accumulated long
engraphic actions.
The way in which Semon studies and discusses the laws of
the mneme in morphology, physiology and psychology, is truly
magisterial, and the perspective which opens out from these new
ideas is extensive. The mneme, with "the aid of the energetic
action of the external world, acts on organisms by preserving
them and combining them by engraphia, while selection elimi-
nates all that is ill-adapted, and homophony reestablishes the
equilibrium. The irritations of the external world, therefore,
furnish the material for the construction of organisms. I confess
to having been converted by Semon to this way of conceiving the
heredity of acquired characters. Instead of several nebulous hy-
potheses, we have only one — the nature of mnemic engraphia. It is
for the future to discover its origin in physical and chemical laws.
I must refer my readers to Semen's book, for this volume of
343 pages, filled with facts and proofs, cannot be condensed into
a few paragraphs.
Each Cell bears in itself Ancestral Energy. As we have already
seen, the germinal cells are not the only ones which possess the
18 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
energies of all the characters of the species. On the contrary it
becomes more and more certain, from further investigation, that
each cell of the body bears in itself, so to speak, all the energies
of the species, as is distinctly seen in plants. But in all the cells
which are not capable of germinating, these energies remain
incapable of development. It results that such energies, re-
maining virtual, have no practical importance.
In an analogous sense we may say that all the cells of the
body are hermaphrodite, as all germinal cells, for each possesses
in itself the undifferentiated energies of each sex. Each sper-
matozoid contains all the energies of the paternal and maternal
ancestry of man, and each egg those of the paternal and maternal
ancestry of woman. The male and the female are only the
bearers of each kind of germinal cells necessary for conjugation,
and each of these bearers only differs from the others by its
sexual cells and by what is called correlative sexual differences.
But we must not forget that the germinal cells themselves are
only differentiated at a certain period in the development of
the embryo; they are thus hermaphrodite originally and only
become male and female later.
New experiments made on the eggs of sea urchins and other
organisms have shown that conjugation may be replaced by an
external irritating agent; for example, the action of certain
chemical substances is sufficient to make eggs develop by par-
thenogenesis which would have died wdthout this action. An
entire being has been successfully produced from an egg divided
into two by means of a hair. And even from the protoplasm of
the egg \sdthout its nucleus, with the aid of a spermatozoid. We
must not, however, base premature hypotheses on these facts.
When a female cell, or egg, develops without fecundation
(parthenogenesis) its nucleus enlarges and divides in the same
manner as conjugated nuclei (mitosis).
A point of general interest is what is called the specific poly-
embryony of certain parasitic insects (hymenoptera of the genus
Encyrtus). According to Marchal, their eggs grow and divide
into a considerable number of secondary eggs, each of which
gives rise to an embryo and later on a perfect insect. By shak-
ing the eggs of certain marine animals they have been caused
THE KEPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS 19
to divide into several eggs and thus to produce several embryos.
All the individuals arising from the division of the same egg of
Encyrtus are of the same sex.
Embryology. — It is not necessary to describe here in detail
the different changes which the two conjugated cells pass through
to become an adult man. This is the object of the science of
embryology. We shall return to this in Chapter III. A few
words are necessary, however, to explain the general principles.
Ovulation. The corpus luteum. — The ovaries of woman (Fig.
18) contain a considerable number of cells or ovules, although
infinitely less than the number of spermatozoids contained in
the testicles. From time to time some of these ovules enlarge
and are surrounded by a vesicle with liquid contents, which is
called the Graafian follicle. At the time of the monthly periods
an egg (sometimes two) is discharged from its Graafian follicle,
from one or other ovary. This phenomenon is called ovulation.
The empty follicle becomes cicatrized in the ovary and is called
the corpus luteum (yellow body).
The egg after its discharge arrives at the abdominal orifice
of the Fallopian tube, which communicates directly with the
abdominal cavity. Some authors state that the end of the tube
becomes applied against the ovary by the aid of muscular move-
ment and, so to speak, sucks in the discharged ovule, while
others hold that the movements of the vibratile cilia, ^vith
which the epithelium of the tubes is furnished, suffice to draw
the ovule into its cavity. Figure 18 explains this phenomenon.
Having arrived in the tube, the ovule moves very slowly in
the almost capillary tube by means of the vibratile cilia and
arrives in the cavity of the womb. Fecundation probably takes
place most often at the entrance to the tube or in its canal;
sometimes possibly in the womb. On some occasions a squad
of spermatozoids advances to meet the descending egg, and
numerous spermatozoids are often found in the tubes, even as
far as the abdominal cavity.
Fixation of the egg. Formation of the Decidua. — After fe-
cundation, the egg becomes attached to the mucous membrane
of the cavity of the womb. This mucous membrane proliferates
and becomes gradually detached from the womb to form the
Left tube
Labia minora
Labia majora
Fig. 18. Diagrammatic section in median plane of the female genital organs.
It shows the position of an o\aile which has just been discharged lying
in the opening of the right tube, and that of another ovary fecimdated
and surrounded by the decidual membrane. In reality this could hardly
coexist with the other o\aile freely discharged. In the right ovary are
seen o^oiles in various degrees of maturity in their Graafian follicles:
also a corpus luteum — an empty Graafian follicle after expulsion of the
ovule. The figure also shows the end of the penis in the vagina at the
moment of ejaculation of semen, and the position of a preventive to
avoid fecundation.
THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS
21
membrana decidua which envelops the egg or ovule. An egg
fecundated and fixed in this way may keep its position and
grow during the first weeks of pregnancy, by the aid of villosities
covering its envelope which penetrate the wall of the womb.
The womb. The placenta. The womb or uterus is the size
of a small egg flattened in one direction. It terminates below
in the neck or cervix, which is prolonged into the vagina as a
projection, called the vaginal portion of the uterus. The cavity
of the womb is continued into the neck and opens below in the
^^
Uterus
- -Mouth of tube
Fig. 19. The mouth of the tube applied to the ovary at the moment of
expulsion of the o\aile.
vagina by an aperture which is round in virgins and is called
the external os uteri. The walls of the womb consist of a thick
layer of unstriped muscle. W^ien childbirth takes place it
causes tearing which makes the external os uteri irregular and
fissured. During copulation the aperture of the penis or male
organ is placed nearly opposite the os uteri, which facilitates
the entrance of spermatozoa into the uterus. (For the illus-
tration of these points see Fig. 18.)
The vitellus and the membrane of the egg enlarge with the
embryo and absorb by endosmosis the nutritive matter neces-
sary for the latter, contained in the maternal blood. The womb
itself enlarges at the same time as the embryo.
22
THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Umb,
Vill.
The fasciculus at-
tached to the embryo
is the allantois which
- - - chor. becomes the umbilical
cord. The vertebrae
**- - Emb. are already easy to
recognize in this em-
bryo. The embryo is
formed from a portion
of blastoderm, that
to say, from the
Am.
Fig. 20. Human egg of the second week:
magnified eight times. (After Kolliker.)
Chor.
Vill.
Emb.
Umb.
Am.
Chorion or envelope of the egg.
Villi of the chorion.
Embryo (near the head are seen the
branchial arches).
Umbilical vesicle.
Amnion.
IS
cellular layer applied
to the membranes of
the egg and arising
from the successive
divisions of the two
primary conjugated
cells and their daugh-
ter cells. The embryo has the form of a spatula with the head
at one end and the tail at the other. From its walls is detached
a surrounding vesicle (Fig. 20)
called the aynnion, while another
vesicle, the umbilical vesicle, grows
from its ventral surface and serves,
in birds, for the vitelline circulation
of the egg which is detached from
the mother's body.
In man, the umbilical vesicle is
unimportant. In its place the cir-
culation of the blood takes place
by the aid of another vesicle, called fig. 21. Embrj-o of four weeks,
the allantois, which arises from the (After Kulhker).
1. Auditory vesicle.
2. Ocular vesicle.
3. Olfactory fossa.
4. Bud forming upper maxilla.
5. Bud of lower maxilla.
6. Right ear.
7. Liver.
8. Upper limb.
, , J 11-1 1 9. Lower limb,
blood vessels which meet the ma- lo. Caudal extremity.
intestine of the embryo, and which
becomes attached to the walls of
the womb in the form of a thick
disk called the placenta.
The placenta is formed of dilated
THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS
23
The
ternal blood vessels, also dilated, in the uterine wall
allantois later on becomes the umbilical cord.
In the placenta the embryonic and maternal vessels without
actually communicating, are placed in intimate contact, which
allows nutritive matter and oxygen to pass by endosmosis from
the maternal vessels to those of the embryo. Figure 21 shows
a human embryo at the beginning of the fifth week of pregnancy.
Duration of pregnancy. Birth. Pregnancy lasts from con-
Liver
Placenta
-Vertebral
column
WaU of
uteru3-
FiG. 22. Sagittal section of a primipara in the last month of pregnancy.
jugation, which is synonymous with conception, till birth, that
is about nine months (ten lunar months of four weeks). The
embryo is then ready to separate from the maternal body (Fig.
22). By the act of birth it is expelled violently, bringing with
it the umbilical cord and the placenta (Fig. 23). Immediately
afterward the empty womb contracts strongly and gradually
recovers its former size. The sudden interruption of its com-
munications with the maternal circulation deprives the embryo,
which has suddenly become a child, of its nutritive matter and
oxygen.
24 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
In order to avoid suffocation it is obliged to breathe atmos-
pheric au- immediately, for its blood becomes dark by saturation
with carbonic acid, which irritates the respiratory nerve centers.
The first independent act of the new-born child is, therefore, a
Portal vein —
Liver
—Intestines
,-. Umbilical
cord
Internal
OS uteri
, . ^ _ Bladder
._ Pubis
_ External
f> OS uteri
M^ Urethra
Bag of
5' 7,\ waters
Fig. 23. Sagittal section of frozen body of a woman in labor: the head of
the child is engaged in the neck of the womb; the orifice of the neck
of the womb {os uteri) is already fully dilated and the bag of waters
commences to project from the vulva: it is formed by the former mem-
branes of the egg and the decidua.
nervous reflex determined by asphyxia, and is performed with
the first cry. Soon afterward the infant begins to suck, so as
not to die of hunger, while the umbilical cord, having become
useless, shrivels up, and the placenta is destroyed (some animals
THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS 25
eat it). The new-born infant is only distinguished from the
embryo soon after birth by its breathing and crying.
We may, therefore, say that infancy, especially early infancy,
is only a continuation of embryonic life. The transformations
which the infant undergoes from birth to adult age are knowTi
to all. They take place more and more slowly, except at the
relatively short period of puberty.
Formation of the sexual glands. — We must remember that at
a very early embryonic period certain groups of cells are reserved
to form later on the sexual glands. These cells are at first
neither male nor female, but are undifferentiated; later on they
become differentiated to form in certain individuals, called
males, the testicles with their spermatozoa, and in others, called
females, the ovaries with their eggs. On this differentiation de-
pends the sex of the individual, and, according as it takes place
in one way or the other, all the rest of the body develops with
the correlative sexual characters of the corresponding sex (at
first the external genital organs peculiar to each sex, then the
beard in man, the breasts in woman, etc).
Castration. Correlative sexual characters. — Castration is the
term applied to the extirpation of the sexual glands. When it
takes place in infancy it causes a considerable change in the
whole subsequent development of the body, especially in man,
but also in woman. Man becomes more slender, preserves a
high and infantile voice, and his sexual correlative characters
develop incompletely or not at all. Eunuchs are men castrated,
usually in infancy. To ensure more safety in their harems the
Orientals not only remove the testicles but also the penis. Bul-
locks and horses are bulls and stallions castrated at an early age,
and can be distinguished at first sight from normal males. Fe-
males who have undergone castration become fat and sometimes
take on certain masculine characters. Male human eunuchs have
a high-pitched voice, a narrow chest ; they remain beardless or
nearly so, and have an effeminate character, often intriguing. In
both sexes there is a tendency to neurosis and degeneration. It is
a mistake to qualify the peculiarities of the male eunuch in the
terms of female peculiarities; there is only a relative tendency.
The eunuch is no more a woman than a bullock is a cow.
26 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
The characters of castrated individuals are due only to abla-
tion of the sexual glands themselves— the testicles in man and
the ovary in woman; mutilation of other sexual organs, internal
or external, such as the penis, womb, etc., produces no result
of this kind. It would even appear to result from recent experi-
ments that reimplantation of a sexual gland in any part of the
body is sufficient to arrest the production of the special pecu-
liarities of the eunuch.
All these facts, almost inexplicable hitherto, become compre-
hensible by the aid of the engraphia of the mnemic energies.
(Vide above; Semon). The sexual glands, being of undiffer-
entiated origin, contain the energies of both sexes. The ecphoria
of one of them provokes that of its correlative characters and
excludes that of the characters of the other. If ecphoria of the
sexual glands is arrested by castration before it is finished, this
paralyzes the predominance of that of its corresponding cor-
relative characters and reestablishes a kind of intermediate or
undifferentiated equilibrium between the ecphorias of the cor-
relative hereditary sexual characters of the two sexes.
On the other hand, if the sexual glands of an adult are re-
moved, his body is not sensibly modified. The sexual functions
do not cease completely, although they cannot lead to fecunda-
tion. Men castrated in adult age may cohabit with their wives;
but the liquid ejaculated is not semen but only secretion from
the accessory prostatic gland. Adult women after castration
preserve their sexual appetite, and sometimes even their men-
struation, for a certain time. They generally become fat and
often suffer from nervous troubles and change in character.
The ecphoria of the correlative sexual characters being complete
in the adult, suppression of the sexual glands can only act on
their direct functions.
In different species of animals, the correlative sexual charac-
ters of which we have spoken vary enormously; sometimes the
differences are insignificant, at other times they are considera-
ble; while we can hardly distinguish a male swallow from a
female, the cock and hen, the peacock and peahen, the stag and
hind are very different from each other. In man, the correla-
tive sexual characters are very distinct, even externally. These
THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS 27
characters may extend to all parts of the body, even to the
brain and mental faculties.
In some of the lower animals, for example the ants, the sexes
differ remarkably from each other and appear to belong to
different zoological families. The eyes, the form of the head,
the color, and the whole body differ so much that, when a case
of pathological lateral hermaplirodism is produced (that is,
when the sexual glands are male on the one side and female on
the other), we can exactly determine the male or female char-
acter on each portion of the body. We thus see hermaphrodite
ants with one half of the body male and the other half female —
black on one side and red on the other, a large eye on one side
and a small eye on the other, thirteen joints in one antenna
and twelve in the other, and so on. In this case the mental
faculties are sometimes female, sometimes male, according as
the ecphoria of the brain is influenced by the hereditary mneme
of the male or female part of the hermaphrodite sexual organs,
which results in a male or female brain. I have seen hermaph-
rodite ants in which two parts of the thorax formed a crossed
hermaphrodism; in front, male on the right and female on the
left, behind female on the right and male on the left. Further;
among ants which live in societies, the progressive transforma-
tion of the species, or phylogeny, has produced a third sex
derived from the female sex — the worker; sometimes there is
even a fourth — the warrior. In these two forms the wings are
absent, but the head and brain are much larger; the sexual
organs remain female, but are very small. While the large
brain (pedunculated bodies of the supra-esophageal ganglion)
is almost rudimentary in the male, it is well developed in the
female and very large in the worker and the warrior. Among
these singular animals exist pathological hermaphrodites, not
only between males and females, but between males and work-
ers, and not only lateral but mixed and crossed in all possible
ways. I have seen a hermaphrodite, whose abdomen and sexual
organs were almost entirely male, accomplish all the complex
instinctive actions of a worker of his species (expeditions, at-
tacks on a hostile ant heap, abduction of chrysalids), thanks to
its head and brain which were of the worker type. The female
28 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
itself is incapable of such complex actions. I cite these facts
here as material for study, for we are only too prone in this
domain to generalize prematurely and to draw too hasty con-
clusions. In reality, there is still a wide field for study of the
greatest interest.
There are animals which are normally and physiologically
hermaphrodite, for they possess in the normal state male and
female sexual glands and fecundate thernselves, such as the
solitary worms, or in pairs such as the snails. In the latter
case there is copulation, during which each animal plays the
parts of both male and female.
In man and other vertebrates, hermaphrodism is always
abnormal. In man it is extremely rare and nearly always very
incomplete, being usually limited to the external or correlative
characters.
Heredity. — It results from what we have said that every
living being reproduces, more or less identically, in its specific
characters, the whole life of its parents and less remote ances-
tors, and constitutes the continuation of life from a minute part
of their bodies.
Each individual life thus repeats an entire cycle of develop-
ment called ontogeny, which is peculiar to all individuals of the
species. Here we must mention three fundamental points:
(1). In its principal characters, each individual is the copy of
its parents or direct ancestors, with correlative sexual pecu-
liarities which we have mentioned, and with individual varia-
tions due to the combinations of varieties by conjugation, and
the alternating or unequal ecphorias of hereditary characters;
that is to say paternal or maternal hereditary engrams.
(2). No individual is absolutely identical with another.
(3). On the average, each individual resembles more especially
its direct ancestry and its parents, and differs more markedly
from its parentage the more this is remote.
We shall see later on that the ancestral relationship of the
different groups, species and varieties of animals has been fairly
well fixed, and we may say that the third of the laws stated
above is equally true in a wider sense. In fact the species and
varieties of animals which are near related resemble each other.
THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS 29
while the genera, families and classes are more dissimilar as their
relationship is more remote. We employ here the terms re-
semblance, homology and difference in their profound and gen-
eral sense. Certain pm-ely external resemblances, due to phe-
nomena of convergence, must not be considered as homologies in
the sense of hereditary relationsliip. Thus, in the language of
natural liistory we do not say that a bat resembles a bird, nor
that a whale resembles a fish, for here the resemblances are due
simply to aerial or aquatic life which produces the effects of
convergence, while the internal structure shows them to be
quite dissimilar organisms. Although it swims in the sea the
whale is a mammal; its fins at first sight resemble those of a
fish, but they are really the homologues of the four limbs of
other mammals and contain the corresponding bones.
In man, we see that brothers and sisters resemble each other
in a general way, but that each one is dissimilar in some respects
from the others. If we compare different families with many
children we find that brothers and sisters resemble each other
the more their parents are alike and come from a uniform
ancestry which has undergone little crossing, while the crossing
of different races and human varieties results in the production
of individuals which differ from each other considerably, even
when they come from the same couple.
If we examine things more closely, we find that the characters
of each of the offspring of the same couple present neither simple
repetition nor an equal mixture of the peculiarities of the parents,
but very diverse combinations of the characters of several an-
cestors. For instance, children may bear a striking resemblance
to a paternal grandfather, a maternal grand-aunt, or a maternal
great-grandmother, etc. This is called atavism. Some chil-
dren resemble then- father, others their mother, and others a
kind of mixture of father and mother.
A closer examination reveals further very curious facts. An
infant which, in its early years, strongly resembles its father,
may later on resemble its mother, or inversely. Certain pecu-
liarities of a certain ancestor appear suddenly, often at an ad-
vanced age. It is needless to say that peculiarities concerning
the beard cannot appear till this has gro^\'n, and this simple
30 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
fact is so characteristic that it has been called hereditary dispo- ;
sition. Everything may be transmitted by heredity, even to
the finest shades of sentiment, intelligence and will, even to .
the most insignificant details of the nails, the form of the bones,
etc. But the combinations of ancestral qualities vary so infi-
nitely that it is extremely difficult to recognize them. Hered-
itary dispositions arise from the energy of two conjugated germs
during the whole of life "and tUl death. Old people sometimes
develop peculiarities hitherto unknown in them, omng to the
fact that one or more of then- ancestors also presented the same
phenomena at an advanced age.
Senion has clearly proved that, although forming an infinite
number of combinations the engrams or hereditary energies
never blend in the proper sense of the term, and in the light of
his exposition the above facts are more clearly explained than
they had been hitherto. The experiments of Mendel have showTi
in plants a certain alteration in the hereditary ecphorias of the
products of dissimilar parents.
Certain parental characters, according as they are added or
subtracted, may disappear during one or two generations, to
reappear all the more strongly in the following generations. In
short, there are a number of phenomena, the laws of which may
be more clearly explained to us in the future. m
To sum up, each individual inherits on the average as much
from his paternal as from his maternal side, although the minute
nucleus of the spermatozoid is the only agent concerned on the
paternal side, while the mother provides not only the egg which
is much larger, but also nutrition during the nine months of
embryonic life. We can only conclude that in the egg also it is
only from the part of the nucleus which conjugates with the
male nucleus that arise all the inherited maternal peculiarities;
that all the rest is only utilized as food; and that the nutritive
blood of the mother in no way influences the inherited energies
of the offspring.
This shows the capital importance of conjugation and of the
substance of the conjugated nuclei, especially of their chromatin.
The fact that, in certain of the lower animals, the protoplasm of
the egg without nuclei may occasionally produce some phenom-
! THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS 31
3na of cell division, thanks to its inherited mnemic engrams, in
10 way alters the fundamental principle which alone occurs in
|3ian, for this vicarious action, which is moreover rudimentary,
Dnly happens when the protoplasm of the egg is not consumed
by the conjugated nuclei.
Parthenogenesis is also a very interesting phenomenon in the
tiistory of our animal ancestors, but for the same reasons it has
QO direct interest for humanity.
If we take into consideration all the observations of which
we have just spoken, which are as simple as they are irrefutably
demonstrated, it is hardly possible to interpret them in any
other way than by the following hypothesis :
In each sexual gland, male or female, the germinal cells which
are produced by division of the cells of the embryo, reserved
primarily for reproduction, differ considerably from each other
in quality and contain in their infinitely small atoms very di-
verse and irregularly distributed energies, inherited from their
different ancestors. Some contain more paternal and others
more maternal energy, and among the former there are some
contain, for example, more paternal grandfather and others
more maternal grandmother, and so on to infinity, till it is
impossible to discover the ancestral origin of the fully grown
individual we are examining. The same holds good for the
energies of the maternal cells.
At the time of conjugation, the qualities of the child which
will result from it depend therefore on conditions of the ances-
tral qualities of the conjugated egg and spermatozoon. More-
over, although of the same size, the nuclei which become conju-
gated are evidently of unequal strength; the energies of one or
the other predominate later on in the embryo, and still later in
man. According to circumstances the latter will resemble
more or less his paternal or maternal progenitors.
Moreover, the different organs of the body may receive their
energies from different parts of the conjugated nuclei in different
degrees. A person may have his father's nose and his mother's
eyes, the paternal grandmother's humor and the maternal
grandfather's intelligence, and all this with infinite degrees and
variations, for it is only a matter of more or less accentuated
32 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
averages. In my own face the two halves are distinctly differ-
ent, one resembling my maternal ancestry and the other, in a
lesser degree, my paternal ancestry, these points being seen
distinctly in photographs taken in profile.
Each germinal cell contains the hereditary mneme of its an-
cestors, paternal and maternal, and the two cells united by con-
jugation (Fig. 17) that of the ancestors of each of them. We
have spoken above of ecphorias produced, according to MendeVs
law and reproducing characters which have been latent during
one or two generations. Darwin was the first to study this inter- .
esting fact, which shows how atavism often results from the cross- '
ing of varieties. There are several varieties of fowls which do
not brood; if two of these varieties, b and c, are crossed excellent
brooders are obtained. Semon assumes that in each of the non-
brooding varieties the ancestral energy, a, of the primary spe-
cies, is weaker than that of varieties b and c; we have then
o > 6, and a<:c. But if b is coupled with a the product repre-
sents the value b + c + a + a. Then b and c are in equilibrium;
and a being doubled becomes stronger than each of them and
arrives at ecphoria in their place, which restores the faculty of
brooding to the product of crossing.
De Vries has shown, in the crossing of varieties with their
primary species, more or less analogous phenomena which he
calls " Vicino-variations." Conjugation leads to infinite com-
binations and variations which the law of heredity traverses
like a guiding line.
The celebrated zo51ogist, Weisjnann, considers that the chro-
matin of each germinal cell contains a considerable quantity of
particles each of which is capable of forming an entire organism
similar to the parents; these he calls "ides." According to
Weismann, each ide is subdivided into "determinants" from
which each part of the body is derived, being potentially prede-
termined in them. According to the action of a yet unknown
irritation male or female determinants develop in each individ-
ual of the animal species with separate sexes. But if the deter-
minants are disordered, either by abnormal variations or by
pathological causes, hermaphrodites or monstrosities may be
produced. In animals which are normally hermaphrodite (snails.
THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS 33
etc.), there is only one kind of sexual determinant, while in
polymorphous animals (ants, etc.), there are as many as the
polymorphous forms. The conception of "ides" and "determi-
nants" is only a hypothesis to which we must not attach much
value. The innemic laws established by Semon give a much
better explanation of the facts.
It has often been maintained that the qualities of higher forms
of man are exliausted in a few generations, while the mass of
mediocrities continually produce new genius. The fact that
the descendants of distinguished men are often mediocre and
that remarkable men suddenly arise from the common people,
appears at first sight to support this superficial assertion. It is
forgotten, however, that in a people whose average mass con-
sists of thousands or millions of individuals, while men of higher
powers are only counted by units or dozens, aU this arithmetic
is reduced to absurdity by the inequality of numbers, as soon
as the law of heredity is understood. To make a more exact
calculation, it would be necessary to compare the number of
superior men who have arisen from some hundreds of the most
distinguished families of a country mth that of distinguished
men who have arisen from some millions of the rest of the people,
and then calculate the percentage. It is also necessary to take
into account the means employed in the education of the indi-
viduals. If education is obligatoiy and gratuitous in a country,
this factor will have less importance.
Another error which is committed in such cases is to neglect
the influence of the maternal lineage. A common woman will
lower the level of the offspring of a distinguished husband, and
inversely. In his "History of Science and Scientists" Alphonse
de Candolle has given irrefutable proof that the posterity of
high-class men furnishes a great number proportionally of men
high class in their turn, compared with that of the average popu-
lation. This shows the value of the usual twaddle concerning
this question. It is inconceivable that the laws of heredity
should make an exception of the mental qualities of man. More-
over, the most deceptive point is the contrast of a man of genius
with his children, who do not rise to his standard because they
represent a combination of his ancestral energies with those of
34 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
their mother. This contrast makes the children appear imf avor-
ably, while the public has a general tendency to exaggerate the
value of a great man.
The theoiy of the mneme throws light on this subject, by intro-
ducing a new factor in the question, that of ecphoria of the cere-
bral engrams of the ancestors, accumulated in the hereditary
mneme.
Heredity of Acquired Characters. — While Darwin and Haeckel
affirmed the possibility of the heredity of characters acquired
during life by different tissues, for instance the brain, Weisjnann
limits the possibility to everything that can modify the nucleo-
plasm of the germinal cells. We must first eliminate the ques-
tion of the phenomena of blastophthoria, which we shall consider
next, and which Weisnmnn was, I think, the first to compre-
hend, without giving them the name.
On one hand we see the singular effects of castration, which
we have already considered; on the other hand, an extraordi-
nary constancy in the hereditary characters of the species. For
more than three thousand six hundred years, which corresponds
to about eight hundred generations, the Jews have been circum-
cised. Nevertheless, if a Jew ceases to circumcise his offspring
the prepuce of his children grows as it did three thousand six
hundred years ago, although, during the eight hundred genera-
tions in question, its absence from birth has prevented it react-
ing on the germinal cells of the individuals. If the engraphia
of the external world could sensibly modify in a few generations
the hereditary mneme of the species, it appears evident that
the Jewish infants of the present day would be born without
prepuce, or at least with an atrophied one.
It is on such facts, which are innumerable in natural history,
that Weis?nann relies to repudiate absolutely the heredity of
characters acquired by non-germinal organs and to attribute
the development of organisms to blends and combinations due
to conjugation, or crossing, as well as to natural selection, which
he regards as all-powerful. Darwin well recognized the diffi-
culty in question, and being unable to explain the facts, had
recourse to the hypothesis of pangenesis, that is of small parti-
cles detached from all parts of the body and transported by the
THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS 35
blood to the germinal cells, to transmit to them, for example,
the qualities acquired by the brain during life. This hypothesis
was so improbable that Darwin himself was forced to recognize
it. Let us examine the facts.
On the one hand a newly born Chinese transported and
brought up in France will learn French, and will show no incli-
nation to learn or understand Chinese. This well-established
fact seems in favor of Weismann and against the heredity of
acquired characters. But, on the other hand, we cannot under-
stand how the evolution of the brain and its functions takes
place, without admitting that in one way or another the charac-
ters acquired liy habits repeated during many generations grad-
ually accumulate in the form of hereditary dispositions in the
germinal protoplasm. It is certain that our brain has progressed
since the time when our ancestors were similar to the gorilla, or
even the cave man at the beginning of the quaternary age.
How can this cerebral progression be explained only by selection
which can only eliminate, and by crossings which by themselves
can hardly raise the average? It is here that the intervention
of an unknown power is necessaiy, something unexplained, the
action of which has been lately recorded in the phenomena of
mutations of de Vries.
De Vries proves that certain variations appear suddenly and
without any known cause, and have a much greater tendency
to be preserved than the variations obtained by crossing and
selection. In my opinion the phenomena of the mneme revealed
by Hering and Semon explain the apparent contradictions which
have hitherto impaired the theories of heredity. Mnemic en-
graphy explains, by its infinitesimal and repeated action through
numerous generations, how the external world may little by
little transmit to the germinal cells the characters which it im-
presses on organisms. The eight hundred generations during
which the prepuce of the Jews has been cut off have not yet
sufficed for the ecphoria of the corresponding negative mnemic
engraphia; while conjugation and selection modify rapidly and
strongly in a few generations; a fact which is more striking and
allows of direct experiment. Moreover, a positive engraphia
must necessarily act more powerfully, and it seems to me that
36 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
mutations must be the ecphoria of accumulated former latent
engraphias.
Merrifield and Standfuss, by exposing caterpillars and chrysa- X
lids for varying periods to considerable degrees of cold and heat,
have determined permanent changes in the specific characters
of the butterflies which have emerged from them.
Standfuss and Fischer have also shown that, after several
generations, by continuing the action of cold on the caterpillars,
the variations thus produced can be preserved even after the
cold has ceased to act. No doubt the cold acts on the germinal
cells as on the rest of the body, but the heredity of an acquired
character is thus demonstrated.
The experiments of Miss de Chauvin on salamanders (Axolotl)
are still more conclusive, for we are dealing here with characters
acquired through aquatic or aerial media, which can hardly act
on the sexual glands. We cannot continue this subject any
further and we return to the work of Sevion. It is needless to
say that the nature of mnemic engraphia remains itself an un-
known quantity. As long as we are unable to transform inert
matter into a living organism we shall remain in ignorance.
But, when it is accepted with the laws of the phenomena which
it produces, this unknown quantity, as Semon has shown, alone
suffices to explain all the rest, and is already a great step toward
the comprehension of the laws which govern life.
Blastophthoria. — By blastophthoria, or deterioration of the
germ, I mean what might also be called false heredity, that is to
say, the results of all direct pathogenic or disturbing action,
especially that of certain intoxications, on the germinal cells,
whose hereditary determinants are thus changed, Blastoph-
thoria thus acts on germs not yet conjugated, through the medium
of their bearers, and creates at their origin hereditary stigmata of
all kinds, while true heredity only combines and reproduces the
ancestral energies.
Blastophthoria deranges the mneme or hereditary engrams,
and consequently a more or less considerable part of their
ecphorias during the life of the individuals which arise from them.
It is not a question here of the reproduction of the hereditary
ancestral energies in the descendants (in different combinations)
THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS 37
as is the case in the heredity which we have just studied, but,
on the contrary, a question of their perturbation. However,
the store of cells reserved as germinal cells in the embryo, the
germ of which has been damaged by blastophthoric action, being
usually also affected by the disturbing cause, it follows that the
pathological change introduced by blastophthoria in the hered-
itary mneme is transmitted to the descendants by ordinary
heredity. In this way blastophthoria deposits the first germ
of most pathological degenerations by causing immediate devi-
ation of all the determinants of the germ in the same direction.
The most typical and the commonest example of blastoph-
thoria is that of alcoholic intoxication. The spermatozoa of
alcoholics suffer like the other tissues from the toxic action of
alcohol on the protoplasm. The result of this intoxication of
the germs may be that the children resulting from their conju-
gation become idiots, epileptics, dwarfs or feeble minded. Thus
it is not alcoholism or the craving for drink which is inherited.
No doubt the peculiarity of badly supporting alcohol is inherited
by ordinary heredity as a hereditary disposition, but it is not
this which produces the alcoholic degenerations of the race.
These are the result of the single blastophthoria. When, on the
other hand, a man is found to be imbecile or epileptic as the
result of the insobriety of his father, he preserves the tendency
to transmit his mental weakness or his epilepsy to his descend-
ants, even when he abstains completely from alcoholic drinks.
In fact, the chromosomes of the spermatozoid, from which about
a half of his organism has issued, have preserved the pathologi-
cal derangement produced by the parental alcoholism in their
hereditary mneme, and have transmitted it to the store of ger-
minal cells of the feeble minded or the epileptic, who in his turn
transmits it to his descendants. From Weismann's point of
view his hereditary determinants remain pathologically deviated.
All intoxications which alter the protoplasm of the germinal
cells may produce blastophthoric degenerations, which continue
to menace several successive generations in the form of hered-
itary taints.
Other deviations in the development of the germs may act
in an analogous manner to blastophthoria. We have mentioned
38 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
above the experiments of Merrifield and Standfuss on the cater-
pillars of certain butterflies. Without being really of a patho-
logical nature, these actions of a physical agent on the hereditary
energies resemble blastophthoria.
Mechanical action on the embryo may also give rise to patho-
logical products or even mutilation. Thus, Weismann demon-
strated the production of degenerate individuals in ants when
certain coleoptera were introduced in their negt, the ants being
fond of the secretion of the large glandular hairs of the coleop-
tera. The exact cause of the degeneration has not yet been
found, but the fact is certain. In man, certain constitutional
affections and congenital anomalies are the result of certain dis-
eases in the procreators, which have affected the germinal cells
or the embryo (for instance syphilis). As soon as the blastoph-
thoric actions cease in the procreators, those of their descendants
who live under a normal regimen have evidently a tendency to
eliminate the blastophthoric organs at the end of several gener-
ations and to regenerate themselves little by little. Thanks to
the power of the ancestral mneme which tends to reestablish
homophony. However, the data on this subject are insufficient.
In this case homophony is represented by the normal equilib-
rium of the different typical or normal characters of the species.
CHAPTER II
EVOLUTION OR DESCENT OF LIVING ORGANISMS
The theory of evolution is intimately associated with the name
of Darwin, for it was he who established it in the scientific
world. In reality, the idea of the transformation of organisms
was put forward by Lamarck more than a century ago, but he
did not sufficiently support it. The theory of evolution states
that the different animal and vegetable species are not each of
them specially created as such from the first, but that they are
connected with each other by a real and profound relationship,
and derived progressively one from another; generally from
more simple forms, by engraphia and selection. Man himself is
no exception to this rule, for he is closely related to the higher
apes.
It is no longer possible to-day to deny the fundamental fact
which we have just stated. Since Darwin, and as the result of
the powerful impulse which this man of genius gave to natural
science, innumerable observations and experiments have con-
firmed the truth of the progressive evolution of living beings.
Comparative anatomy, comparative geography of plants and
animals, comparative embryolog}^, and the study of the mor-
phology and biology of a number of recently discovered plants
and animals, have built up more and more the genealogical tree,
or phylogeny, of living beings, that is to say their ancestral
lineage. The number of varieties and races or sub-species
increases indefinitely, the more closely they are examined.
Researches on the fossil remains of species of animals and
plants which have been extinct for thousands and millions of
years (palceontology) have also contributed to determine the
trunk of the great tree of former life. The numerous gaps
which still exist between these fragmentary documents of
39
40 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
former ages are nevertheless too considerable for continuous
connections to be established in the past by the aid of fossils.
We not only know that the different forms of living beings
are connected to each other by a real relationship, but we can
fathom more and more deeply the degrees of tliis relationship,
and can often prove from which group of animals a given group
is descended. In many cases we can determine at which period
the fauna and flora of two continents have been separated from
each other, and in what manner they have been transformed,
each in its ovm way, while still preserving the general characters
which were common before their separation. The specialist can
soon discover what species belong to the old geographically differ-
entiated fauna and flora of the country, and what have been
ulteriorily imported.
I record these facts for the benefit of those persons who have
not yet understood that it is absolutely useless at the present
day to dispute the evolution of living beings. Deceived by the
divergent opinions of scientists concerning hypotheses which
endeavor to explain the details of evolution, these persons con-
found the details with the fundamental facts of evolution.
Ontogeny. Phylogeny. — In the light of the facts of evolution,
heredity takes quite a new aspect when removed from the old
biblical idea of the independent creation of species. Haeckel
launched into the scientific world, under the name of "funda-
mental biogenetic law," a theory which, without having the
right to the title of an immutable dogma, explains the facts in a
general way, and gives us a guiding line along the phylogenetic
history of living beings. " Ontogeny," that is the history of
the embryological development of each individual, always con-
sists in a summary and fragmentary repetition of phylogeny, or
the history of the ancestors of the species to which the individual
belongs. This signifies that, as embryos, w^e repeat in an
abridged form the series of types or morphological stages through
which has passed the series of our animal ancestors, from the
primitive cell to man. In reality this is only true in a relative
way, for a considerable part of the ancestral engraphias of the
embryo has disappeared without leaving any trace; also many
embryos, especially those which have special conditions of
EVOLUTION OR DESCENT OF LIVING ORGANISMS 41
existence outside the body of their mother, have acquired special
complex organs and corresponding functions. Thus, the cater-
pillars of butterflies with their specific and generic peculiarities,
hairs, horns, etc., furnish many examples of secondary acquired
characters which have nothing in common with the worm, which
is the ancestral type of the butterfly represented by the embry-
onic period when it is a caterpillar. However, many undoubted
vestiges of the ancestral history are found in the embryos at
different periods of their development. It is certain that insects
descended from worms, and there is no doubt that the larv2e of
insects, wliich are almost worms, represent the ontogenetic repe-
tition of the phylogeny of insects.
It is also certain that whales, although they have whalebone
instead of teeth, have descended from cetacea provided with
teeth, which in their turn descended from terrestrial mammals.
But we find in the embryo whale a complete denture which is
of no use to it, and which disappears in the course of the embry-
onic period. This denture is nothing else than a phylogenetic
incident in the ontogeny of the whale.
In the fins of cetacea, as in the four limbs of other mammals,
we find the same bones, which are derived from the bones of the
wings and legs of their bird ancestors. In birds, the same bones
are the phylogenetic derivatives of the limbs of reptiles.
All these facts demonstrate with certainty the descent of animal
forms, a descent which we can follow in all its details. In cer-
tain ants whose bodies show their close relationship with a slave-
keeping group, but which have become the parasitic hosts of
other ants, we find not only the arched mandibles, shaped for
rape, but the undoubted rudiments of the slave instinct, although
this instinct has, perhaps, not been exercised by them for thou-
sands of years.
These examples suffice to show that the form and functions
of a living organism, as well as its mental faculties, are derived
not only from the most recent direct ancestors of this organism,
but that they partly mount much higher in the genealogical
tree.
Our coccyx is a vestige of the tail of animals. It is from them
also that we have inherited anger and jealous}^, sexual appetites,
42 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
fear, cunning, etc. As long as they remain in use, the oldest
inherited characters normally remain the most tenacious and
are preserved the longest. When they cease to be utilized, or
become useless, they still remain for a long time as rudiments
before finally disappearing; for instance the vermiform appen-
dix of the intestine and the pineal gland of the brain. These
rudiments often persist for still a longer time in the embryo, as
we have seen in the case of the ancestral teeth of the embryo
whales. We also meet with the stumps of wings in the chrysalis
of certain ants (Anergates), the males of which have lost their
wings.
Natural Selection. — The artificial selection practiced by gar-
deners and cattle breeders led Darwin to his hypothesis of nat-
ural selection by the struggle for existence. Confirmed in his
idea by the observation of tropical nature, Darwin thought he
could explain the origin of living beings by natural selection.
It is this hypothesis which is properly called Darwinism. But
the name Darwinism has also been given to evolution as a whole,
which has been the cause of endless confusion. All the mystic
and narrow-minded, full of biblical prejudice, naturally profit
by this confusion to attack the facts of evolution and science
itself.
The Struggle for Existence. — The struggle for existence and
natural selection are absolutely positive facts, which can be
constantly verified by the observation of living nature as it is
presented to us. All living beings eat one another or at any
rate struggle against each other, plants as well as animals; and,
apart from air and water, animals are almost entirely nourished
by plants and other animals. It is obvious that in this perpetual
struggle the less adapted and the less armed — and by arms we
include the powers of reproduction, resistance to diseases and
to cold, etc. — disappear, while the better adapted and the better
armed persist. I confess I cannot understand the detractors of
Darwin who are blind in face of these facts and hypnotized by
certain conventional suggestions.
On the other hand, what always has been and still remains
hypothetical is the explanation of the descent of all plants and
animals by natural selection alone. We have already spoken
EVOLUTION OR DESCENT OF LIVING ORGANISMS 43
of the mutations of de Vries, and the theory of the mneme
elaborated by Semon, and need not repeat them here. Thanks
to the idea of Hering, worked out by Semon, the facts are now
explained in a satisfactory manner. Engraphia, produced in
the organisms by the mitating agents of the external world,
prepares and builds up little by little their increasing compli-
cations, while selection, by continually eliminating the unfit,
directs the elaborating work of the mneme and adapts it to
the surrounding local circumstances.
De Vries has objected that the variations produced by arti-
ficial and natural selections are mutable, while sudden muta-
tions have a much more stable character. But we have just
seen that these mutations themselves are evidently only the
delayed ecphoria of a long ancestral engraphia accumulated.
On the other hand, the variations obtained by selection are
themselves only due to more rapid ecphorias, derived from re-
peated conjugations in a certain direction. Plate and others
have shown that they may become more and more fixed, if they
are well adapted, and thus become more tenacious. There is,
therefore, no contradiction between the fundamental facts, and
all is simply and naturally explained by the combination of
hereditary mnemic engraphia with selection.
Recent study on the transformations of living beings have
shown that they do not take place in a regularly progressive
manner, as Darwin at first believed, but that periods of rela-
tively rapid transformation alternate with periods of relative
arrest, both in a general way and for each particular species.
We see certain species remaining almost stationary for an im-
mense time and tending rather to disappear, while others vary
enormously, showing actual transformation. The transplanta-
tion of one species to a new environment, for instance to a new
continent, provokes, as has been proved, a relatively rapid trans-
formation. It is evident that mnemic engraphia transforms or-
ganisms the more rapidly as it changes in nature itself, which is
the case in the migrations we have just mentioned, and which
also changes the factors of selection.
Other facts show clearly that the fauna and flora of the present
world find themselves in a period of recoil with regard to their
44 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
modification. In the tertiary period the fauna and flora of the
world were richer than to-day; many more older species have
disappeared than new ones have arisen. This fundamental fact-
seems due to the extremely slow cooling of the earth, and ap-;
pears to be indicated by the powerful growth in tropical climates,
the fauna and flora of which resemble those of the tertiary^ period,
and, on the other hand by the relative poverty and slo-s\Tiess of
growth in cold countries.
Conclusions. — What are the principal conclusions to which
we are led by this short study of the ancestral history or ph}--
logeny of man?
(1). The transformation or evolution of living beings is a
demonstrated fact.
(2). The factors in evolution appear at first sight to be very
diverse: selection, mutation, climatological, physical and chem-
ical factors, etc.
We have seen that they may all be connected with the funda-
mental principle of mnemic engraphia, aided by natural selection.
No doubt the natm'e of the mnemic engraphia of external agents
in the living substance is still unknown. W^hen we are able to
connect the laws of life with the laws of inert nature, we shall
only have before us a single great metaphysical mystery, that
of the tendency of mundane energy to the differentiation of
details and the production of complicated forms. What is im-
portant here is to know that engraphia and selection are capable
of considerably modifying species in a positive or negative
manner, for good or evil, improving them by good influence
and good conjugations, or deteriorating them by bad selection
or by blastophthoria, which causes them to degenerate. The
combination of a bad selection with blastophthoric influences
constitutes the great danger for humanity, and it is here that a
rational sexual life should intervene.
(3). The mental faculties of animal species, as well as their
physical characters, depend on their ancestral hereditary
mneme. They simply represent the internal or introspective
side of central activity, and the brain obeys the natural laws of
the mneme in the same way as the other organs.
(4). It follows from all this that phylogeny and selection, the
EVOLUTION OR DESCENT OF LIVING ORGANISMS 45
ame as heredity properly understood, have the right to a f unda-
nental place in the sexual question, for the germs which, after
jjach conception, reproduce an individual are, on the one hand,
)earers of the inherited energy of our ancestors, and on the
)ther hand, that of future generations. According to the care
)r neglect of civilized humanity they may be transformed for
;ood or evil, progress or recede. Unfortunately, owing to reli-
gious and other prejudices, the question of evolution is not dis-
!ussed in schools. Hence, the majority of men only hear of
:,hese things by hearsay in a rough and inexact manner; so that
I series of phenomena familiar to naturalists and medical men,
]ire still dead letters for the rest of the public. This obliges me
\jO speak further on some points of detail.
The so-called historical times, that is the times of the Chinese,
Egyptians and Assyi'ians, which appear to us extremely remote,
ire from the point of view of evolution very near to us. These
mcient peoples, at any rate those who were our direct ancestors,
Dr who were closely related to them, are thus, in the language
oi evolution, which takes no count of time or of the number of
generations, our very near relations. The generations which
separate them from us and the few hundred generations between
them and those of their direct ancestors, who were at the same
time ours, represent a limited period from the point of view of
the ethnological history of mankind.
On the other hand, if we examine the savage peoples of
America, Asia, Africa and Australia, which have been specially
studied since the discovery of America and some of which are
actually living, and compare them with ourselves and with our
ancestors of four thousand years ago, we find that they differ
infinitely more from us than we differ from our ancestors, as
their ethnographical and historical remains are sufficient to
prove.
Among the savage peoples we find races such as the pigmies
of Stanley (Akkaas), the Weddas of Ceylon, even Australians
and negroes, whose whole bodily structure differs profoundly
from our European race and its varieties. The profoundness
and constancy of these differences clearly show that the rela-
tionship of such races to ours must be very remote. We are
46 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
concerned here with veritable races or sub-species, or at least
with very constant and accentuated varieties. It is true that
it is difficult to unravel the almost inextricable confusion of
human races; but we may be certain that the savage races and
varieties remote from ours, and even certain less-remote races
such as the Mongols and Malays, are, phylogenetically speaking,
infinitely less related to us than the ancient Assyrians. This
indicates that the ancestors which were common to us and these
races must probably be looked for several thousands of genera^
tions back, even when their descendants are still living on other
continents at the present day.
It is easy to explain that human races so different could
develop separately in continents and 'under climates with a
very different mode of life and conditions of development, if we
reflect that at these remote periods men only had very limited
modes of transport and lived in a fashion, very little different
from that of the anthropoid apes, so that the ethnological forms
were preserved separated from each other by small distances.
This fact can still be observed among the small hostile Indian
or Malay tribes, who live in tropical regions and often occupy
only a few square leagues. The higher civilizations of former
times could not develop beyond a comparatively limited circle,
as their means of transport did not allow them to venture too
far. The conquest of the whole earth by modern civilization
by means of the mariner's compass, firearms, steam and elec-
tricity is thus an absolutely contemporaneous event, unique in
the history of the world, the origin of which hardly goes back
more than four hundred years. This event has completely
upset the natural internal evolution of human races, by the fact
that all the lower races attacked by civilized races armed with
gims and alcohol, are destined to rapid and complete destruction.
Geology has discovered in the caves of the quaternary period,
human remains which are much lower in the scale of evolution
and much nearer the anthropoid apes than the lowest races
still living. Their brain, as shown by the cranial cavity, was
still smaller. Lastly, Dubois has discovered in Java the cra-
nium of Pithecanthropus erectus which is intermediate between
that of the orang-utan and man. If more such remains are dis-
EVOLUTION OR DESCENT OF LIVING ORGANISMS 47
covered the chain of transition between the apes and man will
be almost complete.
Hybridity. Consanguinity. — Before concluding this chapter
we must study the question of hybrids. It is important to know
to what point fecundity and descent are influenced by the degree
of relationship between the two procreators. Conjugation prob-
ably arises from the general necessity of organisms to reenforce
their race by variety. Consanguinity perpetuated is harmful to
the species, in the same way as parthenogenesis, or indefinite
reproduction by fission or budding. It produces enfeeblement
and degeneration of the race, and leads to extinction by causing
sterility.
By consanguinity is meant continued sexual union between
near relatives. It is easy to understand that the conjugation of
two germs derived from brothers and sisters or from a father
and his daughter approaches parthenogenesis from the point of
view of the mixing of hereditary energies. We shall see later
on that nearly all peoples have a certain repugnance to con-
sanguineous marriages. Among animals, natural selection elimi-
nates too consanguineous products.
On the other hand, sexual union between different species,
however little removed, gives no products. Near species may
produce hybrids between themselves, but these hybrids are as a
rule sterile or nearly so, and are incapable of perpetuating their
type, which reverts rapidly to one of the primitive species.
It has been recently demonstrated that the incapacity of two
species of animals to produce hybrids is intimately connected
with the reciprocal toxicity of their blood. When the blood of
one species is injected into the veins of another the production
of hybrids is possible between them, at least as far as has been
obsei'ved. It is curious to note that the blood of the anthropoid
apes is not toxic for man, although these animals are very differ-
ent from us, and hybrids have not yet been produced. This
fact helps us to understand how it is that the differences which
exist between the different human races do not prevent the pro-
duction of hybrids between any two of them. In spite of this
we may state, without risk of error, that the most dissimilar
human races give a bad quality of hybrids, which have little
48 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
chance of forming a viable mongrel race. We have not sufficient
information on this point concerning the lowest human races,'
such as the pigmies and Weddas. On the other hand, mulattoes
(hybrids between negi'oes and whites) constitute a race of veryi
bad quality and hardly viable, while the hybrids between In-
dians and whites are much more resistant and of relatively
better quality.
In this question, the middle course appears without any doubt
the true one. Unions between near races and varieties, or at
least between individuals of the same race or variety whose rela-
tionship is old, are certainly the best. We readily grant that
the homogeneity of a race has the advantage of fixing its pecu-j
liarities in a more durable and characteristic fashion; but many'
inconveniences counterbalance this advantage. If we one day,
by wise selection and by eliminating all sources of blastophthoria !
obtain a superior quality of human germs, it is possible that in '
the remote future, consanguinity, provided it is not exaggerated,
may lose its dangers.
CHAPTER III
NATURAL CONDITIONS AND MECHANISM OF HUMAN COITUS —
PREGNANCY — CORRELATIVE SEXUAL CHARACTERS
It is impossible to comprehend the deep meaning and lofty aim
of an act like that of sexual union without knowing the details
of conjugation and the origin of man as we have explained them
in the preceding chapters.
Conjugation requires the bringing together of two cells, and
consequently the movement of at least one of them. This
cellular movement suffices for the lower forms of union and is
usually limited to the male cell. Owing to its movement it
plays the active role, while the passive role is reserved for the
female cell. Hence we see in the higher plants the male cells,
or pollen, transported to the pistil by the wind or by insects,
and thence reach the egg by mechanical endosmotic attraction
which brings about conjugation.
This takes place in an analogous manner in lower animals,
but the male cell is generally endowed with special movement.
As soon as we deal with complicated animals, mobile in them-
selves and composed of cells differentiated to form complex
organs, we see a second phenomena of reproductive movements
appear in the animal phylogeny, namely the movement of the
whole individual bearing male cells toward the individual bear-
ing female cells. This simple fact gives rise to the formation of
correlative sexual differences between the individuals bearing
each kind of germinal cells. As the result of the evolution of
these two phylogenetic systems of motor phenomena tending
to establish conjugation, we obtain for each sex two categories
of sexual formations:
(1). The germinal cells themselves, the female form of which
becomes larger, more rich in protoplasm, and remains immo-
49
50 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
bile, while the male form, or spermatozoid becomes extremcl\'
small and is provided with motor apparatus (Fig. 11).
(2). The individuals with their correlative sexual differences
proper to the male and female, disposed in a way to give the
male the active role and the female the passive role.
Normal hermaphrodism, complete or reciprocal (snails, etc.)
constitutes an intermediate stage. Here each individual bears
two kinds of germinal cells and possesses also male and female
copulative organs, so that there only exists one form of indi-
viduals which copulate reciprocally; the male organ of one
penetrating the female organ of the other and vice versa. It is
obvious that this excludes the formation of correlative individual
sexual characters.
In the second category, the male always differs from the
female, at least in the sexual organs, and usually in other physi-
cal and mental characters. The difference in the sexual func-
tions leads to the formation of differences in other parts of the
body, and in instincts and sentiments, which find their material
expression in the different development of the brain.
Certain specific functions in society may, in social animals
like the ants, lead to the formation or differentiation of a third
or fourth kind of individuals. This is what is called polymor-
phism. Here it is not the sexual function causes the correlative
differences of the individuals, but division of social labor. The
ecphoria of the hereditary mneme which produces the polymor-
phous, and more or less asexual individual forms (workers,
warriors,) still proceeds through the energies of the reproducing
germs. Here the action of selection is necessary to explain the
phenomena.
In man, sexual differentiation has led to the formation of two
kinds of individuals, differing little in their correlative attributes,
but each bearing one kind of germinal cells. In sexual union
man plays the active part, woman, the passive. When sexual
activity, in the animal kingdom, is no longer limited to the move-
ment of one of the cells but requires the displacement of the
whole individual, we can quite understand that the organization
of these individuals must become much more complex, and that
it requires a central nei-vous system as a directing apparatus.
CONDITIONS AND MECHANISM OF HUMAN COITUS 51
Sexual individuality thus involves collaboration of the other
organs of the body, and especially that of the central organs for
reflex movements, the instincts and the higher mental faculties of
man, in the accomplishment of the fecundating act those which
are the consequences of it.
From this simple animal origin is evolved the complex sexual
love of man. The duty of the active or male individual it to
bring the spermatozoa to a point where they can easily reach
the female cells or ovules. Wlien this is done the duty of the
male is accomplished. In the passive or female individual of
the higher animals, pairing and conjugation are only the com-
mencement of reproductive activity. However, this is not the
case in the whole animal kingdom. For instance, fish have dis-
tinct sexes, but in them the female deposits her non-fecundated
eggs in the water and is not concerned with them any further.
The male then arrives and discharges his sperm on the eggs.
In this case fecundation takes place without copulation. With
such a system sexual love and maternal love lose their raison
d'etre, for the young fish are capable of providing for themselves
as soon as they are born. There are, however, a few exceptions,
one of the most curious being that of certain fish of the Dead
Sea, in which the male incubates the eggs by taking them into
his buccal cavity.
Reproduction in Vertebrates. — We should never finish if we
were to describe even the chief varieties of sexual union among
the vertebrates. As a rule, the male possesses a copulating
organ which projects externally, while the female presents an
invaginated cavity, more or less cylindrical, into which the
male organ can penetrate. A certain amount of sperm is depos-
ited by the male in the neighborhood of the matm-e ovules (Fig.
18) discharged from the female germinal gland or ovary, which
renders conjugation possible. By means of their mobile tails,
the spermatozoa (Fig. 11) are able to reach the ovules and
fecundate them. The manner in which the egg when fecun-
dated, either in the mother's body or after being laid, continues
its development, varies enormously in different species. The
eggs are often deposited by the female and the embryo develops
outside the mother's body. This occurs in insects, mollusks,
52 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
fish, amphibia, reptiles, birds and the lowest mammals or
monotremes (ornithorhynchus and echidna).
In the lower mammals is developed an organ called the womb .
which allows the embryo to remain longer in the maternal body. ;
This organ is very incomplete in them, and a pocket or fold in |
the skin of the belly allows the mother to carry her young, which '
are extremely embryonic at birth, till they have developed suffi- :
ciently to live alone. This occurs in marsupials (kangaroos and t
opossums), in which the vagina and utcrug are double.
In the higher mammals the womb becomes more and more
developed, opening into a single vagina in the middle line of the y
abdomen, between the two ovaries, and constituting a highly
specialized organ which allows the mother to presence the young
for a long time in her belly. In most mammals the uterus has
two elongated diverticula, each of which may contain a sue- |
cessive series of embiyos. In man it forms a single cavity and |
normally contains a single embrj^o, occasionally two or more. '
These facts show that the role of the female mammal in repro-
duction is more important than that of the male. But this is
not all. ^Miether it still lays eggs, or whether it gives birth to
young which are more or less developed its sexual role is far
from ended. The higher oviparous vertebrates, especially the
birds, take care of their progeniture for some time* after laying.
The young are still fed by the mother, either by milk from the :
teats, as in mammals, or by nourishment obtained from outside,
as in birds, or by both methods combined or succeeding each
other, as in cats.
In many animals the male contributes to the raising of the
young; a point to which we shall return. Here, we indicate
these complicated details simply to show that sexual union only
contributes one link in the long chain of reproduction. Let
us study its mechanism in man.
The Copiilatory Organ of Man. The Testicles. The Seminal
Vericles. — Nature is often very sparing even in the highest or-
ganizations. It has thus combined in the male the urethra with
the copulatory organ, and the sexual germinal glands, or
testicles, with an accessory gland, the epididymis. Hundreds of
thousands of spermatozoa are contained in the glandular tubes
CONDITIONS AND MECHANISM OF HUMAN COITUS 53
of these organs, which, when they are mature can always pro-
duce new ones by cell division. The spermatozoa accumulate
at the extremity of the duct of the gland in a reservoir called
the seminal vesicle, where they float in the mucus, thus consti-
tuting the seminal fluid or sperm. This liquid has a special
odor. The two seminal vesicles are situated in the abdominal
cavity underneath the urinary bladder, each having a duct
which meets that of the other side and opens by the side of it
in the deep part of the urethra. Here the secretion of several
other glands, especially of the prostate, is added to the sperm
and mixes with it. The point where the two seminal ducts open
into the urethra forms a small elevation, the verumontanum.
From this point the male urethra emerges from the abdominal
cavity and is continued along the special prolongation which
forms the penis, or virile member of copulation. In the ordinary
way the penis only serves for the emission of urine. It hangs
flaccid and terminates in a rounded swelling called the glans,
at the end of which opens the urethra (Fig. 18). This opening
serves also for the emission of the sperm.
Erection. The Corpus Cavernosum. — The most curious part
of this apparatus is the mechanism of erection, or the power pos-
sessed by the penis of swelling under the influence of certain
nervous irritations, increasing in length and diameter as well as
becoming rigid. This phenomenon is produced by three organs
called the cavernous bodies which form the principal bulk of the
penis. One of them, situated in the middle and underneath
and formed by two bodies united into one, surrounds the urethra
and terminates in front in a dilatation which constitutes the
glans already mentioned. The two others are situated symmet-
rically on the dorsal part of the penis. All three consist of
caverns or diverticula formed by blood-vessels, which are empty
when the penis is flaccid. By a complex nervous mechanism
based on vascular paralysis due to nervous phenomena called
inhibition and dynamogeny, the nervous irritations cause an
accumulation of blood in the spaces of the cavernous bodies
which become so gorged with blood as to form stiff and hard
rods. The size of the penis is thereby increased considerably
and its stiffness allows it to penetrate the vagina of the female.
54 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
At the same time and by the same mechanism the verumontanum
swells so as to close the ureter from the bladder, while the semi-
nal ducts open toward the urethral orifice. In this way the cop-
ulatory organ is ready for its function.
Repeated irritations are however necessary to provoke the
ejaculation of semen. This is finally produced by excitation of
a special muscle which compresses the seminal vesicles in a
spasmodic manner and ejaculates the semen by the urethra.
After ejaculation, the accumulation of blood in the cavernous
bodies gradually diminishes and the penis again becomes
flaccid.
This apparatus is thus very complicated and is put in action
by several nervous irritations which may be disturbed in many
ways in affections of the nervous system. We may observe
here that the nervous centers of erection and ejaculation may
be put in action directly by the brain, or indirectly by peripheral
irritation of the glans.
Those peripheral nerves which provoke sexual excitation are
especially the nerves of the glans. This possesses a skin or
mucous membrane which is extremely delicate and is protected
against external irritation by a fold of skin called the 'prepuce,
or foreskin. The prepuce is often too narrow so that it cannot
be withdrawn behind the glans. It then forms a pocket in
which sebaceous matter, semen, urine, etc., accumulate and de-
compose. This anomaly, called phimosis, does not exist among
the Jews owing to circumcision, or the removal of the prepuce in
the newly born, which forms part of their religious rites. Hy-
gienic considerations sometimes oblige us to perform this opera-
tion in others. The bad habit of masturbation, so common in
boys, is often provoked by phimosis, and shows that simple
mechanical irritation of the glans, due here to secretions con-
tained in the prepuce, may lead to ejaculation of semen as well
as to erection.
We have seen above that the male and female germinal glands
arise from the same primitive organ in the embryo. If the em-
bryo becomes male, this organ is transformed into the two tes-
ticles which descend gradually in the canal of the groin and
become placed in the scrotum. If it becomes female, the two
CONDITIONS AND MECHANISM OF HUMAN COITUS 55
sexual glands remain in the abdominal cavity and are trans-
formed into ovaries.
The Genital Organs of Woman. — The organs described in Chap-
ter II (Figs. 18 and 19), constitute the internal and more im-
portant part of the female sexual apparatus. In women, the
urethra opens externally on its own account. It is much shorter
and wider than in men. At its external extremity is a small
cavernous body called the clitoris, which corresponds embryo-
logically to the penis in man, and chiefly to the glans. Like the
latter it is specialized for sexual irritation and possesses very
sensitive nerves. The opening of the female urethra is situated
in front of the vulva directly under the pubic bone, at the same
place as the root of the male penis. From this point, on each
side of the middle line, extend two longitudinal folds, one exter-
nal covered with skin and called the larger lip of the vulva
(Fig. 18, labia majora), the other internal, hidden under the
first, called the lesser lip of the vulva {labia minora), and cov-
ered with thin mucous membrane. Between the two lesser lips
is the sexual aperture, which, with the labia majora and minora
is called the vulva. This opening is distinct from that of the
urethra, and leads to the internal cavity or vagina (Fig. 18).
The vagina is about ten to twelve centimeters long (2 to 2|
inches) and terminates in a cul-de-sac which surrounds the
vaginal portion of the womb, of which we have spoken
above.
In virgins the entrance to the vagina is more or less closed
by a delicate transverse membrane called the hymen, which is
only perforated by a narrow opening. At the first coitus the
hymen is torn, causing a certain amount of pain and bleeding.
The walls of the vagina are thrown into transverse folds, which
render them somewhat rough. The remains of the hymen torn
by the first coitus afterward form behind the vulva small
excrescences named carunculce myrtijormes.
In the first chapter we have spoken of the changes undergone
by the fecundated ovule till it becomes the embryo and then
the infant. It remains to speak of the mechanism of expulsion
of the ovule and of its fecundation, as well as the changes in the
woml) which result from these phenomena.
56 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Menstruation. — About every four weeks, one or two o\'ules
(rarely more) mature and are discharged into the Fallopian
tubes, dowD. which they pass by the movement of the vibratUe
cilia of the mucous membrane, to the uterus, to the walls of
which they become attached if they have been fecundated on
the way (Fig. 18). Fecundation or conjugation takes place
most often in the Fallopian tube, sometimes in the uterus.
The maturation and expulsion of the ovule are generally accom-
panied in women by a nerv'ous phenomenon closely related to
erection in man. The mucous membrane of the cavity of the
uterus is very rich in blood vessels which become dilated and
gorged with blood under the inhibitory influence of certain nerve
centers. As the mucous membrane is very thin, the result is
otherwise than in man; the blood transudes through the
mucous membrane and flows away. This is called vienstriiation
("courses" or monthly periods). The object of this is, no
doubt, to prepare the mucous membrane of the womb for the
fixation of the fecundated egg which will become grafted on its
surface. The courses in women generally last three or four
days, but are often very irregular. It is necessary to point out
that they do not depend on o\iilation (expulsion of the egg).
The two phenomena may take place independently of each
other, for menstruation in itself depends only on nerv^ous irrita-
tion, which may be provoked or averted by hypnotic suggestion,
for example.
Moreover, there are women who never menstruate and who,
in spite of this, not only regularly discharge ovules but may be
fecundated and become pregnant. Usually, however, the two
phenomena are associated by nerv'ous reflexes, so that menstrua-
tion takes place first and then the ovule commences its migration.
The Mechanism of Coitus. — Copulation, or coitus, takes place
as follows: After a certain degree of excitation, both mental
and sensor}', the male introduces the erect and stiffened penis
into the vagina. In the case of advanced pregnancy he should
place himself behind, so as to avoid injuring the unborn child.
Rhythmic movements of the two indi\'iduals, especially of the
man, gradually increase the excitation of the mucous membrane
or skin of the genital organs of each party, till voluptuous sen-
CONDITIONS AND MECHANISM OF HUMAN COITUS 57
sations, arising chiefly in the glans penis and clitoris, spread to
the whole nervous system and the entire body, constituting
what is called the venereal orgasm, and terminating in the man
by the ejaculation of semen.
The localizations of irritability in woman are multiple, and
to the clitoris must be added the nipples, the vulva, and even,
it is said, the neck of the womb. In man the parts round the
anus may also, besides the glans penis, form an excitable region.
At the acme of erection the glans is turgid, and is applied di-
rectly against the neck of the womb (Fig. 18). In this way the
sperm is ejaculated directly against the neck of the womb.
In the woman an analogous phenomenon takes place; the
clitoris becomes turgid and the mild and repeated friction of
the mucous membranes, together with contact on other sensi-
tive parts, produces a voluptuous sensation as in the man.
Through nervous association, the repeated excitation deter-
mines secretion from certain glands of the vagina which lubri-
cate the vulva (glands of Bartholin) . At the maximum point of
voluptuous feeling the woman experiences something analogous
to the venereal orgasm of the man. There is thus manifested
in the two sexes an intense and reciprocal desire of penetration
one by the other, a desire which powerfully favors fecundation.
In the woman as in the man the end of the orgasm is followed
by an agreeable relaxation which invites sleep.
The hereditary or instinctive nervous actions produce after
coitus a profound effect of contrast. When the sexual appetite
commences, the odors, especially those of the sexual organs, the
contacts, the movements, and the sight of the individual of the
opposite sex, all increase desire, producing a voluptuous excita-
tion stronger than all contrary feeling. Hardly is the sexual act
consummated than all vanishes like a dream. What w^as a
moment before the object of the most violent desire becomes
indifferent, and sometimes even excites a slight feeling of dis-
gust, at least as regards certain odors, sometimes even regarding
touch and sight. The name sexual appetite (libido sexualis) is
given to the passionate and purely sexual desire of the two
sexes for each other. It varies greatly in different individuals.
According to Ferdy and other authors, the neck of the womb.
58 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
during the venereal orgasm of the woman, executes movements
of suction in the glans penis, I do not know if this is a fact,
but it is certain that the female orgasm is useless for conception.
Absolutely cold women, incapable of the least voluptuous sen-
sation are as fruitful as those who have pronounced venereal
orgasms. It proves that the spermatozoa arrive at their goal
even when the womb is entirely passive. The great variation of
sexual desire in different individuals renders mutual adaptation
often veiy difficult. The venereal orgasm is sometimes more
rapid in man, sometimes in woman (more rarely in the latter) .
This inequality is rather to the detriment of the woman, for the
man can still satisfy himself when the orgasm of the woman has
terminated, while the contrary is not possible without artificial
manipulation. Moreover, the frequence and intensity of the
sexual appetite are often much greater in one than in the other,
which is detrimental to both. Here again it is the woman who
suffers the most, for the man can always satisfy himself without
the woman having voluptuous sensations. What is commonly
called good manners generally prevents the conjoints from speak-
ing of their sexual desires before marriage. This very often re-
sults in grave deceptions, dissensions, and often even divorce.
I shall return to this subject in Chapter XIV.
Voluptuous sensations only represent the means employed by
nature to bring together the sexes with the object of reproducing
the species. A woman can be fecundated and give birth to a
child by the aid of semen injected into the uterus by a syringe.
Moreover, it is rather exceptional for the venereal orgasm to
occur in the two sexes at the same moment. It is essential for
fecundation that the semen should enter the womb. When the
spermatozoa have reached the neighborhood of the neck of the
womb they swim by their own movements, not only along the
whole uterine cavity, but also along the Fallopian tubes and even
in the abdominal cavity, so that the force of ejaculation is of
little importance.
Pregnancy. — The womb enlarges considerably during preg-
nancy. It exceeds the size of an adult head, and the muscles
of its walls are greatly increased, so as to be capable of expelling
the child later on.
CONDITIONS AND MECHANISM OF HUMAN COITUS 59
The phenomena of pregnancy, birth and suckling are known
to all, so that I shall be brief. The almost sudden activity of
the breasts after childbirth is a very interesting correlative
phenomenon. It suffices to glance at one who has just become
a mother and to observe the complications which profoundly
influence all her organism with regard to the life of the infant,
to comprehend to what extent the role of sexual life is more im-
portant, more profound, even more vital, in woman than in
man. The latter no doubt requires a more violent appetite to
urge him to copulation because he plays the active part, short
though it be. But fecundating coitus having been effected, his
contribution to the reproduction of the species is ended.
While the activity of man is terminated at conception, that of
woman only begins at this moment. In the first chapter we
have indicated in a few words the transformations of the human
embryo up to its birth. During nine months it grows from the
size of a pin's head (the ovule) to that of the new-born child.
Although a woman seldom bears more than one embryo at the
same time, twins being rare on the whole, she has nevertheless
more pain and fatigue to bear than any female animal. This
is due not only to the fact that our artificial and alcoholized
civilization, with its specialized labor which disturbs vital equi-
lil^rium, has made women indolent and degenerate, but also to
the enormous development of the human brain. The head of
the human embryo is disproportionately large because the brain,
as I showed with Schiller in 1889, already contains at birth all
the nerve elements w4iich it wall possess during the rest of its
life (Comptes rendus de VAcademie des Sciences). No doubt
these elements are small and embiyonic but the nerve fibers are
ready to be covered with myehn and to enter upon their func-
tions, and all this requires a cranium of considerable size. But
it is not everything for the mother to nourish with her blood
the brain and the cranium of the child; it is also necessary for
this relatively large head to pass through the pelvis at the time
of childbirth, and we know that this moment is the most dan-
gerous for the life of the pregnant woman. As boys have on
the average a larger brain and cranium than those of girls, their
birth is usually more difficult.
60 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Accouchement. — The sexual organs of woman undergo great
changes in order to render childbirth possible. These organs
become larger and more vascular, especially the womb, the
growth of which is astonishing. Originally the size of a small
egg (a guinea fowl's) it exceeds the size of a human head, and
there is an enormous increase of muscular tissue in its walls.
Large blood vessels develop in the uterine wall, especially in the
placenta (Figs. 22 and 23), where they enter into endosmotic
relations with the circulation of the embryo.
From the abdomen of the embryo arises an organ, the allantois,
which is destined to carry the blood-vessels of the embryo to the
placenta, and at the same time to give rise to the formation of
the latter. In the placenta the blood-vessels of the embryo
are separated from those of the mother by walls so thin that
the nutritive juices of the maternal blood transude into the
venous blood of the embryo, as well as combined oxygen in
the blood necessary for its respiration. Up to this point the
vitellus of the egg, nourished by endosmosis through its mem-
branes, had sufficed for the nutrition of the still very small em-
bryo. While these phenomena are taking place, and while the
substance of the two conjugated germs divides into an ever in-
creasing number of cells, which become differentiated in layers
to form the future organs (Fig. 21), while certain groups of cells
are prepared some to form the intestinal canal, others the mus-
cles and blood vessels, others the skin and organs of sense, others
arising from the last to form the brain, the spinal cord and the
nerves, the mother can still live her ordinary life. She suffers,
however, from different disorders connected with what is passing
on in her body.
It is a curious fact that these disorders are more accentuated
at the commencement of pregnancy, when the womb is hardly
enlarged, than at the end. They consist chiefly of nervous
troubles — slight derangement of the cerebral functions and sen-
sations, etc. Obstinate vomiting, peculiar desires, and changes
of temper are some of the most frequent troubles of pregnant
women, and probably arise more from local nervous irritation
than from general transformations of the nutrition of the body.
The mother's body is becoming adapted to the development of
CONDITIONS AND MECHANISM OF HUMAN COITUS 61
the infant in the womb. However embarrassed a woman may
be in the last months of pregnancy by the great swelling of the
belly (Fig. 22) the disorders are less accentuated than at the
beginning of pregnancy.
During pregnancy menstruation ceases. The sexual appetite
is very variable; in many pregnant women it is diminished, in
others there is no change, and it is seldom increased. There are
other troubles which are more or less frequent, such as varicose
veins in the legs caused by pressure of the uterus on the veins.
But all the sufferings of pregnancy and childbirth are compen-
sated for by the ardent desire of the normal woman to have a
child, and by the happiness of hearing its first cry. Proud and
happy to give life to a new human being, which she hopes soon
to suckle and carry in her arms, she cheerfully bears all the in-
conveniences and pains of pregnancy and childbirth. The latter
is actually painful, for in spite of all that nature does to relax
the pelvis and render it elastic, to dilate the neck of the womb,
the vagina and the vulva, the passage of the enormous head of a
human infant through all these relatively narrow apertures is
extremely difficult (Figs. 22 and 23). The passage is forced by
the powerful contractions of the muscles of the womb. How-
ever, they do not always succeed by themselves, and in this case
the accoucheur is obliged to apply the forceps to extract the
head of the child. Very often the neck of the womb, the vagina
or the perineum (the part situated between the anus and the
vulva) become torn during labor, and this may lead later on to
disorders such as prolapse of the womb, etc.; disorders which
may last through life.
When the child is born, the umbilical cord (that is the trans-
formed allantois, Fig. 23) cut, and the placenta extracted, the
connecting nutrition and respiration between the child and
its mother are suddenly interrupted. Nourished hitherto by its
mother's blood through the placenta and the vessels of the
umbilical cord which supplied the necessary oxygen, the infant
is suddenly obliged to breathe and feed for itself. Its lungs,
hitherto inactive, expand instantaneously under the nervous in-
fluence produced by the blood saturated with carbonic acid, and
the first cry is produced. Thus commences individual respira-
62 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
tion. Several hours later the cessation of maternal nutrition
causes hunger, and this the reflex movements of suction, and the
child takes the breast. During this time the empty womb con-
tracts strongly and retracts enormously in a few days. The in-
crease of blood produced by the maternal organism, by its
adaptation to the nutrition of the embryo, is then employed in
the production of milk in the l:)roasts or lactiferous glands, which
were already well develoix'd during pregnancy.
Suckling. Maternity. — The mother is instinctively disposed
to suckle her child as the infant is to suck. At the end of four to
six weeks, the womb has almost completely regained its former
size.
In savage races suckling at the breast lasts for two years or
more. It is useless to mention here to what point the capacity
for suckling and the production of milk have diminished among
the modern women of civilized countries. This sad sign of de-
generation is due to a large extent, as Bunge has shown by care-
ful statistics, to the habit of taking alcoholic drinks, and is com-
bined with other blastophthoric degenerations due to hereditary
alcoholism. The future will show whether the artificial feeding
of infants with cows' milk will benefit humanity. In any case
it allows infants to survive who would die without it. On the
other hand the development of a degeneration can hardly be
an advantage for the species and we should hope for a return
to the natural rule by abstinence from all alcoholic drinks.
The false modesty of women concerning their pregnancy and
everything that concerns childbirth, the pleasantries often made
with regard to pregnant women are a sad sign of the degenera-
tion and even corruption of our refined civilization. Pregnant
women ought not to hide themselves, or to be ashamed to carry
a child in their womb; on the contrary they should be proud.
Such pride would certainly be nmch more justified than that of
the fine officers parading in their uniforms. The external signs
of the formation of humanity are more honorable to their bear-
ers than the symbols of destruction, and woman should become
imbued more and more with this truth! They will then cease
to hide their pregnancy and to be ashamed of it. Conscious of
the grandeur of their sexual and social duty they will raise aloft
CONDITIONS AND MECHANISM OF HUMAN COITUS 63
the standard of our descent, which is that of the true future life
of man, at the same time striving for the emancipation of their
sex. Viewed in this way, the sexual role of woman becomes
elevated and solemn. Man should less and less maintain his in-
difference towards the social miseries to which the slavery of
woman has led, which has lasted thousands of years and which
has dishonored the highest functions of her sex, by abuses
without number.
The hygiene of pregnancy, labor and its sequels, is of the
highest importance. It certainly should not consist in exag-
gerated care and precaution, for in spoiling and softening
women by inaction more harm than good is done. On the
other hand, the social cruelty which neglects poor women of the
people in confinement, often even without giving them sufficient
nourishment, is revolting, and it is here especially that the re-
form of social hygiene becomes an elementary necessity for
humanity.
All that we have just spoken of binds the woman for months
or years to each of her children, and we can understand that her
whole soul is adapted in consequence to maternity. Even when
birth has detached the child from the maternal body, it remains
attached to its mother by a hundred bonds, not only during the
period of suckling, but long afterward when the conventions do
not violate natural laws. Little children are deeply attached
to their niother, and while the father is impatient with their
cries and the embarrassment which they cause, the mother takes
a natural delight in them. \Vhen pregnancies succeed each
other at reasonable intervals of one or two years, the normal
woman lives with her children for many years in intimacy which
never entirely ceases in a family animated by human and social
sentiments.
In normal circumstances the special bonds which unite the
mother to her children last for life, while the father, if all goes
well, becomes simply the best friend of his gi'owing children.
It is time that fathers began to recognize these natural laws,
instead of clinging so tenaciously to the historic and artificial
prestige of a worm-eaten and unnatm-al patriarchal authority.
No doubt there are many pathological and degenerate mothers,
64 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
but such an anomaly only proves the rule that we have just
laid down. i
Correlative Sexual Characters. — The correlative sexual char- \
acters, which we have previously spoken of in animals, are well !
known in man. Man is in the average larger, broader in the ;
shoulders and more robust; his skeleton is more solid but his
pelvis narrower. At the age of puberty, from 16 to 20 years,
the beard grows on the face, while in the pubic region hair de-
velops in both sexes. At the same time the testicles and exter-
nal genital organs enlarge. The sexual glands as well as the
external genital organs have remained so far in an embryonic
state although the mechanism of erection is already established
in young boys. But this mechanism, in the normal boy, is not
associated with any voluptuous sensation or any glandular
secretion,
Man possesses the rudiments of the correlative sexual charac-
ters of woman, such as nipples without lactiferous glands, etc.
In a general way each part of the external genital organs of one
sex has its corresponding embryonic homologue in the other,
which is explained by the different transformations which were
originally the same in the embryo. The clitoris of woman cor-
responds to the penis of man, the labia majora to the scrotum,
etc. In certain individuals these rudiments are more strongly
developed, and may by exaggeration and transition lead to
pathological hermaphrodism (Chapter I); such are bearded
women, and those possessing a large clitoris, or beardless men
with effeminate bodies and small sexual organs. Such cases
are not examples of hermaphrodism, but of incomplete embryo-
logical differentiation. They consist in certain correlative sex-
ual characters which show a tendency toward the other sex, a
tendency which we find, from the mental point of view, in
homosexuals.
There is also to be noticed the "breaking" of the voice which
occurs in man at the age of puberty, and is connected with the
nervous system.
In women the body is smaller and more delicate, the bones
• weaker, the pelvis wider and the chest narrower. The normal
woman has no beard while the pubic hairs are the same as in
i
CONDITIONS AND MECHANISM OF HUMAN COITUS 65
man. The pubis, covered with a layer of fat, is sUghtly promi-
nent in women and is called the mons Veneris. There is more
fat under the skin in a woman's body, and the voice does not
break. After puberty breasts develop with their lactiferous
glands and nipples for suction. Puberty takes place a little
earlier in women than in men, and corresponds to the growth
of the internal and external sexual organs, at the same time
that the ovules commence to mature and menstruation is estab-
lished.
The mental correlative sexual characters are much more im-
portant than those of the body. The psychology of man is
different from that of woman. Many books have been written
on this subject, usually with more sentimentality than exacti-
tude. Mysogynists, like the philosopher Schopenhauer, dis-
parage woman from all points of view, while the friends of the
female sex often exalt her in an exaggerated manner. In con-
temporary literature we see women authors judging man in
quite different ways according as they are affected with "mis-
andery" or "philandery" — that is enemies or friends of men.
Quite recently Moehius has published a mysogynistic work on
the " Physiological Imbecility of Woman." (Der physiologische
Schwachdnn des Weihes). One must be a misogynist of very
high degree to introduce the pathological notion of imbecility
into the evolution of the normal mentality of woman. In
reality, the individual differences are much greater in man and
woman from the psychological than from the physical point of
view, so that they render a definition of the average extremely
difficult.
We are acquainted with bearded women, athletic women, as
well as beardless men and puny men. From the mental point
of view, there are also viragos and men with feminine instincts.
Imbeciles are not wanting in both sexes, but no reasonable
person will deny that an intelligent woman is superior to a
narrow-minded man even from the purely intellectual point of
view. In spite of these difficulties, I shall attempt to bring for-
ward the principal points which distinguish, in a general way,
the masculine mind from the feminine, relying on my own obser-
vations and especially on the mental phenomena of both sexes.
66 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
The "Weight of the Brain. — According to statistics, the weight
of the brain in men of our race is on the average 1350 grammes,
while that of women averages 1200 grammes. The absolute
weight is, however, not of much importance, because part of
the cerebral substance in the larger animals is only for the sup-
ply of a greater number of cellular elements of the rest of the
body, which necessitates a greater number of nervous elements.
To make the matter clear, it is necessary to separate the
weight of the cerebral hemispheres from, the other nervous
centers, such as the cerebellum, corpora striata, the optic
thalami, the mid-brain, the pons Varolii, the medulla oblongata
and the spinal cord, for these centers constitute parts which are
phylogenetically older, that is to say, inherited from lower
animal ancestors. Compared with the cerebral hemispheres,
these nerve centers are relatively more important in other
vertebrates than in man, and are in more constant proportion
to the size of the body, the muscular, glandular and sensory
elements of which they supply. When the intelligence is about
the same, they are, therefore, compared with the cerebral hemi-
spheres, much more developed in the larger than in the smaller
animals. For example, they are very large in the ox, but small
in mice. I have weighed a considerable number of human
brains separated in this way with the following results:
CEREBRAL HEMISPHERES OTHER CEREBRAL, CENTERS
Man 1060 grammes, 78.5% I 290 grammes, 21.5 %
Woman 955 grammes, 77.9% | 270 grammes, 22.1%
Thus the cerebellum and basal ganglia are a little smaller in
men than in women, compared with the cerebral hemispheres.
These figures appear to show that the cerebral hemispheres
in woman are on the average a little smaller than in man, even
proportionately to the stature; for, according to a general law
in the animal kingdom, woman being smaller, her cerebral
hemispheres should be, with equal mentality, proportionately a
little larger. There are, however, female brains larger than
many male brains, and the absolute and relative size of the
cerebral hemispheres does not give a complete measure of the
productive faculties. Remarkable men have been known to
possess rather small brains and imbeciles heavy ones. We must
CONDITIONS AND MECHANISM OF HUMAN COITUS 67
not forget the great importance of the hereditary or engraphic
predispositions of the nerve element or neurone, to certain
activities and especially to work in general, that is to say, their
aptitude to produce energy, or if one prefers it, their disposition
to "will."
It is also interesting to consider the relationship of the frontal
lobe to the rest of the cerebral hemispheres, the frontal lobe
being without doubt the principal seat of intellectual activity.
According to Meynert, the weight of the frontal lobe in man
exceeds that of woman, not only absolutely, but relatively to
the rest of the brain. In his resume of the statistical data col-
lected on this subject and from the results of my own material
(autopsies at the asylum of Burgholzli in Zurich), Mercier has
confirmed the opinion of Meynert. The average weight of the
hemispheres separated from the rest of the brain is 1019 grammes
in man (frontal lobe 428, the rest 591), and 930 in woman
(frontal lobe 384, rest 546). Here, atrophied brains (except
general paralytics) have been weighed with others, which lowers
the average total weight without altering the proportion. Thus,
the rest of the cerebral hemispheres exceeds the frontal lobe by
163 grammes in man and 162 grammes in woman, which means
that in man the frontal lobe constitutes 42 per cent, of the
cerebral hemispheres and in woman 41.3 per cent. The differ-
ence is not great, but it is definite, for it is based on a large num-
ber of observations.
Mental Capacity of the Two Sexes. — The fundamental differ-
ence between the psychology of woman and that of man is con-
stituted by the irradiations of the sexual sphere in the cerebral
hemispheres, which constitute what may be called sexual men-
tality. We shall discuss this in the following chapters, for it
constitutes the foundation of our subject. We are only con-
cerned here with the correlative differences.
Adhering in a general way to the main definitions of psy-
chology, we assert that from the purely intellectual point of
view, man considerably excels woman in his creative imagina-
tion, his faculty for combination and discovery, and by his
critical mind. For a long time this was said to be explained by
the statement that women had not the opportunity of measuring
68 ' THE SEXrAL QUESTION
their intelligence against that of men; but, thanks to the mod-
ern movement of the emancipation of women, this assertion be-
comes more and more untenable. It is so '^ith regard to artistic
creations, for women have at all times taken part in works of
art. When certain people maintain that a few generations of
activity suffice to elevate the intellectual development of women,
they confound the results of education with those of heredity
and phylogeny (^dde Chapter II). Education is a purely indi-
vidual matter and only requires one generation to produce its
results. But neither nmemic engraphia, nor even selection can
modify hereditary energies in two or three generations. Tied
down hitherto partly by servitude, the mental faculties of
woman will doubtless rise and flourish in aU their natural power
as soon as they are absolutely free to develop in society equally
with those of men, by the aid of equal rights. But what does
not exist in the hereditaiy mneme, that is to say in the energies
of germs, inherited through thousands or millions of years, can-
not be created in a few generations. The specific characters
and consequently the sexual characters have quite another con-
stancy than is believed by the superficial prattlers, who deafen
us with their jargon on a question of which they only grasp the
surface. There is no excuse, at the present day, for confounding
hereditary correlative sexual characters with the indi\idual
results of education. The latter are acquired by habit and can
only be inherited as such by an infinitesimal engraphia, possibly
after hundreds of generations.
On the other hand woman possesses, from the intellectual
point of view, a faculty of reception and comprehension as well
as a facility of reproduction which are almost equal to those of
man. In higher education at the universities the women I have
had the opportunity of observing at Zurich for many years,
show a more equal level than that of the men. The most intelh-
gent men reproduce best and the most stupid men reproduce
worse than the corresponding female extremes. I do not think
one can say much more concerning the purely intellectual
domain.
Artistic production confirms this opinion. Woman is here on
the average much inferior as regards creation or production,
CONDITIONS AND MECHANISM OF HUMAN COITUS 69
properly so called, and even her best results are wanting in
originality and do not open up new paths. On the contrary, as
virtuosos, women compare well with men in simply reproductive
art. There are, however, exceptional women whose productions
are original, creative and independent. The philosopher Stuart
Mill points out the intuitive gift of woman who, led by her indi-
vidual observations, rapidly and clearly discovers a general
truth, and applies it in particular cases, without troubling mth
abstract theories. This may be called the intuitive or sub-
conscious judgment of woman.
In the domain of sentiment the two sexes differ very much
from each other, but we cannot say that one surpasses the other,
Both are passionate, but in different ways. The passions of
man are coarser and less durable, and are only more elevated
when associated with more original and more complex intel-
lectual aims. In woman sentiment is more delicate and more
finely shaded esthetically and morally; it is also more durable,
at least on the average, although its objects are often of a mean
and banal nature.
WTien man compares himseK with woman he usually identi-
fies himself, more or less unconsciously, with the highest male
intellects, with the men of genius in art and science, and com-
plaisantly ignores the crowd of idiots of his own sex! In the
life of sentiment the two sexes may complement each other
admirably; while man raises the height of the ideal and of
objects to be attained, woman has the necessary tact to soften
and refine the tones, and to adapt their shades to each special
situation, by the aid of her natural intuition, where man risks
spoiling everything by the violence of his passions and his efforts.
This reciprocal influence should conduce to the best and highest
harmony of sentiments in a happy sexual combination.
As regards will power, woman is, in my opinion, on the average
superior to man. It is in this psychological domain more than
in any other, that she will always triumph. This is generally
misunderstood, because men have so far apparently held the
scepter of an unlimited omnipotence; because by the abuse of
brute force, aided by superiority of inventive genius, humanity
has been hitherto led by strong masculine wills, and because the
70 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
strongest feminine wills have been dominated by the law of the
right of the stronger. But the unprejudiced observer is soon
obliged to recognize that the directive will of the family is only,
in general, represented externally by the master, Man parades
his authority much more often than he puts it into practice; he
lacks the perseverance, tenacity and elasticity which constitute
the true power of will, and which are peculiar to woman. It is
needless to say that I am only speaking of the average and that
there are many women whose will power is feeble. But these
easily become the prey of prostitution, which causes their disap-
pearance. This is perhaps one of the causes which have strength-
ened by selection the will power in women. Man is impulsive
and violent as regards his will power, but often inconstant and
irresolute, yielding as soon as he has to strive persistently for a
certain object. From these facts it naturally results that, on
the average, it is the man in the family who provides the ideas
and impulses, but the woman who, with the finesse of her tact
and perseverance, instinctively makes the distinction between
the useful and the harmful, utilizing the former and constantly
combating the latter; not because she is fundamentally supe-
rior, but because she is more capable of dominating herself,
which proves the superiority of her will power.
Nothing is more unjust than to disparage one sex relatively
to the other. The parthenogenesis of the lower animals having
ceased in the vertebrates, each sex is indispensable, not only to
the preservation of species, but also to each conception or repro-
duction of the individual. Both are thus equivalent and belong
to each other as the two halves of a whole, one being incapable
of resisting without the other. Everything which benefits one
of the halves benefits the other. If by the magic wand of a
fairy, the male half or the female half of our humanity, such as it
is to-day, was rendered capable and obliged to reproduce alone,
men would soon degenerate owing to the weakness of their will
combined with their sensual passions, and women from their
incapacity to raise their intellectual level by means of creative
ideas.
We need not dwell here on the numerous psychological pecu-
liarities of woman, inherent in her capacity as mother, nor on
CONDITIONS AND MECHANISM OF HUMAN COITUS 71
those of man adapted to his muscular strength and to his capac-
ity as protector of the family. These are derived from sexual
differences which are mentioned in Chapter V. Nor need we
describe correlative differences of less importance which are
well known and which arise from those of which we have spoken
or from du'ect sexual differences. They can be observed, on
the one hand, in purely male reunions in saloons, smoking
rooms and other similar places; on the other hand, in feminine
circles of all classes, among the common people, among the
fashionable, or even in philanthropic associations. On the aver-
age, woman is more artful and more modest; man coarser
and more cynical, etc. After much personal experience, gained
in societies in which the two sexes possess the same rights and
are admitted to the same titles, I am obliged to declare that I
have never found any confirmation (at least in the German-
Swiss country) of the popular saying that gossip and intrigue
are the special appanage of woman. I have found these two
vices quite as often in man.
CHAPTER IV
THE SEXUAL APPETITE
If we sum up the three preceding chapters we arrive at the
philosophical conclusion that reproduction depends on the gen-
eral natural tendency of all living beings to multiply indefinitely.
Fission and sexual reproduction arise from the simple fact that
the growth of each individual is necessarily limited in space as
well as time. Reproduction is thus destined to assure the con-
tinuation of life; the individual dies but is perpetuated in his
progeny. We do not know why the crossing of individuals is
rendered necessary by the phenomenon of conjugation. On
this subject we can only build hypotheses, but the study of
nature shows us that where conjugation ceases reproduction
is etiolated and finally disappears, even when it is still pos-
sible for a certain time.
From the commencement of life there is thus a powerful law
of attraction with the object of reproduction. At first there
are unicellular organisms, in which one cell penetrates the other
in the act of conjugation. Their substances combine intimately,
while the molecules of^each nucleus become so arranged as to
give the new individual a more fresh and powerful energy of
growth.
In the lower multicellular plants and animals which bud,
fresh buds live at the expense of the old trunk to give life to
new branches, and the male cells or pollen fecundate the female
cells so as to disperse the germs capable of growth and of thus
reproducing the species. It is also the same in the madrepores
and other agglomerated animals (such as the solitary worms),
composed of parameres or metameres, so long as a single central
nervous system does not coordinate the metameres, or primary
agglutinated animals, into a single organism.
In the higher animals, the complex polycellular individuals
72
THE SEXUAL APPETITE 73
formed by the agglomeration of several primitive animals, are
transformed into a higher and mobile unity by the aid of the
great vital apparatus called the nervous system, which becomes
the mental director of the living organism and invests it with
its individual character. However, this higher unity of life,
which always becomes more psychic, that is to say, at the same
time intellectual, sentimental and voluntary, by its complica-
tion and its numerous relations with other individuals, this
unity called the central nervous system cannot do without the
necessity for reproduction. In animal phylogeny, as soon as
hermaphrodism has ceased and each individual has become the
sole bearer of one of the two kinds of sexual cells, the species will
eventually disappear if the male cells cannot reach the female
cells by the active movement of the whole individual. Thus is
produced the marvelous phenomenon of the desire of increase
and reproduction, originally peculiar to the male cell, penetrating
the nervous system, that is to say life and soul in its entirety,
the life of the higher unity of the individual. An ardent desire,
a powerful impulse thus arises in the nervous system at the time
of puberty and attracts the individual toward the opposite sex.
The care and the pleasure of self preservation, which had hith-
erto fully occupied his attention, become effaced by this new
impulse. The desire to procreate dominates everything. A
single pleasure, a single desire, a single passion lays hold of the
organism and urges it toward the individual of the opposite sex,
and to become united with it in intimate contact and penetra-
tion. It is as if the nervous system or the whole organism felt
as if it had for the moment become a germinal ceU, so powerful
is the desire to unite with the other sex.
In some beautiful verses the German poet-philosopher Goethe
OYest-Oestlicher Divan, book VIII, "Suleika") describes the
desire to procreate (p. 63) :
Und mit eiligem Bestreben
Sucht sich, was sich angehort,
Und zu ungemessnem Leben
1st Gefiihl und Blick gekehrt.
Sei's ergreifen, sei es raff en,
Wenn es nur sich fasst und halt !
Allah braucht nicht mehr zu schaffen,
Wir erschaffen seine Welt !
74 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
If we look at nature we see everywhere the same desire and
the same attraction of the sexes for each other; the bird which
warbles, the mammal which ruts, the insect which hums while
pursuing the female with implacable tenacity, at the risk of
their o^ti life, employing sometimes cunning, sometimes dex-
terity, and sometimes force to attain their object. The ardor
of the female is not always much less, but she uses coquetry, pre-
tending to resist, and simulates repulsion. The more eager the
male, the more coquettish is the female.. If we observe the
amorous sport of butterflies and birds, we see what efforts it
costs the male to attain his object. On the other hand when
the male is clumsy and slow the female often comes toward
him or at any rate does not resist him, for instance in certain
ants the males of which are wingless while the females have wings.
The final act always consists in intimate union at the moment
of copulation.
In some animals Nature is prodigal in the means she employs
to pursue her great object, reproduction, by aid of the sexual
appetite. The apiary raises hundreds of male bees. As soon
as the single queen-bee takes wing for its nuptial flight all the
males follow, but a single male only, the strongest and most
nimble, succeeds in reaching her. In the intoxication of copula-
tion he abandons all his genital organs to the body of the queen
and dies. The other males, now useless, are all massacred in
autumn by the working bees.
Sexual coimection among butterflies of the Bombyx family
is no less marvelous. They live for months as caterpillars and
sometimes for two years as chrysalids, hibernating in a cocoon
in some corner of the earth or in the bark of trees. Finally the
butterfly, brilliantly colored, emerges from the cocoon and
spreads its wings. It only possesses, however, a rudimentary
intestinal canal for the short life which remains, for it does not
require much nourishment and is only devoted to sexual con-
nection. The female remains quiet and waits. The male, fur-
nished with large antermse which perceive the odor of the female
at a distance of several kilometers, commences an infatuated
flight through the woods and fields, as soon as his wings are
sufficiently strong. His sole object is to reach the female.
THE SEXUAL APPETITE 75
Here again there are numerous competitors. The one who
arrives first possesses the female, but expires shortly afterward.
His competitors die also, exhausted by their long flight and by
starvation, but without having attained their object. After
copulation, the female searches for the green plants which will
ensure a long caterpillar life for her offspring. There she de-
posits her fecundated eggs in considerable numbers and then
expires in her turn, like a faded flower which has fulfilled the
object of its existence and falls after leaving the fruit in its place.
The French naturalist Fabre has described these phenomena,
relying on conclusive experiments, and my own observations
and those of other naturalists confirm them fully. Among the
ants, all the males die also, soon after an aerial nuptial flight, in
which copulation is generally polyandrous, one male hardly
waiting for the preceding one to discharge his semen before
taking his place. Here the female possesses a receptacle for
semen which often contains the sperm of many males, and which
allows it to fecundate the eggs one after another for several years
as she lays them, and thus to act as the mother of an ant's nest
during a period which may extend to eleven or twelve years, or
even more.
In the lower organisms, love consists only in sexual instinct
or appetite. As soon as the function is accomplished love dis-
appears. It is only in the higher animals that we see a more or
less durable sympathy develop betw^een the two sexes. How-
ever, here also and even in man the sexual passion intoxicates
for the moment all the senses. In his sexual rut even man is
dominated as by a magic influence, and for the time he sees the
world only under the aspect inspired by this influence. The
object loved appears to him under celestial colors, which veil all
the defects and miseries of reality. Each moment of his am-
orous feeling inspires sentiments which it seems to him should
last eternally. He swears impossible things and believes in im-
mortal happiness. A reciprocal illusion transforms life momen-
tarily into mirages of paradise. The most common things, and
even certain things which usually disgust him, are then the
object of the most violent desire. But, as soon as the orgasm is
ended and the appetite satisfied the feeling of satiety appears.
76 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
A curtain falls on the scene, and, at least for the moment, repose
and reality reappear.
Such are, in a few words, the general phenomena of the nor-
mal sexual appetite among sexual organisms in the whole of
living nature. I am not speaking here of degenerations, such
as onanism and prostitution. Let us now analyze this appetite
further.
The natural appetites are inherited instincts the roots of which
lie far back in the phylogenetic history of our ancestors. Hun-
ger forms the basis for the preservation of the individual, the
sexual appetite that for the preservation of the species, as soon
as reproduction takes place by separate sexes. All appetite
belongs to the motor side of nervous activity; there is some-
thing internal which urges us to an act, but, on the other hand,
one or more sensations may exist at the base of this something
to put it in action. I have proved, for example, that the egg-
laying instinct in the corpse fly (Lucilia ccesar) is only produced
by the odor of putrefaction. As soon as the antennae, which
contain the organ of smell, are removed from these flies they
cease to lay, while other more severe operations, or removal of
one antenna only does not produce this result.
The mechanism of appetites is thus a lower mechanism and
has its seat in the primitive nervous centers. As Yersin has
proved, a cricket deprived of its brain may copulate so long as
the sensory irritations can reach the sexual nervous centers.
We can thus say that the mechanism of appetites belongs to
automatic actions deeply inherited by phylogeny. Although
complicated and composed of coordinated reflex movements
which follow one another in regular succession, it has no actual
power of modifying the so-called voluntary acts, which depend
entirely on the cerebral hemispheres, and of which we men only
have a conscious feeling. The appetites are not capable of
adapting themselves to new circumstances and cease to be pro-
duced when the chain is interrupted. We are obliged to admit
that the instincts or appetites are accompanied by a sub-con-
scious introspection which, as such, can hardly enter into direct
relation with our higher consciousness, that is, with our ordinary
consciousness in the waking state.
THE SEXUAL APPETITE 77
In spite of this, when their intensity increases, the appetites
overcoming the central nervous resistances, reach the cerebral
hemispheres, and consequently our introspection or higher con-
sciousness, under a synthetic or unified appearance, and influ-
ence in a high degree the cerebral activities, which are reflected
in association with all the elements of what we call our mind in
the proper sense of the term, that is to say, our intellect, senti-
ments and will. It is from this point of view that sexual appe-
tite must be considered in order to make it comprehensible.
Love, with all that appertains to it, belongs as such to our mind,
that is, to the activity of our cerebral hemispheres, but it is pro-
duced there by a secondary irradiation from the sexual appetite,
which alone concerns us at present. We may also remark that
sexual ideas when once awakened in the cerebral hemispheres by
sexual appetite, are worked up there by the attention, that is
to say by concentrated cerebral activity, then associated with
other ideas, which on their side react strongly on the sexual
appetite, developing or paralyzing it, attracting or repelling it,
or finally transforming its attributes and objects.
By sexual desire (libido sexualis) we mean the manner in
which the sexual appetite manifests itself in man. Each term
may be employed for the other.
The Sexual Appetite in Man. — Man represents the active ele-
ment in sexual union, and in him the sexual appetite, or desire
for coitus, is at first the stronger. This desire develops spon-
taneously, and the role of fecundator represents the principal
male activity. This appetite powerfully affects the male mind,
although sexual life plays a less important part in him than in
the female.
In boys, the sexual appetite is often prematurely awakened,
excited in unnatural ways by bad example. Moreover, it varies
enormously in different individuals, a point to which we shall
return when dealing with pathology. Leaving aside unnatural
appetites and abnormal forms of sexual instinct we shall describe
here its most spontaneous and normal form.
Puberty. Awakening of the Sexual Instinct in Boys. — Sooner
or later in different individuals, the boy pays attention to his
erections, which are at first produced in a reflex and involun-
78 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
tary manner. Mental development and reflection, so precocious in
man, are causes which draw attention to the differences of the
sexes before the sexual appetite is developed. It is, however,
the first signs of this appetite which concentrate the attention
on these differences, for in their absence, the boy is more indif-
ferent to them than to the straight or crooked form of a nose.
Man has the habit of passing by without notice anything which
does not interest him, and this is why we find, in individuals
whose sexual appetite is developed late or feebly, an indifference
and ignorance in these matters which appear almost incredible
to those whose sexual appetite is precocious and violent ; while,
on the contrary, the lively interest which the latter show in
everything concerning the sexes appears foolish and absurd to
the sexually indifferent.
The pairing of animals, even of insects, awakens a curious
interest in those whose sexual dispositions are strong and pre-
cocious; they comprehend very quickly the reason and are led
to draw analogies with their own sensations in the same domain.
The aspect of the female sex has, however, a much stronger
action still on the normal man. But here is produced a peculiar
phenomenon.^'What especially excites the boy in the aspect
of the female sex is anything unusual; the sight of certain
parts of the skin which are normally covered, the clothes or
ornaments, particular odors, w^omen whom the boy is not ac-
customed to see, etc. It is for this reason that brothers and
sisters do not excite, or excite very little, their reciprocal sexual
appetite, at least if there are no anomalies or exceptional exhi-
bitions. The sexual appetites of boys among savage peoples
who live naked is hardly at all excited by naked girls; on the
other hand, it is strongly excited by those who are clothed or
ornamented in a peculiar manner. The sexual appetite of a
Mahometan is strongly excited by the nudity of the feminine
face, that of the European by that of a woman's legs, because
women are accustomed to veil their faces in the first case and
their legs in the second. These are naturally only relative
differences. When the sexual appetite of man is violent and
unsatisfied woman excites it in a general way, if she is not too
old or repulsive.
THE SEXUAL APPETITE 79
A second important character of the normal sexual appetite
is the special attraction that appearances of health and strength
in woman produce in man. Healthy forms, normal odors, a
normal voice, a skin healthy in appearance and to the touch,
constitute attractions which charm and excite man, while all
that is unhealthy or faded, every pathological odor, produce a
repulsive effect and hinders or diminishes sexual desire.
Everything connected with the sexual organs, their appear-
ance, touch and odor, tend to excite the sexual appetite, all the
more when they are usually covered; it is the same with the^
breasts. ^
The first sexual sensations are of a quite indeterminate nature ;
{something unconscious and obscure inclines the boy toward the
ifemale sex and makes it appear desirable. A boy may thus
i become enamored of the portrait of a woman with a swelling
bosom and alluring eyes and be seized with desire, either at
their sight or only on remembrance. This desire is not concen-
trated especially on the sexual act, as with an adult who is already
experienced in these matters; it is more generalized and vague,
although sensual.
For a long time, these repeated aspirations, impulses and
desires, remain unsatisfied. In different individuals the imagi-
nation associates the most diverse images with such manifesta-
tions of the sexual appetite. The objects of the latter appear
I in dreams and provoke nocturnal erections. The boy soon
remarks a sensory localization of his appetites in his sexual
1 organs, especially in the glans penis, but also in the surrounding
parts, and the known or only vaguely defined image of the female
' sexual organs, which is hardly present at the first appearance of
' his desires, begin to excite him more and more.
In natural or savage man, as well as in animals, the boy then
i makes attempts at coitus and soon attains his object, for, in
the state of nature, man marries as soon as puberty is attained.
Nocturnal Emissions. — In civilized man such difficulties are
' opposed to marriage, that he replaces it by prostitution, or by
!more or less unnatural means, as soon as his sexual appetite
! becomes strong. In those who abstain, the images produced by
sexual excitation, combined with erections, act more strongly
80 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
during sleep than waking and produce ejaculations of semen
called nocturnal emissions or pollutions. These generally occur
during erotic dreams, and as the dreams produce the illusion of
real perception, in quality as well as in intensity, it is not sur-
prising that they are followed by an orgasm and ejaculation of
semen.
Masturbation. — In the waking state the unsatisfied sexual
appetite may produce such excitation that the boy applies fric-
tion to the glans penis, which cause voluptuous sensations. As
soon as he has made this discovery he repeats the act and pro-
vokes ejaculation of semen artificially. Thus arises the bad
habit of masturbation or onanism, a habit which is both de-
pressing and exhausting, which takes an increasing hold on
those who practice it. Although from the purely mechanical
point of view masturbation causes a more normal ejaculation
than nocturnal emissions, which are often interrupted by awak-
ening and the vanishing of the dream which produced them, it
has a much more harmful effect, by its frequency and especially
by its depressing action on sentiment and will. We shall return
to this subject in Chapter VIII.
The accumulation of semen in the seminal vesicles strongly
excites the sexual appetite of man, and he is momentarily satis-
fied by their evacuation. But we shall soon see that this purely
organic or mechanical excitation, which seems at first to be only
adapted for natural wants, does not in man play the principal
role. We can easily understand that it cannot be the principal
moving power of the sexual act. In fact, for any of the animals
in which copulation occurs, the possibility of accomplishing this
is not connected solely with the accumulation of semen, for it
depends on obtaining a female. It is necessary, therefore, for
the accumulated semen to wait, and for the perception of the
female by the aid of the senses to excite the male to coitus.
External Signs of the Sexual Appetite. — Like every other desire
the sexual appetite betrays itself by the physionomy. This
consists in the play of cerebral activity, that is the thoughts,
sentiments -and resolutions, on the muscles by means of motor
nerves and nerve centers. It is not limited to the face but ex-
tends to the whole body. The abdomen, the hands and even
THE SEXUAL APPETITE 81
the feet have their physionomy; that of the muscles of the face
and eyes is, however, the most active and most expressive.
Sexual desire betrays itself in looks, by the expression of the
face and by certain movements in the presence of the female
sex. Men differ greatly in the way in which they betray or
, hide their sentiments and thoughts by the play of their muscles,
t so that the inner self is not always reflected without. Moreover,
i the expression of sexual desire by the play of the physionomy
may be confounded with that of other sentiments, so that one
who appears libidinous is not always so in reality, and inversely.
Continence in Man. — Abstinence or sexual continence is by
; no means impracticable for a normal young man of average con-
j stitution, assiduous in intellectual and physical work, abstaining
I from all artificial excitations, especially from all narcotics and
I alcohol in particular, for these substances paralyze the judg-
: ment and will. When sexual maturity is complete, that is after
.about twenty years, continence is usually facilitated by noc-
jturnal emissions accompanied by corresponding dreams. The
' health does not suffer from these in any way. However, in the
long run this state cannot be considered as normal, especially
I when there is no hope of it coming to an end in a reasonable
[time. What is much more abnormal are the numerous artificial
[sexual excitations that civilization brings with it.
Sexual Power. — The individual variations in the sexual in-
stinct are enormous, and may be said to vaiy from zero to an
intense and perpetual excitation called Satyriasis. By sexual
; power is understood the faculty of accomplishing coitus. This
; power in the first place requires strong and complete erections,
'as well as the faculty of following them by frequent seminal
' ejaculations, without being precipitate. Impotence or incapac-
ity for coitus belongs to pathology and consists usually in the
' absence or defectiveness of erections. Sexual power and appe-
tite generally go together, but not always, for it is possible to
;be powerful with feeble sexual appetite, and intense appetite
j sometimes goes with impotence; the latter condition, it is true,
is pathological. Sexual power also varies so much in individuals
that it is hardly possible to fix a limit between the normal and
the pathological,
82 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
The sexual power and appetite in man are strongest on the
average between 20 and 40 years, especially between 25 and
35. But, while young men of 18 to 20 years or more may be
still tranquil, without having had seminal ejaculations, one often
finds, among races who mature earlier, boys of 12 or 16 who are
fully developed both in sexual power and appetite. In our
Aryan races, however, when this occurs before the age of 14,
it is a case of pathological precocity. The late appearance of
sexual power and appetite is rather a sign of strength and
health.
After the age of 40, the sexual power slowly diminishes, and
after the seventieth year, or even before this, becomes extinct.
Exceptionally one finds old men of 80 who are still capable.
Normally the sexual appetite diminishes with age; often, how-
ever, especially when it is artificially excited, it lasts longer than
sexual power.
As regards sexual power we must distinguish between that of
copulation and that of fecundation. The power may exist with-
out the latter, when the testicles have ceased to functionate,
while the other glands, in particular the prostate, second the
venereal orgasm by their secretion, when the power of erection
is still preserved. Inversely, the testicles may contain healthy
spermatozoa in the impotent. In this case artificial fecunda-
tion by the syringe is practicable.
Individual Variations in Sexual Power. — The fact that there
are men who for several years can copulate several times a day
proves to what extent sexual power varies in man. Sexual
excitation and desire may sometimes attain such a degree that
they are repeated a few minutes after ejaculation. It is not
rare for a man to perform coitus ten or fifteen times in a single
night, in brothels and elsewhere, although such excess borders
on the domain of pathology. I know a case in which coitus
was performed thirty times. I was once consulted by an old
woman of 65 who complained of the insatiable sexual appetite
of her husband, aged 73! He awakened her every morning at
three o'clock to have connection, before going to work. Not
content ^dth this, he repeated the performance every evening
and often also after the mid-day meal. Inversely, I have seen
THE SEXUAL APPETITE 83
healthy looking husbands, at the age of greatest sexual power,
accuse themselves of excess for having cohabited with their
wives once a month or less. The reformer, Luther, who was a
practical man, laid down the average rule of two or three con-
nections a week in marriage, at the time of highest sexual power.
I may say that my numerous observations as a physician have
generally confirmed this rule, which seems to me to conform
very well to the normal state to which man has become gradually
adapted during thousands of years.
Husbands who would consider this average as an imprescripti-
ble right would, however, make wrong pretensions, for it is
quite possible for a normal man to contain himself much longer,
and it is his duty to do so, not only when his wife is ill, but also
during menstruation and pregnancy.
The question of sexual relations during pregnancy is more
difficult, on account of its long duration. In this case caution
is necessary, but total abstinence from sexual connection is, in
my opinion, superfluous. ^
The Desire of Change in Man. — A peculiarity of the sexual
appetite in man, which is fatal for society, is his desire for
change. This desire is not only one of the principal causes of
polygamy, but also of prostitution and other analogous organ-
izations. It arises from the want of sexual attraction in what
one is accustomed to and from the stronger excitation produced
by all that is new; a phenomenon of which we have spoken
above. On the average, woman has a hereditary disposition
which is much more monogamous than man. The sexual ap-
petite thus loses its intensity from the prolonged habit of con-
nection with the same woman, but, becomes much more intense
with other women, if not in all men at any rate in most. Such
desires may generally be overcome by the aid of a true and
noble love, and by sentiments of duty and fidelity toward the
family and toward a respected wife. We cannot, however,
deny that they exist, nor that they are the cause of the worst
excesses, and the most violent scenes, often with a tragic result.
We shall return to this subject later.
Excitation and Cooling of the Sexual Appetite. — Without touch-
ing the domain of pathology, I must again dwell on the great
84 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
individual diversity of the objects of the male sexual appetite.
It is usually young but mature female forms of healthy appear-
ance, and especially the sight of the nudity of certain parts of
the body which are usually covered, particularly the breasts and
sexual organs, which most strongly excite the sexual appetite in
man. It is the same with the corresponding odors. The voice,
the physionomy, the clothing and many other details may also
provoke his desires. There are, however, men who are more
expited by thin and pale women.
/Certain attributes excite one and not another; for instance,
the hair, certain odors, certain forms of face, a certain fashion
of clothing, the form of the breasts, etc. The peculiarities,
which are absent in women with whom a man has been on familiar
terms in his youth are generally those which attract the most. !
In sexual matters contrasts tend to mutual attraction. Thin
people often become enamored of fat, short ones of long ones,
and inversely. One cannot, however, fix any rules. One often
sees young men excited at the sight of women of older age, and
old men enamored of very young women, even of children. All
these discrepancies constitute the more important points of
origin of sexual pathology. In spite of all, there still exist a
gi-eat number of tranquil men with monogamous instincts and
not fond of change. Lastly, we must not forget that super-
abundant feeding and idleness exalt the sexual appetite and
tend to polygamy, while hard work, especially physical, and
frugal diet diminish it.
It is needless to say that the mental qualities react power-
fully on the sexual appetite. A quarrelsome temper, coldness
and repulsion on the part of a woman cool the desires of the
man, while an ardent sexual desire on the part of the woman,
her love and tenderness, tend to increase and maintain them.
We are dealing here with purely animal sexual instinct, and we
may state that the sexual appetite of woman generally excites
strongly that of man, and considerably increases his pleasure
dui'ing coitus. There are, however, exceptions in the inverse
sense, in which coldness and disgust on the part of the woman
excite the passion of certain men, who have, however, no taste
foi- libidinous women. All degrees are found in this domaim^jj?
THE SEXUAL APPETITE 85
Active in the sexual act the man desires corresponding senti-
ments in the woman. But, on the other hand, all want of
natural reserve, and delicate sentiment, and all cynical sexual
provocation on the part of a woman, produce in the normal
man a repulsive effect. The normal woman possesses an ad-
mirable instinct in these matters and knows how to betray her
feelings in a sufficiently fine and delicate manner, so as not to
hurt those of the man.
A phenomenon, which we shall meet with in Chapter VIII,
under the name of psychic impotence, shows the powerful and
disturbing interference of thoughts on the automatic action of
instinctive sexual activity. A momentary psychic impotence
is not necessarily pathological. While voluptuous sensations
alternate during coitus with desire and corresponding erotic
representations, a sudden idea of the ridiculousness of the situa-
tion, signs of pain or of bad temper in the woman, the idea of
impotence or of the real object of coitus; finally, anything which
acts as a contrast to the sensations and impulses of coitus, may
interrupt it, so that the voluptuous sensations and sexual appe-
tite disappear and erection subsides. Voluntary efforts are often
incapable of putting things right again. The charm is broken,
and only new images and new sentiments associated instinctively
with the sexual appetite can be reestablished, by making the sub-
conscious state preponderate over the reasoning consciousness.
Influence of Modern Civilization. Pornography. — Human sex-
uality has been unfortunately perverted and in part grossly
altered by civilization, which has even developed it artificially
in a pathological sense. The point has been reached of con-
sidering as normal, relations which are in reality absolutely
abnormal. For example, it is maintained that prostitution pro- .
duces normal coitus in man. How can this term be seriously
employed in speaking of connection with a prostitute who is
absolutely indifferent to it, and who seeks only to excite her
clients artificially and to get their money, without mentioning
venereal diseases which she so often presents them with! For-
getful of the natural aim of the sexual appetite, civilization has
transformed it into artificial enjoyment, and has invented all
possible means to increase and diversify it.
86 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
As far back as the history of civilization goes we see this state
of affairs, and in this sense we are neither better nor worse than
our ancestors. But we possess more diverse and more refined
measures than barbarian peoples, and than our direct ances-
tors, to satisfy our unwholesome desires. Modern art in par-
ticular often serves to excite eroticism, and we must frankly
admit that it often descends to the level of pornography. Hypo-
critical indignation against those who dare to say this often
serves only to cover in the name of art the most indecent excit-
ants of eroticism.
Photography and all the perfected methods of reproduction of
pictures, the increasing means of travel which facilitate clan-
destine sexual relations, the industrial art which ornaments our
apartments, the increasing luxury and comfort of dwellings,
beds, etc., are, at the present day, so many factors in the science
of erotic voluptuousness. Prostitution itself has become adapted
to all the pathological excrescences of vice. In a word, the arti-
ficial culture of the human sexual appetite has given rise to a
veritable high school of debauchery. The artistic and realistic
representations of erotic sexual scenes, so widespread at the
present day, are much more capable of exciting the sexual
appetite than the crude and unnatural pictures of former days,
when, however, erotic objects of art generally belonged to a few
rich persons or to museums.
Influence of Repeated Sexual Excitations. — The artificial and
varied repetition of sexual excitation, by means of objects which
provoke it, increases the sexual appetite. This cannot be
doubted, for the law of exercise is a general truth in the physiol-
ogy of the nervous system. This law, which is also called the
law of training, shows that every kind of nervous acti\'ity is
increased by exercise. A man becomes a glutton by accustom-
ing himself to eat too much, a good walker by exercising his legs.
The habit of wearing fine clothes or of washing in cold water
causes these things to become a necessity. By continually occu-
pying om'selves with a certain thing, we take a liking for it and
often become virtuosos. By always thinking of a disease we are led
to imagine that we suffer from it. A melody too often repeated
often becomes automatic and we whistle or hum it unconsciously.
THE SEXUAL APPETITE 87
Inversely, inactivity weakens the effect of irritations which
correspond to it. By neglecting certain activities or the provo-
cation of certain sensations, these diminish in intensity, and we
cease more and more to be affected by them. We become idle
when we are inactive, for the cerebral resistance accumulates,
and idleness renders the renewal of the corresponding activity
more difficult. It is not surprising, therefore, to find this law
in the phenomena of the sexual appetite, which diminishes with
abstinence and increases with repeated excitation and satis-
faction. However, another force, that of the accumulation of
semen in the seminal vesicles, associated with an old natural
inherited instinct, often counteracts the law of exercise of the
nervous system, as the empty stomach excites the instinct of nutri-
tion. But, however imperious the hunger, and however indis-
pensable its satisfaction for the maintenance of life, this does not
impair the truth of the old saying, ''Appetite comes by eating."
The exaggerated desire for sleep experienced by idle people
is an analogous phenomenon. Although sufficient sleep is a
necessity for healthy and productive cerebral activity, an exag-
gerated desire for sleep may be artificially developed.
These phenomena are of fundamental importance in the ques-
tion of the sexual appetite. Here, the well-known axiom of
moderation which says, "Abuse does not exclude use" finds its
application. An English commentator on Cicero erroneously
attributes to him the following: "True moderation consists in
the absolute domination of the passions and appetites, as well
as all wrong desires, by reason. It exacts total abstinence from
all things which are not good and which are not of an absolutely
innocent character." This definition is excellent, although it is
not Cicero's. It excludes, for example, the use of a toxic sub-
stance such as alcohol, which is not a natural food, but not the
moderate satisfaction of the sexual appetite which is normally
intended for the preservation of the species, for this satisfaction
may be good or bad, normal or vicious, innocent or criminal,
according to circumstances. In this connection, the application
of the right measure, and choice of the appropriate object raise
delicate and complicated questions. So-called moral sermons
lead to nothing in this domain.
88 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
After numerous personal observations made on very diverse
individuals who have consulted me with regard to sexual ques-
tions, I think I can affii'm that when a man wishes to be loyal to
himself he is generally able to distinguish between natural
desire and artificial excitation of the sexual appetite. To be
pursued and tormented by sexual images and desires, even when
striving against them, and when the legitimate and normal occa-
sion to satisfy them is absent, is not the same thing as to pass
the time in inventing means of artificial excitement to pleasure
and orgy while leading an idle and egoistic 'life. I speak here
of the normal man and not of certain pathological states in which
the sexual appetite takes the character of a perpetual obsession,
even against the will of the patient. By serious and persevering
work and by avoiding all means of excitation, the sexual appetite
can usually be kept within the bounds of moderation.
We have mentioned above pornographic art as one of the
means which artificially excite the sexual appetite. Along with
the interested exploitation of the habit of taking alcoholic
drinks, exploitation of the sexual appetite constitutes one of the
largest fields of what may be called social brigandage. Besides
pornographic pictures, the principal means employed to artifi-
cially excite the sexual weaknesses of man are the following:
Pornographic novels in which sexual desire is excited by all
the artifice of the novelist, and in which the illustrations often
rival those we have just spoken of to seduce the purchaser.
Alcohol which, by paralyzing the judgment and will as well
as moral inhibitory sentiments, excites the sexual appetite and
renders it grossly impulsive. Its first fumes make man enter-
prising, and he falls an easy prey to proxenetism and prostitu-
tion, although it soon weakens the sexual power.
But it is the modern arsenal of prostitution which plays the
principal role. The proxenets (pimps) exploit both the sexual
appetites of men and the weakness and venality of women.
Their chief source of gain consisting in the artificial excitation of
the male sexual appetite by all possible means, their art consists
in dressing their merchandise, the prostitutes, with attractive
refinement, especially when dealing Avith rich clients who pay
well. It is on this soU that are cultivated the most disgusting
i
THE SEXUAL APPETITE 89
artifices, intended to excite even the most pathological appe-
tites.
Other causes are added to lucre, or are the consequences of it.
A boy led to masturbation by pornographic pictures, or by the
seduction of a corrupted individual, becomes in his turn the
seducer of his comrades. Certain libidinous and unscrupulous
women have often persuaded adolescents and schoolboys to
sleep with them, thus awakening precocious and unhealthy
sexual appetites.
Such habits which excite the sexual appetite and cause it to
degenerate artificially, develop in their turn a mode of sexual
boasting in men, the effects of which are deplorable. To appear
manly, the boy thinks he ought to have a cigar in his mouth,
even if it makes him sick. In the same way the spirit of imita-
tion leads youth to prostitution. The fear of not doing as the
others and especially the terror of ridicule constitute a powerful
lever which is abused and exploited. Fearing mockery, a youth
is the more easily seduced by bad example the less he is put on
guard by parents or true friends. Instead of explaining to him
in time, seriously and affectionately, the nature of sexual con-
nection, its effects and dangers, he is abandoned to the chance
of the worst seductions.
In this way the sexual appetite is not only artificially increased
and often directed into unnatural channels, but also leads to the
poisoning and ruin of youth by venereal diseases, to say nothing
of alcoholism.
We have referred especially to educated youth, but the youth
of the lower classes are perhaps in a still worse condition, owing
to the promiscuity of their life in miserable dwellings. They
often witness coitus between their parents, or are themselves
trained in evil ways for purposes of exploitation.
It is astonishing that the results of such abominable deviation
of the sexual appetite are not worse. No doubt excesses dis-
turb the ties of marriage and of the family, and often provoke
impotence and other disorders of the sexual functions. It must,
however, be admitted that their satellites, the venereal diseases,
and their most common companion, alcoholism, are in reality
the greatest destroyers of health, and make much more consid-
90 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
erable ravages in society than the artificial increase and abnor-
mal deviations of the sexual appetite itself. However, the latter
by themselves very often poison the mind and social morality,
as we shall have occasion to see.
Immoderate sexual desire, provoked in men by the artificial
excitations of prostitution, etc., is a bad acquisition. It renders
difl&cult the accustomance to marriage, fidelity and ideal and
life-long love for the same woman. It is true, that many old
roues and habitues of brothels later on become faithful hus-
bands and fathers, especially when they have had the luck to
escape venereal disease.
But whoever looks behind the scenes may soon convince him-
self that the happiness of most unions of this kind is very rela-
tive. The degradation of the sexual sentiment of a man who
has long been accustomed to live with prostitutes is never
entirely effaced, and generally leaves indelible traces in the
human brain.
I readily admit that a man ^dth good hereditary dispositions,
who has only yielded for a short time to seductive influences,
may be reformed by a true and profound love. But even in
him, excesses leave traces which later on may easily lead him
astray when he becomes tired of the monotony of conjugal
relations with the same woman. On the other hand, we must
also recognize that sexual relations in themselves, even in mar-
riage, create a habit which often urges a married man to extra-
nuptial coitus, even when he had remained continent before
marriage.
The tricks which are played on a man by his sexual appetite,
especially by his polygamous instincts, must not, however, be
confounded with the systematic, artificial and abnormal train-
ing of the same appetite. The physical and psycliic attractions
of a woman are capable of completely diverting the sexual
desires of a man from their primary object, and of directing them
on the siren who captivates his senses. The elements of the
sexual appetite here form an inextricable mixture with those
of love, and constitute the inexhaustible theme of novels and
most true and sensational love stories.
Hereditary pathological dispositions play a considerable role
THE SEXUAL APPETITE 91
in many cases of this kind. Also, marriages of sudden and
passionate love (we are not dealing here with love marriages
concluded after sufficient reflection and deep mutual acquaint-
anceship) are not more stable than the so-called "mariages de
convenance," for passionate natures, usually more or less patho-
logical, are apt to fall from one extreme to the other. The
power exercised by sexual passion in such cases is terrible. It
produces conditions that may lead to suicide or assassination.
In men whose power of reason is neither strong nor independent,
opinions and conceptions are frequently changed; love may
change to hatred and hatred to love, the sentiment of justice
may lead to injustice, the loyal man may become a liar, etc. In
fact the sexual appetite is let loose like a hurricane in the brain
and becomes the despot of the whole mind. The sexual passion
has often been compared to drunkenness or to mental disease.
Even in its mildest forms it often renders the husband incapable
of sexual connection with his wife.
For example, a man may cherish, respect and even adore his
wife, and yet her presence and touch may not appeal to his
senses, nor excite his appetite or erection; while some low-
minded woman will produce in him an irresistible sensual attrac-
tion, even when he experiences neither esteem nor love for her.
In such cases sexual appetite is in more or less radical opposition
to love. Such extreme phenomena are not rare, but hardly
common. Although excited to coitus with the woman in question,
the husband would not in any case have her for wife, nor even
have children by her, for after the slightest reflection he despises
and fears her. Here, the sexual appetite represents the old
atavistic animal instinct, attracted by libidinous looks, exu-
berant charms, in a word by the sensual aspect of woman.
On the contrary, in a higher domain of the human mind, the
sentiments of sympathy of true love, deeply associated with
fidelity, and with intellectual and moral intimacy, unite against
the elementary power of the animal instinct. Here we see
dwelling in the same breast (or, to speak more correctly, in the
same central nervous system) two souls, which struggle "\Adth
each other.
We are not dealing here with cases in which a new passion
92 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
arrives to turn the man from his old affection. No doubt the
extreme cases of which we have spoken are not usual, but we see
in most men more or less considerable mixtures of analogous
sentiments in all possible degrees, especially when the woman
loved loses her physical attractions from age or other causes.
The Procreative Instinct. — The sexual appetite of man does
not consist exclusively in the desire for coitus. In many cases
it is combined, more or less strongly and more or less consciously,
with the desire to procreate children. Unfortunately, this desire
is far from being always associated with higher sentiments and
with love of children or the paternal instinct. In fact, con-
scious reasoning plays a smaller part than the animal instinct
of self-expansion. We shall see later on that the procreative
instinct often plays an important role in our present civilization.
The Sexual Appetite in Woman. — In the sexual act the role of
the woman differs from that of the man not only by being pas-
sive, but also by the absence of seminal ejaculations. In spite
of this the analogies are considerable. The erection of the clitoris
and its voluptuous sensations, the secretion from the glands of
Bartholin which resembles ejaculation in the male, the venereal
orgasm itself which often exceeds in intensity that of man, are
phenomena which establish harmony in sexual connection.
Although the organic phenomenon of the accumulation of
semen in the seminal vesicles is absent in w^oman, there is pro- i
duced in the nerve centers, after prolonged abstinence, an accu- I
mulation of sexual desire corresponding to that of man. A {
married woman confessed to me, w'hen I reproached her for be- I
ing unfaithful to her husband, that she desired coitus at least
once a fortnight, and that w^hen her husband was not there, she
took the first comer. No doubt the sentiments of this woman
were hardly feminine, but her sexual appetite w^as relatively '
normal.
Frequency of the Seyual Appetite in Woman. — As regards '
pure sexual appetite, extremes are much more common and
more considerable in woman than in man. In her this appetite
is developed much less often spontaneously than in him, and
where it is so, it is generally later. Voluptuous sensations are
usually only awakened by coitus.
THE SEXUAL APPETITE 93
In a considerable number of women the sexual appetite is
completely absent. For these, coitus is a disagi'eeable, often
disgusting, or at any rate an indifferent act. What is more singu-
lar, at least for masculine comprehension, and what gives rise
to the most frequent "quid pro quos," is the fact that such
women, absolutely cold as regards sexual sensations, are often
great coquettes, over-exciting the sexual appetites of man, and
have often a great desire for love and caresses. This is more
easy to understand if we reflect that the unsatiated desires of
the normal woman are less inclined toward coitus than toward
the assemblage of consequences of this act, which are so im-
portant for her whole life. When the sight of a certain man
I awakes in a young girl sympathetic desires and transports,
^she aspires to procreate children with this man only, to give
herself to him as a slave, to receive his caresses, to be loved by
him only, that he may become both the support and master of
her whole life. It is a question of general sentiments of indefi-
i nite nature, of a powerful desire to become a mother and enjoy
' domestic comfort, to realize a poetic and chivalrous ideal in
man, to gratify a general sensual need distributed over the whole
, body and in no way concentrated in the sexual organs or in the
desire for coitus.
: Nature of the Sexual Appetite in Woman. — The zone of sexual
\ excitation is less specially limited to the sexual organs in woman
' than in man. The nipples constitute in her an entire zone and
' their friction excites voluptuousness. If we consider the im-
, portance in the life of woman, of pregnancy, suckling, and all
i the maternal functions, we can understand why the mixture of
; her sentiments and sensations is so different from that of man.
j Her smaller stature and strength, together with her passive role
in coitus, explain why she aspires to a strong male support.
This is simply a question of natural phylogenetic adaptation.
This is why a young girl sighs for a courageous, strong and enter-
, prising man, who is superior to her, whom she is obliged to
I respect, and in whose arms she feels secure. Strength and skill
I in man are the ideal of the young savage and uncultured girl, his
I intellectual and moral superiority that of the young cultivated
girl, y
94 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
As a rule women are much more the slaves of their instincts
and habits than men. ^n primitive peoples, hardiness and bold-
ness in men were qualities which made for success. This ex-
plains why, even at the present day, the boldest and most
audacious Don Juans excite most strongly the sexual desires of
women, and succeed in turning the heads of most young girls,
in spite of their worst faults in other respects. Nothing is more
repugnant to the feminine instinct than timidity and awkward-
ness in man. In our time women become more and more
enthusiastic over the intellectual superiority of man, which
excites their desire. Without being indifferent to it, simple
bodily beauty in man excites the appetite of women to a less
extent. It is astonishing to see to what point women often
become enamored of old, ugly or deformed men. We shall see
later on that the normal woman is much more particular than
man in giving her love./ While the normal man is generally
attracted to coitus by nearly every more-or-less young and
healthy woman, this is by no means the case in the normal
woman with regard to man. She is also much more constant
than man from the sexual point of view. It is rarely possible
for her to experience sexual desire for several men at once; her
senses are nearly always attracted to one lover only.
■^The instinct of procreation is much stronger in woman than
in man, and is combined with the desire to give herself pas-
sively, to play the part of one who devotes herself, who is con-
quered, mastered and subjugated. These negative aspirations
form part of the normal sexual appetite of woman./
A peculiarity of the sexual sentiments of woman is an ill-
defined pathological phenomenon with normal sensations, a
phenomenon which in man, on the contrary, forms a very
marked contrast with the latter; I refer to the homosexual
appetite, in which the object is an individual of the same sex.
Normally, the adult man produces on another man an absolutely
repulsive effect from the sexual point of view; it is only patho-
logical subjects, or those excited by sexual privation who are
affected with sensual desires for other men. But in woman a
certam sensual desire for caresses, connected more or less with
unconscious and iU-defined sexual sensations, is not limited to
THE SEXUAL APPETITE 95
the male sex but extends to other women, to children, and even
to animals, apart from pathologically inverted sexual appetites.
Young normal girls often like to sleep together in the same bed,
to caress and kiss each other, which is not the case with normal
young men. In the male sex such sensual caresses are nearly
always accompanied and provoked by sexual appetite, which is
not the case in women. As we have already seen, man may
separate true love from the sexual appetite to such an extent
that two minds, each feeling in a different way, may inhabit the
same brain. A man may be a loving and devoted husband and
I at the same time satisfy his animal appetites with prostitutes.
In woman, such sexual dualism is much more rare and always
I unnatural, the normal woman being much less capable than
' man of separating love from sexual appetite.
These facts explain the singular caprices of the sexual
i appetite and orgasm in the normal woman, in whom these
phenomena are not easily produced without love.
The same woman who loves one man and not another is sus-
ceptible to sexual appetite and voluptuous sensations when she
cohabits with the first, while she is often absolutely cold and
insensible to the most passionate embraces of the second. This
fact explains the possibility of prostitution as it exists among
women. The worst prostitutes, who have connection with in-
numerable paying clients without feeling the least pleasure,
generally have a "protector" with whom they are enamored
and to whom they devote all their love and sincere orgasms, all
the time allowing themselves to be plundered and exploited by
him.
What the normal woman requires from man is love, tender-
ness, a firm support for life, a certain chivalrous nature, and
children. She can renounce the voluptuous sensations of coitus
infinitely more easily than the exigencies I have just indicated,
which are for her the principal things. Nothing makes a woman
more indignant than the indifference of her husband, when, for
instance, he treats her simply as a housekeeper. Some have
maintained that the average woman is more sensual than man,
others that she is less so. Both these statements are false; she
is sensual in another manner.
96 ') THE SEXUAL QUESTION
All the peculiarities of the sexual appetite in woman are thus
the combined product of: (1) the profound influence of the sex-
ual functions on her whole existence; (2) her passive sexual role;
(3) her special mental faculties. By these, and more especially
by her passive sexual role, are explained her instinctive co-
quettishness, her love of finery and personal adornment, in a
word her desire to please men by her external appearance, by
her looks, movements and grace. These phenomena betray the
instinctive sexual desires of the young girl, which as we have
just seen, do not normally correspond to a direct desire for
coitus.
Wliile a virgin experiences in her youth the sensations we
have just described, things change after marriage, and as a
general rule, after repeated sexual connections. If these do
not provoke voluptuous sensations in some women, they do in
the majority, and this is no doubt the normal state of affairs.
Habit, then, produces an increasing desire for coitus and its sen-
sations, and it is not rare, in the course of a long life in common,
for the roles to be reversed and the woman become more libidi-
nous than the man. This partly explains why so many widows
are anxious to remarry. They easily attain their object, as
men quickly succumb to the sexual desire of woman when it is
expressed in an unequivocal manner.
In widows, two strong sentiments struggle against each other,
with variable results in different individuals; on the one hand,
feminine constancy in love, and the memory of the deceased;
on the other hand, the acquired habit of sexual connection and
its voluptuous sensations, which leaves a void and appeals for
compensation. The sexual appetite being equal, the first senti-
ment prevails generally in religious women or those of a deeply
moral or sentimental character, while the second prevails in
women of more material or less-refined nature, or in those
simply guided by their reason. In these internal struggles, the
more delicate sentiments and the stronger will of the woman
result from the fact that when she wishes she can overcome her
appetites much better than man. But, in spite of this, the power
of the sexual appetite plays an important part in the inward
struggle we have just mentioned. When this appetite is absent
THE SEXUAL APPETITE 97
there is no struggle, and the widow's conduct is dictated either
by her own convenience, or by the instinct which naturally
leads a woman to yield to the amorous advances of a man.
At the critical age, that is the time when menstruation ceases,
neither the sexual appetite nor voluptuous sensations disap-
pear, although desire diminishes normally as age advances. In
this respect it is curious to note that old women possess no sex-
ual attraction for men, while they often feel libidinous desires
almost as strongly as young women. This is a kind of natural
anomaly.
As we have already stated, individual differences in the sexual
appetite are much greater in woman than in man. Some
women are extremely excitable, and from their first youth ex-
perience violent sexual desire, causing them to masturbate or to
throw themselves onto men. Such women are usually poly-
androus by nature, although the sexual appetite in woman is
normally much more monogamous than that of man. Such
excesses in woman take on a more pathological character than
in man, and go under the name of nymphomania. The insatia-
bility of these females, who may be met with in all classes of
society, may become fabulous. Night and day, with short in-
terruptions for sleeping and eating, they are, in extreme cases,
anxious for coitus. They become less exhausted than men,
because their orgasm is not accompanied by loss of semen.
Although in the normal state woman is naturally full of deli-
cacy and sentiments of modesty, nothing is easier than to make
these disappear completely by training her systematically to
sexual immodesty or to prostitution. Here we observe the
effects of the routine and suggestible character of feminine
psychology, of the tendency of woman to become the slave of
habit and custom, as well as of her perseverance when her
determined will pursues a definite end. Prostitution gives us
sad proofs of this fact. ^
The psychology of prostitutes is very peculiar. Attempts t(K
restore them to a moral life nearly always fail hopelessly; it is
rare to see them permanently successful. Most of these women
have a heredity of bad quality and are of weak character, idle
and libidinous. They find it much easier to gain their living by
98 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
prostitution, and forget their work, if they have ever learned
any. The poverty, drunkenness and shame which follow se-
duction and illegitimate birth have no doubt di'iven more than
one prostitute to her sad trade, but the naturally evil disposi-
tions of these women constitute without any doubt the principal
cause. Alcohol, venereal diseases and bad habits, combined
with continually repeated sexual degradation, afterwards deter-
mine progi'essive decadence.
Some of these women, however, of better quality, only sur-
render themselves to prostitution by compulsion; they suffer
from this existence and strive to escape from it. The grisettes
and lorettes* form a group intermediate between prostitution
and natural love; they are women who hire themselves for a
time to one man in particular, and are maintained and paid by
him in return for satisfying his sexual appetites. Here again,
sexual desire only exceptionally plays the chief role. The con-
duct of these women results from their loose character and
pecuniary interest.
If, therefore, we admit on the one hand that the sexual ex-
cesses of the female sex are especially grafted on hereditary
disposition of character, or are primarily due to strong appe-
tites, we are obliged on the other hand to recognize that the
great role played by sexuality in the brain of woman renders it
more difficult for her than for man to return to better ways when
she has once prostituted herself, or when she has surrendered in
any way to sexual licentiousness, even when her original quality
was not bad.
In man the sexual appetite is much more easily separated
than in woman from other instincts, sentiments and intellectual
life in general, and possesses in him, however powerful it may
be, a much more transient character, which prevents it domi-
nating the whole mental life.
I have dwelt so much on this point because it is essential to
know the differences which exist between man and woman in
this respect, and to take them into account if we wish to give a
*The terms grisette and lorette are now obsolete, and the names given to
this class of wonien constantly varies. I shall, nevertheless, employ them in
the course ot this work because they clearly define certain special varieties
of remunerated concubinage.
THE SEXUAL APPETITE 99
just and healthy judgment on the sexual question from the social
point of view. The more it is our duty to give the same rights
to both sexes, the more absurd it is to disregard the profound-
ness of their differences and to imagine that these can ever be
effaced.
Flirtation. — If we look in an English dictionary for the mean-
ing of the word flirt, we find it equivalent to coquetry. But
this English term has become fixed and modernized in another
'sense which has become international, to express the old idea
of a series of well-known phenomena which must be clearly dis-
tinguished from coquetry.
Coquetry, an especially feminine attribute, is not in itself
dependent on the sexual appetite; it is an indirect irradiation,
purely psychical, and we shall speak of it later on. Flirtation, as
we now understand the term, is directly connected with the
sexual appetite, and constitutes its external impression in all
the wealth of its forms, as much in man as in woman. In a
word, flirtation is a polymorphous language which clearly ex-
presses the sexual desires of an individual to the one who
awakens these desires, actual coitus alone excepted.
Flirtation may be practiced in a more or less unconscious
manner. It is by itself neither a psychic attribute nor sex-
ual appetite, for a human being may so hide and overcome his
appetites that no one remarks them; and on the contrary, he
may simulate sexual appetite without feeling it, or at any rate
behave in such a way as to excite it in his partner. Flirtation
thus consists in an activity calculated to disclose the eroticism
of the subject as well as to excite that of others. It is needless
to say that the nature of coquetry disposes to flirtation.
Flirtation comprises all the sport of love, kisses, caresses and
all kinds of sexual excitation even to orgasm, without reaching
the consurmnation of coitus. All degrees may be noted; and,
according to temperament, flirtation may be limited to slight
excitation of the sexual appetite or may extend to violent and
rapidly increasing emissions. The considerable individual differ-
ences which exist in sexual sensibility result in the same percep-
tion or the same act having little effect on one individual, while
it excites another to a high degree. In the latter case, especially
100 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
in man, flirtation may even lead to venereal orgasm without
coitus, and even without any manipulations which resemble it.
A woman of exuberant form, assuming sensual and voluptuous
attitudes, may thus provoke an ejaculation by the slight and
repeated friction of her dress against the penis of an excitable
dancer.
The same thing often occurs when a passionate couple caress
and embrace each other without the genital organs being touched
or even exposed. In this respect the woman is better protected*
than the man, but when she is very excitable an orgasm may
be produced in her during the caresses of a passionate flirtation
by the pressure or friction of her legs against each other (a
variety of masturbation in woman).
As a rule, however, things do not go so far as this in flirtation.
The sight and touch are used alternately. The eyes play an
important part, for they may express much and consequently
act powerfully, A pressure of the hands, an apparently chance
movement, touching the dress and the skin, etc., are the usual
means of flirtation. In situations where people are close to-
gether or pressed against each other, as in railway carriages,
or at table, the legs play a well-known part, by pressure of the
knees and feet.
This dumb conversation of the sexual appetite begins at first
in a prudent and apparently innocent manner, so that the act-
ing party does not risk being taxed with impropriety; but as
soon as he who began the flirtation perceives that his slight
invitations are welcome he grows bolder, a tacit mutual agree-
ment is established, and the game continues without a single
word betraying the reciprocal sensations. Many who practice
flirtation, both men and women, avoid betraying themselves by
words, and they take pleasure in this mutual excitation of their
genital sensibility, however incomplete it may be.
/ Flirtation may assume very different forms according to
education and temperament. The action of alcohol on the
brain develops the coarsest forms of flirtation. Every one
knows the clumsy embraces of semi-intoxicated persons which
can often be seen at night or on Sundays and holidays, in the
street or in railway carriages, etc. I designate these by the
THE SEXUAL APPETITE 101
term "alcoholic flirtation." Even in the best and most refined
society flu-tation loses its delicacy even under the effect of the
slightest degree of alcoholic intoxication.
Flirtation assumes a more delicate and more complicated
character, rendering it gracious and full of charm, in persons
of higher education, especially when they are highly intellectual
or artistic.
We must also mention the intellectual variety of flirtation
which is not expressed by sight or touch, but only by language.
Delicate allusions to sexual matters and somewhat lascivious
conversation excite eroticism as much as looks and touch. Ac-
cording to the education of the persons concerned, this talk
may be coarse and vulgar, or on the contrary refined and full
of wit, managed with more or less skill, or clumsily. Here the
natural finesse of woman plays a considerable part. Men want-
ing in tact are clumsy and offensive in their attempts at flirta-
tion, and thus extinguish instead of exciting the woman's
eroticism. The manner in which alcoholic flirtation manifests
itself in cynical, dull, obtrusive and stupid conversation, corre-
sponds to its other forms of expression. Woman desires
flirtation; but does not wish it to assume an unbecoming
form.
One can say anything to a woman; all depends on the way
in which it is said. I have seen lady doctors with whom one
could discuss the most ticklish subjects, profoundly shocked by
the misplaced pleasantries of a tactless professor. In themselves
these pleasantries were quite innocent for medical ears, as my
lady colleagues were finally obliged to admit, when I pointed out
to them the specially feminine character of their psychic reaction,
proving to them that they listened without a frown to things ten
times worse, when the lecturer gave them a moral tone.
Men also generally feel disgusted with the dull, cynical or
clumsy form of female eroticism, although they are not usually
over-refined themselves in this respect.
This last phenomenon leads us to distinguish between flirta-
tion in man and in woman. For woman it constitutes the only
permissible way of expressing erotic sentiments, and even then
much restraint is imposed on her. Circumstances develop in
102 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
her the art of flirtation and give it remarkable finesse. Un-
less she exposes herself to great danger, woman can only leave
her sensuaUty to be guessed. Eveiy audacious and tactless
provocation fails in its object, it drives away the men and
destroys a young girl's reputation. Even when possessed by
the most violent erotic desire woman cannot ostensibly depart
from her passive role without compromising herself. Neverthe-
less, she succeeds on the whole very easily in exciting the pas-
sions of man, by the aid of a few artifices. No doubt she does
not entirely dominate him by this means. She must be very
delicate and adi'oit, at any rate at first, in the provocative art
of flirtation. These frivolities are greatly facilitated by her
whole nature and by the character of her habitual eroticism.
Man, on the other hand, may be more audacious in the expres-
sion of his passion. This brings us back to what has been said
concerning the sexual differences.
A whole volume could be written on the forms of flirtation,
which is the indispensable expression of aU sexual desire. Among
engaged couples it assumes a legal character and even a con-
ventional form. The way in which barmaids flirt with their
customers is also somewhat conventional, although in quite a
different way. In society, flirtation is generally seasoned
with more Attic salt, whether it is not allowed to exceed certain
limits, or whether it leads to free liaisons after the manner of
the Greek hetaira. In the country, among peasant girls and
boys it takes a grosser form, if not more sensual, than among
the cultivated classes; in the latter, language takes the principal
part. Among rich idlers in watering places, large hotels, and
even in some sanatoriums, flirtation takes a dominant place and
constitutes, in all its degrees, the chief occupation of a great
number of the visitors. It grows like a weed wherever man
has a monotonous occupation or suffers from the ennui of
idleness.
In certain individuals, flirtation takes the place of coitus
from the sensual, and love from the sentimental point of view.
There are modern crazy natures who spend their existence in
all kinds of artificial excitation of the senses, creatures of both
sexes incapable of a useful action.
THE SEXUAL APPETITE 103
As a momentary and transient expression of all the neces-
sities of love, flirtation has a right to existence ; but, when culti-
vated on its own account and always remaining as flirtation, it
becomes a symptom of degeneration or sexual depravity, among
idle, crazy and vicious persons of all kinds.
CHAPTER V
LOVE AND OTHER IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE IN i
THE HUMAN MIND i
(
I
Generalities. Jealousy. — We have seen that the mechanism of
the appetites consists in instincts inherited from our animal
ancestors by mnemic engraphia and selection, and that it is i
situated in the primordial or lower cerebral centers (basal
ganglia, spinal cord, etc.). In some of the lower animals we
already find other instinctive nervous reactions which consti-
tute the indirect effects or derivatives of the sexual appetite. I
The most evident of these is jealousy, or the feeling of grief and
anger produced in an individual when the object of his sexual
appetite is disputed by another individual of the same sex. ^
Jealousy may also arise from other instincts, such as those of
nutrition, ambition, etc.; but it forms one of the most t3TDical
complements of the sexual appetite, and leads, as we know,
to furious combats, especially between males, sometimes also
between females.
Owing to its profoundly hereditary origin, this passion has a
very instinctive character, and might quite as well have been
mentioned in the preceding chapter. I deal with it here be-
cause it is naturally associated with other irradiations of the
sexual appetite, and because it has a peculiarly mental character.
Relation Between Love and Sexual Appetite. Sympathy. —
Having entered the higher brain, or organ of mind, and become
modified, complicated, and combined with the different branches
of psychic activity, the sexual appetite takes the name of love,
properly so-called. In order to better understand the relations
of love to the sexual appetite we must refer to Chapter II. Let
us begin with a short exposition of the phylogeny of the senti-
ments of sympathy, or the altruistic and social senthnents.
104
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 105
In the lower animals with no separate sexes egoism reigns
absolutely. Each individual eats as much as it wants, then
divides, buds or conjugates, thus fulfilling the sole object of its
existence. The same principle holds in the lower stages of re-
production by separate sexes. Spiders give us a good example.
In these, copulation is a dangerous act for the male, for if he is
not extremely careful he is devoured by the female, sometimes
even before having attained his object, often soon afterward,
in order that nothing may be lost. However, the female shows
a certain consideration for her eggs, and sometimes even for the
young after they are hatched. ^
In higher stages of the animal kingdom sentiments of sym- /. ;■'
pathy may be observed, derived from the sexual union of indi-
viduals. These are sentiments of attachment of the male for
the female, and especially of the female (sometimes the male ' ^^
also) for their progeny.
Such sentiments become developed and may be transformed
into intense love between the sexes, of long duration. Birds,
for instance, often remain faithful for many years, and even for
life. From these simple facts is evolved the intimate relation-
ship which exists between sexual love and other sentiments of
sympathy, that is to say affection, or love in the more vague and
more extended sense of the term.
To every sentiment of sympathy between two individuals
(sympathy forms part of the sentiments of pleasure) there is a
corresponding contrary correlative sentiment of grief, when the
object of sympathy dies, becomes sick, takes flight or is carried
off. This sentiment often takes the form of simple sadness,
but it may attain a degree of incurable melancholy. Among
certain monkeys and parrots, we often see the death of one of
the conjoints lead to the refusal of all food and finally to death
of the survivor, after increasing sadness and depression. Re-
moval of the young produces a profound sadness in the female
ape. But when an animal discovers the cause of the grief, when,
for instance, a stranger attempts to take away his mate or his
young, a mixed reaction of sentiment is produced, that is to say
anger or even fury against the perpetrator of the deed.
Jealousy is only a special form of this anger. The sentiment
106 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
of anger and its violent and hostile expression constitute the
natural reaction against one who disturbs a sentiment of
pleasure, a reaction which tends to reestablish the latter. The
power of the sentiment of anger increases with the offensive and
defensive faculties, while, m weak and peaceful beings, terror
and sadness to a great extent take theu place. On the other
hand, the sight of defenseless prey suffices to provoke, in the
rapacious who are strong and well armed, by simple reflex asso-
ciation, a cruel sentiment of voluptuous anger, which is also
observed in man.
Sentiment of Duty. — Another derivative of the sentiment of
sympathy is that of duty, that is the moral sense. All senti-
ment of love or sympathy urges the one who loves to certain
acts destined to increase the welfare of the object loved. This
is why the mother nourishes her young and plucks feathers and
hairs to make them a soft bed; and why the father brmgs food
to his wife and young, and defends them against their enemies.
All these acts, which are not to the advantage of the individual
but to the object or objects of his sympathy, exact more or less
laborious efforts, corn-age in the face of danger, etc. They thus
provoke an internal struggle between the sentiment of sympa-
thy and egoism, or the unpleasantness of undertaking things
which are troublesome and disagreeable for the indi^ddual him-
self. From this struggle between two opposed series of senti-
ments is derived a third group of complex or mixed sentiments,
that of duty, or inoral conscience. When the sentiment of sym-
pathy prevails, when the animal does his duty toward his young
and his conjoint, he feels a sentiment of pleasure, of duty accom-
plished. If, on the contrary, he has been negligent, the egoistic
instincts having for the moment prevailed, the remorse of con-
science results, that is the painful uneasiness which follows all
disobedience to the instinctive sentiments of sympathy. This
uneasiness accumulates in the brain in the form of self-discon-
tent, and may lead to an accentuated sentiment of repentance.
These phenomena exist both in the male and in the female,
and if it was not so, the accomplishment of duty would be impos-
sible; the cat would run away instead of defending her young;
would eat her prey instead of giving it to them, etc. We thus
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 107
see the elements of human social sentiment already very marked
in many animals. Remorse and repentance can only be formed
on the basis of preexisting sentiments of sympathy.
Sentiment of Kinship. — A higher degree of the sentiments of \
sympathy is developed when these do not remain limited to a
temporary union, but when the union of the sexes is trans-
formed into durable or even life-long marriage, as we see in
monkeys and in most birds. In another manner the sentiments
of sympathy are developed by extension of the family commu-
nity to a greater number of individuals, who are grouped to-
gether for the common defense, as we see in swallows, crows,
and to a higher degree, in the large organized communities of
social animals, as the beavers, bees, ants, etc. In the latter,
the sentiment of sympathy and duty nearly always affects
all the individuals of the community, while anger and jealousy
are extended toward every being which does not form part ^
of it.
We must be blinded by prejudice not to comprehend that
these same general facts, revealed by the study of biclogy and
animal psychology, are repeated in the human mind. Some
animals are even superior to the majority of men in the intensity
of their sentiments of sympathy and duty, as well as in love and
conjugal fidelity — monkeys and parrots, for example. In the
social insects, such as the ants and bees, with their communities
so solidly organized and so finely coordinated on the basis of
instinct, the sentiment of social duty has almost entirely re-
placed the individual sentiments of sympathy. An ant or a ,.
bee only loves, so to speak, the whole assemblage of his com-
panions. It does not sacrifice itself for any one of them in
particular, but only for the community. In these animals the
individual is only regarded as a number in the community whose
motto is — one for all, but never all for one.
In bees especially, the degree of sympathy extended to a
member or a class of the hive is exactly proportional to the
utility of this member to the community. The working bees
will kill themselves or die of hunger in order to nourish their
queen, while in the autumn they ruthlessly massacre all the
males or drones which have become useless.
108 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Sentiments of Patriotism and Humanity. — The human brain,
so powerful and so compHcated, contains a little of all these
things, with enormous individual variations. In man, the sen-
timents of sympathy and duty relate especially to the family,
that is to say, they are to a great extent limited to individuals
interested in a sexual community, viz., the conjoints and chil-
dren, as occurs generally in mammals. It follows that senti-
ments of sympathy connected with larger communities such as
remote relatives, the clan, the community, the country, those
who speak the same language, etc., are relatively much weaker,
and result from education and custom rather than from instinct.
The weakest sentiment is certainly that of humanity, which re-
gards each man as a brother and companion, and from which is
evolved the general sentiment of solidarity or social duty. How
can it be otherwise in a species which has lived for thousands
or perhaps millions of years as small hostile tribes, separated
from each other? Primitive men were so destitute of all hu-
manitarian sentiment that they not only killed one another
and practiced mutual slavery, but also martyred, tortured and
even devoured one another.
In spite of all this, and as the result of custom and life in
common, the individual sentiments of sympathy in man are
easily extended to members of other races, especially as regards
different sexes, so much so that enemies conquered and taken
prisoners often became later on, owing to life in common, the
friends or mates of their conquerors.
Antipathy. — Inversely, individual antipathies and enmity
often occur not only between members of the same tribe but even
between those of the same family. The latter may lead to
parricide, fratricide, infanticide, or assassination of a conjoint.
Phylogeny of Love. — The social life of ants ofTers us some in-
structive analogies. In spite of the intense hostility of different
colonies of ants among themselves, there may be obtained by
habitude, often after many desperate combats, alliances between
colonies which were hitherto enemies, even between colonies of
different species. These alliances henceforth become perma-
nent. This is very curious to observe at the time when the
alliance begins to be formed. We then see certain individual
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 109
hatreds persist, to a varying extent, for several days. Certain
individuals of the weaker party are maltreated by other indi-
viduals of the conquering party. They cut off their limbs and
antennae and often martyrize them to death with a rabidness
that sadly resembles human sentiments! Hatred and dispute
between individuals of the same colony of ants are, on the
other hand, extremely rare. I can guarantee the correctness of
all these observations, having often repeated them myself and
having recorded them in my works on the habits of ants. More-
over, they have since been confirmed by other writers.
After what we have just said, and especially if we take into
consideration the numerous observations which have been made
in biology, we can hardly doubt that the sentiment of sexual
attraction, or the sexual appetite, has been the primary source
of nearly all, if not all, the sentiments of sympathy and duty
which have been developed in animals and especially in man.
Many of these sentiments are no doubt little by little completely
differentiated and rendered entirely independent of sexual sen-
timent, forming a series of corresponding conceptions adapted
to divers social objects in the form of sentiments of amity. The
latter in their turn have often become the generators of social
formations and of a more generalized altruism. Many others,
however, have remained more or less consciously associated
with the sexual appetite, as is certainly the case in man.
This short sketch which we have given of the phylogenetic
history of love and its derivatives is sufficient to show the im-
mense influence which sexual life has exercised on the whole
development of the human mind.
On the other hand, we must avoid exaggerating the actual
importance of this influence. Young children, who possess
neither sexual appetite nor corresponding sen^tions, already
give evidence not only of intense sentiments of sympathy and
antipathy, anger and jealousy, but also of commiseration, when
they see those whom they love suffer; they may even show
that they already possess the sentiment of duty or disinterested
devotion. All these phylogenetic derivatives of the sentiments
of sexual attraction are thus developed in the individual long
before the sexual instinct itself, from which they have become
110 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
absolutely mdependent. This does not prevent them being
powerfully influenced by the sexual instinct when this awakes,
or from being associated with its direct derivatives when the
sexual appetite, properly so-called, is absent. Thus we see
absolutely cold women become loving and devoted wives and
mothers, and possessing a highly developed sense of kinship.
Maternal love is a sentiment of sympathy derived from the
sexual sentiment, adapted directly to children, who are the
products of sexual life.
Constellations. — From all tliis results the immense compli-
cation of the peculiarities of the human mind which are con-
nected with love. Individual variations of the disposition to
sexual appetite are combined with individual dispositions to the
higher qualities of mind — general sentiments, intelligence and
will — to form the most diverse individual combinations, which
we may call constellations. Moreover, inherited individual dis-
positions are combined in man with a great number of expe-
riences and remembrances, acquired in all domains in the course
of his life, accumulating them in his brain by what is called
education or adaptation to environment. From the immense
complexity of energies resulting from hereditary dispositions
combined with acquired factors, the resolutions and acts of
man are derived, without his being able to account for the
infinite multiplicity of causes which determine them.
It is thus that a man may be a model of conduct or morality,
simply from the fact that his sexual appetite is almost nil.
Another, on the contrary, suffers from an exaggerated sexual
appetite, but is devoted, conscientious, and even scrupulous;
this results in violent internal struggles, from which he does not
always emerge victorious. A third is moderate in his appe-
tites; if his sentiment of duty is strong and he possesses a
strong will, he will resist his desires, while if his will is weak
or his moral sense defective, he will succumb to the first
temptation.
Love and sexual appetite may be intimately connected or
completely separated in the same individual. In the same way
that a cold v/oman may be a good mother, a very sensual woman
may be a bad one, but the inverse may also be met with.
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 111
Love. — I speak here of the true love of a higher nature of one
sex for the other, or sexual love, which is not simple friendship,
but is combined with sexual appetite. To write on love is
almost to pour water into the ocean, for literature is three parts
composed of dissertations on love. There can be no doubt that
the normal man feels a great desire for love. The irradiations
of love in the mind constitute one of the fundamental conditions
of human happiness and one of the principal objects of life.
Unfortunately, the question is too often treated with exagger-
ated sentiment, or on the other hand, with sensual cynicism; it
is examined from one side only, or else it is misunderstood.
First of all, love appears to be usually kindled by the sexual
appetite. This is the celebrated story of Cupid's arrow. One
falls in love with a face, a look, a smile, a white breast, a sweet
and melodious voice, etc. However, the relations between love
and sexual appetite are extremely delicate and complex. In
man, the second may exist without the first and love may often
persist without appetite, while in woman the two things are
difficult to separate, and in any case, in her, the original appe-
tite without love is much more rare. The two things are thus
not identical; even the most materialistic and libidinous egoist
will agree to this, if he is not too narrow-minded. ^
It may also happen that love precedes appetite, and this^
often leads to the most happy unions. Two characters may have
extreme mutual sympathy, and this purely intellectual and sen-
timental sympathy may at first develop without a shadow of
sensuality. This is nearly always the case when it exists from
infancy. In modern society an enormous number of sexual
unions, or marriages, are consummated without a trace of love,
and are based on pure speculation, conventionality or fortune.
Here it is tacitly assumed that the normal sexual appetite com-
bined with custom will cement the marriage and render it dura-
ble. As the normal man has not, as a rule, extreme sentiments,
such prevision is usually realized on the whole, the conjoints
becoming gradually adapted to one another, more or less suc-
cessfully according to the discoveries which are made after^^
marriage.
Even when they are relatively true, love stories generally
v/
112 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
deal with exceptional cases, often even pathological; for the
average marriage does not appear to the novelist sufficiently
piquant or interesting to captivate his readers. We are not con-
cerned here with extremes, or with the tragic situations met
with in novels, but with normal and ordinary love, as it most
often occurs in reality.
After what we have just said, it is clear that love is derived
from two factors: (1) momentary sexual passion; (2) the heredi-
tary and instinctive sentiments of sympathy which are derived
from the primordial sexual appetite of our afiimal ancestors, hut
which have become completely independent of this appetite. Be-
tween these two terms are placed the sentiments of sympathy
experienced by the individual in his former life, which have
most often been provoked by sexual desire for an individual
of the opposite sex, and which may be evoked by the aid of re-
membrance, kindled afresh, and contribute strongly to maintain
constancy of love. These different sentiments pass into each
other in all possible shades, and continually react on each other.
Sexual appetite, for example, awakens sympathy, and is awak-
ened by the latter in its turn; on the contrary, it is cooled or
extinguished under the influence of bad conduct on the part
of the person loved.
Let us here recall a law of the sentiments of sympathy, a law
which is well known, but generally forgotten in human calcula-
tions. Man loves best those to whom he devotes himself, and
not those from whom he receives benefits.* It is easy to be
convinced of the reality of this fact in the relations of parents
to their children, as well as in marriage. ^\Tien one of the con-
joints in marriage adulates the other, the latter may easily find
this adulation quite natural, and may love the other conjoint
much less than a spoilt child, to which is devoted all the trans-
ports of an unreasonable affection. The spoilt child, the object
of such blind affection, more often responds to it by indiffer-
ence, or even by ingratitude, disdain and impertinence. We
find everywhere this play of sentiments, which considerably
impedes mutuahty in love. It may even concern inanimate
* This tendency of man has been analyzed with a very refined psychologj'
by Labiche, in one of his most celebrated comedies : " Le voyage de M. Perichon.'"
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 113
objects. We like a garden, a house or a book over which we
have taken much pains, and we remain indifferent to the most
beautiful and precious gifts which come by themselves without
our making any effort to obtain them. In the same way, the
child becomes attached to some toy which he has made him-
self, and disdains the costly presents given by his parents. As a
poet has said: "Man only enjoys for long and without remorse
the goods dearly paid for by his efforts." (Sully-Prudhomme :
'' Le Bonheur.")
There is, therefore, a profound psychology in the old and wise
sa3dng that true love expresses itself as often by refusal as by
compliance, and should always associate itself with reason. No
doubt this is not primitive love; it is a love elevated and purified
by its combination with the elements of intelligence.
In marriage, more than one husband thinks he ought to be
separated from his wife and children so as not to spoil them.
There is no need of a long explanation to show the fallacy of
this idea. To be complete, love should be reciprocal, and to
remain mutual it requires mutual education in marriage. Every
husband should above all be separated from himself, and not
from his wife. If each one did all in his power to promote the
happiness of the other, this altruistic effort would strengthen
his own sentiments of sympathy. This requires a constant and
loyal effort on each side, but it avoids the illusion of a false
love, provoked by the senses, vanishing like smoke or becoming
changed to hatred. Without being blind to the weaknesses of
his partner he must learn to like them as forming part of the
person to whom he has devoted his heart, and employ all his
skill in correcting them by affection, instead of increasing his
own weakness by leaning on them. It is necessary, therefore,
neither to admire nor to dislike the defects of the loved one,
but to try and attenuate them by aid of integral love.
Love has been defined as "dual egoism." The reciprocal
adulation of two human beings easily degenerates into egoistic
enmity toward the rest of the human race, and this often reacts
harmfully on the quality of love. Human solidarity is too great,
especially at the present day, for such exclusivism in love not
to suffer.
114 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
I would define ideal love as follows: After mature considera-
tion, a man and a woman are led by sexual attraction, combined
with harmony of character, to form a union in which they stimulate
each other to social work, commencing this work with their mutual
education and that of their children.
Such a conception of love refines this sentiment and purifies
it to such an extent that it loses all its pettiness, and it is petti-
ness which so often causes it to degenerate, even in its most
loyal forms. The social work in common of a man and woman
united by true affection, full of tenderness and devotion for one
another, mutually encouraging each other to perseverance and
to action, vdW easily triumph over petty jealousies and all other
instinctive reactions of the phylogenetic exclusiveness of nat-
ural love. The sentiments of love will thus become ever more
ideal, and will no longer pro\ide egoism with the soil of idleness
and comfort on which it grows like a weed.
Inconvenience of Abstinence from Sexual Connection Between
Married Couples by Medical Orders. — It is a matter of common
observation that in marriage, at least during mature life, sexual
connection strengthens and maintains love, even when it only
constitutes part of that wliich cements tenderness and affection.
In many cases I have observed that medical orders, given no
doubt with good intentions, and forbidding sexual connection,
on account of certain morbid conditions, have had the effect
of cooling the sentiments of love and sympathy and producing
indifference which soon becomes incurable. Physicians should
always bear this in mind in their prescriptions, of which they too
often see the immediate object only. The medical proliibition
of sexual connection in marriage should be reserved for cases of
absolute necessity. For example : A virtuous and capable man
marries for love an intelligent but somewhat ill-developed girl.
The marriage is happy and they have several children. But
after a time certain local disorders in the woman induce the
medical man to forbid sexual connection with her husband.
They begin to sleep in separate rooms, and Uttle by httle inti-
mate love becomes so far cooled that the renewal of sexual
relations later on becomes impossible. The husband's senti-
ments are so much affected as to render him unfaithful to his
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 115
moral principles, and to lead him occasionally to visit prosti-
tutes. Although they have become essentially strangers to
each other, the husband and wife continue to live together an
apparently happy life ; but this is far from always the case.
Durable Love. — It may be stated as a principle that true and
elevated love is durable, and that the sudden passion which
lets loose the sexual appetite toward an individual of the oppo-
site sex, hitherto a stranger, in no way represents the measure
of true love. Passion warps the judgment, conceals the most
evident faults, colors everything in celestial purple, renders the
lovers blind, and veils the true character of each from the other.
We are only speaking here of cases where each is loyal and where
the sexual appetite is not associated with the cold calculations
of egoism. Reason only returns when the first tempest of a
passion which seemed insatiable has subsided, when the honey-
moon of marriage, or of a free union, has passed. Then only is
it possible to see if what remains is true love, indifference, hatred
or a mixture of these three sentiments, capable or not of becom-
ing more or less adaptable and tolerable. This is why sudden
amours are always dangerous, and why only long and profound
mutual acquaintance before marriage can lead to a happy and
lasting union.
Even in this case the unforseen is not absent, for it is very
rarely that one knows a man and his ancestry; moreover, ac-
quired diseases or mental anomalies may cause his character to
degenerate later on.
Let us now examine some psychic phenomena more or less
connected with love. For reasons which we have mentioned
the irradiations of sexual love are on the whole less developed
in man than in woman.
PSYCHIC IRRADIATIONS OF LOVE IN MAN
Masculine Audacity. — In the normal male the sentiment of
sexual power favors self-exaltation, while the contrary senti-
ment of impotence, or even that of mediocre sexual power, de-
presses this sentiment of exaltation. Yet, in reality, the sexual
power of man has not the capital importance for a normal and
virgin woman that men imagine, influenced as they are by self-
116 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
exaltation; what imposes on women is especially masculine
audacity, and in sexual matters this increases with experience
and practice. The company of prostitutes often renders men
incapable of understanding feminine psychology, for prostitutes
are hardly more than automata trained for the use of male
sensuality. When men look among these for the sexual psy-
chology of woman they only find their own mirror.
>^an's flirtation, and his art of paying court to women are
naturally combined w^th his audacity, as we have already ob-
served in birds and mammals, and some of the lower animals.
The male seeks to please the female to gain her favors. The
brilliant colors of butterflies and birds, song, skill and proof of
strength, often come to the aid of the male sexual instinct.
Even in certain animals supplicant and plaintive sounds assist
the male after his repeated refusal, apparently or in reality, by
the female. We shall see in Chapter VI that savage men have
a much greater tendency to tattoo and adorn themselves than
have the women.^^
A The art which man employs to seduce and conquer woman
has been described to satiety in romances and novels, as well as , ,
in ethnogi-aphic works; so that we shall not dwell on it here.
On the contrary, we shall show that in higher civilizations man
is in general more sought after than woman, so that the latter
has surpassed him in the art of flirtation or sexual conquest^^i**^ f
It is also important to remark to what extent the increase of
man's mental complexity transforms his sexual tactics. The
simple, natural, and at the same time bashful, modest man- .
ner, in which a naive young man seeks to conquer a heart,
usually produces no effect on the fashionable young lady, ex-
perienced in all refined pleasures and saturated with unhealthy
novels. These young women are much more easily seduced by
the art of Don Juan and the old roues, who are more adequate
to deal wnth them because they have studied practically the
psychology of the modern woman. /
y^ Instinct of Procreation. — Another irradiation of the male sex-
ual instinct, connected with the preceding, is the instinct of
procreation. If there were no other difficulties or consequences,
man would without the least doubt be instinctively inclined to
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 117
copulate with as many women as he could, and procreate as
many children as possible. The more he is capable of satisfy-
ing his procreative instinct, the more he becomes self-exalted, as
he thus sees himself multiplied and feels his power extended by
the possession of a great number of wives and children. This
is one of the principal causes which urge rich men and polyga-
mous peoples to possess many v^omen.y^
Coitus without object, like that of prostitution, can only
assuage the sexual appetite and does not satisfy any of its higher
irradiations. It is well known that a happy betrothal, reposing
on true love, and not on pecuniary interests, often transforms a
young man from pessimism to optimism, from misogyny to
philogyny. Skeptics smile at this transformation and regard it
as only the transient intoxication of love. This may be true in
some cases, but, as we have seen above, when love is ennobled
by deep understanding and mutual education, when each knows
and respects the other, the transformation remains definite, and
is strengthened so much that the honeymoon of the silver wed-
ding is often happier and more exalted than that which followed
marriage. We can then say that the optimism created by sex-
ual union cemented by true love rests on the normal accom-
plishment of the object of life. I cannot too often repeat that
work in common, especially social work, on the part of the con-
joints, is necessary for their happiness to be complete, and to
survive in the one who remains after the decease of the other.
Jealousy. — The worst irradiation, or rather the worst reacX.
tion of contrast of love, which we have inherited from our ani-
mal ancestors, and that which is the most deeply rooted, is
jealousy. Jealousy is a heritage of animals and barbarism; that
is what I would say to all those who, in the name of offended
honor, would grant it rights and even place it on a pedestal. It
is ten times better for a woman to marry an unfaithful than a
jealous husband. From the phylogenetic point of view, jeal-
ousy originates in the struggle for the possession of woman, at
a period when right depended only on brute force. Cunning
and violence contended with each other, and when the con-
queror was in possession of a female, he had to guard her jeal-
ously to prevent her being abducted. Furious combats ensued.
118 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
As soon as an unaccustomed approach, a look or anything else
awakened the least suspicion of the presence of a rival, the male
was tormented with a continual and instinctive feeling of
defiance and distrust, often increased by the remembrance of
the sadness of former defeats and the impotent rage which
followed,
^^^^e results of male jealousy in the history of marriage are
truly incredible. I may mention the iron girdles with locks —
the so-called girdles of chastity — which we still see in certain
museums, which the knights of the Middle Ages put on their
wives when they set off to the wars, in order to appease their
jealousy. Many savage peoples do not content themselves
with severely punishing adultery in woman, even by death,
but even simple conversations with a strange mam**^ Jealousy
transforms marriage into a hell. It is often exalted in man to
the point of a mania for persecution, to which it is analogous.
It is also a very common symptom of alcoholism. Then the
life of the unfortunate woman who is the object of it becomes a
continual mart3Tdom. Perpetual suspicion accompanied by
insults, threats and violent words, and even homicide may be
the result of this atrocious passion.
Even in its more moderate and normal form, jealousy is a
torment, for distrust and suspicion poison love. We often hear
of justified jealousy; I maintain, on the contrary, that jealousy
is never justified, and that it is only the brutal stupidity of an
atavistic heritage, or a pathological symptom. A reasonable
man who has doubts as to the fidelity of his wife has certainly
the right to assure himself of their correctness. But of what
use is it to be jealous? If he finds his suspicions false he has,
by his manner, made his wife unnecessarily unhappy and de-
stroyed conjugal confidence and happiness. If, on the con-
trary, his suspicions are well founded he has only to choose
between one of two ways. If it is a case of amorous intoxica-
tion suggested by another man to his wife, who is often very
unhappy about it, she may then be restored to her husband
and pardoned, for in this case affection only can cure her, never
jealousy. If, however, love for her husband is entirely extin-
guished in her, or if she is only a false intriguer without char-
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 119
acter, jealousy is even more absurd, for the game is not worth
the candle, and immediate divorce is necessary.
Unfortunately, man only possesses very little control over
his feelings when these are violent. The jealous person by
nature, that is by heredity, is generally incurable and poisons
his own existence at the same time as that of his wife. Such
individuals should never marry.
In lunatic asylums, in law, and in novels jealousy plays an
important part, for it is one of the most fruitful sources of
tragedies and human unhappiness. The combined and perse-
vering efforts of education and selection are necessary to grad-
ually eliminate it from the human brain. We often hear it
said of man and woman that they are not jealous enough,
because they are too indulgent toward the extra-nuptial incli-
nations of their conjoint. When such indulgence rests on
cynical indifference or on pecuniary interests, it is not the want
of jealousy but the want of moral sense which is to blame. If
it arises from real and reasoned love, it should on the contrary
be highly respected and praised. I would wish all heroes of
offended honor and all defenders of jealousy to reflect on the
following case:
A man of high position, and the father of five children, lived
in the most happy union. One day he made the acquaintance
of a friend of his wife, a very intelligent and well-educated lady.
Frequent visits and long conversations led to intimacy which
developed into violent reciprocal love. However, the lady re-
fused to abandon herself entirely. The husband confessed
everything to his wife, even to the smallest details, and the lady
did the same. Instead of becoming jealous, the wife had the
good sense and the courage to treat the two lovers not only with
indulgence, but a true and profound affection. The loyalty of
each of the parties interested greatly facilitated the gradual
denouement of a difficult situation, without the family affections
suffering. But the denouement would have been quite as
peaceful if the lady had yielded to sexual connection with the
husband. In fact, the wife herself considered this question
very seriously and calmly, in case the fire could not be other-
wise extinguished.
120 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
I ask in all sincerity, if such mild and humane treatment of
an unfortunate love affau", in which the three interested parties
each strove to avoid all scandal and everything which could
damage their mutual reputation, I ask if this good and loyal
treatment is not, from the moral standpoint, far superior to
scenes of jealousy, duels, divorces and all their consequences,
things which are all sanctioned and even sanctified by custom?
I also know many cases where the husbands of women who
have fallen in love wdth other men have conducted themselves
in an equally noble and reasonable manner, even when their
wives had been completely unfaithful, and the results have
always been good. It is needless to say that I do not wish to
maintain that a husband should tolerate indefinitely the bad
conduct of his wife, nor a woman that of her husband; but this
is another thing.
Sexiial Braggardism. — Let us pass on to another irradiation of
the male sexual appetite — sexual braggardism. This arises from
self-exaltation evolved from the sexual power of man. Like
jealousy, this sentiment is no doubt inherited from our animal
ancestors, and it finds its analogy, or rather its caricature, in
the cock, the peacock, the tm-key, and in general among the
richly adorned males of polygamous species. Although on the
whole more innocent, the results of this atavistic instinct are no
more elevated than those of jealousy. The sentiment of sexual
power induces men, especially those of lower mental caliber, to
boast of their sexual conquests and exaggerate them. It is
needless to say that success does not go to the unskillful boaster,
but to the one who relates his audacious exploits in a casual way.
The Don Juan experienced in the art of seduction approaches
women with audacity and aplomb, and usually imposes on them
considerably, whatever his ignorance of other things. He has
instinctively learnt one thing: viz., the weakness of woman in
the face of the male form, theatrical effect, uniforms, an auda-
cious act, a fierce mustache, etc. He has learnt that these
fireworks hypnotize her and silence her reason, and that she is
then capable of enthusiasm for the most doubtful cavalier and
delivers herself to him bound hand and foot, provided his self-
assurance does not desert him.
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 121
I may say here that it is most often men of low intellect, weak
in judgment and principles, who think themselves most superior
to the feminine sex, and who behave as tyrants to their wives.
Sexual braggardism has, moreover, grave consequences for
the man himself, for it urges him to excesses which far exceed
his appetites and especially his natural wants. In spite of other
advantages, he wishes to shine by these excesses among his
fellows and even among the grisettes whose minds are full of
sexual matters.
Male sexual braggardism contributes with sexual appetite
to entice reserved and high-minded young men toward pros-
titutes, against their better instincts, their reason and their
moral sense. Alcohol especially facilitates the degeneration of
sexual life.
The Pornographic Spirit. — The term eroticism is given to the
state of excitation of the sexual appetite. When a person cul-
tivates it artificially and abandons himself to purely animal
sensuality, without combining it with higher intellectual or moral
aspirations, there develop in the mind irradiations which may
be designated by the term pornographic spirit. The entire circle
of ideas of such individuals is so impregnated with eroticism
that all their thoughts and sentiments are colored by it. They
see everywhere, even in the most innocent objects, the most
lewd allusions. Woman is only regarded by them as an object
of sexual enjoyment, and her mind only appears to such satyrs
as an ignoble erotic caricatm-e, which is disgusting to every man
capable of lofty sentiments.
Owing to its usually sensual and gross nature, male eroticism
has succeeded in modeling a whole class of women in whom ideal
character in their desires is wanting. Instead of recognizing
his own work and the vile image of his own person in these un-
natural women, the libertine, as we have already seen, imagines
them as the normal type of woman. From the height of his
presumption, he then despises woman and does not perceive
that it is himself whom he despises; for on the whole, from the
sexual point of view, the dependent woman of to-day conforms
herself to man and becomes what he makes her. The number
of coitus, their details, the size and form of the sexual organs,
122 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
the pleasure of having cut out other men, and especially the
pathological perversions of the sexual appetite, form the chief
object of the thoughts and conversations of pornographic minds.
Each tries to outdo the others in sexual enormities, and the
virtuosity of these gentlemen in this domain is only surpassed
by their ignorance and incapacity in all others.
Prostitution and all the modern sexual degeneration which
marches under the hj^pocritical flag of Christianity, civilization
and monogamy, have so far developed the pornographic spirit
that men li\dng in centers of debaucherj', center^ which are im-
fortunately extending more and more from town to country,
lose all conception of the noble qualities natural to the feminine
sentiment and to true love, or only preserve a few shreds of it
which they treat with ridicule. Many men have admitted this
to me, after being much astonished when I was obliged to give
them quite another conception of love and woman, without
introducing the least trace of religion. No doubt certain better
individuals, fallen by chance into debaucher)^, speak respect-
fully of a mother or a sister, for whom they profess an almost
religious worship. They regard these as beings apart, as species
of a lost race of demigods, and they do not perceive that they
discredit them and drag them in the mud by their contempt
and pornographic conception of woman in general, a conception
which is moreover often altered to profound pessimism.
In the relatively moral circles of society, our description
would no doubt be taxed with, exaggeration, because natm'es a
little more refined have the habit of acting like the ostrich who
hides his head in the sand, that is to say of tm-ning their eyes
away from the pornogi'aphic swamp with disgust so as not to
see it, and thus avoid it instinctively. But this maneuver
serves no pm-pose: the facts remain as they are.
Eroticism is no more a vice than sexual anaesthesia is a wtue.
Even when they are chaste, men of libidinous nature require a
strong ^\'ill to resist all the artificial seductions which excite their
sensuaUty. This is why the bog of del3aucher5' engulfs so many
men of a naturally good nature. In this sense, cold natures are
better off; they can cover themselves with the glory of a '' virtue "
the resplendent rays of which become lost in a penumbra of
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 123
defects and weaknesses from which these natures suffer in other
domains.
Sexual Hypocrisy. — Hypocrisy is a peculiarity deeply rooted
in the human mind. We can affirm that whoever pretends never
to have been a hypocrite lies, quite as much as one who swears
he has never lied. But nowhere, save perhaps in the domain of
religion, does hj^ocrisy play a greater part than in the sexual
domain. Nowhere is there so much falsehood, and men who are
most honest on other points make no scruple of deceiving their
wives in this respect. I do not speak here of the simulation of
sentiments of love, for it is too banal, and there is no need to
be too exacting over this point, for there are strong attenuating
circumstances.
First of all, erotic feelings are capable of blinding man for the
moment, as far as persuading him of the eternal duration of love
and fidelity which he promises the object of his appetites, as'
well as of the reahty of the celestial qualities under which this
object appears to him, or vnih which it pleases him to adorn it.
Two persons mutually excited by sexual passion are fascinated
by the illusions of a mirage, which often vanishes soon afterward,
so that it is not rare to see them on the following day hurling the
most violent abuse at each other.
Those who have not been witnesses of such events may hardly
believe them. It is sufficient, however, to be a magistrate or
to read the reports of lawsuits between debased persons as the
result of love quarrels, broken engagements or marriages, seduc-
tions, etc., to study the letters that the two parties have wiitten
before and after their quarrel, in order to be convinced of the
correctness of what we have said above. In the first letters the
lovers adulate each other and adorn each other "with the most
hyperbolic epithets, swearing eternal love and fidelity, and de-
luding each other in the most absurd manner. In letters written
sometimes only a few days later we are astonished to see the
same individuals grossly insulting each other and mutually cov-
ering themselves with ignoble calumnies. This is how passion
without reason passes through the furnaces of love and hatred,
dragging after it all the artificial scaffolding of what man imag-
ines to be his right based on logic, but which is in reality only a
124 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
tissue of ridiculous contradictions, the automatic and inept
product of his emotional state. Such contrasts are so frequent
that we can easily recognize the expression of a psychological
law, due to the mirages of the amorous passions on the one hand
and the inverse reaction on the other.
Nevertheless hypocrisy has its good side. It has been said
not without reason that "hypocrisy is a concession which vice
makes to virtue." In their nakedness human thoughts are often
so sadly vulgar and so offensive that a little varnish improves
them. In this sense, and when it comes from a.feeling of shame
or good-will, hypocrisy deserves a good deal of the eulogy which
Mark Twain has heaped on it in his charming satire, ''The
Decadence of the Art of Lying."
In the sexual question hypocrisy is directly provoked by the
tjrranny and barbarism of what are called good manners, often
even by the law. In this sense it constitutes a response of hu-
man nature to the forms and customs derived from the right of
the stronger or from religious superstitions, as well as from the
dogmas resulting from them.
By the term sexual hypocrisy I do not mean the repugnant
forms of hypocrisy pure and simple, in which man only ex-
ploits love indirectly for an interested end, for instance when he
simulates love to obtain a rich wife. I only speak of the forms
of hypocrisy which are directly evolved from the sexual appetite
or from love.
It is from this point of view that we must judge sexual hypoc-
risy, and if I have laid special stress on its good points, it is in
view of marriage, where it assists the education of noble and
elevated sentiments even in the hypocrite. By praising the
virtues of his helpmate with a little exaggeration, these are
made to appear more noble. If the time is spent in saying disa-
greeable truths, love is soon stifled and killed. On the con-
trary, if each conjoint attributes to the other as fine qualities as
possible, each is finally persuaded that the other really possesses
them, and then realizes them himself, at any rate in part.
The worst of hypocrisies is that which is the product of base
pecuniary interests, or of a gross sexual appetite without love,
or lastly by the pressure of conventional or religious customs.
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 125
Good hypocrisy consists in the repression of all that is base in
the sentiments, inclinations and passions; in the fact that one
strives to hide it from others, even from one's self, and to sug-
gest in its place as many amiable qualities as possible, so as to
strengthen in a disinterested maimer the object of one's love in
noble sentiments. This kind of h3'pocrisy is in reality an indi-
rect product of altruistic sentiments. One perceives with pain
on reflecting, either the absence of spontaneous sentiments of
sympathy, or the presence of disgust and bad temper, and
one strives to hide the thing by sympathetic expressions for
which one seeks an object, and to which one would wish to
give a durable character. Loyal efforts made in this direction
often succeed in correcting the egoistic humor with which one
is affected, and in giving rise to the sentiments one desires to
experience. One must not, however, by only looking at one
side of the question, allow such efforts to degenerate into mala-
droit blindness, which will only have the effect of spoiling
the person one loves.
Egoistic Love. — It is obvious that the psychic irradiations of
the sexual sense are strongly influenced by the individuality of
the one who loves. The egoist loves in a manner naively ego-
istic. He is not wanting in fine words, but in his opinion all
sentiment and respect is due to his person, while he reduces to a
minimum his duties toward the object of his love. He exacts
much from the other and gives little. The good man with
altruistic sentiments feels things in an inverse way; he exacts
little from others, and much from himself.
Love differs in different natures, according as they are calm
or lively, imbecile or intelligent, well educated or otherwise:
the will plays a great part here. Weakness and impulsiveness
are found in love, as well as energy and perseverance. In the
last point woman is superior, owing to the greater constancy
of her love. There is thus no domain of the mind which
is not influenced by love, and which does not react on love in
its turn.
Intellectual occupations are facilitated by a happy love, while
they are usually hindered by the sorrows of love. Even men of
science, so proud of their calmness, are often more influenced
126 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
than one would think in their scientific opinions by their emotional
sentiments. Without a man being aware of it, his sentiments
insinuate themselves into the opinions which he believes to be of
a purely intellectual nature, and direct them unconsciously \nth
much more power than he generally imagines. Such influences
act chiefly on individuals disposed to sentimentality. In love,
these individuals resemble two-edged swords; the intensity of
their emotional reactions and sentiments drives them from one
extreme to another, from foolish happiness to despair or fury.
The situation becomes still more grave when such storms burst
among impulsive persons of weak will and limited intelligence.
Under such circumstances ill-assorted alliances are formed which
lead to violent quarrels, and sometimes even to crime. When
jealousy comes on the scene the man often kills the woman and
commits suicide.
It would seem that such crime can only arise from egoism;
this is often the case, but not always. Despair may often lead
to such acts, without any motive of vengeance, or even of jeal-
ousy. The storm of passion drives weak-minded persons to
impulsive actions, the motives of which are veiy difficult to ana-
lyze. After these tragedies of murder preceding suicide, when
the murderer survives, he often expresses himself as follows:
"I was in such a state of despair and excitement that I saw no
other issue than death for both of us."
Prudery. Modesty. — The sentiment of modesty originates in
the fear of everything which is novel and unusual, and is com-
plicated by natural timidity. This sentiment is especially
strong in children. The sentiment of sexual modesty in man
thus rests on timidity and on the fear of not doing as others do.
It betrays itself toward women by awkwardness and bashful-
ness behind which eroticism is often ill concealed. The timid
and bashful man carefully endeavors to hide his sexual feel-
ings from others. The object of modesty is in itself im-
material to the psychology of this sentiment, and shame is
sometimes inspired not only by very different things but even
by opposite things. One youth is ashamed of appearing erotic,
another of appearing too little erotic, according to the opinion
of his neighbors.
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 127
Modesty depends on the custom of covering or exposing cer-
tain parts of the body, and people who Hve in a state of nature
are as much ashamed of clothes as we are ashamed of nudity.
Moreover, man soon becomes accustomed to fashion, and the
same English girl who blushes at the sight of a few inches of
bare skin in her own country, finds it quite natural to see naked
negroes in the tropics.
The artificial and systematic cultivation of an exaggerated
sentiment of modesty produces 'prudery, the bad results of which
are, however, less than those of pornography. There are young
people so modest that the simple thought of sexual matters
overexcites them terribly. By associating their own erotic
feelings, of which they feel ashamed, with sexual ideas, they
invest these with terrifying attributes, and become quite un-
happy; in this way they are often led to masturbation. They are,
however, excessively frightened at this also and imagine its effects
so terrible that they think themselves lost. Their exaggerated
feelings of modesty often prevent them confiding in some chari-
table person. However, they rarely find reasonable consolers;
some ridicule them, while others regard them as iniquitous, which
only increases their terror and drives them to extremes.
The sexual sentiment of modesty very often becomes un-
healthy, and is then easily combined with pathological sexual
conditions.
Prudery is, so to speak, sexual modesty codified and dogma-
tized. It is indeterminate, because the object of modesty is
purely conventional, and man has no valid reason to regard any
part of his body as shameful. Normal man ought only to be
ashamed of bad thoughts and actions, contrary to his moral
conscience. The latter should be based on natural human
altruism only, and not artificially misled by dogma.
The Old Bachelor. — ^The importance of the psychic irradiar
tions of love is shown perhaps more clearly from the results of
their presence in old bachelors than from any other considera-
tion. In our time, no doubt, the state of the old bachelor
rarely means the renunciation of the satisfaction of sexual
appetite, although it generally entails the renunciation of love.
There are, no doubt, two kinds of old bachelors, those who are
128 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
chaste and those who are not. The old bachelor no doubt
leads a less empty existence than the old maid, but the void
exists none the less. Man also needs compensation for the
absence of love and family, but his brain is more capable than
that of woman of finding this compensation in hard intellectual
work or in some other employment.
The old bachelor is generally pessimistic and morose. He
easily becomes the slave of his fads and hobbies, and the pecu-
liarities of his character are proverbial. His egoism knows no
bounds, and his altruistic impulses usually find too few objects
or echoes.
The chastity of some old bachelors conceals sexual anomalies.
But even apart from this, the old celibate easily becomes shy,
affected, misanthropic or misogynistic, at least if some energetic
friend does not induce him to utilize his power of work in some
useful sphere. At other times he lavishes exaggerated admira-
tion on women and worships them in a pompous manner.
In a separate category come those old bachelors who are
chaste and celibate for high moral reasons, and whose life is
spent in social work, although they are only men and cannot
for this reason free themselves from all the peculiarities we have
mentioned. In a word, the object of life is partly wanting in
the best of old bachelors, and this void not only affects his sen-
timents but his whole mental being. His general tendency to
pessimism and egoism would be sufficient alone to provoke an
energetic protest against the abandonment of social power to
celibates.
The old bachelor who is not chaste generally descends to por-
nography, only becoming acquainted with the worst side of
woman. He becomes a misogynist because he wrongly attrib-
utes to all women the character of those only with whom he
has intimate relations. We have already pointed out this phe-
nomenon in speaking of male eroticism. The philosopher,
Schopenhauer, was an example of this kind.
PSYCHIC IRRADIATIONS OF LOVE IN WOMEN
In speaking of love in man we have already touched on many
points which differentiate it from that of woman. In the latter,
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 129
the most prominent peculiarity is the dominant role which it
plays in the brain. Without love woman abjures her nature
and ceases to be normal.
The Old Maid. — What we have said of old bachelors applies
in a still more marked degree, to old maids. Still more than
men they have need of compensation for sexual love, to avoid
losing their natural qualities and becoming dried-up beings or
useless egoists. But, if the void left by love is greater in her,
woman possesses such natural energy and perseverance, com-
bined with such great power of devotion, that on the whole she
is more capable than man of accomplishing the work which the
void in her existence requires. Unfortunately, many women do
not understand this. On the other hand, those who devote
themselves to social philanthropic works, to art or literature,
to nursing the sick or to other useful occupations, instead of
amusing themselves with futile things, may greatly distinguish
themselves in such social pursuits, and thus obtain real compen-
sation for the loss of love.
In this respect woman was formerly misunderstood. The
modern movement of her emancipation shows more and more
what she is capable of and promises much more in the future.
As to the old maid who lives alone with her egoism, her whims
and fancies generally exceed those of the old bachelor. She has
not the faculty of creating anything original by her own intel-
lect, so that, having lost love, all her mental power shrinks up.
Her cat, her little dog, and the daily care of her person and
smaU household occupy her whole mind. It is not surprising
that such persons generally create a pitiable and ridiculous
impression.
Between these two extremes there exists a category of un-
married women whose sexual love finds compensation in the love
they bear for a parent or a friend (male or female), which
although not sexual is none the less ardent. Such occupation
for their sentiments improves their state of mind and partially
fills the void; however, it is not sufficient as a rule and only
constitutes a last resource. This kind of devotion, by its exclu-
siveness, often produces bad results, for its horizon is too limited.
If the object of love, which is generally too pampered, dies or
130 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
abandons her, she loses her head; grief, bitterness and pessi-
mism never leave her, unless she finds consolation in religious
exaltation, which is often observed in other women deprived of
love. This last peculiarity is met with, moreover, in aU classes
of women, even among the married.
Passiveness of Woman. Sexual Appetite. — Ideal love should
never be dual egoism. What happens when two persons live
exclusively for each other, if one of them dies? The survivor
sinks into inconsolable despair, all that his heart was attached
to is dead, because his love did not extend to other human
beings, nor to social works. Widows then become as pitiable
as old maids, although in another way, when they have lost
the object of their exclusive love. This is why we recom-
mend social work, not only for celibates, but also for loving
copies.
^\ again emphasize the fact that in normal women, especially
young girls, the sexual appetite is subordinate to love. In the
young girl love is a mixture of exalted admiration for masculine
courage and grandeur, and an ardent desire for affection and
maternity. /She wishes to be outwardly dominated by a man,
but to dominate him by her heart. This sentimentalism of the
, young girl, joined to the passive role of her sex, produces in her
\ a state of exaltation which often borders on ecstasy and then
overcomes all the resistance of will and reason. The woman
surrenders herself to the man of whom she is enamored, or who
has conquered or hypnotized her. She is vanquished by his
embraces and follows him submissively, and in such a state of
mind she is capable of any folly.
Although more violent and impetuous in his love, man loses
his sang-froid on the whole much less than woman. We can
therefore say that the relative power of sentiment is on the
average greater in woman, in spite of her passive role.
I cannot protest too strongly against the way in which men
of the day disparage women and misunderstand them. In the
way in which a young girl abandons herself to their sexual ap-
petites, in caresses, and in the ecstasy of her love, they think
they see the proof of a purely sensual eroticism, identical to their
libidinous desire for coitus, while in reality she usually does not
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 131
think of it, at any rate at first. The first coitus is usually painful
to woman, often repugnant. Many are the cases where young
girls, even when they knew the terrible social and individual
dangers of their weakness, even when they have perhaps once
already experienced the consequences, let the man abuse them
without a word of complaint, without a trace of sexual pleasure
or venereal orgasm, simply to please the one who desireg. them,
because he is so good and amiable, and because refusal would
give him so much pain. In his violent passion and in his egoism,
man is generally incapable of understanding the power of this
stoicism of a mind which surrenders itself in spite of all dangers
and all its interests. He confounds his own appetites with the
sentiments of the woman, and finds in this false interpretation
of feminine psychology the excuses for the cowardice of which
he gives proof when he yields to his passions. The psychology
of the young girl who surrenders herself has been admira-
bly depicted by Goethe in Gretchen ("Faust"), as weU as by
de Maupassant on several occasions.
It is necessary to know all these facts in order to estimate at
its true value the ignominy of our social institutions and their
bearing on woman's life. If men did not so misunderstand
women, and especially if they were aware of the deep injustice
of our customs and laws with regard to them, the better ones, at
least, would think twice before seducing young girls, to abandon
them afterward with their children. I am only speaking now
of true love and not of the extortion so often practiced by women
of low character, or those already educated in vice.
I shall say no more concerning eroticism, which really exists
in many women, especially in those who are already experienced
in sexual matters. On the other hand there are women who
deceive their husbands and allow themselves to be seduced by
any Don Juan, even when they have never had the least sexual
appetite, or felt a single venereal orgasm. They allow them-
selves to be di'agged in the mud and lose then" reputation, their
fortune and their family; they even let their seducer trample
them under foot; they become defamed and treated as women
without character, without honor and without any notion of
duty. They are simply poor feeble creatures incapable of
132 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
resisting masculine proposals. With good psychological training
they would often become better women, active, devoted and
full of life. It seems hardly credible, but it is true, that one
sometimes finds in this category women who are highly gifted.
It is then said that they are wanting in moral sense, but this is
not always correct. In other respects they may be faithful to
their duty, devoted, sometimes even energetic and heroic; but
they submit to masculine influence to such a degree that they
cannot conceive how to resist it. They find it quite natural to
give way to it and their mind does not understand that the com-
plete abandonment of their body to the man they love should
not necessarily follow immediately after the abandonment of
their heart, or even after the first kiss. It is impossible for
them to make distinctions or to trace limits.
Idealism in Woman. — The cases I have just described are ex-
treme, although very common; they give the note of a general
phenomenon of feminine love in its exaltation. It is needless
to say that reasonable women of high character behave them-
selves in quite another manner, however profound their love.
Nevertheless the trait which we have just described is nearly
always found at the bottom of all true love in woman, however
much it may be veiled, dissimulated or conquered.
^^It is not always audacity or heroic deeds like those of the bold
cavaliers of former days which excite love in woman. The ex-
ternal qualities of man, such as beauty and elegance, etc., also
play a part, although their effect may be less decisive than that
lof the bodily charms of woman in exciting love in man. Intel-
lectual superiority, high moral actions, and mental qualities in
j general, easily affect the heart of woman, which becomes exalted
■under their influence. But every man who becomes famous
Neither for good or evil, the fashionable actor, the celebrated
tenor, etc., has the power of exciting love in women. Women
without education or those of inferior mental quality are nat-
urally more easily affected by the bodily strength of man, and
by his external appearance in general. Many women are espe-
cially liable to succumb under the influence of all that is mystic.
These become infatuated by preachers, and religious enthusiasts,
to say nothing of hypocrites. J '
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 133
Nothing is sadder than the contrast between the exalted love
of a virtuous and chaste young girl, and the debauched life,
with its traits of cynical pornography, of the majority of young
men. Guy de Maupassant has described this contrast in a most
striking manner in his romance entitled "Une Vie." I know
a number of cases in which the complete ignorance of young
married women with regard to sexual relations, combined with
the cynical lewdness of their husbands, has transformed the
exalted love of a young girl into profound disgust, and has
sometimes even caused mental disorders. Although not very
common, the psychoses resulting from the deception and shock
of the nuptial night are not very rare. But what is much worse
than this douche of cold water which suddenly substitutes the
reality of coitus for the ideal exaltation of sentiment, are the
subsequent discoveries made by the young wife, when the cyn-
ical mind of her husband on the subject of sexual connection
and love is unveiled to her in all its grossness, resulting from his
previous life of debauchery. Torn and sullied in its deepest
fibers, the feminine mind then becomes the seat of a desperate
struggle between reality full of deceptions and the illusions of a
dream of happiness.
If it is only a question of bad habits, or want of tact in the
husband, behind which there exists perhaps true love, the
wounds in the w^oman's sentiment may heal and intimacy may
develop; but when the cjmicism is too marked, when the habits
of sexual debauchery are too inveterate, the love of a virtuous
woman is soon stifled, and is changed to resignation and dis-
gust, often to martyrdom or hatred.
In other cases the woman is weak and ill-developed and
allows herself to sink to the level of her husband's sentiments.
Sometimes, the crisis is accentuated and leads to divorce. In
de Maupassant's "Une Vie," he describes with profound insight
the continuous deceptions of a young innocent and sentimental
girl who marries an egoistic roue, and whose life is transformed
into martyi'dom and completely ruined. De Maupassant's roman-
ces contain such true psychology of sexual life and love in all
their forms, often even in their exceptional aberrations, that
they furnish an admirable illustration to the present chapter.
134 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Petticoat Government. — A series of most important irradia-
tions of love in woman results from the need she feels of being,
if not dominated, at least protected by her husband. To be
happy, a woman must be able to respect her husband and even
regard him with more or less veneration; she must see in him
the realization of an ideal, either of bodily strength, courage, un-
selfishness or superior intellect. If this is not the case, the hus-
band easily falls under the petticoat government, or indifference
and antipathy may develop in the wife, at least if misfortune or
illness in the husband does not excite her pity and transform her
into a resigned nurse.
Petticoat govermnent can hardly make a household truly
happy, for here the positions are reversed and the wife rules
because the husband is weak. But the normal instinct of woman
is to rule over the heart of man, not over his intelligence or
on his will. Ruling in these last domains may flatter a woman's
vanity and render it dominating, but it never satisfies her heart,
and this is why the woman who rules is so often unfaithful to
her husband, if not in deed, at least in thought.
In such a union she has not found the true love which she
sought, and for this reason, if her moral principles are weak,
she looks for compensation in some Don Juan. If the woman
in question has a strong character, or if she is sexually cold, she
may easily become sour and bitter. These women, who are not
rare, are to be dreaded; their plighted love is transformed into
hatred, bad temper or jealousy, and only finds satisfaction in
the torment of others.
The psychology of this kind of woman is interesting. They
are not usually conscious of their malice. The chronic bitter-
ness resulting from an unfortunate hereditary disposition in
their character, as much as from their outraged feelings, makes
them take a dislike to the world and renders them incapable of
seeing anything but the worst side of people. They become ac-
customed to disparage everything automatically, to take offense
at everything and to speak ill of everything on every occasion.
They are unhappy, but they find a diabolical joy in all misfor-
tune where they see the confirmation of their somber prophecies,
the only satisfaction which is capable of exalting them.
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 135
We have just said that a certain constitutional disposition is
necessary for such a deplorable change in feminine sentiments to
be produced; but this disposition is often only developed under
the influence of circumstances which we have indicated or
analogous ones.
It is impossible for the life in common of two conjoints not to
reveal their reciprocal failings. But true love generally suffices
to definitely cement a union, provided that the wife finds a
support in the steadfast nature of her husband, which then
serves as her ideal. It is also necessary that the husband,
finding sentiments of devoted love in his wife, should recipro-
cate them. These conditions are sufficient, if both devote their
efforts to the maintenance of their family and the social welfare.
Maternal Love. — The most profound and most natural irra-
diation of the sexual appetite in woman is maternal love. A
mother who does not love her children is an unnatural being,
and a man who does not understand the desires of maternity in
his wife, and does not respect them, is not worthy of her love.
Sometimes egoism renders a man jealous of the love which his
wife bears to his children. At other times, the father may
show more love for the children than their mother; such excep-
tions only prove the rule.
The most beautiful and most natural of the irradiations of
love is the joy of parents at the birth of their children, a joy
which is one of the strongest bonds of conjugal affection, and
which helps the couple in triumphing over the conflicting elements
in their characters, and in raising the moral level of their recip-
rocal sentiments, for it realizes the natural object of sexual union.
A true woman rejoices at the progress of her pregnancy.
The last pains of childbirth have hardly ceased before she
laughs with joy, and pride, at hearing the first cries of the newly
born. The instinctive outburst of maternal love toward the
new-born child corresponds to a natural imprescriptible right
of the child, for it needs the continual care of its mother. Noth-
ing is so beautiful in the world as the radiant joy of a young
mother nursing her child, and no sign of degeneration is more
painful than that of mothers who abandon their cliildren without
absolute necessity, to strange hands.
136 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
On the other hand reason must intervene. The instructive
transports of maternal love soon require a counterpoise. It is
important to prevent them from degenerating into unreasonable
spoiling, by scientific and medical education of the infants.
Modern medical art has made great progi'ess in this direction,
but unfortunately, egoism, neghgence, routine, the desire of
enjoyment, or often the poverty of many mothers prevent them
from benefiting from this progress and appljdng it as they
should. Instead of looking after their children they leave them
to nurses. The latter may be necessary to help and instruct
young -ft-ives during their first childbirth; but a natural mother
will profit by these instructions and "ftdll herself become an
excellent nurse, because she vtlH feel her natural ties and will
consecrate herself to them with the devotion of a maternal love
heightened and refined by reason and knowledge. Among the
lower classes the poverty and ignorance of mothers, often also
their thoughtlessness and indolence, are an obstacle to the
rational education of infants.
"Monkey's Love." — Maternal love thus constitutes the most
important irradiation of the sexual instincts in woman. It
very easily degenerates into weakness, that is to say into un-
reasonable passion and blind compliance with all the faults of
the child, which the mother excuses and transforms into vu'-
tues. The foibles of maternal love do much harm to the child
and are often the origin of bitter deceptions. Hereditary weak-
ness of character here plays a great, or even the principal
part. Nevertheless, maternal foibles have other causes — riches,
absence of culture, idleness, too few children, etc.
The best antidote for this unreasonable maternal love, which
the Germans call "monkey's love" consists in active occupa-
tions for the mother, combined with a healthy education of her
character. Work alone is not sufficient, if the mother has lim-
ited ideas, and if she is not freed from routine, ignorance, super-
stition and weakness of will.
Sentiments and Perseverance. — The power of love in woman
does not rest alone on the varied harmony of her sentiments of
sympathy for her husband and children, and on the extraordi-
nary finesse and natural tact which she adds to it; such quahties
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 137
make her, no doubt, the ray of sunshine in the family hfc; but
more powerful still are the tenacity and perseverance of her love.
In general, it is by will-power that woman is superior to man,
and it is in the domain of love that this superiority shines in all
its glory. As a general rule it is the wife who sustains the
family. Among the common people, it is she who economizes,
she who watches carefully over all and corrects the failings, the
passionate and impulsive acts, the discouragements, so frequent
with the husband. How often do we see the father abandon
the children, waste his earnings and leave his situation under
some futile pretext, while his courageous wife, although suffering
from hunger and destitution, holds firm and manages to save the
debris which has escaped the excesses and egoism of the husband.
The husband of a feeble or alcoholic wife sometimes becomes
the sole support of the family, but such exceptions only prove
the rule, that where the normal love and courage of woman are
wanting, the family becomes broken up, for man very rarely
possesses the necessary faculties for its preservation.
It follows from these facts that the modern tendency of
women to become pleasure-seekers, and to take a dislike to
maternity, leads to complete degeneration of society. This is a
grave social evil, which rapidly changes the qualities and power
of expansion of a race, and which must be cured in time, or the
race affected by it will be supplanted by others.
If the feminine mind is generally wanting in intellectual
imagination and power of combination, it is all the more pow-
erful in the practical intuition of its judgment and in sentimental
imagination. The finesse of its moral and sesthetic sentiments,
its natural tact, its instructive desire to put some element of
poetry into all the details of life, contribute to form true family
happiness, a happiness which the husband and children too often
enjoy without fully realizing the devoted labor, the love and the
pains which the mother has given to create it.
Routine. — The reverse of the irradiations of love in woman is
constituted by her failings, which we have already partly indi-
cated. We may add that her intelligence is usually superficial,
that she attributes an exaggerated importance to trifles, that she
often does not understand the object of ideal conceptions, and
138 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
remains attached by routine to all her hobbies. This routine
represents in feminine psychology the excess of a tenacious will
applied only to the repetition of what has been taught. In the
family, woman constitutes the conservative element because
sentiment in her much more than in man, combined with perse-
vering tenacity, predominates over intelligence; but sentiments
represent everywhere and always the conservative element in
the human mind.
This is why woman is the strongest supporter of dogmas,
customs, fashions, prejudices and mysticism. - It is not that
she herself is more disposed than man to mystic beliefs, but
these when once dogmatized dazzle the eyes of the suffering with
visions of compensation in a better world. In this way a num-
ber of unhappy or disappointed women are affected with religious
exaltation and thus cling to the hope of happiness after death
which they believe will compensate them for the vicissitudes of
their existence.
The other reverses of the feminine character, such as want of
logic, obstinacy, love of trinkets, etc., result from the funda-
mental weakness of the feminine mind which we have just
analyzed. Moreover, the social dependence in which man has
placed woman, both from the legal and educational points of
view, tend to increase her failings. Many people fear that
women's suffrage would hinder progress, for the reasons we have
just indicated, but they forget that the actual suffrage of men is
to a great extent exercised by their wives, indirectly and uncon-
sciously. This fact alone shows that the education, and legal
emancipation of women can only be beneficial to progress, espe-
cially as they would contribute to the education of men, too
prone to degenerate on account of their presumptuous and
tyrannical autocracy.
Woman has an instinctive admiration for men of high intellect
and lofty sentiments, and strives to imitate those who provoke
her admiration, and carry out their ideas. Let us therefore give
women their proper rights, equal to ours, at the same time giv-
ing them a higher education and the same free instruction as
ourselves; we shall then see them abandon the obscure paths
of mysticism, to devote themselves to social progress.
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 130
Jealousy in Woman. — Other irradiations of love in woman are
similar to those of man. Jealousy is perhaps not much less\
developed in woman than in man. It is less brutal and violent
but more instinctive and persevering; it manifests itself by
' quarrels, needle pricks, chicanery, petty tyrannies and all kinds
of tricks which poison existence as much as man's jealousy,
and are quite as inefficient against infidelity. In the highest
degree of passion the jealous man uses violence or resorts to
firearms, while the woman scratches, poisons or stabs. Among
savages, jealous women bite off their rivals' noses; in civilized
countries they throw sulphuric acid in the face. The object is
I the same in both cases — to disfigure.
i Amorous illusions produced in woman by the sexual appetite
are analogous to those of man, but are modified by feminine
attributes. It is the same with hypocrisy. The passive role of
, woman in sexual life obliges her only to betray her feelings to
il the object of her desires in a reserved and prudent manner.
" She cannot make advances toward man without contravening
the conventions and risking her reputation. She therefore has
to be more skillful in the art of dissimulation. This gives us no
right to accuse her of falseness, for this art is natural, instinctive
and imposed by custom. Her desire for love and maternity
unconsciously urges her to make herself as desirable as possible
i to man by her grace and allurements. Her stolen glances and
sighs, and the play of her expression serve to betray her ardor
as through a veil. Behind this furtive play, especially calcu-
i lated to excite the passions of man, are hidden, in the natural
and good woman, a world of delicate feelings, ideal aspirations,
energy and perseverance, which are much more loyal and honest
than the motives revealed by the more brusque and daring man-
ner in which man expresses his desires. The fine phrases by
which man's love is expressed generally cover sentiments which
are much less pure and calculations much more egoistic than
the relatively innocent play of the young girl. No doubt there
are false women whose amorous wiles are only a spider's web,
but we are speaking here of the average, and not of exceptions.
Coquetry. — The sexual braggardism of man is only found in
some prostitutes; it is replaced in woman by coquetry and the
140 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
desire to please. Vain women profit by the natural grace and
beauty of their sex and person, not only to attract and please
men, but also to shine among their fellows, to make other
women pale before their brilliance and their elegance. Coquettes
take infinite pains in this art. All their efforts and all their
thoughts are directed only to increase their charm by the bril-
liancy of their toilette, the refinement of their attire, the ar-
rangement of their hair, their perfumes, paint and powder, etc.
It is here that the narrowness of the mind of woman is revealed
in all its meanness.
To describe feminine coquetry would oblige me to descend
to banality. If we go to a ball or a fashionable soiree, if we
observe women at the theater, their toilettes, their looks and
expressions, or if we read a novel by Guy de Maupassant, "Fort
Comme la Mort," or "Notre Coeur," for example, we can study
all the degrees and all the degeneration of this part of the sexual
psychology of women. /rMany of them have such bad taste that
they transform themselves into caricatures; dye their hair,
paint their eyebrows and lips to give themselves the appearance
of what they are not, or to make themselves appear young and
beautiful. /
/These artifices of civilized countries resemble the tattooing,
nose-rings, etc., with which savage women adorn themselves.
The latter are represented by earrings, bracelets and necklaces.
All these customs constitute irradiations of the sexual appetite
or the desu'e to please men. Male sexual inverts (vide Chap.
VIII) also practice them, and often also certain dandies with
otherwise normal sexual instincts.
The Pornographic Spirit in Woman. — This is absolutely con-
trary to the normal feminine nature, which cannot be said of
eroticism. Among prostitutes, as we have seen, the porno-
graphic spirit is only the echo of their male companions, and in
spite of this, we still find a vestige of modesty even in them.
No doubt, in very erotic women, sexual excitations may lead to
indecent acts and expressions, but these are rare exceptions and
of a pathological nature.
Natural feminine eroticism, not artificially perverted, only
shows itself openly in complete intimacy, and even here modesty
mRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 141
and the aesthetic sense of woman correct and attenuate it.
Normally, all obscenity and cynicism disgusts women and only
inspires them with contempt for the male sex. On the other
I hand, they are easily stimulated to eroticism by pictures or
aovels, if they are sufficiently aesthetic, or even moral. This
IS a great danger for both sexes, especially for woman — eroti-
l^ism dissimulated under hypocritical forms, and intended to
idealize dishonest intentions (vide de Maupassant: "Ce Cochon
ie Morin").
Modesty and Prudery in Woman. — In woman the sentiments
[3f modesty and prudery have a peculiar character, which results
i'rom her natural disgust for pornography on the one hand, and
ilso from her attachment to fashion and prejudice. Many
svomen have a perfect terror of exposing certain parts of their
Dody, even to a medical man. This fact depends on conven-
:ion, and sometimes on the absence or perversion of sexual
eclings. Brought up to prudery, sometimes to an absurd
extent as in England, these women lose their natural feeling
md often suffer from the excitation, indignation, and perpet-
ial fright, which result from it. The exaggerations of prudery,
[moreover, easily lead to opposite excesses, or else degenerate
,^nto hypocrisy. The prude is ashamed of the most natural
luhings, and undergoes continual torment.
; Prudery can be created or cm'ed by education in childhood,
'[t may be created by isolation, by covering all parts of the
Dody, and especially by making children regard nudity as
1 shameful. On the other hand, it may be cured by mixed bath-
,ing, by accustoming the child to consider the human body, in
iiU its parts and functions, as something natural of which one
jaeed not be ashamed, lastly by giving instruction on the relations
ji the sexes, in due time and in a serious manner, instead of
; replying to ingenuous questions by pious falsehoods, by equivo-
|3ation, or by an air of mystery.
, The chapter on love is infinite, and its relations to the sexual
; appetite make it still more complex. We shall confine ourselves
I to indicating two more of its irradiations, peculiar to each sex,
;but having for each a physionomy corresponding to its own
'mentality.
142 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
FETICHISM AND ANTI-FETICHISM
"We understand by fetiches, objects, portions of objects, or
even simply the qualities of objects which, from their associa- ;
tion vdth. a certain person or with the idea of this person, pro- i
duce a kind of charm or at least a profound impression, which !
in no way corresponds to the nature of the object itself." — ;
(Krafft-Ebing.) The fetich thus s)mibolizes a person in whom
we have such a profound interest that everything connected
with her disturbs our feelings. It is we ourselves who place in
the fetich the charm arising from the person whom it symboHzes
for us.
In many religions fetichism plays an important part, so much j
so that fetiches such as amulets or relics produce ecstasy in the
faithful.
Binet, Krafft-Ebing and others give the name erotic fetichUm
to the charm which certain objects or certain parts of the body
exercise in a similar wa}^ on the sexual desires or even on love,
in the sense that their simple representation is powerfully asso-
ciated with the erotic image of a person of the other sex, or -^-ith a
particular variety of sexual excitation. In both man and woman ^
certain portions of the clothes or the body, the hair, the foot
and hand, or certain odors of the person desired, may take the
character of fetiches. It is the same with certain intellectual
peculiarities and certain expressions of the features. In man,
the woman's hair, her hands or feet, her handkerchief, perfumes, ^
etc., often play the part of erotic fetiches. I
We may caU anti-fetiches certain objects or certain qualities
which, on the contraiy, destroy eroticism. Certain odors, the
tone of a voice, an ugly nose, a garment in bad taste, an awk-
ward manner, often suffice to destroy eroticism by causing dis- '
gust for a person, and their simple representation is enough to
make her unbearable. SjTnbolizing disgust, the anti-fetich
paralyzes the sexual appetite and love.
In normal love, it is especially by association of ideas in calling
to mind the image of the person loved that the fetich plays the
part of an exciting agent. It often, however, becomes itself the
more special object of the sexual appetite, while the anti-fetich
IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE 143
produces the opposite effect. But, in degenerates (vide Chap.
iVIII) it is sometimes exclusively to the fetich itself that an
; irresistible sexual appetite is addressed, the irradiation of which
'becomes a ridiculous caricature of love.
We thus see that normal love is based on an extremely com-
! plex synthesis, on a symphony of harmonious sensations, senti-
I ments and conceptions, combined in all kinds of tones and shades.
The pathological aberrations of which we shall speak, demon-
'strate this by forcing one tone or another to the more or less
' marked exclusion of the rest.
'■ PSYCHOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF LOVE TO RELIGION
Love and eroticism play a great part in religion, and many
derivatives of religious sentiment are intimately associated with
[the sexual appetite. As Krafft-Ebing says, religious ecstasy is
: closely related to amorous ecstasy, and very often appears in the
guise of consolation and compensation for an unhappy or dis-
appointed love, or even in the absence of sexual love. In the
' insane, religion and eroticism are combined in a very character-
istic manner. Among a number of peoples certain cruel religious
customs are the result of transformed erotic conceptions.
As in religion, there is something mystical in love; the ineffa-
ble dream of eternal ecstasy. This is why the two kinds of
mystic and erotic exaltation become blended in religions.
Krafft-Ebing attributes the cruelty found in many religions
to sadism (sexual lust excited by the sufferings of others) . (Vide
Chap. VIII.)
"The relationship so often established between religion, lust
and cruelty can be reduced almost to the following formula:
at the acme of their development, the religious and sexual pas-
sions show a concordance in quality and in quantity of excita-
tion, and may consequently replace each other, under certain
circumstances. Under special pathological influences, both may
be transformed into cruelty." — (Krafft-Ebing.)
We shall return to this subject in Chapters VIII and XII.
CHAPTER VI
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE IN MAN AND IN"|
MARRIAGE '
In the study of the sexual question it is absolutely necessary to^
guard against subjectiveness and all preconceived theory, and;
to avoid sentimentalism as well as eroticism. These two dan-
gers play a considerable part in the study of human sexual life.
Presented in a conscientious and scientific way the history of
marriage furnishes us the most trustworthy material for the
study of the sexual relations of man in social life. It is from
this material that we can learn the relative importance of the I
different psychological and psycho-pathological factors in social
evolution. But, to furnish valid material, history must not only
be based on trustworthy and veracious sources; it must also
give a comparative study of the sexual relations which exist in
most, if not all, of the peoples actually existing. The present
savage tribes no doubt resemble more closely the primitive
peoples than our hybrid agglomeration of the civilized world.
Moreover, the modern study of ethnology gives us more certain
information than the uncertain, incomplete and often fabulous
statements of ancient documents. I am speaking here of primi-
tive history, and not of the Greek and Roman civilizations.
Unfortunately the correctness of ethnological observations,
and especially their interpretation, still leave much to be desired.
Edward Westermark, professor at Helsingfors, in his " History
of Human Marriage," has given us a monumental work, which is
remarkable, not only for the richness and exactness of its mate-
rial, but also for the clearness and good sense of its criticism. I
shall give a resume of Westermark's results, as the subject is
beyond the domain of my special studies. The author has col-
lected a great number of observations in order to avoid erroneous
conclusions. He warns the reader against a hasty generalization,
144
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 145
which attributes without proof certain customs of living savage
tribes to our primitive ancestors.
ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE
In the previous chapter we have considered the phylogeny of
love in general. We have seen that some of the low^er animals,
such as the ants and bees, give evidence of an instinctive social
altruism much gi'eater than that of man, while other animals,
such as birds, are superior to us as regards monogamous con-
jugal fidelity. But it is a question here of analogies due to
phenomena of convergence, and these animals are of interest to
us only as remote objects of comparison.
As regards marriage in primitive man, we can only compare
ourselves with the living animals most closely allied to us, viz.
the anthropoid apes.
In most mammals, marriage (if we may give this name to
1 their sexual union) is only of very short duration, depending
on the time necessary for the procreation of a single brood of
young. After copulation the male generally pays little atten-
tion to the female, beyond protecting her for a certain time.
In the anthi'opoid apes (orang-utan, chimpanzee, goriUa and
gibbon) however, we find monogamous marriage and the insti-
tution of family life. The male protects the female and the
! young, and the latter are often of different ages, showing the
' existence of conjugal fidelity extending beyond one birth.
' While the female and the young remain in their nest, perched
» on a tree, the male takes his place at the foot of the tree and
, watches over the safety of the family.
I According to Westermark this was probably the same in
' primitive man. Formed by the father, the mother and the
children, the family was in primitive man a general institution,
1 based on monogamy, polygamy or polyandry. The wife looked
' after the children, and the husband protected the family. No
doubt, the husband was not particularly anxious for the welfare
of his wife and children, but concerned himself chiefly in the
, satisfaction of his sexual appetite and his pride. He was useful,
however, in building the nest, or hut, in procuring the necessary
\ food, and in defending his family.
146 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Most legends relate that primitive man lived in promiscuity
with women, without marriage, and that marriage was insti-
tuted by some god or by some law. But this opinion, which is
still held by most modern authors, is quite erroneous, as Wester-
mark has demonstrated in a masterly manner, by the aid of
documents which are absolutely conclusive.
The duty of the husband to provide food for the family is a
general law among savage peoples. A confirmation of this law
is found in the fact that most often m polygamous races the man
has only the right to as many wives as he can support. Every
man must give proof that he is capable of feeding his family.
Even after divorce the husband's duties continue, and may
even be transmitted to his heirs. For example, among certain
peoples, his brother is obliged to marry his widow. The hus-
band's duties appear to be inherited from the higher apes,
among whom conjugal fidelity lasts longer than the sexual
appetite. This fidelity has therefore deep phylogenetic roots
in our nature, and we shall see later on that we cannot neglect it
without compromising our social state (Chap. XIII).
The follo^nng is the definition of marriage as given by Wester-
mark: Marriage is a sexual union of variable duration between
men and women, a union which is continued after copulation, at
least till the birth of the child.
According to this definition, there may be monogamous,
polygamous and polyandrous marriages, as well as marriage in
groups and limited marriage. It is evident that permanent
monogamous unions, such as occur in birds and the higher apes,
are, according to this definition, true marriages, of better quality
even than those of many men.
_,/^mong animals which have a definite rutting period, mar-
riage cannot depend solely on the sexual appetite, or egoistic
eroticism, without ceasing with the rut. It follows from this
that natural selection and the mneme (engraphia) have derived
from the sexual appetite certain social or altruistic instincts,
with the object of preser\ang the species by protection of the
young. Although not the only means of preservdng the species,
such instincts are certainly important.
The family is thus the root of marriage. This explains the
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 147
custom, among certain races, of marriage only becoming valid
after the birth of a child. In many forms of marriage by pur-
chase, the wife is even bound to return to her husband the sum
paid for her if she remains sterile, and among many savages the
marriage is only celebrated after the birth of the first child. In
Borneo, relations between the sexes are free till pregnancy oc-
curs, and it is this which determines the duties of marriage.
In this respect, these savages are more just and wiser than us.
In man, a special reason in favor of marriage is the fact that
i he has no rutting period. In animals the rutting period is gen-
erally regulated so that the young are born exactly at the time
of year when they will find food most abundant. For example,
I the muscardin copulates in July and brings forth young in
i August, at the time when nuts are ripe, while elephants, whales
and certain monkeys, who find food at all seasons, do not copu-
late at any definite period.
The anthropoid apes, however, have a rutting period, and
.something analogous is found among certain human races
' (Calif ornians, Hindus and certain Australians) in the spring,
when sexual orgies are indulged in. In man there is no particu-
lar correlation between eroticism and the possibility of easily
obtaining food for the children at the time of birth. Neverthe-
less, a recrudescence of the sexual appetite is generally observed
I in the spring and beginning of summer, with a corresponding
increase in the number of conceptions. This is probably ex-
plained by the fact that infants born in the autumn or winter
are more robust. Moreover, natural selection has almost
I entirely ceased in civilized peoples, owing to the artificial means
used to rear children, and to the diminution which results from.
1 their mortality.
We thus see that the institution of marriage in man does not
; depend on the excitation of the sexual appetite, for this is, on
the whole, continuous.
I ANTIQUITY OF MATRIMONIAL INSTITUTIONS
' The fact that the anthropoid apes produce feeble and depend-
I ent young, whose infancy is long, has probably been the origin
of marriage. Kautsky says that in primitive man the child
148 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
belongs to the clan; but this is an error. Originally, human
societies were composed of families, or rather associations
of families. In primitive man, these families play the funda-
mental role and constitute the nucleus of society. In the anthro-
poid ape we already find the family, but not the clan. This
must also have been the case with the pithecanthropoids and
other extinct transitory forms. In fact, the lowest savages still
live as isolated families like the carnivorous mammals, rather
than in clans or tribes. This is the case, for example, with the
Weddas of Ceylon, the indigenes of Terra del-Fuego, the abo-
riginal Australians, the Esquimaux and certain Indians of
Brazil. In this way they have better conditions for subsistence.
In primitive times therefore, man lived in families, on the
produce of the chase. Later on, the spirit of discovery, the more
abundant food obtained by traps and by the cultivation of
plants allowed men to live in tribes. Thus, intellectual devel-
opment was the first cause of social life in man, and Lubbock is
certainly wrong in considering that the establishment of clans
dates further back than the first beginning of civilization.
Westermark's conclusions are as follows:
(1). At no period of human existence has family life been re-
placed by clan life:
(2). Conjugal life is a heritage from ancestors who lived in a
similar way to the anthropoid apes of the present day:
(3). Although less intimately and less constantly bound to the
children than to the mother, the father has always been in man the
protector of the family.
CRITICISM OF THE DOCTRINE OF PROMISCUITY
Most sociologists believe with Lubbock, Bachofen, MacLen-
nan, Bastian, Giraud-Teulon, Wilkens, and others that primitive
man lived in sexual promiscuity. If we agree with Westermark
that the term marriage includes polygamy, polyandry and
limited marriage, the opinion of these authors is wrong. What
they have considered as promiscuity can always be included in
one of these forms of marriage, even among the indigenes of
Hayti, whose life is the most debauched. The author who has
most confused the question is Fison, with his dogmatic theories'
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 149
concerning the Australians. Obliged to admit that promis-
cuity does not exist among these people, he still maintains that
it existed formerly. Curr, who was better acquainted than
Fison with the Australians, has proved that they are normally
monogamous.
Similar statements of Bastian, Wilkens and others concerning
the Kustchins, the natives of Terra del Fuego, are also incorrect.
In none of the African tribes is there communion of women, the
men, on the other hand, are extremely jealous. Promiscuity is
not observed among savage and primitive races, but among
people already civilized, such as the Buddhist Butias, in whom
man knows neither honor nor jealousy. The savage Weddas
are monogamous, and one of their proverbs says: "Death alone
can separate woman from man."
There is in reality only one true form of promiscuity — the
prostitution of modern civilized races, who have introduced it
among savages, subjecting them to gratify their own lust.
Among many savage races there exists, on the contrary, a very
severe monogamy, and they punish with death every seducer
and illegitimate child, as well as the mother. Among others,
however, considerable sexual freedom is allowed before or after
marriage. It is impossible to lay down definite rules, but one
thing may be regarded as universal, viz., that the sexual deprav-
ity of savage races most often arises from the influence of civil-
ized people who immigrate among them and systematically intro-
duce immorality and debauchery. It is the white colonists who
appropriate the women of savage races and train them in the
worst forms of prostitution. It is the white colonists who intro-
duce alcoholic drink which disorganizes the most virtuous and
loyal habits, and ends with ruin.
Certain Arab clans exploit European habits of prostitution
by sending their young girls to brothels for purposes of gain.
When they have accumulated a sufficient fortune they return
home and marry one of their fellow countrymen. Similar cus-
toms are observed among other races.
In this connection Westermark points out that the more
advanced is civilization, the greater is the number of illegiti-
mate births, and the more widespread is prostitution. In
150 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Europe, the proportion of natural children and of prostitutes is
nearly double in the towns what it is in the country. This
shows the absurdity of regarding promiscuity as a primitive
state; on the contrary, it is a rotten fruit of civilization, and
especially of semi-civilization. Primitive customs are generally
chaste, and it is civilization which corrupts them. In Europe,
prostitution is increasing, while marriage is becoming less
frequent; it is the latter which constitutes the primitive and
normal state.
Westermark admits, as we have mentioned above, that sexual
liberty before or after marriage exists among certain tribes; but
in spite of this the custom of careful choice always exists among
these people, and this renders their unions comparatively last-
ing. He cites as an example the Tounghtas of India, who
practice sexual cormection before marriage, but among whom
these connections nearly always lead to marriage; this race
considers prostitution as dishonorable.
We must, however, make one objection to Westermark.
Promiscuity in itself is not necessarily prostitution, for the lat-
ter signifies especially the sale of the body, which is not the case
in promiscuity. The fundamental fact which prevents us ad-
mitting the existence of primitive promiscuity among savage
races is the following: As soon as the two sexes are free, the
monogamous instinct of the woman and jealousy of both sexes
combine to reestablish marriage. True promiscuity can only
exist by means of a sort of legal obligation, such as exists in the
colony of Oneidas in New York. In this colony the members
formally agree to mutual and free sexual intercourse. We must
not forget that prostitution is only kept up in women by the
thirst for lucre, and ceases immediately this element disappears.
Before the Reformation there existed in Scotland a singular
custom called "hand-fasting," by which young men had the
right to choose a companion for a year, at the end of which
time they could either separate or become married according to
their inclination.
On the other hand, Lubbock mentions certain customs in
Greece and India, the worship of phallus, for example, which
obliged young girls to give themselves to all men. But these
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 151
customs were not among primitive races but resulted from the
eroticism of highly civilized nations. Thus, Lubbock's argu-
ment concerning the existence of primitive promiscuity falls to
the ground.
Certain savage nations offer their daughters or their servants,
rarely their wives, to their guests. A jus primce nodi (right
to the first night) has also existed and will sometimes exist in
some tribes, but this right is reserved for the chiefs, kings or
priests, and allows them to have sexual intercourse before the
husband with every newly married woman during the first
night of the nuptials. This is a barbarous custom based on the
right of the stronger, and analogous to the privileges claimed
by the European nobles from their serfs or peasants. But
such abuses do not constitute promiscuity, as Lubbock main
tains.
In many countries the courtesans and concubines were held
in high esteem, and are so even at the present day, more than is
supposed; but this again is not a question of promiscuity.
Morgan has deduced his theories of promiscuity from terms
employed in certain savage dialects to designate relationship.
These conclusions are false and Morgan, like others, has been
led into error by the obscurity of the language of these people.
The simple fact that paternal parentage is recognised among
them proves the absurdity of Morgan's reasoning, for promis-
cuity cannot recognize paternal parentage.
In 1860 Bachofen drew attention to the ancient custom of
naming the children after the maternal side, and it is now certain
that this custom has existed among many primitive races, while
in others children were named after the paternal side. The
term matriarchy is given to denomination after the maternal
side. MacLennan maintains the existence of matriarchy in
promiscuity, but this is inadmissible. Maternity is self-evident,
while paternity can only be proved indirectly by the aid of
reasoning. No doubt all nations appear to have recognized
the real part which the father takes in every conception, and
from this results the singular custom among certain tribes, in
which the husband retires to his couch and fasts during the
accouchement of his wife.
■/
152 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Westermark explains matriarchy in a simpler and more nat-
ural way, by the intimate relations of the child to the mother.
Children, especially when they are still young, follow the
mother when she separates from the father. Matriarchy is
quite natural in marriages of short duration, with change of
wives, and in polygamy; while, in monogamous nations, it is
'patriarchy, or denomination after the paternal line, which
dominates.
Among nations where the denomination of uncles exists, and
where the married woman lives with her family till she has a
child, matriarchy results quite naturally from this fact. In
Japanese families who have only daughters, the husband of the
eldest takes his wife's family name. Among savages in general,
the name has a great importance. When rank and property are
only inherited in the female line, the children are always named
after this line. We are thus concerned here with very complex
questions which have nothing to do with promiscuity.
Maine has proved that prostitution and promiscuity lead to
sterility and decadence. Among the few tribes in which poly-
andry is the rule, especially in Thibet, several brothers generally
have the same wife. But they usually alternate, and never
dwell together. In the fifteenth century, in the Canary Islands,
every woman had three husbands, each of whom lived with her
for a month, and the one who was to possess her during the
following month had to work both for her and for the other
two husbands. Polyandry has always originated in scarcity of
women.
The jealousy of men, which has never ceased to exist, gives
the clearest proof of the impossibility of promiscuity. Poly-
andry is only possible among a few feeble and degenerate races
who ignore jealousy. These tribes are diminishing and tend to
disappear. The jealousy of savages is generally so terrible that
among them a woman who commits adultery is usually put to
death along with her seducer. Sometimes they are content ■^dth
cutting off her nose or inflicting other chastisement. It is from
jealousy that results the obligation of chastity in the woman.
Religious ideas on the future of man after death are often
combined with these ideas; this is why chastity, death, or even
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 153
all kinds of torture are, in certain countries, imposed on the
woman after death of the husband.
It must not be forgotten that among most savages the wife is
regarded as the property of her husband. If the latter lends
his wife to a guest, he offers her as part of a feast. This is not,
however, promiscuity, and we must understand that these peo-
ple have quite different sentiments to ours. In clans or tribes
the most powerful men have always had the youngest and most
beautiful wives.
To sum up, there is not the shadow of proof in support of the
doctrine of primitive promiscuity, a doctrine which is based on
purely hypothetical grounds.
MARRIAGE AND CELIBACY
Among animals the voluntary celibate exists only among the
females of certain birds which have become widowed, and even
then the case is rare. In savage man, nearly every individual
marries, and the women look upon celibacy or widowhood
almost in the same way as death. The savage despises celibates -
as thieves or sorcerers. In his opinion a man without a wife is
not a man. He therefore marries at a much earlier age than
civilized man, sometimes even (in Greenland) before fecunda-
tion is possible. Among certain Indians men sometimes marry
at the age of nine or ten years, generally between fourteen and
eighteen; the girls between nine and twelve..j)i^n some com-
paratively civilized nations the celibate is so much despised that
they go as far as marrying the spirits of departed children!
Among the Greeks, celibates were punished, and among the
Romans they were taxed heavily. Celibacy becomes more rare
the further we go back in the history of the human race; celi-
bacy increases with the corruption of morals. It is civilization^
which does most harm to marriage, especially in the large towns, •
and the age at which people marry becomes more and more ad-
vanced, although in Europe there are more women than men.
Want of money and insufficient salaries diminish more and more
the number of marriages in the large centers, while among sav-
ages, and also among our peasants, the women and children are
one of the principal sources of wealth, because they work and
154 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
have few needs. Among the middle classes, on the contrary,
the wife is a source of expense, as well as the education of the
children. For men, the length of intellectual and professional
education (and military service in many countries) cause mar-
riage to be postponed and celibacy is obligatory at the time
when the sexual appetite is most powerful. Thus, the more
civilization advances, the longer is marriage postponed. The
refinement and the multiplicity of pleasures also diminish the
attractions of marriage.
Lastly, intellectual culture exalts the desiref for the ideal, so
that men and women well suited to each other meet less fre-
quently, as their mutual adaptation becomes more complicated.
Nevertheless, I must repeat here what I have already said
concerning the way in which novelists present us with the ex-
treme passions of ill-balanced people and describe them as types,
the normal man being too prosaic to attract then- readers.
Rotten as it is with neurotic degenerates, our modern society is
certainly not wanting in pathological models for the novelists,
but it is nevertheless false to always put these into prominence.
The cultured man of well-balanced mind, adapts himself to
marriage on the whole very well, and is not always so difficult to
please. However, it must be recognized that marriage becomes
less easy if a too high ideal is expected from it. With character-
istic prudence, Westermark does not answer the question whether
marriage will progressively diminish in the future.
The Cult of Virgins. Sanctity of the Celibate. — Among many
savages the singular idea obtains that there is something impure
in sexual intercourse. The celibacy ordained by several reli-
gions originates from ideas of this kind.
Many nations have worshiped virgins, for instance the vestal
virgins of the Romans. The mother of Buddha was declared
to be holy and pure, Buddha having been conceived super-
naturally, according to the legend. A Buddhist monk is for-
bidden to have sexual intercourse, even with animals! Celibacy
among certain priests exists also in China.
Among the Hebrews, the idea of the impurity of marriage
had got a footing, and this no doubt powerfully influenced
Christianity. St. Paul thus places celibacy higher than mar-
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 155
riage, and this is how the idea became established among the
fathers of the Church that the repression of all sensuality was a
cardinal virtue, and that God had contemplated in paradise an
asexual reproduction of the human species, which was annulled
by the fall of Adam. Men who remained pure were to be im-
mortal. "The earth is filled with marriage and the heavens
with virginity," says Jeremiah. Such are the ideas which have
given rise to the obligation of celibacy for priests.
Westermark thinks that the idea of impurity attached to
sexual intercourse is possibly derived from the instinctive re-
pugnance experienced by members of the same family to have
sexual intercourse between themselves. Banished from the
family circle this intercourse was tainted with a stigma which
offended modesty, and by the association of ideas so common in
man, this stigma was extended to legal marriage outside the
family. Moreover, religious celibacy is complicated by ascetic
conceptions, and the idea of the impurity of sexual intercourse
is by no means general.
For my part, I think rather that the jealousy natural to both
sexes has gradually compelled them to limit their sexual inter-
course to intimacy and to conceal it. But man is ashamed of
everything which he conceals, and we shall soon see that the
sentiment of modesty concerns all parts of the body which are
concealed. This simple fact is sufficient to give rise to the idea
that coitus is impure, and I do not think it necessary to seek
any further explanation.
ADVANCES MADE BY ONE SEX TO THE OTHER — DEMANDS IN
MARRIAGE
A natural law compels the male germinal cell to move toward
the egg; exceptions to this law are rare, the female germinal
cells being larger and produced in less number. It follows
that in copulation, or the union of individual sexual entities,
man included, it is the male which is the active party and makes
the advances. Among certain tribes (Paraguayans, Garos,
Moquis), however, it is the female who makes the advances.
Everyone knows the combats for the female which takes place
between the male of animals, cocks and stags .for example.
156 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Among certain Indians similar struggles are also observed, after
which the vanquished has to surrender his wife to the con-
queror. The same custom obtained among the ancient Greeks,
as we see in the suitors for Penelope. In Ireland similar cus-
toms prevailed up to the last few centuries.
On the other hand, we often see among savages and among
birds the favors of the female obtained by assiduous courtship
rather than by combat. In some savage tribes struggles take
place between the females for possession of the male. However,
it is usually coquetry in all its degrees which furnishes woman
with the basis for her advances. In many nations, if not in
most, women have the right to refuse a demand for marriage.
METHODS OF ATTRACTION
Adornment in the Two Sexes. — Vanity is older than man, for
it is found in many animals. The lowest and most savage peo-
ples adorn themselves. Tattooing, staining the skin, rings on
the arms and feet, in the lips, nose and ears serve to attract one
sex toward the other. A Santal woman may cany as much
as fifteen kilogrammes of ornaments on her body. Vanity leads
to incredible eccentricities; certain tribes, for example, pull out
their teeth to increase their attractions. Absurdities of this
kind are often associated with religious ideas, although the latter
generally play a secondary part. The true origin of these cus-
toms lies in vanity, combined with the sexual desire to captivate.
In hot climates, at any rate, the savages only commenced to
cover theh bodies with clothes with the object of pleasing by
personal adorrmient. The religious observances attached to
the custom of adornment are not primitive. The latter is de-
rived from the sexual appetite and from vanity, and has only
been incorporated in the dogmas of religious mysticism after
being fu'st established in the habits of the people.
Among savages the men are more inclined to personal adorn-
ment and to coquetry than the women. This is not due to the
inferior social position of the women, for those who enjoy the
greatest liberty are often less extensively tattooed than those
who are reduced to slavery. The true reason is that the man
risks much more than the woman by remaining celibate, and
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 157
this obliges him to take more pains than the women to make
himself fascinating. As a rule the wives of savages attach less
importance to their personal appearance than to that of their
husbands, and the vanity of the latter is guided chiefly by the
taste of their wives. The objects with which savages adorn
themselves are generally trophies.
Among civilized people, on the contrary, the men have a much
wider choice and many women remain celibate. This is one of
the reasons which compel women to study their personal appear-
ance and the art of flirtation. In Europe, earrings represent
the last vestige of the savage methods of adornment.
Sentiment of Shame of the Genital Organs. Nudity. — What
is the origin of the fact that man is ashamed of his genital
organs? Nothing of the kind occurs in animals. The psychol-
ogist, Wundt, maintains that man has always had a sexual sen-
timent of modesty. This is not correct, for many races present
no trace of it, and sometimes cover all parts of their body except
the genital organs. In some, the men, and in others the women
go absolutely naked. Originally, clothes were only worn for
adornment or for protection against the cold. The Massais
would be ashamed to hide their penis, and it is their custom to
exhibit it. Other savages cover the glans penis only with a
small cap; they retire to pass water, but regard themselves as
fully dressed so long as the glans penis is covered. The girdles
and other garments of savage women are intended for ornament,
and as a means of attraction; they have nothing to do with
modesty. In a society where every one goes naked, nudity
seems quite natural, and provokes neither shame nor eroticism.
The custom of adorning the sexual organs then serves as a means
of attraction, both in men and women. The short transparent
skirts of a ballet dancer are in reality much more immodest than
the nudity of the female savages. A great naturalist has said
that veiled forms provoke the sexual appetite more than nudity.
Snow remarks that association with naked savages excites much
less sensuality than the society of fashionably dressed women in
our salons. Read also remarks "Nothing is more moral or less
calculated to excite the passions than nudity." It is needless to
say that this statement is only correct when nudity is a matter
158 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
of custom, for in sexual matters it is always novelty which
attracts. Pious persons have tried to make savages modest by
clothing them, but have only produced the contrary effect.
Savage women regard it as shameful to cover their sexual organs.
The naturalist, Wallace, found in one tribe a young girl who
possessed a dress, but who was quite as much ashamed of cloth-
ing herself \\ath it as one of our ladies would be of undressing
before strangers.
It is only o\^dng to the custom of wearing clothes that
nudity provokes the sexual appetite. This- custom develops
artificially a sentiment of modesty with regard to nudity, which
increases progressively in intensity and is especiaUy marked in
aged women. It is not so much habit, as to the feelmg of pro-
gressive deterioration of their charms, which leads the latter to
cover themselves as they grow older, and is part of the instinctive
aesthetic sentiment of woman.
At the orgies and fetes held among savages the women cover
their sexual organs with certain objects, as a means to excite
the men. Complete nudity is found more often in savage women
than in the men.
Later on when it became the custom to wear clothes, nudity
became attractive and was considered shameful. This is why
the Chinese feel shame at exposing their feet, the Mahometans
their faces, and some savages even the ends of their fingers.
Certain customs, like circumcision among the Jews, Poly-
nesians and Australians; the artificial elongation of the lips of
the vulva in Hottentots, Malays, and North American Indians,
originated, according to Westermark, in the intention of exciting
the sexual appetite, or of introducing variety into its satis-
faction. Later on routine, which sanctions everj^thing, trans-
ferred these customs into religious cult. It is possible, however,
that among the Jews, who are a practical race, the hygienic
advantage of circumcision took a part in its transformation
into a rite.
To resume, everything derogatory to established custom ex-
cites the sentiment of shame or modesty, not only in sexual mat-
ters but in others. Most children are ashamed of not beha\ing
exactly as their comrades or their brothers and sisters, and are
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 159
very uncomfortable if they are obliged to behave otherwise.
All sentiments of morality and modesty rest on conventionalities.
The savage women burst into laughter when the naked com-
panions of Livingstone turned their backs from modesty. The
sentiment of modesty or shame thus depends only on excep-
tional violation of an old custom. This is why unconventional
ways in one of the sexes (especially in woman) tend to offend
the sentiments of modesty, and usually excite the sexual appe-
tite of the other sex.
LIBERTY OF CHOICE IN MARRIAGE — PATRIARCHISM
Among savages, the women sometimes have the right of giv-
ing their hand in marriage, sometimes not. The latter case is
not surprising in countries where women are considered as mer-
chandise. Among the Esquimaux every girl is betrothed from
birth. Among the Boschimans, Ashantis, etc., the unborn girl
is even betrothed while she is in her mother's womb! These
betrothals are generally arranged by the maternal parents
together with the mother.
Very often, however, the consent of the woman is required;
or, the marriage may be only valid after the birth of the first
1 child on condition of the woman's consent.
I Among the American Indians, if the woman is not a consent-
; ing party she elopes with her lover and thus escapes the would-
be-husband. In this way elopement has gradually become a
recognized institution among certain races. I was told by a
[ Bulgarian that the peasants in his country buy their wives from
the father, generally for two or three hundred francs, but if the
father demands too much, the women are raped. After this
marriage becomes indispensable and the father receives nothing;
for, in Bulgaria, which is not yet spoiled by civilization, unions
apart from marriage are considered as a terrible disgrace.
In certain races, the woman has a free choice among several
men and her wish becomes law, so that the parents have no voice
in the matter; this occurs among the natives of the Celebes.
The bridegroom is nevertheless obliged to pay the dowry de-
manded. Similar customs prevail among other races.
Westermark comes to the conclusoin that in the primitive
160 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
state of humanity the women had a much freer choice than
afterward. Marriage by purchase developed later and consti-
tuted an intermediate stage. T\Tien the first civilizations
became more complicated and recognized the value of woman's
labor, the fathers began to sell their daughters, as we now see
savage tribes abandon their women to prostitution with the
white man. But in primitive times, when there was neither
civilization, money, nor labor, properly so-called, each indi\ddual
fought for his life and the father had no more possibility of selling
his daughter as a slave than a gorilla or an "orang-utan would
have to-day.
Marriage by rape, which occurred after wars when the women
were abducted and married against their will, must not be con-
founded with marriage by elopement which takes place with
the woman's consent, and of which the latest fashion is elope-
ment by automobile.
Among savages, the boys are also most often the property of
the father, who has the right to sell them and even to put them
to death. But they become free at the age of puberty and then
have the right to marry according to their inclination without
being forced by their parents.
There existed and still exist many patriarchal races (certain
Indians and Asiatics, for example) among whom the father
possesses unlimited power. The older he is the more he is
honored, and the more his power is uncontested. All the chil-
dren and gi-andchildren, with their wives and children, eat at
his table; none of his descendants can many without his con-
sent, etc. The effects of patriarchism are deplorable and very
immoral. The patriarch abuses his power — gives his old wives
to his childi'en and takes the young ones, for example. The
purest and most \drtuous Japanese girl is obliged to go to a
brothel if her father orders it. The patriarch has the power of
life and death over both sexes, and from tliis is derived the cult
of ancestors. At the present day we see immorality of this kind
in the Russian patriarchism among the peasants; the fathers
have the custom of misusing their sons' wives. Patriarchism
thus degenerates into atrocious t3Tanny on the part of the chief
Df the family, who becomes looked upon as a god.
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 161
A law which is common in the Latin races, which forbids
marriage before the age of thirty, without the consent of the
father, is a vestige of patriarchism.
We see, therefore, that quite primitive savage races ap-
proached our most modern ideas in Hberty of choice in mar-
riage. Between these two periods humanity was under the yoke
of a barbarous error — the intermediate stage of marriage by
purchase and patriarchal autocracy. There has existed and
still exists more than one aberration of this kind in the inter-
mediate stages of civilization; for instance, torture, slavery and
the use of narcotic substances, such as alcohol.
SEXUAL SELECTION
By sexual selection we mean union by choice among males
and females. In the vertebrates, the female chooses much
more commonly than the male, the latter being more disposed
to pair with all the females than the females with all the males.
We may certainly admit that this was also the case in primitive
man, especially when there existed a rutting period, for then the
sexual appetite was more violent. Moreover, even at the pres-
ent day, women are on the average more difficult to please and
more strict in their choice than men.
In the case of hybrids it is generally the male which violates
the law of instinct. Female slaves often flee from their free
husbands, but we never see male slaves abandon their free
wives. Among savage races the woman is always more difficult
to please than the man. Among half-breeds, it is nearly always
the father who belongs to a higher race. The inverse rarely
occurs; it is exceptional for a white woman to marry a negro.
The same thing is reproduced among ourselves; we often see a
cultured man marry an uneducated woman, but a cultured
woman seldom marries a laborer.
It is especially among savages that the woman prefers the
man who is strongest, most skillful, most ardent, and most auda-
cious. Heroes always haunt the minds of women, who love to
throw themselves at the head of conquerors. The ideal of cer-
tain women in Borneo is a husband who has killed many enemies
and possesses their heads (head-hunters of Borneo). This
162 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
psychological trait responds to natural selection, for the women
obtain by this custom better protectors and stronger children.
On the other hand, man looks instinctively for a young,
healthy and well-developed woman. It is on this basis that
Greek art formed Eros and Aphrodite, designatmg the latter as
goddess of both love and beauty.
Conception of Beauty. — The conception of beauty is very
relative. The Australians laugh at our long noses and the
natives of Cochin-China at our white teeth and red cheeks.
Certain savage women bind their legs below the knees to make
them swell, this effect being part of their idea of beauty. The
Chinese admire the deformed feet of their women and their
prominent cheek bones. In each nation the conception of
beauty generally corresponds to the ideal type of the race, for
both sexes.^As a general rule muscle is admired in man and
fullness of figure in woman. The Hottentots like women's
breasts to be so pendulous that they can throw them over shoul-
der, and suckle the infants carried on their backs; they also
admire the elongated lips of the vulva.
There are, therefore, few general typical characters of sexual
preference; these are especially the ideal type of the race and
the health of both sexes, voluptuous forms and grace in women,
muscular strength and dexterity in men. Everything else is
relative and variable, and depends on the local point of view,
customs, race, individual taste, etc.
Thus, according to the conception of aesthetics, tattooing, the
arrangement of the hair and beard, deformations of the nose,
cranium, or feet, are admired by different peoples. Each race
extols its own peculiarities; the European compares a woman's
breasts to snow, the Malay to gold, etc. The natives of Coro-
mandel paint their gods black and their devils white, while in
Europe it is the reverse.
The association of love with beauty is not based on aesthetic
sentiments, for the latter are disinterested, while the original
instinct of love is interested. The association of the two things
depends on the instinctive necessity of health, combined with
the sexual appetite, although custom has produced numerous
aberrations. Everything which differs markedly from the type
ETHNOLOGY XNB HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 163
of the race is more or less pathological. This is why instinct,
determined by natural selection, repels it.
Fashion also rules among savages, but is less changeable
among them than with us, and their taste for adornment only
varies in the narrow circle of their customs.
Climate has a powerful action on the types of races, the latter
being generally adapted to the climate in which they live. Thus,
the European becomes darker in the tropics while negroes and
Indians become paler in the north.
LAWS OF RESEMBLANCE — HYBRIDS
Every animal species has an instinctive repugnance to pair
with another. Even where they are possible, natural hybrids
are rare, and only become a little more frequent in domestic
animals and plants. The fecundity of hybrids diminishes when
they have connection among themselves, and this explains why
the instinct for such connections tends to gradually disappear.
In his book on "The Mneme," Semon explains the infecundity
of hybrids in a very plausible manner, by the disorder that a too
large quantity of dissimilar hereditary engrams causes in the
hereditary mneme of two conjugated cells. When the parents
differ from each other only in a moderate degree homophony
may still be reestablished, and then the divergencies have a very
favorable effect on the product, by the new combinations which
they furnish in the course of its development.
Moral ideas follow the course of instincts, and this explains
why sexual connection with animals is regarded as a horrible
crime. This is especially produced by pathological aberration,
or when one sex is completely isolated from the other. There
is also a certain degree of aversion to copulation between differ-
ent races, in animals as well as man; for example, between
sheep and horses of different races, and between white men,
negroes and Indians. There are, however, many hybrids or
half-breeds in South America, and in Mexico they even constitute
two-thirds of the population.
Broca maintained that human hybrids produced by the cross-
ing of remote races, for example, between English and negroes
or Australians, were usually sterile, Westermark disputes
164 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
this, but agrees that these hybrids become enfeebled in a few
generations. It has also been established that mixed marriage
between Jews and Aryans are generally less fecund; but this
fact is not yet sufficiently explamed. Mulattoes, or hybrids
between negroes and whites, constitute a degenerate race and
hardly viable, at any rate if then- descendants do not return
entirely to one of the original races. Half-breeds between whites
and American Indians, also called Ladinos, seem on the contrary
to form a viable race, but one of little valor.
PROHIBITION OF CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES
Sexual union between near relations nearly always causes a
feeling of repugnance in man, and has been stigmatized by the
term incest. Coitus between mother and son especially excites
disgust. Sexual connection between parents and children, as
well as between brothers and sisters is, however, common
among certain tribes. Many other races allow marriage between
brothers and sisters, but this is elsewhere generally condemned.
Among the Weddas, marriage between an elder brother and
his younger sister is considered normal, while that between a
younger brother and his elder sister, or between a nephew and
his aunt, is regarded as unnatural. The latter simply shows
that unions between young men and old women are not natural.
Unions between brothers and sisters, and especially between
half-brothers and half-sisters were licit among the Persians,
Egyptians, Syrians, Athenians and ancient Jews. Those be-
tween uncles and nieces (more rarely between aunts and neph-
ews) are sometimes permitted, sometimes prohibited. With
the exception of Spain and Russia marriages between first cous-
ins are allowed in Europe.
Exogamy and Endogamy. — Among many savages the prohi-
bition of consanguineous marriage may be extended to relation-
ship of the third degree. Marriage may even be prohibited
among all members of the same tribe or clan, even when they
are not related. This is called exogamous marriage, and reaches
its extreme development among the Australians, who are only
allowed to marry into remote clans.
We thus see that the great majority of savages extend their
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 165
idea of incest much further than we do. The reason of this has
been much discussed. It was formerly said that consanguineous
marriage w^as contrary to the commandments of God; that it
offended the natural sentiment of modesty; that it obscures
relationship, etc. Nowadays, it is said to be injurious to pos-
terity. Ethnography teaches us, however, that these state-
ments are of little value.
Along with the exogamy of many tribes there is among other
savages a system of endogamy, described by MacLennan; this
is the prohibition of marriage between different clans. Spencer
and MacLennan have different explanations of this custom
which seem hardly natural. Westermark appears to be nearer
the truth in remarking as follows: The sexual appetite, espe-
cially in man, is excited by new impressions and cooled by habit.
It is not the fact of a man and woman being related, but inti-
mate companionship since youth, which produces in them a
repugnance to sexual union. We find the same repugnance
between adopted brothers and sisters and between friends who
have been intimate since childhood. When, on the contrary,
brothers and sisters or near relatives have been separated from
each other since an early age, they often fall in love with each
other when they meet later on. There is, therefore, no innate
or instinctive repugnance to incest in itself, but only against
sexual union between individuals who have lived together since
childhood. As it is parents and their children who are usually
in this situation, everything is explained simply and clearly.
The causes of exogamy are explained in the same way, by the
fact that members of the same clan often live together in close
intimacy. It is the small clans, formed of thirty or fifty indi-
viduals of a few families living together, which have the most
severe laws against incest or endogamy. Where the families
live in separate homes, such prohibitions do not exist. The
Maoris, who are endogamous, inhabit villages which are widely
separated, and marriage between relations is allowed. En-
dogamy generally exists where the clan life is Httle developed,
and where relatives know and see little of each other. The
aversion to marriage between persons living together has thus
created prohibition of marriage between relations as well as
166 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
that of marriage between members of the same clan. It is the
same reason which has led to the prohibition of marriage between
brothers- and sisters-in-law, between brothers and adopted
sisters, etc. In people living in small communities, endogamy-
does not appear to have ever existed.
Incest between relatives living together appears to have
everywhere the same natural cause — the scarcity of women in
isolated families living in remote districts. There is also a
psycho-pathological form of incest associated with morbid ap-
petites in the families of degenerates. In animals living alone
and whose families break up very rapidly (cats for example)
incestuous unions, between parents and young, for instance,
are quite common.
Let us now consider the scientific side of the question. We
see everywhere that sexual union between quite distinct animal
species gives no result. At the most, certain closely allied
species, such as the ass and the horse, the rabbit and the hare,
give progeny which are themselves sterile (mules, etc.). The
feebleness and sterility of hybrids derived from widely separated
races or nearly allied different species proves the deficiency in
vital force of the offspring of fundamentally dissimilar procre-
ators. But, on the other hand, the dangers of continuous con-
sanguineous reproduction are no less evident. Perpetual unions
between brothers and sisters for several generations, lead to
degeneration of the race. For example, the still-births will be
25 per cent, instead of 8 per cent., which is the figure in ordinary
crossings. The prejudice against consanguineous unions maj^",
however, depend on the accumulation of certain pathological
defects.
Westermark admits that it is difficult to show clearly that
consanguineous marriages are prejudicial in man. The con-
sanguinity which causes evil effects in animals concerns long-
continued unions between parents and children or brothers and
sisters. But this never occurs in man. Animals and plants
may be perpetuated for many years in the closest consanguinity
without degeneration resulting. Among the Persians and
Egyptians, intimate unions have existed for a long time without
producing degeneration.
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LH^E 167
On the other hand, breeders of animals tell us that a single
drop of new blood (or rather sperm) is enough to counteract all
the evil effects of consanguinity. In man the most frequent
incests are always interrupted by some other union. The
Ptolemies, who nearly always married their sisters, nieces or
cousins, lived long and were far from being sterile. In Ceylon,
the Weddas perpetuate their consanguineous unions; insanity
is rare among them, but they are small, unfruitful and tend to
become extinct.
In Europe, the question of marriages between first cousins
has been much discussed, and it has been constantly attempted
to prove that they are injurious. Nevertheless, when we exam-
ine the question impartially, we always find that the prejudices
against them do not arrive from consanguinity, but from cer-
tain pathological defects, such as insanity, hemophilia, etc.,
which are naturally perpetuated by consanguineous unions when
they are accumulated in one family, as weU as when two insane
persons of different families marry. Therefore it is not con-
sanguineous unions in themselves (which are always accidental
in man and interrupted by others) but the hereditary reproduc-
tion of pathological defects, often of blastophthoric origin, which
are the real cause of the evil. Statistics have clearly proved
that marriage between first cousins plays no part in the causes
of insanity.
Influenced, no doubt, by general opinion, Westermark tries
to believe in some instinctive repulsion of man for consan-
guineous unions. If in modern society such unions, perpetuated
between parents and children, brothers and sisters, were still
produced as in animals I should agree that they might be inju-
rious to the species; but, considering how cosmopolitan and
mixed is our modern society, I cannot make the concession.
On the contrary, I maintain that the isolated unions which still
take place between relatives in civilized countries are so excep-
tional that they do not present the least danger, excepting among
the families of degenerates. It is therefore only a question of
superstition. What we have to guard against are unions be-
tween pathological individuals and blastophthoric influences.
We must not forget that many degenerates and idiots have a
168 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
great pathological tendency to incest, and this is no doubt why
the effect has been confounded with the cause.
Westermark himself gives us a striking example. Since the
most remote times the inhabitants of the Commune of Bats,
composed of 3,300 persons, have intermarried; yet this popula-
tion is very healthy and vigorous and shows no sign of degen-
eration. On the other hand, we have seen that contrasts pro-
duce a mutual attraction in the domain of love, whUe strong
resemblances rather repel. Bernardin de St. Pierre has said that
love is created by contrasts ; the greater the contrast the greater
the love. Schopenhauer remarks as follows : " Every indi\ddual
seeks in the opposite sex peculiarities which contrast with his
own; the most masculine man seeks the most feminine woman,
while small and feeble men love large and strong women; people
^Aith short noses prefer long ones, tall and thin men prefer short
and stout women. All this increases fecundity." Thus in-
stinct is sufficient to protect humanity against consanguinity,
each sex instinctively seeking the contrasts which consan-
guinity diminishes.
SENTIMENT AND CALCULATION IN SEXUAL SELECTION
Youth, beauty, health, finery and flirtation excite the sexual
appetite. Many other sentmients are accessory, such as admi-
ration, the pleasure of possession, respect, pity, etc. Inclination
is an important element, but in no way necessary to sexual
union.
In the lower stages of human development, tenderness to-
ward children is much stronger than sexual love. Among many
savage races the love of a man for his viiie is completely wanting,
as well as that of the wife for her husband. In this case mar-
riage depends on reciprocal convenience, on the desire to have
children, and profits by personal comfort and the satisfaction
of a purely animal sexual appetite. However, among these peo-
ple the parents have a tender regard for their children. The
husband has the right to beat his wife, but the wife is considered
as unnatural or even criminal if she beats her children. Among
the North American Indians, for example, conjugal love is, so to
speak, unknown. On the other hand, in other savage races.
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 169
such as the Touaregs, the Niam-Niams, the New Caledonians,
the Tonganese and Austrahans, the conjoints have a deep affec-
tion for each other, and the husband often commits suicide on
the death of his wife. On the whole, the sentiments of affection
of the conjoints are the result of a long sexual life in common,
and they are especially strengthened by the love of the parents
for their children.
As a rule, the mutual attachment of conjoints for each other
among cultivated races is developed along with altruism. The
tenderness and refinement of love as they exist at the present
day among highly civilized races were unknown to most sav-
ages and to the older civilizations. In China it is considered
good manners to beat the wife, and when a poor Chinaman treats
his wife with consideration, it is to avoid having to buy another.
What the Arab understands by love is only sexual appetite, and
among the ancient Greeks it was nearly the same.
In civilized Europe mental culture progresses in the direction
of equality of rights between the two sexes, so that a man re-
gards his wife more as a companion who is his equal and no longer
a slave. Community of interests, opinions, sentiments and cul-
ture constitute a primary condition for sentiments of mutual
sympathy and favors affection. No doubt, excitation of the
sexual appetite by contrasts acts here as an antagonistic force.
Contrast should not be so great as to exclude sympathy.
Too great difference in age is dangerous for attachment, for
it causes too great a divergence in the aims and interests of life.
Education and social equality also favors love, and this tends
to preserve class distinction. It is rare for a well-educated man
to fall in love with a peasant, or a laboring man with an educated
woman, except in a sensual way. Men generally avoid marriage
with individuals of another race, or of another religion.
Endogamy and exogamy do not form such an absolute con-
trast as at first sight might appear. Even among exogamous
races, there is a limit which must not be passed. These races
often prohibit marriage with individuals of another race. Among
the Arabs, for example, the instinct of ethnical separation is so
strong, that the same Bedouin wife who wall prostitute herself
for money with Turks or Europeans, would think it dishonorable
170 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
to marry one of them. In this way custom produces endogamy
of caste and class among the same people. The same with the
nobility; in ancient Rome it was forbidden for a patrician to
marry a plebeian. Sometimes an endogamy of religious origin
is met with, among the Jews for example.
Children are treasures for the man of low culture, while they
become a burden to the cultivated man. In spite of this the
natural man ardently desires children. In Switzerland, two-
fifths of the divorces occur in sterile unions, although the latter
only form one-fifth of all marriages.
Calculation often smothers sentiment when it becomes the
basis of marriage. We live to-day under the sway of Mammon,
with the result that the influence of love, strength, beauty,
capacity for work, intelligence, skill, character and even
health, count for little compared with money in the question
of marriage. This sad sign is really a new form of marriage by
purchase, hypocritically disguised.
MARRIAGE BY RAPE AND MARRIAGE BY PURCHASE
The rape of women is an established custom in some regions.
Certain marriage ceremonies prove that rape was formerly much
more common than at the present day. Among certain Indian
tribes the simulation of rape and abduction of the woman form
part of the marriage ceremonies; custom requiring that the
woman must feign to resist.
According to Spencer, marriage by rape originated in the
prudery of woman, while MacLennan attributes it to the pre-
dominance of exogamy; but, in reality, marriage by rape exists
in races which are absolutely endogamous. Westermark believes
it arose from the repugnance to unions contracted in a narrow
circle. The savage has difficulty in procuring a wife without
giving the father compensation; besides, his own repugnance to
the companions of his childhood and the prejudices against
unions between relations, as well as the enmity of other clans,
all increase the difficulties to be overcome. This is why he often
decides on rape. Marriage by rape has not, however, been the
rule at any period, and on the whole, unions concluded by
mutual agreement have always predominated.
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 171
Marriage by purchase has followed marriage by rape, and
forms a slightly higher stage of civilization, developed by ex-
change of money or other symbols. It first appears, in Austra-
lia, for example, as marriage by exchange (exchange of a woman
for a sister or a daughter). Afterward young men gain their
wives by working as servants for the father. In marriage by
purchase the price is based on the beauty, health and social
position of the woman, A young girl is generally worth more
than a widow or a rejected woman. Skill in female manual
labor also increases the price. Among the Indians of British
Columbia a wife will cost from twenty to forty pounds sterling,
while in Oregon they are exchanged for bisons' skins or blankets.
Among the Kaffii's from three to ten cows is a low price, twenty
to thirty a high price for a wife. When a wife was given gratis,
her parents had a right to the children. Marriage by purchase
and by exchange still exists among the lower races as it formerly
i ruled among civilized peoples. We still possess the rudiments.
Marriage by rape or by purchase has, however, never been
in general usage. Certain races in India and Africa considered
it a disgrace to pay a price for a wife.
From the historical point of view it is interesting to note that,
in the ceremonies of mMiiage by purchase, a simulated and
symbolical rape of the betrothed still recalls the old form of
I marriage by rape; also, in races where a higher form has replaced
marriage by purchase, traces of the latter are still preserved in
certain nuptial symbols.
j DECADENCE OF MARRIAGE BY PURCHASE — THE DOT
' The position of woman has undergone steady improvement
; in higher civilization by the progress of altruism. This is why
■ culture, in India, China, Greece, Rome and Germany, etc., has
i gradually discredited marriage by purchase. This was at first
' replaced by the custom of giving wedding presents to the bride;
afterward the opposite custom was introduced of the bride
bringing her dot to the bridegroom.
[ A singular transition between these two systems is constituted
; by simulated purchase, in which the bridegroom offers presents
: to the bride's parents, which are afterward returned to him.
172 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Among certain savages the bride's parents return the purchase
money of their daughter to the bridegroom in another form. ^
Such restitution was often the origin of the dot.
Among the Romans the dot became the property of the hus-
band, and from this is derived the modern custom which usually
gives the husband the right to administer his wife's dot, which
remains the property of the "^"ife and her family.
Among the ]\Iexicans, where divorce for conjugal discord is
frequent, and among certain Mahometans, di\dsion of property
exists in marriage, and the wife's property is returned to her
when she is separated or divorced.
In Europe at the present time, especially under the influence
of French customs, there is established a kind of marriage by
inverse purchase (which already existed among the Greeks),
in the sense that the parents of young girls obtain husbands for
them by means of a large dot. Westermark concludes this sub-
ject with the following words: "If she does not possess special
personal attractions, a young girl without a dot, at the present
day, runs a great chance of not getting married. Tliis state of
things is quite naturally developed in a society where monog- I
amy is legally enforced; where women are more numerous '
than men; where many men never marr}^, and where married '
women too often lead a life of idleness." If we add to this: •
"in a society where Mammon rules as absolute master," the i
picture will not be wanting in accuracy. j
I
NUPTIAL CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES
In primitive races where the vnie is simply bought like mer-
chandise, often after mutual agi*eement, nuptial ceremonies do '
not exist. They generally originate later from the sjmibols of
a form of marriage since abandoned. The ceremony being con-
cluded and the marriage recognized as legal, it is followed by
feasting. Certain religious ceremonies are generally combined
with marriage. The customs of our modern marriages arise
from the same source. At the time of early Cliristianity there
were no religious ceremonies and even up till the year 1563, the
date of the end of the Council of Trent, religious benediction of
marriage was not obligatorJ^ Luther held that marriage should
t
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 173
DG purely civil^ but legal civil marriage was only introduced among
IS by the French Revolution, while it had existed in remote times
imong the Peruvians, Nicaraguans and others. Among certain
:-aces, marriages concluded without dot, without ceremony, or
ivithout purchase, and even those between different castes, are
Dften regarded as concubinage.
FORMS OF MARRIAGE
Leaving aside hermaphrodites, such as the snails, in which each
individual has both kinds of sexual organs and plays the part of
both male and female, there are among animals with separate
Isexes five forms of conjugal union:
I (1). Temporary or perpetual monogamy, or marriage between
one individual of one sex and one of the other sex. This is the
case with most birds and mammals and many races of man.
(2). Polygymy or polygamy, or the marriage of one male with
several females. This occurs in ruminants, stags, fowls, and
other animals, as well as in some human beings; for example,
the Islamites, negroes, American Indians, Mormons, etc.
(3). Polyandry, or the marriage of one female with several
I males. This is met with chiefly in the ants, in which each
j female is generally fecundated successively by several males.
In most of the higher animals, the jealousy of the males renders
polyandry impossible. In man it is rare but exists among cer-
tain races.
; (4). Marriage in groups, or marriage between several males
land several females. This singular custom is rare but exists in
ithe Togas, a tribe of savages. I am not aware of its existence
I among animals.
(5). Promiscuity, or free sexual intercourse between males
iand females. This occurs in many animals, especially in the
lower animals in which the sexual instinct of the male is not
associated with any regard for the female or the progeny.
Promiscuity is still more natural when the female does not look
1 after her young after she has laid her eggs. Nevertheless, in
most animals the female limits herself to sexual intercourse
before each brood, so that real promiscuity is not so frequent as
174 THE SEXUAL QUESTION .
would at first appear. In man, on the contrary, it attains its'^
apogee in prostitution, which is the only absolutely complete
form of promiscuity. But the result of prostitution as regards'
the preservation of the species, which is the proper object of all
sexual union, is absolutely destructive.
Polygamy or polygjmiy were licit among most ancient races,
and is so still among most savages and among many civilized
nations; but it has several varieties.
In Mexico, Peru, Japan and China a man only possesses one
legitimate wife, but has several concubines whose children are
considered as legitimate as those of his wife. Polygamy existed
legally among the Jews up to the Middle Ages. King Solomon
possessed seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines.
In Islamite countries the Jew^s are still polygamous. The Korani
allow^s them four wives and as many concubines as they please.
The latter do not enjoy the protection of their father, but apart
from this they have the same rights as the legitimate wives.:
The Hindus and Persians are polygamous. The Romans were
strictly monogamous, but they also had concubines.
In Chiistian Europe, polygamy has occasionally been allowed
or tolerated: St. Augustus did not condemn it. Luther allowed
Philip of Hesse to marry two wives; and after the treaty of'
Westphalia bigamy was allowed because of the depopulation
of Germany. The mistresses of the present princes are a relic
of polygamy. Jesus having said nothing concerning polygamy,
Luther did not prohibit it.
The Mormons have introduced it into their religion. The'
negro king of Loango shows us wiiat degree polygamy may
reach among princes and chiefs, for he possesses seven thousand
wives, while the chiefs of the Fiji Islands are content with twenty
to one hundred.
Among savage races we find monogamy in the natives of the
Andaman islands, among the Touaregs, the Weddas, the Iro-
quois, the Wyandottes, and even in some Australian tribes.
With others, polygamy is only permitted to the chiefs. But
most of the population are monogamous even among polyga-
mous races, and there are very few peoples in wiiich all the men
possess several wives. In India, 95 per cent, of the Islamites
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 175
are monogamous, and in Persia even 98 per cent. Polygamy is
nearly everywhere a privilege of princes, chiefs, and rich men.
The two following facts also show a tendency to monogamy
among polygamous races:
(1). One of the wives, generally the first, has prerogatives
over the others.
(2). In reality, the polygamous man nearly always gives sex-
ual preference to one only, or to a few of his wives. There are,
however, some polygamous races in which the husband has
sexual intercourse with each of his wives according to a regular
programme, taking each of them in turn for several days, weeks
, or months. With others, on the contrary, a number of married
women remain in reality virgins, because the husband does not
desire them, and they are nothing more than domestics. Among
i these people the husband as a rule only takes a second wife
Iwhen the first has grown old, so that bigamy becomes the ordi-
inary form of marriage.
' The Cingalese were polyandrous before the EngHsh conquest,
and so many as seven men had one wife in common. Polyandry
is especially the custom in Thibet. Among polyandrous peo-
,' pies the husbands are not all on the same footing of equality,
j some hold an inferior position, corresponding nearly to that of
1 concubines, another sign of the tendency to monogamy.
i Among the Togas marriage in groups is constituted as fol-
lows: All the brothers are husbands of the wife of the elder
brother, and all the sisters of this wife are at the same time
\ wives of their brothers-in-law. If we except prostitution, this
; is the only case in man which approaches promiscuity. Mar-
; riage in groups, however, is extremely restricted promiscuity.
To resume, monogamy is by far the most widespread form of
marriage. This is explained by. the relative number of men to
! women. It has often been stated that the number of individuals
' of the two sexes is nearly the same, and this has been used as an
. argument in favor of monogamy. But this statement is incor-
f rect; sometimes it is the men, but more often the women, who
■predominate. Among the natives of Oregon there are seven
: hundred men to eleven hundred and eighty-five women. Among
f the Punkas and other races the number of women is two or three
176 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
times greater than that of the men. In Kotcha-Hamba there is I"
only one man to five women. Among other races there are, on
the contrary, more men than women, especially in Australia,
Tasmania, and Hayti. In the latter island there is only one
woman to five men. In Cashmere there are three men to one
woman. Among the negroes, on the contrary, the women pre- '
dominate, sometimes in the proportion of three to one, but more
generally as three to two.
In Europe, more boys than girls are born on the average, but
from the age of fifteen to twenty the numbers become equal, i
and after twenty the women predominate. This is due to the '
greater mortality among men, owing to war, the greater danger
of masculine occupations, and also to alcoholism. In the fifteen j
largest towns in Switzerland alcoholism is the direct or indirect '
cause of death in 10.5 per cent, of men above the age of twenty.
Among savages the women often take part in war, for instance
the Amazons of Dahomey. Drinking habits are also the same '
or absent in both sexes, which equalizes matters. WTien the
men predominate in these people, this is often due to infanticide
committed on young girls, and also to overwork of the women.
With the Cingalese the natality of boys is greater than that of
girls, while in Asia Minor two girls, in Ai-abia even four girls, ^
are born to one boy. The Arab says, "Allah has given us more '
women than men; it is, therefore, clear that polygamy is a
di\'ine commandment."
Production of Sexes at Will. — I will say a few words on the
question of the causes of production of the sexes. There is no
want of hypotheses, assertions, nor even of experiments on this
subject; but, we are obliged to admit that up to the present
we know nothing certain. No one has yet succeeded in pro-
ducing experimentally in animals males or females at will.
According to one theory, which has created much impression,
overfeeding produces females and underfeeding males. Although
this appears to be true in certain cases among some animals,
it is in no way proved in a positive manner.
It has also been suggested that selection produces the sex
which is deficient in numbers; but here again proofs are want-
ing. It has been maintained that crossing tends to breed
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 177
females, while consanguineous marriages produce males; in
: other words, that mongrel races show an excess of female births,
[while races in which marriages are very consanguineous, and
polyandrous tribes show an excess of males. It is much better
;to leave this question alone till science has furnished us with
[Conclusive proofs. Certain results obtained with the lower ani-
mals give hope that the future may shed some light on this
I point.
; Again, marriage customs are not always in relation to the
i excess of one of the sexes. Races in which men predominate
are not always polyandrous, and those in which women are in
excess are not always polygamous; sometimes even the con-
trary exists. Polygamy is thus not always due to a surplus of
female births, or to the death of many men, but often to religious
'prescripts, as among the Islamites and Mormons. In polyandry,
poverty often plays a greater part than consanguineous mar-
riages or surplus of male births. Religious prescription of the
.husband's continence during his wife's menstrual periods, preg-
;nancy, and even the period of nursing, a period which often
lasts from two to four years in savages, is an important cause of
polyandry. At Sierra Leone, coitus of the husband with his
[Wife before the last-born child can walk is regarded as a crime.
Although very advantageous to the wife's health this custom
is entirely based on religious ideas and superstitions. Many
savages consider that every woman is impure and bewitched
I during her monthly periods, during pregnancy and suckling.
jif we add to this the fact that, being usually treated as beasts,
I the women soon gi'ow old, we can easily understand that the
;men are inclined to polygamy. It is remarkable with what
; rapidity the savage woman grows old. She is only fresh from
'thirteen to twenty years; after twenty-five she is old and sterile,
and a little later she has the aspect of an old sorceress. This
i premature senility is not so much due to early sexual intercourse
' as to the terribly hard work they undergo, and also to the pro-
longed period of suckling.
i Another cause of polygamy is man's natural desire for change.
J The negroes of Angola exchange wives. The instinct of pro-
j creation, love of glory and riches cooperate with the sterility
178 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
of many women in propagating polygamy. Certain races only
tolerate it when the woman is sterile, or has only daughters,
which clearly proves that it is based on the fear of remaining
without male descendants.
On the whole, savage women are less fecund than civilized,
owing to their long continence during the two or four years
nursing of each child. If we add to this the high infant mortality,
we can understand how polygamy becomes among these people
a means of reproduction in the struggle for existence, and even
in African races a natural law. A native of Central Africa may
have a hundred wives, who also act as servants and retainers.
In this case polygamy is the expression of pomp and wealth. It
is especially developed in agricultural peoples owing to the value
of the woman's labor. On the other hand it is impossible among
nomadic tribes. In Dahomey the king had thousands of wives,
the nobility hundreds, the simple citizen a dozen and the soldier
none at all.
Jealousy and rivalry among the wives is not always the rule
in polygamous families. In equatorial Africa the wives them-
selves incline to polygamy and regard a rich man who restricts
the number of his wives as miserly. Livingstone relates that
the women of Makololo declared they would not live in mo-
nogamous England, for any respectable man should prove his
wealth by the number of his wives. We must not forget that
among most savages the moral conception of good and evil are
confounded with that of riches and poverty. In reality, the
supernumerary wives bought by a polygamist are simply slaves.
His power and authority do not easily allow jealousy among
them; nevertheless suicide sometimes occurs among the old
wives who have been passed over in favor of younger ones.
Sometimes they kill their children at the same time. Among
the Indians of Terra del Fuego a hut containing three or four
women often resembles a battlefield. We have already pointed
out the way in which jealous Fiji women cut off the noses of
their rivals. Among the Islamites and Hindus intrigue and
jealousy are common with the women; the same in Abyssinia,
among the Hovas of Madagascar and the Zulus. The Hova
term for polygamy is rafy, which signifies adversary. To pre-
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 179
vent the jealousy of his wives the polygamous man often places
them in separate houses; this is common among the South
American Indians.
In Colombia I made the acquaintance of a French explorer,
Le Comte de Brettes, who has studied closely the Goajires In-
dians by becoming himself a member of the tribe. The country
of the Goajires is a peninsula of Colombia bordering on Vene-
zuela. Polygamy among these people is very interesting.
When a young Goajire wishes to marry he has to pay the bride's
parents a number of cattle, but the consent of the bride is nec-
essary. Besides this the husband has to clear a certain area
of forest, plant vegetables and build a hut. He must then
make a present of all this to his wife and add to it the necessary
cattle. The wife thus becomes the legal proprietor of the house
and land, and it is she who rules over the domain. The hus-
band only has authority over the male children; but the wife is
strictly enforced to be faithful. If he wishes to marry a second
wife, he is obliged to buy her also and present her with similar
property as the first, in another district. The two wives can
never dwell together in the same house nor in the same district ;
each of them is thus a proprietor on her own account. In this
manner the different wives of a Goajire are not only independ-
ent, but separated from each other and have no communication;
this excludes all jealousy, especially as these women have a deep
respect for the laws of their country. Under such conditions
polygamy can hardly extend to more than two women without
, exhausting the forces a man requires to cultivate each of the
[domains. We thus see that certain forms of polygamy, com-
bined with matriarchism, are compatible with high social position
iOf the wife, for among the Goajires and other Indian tribes the
man passes from one wife to the other, while it is the wife who
-is mistress of the house, the children and the domain.
I However, we may say that on the whole monogamy reigns
where there is more altruism, respect for women and sentiment
[for family life; for instance, in Nicaragua, among the Dyaks,
'the Andamanese, etc., in whom the wife is highly esteemed and
I possesses political influence. The wife is also proprietor of the
1 house among the Santalese and Mounda-Kols.
180 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
In the question we are considering the nature of the amorous
passions also plays a great part. When they are purely sensual
they do not last long as a rule; but when love arises from mental
affinities it may be prolonged till old age. Bain remarks that
other passions, such as maternal love, hatred, the desire of
domination may be extended to many objects, while love has
a tendency to concentrate itself on a single one which then
takes preeminence over the others and tends to monogamy.
We have seen that birds and monkeys generally love only one
female. With some conjugal love is so strong that one of the
conjoints cannot survive the other; this fact has been observed
with certainty, even when the survivor was provided with an-
other mate. Thus, the male of a certain species of monkey
{Hapale jacchus) after the death of his mate, covers his eyes with
his hands, ceases to eat and remains in the same position till he
dies. Suicide for love is not rare among certain savage races;
a point to which we shall return later.
Westermark is certainly right in considering this tendency of
love to concentrate itself on a single object as one of the most
powerful factors in monogamy. Jealousy is no doubt the re-
verse of such sentiment, but is the profound despair at seeing
the sole object of love desert or become unfaithful. On the
other hand, this concentration of love, which may be excellent
for isolated families living alone after the manner of wild beasts,
is in no way adapted to a society of which all the members are
responsible. This is a point we must insist upon. There is cer-
tainly a real antinomy which is difficult to reconcile between
this dual egoism of exclusive and concentrated love and social
solidarity or human altruism. The problem is not insoluble,
but we must admit that the solution is not easy.
To resume, we first of all observe an evolution from mo-
nogamy toward polygamy. The higher apes and the most
primitive men are monogamous; among these there are no
differences of rank, nor class distinctions, and they live in very
small groups. Wealth, civilization, larger communities, agri-
culture and the domination of castes have gradually given rise
to polygamy. Thus, the ancient Hindus were at first mo-
nogamous and later on became polygamous. The prerogative
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 181
of the first wife over the others is only a vestige of monogamy
in polygamy.
A higher degree of culture then diminishes warfare, shortens
the period of nursing, does away with the prejudices against
coitus during pregnancy, and improves the social position of
women. Ageing less quickly, and adding to her bodily charms
those of her mental development woman restores man to mo-
nogamy. As the same time wives and children gradually cease
to constitute riches, and this diminishes the instinct of procre-
ation. Finally, machinery replaces the female labor of former
times. In this way, with a higher degree of human culture, all
the factors tend to restore monogamy.
The instinctive desires of woman are monogamous. The
progress of civilization is continually extending her rights, and
the more refined sentiments of sympathy among civilized people
are less and less compatible with polygamy. As regards poly-
andry, Westermark shows that it has always been an exception
; and that it has only been established among phlegmatic races,
I having a certain degree of civilization and being unacquainted
with jealousy.
Spencer believes that monogamy will prevail in the future,
while Lubbock inclines to polygamy. Westermark thinks that
if the progress of civilization continues as hitherto to become
more altruistic, and that if love tends to become more refined,
the conjoints having more and more regard for each other,
monogamy will always become more strict.
! For my part, I think it idle to prophesy. If mental culture
! ever succeeds in overcoming brutality and barbarism, and if it
' continues to make real progress, I do not think that any of the
' old systems of marriage will persist in their primary form.
Primitive monogamy adapted to an unsocial savage condition,
' is incompatible with the social requirements which become
more and more imposed upon humanity. Marriage by pur-
: chase and Islamite polygamy, which regard woman as mer-
1 chandise and place her entirely under the dependence of man,
I are barbarous customs of semi-civilized people, which have
; already fallen into disuse. Polyandry is contrary to human
i nature and to the requirements of reproduction, and its implanta-
182 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
tion is everywhere a sign of decadence. Our present religious
monogamy, completed by the shameful promiscuity of prosti-
tution, is both hypocritical and unhealthy. Till the contrary
is proved, I consider the most advantageous form of marriage
for the future a kind of free monogamy (eventually polygamy),
accompanied by obligations relative to the procreation of chil-
dren and to the children procreated. Polyandry should only
have an accessory right to existence in certain pathological or
exceptional cases. We shall return to this point later.
DURATION OF MARRIAGE
Among birds, marriage is generally concluded for life; among
mammals rarely for more than a year, with the exception of the
anthropoid apes and man.
The duration of marriage varies enormously in man. Among
the Andamanese, the Weddas, certain Papous, marriage can
only cease with death. Among the North American Indians, on
the contrary, it is only concluded for a limited period. Among
the Wyandot tes the custom exists of trial marriages for several
days. In Greenland, divorce often takes place at the end of
six months. Among the Creeks marriage does not last more
than a year. In this way is constituted a kind of polygamy by
succession or limited monogamy, which results in the father not
knowing his children.
Among the Botocudos, marriage is performed, without cere-
monies and only lasts a short time; it can be broken off on the
slightest pretext, for the pleasure of changing; divorce then
becomes as frequent as marriage. This is also the case in
Queensland, Tasmania and the Samoan islands. Among the
Dyaks and Cingalese, quite young men and women have already
had several wives or husbands; a man often marries and deserts
the same woman several times, to take others during the inter-
vals. Among the Mantras there are men who have been mar-
ried forty or fifty times.
In Persia a woman may marry for periods varying from one
hour to ninety-nine years. In Egypt similar customs are met
with; a monthly change is allowed, so that a man may marry
twenty or thirty times in two years. Among the Maues of
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 183
Sahara the women consider it fashionable to marry as often as
possible, and a long married life is considered by them as vulgar.
The Abyssinians, negroes, etc., marry on trial or for limited
periods. Among the Greeks, Romans and ancient Germans,
divorce was very frequent.
In nearly all savage tribes, and in a number of civilized people
the man possesses an unlimited right of rejection. The Hovas
compare marriage to a loosely tied knot. Among the ancient
Jews, Romans, Greeks and Germans, discontent of the husband
was a sufficient reason for rejection. On the contrary, among a
number of savage races (Westermark mentions about twenty-
five) rejection and divorce are extremely rare and marriage lasts
for life.
It is especially where there are children that divorce is rare.
With most races, sterility of the wife and adultery constitute
the principal causes of legal divorce.
Among civilized races marriage for life is much more common
than with savages. This was the case with the Aztecs, etc.
Among the Chinese there exist seven reasons for divorce: ster-
ility, unchastity, negligence toward parents-in-law, talkative-
ness, desertion, ill-temper and chronic disease. In Japan the
laws are similar, but in spite of this divorce is rare in China
and Japan.
In Christian countries divorce was formerly permitted and
was only prohibited by the Council of Trent. The modern
Catholic says: "Man must not separate what God has united."
Among many savages, on the contrary, divorce is left to the
free will of the married couple. Elsewhere it is sometimes the
man, sometimes both husband and wife who have the right to
exact divorce for divers reasons, such as drunkenness, adultery,
prodigality, etc. In Europe, as elsewhere, it is the desire for
change which is the most common cause of divorce.
Children constitute the surest cement against conjugal sepa-
rations. With most savages the rejected wife regains not only
her dot, but also part of the common property, or even the
whole of it. On the contrary, the purchase value of the wife is
only as a rule returned to the husband when sterility, adultery
or other grave reasons are the causes of divorce. It results from
184 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
this that divorce is always very rare among peoples where the
women are very dear.
The right of the children after divorce varies a good deal in
different races; sometimes they are adjudged to the husband,
sometimes to the wife. Divorced women often become prosti-
tutes, for example, among the Chinese and Arabs. As a rule,
marriages for love are more lasting than others, especially when
the couple were acquainted before marriage.
It is extremely probable that in primitive man marriage only
lasted till the birth of a child, or at the most a few years. With
civilization the duration of marriage has been prolonged, higher
motives having become added to bodily charms, sexual appetite
and the instinct of procreation, and tending toward more lasting
unions.
Moral reasons have given rise to laws of protection in mar-
riage, but the mania which man possesses of dogmatizing on
everything has often caused these laws to degenerate into abuse
or religious absurdities. In this way the modern form of our
Christian monogamy has been imposed by a tyrannical dogma
of the Roman Church; a dogma which no doubt started from
an ideal point of view, but fell into disuse in practice, owing to
the fact that it did not take sufficient account of the natural
conditions and sexual requirements of the race. This explains
the present tendency to greater legal liberty, even when the
moral causes which tend to render monogamous unions durable
multiply with the progress of civilization.
HISTORY OF EXTRA-CONJUGAL SEXUAL INTERCOURSE
As monogamous marriage exists among the anthropoid apes,
we have every reason to believe that it existed with primitive
man. In neither case has it been the result of artificial laws,
but the result of brute force and congenital instincts inherited
by natural evolution. It often happened that one male van-
quished another and took possession of the female, or wife, of
the vanquished. Others abducted the female by surprise.
Later on, marriage by exchange or by purchase, derived from
marriage by rape, probably constituted the first stage toward
a legal monogamous or polygamous union, as an element in the
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 185
most primitive human conventional organizations. In this way
we can imagine the main points of the prehistoric evolution of
marriage.
When the conception of marriage took on a legal character,
either that of possession by the male, or that of a more or less
equitable contract between the two sexes, we can easily imagine
that sexual intercourse apart from marriage resulted as an
inevitable complement. Every artificial barrier which the hu-
man mind opposes to natural instincts immediately gives rise
to a movement of opposition on the part of the latter. The
matrimonial laws of primitive or semi-civilized races punished
adultery in the most barbarous manner by torture and death,
but were unable to prevent the sexual passions pursuing their
course in one way or another.
Certain abuses or exceptions had, therefore, to be tolerated,
or certain complementary institutions had to be organized.
However, these laws generally branded all forms of sexual inter-
course apart from marriage, with the stigma of inferiority, or
contempt, if not of crime. The woman, being the weaker, was
naturally the one to suffer most from this stigma and its
consequences.
The great diversity in the customs of different human tribes,
makes it necessary, in order to avoid errors, to guard against
generalizing without strong reasons. We cannot, however, here
enter into details which would lead us too far. We can, how-
ever, affirm that among the lower or primitive races brute force
played the principal role and was the fundamental support of
marriage, while in higher civilizations legal regulation took the
upper hand, however absurd or even immoral it might be.
Illegal or extra-conjugal forms of sexual intercourse have
always formed two principal groups: prostitution and concu-
binage. No doubt, these two varieties are insensibly connected
by numerous shades of transition, but as their development
depends on different principles we must distinguish these two
forms.
Prostitution is a trade in which a human being sells her body
for money, while concubinage consists in more or less free sexual
intercourse apart from marriage, the motive of which is simply
186 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
the sexual appetite, convenience or love, although sometimes
violence plays a part in it. We therefore find in extra-marital
sexual intercourse the same motives as in legal unions; legal or
religious sanction only is wanting.
It is needless to say that the motives which lead to concu-
binage may be more or less tainted by interested calculation.
In all civilizations concubinage and prostitution constitute the
complement of legal marriage. Their regulation has ever pro-
duced the singular results of surrounding them with a moral
nimbus.
In Babylon, every woman once in her life, had to prostitute
herself for money to any stranger at the temple of Venus.
Solon founded houses of prostitution for the people and fur-
nished them with slaves, "in order to protect the sanctity of
marriage against the passions of youth."
The Romans had also their houses of prostitution or lupanari,
public or private, as well as free prostitutes. In the Middle
Ages, prostitution developed especially after the Crusades. It
is related that the Council of Constance attracted fifteen hun-
dred prostitutes to this town. Prostitutes followed the armies
everywhere.
In India, young girls give themselves to the priests, who are
the representatives of God and enjoy great honors. Under the
name of Temple girls, the girls of the flower boats of China are
really prostitutes. It is the same with the puzes of Java, the
girls in the Japanese tea-houses, etc. In some civilized states,
certain refined and intelligent prostitutes have always obtained
great honors and high favors, only charging high prices, and end-
ing by substituting for prostitution the pecuniary exploitation
of rich men whom they have seduced.
Concubinage may be more or less free. The concubines were
formerly often slaves, possessed by men in high positions, in
addition to their wives. At the present day the omnipotence
of money produces almost analogous results. Free concubinage,
in which sexual intercourse between the two contracting parties
is absolutely free and more or less independent of pecuniary
questions, is very different and of a higher moral character. It
has also existed in antiquity in various forms. The Greek
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 187
hetairas were concubines of high position, no doubt prostitutes
of a kind and giving themselves for money; but they became
the friends or companions of great men. Living in luxury,
especially at the time of Pericles and later, several of them be-
came celebrated; statues were raised to them and they became
the concubines of kings. Phryne served as the model for the
statue of Venus, and offered to restore the halls of the Thebeans
at her own expense. Thais was the mistress of Alexander and
gave heirs to the throne. The neglected education of the Greek
wives caused the intellectual accomplishments of the hetairas
to shine by contrast.
The whole question regarding the Greek customs is summed
up in a few words by Demosthenes: "We marry wives in order
to have legitimate children and a faithful guardian for our
household; we have concubines for our daily service, and
hetairas for the enjoyment of love."
In some countries, such as Japan, the children of concubines
are considered by the husbands as legitimate, and have the
same rights as those of his wife; this gives concubinage the
character of marriage of the second rank.
In modern times hetairas are not wanting. Under the title
of courtesans and mistresses, we find them everywhere as the
favorites of kings and nobles, as mistresses of men in high posi-
tions, and often playing the part of vampires in all classes of
society.
On the other hand, women of high position or wealth have
also their favorites, whom we may call male hetairas. Certain
female members of royal families have at all times furnished
examples of this kind.
At all periods in the history of civilized races, pathology has
also led to extra-conjugal sexual intercourse. Here, homo-
sexual love in general, and love of boys or pediastry, has always
played the principal part. We shall speak of this in Chapter
VIII. Among the Hebrews, Persians, Etruscans, and especially
the Greeks, it was held in high esteem. The Greek philosophers
regarded it as based on an ideal homosexual love, and not as a
vile form of prostitution. Solon, Aristides, Sophocles, Phidias,
and Socrates were strongly suspected of homosexual practices,
188 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
and they regarded this form of love as superior to the normal
love of woman. Lesbian love, and other sexual aberrations, such
as sadism, have also played a historical role, as we shall see.
CONCLUSIONS
Primitive human marriage was probably of short duration ;
when man later on became carnivorous, and had to obtain food
for his children by hunting, sexual unions assumed a more con-
stant character. It is not the class or the tribe, but the family
which constituted the primitive social condition of man, a con-
dition in which marriage was a heritage from " pithecomorphous "
ancestors, i.e., related to monkeys.
Free sexual intercourse before marriage and frequent changes
in the latter were then no doubt very common, but true pro-
miscuity has never been the rule in primitive man.
Patriarchism with its disastrous consequences has been the
result of the preponderance of male power. In a higher degree
of civilization this preponderance has produced marriage by
purchase and polygamy. The barbarous form of the latter is
now decreasing.
A true higher culture leads gradually to durable love based
on altruism and ethics, i.e., a relative and free monogamy.
The development of marriage in civilization has gradually
increased the rights of woman, and marriage contracts tend
more and more in their modern forms to stipulate for complete
equality of rights for both sexes. As Westermark says: "The
history of human marriage is the history of a union in which
women have gradually triumphed over the passions, prejudices
and egoism of men." The term reemancipation of women is
historically more correct than the simple term emancipation,
for before the institution of marriage, woman was free. In-
vented by the stronger male when he began to reason, marriage
was at first only the servitude of woman. To give her com-
plete liberty, it must be transformed afresh from top to bottom.
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 189
APPENDIX
Influence of the Race on Sexual Life. — If I were an ethnog-
Irapher I should attempt to estabUsh whether, and in what way,
racial differences affect the sexual life of man; but the question
is so delicate that it would require a skilled specialist to settle
it. With the exception of the pages dealing with the history
of extra-conjugal intercourse, the statements in this chapter are
based on the work of Westermark. The chief difficulty consists
in separating, in the customs of each race, that which arises
from habit and historical tradition from that which depends on
more or less specific hereditary peculiarities. It is here very
ieasy to fall into error in formulating false conclusions.
A good deal has been said concerning the hot blood of warm
I climates, and on the whole it appears true that people who
; inhabit these climates have a more violent and more precocious
1 sexual temperament than those who live in cold regions. But
jithis is not a racial character. The Jews, who have preserved
;i their race unaltered in all climates and under all possible con-
ditions of existence, furnish an object lesson which is particu-
larly appropriate to decide the question. The traits of their
i character are reflected in their sexual life. Their sexual appe-
I tites are generally strong and their love is distinguished by
: great family attachment. Their sexual life is also influenced
, by their mercantile spirit, and we find them everywhere con-
nected with the traffic of women and prostitution. They are
j not very jealous and are much addicted to concubinage, at the
I same time remaining affectionate to their wife and family.
j The Mongols also lead a very intense sexual life. Among the
' polyandrous people of Thibet jealousy appears to be completely
absent : this may be the result of custom or may be due to phy-
1 logenetic instinct. The Mormons, who are descended from
' monogamous races, confirm the idea that polygamy is not a
; specific racial character. It would be interesting to study the
j mixed races of North America from this point of view. At first
' sight, it seems that the Americanization of customs in the mix-
: ture of races of the United States is also extended to sexual
; life, and that we cannot discover the fundamental differences
190 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
between the Irish, Scandinavians, French, Germans and Italians
who constitute this mixture. But it is possible that this is only
a superficial impression, and that a deeper study of the details
would lead to another result. One thing appears to be unques-
tionable in the negro race; that is the violence of its sexual
passion combined with its mental inferiority.
A striking trait is furnished by the French race which has re-
mained pure in the eastern provinces of Canada, whose sexual
customs are very different from those of the present population
of France. The French Canadian is extremely pure and chaste,
leads a regular life and has a numerous family. Families of
fifteen or twenty are not rare among French Canadians. We
can here, therefore, observe the effect of climate and custom on
a single race. For reasons mentioned above, I shall content
myself with a few remarks, but I am certain that a profound
study of the question would discover, in the character of the
individuals, specific peculiarities of their race which are only
marked externally by customs. It is obvious that such charac-
ters will be all the more distinct, the more the race differs from
its congeners, and the purer its ethnical separation. As among
animals, it is necessary to distinguish between slight variations,
and races or sub-species which are more constant and more di-
vergent. Hereditary or phylogenetic individual differences must
also be distinguished from those of races or varieties.
Weight of the Brain in Different Races and Sexes. — Bebel
has stated that among savages the difference between the brain
of the men and women is less than among civilized people. This
statement is quite wrong. Prof. Rudolph Martin, of Zurich,
has given me statistics of the cranial capacity of the two sexes
in different races, drawn from reliable sources. According to
Martin the weight of the brain represents about 87 per cent,
of the cranial capacity. His table of statistics is given on the
opposite page.
These figures show that the difference between the two sexes
is always about the same, while the average absolute weight of
the brain in the two sexes is lower in the lower races. Reckon-
ing it 87 per cent, of the cranial capacity, it is in the Weddas
1111 grammes for males and 991 grammes for females, which
ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE 191
corresponds to the weight of the brains of idiots or general para-
lytics with us, Martin assures me that in the Malay peninsula
he has found as much difference between the men and women
as in Europeans.
According to Martin, men living at the present day may be
divided into three classes according to their cranial capacity:
MEN. WOMEN.
Aristencephalous (large brains) over 1450 gr over 1300 gr.
Euencephalous (medium brains) 1300 to 1450. 1150 to 1300.
Oligencephalous (small brains) under 1300 under 1150.
AVERAGE CRANIAL CAPACITY IN DIFFERENT RACES
1 Civilized
Semi-
Men Women Diffeeence
183
Badois I 48 Craniums m. ^ ^^^3 ^33^
Bavarian | JJ^ '.'< ™- [ 1503 1335 168 (11.2 %)
Malay ] ^2 '' 7 [ ^'^^^ ^^^^ ^^^
Civilized ] j^^^ ^ 87 ;; m. | ^^^^ ^3^^ ^^^
64
Wedd^af' ] ?0 " '' T \ 1277 1139 138 (10.8 %)
CHAPTER VII
SEXUAL EVOLUTION
The evolution of every living being is twofold. We must dis-
tinguish: (1) its ontogeny, or the entire cycle "of development of
the individual from its conception till natural death at an ad-
vanced age; (2) its phylogeny, or the series of organic forms
through which its ancestors passed, by successive transformar
tions, from the primitive cells of the oldest and most obscure
geological periods, up to its present organization.
In its chief outlines ontogeny is determined by phylogeny by
means of the laws of heredity, even when it is only an abridged
recapitulation.
Regarded from this point of view the sexual life of man is also
based on phylogenetic conditions, determined by his ancestral
lineage. Moreover, it presents an individual or ontogenetic
evolution during the life of each person, which in its principal
traits is predetermined in the germ, by the phylogenetic or
hereditary energies of the species. The phenomena of the
hereditary mneme show clearly how ontogeny is the result of
engraphia combined with selection, in the series of ancestors.
We have already mentioned these points on several occasions,
but must now review the whole question.
PHYLOGENY OF SEXUAL LIFE
In Chapter II we have briefly described phylogeny in general
or metamorphosis, and in the first part of Chapter IV we have
specially considered the phylogeny of the sexual appetite in the
phenomenon of cell division and conjugation of nuclei in unicel-
lular organisms, which we have described in Chapter I. In
order for animals to reproduce themselves without degenerating,
crossing, or the combination of different germs, is necessary,
and such combinations are only possible by the mutual attrac-
192
SEXUAL EVOLUTION 193
tion of two kinds of germinal cells. But, when the individual
becomes multicellular and bears only one kind of germinal cells,
the attractive energy which was originally limited to these
cells is transmitted to the whole organism, and this necessitates
the existence of sensory and motor nerve centers.
The attraction of one kind of germinal cell and its bearer for
the other must also be more or less mutual. As a rule the bearer
of one of the germinal cells becomes active and penetrating;
that of the other passive and receptive. However, the latter,
who after copulation (when this occurs) becomes the sole bearer
of the future individual, is obliged to desire union with the
1 active bearer of the other germinal cell, so that reproduction
may become harmonious. This is the basis on which is founded
I sexual reproduction, and with it the sexual appetite, in plants
(as regards cellular conjugation only) as well as in animals, but
; especially in the latter, in whom the germinal cells are carried
il by mobile and independent individuals. On the same basis is
developed the difference between the sexual appetite in man
and woman, as well as that between love and the other irradia-
tions of this appetite in the mental life of both sexes. (Vide
Chapters IV and V.)
1 The immense complication of human sexual life makes us
I regard animals with a certain degree of contempt, and flatter our
- vanity in qualifying the baser part of our sexual appetite by the
term animal instinct. But we are really very unjust toward
animals. This injustice is partly due to the fact that vocal and
written language gives us a means of penetrating into the psy-
chology of our fellow creatures. By the aid of the common
symbolism of our thoughts it is easy for us to compare them.
Language thus enables us to construct a general human psy-
chology. The absence of language, even in the higher animals,
renders it difficult for us to penetrate their mind. Our inductive
reasoning in this matter is very uncertain, for we can only judge
the mental power of animals by their acts. The brain, and con-
sequently the mind, of the higher mammals being less highly
organized than that of man, their sexual psychology is also
more primitive, and differs from ours in proportion to the cerebral
development of the species. Comparative anatomy confirms
194 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
this fact in the whole series of organisms which possess a central
nervous system. The psychology of the higher apes is thus
nearer our own than that of the dog; the psychology of the dog
resembles om's more than that of the rabbit, etc.
On the other hand, the highly developed cerebral organization
of man, although it has complicated the mental irradiations of
his sexual appetite, has not always ennobled them ; on the con-
trary, it has often directed them into pernicious paths. We have
seen in Chapter VI numerous and striking proofs of the degen-
eration, brutality and cruelty of the manifestations of the
human sexual appetite, and we shall study them further in
Chapter VIII. Comparative biology shows us that the sexual
appetite is transformed into love in very different ways. In
order to avoid the immensity of detail of comparative biology
I shall only give a few examples.
"VSTiile the female spider often kills and eats the male, monkeys
and parrots give proof of such a great mutual attachment that
when one of the conjoints dies the other sinks into complete
despair, ceases to eat, and perishes in its turn.
In this domain we find singular adaptations to special condi-
tions of existence. Among the bees and ants, a third class of
individuals, or neuters, formed by differentiation of females, do
not copulate, and lay at the most a few eggs which are not
fecundated and which occasionally develop by parthenogenesis.
Among the termites, another species of social ants, a similar
state of things exists, but the neuters, or workers, are derived
from the male sex as well as the female and their sexual organs
are quite rudimentary. The third sex, or worker, not only has
a cerebral development superior to the sexual individuals, but
also inherits the social sympathetic irradiations of the sexual
appetite, which results in his devotion to a brood which is not
his own. Among the social insects the males are little more
than flying sexual organs, which after copulation are incapable of
leading an independent existence and die of hunger and ex-
haustion in the case of ants or termites, or are massacred by the
workers in the case of bees.
The fecundated females, on their part, become breeding ma-
chines, whose activity is incessant. Among the ants, however,
SEXUAL EVOLUTION 195
the females are at first capable of nourishing a few larvae by
the aid of a portion of their eggs and their secretions, till the
workers are hatched, who henceforth undertake all the work
including the maternal care of the brood.
Whoever has observed the fidelity of a pair of swallows and
the way in which the male and female nourish and rear their
young, must be struck by the analogy to the conjugal and
family love of the faithful type of human beings. This is es-
pecially remarkable when the same couple return every year to
the old nest. This family life of the swallows does not prevent
a certain social life, which manifests itself in organized attacks
on birds of prey, and in combined emigration in the autumn
and spring.
On the other hand, we are instinctively indignant at the want
of fidelity in other animals, between conjoints, parents and off-
spring (dogs and rabbits, for instance), because we involuntarily
expect to find in them our own moral sense, which is not at all
just.
From the phylogenetic point of view we can only compare
ourselves to the higher apes, by their analogies with primitive
man. (Vide Chapter VI.) The question which concerns us here
is as follows: If we consider the peculiarities of our sexual cus-
toms with those of our direct ancestors, what are those which
are derived from ancient and profound phylogenetic instincts,
those which are derived from less profound ancestral energies
{i.e., relatively more recent) and lastly those which depend simply
on old customs fixed by tradition, prejudice and habit? If we
are careful we shall immediately recognize that it is not only
the sexual appetite itself, but also a large part of its correlatives
and irradiations, in which the phylogenetic roots are deep.
Jealousy, coquetry, instinctive maternal love, fidelity and con-
jugal love, which are more or less developed in primitive man,
are also present in monkeys and birds. We have even seen
that the conjugal fidelity of these often exceeds our own. It is,
therefore, not true that our animal ancestors are only allied
to us by sexual appetite; on the contrary, we must admit that
they have much more noble sentiments and instincts, derived
it is true from this appetite, but belonging to the domain of a
196 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
higher social morality. All that we can say in a general way
concerning the complex entanglement of our sentiments and
instincts is that, the most deeply rooted characters in human
nature are at the same time, phylogenetically speaking, the most
ancient.
Among the most profound instincts of sexual life, we find
moral and intellectual incongruities. Along with excitement
of the sexual appetite in the male by the odor of the female
genital organs, or by the sight of erotic pictures, we find the
most touching conjugal love, and life-long devotion of one con-
joint for the other and for the children. Prostitution, marriage
by purchase, religious marriage, disgrace attached to illegiti-
mate births, conjugal and family rights of one or the other sex,
etc., are, on the contrary, things which do not depend on recent
phylogeny, but only on the customs and traditions of certain
races. They are partly outgrowths from egoism, the spu'it of
domination, mysticism and hypocrisy, and partly the shifts of
an overheated social life which is becoming more and more
complicated.
Westermark's studies are very instructive in this respect.
All the absurdities and contradictions, brought to light by the
historical and ethnographical study of the customs and matri-
monial abuses in man, allow us to clearly distinguish that which
is due to fashion or custom, from that which is deeply rooted in
our heredity. To avoid repetition I refer my readers to Chapter
VI, to examine the differences between heredity and custom. |
Between these two extremes there is, however, one important
domain, viz., that of recent phylogeny, or in other words varia-
tion. The fixed appetites and instincts of the species which are
proper to every normal man, and are as we have seen fundamen-
tally connected Avith many animal forms, belong to ancient and
profound phylogeny. But there is another group of very vari-
able peculiarities, strongly developed in some men and little in
others, sometimes completely absent, which do not depend on
custom but on what is called individual hereditary disposition,
or individual character. WTiile some men have monogamous
instincts others are polygamous. Some men are by instinct
and heredity very egoistic, others more altruistic. This pecu-
SEXUAL EVOLUTION 197
liarity is reflected in their sexual life and changes the character
of their love (but not that of their sexual instinct). The egoist
may love his wife, but this love is interested and very different
from that of the altruist. Between the two extremes there is
an infinite number of gradations according to the nature of the
instincts and dispositions. The same man may be a good and
generous father, and a social exploiter with neither shame nor
pity. Another will pose as a social benefactor, while at home
he is an egoist and a tyi-ant. The individual dispositions of
recent phylogeny are combined in every way with education,
customs, habit and social position to produce results which are
often paradoxical, and the factors of which are ambition, vanity,
temper, etc. Recent phylogeny is reflected also in many of the
irradiations of the sexual appetite of which we have spoken in
Chapter V. Audacity, jealousy, sexual braggardism, hypocrisy,
prudery, pornography, coquetry, exaltation, etc., depend in
each particular case, according to their degree of development,
on a combination of individual sexual hereditary dispositions
with individual dispositions in the other domains of sentiment,
intelligence and will. In this way, the sexual individuality of
one man is constituted in a veiy complex and very different way
to that of other men, owing to the high development of the
human brain, as well as to the infinite variability and adapt-
ability of his aptitudes. It is impossible to give even an incom-
plete explanation of all the symphonic gradations (often caco-
phonic) which represent an individuality, or to fix clearly what
distinguishes it from others. However, when the principle is
understood, it is not difficult to estimate the sexual individuality
of each person more or less correctly.
Strong hereditary dispositions of character may be recognized
in early infancy. When the ancestry of a man is well known
the roots of his recent phylogeny may be traced to his ancestors.
Here we observe the effect of crossing between varieties or differ-
ent races, or on the contrary that of consanguinity. This effect
is observed in character and in sexual disposition, as much as
in the shape of the nose, or the color of the skin and hair, etc.
It is important that men should learn to know themselves, and
also study each other from this point of view before marrying.
198 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
On the whole, we may say that the average civilized man of
our race possesses as his " phylogenetic baggage" a strong
sexual appetite, very variable sentiments of love, generally
somewhat mediocre, (we have seen that conjugal love is more
strongly developed in most monkeys than in man), lastly
altruistic or social sentiments which are still deplorably weak.
The latter, no doubt, form no part of the sexual life, but they
must be taken into consideration for they are its most important
derivatives, and it is indispensable for our modern social life to
develop them in harmony with family and conjugal love.
Hereditary instincts can easily be observed in children.
When one of them is good, it gives evidence at an early age of
the sentiments of sympathy or altruism, such as pity and affec-
tion, as well as an instinctive sentiment of duty, the object of
which is not yet social. All these sentiments are at first only
applied to human individuals known to the child, domestic
animals, or even inanimate objects. On the other hand, the
ant, from the beginning of its existence, shows an inherited
instinct or sentiment of complete social duty. In man, social
sentiments properly so-called, have to be acquhed by education,
but they require for their expansion a considerable degree of
inherited sentiments of sympathy and duty. A person without
morals can easily acquire social pliraseology but not social sen-
timent. A few more points requhe to be considered.
Monogamy is no doubt an old and well-established phylo-
genetic heritage, while polygamy is on the whole rather an
aberration produced by individual power and wealth. But phy-
logenetic monogamy is by no means identical with the religious
or other formality of our present legal monogamy. It assumes
first of all an early marriage immediately after puberty, while
our civilization has placed between this and marriage, which
it only allows later as a rule, the unhealthy swamp of prostitu-
tion, which so often sows in the individual the destructive seed
for his future legal union, before this has taken place. Again,
phylogenetic monogamy imposes no legal constraint; on the
contrary, it assumes a free, natural and instinctive inclination
in each of the conjoints, when it is not the result of the brute
force of the male. Lastly, it by no means excludes a change
SEXUAL EVOLUTION 199
after a certain time. We are speaking only of man, and not of
birds and monkeys, who are more monogamous than ourselves.
Monogamy without children has little reason for its existence
and must be considered simply as a means to satisfy the sexual
appetite or as a union for convenience. It is the same with
certain marriages between individuals of very different ages,
especially the marriage of a young man with a woman already
old and sterile.
As far as we can ascertain, the majority of sexual perversions,
of which we shall speak in Chapter VIII, are a sad pathological
acquisition of the human race. We observe, however, especially
in the higher mammals, acts of pederasty between males when
the female is wanting.
The sexual repulsion which normally exists between animals
of different species rests on a selective basis, the hereditary
mneme of their reciprocal germs being unable to place itself in
homophony, and their blood also having a mutual toxic action.
In speaking of sodomy we shall see that this instinctive repul-
sion may disappear in pathological cases, both in man and in
animals, owing to bad habits or unsatisfied sexual appetite.
We cannot absolutely demonstrate the phylogenetic existence
of an instinctive disgust for consanguineous sexual intercourse.
The sexual advances made by women in civilized countries,
show how easily we may be deceived in attributing to a phy-
logenetic or hereditary origin, certain details which are only
due to external circumstances. In man, the bearer of the active
germ, the instinct of sexual advance has deep phylogenetic
roots. It is quite natural to him and is evident among savage
races, where the man risks more by remaining single than the
woman. Violent combats between rivals to obtain the woman,
who remains passive like most animals, are evidence of this.
Civilization has changed all this, and has developed two castes
of women, the old maids and the prostitutes. The latter satisfy
the appetites of men in an artificial and unhealthy manner,
while marriage and family cares only bring them labor and
burdens instead of riches. Owing to the promiscuous polj^andry
of prostitution, man can always obtain enough women, while
woman can with difficulty obtain a suitable husband. These
200 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
circumstances have more and more developed the art of flirta-
tion, coquetry and advances on the part of girls, and we can
now see, especially in the United States, that advances come
more and more from the female side, if not in principle, at any
rate in fact. This is not a question of a phylogenetic or heredi-
tary transformation of the sexes among civilized peoples, but
an unhealthy effect resulting from abnormal circumstances, that
is the non-satisfaction of the sexual desires of woman, together
with the satiety of those of men. Woman makes advances
from the fear of remaining celibate; she will icease to do so
when the unnatural causes which have produced this state of
things have been done away with.
As a rule, a normal and adaptable man will conduct himself
in sexual matters as in others according to the prevailing fashion.
He will most often succeed in accommodating his sentiments to
those of his conjoint. On the other hand, this average repre-
sentative of normal mediocrity easily becomes the slave of
routine and incapable of new ideas. However normal he may
be, he has less faculty of adaptation or mental plasticity and less
liberty, than a man of higher nature independent of prejudices.
ONTOGENY OF SEXUAL LIFE
The first striking fact in the ontogeny of sexual life is the
following: All the sexual organs, both external and internal,
remain in an embryonic and non-functional state, not only in the
embryo but for a long time in the child. The organs and their
elements exist, but they are still small, imperfectly developed,
and in a state of rest. At the time of puberty, which varies in
different individuals, the sexual glands and the other copulatory
apparatus enlarge and begin to functionate. In the European
races puberty occurs between the age of twelve and seventeen
years in girls, and between fourteen and nineteen in boys; it
is generally earlier in the South and later in the North. It is
curious to note that the correlative irradiations of the sexual
appetite in the human mind develop much earlier than the
organs, or even the sexual appetite. Again, the sexual appetite
often appears before the normal development of the genital or-
gans. In other rare cases the sexual appetite is absent in the
I
SEXUAL EVOLUTION 201
adult, even when the corresponding organs are well-developed.
(Vide Chapter VIII.) Such irregularities of the sexual appetite
belong to the domain of pathology.
On the other hand, it is quite normal for young girls and boys
to show early signs of mental differences corresponding to those
we have described in Chapter V. In young girls we observe
coquetry and jealousy and the desire for finery. Their love of
dolls and the care they take of them, is very characteristic of
the precocious instinct of their sex. This is an early sign of
instinctive maternal love, before the development of any sexual
sensation or function. Among boys we observe a tendency to
brag and to boast of their strength before girls, to show their
contempt for dolls and the coquetry of little girls, and also to
pose as protectors, etc.
Sexual jealousy already exists in young children. We see
little boys, seeking for the favors of little girls, show violent
jealousy when another is preferred to them. All these phe-
nomena depend either on subconscious instincts, or on vague
sexual presentiments which play a large part in the infantile
exaltation of sentiment. Portraits of pretty women, the sight
of certain parts of the body or feminine clothing often provoke
exalted sentiments in boys; girls rather admire boldness, an
imposing presence and often beauty, in the other sex.
Puberty is produced by certain phenomena which occur in
the sexual organs. In the boy erections occur at an early age
when the penis is still very small. It is curious to note that
certain pathological conditions and friction of the glans penis,
especially in the case of phimosis and as a result of bad example,
are often sufficient to produce sexual sensations and appetites
in very young boys. The same thing is produced in little girls
by excitation of the clitoris. All these phenomena lead to
onanism or masturbation, of which we shall speak later on.
As the testicles of young boys do not secrete semen, masturba-
tion only provokes secretion from the accessory glands, but this
is accompanied by orgasm.
More singular still are cases of coitus between little boys
and girls whose sexual glands are still undeveloped and pro-
duce no germinal cells. Although they are pathological, these
202 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
phenomena are characteristic, because they clearly show that
the brain has acquired by phylogeny a sexual appetite relatively
independent of the development of the sexual glands. No
doubt the sexual appetite does not develop, or disappears, in
eunuchs when they are castrated quite young; but it is pre-
served together with the secretions and functions of the
external genitals when castration is performed after puberty
is established.
The important conclusion which results from these facts is
that the existence of a sexual excitation or appetite of this na-
ture is not sufficient to prove that they are normal. In Chapter
VIII we shall prove that not only the anomalies of the heredi-
tary sexual disposition, but artificial excitations and bad habits
may also produce all kinds of misconduct and excesses which
should be energetically combated.
We have described in Chapter IV the great individual varia-
tions of the sexual appetite in the two sexes, as well as that of
the sexual power in man. The sexual power and appetite in
man are strongest between the years of twenty and forty. We
may even consider this period as the most advantageous for the
procreation of strong and healthy offspring and that the pro-
creator is at his best before the age of thirty.
The ontogenetic development of the sexual appetite and love
generally produces in man a peculiar phenomenon. While
habitual gratification and education of the sexual appetite
tends to make it more and more calculating and cynical, love,
on the contrary, becomes more elevated and refined with age
and less egoistical than in youth. Owing to general mental
development, the education of sentiments progresses and be-
comes refined, while the sexual appetite diminishes in intensity
and becomes more imperious and more coarse. We are only
speaking here o^ normal cases.
In youth, the intoxication of love combined with intense
sexual appetite triumphs; when the appetite is once satisfied
the unbridled and egoistic passions of this age come to the sur-
face and are often antagonistic to love. At a more advanced
age, on the contrary, love becomes more constant and more
tranquil. The mistake that is so often made is the confusion
SEXUAL EVOLUTION 203
of love with sexual appetite. The novelists who speculate on
the eroticism of the public are no doubt more interested in de-
scribing sexual passion and amorous intoxication, with all the
catastrophes and conflicts which arise from them, than the tran-
quil and regular love of a couple more advanced in age, the
greatest happiness of which consists in harmony of sentiment
and thought, as well as the mutual regard and devotion of the
couple for each other.
Sexual appetite and sexual power in man become extinguished
between the ages of sixty and eighty; old men of eighty are
sometimes still capable, but they are no longer fecund. As a rule
sexual power diminishes before sexual appetite, and this some-
times leads old men to use artificial means to revive theh power,
or to satisfy their sexual desires. This explains why the egoists
who have never kno\vn true love often become so base in their
sexual manifestations when they grow old. Their experience of
SLXual life makes them experts in the art of seduction. If this
fact appears to be antagonistic to the law that true love is
refined with advancing age, we must bear in mind that the
ontogenetic development of the sexual appetite is not the same
as that of love; that in some respects it develops in a contrary
direction; and that the result may consequently become in-
verted according as one or other predominates. It is needless
to say that there are a number of intermediate gradations, and
that inverse phenomena may be produced concurrently in the
same individual.
According to Westermark elderly men generally fall more
easily in love with middle-aged women than with young girls.
No doubt this is often the case when reason and love predomi-
nate, but it is necessary to avoid generalization, and it is curious
to obsei've how often very old men become enamored of quite
young girls, as the latter may fall in love with old men. It is
common knowledge that young girls do not marry old gray-
beards solely for their money or their name. No doubt this is
not uncommon, but I have often seen girls of eighteen or twenty
fall in love with old roues, when money, name and position
were theirs and not the man's. However, in such cases it is
most often the old man who is amorous. Westermark main-
204 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
tains that this condition is not normal, and we shall see that
very often it is a case of commencing senile demerit ia, a patho-
logical cerebral condition in which the sexual appetite becomes
suddenly revived.
The love of a young girl for an old man may be explained
by the intellectual superiority of the old man or by the absence
of another object for love. It is often also due to hysteria and
consequently pathological.
In old age, when the sexual life of two conjoints is extinguished,
there remains a purified love which colors the evening of their
life with autumn tints. The modern detractors of marriage too
often forget this phenomenon. No doubt the evening of con-
jugal life is often troubled with discord and sorrow, but then it
is usually a question of "mariage de convenance," marriage for
money or position, mutual misunderstanding, or irreflecti\"o
amorous intoxication. Quarrels may also arise when patho-
logical conditions become introduced into marriage.
In woman, sexual ontogeny is not the same as in man. She
matures earlier and more rapidly. In our race, a woman at
eighteen is sexually mature; between eighteen and twenty-fise
she is in the best condition for sexual life; toward fifty the
menopause occurs, and with it cessation of fecundity. Hence
the period during which a woman is fecund is much shorter than
in man and terminates much earlier.
Owdng to this, the development of the intellectual and senti-
mental irradiations of the sexual appetite in woman is more
rapid than in man. A young girl is much more mature and full
grown as regards her reproductive power than a young man.
These phenomena extend to the whole mental life of woman,
who is less capable of an ulterior development in old age than
man, because she generally becomes settled and automatic
much more rapidly than the latter. No doubt these phenomena
are partly due to the defective mental education of women, but
this explanation is insufficient. Here again we must distinguish
the phylogenetic disposition of woman from the effects of edu-
cation during her ontogenetic development.
The sexual appetite of woman manifests itself at first in vague
desires, in a want of love, and does not as a rule develop locally
SEXUAL EVOLUTION 205
till after coitus. It often follows that in ontogenetic evolution
the sexual appetite of women increases at a more advanced age
(between thirty and forty). At this age women often become
enamored with young boys, whom they seduce easily. Widows
are especially disposed to form unions with men younger than
themselves; these unions are rarely happy, for the woman who
is older than her husband easily becomes jealous, and the hus-
band soon becomes tired of a woman whose charms have faded.
We can therefore afRi'm that, as a rule, in order to be both nor-
mal and lasting, a monogamous union requires that the husband
should be from six to twelve years older than his wife, and that
the latter should marry as young as possible.
In the sexual ontogeny of normal woman, pregnancies, child-
birth, the nursing and education of children play an infinitely
greater role than the sexual appetite. These important events
in woman's life, together with affection for her husband
occupy a great part of the cerebral activity of every woman, and
are at the same time the conditions for her true happiness.
We should expect the sexual appetite in woman to diminish
or cease at the menopause; but this is not usually the case, and
elderly women are sometimes tormented by the sexual appetite,
which is all the more painful because men are not attracted by
them. Such hypersesthesia cannot, however, be considered as
normal; most often the sexual appetite diminishes with age
and is replaced, as in man, by the tranquil love of old age, of
which we have spoken.
Old women are often spoken of with contempt. No doubt,
unsatisfied passions and wounded feelings of all kinds, want of
intellectual culture and high ideals, and especially a pathological
condition of the brain, make many old women anything but
amiable. I am, however, convinced that the elevation of
woman's social position, and greater care in her education, will
considerably facilitate the development of her faculties. Edu-
cation should not develop mundane qualities in women, but
depth of sentiment. There are many aged women who can be
cited as examples of activity and perseverance, for their sound
and clear judgment, as well as for their affability and simplicity
of manners. Although their intellectual productiveness ceases
206 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
earlier than that of man, this in no way excludes an excellent
and persevering activity of mind, combined with much judg-
ment and sentimental qualities. A woman who is growing old
and has lost the members of her family, especially her husband,
requires some object to replace them in her affection. To de-
vote herself to social activity will be the best antidote against
the peevish, querulous or sorrowful moods which so easily take
possession of the aged woman. It appears that love, which is a
phylogenetic derivative of the sexual appetite, and which in
middle life is intimately associated with this appetite, becomes
afterwards more and more independent of it and then requires
more compensation. There is here a great adaptation of love
to life, an adaptation which it is necessary to bear in mind.
In infancy the individual is naturally egoistic; his appetites
all tend to self-preservation. There are even then, however,
great individual differences, and we meet with children who are
endowed with a remarkable sentiment of duty and a great sen-
sibility to the troubles of others. After puberty man's sexual
desire leads him to love, toward dual egoism, and this desire
becomes the principal factor in the reproduction of the species.
In old age the individual has no reproductive aims to fulfill;
his life is only a burden on society, if it is not directed with a
view to benefit others and society in general. By expansion
and purification love, at first sexual, is gradually transformed
into purely humanitarian love, i.e., altruistic or social. At least
this is what it should be, and then the fundamental biogenetic
law of Haeckel (ontogeny is an abridged repetition of phylo-
gcny) will receive an ultimate confirmation. Our primitive
unicellular animal ancestor lived for itself alone; later on sexual
reproduction without love was established; then conjugal and
family love appeared (birds, monkeys, mammals, etc.), finally
social love or altruism was produced, i.e., the sense of social
solidarity based on the sentiment of duty.
The last is still very weak in man, while some animal species,
such as the bees and ants, have developed it in a more complete
manner, on the basis of instinct. According to this natural
law, all social organization naturally develops altruism or the
sentiment of duty. The history of humanity proves that our
SEXUAL EVOLUTION 207
social union is only developed slowly and laboriously through
innumerable contests, and that it is derived, directly or indi-
rectly, from the family union of individuals. Extension of
communication on the surface of the earth causes the artificial
development of social organization to advance much more
rapidly than the natural phylogenetic development by evolu-
tion of the sentiments or social instincts. The latter are, how-
ever, forced to follow the movement, resting first on the deep
roots of family and friendly altruism, as well as on that of caste
or clan (patriotism); i.e., on sentiments of sympathy and duty
toward certain individuals who are more closely connected with
us, sentiments which are hereditary in man, A vague general
humanitarian sentiment, a hothouse flower which is still feeble,
has already commenced to grow on this natural basis. Let us
hope that it will live.
It would be a fundamental error to try and found social
solidarity solely on our phylogenetic sentiments of sympathy,
or on our ideal faculty of devotion and self-sacrifice; but to try
and take egoism as a basis for this solidarity is a still greater
error. We must not make an antinomy of egoism and altruism,
but regard them as two elements inseparable from all human
society, as well as the individuals who compose it. We cannot
deny that the altruist, endowed with strong sentiments of sym-
pathy and duty, is an excellent social worker, while the pure
egoist constitutes an element of decomposition for society. It
is, therefore, a social duty to proceed by the sexual route to a
selection which will cause the first to multiply and eliminate
the second as far as possible by sterilizing his germs.
CHAPTER VIII
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY
On this subject we refer the reader to the well-known work of
Krafft-Ebing, " Psychopathia Sexualis,"* in which will be
found a number of observations, the details of which we cannot
enter into here. We may first of all say that with the excep-
tion of venereal diseases the genital organs by themselves only
play a very small part in sexual pathology. The brain is the
true domain of nearly all sexual anomalies.
In the second place, we may remark that the disorders of
sexual life only rarely belong to acute affections which the phy-
sician can treat with pharmaceutical or other common remedies.
They almost exclusively originate in the mental constitution,
i.e., in the hereditary dispositions of the brain of the individual.
But the pathology of mental or cerebral conditions offers an
extremely vast field, capable of so much extension that no
definite limit can be fixed between the normal state and morbid
states, which are themselves connected by numerous transitions.
A great number of acts due to mental conditions which the public
and even learned theologians, jurists and physicians not initiated
in psychiatry, consider as criminal, sinful, or infamous, are only
the product of pathological aberrations due to hereditary dispo-
sitions. I was recently consulted by a patient of this kind,
otherwise possessed of noble sentiments, who told me that a
physician in Germany to whom he related his troubles, turned on
him furiously and said, ''These things are filthy; you are a pig;
hold your tongue and get away from here!" As a matter of
fact this unfortunate patient was sustaining a heroic struggle
against his perverted pathological sexual appetites. Knowing
little or nothing of these matters human society, mth few excep-
* English translation by F. J. Rebman: JRebman Co., New York.
208
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 209
tions, is of the same opinion as the ignorant doctor mentioned
above. For this reason I think it necessary at least to give an
outUne of phenomena which, although very repulsive in them-
selves, throw much light on the sexual question.
j PATHOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL ORGANS
! Every deformity, disease or operation which destroys the
I sexual glands in the child, or prevents them from developing,
! gives rise to the phenomena which we have described when
i speaking of castration. This is the case, for instance, with
cryptorchidism in which the testicles remain in the inguinal
canal and become atrophied, instead of descending into the
I scrotum. The following case is an example, and is interesting
in other respects:
I A young man was affected with imbecility and congenital
i cryptorchidism with atrophy of the testicles. A eunuch from
' birth, he developed no sexual appetite and no correlative mascu-
line character. To make a man of him, his too eager aunts
[married him to a strong girl, who was anything but innocent.
She attempted by all kinds of manipulations to cure the sexual
blindness of her husband; but this was a waste of labor, as the
1 unhappy wretch only regarded the performance as disgusting and
filthy. He was violently excited and became somnambulistic.
; Soon afterwards the wife consoled herself with a lover of normal
' sexual power, and they both overwhelmed the poor eunuch with
: raillery. The latter, becoming furious, offered his wife a cake
poisoned with arsenic on her birthday, but she saw through the
stratagem. The poor wretch was sent for trial and condemned
I to a long term of imprisonment for attempted poisoning. I con-
! sider this judgment as a legal crime. In spite of my protests,
! imbecility was not admitted, and the somnambulism was looked
i upon as simulated.
; On the other hand, the same lesions when they occur in the
I adult neither destroy the correlative sexual characters, nor the
' power of coitus, nor the voluptuous sensation of the orgasm.
' In man, aspermia sometimes occurs; the testicles appear to
i be well formed, but the semen contains no spermatozoa. In
[spite of this the aspermatic individual generally has erections,
I a certain amount of sexual power and orgasm, and is capable of
210 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
amorous feelings, although his sexual functions are generally
feeble. But he is incapable of fecundating a woman.
Some women who have never menstruated possess normal
ovaries and may become pregnant.
Tuberculosis, tumors and inflammations of the testicles and
ovaries may cause sterility.
The erection of the penis is often rendered impossible by cer-
tain deformities, such as hypospadias and epispadias, in which
the urethral canal opens respectively below or above the penis.
Involuntary emissions of semen without erection, with or
without voluptuous sensation, is called spermatorrhea. This is
often a result of onanism, nervousness or constipation. Too
much importance has been attached to it. In hypochondriacs
spermatorrhea becomes a bugbear, which often makes them the
dupes of charlatans. The less attention is paid to it the quicker
it disappears; especially when it is of purely nervous origin, as
is usually the case.
Phimosis, or narrowness of the opening of the prepuce is nearly
always of embryonic origin. It prevents the glans penis from
becoming exposed, at least during erection. It is a very com-
mon condition and very disagreeable. If the prepuce is forcibly
drawn back behind the glans penis before erection, as is often
the case in masturbation, the penis is gripped by the prepuce so
that it cannot sometimes be drawn forward and inflammation
with cedema results; this condition is called paraphimosis, and
may become dangerous. Secretions, mine and semen accumu-
late and decompose in a phimosed prepuce, cause irritation
and lead to masturbation. All cases of phimosis should be
operated upon in infancy, by complete or partial circumcision.
In women, the number of diseases which prevent conception
is much greater than in man. The ovary may undergo cystic
degeneration or become the seat of a tumor; but affections of
the uterus and vagina cause more sterility than ovarian affec-
tions. This results chiefly from catarrh and inflammation-
which destroy the spermatozoa before they can reach the egg
during its descent. Disorders of menstruation have much less
influence on fecundity. The womb sometimes remains in an
infantile state, which may also cause sterility. Other diseases of
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 211
the female sexual organs have a more general pathological
character and hardly influence sexual intercourse.
A method of rendering women sterile without castration (re-
moval of the ovaries) consists in interrupting the communication
between the ovaries and the womb by dislocation of the Fallo-
pian tubes: this avoids all the evil effects of castration.
Certain inflammations and displacements of the uterus and
ovaries are often the origin of pains, indispositions and nervous
disorders in women. Irregularity and pain in menstruation are
a frequent cause of neuroticism.
The hymen is seldom so strongly developed as to offer a serious
obstacle to coitus; but when this occurs it may be removed by
a slight operation. Young women often suffer from vaginismus,
or painful spasms occurring when an object, such as the finger
or penis, is introduced into the vagina.
Hermaphrodism in man is always pathological, extremely
rare, and when it exists nearly always incomplete. These cases
are generally incomplete mixtures concerning principally the
correlative characters. A double function only exists in legends.
I have myself seen a celebrated hermaphrodite named Catherine
Hohmann who had a well-formed testicle on the left side en-
closed in a fold of skin which resembled the larger lip of the
vulva, while the penis was very short and resembled a clitoris.
This individual, who was baptized as a woman, was certainly
male on one side; on the other hand, the feminine nature was
more than problematical. Menstruation was alleged to have
occurred but was not established with certainty, any more than
an ovary or uterus.
Much more frequent are inverted correlative sexual charac-
ters, such as bearded women, men with breasts; also mental
sexual inversions, of which we shall speak later.
VENEREAL DISEASES*
We cannot give here a complete description of the venereal
diseases, which constitute a terrible evil for humanity, by bring-
* For further information on this subject see Marshall's " Syphilology and
Venereal Disease," (London, Balliere, Tindall & Co.); also Marshall's transla-
tion of Fournier's "Treatment and Prophylaxis of Syphilis," (New York:
Rebman Co.)
212 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
ing a great deal of misfortunes and decadence into family and
social life. Let us first point out the common error which
attributes to sexual excess the evil effects which are really due
to venereal disease. Although it may be uncommon, one may
be infected by these diseases after an innocent kiss, a cut finger,
by sitting on a pri\'y contaminated by a person suffering from
venereal disease, by the use of contaminated linen, etc., etc. A
pachydermatous Don Juan, on the contrary, may abandon him-
self to the wildest sexual excess without being infected, if he is
prudent and has good luck. On the other hand, young men
may be infected after having been ■v\^th a prostitute only once
in their lives, and thus ruin their whole existence.
There are three kinds of venereal disease, which we will describe
in a few words. To these may be added certain parasites, such as
crab-lice and the itch, which are easily communicated by sexual
intercourse with infected persons, but also in other ways.
Gonorrhea or Clap. — This disease consists in a pm-ulent
inflammation of the uretlira caused by a microbe called the
gonococcus. AVhen treated properly it may be cured in a
few weeks, but very often the inflammation becomes chi'onic
and attacks the neighboring organs. Chronic clap, or "morning-
drop," may lead in the male to permanent stricture of the
urethra, which in turn may produce retention of urine, catarrh
of the bladder and disease of the kidneys, which may be fatal.
One attack of gonorrhea in no way protects against a second
infection, but rather predisposes to it, and when this disease be-
comes chronic exacerbations or relapses of the acute stage often
occm' without fresh infection.
In women the results of gonorrhea are, if possible, still worse
than in men, because it is more difficult to cure. A prostitute
affected with gonorrhea may infect an enormous number of
men, and in this case medical inspection of brothels is no guar-
antee. The gonococci are concealed in all the corners and folds
of the internal genital organs of woman, where they set up
inflammation of the womb, the Fallopian tubes and even the
ovaries, which may lead to adhesions between the abdominal
organs. Women affected with chronic gonorrhea generally be-
come sterile. When the womb and the ovaries are affected
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 213
there is much suffering and the woman may be confined to bed
for some years. Stricture of the urethra and inflammation of
the bladder are more rare in women than in men, as the result
of gonorrhea.
But gonorrhea is not confined to the adults of both sexes.
The innocent child, who at birth has to pass through its mother's
vulva, when this is affected with gonorrhea, undergoes a bap-
tism of gonococci which attack the conjunctiva of the eyes and
set up a severe purulent inflammation, called ophthalmia of the
newly born {ophthalmia neonatorum) . This is one of the chief
causes of total blindness, and if the child is not entirely blind,
there are often large white patches left on the cornea which con-
siderably interfere with sight. Gonorrheal ophthalmia may
also occur in adults by conveying pus from the urethra to the
eyes by the fingers.
Syphilis. — This disease is still more formidable than gon-
orrhea. It is caused by a microbe which has been recently
discovered (Spirochceta pallida) . Syphilis is much more chronic
than gonorrhea and commences with a small sore indurated at
its base and called the hard chancre. This is situated on the
genital organs or elsewhere; in the mouth, for instance, when
this has been in contact with the buccal or genital organs of a
person infected with syphilis. The syphilitic poison spreads
through the body by means of the blood and lymph. At the
end of a few weeks eruptions appear on the body and face, and
then commences a series of disasters the cause of which may be
suspended over the victim for his whole life, Hke the sword of
Damocles, even when he believes himseK cured; for the cure of
syphilis is often uncertain. This disease may remain latent for
months and years, to reappear later on in different organs and
cause fresh lesions.
Syphilis causes ulcers of the skin and mucous membranes; it
sometimes causes decay of the bones; it may cause disease of
the internal organs, such as the liver and lungs; it affects the
walls of the blood vessels, causing them to become hard and
brittle (atheroma); it causes disease of the eyes, especially of
the iris and retina, tumors (or gummata) in the brain, paralysis,
etc. In fact, it spares none of the organs of the body.
214 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Among the most terrible results of syphilis we must mention
locomotor ataxy (sclerosis of the posterior columns of the spinal
cord), with its lightning pains and paralysis of the legs and
arms; also general paralysis of the insane, which by causing
gradual atrophy of the brain, destroys one after the other,
sensations, movements and all the mental faculties. These two
diseases, which are so common at the present day, only occur
in old syphilitics, five to twenty years, or more often ten to
fifteen years after infection, and as a rule in persons who think
they have been completely cured. Both these diseases are fatal.
Before causing death, locomotor ataxy causes intolerable pain
for several years. General paralysis first gives rise to grandiose
ideas, and after disintegrating the human personality bit by
bit, ends by transforming the individual into a being much
inferior to animals, and of an aspect as miserable as it is repul-
sive. A general paralytic in his last stage is little more than a
vegetating ruin, in whom the nervous activities are decomposed
little by little, after the gradual disappearance of all the mental
faculties. This is the result of slow atrophy of the brain and
gradual destruction of its microscopic elements, or neurones.
The early stages of syphilis may easily pass unnoticed owing
to their partly latent and completely painless character. Small
eruptions may be mistaken for other affections, and mercurial
treatment generally disperses the symptoms of primary and
secondary syphilis. But syphilitics who are apparently cured
are never safe from being attacked, after perhaps many years,
with locomotor ataxy, general paralysis or the tertiary or quat-
ernary manifestations of S3qDhilis, such as disease of the bones,
internal organs, eyes, brain, etc. The sores of the first two or
three years of syphilis are contagious but painless, and hence
do not prevent coitus when they occur in the genitals. After
three years syphilis becomes less contagious, but there is no
definite time limit and cases have been recorded in which con-
tagious lesions occurred tec or fifteen years after the onset of
the disease.
A syphilitic man may transmit the disease to his children
without infecting his wife, and these children may die before
birth or may be born with congenital syphilis. Tliis is due to
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 215
the spermatozoa being infected with syphihs. However, this
is fortunately not always the case, for many cured syphUitics
have healthy childi'en. A child affected with congenital syph-
ilis (from the father) may infect the mother during pregnancy;
this is called ''syphilis by conception." Congenital syphilis may
also cause locomotor ataxy and general paralysis.
It is difficult to enumerate all the infirmities which syphilis in
the parents may transmit to the children. Syphilis often ren-
ders marriage sterile. It is more frequent in men than in women,
because the number of prostitutes is small compared with the
number of men who go vnth. them; a single prostitute may con-
taminate a whole regiment. On their part, the clients of pros-
titutes convey gonorrhea and sj^^hilis to their wives, thus
spreading in society this abominable plague and all the evils
resulting from it.
Soft Chancre. — The third kind of venereal disease is the soft
chancre, thus called in distinction to hard chancre, which is the
primary sore of syphilis. Soft chancre is the least dangerous
and the least common of the tlu"ee diseases. It consists of an
ulcer which remains localized to the genital organs (unless it is
complicated with syphilis, which is frequent). The ulcerated
parts are destroyed, but the sore heals generally without trouble.
Venereal diseases constitute one of the worst satellites of the
sexual appetite. If men were not so ignorant and careless, it
would be on the whole easy to avoid them and cause their grad-
ual disappearance. One of the most absurd and infamous or-
ganizations which can be imagined is that of the State regulation
of prostitution which, under the pretext of hygiene, compels
prostitutes to be registered by the police or to live in brothels.
They then undergo regular medical examination, the object of
which is to prevent those who are diseased from practicing their
trade, and compel them to be treated in hospital. We shall see
later on that this system absolutely fails in its object, for the
simple reason that the treatment of venereal diseases is by no
means the panacea which many people imagine.
The first attack of gonorrhea in man is veiy often spon-
taneously cured, while unskillful treatment often aggravates it.
The relapses of this disease, on the other hand, especially in
216 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
their chronic form, often resist all kinds of treatment and some-
times become incurable. The gonococci become hidden in the
folds of the deep parts of the mucous membrane, both in men
and women, and cannot all be destroyed. With regard to syph-
ilis, mercurial treatment, although remarkable in its immediate
effect, requires prolonged administration. And it is by such
means that it is proposed to make prostitutes clean! There is
only one radical cure for venereal diseases; that is not to con-
tract them! However, this does not prevent us from recom-
mending all those who are affected with them to seek immediate
treatment by a skilled specialist.
It is sad to see ladies of high position defending such barbarous
institutions as proxenetism (the business of keeping brothels)
and the regulation of prostitution, imagining that they thereby
protect their daughters against seduction. Such aberration can
only be explained by suggestive influence on the part of men.
Among men, and especially among many physicians, the belief
in the efficacy of regulation depends on a mixture of blind rou-
tine, faith in authority and want of judgment, combined per-
haps with more or less unconscious eroticism. We shall consider
this point in detail later on.
One of the most tragic effects of venereal disease is the con-
tamination of an innocent wife, whose whole life, hitherto chaste
and pure, becomes brutally deprived of its fruits, and whose
dreams of the ideal and hopes of happiness become swamped in
the mire with which prostitution has contaminated her. Is it
surprising that love in such cases becomes replaced by bitterness
and despair? Some modern authors, such as Brieux {Les
Avaries) and Andre Couvreur (La Grai'ne), have pictured in their
dramas and novels the tragic effects of venereal disease and
heredity in the family, as well as their social consequences.
What is deplorable, is the enormous proportion of persons who
are infected with venereal diseases.
SEXUAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
With the exception of what is called sexual inversion and
pathological love of the insane, sexual psychopathology (i.e.,
sexual pathology of mind) is chiefly limited to the domain of the
I
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 217
sexual appetite, and originates mainly in fetichism (see Chapter
V), to which it is closely allied. Let us first examine certain
anomalies which partly concern the lower nervous functions.
First of all a general question presents itself. Hereditary or
congenital sexual anomalies have been distinguished from those
which are said to result from vicious habits. Krafft-Ebing, in
his celebrated book which we have already quoted, makes a
capital difference between these two causes, and stigmatizes
the acquired vices with great indignation. I do not deny that
there is reason for the distinction, but we must take exception
to two fundamental errors in the manner in which the facts
are presented.
In the first place, the difference between hereditary and ac-
quired sexual anomalies is only relative and gradual, so that it
is necessary to avoid opposing one against the other. When an
anomaly arrives spontaneously in the first sexual glimmer of
the child's mind during its development, it is obvious that it
is the expression of a profound hereditary taint, the result of
blastophthoria or of unfortunate combinations of ancestral ener-
gies which have been associated by the conjugation of the two
procreative germs. In such a case it is comparatively easy to
prove that this is a pathological symptom independent of the
will of the individual. But a continuous series of degrees in the
intensity of a hereditary predisposition to a certain sexual
anomaly, or to other anomalies or peculiarities apt to provoke
this anomaly, insensibly connects the purely hereditary patho-
logical appetite with that which is simply the effect of acquired
vicious habits. In this way a strong hereditary predisposition
may exaggerate a moderate normal sexual appetite, or may give
it a pathological direction under influences which would have
had no effect in a less predisposed individual. Again, a slightly
marked tendency to homosexuality in a man may increase under
the seductive influence of a passionate invert, when the same
individual would have lost this tendency if he had fallen seriously
in love with a woman. On the other hand, the invert would
have no influence on an individual who was not predisposed.
If the hereditary disposition is very strong, it is developed
spontaneously or under the influence of very slight circumstances.
218 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
If it is mediocre, it may remain latent and even become extinct
when favorable circumstances do not awaken it. When it is
entirely absent the most powerful seduction and the most evil
influence camiot give rise to the corresponding anomaly. These
facts are sufficient to show what abuse is made of the term
acquired vice. Under this heading are designated a number of
peculiarities the roots of which are to a great extent contained
in the germ of heredity.
The power of words on the human mind produces antinomies
which do not really exist; such is the case with the terms vice
and disease. Vices depend on a hereditary mnemic disposition,
of varying strength and more or less pathological, or at any rate
unilateral {i.e., developed in one direction only, or connected
with a single group of objects); according to the good or evil
influence of the environment they may develop, become limited
or even fail to appear. Inversely, we may say that many
diseases, especially of the brain, are the source of vices.
In the second place, it follows from this fundamental prin-
ciple, that the vicious and apparently acquired conduct of cer-
tain individuals should not be considered as the product of
perverted free will, but rather as the unfortunate and destructive
result of a bad hereditary disposition developed under the influ-
ence of the bad habits of a corrupt environment. This environ-
ment being itself composed of men, there is a vicious circle of
cause and effect which will not escape the mind of the thoughtful
reader. Bad habits are made by hereditary forces, and bad
habits develop in their turn by custom, and may even create, by
blastophthoria, vicious hereditary dispositions. The indigna-
tion of the moralists wiio condemn vicious persons are very like
the temper of a child who strikes the fire which burnt him.
REFLEX ANOMALIES
We have already mentioned vaginismus, which is often pro-
duced in women by the first coitus. Priapism in man is some-
what analogous to vaginismus. It is produced by an exaggera-
ted reflex kritability of the nerve centers for erection, and
results in continual and painful erections, which sometimes end
in ejaculation without sensation. Another anomaly, more or
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 219
less reflex and very frequent, produces voluptuous sensations
and premature ejaculation after short and incomplete erections.
In some nervous women also, the venereal orgasm occurs very
rapidly and briefly. These anomalies belong to the domain of
medicine and are of little importance for om* subject.
PSYCHIC IMPOTENCE
Psychic impotence is a symptom which occurs accidentally
in the normal state and very frequently in psychopathological
conditions.
A representation or idea of any kind, may suddenly paralyze
by suggestive action the normal reflex mechanism of the center
for erection. The blood ceases to accumulate in the corpora
cavernosa and erection is either arrested or not produced at all.
For example, a very excited lover, who has had strong erections
at the moment when he prepared to copulate, may be suddenly
overcome with the idea that he will fail, or by some other
thought which paralyzes erection and renders coitus impossible.
The remembrance of such a failure and the distress and shame
attached to it, even efforts to produce erection indirectly for
another attempt, constitute further causes of inhibition of the
cerebro-spinal activity; they temporarily extinguish the sexual
appetite, and prevent by their interference the automatic
mechanism of erection which they strive to produce. The
greater the fear of failure, the more the psychic impotence in-
creases. This phenomenon may be limited to a certain woman,
but it is more often general. Sometimes an incomplete erection
is produced, which is insufficient.
This condition, which depends on auto-suggestion, is best
treated by hypnotic suggestion. The sentiment of impotence
powerfully depresses a man, and the depression increases his
impotence. This condition often, however, disappears by itself.
A special variety of psychic impotence is that in which erec-
tion takes place, but the idea of ejaculation predominates so
much that it paralyzes the voluptuous sensations, and causes
ejaculation to occur without pleasure, or even erection to cease.
Impotence may occur at the first coitus, or may come on
gi'adually. It is often produced suddenly at the time of mar-
220 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
riage in persons who have hitherto been very capable, even in
Don Juans. Men may have normal erections and pollutions,
but these may be stopped by counter-suggestions at each at-
tempt at coitus. Habitual masturbation may in some cases
contribute to produce impotence, but we must not generalize
from such cases, nor construct a dogma from them, for con-
tinence may also be a cause of impotence.
All these details, which are combined in all kinds of ways with
other sexual troubles, but which are also produced alone in men
who are otherwise normal, throw much light on the relation of
the momentary mental state of man to his sexual appetite and
the accomplishment of coitus.
I do not know under what heading the following case should
be placed:
A young man of steady habits, and normal sexual appetite,
had always abstained from sexual connection and masturbation.
He only had emissions during sleep. The latter were accom-
panied by erotic dreams, but never produced an orgasm, while
disagreeable sensations occurred on waking. He married for love
a woman in whom the hymen was resistant, and vaginismus
occurred on each attempt at coitus. These attempts failed con-
stantly in spite of the most intense love and the most ardent
desire for children on both sides. The husband's erections were
incomplete, and he never had an ejaculation except when asleep.
By the aid of hypnotism I succeeded in strengthening his erec-
tions, and an operation on the hymen cured his wife's vaginismus.
The first attempts at coitus were not immediately successful, but
suggestion acted after a time; finally the attempts were crowned
with success, and followed by a first and second pregnancy. The
children were healthy.
In this case, the impotence, which had lasted about eighteen
months, did not affect the mutual love and respect of the couple,
because the husband's affection combined with his sexual appe-
tite had sufficed for the happiness of a woman who was on the
whole normal.
This case is very instructive in several ways, for it gives a good
example of the nature of the sexual instinct in woman; it also
shows how the auto-suggestion of emissions occurring only
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 221
during sleep may hinder copulation in the waking state. But
such phenomena are extremely rare.
It is hardly necessary to say that there is no true impotence
in woman; but the same mental paralysis may occur as in man,
preventing orgasm and often causing disgust.
SEXUAL PARADOXY
By this term is understood the appearance of the sexual
appetite, or even of love, at an abnormal age. Infantile para-
doxy is, however, very different to senile paradoxy.
Infantile paradoxy must not be confounded with certain forms
of masturbation, to which we shall return. Some races, es-
pecially in the tropics, have a much earlier sexual development
than others; depending more on race than climate. In some,
sexual maturity occurs in boys between the age of twelve
and fourteen, and in girls between nine and ten years, while in
others the former are hardly mature at twenty and the latter
before seventeen or eighteen. Again, individual variations may
be very great in the same race. But, owing to hereditary
satyriasis or nymphomania, we sometimes in our own country
see sexual appetite appear in children of eight, seven, or even
three or four years of age, in a spontaneous manner without any
external excitation. Lombroso mentions the case of a girl three
years old who had an irresistible tendency to onanism. I have
myself observed the two following cases:
(1). A boy of seven years, the son of a brothel keeper, and a
kind of satyr who committed great excesses, began spontaneously
to attack little girls of his own age or even younger. He was so
artful that all means failed in curing him of this habit, and he
was sent to an asylum of which I was superintendent. He then
tried to renew his exploits with a boy older than himself. He was
also idle and disposed to all kinds of folly. He did not, however,
attempt to copulate with adult women or men. His sexual or-
gans were absolutely infantile, without any abnormal develop-
ment. His paradoxy was thus of cerebral origin.
(2). A girl of nine years began to excite the genital organs of
all the boys of her own age or younger, that she could lay hold of.
She did this in such a cunning way that she succeeded in killing
by inches one of her youngest brothers and severely injured the
222 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
urethra and bladder of another before she was found out. She
also copulated with a boy older than herself.
In this case I was told that there was no hereditary taint, but
such statements prove nothing. Individuals of this kind gener-
ally become criminals, or else give themselves up to masturba-
tion or prostitution.
Occasionally, the sexual appetite may be preserved for a long
time in old men, or reappear for a time, with or without sexual
power, but as a rule, the paradoxy of old men is the initial
symptom of senile dementia. As this disorder is only com-
mencing when sexual excitation occurs, it is not noticed, and
the patient is regarded as an immoral, vicious or criminal indi-
vidual. I have seen a patient of this kind masturbate openly
in an asylum, so great was his sexual excitation.
In most old men affected with senile sexual paradoxy, the
sexual appetite is directed toward very young girls or even chil-
dren, wliich aggravates their case from the legal point of view.
Very often this appetite is perverted and assumes one of the
forms we shall speak of later. Some of these old men are still
capable, but others are not, and then their excitation only mani-
fests itself in manipulations of the genital organs, etc. Such
cases play a considerable part in law scandals. The patient (for
so he must be called) often becomes the victim of blackmail on
the part of vicious girls or children, incited by unnatural parents.
One often sees also, at the onset of senile dementia, an old man
become enamored of some prostitute or adventuress who makes ;
him marry her and thus takes possession of his fortune. The
law generally makes the matter valid, under the pretext that
individual liberty must be respected. Such sanction consists in
reality in sacrificing a patient for the profit of a female swindler. .
SEXUAL ANESTHESIA OR CONGENITAL ABSENCE OF THE
SEXUAL SENSE AND APPETITE '
Sexual sensations are so intimately connected with the sexual
appetite that it is difficult to separate them. No doubt in the
adult a certain degree of sexual appetite may exist without any
voluptuous sensation, but this is a secondary phenomenon.
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 223
Complete sexual anaesthesia is very rare in man; it is not a
special form of anomaly, but the reduction to zero of a normal
sensation and the appetite which corresponds to it. The char-
acteristic feature of these cases is that, contrary to what occurs
in eunuchs and cryptorchids, not only the testicles, but all the
correlative sexual attributes (the beard, voice, character, etc.)
are normally developed, and are in no way inverted as in homo-
sexual individuals. Sexual anaesthesia causes no more suffering
than color-blindness, but like the latter it occasions individual
troubles resulting from misunderstanding. The sexual anaes-
thetic, having a more or less false idea of marriage, often marries
in complete ignorance, and the results are then disastrous, thanks
to our laws and customs.
In women, sexual anaesthesia is very common. Krafft-Ebing
is wrong in maintaining that in all such cases the women are
always neurotic. A number of absolutely normal and intelligent
women remain all their life completely cold from the sexual
point of view, apart from the normally passive character of the
female sex in coitus. It is rather the very libidinous woman
who is pathological.
We have seen that the normal sexual sentiment of woman is
developed rather in the direction of love, and desire for childi'en.
Erotic men often complain of the sexual coldness of theii' wives,
which is disagreeable to them; for pleasure in one sex excites
and completes that of the other. Cold women submit to coitus
as a duty, or at any rate only mentally enjoy their husband's
caresses.
Sexual anaesthesia occurs normally in old age. It may occur
at an earlier age, owing to destruction or atrophy of the sexual
glands, great excesses, or on the contrary, extreme continence.
Certain diseases and psychoses may also cause it.
The following are a few examples of sexual anaesthesia:
(1). A normally built man, of high culture and moral sense,
was affected with complete sexual anaesthesia since birth. He
occasionally had nocturnal emissions, and also matutinal erec-
tions, but no erotic images. When he arrived at mature age he
had no idea of sexual intercourse, and was completely indifferent
to everything concerning sexuality. He did not even compre-
224 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
hend anything relating to sexual affairs, and his replies reminded
me of conversations with color-blind persons on the distinction
between red and green! According to his ideas, marriage was an
intellectual and sentimental union in which children came by
themselves!
He eventually married a young girl, well educated but extremely
prudish. One can imagine the revelations which followed! The
wife, who had a strong desire for children, soon perceived the
sexual blindness of her husband. She became very unhappy
and bitterly reproached him. The husband then became aware
that there should be something in marriage which he had not
taken into account; but the explanations of coitus by the medical
man were useless, and hypnotic suggestion was incapable of pro- .
ducing the least sexual sensation.
In spite of all this, the husband was full of respect and affection
for his wife, but was incapable of simulating the least sexual
appetite. As regards the wife, what she required was not coitus,
which was simply a means to an end, but children. However, her
prudery made her prefer this state of things to a divorce, which
would create scandal. We may notice that in such cases erec-
tions are only produced mechanically during sleep, which renders
coitus impossible.
(2). A timid but vain young man of retiring habits, sexually
cold, had occasional nocturnal emissions sometimes accom-
panied by slightly erotic dreams. Although better informed than
the preceding case on sexual relations, his sexual appetite was
almost entirely absent, and he regarded marriage as a purely
intellectual alliance. He married an intelligent and passionate
young girl whose sexual appetite was strongly developed, and at
once began to treat her with great coldness, as a kind of domestic
servant.
The wife's family were in favor of divorce, but having pity on
the husband, sent him to me for advice. I explained the matter
to him, made him understand that the fault was entirely on his
side, and that his first duty was to show affection for his wife, or
if not, to accept divorce. The effect was purely psychical, and
from this moment he became amiable and affectionate toward
his wife. This was sufficient to cause the wife to give up the idea
of divorce. I then told her that, on account of her husband's
timidity and anomaly, the only thing to do was to reverse their
roles, and for her to make the sexual advances. I have not heard
anything more from this singular couple.
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 225
(3). A young man who had never had sexual connection before
marriage, in spite of a strong sexual appetite, made the acquaint-
ance of an intelligent young girl of excellent character. Marriage
followed, and the wife was loyal to her husband, but remained
sexually cold. She was insensible to coitus and only regarded it
as a disagreeable complement of love. In spite of this she was
fond of caresses, devoted to her husband, and had several children.
(4). An intelligent and cultured man, normal from the sexual
point of view, who had frequented prostitutes in his youth, but
not excessively, married a rather nervous but apparently very
amorous young woman. The marriage night produced on her
the effect of a cold douche, and coitus offended and horrified her.
The husband in his discomfiture took patience; but his love,
which was never very strong, became shattered. To avoid all
scandal each of the conjoints practiced dissimulation and adapted
themselves more or less to each other. The wife allowed coitus,
the husband tolerated her coldness. vSeveral children were born,
but the family was unhappy, and after a few years divorce put
an end to it.
SEXUAL HYPERESTHESIA, OR EXAGGERATION OF THE
SEXUAL APPETITE
This anomaly may be congenital, for example, in the sexual
paradoxy of children. Every one knows the Don Juans and
Messalinas with their insatiable appetites. These types of sexual
hyperaesthesia are certainly less frequent and more abnormal
in women than in men, but the intensity is as great or greater.
Sexual hyperaesthesia manifests itself by desires excited by
every sensorial perception relating to the opposite sex, or simply
by objects which recall it to the imagination; so that fetichism
plays a great part in this condition. The feeling of satiety is
hardly experienced at all, or only for a short time after each
orgasm. Nymphomaniacs and satyrs are possessed by an insar-
tiable sexual desire, often associated with certain sensations of
anguish. This hyperaesthesia, even when it is not hereditary,
may be developed up to a certain point by continued or repeated
artificial excitations.
In women it is during or after menstruation that the sexual
appetite and consequently sexual hyperesthesia are generally
226 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
strongest, but there are many individual variations in this
respect, and sometimes the opposite occurs.
The effect of sexual hypersesthesia is to direct the appetite
toward any object capable of satisfying it. Wlien the other
sex is wanting, masturbation is generally resorted to. All
mucous membranes (anus, mouth, etc.) and even inanimate
objects may serve to satisfy the pathologically exalted appetite
of such individuals. Men most distinguished in other respects
may abandon themselves to the most foolish or abominable
practices.
Animals are often used to satisfy the hyperaesthetic sexual
appetite in both sexes. Women introduce all kinds of objects
into the vagina to uritate the clitoris. Men \dsit prostitutes,
and become excited at the sight of every woman who is neither
too old nor too repulsive. Some individuals of this kind are
pursued night and day by erotic images, which may even
become an obsession and a veritable torment.
A further degi'ee of sexual hypersesthesia is called ScUyridsis
in man, and nymphomania in woman. I have observed in
women two very different varieties of sexual hypersesthesia.
In one, true nymphomania, the subjects are attracted toward
man bodily and mentally with an elementary force; in these
the whole brain follows the appetite in quite a feminine manner.
Other women, on the contrary, are di'iven to masturbation by a
purely peripheral excitation; they have erotic dreams with
venereal orgasms which torment rather than please them; but
they do not fall in love easily, and may have difficulty in the
choice of a husband. Theu- mind alone remains feminine, full
of tact and delicacy in its sentiments, while their lower nerve
centers react in a more masculine and at the same time more
pathological maimer. There are many transitional forms
between these two extremes.
Sexual hypersesthetics are often unhappy, and consult the
physician for relief from the perpetual excitation which tor-
ments them. They attempt to master themselves and check
their appetite in all ways, and are sometimes affected with ner-
vous or mental depression. It is important, however, to recog-
nize the fact, that many sexual hypersesthetics remain quite
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 227
fresh and active, and attain an advanced age, provided they
escape alcohol and venereal disease.
When sexual hypersesthesia results chiefly from artificially
acquired habits it may often be cured by hypnotic suggestion,
and establishing self-control; but when it is hereditary and very
intense, and especially when it is connected with infantile para-
doxy or other anomalies, castration may be the only efficient
remedy. When it is chiefly acquired, any strong diversion
which turns the mind from sexual preoccupation to other sub-
jects may have an excellent curative effect. The most intense
hereditary cases may constitute a plague for the individual and
for society, and it is then that castration may become a blessing
by calming the obsessed patient, by giving him the opportunity
for useful occupation, and by preventing him from abusing his
fellows and procreating beings similar to himself.
Nymphomaniacs often have polyandrous instincts, and they
then become more insatiable than men. Several cases of this
kind have been published in the press, and examples of such
women are not rare in history. When a woman is possessed by
passion she often loses all sense of shame, all moral sense and
all discretion, as regards the object of her desires. She pays no
attention to anything which is opposed to her passion, but may
be full of reserve, tact and good-feeling in all other respects.
Cases of this kind, however, have always a more or less marked
pathological character.
In man, satjnriasis is very freque;it. It often happens that a
husband continually forces his wife to coitus, even during men-
struation. We have mentioned already the case of an old
peasant of seventy who thus abused his poor old wife. In such
cases conjugal infidelity very commonly occm's. The C3niicism
of such individuals may go so far that they have intercourse
with prostitutes or servants in the presence of their wives, or
even abuse their own children. The wife behaves in these cases
in different w^ays according to her character. Many tolerate
everything and do not complain, for the sake of their chil-
dren; others leave the husband or divorce hmi; some commit
suicide.
It would seem quite natural for nymphomaniacs to marry
228 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
satyrs, but we must bear in mind the evil results for posterity
from such an accumulation of the sexual appetite.
MASTURBATION OR ONANISM
The term onanism is derived from the name of Onan, son of
Juda and Suah and grandson of Israel. According to the Old
Testament, Onan's father wished him to marry his brother's
widow and have children by her; but this did not please Onan,
and he provoked ejaculation of semen by friction, in order to
avoid having children by his sister-in-law. "This offended God
who slew him."
We have already shown that in the child the sexual appetite
manifests itself in a kind of obscure presentiment and vague
sensations in the genital organs. If a young man cannot satisfy
his sexual appetite naturally, the latter when it increases in
strength provokes erotic dreams and nocturnal emissions; or
artificial excitation of the penis may be practiced to produce
orgasms: the latter phenomenon is called masturbation.
Masturbation in man is performed by friction of the penis
with the hand or against some soft body. In the latter case
especially erotic images of naked women or female sexual organs
is associated with onanism. This kind of masturbation may be
caUed compensatory, because it does not depend on an anomaly
of the sexual appetite, but serves to satisfy a natural want by
compensation. There are a whole series of manipulations em-
ployed for the same object, which constitute the psychic equiva-
lent of compensating masturbation. In remote garrisons and
in boys' schools the more libidinous individuals often satisfy
themselves either by mutual masturbation or by pederasty,
i.e., by introducing their penis into the anus of their younger
companions, especially those who are fat and have a more or less
feminine appearance. Sodomy, or copulation with animals,
(cows, goats, etc.) is often performed with the same object. It
is unnecessary to prolong the enumeration; those we have men-
tioned are the most common. Men who are addicted to such
practices are generally considered as depraved and shamefully
immoral, and great indignation is shown toward them, more or
less hypocritically. In reality they are often normal in other
SEXUAL EVOLUTION 229
respects, but simply affected with sexual hypersesthesia. Some-
times they are feeble-minded individuals who have recourse to
such practices because they are derided by women. Others are
cynics, more or less vicious in other respects.
Compensatory mastm'bation is extremely widespread, but it
is as a rule neither recognized nor admitted because it is easy to
conceal. Although depressing for those whose will power is
overcome by an excitation which they cannot conquer, it is
relatively the least dangerous form of onanism. At the most it
leads to a certain amount of nervous and mental exhaustion by
abuse of the facility of thus procuring a venereal orgasm. The
loss of substance from frequent seminal ejaculations is also more
or less weakening, although the secretion from the prostate
plays a much greater part than the semen. But what especially
affects the nervous system, is the repeated loss of the will, and
the failure of resolutions made many times to overcome the
desire for orgasm.
Here, as elsewhere, effect is too often confounded with cause.
Because men of feeble will power are addicted to onanism, it is
imagined that the latter is the cause of the weakness of will.
In itself, a seminal ejaculation provoked by masturbation is no
more dangerous than a nocturnal emission; both are often ac-
companied by nervous sensations which are more disagreeable
and exhausting than normal coitus. I must, however, point out
that the effects of moderate masturbation in the adult have been
greatly exaggerated, either by confounding the effect with its
cause, or for mercenary objects, by driving timid persons to
charlatans or to prostitutes.
The active sexual appetite of man, increased by the accumula-
tion of semen, is absent in woman. She does not have nocturnal
emissions accompanied by voluptuous sensations which spon-
taneously awaken sexual desire. For this reason a pathological
sexual excitability is necessary to spontaneously provoke in
woman voluptuous dreams or masturbation. For the same
reason we cannot speak of compensatory masturbation in
woman. Onanism, however, is not uncommon among women,
although less frequent than in men. It results either from
artificial and local excitations, from bad example, or from
230 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
pathological hypersesthesia. ^^^len once the habit is acquired,
repetition is produced by the difficulty of resisting voluptuous
desires.
Women perform masturbation by friction of the clitoris with
the finger, or by introducing various hard and rounded objects
into the vagina and imitating the movements of coitus; often
also by rubbing the crossed thighs against each other. In the
insane, masturbation is sometimes practiced to an excessive
extent. Some hysterical women introduce objects into the
m-ethra during masturbation and cause severe inflammation of
the bladder.
Another variety of sexual excitation which is often substi-
tuted for coitus among women, is the practice of mutual licking
of the clitoris wdth the tongue (cunnilingus) . Although not so
dangerous as has been maintained, these habits are aberra-
tions of the sexual appetite, and it is needless to say that every
human being should abstain from them out of self-respect.
The man who, for some reason or another, cannot obtain
normal coitus should content himself with noctm'nal emissions,
and the woman with voluptuous dreams, and should both ab-
stain from active and voluntary excitations. For my part, I
consider prostitution, or ''love" which is bought, as a variety
of compensatory masturbation, and not as normal copulation.
Coitus with a prostitute, generally infected with venereal dis-
ease, who receives new clients continually, has as little affinity
with love as with the normal object of the sexual appetite —
reproduction; and its moral value is certainly inferior to that
of onanism.
A second form of masturbation occurs in very young children
from accidental irritation; in boys from phimosis; in girls from
itching due to worms (oxyuris) about the anus and vulva. In-
nocent as regards its cause, this form of onanism may become
dangerous by habit. Attention should therefore be paid to
phimosis and worms, and the former treated by circumcision
and the latter by the usual remedies.
A third kind of masturbation is caused by example and
imitation. This often occurs in schools and among children in
general; and in this way very precocious sexual excitation may
SEXUAL EVOLUTION 231
develop and become a habit difficult to suppress. The onanism
of young children is certainly worse than that which begins after
puberty; it not only renders the child idle and bashful, or in-
creases these faults; but it also interferes with nutrition and
digestion and develops a tendency to sexual perversion and to
impotence. It often ceases, however, after careful supervision,
combined with physical exercise and fresh air, and direction of
the attention to other things. On the whole, the danger of this
form of onanism has also been exaggerated. In most cases it is
cured, when it is not based on abnormal predispositions or on
an indolent and feeble character. Love and normal sexual inter-
course are naturally the best remedies for masturbation due to
seduction and habit, as soon as the subject has reached sexual
maturity.
We may include as a fourth form of masturbation the cases of
paradoxy which we have mentioned previously. In this case
onanism is produced spontaneously as the result of psycho-
sexual precocity or hereditary pathological satyriasis.
With the exception of the last paradoxical form which is based
on incurable satyriasis, all the kinds of onanism which we have
mentioned hitherto can only be successfully treated by kindness
and confidence, combined with work and direction of the mind
to wholesome and attractive subjects; not by threats or punish-
ment. The new reformatory schools called Landerziehungsheime
(Vide Chapter XVII) are an excellent remedy for onanism, for
they keep the child occupied from morning to night and hardly
leave him any time for bad habits; when he goes to bed he is
too tired to do anything but sleep. However, great prudence
and active supervision is required in these cases.
The fifth class is constituted by the onanism of sexual inverts,
and may be called essential onanism. This concerns men whose
sexual appetite is directed toward their own sex instead of the
other. They are called homosexual, and mutual onanism is, so
to speak, the normal satisfaction of their inverted appetite. We
shall refer to this again later on. While normal sexual inter-
course is the best and most rational remedy for compensatory
masturbation, there is no question of it here. Marriage is the
worst and most scandalous remedy in such cases. It is therefore
232 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
of the greatest importance in order to judge of the nature of the
masturbation, to inquire into the kind of erotic images with
which it is associated. If, in the case of a man, the images are
those of women, it is simply a case of compensatory masturba-
tion; but if the images are mascuUne, it is a case of sexual in-
version. If masturbation is not accompanied by any images,
the question remains doubtful. In young children this is ex-
plained by the fact that the psycho-sexual irradiations are not
yet developed; but after puberty the absence of images as an
object of eroticism suggests a certain anomaly and sometimes
depends on a latent tendency to inversion.
Relation of Masturbation to Hypochondriasis. — Some onanists
become much distressed, and reproach themselves for having
spoilt their lives by their bad habit. They give way to lamenta-
tions before their doctor and their acquaintances, wring their
hands with despair, and beg every one to come to their aid.
They look upon themselves as poor sinners whose lives have been
ruined, either by their own fault or by others. They have read
Lamert's "Personal Preservation," or other sensational books
which excite both the fear and the sexual desire of weak char-
acters, whom they are intended to exploit. These poor devils
believe themselves lost, and are truly pitiable objects. These
form the types which are paraded as terrible examples in books
on onanism which make timid persons' hair stand on end.
^Vhen these unfortunate onanists are questioned on all the
circumstances of the act of which they accuse themselves, we
generally arrive at the following results:
We recognize that we have to deal with psychopathic or neu-
rotic subjects more or less tainted by heredity, timid and shun-
ning their fellows, easily impressed by imagination, possessed
of unhealthy sentiments and ideas; in fact, h3^ochondriacs,
predisposed to look upon every sensation or slight indisposition
as a grave disorder threatening their health or life. They thus
live in perpetual anxiety. This mental anomaly has for a long
time preceded the onanism, even if they have masturbated,
which is often even not the case.
Among the numerous patients of this kind that I have treated,
there were many who had simply had nocturnal emissions since
SEXUAL EVOLUTION 233
puberty, but they regarded themselves as lost men through
masturbation! Many others no doubt practice compensatory
masturbation, generally because their timid nature prevents
them from frequenting prostitutes, or committing other sexual
excesses, while the way in which they analyze their sensations
easily leads them to onanism. On the other hand, they are
generally so afraid that they do not give way to excessive mas-
turbation, perhaps only once or twice a week or even less often,
so that the normal frequency of coitus, according to Luther, is
often not attained and seldom exceeded. Among these persons
we find few precocious or excessive onanists, I admit, however,
that a hypochondriacal constitution predisposes somewhat to
onanism.
But, what I wish to lay stress upon, is that the onanists who
are full of lamentation and self-reproach are neither the most
numerous nor those who commit the greatest excess. The
worst onanists, those who provoke several ejaculations daily,
belong to the category of sexual hypersesthetics. These have
not the classical aspect attributed to them by tradition; they
are not pale and terrified creatures, but rather lewd individuals
who are early transformed into impudent Don Juans. They
may be as courageous, as clever and as strong as others and yet
be disposed to all kinds of evil tricks and follies. It is, therefore,
not true, as is so often said, that it is possible to recognize a
masturbator by his face or manner.
These excessive onanists no doubt do themselves harm in
various ways, but the great error of taking sexual hypochon-
driasis for the type of onanists, is to confound cause with effect.
Sexual hypochondriasis is in no way the effect of onanism, but
precedes it, and onanism is rather its effect, or is simply asso-
ciated with it. It is obvious that onanism, by its depressing
effect, aggravates a mind beset with hypochondriacal anxieties.
It results from these facts, first, that a sexual hypochondriac
should be treated as a hypochondriac and not as an onanist;
secondly, that the worst slaves of masturbation are not to be
looked for among pale and dejected individuals.
Among women, especially young girls, hypochondriasis is not
common and cases of sexual hypochondi'iacs who accuse them-
234 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
selves of masturbating are rare among them. Women who mas-
turbate generally keep their secret and are apparently very little
affected by it. However, onanism does them nearly as much
harm as men; it is true they have no loss of semen, but the
repetition and intensity of the nervous irritation are greater than
in man, and it is this which causes most exhaustion. In spite
of this, it is curious to observe that women who masturbate are
generally less ashamed than men, and are apparently less de-
pressed by it. We must bear in mind that the loss of semen by
masturbation has in man a peculiarly depressing effect, for it
lacks its object and represents an absolutely abnormal satis-
faction of the sexual appetite.
It may be objected that this difference is due to another
cause, that women who masturbate have less moral tone and
are especially depraved individuals. I agree that this is often
the case, but far from always. The intensity of the sexual
excitability in women has nothing in common with their char-
acter; it may be associated with high intelligence, with high
moral and aesthetic qualities, and even with a strong will. On
the other hand, deficiency in moral sense and will may occur
with sexual frigidity, and, as we have already seen, may lead to
sexual excess without any voluptuous sensation, in accordance
with the peculiarities of feminine sentiment. These facts show
how complex are the causes of a given effect in the sexual
domain.
PERVERSIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE OR PARESTHESIA OF
THE SEXUAL SENSATION
We are here concerned with sexual appetite provoked by
inadequate objects. Krafft-Ebing having made a profound
study of this question we shall follow his subdivisions in the main.
Perverted Sexiial Appetite Directed Toward the Opposite Sex. —
(A.) Sadism (association of sexual desire with cruelty and
violence). History shows us a number of celebrated persons
who satisfied their sexual desire by making martjTS of then-
victims, up to complete butchery. The most atrocious types
of this kind are perhaps assassins such as "Jack the Ripper,"
who lie in wait for their victims like cats, pounce on them, revel
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 235
in their terror, assassinate them by inches, and wallow volup-
tuously in their blood.
The term sadism is derived from the celebrated Marquis de
Sade, a French author, whose obscene romances overflow with
cruel voluptuousness. Certain reminiscences of sadism are com-
mon both in man and woman. At the moment of highest exci-
tation in coitus it is not uncommon for one or other of the couple
to bite or scratch in the ecstasy of their amorous embraces.
Lombroso remarks on the brutal excesses of soldiers when ex-
cited after battle. This is so to speak an inversion of sadism
as regards cause and effect. After the exaltation of combat,
that of desire possesses the mind, as in the inverse direction
exaltation of desire gives rise in certain cases to that of violence
and thirst for blood.
Krafft-Ebing draws attention to the fact that love and anger
are the two most violent effective conditions, and are at the same
time the two powers which provoke the most motor discharges.
This explains why they may be associated in the delirium of
unbridled passions. To these facts is added an atavistic relic
of the instinct of man's ancestors, the males of whom fought
furiously to conquer the females by violence, which provoked
desire in them, after the subjection of the object of their sexual
appetite. True sadism can, however, only become effective
by the combination of two causes: (1) by an exalted and abso-
lutely pathological association of sexual desire with a sanguinary
instinct, and with the desire to ill treat and overcome a victim;
(2) by an almost absolute absence of moral sense and sympathy,
combined with a violent and egoistic sexual passion. It is
evident that the slight more or less sadic impulses which may
involuntarily occur in the performance of normal coitus, are
quite exempt from the second of these causes.
Krafft-Ebing maintains that sadism is usually, if not always,
congenital and hereditary. Sadism is for a long time restrained
by fear, education or moral sentiments. It is only gradually,
when normal coitus cannot procure for the perverted sexual
appetite the satisfaction it requires, that the sadist gives way
to his passion; this gives the latter a false appearance of
acquired vice.
236 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
The highest degi'ee of sadism leads to assassination. In this
way human tigers entice young girls into a wood and cut them
to pieces. Some begin by forcing them to coitus, after frighten-
ing them, or half strangling them; others masturbate in their
ripped up entrails. But some others have no desire for coitus,
nor anything resembling it, their desire being satisfied only by
the sight of the terror, suffering and blood of their victim,
whom they torture before killing. Others again associate
desire with the rage of a wild beast to such a point that they
swallow parts of their victim's body and drink the blood.
Sadists become experts in the art of assassination without dis-
covery. The cynicism with which some of them have described
their sensations shows their cold indifference toward the tragic
and the horrible. Krafft-Ebing describes a series of atrocious
types of this kind, and unfortunately the press and the criminal
law courts continually give us fresh examples. Some sadists
assassinate children, others men, when their perversion is com-
plicated with pederasty or sexual inversion. (The story of
Bluebeard is probably based on the successive crimes of a sadic.)
Sadists do not always confine their attacks to living people;
some of them are necrophiles, who violate dead bodies and cut
them in pieces: others again kill animals, whose sufferings and
blood serve to satisfy their desires.
Some sadists satisfy themselves by flogging prostitutes or
pricking them till they bleed, while others prefer to martyrize
their victims slowly, and thus procure the maximum of pleasure.
Others again are contented with scenes symbolical of servitude,
in which women are compelled to adore and supplicate them,
etc. The humiliation of women takes part in the sadist appe-
tite of man and often degenerates into fetichism. Simple imagi-
nation in which he plays the part of a tyrant, and which are com-
plicated with onanism or normal coitus, often suffice to satisfy
the sadist. Some sadists soil themselves with the excrements
of the woman they "love!" When sadism assumes the charac-
ter of a symbol or a fetich, seminal ejaculation and sensation
generally occur without contact with the woman's body.
Sadism is more common in men, but occurs also in women.
Messalina and Catherine de Medici are historical examples. The
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 237
latter had her maids of honor flogged before her eyes, and said
she was bathing in roses when she witnessed the massacre of
the Huguenots. Women in whom sadism takes a milder form
are contented with biting a man till he bleeds, during coitus.
Sadism appears to be most often an effect of hereditary
alcoholic blastophthoria.
(B). Masochism (association of sexual desire with submission
to cruelty and violence). The term masochism is applied by
Krafft-Ebing to a form of sexual perversion described by Sacher-
Masoch in several of his romances. Masochism is exactly the
converse of sadism. The desire of the masochist is excited by
humiliation, submission, and even blows; the pain he feels
when he is flogged gives him intense pleasure. Like sadism, this
perversion may be incomplete. When it is complete the maso-
chist is affected with psychic impotence and is incapable of nor-
mal coitus. Ill-treatment and humiliation are alone capable of
causing him erections, seminal ejaculations and pleasure. How-
ever, comedies representing his humiliation, or corresponding
efforts of his imagination may succeed in replacing the reality
and procure the desired effect.
Like sadism, masochism is hereditary and congenital. When
the first sexual sensations are produced, the masochist child
sighs for a dominating woman who will illtreat him and make
him her slave. His imagination is transported by the idea of
being on his knees, of being trodden under foot, or bound in
chains by her, etc. The cruel heroine of his heart must ridicule
and humiliate him as much as possible. Corporal punishment
with a beneficial object does not satisfy the true masochist.
Rousseau, in his "Confessions," reveals the sexual feelings of the
masochist.
It is remarkable how far poetic conceptions are combined with
the perversion of sexual sensations in masochists, leading them
to dream of an imperious and cruel woman to whom they devote
a love as humble as it is exalted, while normal coitus causes them
no pleasure, and can sometimes only be accomplished with the
aid of masochistic images. These images may also be accom-
panied by onanism. It is very common for masochists to be-
come flagellants, and to be flogged or trampled on by prostitutes.
238 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
But it often happens that they only feel pain instead of pleasure,
when the comedy which they have started appears revealed in
all its absurdity, showing them a woman paid to illtreat them,
and not doing it for her own enjoyment. Some masochists take
pleasure in imagining themselves assassinated by a woman, or
even cut in pieces. Others organize theatrical performances in
which imperious women play the part of judges, before whom
they appear naked and are flogged and condemned to death.
Others again are contented with imagining these performances,
combining them sometimes with coitus or masturbation.
Krafft-Ebing is no doubt right in considering the lucubrations
of the poet Baudelaire, and his necrophile imagination of his
own carrion hung on a gibbet and devoured by vultures, as a
mixture of sadism and masochism. He sought out the most
repulsive women of all races, Chinese, negresses, dwarfs, giants,
or modern women as artificial as possible, to satisfy his patholo-
gical instinct. The following case quoted by Krafft-Ebing from
Hammond, is typical:
A married man and father of several children was sometimes
subject to attacks during which he visited a brothel, where he
chose two or three of the fattest women. He stripped the upper
part of his body, lay on the floor, crossed his hands, shut his eyes
and ordered the women to tread wdth all their force on his chest,
neck and face. Sometimes he required a still heavier woman or
more cruel manipulations. After two or three hours he was
satisfied, paid the women liberally and regaled them with wine,
rubbed his bruises, dressed himself and returned to his office, to
repeat this singular performance a week later.
Krafft-Ebing describes, as masked masochism, certain cases of
fetichism in which the nature of the fetich which causes sexual
excitation and the manner in which it is used prove a desire for
maltreatment and humiliation by a woman. This is especially
the case with shoe and foot fetichism. Among those who are
affected with this pathological specialty, voluptuous sensations
are produced when they are trodden on by a woman's shoes or
feet. They even dream of women's shoes and feet. Some of
them put nails in their shoes, the pain of which gives them volup-
tuous sensations. Lastly, the shoes alone, especially when they
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 239
touch the penis, are sufficient to excite their sexual desire.
Other masked masochists are excited by the secretions or even
excrements of women.
I have been consulted by a typical masochist, who, being very
religious, was convinced that his perverted sexual appetite was
a sin. He therefore married, thinking that God and repentance
would change him. But when married he naturally found him-
self absolutely impotent and incapable of coitus.
If masochism is common in men, it is produced in women
rather as an exaggeration in the domain of her normal sexual
sensations, for it is to a great extent in harmony with her pas-
sive sexual role. Woman does not like the weak man who sub-
mits to her. She prefers a master on whom she can lean. In
fact, normal women do not like their husbands to ask advice
from them too often, nor to be wanting in decision and self-
confidence. On the contrary they Hke them to be firm and
even somewhat imperious, provided they are not unkind. It is
notorious that many women like to be beaten by their husbands,
and are not content unless this is done. This appears to be
especially common in Russia. Accentuated forms of patho-
logical masochism are, however, rare in women.
Masochism presents a certain analogy with the religious
ecstasy of fakirs and flagellants who flog themselves. These in-
dividuals appear to become exalted in a kind of ecstatic con-
vulsion with the idea of pleasing God or gaining Heaven by
their martp-dom. We may add that, like sadism, masochism
occurs in sexual inverts, but always having the same sex for its
object. I know an old gentleman whose only pleasure con-
sisted in receiving a shower of blows: as a boy, like Rousseau
he tried by all kinds of ruses to obtain corporal punishment:
when he grew up this became impossible and he devised tricks
to urge schoolboys to fight each other, pretending to be angry
and exciting their spirit of contradiction: the boys then pre-
tended to fight him, and this sufficed for the rest of his life to
excite erections and seminal ejaculations. This gentleman was
a lawyer and told me his history, hoping that suggestion might
cm'e him.
The eroticism produced by submission to pain and humilia-
240 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
tion is often blended with that produced by performing acts of
cruelty. These mixtures of sadism and masochism have been
investigated by Schrenk Notzing, who concludes that they are
intimately related.
Fetichism (production of voluptuous sensations by contact
with or by the sight of certain portions of the body or clothes
of woman). We have already mentioned this symptom and
have seen the part it plays in some forms of masochism. A
masked form of fetichism forms part of the normal sexual appe-
tite, in the sense that certain parts of the body or clothes, certain
odors, etc., especially excite the sexual desire of many people by
recalling the individual to whom they belong. Therefore, parts
of the body which normally excite sexual desire — the breasts,
sexual organs, or other parts of the body usually covered — can-
not be regarded as pathological fetiches.
The true fetichist is a very pathological being, whose entire
sexual appetite, often with all its uTadiations in the higher
sphere of love, if we can speak of love in such cases, is limited
to certain objects connected with woman. The most common
fetiches are women's handkerchiefs, gloves, velvet or shoes;
or their hair, hands or feet, etc. In these cases the fetich plays
the essential part, and is in no way associated with the image
of a woman. The fetich is the sole object of " love." The sight
or touch of the fetich, the pleasure of pressing it against the
heart or the genital organs, are alone capable of producing
erections and ejaculations. There are even fetichists whose
sexual desire is only excited by the sight of certain feminine
deformities, such as clubfoot, squint, etc. Hairdressers, who mas-
turbate after dressing women's hair, are well-known examples
of fetichism.
Certain feminine costumes may serve as fetiches, and these
are kept in some brothels to satisfy certain customers. Shoe
fetichism is more common than that of clothes or handker-
chiefs. Krafft-Ebing mentions a typical case of the psychic irra-
diation of fetichism; the individual in question thought it im-
moral and scandalous that women's shoes should be exposed in
shop windows. Others blush when they see such things in the
windows. Fetichism is essentially a masculine perversion, I
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 241
have been consulted by a fetichist who all his life had only felt
erotic at the sight of shoes; later on he married, and his sexual
desire becoming more and more concentrated on pointed and
fashionable shoes, especially women's, but also men's, he could
only obtain pleasure with his wife when she put on the shoes he
was in love with, or when he put them on himself. The sight of
shoes in shop windows always made him blush, while the female
body made no impression on him. He could not buy the shoes
he desired most, owing to a sentiment of shame, and the sight
of them was often sufficient to produce erection and ejaculation.
Exhibitionism. There is a class of individuals, especially
men, whose sole sexual desire consists in masturbating in the
presence of women. They lie in wait behind some wall or bush,
and masturbate openly when women pass that way. In these
subjects an orgasm is only produced when they are observed by
women. As soon as ejaculation has occurred they fly to avoid
the police. They never attempt to molest the women whose
presence excites them to this performance.
These cases are not uncommon and naturally cause much
scandal, so that the poor wretches seldom escape the police.
These unfortunate persons who sometimes hold high social posi-
tions, have often been previously convicted, but cannot as a
rule overcome their passion, which has much worse consequences
for them than for the women and children whom they frighten
or annoy.
Exhibitionism is not rare among insane women and I have
myself treated two typical cases, I do not know whether it
occurs in women of sound mind, but at all events they caimot
be addicted to it without running great risk.
Sexual Inversion or Homosexual Love. — However shocking or
absurd the aberrations of the sexual appetite and its irradiations
may be, of which we have spoken hitherto, they are at any rate
derived from originally normal intercourse with adults of the
opposite sex. Those we have now to deal with are distinguished
by the fact that, not only the appetite itself, but all its psychic
irradiations are directed to the same sex as the perverted indi-
vidual, the latter being horrified at the idea of genital contact
with the opposite sex, quite as much as a normal man is horrified
242 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
at the idea of homosexual union. This horror is, however, con-
fined to sexual matters, and in no way concerns those of social
life. It is therefore a question of sexual desire of man for man,
and woman for woman.
What we have to deal with here has no connection with com-
pensation as in cases of compensatory masturbation or ped-
erasty, which are practiced, for want of anything better, by
individuals whose normal sexual appetite cannot be satisfied
otherwise. When excitation and desire become too strong, the
purely animal (spinal) irritation of the sexual appetite may
drive a man or woman to satisfy themselves by means which
would otherwise disgust them.
A. Homosexual love in man. It seems absurd that the whole
sexual appetite and amorous ideals of a man can be directed all
his life to persons of his own sex. This pathological phenome-
non, however, is as common as it is certain, although its psy-
chological and normal import has long been misapprehended,
as much in judicial cu'cles as by the general public. It is the
inverts themselves, aided by psychiatrists, who have finally
thrown light on the subject. An invert, named Ulrich, an-
nounced himself publicly as the apostle of homosexual love,
describing inverts under the name of Urnings, a name which is
still used in Germany. Ulrich and his disciples endeavored to
prove an absurdity by maintaining that homosexuals are a
special kind of normal men, and by attempting to obtain legal
sanction for this kind of love. Ulrich gives the name Dionings
to men whose sexual appetite is normal, i.e., directed toward
women. Such a pretension appears necessarily ridiculous to
every man whose sexual sense is normal, and it is obviously
absurd to apply the term "normal" to a sexual appetite abso-
lutely devoid of its natural object, procreation. But this is
quite characteristic of the sentiments of inverts.
Hirschfeld, of Berlin, has recently attempted to show that
homosexuals constitute a variety of normal man; but he plays
with words and facts, invoking the names of celebrated inverts,
and wrongly asserts that inversion is not hereditary.
From the first dawn of sexual feeling in youth, male inverts
have the same feehngs as girls toward other boys. They feel
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 243
the need for passive submission, they become easily enraptured
over novels and dress, they like to occupy themselves with femi-
nine pursuits, to dress like girls and to frequent women's
societies. They regard women as friends, as persons with whom
they have a fellow-feeling. They generally, but not always,
have a banal sentimentalism, they are fond of religious forms
and ceremonies, they admire fine clothes and luxurious apart-
ments; they dress their hair and ''fake" themselves with a
coquetry which often exceeds that of women. They are not all
like this, but one or other of these traits predominates in different
individuals.
Their sexual appetite, usually very strong and precocious, be-
gins with an exalted love for some male friend. I have treated
a great number of inverts and have always been struck with the
intensity of their passion. Among other cases, I may mention
that of an invert hospital attendant, who fell madly in love with
one of his comrades and covered ten meters of white tape with
the name of his beloved. The most passionate love letters, vows
of fidelity till death, the most ferocious jealousy toward other
friends of their beloved, and even ceremonies symbolical of
marriage, are daily events among the homosexuals.
The invert does not so easily become enamored of another
invert as of normal men. These have a special attraction for
him, but as they generally repulse him with disgust, or threaten
to expose or exploit him, he is often obliged to content himself
with his fellows. These gentlemen form among themselves a
secret brotherhood, a kind of freemasonry which is recognized
by signs.
The first appearance of the homosexual appetite with its
youthful impulses, causes love and happiness to appear to the
invert in a special aspect, determined by the inverted irradia-
tion of his sexual appetite. It represents the aim of his life as
an amorous union with his beloved, and shapes his idylls, his
romance and his ideal to this end. But later on, when his sexual
desire increases and when he discovers that the majority of men
feel differently to him, that the human race is reproduced by
the union of men and women, etc., he becomes unhappy. He
perceives that it would be both ridiculous and dangerous to
244 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
reveal his inner feelings, and generally gives way to masturba-
tion. But all social barriers which oppose his appetite only in-
crease his desire, and he becomes less and less able to dominate
his passion for certain young men. The disgust and indignation
of the latter, when they discover that they are not the object
of simple affection but of perverted sexual love, are expressed
only too clearly, and the poor invert sees himself condemned to
perpetual torment in trying to hide his most violent desires and
his most intimate and ideal aspirations, and finally to live in
continual dread of being betrayed and prosecuted. It is thus
easy to understand that he is happy in the discovery that his
fellows form a secret society, and he associates with them im-
mediately, when his moral sense and will are not strong enough
to be proof against it.
If the invert succeeds in finding a male lover, he does not
usually imitate coitus by introducing his penis into the anus of
his beloved, but contents himself at first with mutual mastur-
bation. However, the characteristic homosexual experiences
the most complete pleasure when another man introduces his
penis into the anus, i.e., when he plays the part of what is called
the passive pederast. Others prefer to act as active pederasts.
The invert's ideal would be to obtain a legal hcense for mar-
riage between men; but they are not very constant in their
love and are much inclined to polyandry. Sexual love for
women inspires them with contempt; they regard it as low and
disgusting, at the most only good for the production of young
inverts!
Homosexual love has played a much greater part in the
world's history than is generally beheved. The Count de
Platen and Sapho were inverts. The inverts themselves main-
tain that it was the same with Plato, Frederick the Great, Soc-
rates, etc.; but this is not proved. In the East and in Brazil,
homosexual love is very common.
My experience agrees \\dth that of Krafft-Ebing, that homo-
sexual love is pathological in nature, and that nearly all
inverts are in a more or less marked degree psychopaths or
neurotics, whose sexual appetite is not only abnormal but
usually also exalted. Insane inverts, such as King Louis II of
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 245
Bavaria, a great number of the insane, affected, for example,
with Pseudologia phantastica (pathological swindlers), and who
are also homosexual, show the intimate relationship which
exists between sexual inversion (also called " uranism ") and
the psychoses.
I agree with Rudin that the psycho-pathological phenomena
presented by the majority of inverts are primitive and heredi-
tary, and that they are hardly ever the effect of their tormented
life, as Hirschfeld, Ulrich and their disciples maintain. The
vexations, anxieties and other torments that they suffer may
no doubt play a part in developing certain nervous conditions
previously latent, but they can never create hereditary taints.
We may admit that sexual inversion corresponds to a kind of
partial hermaphrodism, in which the sexual glands and copula-
tory organs have the characters of one of the sexes, while the
brain has, to a great extent, those of the other sex; but the
phenomenon is none the less pathological.
The inverts with whom we have most to do, especially in pub-
lic asylums and at the courts of justice, are cynics and debauchees
in spite of the ideal which they parade; but we should be wrong
in concluding that this is always the case. The cynics make
themselves heard because they do not restrain themselves. In
my private practice I have known many very well-conducted
inverts, possessing the most dehcate sentiments, who had be-
come pessimists owing to the shame and grief of a state of mind
which they hid from the world.
Inverts of this class often commit suicide, after having carried
on in silence a desperate struggle against their morbid appetite,
because they prefer death to defeat, which they consider a dis-
honor. The victims of these tragedies deserve all our pity, and
sometimes our respect. Such individuals generally hold aloof
from the brotherhood of inverts which they look upon with fear
or disgust.
In the picture of homosexuals there are two lamentable
shadows, which are largely due to the severity with which most
legislations track and condemn these unfortunate beings.
(1). As soon as an invert realizes his abnormal and dangerous
situation in society, in which he feels a pariah, he often makes up
246 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
his mind to follow the advice of ignorant friends, and even, alas,
of ignorant doctors, and try and cure himself by marriage. Some-
times he begins by visiting a brothel to see if he is capable of
normal coitus with a woman. In this he often succeeds, if he is
able to picture to himself a man in the person of the prostitute.
He tries to persuade himself that the disgust which he felt at
this experimental coitus was due to the fact that the "love"
was bought; and he then decides to enter into conjugal life.
This is at the same time the greatest absurdity and the worst
action possible for him to commit, for his wife becomes a martyr
and soon feels herself deceived, abandoned and despised. The
invert treats her as a servant; he rarely has sexual intercourse
with her, sometimes not at all, and only performs it with repug-
nance with a view to the procreation of young inverts, who will
rise to his ideal. He invites his male lovers to his house and
they indulge in orgies, especially when the wife, despised and
neglected, has separated from him. Such marriages, which are
fortunately less common since this question has been better
understood, generally end in divorce, preceded by bitter and
mutual deceptions. It is really criminal to favor them when
we know what they lead to. It is against such unions, and
not against sexual intercourse between adult men, that the law
ought to exert itself.
(2) . A second very grave result of homosexual love is the con-
tinual blackmail which is levied on inverts by all kinds of scamps.
Public urinals are common meeting places for inverts. The
blackmailers, who know this very well, follow them there and
offer themselves for money; but as soon as they find out the
name of their victim and his financial position, they begin to
extort hush-money, threatening to prosecute him if he does not
pay what they ask. If the invert is rich or of high position he
has only to yield to the extortion, emigrate or commit suicide.
In this way the life of most well-to-do inverts is ruined by per-
petual anxieties, emotions and torments, because their morbid
appetite instinctively urges them to abandon themselves to men
who feel differently to themselves.
Moll, Krafft-Ebing and Hirschfeld have wi'itten at great
length on sexual inversion. The law takes a false point of view
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 247
and is generally much too severe as regards this anomaly,
especially in Germanic countries. So long as homosexual love
does not affect minors nor insane persons, it is^ comparatively
innocent, for it produces no offspring and consequently dies out
by means of selection. When the two individuals are adults
and in accord, it is certainly less harmful than legally protected
prostitution. ^Vhen a normal man is tormented by an invert,
it is much easier to get rid of him than for a young girl to protect
herself against the importunities of a man who persecutes her.
It is quite another thing when the invert pays his attentions
to minors, or when his appetites are complicated with dangerous
sexual paraesthesias, such as sadism. Not long ago the terrible
case of a sadist invert, Dippold, startled civilized Europe. By
the aid of cruelty and intimidation this wretch martyrized two
young boys confided to him for their education to such a degree
that one of them died. Legal protection of the two sexes
against sexual abuses of all kinds should be extended at least
to the age of seventeen or eighteen.
Sexual inversion has two curious results which have not
received sufficient attention. Human society regards it as quite
natural and without danger for individuals of the same sex to
bathe, sleep and live together. In lunatic asylums, prisons,
reformatories, etc., men are attended to by men, and women by
women. The vow of chastity of Catholic priests and nuns leads
in the same way to separation of the sexes. In all these cus-
toms sexual inversion has not been taken into consideration.
It is not surprising, therefore, that homosexuals take advantage
of this state of affairs and seek these situations which give them
the opportunity for satisfying their perverted passions without
running much danger. They willingly choose the career of
Catholic priest, and especially that of attendant in lunatic
asylums. In the latter case they take advantage of the mental
condition of the patients and their incapacity to make com-
plaints. In public baths inverts can freely enjoy the sight of
naked men.
So far we have only spoken of complete inversion; but there
are transitional stages. Many individuals are neutral, animated
by sensations floating between the two sexes. Krafft-Ebing
248 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
even speaks of psycho-sexual hermaphrodites, who are equally
attracted by either sex, and cohabit sometimes with one, some-
times with the other. I knew a married man who was very
capable with his wife but in spite of this was unfaithful to her,
both with men and with other women. He was convicted sev-
eral times for pederasty with men and young boys, and confessed
to me that he had more pleasure from homosexual intercourse
than from normal connection with women, but could satisfy
himself either way. An incomplete invert declared to me that
his ideal would be a man with a vagina!
Along with these cases there is a series of homosexuals in
whom it is assumed that inversion has been acquired, because
they commenced with a normal sexual desire for women. After
being seduced by homosexuals, who initiate them in mutual
onanism or pederasty, they are suddenly or gradually disgusted
with women and become inverts (vide Suggestion). In reality,
these are only relatively cases of acquired inversion. If we
except the cases which depend on pure suggestion of which we
shall speak later, there is a latent hereditary disposition to inver-
sion, which is awakened on the first occasion and then develops
strongly. It is easy to prove that men with normal sexual in-
stincts immediately abandon the habits of onanism or pederasty
which they have contracted through bad example or seduction,
or by compensation for the want of the normal object, as soon
as they can obtain normal sexual intercourse with one or more
women. It is, therefore, false to regard homosexual sensations
as depending on vice and depravity: they are a pathological
product of abnormal hereditary sexual dispositions. At any
rate, this is a general rule which has few exceptions.
Sexual inversion is so widespread that in certain countries,
for instance Brazil, and even in some European towns, there are
brothels with men instead of women.
I will mention here a very curious case of purely psychical
but complete inversion of the sexual personality, combined with
complete sexual anaesthesia:
A man, aged 22, the son of an inebriate, with one imbecile
sister. Of delicate constitution, but very intelligent, he was
possessed since infancy with the idea that he was a girl, although
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 249
his genital organs were properly formed and were normally devel-
oped at puberty. He had a horror of the society of boys, and of
all masculine work, while he was quite happy in performing all
the household duties of a woman. An irresistible obsession
urged him to dress himself as a woman, and neither contempt,
ridicule, nor punishment could cure him of it. Attempts to give
him employment as a boy in a small town failed completely.
His girlish manners made him suspected by the police, who
took him for a girl dressed in boy's clothes, and threatened to
arrest him. When he was compelled to put on male attire he
consoled himself with wearing a woman's chemise and corset
underneath.
I carefully examined this individual and found him affected
with complete sexual anesthesia. He had a horror of everything
connected with the sexual appetite, but the idea of sexual inter-
course with men was still more repugnant than that of normal
coitus with women. Although the testicles and penis appeared
absolutely normal, he never had erections. His voice was high
pitched and his whole manner suggested that of a eunuch.
This case is very instructive, for it clearly shows how the
psycho-sexual personality may be predetermined by heredity
in the brain alone, independently of the sexual organs, and even
act without a trace of sexual sensation or appetite. This was
undoubtedly a case of alcoholic blastophthoria and not ordinary
heredity.
Krafft-Ebing describes the following scene, taken from a
Berlin journal, dated February, 1894, which gives a good idea
of the manners and customs of the homosexual fraternity:
" The misogynist's ball. Almost all the social elements of
Berlin have their club or meeting place — the fat, the bald, the
bachelors, the widowers — why not the misogynists? This va-
riety of the human species, whose society is hardly edifying,
but whose psychology is peculiar, held a fancy dress ball a few
days ago. The sale, or rather the distribution of tickets was
kept very private. Their meeting place is a well-known danc-
ing hall. We enter the hall about midnight. Dancing is going
on to the music of a good orchestra. A thick cloud of smoke
obscures the lamps and prevents us at first from distinguishing
the details of the scene. It is only during an interval that we
250 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
can make a closer examination. Most of the people are
masked, dress coats and ball dresses are exceptional.
" But what do I see? This lady in rose tarlatan, who has just
pirouetted before us has a cigar in her mouth and smokes like a
trooper. She has also a small beard, half hidden by paint.
And she is now talking to an "angel" in tights, very decollete,
with bare arms crossed behind her, also smoking. They have
men's voices and the conversation is also masculine, for it turns
on 'this cursed tobacco will not draw.' Two men dressed as
women!
"A clown In conventional costume leaning against a pillar is
speaking tender words to a ballet dancer, with his arm round her
waist. She has a Titian head, a fine profile and good figure.
Her brilhant earrings, her necklace, her shapely shoulders and
arms seem to proclaim her sex, when suddenly disengaging her-
self from the embracing arm she turns away with a yawn, say-
ing in a bass voice, 'Emile, why are you so tiresome to-day?'
The novice hardly believes his eyes : the ballet dancer is also a
man.
" Becoming suspicious, we continue our investigations, begin-
ning to think that the world is here upside down. Here is a man
who comes tripping along; but no, it cannot be a man, in spite
of the small and carefully curled mustache. The dressing of
the hair, the powder and paint on the face, the blackened eye-
brows, the gold earrings, the bouquet of flowers on the breast
and shoulder, the elegant black go-^m, the gold bracelets, the
fan held in a white-gloved hand — none of these things suggest a
man. And with what coquetry he fans himself; how he dances
and skips about! Nevertheless, Nature has created this doll in
the form of a man. He is a salesman in one of the large sweet
shops, and the ballet dancer is his colleague!
"At the table in the corner there is a convivial meeting; sev-
eral elderly gentlemen are gathered round a gi'oup of very
decollete 'ladies' sitting over a glass of wine and cracking jokes
which are anything but delicate. 'Who are these three ladies?'
'Ladies! laughs my better-informed companion; well, the one
on the right with the brown hair and short fancy dress is a hair-
dresser; the second, the blonde with the pearl necklace is known
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 251
here by the name of Miss Ella, and he is a ladies' tailor; the
third is the celebrated Lottie.'
" But this cannot be a man? The waist, the bust, the dehcate
arms, the whole appearance is feminine! I am told that Lottie
was formerly an accountant. To-day she, or rather he, is
simply 'Lottie,' and takes pleasure in deceiving men as to his
sex as long as possible. At this moment Lottie is singing a song
in a contralto voice acquired by prolonged practice, which a
female singer might envy. Lottie has also taken female parts
on the stage. Nowadays the former accountant is so imbued
with his female role that he seldom appears in the street except
in woman's attire, and even wears an embroidered nightdress.
''On closer examination of the persons present, I discovered
to my astonishment several acquaintances. My bootmaker,
whom I should never have taken for a misogynist, appears
to-night as a troubador with sword and plumed cap; and his
* Leonora,' in the costume of a bride, generally serves me with
Havanas in a cigar store. When Leonora removed her gloves I
recognized her at once by her large chilblained hands. Here is
my haberdasher promenading in an indelicate costume as Bac-
chus; also a Diana, dressed up atrociously, who is really a waiter
at a cafe.
"It is impossible to describe the real 'ladies' who are at this
ball. They only associate with each other and avoid the women-
hating men; while the latter also keep to themselves and abso-
lutely ignore the fair sex."
B. Feminine Sexual Inversion and Homosexual Love. — Sex-
ual inversion is not rare in women, but manifests itself less pub-
licly than the corresponding masculine inversion. It is called
Lesbian love or saphism; and the women inverts are known as
trihacles. They are described in history, but may also be ob-
served in modern towns. They satisfy their pathological
appetite by mutual masturbation, especially by mutual licking
of the cUtoris {cunnilingus) . The feminine invert likes to dress
as a man and feels like a man toward other women. She goes in
for manly games, wears her hair short, and takes to men's occu-
pations in general. Her sexual appetite is often much exalted
and then she becomes a veritable feminine Don Juan. I have
252 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
known several women of this kind, who held veritable orgies
and induced a whole series of young girls to become their lovers,
in the way we have just indicated.
Here again, as in masculine inversion, there is a true irradiated
love. Inverts want to marry and swear eternal fidelity; they
celebrate their betrothals, even openly, the invert in male atthe
representing the bridegroom; or sometimes they have secret
symbols, such as exchanging rings, etc. These sexual orgies are
often seasoned with alcohol.
The excesses of female inverts exceed those of the male.
One orgasm succeeds another, night and day, almost without
interruption. Jealousy is also as strong as among male inverts.
However, these nymphomaniac inverts are not very common.
A characteristic peculiarity of feminine inversion depends on
the hradiation of the sexual appetite in woman (vide Chapters
IV and V). We have seen that there is much less distinction
in woman between love and local sensations of pleasure, and
between friendship and love, than in man. When a woman
invert wishes to seduce a normal gh'l, it is easy for her to do so.
She first wins her affection by the aid of the caresses of an
exalted platonic love, which is not uncommon among women;
kisses, embraces, and sleeping in the same bed are much more
conmion among girls than boys, and Uttle by Httle the invert
succeeds in causing voluptuous sensations in her victim. Very
often the object of these caresses does not recognize that there
is anything abnormal in all this, or gives way to her sensations
without reflection, and then becomes amorous in her tm-n. I
will give an example:
A female invert, dressed as a young man, succeeded in win-
ning the love of a normal girl, and was formally betrothed to
her. Soon afterwards the woman was unmasked, arrested and
sent to an asylum, where she was made to put on woman's
clothes. But the young ghl who had been deceived continued
to be amorous and visited her ''lover," who embraced her
before every one, in a state of voluptuous ecstasy, which I wit-
nessed myself. When this scene was over, I took the young
girl aside and expressed my astonishment at seeing her con-
tinue to have any regard for the sham "young man" who had
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 253
deceived her. Her reply was characteristic of a woman: "Ah!
you see, doctor, I love him, and I cannot help it!''
What can one reply to such logic? A psychic love of this
kind is hardly possible in man; but if we go to the bottom of
the matter and study the nature of woman, we can understand
how certain feminine exaltations may be unconsciously trans-
formed into love, platonic at first, afterwards sexual. At first,
"they understand each other so well," and have so much mu-
tual S3nnpathy; they give each other pet names, they kiss and
embrace, and perform all kinds of tender actions. Finally, a
graduated scale of caresses leads almost unconsciously to sexual
excitation.
This is how it happens that a normal woman, systematically
seduced by an invert, may become madly in love with her and
commit sexual excesses with her for years, without being her-
self essentially pathological. The case only becomes really
pathological when it is definitely fixed by long habit; a thing
which easily occurs in woman, owing to the constant and
monogamous nature of her love.
Krafft-Ebing's cases show the same phenomena, (for instance
the invert called "Count Sandor" and her victims). In these
cases also young guis, seduced by inverts, fell into despair and
even threatened to commit suicide when their seducers aban-
doned them. On the other hand, when a normal man, seduced
by an invert, practices mutual masturbation the affau- remains
localized and limited to purely animal ^sensations of pleasure
which do not irradiate to his psychic life; such irradiations only
occur in the invert, so that his victims are always ready to
abandon him without the least regret. If we except children,
it therefore follows that the so-called male victims are nearly
always blackmailers, or simply offer themselves for money.
In fact, the normal man entirely separates the sympathy, or
even the exalted affection, which he feels for another man, from
all sexual sensations, and has not the least desire to kiss or
caress his best friend, still less to have sexual intercourse with
him. All sensual caresses between men are, therefore, sugges-
tive of inversion, except in places where women are absent.
In the normal woman on the contrary, as we have already
254 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
mentioned, sentiments of exalted sympathy easily provoke the
desire for kisses and caresses, and these caresses often cause in
women a certain amount of vague sensual pleasure. When this
pleasm'e leads to progressive tenderness and ends in mutual
onanism, etc., it nevertheless remains intimately connected with
psychic exaltations and sentiments of sympathy, from which it
cannot be separated as in man.
In a former chapter we have described the difference between
the two sexes, but nowhere is it more distinctly shown than in
the relations between a female invert and her victims.
It is therefore much more difficult in woman than in man to
distinguish in particular cases between the hereditary disposi-
tion to inversion, and saphism acquired by seduction or habit.
The latter is cormnon in prostitutes and libidinous women. ,
As we have already said, the pure female invert feels like a
man. The idea of coitus with men is repugnant to her. She \
apes the habits, manners and clothes of men. Female inverts I
have been known to wear men's uniforms and perform military
service for years, and even behave as heroes; their sex some-
times only being discovered after their death.
Sexual Appetite for Children. (Pederosis.) — It may be ques-
tioned whether this is a special category, for many sexual
assaults committed on children are simply the effect of senile
dementia, or abuse of children to satisfy an otherwise normal
sexual appetite. I have, however, observed cases where chil-
dren were so specially, or even exclusively, the object of the
sexual appetite, that I cannot doubt the existence of a special
hereditary perversion in this direction.
No doubt, most of those who abuse children are also capable
of coitus wdth women, or else they are inverts, sadists, etc. ; but
with many of them sexual passion for children is so marked from
their youth upward, that it shows a special hereditary disposi-
tion. For this pathological disposition, thus defined, I propose
the term pederosis; that of pederasty applying to anal coitus
between man and man, whatever causes lead to it. Krafft-
Ebing, who does not believe in the existence of a hereditary
pederosis, gives the name erotic pedophilia to the abuse of
children by depraved persons.
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 255
The following are cases of exclusive and hereditary pederosis:
A talented artist, possessing high moral sentiments, was affected
from his youth with a sexual appetite exclusively directed to-
ward Httle girls of five or six years. At the age of twelve they
ceased to attract him. He was quite indifferent to adults of
both sexes, and never accomplished coitus. Having recognized
in good time the anomaly of his appetite, he succeeded in mas-
tering it all his life. At the most he sometimes allowed himself
to caress httle girls without appearing to do so, by taking them
on his knees and pressing them against his person, so as to pro-
voke erection and ejaculation, without the child being aware of
it. His moral sentiments and principles were always strong
enough to prevent him going any further, and he masturbated to
obtain relief. But this condition gave rise to increasing nei*vous
irritation and melancholic depression.
In another man, the sexual appetite, also perverted since its
origin, was directed only toward boys of twelve or sixteen. At
one time girls of the same age excited him, while he was quite
indifferent toward adult women and men.
In rare cases the sexual appetite of certain women is directed
toward little boys.
Sexual Appetite for Animals. (Sodomy or Bestiality.)* — A
human sexual appetite exclusively directed toward animals is
certainly not common. Coitus between man and animals
usually takes place for want of the opportunity for normal satis-
faction, or else as the result of satyriasis, nymphomania or
desire for change. I have observed it especially in idiots and
imbeciles who are ridiculed by girls. To console themselves,
they give vent to their feelings wdth a patient cow or goat in
:the silence of the stable: for this act they get several years
imprisonment, for the law on this point is severe. Certain
degraded libertines satisfy their hypersesthetic and perverted
I appetites with goats or even with large birds or rabbits.
I There are, however, cases where a pathological sexual appe-
iitite is specially directed toward animals, and it is curious to
j * Krafft-Ebing describes bestiality (connection with animals) and pede-
'rasty under the general term of sodomy, but points out that the original
'meaning of sodomy used in Genesis (Chapter XIX) signified pederasty, i.e.,
anal coitus between men.
256 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
observe the frequent preference of certain individuals for small
animals wliich they skin (fowls, geese, rabbits), and thus put
•to death.
Bestiality is not rare in women, who train dogs to copulate
•^dth them or to lick their clitoris. If we put aside cases of
torture inflicted on small animals, and if we avoid all prejudices,
we can discover neither sin nor crime in bestiality. In fact,
considered from the point of view of law and humanity, bes-
tiality is one of the most innocent of all the pathological aber-
rations of the sexual appetite. Human imagination only has
marked it with the stigma of a moral bugbear and has made it
a crime. When practiced with the larger animals it harms no
one, not even the animal; in the second place, it cannot injure
the product, because there is none; lastly, there is no question
of venereal infection. At the most, sestheticism has reason for
complaint, and more than one painter or sculptor has repre-
sented the union of Leda with the Swan. It is certainly much
better for society, for an idiot or an imbecile to copulate with
a cow, than for him to make a gul pregnant and breed more
idiots.
In cases of this kind which I have kno^\Ti and which were
brought to justice, I consider that the real sinner was not the
poor sodomite, but his informer, or his judge who condemned
the poor \\Tetch to many* years of imprisonment, thus making
a martyr of him for no reason, and putting the ban of society
upon him. It is needless to say that cases of sodomy compU-
cated by cruelty or sadism, should be judged in quite another way.
There are also other hereditary or constitutional perversions,
more or less characteristic, of the sexual appetite, but we can-
not enumerate all of them. We may mention, however, the
erotic excitement which some men feel at the sight of statues
of women, which urges them to masturbate against these;
statues.
i
SEXUAL ANOMALIES IN THE INSANE AND IN PSYCHOPATHS '
AATien one is familiar with the population of a lunatic asylum,
one is struck by a singular phenomenon, from the sexual point
of view. A great number of insane women give exidence of,
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 257
intense sexual desire. This desire is manifested in some by-
incessant masturbation; in others by obscene conversation; in
many others, by imaginary love, sometimes sensual, sometimes
platonic; often by direct provocation to coitus addressed to
the medical officers; but especially by perpetual scenes of
jealousy, and often by reciprocal suspicions regarding then-
sexual life. In fact, a lunatic asylum reveals to us, in the form
of repulsive caricatures, all gradations and variations of a more
or less degenerate feminine sexual Ufe, coquetry, wearing all
kinds of ornaments, jealous anger, erotic excitement, etc.
The sexual excitation of the insane often makes them soil
themselves with urine and excrements, and heap insults on
persons whom their diseased imagination suspects of sexual
assaults or immodest acts toward themselves or others. They
have a tendency to believe themselves betrothed or married to
kings, emperors, Jesus Christ or God. Pregnancy and child-
birth play a large part in their delirium. Some patients
imagine themselves pregnant and pretend that they were fecun-
dated secretly. Afterwards they believe that some one has
taken away their child while they were asleep.
One of my former patients once accused me of going to her
bed at night and fecundating her every week. She also accused
me of having hidden the hundreds of children which I was
supposed to have procreated with her, and martyred them.
Owing to these hallucinations she heard their cries day and night.
Another patient, affected with curable acute mania, was so
erotic during her attacks that she made advances toward all
the doctors who visited her. Her mind was full of such erotic
images that after her cure she was frightened of being pregnant,
although she had passed the whole of her time of detention
under supervision by female attendants. Women who in their
normal state are most modest or sexually cold may be most
erotic when they become insane, and may even behave as pros-
titutes. This is especially observed in periodic hypomania. It
is a well-known fact in the female divisions of lunatic asylums,
that the doctors are always surrounded by erotic patients, who
catch hold of their clothes and pinch them, and try and em-
brace or scratch them according as they are amorous or jealous,
258 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
SO that they often have trouble in escaping from these signs of
violent love or furious jealousy.
On the other hand, in the male divisions of asylums, one is
astonished at the indifference and profound sexual apathy of
nearly all insane men. Some practice masturbation and others
attempt pederasty, but all with a philosophical calmness due to
their dementia. Young women may even go among them with-
out any fear of assaults or indecent language. It is only a few
of the most violent who are exceptions to this rule.
A young lady doctor, assistant medical officer to the asylum
at Zmich, made her visits alone among all the males, even the
most violent, without any inconvenience; while, in the female
divisions, she was approached by the erotic patients as much
as were the male assistants. I mention this fact because some
people wrongly imagine that the sexual excitation of insane
women is due to the visits of male doctors. These facts are very
striking and furnish perhaps the best proof that the feminine
sexual appetite is especially situated in the higher brain, while
the masculine appetite is situated more in the lower cerebral
centers, as we have shown above. Mental alienation is due to
irritations of the higher brain, and this explains why in women
it lets loose such violent sexual passions and images, and why
there is so little of this in men.
The sexual pathological symptoms of the insane are as fol-
lows:
(1). Erotomania (satyriasis and nymphomania), or abnormal
exaltation of the sexual appetite. This is especially seen in
acute mania, in the early stages of general paralysis and senile
dementia, also temporarily or permanently in other psychoses.
It is manifested by sexual excesses, obscene language or exces-
sive masturbation. All these symptoms disappear after the
attack of insanity.
(2). Sexual anoesthesia or hypocesthesia or even impotence
may occur in the later stages of general paralysis and senile
dementia. At the commencement of general paralysis there
is often violent sexual desire combined with more or less com-
plete impotence. The same thing occurs, as we shall see, in
alcoholism.
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 259
(3). Subjects affected with systematic delirium of persecution
and grandeur (paranoia) sometimes commit atrocious sexual
excesses, and often tyrannize and torment in a terrible way the
women who are their victims. It is especially in the religious
forms of this delirium, combined with fanatic ecstasy, that the
most repulsive sexual orgies occur. I have treated a patient
with paranoia who, full of pious sayings, regarded himself as a
kind of prophet. He made a poor girl and her mother sleep in
his room and had connection with them alternately. Finally,
he mixed his semen in coffee with the girl's menstrual blood and
made her drink the mixture, pretending that this was a religious
ceremony intended to produce a strong race. In the end he set
fire to the house of these poor women.
Subjects affected with partial paranoia often turn the heads
of susceptible women by the aid of ascetic religious phraseology,
to gi'atify afterwards their sexual passions. The worst cases are
those who are able to hide from the public their delirious ideas,
and pass for normal individuals, misunderstood victims, or even
saints. I have examined a very orthodox clergyman, highly
esteemed by his congregation on account of his ascetic and
enthusiastic preaching. In his own home he illtreated his wife,
half strangled her, and exacted all kinds of sexual depra\dty.
Unfortunately, the nature of his delirium was not very evident,
and he dissimulated so well that the jurists would not admit his
irresponsibility, in spite of my medical certificate. His wife was
obliged to run away to escape from her martyrdom. The com-
munity of property in force in this family completely ruined this
unfortunate woman. The husband was not a hypocrite, but
simply insane. Volumes could be written on sexual atrocities
committed by such people.
I will mention briefly the systematic delirium directed toward
pathological love. This is a very common symptom in insane
women who combine their amorous sentiments for man with
the maddest ideas and hallucinations. An insane woman sud-
denly discovers that the object of her love is a king or Jesus
Christ, and that she is betrothed to him. In her delirium she
imagines herself to be queen of the world. In her dreams and
hallucinations her king or Christ is in bed with her and she
260 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
imagines she has connection with him. Still under the influ-
ence of hallucinations, she believes herself pregnant and carries
an imaginary child for nine months in her womb. She may
even imagine that she has given birth to a child, and that the
child has been taken away from her by the aid of narcotics, as
we have seen above. Although there is an infinite variety in
the gradations, the pathological images of the cerebral sexual j
sphere of insane women always revolve round this eternal theme.
These pathological irradiations of the sexual sphere are asso-
ciated voluntarily with jealous obsessions and ideas of persecu-
tion, which make the subjects furious, and which are confirmed
by their parsesthesias and hallucinations. Illusions of memory
play a great part in these cases, for the subjects have often never
felt what they complain of, and it is then a question of veritable
hallucinational memor3^ We may here observe by the way
that, even among healthy people, the sexual passions, like the
others, always tend to falsify memory, making things appear in
the exclusive sense of the affective state. Once fixed in the
memory, such conceptions, the false tendency of which was
originally based on passion, gradually assume the subjective
character of certainty. Cool-headed people, or those whose
affective state directs them to contrary conceptions, then see in
such individuals a deliberate intention to misrepresent the facts.
This is the reason why people so often hurl mutual insults at
each others heads, calling each other liars and calumniators,
owing to the affective illusion of memory.
(4). One of the worst of the sexual anomalies in the insane
is pathological jealousy, especially in men. Their wives then
become martyrs, especially in cases of alcoholism and paranoia.
It is not uncommon for assassination to put an end to their tor-
ments. Among insane women, jealousy is certainly not less,
but they have less legal power and less muscular strength. The
most violent jealousy is found in alcoholics.
Jealous delirium renders the subject furious; a word, a look,
Or some trivial circumstance are enough for him to prove the
mfidelity of his wife. The latter has to avoid the slightest thing
which might arouse jealousy, but all in vain; reserve and even
prudery are regarded by the jealous husband as hypocrisy.
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 261
The unfortunate man watches his wife, night and day, hke a
watchdog: he threatens and insults her with no reason, and
calumniates her in all ways, even in the presence of a third
party. He even lays elaborate traps for her. Cases of this kind
are legion.
(5). It is necessary to say that the sexual parcesthesias, of which
we have spoken, sadism, masochism, fetichism, inversion, etc.,
often occur in the insane.
(6). The most atrocious sexual crimes are very often the work
of idiots or imbeciles, but especially inoral idiots, i.e., persons
whose idiocy is limited to the moral sense, who are also called
simply amoral. This is due to hereditary taint, an innate absence
of all sentiments of sympathy, pity and duty. Rape, viola-
tion of children, sexual assassination, etc., are usually due to the
concomitant action of moral idiocy and violent or perverted
sexual passions.
(7). Hypochondria also causes singular results in the sexual
sphere. We have already dealt with the masturbation of cer-
tain hypochondriacs, which is often wholly or partly imaginary.
Others believe they have committed terrible sexual excesses,
when nothing of the kind has occurred. I have seen a hypochon-
driac married and strongly built, who believed his health was
ruined because he cohabited with his wife once every two or
three months. Other hypochondriacs become impotent simply
because they think they are. Others again imagine they are
affected with venereal disease, which they have never contracted.
(8) . Hysterical men and women have a very peculiar sexuality.
Hysteria depends on auto-suggestion or on an exalted and mor-
bid dissociability of psychic activity. A single idea is sufficient
in a hysterical subject, to produce the realization of what it rep-
resents. The passionate imagination may lead to opinions and
actions which are absolutely contradictory. Love and hatred
often alternate by transformation. According to the influ-
ences to which she is exposed, the same hysterical woman may
become a good or evil genius.
In the sexual domain the same extremes are produced in a
very striking manner. Inflamed by love, a hysterical woman
may exhibit phenomenal eroticism and the most violent sexual
262 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
excesses, while indifference, disgust, or simply distraction by
other ideas will render her absolutely frigid. Cold as ice toward
other men, she may have insatiable sexual desire for the man
she loves.
The question is often raised whether a woman can love more
than once in her life. There is no doubt that many women are
so monogamous by instinct that they cannot love more than
once; but it is also certain that a hysterical woman is capable of
loving several times, and very different persons at different
periods of her life. The personality of certain erotic hysterical
women is even so dissociable that they can love with all their
strength several men at the same time. But the hysterical
woman is also capable of hating a man with as much ardor as
she formerly loved him; or, on the contrary, of loving the one
she formerly hated, according to the suggestion of the moment.
The same phenomena occur in hysterical men.
For the same reasons the quality of the sexual sensations and
sentiments may vary in a hysterical subject according to the
influences it is subjected to, and pass from the normal to the
perverted state, or inversely. I have observed a case where a
higlily cultured hysterical subject, in her early youth, fell in
love with another young girl. At this period her sentiments
were purely homosexual; her love for the young girl was clearl}'-
inverted and accompanied by intense sexual desire, while she
was absolutely indifferent to men. Later on, a man fell in love
with her, and she yielded to him rather from pity and feminine
passiveness than from love. Still later she fell passionately in
love with another man, quite as much as she had been with the
young girl of her early youth. Her latest love was both exalted
and libidinous. Her sexual appetite had thus taken the normal
du-ection under the influence of a hetero-sexual affection.
In hysterical men analogous changes occur less easily, on
account of the nature of masculine sexuality which distinguishes
more clearly between the mind and the appetite; but these
changes are observed sometimes. In woman, the hysterical im-
agination and dissociation facilitate a polyandi'ous irradiation of
the sexual appetite, which is otherwise rare in the female sex.
In this respect the sexuality of hysterical women resembles that
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 263
of men and differs from that of normal women. Hysterical men,
on the other hand, become more feminine, not by their appetite
being less polygamous, but by the more dissociated form of their
thoughts and sentiments.
(9). A variety of the pathological love of abnormal indi-
viduals is imaginary love, not founded on delirious ideas. Cer-
tain psychopaths of both sexes are convinced that they love
some one, but they suddenly perceive during their betrothal, or
even only after marriage, that they are mistaken and that they
have never loved the person in question. Such illusions are the
cause of numerous broken engagements, divorce and conjugal
bitterness.
(10). Amorous tyranny constitutes another variety in the
pathology of love. Lovers of this kind constantly tyrannize
and torment the object of their passion, by their desires, their
observations, their sensitive temper, their contradictions, their
exigencies and their jealousy. This atrocious manner of loving
is common in both sexes; perhaps more so in women than men.
(11). The love of psychopaths is a subject which has no end.
If human society was better acquainted with psychopathology
a great deal of conjugal misunderstanding and misery would be
avoided.
I have known a woman who would not allow her husband to
shut himself in the water-closet, for fear he would take the
servant with him! Another became madly jealous if a woman
sat opposite her husband and cast the least glance at him; the
unfortunate husl^and not knowing where to look, in the street
or in hotels, so as to escape his wife's jealousy. It is still worse
when the husband is jealous.
Other psychopaths torment the object of their love by the
perpetual care they take over imaginary dangers or the slightest
indispositions. Others again are affected with hyper^esthesia,
and the least noise, the slightest touch, or any sudden sensation,
is enough to throw them into excitement and make them a
nuisance both to themselves and to their surroundings.
The pathological exaltation of sentiments, which causes the
most trifling things to appear as deliberate offenses, and mali-
cious intentions, is still more to be feared. The disproportion
264 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
between love and sexual appetite also torments many psycho-
paths, either when a deep love is combined with sexual indiffer-
ence or disgust at coitus, or even pain (vaginismus, in women,
for example); or when an intense sexual appetite is combined
with want of love or ferocious egoism (especially in men).
Certain psychopaths appear profoundly amorous but behave
like brutes to the object of their love. These are the individuals
who are always ready to strangle their sweetheart, to stab or
shoot her, if she does not immediately yield to their desires; or
else the feeble creatures who threaten to cormnit suicide if their
love is not returned.
Others, tormented by a pathological eroticism are continually
annoying young and virtuous girls with their obsessions and
their pathological grossness. I have seen a psychopath of this
kind write letters and even post cards to a young girl, on which
he had drawn pictures of the female genitals, by way of gal-
lantry. In women, hatred and vengeance, aroused by jealousy,
are especially blind and tenacious when the chronic passions of
psychopathia intervene; this being due to the perseverance
natural to the sex. By the aid of their refined intrigues; by
their misrepresented statements due to the illusions of a memory
distorted by passion, but uttered with a consummate dramatic
art, some women may play a truly diabolical role, and even
deceive a whole tribunal. When we get to the bottom of the
matter, we often find that the primary cause of the evil is a
sexual passion embellished and idealized afterwards by all kinds
of noble motives, but in reality more or less unconsciously hypo-
critical. While deceiving others, these psychopathic women also
deceive themselves. There are also a number of male psycho-
paths quite analogous to the above and generally hysterical.
Other morbid symptoms, such as obsessions and pathological
impulses, have a certain importance as regards sexual appetite
and love. Love or rejection, as well as other sexual images, may
become the objects of obsessions, and then cause the subjects
much torment, but without harming their surroundings; for
the obsessed generally remain passive. Pathological impulse to
actions may, on the contrary, become dangerous and lead to
violation, whether combined with perversion or not.
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 265
(12). We have seen that senile paradoxy often shows itself, as
a symptom of senile dementia, by a sexual appetite for children.
This is the initial symptom of the complaint, and may lead to
the commission of assault. The holy indignation of the public,
and often of ignorant judges, against these depraved old men
often result in the public contempt or even the imprisonment
of poor patients who have hitherto led a blameless hfe, and who
have simply become victims of senile degeneration of the arteries
of the brain.
(13). I will mention another case which 1 have observed,
which shows how complex hereditary cerebral pathology may
become, and lead in turn to crime, madness and sexual per-
version; giving rise to the most tragic scenes of human life, and
to the degeneration of families.
A very charming and intelligent, but deceitful man, an amoral
person whose heredity was strongly tainted with mental disease,
had strong sexual instincts partly inverted. He was attracted
rather more by men than by women, but committed excesses with
both sexes. He married a virtuous and intelligent midwife. At
long intervals he had three attacks of acute mania, but was cured
after each attack and procreated two boys and a girl. When he
was sane he spent his time in deceitful occupations and specula-
tion and never worked honestly to earn his living. He behaved
well toward his wife, but this did not prevent him committing
pederasty with men. He was often convicted for pederasty
and swindling, and I treated him several times in an asylum.
His poor wife complained bitterly, but found consolation
in her husband's apparent love, but especially in the careful
education of her children. But when the children grew up, her
illusions disappeared one after another. The daughter became
feeble-minded, and one of the sons became a bad character. The
mother consoled herself with the second son who appeared hon-
est and hard-working. The father was then in an asylum, his
relapses having led the tribunal to institute an inquiry into his
mental condition. One day the mother came to me in despair
and showed me a letter written by the son of the father, which
she had opened; the contents were as follows: " ^liserable father,
when you receive this letter I shall be no longer in this world;
but before dying I wish to curse you. You have been the disgrace
of the family. You have caused misery to our mother and her
266 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
children by your crimes. Why did you bring me into this world?
For a long time I have felt evil instincts developing in me like a
cursed heritage. I struggle in vain against them; but the more
I struggle the more I feel I must succumb. I am incapable of
resisting much longer; but I will not become a criminal like you,
so I shall hang myself to-night, and I curse you again before
doing it."
The unfortunate son did in fact commit suicide, and drove his
mother to despair. I showed the father his son's letter, but he
only smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
The following is another example:
A man of 50, married, and the father of six children, ranging
from 6 to 24 years of age, violated them all, both girls and boys.
The whole family were abnormal and perverse. A son of 18 had
sexual intercourse with his mother and sister. The father also
had intercourse with dogs and cats. The jury before whom I
brought the case regarded the man as mad, but he was con-
demned to ten years' imprisonment. An asylum for dangerous
and perverted lunatics is urgently required for such cases.
EFFECTS OF NARCOTICS, ESPECIALLY ALCOHOL, ON THE
SEXUAL APPETITE
The functional cerebral paralyses produced by narcotics
closely resemble in their psj^'chopathological physiognomy the
organic paralyses which result from slow atrophy of the cerebral
cortex, as in general paralysis — exaltation of sentiment, tremor
and slowness of movement up to total paralysis, disorders of
orientation in time and space, profound mental dissociation
affecting the subconscious automatic actions.
At the same time the individual loses the exact appreciation
of his own personality and of the external world; he regards
himself as very capable in body and mind while he is becoming
more and more powerless; and everything appears rose-colored
at the time when he is in a most critical state. He believes him-
self possessed of great muscular strength when paralysis makes
him stagger, and so on.
At the commencement of narcosis the phenomena are some-
what different from what they become later; a certain amount of
excitement predominates, as well as the spirit of enterprise and
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 267
exaltation of the appetites; while later on paralysis, relaxation
and somnolence play the principal part.
Narcosis acts in a similar way on the genetic sense. It begins
by exciting sexual desire, but diminishes the power. As Shake-
spere says: ''Lechery it provokes and unprovokes; it provokes
the desire but it takes away the performance." (Macbeth, Act
II, Scene iii.) No doubt the narcotics are not all equal in
action, and each has its specific peculiarities; but the words of
Shakespere express the essential effect of all narcotics on the
sexual appetite: First of all excitation of the appetite with the
disappearance of moral and intellectual inhibitory representa-
tions, and reenforcement of the spirit of enterprise; afterwards,
progressive paralysis of sexual power, and finally extinction of
the initial appetite itself.
These phenomena are of capital importance in alcoholic
narcosis, which plays the principal part in civilized countries.
The initial excitation is here very accentuated. If we make a
closer examination, however, we find from the first a relaxation
of sexual activity and a weakening of all sensory irritations. In
coitus, erections are produced more slowly; the voluptuous sen-
sations, it is true, are of great subjective intensity, but they are
developed more slowly and there is more difficulty in producing
ejaculation. The subsequent relaxation is very great, and a
man who is even only slightly intoxicated cannot perform
coitus as rapidly, nor repeat it so often, as when he has taken no
alcoholic liquor. When the narcosis increases the impotence
becomes complete. Owing to the illusion produced by the nar-
cosis, however, a drunken man generally imagines himself to be
very capable.
The gross and clumsy form which flirtation assumes under the
action of alcohol is only too well known. The gross and per-
sistent obscenity of drunken persons in railway carriages and
other places toward women is an example of alcoholic flirtation.
{Vide Chapter IV,)
Another peculiarity of the sexual appetite in alcoholic narcosis
is its bestiality. The higher irradiations of love are completely
paralyzed and sensuality becomes unrestrained, even in men
who, when sober, are full of refined sentiments.
268 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
The depraving effect of alcohol on the sexual appetite is
therefore unlimited. Alcohol does not limit itself to giving
free play to a bestial appetite, by paralyzing reason and senti-
ments of sympathy and duty; it also has a strong tendency to
pervert the appetite itself. In a considerable proportion of
cases of exhibitionism, inversion, pederosis, sodomy, etc., the
development of the perversion is greatly favored, or even directly
produced, by the action of alcohol, especially when there is a
latent predisposition. I have observed a whole series of per-
versions in persons whose sexual appetite was normal when they
were sober, but became perverted on the slightest intoxication.
I am convinced that if more attention was paid to the subject
the number of cases in which alcohol increases the perversion,
or is even necessary for its development, would be increased.
But what is of much greater importance is the fact that acute
and chronic alcoholic intoxication deteriorates the germinal pro-
toplasm of the procreators. I refer the reader to what I have
said at the end of Chapter I on blastophthoria. The recent
researches of Bezzola seem to prove that the old belief in the -
bad quality of children conceived during drunkenness is not
without foundation. Relying on the Swiss census of 1900, in
which there figure nine thousand idiots, and after careful exami-
nation of the bulletins concerning them, this author has proved
that there are two acute annual maximum periods- for the con-
ception of idiots (calculated from nine months before birth) ;
the periods of carnival and vintage, when the people drink most.
In the wine-growing districts the maximum conception of idiots
at the time of vintage is enormous, while it is almost nil at other
periods. Moreover, these two maximum periods come at the
time of year when conception is at a minimum among the rest
of the population; the maximum of normal conceptions occur-
ring at the beginning of summer.
If these facts are confirmed b}'' further research, we may con-
clude that even acute alcoholism has a blastophthoric action.
We may, therefore, assume that when a germinal cell leaves its
gland at the moment when it is impregnated with alcohol, and
achieves conjugation, it is unable to return to its normal condi-
tion, for want of opportunity to be completely and promptly
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 269
cleansed by nutrition and the circulation. This explains how it
may transmit to the individual which develops from it all
kinds of taints and defects.
After what we have said, we can tabulate the destructive
effects of the narcotic poisons and alcohol in particular, in the
sexual domain, both from the individual and social points of
view, as follows:
(1). Irreflective sexual unions, resulting from exaltation of
the sexual appetite and temporary paralysis of the senti-
ments which inhibit such unions in persons who are not
under the influence of alcohol. These include the seduction
of girls, orgies with prostitutes in brothels, and the procrea-
tion of children with low-class women, or under unfavorable
conditions.
(2). Increase of venereal disease. I have made statistics
which show that about 75 per cent, of venereal disease is con-
tracted by men under the influence of alcohol, chiefly by per-
sons who are slightly intoxicated and rendered enterprising
thereby.
(3). All kinds of misfortunes and catastrophes, such as
illegitimate pregnancies, despair, suicide, etc., resulting from
irreflective sexual unions and venereal disease.
(4). The production of the majority of sexual crimes also
resulting from the exasperation of eroticism combined with
irreflection and general motor impulsiveness. Jealousy here plays
a gi-eat part. The most important statistics (for example,
those of Baer, in Germany), prove that from 50 to 75 per cent,
of criminal assaults are committed under the influence of alco-
hol. Indecent exposure, etc., is due to alcohol in 75 or 80 per
cent.
(5). Exaltation and sometimes development of sexual per-
version.
(6). Creation of hereditary alcoholic blastophthoria, either as
the result of a single drinking bout, or from habitual drunken-
ness. The offspring tainted with alcoholic blastophthoria suffer
from various bodily and physical anomalies, among which are
dwarfism, rickets, a predisposition to tuberculosis and epilepsy,
moral idiocy and idiocy in general, a disposition to crime and
270 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
mental diseases, sexual perversions, loss of suckling in women,
and many other misfortunes.
(7). The delu'ium of jealousy is a specific symptom of chronic
alcoholism. Its effects are terrible and lead to all kinds of sorts
of infamies, assaults and even assassination.
(8) . Alcohol is also the almost indispensable vehicle of prosti-
tution and proxenetism, which could not be maintained without
it, at any rate in their present disgusting and brutal form.
(9). The coarseness and vulgarity of alcoholic eroticism pro-
duce in public places, as well as in private, an importunate
and obscene form of flirtation, which is brutally and cynically
opposed to all sentiments of propriety and modesty.
The above statements refer chiefly to men. Among women,
alcoholism is less common, at least in continental Europe; in
En'gland, however, drunken women are often seen in the
streets. Among prostitutes, however, alcoholism is almost
universal. Proxenetism makes use of alcohol to compromise
and seduce girls and thus lead them to prostitution. When they
have once fallen they often drink to forget the horror of their
situation.
The action of alcohol on the feminine sexual appetite is very
peculiar. The appetite is generally exalted, while the power is
not affected, owing to the passive role of woman in coitus. At
first, paralysis of the psychic inhibitions and their higher irra-
diations (love, duty, modesty, etc.) by alcohol deprives the
woman of nearly all power of resistance against the sexual de-
sire of the man. It results from this that an intoxicated woman
becomes the easy prey of a man whose sexual appetite is excited.
The following case is instructive from this point of view:
A young girl of good position married a man of weak and vulgar
character. Both were rather fond of drink. When she became
pregnant the wife took large quantities of wine, by the doctor's
orders, and this led her to inebriety. The friends and acquaint-
ances of the husband found this amusing, and began to flirt with
her to such an extent that she fell a victim to their sexual appe-
tites, in her continual state of semi-intoxication. The husband
at first had not the courage to put an end to this and did not wish
to divorce her, for pecuniary reasons; for the wife had the money.
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 271
He finally decided to send her to an asylum which I superintended,
to cure her alcoholism.
From the antecedents of the patient, I expected to see a cynical
and erotic woman; but she was nothing of the kind. Although
hardly sober, this woman was modest and well-behaved. What
struck me most was her extreme of modesty, which at first made
it difficult for me to investigate her psychological state. Her con-
duct was exemplary the whole time, and she eventually confided
to me that it was not so much sexual desire as the profound indif-
ference and feebleness developed by inebriety which had caused
her to give way. Before leaving the asylum she joined a total
abstinence society, returned to her husband and succeeded in
converting him also to total abstinence. She kept to her pledge
and lived afterwards in conjugal peace and happiness, without
ever relapsing into her old infidelity. I saw her several years
afterwards with her husband, happy and flourishing.
I have mentioned this case to show that, even in women,
sexual excess does not necessarily destroy the character, the
sentiments of modesty, nor the will. It all depends on their
cause. If there is congenital weakness of character, the evil is
irreparable; but if it is only due to external forces which can be
eliminated in time, its effect may often be permanently sup-
pressed. Some female inebriates are sexually cold and repulse
men; but others are erotic and even nymphomaniacs.
Whosoever has the welfare of humanity at heart, and takes
the trouble to reflect on the ravages caused by alcohol in human
society, should have the courage to make a slight effort and
renounce all alcoholic drink — say for six months at first, as an
experiment — in order to combat the social alcoholic misery by
force of example, instead of empty phrases. He will then
discover, like all abstainers, that the usage of alcohol (includ-
ing wine, cider and beer) however small the quantity con-
sumed, only serves to maintain a habit which is vicious and
disastrous to society, by giving the contagious example of so-
called moderation, to which a great number of persons cannot
restrict themselves. He will then abstain for the rest of his days,
and it will become more and more incomprehensible to him how
humanity has been led, first by the spirit of imitation, later by
272 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
the conservation of prejudices, to develop, maintain and defend
such a social abuse by the aid of a legion of sophisms.
SEXUAL ANOMALIES AND PERVERSIONS BY SUGGESTION
AND AUTO-SUGGESTION
The role of the phenomena of suggestion in sexual life is much
greater than is generally supposed. I shall retm-n to this sub-
ject in a special chapter, but I may state here that there is a
category of sexual perversions and anomalies of all kinds which
are not hereditary but acquired, and which Krafft-Ebing,
although he cites striking examples, -^Tongly attributes to the
effect of sexual excess and depravity, or which he compares to
ordinary psychopathia, while in reality they are only the dh-ect
effect of strong suggestion or auto-suggestion.
I place in this category the cases where a man, whose sexuality
has hitherto been normal, suddenly becomes pathological as the
result of some circumstance which produces on him a profound
impression. For instance, the sexual appetite of an individual
may be strongly excited, in a brothel or elsewhere, by an erotic
woman whose feet or shoes are especially elegant. The sight
of this well-fitted foot exalts his sexual desire to a high degi'ee.
From this moment feminine shoes, by subjective association,
exercise on him an irresistible erotic power, which dominates
everything else and transforms him into a fetichist; the female
body no longer elicits his appetite, the latter having become
the slave of the image of shoes only. (Shoe fetichism.)
Sexual inversion may also be acquired by suggestion, when a
normal man becomes excited by acts of masturbation or ped-
erasty, or simply by some psychic image with a strongly sug-
gestive action. He may thus lose his normal sexual appetite
for women and become homosexual.
These phenomena occur especially in individuals whose sug-
gestibility is pathological or hysterical, or even simply exagger-
ated. But these individuals are numerous, and this fact gives
us the explanation of a large proportion of acquired sexual
anomahes, at the same time indicating the means of curing
them. In such cases, it is not a question of moral depravity,
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 273
nor necessarily of a latent hereditary predisposition, but simply
of a single sudden suggestive action, sometimes repeated.
Among other cases, I may mention that of a well-educated
man of very refined sentiments, deeply in love with his wife,
but very suggestible, who became suddenly impotent and homo-
sexual as the result of a simple idea-image which became fixed
in his mind and subjected it by suggestion. His strong charac-
ter enabled him to resist intercourse with males, but he fell
into despair and became very unhappy. I am convinced that
a careful study would reveal an increasing number of cases of
psychopathia acquired by suggestion or auto-suggestion.
Cases of this kind may be spontaneously cured. Treatment
by suggestion is indicated and may act directly or indirectly.
Everything which is of a functional psychic nature may occur
by suggestion, or be, on the contrary, eradicated by suggestion.
The important point is to emphasize the fact that whenever a
man, hitherto normal, is affected, without apparent cause, with
a more or less sudden sexual anomaly, and which is consequently
not the effect of long habit, suggestion or auto-suggestion should
be borne in mind.
These two conceptions can, moreover, be hardly distinguished,
for the things which cause suggestion are usually the sensory
perceptions of sight, smell, touch and hearing, associated with
certain situations, or with an intense affective state which fixes
them in the brain. Sometimes it is a question of simple imagi-
native ideas. The cases where a hypnotizer intentionally sug-
gests sexual perversion proflably exist only in theory. We are,
therefore, concerned with fortuitous suggestions, acting through
persons, situations, objects or ideas, which excite the mind
by the impression they produce on the sentiments and the
sexual appetite.
SEXUAL PERVERSIONS DUE TO HABIT
Without being congenital and without depending on a special
predisposition, all the perversions of the sexual appetite that we
have just described may be acquired, by means of the artificial
and continued excitation of a sexual appetite which seeks satis-
faction in change and unusual situations. Moreover, perverse
274 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
satisfaction of the sexual appetite is often resorted to — onanism,
pederasty or oral coitus — either to avoid conception, or with
the idea of escaping venereal disease, or in the case of
onanism, to avoid publicity, trouble or expense. As we have
seen above alcohol favors the development of sexual perversions.
It is evident that a commerce in women systematically toler-
ated by the state, as is the proxenetism of regulated prostitution,
employs all means imaginable to attract and excite its clients.
In this way prostitution becomes the high-school for all the
refinements of sexual perversion. It not only offers special
objects required by individuals tainted by heredity with various
perversions, but it artificially develops perverse habits in the
normal man. The manipulations of sadism or masochism are
even utilized to revive a sexual appetite weakened by abuse.
Individuals who have become impotent often try to excite them-
selves by observing the coitus of others. In fact a leaven of
corruption and ignominy ferments on the dunghill of venal and
artificial excitation of the sexual appetite.
The apostles of Mammon and Bacchus, the former by interest,
the latter by the aid of a narcosis which paralyzes the higher
sentiments and reflection, work in concert to maintain this foul
swamp. The same individuals very commonly combine the
two apostleships and become themselves the victims of their
false gods, after sacrificing hundreds of their fellows.
To make matters more clear I will recapitulate as follows:
(1). We often meet with pederasty without a trace of inver-
sion of the sexual appetite. It is also practiced on women by
introducing the penis into the rectum. But the normal man
hardly ever prefers it to normal coitus.
(2). Compensatory masturbation is very common and ceases
with the opportunity for normal coitus.
(3). Sodomy is also often compensatory.
(4). It is the same with assaults on children, which seldom
depend on a hereditary disposition.
(5). Lesbian love, coitus by the mouth, artificial excitation
of the clitoris by the tongue or otherwise, may have quite a
different origin than from sexual inversion or other perversions.
All these things take place chiefly in brothels or with prosti-
SEXUAL PATHOLOGY 275
tutes, in barracks, boarding-schools, convents, and other isolated
places where men and women live alone and separated from the
other sex.
Sadism, masochism, fetichism and exhibitionism are much
more rarely the result of habits, because their object and the
images with which they are associated do not offer compensa-
tion for the normal excitation of the sexual appetite, or only do
so insufficiently.
I am here obliged to contradict Krafft-Ebing, who regards
exhibitionism as the effect of the impotence of certain individuals
depraved by excesses, or as the unconscious act of certain
epileptics. No doubt the two conditions which he mentions
may present themselves, but the exhibitionists I have observed
have all been psychopaths whose perversion was primordial and
hereditary, with the exception of some females in whom per-
version originated in suggestion or alcoholism, which had at
any rate aroused the disposition.
Lesbian love merits special mention. Owing to the clitoris
being more or less concealed, women are often not satisfied by
coitus, especially when the ejaculation of the male takes place
too quickly. Consequently a number of normal women prefer
to procure an orgasm by means of lesbian love (cunnilingus.)
There are clubs of female perverts, many of whom are not homo-
sexual by heredity.
Although they differ from hereditary perversions, acquired
perversions are connected with the former by a series of latent
hereditary dispositions, more or less marked, and often difficult
to distinguish in particular cases, especially when suggestion is
blended with them.
Among the entirely hereditary and congenital sexual per-
versions, many occur in individuals who are well conducted and
often possessed of delicate and altruistic sentiments. This point
is not sufficiently recognized. Such persons are nearly always
more or less neurotic in other respects. They are disheartened
by their perversion and are so much ashamed of it that they
often prefer to carry their secret to the grave rather than con-
fide it to their doctor.
Others sometimes confess to a doctor, and the life of a martyr,
276 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
who is always contemplating suicide, is revealed to him. Indi-
viduals of feeble, cynical, egoistic or abnormal natures, whose
number is legion in the corrupt centers of modern civilization,
yield to their perversion and often come before the tribunals,
or else become objects of public contempt. As it is this class
which generally become known, it is assumed by too hasty gen-
eralization that sexual perverts are necessarily cynical, vicious
or weak-minded individuals; but this induction is false. It is
unfortunately impossible to estimate the number of sexual per-
versions dissimulated by a large number of pessimists of both
sexes, generally celibate and usually males.
I do not pretend that, w^hen sexual perversion is neither
hereditary nor favored by a latent hereditary predisposition,
nor developed or fixed by alcoholism, it is usually possible to
cm'e it by suggestion. This often acts even in cases where
alcohol has aroused a hereditary taint. The incorrigible
recidivists among the sexual perverts are, I am convinced, either
hereditaiy or strongly predisposed, or degenerated by alco-
hoHsm. The original will power of the pervert is also of great
miportance. Weak-willed perverts always tend to relapse.
The social sanitation of sexual intercom-se would certainly
reduce to a minimum the compensatory perversions of normal
persons who abstain from alcohol. The prohibition of alcoholic
drink would definitely eliminate not only the perversions di-
rectly due to alcohol, but gradually also those due to alcoholic
blastophthoria in the descendants. Other hereditary perversions,
not of alcohohc origin, can only be definitely eliminated by
healthy selection.
Per\^ersions acquired by suggestion or auto-suggestion should
be combated by suppression of the depraved examples which
cause them, as well as by treatment by suggestion. It is need-
less to say that sexual perverts should always abstain from
alcoholic drinks.
CHAPTER IX
SUGGESTION IN SEXUAL LIFE — AMOROUS INTOXICATION
Suggestion. Cerebral Activity. Consciousness. Subcon-
sciousness and Amnesia. Auto-suggestion. — The explanation
of the phenomena of hypnotism and suggestion by Liebeault
and Bernheim has been a veritable scientific revelation for hu-
man psychology. Unfortunately it has remained to a great
extent unknown to the public and the majority of medical men
and jurists. Even at the present day, this subject is regarded
either in the light of magic and occult phenomena, or as being
connected with imposture and charlatanism. This results from
the incapacity of most men to think in a psychological and philo-
sophical manner, to observe for themselves and to take into
account the connection which exists between the mind and
cerebral activity.
I must point out the common error of many physicians, who
do not understand the psychological nature of hypnotism, and
who place it, like Dubois, in antinomy with psychotherapy.
Hypnotism and suggestion in the waking state are one and the
same thing; but what the physicians I have mentioned under-
stand by suggestion in the waking state — psychotherapy,
action by will power, etc. — is only a chaos of misapplied terms
and psychological phenomena, only half understood by them.
Sleep by suggestion is only one of the phenomena of suggestion.
I must refer the reader to Bernheim's book on "La Suggestion
et ses Applications h la Therapeutique," and to my book on
hypnotism {" Der Hypnotismus und die Suggestive Psycho-
therapie." Stuttgart, 1902), for I cannot enter into the details
here. I will, however, attempt to make clear the action of
suggestion in order to explain its connection with the sexual
sensations and sentiments.
277
278 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Suggestion consists in the action of ideas or representations
on the activity of the brain in general, and on some of its activi-
ties in particular. The terms idea-force and ideoplasty have been
employed; but all ideas are at the same time forces and are
more or less ideoplastic according to the nature and intensity of
the cerebral acti\aty which corresponds to them. Eveiy repre-
sentation which appears in our consciousness is at the same
time a cerebral activity. I will explain by the aid of an example
the relation which exists between the play of our conscious
ideas and what is incorrectly called our unconscious cerebral
activity.
For reasons which are too long to explain here, I call suh-
conscious all which is usually called unconscious, because I
maintain that there is probably nothing unconscious in oiu*
nervous activity, and that what appears to be so is in reality
accompanied by an introspection, subordinated like its corre-
sponding activity to the great and clear introspection of the
higher brain, which accompanies the concentrated and mobile
activity of what we call our attention in the waking state. No
doubt, we do not as a rule perceive our subconscious activities,
for want of sufficient intensity in their association with the
series of aperceptions (states subsequent to attentional activity).
But we possess a number of observations, due especially to hj'p-
notism, which allow us to infer by analogy the existence of sub-
ordinated introspections corresponding to the cerebral activities
which appear to us unconscious.
For example, I think of my vnie. This idea immediately
calls to mind that of a journey that I intend to take with her,
and in its tm'n the idea of the journey recalls that of the trimk
I shall use to pack my effects. Almost as rapidly as lightning,
the three ideas: (1) my wife; (2) the journey; (3) the trunk,
apparently succeed each other in my consciousness. But, ac-
cording to the old scholasticism, the idea of the journey is
awakened by that of my wife, and that of my trunk by that of
the journey, which would, therefore, be its "cause." But a
little observation soon shows that the succession of our con-
scious ideas is not so easUy explained, for at eveiy moment rep-
resentations appear which have no logical relation to those
SUGGESTION IN SEXUAL LIFE 279
which precede them, and cannot be caused by them, nor by
immediate sensory perceptions coming from without.
At a time when the activity of the brain was not understood,
the existence of an essential mind and a free will were assumed
independent of the law of the conservation of energy and of the
law of causality, independent therefore of the brain, the activity
of which they commanded more or less at their pleasure. This
conception is based on ignorance of the facts.
Let us return to our example: why does the idea of my wife
call to mind that of the journey? It might quite as well suggest
others. In reality, a number of ideas, or subconscious cerebral
activities, act at the same time as that of my wife to give rise
to the idea of the journey. This journey had already been
decided on before thinking of it at the moment in question,
and the resolution that I had taken to make it had left in my
brain latent impressions (engrams) which slumbered there; such
as those of the date of departure, the duration of the journey,
its termination, precautions to be taken for the house during
our absence, things to take with us, expenses, etc., etc. During
the infinitely short time when the idea of journey appears
in my consciousness, between that of my wife and that of my
trunk, I have no consciousness of all these things. They are,
however, closely associated with the idea of journey, and in
connection with it by the thousand threads of a subconscious
and latent cerebral force which takes place in my cerebral nerve-
elements (neurones) ; and it is their hidden action which awak-
ens the idea of journey and directs my attention to it, at the
same time weakening by their divers interferences the intensity
of other associated engrams; in particular that of the sentiment
of traveling, and thereby preventing a series of ideo-motor
sensations relating to departure from becoming predominant.
What suddenly appears in my consciousness is the verbal
representation symbolized by the word journey; a general rep-
resentation of synthetic nature, and consequently nebulous. It
is the words of language only which allow me to synthetize a
general idea in a short and definite form. Thus, the cerebral
flash journey which follows the idea of my wife is not caused
by the latter idea alone; it has been mainly drawn from its
280 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
obscurity and brought before the mobile conscious attention, by
the action of the thousand subconscious threads, some of which
we have just mentioned, and which have at the same time
determined its quaUty.
Without my being aware of it, these dynamic thi*eads, or
latent engrams, have to a great extent determined the kind of
idea which will follow that of journey, and which will seem to
me to be caused by this last alone, namely the idea of trunk.
The idea of journey might equally well have awakened other
images, such as those of the acquaintances whom I should meet,
or of the to^^^l I intended to visit. Why that of the trunk?
This is simply because the care of the effects to be taken, the
place they should occupy, etc., revolved unconsciously but
strongly in my brain, and for the moment predominated over
other subconscious associations.
This simple example shows us that in reality the three suc-
cessive ideas, wife, journey, trunk, are more under the influence of
sentiments, representations and former voUtions in a latent and
subconscious state, than dependent on each other. But these
latter activities are themselves the product of other antece-
dent activities of my brain, extraordinarily diverse and com-
plex. I will attempt to make things a little more complete and
comprehensible by the aid of a comparison.
A man finds himself in the middle of a compact and moving
crowd. He cries out to attract the attention of the crowd. His
voice is heard by those immediately around him, but is lost on
the moving mass. Against his will he is carried away by the
crowd in the direction of the strongest movement. But if the
crowd is immobile and tranquil the same man may make himself
heard, and may even force his way through the crowd and impel
it in his turn by the impression that his words have made on it.
Something analogous to this occurs in the action of an idea
according as it is produced in a brain which is awake, active and
strongly associated, or on the contrary in a brain which rests
and sleeps. The brain which is active and strongly associated
resembles the agitated crowd which carries away everything by
its activity. In this case a single idea, like a single man, cries
out in vain, i.e., is produced strongly; it will not impel, but will
SUGGESTION IN SEXUAL LIFE 281
be carried away or stifled, unless it already possesses, by the
former remembrances (engrams) which it may revive, a par-
ticular power over the brain. It is the same with the agitated
crowd; if the man who cries out is aheady known and has
influence and power, he may arrest it and even bring it toward
the center of his agitation. The brain which is at rest or sleep-
ing, i.e., feebly associated and not active, resembles the immobile
crowd. Even when it is new and has not yet become fixed in
the memory, an idea may produce a deep impression, and
awaken activities in its own direction. I repeat, if this idea
has already acted more or less powerfully on the cerebral activ-
ity that it has often carried with it, it has accustomed this to
follow it {i.e., fortified the engrams and facilitated their ecpho-
ria), and then the powerful associated engrams which it has left
in the organ of thought, will often be capable of carrying every-
thing with them, even to the center of the agitation.
In this way I succeeded in suddenly calming by hypnotism a
woman who was mad with despair over the tragic death of half
her family in a fire, by the simple fact that I had often hypno-
tized her previously. Immediately after the hypnosis she went
away quietly to the place of the disaster and was the only one to
keep her presence of mind and put things in order.
I refer the reader to what has been said concerning the mneme
(Chapter I). Semon's theory throws light on these questions.
The first thing necessary for suggestion or hypnotism is to put
the brain of the subject in a state of relative repose, so as to
prepare a soil ready to receive suggestions. These are then
made so as to always increase the cerebral repose, in order to
weaken the action of the threads of subconscious association of
which we have spoken above. Lastly, the suggestion (or idea
which symbolizes the effect it is desired to obtain) is accentuated
as much as possible, and in a form which at once excludes all
contradiction. For this purpose everything should be utilized
— sentiments and associations which are easily introduced,
agreeable or repulsive sensations, volitions, etc. Nothing para-
lyzes a suggestive effect so much as emotions, violent sentiments
in general, inclinations, or repulsions which act in the opposite
direction, whether they arise from fear, despair, hatred, sadness.
282 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
joy, love or any kind of affective conditions. The same brain,
accessible to all kinds of suggestions, will repress some of them
as soon as it feels a deep sympathy for their contrary. We may
suggest in vain to an amorous woman, the hatred or disgust of
her lover, for the sentiment of love is stronger than the effect of
a strange suggestion, and every suggestion which opposes the
strongest aspirations of sentiment provokes mistrust and repul-
sion, which in their turn destroy all suggestive power.
As we have indicated in our comparison, every suggestion
which has succeeded leaves a strong trace, or engi-am, in the
brain. It has opened a way by breaking down a barrier or a
chasm, and its effect, which appeared hitherto difficult or im-
possible to realize, will henceforth be much more easy to obtain.
This is why considerable cerebral repose is often necessary at
first to open a way for a suggestion, while later on its effect can
often be obtained even during the agitation of cerebral activ-
ity strongly associated with or even led by violent momentary
sentiments.
The chief characteristic of suggestive action, is that it trav-
erses the paths of subconscious activity, so that its effect occurs
unexpectedly in our consciousness.
For example, I suggest to a man that his forehead itches. As
soon as he feels it he is surprised, being unable to understand
how my prophecy has been transformed into real itching. He
then believes in my power over his nervous system, i.e., that his
brain becomes more receptive to my words, and offers less
resistance after having proved the value of my predictions. It
matters httle whether these are directed toward sensations or
movements, or vaso-motor actions causing blushing and blanch-
ing, or suppression or bringing on of menstruation (in the case
of a woman), etc. My influence over him by suggestion will in-
crease; i.e., his brain will accustom itself to the suggestions
which I give it by letting them dissociate its activity. This ten-
dency to be influenced by suggestion is very contagious by
example. When A influences B successfully, and C, D, E, F
and G are witnesses of the fact, they will be much more easily
influenced by A in the same direction; and so on. This explains
suggestion affecting the masses.
p
SUGGESTION IN SEXUAL LIFE 283
It is quite indifferent whether the subjective sentiment of
sleep occurs more or less in the state of hypnosis or suggestion.
This sentiment depends chiefly on the presence or absence of a
variable degree of amnesia (want of memory to awaken). But
amnesia only depends on the rupture, often fortuitous and
unimportant, of the chain of remembrances in the series of
super-conscious or attentional states of cerebral activity.
In somnambuhsts, who are the most suggestible people, we
can produce or suppress amnesia at will by a single word, and
make them forget or remember what has passed. I must dwell
on this point, because of the current dogma which assumes an
essential difference between hypnotism and suggestion in the
waking state. Such an assumption is based on false conception
of the psychology of suggestion. The only difference consists
in the suggestion of amnesia, or the subjective sentiment of
sleep; or, if one prefers it, the subjective remembrance of sleep
opposed to the remembrance of having been awakened. But
these two remembrances may be voluntarily connected with the
same past state of the brain.
By auto-suggestion is meant the suggestive action of sponta-
neous ideas — that is to say, ideas which are not suggested to the
subject by any other person, but the effect of which is identical
to that of external suggestions. An idea, a sentiment, domi-
nates the mind, overcomes all its antagonists and produces a
strong suggestive effect on the whole nervous system in the
direction which it symbolizes. The idea of being unable to sleep
often produces insomnia; the idea of sexual impotence may at
once inhibit erection and render coitus impossible. The idea
of yawning makes one yawn; that of coitus provokes erections;
the idea of shame causes blushing; that of fear blanching; that
of pity weeping.
But it often happens unconsciously, in yawning for example,
that one man suggests it to another who begins to yawn; or the
sight of certain objects, the hearing of certain sounds, provokes
suggestions. Thus the sight of an object belonging to a cer-
tain woman may cause an erection; the odor of some article of
diet which has caused indigestion is sufficient to cause nausea,
etc. We thus see that there is a series of transitions between
284 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
external intentional suggestion and auto-suggestion, in the
form of suggestion of objects and unconscious or involuntary
suggestion of persons. The conception of true or intentional
suggestion infers the determined will of one man influencing
another by suggestion; there is no other criterion.
It is quite another question whether the one who suggests
wishes to benefit his subject, or wishes on the contrary to abuse
him or make him ridiculous.
Sympathy. Love and Suggestion. — It is of great importance
for us to know that sympathy and confidence are the funda-
mental elements of success in suggestive action. Even when
deceived by the one who hypnotizes him, the subject may yield
to him while he is not aware of it. But there is here a point to
be noted. A man may very well see clearly with his reason and
his logic, he may understand that harm is done to him, he may
even curse a thing or a person when he reflects, and in spite of
this be instinctively and subconsciously attracted toward this
thing or this person, like a moth to a candle, when certain sen-
timents of sympathy or attraction urge him to it. The two
following examples will make this more clear:
(1). An actor fell in love with a hysterical married woman.
This woman was very polyandrous, and deceived not only her
husband but the actor and many others. The actor tried with
all the power of his reason to be delivered from the tyrannical
charm of this siren; but the power of attraction of the woman
was so strong that he could not succeed in resisting her. He
came to me in despair and begged me to rid him of his passion by
hypnotism. I realized the difficulty of the situation but did my
best to help him. Although aided by his reason, all my sugges-
tions were overcome by the violence of the passion that his hys-
terical seducer had inspired in him, and I obtained absolutely no
result.
(2). A well-educated, unmarried woman became so enamored
of a young man, that she was consumed with passion, grew thin,
and lost her appetite and sleep. Having exchanged ideas with
the young man for some time, she became convinced that their
two characters were not suited to each other, and that incom-
patibility of temper and quarrels would necessarily follow mar-
riage. She therefore resisted with all her power and came to me
SUGGESTION IN SEXUAL LIFE 285
to be cured of her passion by suggestion. My failure in the
preceding case increased my skepticism, but I did my best to
succeed; the result, however, was no better than with the actor
in the preceding case. Time and separation alone gradually
restored equilibrium in this lady's nervous system.
These two cases are very instructive. Suggestion can only
successfully combat powerful sentiments by arousing other sen-
timents of sympathy which increase little by little and finally
become substituted for the preceding ones. This brings us to
a very difficult question.
In order to influence other persons by suggestion, it is above
all things necessary to try and associate the ideas which we sug-
gest to them with sentiments of sympathy, so as to arouse in
them the impression that the object to be attained is desirable
and agreeable, or at any rate that it constitutes a necessity.
The woman who surrenders to the mercy of her conqueror often
experiences a kind of pleasure which is associated with the
passiveness of her sexual sentiments. It is the same in the male
masochist.
The physician who hypnotizes is obliged to awaken sentiments
of sympathy in his subject to combat with their assistance the
sentiments associated with the morbid state which it is desired
to suppress. This is usually free from danger when there is no
natural sexual attraction between the hypnotizer and the
hypnotized; when, for example, a normal man hypnotizes
another man, a normal woman another woman, or an invert
another invert. Otherwise there is a risk of exciting sexual
sympathies difficult to eliminate afterwards, when necessary pre-
cautions have not been taken at first. These attractive sexual
sensations or sentiments may affect both the hypnotizer and the
hypnotized and provoke love scenes, which are fatal to success.
For example, a hysterical baroness, whose sexual desire had *
been excited by hypnotism, fell in love with a person named
Czinsky, whose case was studied and published by Schrenck-
Notzing. This baroness experienced a kind of suggested love
against which her reason resisted to a certain extent, while her
hypnotizer, himself amorous, lost his head. One might say in
such a case that suggestion only reenforced the very human
286 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
sentiments which occur in all love stories of everyday life.
Between normal love and suggested love there is such an infinite
number of gradations that it is impossible to fix exactly the
limits which separate them.
A hypnotizer may abuse his suggestive power to exploit the
love of the hypnotized. I have been consulted in a case where
an old woman had hypnotized a rich young man and had so
powerfully influenced him that he abandoned his family and
married her. As in the case of Czinsky, the abuse was obvious.
The case was even more grave, for this old woman acted only
from mercenary motives; in fact, she procured young girls for
her husband, so as not to lose her suggestive influence after
marriage: Czinsky, on the contrary, was truly amorous.
As a general rule we may say that, when amorous intoxica-
tion is the result of intentional suggestion, the subject obeys a
certain sentiment of constraint, which he may describe later on
when he has succeeded in recovering himself. He feels a kind
of duplication of his personality, and perceives that the excita-
tion of his sexual desire, as well as his love, have a somewhat
forced nature, against which his reason attempts to defend him.
This reaction often only appears afterwards, when the sympa-
thetic action of suggestion begins to fade.
Here again the gi'adations are infinite, and no absolute rules
can be formulated, for if the hypnotizer is Very skillful and does
not let his intentions appear, the subjective sentiment of con-
straint may be absolutely wanting; i.e., never become conscious.
If, however, the hypnotizer is clumsy and the subject a hysteri-
cal woman, love is often transformed into hatred in the latter
soon afterwards, as is so often the case in these subjects, and she
may afterwards be convinced by auto-suggestion that she was
the object of artificial constraint or even violence, and describe
imaginary or unnatural events as if they were real; while she
was simply amorous after the fashion of hysterical subjects.
It is quite otherwise \\ith cases where a hypnotizer produces
in a hypnotized woman a state of deep somnambulism and does
harm to her without her knowledge. Here the victim is abso-
lutely without will, and incapable of resisting. These last cases
are much more easy to decide, especially from the legal point of
I
P SUGGESTION IN SEXUAL LIFE 287
view; but, as far as we are now concerned, the first cases are
the most miportant.
The amorous irradiations produced by the sexual appetite
react on the latter and increase it. They awaken sentiments of
reciprocal sympathy, from which results a mutual attraction
similar to that of animals. Suggestive action depends on the
mastery we obtain over the associated constellations of sub-
conscious engrams, and we have already become acquainted
with the phylogenetic and actual relationship which exists be-
tween sexual sensations and sensations of sympathy. The sim-
ple juxtaposition of these facts clearly shows that powerful
affinities exist between suggestion and love. I use the word
"affinity" advisedly, for we must not go further and regard the
two things as identical. Fortunately, the majority of curable
patients may be cured by the prudent awakening of a sfight
degree of sympathy, and by the common efforts made by the
hypnotizer and the hypnotized to subdue the morbid symptoms,
without anything but a certain sentiment of reciprocal friend-
ship resulting. On the other hand two human beings may be
united by sexual love, without either being able to hypnotize
the other. This is especially the case when, for example, two
conjoints have known each other for many years, or when two
persons of higher intelligence, who are not too dependent on
their sexual intercourse, meet each other.
I am obliged to dwell on these facts, so that my ideas may not
be falsely interpreted, by premature generalization. On the
other hand, when a strongly associated brain suggests to a weak
brain of the opposite sex sentiments of sympathy and makes use
of them to arouse the sexual appetite, it may produce a suggested
love which closely resembles natural amorous intoxication. If
the discovery of an imposture or abuse of power on the part of
the hypnotizer weakens or destroys the effect of suggestion, the
hjrpnotized subject recovers herself. Despite and repentance
may then transform her love into hatred.
In other cases there is a struggle between sexual desire and
the disillusion of a deceived love, which often serves as the tragic
motive in romance and the drama. The following is a typical
case of suggested love without formal hypnotic proceedings:
288 THE SEXUAL QUESTION I
An old roue aged sixty, married and the father of a family, |
persecuted a very suggestible young girl with his atten- !
tions, and systematically seduced her by means of erotic read-
ings. He produced such an impression on this young girl that
she became hypnotized and fell in love with the old roue
She lost all conscience, became deceitful and untruthful by
suggestion, and compromised herself and her family. Her
seducer was poor, so that it was not his fortune that attracted
her. She knew very well that this union could lead to nothing,
but could not resist, and eloped with him. Later on she came
to her senses and left him.
According to an old proverb, young girls laugh at old men and
only marry them reluctantly or for their money; but in reality
this is by no means always true.
Amorous Intoxication. — Let us now compare these phenomena
with those of ordinary life called amorous intoxication. The
affinities are at once apparent. A man and a woman meet and
take a fancy for each other. The reciprocal action of looks,
speech and touch, in fact all the apparatus of the senses and
the mind, awakens in both of them sentiments of sympathy and
sexual desire which mutually strengthens each other. Sexual
desire invests eveiy action and appearance of the loved object
with an ever-increasing halo of charm and splendor, and this
halo of sexual origin increases in its turn the sentiments of sym-
pathy; and the sentiments of sympathy increase the sexual
desire. In this w^ay mutual suggestions grow like a snowball,
and rapidly attain the culminating point of amorous intoxica-
tion, or what is called being madly in love. I
All this depends only on reciprocal illusion. The more
violent and foolish the amorous intoxication, without prepara-
tion or reflexion, and the less the individuals know each
other, the more rapidly these illusions collapse, like a castle
of cards, as soon as some douche of cold w^ater sobers the two
lovers. Thus indifference, disgust, and even hatred, follow
"love."
The suggestive element in love is here apparent. Just as a
hypnotized person will eagerly swallow a raw potato which he
takes for an orange; so mil a person madly in love regard an
SUGGESTION IN SEXUAL LIFE 289
Ugly or wicked girl as a goddess, or an amorous girl find her
ideal of chivalry and manliness in an egoistic Don Juan.
The affinity is still more evident when the amorous intoxica-
tion is only on one side, while the other plays the part of seducer.
When motives of pecuniary interest are not the only cause of
seduction, and even often when they are, the seducer generally
brings into play his sexual appetite, but only as a collaborator
in his work of seduction without allowing himself to be domi-
nated by it. In this case one is the seducer and the other the
seduced. The seducer plays the part of the hypnotizer who
suggests, while the seduced plays the part of the hjrpnotized,
unless the seduction is due to fear, weakness of mind or good
nature. The seducer is no doubt more or less under erotic in-
fluence, but never completely. The seduced, on the contrary,
falls completely under the power of the seducer. The thoughts,
sentiments and will are all directed by the impulses of the
seducer. The latter acquires his ascendancy by means of a
kind of suggestive power, often assisted by the sexual appetite.
In many cases the seduced gives way by pure suggestion of
love without sexual desire. These are precisely the cases that
the law does not foresee, and jurists cannot usually understand.
In ordinary life, the man most often plays the part of seducer
or hypnotizer; but this is not always the case. Antony, who
threw himself at the feet of Cleopatra and obeyed her least
gesture, was evidently hypnotized. Antonys are not rare even
at the present day; but they do not constitute the rule, nor the
normal state.
As we have just described it, suggestion plays a great role in
love, and explains to a great extent the phenomena of illusion
produced by amorous intoxication. In spite of the act which
deifies it and the ecstatic happiness that accompanies it, we
must admit that amorous intoxication, with its illusory sugges-
tions uncontrolled by reason, brings more poison than true hap-
piness into human hfe. I will attempt to explain the matter
more clearly. When two human beings with loyal instincts
have learned to know each other sufficiently, honestly avo\nng
their reciprocal feelings and their past life, at the same time
subduing their sensual appetites and judging the latter with
290 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
calmness, so as to be convinced that they may reasonably hope
to form a dm'able and happy union, then only may they abandon
themselves to amorous intoxication, but not before. The fact
that the latter makes each lover appear to the other in the most
ideal light only serves to strengthen the feelings of sympathy
and make them last for life.
On the other hand, two egoists calculating coldly, even if
they have strong sexual appetites and trouble themselves very
little with reflections on their intellect, may contract a compara-
tively happy marriage, based simply on reciprocal convenience
and interest; a marriage in which amorous injtoxication only
plays a very small part, or none at all.
The latter case is of great frequency. The novel which de-
lights in the description of admirable or ignoble sentiments, and
which shows a special preference for bizarre and sensational
situations, often of a pathological nature, makes us forget that
the majority of mediocre and normal men are little susceptible
to the suggestions of amorous intoxication, and that they give
vent to their sexual desires in a more or less reflective and cal-
culating frame of mind, like a gourmand. This is not poetical,
I admit, but it is much more human. Many women also become
gourmands in sexual matters.
In all this sexual commerce there are only vestiges or carica-
tures of the poetry of amorous intoxication. It is no longer
a question of deep love, but of essentially commonplace sexual
enjoyment, wisely and prudently adapted to other objects of con-
cupiscence, such as money, social position, titles, business, etc.
If the poets and the preachers of morality apostrophize me
with indignation saying that this is the prostitution of love, I
shall be obliged to protest. So long as sexual enjoyment is
not bought, there is no prostitution. Man has as much right to
a certain agreeable satisfaction of his sexual appetite, even with-
out exalted sentiments, as he has to satisfy his hunger and thirst,
as long as he does no harm to anyone. But, I repeat, this ques-
tion has nothing to do with amorous intoxication. The latter
is a powerful shock to the whole mind, to the principal spheres
of cerebral activity, by a suggestive effect, usually with the aid
of the sexual appetite, but sometimes without it.
SUGGESTION IN SEXUAL LIFE 291
Amorous intoxication naturally differs in quality and in
intensity in different individuals. In a person with ideal tend-
encies it may awaken the finest harmonies of the symphony
of human sentiments, while brutal and debased persons may
wallow in the mud.
Suggestion in Art.— Suggestion does not act only in the sexual
sphere, but on the whole mental life. In aesthetics and in art
it has an immense and irresistible influence, which gives rise to
all the capricious exaltations of fashion. The average artist is
more or less the slave of the aesthetic suggestions which are in
fashion, but the average members of the public are absolutely
dominated by them. Originating in a correct idea of certain
effects of light, the most absurd exaggerations may become
accepted as beautiful and natural by an imitative public devoid
of personal judgment, by the aid of suggestion. These deplor-
able effects of suggestion may last a long time till their nullity
or their absurdity causes them gradually to disappear. But
they are usually replaced by other ^-bsurdities.
Suggestive Action in Sexual Anomalies. — In very suggestible
persons the sexual appetite may be easily led astray by sensory
impressions created by perverse images. In this way the erotic
imagination of a very suggestible boy, excited indirectly by
another boy, may even make the latter the object of his sexual
desire. This is how homosexual inclinations may be formed by
suggestion and maintained by mutual masturbation, pederasty,
etc. The duration of a perversion of this kind often depends on
the power of the erotic image which suggested sexual desire.
This is also the case with onanism, sodomy, etc.; and in the
inverse direction with impotence.
These facts explain at the same time why and how suggestion
may cure or ameliorate the anomalies of sexual life. Just as
suggestion may excite or pervert the sexual appetite, so may
it calm it and put it in the right direction, unless there is a
deeply rooted hereditary perversion. We can nearly always
considerably attenuate too-frequent emissions, masturbation
and perversions by suggestion, and often entirely cure their
acquired forms.
I must here point out that when we have succeeded in
292 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
removing by suggestion a perversion based in whole or in part
on organic or hereditary causes, this result is always more or
less precarious, and does not give the physician the right to give
his sanction to marriage. The following case shows us what
prudence on the part of the hypnotizer can do with patients
of this kind:
/^ K young girl, of good education, was troubled with intense
sexual desire. She was incapable of resisting masturbation and
dreamed at night that men and animals were in contact with her
vulva. These dreams caused intense excitement and were ac-
companied by orgasms. The treatment of a patient of this kind
by suggestion was no easy matter. However, with the aid of a
local sedative, the action of which it is needless to say was purely
suggestive and was combined with appropriate verbal sugges-
tions, I succeeded not only in suppressing the onanism, but also
in almost completely curing the nervous exhaustion of this young
girl, so that she was afterwards able to resume work.
I may add that the patient was hypnotized in the presence of
others, which can always be done in such cases with a little tact.
This is a rule from which the physician should never depart.
I cannot enter into more details on this subject, but what I
have said will suffice to draw the attention of my readers to the
action of suggestion in the sexual appetite and in love.
I
CHAPTER X
THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO MONEY AND PROPERTY
PROSTITUTION, PROXENETISM AND VENAL CONCUBINAGE
GENERAL REMARKS
In Chapter VI we have studied the historical development of
human marriage as a continuation of the phylogeny of our
species, and we have shown that marriage by purchase and
different forms of polygamy constitute a kind of intermediate
stage and at the same time an aberration of civilization, which
has resulted from the association of men, combined with the
birth of individual property.
When we consider a being of high mentality and deeply rooted
individualism such as man, in whom the instinct of love and
family are so strong, led by the inevitable force of circumstances
to live in the society of his fellows, we can easily understand that
certain individuals of a higher mentality than the others will
endeavor to dominate the weaker and less inteUigent, and
exploit them for their own profit and that of theu" family.
Analogous tendencies are seen in certain animals. Among
the bees the old workers appropriate the produce of the work
of others. Certain ants practice a form of slavery, based, it is
true on instinct, in stealing the pupae of weaker species which,
after hatching, become the servants of the idle robbers.
In incomplete animal societies, such as those of the ruminants,
certain monkeys, etc., the old males, sometimes also the more
courageous females (cows, for example) direct the herd and
become recognized as chiefs by the others. But in these cases
the personal property of objects or even living beings takes no
part, because the animals have not yet learned its value.
Other animals living isolated show the first tendencies toward
personal property ; for example, the nest where they hoard their
provisions, while others, such as the ants, bees, wasps, etc., have
293
294 \ THE SEXUAL QUESTION
the"" sentiment of collective property well developed. For
instance, a swarm of ants regards plants with grubs as its
property, and defends them in consequence.
X As soon as he has attained a primitive degree of culture, man
' comprehends that the possession, not only of land and the pro-
duce of work, but also the persons of other men, may profit him;
and this leads to slavery. The male being the stronger soon
combines the satisfaction of his sexual appetite with the ad-
vantage of property, by placing the woman more and more under
his dependence and exploiting her. In this way woman becomes
an object for sale and exchange, which will procure the pur-
chaser, besides satisfaction for his sexual appetite, a docile slave
and worker and a procreator of children, a source of other
workers.
This motive, so clearly revealed by ethnography and history,
sufficiently explains the ignoble traffic that man has made of
love, or rather of sexual appetite. We have seen in Chapter
VI the profit made by polygamous barbarians by the possession
of many wives and children, which led more and more to the
buying and selhng of the latter. These customs are instinctively
related to the traffic of slaves. Our modern civilization has
happily abolished these taints, but money still influences our
sfexual life by measures which are hardly any better. The com-
/plication and refinement of civilized life have made women and
'/ children objects of luxury, and not a source of wealth as in
/ former times. This is due to two causes. On the one hand, a
wider and more humane conception of the social position of
women and children has extended their rights. Man cannot
now exploit them to the same extent as in the time of patriarch-
ism, while the father of the family has, on the contrary, the duty
of maintaining his wife and family, and of giving the latter a
proper education. Among the poor, the exploitation of the
wife and children still exists; but in the case of the rich and
cultured the inverse phenomenon is produced. With the inten-
tion of making his family happy and distinguished, the father
brings it up in luxury and idleness, and this produces a very
harmful result. The increasing refinement of modern life and
its pleasures leads to effeminacy. It bears upon the whole of
SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 295
society and degenerates into an artificial desire for brilliancy
and show, which makes it increasingly difficult to obtain a
simple and sober education for the family. Men and women,
especially the latter, do their best to ecHpse each other in their
table, their toilet, the comfort and luxury of their apartments,
their pleasures and distractions, their banquets and fetes. An
enormous mass of the produce of human labor is thus dissipated
in futihties, for the benefit of unbridled frivolity and luxury.
It is owing to this that a civilization which, thanks to science
and progress, far surpasses all those which have preceded it in
the richness of its means of production for the wants of humanity,
not only shows more and more rich with superfluous wealth,
but also more and more poor who vegetate from the want of it.
What is still more grave is that, for reasons of economy, the
intelligent, educated and cultured marry less often and pro-
create fewer children. Again, our descendants degenerate more
and more, owing to the consumption of alcohol or other nar-
cotics, and the unhealthy life they lead. This degeneration is
dissimulated by their well-nourished appearance, but is revealed
in their increasing neuropathic tendency. They become accus-
tomed to a number of artificial wants, which make them in-
creasingly difficult to satisfy. This results in their exacting '
from society much more than they give to it by their work;
whereas each ought to give to society more than he receives \
from it. As evil omens, I must mention the idletiess of many
women with regard to household and manual work. What are
the effects of this state of things on the sexual life of modern
society? They are of three kinds:
(1) Marriage for moneij; (2) prostitution, exploited by proxenet-
ism, and between the two (3) venal concubinage.
MARRIAGE FOR MONEY ,
Marriage for money is the modern form or derivative of mar-
riage by purchase. Formerly one bought a wife and sold a
daughter; to-day one is sold to a wife and buys a son-in-law.
The improvement consists in the fact that the buyer and the
bought are no longer in the positions of proprietor and object
possessed, respectively. Nevertheless, marriage at the present
296 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
day gives rise to much traffic, speculation and exploitation of an
evil nature.
These things are so well known that I need not dwell upon
them. In place of love, force of character, capacity, harmony
of sentiments, intellectual and bodily health, money is the alpha
et omega of marriage. Money dazzles most men so that they
are blind to everything else. They no longer understand that
the health and the physical and moral worth of a woman con-
stitute a capital which is far preferable to all the title-deeds
deposited in the coffers of the future father-in-law, which are
rapidly squandered by children tainted with bad physical or
mental heredity. In this way ignorance of the laws of heredity
and the rapacity of pecuniary interests perpetually tend toward
the antisocial procreation of a degenerate posterity.
Inversely, a number of capable and healthy men and women
remain celibate and sterile for want of money. Capital ex-
ploits them as workers and prevents them from reproducing
their race; or else their own foresight induces them to avoid
procreation.
A characteristic sign is observed in military circles, especially
in the German army where officers who are not well-to-do are
forbidden to marry a woman unless she has a certain income.
The officer must bring up his family in accordance with his posi-
tion. This system, which it is sought to justify by all kinds of
reasons, shows how the worship of the golden calf and class
prejudices may degenerate our manners and customs. Without
fortune one cannot serve the country as an officer, or marry,
except by selling oneself to a rich woman. In other terms, an
officer cannot marry according to his own inclination unless he
possesses a certain fortune. No doubt there are officers who
marry for love; nevertheless, they are not only obliged to have
a certain fortune, but the woman they marry must have a cer-
tain social position and have been well educated. The wife of
an officer has to take part in balls and official gatherings. She
is forbidden to carry on openly any business, and her parents
must not even be shopkeepers! In a German town, one of my
relatives heard a rich mother say to her daughter, who could
not make up her mind to marry a gentleman who proposed to
SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 297
her: ''If you do not want him, let him go; we do not wish to
persuade you. We have plenty of money, and if you want to
marry later on we can easily buy you an officer!"
In the tyi'anny of class marriages, it is money which almost
always decides the question. Formerly birth and nobility were
everything, and it was these which brought power and fortune;
nowadays money has replaced them, and has monopolized
universal power. If an energetic and intelligent man revolts,
by returning to modest and primitive customs, if he dresses
simply, performs manual labor, takes his meals at the same
table as his servants, etc., he is despised and is not received into
what is called good society.
It is only up to a certain point, and with the exercise of great
prudence, that any attempt can be made to react against the
whirlwind of our unbridled luxury, and it is in marriage that
this becomes most delicate and most difficult. A well-brought-
up and well-educated man with no money, who wishes to marry
while he is a student, so as to avoid prostitution or other evils;
who is content to live in humble quarters with his wife, each
doing their own work, will have great difficulty in finding a well-
nurtured girl to consent to such an arrangement. Everything
has to be regulated according to the fashion, customs and preju-
dices of the class in which he lives, and this usually renders mar-
riage impossible, as long as he has not what is called a position.
But no one wiU blame the same student for living in concubinage
with a grisette. Why cannot the same means of existence which
allow concubinage suffice for marriage? With this question I
only touch on a problem to which we shall return, at the same
time pointing out the canker which corrupts our modern
sexual hfe.
By marriage for money we understand marriage which is
based on interest and not on love. It is not always a question
of money ; for position, name, titles and convenience often com-
pHcate the question. Sometimes a ruined aristocrat marries a
rich tradesman's daughter, in order to repair his fortune, while
the vanity of his fiancee makes a title a desirable acquisition.
Sometimes a coquette, by clever flirtation, will simulate a love
which she does not feel, to catch a rich man in her net. But
298 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
more commonly there is calculation on both sides and both are
duped.
Marriage for money is not confined to the rich but also occurs
among peasants and working people. Everywhere it constitutes
one of the principal corrupting elements of sexual intercourse
and procreation. Hard-working servants who have succeeded
in saving a few hundred dollars are often married for the sake
of this small sum, and then abandoned as soon as the husband
has squandered it. I do not pretend that a marriage for money
can never be happy; it may happen that the contract is an hon-
est one and that love follows it more or less haltingly, especially
when the calculators have taken into account character and
health, etc., as well as money.
There is no need for me to continue this theme any further,
and I shall conclude by stating that this system opens the door
to hypocrisy, deceit and abuse of all kinds. It is not without
reason that marriage for money has been branded with the name
of fashionable prostitution.
PROSTITUTION AND PROXENETISM
Prostitution is a very ancient institution and a sign of degen-
eration which is found more or less among all nations. When
woman is an article for sale it is not surprising that those whose
moral worth is weak take the traffic into their own hands when
they can, and sell themselves to men to satisfy their sexual appe-
tites, instead of allowing themselves to be passively exploited as
articles of commerce. Man being the stronger finds it advan-
tageous in the lower and barbarous states of civilization to
monopolize this traffic for his own profit, and deliver the women
under his domination to prostitution. We have seen that
fathers give then' daughters, and husbands their wives to pros-
titution.
For the same reason, the woman who prostitutes herself in
our modern civilization, always runs the risk of being abused
without payment; which is not to be wondered at considering
the doubtful quality of the usual clients of the prostitute. It is
therefore natural that she should seek for a means of protection.
She thus takes a male protector, or ''bully," whom she pays;
SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 299
or else she joins the service of those who make a business of
prostitution — or proxenetism. Proxenetism and protectors are
thus the parasites of prostitution.
Prostitution flourished amongst the ancients and also in the
Middle Ages, especially after the Crusades (Chapter VI). I do
not propose to write the history of prostitution; it is sufficient
to be acquainted with that of the present day. I may, how-
ever, remark that among a number of primitive races, and in
young and progressive nations, whose sexual life is still com-
paratively pure, prostitution is only feebly developed. It is
especially to Napoleon I that we owe the present form of regu-
lation and organization of prostitutes. Like all his legislation
on marriage and sexual intercourse, this regulation is the living
expression of his sentiments toward woman; oppression of the
female sex, contempt of its rights, and degradation of its indi-
viduals to the state of articles of pleasure for men, and machines
for reproduction.
Organization and Regulation of Prostitution. — We have just
seen the social conditions under which prostitution becomes
quite naturally organized, with its protectors and its proxenet-
ism. There is another factor to be added— that of venereal
disease. The infectious germs of syphilis and gonorrhea are
usually met with in the genital organs of man and woman; so
that every coitus between a healthy and an infected individual
may infect the former. Hence the danger of the spread of
infection increases with the number of mutations in sexual
intercourse. If a woman offers herself systematically to all the
men who wish for her, the probability that she will be infected
by one of them increases in proportion to the number of chents.
In the second place, as soon as she is infected, the danger is
increased by the number of men who have connection with her,
for she will probably infect a large proportion of them.
While paying much attention to venereal diseases and their
consequences, medicine has shown itself inconceivably blind in
not comprehending the bearing of this elementary arithmetic.
We must take into account the fact that the complete cure of
syphilis is very difficult, if not impossible, to prove; that this
disease is extremely infectious, at least during the first two
300 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
years of its course; and that it extends to the blood and the
whole organism, so that it may be communicated, not only by
large visible sores, but by small excoriations hidden in the
mucous membrane of the vagina or the mouth, etc.
We must also remember that gonorrhea is less painful in
woman than in man, and that, even in the latter, it ceases to be
painful when it becomes chronic. We may add that the mi-
crobes (the gonococci) are very difficult to reach in all the re-
cesses of the mucous membrane of the sexual organs in which
they are hidden, and that in women they penetrate as far as
the womb, when a cure becomes almost impossible.
If we consider that the sexual organs of woman form deep
and hidden cavities which it is veiy difficult to examine thor-
oughly, in spite of all the apparatus of modern surgery, and that
the mouth in prostitutes is also frequently contaminated by
unnatural manipulations; lastly, that no part of their body
is absolutely indemnified, it is easy to understand the great
danger of infection in public prostitution.
Recognizing the danger of venereal disease, the regulation of
prostitution was instituted by medical men with the good inten-
tion of eliminating or of diminishing its danger, since they
regarded its suppression as impossible. This system consists
in the official supervision and inscription of every woman who
prostitutes herself. She is given an official form which obliges
her to submit to medical examination once a week or once a
fortnight, under the penalty of being arrested and punished.
To facilitate medical control, regulation generally endeavors
to lodge prostitutes in brothels or lupanars, under the direction
of a proxenet. In theory, the brothel is not exactly considered
as a State institution of public health; the word toleration being
used in this connection, signifying that it is regarded as a tol-
erated evil. Nevertheless, this distinction only rests on uncer-
tain and subtle characters. To tolerate, to license, to organize,
to recognize and favor, to protect and recommend are notions
which merge into one another insensibly. As soon as the State
tolerates prostitution and brothels, it is obliged to enter into
official contracts with prostitutes and proxenetism; therefore,
it recognizes them. Moreover, the services which it renders
1
SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 301
must be paid for. It is therefore necessary that prostitutes
and proxenets should pay their tribute to the State and to the
doctors: but "the one who pays commands,"
No doubt this proverb must not be taken to the letter, never-
theless the one who pays always exerts a certain pressure on the
one who receives, and for this reason proxenets and inscribed
prostitutes have some idea that they form part of an official
institution, which raises their position not only in their own
eyes but in those of the irreflective masses. I will cite two
examples which show how effectively the public organization
of a vicious social anomaly confuses ideas in persons of limited
intelligence.
One of my friends was engaged in combating the official
regulation of prostitution. A woman, who misunderstood his
object, came to him complaining bitterly of the loose life her
daughter was leading, and asked him if he could not help her
by placing her in a brothel licensed by the State; she would
then be under the care of a paternal government!
An old proxenet in Paris requested the authorities to transfer
the management of her brothel to her daughter, aged nineteen.
Her house, she said, was honest and managed in a loyal and
religious spirit; her daughter was capable and initiated into
the business and would carry it on in the same irreproachable
manner as hitherto.
These two examples of ingenuousness are sufficiently charac-
teristic of the morality of the system. In La Maison Tellier
Guy de Maupassant has depicted with his masterly pen the
psychology of the prostitute, the proxenet, and their clients.
For reasons previously mentioned no real confidence can be
placed in periodical medical examination of prostitutes; on the
contrary it gives the male public a false security. The object
of these medical visits is to eliminate diseased women from
circulation and compel them to submit to hospital treatment.
But any one acquainted with the facts knows that the treatment
is ifiusory. In a short time every woman in a brothel is infected,
with very few exceptions. But, on the one hand, the proxenets
and the prostitutes have every interest in shortening the time
in hospital; and, on the other hand, the visiting doctor, who
302 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
often lives partly by their fees, is obliged to treat them with
respect. [In Paris, the doctors in charge of the inspection of
prostitutes are paid by the State, and do not depend on fees
from the women,] The treatment of venereal disease being of
long duration and very uncertain in its effects, a vicious cncle
is formed.
A conscientious Dutch doctor, Chanfleury van Issjelstein,
who attempted to eliminate all infected prostitutes from the
brothels, succeeded in almost emptying them, by subjecting the
infected women to prolonged treatment in hospital. This led
to a revolt which endangered his life, and he^had to abandon
his scheme.
In ordinary hospital practice only visible sores are treated,
and gonorrheal discharges as long as they are apparent; the
prostitutes are then allowed to return to their brothels. More-
over, inspection is made too rapidly; for, if every woman was
examined carefully from head to foot every week, neither the
brothels, the prostitutes nor the doctors could exist.
Certain persons have made the proposition, as ridiculous as it
is radical, of submitting every man who visits a prostitute to
medical inspection! This would indeed be the only means of
preventing the infection of prostitutes. But I ask my readers
to imagine such a measure put in practice. Is it likely that the
habitues of brothels, some of whom visit prostitutes nearly every
day or oftener, would make this known to a doctor in their
town, and submit, before each coitus, to a medical examination
which would cost them more time and money than their pleasure !
Can one imagine doctors examining whole queues of clients
waiting their turn in brothels when business is brisk!
Whilst an independent prostitute still possesses some human
sentiment and a vestige of modesty which cause her to choose
as far as possible a limited number of clients, the police certifi-
cate of regulation officially places the woman who receives it in
the class of the pariahs of society, and this leads to her losing
the little that remains of her womanly nature. In brothels, the
last vestige of her human nature is trampled under foot.
Degrees of Prostitution. Protectors. — Several degrees can be
recognized in private prostitution. A variety of prostitute
SEXUAL QUESTIOISI IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 303
rather less low than others, looks for clients at public balls,
certain cafes and other doubtful localities, and hires herself to a
certain number of temporary acquaintances. The lowest and
most common form of private prostitution is that of the streets.
Generally at night, but sometimes in the daytime, these pros-
titutes, dressed so as to attract attention, promenade in
certain well-known and frequented streets, and solicit passers-by.
This is the common method employed in nearly all towns. This
solicitation is supervised by the police in countries where prosti-
tution is regulated, and is only permitted to women who possess
their certificate of inscription.
Here the "protector" (bully) intervenes, and keeps an eye
on the clients at the prostitute's house, or sometimes in the
street. If they do not pay up, or pay too little, or if they threaten
or ill-treat the woman, the protector administers a drubbing,
and sometimes relieves them of their purse or clothes.
At the same time the protector spies on the police for the
benefit of the prostitute. Sometimes he assumes the position
of legitimate husband, so as to facilitate taking rooms. A
"husband" of this kind, with a citizen's rights, is very useful
to foreign prostitutes, for without him they would risk expul-
sion. The protector is generally a scamp of the worst kind,
an absolutely depraved and idle vagabond who is entirely
maintained by his "wife."
Some protectors shine by their sexual power, and are at the
same time the real lovers of the prostitutes, who keep them, and
are plundered by them. While they submit to coitus with their
clients without any pleasure, and only simulate voluptuous sen-
sations, they abandon themselves to their protectors or lovers
with ardor. It is needless to add that the protectors are often
criminals, or of the criminal type. Those who are well ac-
quainted with prostitution declare that it would be impossible
without the protector, who is at the same time the friend, pro-
tector and exploiter of the prostitute, while the brothel keeper
is only concerned with her wholesale systematic exploitation.
Brothels and Proxenets. — Under the pretext of avoiding the
dangers of prostitution in the streets, brothels were organized.
These are generally managed by an elderly female profligate.
304 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
often in partnership with a "husband," who is only a superior
kind of protector. Officially, the prostitutes are free lodgers
in the brothel, but in reality they are often prisoners or slaves.
They are well fed and dressed in a way to attract the clients as
much as possible. Clothes, food, etc., are placed to their ac-
count and the crafty brothel keeper generally manages to get
them into debt so as to always remain their creditor. In this
way these miserable outcasts of society, who are generally inca-
pable of claiming their legal rights, are more or less reduced to
slavery. Apparently they are free, but in reality they can
hardly leave the house ^vithout paying their, debts, and the
brothel keeper who wishes to keep them arranges so that they
cannot pay it.
It is not always easy to distinguish between the different
classes of prostitutes: the prostitute of the brothel, the street
prostitute under inscription or not, the private prostitute and
lorette or grisette. Sometimes a woman may rise from one class
to another; but more often she falls lower and lower.
We may mention here one of the dangers of brothels. Their
good organization, their medical supervision, etc., are extolled;
but the great danger of the arithmetical progression of muta-
tions in sexual intercourse is ignored. While a private prosti-
tute rarely receives more than one client in an evening, and is
not absolutely obliged to receive more, every prostitute in a
brothel is forced to receive as many as present themselves. A
girl may thus have connection with men twenty or thirty times
in the same night.
Under certain circumstances, for instance at the time of con-
scription for recruits at Brussels, the brothels are besieged to
such a point that one man has hardly time to finish coitus before
another comes to take his place. It is obvious that such "file
firing" greatly increases the danger of venereal infection, since a
single infected person is sufficient to contaminate innumerable
clients (even without the woman herself becoming infected).
It is often denied that the brothel is a prison, yet this fact has
been often demonstrated. When, as in France, the police can
arrest a prostitute at pleasure — often a virtuous young girl who
is taken for such — and put her on the inscription list, the thing
SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 305
is obvious. I have treated a girl who became the mistress of a
police agent in Paris under the thi-eat of being inscribed as a
prostitute.
Again, besides the debts we have spoken of, the proxenets
have many other ways of keeping prostitutes under their de-
pendence. It is very difficult for ignorant girls, placed under
the ban of society, to return to a free and virtuous life. But if a
girl shows signs of wishing to leave a brothel, heroic measures
are adopted, in the form of international exchange. A girl who
is unacquainted with the language of the country is naturally
more incapable of gaining her freedom than one who does.
This is one of the reasons why the brothels of different countries
exchange their women.
This expedient, which also satisfies clients who desire a
change, leads to the exportation of women from one country
to another, under false pretenses, such as the promise of lucra-
tive and easy situations. In this way young Swiss girls are
exported to Hungary, Hungarians to Switzerland, Germans to
France, French to England, Europeans to Buenos- Ayres, Creoles
to Europe, etc. For example, if a young French girl has been
exported to Budar-Pest or Buenos- Ayres, we may be certain that
she will lose all inclination to run away; for what can she do —
a stranger without a cent, with her ignorance and want of char-
acter, alone in the streets, when she does not understand a word
of the language?
White Slavery. — The modern commerce in female slaves of
civilized Europe destined for prostitution is closely connected
with the facts we have just described. The manner in which
brothels exchange their merchandise only concerns one side of
the question. The principal art consists in obtaining young
girls, of twelve to seventeen years of age, for the brothels. This
traffic is formally prohibited by most laws; but what are laws
made for, if not to be broken? There are so many means of
training children under some pretext or other, before they are
independent enough to escape this fife of infamy. There are so
many depraved or hungiy parents who are ready to sell their
children if, in hypocritical but transparent language, a good
situation is promised them with payment in advance.
306 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
During a railway journey, I was myself a -fitness of the man-
ner in which a young girl of twelve was sold in this way and sent
to Pressburg. I was also simple enough to try and appeal for
the intervention of a consul and an ambassador to prevent the
perpetration of the crime. They only replied by shi'ugging their
shoulders. How could I prove the matter before a tribunal?
The child was accompanied by a woman who admitted to me
that there could hardly be any other question than the sale of
the child for prostitution. She had only been ordered to take
the child to Vienna, where they would come and take her.
This shows the impotence of any person who tries to prevent
such infamies.
During the last few years an international organization has at
last been formed to combat white slavery; but so far it has not
obtained much result. By the aid of depraved parents and all
their criminal system of seduction, the proxenets always find
a way of attaining theu object. Moreover, it is difficult to see
how the State can prevent proxenetism from obtaining its mer-
chandise, so long as it tolerates and licenses it. We must re-
member that very young girls, almost children, are the most
easy to seduce and the most sought after.
The Training of Prostitutes. — The most repugnant aspect of
proxenetism is the seduction and systematic training of the girls.
The desire for money and fine dresses, the promise of good situa-
tions, and especially alcoholic intoxication, all play their part
in the diabolical art of proxenetism. Many young girls, frivo-
lous and fond of pleasure, but not mshing to go any further, are
easily seduced under the influence of '\\dne. As soon as some
protector has succeeded in seducing a girl, he trades on her
shame and fear of discovery, adding threats and blackmail.
When she has become sufficiently accustomed to sexual inter-
course, she is initiated into the high-school of vice, and syste-
matically instructed in exciting the sexual appetites of men by
all possible means, natm-al or otherwise. She is first of all
taught how to simulate the venereal orgasm by her movements,
breathing, etc.; to practice coi^ms a& ore, etc. ; to conform to the
pathological requirements of masochists, sadists, etc., (Chapter
VIII). Girls who have been seduced and abandoned, and
SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 307
those who have had illegitimate children, are the most suitable
objects for exploitation by the jackals of proxenetism. If it is
objected that the majority of prostitutes have a bad hereditary
taint, and that their frivolity and idleness inchne them from
the first to their trade, I reply that frivolity and love of pleasure
are not at all the same thing as the ignoble slavery and dis-
gusting life of a prostitute in a brothel.
The part played by alcohol in prostitution has not been
estimated at its true value. The coarser and more degraded
forms of prostitution would not be possible without it. It is by
the aid of alcoholic orgies that most girls are seduced, and by
chronic drunkenness that they sustain themselves in their
degradation.
Localized Prostitution. — In certain towns, Hamburg for in-
stance, an attempt has been made to establish an organization
intermediate between the brothel and private prostitution, by
compelling all prostitutes to inhabit certain special streets
which are reserved for them, at the same time being inscribed
by the police. The result has been deplorable, and these streets
have become uninhabitable. It must be borne in mind that
the owners or managers of these houses become from this fact
more or less analogous to proxenets. Whoever lets his house
for such an object must possess very little sentiment of
modesty and duty, for he lives indirectly on the produce of
prostitution.
Clandestine Brothels. — Besides the official brothels, of which
we have spoken, there are a number of secret organizations of
all kinds, which the State is the less able to prevent as it organ-
izes and tolerates prostitution and proxenetism on its own
account. A number of taverns possess secret chambers which
are only small brothels, in which the servants act at the same
time as prostitutes.
It is the same with many small shops (gloves, perfumes, etc.),
whose innocent appearance only serves as a blind. A number
of cafes chmiiants are also connected with prostitution and
proxenetism. Certain tobacco shops, etc., sell obscene objects
such as pornographic pictures. All these things act especially
on youth and become disseminated in colleges.
308 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
The Number of Prostitutes. — The number of prostitutes has
been estimated at 30,000 in Berlin, 40,000 in Paris, and 60,000
in London. It can hardly be assumed that all these women
have a pathological heredity. As soon as the State recognizes
the right of existence of this dung-heap, by its toleration and
organization, corruption hitherto hidden and ashamed raises
its head and becomes more and more bold, even dragging public
organs into its sink. It is the public especially, but also the
authorities and the doctors who become corrupted by contact
with official proxenetism, which confuses the ideas of morality
in every one's head (vide La Maison Tellier, de Maupassant).
They shut their eyes to the haunts of vice. The proxenets feel
that they are important personages, and the more enterprising
of them very often enjoy secret favors and receive visits from
State officials, and even married persons of high position. It
is not difficult for any one who reflects a little to see what this
state of things leads to.
Prostitution and the Police. — The police know very well that
in certain brothels prostitution is not only associated with alco-
holic excess, but that certain houses become the haunts of crimi-
nals. They even regard certain low-class brothels and taverns
frequented by prostitutes as very useful for the discovery of
criminals. Spies of all kinds are met with in these places, from
the secret agent who tracks a criminal and flirts at the same
time with the prostitutes, to the counter-spy employed by the
proxenets to watch the secret agent. It is here that the crimi-
nal world acquires its rakish manners, but its weakness for
women and alcohol cause it to fall early into the traps of the
secret police. It is here also, as well as in the salons of high-
class proxenetism, that we meet with those indefinable indi-
viduals who are to-day secret agents of the government, to-
morrow false noblemen or criminals, and the day after prox-
enets, and whom a former minister of the German Empire
designated by the euphemistic term of "non-gentleman."
The Psychology of Prostitutes and the Cause of Prostitution. —
The psychology of prostitutes is a difficult and complicated
subject. According to the point of view of those who judge
them, they are considered as women of evil and incorrigible
SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 309
instincts, or as the victims of our bad social organiza-
tions. These two assertions are by their exclusiveness
equally false. Urged by Christian charity, many societies for
the improvement of moraUty have attempted to rescue fallen
women; but, as might be expected, the results have not been
satisfactory. In fact, the mind of woman is quite differently
dominated by sexual ideas and their irradiations than that of
man. It is also less plastic, and becomes more easily the slave
of habit and routine. If, therefore, a woman has been sys-
tematically trained in sexual aberrations from her youth up-
ward, all her ideas are concentrated on debauch and sexual
intercourse, so that it becomes impossible later on to restore
her to a life of serious social duty. Rare exceptions con-
firm this rule. Moreover, sexual excitation in women awak-
ens sexual desire, which becomes exalted by repetition and
habit.
On the other hand, it is necessary to recognize that girls who
are idle, of weak character, hysterical, easily suggestible, co-
quettes or nymphomaniacs, are subjects specially disposed to
become seduced. Lastly, poverty is one of the most powerful
auxiliaries of prostitution. I do not wish to be sentimental,
nor to give too much weight to the well-known statement that a
poor woman prostitutes herself to appease her children's hunger,
or her own. No doubt this happens among the oriental Jews
and among the proletariat of large towns, but it is, on the
whole, exceptional.
Poverty acts indirectly in a much more intense and efficacious
manner. First of all it compels the proletariat to live in the most
disgusting promiscuity. Not only do the father, the mother and
the children occupy the same room, but they sleep there, often
in the same bed. The children are witnesses of their parents'
coitus and become initiated in sexual intercourse, often in its
most bestial form, under the influence of alcohol, for example.
Neglected and herded together with other children, most of them
as badly brought up as themselves, from their early youth they
become acquainted not only with the most gross and filthy
things, but also with the most pathological and deformed
excrescences of the unhealthy life of towns. In the proletariat
310 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
of certain towns there are few girls of fourteen years of age who
are still virgins.
Again, poverty urges parents to exploit their children, for it
is easy to deliver them into the hands of proxenetism. But this
is not confined to the poorest classes; among small tradespeople,
poverty is also an indirect agent of prostitution. Here again
the effect of pitiless exploitation is seen; in certain occupations
which leave the girls free evenings, and also in certain shops,
the proprietor only pays his employes an absurdly smaU salary,
because they can add to it by prostitution. For this reason,
many saleswomen, dressmakers, etc., are obliged to content
themselves "^ith a minimum wage. AATien they complain, and
especially when they are good looking, they are often given to
understand that with their attractive appearance it is very
easy for them to increase their income, for many a young man
would be glad to "befriend them," to say nothing of other
insinuations of the same kind. I have already pointed out how
waitresses are utilized as bait in certain taverns, etc. Let us
cite a few figures:
About 80 per cent, of the prostitutes in Paris have some
occupation besides prostitution.
In factories, shops, etc., the average wage of men is 4 francs
20. per day; that of women 2 francs 20. ; but in domestic service
it is only 2 francs 10. for men and 1 franc 10., or even 90 centimes
for women, even where the latter do the same work ! Is it to be
wondered that they have recourse to prostitution?
High -class Brothels. — In these establishments the life of the
prostitute is much more agi'eeable : the goods of superior quality
demanded by rich and fastidious clients requires better treatment
and special care. I vdW cite a case published in the annual report
of the Societe de Pestalozzi (for cruelty to children) at Vienna :
"In October, 1904, the Tyrolean Society for Abandoned In-
fancy sent us the papers of a young Tyrolean girl of eighteen, who
was found at Venice under police control. Our attention was
drawn to the youth of this girl and the incapacity of the father
to induce her to reform. We were requested to restore her, if
possible, to an honest life.
We made the usual inquiries. Having many brothers and
SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 311
sisters, this girl, at the age of fourteen, obtained a situation at
Innsbruck, where she was badly treated. She went away and
gave herself gradually to prostitution, latterly at Vienna.
We had an interview with her at our office and ascertained that
she had experienced ill-treatment at Innsbruck. She had a
modest demeanor and made a good impression. She regarded
her future with equanimity, admitting that she was excluded
from society, but speaking of her trade as seriously as if it was
licit and officially recognized.
She assured us that her parents, having great difficulty in gain-
ing a livelihood, agreed with her in her choice of a " business." She
was on very good terms with them and sent them money.
To obtain a certificate from the police, the consent of her
parents was necessary. Her mother had told her that if she re-
mained pious and honest no one could reproach her. She held
"Madame" (the proprietress of the brothel) in high esteem, on
account of her kind treatment of her "boarders." The house in
which she was located was first-class, both as regards clients and
treatment. There were about a dozen young girls there, most of
them younger than herself, all with their parents' consent; and
many of them sent home what they earned.
She said that her companions were very happy, being well fed
and clothed, and earning from 120 to 240 crowns a month. With
much ingenuousness she told us how Madame, whom she greatly
respected, had looked after two old "boarders," who no longer
had any clients. She also had a protector.
We tried to induce her to commence another fife, promising
her a situation, but she refused, saying that even if she wished to
do so Madame would not let her go; besides, she would always
be reproached for her past life, and she did not wish to live with
people who would always despise her. She had already suffered
enough trouble and did not wish to launch on the unknown.
Moreover, she had lost her former habits and had never learnt
anything seriously. In short, she did not wish to give up her
pleasant and comfortable life!
This conversation led us to the conclusion that the case in ques-
tion was not of a nature to justify any action on the part of our
society for the rescue of young women.
In spite of her tender age, this girl gave us the impression of
mature judgment. It appeared already much too late to attempt
to recommence her education. She also showed signs of great
anxiety when we spoke to her of leaving her brothel.
312 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
This case requires no comment; it gives a good idea of our
social condition. The rehgious piety of this girl, and her pro-
found veneration for "Madame," are typical of the deviation
of moral sense by the suggestion of environment.
Varieties in Prostitutes. — We thus see that prostitutes con-
stitute a collection of very different individuals. Although it
may be true that, on the average, their ranks are recruited from
girls who are coarse, shameless, depraved and alcoholic, it is
no less false to conclude that all are of bad heredity. A con-
siderable number are pathological individuals, including hys-
terical subjects, nymphomaniacs and other psychopaths. Others
again are naturally amoral, stupid, idle and deceitful, or have
been accustomed to vicious surroundings from infancy; or else
they are of an absolutely indifferent and apathetic nature, or
very suggestible and yielding to every seduction and external
impulse. The latter perhaps form the largest contingent,
because they most easily become the prey of proxenetism.
Many of them have fallen by seduction. Ashamed of their
first error, and not having the courage to bear the consequences,
they gradually sink into the swamp of prostitution. Illegitimate
births play a great part here.
A certain class of prostitutes ply their trade simply from
poverty and want, being ashamed of it but profiting by it to
maintain their family. But poverty acts cliiefly in combination
with other causes.
There still remains a very limited group formed by individuals "
who give themselves up to prostitution for love of it. These are
generally women with a morbid and violent sexual appetite,
joined to want of moral sense. Rich women, even countesses
and princesses have been kno'^m to become prostitutes.
This diversity among prostitutes explains why there are
different degrees in prostitution. Although its depravity is
often more or less masked by fine clothes and good cheer, the
lowest level is represented by the girl of the brothels, who is
little more than an instrument for coitus in the hands of prox-
enetism (with the exception of certain high-class brothels). It
is the prostitutes of low-class brothels for soldiers who lead the
most miserable Hfe. Such houses only keep refuse merchandise.
SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 313
i.e., old prostitutes who are no good for anything else. There is
no sadder sight than a soldiers' brothel.
The prostitution in cafes, scent shops, glove shops, etc., con-
stitutes a slightly higher grade. As regards danger of venereal
infection this is as great as anywhere, but the girls are rather
more independent and lead a more natural life. It is precisely
because these places are not under legal protection, that the
patrons or protectors of prostitutes cannot employ the terrorism
of licensed proxenets.
The free prostitutes of the streets are about on the same level.
They are not dependent on proxenetism, but only on their pro-
tector and proprietor, which is a trifle less degrading. What
degrades them most of all is police inscription, obligatory medi-
cal inspection, and the miserable system of solicitation on the
pavement. It is necessary to have lost all feeling of modesty,
and to possess a cynical audacity to become a street pros-
titute.
Prostitutes who only practice occasionally and have not the
courage to sohcit, nor to be inscribed by the poHce, belong to
a higher level. But in countries where regulation is in force
they always run the risk of being arrested by the pohce and put
on the inscription Hst. These private prostitutes constitute the
intermediate stage between prostitution properly so-called, and
venal concubinage, which we shall speak of later.
The army of prostitutes is partly composed of pathological
individuals. Alcohol and vicious habits increase their abnormal
tendencies, so that their behavior leaves nothing wanting in the
way of temper, impulsiveness, cynicism and insolence. This is
seen every day in hospitals for venereal disease. As soon as a
prostitute finds her physical condition improve after a few days
in hospital, sexual abstinence arouses her appetite to such an
extent that she indulges in lesbian love with her companions, or
shows herself naked at the windows, etc. Some prostitutes of
better quality suffer at first from the scandalous tone of the
brothel, but they generally become used to it, and end with
adopting it themselves. Honest women, infected accidentally
or by their husbands, suffer martyrdom when they are sent to
the venereal divisions of hospitals.
314 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
The Fate of Prostitutes. — ^What becomes of prostitutes in the
course of time? They cannot remain very long in the brothels
for they only accept young and fine-looking girls. It would be
interesting to follow the fate of all these women. At all events
nothing is more absurd than the common saying that the sup-
pression of brothels increases prostitution in the streets, and
that their introduction suppresses it. It is obvious that, as the
women in brothels have to be continually renewed, they must
be continually thrown onto the streets. No doubt many pros-
titutes die at an early age from the results of alcohol and syphilis.
The only resource left to many, when they are -ejected from the
brothels, is to solicit in the streets or to join clandestine brothels
or taverns of the same nature.
The most profligate, those who look upon their profession from
the artistic or the commercial points of view, know how to advance
themselves and become "Madames"; but these are compara-
tively few in number. Some end in suicide or lunatic asylums.
As a last resource, when no man will have anything to do
with them, many of them take to the lowest occupations, such
as cleaning lavatories, etc. At Munich it used to be proverbial
that the class of "Radiweiber" and "Nussweiber" (old women
selling nuts etc., at the street corners) were mostly recruited
from old prostitutes. Occasionally a better class prostitute
succeeds in getting married.
If we consider without prejudice the miserable life of a pros-
titute, we cannot hear the term "fdle de joie" without a feeling
of sadness and indignation, for it conveys such bitter and tragic
irony. If we could ourselves experience the true state of mind
which is hidden behind the smiles and songs of so many miserable
singers at cafe concerts, and behind the brazen artifices of many
prostitutes; if we could learn their past life and the cause of
their fall, no man with a spark of pity or sympathy for his fel-
lows could relish with a light heart a "joy" bought at such a
price. For those who read German, I recommend on this sub-
ject: Tagehuch einer Verlornen, hy Ma,vguer\te Bohme. (Berlin:
Fontane, 1905.)
Prostitution and Sexual Perversion. — If it is true that many
prostitutes have a pathological heredity, it is still more sure that
SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 315
they often have to submit to the fancies of pathological cHents.
The numerous sexual anomalies, of which we have spoken in
Chapter VIII, are closely connected with prostitution. The
refinement of modern civilization is so complete that it sup-
plies localities and women for the special use of each pathological
form of the sexual appetite.
So far we have only spoken of female prostitutes, and we have
seen how they conform to the customs of sadists, masochists, etc.
They allow themselves to be maltreated by the former, and
maltreat the latter; or else they play at exhibitions symbolical
of cruelty or humiliation.
For male inverts, on the other hand, there exist male brothels,
in which young boys practice pederasty for money. For certain
rich roues, or for those affected with pederosis, children are kept.
This last class of goods is very dear, for there is always a risk of
the law intervening. Young virgins also fetch a high price;
and they even try to sew up the hymen after their defloration,
so as to offer them several times as virgins!
With what we have said in Chapter VIII, these indications
will suffice to show that modern prostitution and proxenetism
constitute a public disgrace, intended to exploit the unbridled
desires of men for profit. This system has been defended on the
grounds of hygiene and the protection of virtuous women against
the assaults of men, etc. In reality, it has resulted in corrupting
and effeminating men; in restricting the normal sexual inter-
course of youth in its natural association with an inconsiderate
love; in degrading love itself; in debarring a great number of
capable and virtuous women from marriage, from love, and from
sexual intercourse in general; lastly, in causing complete aber-
ration of the whole sexual life of modern society.
Contemporary literature has begun to consider the psychol-
ogy of prostitution. We have already mentioned La Maison
Tellier by de Maupassant; Zola's Nana is the history of a high-
class prostitute related in the well-kno^\Ti reahstic manner
of the celebrated novelist, in which he describes the sexual
depravity existing in certain Parisian circles of the Second
Empire.
I will now make a few remarks concerning a social movement
316 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
organized against the regulation of prostitution, called aboli-
tionism.
Abolitionism and Regulation. — An Englishwoman, Mrs. Joseph-
ine Butler, undertook, in the name of liberty, a campaign
against proxenetism, white slavery and the State regulation of
prostitution. She also attacked the injustice of the Code Napo-
leon toward women, especially the prohibition of inquiry into
paternity, which throws girls who have been seduced into the
arms of prostitution. The abolitionists contest the right of
police inscription of prostitutes under the pretext of hygiene,
of submitting them against their wall to medical , inspection, and
of keeping them in brothels. They claim severe laws against
proxenetism and oppose toleration.
In medical circles the system of regulation has generally been
defended. It is urged that society has the right to protect itself
against dangerous infection, and that, with this object, it has
as much right to treat infected prostitutes compulsorily, as
those affected with smallpox or cholera. Owing to their shame-
ful trade, they maintain that these women have lost all claim to
special consideration.
This argument appears very reasonable at first sight, but it
takes quite a different aspect when the facts are examined more
thoroughly.
First of all the comparison with smallpox and cholera is
illogical, for these diseases endanger the innocent public, while
the man who makes use of prostitution is quite aware of the
danger he runs. Society is under no obligation to provide
healthy prostitutes for the use of Don Juan.
Against this it is stated that innocent wdves are often infected
and made to suffer for the sins of their husbands. But such an
extensive blending of the State with family life does not appear
to be admissible, and would lead to crying abuses. Society has
neither the right nor the duty to facilitate the dangerous or
injurious acts of certain individuals at the expense of others,
by rendering them less dangerous, so that certain third parties
may be less Uable to suffer. This is an absurd sophism. The
duty of society is to make responsible the one who has committed
the dangerous or injurious act, and to punish him if he has done
SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 317
harm. Here, on the contrary, one only of the culprits (the pros-
titute) is compelled to keep to her vile trade, while the man
who makes use of her, and often infects her, is free from any
responsibility. Moreover, the State has no right to act against
responsible persons under the pretext that their future senti-
ments or actions would have dangerous consequences for others;
this would lead to arbitrary abuse of power. The insane, and
habitual criminals make the only exceptions, for their abnormal
and irresponsible cerebral organization is a perpetual danger
to society.
There is one question, however, which arises: Can prostitu-
tion in itself be regarded as a misdemeanor punishable by law?
If this were the case, the client would have to be punished as
well as the prostitute; or both of them be sent to reformatories.
This is the only logical consequence, for in such cases the two
contractors are equally guilty, and also equally dangerous as
regards infection.
How, therefore, can the system be justified which brands and
inscribes the prostitute only; which is not content with tolerat-
ing her vile trade instead of punishing it, but gives it official
sanction, causing her to fall lower and lower; which finally, to
crown the'work, licenses the proxenetism which exploits her vice?
It is difficult to imagine more complete hypocrisy, or a more
contradictory system.
In former times when slavery was allowed, men's will and
pleasure were sufficient to justify such measures, which created
for their profit a class of female pariahs; and this was frankly
and openly admitted. Nowadays, the equal rights of women
which are officially recognized in civilized countries no longer
allow it, and hygienic arguments only can give such modern
barbarity the hypocritical appearance of justification. Luna-
tics and criminals are only locked up as a measure of safety,
and to attempt to improve them; but their bodies are not
allowed to become an object of commerce for the pleasure of
other members of society.
But the results of honestly interpreted statistics contradict
the apparent justification of the regulation of prostitution, in
the name of hygiene. It is intended to furnish men with a
318 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
means of coitus free from danger; but the facts prove that
venereal disease has not been diminished by this means. The
false security given to men officially by regulation makes them
all the more careless. The multiplication of the sexual con-
nections of each prostitute increases the danger of infection at
least as much as the elimination of a few diseased persons
diminishes it.
The corruption of the State and its officials, especially the
police and the medical inspectors of brothels, the general deprav-
ity which results from official toleration, and the perversion of
ideas of morality among the public, increase habits of prostitu-
tion, and with it the danger of infection. Assured of impunity
the pimps and their acolytes become more and more audacious
and extend their business, while the prostitutes, whose number is
increased by this system, seek to escape the police and practice
their trade clandestinely. It is no wonder that the swamp to
be purified becomes more and more infectious. Can it be con-
scientiously said that hygiene has benefited? This is well seen
in Geneva and in France. It is enough to compare the number
of cases of venereal disease and of prostitutes in countries where
regulation is in force, with those which do not employ it, to show
the complete fiasco of the system from the hygienic point of
view. On the average, the number of infectious cases is nearly
the same with or without regulation and depends on many other
causes. I cannot enter into the details here and must refer to
the statistics and to the works published by the Abolitionist
Federation (6 Rue St. Leger, Geneva).
Of all that has been published, nothing appears to me more
conclusive than the masterly statistics of Mounier, for Hol-
land, in 1889. Even among medical men, the originators of
regulation, the abolitionist point of view is steadily gaining
ground. It is beginning to be understood that the toleration of
proxenetism, and even the inscription and medical inspection
of prostitutes, are vicious methods of social sanitation against
venereal infection.
But by the suppression of official toleration and regulation,
the question of prostitution is in no way settled. This has only
a negative action, important for the tactics of those who wish to
SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 319
upset a scandalous abuse, but which does not respond to the
higher task of extirpating the root of the evil. The positive
work will only begin when the State is relieved of its shameful
compact with proxenetism and prostitution.
In the following chapters we shall examine the remedies
which must be applied to our sexual anarchy, the result of mas-
culine autocracy, as Russian anarchy is the result of Tsarism.
I will first make a few observations from the medical and hy-
gienic point of view, to the partisans of regulation. They
exclaim that the abolitionists are fanatics, who, from their
absence of scientific spirit, will deluge society with venereal dis-
ease. This bogy has no sound foundation. The State regula-
tion of prostitution applied to certain women has not diminished
the amount of venereal disease, because it does not reach it.
The State concession of an unnatural vice cannot be hygienic.
Moreover, it is impossible to completely disinfect prostitutes,
this disinfection is quite illusory, unless it is also apphed to their
clients, which is impracticable.
In France, where the system of regulation has existed for a
long time in its strictest form, venereal diseases are extremely
prevalent; while in Switzerland, where it only exists at Geneva,
having been suppressed for some years in the Canton of Zurich,
they are less frequent. Geneva is not less contaminated than
other towns in Switzerland, in spite of its model brothels, and
Zurich has lately, by popular vote, confirmed abolition by a
crushing majority, in opposition to a few interested persons who
wished to reestablish the brothels under futile and fallacious
pretexts. Some clandestine brothels still exist in towns where
the authorities shut their eyes.
It has also been maintained that the number of sexual mis-
demeanors would increase with the suppression of brothels.
This is another illusion. The majority of sexual misdemeanors
are due to psychic anomalies (Chapter VIII) or to the effects of
alcoholic intoxication. If they have any relation to prostitu-
tion, it is rather that of being favored by its orgies.
Remedies for the Evil. — What is wanted first of all are severe
laws against proxenetism. It is indisputable that commerce
made with the body of one's neighbor is illegal, even when the
320 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
latter gives consent. It is a crime or misdemeanor which should
be prosecuted hke negro slavery or usury. We should not wait
for a complaint to be lodged, but prosecute proxenetism offi-
cially, for the victims are hindered by shame from coming for-
ward. The pimps of proxenetism are recruited from the dregs
of society. In this domain, as in the others, penal law should
not be put in force; the object should be the protection of
society and the improvement of the criminal.
As regards prostitution itself, it cannot be made a misde-
meanor without opening the door too widely to complete arbi-
trariness. The State cannot prevent a responsible adult from
disposing of his own body, without introducing rehgion and
metaphysics into legislation; but the State can require those
who practice prostitution not to molest the public. It has,
therefore, the right to punish solicitation in the streets by fine
or imprisomnent, especially in often repeated offenses. It can
also give persons of both sexes, who are victims of venereal dis-
ease, the right of claiming damages by ci\dl law. The legality of
this right of indemnity has been much contested. In my opin-
ion it is legitimate when the State no longer tolerates or regulates
prostitution; but so long as it does this, and submits prostitutes
to obligatory medical treatment, the States takes the respon-
sibility of their health. Under the regime of regulation, an
infected person could logically claim damages from the State,
or, at any rate from the pimps of licensed proxenetism.
The question of responsibility is quite different when prosti-
tution is free. The sexual intercourse of a free prostitute with
a man may be regarded as a private contract in which each
party has the same rights and obligations. If one of the tw^o
contractors deceives the other by concealing venereal disease,
the latter has the right to claim damages, if there is sufficient
proof of infection from this source.
The right of indemnity does not, however, constitute the
principal point. In order to successfully combat prostitution
and venereal disease, fundamental social reforms are nec-
essary.
(1). First of aU the system of exploitation of the poor by the
rich should be put an end to, the work of the poor being remu-
SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 321
nerated at its true value. This requires a social transformation
of the relations between capital and labor.
(2). The use of narcotics, and especially alcohol, should be
suppressed.
(3). The false modesty concerning sexual intercourse should
be done away with.
(4). The public should be instructed in the dangers of venereal
disease and in the means of preventing contamination. The
only certain means of curing them consists in not contracting
them.
(5). Cleanliness should be universally encouraged, especially
in sexual intercourse.
(6) . Preventive measures should be employed in every coitus,
the object of which is not procreation.
(7). The treatment of venereal diseases in hospitals should
be carried out in a decent and humane manner, so as not to
shock the modesty of either sex, especially women, and so that
patients need not be ashamed of submitting to medical treat-
ment. Nowadays the venereal divisions of hospitals often more
resemble brothels. This state of things makes it impossible for
any woman with a particle of modesty to stay in these places.
It is evident that women w4io are more or less virtuous, and even
the better class of prostitutes, will avoid such hospital treat-
ment as much as possible, and will thereby become the worst
sources of infection.
By treating venereal disease in hospital with more regard for
decency and modesty, by abolishing the brand of shame, and by
separating patients according to their behavior, we might suc-
ceed in improving a state of things which is often unbearable.
Patients with venereal diseases would then more willingly sub-
mit to hospital treatment and would be more easily cured. In
Italy much progress has already been made in this direction.
In conclusion, I am convinced that if we should be contented
for the present with damming up prostitution and suppressing
the causes which render prostitutes more and mm-e abject,
without yet being able to abolish the whole evil, a transforma-
tion of our social life, and especially the suppression of the
reign of capital as a means of exploitation of the work of others,
322 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
and suppression of the use of alcoholic drinks, would eventually
succeed in the gradual extinction of prostitution and the sub-
stitution of concubinage, which has much less evil results.
VENAL CONCUBINAGE
Venal concubinage occupies an intermediate position between
prostitution and concubinage. It is distinguished from the
latter by the fact that it is remunerated; but the distinction is
very fine.
Lorettes. — This is an old term which may be applied to paid
women who are not regular prostitutes. It is hardly possible
to distinguish them from clandestine prostitutes (not on the
police inscription). They are women who do not practice
solicitation or sell themselves to the first comer, but generally
keep to one man for a time.
Grisettes. — The Parisian grisette, whose type has become clas-
sic, is a higher class of woman who, at any rate in her primitive
simplicity, was not wanting in romance. Relations ^dth a
grisette may be compared to limited and free marriage, in which
there is comparative fidelity.
Like some of the free prostitutes, the grisette does not live
only on the support of her lover. She is often a dressmaker or
a shop-girl, and makes arrangements with a lover so as to live
more comfortably.
When the grisette acts as her lover's housekeeper and lives
with him on terms of the closest intimacy, the liaison takes a
more serious character and there is a certain degree of affection
or even love. However, all these concubinages are generally
limited to a few weeks or months, so that the natural love of the
woman becomes blunted by successive polyandry. It is always
more or less a question of "an accessory business."
There are all kinds of lorettes and grisettes, but as a rule they
are generally attached to small tradesmen, students, working-
men, etc., rather than to rich men. It is a kind of contract for
a limited period. This system is very ^videspread in large towns,
where the inhabitants do not interfere with each other's affairs;
but is difficult to manage in small towns, where every one knows
everybody.
SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 323
Mistresses. — These may be called the aristocrats of the species.
Here we see more distinctly the transition from venal love to
free concubinage based on mutual love. The hetaira of the an-
cient Greeks (vide Chapter VI) corresponded more or less to
the modern mistresses, especially to the intelligent mistresses
of men in high positions. In certain respects we may say that
George Sand, for example, was a hetaira from pure love, while
among the Greek hetaira money played a gi-eat part. Some
mistresses are paid; others Hve on terms of equality with their
lovers; others again maintain their lovers. We must also dis-
tinguish between mistresses who live with married men, and
those who live with bachelors.
The most typical case is that where a bachelor who wishes to
remain free takes a mistress, whom he also makes mistress of
his house, and who thus becomes an illegitimate wife who may
separate from him when it pleases her. Some women contract
this kind of union without being actually paid, simply for their
maintenance, in return for which they do the housework. Here
there is no actual sale of the body. The contract may be indefi-
nite or limited. In such cases the effect of money on the atti-
tude of the man toward his mistress is evident; his tone is gen-
erally less respectful toward paid mistresses than toward those
who are not paid. The love of the paid mistress is httle more
durable or more intense than that of the grisette, the situation
being almost the same.
Zola's Nana prostituted herself regularly with rich men:
secondly, she was the mistress of Fontan, who plays the part of
a high-class protector; thirdly, she fell in love with Georges in
quite an idyllic fashion. Bordenave, the manager, had good
reason in wishing his theater to be called a brothel, as he was
more of a pimp than a theatrical manager. This example, a
httle far-fetched, shows how ideas pass from one to another m
this elastic domain. '
There are also married mistresses. The position of mistress
to a married man is, on the whole, more delicate than that of
mistress to a bachelor. We are only concerned here with paid
mistresses. They seldom give themselves to married men ex-
cept when the home life of the latter is more or less disorganized;
324 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
when the husband is separated from the wife, or when he hves
in open w^arfare with her. A married man, on the contrary,
may secretly visit brothels or private prostitutes, often even
with his wife's knowledge, because the prostitute can have no
influence in family affairs. This reason has even been used for
the defense of prostitution. It is true that married men often
have connection with other women, and the term mistress has
been applied to the women who take part in this intercourse,
whether they or their lover, or both of them, are already married.
But in this case money is usually only a secondary consider-
ation, when the households concerned are not broken up. It
is often only the maneuver of an intriguer who tries to separate
a husband from his wife to marry him herself and monopolize
his fortune. It is sufficient to show how difficult it often is
to distinguish the paid mistress from the woman who does not
give herself from interest but from passion, or from the intrig-
uing adventuress who tries to make a good catch.
Lorettes, grisettes and paid mistresses seldom have children.
These women are more rarely infected with venereal diseases
than prostitutes, but they are better acquainted with the meth-
ods of preventing conception.
The fate of the children of venal concubines is generally very
sad. They are not the fruits of love but of a sexual union based
on idleness and lewdness. If conception occurs in spite of all
precautions, artificial abortion is attempted, or if this fails the
child is sent to the "baby farmer," who gets rid of it. The
women who dispose of their children in this way are often of the
better class; common prostitutes often love and take care of
their children, while the young ladies of society generally try
and get rid of their illegitimate children, because they are much
more compromised. Some married women even do not hesitate
to perform abortion when a child inconveniences them.
We have only mentioned the fourth gi'oup of women with
which we are concerned, because of its mercantile nature. Every
union in which a human being gives love for money is unnatural.
Venal love is not true love, but an improper contract between
man and woman, with the object of satisfying the sexual appe-
tite, without any regard to the higher object intended by nature.
SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 325
It sometimes happens that similar contracts are made in the
inverse direction, when a nymphomaniacal woman purchases a
fine young man, under some pretext or other. Inverts also pay
boys to satisfy their perverted appetites.
However unsavory may be the contents of the present chap-
ter, it was necessary to write it in order to give a clear idea of
the subject. Under the pretense of virtue venal love has too
long been covered with a veil of hypocrisy. Prostitution, mar-
riage for money and venal concubinage are, each in its way,
elements of corruption and decadence which, combined with
alcohol, gambling, speculation, the greed for money and pleasure
in general, threaten our modern culture with ruin. Among these
anomalies, the State organization of prostitution being the most
monstrous, it is necessary to begin with its suppression.
Among the ancients, the goddess Venus or Aphrodite was the
symbol of beauty and love. Although somewhat sly, she
was fecund, full of desire and charm, and embodied not only the
natural aspirations of man, but also his artistic ideal. Nowa-
days, she is dragged in the mire by two false gods — Bacchus,
who makes a gross and vulgar brute of her, and Mammon, who
transforms her into a venal prostitute — while a hypocritical
religious asceticism, endeavors in vain to confine her in a strait-
waistcoat. May the progress of science and culture find the
power to deliver her from the tyranny of her two infamous
companions, deified by human ignorance and bestiality. Then
only will the goddess of love appear in all her glory!
CHAPTER XI
THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT ON SEXUAL LIFE
However strong may be the hereditary sexual instincts which
an individual has inherited by phylogeny from his ancestors,
and however violent their internal outbreaks in his ontogeny,
it is necessary to recognize that an organism so complicated as
that of man is capable of adapting itself to its environment to a
remarkable and varied degree, and that consequently external
influences react strongly on the sexual appetite. We will now
examine these influences, so far as they are not dealt with in
other chapters.
Influence of Climate. — Warm climates appear to excite the
intensity of sexual life; man matures more quickly and is more
disposed to sexual excess. I am not aware of other influences
that can be attributed to climate. It is, moreover, possible that
the direct influence of heat has been confounded with the indirect
action it exerts in the conditions of human existence. In cold
countries life is more laborious, and this diminishes the inten-
sity of the sexual appetite. In warm countries man has not so
much concern with dweUings, clothes and heating; life is greatly
simplified, and this freedom from anxiety inclines him to greater
sexual activity.
Town and Country. Isolation. Sociability. Life in Factories.
— The social relations of man exert a great influence on sexual
life. Hermits and those who live on isolated farms are interest-
ing in this respect. Solitude generally leads man to chronic
melancholia and to abnormal peculiarities, unless he has a library
in his hermitage, when he may live in the spirit of the intellectual
sociability derived from the study of books.
It is quite otherwise with one who has no intellectual occupa-
tion, or one who has lived in solitude from infancy. In this case
the hermit becomes a kind of savage, without any intellectual
326
INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT ON SEXUAL LITE 327
development, and reverts more or less to the state of primitive
man.
An adult who establishes himself in solitude without providing
himself with intellectual capital becomes strongly inclined to
depressing psychoses. This is observed among the isolated farm-
ers, according to Professor Seguin, of New York. The man who
lives alone, or surrounded only by the members of his family
becomes disposed to certain sexual anomahes, such as incest,
sodomy and masturbation.
It is among the agricultural population that we meet with
the most normal sexual relations and the best hygiene. The
French Canadians form a good example, and it is the same gen-
erally where agriculture is practiced by independent peasants,
not alcoholized, and having divided property. Agricultural
families generally procreate more children and healthier ones
than urban families. No doubt modern medical hygiene, both
public and private, has made so much progress in towTis that
there may be, at a certain age, proportionally more living chil-
dren than in the country; but the country children are of
stronger constitution and more healthy in every way.
I had the opportunity of confirming this opinion wliile I was
superintendent of a lunatic asylum for many years. I found
it was impossible to recruit from the town a good staff of nurses
of either sex.
The inhabitant of towms, it is true, learns his work more
quickly, but he lacks patience, perseverance and character, and
soon shows himself wanting in the accomplishment of his physi-
cal and moral duties. The countryman, on the contrary, is at
first slow and clumsy, but soon becomes more capable and care-
ful, and more amenable to education. This shows that, on the
average, the hereditary dispositions of the country-bred child
are better than those of the town-bred child. The latter de-
velops more rapidly and more completely his natural disposi-
tions, owing to social intercourse, while the country-bred child,
although he appears at first sight less intelhgent, is really better
endowed on the average than the town child. The superficial
observer is easily deceived, but country life accumulates more
reserve force in the organism than urban life.
328 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Sexual excesses in the country are more conformable to
nature. Apart from marriage, we meet with concubinage, infi-
delity, and sometimes prostitution, but these excesses are never
widely spread in small places where every one knows each other.
An extensive study of the alcohol question has shown me that
hereditary degenerations and sexual evils in the country are
principally due to alcoholism and its blastophthoria (vide Chap-
ter I). But when factories, mining industries, etc., create
unhealthy conditions in the country, the evil influences of urban
life are implanted there, often in a still higher degree.
The society of large towns is made up of many different cir-
cles, who have little or no relations with each other, do not know
each other, and seldom concern themselves about each other.
The individual is only known in his own circle. This circum-
stance favors the increase of vice and depravity. In addition
to this, the insanitary dwelhngs, the life of excitement and in-
numerable pleasures, all tend to produce a restless and unnatural
existence. The best conditions of existence for man are con-
tact with nature, air and Hght, sufficient physical exercise com-
bined with steady work for the brain, which requires exercise
as much as the other organs; this is just what is wanting among
the poor, in the town and in the factory. Instead of this they
are offered unhealthy nocturnal pleasures and a prostitution
which spreads itself everywhere with all the dangerous effects
we have described. The result is that they become incapable
of nourishing and raising their children properly, often even of
procreating them in healthy and natural love.
Such are the conditions of the lower classes in large towns.
Along with prostitution, venereal disease and alcohol, the
wretched dwellings in many places lead to infamous promiscuity.
In factories and mines things are still worse. In these places
there is a swarm of people continually engaged in most unhealthy
occupations, and only leaving their work to indulge in the most
repugnant sexual excesses. The rapacity, frivolity and luxury
of society lead to alcoholism, poverty, promiscuity and prostitu-
tion among the lower classes and cause complete degeneration
of entire industrial populations.
In the Canton of Zurich I have had the opportunity of closely
INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT ON SEXUAL LIFE 329
observing the physical and moral effects of this degeneration.
The individuals most incapable as hospital attendants were
always factory hands. These wretched beings were generally
so atrophied in body and mind that they were no use for any-
thing except the weaving of silk and cotton. In the large
English towns, such as Liverpool, and among the population of
certain mining districts in Belgium, I have met with even worse
degeneration of the human species. Modesty, morality and
health are destroyed in this swarming human mass — dirty,
anaemic, tuberculous, rickety, imbecile, or hysterical — and
there is no distinction between the factory girl and the prosti-
tute. In certain Belgian districts which are a prey to alcoholism,
one sometimes sees human beings copulating in the streets like
animals, or like the drunken Kafhrs in South Africa. What can
we expect from the descendants of a population so completely
degenerate? Marriage and even concubinage among peasants
is golden in comparison!
I will now draw attention to a contemporary phenomenon of
the greatest interest. The immense development of means of
transport, combined with progress in the sanitation of dwellings,
favors the transportation of town to country and country to
town. This brings together the two modes of human life, and
in this I see the dawn of salvation in the future. The modern
towns of North America, thanks to the great extension of their
territory, already resemble the country to a great extent, each
house being surrounded by a garden. The electric tramways
shorten distances and facilitate this manner of building towns.
As means of communication become still more simphfied and
cheapened, the advantages of country Ufe will be joined to those
of the town without suffering from the promiscuity of the latter.
The disadvantages of country life consist in atrophy of the intel-
lectual dispositions from want of contact; improvement in
means of transport will bring this contact to the country. The
result of such distribution of the territory of a civilized state,
such as I have in view, might be called an Agropolis—Sin urban-
ized country or a countrified town. It would then be possible
to live a life more ideal in human sentiments, and healthier as
regards material and sexual matters.
330 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
The state of the countryman or peasant is advantageous for
marriage, not only because it does not offer such a suitable soil
for prostitution, but because the danger of venereal disease is
diminished, and the procreation of healthy offspring favors con-
jugal happiness and constancy in sexual union. From the reli-
gious point of view, the freedom in sexual intercourse which
prevails among country people before marriage is looked upon
as immoral; but this is a natural phenomenon similar to the
"marriage by trial" of certain savage races, or the "hand-
fasting" of the Scotch people, of which we have spoken in Chap-
ter VI. People who tolerate and defend prostitution should be
ashamed of their hypocrisy and of the manner in which they
distort morality, when in the same breath they reproach peas-
ants with their natural but illegitimate unions.
It is needless to say that other causes of degeneration may
exist in the country as well as in towns; for instance, certain
endemic diseases, such as myxoedema and malaria, the brutish
life of certain tribes, perpetuation of degeneracy by consan-
guineous unions, etc.
The worst state is certainly that of the proletariat of large
towns, which is generally associated with crime. In the com-
munity of pimps, criminals and decadents in general, is consti-
tuted a special social outlook, which regards the greatest scamp
in the light of a hero. When a child shows a precocious criminal
disposition it is looked upon in these circles as a child of much
promise. Honest and virtuous children are considered in this
society as imbeciles, or even as traitors and spies, and are con-
sequently despised, hated and ill-treated. The deleterious in-
fluences we have mentioned do not act alone, but are often asso-
ciated with other factors in causing degeneration of the sexual
life. When other influences preponderate, we may sometimes
observe depravity in the country, and on the contrary, healthy
and normal conditions in certain towns. We must always avoid
exaggerating the importance of a single factor in making
generalizations. Certain country villages, the inhabitants of
which have become alcoholized and degraded, may present
a much more unhealthy sexual life than certain sober and
well-governed towns.
INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT ON SEXUAL LIFE 331
Vagabondage.— In the Archiv filr Rassen und Gesellschafts
hiologie of 1905 (Ai'chives of the biology of races and of society),
Doctor Jorger relates the history of the descendants of a couple
of vagabonds, which he carefully studied for several genera-
tions. Nearly all the members of this family became vagabonds,
thieves, prostitutes, and other society pests. Vain attempts
were made to give a good education to some of them, but they
ran away from school to lead the lives of vagabonds or criminals.
In a few of them only, education gave some results, but not at
all brilhant. In this family, alcohoHsm and its blastophthoria
played a considerable part.
We can hardly admit that the mnemic phenomena explained
in Chapter I could have acted appreciably in two or three hun-
dred years, a period much too short for the human species. No
doubt the common ancestor of the above family of vagabonds
descended from a family of vagabonds. I do not, however,
think I am wi'ong in attributing to blastophthoria, superposed
on the disastrous combinations of germs which is inevitable in
the life of vagabonds, the principal cause of this typical degenera-
tion of the family, a degeneration in which sexual degradation
strongly predominates, I recommend Doctor Jorger's work to
any one interested in this question. It would be useful to draw
up genealogical tables, with the medical and psychological
descriptions of the whole population of a small town.
Americanism. — By this term I designate an unhealthy fea-
ture of sexual life, common among the educated classes of the
United States, and apparently originating in the gi'eed for
dollars, which is more prevalent in North America than any-
where else. I refer to the unnatural hfe which Americans lead,
and more especially to its sexual aspect.
The true American citizen despises agi'icultural work and
manual labor in general, especially for women. His aim is to
centralize labor by means of machinery and commerce, so as to
concern himself only with business, intellectual occupations and
sport. American women consider muscular work and labor in
the country as degrading to their sex. This is a relic of the days
of slavery, when all manual labor was left to negroes, and is so
to a great extent at the present day.
332 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Desirous of remaining young and fresh as long as possible,
fearing the dangers and troubles of childbirth and the bringing-
up of children, the American woman has an increasing aversion
to pregnancy, childbirth, suckling and the rearing of large
families.
Since the emancipation of negroes has caused doi^jestic ser-
vants in the United States to become expensive luxuries, family
life has been to a great extent replaced by life in hotels and
boarding-houses, and this has furnished another reason for avoid-
ing conception and large families.
It is evident that this form of emancipation of women is abso-
lutely deleterious and that it leads to degeneration, if not to
extinction of the race. The mixed Aiyan (European) race of
North America will diminish and become gradually extinguished,
even without emigration, and will soon be replaced by Chinese
or negroes. It is necessary for woman to labor as well as
man, and she ought not to avoid the fulfillment of her natural
position. Eveiy race which does not understand this necessity
ends in extinction. A woman's ideal ought not to consist in
reading novels and lolling in rocking chairs, nor in working only
in offices and shops, so as to preserve her delicate skin and gi'ace-
ful figure. She ought to develop herself strongly and healthily
by working along with man in body and mind, and by procreat-
ing numerous children, when she is strong, robust and intelli-
gent. But this does not nullify the advantage that may
accrue from limiting the number of conceptions, when the
bodily and mental qualities are wanting in the procreators.
Saloons and Alcohol. — I desire to draw attention once more
to the evil influence of saloons and bars. The drink habit cor-
rupts the whole of sexual life. It is the origin of the most hid-
eous forms of prostitution and proxenetism, and leads to the se-
duction of girls. I must mention again the barmaids whose
business it is to attract customers by exciting their sexual
desire, at the same time exploiting themselves by prostitution.
These saloons are dens of iniquity in which alcohol and prosti-
tution are inextricably confounded. In Germany they have
become a veritable social plague.
Drink makes men and women not only gross and sensual, but
INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT ON SEXUAL LIFE 333
also negligent, imprudent and irreflective. The saloon takes
men from their homes, and drink directly diminishes the popu-
lation. This is seen in Russia by comparing the abstainers with
the drinkers, the former being much more fecund. The sta-
tistics of Doctor Bezzola show that a single drinking bout may
have a blastophthoric effect. From this and from other causes
result the deplorable consequences of coitus which takes place
during drunkenness.*
Wealth and Poverty. — While in former civihzations the rich
man regarded a multiplicity of wives and children as a condition
or cause of his wealth and also as its result, in our modern civili-
zation the number of children diminishes with the increase of
prosperity. Children have ceased to be as formerly a source of
wealth; on the contrary, they occasion much expense for their
education. Again, the higher the social position of woman the
more she fears pregnancy. Her life of ease makes her weaker
and more delicate, so that she becomes less fit for the procreation
of children. This phenomenon is an unhealthy product of cul-
ture and reaches a truly pathological degree in America.
We have mentioned marriage for money, which is the prosti-
tution of the rich, and poverty, which is one of the causes of
common prostitution, and we have seen how money influences
sexual intercourse. We may now state the general principle that
a mediocrity living in comfortable circumstances without imme-
diate daily wants, under good hygienic conditions, but requiring
a man to work for his living, constitutes the best condition
both for a healthy sexual life and for health and happiness in
general. This is the aurea mediocritas, or modest competence,
the excellence of which was recognized by the ancients.
The sexuahty of the rich man degenerates by luxury, com-
fort, excess and idleness, and by the fact that he is already
satiated in his youth. That of the poor man is no less degen-
erate, owing to bad food, unhealthy dwellings, neglected educa-
tion, and by vicious example which at the opposite extreme,
resembles in many points that of the rich man; the exploiter
and the exploited meeting in the dens of vice. Such is the case
*Vide "Alkoholvergiftung und Degeneration" by Bunge: Leipzig 1904;
and " Hygiene of the Nerves and Mind " by Forel: Stuttgart 1905.
334 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
with gambling hells, with dens for prostitution and sexual
anomalies, where the poor blackmail the rich, while the latter
in theh capacity as social exploiters help to maintain poverty
and prostitution.
Money makes sexual intercourse unnatural ; in place of letting
coitus take its natural course, it makes it an object of amuse-
ment and pleasure, and also of speculation, and it debases the
bodies of wTetched girls by making them objects of commerce.
Unfortunately, the increasing facility of obtaining money
without working for it, due to civihzation, not only corrupts the
sexual Ufe of the wealthy and the poverty stricken, but has the
same effect on the middle classes. A healthy and normal sexual
life must be associated wdth honest and arduous work. We have
already remarked that the solution of the sexual question de-
pends partly on the suppression of alcoholic drink. We may
add that another side of the question depends on the extirpation
of the greed for money. If human beings could work for the
social welfare without private interest, sexual relations would
soon take their natural course. But it must be admitted that
it is difficult to find a practical solution for the problem of social
economy.
Rank and Social Position. — Class distinction and social posi-
tion have always played a part in sexual life. This is especially
the case where certain class customs and prejudices prescribe
a special code for marriage. The consanguinity of the nobifity
and of royal famihes, who can only marry among themselves,
has resulted in obvious degeneration. Originally there was the
desire to preserve the purity of noble blood, and rules formu-
lated with this object at first had some success; but in the long
run the exclusiveness of such selection produces degeneration of
the group which puts it into practice.
On the other hand, the severe rules which govern marriages
among the nobility have resulted in driving the latter to extra-
nuptial sexual intercourse. In their sexual excesses, the nobil-
ity, and even crowned heads, seldom amuse themselves with
honest and \irtuous girls of the working classes, but more gen-
erally with actresses of loose morals, dancing girls, and hysterical
sirens and adventuresses of aU kinds, so long as they are pretty.
INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT ON SEXUAL LIFE 335
Since the time of the feudal system, the nobility, having lost its
real reason for existence, only lives on its traditions. It re-
mains in general in a state of idle depravity, faithful to its old
traditions, except when it has succeeded in adapting itseK to
the work of modern hfe. It has, in fact, preserved the vices of
its ancestors rather than their virtues.
The more than doubtful offspring of extra-nuptial intercourse
among the nobihty have often been adopted or raised to the
nobility. Moreover, kings and princes have often ennobled
unworthy persons who had succeeded in pandering to their
follies or exciting their sexual passions. It is, therefore, not to
be wondered at if in the offspring of such unions, the blood of
the highest nobility is tainted with that of the worst kinds of
heredity.
Another sign or effect of the degeneration of the nobility is
found in the marriages they so often contract with wealthy
heiresses, often of mediocre quality, in order to repair their
escutcheon. In the Middle Ages, the nobility regarded it as
degrading to work for their living, and this prejudice accelerated
their degeneration; for nowadays the heroic and chivalrous
deeds of the Middle Ages have little opportunity for their per-
formance.
Other social classes present certain sexual peculiarities; for
example the disastrous consequences of celibacy among the
Catholic priests. This excludes an important and intelligent
portion of the species from reproduction, and also favors clan-
destine debauchery.
The army and navy also exert a detrimental action on sexual
life. First of all they foster one of the lowest forms of prosti-
tution; soldiers' women are proverbial, and one of them alone
may infect a whole regiment. In the second place, the absence
of normal sexual intercourse favors all kinds of perversion, such
as pederasty, masturbation, etc. The abominable sexual hfe of
soldiers and sailors corrupts them to such an extent that when
they marry later on they come to their wives with filthy habits,
to say nothing of syphilis and gonorrhea. The result is the
procreation of offspring who are more or less tainted in body
and mind by the effects of venereal disease combined with
336 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
alcohol. We have already mentioned the rules which forbid
German officers to marry a woman unless she possesses a certain
fortune.
In the Norwegian mercantile marine the customs contrast
happily mth those we have just mentioned, and permit officers
to live on board with their mves. In all respects the Norwegian
serves as a model in the sexual question; does he not favor con-
jugal life by only charging half-price on the boats for women
who travel with their husbands!
Other classes have a less obvious influence on sexual life.
On the whole, however, all sexual isolation of castes has an
unfavorable influence. WTierever the prejudices of a caste
compel its members to intermarry, certain special degenerations
are produced. Good quality in man is not derived from class
or position, but from true innate or hereditary nobility of char-
acter, and this alone should be the object of positive selection,
without any distinction of classes.
Individual Life. — There is no doubt that the mode of life of
the individual exerts an influence on his sexual life. High living
combined with little bodily exercise generally increases the sex-
ual appetite, while insufficient food combined with severe mus-
cular work diminishes it.
Intellectual work acts in a variable manner. A distinguished
psychologist assured me that intense intellectual work excited
his sexual appetite; others have said the opposite. As a rule,
a sedentary life increases the sexual appetite ; a life full of occu-
pation and muscular activity diminishes it. But the question
is complicated by other influences.
Alcohol diminishes sexual power, while exalting desire or even
perverting it. The artificial excitants of the sexual appetite,
cultivated by modern civilization by interested speculation, act
in rather a different way. Erotic pictures, obscene novels and
dramas, etc., constitute an unhealthy medium in our centers of
civilization, which overexcites and corrupts the sexual appetite.
The more delicate and poisonous the perfume of this atmosphere
and the more aesthetic the refinement by which it titillates the
senses, the greater is its destructive action.
The question of the reunion or separation of the sexes plays an
INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT ON SEXUAL LIFE 337
important part. Life in common among girls and boys from
infancy usually diminishes sexual excitation, in the same way
as among brothers and sisters. We find something analogous in
different branches of human activity where the two sexes live
together; for instance, at college, in the fields, and in general
where work and play is common to both sexes.
There are, however, certain exceptions to this rule, which must
not be taken too generally. Under certain circumstances, life
in common of the two sexes leads to unfavorable and even
perverted sexual excitation. This is especially the case when
alcohol adds its influence; also among nervous or ill-balanced
individuals. In my opinion it is absolutely unreasonable for
the superintendent of a lunatic asylum to organize balls at which
the insane of both sexes are provided with beer or wine. I have
only seen bad results from this, while I have obtained excellent
effects from a temporary reunion of the insane of both sexes, by
avoiding all alcoholic drinks as well as everything which could
excite the sexual appetite, such as dancing, or the bringing to-
gether of erotic or perverted individuals. A young female
onanist who suffered from sexual excitement complicated mth
a nervous condition, complained to me of being obliged to work
as a telegraphist among young men, as this continually excited
her eroticism without the possibility of satisfying it.
This situation, which is a common one in both sexes, gives us
a valuable indication. No doubt life in common for the two
sexes is normal and natural, but only on the condition that it
leads eventually to normal sexual intercourse as the result of
love. It is neither healthy nor normal to excite an appetite
continually without satisfying it. Any one who wishes to live
a continent life, for religious or other reasons, ought not to
expose himself to continual excitement by too great intimacy
with the opposite sex; he should, on the contrary, avoid every-
thing which tends to excite his sexual appetite and seek every-
thing which tends to pacify it. I am not referring here to
individuals of a naturally cold and indifTerent nature, who run
little or no risk under such circumstances.
Certain occupations, such as those of employees in stores, tele-
graph offices, etc., in which the two sexes are closely associated
338 THE SEXUAL QUESTION _
in their work, constitute from this point of view a double-edged '
sword. Other unhealthy and monotonous occupations, com-
bined with bad conditions of food and lodging, and with all kinds
of seduction — factory hands for example — have a positively
deleterious effect on sexual life, which becomes absolutely de-
praved when the two sexes work together. The situation is hardly
any better when they are only separated during working hours.
Intemats. — All internats, i.e., all establishments where indi-
viduals of the same sex hve in the same dwelhng for a long
time, exert a peculiar influence on sexual life — schools and con-
vents, for example.
The gi'eat inconvenience of all these establishments lies in the
danger of contamination from habits of onanism or pederasty.
Inverts are strongly attracted towards internats, where they
find their heart's desire where they can easily indulge their per-
verted passions; the dormitory of such an institution having
the same effect on them as that of a girl's school would have on
a young man. (Vide Chapter VIII.)
This is a matter which has not received sufficient attention
in organizing boarding-schools for boys and girls, because it was
not known that homosexual instincts are hereditary and innate.
Such cases were regarded only as acquired bad habits.
Lunatic asylums are especially attractive to sexual inverts,
who apply for the positions of attendants or nurse so as to be
able to indulge their passions on the insane patients, who are
incapable of betraying them.
Without being homosexual, nor even seduced by inverts,
many normal but erotic individuals try to satisfy their sexual
appetite on their companions — boys by pederasty, girls by les-
bian love, and both sexes by mutual onanism.
The chief danger is that of some sexually perverted individual
gaining entiy to a boarding-school and contaminating numbers
of normal individuals, without anytliing being discovered;
because it is much more difficult to supervise a school than a
family. This could be remedied better by confidence between
masters and pupils than by super\dsion.
Varia. — I should never finish if I attempted to describe all
the influences of environment. The examples mentioned will
INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT ON SEXUAL LIFE 339
suffice to show that, in a natural appetite such as the sexual, the
two extremes of asceticism and excess lead to evil and unnatural
aberrations, and that the important point is to find or create a
healthy environment for a healthy sexual life.
We hear a good deal about good or bad luck or chance in the
matter of love. I do not deny that fortuitous circumstances
often determine the happiness of an individual in his love affairs.
But it is all the more deplorable that what is called the good
maimers of society make it so difficult to correct Cupid's blun-
ders. There is room for improvement in this direction, and
many spoilt lives and much unhappiness might be avoided.
The unfavorable influence of environment might often be cor-
rected by separation or change, if this could be done in time.
CHAPTER XII
RELIGION AND SEXUAL LIFE
Transformation of Profane Customs into Religious Dogmas. —
Ethnography has taught us that in the course of time human
tribes often unconsciously transform profane customs into inte-
gral parts of their rehgion, either by attributing them to a
divine origin, or by elevating them to the rank of command-
ments of the gods, or by connecting them with other dogmas,
combining them with worship, etc.
Sexual connection plays an important part in this matter. A
great number of religious rites and customs are nothing else than
the customs of sexual life (taken in its widest sense) which have
been symbolized; inversely, a number of dogmas have for their
only motive the application of a religious basis to sexual cus-
toms, which gives them more authority.
The religious rites react powerfully on the sexual life and on
the way in which the members of the tribe or people understand
it. We will give a few striking examples.
We have seen in Chapter VI that polygamy depends first on
the idea of ownership, and secondly on marriage by purchase, to
which it owes its historic origin. But the fact that Islamism
and Mormonism, for example, have made polygamy an integral
part of their religious dogmas, has given to the whole organiza-
tion of the Mahometans and Mormons, as well as to their point
of view of existence, a particular direction which cannot be
ignored. In reality, we are just as polygamous as they are,
but our theoretical and religious sexual morality is monogamous
while theirs is polygamous, each based on contradictory "divine
commandments."
Among certain Buddhists, the wife is compelled to follow her
husband to the grave, which naturally influences sexual life
profoundly.
340
RELIGION AND SEXUAL LIFE 341
Among many savage races there exists matriarchism, which
gives the woman a high social position. This has even been
made a rehgious dogma, while it simply originates from the
natural and just idea that the mother is much more intimately
connected with the children than the father.
The duty imposed on men to marry the widow of their brother
originated from a profane command intended to regulate unions;
eventually this was made a religious dogma. In the same way
circumcision among the Jews had its origin in a hygienic custom
having no relation to religious faith. This did not prevent it
becoming later on as important a custom as baptism in Chris-
tianity. For the Jewish people it has the advantage of pro-
tecting them to a great extent from Venereal infection, and
against one of the chief causes of masturbation.
Catholicism. — We have already spoken of the celibacy of the
Catholic priests and of its lay origin. The Catholic religion also
contains a series of detailed precepts concerning sexual connec-
tion in general and marriage in particular; precepts which were
only gradually transformed into religious dogmas. As they
determine to a great extent opinions and manners in the sexual
domain, they exert a considerable social influence.
The absolute interdiction of divorce among the Catholics
(man has not the right to separate those whom God has joined
together) seals forever the most unfortunate unions and leads
to misfortunes of all kinds, separation of the married couple,
liaisons apart from marriage, etc. According to Liguori, the
Catholic Church prescribes a number of details concerning sexual
relations in marriage. The woman who, during coitus places
herself upon the man instead of under him, commits a sin. The
position and manner of performing coitus are prescribed in the
most minute details, and the holy fathers make the woman play
a part unworthy of her position as wife, while according the man
the widest liberty.
In truly Catholic marriage it is prescribed to procreate as
many children as possible, and all preventive measures in coitus
are severely condemned. Hence, if the woman is very fruitful,
the husband has only the choice between complete abstention
from coitus (when both conjoints are in agreement) and preg-
342 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
nancies following without interruption. The woman never has
the right to refuse coitus to her husband, nor the latter to refuse
it to his wife, so long as he is capable of accomplishing it.
It is easy to understand what powerful effects such precepts
have had and still have on the conjugal life of the Catholics,
particularly on the quantity and quality of their descendants.
Aural Confession. — Confession requires special mention. In
his book, ''Fifty Years in the Roman Church" (Jeheber, Ge-
neva), on page 151, Father Chiniqui, the celebrated Canadian
reformer, who later on became a Protestant, and for many
years played an important part in the Canadian Catholic clergy,
mentions the points on which the confessor interrogates the
penitents of both sexes. One cannot reproach him with being
incompetent.
No doubt the Church of to-day would reply that the con-
fessor is not obUged to put all these questions and that the
details are left to his tact. We will agree that there is a differ-
ence between the Canada of the last centmy, a new and primi-
tive country, and the Europe of the present day. But I main-
tain: Fkst, that the confessor does not content himself with
listening to what the penitents of both sexes tell him, but that
it is his duty to interrogate them; secondly, that a celibate
Catholic person, extremely serious and virtuous, to whom I
put the question unawares, informed me that not only are sex-
ual matters dealt with at the confessional, but that they play
the principal role. And, as it is a question of warning the peni-
tents against so-called sins, mortal or not, or of absolving them,
I fail to see how the priest can avoid speaking of them, when
the detailed precepts of which we have spoken exist.
I reproduce here the original Latin text. It deals with ques-
tions which have been treated in Chapter VIII, so that I shall
dispense with giving a translation.
The confessor puts the following questions to his penitents:
1. Peccant uxores, quae susceptum viri semen ejiciunt, vel
ejicere conantur (Dens, vol. VII, p. 147).
2. Peccant confuges mortaliter, si, copula incepta, prohibeant
seminationem.
3. Si vir jam semin^verit, dubiuni fit an femina lethaliter
RELIGION AND SEXUAL LIFE 343
peccat, si se retrahat a seminando; aut peccat lethaliter vir non
expedando smiinationem uxoris (p. 153).
4. Peccant confuges inter se circa actum conjugalem. Debet
servari modus, sive situs; uno ut non servetur debitum vas, sed
copula haheatur in vase praepostero, aliquoque non naturali.
Si fiat accedendo a postero, a latere, stando, sedendo, vet si vir sit
succumbus (p. 166).
5. Impotentia. Est incapacitas perficiendi copmlam carnalem
perfectatn cum seminatione viri in vase se debito, seu, de se, aptam
generationi. Vel, ut si mulier sit nimis arcta respectu unius non
respectu alterius (p. 273).
6. Notatur quod pollutio, in mulieribus possit perfici, ita ut
semen earum non effluat extra membru7n genitale. Indicium istius
allegat Billuart, si scilicet midier sensiat seminis resohdionem cum
magno voluptatis sensu, qua completa, passio satiatur (vol. IV,
p. 168).
7. Uxor se accusans, in confessione, quod negaverit debitum,
interrogatur an ex pleno rigore juris sui id petiverit (vol. VII,
p. 168).
8. Confessarius poenitentem, qui confitetur se peccasse cum
sacerdote, vel solicitatem ab eo ad turpia, potest interrogare utrum
ille sacerdos sit ejus confessarius, an in confessione sollicitaverit
(vol. VI, p. 297).
In volumes V and VII of Dens may be found many such
precepts, impossible to reproduce, on which the pious casuist
desires his penitents to be examined.
Let us now pass on to the celebrated Liguori. Among nu-
merous other obscene questions of a refined erotic nature,
every confessor is bound to put the two following to his penitents :
1. Quaerat an sit semper mortale, si vir immitat pudenda in
OS uxoris . . . f
Verius affirmo, quia in hoc actu, ob calorem oris, adest proxi-
mum periculum pollutionis, et videtur nova species luxuriae con-
tra naturam, dicta irruminatio.
2. Eodem modo, Sanchez damnat virum de mortali qui, in actu
copulae, immite ret digitum in vas praeposterum uxoris; quia, ut
ait, in hoc actu, adest affectus ad-Sodomiam (Liguori, t. VI, p.
935).
344 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Let us now leave the celebrated Liguori and pass on to Burch-
ard, the bishop of Worms. He has written a book on the ques-
tions which the priest should put at the confessional. Although
this book no longer exists it has been for ages the guide of the
Roman Catholic priests at the confessional. Dens, Liguori,
Debreyne, etc., have taken from it their most savory passages,
to recommend them as a study for our present confessors. We
will give a few examples:
(a) To young men:
1. Fecisti solus tecum fornicationem ut quidam facer e solent;
ita dico ut ipse tuum membrum virile in manumUuam acciperes,
el sic duceres praeputium tuum, et vmnu propria commoveres, ut
sic per illam delectationem semen projiceres?
2. Fornicationem fecisti cum musculo intra coxas; ita dico ut
tuum virile memhrum intra coxas alterius mitteres, et sic agitando
semen f under es?
3. Fecisti fornicationem, ut quidam facere solent, ut tuum virile
membrum in lignum perforatum aut in aliquod hujus modi mitteres
et sic per illam commotionem et delectationem semen projiceres f
4. Fecisti fornicationem contra naturam, id est, cum masculis
vel animalihus coire, id est, cum equo, aim vacca vel asina, vel
aliquo animalif (vol. I, p. 136).
(6) To young girls or women (same collection, p. 115) :
1. Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres solent, quoddam molimen,
aut machinamentum in modum virilis membri ad mensuram tuae
voluptatis, et illud loco verendorum tuorum aut alterius cum
aliquibus ligaturis ut fornicationem faceres cum aliis mulieribus,
vel alio eodem instrumento, sive alio tecum f
2. Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut jam supra
dicto molimine vel alio aliquo machinamento, tu ipsa in te solam
faceres fornicationem f
3. Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, quando libidinem
se vexantem extinguere volunt, quae se conjugunt quasi coire
debeant et possint, et conjungunt invicem puerperio sua, et si
fricando pruritum illarum extinguere desiderantf
4. Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut cum flio tuo
parvulo fornicationem faceres, ita dico ut filium tuum supra
turpidinem tuam poneres ut sic imitaberis fornicationem?
RELIGION AND SEXUAL LIFE 345
5. Fecisti quod quaedam muUeres facer e solent, ut succimiberes
aliquo jumento et illud jumentum ad coitum qualicumque posses
ingenio ut sic coiret tecum?
The celebrated Debreyne has written a whole book on the
same subject for the instruction of young confessors, and in it
he has enumerated all kinds of debauchery and sexual per-
version which he could imagine, "Maechiology," or Treatise on
all the Sins against the Sixth (seventh in the Decalogue) and the
Ninth (tenth) Commandments, as well as on all questions of
married life connected with them.
This book is very celebrated and is widely studied in the
Roman Church. We only quote from it the two following
questions :
To men:
Ad cognoscendum an usque ad pollutionem se tetigerint, quando
tempore et quo fine se tetigerint; an tunc quoddam motus in corpore
experti fuerint, et per quantum temporis spatium,; an cessantihus
tactihus nihil insolitum et turpe acciderit; ad non longe majorem
in corpore voluptatem perciperint in fine inactum quam in eorum
principio; an turn in fine quando magnam delectationem carnalem
senserunt, omnes motus corporis cessaverint; an non malefacti
fuerint f etc., etc.
To girls:
Quae sese tetigisse fatentur, an non aliquem pruritum, extinguere
tentaverit, et utrum pruritus ille cessaverit cum magnam senserint
voluptatem; an tunc ipsimet tactus cessaverint?
Among a thousand other analogous precepts the reverend
Kenrick, bishop of Boston, in the United States, gives the fol-
lowing to his confessors:
Uxor quae, in usu matrimonii, se vertit, ut non recipiat semen,
vel statim post illud acceptum surgit, ut expellatur, lethaliter peccat;
sed opus non est ut diu resuspina jaceat, quwn matrix, hrevi semen
attrahat, et mox, arctissime claudatur.
Puellae patienti licet se vertere et conari ut non recipiat semen,
quod injuria et emittitur; sed, acceptum non licet expellere, quia
jam possessionem pacificam habet et hand absque injuria naturae
ejiceretur.
Conjuges senes plerumque coeunt absque ctdpa, licet contingat
346 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
semen extra vas effundi; id enim per accidens fit ex infirmitati
naturae.
Quod si vires adeo sint fradae ut nulla sit seminandi intra vas
spes, jam nequ£unt jure conjugi uti (vol. Ill, p. 317).
Such is the teaching of Chiniqui, the man whose courage and
powerful individuality succeeded in introducing abstinence
from alcohol in Canada. His long life was that of a pioneer
and an inflexible champion of social and moral reform in that
country, based on Christianity. He died at the age of ninety.
I have quoted the erotic precepts of the confessional from
him, as I was anxious to quote from an absolutely rehable source.
It was not with a light heart that Chiniqui abandoned the Cath-
olic Church, but only after violent and bitter struggles with
conscience, struggles of which he relates the tragic episodes, and
which lasted for many years.
He commences the chapter from which we have quoted with
the following words: "Let legislators, fathers and husbands
read this chapter and ask themselves the question whether the
respect which they owe to their mothers, their wives and their
daughters does not impose upon them the duty of forbidding
auricular confession. How is it possible for a young girl to
remain pure in mind after such conversations with an unmar-
ried man? Is she not more prepared for the depths of vice
than for conjugal life?" The author of these hnes is a man
who was obliged for many years to be a confessor himself, and
who understood to what extent confession corrupted the sexual
life of women and priests. It is true that persons, priests or
women, of strong character, and especially those with a cold
nature from the sexual point of view, may resist such sexual
excitation. But has confession been specially instituted for
this type of character? Every one who is not a hypocrite will
own that it is exactly the contrary.
Religious Prudery. — The results of such a combination of
sexual life with religious prescriptions are a mixture of ridiculous
prudery and continual eroticism. In certain convents (those of
the nuns of Galicia, for example) the nuns forbid their pupils to
wash the sexual organs, because it is improper! In Austria the
nuns often cover the crucifix in their bedroom with a handker-
RELIGION AND SEXUAL LIFE 347
chief, "so that Christ cannot see their nakedness"! But the
convents of nuns, in the Middle Ages, were often transformed
into brothels; and it is not uncommon to see hypocrites or
the subjects of erotic hysteria (both men and women) perform
sexual orgies of the worst kind under the cloak of religious
ecstasy.
Hottentots. Eunuchs. — Among the Hottentots, the hps of
the vulva (labia minora) in women are artificially elongated,
and among the Orientals eunuchs are made. In themselves
these two operations have certainly nothing to do with religion
and only originated in profane customs. In the course of time
they were made religious precepts, which has deeply rooted
them in the customs of the people.
Religious Eroticism. — The examples which we have cited show
to what extent man is disposed to clothe his eroticism
with the cloak of religion. He then attributes a divine
origin to his desires and lays the precepts which he attaches to
them on the commandments of his God or gods, so as to sanctify
them. Hence, the unnatural influence of a mysticism, which
is nothing else than the crystallized product of the fantastic
imagination of men, raised to a dogma, imposes itself indirectly
on natural sexual life, by entering at the back door under the
cloak of religion. It is obvious that grave abuses or even vices
often acquire the seal and power of religious precepts; while in
the same domain a number of other customs or precepts are
based on good hygienic or moral principles, for example, cir-
cumcision and conjugal fidelity.
It is perhaps in the domain of pathology that the relations of
religion to sexual life are the most striking (see Chapter VIII).
We must not forget that the facts of reproduction seem to ig-
norant people and especially to barbarians, to be of a very
mysterious nature. These people have no idea of germinal
cells or their conjugation. They see in conception, embry-
ogeny, pregnancy and birth, the miraculous effects of a divine
and occult higher power — of the divinity, often even of the
devil.
The violent excitement which is associated with the sexual
appetite and with love urges man to ecstasy; hence it is not to
348 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
be wondered at that eroticism is so often complicated by ecstatic
religious sentiments.
In his book on Psychopathia sexualis, Krafft-Ebing remarks
how easily religion, poetry and eroticism are combined and
mingled in the obscm'e feelings and presentiments of maturing
youth. In the life of saints there is always the question of
sexual temptations, in which the most elevated and ideal sen-
timents are mixed with the most repugnant erotic images. On
the same basis are developed the sexual orgies of different reli-
gious fetes in the ancient world, as well as in certain modern
sects.
Mysticism, religious ecstasy and sexual voluptuousness are
often combined in a real trinity, and one often sees unsatisfied
sensuality seek compensation in religious exaltation. Krafft-
Ebing cites the following cases from Friedreich's "Legal Psy-
chology" (p. 389):
In this way the nun Blaubekin was perpetually tormented by
the thought of what happened to the part of Jesus' body removed
by circumcision.
In order to make his devotions to the lamb of God, Veronique
Juliani, who was canonized by Pope Pius II, took into his cham-
ber a terrestrial lamb, embraced it and sucked its breasts.
Saint Catherine of Genes often suffered from such internal heat,
that, to cool herself, she laid on the ground, crying: "Love, love,
I can do no more!" In doing this she felt a peculiar inclination
for her confessor. One day, putting his hand to her nose, she
perceived an odor which penetrated her heart, "a celestial odor
the voluptuousness of which could wake the dead."
The Role of Mental Pathology in Religious Eroticism. — Among
the insane, and especially in women, but also in men afflicted
with paranoia (a mental disease) we often find a strange and
repugnant mixture of eroticism and religious images. Such are
the everlasting betrothals with Christ, the Virgin Mary, with
God or with the Holy Spirit, betrothals in which the venereal
orgasm is combined with imaginary coitus and masturbation,
followed by imaginary pregnancy and childbirth. These symp-
toms give us a clear indication of the relation which exists be-
tween eroticism and rehgious exaltation. The French alienists
RELIGION AND SEXUAL LIFE 349
have even designated them by the characteristic term of "ero-
tico-rehgious dehrium." A single visit to the female division
of a lunatic asylum is often sufficient to satisfy the visitor.
A point which has received less attention is the immense his-
torical influence which certain psychopathological personalities,
chiefly hysterical subjects, but also some crazy persons or
hereditary visionaries, have exercised at all times on human
destiny, usually by the aid of the suggestive effects of sexual
and religious ideas (erotico-religious), the connections of which
have not always been clear.
Every psychiatrist knows the insane whose delirium is com-
bined with religious or mystic exaltation, and who by the mys-
ticism of their delirium have exercised and continue to exercise
a profound influence on the mass of humanity which surround
them — "Panurge's Sheep," if I may use the expression. These
people are themselves so dominated by the pathological influ-
ence of their auto-suggestions or their delirium that they be-
have with the fanaticism of fakirs, and exhibit an extraordinary
energy and perseverance in the pursuit of the object of their
morbid ideas. By their assurance, the sentiment of infallibility,
and the fire of faith which is manifested in their prophetical
manner, they fascinate the feeble brains of the people who sur-
round them and attract them by their suggestive action.
A very human and often powerful eroticism is usually asso-
ciated with their delirium; but it is covered by a cloak of reli-
gious ecstasy, which imposes on natures disposed to exaltation,
and renders them blind to the ignominy which often lies under
this ecstasy.
What makes these patients so persuasive is the fact that they
are themselves persuaded. Even the normal man, we must
admit, is guided less by reason than by sentiment, and the per-
sons we have just described exert a powerful action on senti-
ment, and this more by their piercing glance, their prophetic
and dominating tone, their manner and appearance, than by
the extremely confused text of their discourses and doctrines.
In this way there are always arising small epidemics of at-
traction in which a group of individuals aflows itself to be infatu-
ated by so-called prophets, messiahs, holy virgins and other
350 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
visionaries, who are only lunatics or crazy persons. Under their
influence are produced certain forms of insanity by contagion,
which have been called double, triple or quadruple madness,
and which may sometimes take the form of an epidemic.
When the "prophet" is more consistent in his words andi
actions, or when his environment is still very ignorant and super- '
stitious, the crowd of believers increases still more rapidly, and
thus one sees even at the present day in less-civilized countries
new sects or religious guilds, more or less ephemeral, in which
the spirit of the prophet sometimes stirs up grave sexual orgies.
Among more cultured people the prophet is.generally exposed
or sent to a lunatic asylum, much to the indignation of his disci-
ples, who often consist of his wife and children and a few feeble-
minded acquaintances.
Thanks to the cheapness of printing, these prophets often pu!>
lish their new religious system and sell it among their dupes.
I possess a small library of works of this kind which have been
sent me by their authors; probably with the idea that they
might one day be taken for fools, and to prove to me in advance
that they were not.
According to them, God has personally revealed to them the
new truth in which they believe, and has appointed them as
prophets. Erotic images are generally associated with their
system. One of them, whose system is astronomical, divides the
planets into males and females. Another, a lunatic, describes
the pathological sexual sensations by the term of "psycho-sexual
contact by action at a distance." These are phenomena which
we meet with at each step in psychiatry, and which give the
clue to what follows.
The Historical Role of Mental Anomalies which are Not Very
Apparent and Border on Genius. Their Influence on Religious
Eroticism. — These persons are not always afflicted with para-
noia or other grave psychoses, but often hereditary and consti-
tutional psychopaths who are only half-crazy or simply hys-
terical, and who may, in spite of this defect, possess a certain
degree of intellectual power, an energetic will and the fire of
enthusiasm. Things then take an essentiafly different course,
even when they rest on an analogous basis.
I RELIGION AND SEXUAL LIFE 351
The prophet combines with his exaltation a logic which is
often very concise in its details, although applied on a morbid
basis. Moreover, he clothes his utterances in fine and poetical
language, and in this way succeeds in rallying round him, not a
flock of Panurge's ignorant sheep, but more elevated people and
even a considerable proportion of the surrounding society. In
this case pathological exaltation may be united to a high moral
and intellectual ideal, which is very apt to veil the bizarre fan-
cies of the prophet. We thus meet with the astonishing but
undeniable fact that certain great historical personalities who
have exercised a powerful influence on humanity were of more
or less pathological nature. We discover among them erotico-
rehgious traits, more or less marked, often even as the leading
threads of their arguments.
This important category of individuals constitutes a whole
series of transitions between the insane prophets of whom we
have spoken and well-balanced men of genius. It is often very
difficult to understand and interpret the series of intermediate
forms, so graduating and so variable, which exist between
insanity and genius. It is necessary to guard against any
exclusive generalization in one way or the other.
In any case, the fact that many men of genius are of patho-
logical nature does not authorize us to regard every person of
genius or originality as insane, whether he attacks the routine
and prejudices of his contemporaries, or whether he opens up
new horizons and goes out of the beaten track. Let me cite a
few examples.
Joan of Arc was, in my opinion, a hysterical genius whose
hallucinations w^ere auto-suggestive. The distress of France
had profoundly agitated her, and, fired with the desire to save
her country, her brain was affected by auto-suggestion with
hallucinations of the voices of saints and visions, which pointed
out her mission and which she regarded as coming from real
saints in heaven. At that period such things were common
enough and need not surprise us. In spite of her good sense
and modesty, Joan of Arc was urged by an exaltation uncon-
scious of self. By a destiny as astonishing as providential, this
young girl of genius, and at the same time pathological, exalted
352 THE SEXUAL QUESTION j
by ecstatic hallucinations, led France to a victorious war of '
freedom. The most conscientious historical sources show that
the morality of Joan of Arc was pure and above reproach. Her
replies to the invidious questions of the Inquisition are admirable
and bear witness both to her high intelligence and the moral
elevation of her sentiments. It is evident that the sentiments
of love were transformed in her into religious ecstasy and enthu-
siasm for the ideal of her mission, a frequent occurrence among
women.
Another remarkable example is that of Thomas a Becket. The
sudden transformation of this man of the world into an ascetic
priest (it is true, on the occasion of his nomination as arch-
bishop), from this devoted friend and servitor of the king of
England into his most violent adversary, and into a champion
of the Church against the State, evidently represents the auto-
suggestive transformation of a hysterical subject, for this is
the only way of explaining such a sudden and complete contra-
diction which caused him to change suddenly from one fanaticism
to a contrary one.
The religious exaltation of the Mormon prophet. Smith, was
no doubt combined with eroticism, which made him organize
his sect on the basis of polygamy.
Mahomet also had visions, and sexual connection plays an im-
portant part in his teaching and prophesies. The apostle St.
Paul was also a visionary who passed suddenly from one extreme
to another as the result of hallucination. Pascal, Napoleon,
and Rousseau presented very marked pathological traits.
Although some of these cases have no direct connection with
the sexual question, I have mentioned them to show how such
personalities exert their influence on the masses, and through
them on history. As soon as they acquire authority, their
peculiar ideas and sexual conceptions, however exclusive or even
absurd they may be, react strongly on their contemporaries, as
we see to-day the ascetic ideas of Tolstoi influence his numerous
disciples.
Sudden conversions, whatever may be their nature, especially
when the convert goes from one extreme to another, are not the
fruit of reason, but depend on suggestion or auto-suggestion
RELIGION AND SEXUAL LIFE 353
and especially on pathological suggestibility. (Vide Chapter
IX).
In other respects sexual anomahes often govern the acts of
hysterical persons and other psychopaths. The Roman em-
perors, Nero, Tiberius and Caligula were almost certainly
sadists and enjoyed sexual pleasure at the sight of the sufferings
of their victims. Valerie, Messalina and Catherine de Medici
were also female sadists. Under the hypocritical veil of reli-
gion, Catherine de Medici was the principal instigator of the
Massacre of St. Bartholomew at Paris, and wallowed in pleasure
at the sight of the massacre of the Huguenots.
On the other hand, masochism may give tone to the thoughts
and sexual feelings of certain persons of great influence, such as
Rousseau, and to sects of ascetics, such as the faku's, etc.
Involuntarily, therefore, the sexual feelings of every prophet
and founder of religion, even during a short period of his life
only, influence more or less his religious system and consequently
the laws of morality based on it, which remain after his death.
Hence it is that sentiments, as variable in different individuals
as sexual sentiments, are obliged to submit to the constraint of
fixed and tyrannical dogmas which martyrize for centuries, or
even thousands of years, men who have other opinions than the
founder of the religion or its interpreters who succeed him.
In religion we see everywhere idealized eroticism, and often
idealism perfumed with eroticism. The Songs of Solomon,
the original sense of which was very lay, like that of most
religious matters, has been made allegorical and applied to
the Christian Church, but it was and wiU always remain an
erotic poem.
It is hardly necessary to add that natural eroticism very often
leads the severe and ascetic preachers of morality to the grossest
hypocrisy. Priests and other pious persons often preach an
idealized asceticism, while in secret they commit the most dis-
gusting sexual excesses.
We must not, however, judge such crying inconsistencies too
severely; they are to a great extent unconscious and are the
result of the shock of passion against the tyranny of dogma,
prejudice, and public opinion. They are often also the result
354 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
of mental anomalies. When science is allowed to enlighten
sexual life freely and openly, the hypocrisy of normal people
will cease, and that of the abnormal will be recognized in time
and prevented from doing harm.
Transformation of Eroticism into Religious Sentiment. — In
ordinary life we find everywhere traces of the mixtm-e of religion
with sexual sensations and images. The religious ceremonies
of marriage among all peoples constitute a significant remnant
thereof.
When we look for the causes of sudden and progressive reli-
gious exaltation we often discover that it is nothing else than
compensation for disappointed love. I refer here to true and
fervid exaltation, identified with the whole inner consciousness,
and not to the religion of habit which the average man scarcely
remembers in his daily life, and only observes on Sunday in the
form of a conventional promenade, or a contribution to the
church. This religion of habit is only an empty form, which
awakes no sentiment, and consequently is associated with no
sensation, even erotic, in its followers.
In other individuals it may be otherwise, and certainly was
so formerly. Everything goes to prove that the exalted senti-
ments of sympathy from which our religion is to a great extent
derived, such as the holy fervor, the devotional ardor and the
delights of ecstasy which it has so often procured for its follow-
ers and still procm'es for some of them, whether their object be
God, Allah, Jehovah, Jesus Christ, Buddha, Vishnu, the Virgin
Mary, or the Saints, that these sentiments have to a gi^eat
extent their roots in primary erotic sensations and sentiments,
or represent the direct transformation of them.
It is needless to say that all this may take place quite uncon-
sciously and with the purest intentions. I hasten to add that
the majority of true religious sentiments come from quite a
different source.
When we study the religious sentiment profoundly, especially
in the Christian religion, and Catholicism in particular, we find
at each step its astonishing connection with eroticism. We
find it in the exalted adoration of holy women, such as Mary
Magdalene, Marie de Bethany, for Jesus, in the holy legends.
RELIGION AND SEXUAL LIFE 355
in the worship of the Virgin Mary in the Middle Ages, and
especially in art. The ecstatic Madonnas in our art galleries
cast their fervent regards on Jesus or on the heavens. The
expression in Murillo's ''Immaculate Conception" may be
interpreted by the highest voluptuous exaltation of love as well
as by holy transfiguration. The "Saints" of Correggio regard
the Holy Virgin with an amorous ardor which may be celestial,
but appears in reality extremely terrestrial and human.
Numerous sects, both ancient and modern, have entered on
the scene in a hardly less libidinous manner; for example, the
sexual excesses of the anabaptists in former times and the
sexual ecstasies of certain modern sects in America.
If the objection is raised that these sects are the pathological
excrescences of religion, I reply with then- disciples as fol-
lows: "We have come into the world because your State reli-
gions are sunk in indifference, hypocrisy and hollow formality,
offering nothing to the human heart but empty plii-ases. It
behooves us to awaken from this sleep. We want enthusiasm
and fervor to transform the inner life of man and convert him."
These words, which we can see and hear everywhere by opening
our eyes and ears, constitute a formal avowal of the suggestive
factor in religion. (See Chapter IX,)
In the Canton of Zurich I have myself often had occasion to
observe, especially among women, the followers of the singular
sect of the Pastor Zeller, of Maennedorf. He is a kind of
visionary prophet who heals people after the manner of Christ
and John the Baptist, by placing his hands on them and anoint-
ing them with oil. The cures which he obtains are due naturally
to suggestion, like those of Lourdes, but he attributes them to
divine miracles. He even told me naively that he heard a
grinding (crepitation) in a broken bone, which he regarded as a
miraculous cure! A crowd of women, mostly hysterical, col-
lected around this man with an ardor which was unconsciously
directed much more to his person than to that of God or Chi'ist
whom he was supposed to symbolize. I have treated patients
who had been to him, and who associated with his person both
the mildest and the most carnal erotic images— of course, in the
innocence of their hearts.
356 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
It is far from me to reproach this sincere man and many
others of the same kind, especially the priests who are surrounded
by a halo of sanctity pushed to ecstasy. I only maintain that
when a human being exalts himself in the search for pure-
mindedness and sanctity, thus denying his true nature, he is
always in danger of falling unconsciously into the most gross
sensuality, and at the same time of sanctifying this sensuality.
Description of Religious Eroticism by the Poets. — The Swiss
poet, Gottfried Keller, with his peculiar genius has described
religious eroticism in an admirable way, especially in his
seven legends. Read, for example, Dorothea' s^Blumenkorhchen
(Dorothea's little flower-basket), in which the terrestial lover of
Dorothea ends by becoming jealous of her celestial lover, of
whom she always speaks in the most exalted sentiments. Wher-
ever she went she spoke in the most tender terms and expressed
the most ardent desire for a celestial lover that she had found,
who waited in immortal beauty to press her against his shining
breast. When the wicked prefect had bound Dorothea on the
gridiron under which was placed a slow fire, this hurt her deli-
cate body, and she uttered smothered cries. Then her terrestrial
lover, Theophilus, forcing his way through the crowd, burst her
bonds and said with a sad smile, "Does it hurt you, Dorothea?"
But when suddenly freed from all pain she immediately replied :
"How could it hurt me, Theophilus? I lay on the roses of the
lover I adore ! This is my wedding day ! " Keller shows us here,
along with eroticism, the suggestive effect of ecstasy, which
among martyrs, may reach the most complete anaesthesia.
Goethe has also described erotico-religious ecstasy; for ex-
ample, at the end of the second part of Faust, in the prayers
addressed by certain anchorites to the queen of heaven.
Distinction Between Religion and the Ecstasy Derived from
Eroticism. — It would be quite false to maintain that religion in
itself arises from sexual sensations. The terror of death and
the enigmas of existence, the sentiments of human weakness
and insufficiency of life, the want of consolation for all miseries,
the hope of a future life, all play an important part in the
origin of religions. On the other hand, it is necessary to recog-
nize the considerable role of the erotic sexual factor in rehgious
EELIGION AND SEXUAL LIFE 357
sentiments and dogmas, where on the one hand it leads to
ardent fervor, while on the other hand it tyrannizes, especially
by the exclusiveness of its residues transformed into dogmas,
the natural expansion of the erotic sentiments which are so
variable in individuals.
One of the most difficult and important future tasks of social
science toward humanity is, therefore, to set free sexual rela-
tions from the t5a-anny of rehgious dogmas, by placing them in
harmony with the true and purely human laws of natural
ethics.
Compensations. — In the animal series we have seen that sen-
timents of sympathy are derived, in a general way, by phylog-
eny, from the sentiments of sexual attraction, and we often
see in man a sexual love, deceived, despised or transfigured, seek
compensation or idealization in the fervor or rehgious exalta-
tion. The question naturally presents itself whether this com-
pensation or this ideal is indispensable, and if other objects of a
human and not mystical nature cannot take its place.
There are, in my opinion, purely human ideals, which are
capable of transfiguring erotic love "rehgiously" quite as well
as the mysticism of so-cahed divine revelations. Christianity is
called the religion of love, and the apostle Paul even places
charity higher than faith. But what is charity but the syn-
thesis of the social sentiments of sympathy, devotion and self-
denial, for the benefit of humanity? Cannot it, therefore, be
estabhshed on another basis than that of cheques to be drawn
on paradise? Cannot exaltation and fervor apply their powerful
faith, the beauty of their form and the elevation of their senti-
ments to the social ideal and the future welfare of our children?
Cannot we replace the cult of religious legends, the adoration of
the works of Jehovah and Cliiist, as they are given in the Bible,
by the reUgion of our descendants and their welfare?
In my opinion, the suggestion of religious ecstasy and love
might well be directed toward the benefit of society. Its
fanaticism is admirably adapted to shake the indifference and
indolence of men; but this source of energy should not be wasted
in the adoration of legendaiy mirages, but used for the efficacious
culture of a true human religion of love on earth.
CHAPTER XIII
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE — GENERALITIES
Rights and Liberty. — Human ideas of right are very curious.
Every one appeals to right and Uberty, and naturally thinks of
himself first, without perceiving that in continually claiming his
proper rights, he tramples under foot those of others. How
beautiful are these words Rights and Liberty! But in everyday
life in what an uncompromising way they oppose each other!
To give satisfaction to my rights and liberty, the right of com-
plete development, according to my natm'al sentiments, is a
thing which is perfectly impossible; or, is only practicable by
constantly infringing the right and Uberty of my fellow beings.
Nevertheless people keep harping on this theme; with the
exalted tone of intimate conviction they inveigh against our
social organization, cursing the malice of others, but show them-
selves perfectly incapable of resolving the contradictions which
gave rise to their thirst for Uberty and justice.
The cry of despair addressed to right and Uberty by modern
society is nothing else than the expression of the instinctive sen-
timent of anger and revolt produced by the natural evolution of
our phylogeny. The savage instincts, stiU considerable in the
hereditary foundation of human nature (the mneme), revolt
against the straight- jacket placed on them by social Ufe, and
against the want of Uberty on the earth, which is already too
small for humanity.
The natural man is eager for expansion and liberty, and
accustoms himself "^ith difUculty to the severe restrictions
which social necessities impose upon him. His nature is still
that of a semi-nomadic animal, living as an autocrat with his
family, possessed of a number of egoistic wants, and, wherever
he goes, opposing the rights, liberties and desires of other men,
who generaUy compel him to subordinate his desires to theirs.
358
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 359
This is the true reason of this impotent cry of vexation and
anger against the mahce of others and the defectiveness of social
organization. And yet this cry is absolutely necessary, in order
that we may find and put in practice a social formula as tolerable
as possible for the future. But, if we except the question of
capital and labor, there is no domain in which social hindrance
is so cruelly felt as in the sexual.
What is human right? Apart from formally admitted dis-
tinctions we shall divide what is called right from the psycho-
logical and human point of view into two categories of ideas;
natural rights and conventional rights.
Natural Rights. Right of the Stronger. — Natural right is
quite a relative idea: the right to life and its conditions. But,
as in this world, which is said to be created by a personal and
perfect God, things are so amicably arranged that living crea-
tures can only exist by devouring one another, the oldest effec-
tive natural right of every living being is precisely that of de-
vouring others weaker than itself. This is the right of the
stronger. Therefore, the absolute natural right is the right of
the stronger.
Rights of Groups. Ants. — These notions become altered,
however, if we regard them from the point of view of relative
natural right. This does not concern all living beings, but only
certain groups. The rights of groups are relative from a double
point of view. On the one hand they give the group of individuals
concerned the right of interfering with the right to life of other
groups, even to extinction. On the other hand — and this is the
better aspect of the rights of groups — they are completed by what
are called the duties of each individual toward others of the same
gi-oup, that is to say, the obUgation to have regard for and even
protect then- rights equally as his own. The rights of a group
include the social rights and duties in the limits of that group.
It is among animals, especially the ants, that we find the most
ideal organization of the rights of a group. Each individual of
the ant colony acts in the interests of the community, which are
the same as its own. It has the right to be nourished and
housed and to satisfy all its immediate wants, but at the same
time it is its duty to labor unceasingly in building and repahing
360 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
the common dwelling, to nom-ish its fellows, to aid in the repro-
duction and bringing-up of the brood, to defend the community
and even to take the offensive against every living being who
does not belong to the community, in order to increase its
resources.
The rights and duties have here become completely instinctive
by adaptation, that is to say, they are performed without com-
mands or instruction. They result spontaneously from the nat-
ural organization of ants without the least external obligation
intervening. Here, the cry of distress of the ferocious human
beast, of whom we have just spoken, is completely absent, for
duty is replaced by instinct or by appetite, and its accomplish-
ment is accompanied by a natural sentiment of pleasure. Every
ant could be idle without being punished by its comrades, if it
were capable of wishing to be so, but this is impossible. Com-
munities of ants can only exist on the basis of the social instinct
of labor and mutual support, without which they would imme-
diately disappear.
Egoism and the Rights of Groups in Man. Hviman Rights. —
The notions of the rights of groups in man are infinitely more
compUcated and more difficult to understand. As we have
already seen, the most primordial instinctive sentiment in man
is limited to his family and his iimnediate surroundings. But
here even it leaves much to be desired. Family disputes,
quarrels between brothers and sisters are frequent enough;
parricide, fratricide and infanticide are not rare. In addition to
this, beyond the narrow circle of the family, disputes, hatred
between individuals, deception, robbery and many worse things
are always the order of the day. In struggles between parties
and classes, in the abuse of privileges of caste and fortune, in
war, in commerce, in a word in everything, private interests of
egoism take precedence of the general interests of humanity.
These facts, and a thousand other pitiable phenomena of the
same kind in human society, bear witness to the egoistic and
rapacious nature of man, which proves how fit tie the social
instinct is developed in his brain. Human society is founded
much more on custom and tradition, imposed by the force of
circumstances, than on nature. Human infants resemble kit-
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE ' 361
tens at first much more than young social beings. In primitive
times, when the earth appeared large to man, the rights of
groups were limited to small communities which looked upon
other men, the same as animals and plants, as legitimate prey.
Cannibalism and even the chase show clearly that man began by
becoming more rapacious and more carnivorous than his pithe-
canthropoid ancestor, and his cousin the ape of the present day.
It is only later, after the progressive enlargement of stronger
communities at the expense of weaker; still later, when man
commenced to comprehend the sufferings for the community
which result from the autocracy and passion for unlimited
pleasure of a few persons; finally, when he discovered the nar-
row limits of the earth, that notions of humanity and humanita-
rianism, that is to say the sentiment of human solidarity, were
able to develop in the general conscience. It was, however, one
of the ancients who said "I am a man and nothing human can
be strange to me." But in his time, as in that of Jesus Christ,
civilization was already far advanced and influenced by the
wide humanitarian ideas, more ancient still, of the Assyrians
and the Buddhists.
Every one who reflects will understand that the relativity of
the rights of groups in man and that of the duties which corre-
spond to them, must in time expand and be applied, httle by
little, to all the human inhabitants of the earth. What is more
difficult is the definition of what should be understood under the
term of humanity, capable of being socialized and cultivated.
No doubt, the gap which exists between the lowest Uving
human race and the highest ape is considerable and without
direct transition. However, we gradually begin to recognize,
on the one hand, that we have certain duties toward animals, at
least toward those which serve us, and, on the other hand, we
know that certain of the lower human races, such as the pigmies,
the Veddas and even the Negroes, are inaccessible to a higher
civilization, and especially incapable by themselves of main-
taining what a number of their individuals learn by training
when they live, among us. We shall, therefore, have to choose
finally between the gradual extinction of these races or that of
our own.
362 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
It is not my business to deal with this question here, to trace
the limits of civilizable humanity, or to examine the rights and
duties of civiUzed men to each other relatively to the rest of the
living world; or, in other words, to what extent civilized man
should have the relative right of subjecting other living beings,
exploiting them in his own interests, nourishing them, or eventu-
ally exterminating them for the safety of his own existence.
As regards the animal and vegetable kingdoms, from the
amoeba to the orang-utan, the question is simple enough and
settled. It is much more difficult to decide for men and for
peoples separated from us by great racial differences. I must
emphasize the profoundness of this difference. It is evident
that the higher cultivated races, or rather blends of races, which
live to-day will do better to live in peace than to mutually exter-
minate each other.
It is necessary to discuss these questions at the risk of hurting
the feelings of sentimental persons. But what is the use of being
blind to such patent facts? It is not too soon to look closely
into the future, and it is only thus that we can arrive at any
useful result. The natural rights of man should evolve more and
more from a complex of social rights and duties toward a single
great gi'oup, which we may call civilized humanity, the relative
limits of which can only be traced by repeated trials and by
practical experience. The instincts of the wild beast are still
so deeply rooted, even in civilized men, that they can only be
adapted gradually and even painfully to a natural right thus
understood and limited. We must honestly admit that such a
right only merits very relatively the denomination of natural
rights. In fact, social rights are necessarily artificial in man.
A few elementary rights and duties only are quite natural,
especially in the sexual domain. We are concerned here with
adaptations in the form of instincts which serve for the support
and development of the family, as well as for the protection of
the individual. Among these we may mention the right to fife,
the duty of labor and the right to labor, the right of the infant
to be nourished by its mother and to be cared for and protected
by its parents, the duty of parents to nourish their children,
the duty of the husband to protect his wife, the right to obtain
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 363
nourishment from the animal and vegetable kingdoms, the right
to satisfy the sexual appetite, etc.
There exists, however, a series of other rights and duties,
which are so necessary that they maybe termed natural. Such
are the right to possess a dwelling place; to defend one's life
against attack; to think and beUeve what one wishes so long
as one does not impose one's ideas and faith on others; the duty
to respect the life and property of one's neighbor; the duty to
give a healthy and sufficient education to youth, both in body
and mind, etc.
If we regard the matter without prejudice, certain rights and
duties which have been hitherto considered as natural and self-
evident, become very doubtful. Such are ecclesiastical and
religious rights and duties, patriotic and national duties, the
rights and duties of war, the rights of privileged classes, the rights
of property, etc. It is clear, from an unprejudiced examination
of the development of humanity, that these so-called rights and
duties are only the historic legacies of mysticism or of Hmited
human groupings, and in great part artificial. The rights and
duties of members of the groups in question consisted in mutu-
ally protecting their opinions and their national and reHgious
interests, etc., and in subjecting or even trampling under foot
those of other human groups. These lead us quite naturally
to the second category of general notions of rights.
Conventional Rights. — To speak correctly, conventional rights
are not rights. They are simply a dogmatic sanction applied
to all kinds of customs and abuses that men have appropriated, •
according to local chcumstances and their fortuitous con-
quests or acquisitions. Here, the consequences of the natural
rights of the stronger, religious mysticisms and all sorts of hu-
man passions, the sexual appetite especially, play a very varied
and complex role.
The absurdity and injustice of conventional rights is shown
by the difference, often even the absolute contrast, of the cor-
responding conception of rights among different peoples. In
one, polygamy is a right and even a divine institution; in an-
other, it is a crime. Individual murder is generally considered
as criminal, but in warfare the slaughter of masses becomes a
364 THE SEXUAL QUESTION 1
duty and even a \drtue. Theft and rapine are regarded in times i
of peace as crimes, but in time of war, under the form of annexa- j
tion and plunder they are the uncontested rights of the victor, j
In a kingdom, the monarch is looked upon as a holy person and i
offense to his majesty as a crime; in a democracy, it is individual j
domination which is regarded as criminal. j
Falsehood and mental restriction are, in certain cases at least,
the rights or even the duty of the Catholic, who is only forbidden
to swear falsely in the name of God and religion, while others
consider all falsehood more or less unjustifiable; others again
regard every oath as sinful.
The contradictions, inconsistencies, urmatural prescripts and
tyrannies of what is called conventional rights in different
peoples are innumerable, and the notions of our rights which we
have inherited from the Romans are not much better.
Retaliation. — In historical epochs, we see the rights of the
stronger succeeded by certain notions of rights which may still
be considered as primordial; such is the law of retaliation or
lynch law, based on the natural sentunent of vengeance, which
is itself derived from anger, jealousy and pride, and says "An
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." The law of retaliation
is very natural and very human. Although of savage origin, it
has at least the merit of recognizing in men an equal right in
retaliation for injury caused in a brutal fashion, without con-
sidering inner motives.
Expiation. — We also find in the old law another notion de-
rived partly from the preceding, but chiefly from religious mys-
ticism— the notion of expiation. After constructing in his own
image a divinity blinded by hmnan passions, man attributed to
him, from fear of vengeance, sentiments of anger and indigna-
tion regarding his baseness and malice toward his neighbor.
He then conciliated the divinity and appeased his wrath by
making sacrifices, human or otherwise.
At first, sacrifices were not made of criminals or guilty per-
sons, but of innocent lambs, men or beasts, sometimes with all
kinds of torture, to appease the supposed wrath of the gods.
Gradually, however, these customs became more humane and
were changed to the notions of expiation which we still have.
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 365
Whosoever has committed a crime should expiate it by some
kind of pain, eventually by death. In our modern penal law,
notions of expiation and retaliation are blended, and when we
study its roots in ethnology we are not surprised to see the expia-
tion and punishment of so-called crimes against God or religion.
We find in this fact a singular mixture of rehgious and judicial
notions. A curious way of appeasing the divinity is the sacrifice
of animals and other offerings which ancient and savage peoples
made and still make, in returning thanks for victory or some
other good fortune, or to appease supposed wrath.
Themis. — In spite of all these errors, ancient civilization rep-
resented as the ideal of right a goddess of justice, Themis, with
eyes blindfolded and holding scales in her hands. The scales
.signified that right and wrong should be carefully weighed
'against each other; the bandage, that the judge should pro-
nounce his verdict without regard to persons, and be inaccessible
to all outside influence. For the limited ideas of that period,
Uttle removed from retaliation and expiation, this blind woman
with her scales was a sufficient representation of justice. She
had no need to trouble about the psychology of human nature,
mental disorders, diminished responsibility or ideal social
improvement.
Themis Unblindfolded. Fallacy of Free-will. — Nowadays the
task of our goddess is not so simple, for the progress of humanity
and science, especially of psychology and psychiatry, oblige her
whether she wishes or not, to completely remove her bandage,
so as to see clearly into the human brain.
It is not simply a question of knowing whether an accused
person has or has not committed the act which he is accused of,
but also whether he knew what he was doing, what were the
motives which urged him, and who is the real instigator of the
misdeed. Alcohol, mental anomalies and diseases, suggestions,
passions, etc., concur in influencing the human brain so that
it is hardly responsible for its acts.
Again, on further examination, we find that the accepted and
historical notion of free-will, that is to say the absolute liberty
of man's will, which constitutes the very existence of our old
penal law, becomes not only more problematical, but may even
366 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
be considered as a purely human illusion, resting on the fact
that the indirect and remote motives of our actions are mainly
subconscious.
The gi"eat philosopher, Spinoza, has already demonstrated
this truth in a masterly manner, and modern science confirms it
in all respects. Every effect has its cause, and all our resolu-
tions are the result of the activities of our brain, in their turn!
determined or influenced by hereditary engrams (instincts and:
dispositions) or acquired (memories), which are their internal
causes, and combine with causes acting from without. Let us
admit freely the fallacy of the old axiom of human free-will and
endeavor to understand that what we consider as free will is
nothing else than the very variable faculty of our brain, more
or less developed in different individuals, of adapting its activity
to that of its environment, and especially to that of other men.
Also let us endeavor to take into account that our will' and all
our actions are, consciously or unconsciously, determined by a
complex of energies or hereditary engrams (character), com-
bined with those which have acted upon us from without
during our life, as well as with emotional or intellectual sensory
impressions.
Our whole conception of rights, and especially of penal law,
should then change. We should entirely do away with retalia-
tion, a barbarous relic of a more or less animal sentiment of our
ancestors, and expiation, the relic of a superannuated and
superstitious mysticism. Modern and truly scientific reformers
of penal law have already taken account of this necessity.
But, in spite of the complete inefficacy of the old penal sys-
tem as regards the diminution of crime, they have so far only
put into practice few of their ideas.
Justification of Rights and Laws. — After what we have just
said, there only remain two reasons to justify the existence of
rights and laws:
(1). To protect human society against criminals, and in gen-
eral to institute ideas and laws with a view to regulate the
mutual interests of men, in such a way as to result in natural
conditions of existence as advantageous as possible, both for
the individual and for society:
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 367
(2). To study the causes of crimes, social conflicts, imperfec-
tions and inequalities, so as to obtain, by contending against
these causes, an improvement in men and their social condition.
It is true that what we demand here means a complete transfor-
mation of the notions of conventional right, not only in our old
penal law, but also to a great extent in civil law ; but this transfor-
mation is inevitable and has even already commenced. Its
object is to liberate right from the grasp of an old metaphysico-
religious dogmatism, and from crystalized doctrines derived from
superannuated custom and abuse, and to found itself on the
applied and social natural history of man, who then only will
merit the name of homo sapiens which was given to him by
Linnaeus, the great nomenclator of living beings.
Jurists have already too long based metaphysics on old bar-
barous customs and superstitious mysticism, transformed into
dogmas. It is time that Themis removed her bandage, studied
psychology, psychopathology and science, and submitted the
impartial handling of her scales to the influence of truer and
juster human factors, even if her work thereby becomes more
difficult and more complicated.
Sexual Rights. — While sexual sentiments form part of the
most sacred and intimate conditions of individual happiness,
they are also closely and indissolubly connected with the social
welfare of humanity. In no domain is it more difl&cult to com-
bine harmoniously the welfare of the community with that of
the individual, and this is why questions of right in sexual
matters are among the most difficult to solve.
The satisfaction of the sexual appetite in man is part of his
natural rights. Natural science compels us to formulate this
principle; yet it is a dogma the consequences of which may
become very grave and even fatal; for the satisfaction of a
man's sexual appetite implies, not only the direct partici-
pation of one or more human beings in a common act, but
also that of a much gi-eater number in its indirect effects ; and it
may occasion, according to circumstances, more harm than
good.
If the question of reproduction did not exist, it would be more
Lcasy to put individualism in more or less harmonious accord
368 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
with socialism. It is thus the sexual relations which present
the greatest difficulties in the social domain.
In spite of the considerable progress which has been accom-
plished, our modern law is still based to a great extent on the
barbarous principle of the legal inequality of the sexes. The
mind of man and that of woman are no doubt of different qual-
ity; nevertheless, in a society which does not possess asexual
individuals like that of the ants and bees, and in which the two
sexes are compelled to work together harmoniously for the
social welfare, there is no reason to subordinate one sex to the
other. Man may have 130 or 150 grammes more brain tissue
than woman and be superior to her in his faculty of combination
and invention, but this is no reason why we should only accord
his wife and mother inferior social rights to his own. His bodily
strength will always protect him against the possible encroach-
ments of woman.
A first postulate is, therefore, the equality of the two sexes
before the law. A second postulate consists in the emancipa-
tion of infancy, in the sense that it should never be considered
as an object of possession or of exploitation, as was and is still
so often the case.
These are the fundamental principles of a normal sexual law.
In no animal do we find the abuses which man is permitted to
practice toward his wife and children. Let us now pass on to
special questions.
CIVIL LAW
The object of civil law is to regulate the relations of men to
each other. Properly speaking it does not punish, that is to
say, it requires no expiation and is not concerned with crime.
It seeks to improve the social basis for mutual obligations and
contracts. Nevertheless, it borders on penal law as regards the
question of damages which one individual must pay another
whom he has injured even involuntarily, as well as by the coer-
cive measures, both administrative and operative, which it
employs.
Although resting on a natural basis better adapted to the
social welfare than penal law, civil law still contains the tradi-
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 369
tions of religious mysticism and the abuse of conventional
right.
I shall here analyze in a few words what concerns our subject
in actual civil law, and shall point out the modifications which
appear to me desirable. It is, however, impossible for me to
enter into the details of codes, owing to absence of special
knowledge. Moreover, this would lead us too far from our
subject.
Marriage and Sexual Relations in General. — The coitus of two
individuals, performed with mutual deliberation and causing no
harm to a third person, should be considered as a private affair,
and should have no connection with either civil or penal law.
However great may be the necessary restrictions of this gen-
L ral axiom, it must be recognized as valid in principle. Society
has no right to restrict the liberty of individuals so long as it,
or one of its members, is not injured by these individuals. So
long as coitus is freely performed by adult and responsible per-
sons, has no indirect consequences, and does not cause fecunda-
tion, neither society nor any one is injured.
In the practice of law this axiom is not yet generally accepted.
Many laws, especially among the Germanic peoples, punish
concubinage, or extra-nuptial coitus. Even when concubinage
is tolerated, it is considered illegitimate, so that the woman
who gives herself to it and the children who result from it, have
much to suffer. Although they constitute simple religious pre-
cepts, the ordinances of Liguori and others concerning coitus
influence in a high degree sexual relations in Catholic countries.
As a rule, coitus is only legally recognized as licit in mar-
riage. But we have seen in Chapter VI how elastic is the term
marriage, which varies from polygamy and monogamy to poly-
andry, and from marriage for short periods to indissoluble
marriage, to say nothing of the cases where women are sacrificed
on then- husbands' tombs. We have seen that religious tradi-
tions, arising themselves from barbarous customs, play a great
part ui conjugal law. It is only by infinite trouble that the
principle of civil marriage has made its way in modern civilized
states. Even to-day, religious marriage is in some countries
the only form of union which is legally recognized. These
370 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
simple facts show to what extent we are still hidebound by
tradition.
The idea that marriage is a divine institution and that man
has the right to contract, but not to dissolve it, is still a wide-
spread belief, however bizarre it may be. We shall not enter
here into the detail of the religious forms of marriage, which is
referred to in Chapters VI and XII.
It is evident, from our modern and scientific point of view,
which is purely human and social, that civil law only can be
recognized as valid. Religious forms and ceremonies must be
considered as belonging to a private domain. . For this reason
they concern neither the State nor society, and should be
refused all legal character; for it is our duty to strive and lib-
erate humanity from the tyranny of all imposed creeds, as we
should combat all so-called State religion.
Civil Marriage. — What then is civil marriage, and what ought
it to be? Our actual civil marriage is the result of trials and com-
promises which require improvement. It is a contract between
two persons of opposite sex whose mutual object is the repro-
duction of the human species. In this contract the law is
unfortunately too much concerned with the personal relations of
the two contracting parties, and too little with the interests of
their eventual posterity, which necessitates care and attention
on the part of the social legislator. Moreover, the traditional
conception of the dependence of woman disturbs the pmity and
justice of civil marriage.
In my opinion, the first fundamental principles of civil mar-
riage should be absolute legal equality of the two conjoints and
complete separation of property. The momentary amorous in-
toxication of a woman should not allow a man to appropriate
her property in whole or in part; only truly barbarous laws could
permit such iniquity, and they should be banished from all the
codes of civilized countries. Moreover, in countries where
woman enjoys important rights, the community of property
furnishes those who are unscrupulous with the means of com-
pletely despoiling their husbands.
Further, in common conjugal life, the domestic work of the
wife should not be considered as obligatory and requiring no
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 371
special remuneration. Her work has as much right to be con-
sidered as that of the husband, and should be entered to the
wife as an asset.
Community of property is so immoral that it should be
considered invalid in case of ulterior dispute, when it has been
instituted by private contract. It is the business of the con-
joints to put it in practice if they wish, so long as they arc of
one mind. But when dissensions or divorce take place, it only
injures the one who has remained honest, and at the same time
the children.
This is why such contracts ought never be definitely binding
to the conjoints. Even if the marriage is not unhappy, the
extravagances or blunders of one of the conjoints may ruin the
whole family, in the case of common property.
The duration of marriage is very important. If a marriage
contract exacts sexual fidelity till death, divorce is nonsense.
Yet, in practice, it is obvious cruelty to keep two individuals
legally bound together who can no longer live with each other.
Thus, the provision and Hcense of divorce are necessities of civil
law which are certainly not ideal, but which cannot be passed
over without favoring family distm'bance and without sanction-
ing illegality and evil.
Among the most frequent causes of divorce are desire for
change in the husband, venereal diseases, disputes, incompati-
bility of temper, mental disorders, immorality, ill-treatment and
crime. The sterility of one of the conjoints and incapacity for
coitus may also be mentioned as reasons for divorce, although
in certain cncumstances, as we shall see, limited polyandry or
polygyny may be much more humane than divorce.
As soon as divorce is admitted, important and complicated
questions of law arise when there are children. We shall refer
to these later. The legal license of complete divorce thus trans-
forms marriage into a temporary contract, which is not so far
removed as one would think from the ideal relations of free love.
We will examine the circumstances which, apart from the pro-
creation of children, may attribute legal importance to the sex-
ual relations of two persons. I must first of all observe that, if
it wishes, civil legislation can very well create a state of things
372 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
which gives to children born outside marriage the same rights
and the same social position as legitimate children, and I will
even add that such social equality would respond to the most
elementary sentiments of human rights, if these were not
already influenced in advance by prejudice and mysticism.
Minors. — Civil law should stipulate that minors have not the
right to marry. This may appear cruel in certain cases, but
society has the right and the duty to intervene. Minors should
be protected against all sexual abuse. A young girl under
the age of seventeen and a boy under eighteen or twenty should
be prevented from all sexual relations. This is a postulate of
individual and social hygiene and consequently of all healthy
matrimonial law.
Lunatics. — The same applies to lunatics, who are legally
comparable to minors. Have we the right to forcibly separate
a married couple, or a couple living in concubinage, because one
of the conjoints has become insane, when the other does not
wish for separation? In Germany the procedure of nullity of
marriage has been invented for these cases, but without gaining
much. I shall return to this point in connection with another
subject, but I may remark here that it is not the continuation
of marriage nor that of sexual connection which injures society,
but only the procreation of children. Therefore it is only the
procreation of children which should be legally prohibited, and
sexual connection only when the healthy conjoint agrees to
its suppression, or when the interests of the afflicted one neces-
sitate it.
In the future these particular cases may be regulated in the
most convenient and humane way possible.
Certain bodUy infirmities which one of the conjoints has con-
cealed from the other, or of which he was not himself aware,
should also impair the validity of the marriage contract. Such
are chronic infectious diseases, especially venereal, impotence
in the man and sterility in the woman, when the cause was pre-
viously known. But here again, the law should only intervene
at the request of the person injured, and to take certain measures
to prevent the procreation of abortions, without interfering with
sexual connection.
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 373
Adultery. — An important question is that of adultery. Here
again, we are of opinion that the law has not performed its duty.
Proved adultery, when fidelity has been promised by contract
should give the injured party the right of immediate and abso-
lute divorce.
Certain forms of adultery, which take place with the assent
of the two conjoints, have in reahty the character of bigamy
and should neither be recognized by civil nor penal law. I will
cite as an example, the case where two conjoints wish to live
together for various reasons, while the impotence, disease or
sterility of one of them induces him to concede to the other
liberty of sexual connection with a third person, apart from
marriage. In such a case neither society nor any one else is
injured and all motive for legal intervention is wanting (vide
Andre Couvreur: La Graine).
Divorce. — The question of divorce becomes extremely diffi-
cult when one of the conjoints wishes for it and the other does
not, and when no other reason exists for determining the mar-
riage. We are here concerned with the malicious caprices of
the god of love, from which the world will never be free.
In my opinion, the law in such cases can only do one thing,
and that is to protect the rights of the children, if there are
any, and to compel the inconstant conjoint to provide for their
noiuishment.
The law should also protect the pecuniary and other civil
rights of the conjoint who wishes to continue life in common.
Here especially we can recognize the necessity for the separa-
tion of property. On the other hand, I am convinced that it is
useless to maintain at any price a union which one party does
not wish for. In practice no good results from it; it is rather a
moral question than a question of law.
In such cases we may observe the despair of the conjoint who
has remained faithful, both in the marital and legal relations of
marriage. The law cannot do everything, and here it is power-
less; all that it can do is to exact delay and attempt at recon-
ciliation, which sometimes succeeds.
The Right to Satisfaction of the Sexual Appetite.— We now
come to a delicate question. The right to satisfy the sexual
374 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
appetite must necessarily be restricted in more than one respect
if injury to third parties is to be avoided. If we except certain
pathological cases, the chief diflEiculty lies in the fact that the
normal sexual appetite can only be satisfied by the cohabitation
of two persons, and that what satisfies the one may often injure
or deeply wound the other, and even the children. The matter
may go so far as to concern penal law, and we shall refer to it
again in this connection. But, even from the point of view of
civil law, permission to satisfy the sexual appetite must neces-
sarily depend on the consent of both parties. In my opinion no
exception to this rule can be tolerated.
It is not enough to protect minors; it is also necessary to
prevent the abuse of the persons of adults against their will.
The institution of so-called Christian marriage still contains
barbarous dispositions in this respect, the wife being generally
obliged to surrender herseK to her lord and master as often as
he pleases. This is the dark side of the picture which exacts
sexual fidelity in man.
Inversely, for physiological reasons, a very erotic and sex-
ually exacting woman cannot obtain satisfaction, man being
incapable of commanding erections voluntarily. She can only
bring an action for divorce if she can prove that her husband is
completely impotent.
It is sufficient to reflect on these facts to see how difficult is
the regulation of sexual connection by law. The legislation of
details in this domain becomes of necessity an injustice.
We have already considered the great individual variability
of the sexual appetite. Attempts to regulate it by the rules of
a monogamous matrimonial code are absurd and impracticable.
With all the respect due to the moral sentiments of Tolstoi, we
are obliged to declare that his ascetic opinions on sexual rela-
tions are only the dreams of an enthusiast.
When a libidinous man marries a young girl who is sexually
frigid, and when coitus continues to be a horror to his wife, it is
quite as cruel to demand continence in the husband as sub-
mission in his wife. In such cases, the conditions can only be
made tolerable by divorce, consent to concubinage, or bigamy,
when a relative adaptation cannot be obtained by mutual
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 375
concessions. At present our prejudices only allow divorce in
such cases.
When a man and woman are already tied by pregnancy or by
a child, and when, apart from the differences in their sexual
appetites, love and concord reign between them, separation
would be cruel.
I readily agree that such extreme circumstances should not be
the rule, and that in many cases the one who is the more erotic
can restrain himself, and the one who is cold become accustomed
to coitus. Nevertheless, in the present chapter we are not
concerned with morals but with rights, and we have only to
reply to the question of knowing what should be done when, in
sexual connection between two conjoints, one desires it and the
other does not.
The concentration of sexual passion on a single individual,
which is generally good from the social point of view, is fatal in
these special cases. A man falls passionately in love with a
woman, or a woman with a man, but instead of being reciprocal
this love is despised by the other. Such a misfortune, which
often leads to the most tragic consequences, not only in novels
but also in real life, is only reparable by the renunciation of the
one who loves. It is surely less cruel to renounce a proposed
union than to become the sexual prey of a person one does not
love. It is, therefore, inhuman and immoral, as much in reli-
gion as in poetiy, to preach in any form, the exclusiveness of
sentiments, the indissolubility of monogamous marriage, and
the immutability of love.
It has often been stated that a woman can only love once in
her life. Such a false and cruel generalization must be ener-
getically opposed. It is the business of sentimental poets to
delude themselves with such sentiments, but those who think
it a duty to adhere to dogmas of this kind are to be pitied. It
is not only death or illness of one of the conjoints, dissensions
and infidelity, which may cause separation of a sexual union,
but as is frequently the case, rejected love may transform into
perpetual martyrdom the life of a person imbued with such
ideas. The ascetic sentimentalism which results from this has
a strong element of suggestion which is bad to cultivate.
376 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
If we would give the one who does not love the absolute right
of repelling the sexual advances of the other, not only the law
but morality should in return allow the rejected lover to make
another choice, where his desire for love will find an echo.
At the present day many people, especially women, prefer to
endure their unhappiness and even that of their children to the
opprobrium to which they are often exposed by public opinion
in divorce or remarriage, or even in becoming engaged to another
person, when their love has been rejected. It is, therefore, the
duty of the legislator to banish from the law everything which
may appear to sanction such opprobrium.
Most laws recognize not only impotence, but also assault,
cruelty, venereal disease, adulteiy, etc., as grounds for divorce,
but the pressure of public opinion causes the existing laws to
be too little used. We must remember that such violations of
conjugal duties give the injured party the right of claiming
damages.
Nevertheless, we may say that the simplest civil action by
one conjoint against the other is veritably monstrous when it is
not accompanied by an action for divorce. When once the
couple have come to legal disputes, their marriage is in reality
dissolved and its continuation is an absurdity.
Venereal Diseases. — A very important question from the
humanitarian and hygienic point of view is that of venereal
disease. A man (or woman) who knows himself (or herself)
to be affected with a venereal disease in an infectious state, and
who in spite of this has connection with a woman, should be
regarded as a criminal, at least if the woman with whom he has
connection is not affected with the same disease.
Here the law should intervene by awarding heavy damages to
the party who has been infected; eventually it may be treated
as a criminal offense. In such cases claim should be made by
the injured party, but unfortunately this is seldom done owing
to feelings of shame. In the future, however, we may hope
that the law may be improved for the benefit of humanity, for
this would be one of the most efficacious means of combating
venereal disease, and hence avoiding much misfortune for
families and children.
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 377
It would also be desirable to prevent th.e procreation of
syphilitic infants, for instance, by the use of preventatives
(vide Chapter XIV).
Prostitution.— Another difficult question is that of the rela-
tion of civil law to prostitution. All State regulation of prosti-
tution is to be absolutely condemned; but what position should
civil law take up with regard to free prostitution? We have
already seen what an abominable social evil is this commerce in
human bodies, as regards social morahty. But it is absolutely
useless to try and abolish this commerce without attacking its
lord and master — inoney. The venality of man implies the
commerce of his body, and as long as everything can be got for
money, coitus can be bought. It is, therefore, this venality
which must be attacked, not only by condemning it in words
but by cutting its roots. If the State will not withdraw its
protecting hand from prostitution, it might at least combat
proxenetism and the public manifestations of prostitution, by aU
the legal and administrative measures at its disposal. It would
thus reduce the matter to intimate personal relations.
Let us hope that, little by little, a social organization more
just to labor and wages, combined with the prohibition of
alcoholic drinks, will, in the future, annihilate the causes of
commerce in human bodies.
Children as a Reason for Civil Marriage. — To resume; we find
that civil marriage should, by progressive reforms, become a
much more free contract than it is at present, having for its
object a cormnon sexual life. The law should abandon its
useless and often harmful chicanery concerning the questions of
sexual relations and love, and regulate more carefully the duties
of parents toward their children, and thus protect future gen-
erations against the abuse of the present generation.
The difference which exists between marriage and free love
should gradually disappear, by instituting natural intimate
relations on the basis of sentiments of social morality, instead
of maintaining the pretended divine origin of a social institution.
It is difficult to avoid a smile when we hear the term "divine
institution" applied to the marriage of a rich girl with a man
who has been bought for her. (Vide Chapter X.)
378 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Vai'ious propositions have been made to give more dignity to
the unions of free love, which now exist and which always have
existed. Modern women have remarked that the absurd cus-
tom of naming the celibate woman differently to the married
stigmatizes in society a number of poor women and innocent
children, and that it would be quite as just to apply the
term "damoiseau" to celibate men as "mademoiselle" to non-
married girls. An unmarried woman who has a child, and who
has only committed the sin of obeying nature, is branded with
the stamp of shame.
It is the children who constitute the true bond of marriage
and give it a legal character. When there are no children all
legal and State interference with conjugal affairs loses its sense
so long as no one is injured, and civil marriage can then be
greatly simplified. I maintain that so long as a sterile union,
of whatever kind, between responsible persons is voluntary,
provokes no conflict between those who have contracted it, and
causes no injury to a third party, the law has no right to meddle
with it; because this union does not concern society nor any of
its members, excepting the two parties interested, who are in
accord.
At the present time, in many countries, the existing laws can
be utilized to form marriage contracts stipulating separation of
property, the right of each of the conjoints to the produce of his
or her work, as well as certain reciprocal rights and duties be-
tween the parents and children. Matters can thus be arranged
so as to correct more or less the defects of the law.
Marriage of Inverts. — A peculiar and characteristic phenome-
non is the ardent desire of many sexual perverts, especially
inverts, to become secretly engaged or married to the abnor-
mal homosexual object of their love. It is needless to say that
there can be no question of legal regulation of such pathological
marriages. But the law may ignore them when they do no
harm to any one, and regard them as private affairs, especially
when they prevent much worse evils, such as the marriage of
an invert to a normal individual.
Civil Rights of Children. Matriarchism. — As we have already
said, it is the children who constitute the real phylogenetic and
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 379
psychological bonds in marriage and the family, bonds which
are deeply rooted in human nature. This is so true that among
many savage peoples, if not in most, marriage is not considered
legal as long as it is sterile. Even among civilized people sterile
women are generally regarded as of less value. We may, there-
fore, regard the article in the Code Napoleon which forbids
inquiry into paternity as an unnatural measm*e, or as a mon-
strosity of civil law.
Two human beings who procreate others contract common
duties and responsibility of the highest importance. They are,
perhaps, the highest social duties that man can assume. Is it
not then infamous and unnatural to legaUy liberate one only of
the procreators, the man, from all his responsibilities, simply
because certain religious or civil formalities were omitted before
procreation?
Is the man less guilty than the woman in procreation apart
from marriage, if we can use the term guilt in such cases? Is it
not a ridiculous and cruel irony to call natural children those
born apart from marriage? Perhaps legitimate children are
supernatural, or unnatural! Is it not infamous to brand with
the seal of shame, even before their birth, poor illegitimate chil-
dren, and to confirm this indignity by making them bear their
mother's name instead of their father's?
The most elementary natural law exacts that all children,
whether "legitimate" or " illegitimate, " should have the same
social rights, and that they should bear either the name of their
real father or that of their mother; the latter denomination
would be the more natural and logical. Denomination by the
maternal line corresponds to the system of matriarchism (Chap-
ters VI and XIX), which is often met with among savage races,
and which is more just and leads to less abuse than patriarch-
ism. Moreover, when women shall have obtained their proper
rights, there will be an end of the exclusive authority of one of
the conjoints in marriage.
Equality in the rights of the two sexes will naturally lead to
denomination in the maternal line, for reasons of simplicity,
the mother being more closely related to the child than the
father. Maternity may, no doubt, be sometimes uncertain, as
380 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
in the case of foundlings or changelings, but on the whole it is
infinitely more easy to establish than paternity. It is sufficient
for the mother to have sexual connection with two men at the
time of conception to render paternity doubtful. Again, the
mother has a number of pains, cares and dangers to undergo in
the course of the procreation and education of children, which
the father escapes. Nature thus gives the mother the right to
give her name to the family. Our legislation is unfortunately
far from recognizing such natural right. We may nevertheless
form a primary proposition, because in my opinion its recogni-
tion would avoid much complicated litigation : ,
In nature, whenever the offspring of an animal have a 'pro-
tracted and dependent infancy, it is the duty of the parents to
nourish them and bring them up. To allow human parents to
dispense with this duty, on the grounds of badly constructed and
unnatural social theories, is to encourage promiscuity, and conse-
quently degeneration of society. It is easy to change social cus-
toms which are only based on artificial dogmas sanctioned by
tradition, fashion and habit, whether they are of a religious nature
or otherwise. But a social organization can never violate with
impunity the true laws of human nature which are deeply rooted
in our phylogenetic instincts, without disastrous effects.
In Chapters VI and VII we have given irrefutable proof that
family life and the sentiments of sympathy between husband
and wife, parents and children, constitute the phylogenetic basis
of the sexual relations of humanity. Whatever may be the
egoistic polygamous instincts of man, we can affirm that a
natural and true monogamy constitutes the highest and best
form of his sexual relations and of his love. No doubt there are
many exceptions which must be taken into account. It is
absurd to shut our eyes to the fact that our degenerate social
customs have created unnatural circumstances in which parents
behave shamefully toward their children, exploiting them,
training them systematically to mendacity, prostitution and
crime, or else Ul-treating them. We even see unnatural parents,
to save legal consequences, get rid of children who inconvenience
them by the aid of slow and coldly calculated martyrdom, which
leads them to certain death. It is, therefore, necessary to estab-
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 381
lish special legal provision for all these exceptional cases, to
protect children against the power of unworthy parents and all
forms of abuse.
I must here draw attention to the impulse which has recently
been given to Austrian legislation on the protection of children,
by Lydia von Wolfring. The State brings up, in philanthropic
institutions, children who have been maltreated, neglected or
abandoned, after removal from their unworthy parents, but
without relieving the latter of their duty in providing nour-
ishment. According to Miss Wolfring's system, they are cared
for by honest couples without children who wish for them, under
the supervision of the aforesaid institutions. In this way the
children enjoy family life.
For educational reasons, the natural family may be imitated
in these artificial ones, by giving to each couple children of both
sexes and different ages. The result is perfect: I have seen in
Vienna artificial families of ten children formed in this way.
This shows again the rule confirmed by the exception; it would
be better for the good seed to be more fruitful and the bad
sterile.
The normal condition must, however, always be for parents
to bring up their own children. But here the State and the
school should come to their aid, and even intervene with author-
ity; for society is under the obligation of educating its children
to a certain degree of culture, and maternal or paternal authority
should not have the right to prevent or even attenuate this
social work. Obligatory and gratuitous education is thus a
duty of the State which is becoming more and more recognized
everyivhere, although it is still very incomplete and often badly
carried out.
The State should, moreover, protect the children by restrict-
ing the power of parents more than is done at present. The
child should not be allowed to become an object for exploitation
by its parents. It has also the right to be protected against all
unmerited punishment and iU-treatment. Corporal punishment,
which is still practiced in some schools, is a relic of barbarism
which ought to disappear.
The State should severely enforce the duty of the procreators
382 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
of children to nourish their offspring. Rich or poor, no father
or mother should escape this duty, whether the child is legiti-
mate or illegitimate. In our imperfect social condition, it is
still much too easy for the man to escape and abandon his
child to the mother, or to public charity. He should be com-
pelled to provide for the life and education of his children,
whether legitimate or illegitimate, if he does not bring them up
himself. If unable to provide money, he should do the equiva-
lent in labor. Such measures, strictly enforced, would be more
efficacious than all the complicated laws on sexual relations, in
maintaining monogamy and fidelity.
I repeat, that these measures should apply to all unworthy
parents from whom we are obliged to remove the children.
These parents are not always of the poorer class.
It may be objected that I am unjust in charging such duties
to poor people who can often hardly keep themselves. I agree
that in the present state of society it is quite impossible for many
parents to undertake such important duties. But duty means
right, and it is evident that we must place rights by the side of
the duties which we impose on parents.
True justice in this question can only be attained by the
essential progress of socialism. By socialism, I do not mean
certain vague communistic doctrines, nor the Utopias of anar-
chists who imagine that "man was born good," but simply an
essential social progress in the struggle against the domination
of individual capital, that is to say, usury applied to the labor
of others owing to the possession of means of production, which
is now left to speculators. Men should be enabled to enjoy the
product of their labor, so that they can lead a human life worthy
of the name, in sexual matters as in others. But this is not all.
From the social point of view, it is absolutely unjust that
men who procreate children should alone bear the burden of
the future generation. We know the egoistic proverb of the
celibates, who say: "I have the right to take life easily, to enjoy
myself and be idle, if I renounce the happiness of having chil-
dren, either of my own accord or from necessity." This pro-
verb, which may be transposed into "after me the deluge,"
cannot be recognized by any healthy social legislation. It is
i RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 383
the duty of the State to reheve large families, to facilitate the
procreation of healthy children, and to impose more work and
taxes (for instance, artificial families) on sterile individuals.
The old laws were better than ours in this respect.
I have mentioned above the excellent custom, which exists
at the present day in Norway, of only charging half-price on
I the boats to married women and other female members of the
same family. I cannot here enter into the details of this ques-
tion, but if such reforms are some day reahzed, if universal com-
pulsory education, pensions for old age, orphans and invahds,
etc., are introduced, then no man will have valid motives for
escaping the duty of feeding his children and bringing them up
decently in family life. This will be left only to the idle and
vicious.
Moreover, I can support my propositions by facts. If we
compare the nature of delinquents, abandoned children, vaga-
bonds, etc., in a country where little or nothing has been done
for the people (Russia, Galicia, Vienna, etc.), with that of the
same individuals in Switzerland, for example, where much has
already been done for the poor, we find this result : In Switzer-
land, these individuals are nearly all tainted with alcoholism or
pathological heredity; they consist of alcoholics, incorrigibles,
and congenital decadents, and education can do little for them,
because nearly aU those who have a better hereditary founda-
tion have been able to earn their living by honest work. In
Russia, Galicia, and even in Vienna, we are, on the contrary,
astonished to see how many honest natures there are among the
disinherited, when they are provided with work and education.
This fact speaks more than the contradictory statements
which the fanatics of party politics hurl at each other's heads.
Inquiry into Paternity.— It will be objected that inquiry into
paternity is often very difficult and dangerous. I do not deny
this; but, when women have obtained their natural rights, and
when the education of young girls is guided by the principles
which we have enunciated in Chapter XVII, the matter will
become much easier. Moreover, even now, we can with energy
and good will determine paternity in most cases. Although the
great improvement in means of transport assists fugitives, it also
384 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
favors the discovery and arrest of individuals all over the world.
International relations between all civilized states are improv-
ing from day to day. When the world is more completely
conquered by civilization, we may hope that it will become
increasingly difficult for evildoers to escape their duties.
Regarding this question from all points of view it is impossible
for us to give up this primordial condition for the preservation
of human society, which consists in making parents responsible
for the nourishment and education of their children.
The famous ideas of phalanstery and promiscuity, so often
advanced, originated in theoretical and dogmatic minds which
had lost their instinctive sense of human nature, and ignored
what natural science and ethnology have revealed to us.
But the responsibility of parents extends to another domain
— the duty of not procreating children who are unhealthy in
body and mind. We shall return to this question later on.
Guardianship. — An excellent institution of our present legis-
lation is that of the guardianship of orphans, lunatics, etc. It
requires to be developed extensively and with care. On the
contrary, an evil custom is the right accorded by certain countries
to parishes charged with poor and abandoned orphans, of deliv-
ering them by public tender to the man who offers the lowest
pension — and only requires them for work. This system results
in odious abuse, such as neglect, mendicity and ill-treatment.
The fate of illegitimate children who are "farmed out" is
still worse. A tacit alliance is established between rapacity on
the one hand and social sexual hypocrisy on the other. A num-
ber of infanticides and abortions result, either from poverty, or
from sentiments of shame due to our moral customs. Here,
civil law and penal law should combine and take energetic
humanitarian measures to put a stop to this sad abuse. An
excellent institution is that of homes in the country established
for unmarried mothers and their children, and for abandoned
mothers in general.
Free Love and Civil Marriage. — ^When all the propositions we
have drawn up have been realized by social legislation, the
difference which now exists between marriage and free love will
be little more than a form. The consequences of these two
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 385
kinds of union will become the same, both for parents and
children; the only distinction will consist in the existence or
non-existence of official control. True monogamy will lose
nothing, but will gain much.
We shall not then have obligatory monogamy as at present
absolute in form, artificially maintained by the aid of prostitu-
tion, that is by the most disgusting form of promiscuity which
renders monogamy illusory; but we shall have in its place a
relative monogamy much more solidly built on the natural
rights of the two sexes, it is true more free in form, but funda-
mentally much stronger in the natural and instinctive duties
dictated by a truly free and reasoned union, as well as by the
duties by which parents will be bound to their children.
Form and Duration of Civil Marriage.— Although it may be
true that monogamy constitutes the most normal and natural
form of family union, and offers the best conditions for lasting
happiness, both for parents and children, we must be blindly
prejudiced not to admit that it is unnatural to consider it as the
only sheet anchor in sexual relationship, the only admissible
form of marriage, and to make it a straight-jacket. Histoiy and
ethnography show us that polygamous races are strongly devel-
oped and are still developing; on the other hand, it is true that
polyandrous races degenerate.
Again, impartial observation of our Christian monogamy
shows us that it depends to a great extent on appearances, that
it is full of trickery and hypocrisy, and that to legally enforce
it for life must be considered as absolutely impossible.
In Catholic countries which prohibit divorce, the latter has
been replaced by separation, and this becomes the most con-
stant source of adultery. The more the laws of a country im-
pede divorce, the more one must close one's eyes to promiscuity
or prostitution, which has even been regulated by the State by
the aid of proxenetism, all the while preaching monogamy in a
loud voice.
These bitter lessons which practice has given to the partisans
of obhgatory monogamy, prove the absurdity of attempting to
restrain the natural appetites of man by force and by artificial
obstacles. That which succeeds, not without difficulty, with
386 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
some strong characters, and more easily with naturally cold
temperaments, is impossible to realize in the masses.
Polyandry is usually the result of poverty, and the polyandrous
races are little fecund and tend to disappear. The normal man
is instinctively more polygynous than the normal woman is
polyandrous. There are, however, cases where polyandry is
justifiable. There are women whose sexual appetite, more or
less pathological, is so insatiable that a normal man is incapable
of satisfying it.
If such women were served by several Don Juans by means of
a free contract, this would be better than giving themselves in
despair to prostitution (there are some prostitutes created by
nymphomania). This system would also be better than the
seduction of normal young girls by the Don Juans in question.
Polygyny is still more indicated when the sterility of the
woman or her repugnance to sexual intercourse cause family
disturbances.
In speaking of polygamy in Chapter VI, we have shown that
it exists in several forms, and that these are not all so humiliating
for the women as people think, who only know of the shameful
abuses of the Mussulman's harem. What lowers the moral
level of polygyny is especially the barbarous system of marriage
by purchase, by which the women become slaves burdened with
heavy labor, and are in a state of legal dependence. We have
seen that polygyny has a higher moral character among certain
Indian tribes where matriarchism rules, and where the wife is
mistress of the house and family. The danger of degradation of
the woman ceases when she is equal to the man as regards
rights and property. In fact, in such a social state, polygyny
can only constitute an exception. It is here entirely free and
becomes all the more innocent because divorce is facilitated and
strict laws on the feeding and education of the childi'en limit the
male sexual appetite.
I even venture to maintain that the stability of monogamous
marriage, which should be based on mutual sentiments of re-
spect and love, v/ould be much better guaranteed than hitherto
by legal liberty of conjugal ties, and by duty to children such as
I have proposed. If this became recognized as conventional,
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 387
men and women fit to understand each other and love in a last-
ing manner, would find suitable mates more easily, and would
become united more permanently when their chains were
voluntary.
If marriages on trial became more frequent in the form of
short unions, ending with separation, this would not be a great
evil, for similar unions occur every day in a much baser form.
Moreover, the effect of legislation with regard to children would
put a curb on immorality and passion, which cause their worst
effects.
If the objection is raised that this would lead immoral people
to avoid the procreation of children so as to enjoy more varied
sexual pleasures, I reply that this would be beneficial, for this
anti-social class of individuals would be eliminated by sterility,
by a kind of negative selection. We thus place two natural
appetites in antagonism; that of procreation on the one hand,
and sexual enjoyment on the other. Whoever inclines to the
first, which is the higher and tends to preserve the species, is
obliged to restrain himself in the second, without, however, fall-
ing into unnatural asceticism.
Consanguineous Marriages. — To avoid injurious consanguinity,
it is sufficient, in my opinion, to prohibit the procreation of chil-
dren between direct and collateral relations, especially between
parents and children and between brothers and sisters. Any-
thing more than this is only useless chicanery. Laws which pro-
hibit marriage between relations by alliance are absurd, for
instance those which forbid a widower to marry his sister-in-law
(deceased wife's sister), etc. Among some peoples such unions
are ordained by law!
There is also no valid reason to prohibit unions between first
cousins or between uncles and aunts, with nephews and nieces.
There is nothing to prove that such marriages are injurious to the
offspring. What is harmful is the accumulation of hereditary
taints, whether they occur in relations or persons who are stran-
gers to each other. Nevertheless, the perpetuation of consan-
guineous unions in the same family is not as a rule advisable.
Restriction of Personal Liberty in Sexual Life Among Harmful
or Dangerous Individuals.— The inability of men to distinguish,
388 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
among the motives of the acts of theu- fellows, what is abnormal,
unliealthy, impulsive or obsessional, from what is healthy and
normal is one of the most deplorable phenomena in social life,
and greatly hinders the action of reformatory civil legislation
and rational administrative measures.
The passionate, confused and unreasonable sentiments of the
masses give expression, according to the impulse of the mo-
ment, to two contradictory absurdities and injustices. On the
one hand, they cry out against arbitrary constraint of individual
liberty, against illegal restriction or detention, when competent
judges or experts try to limit the movements of dangerous indi-
viduals affected with mental disorders, but who appear sane to
the incompetent public; or when, to insure social safety, they
send these individuals to a lunatic asylum, or limit their dan- i
gerous liberty in some other way. On the other hand, when j
such an individual goes free, thanks to the intervention of
incompetent meddlers, and commits assassination, violation,
incendiarism, or all kinds of sadic atrocities, or even only ter-
rorizes his own family, these same people, suddenly animated
by contrary sentiments of vengeance, imperiously demand an
exemplary expiation and all possible reprisals. This sometimes
goes as far as torture of the culprit or burning at the stake, as
with the lynchers in America.
It is very difficult for the psychiatrist, who is the competent
expert in these matters, to make truth and impartiality prevail.
He is nearly always suspected of seeing madness everywhere, and
of being afflicted with a mania for sending sane persons to
asylums! In reality, he desires to take measures which are at
the same time humane for the insane and protective for society,
so as to treat as equitably and reasonably as possible the unfor-
tunates who are more or less irresponsible for their acts; he
wishes to see established laws and organizations which will
efficiently protect the insane against themselves and against
the exploitation and abuse of others, at the same time preventing
them from doing injury to society.
On the other hand, society and -sAdth it the old style of jurist,
in their ignorant dread of psychopathological matters, endeavor
to take all possible measures to protect the sane pubfic against
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 389
the alienists, thus completely neglectmg the true interests of
the insane as well as those of society, while fighting against a
phantom! The anxiety and mistrust of the public in this mat-
ter are continually kept up by ''brigand stories" related by
certain insane or semi-uisane persons, which are spread by the
press, always eager for scandal, or by pamphlets which the
cheapness of printing places ^vithin the reach of the poorest!
These phenomena of pubhc psychology greatly hinder the
most urgent reforms. The public regard asylums with horror,
and the path of the ahenist is thorny, for he is exposed to con-
tinual accusations and threats whatever he may do, a situation
which" does not encourage him to suggest bold innovations.
Ignorant of psychology and especially of psychopathology,
the public and with it the formal jurist, the slave of codes (I
am only speaking of honest lawyers, and not of the number
who abuse the situation to obtain oratorical and other success
and crown themselves with laurels), regard themselves as the
champions of individual Hberty, and are unable to perceive that
the net result of their efforts is, on the one hand, to condemn
a considerable number of insane and crazy persons to prison,
and on the other hand to assure liberty and impunity to the
most dangerous individuals, always ready to commit the most
atrocious crimes, or at any rate to make martyrs of a number
of patient and innocent beings, hard-working and healthy in
mind, especially women and children.
The alienists, who see clearly into all this misery, easily be-
come pessimistic in then' impotence against the want of sense,
ignorance and unconscious passion of the masses, and even com-
petent authorities. The natural cowardice of men often makes
them shut their eyes to avoid nuisances, and causes them to
take no action against the most dangerous monsters, and
especially against those who are most mischievous by their pens.
This is why the martyrdom of unfortunate women and children
illtreated by chronic alcoholics, sadists and other neuropaths
or psychopaths, never comes to an end, owing to the stupid
outcry against so-called violation of individual liberty.
On this soil, sexual atrocities and crimes, largely increased by
drink, play an important part. Without troubling myself about
390 THE SEXUAL QUESTION _
prejudice and indignation I shall say in a few words what
appears to me to be urgent:
So long as jurists and legislators will not study either psy-
chology or psychiatry, and will not submit all habitual criminals
and all dangerous men to an expert examination, all serious
reform in this domain will remain impossible. To improve the
present state of affairs a common understanding between jurists
and alienists is urgent; but this can only be attained by jurists
making a study of psychology, and a kind of practical clinic
among imprisoned criminals. How can one judge and con-
demn one's neighbor without having the least idea of the state
of mind of these pariahs of society? All the jurists who have
the welfare of humanity at heart, should support the interna-
tional union of penal law, and the efforts of men like Professor
Franz von Liszt, Gaukler of Caen, and many other courageous
reformers.*
It is needless to say that it is not sufficient to combat the
excesses of criminal and dangerous individuals, such as sadists,
for example, by placing them under supervision and preventing
them doing harm. It is also necessary to attack the cause of
the evil by preventing their germs from being reproduced, degen-
erated as they usually are by the blastophthoria of their alcoholic
parents (vide Chapter I). The first question, which is purely
legal and administrative, does not concern us here; but I may
be allowed to say a few words on the second.
Zealous and advanced reformers have proposed castration in
such cases, which has provoked a general cry of indignation.
This has been discussed in certain American states. The hyper-
sesthetic sentiment of our modern civilization cannot tolerate
such ideas, while ancient races such as the Islanntes provided,
and still provide eunuchs as sei'vants, who are free from danger
for their wives, and think little of hanging or decapitating men
*Vide Delbruck, Gerichtliche Psychopathologie (Joh. Ambr. Barth,
Leipzig, 1897). — Delbruck, Die Pathologische Luge und der pyschisch
abnorme Schvdndler (Ferdinand Enke, Stuttgart, 1891). — Forel, Crime et
anomalies mentales constitutionnelles (Geneve, 1902, H. Ki'mdig,).^ — Kolle,
Gerichtlich psychiatrische Gidachten (from the clinic of Professor Forel at
Zurich), Stuttgart, 1894, Ferdinande Enke. — Von Liszt, Schutz der Gesell-
schaft gegen Gemeingefahrliche {MoTiatsschrift filr Kriminalpsychologie und
Strafrechtsreform) . — Forel, Die verminderte Zurechnungsfahigkeit (die
Zukunft, 1899, n° 15), etc.
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 391
who cause them any trouble. In the same way, we are dumb
and impassive before the butcheries of war, because they are
fashionable, especially when we do not come in contact with
them. The Pope himself formerly procured eunuchs in order
to have soprano voices in his church, and did not hesitate to
castrate young boys for this purpose. The times change and
we change with them!
For some years, however, castration has been employed as a
remedy for certain disorders both in men and women, especially
for hysteria in women. I admit here that, in an asylum which
I superintend, I have castrated a veritable monster afflicted with
constitutional mental disorders, taking advantage of the fact
that he himself requested this operation to relieve him of pain
in his seminal vesicles, but with the chief object of preventing
the production of unfortunate children tainted with his heredi-
tary complaint.
Many years ago I also castrated a young hysterical girl of
fourteen, whose mother and gi'andmother were both prostitutes,
and who had already begun to have intercourse "^ith all the
urchins in the street. Here again, I frankly admit that the hys-
terical troubles of the patient served me as an excuse to prevent
this unfortunate girl from reproducing beings who would proba-
bly resemble her. I am of opinion that castration, or some
more benign operation, such as dislocation of the Fallopian
tubes in women (which renders them sterile without destroying
the ovaries, or even attenuating the sexual appetite) should be
performed in order to prevent the reproduction of the most
deplorable and most dangerous beings.
Among certain individuals, such as sadists, whose sexual
appetite is dangerous in itself, castration would be necessary.
In my opinion, the more benign operations are indicated in all
individuals whose psychopathological condition in tliis domain
is such that they are absolutely incapable of resisting their
impulses, or of understanding the dictates of reason. By this
means they could go free instead of being incarcerated in
asylums.
On the other hand, I must emphasize the fact that such
measures, the personal consequences of which are so serious,
392 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
should only be taken in the case of absolutely dangerous, incura-
ble individuals, concerning whose pathological state there can-
be no doubt. I also believe that these individuals, especially
those with sexual abnormalities, would very often consent to the
operation, as was the case with my two patients.
It would be a great advance if civil legislation would in such
cases accord official recognition to castration or dislocation of
the tubes, with the consent of the criminal or patient concerned.
At present, our laws and regulations are such that a psycho-
pathological monster cannot even be castrated when he wishes
it, because medical men refuse to undertake such an operation
without a positive medical indication of the usual kind, and
because there is no legal protection; yet, when done in time,
castration would often save sadists and other dangerous perverts
from a criminal life, and society from then- crimes and those of
their offspring.
When it is only a question of avoiding the procreation of
tainted children, it would be sufficient to instruct reasonable
people in the methods of avoiding conception (vide Chapter
XIV).
It is important to bear in mind that modern legislation on
marriage often favors the reproduction of criminals, lunatics
and invalids, while it hinders the production of healthy children
by men who are intelligent, honest and robust. \^Tien an
abnormal or unhealthy man is married, his \vif e is obliged to sub-
mit to the conception of tainted children. On the other hand,
when a strong, healthy and intelligent girl is in a situation, it
often happens that eveiything is done to prevent her marrying,
so as not to lose her services; the more conscientious she is and
the more attached to her masters, the more often is this likely
to occur.
Girls who have illegitimate children often lose their situations
and then* honor. The consideration of cases of eveiyday occur-
rence is sufficient to grasp the difficulty of the question. Wliat
we require is more personal liberty for healthy, normal and
adaptable individuals, and more restrictions for the abnormal,
unhealthy and dangerous. The civil law of the future will have
to take these facts into consideration, if it wdshes to keep level
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 393
with scientific progi'ess, and prevent the instinct of the people
having recourse to lynch law, or retaliation.
Meanwhile, attempts have been made to get out of the diffi-
culty by prohibiting the marriage of insane persons or by declar-
ing their marriage null when it has already been consummated;
or again, by admitting insanity as a cause for divorce. Such
measures are good as makeshifts in a period of transition. They
assume that conceptions only occur in marriage, and that mar-
riage necessarily means procreation. But these two supposi-
tions are false, for it is only the pressure of custom and legisla-
tion which realizes them in part, especially in CathoHc countries.
The civil code, in the present state of society, has at least the
advantage of making possible the dissolution of monstrous
unions, such as those of the absolutely insane or certain psy-
chopaths of the worst kind. Unfortunately, divorce is as a rule
only accorded in cases of well-marked mental disorders, while in
reality the most atrocious unions are those which are contracted
by crazy persons with only diminished responsibility, in whom
the public and the law are unable to recognize or understand
the existence of a definite mental anomaly. These people most
often marry at a time when no one has yet recognized their true
mental condition, or foreseen the consequences of their mar-
riage. The unfortunate who finds herself (or himself) bound by
such a union is then an object of endless mart3T:dom. The fre-
quency of mental anomaUes causes them to play an immense,
and too often um^ecognized role, in unhappy marriages.
At the request of the mother the tribunal of Bale recently
prohibited the marriage of a young man affected with a slight
degree of mental weakness. This judgment was upheld by the
Swiss tribunal for the following reasons: "Although capable of
work, of earning his living, and of performing his military ser-
vice, an individual may be an unsuitable subject for marriage.
In the interests of family life and the future generation, it is the
duty of the State to prevent the marriage of the feeble-minded,
in order to avoid the perpetuation of a race of degenerates." I
quote this from a journal. We can only congratulate tribunals
which have the courage to consider the vital interests of the
nation in their judgments.
394 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Right of Succession. — Although right of succession has no
direct bearing on the sexual question, it is indirectly connected
with it thi'ough its influence on the procreation of children.
At the present day the poor have more children than the well-
to-do. This is because they have nothing to lose, because
coitus is one of their few pleasures, because they are ignorant of
the means of preventing conception, and because they hope to
profit by their children's labor. People who have some pro])-
erty are, on the contrary, afraid of falling into poverty throng li
the procreation of too many children, and those who possess
more are afraid of poverty for their offspring. The latter only
desire a few heirs, so that after their death they can leave each
a fortune suitable to their social position.
In France, especially, well-to-do people often limit their
families to two. The parents have the unhappy idea that a
certain fortune must be assured to their children to enable them
to live in comfort. They do not understand that the necessity
for a man to earn his living by work is the chief condition for a
healthy existence.
Again, among very rich people there is often the fear that a
large fortune may lose its power when divided, and thus dimin-
ish the influence of the family.
It is obvious that great poverty and great wealth constitute
two extreme social evils. It is deplorable for a child to grow
up with the idea that he will inherit a large fortune, enjoy life
without working, and regard poor people more or less as subor-
dinates. But it is still worse for a man to remain all his life an
object for exploitation, in spite of the most repugnant and most
arduous work, unless his superior faculties and good luck give
him the chance of rising. It is also discouraging for a man to
be unable by arduous work to obtain anything for himself or
his wife and children, and only to work for society, and especially
for the interests of capitalists.
Human instinct is not sufficiently social to allow of assiduous
and hearty work solely in the interests of the community. The
egoistic sentiments and family instincts of man are still much
too strong.
If we take all these facts into consideration, the right of
mCHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 305
succession becomes very important. It has been attempted
to deal with the question by progressive taxes on succession to
large fortunes : but this is not enough. I have not the presump-
tion to give a positive opinion on these matters which are not in
my province, but I venture to suggest the possibility of greatly
restricting the right of succession by postponing the right to the
enjoyment of their heritage till the children are of an age when
they could earn their own living; say, from twenty-five to twen-
ty-six, so as not to interfere with their higher education. In
this way a man would not be deprived of the pleasure of working
for himself and his family; and every young man and young
woman, being obliged to work at some special subject, would
know that they could earn their living ?ifter twenty-five or
twenty-six, without counting on their heritage.
I do not pretend to build a new social system on this idea, for
many propositions of the kind have already been made. I only
wish to draw attention to one element of the problem, which
consists in diminishing the possibility of the exploitation of man
by man, without destroying the pleasure for work, at the same
time favoring the procreation and education of healthy and
capable offspring. This naturally presupposes a new moral and
social state, in which family right would be changed and good
education organized for all. Even then intelligent men would
have the desire to rise above the average and bring up their
children with the same object. This is an instinct in mental
development which should be carefully cultivated, and not
extinguished, by every social organization.
In all social systems it must be recognized that certain branches
of culture, such as scientific research and art, involve great ex-
pense and bring little or no material reward to the scientist or
the artist. A richer State ought to provide for these important
branches of civilization, which always tend to higher culture.
I have already mentioned separation of property and an
equable division of the fruits of labor between conjoints as the
only just basis in marriage contracts. I repeat here, that true
justice can only be established by the recognition of equal legal
rights for men and women.
396 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
PENAL LAW
Penal law is the right of punishment. It is based on the ideas
of culpability and expiation, and these are based on the idea of
free-will, which is itself founded on a pure illusion, as we have
shown above.
This simple reflection is sufficient to show the precarious posi-
tion of our present penal law. The science of penal law has too
long ignored the progress of humanity and of the other sciences.
It is affected with incurable marasmus, because its foundations
are laid in error. The idea of expiation was naturally developed
on the basis of mysticism combined with the right of the stronger,
and associated with the sentiment of vengeance natural to the
low mentality of our animal ancestors. Among the latter the
weaker was punished because he was the weaker: " Vce victis!''
and order was obtained by force. But the visions of human
imagination having urged man to create a god or gods in his
own image, he attributed to the divinity the sentiments of
anger experienced by man, and pretended that expiation was
required for offenses against this or that majesty or human
idea, transformed into an offense to the divine majesty.
This offense to the divinity was therefore only the nebulous
expression of a developing social conscience in man, an obscure
mixture of sentiments of wounded sjanpathy, adulation of the
strong and great, and desire for vengeance and expiation. Till
then man was accustomed to judge other men according to the
right of the stronger, more or less mitigated by sentiments of
family and friendship. His terror of natural mysteries — the
forest, night, thunder, hurricanes, stars, etc., led him to imagine
the intervention of occult powers, and later on of higher powers
capable of judging good and evil actions, the ideas of good and
evil being formerly very different from what they are at present.
The functions of advocates or executors of the divine will were
always, however, reserved for privileged men, who gave judg-
ment in His name, either as priests, kings, or later on as judges.
We may also note by the way that judgment can be given with-
out belief in free arbitration, as is shown by the Mahometan
fatalists and the judgments of Haroun-al-Raschid, for example.
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 397
In fact, fatalism logically excludes the idea of free-will, for if
everything is absolutely predetermined, the thoughts, resolu-
tions and acts of man are also predetermined, which excludes
all Hberty.
Responsibility. — I have attempted to show in another work*
that a rational penal law should in no way concern itself with the
question of free arbitration. The fact that we feel free and re-
sponsible is not at all sufficient to justify the doctrine of Kant.
The question of knowing whether an absolute predestination
(fatalism, regulating the universe in advance in all its details)
exists or not, is a question of pure metaphysics, the solution of
which is quite beyond human comprehension, and need not
occupy us here. We must simply depend on the scientific
postulate of determinism, i.e., on the law of causahty applied
to the motives of our actions, a law which is very much like that
of the conservation of energy, and which admits of divers pos-
sibihties for the future, for it does not assume a knowledge of
the first cause of the universe nor the will of a divinity.
We shall then understand that the complication of our cere-
bral activities, mnemic and actual, combined with the fact that
a great part of them (and consequently of the motives for our
actions) remain subconscious, must produce in us the illusion
of free-will.
On the other hand, we shall find the measure of what we are
to understand by relative liberty, in the plastic faculties of the
activity of the human brain, which allow it to adapt itself as
adequately as possible to the numerous and diverse complica-
tions of existence, and especially to social relations between
mankind.
The most adaptable man is the most free, especially in the
sense of active and conscious adaptation. There are also men
who adapt themselves passively and are easily molded. This
passive plasticity at any rate renders them capable of submit-
ting to everything and only provoking conflict as a last resource.
These individuals are no doubt less free, since they obey the
impulses of others; nevertheless, their elasticity gives them a
certain relative liberty, because they do not feel constraint and
* " Die Zwiechungsfahigkeit des normalen Menschen," Munich.
398 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
easily adapt themselves to laws and other social requirements.
But the highest form of liberty, the moral faculty of higher
adaptation, is not that of the human fox who exploits others for
his own profit, but that of true higher intellects, capable of adapt-
ing their activity to the social requhements of humanity. On
the contrary, the man who is least free is the one who, domi-
nated by his passions and baser appetites, or by insufficiency of
intelligence or will power, is thereby incapable of conducting
himself reasonably, gives way to all temptations and impulses,
falls into all kinds of snares, cannot keep to any resolution, and
is in perpetual conflict mth society.
What is the use of the theoretical belief in free-will in this
case? This man feels subjectively as free, or often more free,
than one who is more reasonable and more master of himself,
and yet he is a slave! When, dominated by his psychic bonds,
he violates the law, he is punished, but he himself resents the
punishment as an injustice. The judge who condemns him and
imagines he holds the scales of justice in equilibrium, only car-
ries out the principles of an unjust law, a kind of mild retaliation,
exacting moderate expiation. Or again, by exercising a right
derived from old traditions based on religious ideas, he plays
the part of proxy for the Deity and judges in His place. We
might even say that a man is in reality all the more free the
better he realizes that he is not so, i.e., that his actions depend
on the activity of his brain! At any rate he will then be less
often deceived and will react in a more plastic manner.
The True Task of Penal Law ; Its Traditional Errors in the
Sexual Question. — Penal law has only one thing to do, that is to
cut itself free from its roots and transplant itself on a social and
scientific soil. There would then be no longer a penal law, but
a law protecting society against dangerous individuals, and a
law of administration for persons incapable of conducting them-
selves. Its task would be the complement of that of civil law.
Henceforth the judge would cease to pass judgment on his
neighbor and his neighbor's motives, acting as a proxy for God.
He would no longer punish, but would content hunself with
protecting, restraining and ameliorating.
The history of psychiatry and sorcery proves that we are
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 399
not exaggerating. It is not very long since the insane were
regarded, not as persons suffering from disease, but as criminals
and sorcerers, and were treated by punishment and exorcism.
The ancients, on the contrary, especially certain Greek and
Roman physicians (notably Caelius Aurelianus) had already
recognized that insanity was a disease of the brain, and had
distinguished its different forms.
Even at the present day, we find among the Catholics and
among certain Protestant sects, as among savages, a belief in
sorcery, and if this belief got the upper hand, prosecution for
sorcery — exorcism and other forms of cruelty — would soon
become the fashion.
Before the sixteenth century prosecutions for sorcery were
universal, and remained very coimnon for a long time after-
wards. It is only since the time of the French Revolution that
insanity has been recognized as a mental disease. Even in the
nineteenth century a German alienist, Heinroth, punished the
insane like criminals. The atrocious prejudice of the people
against the insane dates from the time of prosecution for sorcery.
Even now we are the slaves of a prejudice which holds a
legal conviction sufficient to dishonor the prisoner and stain
his character for the rest of his days. Hans Leuss' book, Aus
dem Zuchthause (From the prison), 1904, is very instructive on
this point. Condemned to prison himself, the author makes
some wise and dispassionate observations which give food for
reflection. I may also quote the words of Doctor Guillaume,
who was for a long time superintendent of the penitentiary at
Neuchatel, and who is now director of the Swiss federal bureau
of statistics at Berne. The question we are dealing with had
been treated in a discussion in which I took part, and to which
Doctor Guillaume had Hstened silently. At the conclusion, he
said to us: ''Gentlemen, in the course of my life I have become
acquainted with a large number of convicts, but I have never
been able to discover among them more than two classes of indi-
viduals; the one class were diseased, and the others . . ah!
the others ; the more I study their cases and their personality,
I ask myself if I should not have done as they did under the
same circumstances!" It is unnecessary to say that Doctor
400 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Guillaume did not mean to establish two clearly marked classes,
for most criminals represent a mixtm'e of both; but his main
idea gives a good idea of the question of penal law.
How sexual questions lead to conflicts with penal law, how
penal law judges them, and how it ought to judge them after
what we have just said, I can only refer to what I have said con-
cerning civil law. Our present penal law is aware of singular
sexual crimes and often punishes them from curious motives.
When a poor imbecile, ridiculed by women and overcome by
his sexual appetite, copulates with a cow, the latter is not in-
jured in any way; neither is the owner. Moreover, the question
of property does not trouble the judge, for he punishes sodomy
even when the culprit owns the animal. How does the law
obtain the right to punish an act which does no harm to any
one, nor to society, nor even to an animal? It is evidently a
vestige of religious mysticism, something like punishment for
sinning against the Holy Ghost. The sins of Sodom and Go-
morrah, they say, caused the wrath of God, who destroyed these
towns for this reason. According to the legend, sodomy was a
vice of the inhabitants; is this why it is punished at the present
day? But the masturbation of Onan, according to the Bible,
also caused the wrath of God; why then do not our present
laws institute punishment for those who practice it?
In many of the Swiss cantons and in Germany, sexual connec-
tion between men is prosecuted by law. The German legislators
have even recently discussed the question whether punishment
should be enforced only when the penis of one man is introduced
into the anus of the other (pederasty), or whether indecent
contact and mutual onanism are sufficient to justify punish-
ment.
Our penal law is thus concerned with the question whether it
should punish or not, according as this or that mucous mem-
brane or part of the skin is used for the satisfaction of a morbid
sexual appetite ! These are truly singular points for a legislator
to decide, compelled, in spite of his incompetence, to play the
part of physiologist, anatomist and psychologist!
If I am correctly informed, the German legislation is incon-
sistent in punishing sexual intercourse between two men, but
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 401
not between two women. These examples suffice to show what
blind-alleys a penal law leads to, the basis of which is vicious
and which is guided by the traditions of mysticism.
Quite recently, in the Swiss journal of penal law, a jurist
seriously upheld the necessity for the conception of a crime
against religion! Ideas of this kind would lead us to punish
suicide, like the Enghsh.
We will now proceed to analyze the facts from the point of
view of their true social value.
Limits of Penal Law in the Sexual Domain. — If we would
avoid injustice and ridiculous contradictions, we should keep
to the principle that penal justice has only the right to intervene
in cases where individuals or society are injured, or run the risk
of being injured. It is also necessary to examine, in each case,
whether the person who has committed the offense was not irre-
sponsible and affected with mental disease at the time; or
whether his responsibility was not diminished, i.e., whether he
was not seriously abnormal without being quite insane. The
conception of responsibility, necessarily relative, should be under-
stood in the sense of relative liberty, which we have defined
above.
According to the result of the inquiry (culpabihty being
proved) the judge will have to decide how society can be best
protected against the repetition of such acts, and how the cul-
prit may be most easily improved, provided he is capable of
improvement.
If, for example, the culprit is an inebriate, his detention in a
home for inebriates will protect society and benefit the indi-
vidual much better than all the fines and imprisonments at
present in force.
If he is an incorrigible recidivist, incapable of resisting his
criminal impulses, the law should keep him under observation
in a safe place, or deprive him only of certain dangerous liberties.
It is not so difficult to decide these questions as the public im-
agines. The antecedents of the criminal, his previous con-
victions, and a careful study of his psychology mil nearly always
lead to a clear diagnosis and prognosis. In this case a mutual
understanding between psychiatrists and jurists will produce
402 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
excellent results. It is needless to say that if it is only a case
of transient cerebral obnubilation, such as sunstroke or som-
nambuHsm, etc., the culprit should be acquitted.
Rape, etc. — Normal coitus may render a penal action legiti-
mate when it is obtained by force or stratagem (rape, abuse of a
feeble-minded or hypnotized person, etc.). It is evident that
measures of protection against such acts are urgent, and that
persons abused in this way should have the right to heavy in-
demnities. What we require is not so much extenuation of
penalty for the culprit as greater protection for his victims.
In cases of rape, when the woman becomes pregnant against
her will, I am of opinion that artificial abortion should be allowed
by law as an exceptional measure. We cannot expect a woman
to have a child imposed upon her by a man's violence, especially
when she is unmarried, and oblige her to bring it up, from the
simple fact that she conceived it. It should be the same in
cases of abduction of female minors.
When, on the contrary, a male minor seduced by an adult
woman, makes her pregnant, it is the woman only who is respon-
sible for the maintenance of her child, and there are no reasons
to accord her the right of abortion, for it is she who desired the
sexual act. The close bonds which exist between the child and
its mother justify such legal dispositions.
With regard to civil laws, we have mentioned the case of
venereal infection after coitus. In this case civil indemnity
would be most equitable. A penal action could only be based
on prosecution by the injured party, unless it was a question of
directly criminal intent — infection for vengeance, for example.
Incest. — Under the heading of consanguineous marriages, we
have seen to what extent the conception of incest should be
limited, in respect to civil law. The grave cases of incest are
those between parents and children. Their normal causes are
mental anomalies, alcoholism, proletarian promiscuity, or isola-
tion of a family in some remote place. Incest is common, in
Switzerland especially, among the inhabitants of isolated
mountain chalets. I will give a few typical and genuine exam-
ples of incest giving rise to penal actions :
(1). A drunken and brutal husband persecuted his wife with
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 403
excessive coitus. The latter then gave him her own daughter
to satisfy his violence.
(2). An inebriate woman induced her own son, aged seventeen,
to have intercourse with her. Infuriated at the idea that his
mother had made him her lover, he murdered her one day when
he was drunk. Condemned as a parricide, this young man con-
ducted himself in prison in a model manner. Alcohol, combined
with his incestuous seduction, had made him the murderer of
his mother.
(3). In a family composed exclusively of imbeciles and psy-
chopaths, some of whom were put under my care for treatment,
incest was practiced among nearly all of them; between father
and daughters; between mother and sons; and between broth-
ers and sisters.
The last case, and many others, show that incest is not the
cause but the effect of mental disorders. This does not mean
that the offspring of such unions are not slightly tainted by the
mere fact of such concentrated incest, but these cases are com-
paratively so rare that they do not contribute to any appreciable
extent, as incest, in causing degeneration of the race; the factor
which causes degeneration is here mental disease, which arises
from other hereditary causes, chiefly of blastophthoric origin.
From what we have said it results that a penal action for incest
should only take place in the case of minors or insane persons,
abuse of strength or power, or rape. The measures of civil law
should suffice to reduce other cases of incest to a minimum.
The disgust which the generality of men feel for sexual union
between brothers and sisters, and especially between parents
and children, is the best protection against incest. The elimina-
tion of alcoholism, the superintendence of the insane, and the
improvement of our social organization are much more likely
than penal laws to lead to the gradual disappearance of incest.
Assaults on Minors. — All assaults on minors should naturally
be prosecuted. But prosecution should take a different form
according as the culprit is affected with a pathological perverse
disposition, or whether it is simply a question of abuse of confi-
dence committed by a normal man. A master who, having no
sexual anomaly, commits assaults on young girls, his pupils,
404 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
should be deprived of the right of teaching in gkls' schools, for
it is only there that he is dangerous. If, on the other hand,
he is affected vnth. perversion (pederasty, etc.), further measures
for protection should be taken against him, according to the
circumstances.
Sexual Perversions. — When we pass on to sexual perversions,
the inconsequences and mysticism of our present penal law
become still more apparent. This code often prosecutes and
punishes sexual actions which do no harm to any one, or which
two persons practice of their own accord. Such cases may be
suitable for moral or medical treatment, but should never jus-
tify a penal prosecution. This applies to all the manipulations
of onanism, pederasty, masochism, fetichism, etc., which take
place between adults by mutual agreement.
What is the use of prosecuting inverts? It is a fortunate
thing for society that these psycopaths are contented with their
mutual sexual intercourse, the result of which is sterile and there-
fore does no harm to posterity. The real crime is the marriage
of an invert to an individual of the opposite sex, and yet this
crime is sanctioned by the law! It is a crime against the nor-
mal conjoint and against the children who may result from such
an unhappy union. By severely punishing homosexual inter-
course, the penal laws of many countries provoke the lowest
form of blackmail, as Krafft-Ebing, Moll, Hirschfcld and others
have proved by numerous examples, and as I have myself con-
firmed among many of my patients.
It is quite another thing with abnormal or perverse forms of
the sexual appetite, which can only be satisfied against the will
of their object, or by injuring it more or less severely. Here
it is the duty of the law to organize energetic measures of pro-
tection ; not with a view to punish the pervert, who is a diseased
person, but to protect his victims in time.
We wiU first deal Avith sadism; secondly with the violation
of children. Here a very delicate question arises. In the case
of such terrible sexual appetites we should not wait for victims
before taking action. On the other hand, we cannot punish a
man, nor even take administrative measures against him, simply
from the fact that he possesses a dangerous appetite, especially
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 405
if he is in other respects well-behaved and conscientious, and
strives with all his might against his perversion. I have treated
a patient who suffered from a terrible pathological appetite of
this kind. He was a highly moral man who never harmed any
one, but was in a state of despair over his affliction, which he
resisted with all his power, seeking relief in masturbation when
his passion became too violent.
In such cases, the moral sentiments of an individual offer
sufficient social protection, and it is neither the right nor the
duty of the physician to denounce him. But he should advise
the patient to retire to an asylum to avoid committing a crime,
if he feels that he cannot restrain his passions. It is very rare
for such cases to come to the knowledge of the public, for these
patients prefer to suffer in silence or to commit suicide; but they
are none the less instructive and characteristic.
At other times dangerous perversions are discovered by chance,
the pervert, instead of resisting his passion, seeking opportuni-
ties to satisfy it without discovery. In such cases strong meas-
ures should be enforced. Unfortunately, sadists are very well
aware of the dangers they run, and know better than any other
criminals how to commit their crimes \vithout being discovered.
As soon as the perpetrator of a sadic crime is discovered, or
simply an attempt at sadism, he should be arrested and placed
where he can do no harm. The question of castration arises
here: but we do not know yet how far this protects the sadist
and his victim against recurrence. If this operation proves
efficacious it should never be neglected.
The exhibitionists present gi'eat difficulty. They are not dan-
gerous, since they touch nobody. Their "victims," if they can
be called so, are girls or women before whom they expose their
genital organs and masturbate. No doubt modesty may be
much offended by such acts, especially in young girls and chil-
dren; disgust and fear may also harm them; but I think the
law is too severe in these cases, for there is no question of an
injury which is dangerous in itself. I have known little girls
who have been frightened several times by exhibitionists, but I
have never known them injured by the disgust which they
experienced. The affair is too ridiculous and too ugly. It
406 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
would be sufficient to send exhibitionists to an asylum for short
periods, unless extreme weakness on their part necessitated
prolonged detention.
Simple necrophilia should be treated in the same way by
penal law. But this perversion is more dangerous on account
of its relationship with sadism. There are some sadists who are
only necrophiliacs for fear of becoming assassins. Such indi-
\'iduals are very dangerous and should be kept in confinement.
The fetichists are, on the contraiy, generally very innocent.
At the most they might be prosecuted for theft when they take
away their fetiches. One of their worst misdemeanors is that
of cutting off the hair of young girls.
Concubinage. Prostitution. Proxenetism. White Slavery. —
We have already seen that concubinage should never be punish-
able in itself, although it is so in some countries. We shall not
again return to the question whether prostitution should be the
object of judicial and penal actions. Proxenetism and white
slavery, on the contrary, cause grave injury to the rights of
many individuals and should be made criminal offenses; for
they are crimes against society and the indi\'idual, and com-
mitted for lucre. It cannot be legal to do commerce with the
body of one's neighbor: this is a crime which is closely related
to slavery and similar abuses. (Vide Chapter X.)
The law should punish all public solicitation, obscenity or
sexual brutality, but the punishment should take a milder form.
The sexual act and everything connected with it should be abso-
lutely free, but a man has no right to provoke or annoy his
neighbor by indecent sexual invitations if the latter does not
wish to respond to them.
It is, however, extremely difficult to fix the limits of what is
licit, for prudeiy may also go too far and regard the most inno-
cent allusions as provocations. It is absolutely necessaiy to
leave a margin for normal sexual invitations. All that is re-
quired is that they should not overstep the limits of recognized
propriety, so long as there is not mutual agreement between the
two parties. (Vide Flirtation, Chapter IV.)
Lewdness. Pornography. — The question naturally presents
itself of kno\^dng how far it is permitted to proceed publicly with
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 407
a mutual agreement without causing offense or injury to other
parties. On the whole, our customs are free enough in this
respect, and a greater hberty in pubhc flirtation would be incon-
venient. For instance, lewd exhibitions, coitus, etc., could not
be allowed in public places. Children especially should be pro-
tected against such excitations of the sexual appetite, and it is
necessary to fix a legal distinction between what is offensive and
what is not offensive to public propriety or modesty.
Simple police regulations are sufficient for this purpose, but
they are very necessary to protect women and children, and
occasionally young men, against importunities or sexual obses-
sions, against sexual solicitation, or even against assault or other
offenses, such as incitement to masturbation, obscene words
and gestures, etc.
It is, no doubt, very difficult to define the limits. Our modern
customs have left a large margin for pornography, which they
treat like a spoiled child. The most dangerous form, however,
is not that which flaunts itself in shop windows, by advertise-
ments and placards, in public kiosks and dancing rooms; but
the refined and aesthetic pornography which appears in the
form of elegant engravings, erotic novels and dramas, under
the cloak of art and even under that of morality.
Unfortunately, the public is a very bad judge of these things.
Certain books have openly and fearlessly described the sexual
vices of our time — for example, Zola's novels and the dramas
of Brieux— and these have been stigmatized as pornographic.
As a matter of fact their authors in no way merit such a reproach.
Such works in no way encourage immorality; on the contrary,
they inspire disgust and a healthy and holy terror at the per-
versity of our sexual customs. No doubt such works may have
an erotic action on ignorant and low-minded persons. The
Tyrolean peasants, in their moral indignation, have been known
to destroy the marble statues of women erected in public places.
Such acts serve no purpose, for prudery will never rid the world
of eroticism; it will only increase it by leading to hypocrisy.
We have something better to do than persecute and insult true
art and men of talent or genius who expose our social perversions.
Pornography is quite another thing. It is not contented with
408 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
representing the aesthetic, licit, and normal side of natural
eroticism. It does not depict sexual vice so as to emphasize
its ugliness and its tragic consequences, but to glorify it. Whether
it is represented as brazen nudity unadorned, or enveloped in a
transparent veil which reveals everything it pretends to hide;
whether it reels in bacchanalian orgies; whether it appears in
brilliant fancy dress illuminated by electric lights, or in the
discreet light of a fashionable boudoir; whether it is clearly re-
vealed or equivocal, perverted in one way or depraved in another;
in all its forms its aim is to tickle, to excite, to seduce, to allure,
by arousing lewdness and inflaming its lowest passions.
The pornographic dishes are often served up with a senti-
mental and moral sauce which naturally does not tend to hide
the flavor of the meat — for then all its charm would be gone —
on the contrary it increases its spicy quality by means of con-
trast, at the same time making the product more marketable;
this hypocritical disguise giving it a certain varnish of propriety.
The trick of clothing pornographic articles with the mantle of
virtue may deceive the artless, and give the less artless excuse
for buying them without putting themselves to any incon-
venience. In such cases it is extremely difficult to act with-
out injustice and without doing injury to art and science
by vexatious measm'es. This requires much tact and rare
perspicacity.
Other Sexual Misdemeanors. — Many sexual assaults are com-
mitted on the insane and feeble-minded, in the hope that they
will not defend themselves and denounce the criminal. We have
mentioned the case of inverts who become attendants in lunatic
asylums in order to satisfy their appetites. Such crimes should
be classed with those committed against minors. In the first
place it is necessary to take into account the special dangers
they present, and in the second place, the personality of the
criminal, his capacity for repentance, improvement, and self-
control.
Artificial Abortion. — It is a difficult question to decide whether
a woman should have the right to dispose of the embryo she
carries in her womb, and the duties of society with regard to this
question. It is certainly the duty of society to protect the child
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 409
as soon as it is born. In this case the laws cannot be too severe
in protecting the child from unnatural parents, or from the
"baby farmers," whose business is to get rid of the mfants
by starving them or exposing them to disease.
It is the same with analogous abuses which we have men-
tioned with regard to civil law. These crimes or misdemeanors
very often result as much from the economic organization of our
society, as from want of protection for infancy and gM-mothers,
as well as from the shame with which the latter are branded by
our hypocritical customs.
The question becomes more difficult with regard to the em-
bryo before birth. Should the law punish artificial abortion?
Opinions on this question vary. I have already said that in
cases of rape, and forced pregnancy in general, the right to
artificial abortion should be conceded to the woman. On the
other hand, I think it should be prohibited on principle when
the fecundating coitus has been voluntary on both sides, and
when there is no medical reason for such a measure. In princi-
ple, the human embryo, when once conceived, should have the
right to live. Birth is only an episode in its life. This generally
takes place at the end of the ninth lunar month of pregnancy,
but a child born at the seventh month is often viable. It is,
therefore, arbitraiy not to recognize the right of the embryo to
live. On the contrary, the right that a woman has to dispose
of her body would seem to outweigh this, when conception has
been imposed on her by stratagem or violence. In fact, the
right of the embryo to life should depend on the wish of the
bearers of each of the two germs by which it is formed, at
the moment of conception.
On the other hand, numerous exceptions to the above rule
should be allowed, and doctors should not be too severe, for it •
would be for them to decide in most cases whether artificial
abortion was licit or not. Some pregnancies are a veritable
misfortune for the parents and offspring, when the bodily and
mental health of the mother or child, or both of them, is in
danger. When a lunatic or an idiot, married or not, makes a
woman pregnant, artificial abortion should be allowed; also m
all cases when an insane or epileptic woman becomes pregnant.
410 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
An analogous case is that where a drunkard renders his wife
pregnant against her will, especially when he is intoxicated at
the moment ; for the offspring runs a great risk of blastophthoria.
It is needless to say that abortion should be permitted when-
ever pregnancy seriously endangers the life or health of the
mother, or when a grave disease in the mother condemns the
child to become an invalid. On the other hand, such indications
should not be acted on too lightly; a rational limit is here a
matter of practice and common sense, combined with medical
science.
The Right to Live of Monsters, Idiots, or the Deformed. —
The preceding remarks naturally lead us to the question whether
children who are born invalids, deformed, or idiots, etc., should
be necessarily condemned to live by the law, and whether
special dispositions should not be made for such cases.
The obligation to preserve, often by means of all the resources
of medical science, miserable creatures, born as cretins or
idiots; children with hydrocephalus or microcephalus, without
eyes or ears, or with atrophied genital organs, etc., is an atrocity
sanctioned by the law. Would it not be bettter to allow these
miserable beings to be suppressed by means of a painless nar-
cosis, with the consent of the parents and after an expert medical
opinion, instead of condemning them by law to a life of misery?
Science has proved that every congenital malformation of the
brain is as incurable as that of any other organ.
Here again our legislation is fettered by ignorance and reli-
gious dogma. On one hand, immense armies are organized to
kill the most healthy men by thousands and tens of thousands,
and many more thousands are abandoned to famine, prostitution,
alcoholism and exploitation; on the other hand, medicine is
expected to employ its whole art and efforts in prolonging life
as long as possible and thus martyrizing miserable human
wretches, degenerate in body and mind or both, often when
they cry out for death!
Large asylums are built for idiots, and there is much joy when
after many years of persevering effort some devoted person suc-
ceeds in teaching these beings, whose mentality is far inferior to
ibaf. of a monkey, to repeat a few words like a parrot, to scribble
RIGHTS IN SEXUAL LIFE 411
some words on paper, or to repeat a prayer mechanically with
their eyes turned toward heaven!
It is difficult to compare these two facts without feeling the
bitter irony of what are euphemistically called our hereditary
customs. In truth, the nurses and teachers who devote them-
selves to the education of cretins and idiots would do better to
occupy themselves in some manual work; or even leave the
idiots to die, and themselves procreate healthy and capable
children in their place! But this question does not properly
belong to our subject.
The Rights of the Embryo.— A distinction is generally made
between artificial abortion practiced in the first months of preg-
nancy and that induced in the later months. When the child
is born viable, the term premature labor is used. When this is
induced with the object of getting rid of the child the penalty
is much more severe than for abortion, for it is regarded almost
as infanticide.
For this reason, and owing to the difficulty of the whole ques-
tion, a mother should never be given the right to destroy the
embryo or child in her womb, excepting in cases where preg-
nancy has been forced upon her. Each case should be sub-
mitted to a medical examination, and a doctor's certificate
should be required. This is all the more indicated since our
present knowledge makes it easy to prevent pregnancy by
anticonceptional measures. Society is, therefore, entitled to
demand that a mother who has voluntarily conceived a child
has no right to interrupt its development, i.e., to kill it. If, as
we hope, we shall eventually obtain more extended rights for
women and greater sexual liberty in general, even in marriage,
the reasons justifying artificial abortion, apart from medical
or hygienic measures, will become more and more rare.
The stigma of shame which is branded on illegitimate mater-
nity unfortunately justifies many cases of abortion and even
infanticide. Things ought to change in this respect, and in
the future no pregnancy ought to be a source of shame for
any healthy woman whatever, nor furnish the least motive for
dissimulation.
If the objection is raised that I am inconsistent; that every
412 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
man, and consequently every woman, should have the power
to dispose of then- own body on every occasion, and that penal
law should therefore take no cognizance of artificial abortion, I
reply that this does not apply to the case in point; for it is here
a question, not of one body, but of two or more (in the case of !
twins) . From the moment of conception the embryo acquires a
social right which merits all the more protection, the more its
possessor is incapable of looking after it.
Adultery. — Adultery, which even at the present day is often
considered as a crime or misdemeanor, should be simply regarded
as a reason for divorce. We have already treated the question
with regard to civil law, and have shown the futility of trying
to obtain fidelity by law. In my opinion, the misdemeanor of
adultery should be entirely abolished from penal law. When
it is complicated by fraud or other crimes, it is the latter only
which are concerned.
Human Selection. — The indirect danger to which children of
bad heredity are exposed constitutes a grave social evil. At
present, penal law is absolutely impotent in this matter. W^e
have seen what civil law might perhaps effect, and what is
already done in some countries. In another chapter we shall
discuss much more appropriate measures for improvement in
this domain.
We have already mentioned castration and certain cases in
which it might be practiced. These cases will always be very
limited, and it is on the basis of social morality and hygiene of
the race that the question of conception should be regulated in
a rational and voluntary manner. We shall obtain much more
in this way than by legal measures, which are always lame because
they interfere with individual liberty. We must never forget that
the law is only a necessaiy evil, and often a superfluous one.
In conclusion, I may remark that penal law should be com-
bined, like civil law, with administrative measm'es, to protect
both the individual and society in sexual matters, at the same
time watching over the interests of future generations. But it
should only do this as far as the weakness and eroticism of men
hinder a similar or better result from being obtained by moral
education, combined with rational intellectual instruction.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XIII
A MEDICO-LEGAL CASE
The following case occurred in 1904 in the Canton of St. Gall,
in Switzerland, and confirms my opinion :
Frieda Keller, born in 1879, was the daughter of honest pa-
rents. Her mother was mild-mannered and sensible, her father
loyal, but harsh and sometimes violent. Frieda was the fifth of
elfven brothers and sisters. She was a model scholar. At the
age of four years she had meningitis which left her with frequent
headaches. In 1896-97 she learnt dressmaking and helped at
home in the household work. When she was free, she did em-
broidery to help her family. Afterwards she obtained a situa-
tion in a dressmaker's shop at St. Gall, where she got sixty
francs a month.
To increase her income she worked on Sundays as a waitress
at the Cafe de la Poste. The proprietor, a married man, began
to persecute her with his affections, which she had great diffi-
culty in avoiding. She then entered another shop where she
got eighty francs a month. One day, in 1898, when she was
then nineteen, the proprietor of the cafe succeeded in seducing
her, and on May 27, 1899, she gave bkth to a boy at the Mater-
nity of St. Gall. She had confessed her misfortune to her pa-
rents, and her mother had pity on her. Her mother had also
been seduced and rendered pregnant at the age of fifteen;
abandoned by her seducer she committed infanticide, and was
sentenced to six years' imprisonment; as she had always been
well-behaved, the tribunal had recognized that she acted
"less by moral depravity than by false sentiment of honor."
Frieda, who was fond of her mother, knew nothing of this history.
The father was very hard toward his daughter and refused her
all help and pity. Twelve days after her confinement she took
her child to the Foundling Hospital at St. Gall.
413
414 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Her seducer then promised to maintain the child, but never
paid more than eighty francs. After a time he left the town
and was seen no more. The circumstances under which Frieda
became pregnant were not fully inquired into and her seducer
was ignored. It was not absolutely a case of rape, but of taking
a poor, weak and timid girl by surprise.
Frieda Keller felt nothing but disgust for her seducer. Later
on the latter would no doubt deny the fact of his paternity;
but he had tacitly admitted this by the payment of eighty
francs.
Frieda had to pay five francs a week to the FQundling Hospital
and also thirty-four francs to her married sister. In 1901 her
father died, and in 1903 her mother. Frieda inherited 2,471
francs from her father, but this sum was tied up in her brother's
business and he never sent her the interest. It is characteristic
of her mentality that she never attempted to exact it.
Then began for this unfortunate young girl a life of struggle
and despair. She was possessed of two ideas. On the one
hand she could no longer maintain her child, and on the other
hand would not admit anything from shame. They would not
keep the child in the hospital after Easter, 1904, when it would
reach the maximum age of five years. What was she to do?
Frieda Keller was then evidently in a pathological state of
mind, which was upheld by her defender, Doctor Janggen. She
wished to keep her secret and provide for the maintenance of
the child; but she took no steps in this direction. She did not
seek for cheap lodgings, not for a rise of salary, nor even for the
money illegally detained by her brother for his own profit. She
never spoke to her married sister, nor to any one, of her des-
perate position. The father of her child had disappeared and
she never gave information against him for fear of divulging
her secret. Moreover, the law at St. Gall only admitted the
charge of paternity against unmarried men! She found no
practical way of disposing of her child. After Easter, 1904, when
the child was discharged from the hospital, she was haunted by
a single idea — to get rid of the child. She struggled for a long
time against this obsession, but in vain, and it finally became
a resolution.
A MEDICO-LEGAL CASE 415
Although she was fond of her sister's children, she did not love
her own. She rarely visited her child and appeared to take no
notice of it. This woman who was well-disposed toward every
other creature, who was of exemplary conduct and would not
hurt a fly, never even spoke of her own child. On April 9th she
wi-ote to the hospital that she would come and fetch the child.
A few days before this she took a long walk in the woods; the
next day she wept at home, while looking for some string.
Alone with her despair, she had definitely made her terrible
resolution. She said afterwards, at the assizes:
"I could not free myself from the feeling that I must get rid
of the child."
She then went to the hospital, after having bought new
clothes for the child, and told the authorities that an aunt of
hers at Munich would take care of the child. She then took the
child to the woods. Having found a lonely spot she sat down
for a long time while the child played in the wood. For some
time she had not the courage to do the deed, but at last an irre-
sistible force, as she said, urged her to do it. With her hands
and shoes she dug a grave, then strangled the child with string,
with such force that it was difficult to untie the knot on the
dead body afterwards. She knelt for some time by the child
till it ceased to give any signs of life, then buried it, and returned
home restraining her tears with difficulty.
On the 1st of June she wrote to the hospital that the child
had arrived at Munich. On the 7th of June the body was
exposed by rain and was discovered by some Italians. On the
14th of June she was arrested. During the trial she declared
that her action had been the result of her inability to maintain
the child, and the necessity of keeping her secret. This secret
was the shame and dishonor of involuntary maternity and
illegitimate birth.
All the witnesses spoke in favor of Frieda Keller and gave
evidence that she was well-mannered, intelligent, hard-working,
economical, of exemplary conduct and loving her sister's chil-
dren. She did not deny the premeditation of her crime, and in
no way sought to diminish her responsibility.
According to the law of St. Gall, such cases are punishable
416 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
with death; but Frieda Keller's sentence was commuted to
penal servitude for life.
Such are the facts of this case taken from the official report,
and from an extract published by M. de Morsier in the Signal de
Genkve.
We are compelled to exclaim with M. de Morsier that a legis-
lation which, in such a case, condemns to death one who can
justly be called a victim, while leaving unpunished the real cul-
prit, is calculated to destroy all belief in justice in a democracy
which calls itself Christian. It is a justice of barbarians, a dis-
grace to the twentieth century. The tribunal and the juries
have enforced to the letter an article in the Code, and this is
called justice! We may well say: Fiat justitia, pereat mundus.
Frieda Keller was no doubt in an abnormal condition of mind;
she probably suffered from the influence of auto-suggestion
which became an obsession. Such cases are not uncommon.
This is clearly shown by the absurdity of her manner of acting,
which was both useless and pernicious, while she might easily
have got out of her difficulty in other ways. If our judges and
juries had a little more knowledge of human psychology and a
little less of the Code in their heads, they would have had some
doubts on the mental integrity of the accused, and would have
ordered an expert examination by a mental specialist. But,
apart from this point, I put the question — can we expect from a
woman, maternal sentiments for a child resulting from sexual
surprise bordering on rape?
In the preceding chapter I have demanded the right of arti-
ficial abortion to women rendered pregnant by rape or against
their will, and I think the case of Frieda Keller supports my con-
tention. I do not intend to justify the assassination of a child
already five years of age; but I wish to point out that the ab-
sence of maternal love is quite natural in such a case. It is
precisely the instinctive aversion of Frieda Keller for her child,
otherwise inexplicable, which shows most clearly that it was a
case of imposed maternity, or sexual satisfaction on the part of
the father alone.
The tragic case of this unfortunate woman well illustrates
the brutality and hypocrisy of our customs regarding the sexual
A MEDICO-LEGAL CASE 417
question, and shows what terror, shame, torment and despair
may be caused by the point of view of the so-called rules of
morality. In the presence of these facts I do not think I can
be accused of exaggeration : it is only parchment-hearted jurists
and government officials who can remain indifferent in such
cases.
Penal servitude for life for the poor victim of such cruelty is
a kind of "mercy" which rather resembles bitter irony. The
law of St. Gall can do only one thing to repair the evil; that is
to change its laws and liberate the victim as soon as possible.
In ordinary infanticide the true assassin is not usually the
mother who kills her child, but rather the father who abandons
the woman he has made pregnant, and disowns the result of his
temporary passion. In the case of Frieda Keller, maternal
heredity, the results of meningitis, stupidity, irreflection, want,
shame, fear, a pathological obsession, and finally the unworthy
conduct of the father, all combined in making this unfortunate
girl a victim rather than a criminal. Her child was not only a
source of great anxiety but also an object of instinctive repulsion.
How is it that such a brave and industrious woman can feel
repulsion toward her own child? If the judges had asked
themselves this question and had replied to it without prejudice,
forgetting for the moment their Code and prejudices, they
would not have had the courage to condemn the woman to
death, nor even to condemn her at all; for their conscience
would have clearly shown them the true culprits— masculine
brutality, our hypocritical sexual customs, and the unjust laws
inspiring terror in a feeble brain.
When every pregnancy and every birth are looked upon by
human society with honor and respect, when every mother is
protected by law and assisted in the education of her chil-
dren, then only will society have the right to judge severely of
infanticide.
CHAPTER XIV
MEDICINE AND SEXUAL LIFE
i
General Remarks. — Theology teaches belief in God and a
future life; law represents the application of codified laws and
customs, old and new; medicine is said to be an art — the art
of curing sick people.
At the origin of each of these three branches of human activity
we find an acquired idea. Man has been led to the religious
idea and to the worship of one or more gods by his terror of cer-
tain unknown and occult powers superior to his own, and by the
idea that his faculty of knowledge, his power, and the duration
of his life were limited.
The origin of law is in moral conscience, a phylogenetic
derivative of the sentiments of sympathy, i.e., sentiments of
duty and justice, combined with the idea of the necessity for
men to live in societies.
As regards medicine, this owes its existence to the fear of
disease, pain and death, which is modified by the acquired
experience that certain substances may sometimes ease suffering.
Theology, if separated from morality whose domain it has
usurped, lives on mysticism, and endeavors to give it a natural
and human appearance by adorning it with sonorous phrase-
ology. Law, losing sight of its origin and object of existence,
only concerns itself with comments on the text of laws, and in
discussing the application of the articles of the Code. Medi-
cine has concerned itself too much with the life of the patient,
instead of the improvement of human life in general.
In order to cure a physical malady, to reestablish abnormal
or damaged functions as far as this is possible, the physician
must be acquainted with the vital manifestations of the body
in its normal state. For this reason the art of medicine depends
on the accessory sciences, chiefly anatomy and physiology.
418
MEDICINE AND SEXUAL LIFE 410
These accessory sciences have considerably developed in the
evolution of medicine, and the art of medicine has become the
chief motive power which urges men to research and discovery
in the biological sciences, such as histology, embryology, com-
parative anatomy and physiology, anatomy and physiology of
the brain, bacteriology, etc. Pure science now occupies such a
position in medical studies that the "heahng art" often re-
mains in the background; although it must later on take the
chief part, and is regarded by the pubhc as of the greatest
importance.
The value of the art of medicine is subject to great variations.
It is only of real value when, free from all charlatanism, it rests
on a sufficiently scientific basis; for the art of an ignoramus
falls into error and employs inappropriate methods; on the
other hand, the art of a charlatan has for its object the purse
of the patient. It is common to meet with physicians who have
a good practical experience of art without possessing scientific
knowledge, others who have both practical experience and
science but are charlatans, others again who are very scientific
but incapable in practice. The ideal is a combination of art,
science and disinterested honesty; but it is not very uncommon
to meet with a combination of ignorance, incapacity and char-
latanism. Lastly, too many doctors, otherwise capable and
intelligent, are too much influenced by authority, text-books
and prejudices, instead of observing and judging each case for
themselves in the true scientific spirit. Many dogmas of medi-
cal education rest on hypotheses, theories or statements which
have no solid foundation, and do not represent the fruits of a
true personal experience of human life. Many doctors only see
through other people's glasses, without reflecting for them-
selves; the worst of these are those with " systems," homoeo-
paths, the disciples of natural medicine, etc. It is especially in
the sexual question that these human weaknesses of medical
practitioners often lead to the most pitiable results.
We must first of all take to heart the fundamental principle
of hygiene, which is at the same time that of all honest and sound
medicine — prevention is better than cure.
The modern opinions of medical men on the sexual question
420 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
are still unfortunately greatly obscured by prejudice, authority,
and the indu'ect influence of the doctrines of religious morality. |
The same applies to the question of alcohol. However, it is to |
medicine and its accessory sciences that we owe the knowledge
which now renders it possible to judge of the sexual relations of
man from the true and healthy point of view of social and
moral science.
We cannot describe here all the relations of medicine to sexual
life. Chapters I, II, III, IV and VIII are entirely based on its
results and on those of natural science. What we have still to
consider relates especially to sexual hygiene, for we have already
treated of pathology in Chapter VIII. I shallreserve the gen-
eral and social part of hygiene for the last chapter of the book,
and shall confine myself here to certain special points, and the
criticism of current, but erroneous, medical opinions on the
sexual question.
Prostitution. Sexual Hygiene. Sexual Connection Apart from
Marriage. — All regulation and medical supervision of prosti-
tution should be rejected, not only from the moral point of
view, but also from that of hygiene, as a deplorable error, inca-
pable even of fulfilling its avowed object — protection against
venereal disease. I
. Faith in the dogmas and authority of an existing institution
has led medical men to take a false view of the question. They
demand from the adversaries of regulation proof of a diminution
in venereal disease when regulation was not in force. This is
both unjust and absurd. It is for the supporters of regulation
to prove that State regulation of prostitution has led to any
appreciable improvement of the social evil. Then only can it
be asked if the maintenance of such vexatious measures is still
justifiable. But medicine has not furnished the proof de-
manded from it; on the contrary, its attempts in this direction
have entirely failed. After aU, the system is kept up, not be-
cause it diminishes venereal infection, but because it gives
satisfaction to the sexual appetite of men and their desire for
change. Society, however, has no right to organize such a
monstrosity as regulated prostitution and licensed proxenetism,
for the special pleasure of debauchees.
MEDICINE AND SEXUAL LIFE 421
In virtue of the false dogma of regulation, many doctors, even
at the present day, recommend young men to visit brothels,
for alleged hygienic reasons. This deplorable custom perverts
youth and gives it false ideas. It is a remedy much worse and
much more dangerous than the evil it is supposed to cure,
worse than masturbation, much worse than nocturnal emissions.
Sexual anomalies and perversions are not cured in brothels; on
the contrary they develop there.
Moreover, it is absurd to exaggerate the effects of onanism
and sexual excesses in themselves, and thus increase the anxiety
of a number of unfortunates. In Chapter IV, we have already
spoken of great variations which the sexual appetite presents
without ceasing to be normal, and we have mentioned the rule
given by Luther. In my opinion the advice given by the doctor
should be as follows :
As long as he does not wish to marry, a young man should
remove as far as possible all sexual ideas from his thoughts.
He should be contented with nocturnal emissions, which are
produced spontaneously, and should avoid all the manipulations
of onanism. A young girl should do the same all the more
easily, because her sexual appetite is normally weaker, and is
not accompanied by glandular secretions which more or less
demand ejaculation.
Persons unable to resist their sexual appetite should be
extremely prudent in their extra-nuptial intercourse. More-
over, there is no need for this to assume the character of prosti-
tution.
Medical Advice. — It is the doctor's duty to give friendly ad-
vice to every one who consults him on sexual questions, without
posing as a judge or a moralist. He should never frighten or
reprimand the poor hjq^ochondriac who blames himself for
masturbation, nor sexual perverts of any kind, unless, of course,
they are absolutely dangerous, such as sadists. He should, on
the contrary, calm their fears and give them encouragement; and
in this way he may do much good.
Hypnotic suggestion gives him a means of directly combating
many cases of sexual excitation, or at least of attenuating
them, by directing the cerebral activity of the patient to other
422 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
subjects. Each case should be judged by itself and attention
should be paid to the different points we have studied in this
book. Even between husband and wife, and especially as a
consequence of monogamy, certain unfortunate or delicate cir-
cumstances may raise difficulties; for example, the periods
during which conception should be avoided, a certain time after
accouchement and during certain morbid conditions.
In this case unskillful medical advice may have unfortunate
results. When a doctor forbids a husband to have sexual inter-
course with his wife he exposes him to two dangers. If the hus-
band remains continent and sleeps in a separa.te room for too
long a time, conjugal love may become so cooled that a per-
manent barrier is established between man and wife; if, on the
other hand, he abandons himself to prostitution, he may con-
tract venereal disease and infect his wife. Again, the husband
may become enamored of another woman and wreck the happi-
ness of his family. The doctor who prohibits conjugal coitus
thus takes a great responsibility. For this and other reasons
we have now an important question to consider.
Opinions differ considerably as to the effects of sexual conti-
nence. All extreme assertions are erroneous. It is quite certain
that the harmful effects of continence have been greatly exag-
gerated. Normal persons of both sexes may remain continent,
although not without some trouble and discomfort. In a gen-
eral way, we may accept the statement that many morbid
conditions are known to result from sexual excess, but few
from continence. This, however, goes a little too far, for certain
psychopaths and sexual hypersesthetics often lapse into a state
of mental and nervous excitement from forced continence, so
that their neurosis becomes accentuated and may even end in
insanity. I have seen this occur both in men and women, but
such cases are very rare.
Continence is not an easy matter for erotic individuals, and
requires a heroic internal struggle, especially in men. The
Canadian reformer, Chiniqui, whom we have previously quoted,
relates the history of a monk who tore off his testicles in despair
at being unable to conquer his violent sexual appetite.
The fine preachers of morality, endowed with a cold tempera-
MEDICINE AND SEXUAL LIFE 423
ment, or simply senile, who hold forth on the "immorality" of
the consequences of the sexual appetite, would do well to take
such facts to heart.
A rich and educated young girl, a nymphomaniac but still a
virgin, declared to me that if she did not soon find a husband she
would prostitute herself, for she could contain herself no long(>r.
It is a curious fact that some individuals who are absolutely
cold by nature and have no desire for sexual intercourse, some-
times go to brothels or get married simply "to do like others,"
or so as "not to be laughed at!" I have known a well-to-do
and well-educated young man driven to visit a brothel by the
ridicule of his companions; he contracted syphilis and died
some years later of general paralysis, one of the results of this
disease.
If, at the origin of man, as in the animal kingdom from which
he is descended, coitus and conception were nearly inseparable,
things have changed greatly since then. The severe selection
of the struggle for existence has ceased to eliminate the unfit,
and consequently it is necessary to employ some other means
than selection to prevent as far as possible the conception of
feeble beings and invalids. From this fact results the social
duty of clearly separating conception from the satisfaction of
the sexual appetite, and avoiding conception when useful or
necessary, without renouncing sexual intercourse. The welfare
of our women and our posterity demands this consequence.
Methods of Regulating or Preventing Conception. — In Chapters
I and II we have studied the mechanism of copulation and repro-
duction. A little common sense is sufficient to show that it is
not difficult to perform coitus without this resulting in concep-
tion. It is sufficient simply to prevent the semen from pene-
trating the womb (Chapter V, Figure 18). This may be effected
in various ways, by the aid of preventive measures employed
either by the male or the female during coitus.
(1). Preventive measures employed by the woman. Directly
after coitus the woman may syringe the vagina with water
acidulated with vinegar. This should always be done when
another measure employed by the man has failed in its object,
owing to some accident or want of skill. But vaginal syringing
424 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
is uncertain in its effect, for the microscopic spermatozoa may
enter the womb without the injected fluid reaching them.
It has been stated that coitus a few days before menstruation
is never followed by conception. This is incorrect; conceptions
are, it is true, more rare under such circumstances, but by no
means impossible. Any one who depends on such an uncertain
measure runs the risk of being disabused.
Another method consists in the use of sponges, soaked in some
disinfectant, which the woman places deeply in the vagina
before coitus. These are provided with a silk thread by which
they can be removed more easily. This method is also very
uncertain, for the semen may enter the womb by the side of the
sponge. In any case they should be large and shaped in the
form of a hollow hemisphere.
Occlusive pessaries are hardly much better. They consist of
rings closed by an india-rubber membrane which are introduced
into the vagina as far as the neck of the womb, so as to form a
barrier. If they are not properly introduced, or if they become
displaced dming coitus, their effect is illusory. Moreover, they
do not remove the semen from the vagina.
In fact, all the measures employed by the woman are uncer-
tain, for the simple reason that at the bottom of a narrow cavity
such as the vagina, she is working in the dark, and also from the
nature of the measures themselves. A glance at Figure 18 is
sufficient to make this clear.
(2) . Measures employed by the man. A very common practice
is that called interrupted coitus; the man withdrawing his penis
at the moment of ejaculation. This practice is not only very
disagreeable, but is also uncertain, as some semen may find its
way into the vagina.
The most simple and appropriate measure is that of covering
the penis with an impermeable membrane shaped like the finger
of a glove. The semen then remains in this membranous sac,
if the precaution is taken to apply an india-rubber ring over it
at the root of the penis. This ring keeps the membrane in con-
tact with the penis and prevents it shifting during coitus. These
preventive membranes are called "French letters" in England;
in France "capotes anglaises."
MEDICINE AND SEXUAL LIFE 425
These appliances are often made of thin india-rubber, with a
thicker ring at the base; but these are disagreeable as they do
not resemble mucous membrane, and deaden sensation in the
glans penis, consequently interfering with ejaculation. In the
second place they are uncertain, as they arc liable to become
torn. For this reason preventives made of animal membranes
are to be preferred, especially those made from the vermiform
appendix of certain animals. [In commerce these articles arc
called fish-bladders, on account of their resemblance.]
When these articles are sufficiently strong they are excellent;
but the following precautions should be observed:
Fu-st of all, an india-rubber ring must be used, adapted to the
size of the erect penis, and placed at the root of the penis over
the membrane. If the glans penis is anointed with a little
vaseline and the membrane soaked in water, the presence of
the latter is hardly noticed, and sensation is not impaired.
The penis should be withdrawn while it is still erect, and the
membrane and ring held by the finger during withdrawal. The
letter is washed and dried, then blown up with a little air and
closed at its base. It is left full of air till the morning, when it
is blown up more completely to prevent stiffening; it is then
ready for use again. By the insufflation of air its impermeability
is assured.
In this way the same letter may be used a great many times.
These details are very important, for they avoid using a different
letter for each coitus, a matter of some importance to people
who are not well off — the very people, in fact, who have most
need for them. When a letter is no longer unpermeable to air
it should be discarded.
It is only by careful attention to these details that concep-
tion can be avoided with certainty. If there is any doubt, or
if the letter is torn, a vaginal injection of warm water acidulated
with vinegar should be made immediately. Figure 18 shows
the position of the preventive membrane during coitus, between
the neck of the womb and the opening of the male urethra from
which the semen is ejaculated.
A cheaper method is to purchase some vermiform appendices
from a butcher; clean them and disinfect with a solution of
426 THE SEXUAL QUESTI&i<<
corrosive sublimate (1 in 1,000) and use them in the same way.
Although they are thicker, theh mucous membrane having
almost the same consistence as that of the vagina, they cause
no diminution in sensation during coitus. They may be kept
in a vessel filled with glycerin and washed in water before
and after use, so that insufflation of air is unnecessary. The
same fresh appendix may be used several times, but care must
be taken to see that they are not torn, as they are more friable
than the commercial article.
By these measures coitus takes place in an absolutely normal
manner, both for the man and woman, excepting that concep-
tion does not occur.
When a letter is too thin, which is unfortunately often the
case, a second one may be applied outside the first. The india-
rubber ring must never be omitted. With care and prudence
conception can thus be avoided almost with certainty. If the
wife fears negligence on the part of her husband, she can always
employ one of the other measures we have indicated, such as the
sponge or occlusive pessary, for greater safety. These extra
precautions are indicated in cases where conception would have
grave consequences.
It is important that preventive measures should be cheap and
simple but safe, for they greatly facilitate sexual intercourse in
normal marriage, and in a general way all sexual intercourse;
they enable a husband to save his wife from premature preg-
nancies, or those occurring at unfavorable times, without inter-
fering with natural and legitimate connection. In this way it
is possible to avoid all conception which might be produced
under bad conditions, and to regulate the procreation of chil-
dren in a natural way.
Anticonceptional measures also allow unfortunate patho-
logical individuals, whose social and moral duty is to avoid
procreation, to satisfy their sexual desire without the fear of
bringing into the world miserable abortions, idiots or invalids.
They render marriage possible for young people, when the
income is not sufficient to support a family.
By then- aid it is possible to fix in advance the date of birth
of the child who is to be born, however fecund the woman may
MEDICINE AND SEXUAL LIFE 427
be. In warm climates, for instance, it could be arranged for
the wife to have children in the autumn and not at the beginning
of summer, a dangerous season for the newly born. In short
the French letter, properly employed, satisfies our desideratuni
which is the voluntary separation of procreation and sexual
satisfaction.
If the objection is raised that egoists of both sexes profit by
these measures to avoid procreation of children, I repeat once
more, that this is not to be regretted. Men who possess social
sentiments and wish to have children, will procreate all the
more healthy members of society. What we have most to
fear for the future of humanity is the want of social sense, or
altruism.
Anticonceptional methods also allow men to avoid prostitu-
tion. If we add to this the reforms v;hich we have claimed in
Chapter XIII with regard to civil law, wo may gradually attain
a progressive purification of our sexual life. Another advantage
of French letters is that they protect to a great extent against
venereal disease, if care be taken to avoid infection by tlie
mouth.
The most certain means of definitely preventing conception
is by dislocation of the tubes. This easy operation is indicated
whenever a woman ought to be prohibited from having cliildren,
for example, in cases of contracted pelvis, insanity, ei)ilepsy,
tuberculosis, etc. We have already seen that castration, espe-
cially in women, influences the general health, and is, therefore,
only indicated in very grave cases, such as sadism, etc.
It seems almost incredible that in some countries medical
men who are not ashamed to throw young men into the arms
of prostitution, blush when mention is made of anticonceptional
methods. This false modesty, created by custom and prejudice,
waxes indignant at innocent things while it encourages the
greatest infamies.
Hygiene of Marriage. — When marriage is consummated on the
basis of free reciprocal consent, when both parties know exactly
to what they have pledged themselves, when the corrupting
influence of money is eliminated, when all unnatural regulation
is suppressed, when the superfluous ]:)lending of religion and
428 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
legislation have been abolished from the bonds of matrimony,
when woman has finally obtained equal rights with man —
then love and mutual respect, combined with the sexual appe-
tite, will constitute the intimate and personal ties of marriage.
At the same time, instinctive sentiments and legal duties to-
ward the offspring will furnish it with a complementary and
lasting cement. Among men whose nature is true, the in-
structive sentiment of altruism or conscience urges them to
the performance of social duties without the necessity of any
legal obligation.
A few medical points now require our attention. The hus-
band should be older than the wife, on the average from six to
twelve years. This point is very important if a monogamous
union is to be lasting. Woman matures earlier than man, both
mentally and sexually; her personality becomes more rapidly
adult than his; she ages more quickly and loses her faculty of
procreation sooner than man. Certain savage races solve the
problem by marrying as boys and girls, casting off their wives
when they grow old, to marry younger ones. Among civilized
races, man manages his affairs by making use of prostitution.
From his youth he succumbs to physical and moral corruption,
often complicated with venereal infection, and then often
regards marriage as a kind of hospital for incurables, where the
wife plays the parts of housekeeper and nurse combined!
It is not easy to steer clear of these rocks, nor to formulate a
rule for lasting monogamy. The old style of polygamy is
brutal, and prostitution is still more disgusting. The senti-
ments of the egoist are summed up in the maxim, "After me
the deluge!" To this the preacher of morals replies that ''man
should curb his passions." But this eternal dialogue does not
help us in the least.
I propose a middle course, as follows: The young man who
possesses sufficient strength to overcome his sexual appetite,
or whose sexual appetite is so moderate that he can remain
continent till the age of about twenty-five years, so as to enable
him to avoid prostitution, promiscuous sexual intercourse or
masturbation — this young man, I maintain, has the best chance
of gaining the first prize in life. If he is free from prejudice
MEDICINE AND SEXUAL LIFE 429
and is not afraid of using anticonceptional measures for a cer-
tain time, he may then marry a young girl, to whom he may
become permanently attached, if their two characters suit each
other.
A young girl may very well marry at seventeen or eighteen,
or at any rate between eighteen and nineteen. She is then
sexually mature and her mentahty is sufficiently developed, so
that the difference in age we have required may be obtained.
Young people thus united may continue their studies before
procreating children, and their marriage will stimulate them to
work.
When the intoxication of the honeymoon is over, the con-
tinuance of conjugal happiness depends on an intimate adapta-
tion of the two conjoints in sentiments, intelhgence and sexual
appetite; an adaptation which purifies love on both sides.
Work in common, a common ideal, mutual respect full of affec-
tion but free from flattery, and a reciprocal education which
does not degenerate into pedantry nor tyranny, are the principal
conditions for conjugal happiness.
It is absolutely necessary to avoid everything which causes
separation or exclusion, even in appearance. At the risk of
appearing ridiculous in the eyes of certain superior persons, I
repeat that separation of beds and bedrooms is a dangerous
experiment to make in marriage, and that it may easUy lead to
estrangement, even when based on the highest motives.
It is the same, in a still higher degree, with sexual continence
in marriage, even when it does not last for years, excepting in
cases of grave disease oi senile impotence.
It is often stated that a woman should avoid coitus for long
periods, because among certain savage races the husband does
not cohabit with her dming pregnancy and the two years of
nursing which follow it; the woman being considered by religion
as "impure" during this period. But this proves nothing, for
this custom only concerns polygamists, who make up for it
with other women. If our monogamous marriage is to be
natural, and not satisfied with words and illusions, it is necessary
for sexual intercourse to be intimate and constant, and it should
only be interrupted for short intervals, corresponding to the
430 THE SEXUAL QUESTION ■
natural wants of the two conjoints, adapted to each other by
mutual concessions.
Apart from this, menstruation and accouchement constitute
the only exceptions based on physiology. According to Griiber
{Hygiene des Geschlechtslehens) accouchement requires an inter-
ruption of at least four weeks; I should say at least six weeks.
Every husband, with the possible exception of the most horrible
satyrs, can submit to this without much discomfort. Preg-
nancy, on the contrary, does not require continence, provided
the husband takes account of his wife's condition and treats
her with care.
During the last months of pregnancy all violent movements
and pressure on the abdomen should be avoided during coitus,
so as not to injure the embryo. This may be effected by coitus
in the lateral position.
Professor Pinard of Paris advises the prohibition of coitus
during the latter part of pregnancy, because it may lead to pre-
mature bu'th. As regards accouchement at the seventh, eighth
or even at the beginning of the ninth month, this might, it is
true, be proved by figures, but at this time the embryo is suffi-
ciently protected, and with the precautions indicated above, I
consider the danger as nil. As regards the end of the ninth
month, the margin of errors as to the movement of conception
and the signs of bu'th at term hardly allow of statistics which
exclude subjectivism, and the danger becomes less and less.
In any case a conscientious husband would run no risks under
these circumstances if he was aware of the danger.
What is more important for the wife is that she should have
sufficient rest between her pregnancies. A year at least should
elapse between parturition and the next conception; this gives
approximately two years between the confinements. This is
easily managed by the aid of the preventive animal membranes
we have mentioned. In this way the wife keeps in good health
and can bear healthy children at pleasure. It is certainly better
to procreate seven healthy children, than to procreate fourteen
of which seven die, to say nothing of the mother who rapidly
becomes exhausted by uninterrupted confinements.
No rule can be given for the frequency of sexual connection
MEDICINE AND SEXUAL LIFE 431
in marriage; this is a matter for reciprocal arrangement. Luth-
er's rule of two or three times a week may be considered a
normal average for virile persons of good constitution.
Women who are sexually cold and fond of children, but who
have a horror of coitus, cannot, in my opinion, be regarded as
types of the normal wife, nor can they expect their husbands to
abstain from all coitus except that intended for procreation.
On the other hand, the wife should certainly be made acquainted
with the nature of sexual intercourse and its consequences
before marriage. Further, before engaging in a life-long union,
a man and woman ought to explain to each other their
sexual feelings so as to avoid deception and incompatibility
later on.
Without having ever experienced a sexual orgasm, either by
coitus or by mastm-bation, a normal young girl, when she is
sufficiently instructed in sexual matters, may easily decide
whether the idea of coitus with a man for whom she feels affec-
tion is repugnant or attractive to her. In the case of young
men it is still easier.
A woman who had received a complete medical education
and had remained a virgin, but who was well-informed on sexual
life, gave me very precise information on this subject. For a
long time the idea of coitus with men was repugnant to her, till
she made the acquaintance of the one who gained her affections.
Repugnance was then replaced by desire. This case also gives
a good example of the monogamous sexual feeling of the normal
woman.
In Chapter XVII we shall discuss the manner in which youth
should be initiated into the sexual question. Our present for-
mality, combined with general ignorance of ghls on sexual
matters, renders a mutual understanding prior to definite
betrothal generally impossible. Moreover, there is a sort of
hysterical and pathological love, the product of the imagination,
which is associated with sentimental words and sighs as well as
coquetry, but transformed into disgust or hatred by the first
coitus. Although more common in women this false love is
met with in hysterical men. Sometimes the illusion disappears
while there is yet time to break off the betrothal. Marriage by
432 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
trial and greater facility for divorce would be very useful in
such cases.
For a number of reasons, both parties should be medically
examined before marriage. This precaution may reveal the
presence of a narrow pelvis or vaginismus in the woman, or
aspermia, venereal disease, etc., in the man.
When a woman will only support coitus with a view to
procreation, it is her duty to inform her jiance, who can then
consider whether he can submit to such restriction. If the
wife will not allow her husband a concubine, it only remains
for him to renounce his marriage, or to procreate children
extrar-nuptially. * I
My opinion on this subject will no doubt appear very im-
moral to many people, but it is natural and rational. It is
needless to say that I do not intend that a man has the right
to compel his wife to have intercom*se whenever he pleases.
The question is a very delicate one; but, by the aid of goodwill
a satisfactory solution of the problem can be obtained in most
cases, in the manner indicated above. Love and mutual respect
will always find a way out of the difficulty. It is necessary to
avoid extreme asceticism and unnatural idealism on the one
hand, and excessive sexual indulgence on the other hand. In
the sexual question above all others it is the wisest course to
strike a happy medium.
An extremely important question is that of the procreation of
children. We have just explained how this can be regulated at
will; we have now to consider how children of the best quality
can be procreated.
The first condition is the good quality of the parents. Their
heredity, or the intellectual and physical value of their ancestry
is of paramount importance. We must take into consideration,
not only the intelligence and physical health, but also good sen-
timents, a conscientious character and energy of will. What is
the use of procreating healthy and robust children if they are
vain, egoistic, impulsive, crafty, wanting in will power, or perhaps
criminal? Such individuals constitute a social plague.
At the time of conception the parents should not be in a
condition of acute or chronic alcoholism, nor affected with any
MEDICINE AND SEXUAL LIFE 433
disease; otherwise the progeny may be tainted by Uastophthoria
(Chapter I).
The age of the procreators should also be taken into account.
Children born of parents advanced in years are generally
feeble.
The fatal error which causes the procreation of children to
depend on pecuniary reasons and interests is a social misfor-
tune. Healthy men and women ought never to avoid reproduc-
tion, even when they are poor. Progeny of good quality grow
up, so to speak, by themselves. Progeny with evil instincts, or
decadent, have a pre-existing hereditary taint, or have been
affected by blastophthoria in some other way.
No doubt acquired diseases or accidents may make an invalid
of a child or a man, but these are exceptions which prove the
rule, for here again the descendant of healthy parents is more
resistant than others, if he has not artificially altered his state
of health and power of resistance by alcohol or venereal disease.
Among savages, and at the present day among many peasants,
children are rather an advantage than a burden, because these
people have simple and healthy habits and few wants. It is
our artificial and unhealthy desire for luxury, frivolity, comfort
and enjoyment, our muscular weakness resulting from want of
exercise, our exaggerated terror of diseases and microbes, in a
word our effeminacy, which makes us so incapable of rearing
large families simply and cheaply. No doubt it becomes more
and more necessary to give children a good education, and this
necessity complicates the question. But, in my opinion this
education will in the future be conducted by the State.
Hygiene of Pregnancy. — This subject is too special to be
fully dealt with here. We may, however, mention that idle-
ness and overwork are equally detrimental to the pregnant
woman and her child. It is needless to say that every pregnant
woman requires care and good food. Violent efforts, especially
in the upright position, should be avoided (vide Bachimont : La
Puericulture intra-uterine, 1898, Paris). But domestic work
and moderate exercise of the body are beneficial. Precautions
are especially necessary during the last months of pregnancy for
the general health of the mother and chHd, but imprudence
434 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
during the early months may cause abortion in many women.
The progressive enei*vation of women in easy circumstances has
no doubt rendered them less adapted to procreation. This
failing should be corrected by progressive but prudent training.
Medical Advice as to Marriage. — The permission or prohibition
of marriage is a delicate question at the present day, but will be
less so in the future, if our propositions are reahzed. If one of
the two candidates for matrimony has been or is still insane, or
seriously affected with tuberculosis, or with active syphilis or
chronic gonorrhea, it is clearly our duty to prohibit marriage.
If the situation is not so grave, and if it is only a question of
hereditary taint, especially when there is a probabihty of the
offspring being deformed in body or mind, we may content our-
selves with prohibiting the procreation of children, while giving
permission for marriage, provided anticonceptional measures
are used. The importance of these measures is obvious in such
cases. We should explain to the young people in question that
the procreation of unhealthy or backward children is bad and
even criminal, and warn them against such an unpardonable
act of thoughtlessness. If they are very fond of children they
can be recommended to adopt poor orphans.
There is no need, however, to be too severe. Medical men are
often pessimists, and have a tendency to see disease everywhere
and to give a grave prognosis. The procreation of children
should not be prohibited simply because there is insanity in
some member of the family, but the probabilities of hereditary
transmission should be calculated in the way we have explained
in the first chapter of this book.
Taking into consideration the bodily and mental health and
the character of the two candidates for marriage, as well as that
of their ancestry, the physician should consider what is likely
to be the average quality of children from such a marriage.
According as his calculation leads to a probability above or
below the average of the population, from all the points of view
of the social value of man, he will advise the parties concerned
as to freedom or limitation in procreation,
The average of humanity must not be placed too high, and
the physician should always keep in mind the great mental
MEDICINE AND SEXUAL LIFE 435
mediocrity, weakness of will, the low moral level and physical
defects of the bulk of the population.
When persons who are intelligent and educated, but more or
less psychopathic or hereditarily tainted, put questions of this
kind to the doctor, because they are very conscientious and
prudent, they should be recommended to lead a healthy life and
avoid alcohol, but need not remain sterile, for their offspring may
be morally and intellectually above the average, and if all
blastophthoric influences are avoided there is a possibility or
even probability of gradual regeneration. In short, the doctor
must treat each case on its own merits, carefully weigh both sides
of the question, and avoid being influenced by exclusive dogmas
of any kind. Thus only can he give wise and useful advice.
What is of especial importance for us, is the knowledge that it
is not necessary, from the point of view of social hygiene, to
prohibit marriage for the sole reason that the offspring may be
of bad quality. We can allow psychopaths with hereditary
taints, or even invalids of both sexes, to contract sterile mar-
riages, by requiring them to avoid conception by some means or
other, in the name of social hygiene and morality. In such
cases dislocation of the tubes has a definite effect, and if we con-
sider the negligence and weakness of mind of such individuals,
we should do well to recommend this proceeding whenever there
is a clear indication for inducing sterility. In this way we avoid
cruel measures, which, by the way, are almost impracticable,
which take away all hope of love and happiness from these unfor-
tunates, throw them into the arms of prostitution or bitter pes-
simism, and make them disgusted with their o'^n existence.
Medical Secrecy. — Medical secrecy and its limitation is a very
delicate question, especially in sexual matters. Opinions vary
in different countries and among different individuals. In
France medical secrecy is almost made an idol; the medical
man may refuse to give evidence in a court of law and even con-
ceal a crime. In Germanic countries, on the contrary, especially
in German Switzerland, too little importance is attached to medi-
cal secrecy. In short, medical secrecy is an elastic idea which
is open to different interpretations.
Although certain particular cases may present great diflfi-
436 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
culties, there is a middle course of moral conduct which will
serve the purpose of every conscientious doctor. As a general
rule the doctor's duty is to keep secret everything confided to
him by his patients, except when the patients themselves speak
openly of it, or authorize their doctor to do so. There are, how-
ever, exceptions to this rule.
First of all it assumes normal responsibility in the patient,
and is only conditional among irresponsibles. When a lunatic,
for example, relates to a doctor, under the seal of secrecy, certain
things which depend on delirious ideas and which thi'eaten the
safety of others, or which render certain measures necessary in
the patients' own interest, the doctor's duty is to make known
the state of affairs, but only to responsible persons. It is the
same as regards children. It is needless to say that the doctor
should use all possible measures in the interest of the patient
or child.
But even wdth responsible persons medical secrecy has its
limits. The doctor is here only bound to secrecy so far as it
does not injure the rights of other individuals, or those of society.
It is the duty of a medical man to report all cases of small-
pox or cholera, etc., even against the consent of the patient, and
to isolate the latter to avoid an epidemic, which is contradictory
to medical secrecy. In short, he must not, under the pretext of
medical secrecy, become an accomplice of harmful acts or crimes.
I will mention a few examples bearing on the sexual question:
A sadist or a sexual pervert addicted to assaults on children
consults a doctor and confides to him his morbid appetite. It is
obvious that the doctor has to do with a dangerous indi\ddual
and is at the same time in a difficult position. In this case ex-
treme measures are bad. The doctor who simply treats the
patient without concerning himself about the possible victims,
contravenes his duties. The one who replies to the patient,
"you are a beast; go away or I shall denounce you," acts in a
still worse manner. The one who simply denounces the patient
also puts himself in the wrong. In my opinion, the doctor
should first of all make a thorough examination of the mental
and sexual condition of the patient, so as to establish the degree
of perversion and satisfy himself whether he has to do with an
MEDICINE AND SEXUAL LIFE 437
honest individual worthy of pity, who strives to overcome his
morbid appetite; or, with a crafty egoist with no conscience,
who only consults the doctor to escape from temporary diffi-
culties into which his perversion has led him, and who indulges
his morbid appetite without scruple, constituting a perpetual
danger to society. Unfortunately, the latter cases are very
common, and the doctor is usually consulted from interested
motives only. Under these circumstances medical secrecy ren-
ders the doctor the accomplice of the criminal.
Between the honest patient and one who is absolutely per-
verse, there are many transitional stages. In these cases the
doctor should always make a careful examination before form-
ing an opinion. If he feels uncertain, he should call in a special-
ist in mental disease, and then act accordingly. If he is con-
vinced that the patient has made the resolution to overcome his
morbid appetite, and has so far resisted the temptation to in-
jure any one, he should strengthen the patient's resistance by
doing everything possible (except marriage) to rid him of his
malady; he should make him aware how dangerous his condi-
tion is to himself and to others; he may even recommend either
castration or masturbation in case of urgency, in order to avoid
crime; he should make him promise to come immediately for
internment in an asylum, as soon as he can no longer resist.
Under these conditions he may respect medical secrecy and at
the same time save the existence of the unfortunate patient,
while protecting society.
In more severe cases, when the doctor is convinced that the
patient is incapable of controlling himself or does not wish to,
or that he has already committed crimes, he should act as fol-
lows: He must explain to the patient that it is impossible for
him to take the responsibility and that he must be immediately
sent to an asylum, in default of which information will be given
against him. We must make him understand that he is a dan-
o ...
ger to society and goes beyond the limits of what is licit, but
that if he voluntarily submits to rational treatment, offering all
requisite guarantees on both sides, he (the doctor) is disposed
to avoid any legal action.
The duty of medical secrecy ought never to go so far as to
438 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
render the medical man an accomplice of dangerous individuals
or criminals. The lunatic asylum in such cases is the natural
refuge for the patient, as the lazaret is for cases of smallpox or
cholera. These cases, however, require public asylums which
are not too large, well organized, with divisions for different
cases, and provided with a sufficient medical staff.
I have chosen as the first example one of the worst kind of
cases which endanger the public safety. But there are other
cases such as that depicted by Brieux in " Les Aiwies." A
syphilitic subject wishes to marry before he is cured, and con-
sults his doctor. Does the whole duty of the doctor consist in
dissuading the patient from marriage? Has he actually the
right to be silent when the patient will not listen to him, and
thus allow an innocent young woman to be contaminated,
through respect — or rather idolatry — for medical secrecy? Is
it not rather his duty to say to the patient: "Beware! If you
do not promise to obey me, I wiU immediately denounce you to
your fiancee and her parents, and will tell them the state of
affairs." It seems to me that this is his duty. In this case the
doctor does not denounce the patient without his knowledge; he
thi'eatens him face to face, and may speak to him as follows:
"You have confided in me. I am, it is true, under the obliga-
tion of medical secrecy toward you, so long as you do no harm
to any one. But if, in spite of all my explanations and warn-
ings, you attempt to marry in your present state, rendering
yourself guilty of infamous deceit toward a family and an unfor-
tunate young woman whose health you will ruin, trusting in the
obligation of secrecy which ties my tongue, I must inform you
that I have a much higher duty than that of a doctor toward
his patient — my duty toward society, which I shall fulfill, and
so prevent an innocent person from becoming your victim."
This is my view of the duty of a conscientious doctor who
upholds the dignity of his profession. An analogous case came
under my observation: A young tuberculous subject affected
with several "white swellings" wished to marry. He refused
to listen when I declared that he would be guilty of a crime
toward his fiancee. Thereupon I told him that I should tell
everything to the young girl. I did this at once and so pre-
MEDICINE AND SEXUAL LIFE 439
vented the marriage. This egoist succeeded later on in captur-
ing the heart of another young girl, whom I also warned, but
who married him out of pity. At any rate I consider that I
did my duty.
In my opinion, this is also om- duty in cases of chronic gon-
orrhea, insanity, and hereditary or constitutional sexual per-
versions, etc. Formerly, when sexual inversion was regarded
as an acquired vice, it was attempted to cure it by marriage.
Such a social monstrosity is even seen at the present day, and
certain ignorant doctors recommend it. We sometimes meet
with inverts who desire to procreate homosexual beings like
themselves. As sexual intercourse with the objects of their
perverted passion cannot give them this pleasure, they marry
in order to procreate children by some poor woman whom they
have victimized, without in the least renouncing their homo-
sexual orgies. Their wives play the part of housekeeper or ser-
vant, whose accessory function is to breed young inverts ! Is it
necessary to say that any self-respecting doctor who is aware
of this state of affairs should never countenance such mar-
riages ? Here again, his duty is to threaten the invert with
immediate denunciation to his fiancee, when he appears deter-
mined to accomplish his crime.
Again, the doctor may be consulted with regard to certain
hereditary taints, or possibly only a bad ancestral history, and
whether marriage is advisable under the chcumstances. In
some cases there may be some doubt and it is necessary to know
the opinion of the other party concerned, and whether this party
is also affected in a similar way, etc. The first duty of the doctor
is to demand absolute frankness and to say, "under this or
that condition and in such and such ckcumstances, you may
perhaps marry, but under no pretext have you the right to con-
ceal the truth from your betrothed. It is to your own interest
to be frank, for no marriage founded on deceit can be happy.
Give me permission to discuss the matter with your fiancee (or
fiance). We shall then see what is best to be done."
In my experience, the person who consults a doctor usually
accepts this proposal, and we can thus avoid many misfortunes
and do much good.
440 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
It is impossible to fix a general rule. According to the degree
of hereditary taint or the natui'e of the infii'mity, we allow mar-
riage with or without childi'en, or do not allow it. In such cases
it is rarely necessary to have recourse to the threat of denuncia-
tion, but this may be required in the case of egoistic or vicious
individuals. On several occasions a betrothed couple have come
to me for advice as to their proposed marriage, and have freely
disclosed then- most intimate relations and antecedents. This
is as it always should be, if men were more loyal in sexual mat-
ters and understood better theii* true interests. In this way the
doctor's task is greatly facilitated. When the public is more
enlightened on the whole question it will become more and more
easy to arrive at a just conclusion, even without the doctor's
help.
Artificial Abortion. — We have already spoken of another ques-
tion which is often put to doctors — that of artificial abortion.
(Vide Chapter XIII.) In every case of this kind all the cu'cum-
stances must be carefully weighed. I repeat here, that in the
future more attention should be paid to social interests, instead
of always requhing the presei'vation of an embiyo for the sole
reason that the state of the mother docs not contra-indicate
pregnancy or accouchement. The question is whether a miserable
abortion or an idiot should be allowed to come into the world.
If we allow children who are born monsters, idiots or invalids
to live, we should at least do what we can to prevent them being
born. It will no doubt be objected that it is much easier to
recognize the quality of a child after bu'th than before, and this
objection is quite legitimate. But so long as the laws protect
the lives of the most miserable monsters we must get out of the
difficulty as best we can.
Treatment of Sexual Disorders. — We cannot enter here into
all the details of a purely medical question, and shall only
touch on certain special points. Patients with venereal disease
are often treated in a very defective manner, because many of
them are ashamed to submit to rational treatment. The treat-
ment of venereal diseases should be carried out with more
regard for the feelings of the patients; there should be special
hospitals for each sex, with separate divisions, so that patients
MEDICINE AND SEXUAL LIFE 441
can be treated without betraying their identity. The fear of
being recognized prevents many better-class women from apply-
ing for treatment. The idea of being placed in the venereal
divisions of a hospital along with common prostitutes is unbear-
able to them. For this reason I maintain that anonymous
treatment should be instituted at hospitals in all the chief
localities. This humanitarian work would benefit not only
the patients, but society in general, by diminishing the number
of venereal infections. Treatment by private practitioners is
too costly for poor people and does not easily remain anony-
mous. Therefore, the creation of hospitals for venereal dis-
ease is very necessary in the public interest, and would benefit
public health much more than the regulation of prostitution.
The treatment of sexual perversions is also very important.
These disorders are either hereditary, or acquired by auto-
suggestion or evil example. By provoking suggestion and good
habits in the opposite direction, hypnotic suggestion is alone
capable of acting directly against the evil. Other remedies,
such as distraction of the mind by work or fatigue, by mar-
riage, electricity, etc., have only an indirect suggestive action.
When a perversion has been acquired by auto-suggestion or by
habit, especially in the case of onanism, hypnotic suggestion
should always be employed. In compensatory masturbation,
where normal sexual appetite exists, and where it is only the
opportunity of satisfying it that is wanting, marriage or normal
sexual intercourse are sufficient to cure the bad habit.
We must not, however, too easily admit the existence of
acquired perversions. Apart from compensatory masturba-
tion, which is not a perversion, but only an outlet to a pent-up
natural want, true acquired perversions are rather rare, and as
we have seen generally auto-suggestive. Pederasts, sodomists,
and others, whose perverse habits are truly acquired, have
usually taken to them for want of something better, and prefer
normal coitus if they have the opportunity and the means of
procuring it. It is true, however, that some debauchees con-
tract these perverse habits from desire for change, or from fear
of infection or conception, but these individuals seldom consult
the doctor.
442 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Thus the individuals who consult a doctor ai'e nearly always
more or less pathological, and belong to the domain of hereditary
or auto-suggestive perversions. For the first, at least, we
avoid recommending marriage. Von Schrenk-Notzing has
sometimes succeeded in transforming hereditary inversion into
normal sexual appetite for women, by hypnotic suggestion. I
have also succeeded myself, two or three times. After a cure
of long duration, confirmed by frequent visits to prostitutes,
Von Schrenk-Notzing has ventured to recommend marriage;
but I have never done this, as I do not consider a cm"e sufficient
to guarantee definite success, in the case of disorders so deeply
rooted in the constitution. In such cases I have endeavored, as
far as possible, to weaken the sexual appetite and induce the
patient to be contented with nocturnal emissions. I have
always debarred inverts from marriage, impressing them with
the fact that to marry would be a crime, and that they had a
hundred times better masturbate; or, if they ■wdsh to attempt
intercourse with women, to be contented with a mistress,
avoiding the procreation of children.
Unfortunately, our present laws and customs prevent us from
recommending or even allowing inverts to "marry" then- fel-
lows, as they so strongly desire to do. This would be very
innocent from the social point of view, and the poor wretches
would be content, and would cease to be a menace to normal
individuals.
I am, therefore, of the same opinion as those who demand
the suppression of all laws which punish or prosecute sexual
inversion and pederasty committed between adults and in com-
mon agreement. So long as pederasts do not harm normal in-
dividuals, and so long as they do not seduce minors, they should
be left alone, the same as all other sexually perverted indi-
viduals who are not dangerous. But when a patient of this
kind wishes to be treated, through shame or nervous excite-
ment, the doctor should hj'jDnotize him and suggest distraction
of mind by useful occupations. Psychic treatment is always the
most efficacious. It is only in cases where it is certain that the
perversion is purely acquii'ed and easily curable that marriage
can be allowed, or the procreation of children. I am not
MEDICINE AND SEXUAL LIFE 443
referring here to sterile marriages between perverts or psycho-
paths, which we have mentioned above, and which can ahvays
be aUowed when the two parties are fully enlightened on the
subject.
Frequent emissions, masturbation, sexual hyperaesthesia and
impotence may often be improved or even cured by suggestion.
In such cases, if the sexual appetite is otherwise normal, mar-
riage need not always be prohibited. Each case must be judged
on its merits.
In sexual ansesthesia marriage is an error based on a grave
misconception. Even in partial anaesthesia it may have de-
plorable effects. We are now only speaking of aneesthesia in
man. Most young virgins are anaesthetic in the sense that
they are not acquainted with the venereal orgasm and cannot
tell how far their hitherto dormant sexual appetite will develop.
The sexual instruction which we have recommended for young
girls would have the advantage of making those who are abso-
lutely sexually frigid disgusted with marriage and coitus, as
soon as they know all about it.
The consequences of sexual anaesthesia are much more inno-
cent in woman than in man, because this anaesthesia neither
prevents coitus nor fecundation. A woman who is sexually
anaesthetic may marry a man who is affected with the same
condition, when both parties are aware of the fact and desire to
contract a union which is hardly sexual, but rather a union of
minds with a common ideal. This is the true platonic love
which is admitted in theoiy. It is not very common and must
not be confounded with homosexual inclinations. It has its
object of existence, for those affected with anaesthesia may
feel the want of affection and of home, as well as sentimental
communion. If they desire children they can adopt them.
Unfortunately for themselves, the subjects of sexual anaes-
thesia have as little idea of sexual sensations as a blind man
has of colours; this causes them to commit great blunders,
because they do not comprehend the nature of the sexual appe-
tite in others, and often marry an erotic individual without
knowing what they are doing.
The special treatment of diseases of the male and female
444 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
sexual organs is beyond the scope of this book. I may, how-
ever, remark that speciahsts are often wrong in treating the
genital organs locally for pathological symptoms which depend
on cerebral disorder, which can only yield to psychic treatment
and suggestion. This is the case with many disorders of men-
struation in women, psychic impotence and frequent seminal
emissions in men, mastm'bation, etc., (except cases due to
phimosis, or local irritation caused by worms, etc.) I hasten to
add that this remark in no way excuses errors in the opposite
direction, viz, neglect of local treatment, when this is indicated
after careful examination.
CHAPTER XV
SEXUAL MORALITY
Law and Morality.— The limits of morality and law are dif-
ficult to fix. With the old conception of law and the expiation
of crime it was otherwise. Yet it is precisely the old law, based
on dogma and religious metaphysics, which has most usurped
the domain of morality, by considering as crimes all kinds of
acts which, without hurting men in the least degree, were
opposed to the ruling ideas and prejudices concerning rehgion
and morality.
Human and Religious Morality. — ^What then constitutes
ethics or true human morality? A dogmatic system of ethics
has been built on a collection of commandments supposed to be
inspired by God. Religions have established different duties
toward God, and these duties or commandments are in part
very inhuman. This has often resulted in direct contradictions
between ethics attributed to divine revelation, and pure human
ethics. Moreover, the divine commandments vary in different
religions.
The god of certain Malays commands them to eat the heart of
their enemies; Jehovah was vindictive and jealous, ordering
Abraham to sacrifice his own son to prove his faith, causing
whole tribes to be annihilated, even drowning the whole of
humanity by the flood, while the God of the Christians is milder
and more concihating; Allah rules as a fatahst and orders the
massacre of the Christians and abstinence from alcohol, while
Jesus Christ tells men to love their enemies and allows wine;
the god of the Hindus orders the widow to follow her husband
to the grave; a number of other gods exact human sacrifice;
Buddha taught oblivion in the future, others a more or less
eternal paradise, hell and purgatory, according to the conduct
of men.
445
446 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
It will be agreed that it is difficult to obtain anything logical
or coherent from the total of different religious moralities. As
regards the sexual question, so-called divine commandments,
such as those of monogamy and polygamy, directly contradict
each other.
For this reason, we will leave the so-called revealed morality
to the priests of diverse religions who pretend to have received
them directly from God, and wUl confine ourselves to the study
of purely human morality. This should never be based on any
dogmatic formula, like the above on their religious dogmas; it
must be evolved from the natural conditions of human life.
Morality and Hygiene. — Morality is intimately connected with
hygiene, and wherever there appears to be a contradiction be-
tween hygiene and ethics this is due to the fact that individual
hygiene has only been considered, and not public or social
hygiene — that is the hygiene of the race. It is the duty of the
medical profession to place social above individual hygiene, to
subordinate the hygienic welfare of the individual to that of
society. A contradiction may exist between individual morality
and hygiene, never between social morality and hygiene.
Definition of Morality. — How can we define morality or ethics?
Liberated as far as possible from all hypothesis, ethics is theo-
retically the study of what is good or bad in human actions, and
practically, as regards morality, the duty of doing good and
avoiding evil. But this is hardly explicit, for what do we under-
stand by good and evil? Not only do some consider good what
others consider evil, but the words which Goethe puts into the
mouth of the devil (in "Faust") — that while wishing evil he often
did good — will always be true. This gives a faitliful representa-
tion of the deplorable want of adaptation which exists between
the good and evil effects of our actions on the one hand, and the
goodness or wickedness of our motives on the other hand. The
inverse is also true, for good intentions often have evil results.
We must, therefore, carefully distinguish between the ethical
motives of the good and bad effects of an action.
If we continue our analysis we shall discover that the same
action may be good for one and bad for another. When a wolf
devours a lamb, it is good for the wolf but bad for the lamb.
SEXUAL MORALITY 447
We cannot live without destroying other lives, animal or vege-
table. The money we earn comes out of the pockets of others
without their always obtaining a corresponding profit, and so
on. Morality is thus relative, and we have not the faculty of
discovering anything which is absolutely good or absolutely
bad in itself.
All that men can expect by mutual exchange of their wisdom
and good will is to do as little evil and as much good as possible,
that is to say, to diminish the amount of their physical and
psychic ills by improving their mutual conditions of existence,
and thus increasing the amount of good. Even this is only
possible by limiting the ideas of good and evil almost exclusively
to humanity, trampling on the conditions of existence and the
development of other beings, or at least concerning ourselves
with them only as far as they are useful to us.
Further, we have seen that it is very difficult to extend the
conception of social welfare to all the living races of human-
ity, for some of them are at the same time so fecund and so
inferior in quality, that if they were allowed to multiply around
us without any precaution they would soon starve and sup-
plant us. Then the barbarity of their lower instincts (vide
weight of brain in different races at end of Chapter VI) would
soon take the upper hand and become general, as the negroes
of Hayti have shown us by a lesson which is worthy of our
attention.
Therefore, an exaggeration of moral sentiments, resting on a
false basis, would have the positive result of striking a fatal
blow at our social morality, slowly built up during hundreds or
thousands of years.
Lastly, the same action may first of all do evil and afterwards
good, for example, a painful lesson; or vice versa, as in the satis-
faction of a gluttonous appetite.
Morality can only be Relative. — It follows from these consid-
erations that our moral duties can only be relative, and cannot
bind us in the same way nor in the same degree to all living be-
ings, not even to all men, if we would avoid sacrificing what is
lofty to what is vile. In theory, the definition of human moral-
ity will consist in a just and scientific definition of social welfare
448 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
and the exigencies which it imposes on individuals, in order that
the latter do not do evil in attempting to do good. In practice,
it will be the general effort made to develop successfully this
social welfare by the aid of individual will. This presuppo.ses
in the first place education of the will, the dispositions to useful
work, and the altruistic sentiments of each individual. It is
neither theoretical dogma nor preaching, but action and exam-
ple which make for the education of man.
The noblest task of moral action is to strive for the welfare
of future generations.
Altruism and Egoism. — Properly understood, altruism and
egoism do not form an antinomy, or only quite a relative anti-
nomy. It is absolutely wrong to found social order by letting
loose all our egoistic appetites without restriction. But it is
quite as wrong to oppose them with an exaggerated and unnat-
ural asceticism, which reflects in om' eyes an erroneous ideal of
altruism.
When a bee or an ant disgorges the honey from its stomach
for the benefit of its companions, it enjoys it. By sacrificing its
life for the hive or the nest, it satisfies an altruistic or social
instinct. Cannot man also be more happy in giving than re-
ceiving? How can we explain the gi*eat sacrifices, the martyrs
who suffer and die for their country, for their family, for science,
for an idea, if enthusiasm — an expanded sentunent of pleasure
— did not lead man to disinterested sacrifice, or if an inner
obsession did not find its satisfaction in the welfare of humanity?
Let us seek all measures which by social adaptation can emio-
ble our human egoism, reduce it to its indispensable and just
measure, and maintain it in proper equilibrium, by the aid
of an active altruism; that is to say, by social habits of self-
sacrifice for the benefit of the community. We shall then
obtain a paradise on earth, no doubt very relative, but far pre-
ferable to our present anarchy based on the strife of personal
interests.
The chief thing wanting is a good hereditary quality among
human individuals, a quality which is still entirely left to
chance, by the most deplorable selection; the second requisite is
the education of character and will in our children. Our religion
SEXUAL MORALITY 449
and our schools have shown themselves incapable of raising
the bulk of the people above barbarism, that is to say from
apathy, vulgarity of sentiment, routine, ignorance and preju-
dice. No doubt intellectual culture and religious ethics have
accomplished a certain amount of moral progress, but the meth-
ods employed in our churches and schools have not advanced
with science. They are in no sense adapted to our present
moral wants and still less to the exigencies of the future.
It is on the basis of a natural human morality, such as we
have just described, that we must found sexual morality or
ethics, and it is not difficult to form clear ideas on this subject,
if we take the trouble to examine the facts explained in the
first fourteen chapters of this book.
From the social and moral point of view we may consider an
action as positive or useful, neutral or indifferent, and negative
or harmful. But the same action may be at the same time
positive, negative or indifferent, relatively to one or more
groups of individuals. But in ethics it is not only a question of
the action in itself, but especially the inner motives which lead
to it; for, to leave the good and ill of society to chance and
ignorance, is to deny the possibility of progress. It is difficult
for a man to accomplish positive social actions, when the moral
sentiments of conscience and duty are wanting. On the other
hand, a narrow-minded individual, with false judgment, will
accomplish negative social actions through moral motives,
while in certain cases an individual may accomplish positive
social acts fortuitously through perverse motives. Through ven-
geance, a generous legacy may be left which injures an indi-
vidual, while profiting the public. Without being perverse,
motives may be simply egoistic and lead to good by calculated
egoism.
By altruist, we understand a man animated by powerful
moral sentiments which preside over social humanitarian voli-
tions. By the term pure egoist, we designate one in whom self
forms the exclusive object of sentiments of sympathy. In him-
self, the egoist is indifferent from the moral point of view, so
long as he injures no one, and the altruist himself cannot
live without a certain amount of egoism. The ideal of social
450 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
sentiment therefore consists in the combined action of egoistic
and altruistic sentiments, adapted to the wants of society and its
members. As among certain ants, there should exist a complete
compensatory regulation between the egoistic sentiments and
appetites on the other hand. The antagonist of altruism is not
the egoist, but the perverse individual whose acts are by instinct
almost constantly negative from the moral point of view. Ego-
ism urges a man in such an irresistible way to abuse and harm
others in order to satisfy himself, that a pure egoist can rarely
remain indifferent from the moral point of view. These consid-
erations suffice to show the impossibility of basing social order
on pure egoism, as so many people desire.
Sexual Morality. — Sexual morality -depends upon what we
have just said. By itself, the sexual appetite is indifferent
from the moral point of view. A great confusion of ideas, based
on religious misunderstanding, has led to the term morality
being more and more identified with that of moral conduct in
the sexual domain. In short, ethics has been more or less con-
founded with sexuality. From this point of view, a sexually
anaesthetic individual is regarded as extremely "moral," while
he is perhaps in other respects a knave. In reality his sexual
indifference has not the least moral value. For the same reason
an invert is not virtuous because he does not seduce girls.
From the Protestant point of view it is immoral to burden
one's wife with continual pregnancies, while from the Catholic
point of view it is immoral to interfere with these pregnancies
by preventive measures.
Nevertheless, the sexual appetite gives rise to much conflict
with human morality, for the simple reason that it looks upon
human beings as objects of pleasure. Fetichism, in which the
sexual appetite is directed toward inanimate objects, and sod-
omy, directed to animals, are by themselves almost incapable
of entering into conflict with morality as we understand it.
The opinion of many people who consider the employment of
anticonceptional measures as immoral, while defending prosti-
tution, shows how much ideas vary on the subject of sexual
ethics. Preachers of morality, and even priests, sometimes
blame a young man who wishes to marry his mistress, and urge
SEXUAL MORALITY 451
him to get rid of her and the child by paying a sum of money.
The inconsistency of men in the way they introduce their so-
called moral ideas into sexual questions is simply incredible.
Their heads are full of a jumble of hypocrisy, mysticism, preju-
dice, pecuniary interests, veneration for old traditional customs
called good manners, a jumble which absolutely confuses all
ideas of a healthy sexual morality. Look at the indignation of
parents when their childi'en become betrothed to persons whom
they consider to be beneath them in social position, or who
possess too httle money! And all these people are unconscious
of their immorality, which sails under the flag of morality!
What standpoint are we to take in the sexual domain, which
is free from prejudice, with regard to true human moraUty?
This is the question which an honest and truly moral man has
to put to himself.
The first principle is the old medical adage: Above all things
do no harm; the second is: Be as useful as possible, both indi-
vidually and socially.
The commandment of sexual morahty will thus be: Thou
shall do no harm willingly to any person, nor to humanity, by thy
sexual appetite or acts, and thou shall do thy utmost to promote the
happiness of thy neighbor and the welfare of society.
Endowed with sexual appetite and the faculty of love, the
social man will utilize both for the benefit of the community as
well as his own. If he acts honorably his task will not be easy,
but he will experience all the more satisfaction, for his good
deeds will bring their own reward. He should bear in mind the
following examples:
(1). A man of bad disposition, excited by momentary sexual
passion, seduces a girl, makes her pregnant, and then disap-
pears. He injures his victim and himself without deriving any
advantage. His action is therefore negative, and is to be con-
demned both from the ethical and the egoistic point of view,
(2). Through motives of religious morahty, a virtuous girl
marries a depraved drunkard in order to save him. This rarely
succeeds, and if it does it is generally incomplete. From the
egoistic point of view this experiment is exclusively negative.
From the altruistic point of view the motives are, it is true,
452 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
very positive, but the social effects are still more negative. If
all goes well, our virtuous and exalted girl will succeed in im-
proving the drunkard, but if she procreates children, she will
have unconsciously sinned against them, and her good action
will result in the sins of the father being visited on the childi^n.
(3). A man with marked hereditary taints, impulsive, psy- ;
chopathic and possessed of a strong sexual appetite, marries an '
honest girl of good family, and has several children by her.
Such an action is positive from the egoistic point of view, for the
individual in question benefits himself. From the ethical point
of view, it is negative, for it makes an honest .woman unhappy,
and probably leads to the procreation of children of bad quality.
(4). A man, healthy in body and mind, capable, hardworking
and full of ideals, finds a suitable companion. Instead of lead-
ing an easy life, they both undertake as much work as possible,
especially social duties, and procreate at sufficient intervals as
many children as they can without injury to the health of the
wife. This is an ideal combination of positive altruism with
positive egoism.
It is not every one who has the good fortune to fulfill the
conditions necessary for this combination. A positive sexual
morality is, however, by no means excluded in less favorable
conditions. Certain psychopathic or feeble individuals may
contract sterile marriages in the manner previously indicated,
and may recompense themselves for the absence of children
by devoting themselves all the more to social duties, or to the
education of abandoned orphans.
When a union is concluded between a person who is capable
in all respects, and another who is not, the latter should give
the other permission to procreate children by a third party,
more adapted to give rise to healthy offspring. Although this
is immoral according to current conventional opinion, it seems
to me that such a proceeding could become reconciled with posi-
tive morality in the future.
In short, whoever understands the true nature of sexual
ethics will always find a means of accomplishing good actions
and avoiding bad ones, at the same time satisfying his normal
appetites, provided these injure no one.
SEXUAL MORALITY 453
The truly moral man will never become the accomplice of
such a social iniquity as proxenetism with prostitution and all
its satellites, but will oppose them with all his power. He will
always avoid doing wrong to any one by his sexual appetite;
and if his passion drives him to a thoughtless act, he will do his
utmost to redress the bad effects which may result from it.
The psychological action produced by conjugal infidelity
merits special attention. It depends on the more or less ego-
istic or altruistic qualities of the one who becomes enamored of
a third person. I have observed the two chief varieties of
cases. If the guilty husband has naturally moral and social
sentiments, his extra-nuptial love renders him still more affec-
tionate toward his legitimate wife. He eases his conscience by
becoming more indulgent to his wife. When his amorous in-
toxication is over, he will try to avoid everything which may
damage the reputation of the other woman, and will provide
for her future. If there are children by this adultery, he will
provide for them.
It is the same with a married woman who is in love with
another man. In this case the whole personality is more pow-
erfully involved than in man. But on the other hand, the
natural energy of the woman will lead her to try and arrange a
marriage between her lover and some other good woman, and
to resist coitus with him.
If the matter goes as far as complete infidelity, and even with-
out it, various reactions may be observed. When her senti-
ments are monogamous, as is the case with most women, the
love of a woman for her husband disappears and is replaced by
pity. She easily becomes peevish in her resignation. She often
seeks divorce, even when adultery has not taken place. When
she is polyandrous, as is the case with many hysterical women,
she is quite capable of lavishing her caresses on her husband as
well as her lover, a thing which is impossible for normal women.
What induces want of respect for his wife in the unfaithful
egoist, is not so much the monogamous sentiment, which is
somewhat exceptional in man, but intoxication of his senses by
another woman. He then becomes miserly and disagreeable
toward his wife, finding fault with her in every way, but the
454 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
innocent and deceived victim finally discovers the true cause of
this change of manner. Some women who are ill-treated in
this way, preserve their love for their husbands, while others
never pardon the slightest infidelity, not even an innocent
platonic affection, in then husbands.
The brutality of a husband toward his wife, when he is in
love with another, often knows no limits. From bad temper,
chicanery, contempt and hatred, he often goes on to blows and
even murder, as the annals of criminology prove too well.
Egoistic women who have a lover, also treat their husbands
badly. Owing to their legal subordination and comparative
physical weakness, they reveal their sentiments in a less brutal
form, but malice and bad temper are not wanting. In such
cases, the woman's principal weapon is cunning, which may go
as far as poisoning the husband. More commonly she simply
abandons him, to force him to divorce.
There are many transitions and varieties, but the reactions
we have mentioned are the most common. It is quite natural,
when one of the conjoints falls in love with a third person, for
the sexual appetite to become cold toward the conjoint, and
for this frigidity to make her appear less desirable and show up
her defects.
Sexual morality is twice mentioned in the ten commandments
of Moses:
Seventh commandment: Thou shall not commit adultery.
Tenth commandment : Thy shall not covet thy neighbor's wife,
nor his man servant, nor his maid servant, nor his ox, nor his ass,
nor anything that is thy neighbor's.
In the eleventh commandment of Jesus Christ the words:
Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself, represent approximately
the point of view of modern ethics. Nevertheless contemporary
social progress requnes more and better. It is not so exalted
as to say ''Love those who persecute you," but it demands a
more rational and better formulated ethics, somewhat as fol-
lows: Thou shall love humanity more than thyself, and thou shall
seek thy happiness in the welfare of its future. Such a form-
ula expresses the commandment of sexual ethics as we have
defined it.
SEXUAL MORALITY 455
In the commandments of Moses, the wife is regarded as prop-
erty, and the desire for the wife of one's neighbor is threatened
with divine punishment inasmuch as it covets the property of
one's neighbor. When woman is treated as a free subject and
as the equal and companion of man, it is evident that a funda-
mental revision of such ideas is requisite. Certain forms of
adultery mth voluntary consent on both sides may even become
positive from the moral point of view.
In sprite of this, one of the principal tasks of man's sexual mo-
rality will always he to restrain his erotic polygamous desires, for
the simple reason that they are especially apt to injure the rights
and the welfare of others. We must make exception for certain
special cases in which no one is injured. (Vide Couvreur's
"La Graine," and de Maupassant's "Mouche^)
The novelist loves to treat of tragic situations, often giving
them a fatal ending to excite the feelings of his readers. We
must avoid basing sexual ethics on such ideas. The average
man, or even one whose nature is a little above the average, is
rarely as passionate as the heroes in novels. He does not com-
mit suicide for rejected love, but finds compensation in time.
He can even overcome jealousy.
It is thus an exaggeration, depending partly on the suggestion
and auto-suggestion of amorous intoxication, to require in the
ethics of love the absolute fusion of the personality of two human
beings, a mutual fusion of sentiments and ideas destined to last
till death. This kind of morahty reverts to dual egoism, and in
no way represents the ideal of human happiness. However
beautiful conjugal fidelity, its exaggeration is deplorable, when
it only results in the idolatrous worship of a single being, living
or dead, and regards the rest of the world with indifference, if
not with hostility.
We have already shown that the altruistic sentiments of man
are the direct or indirect* derivatives of the sexual appetite,
and especially of sexual love. The true secret of sexual ethics
* It is true that the friendly union of individuals of the same_sex is often
fundamentally derived from the phylogenetic development of animal or
human societies. But the sentiments of sympathy, o^/^f. ^^'L'^.J^^^u^
which such friendly unions may be . developed, ^''eo^ly/^^^^^^lJL^^^^^^
derivatives of the more primitive sentiments of sympathy of one mduidual
for another, and these latter have originated in sexual attraction.
456 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
consists, therefore, in a cult of altruism in the sexual domain.
This cult should not waste itself in moral phrases, but show its
strength by social deeds.
A sad proof of human weakness is given daily by certain
forms of modern ethics which waste themselves in pubUc con-
ferences or in declamations in the press. This kind of morality
is in accordance with pure egoism. Without social work, it is
not true morahty, whether this work be public or modestly
hidden.
The struggle for existence was formerly carried on by man
against nature, against animals, and especially against other
men. Nature and animals (excepting the cosmic forces and
microbes) are nowadays conquered by the human brain, and
wars are seldom waged except between great empires, a fact
which will sooner or later reduce them to absurdity. For this
reason the morality of the god of war and of patriotic chauvin-
ism has had his day and loses more and more his reason for
existence. Modern ethics has already become a social and
international human ethics, and will become more so in the
future.
As in olden times a true hero knew how to combine love of
his wife with love for his country, to obtain in his conjugal
union the strength to fight for his ideal, so our modern love will
serve to stimulate us in the pursuit of an ideal, in our fight for
social welfare. Man and woman must fight side by side, as
this struggle requires from both an intense and lifelong effort.
But it is precisely in this effort, in this work, that they will
obtain theii* highest enjo3Tiient. This effort supports and
strengthens not only the muscles, but especially the mind, the
cerebral energy.
The struggle for social welfare prepares for us the highest and
most ideal joy. It teaches man to master himself, to overcome
his natural idleness, his desire for pleasure, his dependence on
all kinds of futile habits and base appetites. It educates his
wiU, curbs his weak and egoistic sentiments, while exercising his
faculty for creating good and useful works. Thanks to this
incessant strife, a brain of even mediocre quality may become
a useful social instrument.
SEXUAL MORALITY 457
I ask in all sincerity if, living in the way we have just de-
scribed, a man will find the time and inclination to indulge in
the love stories which the novels of our libraries offer to readers
of both sexes for their daily consumption? I reply: if the man
is normal, no. It is only pathological natures, with their exag-
gerated sentiment and morbid passions, which remain incapable
of mastering then- passionate emotionalism and reducing it to
silence. Other individuals, normal or semi-normal, are arti-
ficially urged to exaggerated exaltation in the sexual domain by
idleness, by reading pernicious novels which excite their sexual
appetite and their sentimentahty, also by the artificial life and
feverish activity of life in cities.
Work in itself is not sufficient, and every one ought to add
social work to his ordinary occupation. In fact, the monotony
of any special occupation, and even the exclusive work of a
scientific speciality, ends by giving the cerebral energy itself an
exclusive character. The moral sentiments become atrophied.
Exclusiveness in a speciality, practiced without any comple-
ment, easily leads to exclusiveness in love (not in the sexual
appetite!). We often see two egoists, or several in a family,
working together to exploit the rest of society. As long as they
keep in good health and their business prospers, as long as the
egoistic plans of a third party do not upset their calculations,
they may remain faithful to each other and live in comparative
happiness. But what else?
Whoever, on the contrary, has known how to combine with
his conjugal love, a lively interest in humanity, will always find
in the latter a consoling compensation for the greatest misfor-
tunes and the most cruel losses. He will not fall into a state of
despair, but mil survive his trouble, and will become reconciled
to men and society without expecting anything from them, for
he will have been accustomed all his life to work in an impersonal
manner. . .
If I am accused of being enthusiastic over an ideal which is
impossible to attain, I protest strongly. Good habits may
always be acquired, and true altruists are found among the most
modest of men, among simple workingmen or peasants who corn-
comprehend and realize the ideal I have just depicted.
458 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
In Chapter XVII we shall see in what way the dispositions of
the child can be and ought to be developed in the dhection
indicated. It is needless to say that pure egoists and pei'verso
individuals, who are negative from the moral point of view, in
other words natures which are evil and harmful by heredity,
can never be educated so as to become altruists. But these
perverse natures do not form the majority. The great majority
of men, although idle and indifferent, may still become habitu-
ated to social work by suitable education, as soon as the external
forces which urge them to evil, such as drink and the greed for
money, have been removed and replaced by beneficial forces.
Lastly, the whole attention of humanity should be directed
toward its proper selection, so as to increase the number of
useful individuals, and duninish or gradually eliminate the bad
and incapable. But this is the work of many centuries of en-
lightenment and education, a work which we can only begin at
present. We find ourselves here in face of one of the weakest
points in human nature, a weakness which consists in only be-
coming enthusiastic over progress which will enable self to attain
its object, and not help others. When self does not quickly
obtain a palpable result, it is paralyzed and discom^aged, and
turns its back on reform under the most futile pretexts. I will
give an example:
A young bachelor became enthusiastic over the social reform
of abstinence from alcohol. For some years he worked with
zeal, took part in numerous public demonstrations, and became
an apostle of total abstinence. One day, after some failure, he
turned his back on abstinence, declaring that the movement
had no future. Nevertheless, the social movement of absti-
nence progressed without hun. After some years, he was
asked the reason why he had abandoned the movement.
After having fii"st of aU repeated liis pretext, he confessed that
he did not wish to appear eccentric. He admitted that he had
never felt so well as when he was an abstainer, appeared some-
what astonished to learn that the movement had made so much
progress without him, was finally convinced of his error, and
promised to return to the camp of the faithful. I
In common daily events of this kind lies the secret of the slow
SEXUAL MORALITY 459
progress of every social reform. Men who are momentarily
enthusiastic nearly always expect everything to progress accord-
ing to theii- imagination, and when they see that it will be some
time before any obvious result is attained, they become dis-
couraged, because they have neither the personal courage nor
the perseverence to remain in a minority and wait. The same
want of perseverance, courage and judgment is found in the
education of children, and it will take a long "time to enlighten
people on this subject.
It would seem that we have lost sight of our subject in occu-
pying ourselves with the irradiation of love, which forms the
object of social sentiments or ethics (vide Chapter V). But it
is by exactly understanding and realizing this u-radiation of
love that we shall gradually suppress the unhealthy social
aberrations of the sexual appetite, and prevent them doing
harm, by guiding them in the path of a healthy morahty. It is
not the severe external constraint of so-called moral laws, it is
not by the threats or punishments of hell, nor the promise of
paradise, nor the moral preachings of the priests, parents or
pedagogues, nor an exalted asceticism, which can ever con-
struct a healthy, just and lasting sexual ethics. It is not by
words that we recognize the value of moral precepts, but by
their results. It is quite certain that the sexual life of man
can never rise above its present state without being freed from
the bonds of mysticism and religious dogma, and based on a
loyal and unequivocal human morality which will recognize the
normal wants of humanity, always having as its principal
object the welfare of posterity.
Marriage should be considered as a means of satisfying the
sexual appetite, and at the same time a moral and social school
of life; not as a refuge for egoism. Division of duties, absolute
equality of rights and social work in common, \Adll solidify more
and more the sexual bonds of two conjoints. By the aid of a
better understanding of the wants of human society, the con-
joints will learn how to overcome their egoistic sentiments,
their polygamous inclinations, and their jealousy, etc.
In striving for happiness, and especially for the sexual happi-
ness of others, such conjoints will learn better how to excuse
460 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
and pardon the sexual failings of other men. They will cease to
despise the poor man's household, the girl-mother, the divorced
wife, the concubine, even the poor invert, and other failings in
their fellow beings. On the contrary, they wUl do their utmost
to make then- lot a happier one, by helping all those for whom
help may be efficacious. They will find their greatest pleasure
in this work, and if one of them becomes himself the victim of
some sexual failing, he wiU be pardoned all the more easily, and
will master it all the more quickly.
There will then be no time to make life bitter by bad temper,
slander, acrimony, sulking and other conjugal, disputes. The
husband will no longer behave with the despotism of a lord and
master, and the wife will no longer think it her duty to humble
herself. Religious dogmas will no longer separate man from
woman. Priests will no longer be required in marriage. Lastly,
there will be no more fear of death; this will be regarded as a
welcome rest after the long labor and duty fulfilled of a well-
spent life.
I cannot help taxing with narrow-mindedness, and even unin-
telligence, persons who consider such an ideal of life as a fantasy
impossible to realize, or as the product of exalted dreamers who
do not know the world. No doubt this ideal cannot be attained
by ill-constructed, unnatural beings, tainted by a morbid
heredity, or depraved by idleness, vice and passion for pleasure,
who have lost their elasticity and plasticity of brain or have
never possessed them. It has, however, been often realized
already by men and women of better quality. It is, therefore,
necessary to act on the children, both by education and selec-
tion, in order to obtain a youth of superior quality.
Let us not abandon the future of our race to the fatalism of
Allah; let us create it ourselves!
i
CHAPTER XVI
THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN POLITICS AND IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
Power and money have always been the principal aims of poli-
tics. Political economy is a science which deals with the great
family of nations and their conditions of existence. Based on
history, statistics and observation, it seeks for the laws which
govern the production, consumption and division of goods,
labor and its products, the social organization of nations, their
health, the increase or decrease of the population, the death-rate,
birth-rate, etc.
I cannot here enter into the details of the domestic economy
of the nation, as this is beyond my province. I may, however,
point out that this science has too much neglected the natural
sciences, owing to its traditional connection with politics.
In 1881 Cognetti de Martiis* had already attempted to apply
the ideas of evolution to political economy. Recently, Prof.
Eugene Schwiedland of Vienna treated the same subject in an
interesting study of the ideas of want and desire in human
psychology.! So far, it is only the quantity and not the quality
of men which has been taken into account, originating from the
false idea that man made in God's image can only come into the
world in a perfect state. If he was often malformed in body
and mind, this was the fault of his sins. Even hereditary de-
generation to the third and fom-th generation was considered as
divine punishment for the sins of the fathers on the children.
War.— The despots of olden times, like those of to-day, have
always regarded men as instruments of their ambition or even
as food for cannon. When Napoleon I established a bounty
for large famihes, he was no doubt thinking of the number of
* " T.e forme primitive nella evoluzione economia. "^^
t" Die psychologischen Grundlagen der Wirtschaft."
Zeitschrift Jiir Sozialwissenschaft, 1905.
461
462 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
soldiers he could make for the use of his son. He had good
reason to provide for the replenishment of the ranks of his army.
The mental quality of the individuals mattered little to him.
Wars are a harmful factor in human selection, for they destroy
or mutilate the fittest in the prime of life, while leaving the unfit
and the aged.
Moreover, we have already seen to what an extent the quality
and even the quantity of soldiers suffer from venereal disease
and alcohol. After certain long wars the male population has
been decimated to such a point that polygamy had to be resorted
to to reconstitute the nation. It is, therefore, obvious that
wars have a bad influence on the sexual relations of men, and
hence on the quantity, or what is still worse, the quality of a
nation.
Statistics. — Political economy is still more important. I do
not doubt the correctness of the figures which tell us that under
this or that economic system the population increases, while
under another system it diminishes, etc. But these are only
summary data whose true causes remain in the dark. It is
necessary to carefully study the factors which produce these
figures. Emigration and immigration with their causes, the
intimate habits of individuals and families, their willingness
and aptitude for work, etc. One fact which follows another is
not always the direct consequence of it and if we examine things
more closely, we arrive at curious results.
Alcohol. — Things being otherwise equal, it is found that na-
tions who abstain from alcohol and those who are moderate
consumers are more prolific than nations who are addicted to
drink. In Russia, for instance, the abstainers, although of the
same race and living under the same conditions, are more pro-
lific than then' neighbors who drink.
As we have aheady pointed out, alcohol greatly deteriorates
the quality of man by blastophthoria, and we must agree with
men such as Darwin, Gladstone, Cobden, Comte, etc., that alco-
hol (even in so-called moderation) does more harm to a nation
than war, plague and famine together.
We find here an economic factor of the first order, to which
the majority of economists (wdth the exception of Cobden) are
THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN POLITICS 463
blind. It is a very short-sighted poHcy to regard the alcohol
mdustry as a source of wealth and welfare for nations. What
an amount of labor, human power and valuable land is em-
ployed to produce this mischievous substance which, although
useful in pharmacy and other industries, neither nourishes nor
strengthens, but deteriorates the organism and leads to degener-
ation of the race! If it were not so sad, it would be ridiculous to
observe the serious way in which high officials, or even scientists,
calculate the product of taxes on distilled and fermented liquors
the laws for their import and export, the monopoly of their
manufacture, etc. It is remarkable how the budget is balanced
by the aid of the alcoholic intoxication of the people, and how
people are made to believe that a masterpiece of political econ-
omy is thereby achieved. In reahty, the health and strength
of the nation are sacrificed. This kind of pohtical economy
can only be qualified as false and deceitful. We cannot too
often nor too strongly stigmatize its destructive influence on
sexual matters and on the hereditary energies of humanity.
Density of Population. — As regards the most desii-able figm*es
for population, opinions are diametrically opposed. Some au-
thors look for the happiness of humanity in prolific reproduc-
tion, and imagine that by utilizing all parts of the globe an
unlimited nmnber of people could be supported by its produce.
We cannot regard with favor this singular Chinese-like ideal,
which would tend to transform the whole world into a huge
cornfield for the raising of men like rabbits. Moreover, it is
greatly to be feared that the real Chinese, when they have be-
come sufficiently armed and re-civilized, udll transform the
surface of the earth into a human stable, if we do not take suffi-
cient precautions.
Neo-malthusianism.— On the other hand, a certain group of
idealists, the neo-malthusianists, have declared a war of exter-
mination against all increase of the population. I have myself
been accused by one of them of committing a crime by pro-
creating more than four children! Neo-malthusianists of this
kind only deal with quantity and do not concern themselves
with quality.
They recommend, as we do, the employment of anticoncep-
464 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
tional measures, but they do so without any discrimination.
They address themselves to the altruistic and intelligent portion
of the public, and induce the most useful members of society to
procreate as little as possible, without recognizing that with
their system, not only the Chinese and negroes, but, among
European races, the most incapable and amoral classes of the
population are those who trouble the least about their maxi-
mum number of children. Hence, the result they obtain is
exactly the opposite of what they intend.
Among the North Americans and New Zealanders, with
whom neo-malthusianism is veiy prevalent, -the number of
births among the intelligent classes is diminishing to an alarm-
ing extent, while the Chinese and negroes multiply exceedingly.
In France, the practice of neo-malthusianism is chiefly due to
reasons of economy.
Rational Selection. — These two extremes, which are equally
absurd, should be replaced by rational selection. Neo-malthu-
sianism should be confined to the unfit of all kinds, and to the
lower races. On the contrary, the fit should be urged to multi-
ply as much as possible. By this means we obtain an indirect
factor of the first order for a rational political economy; I even
maintain that it is the most important of all. No doubt its
action is extremely slow, and it would take centuries to obtain
a definite result. But if the principle of proper human selection
ever prevails, we may confidently hope for a good future for
om* descendants.
A time will come when the human population of the earth
will become more or less stationary. If, in the meantime, hu-
man nature has succeeded in appreciably improving its quality,
and in gradually suppressing the physical and mental pro-
letariat with its poverty, hunger and brutality, which now
infests the world — then only will the dogmas of our modern
neo-malthusianists acquire a certain object for the whole world.
If humanity does not soon begin to degenerate by brutish
accumulation, but finds in time the means to gradually elevate
its quality, our future descendants will take care not to abandon
rational selection. A capable and active man gives to society
much more than he receives, and thus forms an economic asset.
THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN POLITICS 465
A person who is unfit in body or mind, receives more than he
gives, and thus constitutes an economic deficit.
Contrary Selection.— We have seen in Chapter VI how certain
customs of essentially human origin ended by becoming part of
religion. Unfortunately for humanity, religion and'' politics
have at all times generally combined to do wrong. The celibacy
of priests (to say nothing of the Inquisition, religious wars,
and the fatalism of Islam) which is based on a kind of religious
politics, has largely resulted in sterilizing the more intelligent
among Catholic races.
The prohibition of inquuy into paternity is another abomina^
ble custom of the same kind introduced by Napoleon. Laws of
this nature lead to artificial abortion and encourage promiscuous
intercourse. The safety of famiUes and sexual intercourse lies
in the duties of parents toward then children.
The principal task of a political economy which has the true
happiness of men at heart, should be to encourage the procrea-
tion of happy, useful, healthy and hard-working individuals.
To build an ever-increasing number of hospitals, asylums for
lunatics, idiots and incurables, reformatories, etc.; to provide
them with every comfort, and manage them scientifically, is no
doubt a very fine thing, and speaks well of the progress and
development of human sympathy. But, what is forgotten, is
that by concerning ourselves almost exclusively with human
ruins, the results of our social abuses, we gradually weaken the
forces of the healthy portion of the population.
By attacking the roots of the evil and hmiting the procreation
of the unfit, we shall be performing a work which is much more
humanitarian, if less striking in its effect.
Formerly, our economists and politicians hardly ever con-
sidered this question, and even now very few are interested in
it, because it brings neither honors nor money, as we do not
ourselves see the fruits of such efforts. Any one who aims at
serious reforms and puts his hand to the work is looked upon
as eccentric, or even mad. This is why we are contented with
the kind of humanitarianism which makes a show and panders
to the sentimentality of the masses, by holding out a charitable
hand to the visible and audible evils which make women weep.
466 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
In short, we amuse ourselves with repairing the ruins, but are
afraid of attacking what makes these ruins!
The Laws of Lycurgus. — There was once in Sparta a great
legislator named Lycm"gus, who attempted to introduce a kind
of human selection into the laws. He wished to make the Spar-
tans a strong nation, because at that time bodily strength was
almost the only ideal of the people. He understood the value
of hardness but not that of work. The importance of selective
elimination of the diseased and weak was apparent to his pre-
Darwinian intuition, but in his time natural laws were not
understood. However, in spite of their failings, the laws of
Lycurgus succeeded up to a certain point in making the Spar-
tans a strong nation.
According to the laws of Lyciu"gus, the Spartan inherited no
property, and was forbidden all luxury. He had to eat his
simple black broth with his fellows, and to exercise himself con-
tinually in trials of strength and skill. Every Spartan had to
marry, and the bonds of matrimony were strictly observed.
Every weak child was eliminated. But there were two funda-
mental errors in the Spartan organization.
First of aU, the Spartan was a warrior, but not a worker, and
although hardened, was an aristocrat. He left all labor to his
slaves, and in this way strengthened his slaves and enfeebled
himself in many respects. The value of work in strengthen-
ing and developing the brain and the whole body was not
then understood.
In the second place, all the efforts of the Spartans were
directed toward muscular strength, bodily skill, courage, and
simple wants, but not at all toward a life of higher intelli-
gence or ideal sentiments. The exclusiveness with which they
only promoted man's bodily development, while neglecting his
intellect, their negligence of the laws of organic evolution due
to ignorance of natural science, would sooner or later have led
to the decay of the Spartans.
However, it was not the laws of Lycurgus in themselves, but
their abandonment, which was the direct cause of the decadence
of Sparta. The Spartans only sought for power, and this led to
envy and jealousy, a deplorable although indirect result of the
I THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN POLITICS 467
exclusiveness of their laws. These laws, however, wiU always
constitute a unique historical document, a remarkable attempt
at human selection.
We are at the present day incomparably better armed intel-
lectually than Lycurgus to deal with the question of selection.
What is chiefly wanting is initiative on the part of the men who
are charged with the government of their fellows. They are so
deeply absorbed in economic interests and rival influences that
all desire of aspiring to a higher social ideal is paralyzed and
etiolated in them. We require a powerful social shaking if we
are to make steady progress.
Politics and the Sexual Question.— '' 0/ierc/ie2 la femme" is
the common expression when anything unusual occurs in society.
It would be more correct to say "Look for the sexual motive!"
The actions of men are determined much more by their pas-
sions and sentiments than by purely intellectual reflection, i.e.,
by reason and logic.
But no sentiment is stronger than the direct sexual sentiment,
or its derivatives — love, jealousy and hatred. From this results
a fact which social systems have too much neglected, namely :
that in all the domains of human social activity, the sexual
passions and their psychic irradiations often interact directly or
indirectly in a mischievous way. Mistresses and courtesans
have always played a considerable part in political intrigue.
It is not necessary to have such a tragic scandal as that which
caused the assassination of the king and queen of Servia. Every-
day influences, even the smallest and most dissimulated, are
often the most efficacious. Sexual intrigues have at all times
influenced and directed the fate of nations. History relates a
number of cases of this kind, but there are many more which
have never been revealed to the public. It is sufficient to men-
tion this fact. Every one who reflects will find an illustration of
it, in the history of the past as well as in the politics of the
present, in the com'ts of monarchs and in small democracies, in
the local history of provinces, in his o^vn parish, and lastly
among his own relatives, friends and acquaintances.
Sexual Life in Social Action.— The socialist who said that the
social question was exclusively a question of stomach mistook
468 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
its scope as well as human psychology. However admirably the
economic relations of men and their work may be regulated,
the introduction of sexual passions into social life will never be
eliminated. All that can be done is to give both sexes an educa-
tion which will elevate their social conscience and attenuate the
evil influences exercised by personal sexual sentiments on social
actions.
The sexual question, therefore, intervenes in politics and in
the whole of social life. Moreover, if the deplorable social in-
fluence of money and the attraction it exerts could be elimi-
nated, antisocial acts, which only depend indirectly on the
sexual passions, would lose much of their danger and infamy.
The Role of Women. — Here again, much may be expected
from the free emancipation of woman, and from her work in
social questions in conjunction with man. This work in com-
mon wUl make them more clearly understand the high import-
ance of their social task. Then sexual life will encourage social
development instead of hindering it; it will cease to be con-
sidered as an egoistic pleasure but as a means of procreation,
and will become the acme of an existence founded on the joy of
work.
We can already see, in countries where women have a vote,
that they know very well how to benefit by social progress. If
it is objected that woman is more conservative and more routine
than man, I reply that this inconvenience is compensated by the
fact that she is on the whole more inclined to enthusiasm, and
to be led by noble masculine natures, who have the sense of the
ideal, than by others (vide Chapter V) . Her great perseverance
and courage are also inestimable qualities for social work which
aims at true progress. ,
Necessity and Desire. — In the work which I have already
quoted, Schwiedland points out the need for distinguishing
between necessity and desire, in political economy. In practice
it is no doubt difficult to alw^ays make an exact distinction be-
tween necessity and luxury. What our ancestors considered
as luxuries we now regard as necessities. Man knows no limits
in his desires; he is insatiable in his passion for pleasure and
change. Certain socialists, especially anarchists, make a great
THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN POLITICS 469
mistake in proclaiming the right of man to satisfy all his desires.
This is a proclamation of corruption and degeneration. As it
is just to exact the right to satisfaction of the natural wants of
each, so is it unjust to sanction every desire and every appetite.
It is a question of distinguishing between good and useful
wants and evil desires. All wants which promote a healthy
life, all instincts which lead to social work, are good. All de-
sires, which damage the health and' life of the individual or
injure the rights and welfare of society, are bad, and are the
procreators of luxury, excessive concupiscence, and often cor-
ruption. Between these two extremes there are desires which
are more or less indifferent, for example, that of possessing
objects of beauty.
Certain objects of human desire are harmful in themselves,
such as the use of alcoholic liquor and narcotics. Others are
only harmful when pushed to excess, such as good living,
sexual pleasures, personal adornment, etc. Among the things
desired by man, sexual pleasure plays a great part. Thus, when
a pasha or a sultan provides himself with a large number of
women, this excess is harmful from the social point of view,
as it injm'es the rights of others. I have sufficiently dwelt on
this fact elsewhere. I wish only to indicate here, ^^^th Schwicd-
land, how necessary it is to fix the limits between necessities and
desires from the point of view of political economy, however
relative and subjective these limits may be.
CHAPTER XVII
THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN PEDAGOGY
Heredity and Education. — If we review the facts contained in
Chapters IV, VI, VII and VIII, we must conclude that the sex-
ual appetite, sensations and sentiments of every human being
consist of two groups of elements: (1) phylogenetic or hereditary
(hereditary mneme); and (2) elements acquired during life by
the combined action of external agents and habit or custom.
The first lie dormant in the organism for a time, in the form
of latent energies or dispositions, and form part of what is called
character. Most of them do not disclose themselves till the age
of puberty, and their development afterwards takes place under
the influence of external stimuli, which are modified by the will
of the individual, i.e., by his brain.
The second are the result of the influence excited by erotic
excitations and habit on the first.
Pedagogy can in no way change the first, for they are pre-
determined, and constitute the soil to be cultivated by educa-
tion. The task of the latter can, therefore, only be to guide
the hereditary sexual dispositions into paths as healthy and
useful as possible. In the case of perverse dispositions, such as
homosexual appetites, sadism, etc., moral education can only
act in a general way on the character, and combat that which
excites the appetites. It cannot change the character of the
latter; there must be no illusion on this point. Wherever
hereditary dispositions present a normal average, education can
do much to avoid pathological errors and habits, by guiding
the sexual appetite in a healthy direction and by avoiding
excess.
Sexual Education of Children. — Habit always diminishes the
erotic effect of certain perceptions of the senses; and inversely,
eroticism or sexual desire is especially excited by unaccustomed
470
THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN PEDAGOGY 471
perceptions and images relating to the other sex. The adult
unfortunately, nearly always makes the same error in pedagogy-
he unconsciously attributes his own adult sentiments to the
child. What excites the sexual desire of an adult is quite in-
different to a child. It is, therefore, possible to speak plainly
to children to a certain extent on sexual questions, without
exciting them in the least; on the contrary, if the child becomes
accustomed to consider sexual intercourse as something quite
natural, this will excite his curiosity to a much less degree later
on, because it has lost the spice of novelty.
If the child is accustomed to the sight of nudity in adults of
his own sex, he will see nothing peculiar in his own sexual or-
gans and pubic hairs when these develop. On the other hand,
children brought up with strict prudery and in complete igno-
rance of sexual matters, often become greatly excited when their
pubic hairs develop; they feel ashamed and at the same time
erotic. When they are not prepared, gkls become still more
excited at the first appearance of menstruation, and boys at
their first seminal emission. The mystery which is made of
everything relating to sexual matters is not only a som-ce of
anxiety to children, but also excites theh curiosity and the first
signs of eroticism, so that they generally end by being instructed
on the subject by other depraved children, by observing copula-
tion among animals, or by obscene books, in a manner which
is certainly not favorable to healthy development. What is
stiU worse is that the child is generally instructed at the same
time in masturbation, prostitution, and sometimes even sexual
perversion.
The so-called innocence, or naive ignorance, of an adolescent
possesses quite a pecuHar charm of attraction for libertines of
both sexes, who find a refined erotic pleasure, a unique relish, in
the seduction of the innocent, in the role of "initiator m the
sexual art." Parents, unfortunately, seldom realize the evil
consequences of their passiveness, I will even say cowardice, in
making use of subterfuge, pretext and falsehood, to elude the
naive questions of their children concerning sexual matters. I
will here quote the opinion of an enlightened mother of a family,
Madame Schmid-Jager, an opinion with which I enth'cly agree:
472 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
"All mothers, or nearly all, bring up their daughters with a
view to matrimony. Can we pretend that they are properly
prepared for it? Alas! no; the most elementary knowledge
which should be possessed by the future wife and mother is
neglected, and for centuries our young girls have been married
in more or less complete ignorance of their natural functions
and duties. The slaves of routine will reply that it has always
been so, that the world has been none the worse for it, and that
women when once married have always learnt by personal ex-
perience all that was necessary. No doubt they are sometimes
taught to cook and sew and to do household work, but they are
told nothing concerning their sexual functions, nor of the con-
sequences of these. At Zurich a school has been instituted for
nurses and mid wives which will soon give good results. This
school is also open to young girls who, without becoming pro-
fessional nurses, desire to learn how to take care of the sick in
their own families, and especially the newly born. This is an
experiment worthy of encouragement which should be extended
universally.
"The awkwardness, incapacity and ignorance of a young
wife, when she starts housekeeping and has a baby, are aston-
ishing. She often pays dearly for it, in spite of the instinct
which is so much talked about. It is not the same as with
animals, whose instincts are sufficient for the care of the young.
"A lady doctor of Zurich, Madame Hilfiker, has lately devel-
oped a scheme of much greater importance, which will require a
great effort on the part of women and the intervention of legis-
lation, if it is to be realized. Men, she says, maintain their
muscular strength by military service. Every young woman,
who is not prevented by her occupation, should perform the
equivalent of military service, from the age of eighteen, in ob-
ligatory service for a year, in hospitals, asylums, maternities,
creches (public nurseries) or public kitchens. Such training
would be extremely useful for future wives, and would at the
same time provide the institutions in question with useful
workers. Why should men be the only ones to perform obliga-
tory social service? I expect," says Madame Schmid, "many
adverse criticisms on this proposal, one of which I will refute
THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN PEDAGOGY 473
at once. The ladies of the middle classes will strongly object
because their daughters will see and hear so many things which
ought to be hidden till they marry! But why should they be
hidden? In order to prepare our daughters for marriage, is it
not logical to begin by telling them what it is, what it involves
and what it exacts?" CU Education sociale de nos filks,"
1904.)
In neglecting this duty our parents and teachers commit a
veritable crime. Does a normal man ever marry without know-
ing what he is doing? Yet our young girls are kept by their
mothers in insensate and often dangerous ignorance of their
whole future. Whoever invented this absurd and mischievous
idea that a young girl should remain ignorant of her natural
functions till the moment when she has bound herself for life to
fulfill them? The law punishes persons who cause others to
enter into contracts, while intentionally concealing the true
conditions. This might almost equally well apply to parents
who allow their daughters to marry in ignorance. Some women
reply to this that marriage would be too sad and would have
Uttle attraction if it were not preceded by any illusion. Certain
illusions which are natural to youth may be healthy, but the
fantastic dreams which are in evident contradiction with reality,
and nearly always followed by disillusion, are bad. A young
woman who has always hved in a state of transcendental ideal-
ism till her marriage, infallibly courts disappointment, decep-
tion and heart-break. A wiser education would often succeed
in sparing young women from this sudden and cruel disillusion.
The moral level of men would also be raised if theh future wives
were better instructed in sexual matters, and exacted that the
past life of their future husbands should give a better guarantee
for the futm^e.
It must, moreover, be understood that blind and obstinate
resistance to new ideas serves no purpose. Our manners and
customs change in spite of us; our girls will no longer allow
themselves to be led blindly, but wiU seek more and more
freedom. Would it not be wiser to take things in time and warn
them of the dangers ahead? With incredible carelessness parents
send theii' daughters into service abroad, without considermg
474 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
that they may be at the mercy of the first Don Juan who comes
across them, or even fall into the meshes of "white slavery," if
they are left to go in ignorance of sexual affairs, as is often the
case (vide Chapter X). Moreover, by no longer taking a false and
artificial view of life, guis will be more capable of understanding
and sympathizing with the misery which surrounds them —
the troubles of unfortunate marriages, seduced and abandoned
girls, etc. What they lose in illusion they will gain in more
useful knowledge.
How are we to begin? We should certainly not wait till the
eve of marriage, but begin in childhood. In theory, it is wrong
to lie to children, if they are to maintain unshaken confidence
in their parents, and remain truthful themselves. No doubt we
cannot explain everything to a child at the age when it begins to
ask its mother certain embarrassing questions, but we should
endeavor as far as possible to tell it the truth in a manner suita-
ble to its age. When this is impossible, every child who knows
that no reasonable explanation is ever refused it will be satisfied
with the answer: "You are too young now to understand that;
I will tell you when you are older." Every child who speaks
openly to its mother asks sooner or later how children come into
the world. It is easier to reply to this when the child has had
the opportunity of observing the same thing in animals. Why
should the mother conceal the fact that it is nearly the same in
man as in animals? The child never thinks of blushing or
laughing at natural phenomena.
The initiation of children into the mechanism of reproduction
is best obtained by the study of botany and zoology. If no
mystery is made of these things in the case of plants and ani-
mals, why should not instruction be given in human reproduc-
tion? On this point Madame Schirdd remarks as follows:
"The father or the master should instruct the boys in this
subject, and the mother or mistress the girls. Parents wiU then
be able more easily to abandon their old and absurd prejudices,
which they preserve, not so much because they attach any great
importance to them, but because they shrink from the difficulty
of explaining themselves to their children. We often see moth-
ers, who would never have touched on the question with a child
THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN PEDAGOGY 475
still ignorant of sexual matters, abandon the resen^e hitherto
observed in their language in the presence of the child, as soon
as they perceive that it has become more or less acquainted with
sexual phenomena. This is quite characteristic, and what is
more so is that these mothers, and often also the fathers, fre-
quently make equivocal jokes on the subject with their children
instead of seriously discussing it.
"It is regi-ettable that so few pedagogues take up these ques-
tions, and that the instruction of children on the sexual question
is left to the most impure sources — domestic servants, depraved
companions, pornographic books, etc. This results in a deplora-
ble estrangement between the children and their parents or
masters, which destroys mutual confidence.
"If we wish to contend with sexual perversions acquired at
an early age, or the precocious development of an unhealthy
sexual appetite, this is not to be effected by prudery or vague
moral preaching, but by affection and frankness. In this case,
evasive replies, combined with so-called strict morals, only lead
to estrangement, dissimulation and hypocrisy, and the result
is often irreparable."
Madame Schmid also insists on the necessity of making
young girls work and learn some business, so as to render them
capable of surviving in the struggle for existence without being
obUged to throw themselves at the head of the first man who
presents himself, or becoming the prey of prostitution. She
also emphasizes the necessity of remunerating the wife for her
work as mother and housekeeper, as the husband is remunerated
for his work.
It is needless to add that it is quite as necessary to instruct
boys as girls in sexual questions. They do not run the risk,
Hke girls, of faUing through ignorance into the abject depend-
ence of a forced marriage, and have no pregnancies to fear;
but they are more exposed to temptation. When their sexual
appetite has been once excited by masturbation or in some
other way, it becomes veiy difficult to put them on the right
path; to say nothing of the danger of venereal disease.
I therefore appeal to aU fathers and masters in the same
way that Madame Schmid appeals to mothers and nustresscs:
476 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
Take measures in time and do not wait till the boys are
instructed by evil persons of either sex, or till they have
already been seduced, thanks to their erotic curiosity. It is
generally evil companions who seduce them, but sometimes
erotic women.
Exclusiveness in Education. Punishment. Automatism of
Parents. Wants of Children. — In the human brain, intelligence
and sentiment are intimately connected with one another, and
from their combination arise volitions, which in their tm'n,
react more or less strongly on cerebral activity, according to
their sohdity and duration. It is thus a great mistake to think
that we can treat separately, by the aid of theoretical dogmas,
the three great domains of the human mind — intelligence, sen-
timent and wdll. It is a fundamental error to imagine that
the intelhgence can be educated only at school, lea\'ing senti-
ment and wiU to the parents. But it is still more absurd to
attempt to act on sentiment, especially on ethical sentiment,
and on the conscience, which is derived directly from sympathy,
by moral preaching and punishment. What false conceptions
of the human mind lie in these moral sermons, in this theoretical
moral teaching, in these punishments and anger! Is it credible
that, by the aid of abstract and arid dogmas supported by pun-
ishment, conscience and altruistic sentiments can be impressed
on the brain of a child, which is only accessible to concrete ideas,
to sympathy, affection and amusement? We may see daily,
in nearly every family, parents finding fault with their children,
in a vexatious, hritated or son'owful tone of voice, to which the
children reply by inattention, or tears, or more often by a
repetition of the same tone of hritation. These scoldings pass
through the child's mind wdthout lea\dng any trace of an effect.
Such stereotyped scenes produce in the intelligent observer the
painful impression of two barrel-organs whose tunes are auto-
matic. If this is the kind of moral teaching which is supposed
to act on the child's mind, it is not astonishing that it has
futile and even harmful effects. The parents do not appreciate
the fact that when scolding their children they are only giving
vent to their own bad temper. But the children are well aware
of this fact, consciously or not, and react accordingly. The
THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN PEDAGOGY 477
most deplorable thing is that they copy all these bad habits,
like monkeys.
True moral teaching, the true way of influencing children for
good, lies in the manner of speaking to them, treating them and
living with them. Affection, truth, persuasion and perseverance
should be manifest in the acts and manners of parents, for these
qualities only can awaken sympathy and confidence in the
breasts of children. It is not cold moral speech, but warm
altruistic feeling, which alone can act as a moral educator of
children.
A savant who delivers excellent and erudite lectures to his
pupils in a dry and wearisome manner teaches them nothing,
or at any rate very httle. The students yawn, and are quite
right in saying they could learn these things just as well out of a
book. A teacher, however, who speaks with animation and
knows how to hold the attention of his audience impresses his
remarks on their brain. In the former case there is intelligence
without feeling, while in the latter case the audience is held by
the suggestive and contagious power of enthusiasm. Dry
science, at the most, fills the memory, but it leaves " the heart"
empty. What does not come from the heart has difficulty in
entering the head.
It is precisely in this way that the will must be exercised by
perseverance. The child must be made eager for social work;
he must be urged to all noble and disinterested actions, with-
out stimulating his emulation by promises of reward, or by
punishment.
New Schools.— The object we desire may be attained by a
system of education such as that of the new schools {Landerzieh-
ungshewie), which were first founded by Reddie in England,
afterwards by Lietz in Germany, by Frey and Zuberuiibler
in Switzerland, and by Contou in France. These institutes
have finally realized the ideas of Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Owen
and Froebel.
For the teacher who understands the psychology of children,
it is a true pleasure to witness the teaching at these Lander-
ziehungsheime. The children take a delight in their school
and become the comrades of their master. Physical exercise,
478 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
the development of the powers of reason and judgment, the edu-
cation of the sentiments and mil, are all harmoniously combined.
The children are not given the dry text-books of our schools,
but are made famihar with the works of the great authors and
men of genius. Instead of their existence becoming etiolated
under the weight of domestic duties, and under the sword of
Damocles of examinations, they thrive by li\'ing as far as pos-
sible among the things they ought to learn. They thus assimi-
late the object of instruction, which becomes a living and useful
part of their personality, instead of becoming encysted in the
brain in the form of dead erudition like a foreign body, and
filling it with formulae learnt by heart. Such formulae are ill-
understood by children, and later on it is difficult for them to
clear their brains of this indigestible rubbish to make room
for the realities of observation and induction. The only pun-
ishments at the Landerziehungsheime are those which naturally
result from the fault committed.
The pupils and their masters bathe together in a state of
nature. The sexual question is treated openly in these schools
in a proper, natural and logical way. The open confidence
which obtains between masters and pupils, combined with free
intellectual and physical work and the absolute exclusion of
alcoholic drinks, constitute the best preventive and curative
remedy for mastm'bation, sexual precocity and all perversions
w^hich are not hereditary.
It is needless to say that such schools cannot cure a patho-
logical sexual hereditary mneme, whether it consists in per-
version, precocity or some other \ace. Every boarding school
has its drawbacks, on account of the possible influence of mis-
chievous individuals. Nevertheless, no boarding school offers
such excellent conditions as the Landerziehungsheime, for as
soon as a boy gives evidence of any sexual perversion, this per-
version soon becomes well known, thanks to the good sense
which prevails in the whole school.*
Standard of Human Value in the Child. — Our pedagogy has
hitherto not understood the true standard of human value.
*Vide. — Ernest Contou: Ecoles nouvelles et Landerziehungsheime, Paris,
1905; Wilhelm Frey: Landerziehungsheime , Leipzig, 1902; Forel: Hygiene des
nerfs et de V esprit, Stuttgart, 1905.
THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN PEDAGOGY 479
The social value of a man is composed of two groups of factors;
mental and bodily hereditary dispositions, and faculties ac-
quired by education and instruction. Without sufficient
hereditary dispositions, all efforts expended in learning a certain
subject will generally fail more or less. Without instruction
and without exercise, the best hereditary dispositions will be-
come atrophied, or will give indifferent results. But hereditary
dispositions not only influence the different domains of knowl-
edge, as the traditional pedagogues of our pubUc schools seem to
admit, they also act on all the domains of human life, especially
on the mind. Good dispositions in the domains of will, senti-
ment, judgment, imagination, perseverance, duty, accuracy,
self-control, the faculty of thinking logically and distinguishing
the true from the false, the faculty of combining sesthetic thoughts
and sensations, all constitute human values which are much
superior to the faculty of rapid assimilation or receptivity, and
a good memory for words and phrases.
Nevertheless these last faculties are almost the only ones
which are taken into consideration in our examinations, which
decide nearly everything in our schools and universities. Is it
to be wondered at that, by the aid of such a false standard,
mediocrities whose brains are only the echoes of their masters
and those who bow to authority, climb to the highest official
positions, and even to most of those positions which are not
official?
With a good memory and the gift of rapid comprehension, one
can obtain everything, even without the protection of the clergy,
freemasonry or any other powerful association or personality
(male or female) ! If they do not possess these natural second-
ary gifts, the most capable men, even men of genius, are passed
over or only obtain a situation by circuitous routes and great
efforts, after much loss of time.
In the Landerziehungsheime, Dr. Hermann-Lietz uses a scale
intended to estimate the psychological and social value of the
pupils. First of all the results obtained from two standards arc
measured:
(a) Individual: Does the actual value of work performed by
the pupil always correspond to his faculties?
480 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
(6) Objective: Is the work very good, good, mediocre or bad,
compared \vith the normal human average?
After this the different domains of psychology and human
activity are passed in review, a thing which is quite possible in
a school of this kind whose object is to carry out the integral
education of man.
1. Bodily results: Health, disease, weight of body, activity,
walking, running, swimming, cycling, games, ski, gymnastics.
2. Conduct: Order, cleanliness, punctuality. Conduct out-
side, etc.
3. Moral and religious results: Conduct toward parents, mas-
ters, companions, self and others. Veracity, zeal and senti-
ment of duty; honesty in the administration of his personal
property and that entrusted to him; sentiment of solidarity
and disinterestedness. Is the pupil worthy of trust? Is he
conscientious? Strength of moral septiments, moral compre-
hension and moral will.
4. Intellectual results: Practical work; gardening, agriculture,
carpentry, turning, locksmith's work, work in forge. Drawing,
writing, elocution, music. Knowledge of literature and human
nature, physics, mathematics and natural science.
5. General results: Strength of character, physique and intel-
hgence; faculty of observation, imagination and judgment.
Real value of practical work, artistic and scientific.
Measured by such a standard, the human value of a pupil
takes quite another character to that judged by the results of
examinations. By means of this standard, it is possible to
predict with much more certainty what kind of man the child
will become. There is no need to add that there are no ex-
aminations in these schools, for the whole life is a perpetual
examination.
Samuel Smiles, in "Self Help," relates that Swdft failed in his
examinations, that James Watt (the discoverer of the motive
power of steam), Stephenson and Newton were bad pupils, that
an Edinburgh professor regarded Walter Scott as a dunce.
[The same with Darwin, who says in his autobiography, "^^Tien
I left the school I was, for my age, neither high nor low in it,
and I believe that I was considered by all my masters and by
THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN PEDAGOGY 481
my father as a very ordinary boy, rather below the common
standard in intellect."] These examples of the way in which
the school of tradition judges human mental value might be
multiplied a hundredfold, but they will suffice, especially if we
compare them with the future of the distinguished pupils of
colleges in practical Hfe. These facts are not due so much to
later development, as to the disgust inspired by our system of
education in reflective minds which refuse to be overloaded
with a heap of dry things learnt by heart, undigested, often
hardly comprehensible, or open to contradiction.
It is only on the basis of a just evaluation of man, from all
points of view, that we can found a proper human selection.
Coeducation. — It is now beginning to be understood that the
coeducation of the two sexes in schools, not only does no harm,
but is very advantageous, both from the sexual and the moral
points of view. In the universities it is already established.
In children's schools and many primary schools it has always
existed. It is especially the authorities of secondary schools
who have raised opposition.
In the secondary schools in Holland and Italy, as well as in
some Swiss gymnasiums, coeducation has been introduced with-
out the least inconvenience; on the contrary, it has led to the
best results.
A native of Finland, Miss Maikki Friberg, has lately made an
appeal in favor of coeducation based on the excellent results
obtained in her country. Some feared that sexual excitement
would result; but this is an error, for the custom of daily co-
existence of the sexes diminishes the sexual appetite. The
forbidden fruit loses its charm as soon as it appears no longer to
be forbidden!
It is unnecessary to say that it is not intended that girls and
boys should sleep in the same dormitories, nor bathe together in
the costume of Adam and Eve! Our remarks do not apply to
boarding-schools, but to coeducation in public schools.
When we speak of coeducation, we generally meet with the
argument that the nature and vocation of women differ from
those of men, and that consequently their education ought to
differ To this I reply as follows: The external objects of the
482 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
world, the branches of human knowledge, in fact the subjects
for study and instruction, are the same for both sexes. It is,
therefore, both a useless waste of forces and an injustice to
organize an inferior education for women.
Instruction in Coeducation. — A course of instruction as inter-
esting as possible should be organized for each subject, without
distinction of sex. This rule should also apply to things which
are generally considered as the special province of women; such
as sewing, dressmaking, cooking, household work, etc. It will
then be the business of each sex to choose the subject most
suited to its abilities.
Part of the coiu-se of instruction should be obligatory for all,
while another part intended for ulterior individual development
should be optional, according to individual taste and talent.
In the obligatory part of instruction certain subjects might be
made obligatory for one sex and optional for the other; sewing
and algebra, for instance. In this way each sex could choose
the most suitable subjects, as is the case now in universities only.
Danger of Sexual Perversions. — A very important point, un-
fortunately little understood in sexual pedagogy, is that of con-
genital sexual perversions. Tradition regards every sexual
anomaly as an acquired vice, which should be treated by indig-
nation and punishment. The effects of this manner of looking
at the question are disastrous. It gives entirely wi'ong ideas to
youth, and shuts the eyes of parents and teachers to the truth.
It is not without a serious motive that I have described at
length the repugnant phenomena of sexual pathology (Chapter
VIII). Teachers and parents should be thoroughly acquainted
with this subject. But this is not enough, for these phenomena
commence in infancy. It is a long time before the child whose
sexual appetite is perverted has the least idea that his inclina-
tions and desires are considered by others as abnormal. The
psychic irradiations of his abnormal appetite usually consti-
tute the sanctuary of his ideal aspirations and sentiments, the
object of obscure hopes and struggles which are opposed to nature
and the inclinations of his comrades. This is why he neither
understands the world nor himself in this respect. His amorous
exaltations are ridiculed, or else they inspire disgust. Anxiety
THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN PEDAGOGY 483
and shame alternate more and more with the perverse aspira-
tions of his mind, which slowly increase. It is only when he
arrives at the age of puberty that the pervert understands his
exceptional position; he then feels that he is exiled from society,
abandoned and without a future. He sees his ideal aspirations
mocked by men and regarded as a ridiculous caricature or even
as a culpable monstrosity. He is obliged to hide his passions
like a criminal. As his character is often weak and impulsive,
and is combined with a strong and precocious sexual appetite,
he is very easily led astray, especially if he discovers suit-
able objects for his appetite, or perverted companions like
himself.
In this way, in secondary schools, we often find groups of
young inverts who succeed by cunning in seducing their friends.
The mention of these phenomena, which from time to time give
rise to school scandals, should be enough to make any one who
is unprejudiced understand the urgency for instructing children
betimes in sexual questions. This is a duty which is necessary
in the name of hygiene and morality.
It is evident that if parents and masters exchange ideas on
this subject with children, freely but decently, they will soon
bring to light the sexual nature of the latter. They will dis-
cover which girls are cold and indifferent, and which are pre-
cociously erotic.
It is needless to say that one should speak and act differently
in the two cases. There is no risk in instructing the first on the
whole sexual question, but prudence is required with the latter,
who should be guarded against anything which stimulates their
appetite, by warning them of the dangers of venereal disease,
illegitimate children and seduction.
We sometimes meet with young girls of hysterical nature with
inverted incHnations, who become enamored of other girls and
have a sexual repugnance for men. Occasionally a sadist is
discovered.
Among boys we observe analogous differences in the intensity
and precocity of the sexual appetite. An attentive observer
will frequently discover homosexual appetites in boys, for these
are comparatively common. Other perversions, such as sadism,
484 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
masochism, fetichism and exhibitionism, etc., are more rarely
met with. Mastm-bation is common in both sexes.
The great advantage of such discoveries is that children
affected with sexual perversions can be put under special super-
vision, and above all things kept away from boarding schools,
where they are subject to great temptations. An invert in a
boarding-school is in reality almost in the same position as a
young man who sleeps in the same room as young gii'ls, and no
one thinks of the danger.
When perversion is recognized, the subject should not be
treated as a criminal, nor even as a vicious individual, but as a
patient afflicted with a nervous affection who is thereby dan-
gerous to himself and others. He should be treated and pre-
vented from becoming a center of infection for his surroundings.
Inverts should be specially supervised and taken care of till
adult age. When they come of age, in my opinion, it would be
an irmocent idea to allow them to marry persons of their own
sex, as they so much desire to do. Normal adults can very well
protect themselves against their attentions, when they are
warned by sufficient instruction in sexual questions.
The child, on the other hand, has the right to be protected
against all contamination by perversion, as against all sexual
assault of whatever nature, and it is the duty of society to
organize its protection. But this cannot be done unless society
is itself instructed on the question, and in a position to give a
rational education to youth such as we have sketched above.
If dangerous congenital pei'versions are discovered, such as
sadism and pederosis, energetic measures of protection should
be taken; in grave cases, the operations we have spoken of, or
permanent internment.
Apart from suggestion, there is no better remedy against
masturbation than a system of education such as that in force
in the Landerziehungsheime, especially continuous physical
labor combined with useful and attractive intellectual occu-
pation. When such a system of education is put in force at
an early age, the sexual appetite develops more slowly and
more moderately, and has the most favorable influence on the
whole sexual life of man.
THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN PEDAGOGY 485
In speaking of masturbation in Chapter VIII we have seen
that it may be the expression of very different conditions, and
we should act accordingly.
Eroticism in Childhood.— By giving children betimes the requi-
site instruction on the sexual question, they are tranquilized.
Many boys and girls give themselves up to despan because of
the erroneous and terrifying ideas they have of sexual affairs.
On the one hand, they hear pornographic remarks which disgust
them, w^hile their parents envelop the subject in mystery; on
the other hand, their sexual appetites evoke desire and call for
satisfaction. When a young man in this state of mind has an
emission, either spontaneously or as the result of artificial exci-
tation, he is seized with anxiety and shame, often also with
phantoms of disease and moral depravity. He then requires
almost heroic resolution to unburden his mind to a doctor or
to his father. With nervous subjects, inclined to be melan-
cholic or hypochondriacal, such a state of mind sometimes leads
to suicide.
Another advantage in the instruction of children in sexual
matters is that the questions of heredity, alcohol and venereal
disease can be explained to them at the same time. In giving
these explanations it is important not to awaken eroticism in
the child by dwelling more than necessary on sexual topics.
Instruction in this subject should not be given too frequently;
on the contrary, the attention of youth should, as far as possible,
be drawn away from sexual questions to other subjects, till the
age of maturity.
With the same object, erotic and pornographic literature
should be condemned. Unfortunately, many novels and dramas
which meet with the approbation of society, thanks to their
fashionable or even decent form of presentation, are often full *
of half-veiled eroticism, which is much more exciting to the
sexual appetite than the brutal and reahstic descriptions of Zola
or Brieux, or even the erotic art of de Maupassant.
A doctor once told me that in his country the country chil-
dren, who observed copulation among animals, often made smu-
lar attempts themselves, while bathing or otherwise. Yet these
country-people are no more corrupt or degenerate than the
486 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
townspeople. Here again, proper instruction and warnings
would be the best remedy, especially in the case of girls.
What is to be said, on the contrary, of certain Austrian judges
who punish by imprisonment urchins of fourteen, who have
copulated with gh'ls of the same age or made them pregnant?
Have they punished the real culprit? Do they imagine that
they have done anything that will improve these children?
The confession of Catholics plays a deplorable pedagogic part
in the sexual domain. We may admit that some high-minded
priests may be capable of modifying their interpretation of the
prescriptions of Liguori and others which we have cited, and do
little or no harm to young people of either sex. It must, how-
ever, be recognized — and the most devout Catholic cannot deny
it — that priests are only human, and have not all the noble
spirit nor the tact to fulfill the ideal required of them in their
behavior toward women. This is enough to make the confes-
sional, in many cases, a depraved institution from the sexual
point of view. On this subject, I refer the reader to what has
already been said in Chapter XH on the experiences of the
Canadian reformer, father Chiniqui.
The following instance is very characteristic. A very prudish
man, observing children of both sexes bathing together, ex-
claimed to them indignantly, that this was improper. There-
upon a little boy replied naively: "We do not know which is a
boy nor which is a girl, because we have no clothes." This
charming reply shows how certain moral intentions are more
likely to attract the attention of young people to erotic subjects.
Corporal Punishment and Sadism. — An important fact has
recently attracted the attention of the whole world, concerning
certain terrible crimes. There is no longer any doubt that in
some cases perverted masters and teachers find satisfaction for
their sadist sexual appetite in the corporal punishment of chil-
dren. This was the case with the German teacher, Dippold,
who, to satisfy his perverted appetite flogged two children con-
fided to him by their parents, till one of them died.
The Arbeiter Zeitung, of Vienna, a very conscientious journal,
published the case of a prince of a small German state, who,
whenever a schoolmaster ordered corporal punishment to a
THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN PEDAGOGY 487
pupil, offered to execute it himself. The jom-nal in question
attributes with good reason this fantasy to sadism.
Again, many children were at one time belabored with blows
for several years by a person who pretended to l^e a police agent,
and who threatened them with prosecution if they complained.
One boy more courageous than the others finally gave informa-
tion, and the affair then ended.
We thus see that sadism does not always manifest itself by
assassination. Its less dangerous forms in which pleasure is
obtained by blows or some other form of bodily or mental ill-
treatment, are no doubt much more common. They constitute
a kind of complement to sexual desire in pathological indi\iduals
whose appetite is only partly perverted. This fact, which has
hitherto not received sufficient attention, gives one more rea.'^on
for the abolition of corporal punishment in schools, for the art
of dissimulation and refinement of torture are unlimited in the
sexually perverted. A thousand hypocritical pretexts serve to
conceal their morbid appetite, and it has been proved by ex-
perience that they can succeed for a long time in deceiving even
experts in this subject. This was the case with Dippold and
many others.
Corporal punishment of schoolboys is only useless and harmful
brutality. It is a disgi'ace to civilization that it is still maintained
at a time when the bastinado has been suppressed among convicts.
Protection of Childhood. Child Martyrs. — Children, especially
when illegitimate or of another marriage, are often exposed to
atrocious treatment in which alcohol and sexual passion, incon-
venienced by the presence of the child, play a great part.
I here refer the reader to the last work of Lydia von Wolfring.*
This author, who has made a special study of the judicial protec-
tion of children, makes the following propositions directed against^
parents and tutors who commit misdemeanors against children or
pupils confided to them, or who incite the latter to commit nns-
demeanors, or who show themselves incapable of protecting them
against others who abuse them in the manner indicated (this
last condition applies especially to concubines, widows, etc.).
*"Das Recht des Kindest Vorschlage fur eine gesetzliche Regclunp."
AUgemeine osterreichische Gerichtszeitung, 1904.
488 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
(1). Withdrawal of paternal, maternal or tutelary authority
and nomination of another tutor.
(2). Complete withdrawal of childi'en in grave cases.
(3). Nomination of a "co- tutor" in aU cases where a husband
who survives his wife and has children who are minors, contracts
a second marriage or lives in concubinage.
(4). Withdrawal of paternal and sometimes maternal au-
thority from aU parents who leave the education of their chil-
dren to public or private charity, unless compelled to do so by
poverty.
Without having a direct bearing on our subject the above
propositions contain the elements of an efficacious, though
indirect, protection against the abuses committed toward
children; for example, when parents urge their childi'en to pros-
titution. As regards proposition 4, I refer to what I have said
in Chapter XIII. While authority over their children is with-
drawn, unnatm'al parents of tliis kind should be obliged to work
for theh children's maintenance.
Future Possibilities. — Unfortunately we must admit that the
progi^amme of a sexual pedagogy for the futm*e, such as we have
sketched here, is veiy far from being realized. The Lander-
ziehungsheime, which should serve as examples for future state
schools are still sparsely distributed, and it seems impossible to
carry out universally a rational sexual education, till the state
and the public are better informed on the subject and have got
rid of their prejudices. This hope appears to be only the reflec-
tion of a distant future. In the meantime every one must do
his best. Parents, and some masters, can do much by free
initiative. It is above aU things necessary that young people
who are interested in social reforms should not be satisfied wdth
empty phrases, nor "play to the gallery." They should set the
example in their own sexual relations, in condenming old cus-
toms which are opposed to true natural human ethics; they
should show their adherence to sexual reforms by action and
example, by raising objections to marriage for money, to the
tyranny and formality of marriage, to prostitution, etc.; and
they should attempt to put in force a healthy selection and a
rational education such as we have indicated above.
CHAPTER XVIII
SEXUAL LIFE IN ART
The Genesis of Art.— Art represents in a harmonious form the
movements of om- sentimental life. The phylogcny of art is
still very obscm-e; Darwin attributes it to sexual attraction,
through the efforts made by one sex to attract the other; but
his arguments have never convinced me.*
Ai-istotle recognized in art the principles of representation of
the beautiful and of imitation. Karl Groos, of Giessen, refutes
Darwin's hypothesis, and upholds the principle of the repre-
sentation of self by sensations which relate to the subject, thus
giving a tangible object to corresponding internal emotions
(among animals, for example, the pleasure of hearing theii- own
voice), t
The motor instinct and the movements executed in play seem
to be among the most primitive autonomous creators of art.
Similar play is observed in ants. In man, Groos attributes a
considerable role to religious ecstasy and ecstasy in general, in
the genesis of art. ''Since its object is to excite the sentiments,
it is obvious that art utilizes from the first the domain which is
richest in emotional sensations, that is the sexual domain."
He shows at the same time that erotic subjects have a much
more general and definite importance in highly developed art
than in what we know of primitive art.
Groos is certainly right, for primitive eroticism was too »
coarse and sensual, too exclusively tactile to affect the mind as
deeply and with such gradations of symphony as is the case with
civilized man. This reason alone seems to me sufficient to sup-
port Groos' view, which is also confirmed by the fact that primi-
tive works of art contain very few erotic subjects.
* See also Lameere " UEvolution des ornements sexuels," 1904.
t" Die Anfange der Kunst und die Theorie Danvins. " Hcsxiche Blatter
filr Volkskunde, Vol. Ill, Part 2.
489
490 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
The more delicate art becomes the better it acts. The inten-
sity of its action depends, however, more especially on the
power with which it moves our feelings. Art requires discord,
not only in music, but elsewhere, in order to act more strongly
on the human emotions by the effect of contrast. In describing
the ugly it awakens desire for the beautiful. Art should be spon-
taneous and exuberant with the truth of conviction; it should be
free from mannerism and all dogmatism, intellectual or moral.
The positive aesthetic sentiment, or sentiment of beauty is very
relative, and depends essentially on the phylogenetic adaptation
of the human sentiments, as well as on individual habits and
popular customs. The odor of manure is no doubt pleasant to
a farm laborer, but it is unpleasant to us. The male invert finds
man more beautiful than woman. A savage or a peasant re-
gards as beautiful what a cultured man considers ugly. The
music of Wagner or Chopin is tiresome to a person with no
musical education or ear, while a melomaniac goes into raptures
over it.
Erotic Art. — It is quite natural that the chord whose vibra-
tions influence the most powerful human emotion — sexual love
— has an infinite variety of vibrations in all forms of art. Music
gives expression to the sexual sensations and their psychic
irradiations by tones representing desire, passion, joy, sadness,
deception, despair, sacrifice, ecstasy, etc.
In sculpture and painting it is love in all its shades which fur-
nishes the inexhaustible theme; but it is in the domain of litera-
ture that love celebrates its triumphs, and often also its orgies.
The novels and dramas in which it plays no part could be easily
counted. I am not referring only to common novelettes, nor to
those pot-house dramas which, in spite of repeating continually
the same sentimental motives, always succeed in arousing the
uncultivated sentiments of the masses. The greatest art aims
at representing tragic, refined and complex conflicts of the
human sexual sentiments and their irradiations, so as to awaken
emotion by causing vibrations in the deepest chords of the
human mind. Among poets and authors I may mention
Shakspere, Schiller, Goethe, de Musset, Heine, Gotthelf, and
de Maupassant; among musicians, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner
SEXUAL LIFE IN ART 491
Schumann, Loewe; among painters, Titian, Mui-Ulo, Boccklin-
and sculptors such as those of the ancient Greeks or the modern
French school.
Art and pure inteUect do not form an antinomy; they are
associated together in the human mind as thought and senti-
ment, each preservmg its own, though relative, independence.
Every artistic representation requhes an intellectual founda-
tion, in the same way as every sentiment is connected with
ideas. The artist takes his subjects from the external world,
from life, and from the events of all ages. He also utilizes the
progress of science for the mechanism of his art. But, to trans-
form the material into a complete pictm-e, with a unity of action,
where the different sentiments harmonize; to transform the
work of art mto a symbol of something human; to make the
whole work speak to every mind capable of comprehending it,
all this can only be the work of a great artist wth creative
genius.
Art and Morality. — True art is in itself neither moral nor im-
moral. Here we can well say — to the pure everything is pure.
In the mirror of an impure mind, every work of art may appear
as a pornographic caricature, while to the high-minded it is the
incarnation of the noblest ideal. The fault is not with art and
its products, but with nature and the pecuharities of many
human brains, which deform everything they perceive, so that
the most beautiful works of art only awaken in their porno-
graphic minds cynical sexual images.
Art and Pornography. — After having enunciated the preced-
ing fundamental principles, we must examine the following
facts, which have a special importance for the question with
which we are dealing. Under the banner of art are grouped a
number of human enterprises which are far from dcserv'ing
this honor. There are few great artists, but thousands of char-
latans and plagiarists. Many of those who have never had the
least idea of the dignity of art, pander to the lower instincts of
the masses and not to then- best sentiments. In this connec-
tion, erotic subjects play a sad and powerful part. Nothing is
too filthy to be used to stimulate the base sensuality of the pub-
lic. Frivolous songs, hcentious novels and plays, obscene
492 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
dances, pornographic pictures, all without any trace of artistic
merit, speculate on the erotic instinct of the masses in order to
obtain their money.
In these brothels of art, the most obscene vice is glorified,
even pathological. Unfortunately, this obscenity spoils the
taste of the public and destroys all sense of true and noble art.
At the bottom of all this degeneration of the sentiment of art and
its products in the sexual domain, we always find on close exam-
ination, corruption by money and brutaUsm by alcohol. I say
advisedly, the sentiment of art and the products of art, for it is
not sufficient for true artists to create theu* masterpieces, it is
also necessary for them to find an echo in the" public, and be
understood by them. The two phenomena go hand in hand, as
supply and demand. When the sentiment of art is low among
the public, the quality of the artistic production is also low,
and inversely. Professor Behi'ens, du'ector of the Industrial
School of Art at Dusseldorf, is in complete accord with me in
the debasing effect of alcohol on the artistic sentiment. (Alkohol
und Kunst.)
After establishing these facts, we return to the fundamental
but delicate question : How is true erotic art to be distinguished
from the pornographic? While certain ascetic and fanatical
preachers of morality would burn and destroy all the erotic
creations of art under the pretext that they are pornographic,
other disciples of decadence defend the most ignoble pornog-
raphy under the shield of art.
I will cite two examples which have already been mentioned
previously (Chapter XIII). In a very primitive and bigoted
region of the Tyi'ol, certain undraped, but very innocent, statues
of women were erected in the streets. Feeling their modesty
deeply wounded, and regarding the representation of the natural
human body as a great inducement to misconduct, the peasants
of the district broke up these statues. The same with the cap-
tain of police at Zurich, who made himself notorious by ordering
the removal of the picture by Boecklin, entitled ''The Sport of
the Waves," regarding the two mermaids in the picture as a
danger to the morality and virtue of the citizens of Zurich!
I designate by the term charlatanism, everything which con-
SEXUAL LIFE IN ART 493
sists in decorating or covering by the term art, all possible per-
versions of pornography, often pathological. Persons of artistic
nature, dominated by emotional sentiments, will no doubt be
excused for being often overexcited to a more or less patho-
logical degree, for executing all kinds of fantastic vagaries in
their sexual life, and for being capricious and excessive in love.
These things are almost inseparable from the artistic tempera-
ment. But the systematic education of pornography, and the
sexual orgies which are cynically made public, go decidedly
beyond what is licit, and cannot be included in the scope
of art without degrading it. The individual and pathological
failings of artists and the eccentricities to which they often
become victims, must not be confounded with art and its
products.
On the other hand, we often find eroticism hidden where we
should least expect it, for instance in certain books for the edifi-
cation of the pious. Here also it does not fail to produce its
effect, although old maids and pious families place these books
in their hbraries and recommend them as proper reading. It
has been said with reason, that "what is improper in the nudity
of a statue is the fig-leaf and not what is underneath." It is, in
fact, these fig-leaves — sculptured, painted, written or spoken —
which awaken lewdness rather than deaden it. By drawing
attention to what they conceal, they excite scnsuahty much
more than simple nudity. In short, the eroticism which plays
at hide and seek is that which acts with greatest intensity.
The directors of ballets and other similar spectacles know this
only too well, and arrange accordingly.
I have seen at the Paris Exposition an Arab woman perform
the erotic dance called the "danse du ventre," in which the
various movements of coitus are imitated by movements of the
hips and loins. I do not think, however, that this pantomime,
as cynical as it is coarse, produces on the spectators such an
erotic effect as the decollete costumes of society ladies, or even
certain amorous scenes of religious ecstasy in words or pictures
(vide Chapter XII). As the "danse du ventre" was produced
under the head of ethnology, it was witnessed by society ladies
without their being in the least degree wounded in their scnti-
494 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
ments of modesty! It is extremely difficult, if not impossible,
to define the limit between art and pornography. I will attempt
to give an example.
In his novels and romances, Guy de Maupassant has given
perhaps the finest and most true descriptions which exist of j
the psychology of love and the sexual appetite. Although he j
has depicted the most tickUsh sexual situations, often most j
recherche, ^ve can say that with few exceptions he has not ^Titten
in a pornographic sph'it. His descriptions are profound and
true, and he does not attempt to make attractive what is ugly
and immoral, although he cannot be blamed for morahzing.
We have seen that the old hypocritical eroticism consisted
essentially in the art of describing sexual forbidden fruit and
making it as desirable as possible, at the same time covering it
with pious phi'ases which were only a transparent mask. Vice
w^as condemned, but described in such a way as to make the
reader's mouth water. There is nothing of this in Guy de
Maupassant, nor in Zola. By their tragic descriptions, they pro-
voke disgust and sadness in the reader, rather than sensuality.
It is otherwise with the illustrations which de Maupassant's
publisher has added to his works and which are frankly porno-
graphic. These are not fau' to the author.
Another comparison shows, perhaps, still better the uncer-
tainty of the line of demarcation between pornogi'aphy and art.
If we compare Heine with de Maupassant, I think we nmst admit
that, in spite of the refinement of his art, the pornogi'aphic trait
is incomparably stronger in the former, because Heine contin-
ually loses the thread of moral sense which impregnates most
of the works of de Maupassant. The latter author emphasizes
evil and injustice in the sexual question.
The refined art of the Greeks contains much eroticism and
much nudity, but there is nothing whatever immoral in either.
Innocence and beauty are so apparent that no one can think of
evil. When we look at the antique statues of the Greek sculp-
tors; when we read Homer, especially the story of Ares and
Aphrodite; w^hen we read the bucolic idyll of Daphnis and
Chloe, we can no longer have any doubt on the point. It is not
nudity, it is not the natm^al description of sexual life, but the
II SEXUAL LIFE IN ART 495
obscene intention of the artist, his improper and often venal
object, which has a demorahzing effect.
Finally, I repeat that the pui'est artistic creation may serve
as a pornographic theme for every individual who is accus-
tomed to introduce into his parodies his own depravity, immoral-
ity and obscene sentiments. I do not deny that in antiquity,
especially at the time of the decadence of Rome, pornography
and cynical coarseness often ruled in the sexual domain. His-
tory and the ruins of Pompeii give abundant evidence of it.
But such phenomena occm-red at the periods of decadence.
Who then can decide where art ends and pornography begins,
or how far eroticism may without danger be expressed in art?
This question is so difficult and dehcate that I am unable to
answer it with sufficient competence. I think that when the
reign of capitalism and alcohol has come to an end, the danger
of pornography will be reduced enormously. I believe we ought
to avoid extremes in both directions. Wherever pornogi-aphy
manifests itself in a purely cynical way, denuded of all art,
society can and should suppress it. When it appears under an
artistic mantle, it should be possible in each particular case to
weigh the artistic merit of the work against its immoral ten-
dencies, taking all other accessory cu'cumstances into account,
in order to decide the real weight of each of these elements,
rhe corrupting action should also be carefully considered,
which experience proves to have been exerted on the public
by certain so-called works of art, or artistic exhibitions, as for
example certain cafes chantants, etc.
Pathological Art. — ^The progressively pathological nature of
certain productions of modern art constitute without any doubt
a vicious feature; a fact of special importance in the sexual
question. Witness what I have said concerning the poet Bau-
delaire. Erotic art ought not to become a hospital for perverts
and sexual patients, and should not lead these individuals to
regard themselves as interesting specimens of the human race.
It should not make heroes of them, for in acting thus, it only
confirms their morbid state, and often contaminates healthy-
minded people.
A gi-eat nmnber of novels, and even modern pictures, deserve
496 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
the reproach of being pornographic works. In these are de-
scribed, or painted, beings that we meet in hospitals for nervous
diseases, or even in kmatic asykims, but more often phantoms
which only exist in the pathological mind of the author. No
doubt, art should not allow itself to be instructed in morality
by pedagogues and ascetics; but, on the other hand, artists
ought not to forget the high social mission of thek art, a mission
which consists in elevating man to the ideal, not in letting him
sink into a bog.
The Moral Effect of Healthy Art. — Art has great power, for
man is directed by sentiment much more than by reason.
Art should be healthy; it should rise toward the heavens and
show the public the road to Olympus — not the Olympus of
superstition, but that of a better humanity. It is not necessary
for this that it should diminish the energy of its eternal theme —
love. No truly moral man would wish to eliminate the season-
ing of eroticism whenever artistic necessity requires it, but art
should never prostitute itself in the service of venal obscenity
and degeneration.
As to the manner in which it attains its object, while holding
to its fundamental principles, that is its own affair, the busi-
ness of the true artist. I cannot, however, in my capacity
as a naturalist, refrain from giving a little modest advice to cer-
tain modern artists; that when they wish to take for the sub-
ject of then' works the themes of social morality, medicine or
science, they should avoid previous study of then- subject in
scientific books; that they should follow the example of de Mau-
passant and begin by livuig themselves the situations which
they wish to depict, before beginning to model theu' work.
Without this they will completely fail in artistic effect, and will
become bad theorists, bad scientists, bad moralists and bad
social politicians, at the same time ceasing to be good artists.
If Maeterlinck's " Life of Bees" is a fine work of art, it is not only
because the author is a distinguished writer, but because he was
himself acquainted with bees, being an apicultor, and did not
make his book a mere compilation of other scientific works.
Along with the struggle against the debasing influence of
money and alcohol, the elevation of the artistic sentiment
SEXUAL LIFE IN ART 497
among the public will contribute strongly to condemn porno-
graphic '^aesthetics." The false and unnatural sentimentalism,
spiced with erotic lewdness, which is displayed in the trash
offered to the public under the title of "art," fills every man
who possesses the least artistic sense with disgust. Disgust
evidently constitutes a beneficial mental medicine in the domain
of art, and we cannot agi'ee \\ith the severe and ascetic minds
who think that true morality has nothmg to do with art, or even
that everything moral should be destitute of art. These people
are completely deceived and unwittmgly promote pornography,
by repelling humanity with theh" austerity and driving it
to the opposite extreme. The aesthetic and moral sentiments
should be harmoniously combmed with mtelligence and will,
each of these departments of the mind participating by its
special energies in the elevation of man.
Anticonceptional Measures from the ^Esthetic Pomt of View.
— In conclusion, I will refer to a subject which is perhaps not
quite in its place in this chapter. The anticonceptional meas-
ures reconmiended for reasons of social hygiene, which tend to
regulate conceptions and improve their quahty, have been
often condemned, sometimes as immoral, sometimes as contrary
to sesthetics. To interfere in this way with the action of natiu-e
is said to injure the poetry of love and the moral feeling, and at
the same time to disturb natural selection.
There are several replies to these objections: In the first
place, it is wrong to maintain that man cannot encroach on the
life of nature. If this were the case, the earth would now be a
virgin forest and a great many animals and plants would not
have been adapted to the use of man. Om' fields, our gardens
and our domestic anunals would die, instead of bearing fruit
and multiplying as they do at present. The naturalist has
much more fear of seeing rare and interesting ^vild plants and
animals exterminated from the face of the earth by the egoistic
and pitiless hand of man. He seeks in vain the means of check-
ing this work of destruction.
We have proved without the least deference, often with a
brutal hand, to the misfortune of art and poetry, that we are
capable of successfully intermeddling with the machinery of
498 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
nature, even in what concerns our o\^ti persons. I shall not
return here to the subject of ethics. In Chapter XV, I have
sufficiently shown how false is our present sexual morality, and
I have proved in Chapter XIV the absolute necessity of meas-
ures to regulate conception in order to reahze an efficacious
social sexual morality.
The aesthetic argument appears at first sight more valid; it
is unnecessary, however, to discuss matters of taste. Spectacles
are certainly not particularly aesthetic; nevertheless the poetry
of love does not suffer much from their use, and when one is
shortsighted or longsighted one camiot do without them.
Great artists wear spectacles. It is the same with false teeth,
with clothes, with bicycles and a hundred other artificial things
which man makes use of to make his life more easy. So long as
they are novel and unusual they wound the aesthetic sentiment;
but when we become accustomed to them we no longer take
notice of them. Man has even come to regard as aesthetic,
women's corsets which deform their chests, and pointed shoes
which deform the feet. I am certain that the first man who
mounted a horse was accused by his contemporaries of com-
mitting an act contrary to aesthetics!
From all points of view, the details of coitus leave much to
be desired from the aesthetic point of view, and such a slight
addition as a membranous protective does not appear to make
any serious difference. It is impossible for me to recognize
the vahdity of such an objection, which I attribute to the preju-
dice against anything which disturbs our habits.
CHAPTER XIX
CONCLUSIONS
Utopia and the Realizable Ideal.— The term Utopia may be
applied to every ideal project elaborated by hmnan imagination
for the future welfare of society, which has no healthy and real
foundation, is contrary to human nature and the results of
experience, and has consequently no chance of success. Per-
sons of conservative minds who live in prejudice and in the faith
of authority apply the term Utopia to every ideal which has not
been legalized and sanctioned by time, custom, or authority.
This is a grave error, which, if it always prevailed, would bar
the way to all social progress.
As regards the ideal, the future may realize much progress
that the past has not known, and on this point Ben Akiba was
wrong in saying that "there is nothing new under the sun."
International communication, universal postage, the suppres-
sion of slavery in civilized countries, the artificial feeding of new-
born infants, the telephone, wireless telegraphy, etc., are real-
ized advances which had formerly never appeared on the horizon
of humanity, and which would have been regarded as impossible
fantasies, or Utopias.
Why should the cocamon use of an international language
and the suppression of war between civilized countries be
Utopias? The most diverse races akeady speak English, and
all might learn Esperanto. In the interior of countries such as
France and Germany, etc., the old feudal wars ceased long ago.
Why should a more and more mternational union between men
be impossible?
Why should the suppression of the use of narcotic substances
such as alcohol, opium, hashish, etc., which poison entire naticMis,
be Utopian? Why should it be the same with thc^ eco-
nomic reform desired by socialists, that is the equitable division
499
500 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
of wages; for example, by the aid of a cooperative system or by
the reduction of capital to a minimum?
These things are all possible, and even necessary for the nat-
ural and progressive development of humanity. It is only the
prejudice of old customs, based on the conservative tendency
of sentiments, which opposes these projects and tries to ridicule
them by calling them Utopian. In its shortsightedness, it does
not see the change which occui's all over the world in the social
relations of men, or does not estimate them at their true value,
and it carmot abandon its old idols.
Lastly, why should rational reforms in the sexual domain be
more difficult to realize than the artificial feeding of infants,
than the actual triumphs of sm'gical operations, than sero-
therapy, than vaccination, etc.? In the same way that short-
sighted and longsighted persons wear spectacles, or those who
have no teeth use artificial ones, so may men who are tainted
by hereditary disease employ preventatives in coitus to avoid
the procreation of a tainted progeny; and the same means may
be employed to give women time to recover then- strength after
each confinement.
Resume. — Let us briefly recapitulate the matter contained
in the chapters of this book:
(1). In the first five chapters I have given an account of the
natural history, anatomy and functions of the reproductive
organs, and the psychology of sexual life.
(2). In Chapter VI, I have given (chiefly according to Wester-
marck) a resume of ethnography and the history of sexual rela-
tions in the different human races.
(3). In Chapter VII, I have attempted to trace the zoological
evolution of sexual life along the line of our animal ancestors,
and to briefly describe the evolution of sexual life in the indi-
vidual, from birth till death. I have thus endeavored to ac-
quaint the reader with the two sources of our sexual sensations
and sentiments — the hereditary or phylogenetic source, and the
source acquired and adapted by the individual.
(4). In Chapter VIII, I have described the pathology of sexual
life, because this concerns social life much more than is generally
supposed.
CONCLUSIONS 501
(5). In Chapters IX to XVIII, I have explained the relations
of sexual life to the most important spheres of human senti-
ments and interests, to suggestion, money and property, to the
external conditions of life, to rehgion, law, medicine, morality,
politics, political economy, pedagogy and art. Incidentally, I
have glanced at the social organizations and customs which
depend on these relations.
If we sum up the results obtained, we can draw from them a
series of conclusions which we will divide into two groups:
NEGATIVE TASKS
Suppression of the Direct or Indirect Causes of Sexual Evils and
Abuses, and the Social Vices which Correspond to Them
The corruption into which a semi-civilization has plunged
humanity, by facilitating the means of obtaining satisfaction
for its unbridled passion for pleasure, is maintained by the latter
itself. But in the long run, the unlimited abandonment of the
individual to pleasure cannot be in accord with the welfare and
progress of society. This is the knotty point. It is necessary
for a better social organization to artificially restrain the pas-
sion for pleasure, at the same time raising the social quality of
men; that is to say, their altruism or instinct (social ethics).
We can only expect immediately the first of these two objects;
but we have seen that it is possible to prepare the second for the
future, by neglecting none of the factors of social salvation.
We have become acquainted with the most important roots
of sexual degeneration, due to semi-civihzation. I use the
word "semi-civilization" because our present culture is still
very incomplete and has hardly done more than skim over the
surface of the masses.
Men of higher culture have overcome the maladies of infancy
of civilization much better than the uneducated masses, and it is
precisely this fact which should give us courage and confidence
in a future in which a true higher culture will lie the ai)panage
of all. The roots of degeneration are either directly or indirectly
associated with sexual life. It is our duty to declare war of
502 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
extermination against all of them, and not to cease this contest
before reducing them to their natm'al primitive minimum.
The following are the chief evils to be contended against.
1. The Cult of Money. — ^We have recognized the primary-
sources of degeneration in the historical development of human-
ity and its sexual hfe (Chapters VI and X). They consist in the
exploitation of man by man, in the desire of possessing riches
and power, which become the source of marriage by purchase
and by abduction, of prostitution and all the modern require-
ments by the aid of which is cultivated the passion for sexual
pleasures, thanks to the power of money.
The priests and disciples of Mammon he when they say that
their god — the golden caK — is the most powerful stimulus to
work and the principal promoter of culture. If we look closer
we see the contrary. Men of genius, thinkers, inventors and
artists are m'ged to work by their hereditary instinct, by true
love of the ideal and thirst for knowledge. The disciples of
Mammon, on the watch for the discoveries and creations of these
men, rob them not only of the fruit of then work, but often of
the honors which belong to them. Intellectual robbeiy is
added to pecuniary robbery.
These are the methods of " Mammonism," which must be seen
to be appreciated; and we are told that this kind of industry
should be the only stimulus to human work and culture I No
doubt, the unbridled lust for gain urges men to feverish acti\'ity;
but this kind of zeal, which is nearly always associated with the
passion for pleasure, and only works to obtain the means of satis-
fying it, is unhealthy. It is necessary for other factors to act in
stimulating human work. Fortunately these forces exist, and
can be found, for without work there can be no culture, social
progress nor happiness.
The worship of the golden calf, the utilization of accumulated
wealth as a means of exploiting the work of others for individual
interest, is therefore the primary and principal root of social
degeneration, marriage for money, prostitution and all their
corrupt associations. If this root is not torn out, humanity will
never succeed in the sanitation of sexual matters. The struggle
against the exaggerated modern legal rights of capital, and the
CONCLUSIONS 503
abuses which result from it, is therefore one of the most im-
portant tasks to be accomphshed in order to lead indirectly to
the sanitation of sexual intercourse.
2. The Use of Narcotics. -The habit of using narcotic
poisons, especially alcohol, leads to the physical and moral
degeneration of men, a degeneration which not only affects the
individuals concerned, but also their germinal cells and conse-
quently their offspring. I have designated this degeneration
by the term Uastophthoria. Blastophthoria is intimately con-
nected with sexual phenomena, and thanks to it, the individual
influence of these poisons may extend to many generations.
A single radical remedy would be easy to apply, if men were
not so much the slaves of their habits and prejudices, of cai)ital
and the passion for pleasure. All narcotic substances, espe-
cially distilled and fermented drinks, should be abolished as a
means of pleasure and relegated to pharmacy, in which they
may still be used as remedies, with special precautions. Alcohol
may also be used for industrial purposes.
Science has proved that even the most moderate indulgence
in* alcohol disturbs the association of ideas, and renders them
more superficial, without the subject being aware of it. This
slight degree of alcoholic narcosis causes in man a temporaiy
feeling of pleasm'e and gayety to which he soon becomes accus-
tomed. In this way there is created in him a desire for more,
too often with increasing doses.
Most narcotics, especially alcohol (either fermented or dis-
tilled), have the pecuHarity of exciting the sexual appetite in a
bestial manner, thereby leading to the most absurd and dis-
gusting excesses, although at the same time they weaken the
sexual power. The transient pleasure produced by these sub-
stances is, therefore, of no real and lasting advantage, while it
results in the most terrible individual and social miseries.
Societies for total abstinence from all alcoholic drinks have
undertaken a war of extermination against the use of all poisons
used for purposes of pleasure, when experience has provi-d their
social danger. Let us hope that they will succeed; tlu>n a sec-
ond fundamental root of degeneration of sexual life will be
destroyed.
504 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
3. The Emancipation of Woman. — A third source of sexual
anomalies is due to the inequality of the rights of the two sexes.
This can only be attacked by the complete emancipation of
women. In no kind of animal is the female an object possessed
by the male. Nowhere in nature do we find the slave-law which
subordinates one sex to the other. Even among ants, where the
male, on account of his great physical inferiority, is very de-
pendent on the workers, the latter do not impose on him any
constraint. We have already refuted the argument which is
based on the intellectual inferiority of woman.
The emancipation of women is not intended to transform
them into men, but simply to give them their human rights, I
might even say their natural animal rights. It in no way
wishes to impose work on women nor to make them unaccus-
tomed to it. It is as absurd to bring them up as spoilt children
as it is cruel to brutalize them as beasts of burden. It is our
duty to give them the independent position in society which
corresponds to their normal attributes.
Their sexual role is so important that it gives them the right
to the highest social considerations in this domain. I will riot
repeat what I have said in Chapter XIII, but simply state
categorically that, when women have acquired in society rights
and duties equal to those of men (in accordance with sexual
differences), when they can react freely according to their
feminine genius, in a manner as decisive as men, on the desti-
nies of the community, a third fundamental root of present
sexual abuses will be suppressed. The complete emancipation
of woman thus constitutes our third principal postulate, and in
this I am in accord with Westermarck, Secretan and many
other eminent persons.
The difference which exists between the two sexes does not
give any reasonable excuse to man for monopolizing all social
and political rights. The external world and our fellow beings,
by whom and for whom we live in body and mind, are the same
for woman as for man, so that even when the mentality of one
sex is on the average a little higher than that of the other, the
first cannot claim the right of refusing the second the liberty of
living and acting from the social point of view according to her
CONCLUSIONS 505
own genius. The two sexes differ in many respects it is true;
on the other hand, all legal and consequently artificial con-
straint of one by the other has the effect of hindering the free
development of both. Each sex has the right to look upon the
world and assimilate it accordmg to its nature. It can thus
develop its personahty so that it does not become etiolated and
atrophied like a domestic animal. It is only the right of the
stronger, cultivated by narrow-minded prejudice, that can
deny or misunderstand these facts. The legal restrictions which
we impose on woman, on her mentality and her whole life,
especially her conjugal life, have nothing in common with the
just restrictions which the law should provide against the en-
croachments of individual egoism, which injure the rights of
others or those of society.
4. Prejudice and Tradition. — ^There is still another enemy
opposed to reform, which is so deeply rooted in human nature
that we can only hope for a slow improvement in the quality of
men, by its progressive weakening. I refer to the host of
prejudices, traditional customs, mystic superstitions, religious
dogmas, fashions, etc. I should require many pages of moral
preaching to deal with all the vices which are perpetually created
and supported by the wretched tendency of the human mind to
sanctify every ancient tradition and consider it as unalterable.
Prejudice, faith in authority, mysticism, etc., with conscious
or unconscious hypocrisy, and by the aid of more or less
transparent sophisms, place themselves at the semce of the
basest human passions— envy, hatred, vanity, avarice, lewd-
ness, scandal, desire of domination and idleness— and clothe
them all with the sacred mantle of ancient customs, the better
to sanction their ignominy by relying on the authority of
tradition. There is no infamy which has not been justified, ^
glorified or even deified in this way.
I am convinced that it is only by the introduction of the sci-
entific spirit, of an inductive and philosophical manner of think-
ing, into schools and among the masses, that we shall be able to
contend efficaciously with the routine and parrot-like repeti-
tions which are rooted in the worship of authoritative doctrmcs
and prejudices based on the sanctity of what is old.
506 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
We have already sufficiently dealt with the superannuated
prejudices and customs to be contended with in the sexual do-
main, and need not return to them. The whole of this category
of causes of evil, a category which also plays a great part in all
other domains of human life, can only, therefore, be contended
with by true science combined with an integral and free educa-
tion of the character of youth.
I must once again insist on the necessity of a fight to a finish
on this ground. It is necessary for this that scientists should
from time to time emerge from theh sanctums, and let theh
lights shine in the whirlpool of human society. They must
take part in social conflicts and avoid losing touch with what is
and always will be human.
The following postulates relate to aberrations and dangers
which are more partial or more local.
5. Pornography. — In Chapters V, X and XVIII, I have
spoken of pornography, and in Chapter XVII, of its great
danger to the development of a normal sexual life in youth.
Although pornography owes much of its origin and develop-
ment to the greed for gain, it must not be forgotten that, on the
other hand, masculine eroticism tends to promote its mercantile
interests. It is the duty of society to oppose the pornogi-aphic
products of morbid eroticism, without imposing the least con-
straint on true art. The sexual appetite of man is on the
average rather strong; we may even say that it is much too
strong, compared with the social necessities of procreation. It
is, therefore, quite superfluous to artificially stimulate it. The
struggle against pornography must, therefore, be raised to the
rank of a postulate.
We must not forget, however, that we shall contend with it
much more successfully by fulfilling our first four postulates,
and in raising the artistic ideal and feeling in man, than by
direct measures of suppression. The latter should be limited
to the most coarse and corrupt productions of pornography.
6. Politics and Sexual Life. — I need only remind the reader
of the encroachments of politics on sexual life, and especially of
the abuse of sexual influence in the domain of politics. It is
needless to point out the necessity of opposing all useless inter-
CONCLUSIONS 507
meddling of the State in the sexual life of individuals by
the aid of unjustifiable regulations, as well as all inteiTention
in the natural sexual requirements of man (in marriage, etc.)
when no individual or social interest is injured. What is
much more difficult, is to prevent the pressui-e of sexual sym-
pathies and antipathies, and especially of amorous passions
in politics.
7. Venereal Disease.— There is need for a great combat with
venereal disease and pathological corruptions of the sexual
appetite. (Vide Chapters VIII, XIII and XIV.) Sexual crimi-
nals should be treated conjointly with t^ie pathology of the
sexual appetite, and in the same manner ; for it is nearly always
a question of anomalies of the human brain, which are impos-
sible to improve or eliminate by punishment or other penal
measures.
For the present, medical and administrative measures of
restriction, undertaken by society against dangerous and de-
generate individuals in the sexual domain, are the only possible
remedy. We should also endeavor in the future to prevent such
individuals from breeding and suppress the causes of blastoph-
thoria, by the aid of our second postulate.
8. The Conflict of Human Races. — There remains a last pos-
tulate, extremely arduous and serious, which we have akeady
mentioned. How is our Aryan race and its civilization to guartl
against the danger of being passively invaded and exterminated
by the alarming fecundity of other human races? One nmst be
blind not to recognize this danger. To estimate it at its jirojier
value, it is not enough to put all "savages" and "barbarians"
into one basket and all " civilized " into the other. The question
is far more complicated than this. Many savage and semi-savage
races become rapidly extinct on account of their comparative
sterility. Europeans have introduced among them so nmch
alcohol, venereal disease and other plagues, that they promptly
perish from want of the power of resistance. This is the ca.'^e
with the Weddas, the Todas, the Redskins of North America,
the Australian aboriginees, Malays and many others.
The question presents itself in another aspect with regard t<.
negroes, who are veiy resistant and extremely prolific, and
508 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
everywhere adapt themselves to civihzed customs. But those
who beheve that negroes are capable of acquiring a higher civili-
zation without undergoing a phylogenetic cerebral transforma-
tion for a hundred thousand years, are Utopians. I cannot here
enter into the details of this question. It seems obvious to me,
however, that in the already considerable time during which the
American negroes have been under the influence of European
culture, they ought to have often demonstrated their power of
assimilating it and of developing it independently, according
to their own genius, if their brains were capable of so doing.
Instead of this, we find that negroes in the interior of the island
of Haiti, formerly civilized by France, then abandoned to them-
selves, have, with the exception of a few mulattocs, reverted to
the most complete barbarism, and have even barbarized the
French language and Christianity, with which they had been
endowed.
Compare with this the rapidity with which a civihzed or
civilizable race, depending on its innate energy, assimilates our
culture with or without Christianity! We need only look at
what has happened in Japan during the last thirty years, and
what the Christian races of the Balkan countries have been
doing after delivery from the yoke of the Turks — for example,
the Roumanians, Bulgarians and Greeks.
It is by its fruits that we judge the value of the tree. The
Japanese are a civilizable and civilized race, and must be treated
as such. The negroes, on the contrary, are not so; that is to
say, they are only by themselves capable of quite an inferior
civilization, and only become adapted to our customs by a super-
ficial veneer of civilization.
Up to what point can the Mongolian, and even the Jewish
race, become mixed with our Aiyan or Indo-Germanic races,
without gradually cupplanting them and causing them to dis-
appear? This is a question I am incapable of answering. If it
were only a question of the Japanese there would be no serious
difficulty and the assimilation would be beneficial. But the
Chinese and some other Mongolian races constitute an imminent
danger for the very existence of the white races. These people
eat much less than ourselves, are contented with much smaller
CONCLUSIONS 509
dwellings, and in spite of this produce tw-ice as many children
and do twice as much work. The connection of this ^vith the
sexual question is not difficult to understand.
Possibly we might make a compact wth the Mongols, and the
Chinese in particular, which would allow both races to hve on
the earth without annihilating each other. I am quite con-
vinced that we have more to fear from their blood and their
work than from their arms. Some time ago experts in Far-
Eastern questions predicted that the world would end by
becoming Chinese.
POSITIVE TASKS
The elimination of the abuses and dangers, pointed out under
the heading of negative tasks, would prepare the soil for a
healthier and more ideal development of the sexual relations of
humanity in the futm'e. These require the prevention of blas-
tophthoric deterioration of germ cells, as well as all pathological
degeneration of sexual intercourse. They also require true and
natural affection, free from the influences of prejudice and
money, and capable of surviving amorous intoxication. Lastly,
they require a natural human organization, adapted to the social
welfare, the duties of parents toward their childi'en, and the
rights they have over them.
Human Selection. — ^This is impossible to attain without re-
course to artificial means, which have hitherto been generally
condemned, or employed with an unhealthy and corrupt object.
I refer to the distinction between satisfaction of the sexual
appetite and the procreation of children.
Although it is true that the two things are inseparably con-
nected in plants and animals, it is equally true that the culture
and social development of humanity all over the world have
given rise to conditions and necessities other than those which
formerly existed, conditions wliich at the present day are so
clearly evident that they cannot be disregarded.
The struggle for existence, as it obtains between the different
animal species, hardly exists any longer in man. The latter has
now to fight with microbes, and other infinitely small thmgs of
the same nature. The combat between man and man, m the
510 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
form of international warfare, is approaching its end. The wars
of the present day, as foohsh as they are formidable, are rapidly
becoming absm'd. We may even hope that the supreme strug-
gle which is impending between the Aryan and Mongolian races
will end in peaceful agreement.
Is it, therefore, rational to abandon the quantitative and
qualitative regulation of the procreation of children to natural
selection — that is to say to brutal chance, disease, famine or
infanticide — at a time of human evolution when science con-
tends with the greatest success against accident, disease, infant
mortahty and famine?
Our strong sexual appetite is no longer in proportion to the
exigencies of procreation, nor to the means of providing food for
our descendants, nor to the right of the latter to better or even
tolerable existence, for the simple reason that the weak, the
diseased and the children are no longer eliminated as in former
times among primitive races by infanticide, epidemics, wild-
beasts, neglect or war (it is now the strong and courageous who
are eliminated by the latter). But it is not in our power to
modify our instinctive and hereditary sexual appetite, while
we have always at hand the necessary means to regulate and
improve procreation.
No prejudice, no dogma, no repetition of old maxims, based
on so-called immutable natural laws, can stand against such
simple and elementary truths. We like to call ''natural laws"
what to our limited knowledge appears regular in natm'e. We
formulate a law, and too often make an idol, instead of always
making further examinations, in the light of new truths, to see
if these so-called laws hold good. But the new truths are there,
crying for recognition. The sheet-anchor is in our hands, in the
form of measures to prevent or regulate conception.
We must, therefore, have recourse to these measures, with
prudence, employing them only at first where they are most
necessary, and especially insisting on the procreation of numer-
ous children wherever mental and moral strength is combined
with bodily health. In this connection I am strongly opposed
to the neo-Malthusians, who simply propose to diminish the
number of bii'ths indiscriminately, as well as to the religious
CONCLUSIONS 51 J
dogmas especially Catholic, which, under the fallacious pretext
of so-called divine insph-ation, would hinder the progress of the
social sciences.
Human selection is the principle which should lead us to the
object to be attained in the remote future. It is not by legal
constraint, but by universal instruction, that we shall obtain
general recognition and acceptance of this principle. We have
proved in Chapter VI, with regard to sexual selection, that
women are much more exclusive in their choice than men, and
that among savages they prefer courage and bodily strength.
At the present day, owing to change of customs, cultured ancl
intelligent women are, on the contrary, much less attracted by
man's physical strength than by his intellectual superiority or
genius. This gives us a very important indication of the selec-
tion we desire, and confirms the necessity of instructing women
in sexual matters. I foresee that the enUghtened and intelli-
gent women are those who will support human selection with
the greatest energy and success.
I repeat here that it is not our object to create a new human
race of superior beings, but simply to cause gradual eUmination
of the unfit, by suppressing the causes of blastophthoria, antl
sterilizing those who have hereditary taints by means of a vol-
untary act; at the same time urging healthier, happier and
more social men to multiply more and more.
A profound study of blastophthoria and all the phenomena
of the mneme and normal heredity leaves no doubt on the pos-
sibility of attaining this object. Is not the quality of dogs im-
proved by breeding from the good and eliminating the bad?
Are not certain families distinguished in their character, work
and intelligence, because for many generations their ancestors
have preserved these qualities and maintained the family type
by means of careful marriages? On the other hand, are not
cowardice, falseness and meanness, etc., reproduced with quite
as much certainty in other families? I refer the reader to the
description given by Jorger of the disastrous effects of alcoholic
blastophthoria and bad heredity produced during nearly two
centm-ies in the numerous members of a family of vagabonds
(vide Chapter XI).
512 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
One must be blinded by religious prejudice to deny such
striking truths. No doubt, our pathological degenerations and
our cross-breeding are so infinitely complex that at any time
atavism may produce ecphoria of better children derived from
bad parents, and that of inferior children derived from better
parents. We have seen in the first chapter the complex rela-
tions which exist between these phenomena. We must not
allow ourselves to be deceived by the appearances of certain
particular cases.
What then are the types of men which we should endeavor
to produce?
Types to Eliminate. — First of all we must understand that
negative action is much easier than positive. It is more easy
to mention the types which should not be allowed to multiply
than those which should. These arc, in the first place, all crimi-
nals, lunatics, and imbeciles, and all individuals who are irre-
sponsible, mischievous, quarrelsome or amoral. These are the
persons who do the most harm in society, and introduce into it
the most harmful taints. It is the same with alcoholics, opium-
eaters, etc., who, although often capable in other respects, are
dangerous by their blastophthoric influence. Here the only
remedy consists in the suppression of the use of narcotics, for
it is no use eliminating a few narcotized individuals as long as a
greater number is always being produced.
Persons predisposed to tuberculosis by heredity, chronic inva-
lids, the subjects of rickets, hemophilia, and other persons inca-
pable of procreating a healthy race owing to inherited diseases
or bad constitution, form a second category of individuals who
ought to avoid propagation, or do so as little as possible.
Types to Perpetuate. — On the other hand, men who are useful
from the social point of viev/ — those who take a pleasure in
work and those who are good tempered, peaceful and amiable
should be induced to multiply. If they are endowed with clear
intelligence and an active mind, or with an intellectual or
artistic creative imagination, they constitute excellent subjects
for reproduction. In such cases certain taints which are not
too pronounced may be passed over.
True will-power, i.e., perseverance in the accomplishment
CONCLUSIONS 513
of rational resolutions, and not the tyrannical and obstinate
spirit of domination, is also one of the most desirable qualities
which ought to be reproduced. Will-power must not be con-
founded with impulsiveness, which is rather the antinomy of
it, but often deceives superficial observers, and makes them
believe in the existence of a strong will, because of the violent
manner in which it tries to realize momentary impulsive
resolutions.
Human Social Value.— We have seen that, owing to traditional
routine, the intellectual merit of a young man is unfortunately
judged by the results of examinations. To succeed in these, a
good memory and strong mental receptivity are all that is nec-
essary. It follows from this that nonentities often attain the
highest social positions, while originality, creative power, perse-
verance, honesty, responsibility and duty take a back place. I
refer the reader to what I have said on the estimation of human
value, especially in the Landerziehungsheime (Chapter XVI).
They should be estimated according to their utility in practical
social life, where the qualities of will and creative imagination
play a more considerable part than memory and rapidity in
assimilating the ideas of others.
But we have seen that the standard of ordinary examinations
is false, even as regards pure intelligence. Critical judgment
and imaginative power of combination have a much greater
intellectual value than memory or the power of assimilation.
It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that the boy who is at
the top of his class so often turns out a failure, while the dunce
who failed in his examinations sometimes becomes a genius or
at any rate a very useful and capable man. From such facts,
which are extremely common, it is falsely concluded, by a kind
of fatalism, that "one never knows what will become of a man,
for personalities change so much." This false conclusion is
simply due to the erroneous criterion which is used in the
evaluation of childhood, combined with the disgust inspired in
strong and original minds by om* schools.
Diseases and other accidents may sometimes hinder the dt-
velopment of good dispositions, or even cause them to abort
completely. Nevertheless, we shall rarely make false prophecies
514 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
if we begin by avoiding the gross errors that we have pointed
out in the mental evaluation of youth. It is also necesssary to
institute extensive psychological observations on the develop-
ment of individuals, and in the value of theu- work at adult age
compared with their peculiarities observed in childhood. I am
certain that in this way the social value of a young man, or even
a child, and in general all members of human society, could be
calculated in advance in a more exact way.
Domestic Animals and Plants. — The weak constitution of the
domestic varieties of plants and animals has been used as an
argument against human selection. If the animal and vege-
table varieties which we raise by artificial selection have not
enough strength when left to themselves, this is due to the
fact that in creating them we have not consulted their interests
in the struggle for existence, but only our own. For example,
we raise for our own use fat pigs which can scarcely walk,
pear trees with succulent fruit which has very few seeds, etc.
It is obvious that these monstrosities cannot be expected to
maintain themselves in the struggle for existence. Human
selection, on the contrary, is only concerned with what is advan-
tageous for man, individually as well as socially. It is, there-
fore, not a question of a Utopian hypothesis, but of facts, the
daily consequences of which we can observe in society, if we
only look at them without prejudice.
Calculation of Averages. — Francis Galton has studied this
question by the aid of the law of variations and by the calcula-
tion of probabilities. This law only deals with so-called for-
tuitous elements, due to thousands of minute causes which act
to a great extent against each other and become mutually com-
pensated in their general effect, so that the two extremes are
always represented by small numbers and the average by
large numbers. But, when certain special and greater forces
come into play, the general resultant is deviated in one direction
or the other.
Galton shows that this law applies to social relations and
mental values as well as to the stature of the body. In a given
society there are always some individuals who are very good,
some very bad, and many mediocrities. When a powerful gen-
CONCLUSIONS 5J5
eral factor, such as alcohol or corruption by money, lowers all
the individual values, the total value of the whole scale of
capacities is lowered. Galton shows that the average values can
be appreciably raised by inducing the class of higher values to
reproduce themselves, and by preventing the lower values from
doing so.
Prof. Jules Amann has shown how the immigration of the
Huguenots into Switzerland and Germany after the Revocation
of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV (1685) contributed to raise
the mental level in these countries and continues to do so at the
present day.
Visions of the Past and Future.— It is always sad to see capa-
ble, hard-working men and women, very useful from the social
point of view, remaining sterile, simply on account of our social
or religious prejudices; whereas, for the benefit of the commu-
nity, they ought to marry as young as possible and procreate
numerous children.
I have already said (the idea is found in Andre Couvreur's
La Graine) that, if the sterility of one of the conjoints in
marriage unfortunately leads to sterility in the other conjoint,
the law, to make good the loss, should allow bigamy or concu-
binage in favor of the second, when the latter is very caj^able.
I cannot dwell too strongly on the necessity of compensating
for the sterilization which is so necessary with ill-formed or in-
capable beings, as well as for the period of rest which is due
to women between their confinements, by an energetic multi-
plication of all useful and capable individuals.
In the same way, it is a real pity to see so many healthy, active
and intelligent girls become old maids, simply because they have
no money and do not wish to throw themselves at the first
scamp who comes. It would be far better to allow a little free
polygamy, with complete equality of the two sexes and certain
legal precautions, than to lose so much good seed and grow so
many weeds. I refer the reader to what I have said on the dut ies
of parents toward their children, and on the duties of society
toward the procreators of healthy children. (Chapter XI II.)
It would certainly take a century to obtain any appreciable
improvement in the quality of a race by this procedure, even if
516 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
it were carried out in a methodical and general way. At the end
of a few centuries our descendants might recognize the happi-
ness that they owe to our efforts. They would also no doubt be
astonished at being descended from such a race of barbarians,
and at having so many drunkards, criminals and imbeciles
among their ancestors. The mingUng of mysticism in sexual
Ufe, which now exists under the name of rehgion, would appear
to them almost the same as idolatry and the practice of "magi-
cians" among savage races appears to us.
As to the effects of alcoholic drinks and prostitution, these
would give them almost the same impression as the instruments
of torture of the Middle Ages which we see exhibited in muse-
ums, or the horrors of the Inquisition, or bmTiing at the stake
for witchcraft.
Many of my readers will no doubt regard my comparisons as
exaggerated or fanatical, because, imbued as we are with con-
temporary thought, we cannot, without a great effort of imagi-
nation and having at our disposal much experience and many
objects of comparison, identify ourselves with the thought of
the past or that of the futm'e. I recommend persons who cannot
appreciate this fact to read the "Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin,"
by Harriet Beecher-Stowe (not the novel itself). This book
contains numerous documents relating to the time of negro
slavery before the American war of secession. When they read
what happened at that time, for example, advertisements in the
public journals of dogs trained to track escaped slaves, they will
perhaps agree with me. Pious pastors then gave their support
to slavery, as they often do now to alcohol. AVhat now appears
to us as monstrous seemed then quite natural.
Reform in Education. — After human selection, I consider
pedagogic reform in the sexual and other domains as the most
important of positive reforms. (Vide Chapters XVII and XIII.)
Although good quality in the germ is one of the fundamental
conditions for man's happiness, it is not sufficient. Just as we
can obtain by education comparatively useful individuals from
comparatively defective germs, so can we more easily damage
phylogeneticaUy good germs, by evil influences during their
ontogeny.
CONCLUSIONS 517
Society should devote all its care to the good general educa-
tion of the body and mind of children. It should do everything
possible to develop harmoniously the inteUigence, sentiments,
will, character, altruism and esthetics, after the manner of the
Landerziehungsheime, which we have described in Chapter
XVII. Every good hereditary type should be given the oi)i)()r-
tunity for free expansion, by means of rational education and
work.
With regard to individuals who are defective by heredity,
their better dispositions might be developed up to a certain
point and made to antagonize the bad dispositions, so that the
latter should not predominate in the brain. (Vide Chapter
XVII.)
In spite of the great importance of rational pedagogy, we must
not forget that it is incapable of replacing selection. It serves
for the immediate object, which is to utilize in the best possible
way human material as it exists at present; but by itself it can-
not in any way improve the quality of the future germ. It can,
however, by instructing youth on the social value of selection,
prepare it to put the latter in action.
UTOPIAN IDEAS ON THE IDEAL MARRIAGE OF THE FUTURE
The outward life of man is largely influenced by events of the
moment; but his inner life is determined by memories of the
past combined with heredity, and thus gives rise to efforts
toward the future. The past should never be allowed to domi-
nate the present or the future, but should combine past expe-
rience with new impressions, and constitute a prolific source of
ideas and resolutions.
The marriage of the future pre-supposcs people to be com-
pletely instructed from their childhood in natural sexual inter-
course and its eventual dangers. It pre-supposes man brought
up without alcohol or other narcotics, possessing the right to
utilize the produce of his work for life and the maintenance of
his own person, but not that of capitalizing for himself or his
children, nor of making legacies to others, i.e., of founding by
the aid of money a power for the exploitation of others. Every-
518 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
one will know from his childhood that work is a necessary
condition for the existence of all.
Brought up in common with absolutely equal rights, girls and
boys will be aware of the differences in their life tasks, such as
differences of sex and individuality indicate them. Till the age
of sixteen, or perhaps longer, they will have been instructed in
the schools by simultaneous development of intelligence, bodily
and technical exercises, aesthetics, moral and social sentiments
and will. Without frightening them with the specter of eternal
punishment, and without alluring them by the promise of para-
dise after death, they wiU have been taught that the object of
our transient individual existence is continual effort to attain
a pure human ideal. They will have learnt to find the truest
satisfaction in the accomplishment of their different duties, and
in work in common for the benefit of society. They 'will also
have learnt to despise frivolity and luxury, to attach no im-
portance to personal property and to put all their ambition into
the quantity and quality of their work.
The sexual appetite will manifest itself in different individuals
at different ages. Trained from childhood not to yield to every
desire, but to subordinate their appetites to the welfare of the
community, they vnU not yield immediately. Moreover, they
will know the signification of this appetite. They will also
know that their patience -^dll not be tried too long, and that
they may speak openly on sexual subjects to their masters and
parents and even to their companions of the opposite sex.
What will be the consequences of such a state of things?
Attachments will be formed early. But, instead of making all
kinds of calculations concerning money, social position, etc.;
instead of concealing their thoughts in the form of conventional
politeness; instead of avoiding an honest explanation of the
knotty point, or, at the most passing over this explanation Uke
a cat on hot cinders; instead of tiying to dazzle by their charms
the one they wish to capture, the lovers of the future will be
much more frank because they vnW have less reason to dis-
simulate. They will exchange plans for the future, and will
mutually test each other's constancy and loyalty without fear
of scandal and slander.
CONCLUSIONS 519
The two sexes will be able to enter into free relations with
each other, first of all because they wiU both be instructed in
sexual life, and secondly, because manners and customs will be
more free. Without actual sexual intercourse, two lovers will
thus be able to see whether their temperaments are well adapted
to each other.
Then, thanks to its liberty, the period of betrothal will allow
a free interchange of ideas on life between the parties concerned,
so that they will soon find out whether they are hkely or not to
live harmoniously in conjugal union. Questions of heredity,
procreation and education will be dealt ^vith calmly and freely.
This will be certainly more moral than the present conversa-
tions between betrothed couples, "well-brought up," who, apart
from certain conventional degrees of flirtation, hardly dare
mention anything but commonplaces.
A young man of talent, who wishes to continue his studies,
will not be prevented from marrying. He may, for example,
marry at twenty-four a young girl of eighteen and continue his
studies tiU he is twenty-six. The inconvenience will be slight,
for the habits of life will be simpler, and he can easily, by anti-
conceptional measures, avoid having children for a year or two.
What will marriage be hke? First of all, all useless luxury
and conventional formality will be reduced to a minimum.
The husband and wife will both work, either together, or each
on their own account, according to circumstances. Part of the
work will naturally be devoted to the children. As at present,
the husband will be able to participate in the personal education
of the children, if he is more disposed than the wife.
Equality in the rights of the two sexes and matriarchy (vide
Chapter XIII) will not render conjugal relations less intimate,
but will, on the contrary, deepen their roots by raising their ,
moral value. There will be less time to shine m society; din-
ner-parties and society functions of all kinds will be unknown;
these things are for the idle rich, who have time to kill and money
to spend. If a friend comes, and there is time to receive him
and something for him to eat, he wiU be invited to take "pot-
luck" with his family.
Clothes will be simple, comfortable and hygienic. DwcUmgs
520 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
will be artistic, aesthetic and scrupulously clean. Pomp and
luxury are not art, and are sometimes so overdone that they
wound the most elementary sense of aesthetics.
If the occupation of the married couple or the number of their
children render domestic servants necessary, the latter will not
have the same position in the family as our present servants.
Their education and social position being the same as those
of the members of the family, they will take the position of
companions rather than servants. No domestic work will be
considered as degrading.
If the marriage is sterile, the conjoints will adopt orphans or
children from other large families. In certain cases, of which
we have spoken, concubinage may be preferred which, with such
a change in social organization, will amount to bigamy; but
here everything will be done openly and by mutual agreement.
In such cases any one who cannot overcome jealousy will be
divorced.
If, in spite of everything, a marriage is not happy, owing to
incompatibility of character, the marriage (or sexual contract)
will be dissolved, after legal provision for the children and their
education. After this each of the conjoints will be free to marry
again. This last contingency will probably not be more fre-
quent than it is as present, possibly less, especially when there
are children, for divorce is always painful when there are chil-
dren to be brought up.
Work, and the effort of striving toward the ideal of social
life, are the best and most healthy distractions for the sexual
appetite. It is the idleness, luxury and corruption of large
cities which cause it to degenerate. Moreover, work revives
love and leaves little time for family disputes.
With a little independence of character, and abandonment of
old prejudices, we can even now realize our scheme to a great
extent.
The Art of Loving Long. — The ideal true love often only shows
itself after the first amorous intoxication has subsided. In order
to remain harmonious, love requires above all things the higher
psychic irradiation of intimate sympathetic sentiments asso-
ciated with the sexual appetite, with which they should always
CONCLUSIONS 521
remain intimately connected, or at any rate as long as the dura-
tion of the active sexual life of man. Later on, in the evening
of life, the first are sufficient.
The great error into which most men fall who marry is to rely
on the civil and religious bonds of matrir.ony. As soon as the
union is sealed, they return to their usual habits and mode of
life. Each expects much from the other and gives as little
as possible. When amorous sexual intoxication is over, the
husband no longer finds any charm in his wife, he becomes
enamored of other women to whom he devotes his attention,
reserving his bad temper for his wife, while the latter takes no
more trouble to please him.
I agree that a man cannot for long conceal his true nature;
we are what we are by heredity. Nevertheless, the art of being
amiable may be acquired by habit and education, an art which
the poorest may employ. Education should never cease during
life. Along with the higher sentiments of love and mutual re-
spect, lasting sexual attraction is a link of inestimable value in
maintaining a long and happy union between man and woman
in marriage.
The married couple should, therefore, avoid everything which
may rupture this link. The wife should devote herself to mak-
ing the home attractive to her husband. The latter, on his
part, should neither regard his wife as a mere housekeeper, nor
only as an object for the satisfaction of his sexual appetite.
Such a conception of woman and marriage is unfortunately very
common and is incompatible with true conjugal happiness.
On the other hand, it is not enough for the husbantl to esteem
and respect his wife as a faithful companion, to whom he is
united in a purely intellectual way. For the couple to find last-
ing and complete happiness in marriage, love, however ideal it
may be, should be accompanied by sexual enjoyment. In short ,
intellectual and sentimental harmony should be combined with
sensual harmony in a single and sublime symphony. The hus-
band should not only regard his wife as the incarnation of all the
domestic virtues, but should also continue to imagine her as the
Venus of his early love.
This condition may be realized even when youth has passed
522 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
away, provided the deep sympathetic sentiments of an ideal
love have truly existed and are maintained. The wife will then
continue to be for her husband the goddess she has always been.
But if this condition is not realized it is not always easy for the
husband, with his polygamous disposition, to remain insensible
to the charms of other women. However, habit and imagina-
tion may do much to correct this tendency.
I think the following advice may be useful to the husband
(and occasionally also to the wife). When his sexual passion is
excited by another woman and he is in danger of succumbing,
he should endeavor, by the aid of his imagination, to clothe his
own wife with the charms of his would-be seducer. With a
little determination this measure will often succeed; he will
thus strengthen his sexual desire toward his own wife, and per-
haps increase hers also. In this way, a flame which threatened
to destroy conjugal happiness may sometimes serve to strengthen
it, by reviving afresh the mutual feelings of love and desire. In
the first part of his ''Wahlverwandtschaften" (elective affini-
ties), Goethe designates this phenomenon by the term mental
adultery; but I am of the opinion that it is rather the expression
of a mental conjugal fidelity which is strengthened by sensual
substitution.
When there is true love and good-will on both sides, such
experiences may often help toward the gradual consolidation of
conjugal relations. Not only may a deviated passion be brought
back to the conjugal bed, but certain discords may be restored
to harmony, and the couple may find new desire and mutual
affection which have been put to the test.
Matriarchism. — With regard to family relations there is an
important point to consider, which we have already touched
upon in Chapter XIII. The power of man and of patriarchism
has had the result of giving the father's name to the family.
This system is not only unnatural, but also has deplorable
effects. If it is true that the germ of the individual {Chromo-
somes, Chapter I) inherits on the average as much from the
father as from the mother, the latter is more closely connected
with it from all other points of view. Races in which the ma-
ternal influence predominates in the family, not only in name
CONCLUSIONS 523
but also in other respects, have better understood the voice of
nature.
The fact that the mother carries the child for nine months in
her womb, and for many years after birth is more intimately
associated with it than the father, gives her a natural right
which the father cannot claim. Children ought, tlierefore, to
be named after the mother. Moreover, in case of divorce, it
should be the rule for children to be restored to the mother,
unless there are special reasons for another decision.
It is evident that in the conditions of modern civilization we
cannot return to matriarchism in its primitive sense. An old
patriarch cannot become the sole sovereign of all his descend-
ants without the occurrence of grave abuses, no more can this
power devolve on a grandmother. Apart from denomination
in the maternal line, I mean by matriarchism, the legal
privilege of the management of the family conferred on the
wife, who is in reality the center of the family.
I will sum up what appears to me to be required, in the follow-
ing propositions:
1. Denomination in the maternal line.
2. With the exception of cases in which the wife loses her
maternal rights owing to incapacity, bad conduct or insanity,
etc., or when the law is obhged to deprive her of them, she
alone will possess the guardianship and the management of her
children during their minority.
3. The wife will be proprietor and housekeeper of the house
and household. Her work of housekeeping and her maternal
duties will be estimated at their just value, and will have tlic
right to compensation, equivalent to the husband's work in his
business.
4. As long as conjugal union exists, the husband has the right
to Hve in his wife's house, for the protection he gives to tlie
family, for the work he gives toward the house and the educa-
tion of the children, as weU as for his pecuniaiy contributions
toward the expenses of both.
5. With the exception of contributions to the house and
education, and to the feeding and clothing of the children, the
product of the husband's work and private fortune In'long to
524 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
him, just as the product and fortune of his wife are her own
property. In the case of divorce there vnW. then be no difficulty
in separating the two properties. Excepting in cases mentioned
in the second proposition, which will be decided by law, the
children will belong to the mother only. But as long as he
lives and is able to workj the divorced father must continue to
contribute to the maintenance and education of the children he
has procreated, till they come of age.
These propositions have only a legal value, and will only be
required when the conjoints cannot come to a mutual under-
standing. They in no way concern those who are able to Uve
together in mutual concord. A weak and passive woman will
continue as before to subordinate herself to the advice and
opinions of a husband stronger and ^\^ser than herself.
It is needless to say that, after divorce or separation, things
will not always go smoothly, although more so than at present.
The husband will always have the right to have certain claims
decided by law. When the law is not exclusively in the hands of
men, it will be more capable of protecting the rights of women.
Cases in which a mother is incapable of bringing up her own
children, or where the father is capable of great devotion
and sacrifice are not now so rare, but they are nevertheless
exceptional.
The Present Day. — It is not to be expected that the above
propositions will find much support at the present day among
the majority of people, still less that they will soon be realized
by the governing bodies, considering their conservative and idle
tendencies and their inertia. It may be asked, on the other
hand, whether the present laws do not already provide us \%ith
the ways and means of attaining the ideal that we propose. I
already see two:
First of all, as pointed out in Chapter XIII, we may enter
into contracts which make the properties entirely separate, and
according to the local legislation in force, fulfill other of the
above propositions. For instance, in some countries, the wife
can preserve by contract the property and management of the
house, etc.
In the second place, illegitimate children now bear the family
CONCLUSIONS 525
name of their mother; this is exactly what we desire. When
concubinage is not prosecuted and punished by law, a free mar-
riage could be arranged by private contract which would fulhll
the above conditions. Some persons, I admit, would reciuire
much courage to do this, for it is not every one who can brave
pubhc opinion when he has a good reputation to lose. More-
over, such unions would not enjoy the protection of the State.
By a Uttle perseverance, however, the public might be induced
to call the woman "Mrs." instead of "Miss."
It is not impossible for unions of this kind between honorable
persons to become more frequent, and gradually compel society
to recognize free unions as the equivalent of traditional, or so-
called legal, marriage, to accord them the same rights and
recognize the children born of them. The conjoints could be
named by combining both family names; for example, if Miss
Martin enters mto a free union with Mr. Durand, she might be
called Mi's. Martin-Dm-and, and her husband Mr. Duraiid-
Martin.
Conclusion. — It may perhaps be thought that I am imagining
the existence of the purest ideal and the happiness of paratlise
in a world in which the hereditary quaUty of men will be no
better than it is to-day. I hope that no reader who has followed
me carefully will regard me as so ingenuous. Then as now there
will be intrigues and disputes, hatred, envy, jealousy, idleness,
impropriety, falsehood, neghgence, temper, etc., but their power
will be less. There will be less excuse for these bad ([ualities
and those who possess them will be regarded as pathological
individuals who should be ehminated as much as possible by
means of proper selection, combined with good hygiene and
thorough education.
On the other hand, men of originaUty and high ideals will be
able to develop much more freely and naturally than at present.
They will no longer be the slaves of power, money, prejudice
and routine. They will not be obliged to conform to religious
hypocrisy, but will be able to speak and act according to their
convictions. Marriage, and sexual relations in general, will no
longer be a perpetual conventional falsehood. The sentiments
no longer fettered, will not be led astray into mischievous ways
526 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
by artificial excitement, so long as they do not depend on
unhealthy dispositions, for the pretexts and especially the
pecuniary inducement to commit evil actions and contract
bad habits will have been removed as far as possible.
For the same reason prostitution will become almost impos-
sible, for it will cease to have any reason for existence. Immod-
erate sexual intercourse, like other excesses, will not cease to
exist, but will be kept in certain limits by the work which no
one will be able to escape.
At the end of his history of materialism (1874) F. A. Lange
wrote as follows:
"We lay down our pen and terminate our criticism at a time
when Europe is agitated by the social question. In the vast
social domain, all the revolutionary elements of science, religion
and politics meet together and seem prepared for a decisive
battle. Whether this battle remains a simple contest of minds
or whether it takes the form of a cataclysm which will bury
thousands of unfortunates in the ruins of a disappearing period,
one thing is certain: — the new epoch will only succeed by abol-
ishing egoism, and placing the work of improvement of the
human race in the hands of a human cooperative society, in
place of our feverish work which has only personal interest at
heart.
"The contests which are impending will be mitigated if the
minds which are to direct the people are imbued with the
knowledge of human evolution and historical phenomena.
"We must not abandon the hope that in the remote future
great changes may take place without defiling humanity with
fire and bloodshed. It would certainly be the finest reward for
strenuous work of the human mind, if it could from this time
prepare an easy way to that which a certain future reserves for
us, avoiding atrocious sacrifices and saving the treasures of our
civilization to be transmitted to the new epoch.
"Unfortunately, this prospect has little chance of realization,
and we cannot disguise the fact that blind party passion goes on
increasing, and that the brutal struggle of interests becomes
more and more removed from the influence of theoretical
research. However, our efforts will not all be in vain, and
CONCLUSIONS 527
truth will prevail in the end. In any case the observer who
thinks has no right to be silent, simply because at the present
moment he has only a small number of listeners."
Thirty years ago Lange's pessimism would be comprehensible;
but ideas have progressed since then, and the prospects of to-day
give us more courage for social work.
The Utopian ideas which I have expressed have in no way
the pretension to be new. Analyzing the facts in the most
diverse domains, I have simply attempted to find those which
seem to me suited to solve the sexual problem of the human
race most advantageously under the present social conditions.
Every one to-day admits that our sexual life leaves much to be
desired, but is afraid of touching the crumbling edifice.
I leave it to my readers to decide whether my ideas are noth-
ing more than Utopian, or whether they do not rather represent
a realizable ideal, begging them to reflect as calmly and inde-
pendently as possible before giving their judgment.
After all, we have to choose between pessimistic acceptance
of the fatal decay of our race for the benefit of the Mongols, and
an immediate and energetic effort toward selective and educa-
tional improvement, an effort wliich will alone be capable of
reviving our hereditar}^ vital energ}^ ^^^loeve^ decides in favor
of the latter alternative should occupy himself with the sexual
question, and boldly declare war against the domination of
private capital, the abuse of alcohol, and all the prejudices by
which we are hampered. He should abandon the luxury and
effeminate comfort of our time and return to the principles of
Lycurgus and the Japanese — to the education of character and
self-control by methodical training in continuous social work
combmed with volmitary fatigue and privation.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REMARKS
I shall no doubt be reproached for not having taken sufficient
notice of other works on the subject of this book. I have, how-
ever, desired to express my own opinion without allo\sing myself
to be unduly influenced by others. I will nevertheless make a
few remarks on the bibliography of this subject.
I may mention the celebrated work of the Italian physician,
Mantigazza, on the Physiology of Love. It is a curious fact
that this author, after his poetic descriptions of love, is in favor
of prostitution. The German socialist, Bebel, has written a
very remarkable book on woman in the past, the present and
the future. In spite of scientific errors, which are easily excused
in a self-made man who became one of the leaders of the German
Reichstag, this book remains a veritable social monument on
the sexual question. With the exception of his strong political
bias, and the errors I have just mentioned I am, on the whole,
in accord with the ideas of Bebel.
Another German author, Bolsche, {Das^ Liebeslehen in der
Natur) has recently described love among all organized beings,
including man, with a tone of forced pleasantry which spoils the
profound knowledge of the author on the zoological and other
subjects which he treats.
With regard to German literature, I recomnmed the Archiv
fiir Rassen und Gesellschafts' Biologie, edited by Doctor Plotz of
Berlin. This publication has for its object the study of the
causes of degeneration in our race and the remedies for it.
Among other articles which have appeared in this publica-
tion I may specially mention those of Shallmayer on Heredity
and Selection in the Life of Races, and Thurnwald, Tovm and
Country in the Life of the Race. 1 may also mention Plotz :
Die Tiichtigkeit unserer Rasse und der Schutz der Schwachen,
528
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL RE^L\RKS 529
1895, and Mutterschutz, a journal for the reform of sexual
ethics, 1905.
France has always shone in the domain of the poetry of love
and the art connected with it. Apart from the ancient classics
I may refer to George Sand, Alfred de Musset, Lamartine, and
Madame de Stael. In the practical conception of free 'love,
George Sand was in advance of her time. Among modern
authors there are Paul Bourget; Andre Couvreur, who in La
Graine deals with the problem of human selection; Brieux,
who in Les Avaries, attacks the social tragedies of venereal
disease. The book of Vacher de Lapouge on social selection is
full of interesting ideas, although too much influenced by the
unstable hypothesis of Gobineau. To make distinct zoological
species of dolichocephalics and brachycephalics, as Vacher de
Lapouge attempts, is a grave error in zoology. Charles Albert :
L' Amour Libre, and Queyrat: La Demoralization de Videe
sexuelle, give the note of contemporary change in ideas on the
sexual question.
In Le Mariage et les Theories Malthusiennes (Paris, 1906)
Dr. Georges Guibert recommends early marriage, but does not
take account of human selection. Remy de Gourmont, Physique
de I'amour; Essai sur I'instinct sexuel, Paris, 1903, describes,
very pessimistically, love in the animal kingdom. Jeanne Dcfiou
(Le Sexiialisme, Paris, 1905) has written a virulent feminine
complaint against the injustice of the stronger sex.
But the French author who has given the most profound, the
truest descriptions of the psychology of love and the sexual
appetite is undoubtedly Guy de Maupassant. No doubt his last
illness caused him to produce certain more or less regrettable
works in which certain pornogi*aphic traits appeared. He may,
perhaps, be accused of having too often described the pathology
of love, which, by the way, he admirably understood. Perhaps
also, he has too often dealt with exceptional situations and irre-
sponsible passions. But these are only details, and we must
admit that by drawing attention to the unhealthy features of
our modern sexual life, he compels the reader to reflect, and
inspires him not only with disgust for evil but with profound
sadness and a feeling of revulsion. He often reveals his j^redi-
530 THE SEXUAL QUESTION
lection for the refined, hypersensitive love of the boudoir which
we have regarded here as a symptom of social degeneration.
But this does not prevent his clear insight into the love of the
proletariat, the peasant or the healthy man. He knows man as
well as woman, and if he has presented them most often under
their least moral aspect it is because he has observed them
closely. But occasionally he rises to the greatest heights of the
truest, pui-est and most profound love.
INDEX
INDEX
Abolitionism, 316
Abortion, artificial, 408, 440
Abstinence, sexual, 114
Accouchement, 60
Adornment, 156
Adultery, 373, 412
Alcohol, effect on embryo, 37, 268, 462
effect on sexual appetite, 88, 100,
266, 332, 503
Altruism and Egoism, 448
Amorous Intoxication, 277, 288
Americanism, 331
Anaesthesia, sexual, 222
Anthropoid apes, 145, 195
Anticonceptional measures, 423, 497
Antipathy, 108
Antony and Cleopatra, 289
Ants, 194, 359
Art, moral effect of, 496
in sexual life, 489
of loving long, 520
and pornography, 491
Aspermia, 209
Assaults on minors, 403
Atavism, 29
Attraction, methods of, 156
Audacity, masculine, 115
Bachelors, old, 127
Bartholin's glands, 57
Beauty, 162
Becket, 352
Bees, 194
Bernheim, 277
Bestiality, 255
Bezzola, 268
Birth, 23
Blastophthoria, 36, 268
Braggardism, sexual, 120
Brain, weight of, 66, 190
Brieux, 407, 438
Brothels, 303
clandestine, 307
high class, 310
Budding, 9
Bullies, 303
Butterflies, 74
Caelius Aurelianus, 399
Caligula, 353
Castration, 25
Catherine de Medici, 353
Catholicism, Roman, 341
Cell division, 6
Celibacy, 153
Children and marriage, 377
civil rights of, 378
education of, 471
protection of, 487
Chiniqui, 342
Chauvin, de, 36
Civil law, 368
Civil marriage, 370
Climate and sexual life, 327
Clitoris, 55
Coeducation, 481
Coitus, 56
Commandments, 454
Conception, regulation of, 423
Concubinage, 322, 406
Confession, Roman Catholic, 342
Conjugation, 11
Consanguinity, 47
Constellations, 110
Continence, 81, 220, 422
Coquetry, 139
Corpus cavernosum, 53
luteum, 19
Correggio, 355
Correlative sexual characters, 25, 64
Council of Trent, 172
Cunnilingus, 230, 275
Darwin, 32, 34, 39, 480
Debreyne, 345
Decidua, 19
Demosthenes, 187
Divorce, 373
Domestic animals and plants, 514
Dubois, 46
Duty, 106
Ecphoria, 15
Ecstasy, 143
ecstasy and religion, 356
Education. 470, 516
Egoism, 361
dual, 113
Egoistic love, 125
533
534
INDEX
Embryo, formation of, 9
rights of, 411
Embryology, 19
Endogamy, 164
Engram, 15
Environment and sexual life, 326
Epididymis, 52
Epispadias, 210
Erection, 53
Eroticism, 121, 485
and religion, 354
Erotomania, 258
Ethnology of sexual life, 144
Eunuchs, 25, 347
Evolution, 39
sexual, 192
Exhibitionism, 241, 405
Exogamy, 164
Expiation, 364
Factory life, 326
Fakirs, 239
Fertilization of eggs, 12
Fetichism, 142, 240
Fischer, 36
Flirtation, 99
Free love, 384
Free will, 365
Genital organs, female, 55
organs, male, 52
Germinal cells, 10
Goethe, 73, 131
Gonorrhea, 212
Grisettes, 98, 322
Guardianship, 384
Guillaume, 399
Haeckel, 10, 34, 40
"Hand-fasting," 150
Heredity, 14, 28
of acquired characters, 34
Hering, 14, 35
Hermaphrodites, 10
Hertwig, 11
Hetau-a, 187, 323
Hirschfeld, 242
History, mental anomalies in, 350
Homophony, 16
Homosexual love, 241, 251
Hottentots, 347
Human selection, 412, 509
Hybridity, 47, 163
Hymen, 55
Hyperaisthesia, sexual, 225
Hypnotism, 277
Hypochondriasis, 232, 261
Hypocrisy, sexual, 123
Hypospadias, 210
Ideal Marriage, 517
Idealism, 132
Idiots, 410
moral, 261
Imaginary love, 263
Impotence, 85, 219
Incest, 402
Insane, sexual anomalies in, 256
Internats, 338
Inversion, sexual, 241, 251
Inverts, marriage of, 378
Irradiations of love, 115, 128
"Jack the Ripper," 234
Jealousy, 104, 117, 139, 260
Joan of Arc, 351
Jorger, 331
Jus primae noctis, 151
Keller, 356
Kinship, 107
Krafft-Ehing, 142, 208, 234, 404
Lamarck, 39
Landerziehungsheime, 477
Lesbian love, 275
Liguori, 341
Lorettes, 322
Love, 111
Love and sexual appetite, 104
maternal, 135
and religion, 143
Lubbock, 181
Lycurgus, laws of, 466
Marchal, 18
Mariage de convenance, 91
Marriage by purchase, 170
by rape, 170
consanguineous, 164, 387
duration of, 182
for money, 295
forms of, 173
hygiene of, 427
ideal, 517
Masochism, 237
Masturbation, 80, 220, 228
Maternal love, 135
Maternity, 62
Matriarchism, 378, 522
Maupassant, Guy de, 133, 140, 301, 30!
Medical advice, 421, 434
secrecy, 435
Medicine and sexual life, 418
Medico-legal case, 413
Mendel, 30
Menstruation, 56
Mental Capacity, 67
Mercier, 67
Merrifield, 36
Messalina, 353
Meynert, 67
Mill, Stuart, 69
Mistresses, 323
INDEX
Mitosis, 7
Mneme, 14
Modesty, 126, 141
Moebius, 65
Money, cult of, 502
"Monkey's love," 136
Monogamy, 173
Morality, 445
Mormons, 174
Moses, 454
Murillo, 355
Mysogynists' ball, 249
Napoleon, 352
Narcotics and sexual life, 503
Natural selection, 42
Neo-malthusianism, 463
Nero, 353
Nocturnal emissions, 79
Nudity, 157
Nymphomania, 97, 258
Old maids, 129
Onanism, 228
Ontogeny, 40
of sexual life, 200
Orgasm, veneral, 57
Ovulation, 19
Palaeontology, 39
Pangenesis, 34
Paradoxy, sexual, 221
Parthenogenesis, 9
Passiveness in woman, 130
Paternity, inquiry into, 383
Pathology of sexual organs, 209
Patriarchism, 159
Patriotism, 108
Paul, St, 352
Pedagogy and the sexual question, 470
Pederasty, 244
Pederosis, 254
Penal law in sexual matters, 396
Penis, 53
Phallus, 150
Phylogeny, 40
of love, 108
sexual life, 193
Pimps, 88
Pithecanthropus, 46
Placenta, 21
Police and prostitution, 308
Politics and sexual question, 461, 467,
506
Polyandry, 173
Polygamy, 173
Pornography, 85, 121, 140, 406, 506
Pregnancy, 23, 58, 433
Prejudice and tradition, 505
Preventive membranes, 425
Procreative instinct, 92, 116
535
Promiscuity, 148, 173
Prostate, 53
Prostitutes, fate of, 314
number of, 308
psychology of, 97, 308
training of, 306
varieties of, 312
Prostitution, 88, 97, 185, 298, 308, 377
regulation of, 310
and sexual perversion, 314
Protectors, 303
Protoplasm, 6
Proxenetism, 88, 298, 406
Prudery, 126, 141
Psychic impotence, 85, 219
Psychic irradiations of love, 115, 128
Psychopathology, sexual, 216
Puberty, 77
Race and sexual life, 189
Rape, 402
Rational selection, 464
Religion and love, 143
Religion and sexual life, 340
Religious eroticism, 347
prudery, 346
Reproduction in vertebrates, 51
Restriction in sexual life, 387
Retaliation, 364
Rights in sexual life, 358
Right to satisfaction of the sexua"
appetite, 373
Rousseau, 237, 352
5ade, Marquis de, 235
Sadism, 234, 404, 486
Satyriasis, 258
Schiller, 59
Schopenhauer, 65
Schimnn, 6
Sequin, 327
Seifection, contrary, 465
human, 412, 509
natural, 42
rational, 464
Semen, 53
Semon, 14, 32
Seminal vesicles, 52
Senile paradoxy, 265
Sexual appetite in man, 72
appet-ite in woman, 92, 130
disorders, 440
excitation, 86
hygiene, 420
morality, 445, 450
pathology, 208
perversion, 234, 273, 404, 482
power, 81,203
selection, 161
Sexes, production of, 176
Shakespere, 267
536
INDEX
Shame, sense of, 157
Social position, 334
Sodomy, 255
Soft clmncre, 215
Solomon, 353
Spermatorrhea, 210
Spermatozoa, 11
Spinoza, 366
Standard of himian value, 478, 513
Struggle for existence, 42
Succession, right of, 394
Suckling, 62
Suggestion in art, 291
in love, 284
in sexual life, 277
in sexual anomalies, 272, 291
Sympathy, 284
Syphilis, 213
Testicles, 52
Themis, 353
Tiberius, 365
Tolstoi, 352
Types to eliminate and perpetuate, 512
Urnings, 242
Uterus, 21
Utopia, 499
Vagabondage, 331
Vagina, 55
Van Beneden, 11
Venereal diseases, 211, 376, 507
Virgins, cult of, 154
Vitellus, 11 •
Vries, de, 17, 32, 43
War, 461
Weismann, 10, 17, 32, 34
Westermork, 145, 181, 196
Wealth and poverty, 333
White slavery, 305
Woman, emancipation of, 504
Womb, 21
Yolk, 11
Zeller, 355
Zola, 323, 407
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