Jr M-GILL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 1 ^ 2 .^ STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX VOLUME III ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE LOVE AND PAIN THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN BY HAVELOCK ELLIS SECOND EDITION. REVISED AND ENLARGED PHILADELPHIA F. A. DAVIS COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 1924 COPYRIGHT, 1903 COPYRIGHT, 1913 BY F. A. DAVIS COMPANY PRINTED IN U. B. A. PRESS OP F. A. DAVIS COMPANY PHILADELPHIA, PA. PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. This volume has been thoroughly revised for the present edition and considerably enlarged throughout, in order to render it more accurate and more illustrative, while bringing it fairly up to date with reference to scientific investigation. Numerous histories have also been added to the Appendix. It has not been found necessary to modify the main doctrines set forth ten years ago. At the same time, however, it may be mentioned, as regards the first study in the volume, that our knowledge of the physiological mechanism of the sexual instinct has been revolutionized during recent years. This is due to the investigations that have been made, and the deductions that have been built up, concerning the part played by hormones, or internal secretions of the ductless glands, in the physical pro¬ duction of the sexual instinct and the secondary sexual characters. The conception of the psychology of the sexual impulse here set forth, while correlated to terms of a physical process of tumes¬ cence and detumescence, may be said to be independent of the ultimate physiological origins of that process. But we cannot fail to realize the bearing of physiological chemistry in this field; and the doctrine of internal secretions, since it may throw light on many complex problems presented by the sexual instinct, is full of interest for us. Havelock Ellis. June, 1913. ( v ) ISO*7 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. The present volume of Studies deals with some of the most essential problems of sexual psychology. The Analysis of the Sexual Impulse is fundamental. Unless we comprehend the exact process which is being worked out beneath the shift¬ ing and multifold phenomena presented to us we can never hope to grasp in their true relations any of the normal or ab¬ normal manifestations of this instinct. I do not claim that the conception of the process here stated is novel or original. In¬ deed, even since I began to work it out some years ago, various investigators in these fields, especially in Germany, have de¬ prived it of any novelty it might otherwise have possessed, while at the same time aiding me in reaching a more precise statement. This is to me a cause of satisfaction. On so funda¬ mental a matter I should have been sorry to find myself tending to a peculiar and individual standpoint. It is a source of grati¬ fication to me that the positions I have reached are those toward which current intelligent and scientific opinions are tending. Any originality in my study of this problem can only lie in the bringing together of elements from somewhat diverse fields. I shall be content if it is found that I have attained a fairly balanced, general, and judicial statement of these main factors in the sexual instinct. In the study of Love and Pain I have discussed the sources of those aberrations which are commonly called, not altogether happily, “sadism” and “masochism.” Here we are brought before the most extreme and perhaps the most widely known group of sexual perversions. I have considered them from the medico-legal standpoint, because that has already been done by other writers whose works are accessible. I have pre¬ ferred to show how these aberrations may be explained; how (vi) PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. Vll they may be linked on to normal and fundamental aspects of the sexual impulse; and, indeed, in their elementary forms, may themselves be regarded as normal. In some degree they are present, in every case, at some point of sexual development; their threads are subtly woven in and out of the whole psycho¬ logical process of sex. I have made no attempt to reduce their complexity to a simplicity that would be fallacious. I hope that my attempt to unravel these long and tangled threads will be found to make them fairly clear. In the third study, on The Sexual Impulse in Women, we approach a practical question of applied sexual psychology, and a question of the first importance. No doubt the sex impulse in men is of great moment from the social point of view. It i3, however, fairly obvious and well understood. The impulse in women is not only of at least equal moment, but it is far more obscure. The natural difficulties of the subject have been increased by the assumption of most writers who have touched it—casually and hurriedly, for the most part—that the only differences to be sought in the sexual impulse in man and in woman are quantitative differences. I have pointed out that we may more profitably seek for qualitative differences, and have endeavored to indicate such of these differences as seem to be of significance. In an Appendix will be found a selection of histories of more or less normal sexual development. Histories of gross sexual perversion have often been presented in books devoted to the sexual instinct; it has not hitherto been usual to in¬ quire into the facts of normal sexual development. Yet it is concerning normal sexual development that our ignorance is greatest, and the innovation can scarcely need justification. I have inserted these histories not only because many of them are highly instructive in themselves, but also because they ex¬ hibit the nature of the material on which my work is mainly founded. I am indebted to many correspondents, medical and other, in various parts of the world, for much valuable assistance. Vlll PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. When they have permitted me to do so I have usually mentioned their names in the text. This has not been possible in the case of many women friends and correspondents, to whom, how¬ ever, my debt is very great. Nature has put upon women the greater part of the burden of sexual reproduction; they have consequently become the supreme authorities on all matters in which the sexual emotions come into question. Many circum¬ stances, however, that are fairly obvious, conspire to make it difficult for women to assert publicly the wisdom and knowl¬ edge which, in matters of love, the experiences of life have brought to them. The ladies who, in all earnestness and sin¬ cerity, write books on these questions are often the last people to whom we should go as the representatives of their sex; those who know most have written least. I can therefore but express again, as in previous volumes I have expressed before, my deep gratitude to these anonymous collaborators who have aided me in throwing light on a field of human life which is of such primary social importance and is yet so dimly visible. Havelock Ellis. Carbis Water, Lelant, Cornwall, England. CONTENTS. Analysis of the Sexual Impulse. page Definition of Instinct—The Sexual Impulse a Factor of the Sexual Instinct—Theory of the Sexual Impulse as an Impulse of Evac¬ uation—The Evidence in Support of this Theory Inadequate— The Sexual Impulse to Some Extent Independent of the Sexual Glands—The Sexual Impulse in Castrated Animals and Men— The Sexual Impulse in Castrated Women, After the Menopause, and in the Congenital Absence of the Sexual Glands—The In¬ ternal Secretions—Analogy between the Sexual Relationship and that of the Suckling Mother and her Child—The Theory of the Sexual Impulse as a Reproductive Impulse—This Theory Untenable—Moll's Definition—The Impulse of Detumescence —The Impulse of Contrectation—Modification of this Theory Proposed—Its Relation to Darwin’s Sexual Selection—The Essential Element in Darwin’s Conception—Summary of the History of the Doctrine of Sexual Selection. Its Psychological Aspect—Sexual Selection a Part of Natural Selection—The Fundamental Importance of Tumescence—Illustrated by the Phenomena of Courtship in Animals and in Man—The Object of Courtship is to Produce Sexual Tumescence—The Primitive Significance of Dancing in Animals and Man—Dancing is a Potent Agent for Producing Tumescence—The Element of Truth in the Comparison of the Sexual Impulse with an Evacuation, Especially of the Bladder—Both Essentially Involve Nervous Explosions—Their Intimate and Sometimes Vicarious Relation¬ ships—Analogy between Coitus and Epilepsy—Analogy of the Sexual Impulse to Hunger—Final Object of the Impulses of Tumescence and Detumescence. 1 Love and Pain. I. The Chief Key to the Relationship between Love and Pain to be Found in Animal Courtship—Courtship a Source of Combat- ivity and of Cruelty—Human Play in the Light of Animal Courtship—The Frequency of Crimes Against the Person in («) X CONTENTS. PAOB Adolescence— Marriage by Capture and its Psychological Basis _Man’s Pleasure in Exerting Force and Woman’s Pleasure in Experiencing it—Resemblance of Love to Pain even in Outward Expression—The Love-bite—In What Sense Pain May be Pleasurable—The Natural Contradiction in the Emotional At¬ titude of Women Toward Men—Relative Insensibility to Pain of the Organic Sexual Sphere in Women—The Significance of the Use of the Ampallang and Similar Appliances in Coitus The Sexual Subjection of Women to Men in Part Explain¬ able as the Necessary Condition for Sexual Pleasure. 66 II. The Definition of Sadism—De Sade—Masochism to some Extent Normal—Sacher-Masoch—No Real Line of Demarcation be¬ tween Sadism and Masochism—Algolagnia Includes Both Groups of Manifestations—The Love-bite as a Bridge from Normal Phenomena to Algolagnia—The fascination of Blood The Most Extreme Perversions are Linked on to Normal Phenom- III. Flagellation as a Typical Illustration of Algolagnia. Causes of Con¬ nection between Sexual Emotion and Whipping Physical Causes—Psychic Causes Probably More Important—The Varied Emotional Associations of Whipping—Its Wide Prevalence.... 129 IV. The Impulse to Strangle the Object of Sexual Desire—’The Wish to be Strangled. Respiratory Disturbance the Essential Ele¬ ment in this Group of Phenomena—The Part Played by Respi¬ ratory Excitement in the Process of Courtship—Swinging and Suspension—The Attraction Exerted by the Idea of being Chained and Fettered. 161 V. Pain, and not Cruelty, the Essential Element in Sadism and Ma¬ sochism—Pain Felt as Pleasure—Does the Sadist Identify CONTENTS. XI PAGE Himself with the Feelings of his Victim?—The Sadist Often a Masochist in Disguise—The Spectacle of Pain or Struggle as a Sexual Stimulant. 159 VI. Why is Pain a Sexual Stimulant?—It is the Most Effective Method of Arousing Emotion—Anger and Fear the Most Powerful Emo¬ tions—Their Biological Significance in Courtship—Their Gen¬ eral and Special Effects in Stimulating the Organism—The Physiological Mechanism of Fatigue Renders Pain Pleasuarble. 171 VII. Summary of Results Reached—The Joy of Emotional Expansion— The Satisfaction of the Craving for Power—The Influence of Neurasthenic and Neuropathic Conditions—The Problem of Pain in Love Largely Constitutes a Special Case of Erotic Sym¬ bolism . 184 The Sexual Impulse in Women. Introduction . 189 I. The Primitive View of Women—As a Supernatural Element in Life —As Peculiarly Embodying the Sexual Instinct—The Modern Tendency to Underestimate the Sexual Impulse in W T omen— This Tendency Confined to Recent Times—Sexual Anaesthesia— Its Prevalence—Difficulties in Investigating the Subject—Some Attempts to Investigate it—Sexual Anaesthesia Must be Re¬ garded as Abnormal—The Tendency to Spontaneous Manifesta¬ tions of the Sexual Impulse in Young Girls at Puberty. 192 II. Special Characters of the Sexual Impulse in Women—The More Passive Part Played by Women in Courtship—This Passivity Only Apparent—The Physical Mechanism of the Sexual Process in Women More Complex—The Slower Development of Orgasm CONTENTS. xii PAGE in Women—The Sexual Impulse in Women More Frequently Needs to be Actively Aroused—The Climax of Sexual Energy Falls Later in Women’s Lives than in Men’s—Sexual Ardor in Women Increased After the Establishment of Sexual Relation¬ ships—Women Bear Sexual Excesses Better than Men—'The Sexual Sphere Larger and More Diffused in Women The Sexual Impulse in Women Shows a Greater Tendency to Peri¬ odicity and a Wider Range of Variation. 228 III. Summary of Conclusions. APPENDIX A. The Sexual Instinct in Savages. 259 APPENDIX B. The Development of the Sexual Instinct... 277 Index of Authors 343 Index of Subjects 349 ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. Definition of Instinct—The Sexual Impulse a Factor of the Sexual Instinct—Theory of the Sexual Impulse as an Impulse of Evacuation— The Evidence in Support of this Theory Inadequate—The Sexual Impulse to Some Extent Independent of the Sexual Glands—The Sexual Impulse in Castrated Animals and Men—The Sexual Impulse in Castrated Women, after the Menopause, and in the Congenital Absence of the Sexual Glands—The Internal Secretions—Analogy between the Sexual Relationship and that of the Suckling Mother and her Child—The Theory of the Sexual Impulse as a Reproductive Impulse—This Theory Untenable—Moll’s Definition—The Impulse of Detumescence—The Im¬ pulse of Contrectation—Modification of this Theory Proposed—Its Relation to Darwin’s Sexual Selection—The Essential Element in Dar¬ win’s Conception—Summary of the History of the Doctrine of Sexual Selection—Its Psychological Aspect—Sexual Selection a Part of Natural Selection—The Fundamental Importance of Tumescence—Illustrated by the Phenomena of Courtship in Animals and in Man—The Object of Courtship is to Produce Sexual Tumescence—The Primitive Significance of Dancing in Animals and Man—Dancing is a Potent Agent for Pro¬ ducing Tumescence—The Element of Truth in the Comparison of the Sexual Impulse with an Evacuation, Especially of the Bladder—Both Essentially Involve Nervous Explosions—Their Intimate and Some¬ times Vicarious Relationships—Analogy between Coitus and Epilepsy— Analogy of the Sexual Impulse to Hunger—Final Object of the Impulses of Tumescence and Detumescence. The term "sexual instinct” may be said to cover the whole of the neuropsychic phenomena of reproduction which man shares with the lower animals. It is true that much discussion has taken place concerning the proper use of the term "instinct,” and some definitions of instinctive action would appear to exclude the essential mechanism of the process whereby sexual reproduction is assured. Such definitions scarcely seem legiti¬ mate, and are certainly unfortunate. Herbert Spencer’s defi¬ nition of instinct as "compound reflex action” is sufficiently clear and definite for ordinary use. 1 ( 1 ) 2 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. A fairly satisfactory definition of instinct is that supplied by Dr. and Mrs. Peckham in the course of their study On the Instincts and Habits of Solitary Wasps. “Under the term ‘instinct, they say, w place all complex acts which are performed previous to experience and in a similar manner by all members of the same sex and race, leaving out as non-essential, at this time, the question of whether they are or are not accompanied by consciousness.” This definition is quoted with approval bv Lloyd Morgan, who modifies and further elaborates it (Animal Behavior, 1900, p. 21). “The distinction between instinctive and reflex behavior,” he remarks, “turns in large degree on their relative complexity,” and instinctive behavior, he concludes, may be said to com¬ prise “those complex groups of co-ordinated acts which are, on their first occurrence, independent of experience; which tend to the well-being o the individual and the preservation of the race; which are due to the co-operation of external and internal stimuli; which are similarly per¬ formed by all the members of the same more or less restricted group of animals; but which are subject to variation, and to subsequent modifica¬ tion under the guidance of experience.” Such a definition clearly justi¬ fies us in speaking of a “sexual instinct.” It may be added that the various questions involved in the definition of the sexual instinct have been fully discussed by Moll in the early sections of his Untersuchunyen iiber die Libido Sexualis. Of recent years there has been a tendency to avoid the use of the term “instinct,” or, at all events, to refrain from attaching any serious scientific sense to it. Loeb’s influence has especially given force to this tendency. Thus, while PiCron, in an interesting discussion of the question (“Les ProblOmes Actuels de 1’Instinct,” Revue Philosopluque, Oct;, 1908), thinks it would still be convenient to retain the teim, rrivin" it a philosophical meaning, Georges Bohn, who devotes a chap¬ ter to the notion of instinct (La Naissance de VIntelligence, 1909), is strongly in favor of eliminating the word, as being merely a legacy of medieval theologians and metaphysicians, serving to conceal our igno- ranee or our lack of exact analysis. It may be said that the whole of the task undertaken in these Studies is really an attempt to analyze what is commonly called the sexual instinct. In order to grasp it we have to break it up into its component parts. Lloyd Morgan has pointed out that the components of an instinct may be regarded as four: first, the internal messages giving rise to the impulse; secondly, the external stimuli which co-operate with the impulse to affect the nervous centers; thirdly, the active response due to the co-ordinate ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 3 outgoing discharges; and, fourthly, the message from the organs concerned in the behavior by which the central nervous system is further affected. 1 In dealing with the sexual instinct the first two factors are those which we have most fully to discuss. With the ex¬ ternal stimuli we shall be concerned in a future volume (IV). We may here confine ourselves mainly to the first factor: the nature of the internal messages which prompt the sexual act. We may, in other words, attempt to analyze the sexual impulse. The first definition of the sexual impulse we meet with is that which regards it as an impulse of evacuation. The psychological element is thus reduced to a minimum. It is true that, especially in early life, the emotions caused by forced repression of the excretions are frequently massive or acute in the highest degree, and the joy of relief correspondingly great. But in adult life, on most occasions, these desires can be largely pushed into the background of consciousness, partly by training, partly by the fact that involuntary muscular activ¬ ity is less imperative in adult life; so that the ideal element in connection with the ordinary excretions is almost a negligible quantity. The evacuation theory of the sexual instinct is, how¬ ever, that which has most popular vogue, and the cynic delights to express it in crude language. It is the view that appeals to the criminal mind, and in the slang of French criminals the brothel is le cloaque. It was also the view implicitly accepted by medieval ascetic writers, who regarded woman as “a temple built over a sewer/’ and from a very different standpoint it was concisely set forth by Montaigne, who has doubtless contributed greatly to support this view of the matter: “I find,” he said, “that Venus, after all, is nothing more than the pleasure of discharging our vessels, just as nature renders pleasurable the discharges from other parts.** 2 Luther, again, always compared the sexual to the excretory impulse, and said that marriage was 1 C. Lloyd Morgan, “Instinct and Intelligence in Animals,” Nature, February 3, 1898. 2 Essais, livre iii, cli. v. 4 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. just as necessary as the emission of urine. Sir Thomas More also, in the second book of Utopia, referring to the pleasure of evacuation, speaks of that felt “when we do our natural easen or when we be doing the act of generation.” This view would, however, scarcely deserve serious consideration if various dis¬ tinguished investigators, among whom Fere may be spec.a y mentioned, had not accepted it as the best and most accu definition of the sexual impulse. “The genesie need may be considered,” writes Fere, “as a need of evacuation; the choice is determined by the excitations which render the evacuation more agreeable.” 1 Certain facts observed in the lower animals to d to support this view; it is, therefore, necessary, in the first place, to set forth the main results of observation on this matter. Spallanzani had shown how the male frog during coitus will undergo the most horrible mutilations, even decapitation, and vet resolutely continue the act of intercourse, which lasts from four to ton days, sitting on the back of the female and firmly clasping her with his forelegs. Goltz confirmed Spallanzani's observations and threw new light on the mechanism of the sexual instinct and the sexual act in the frog. By removing various parts of the female frog Goltz found that every’ part of the female was attractive to the male at pairing time, and that lie was no imposed on when parts of a male were substituted. By removing various of the sense-organs of the male Goltz 2 further ioun that it was not by any special organ, but by the whole of Ins sensitive system, that this activity was set in action. If, how¬ ever the skin of the arms and of the breast between was removed, no embrace took place; so that the sexual sensations seemed to 1 FerC “La Predisposition dans l'Ctiologie des perversions sex- uellcs ” Revue de mtdemne, 1S9S. In ins more recent work on the .volution and dissolution of the sexual instinct Fere perhaps slightly molS hU position hy stating that “the sexual appetite above all a general need of the organism based on a sensation of fullness, ^ soit of^need of evacuation,” L’Instinct sexuel, 1899, p. 6 . Lowenfeld (L die Sexuelle Konstitution, p. 30) gives a qualified acceptance to tl excretory theory, a. also Rohlcder (Die Zcugrng be.milensche up. -o). 2 fioltz Centralblati fiir die med . Wtssenschaften, I 860 , ao, 1J, and I860, No. 18; also Beitriige zur Lehre von den Funktionen dcs Frosches, Berlin, 1869, p. 20. ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 5 be exerted through this apparatus. When the testicles were removed the embrace still took place. It could scarcely be said that these observations demonstrated, or in any way indicated, that the sexual impulse is dependent on the need of evacuation. Professor Tarchanoff, of St. Petersburg, however, made an ex¬ periment which seemed to be crucial. He took several hundred frogs (Ram iemporaria), nearly all in the act of coitus, and in the first place repeated Goltz’s experiments. He removed the heart; but this led to no direct or indirect stoppage of coitus, nor did removal of the lungs, parts of the liver, the spleen, the intestines, the stomach, or the kidneys. In the same way even careful removal of both testicles had no result. But on removing the seminal receptacles coitus was immediately or very shortly stopped, and not renewed. Thus, Tarchanoff concluded that in frogs, and possibly therefore in mammals, the seminal receptacles are the starting-point of the centripetal impulse which by reflex action sets in motion the complicated apparatus of sexual activity. 1 A few years later the question was again taken up by Steinach, of Prague. Granting that TarchanofFs experiments are reliable as regards the frog, Steinach points out that we may still ask whether in mammals the integrity of the seminal receptacles is bound up with the preservation of sexual excita¬ bility. This cannot be taken for granted, nor can we assume that the seminal receptacles of the frog are homologous with the seminal vesicles of mammals. In order to test the question, Steinach chose the white rat, as possessing large seminal vesicles and a very developed sexual impulse. He found that removal of the seminal sacs led to no decrease in the intensity of the sexual impulse; the sexual act was still repeated with the same fre¬ quency and the same vigor. But these receptacles, Steinach proceeded to argue, do not really contain semen, but a special secretion of their own; they are anatomically quite unlike the seminal receptacles of the frog; so that no doubt is thus thrown on TarchanofFs observations. Steinach remarked, however, that l J. Tarchanoff, “Zur Physiologie (les Geschlechtsapparatus des Frosches,” Archiv fiir die Gesammte Physiologie, 1887, vol. xl, p. 330. 6 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. one’s faith is rather shaken by the fact that in the Escuhnta, which in sexual life closely resembles Bana temporary, there are no seminal receptacles. He therefore repeated 1 archanoff s experiments, and found that the seminal receptacles were empty before coitus, only becoming gradually filled during coitus; it could not, therefore, be argued that the sexual impulse started from the receptacles. He then extirpated the seminal receptacles, avoiding hemorrhage as far as possible, and found that, in the majority of cases so operated on, coitus still continued for from five to seven davs, and in the minority for a longer time. He therefore concluded, with Goltz, that it is from the swollen testicles, not from the seminal receptacles, that the impulse first starts. Goltz himself pointed out that the fact that the removal of the testicles did not stop coitus by no means proves that it did not begin it, for, when the central nervous mechanism is once set in action, it can continue even when the exciting stimu¬ lus is removed. By extirpating the testicles some months before the sexual season he found that no coitus occurred. At the same time, even in these frogs, a certain degree of sexual in¬ clination and a certain excitability of the embracing center still persisted, disappearing when the sexual epoch was o^ er. According to most recent writers, the seminal vesicles of mammals are receptacles for their own albuminous secretion, the function of which is unknown. Steinach could find no sperma¬ tozoa in these “seminal” sacs, and therefore he proposed to use Owen’s name of glandules vesiculares. After extirpation of these vesicular glands in the white rat typical coitus occurred. But the capacity for procreation was diminished, and extirpation of both glandules vesiculares and glandules prostaticce led to dis¬ appearance of the capacity for procreation. Steinach came to the conclusion that this is because the secretions of these glands impart increased vitality to the spermatozoa, and he points out that great fertility and high development of the accessory sexual glands go together. Steinach found that, when sexually mature white rats were castrated, though at first they remained as potent as ever, their ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 7 potency gradually declined; sexual excitement, however, and sexual inclination always persisted. He then proceeded to cas¬ trate rats before puberty and discovered the highly significant fact that in these also a quite considerable degree of sexual inclination appeared. They followed, sniffed, and licked the females like ordinary males; and that this was not a mere in¬ dication of curiosity was shown by the fact that they made attempts at coitus which only differed from those of normal males by the failure of erection and ejaculation, though, occa¬ sionally, there was imperfect erection. This lasted for a year, and then their sexual inclinations began to decline, and they showed signs of premature age. These manifestations of sexual sense Steinach compares to those noted in the human species during childhood. 1 The genesic tendencies are thus, to a certain degree, in¬ dependent of the generative glands, although the development of these glands serves to increase the genesic ability and to furnish the impulsion necessary to assure procreation, as well as to insure the development of the secondary sexual characters, probably by the influence of secretions elaborated and thrown into the system from the primary sexual glands. 2 Halban (“Die Entstehung der Geschlechtseharaktere,” Archiv fiir Gyndkologie, 1903, pp. 205-308) argues that the primary sex glands do not necessarily produce the secondary sex characters, nor inhibit the development of those characteristic of the opposite sex. It is indeed the rule, but it is not the inevitable result. Sexual differences exist from the first. Nussbaum made experiments on frogs (liana fusca), which go through a yearly cycle of secondary sexual changes at the period of heat. These changes cease on castration, but, if the testes of other frogs are introduced beneath the skin of the castrated frogs, Nussbaum found that they acted as if the frog had not been castrated. It is the secretion of the testes which produces the secondary sexual changes. 1 E. Steinach, “Untersuchungen zur vergleiclienden Physiologie der mannlicher Geschlechtsorgane insbesondere der accessorischen Gesch- lechtsdriisen,” Archiv fiir die Gcsammte Physiologic , vol. lvi, 1894, pp. 304-338. 2 See, e.g., Shattock and Seligmann, “The Acquirement of Second¬ ary Sexual Characters,” Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. lxxiii, 1904, p. 49. 8 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. But Nussbaum found that the testicular secretion does not work if the nerves of the secondary sexual region are cut, and that the secretion has no direct action on the organism. Ptluger, discussing these experi¬ ments ( Archiv fiir die Qesommte Physiologic, 1907, vol. cxvi, parts 5 and 6), disputes this conclusion, and argues that the secretion is not dependent on the action of the nervous system, and that therefore the secondary sexual characters are independent of the nervous system. Steinach has also in later experiments (“Gesclilechtstrieb und echt Sekundare Geschlechtsmerkmale als Folge der innerskretorischen Funktion der Keimdrusen,” Zentralblatt fur Physiologic, Bd. xxiv, Mi. 13, 1910) argued against any local nervous influence. ITe found in Kana fusca and esculentd that after castration in autumn the impulse to grasp the female persisted in some degrees and then disappeared, reappearing in a slight degree, however, every winter at the normal period of sexual activity. But when the testicular substance of actively sexual frogs was injected into the castrated frogs it exerted an elective action on the sexual reflex, sometimes in a few hours, but the action is, Steinach concludes, first central. The testicular secretion of frogs that were not sexually active had no stimulating action, but if the frogs were sexually active the injection of their central nervous sub¬ stance was as effective as their testicular substance. In either case, Steinach concludes, there is the removal of an inhibition which is in operation at sexually quiescent periods. Speaking generally, Steinach considers that there is a process of “erotisation” (Erotisieurung) of the nervous center under the influence of the internal testicular secretions, and that this persists even when the primary physical stimulus has been remo\ ed. The experience of veterinary surgeons also shows that the sexual impulse tends to persist in animals after castration. Thus the ox and the gelding make frequent efforts to copulate with females in heat. In some cases, at all events in the case of the horse, castrated animals remain potent, and are even abnor¬ mally ardent, although impregnation cannot, of course, result. 1 The results obtained by scientific experiment and veter¬ inary experience on the lower animals are confirmed by ob¬ servation of various groups of phenomena in the human species. l For facts bearing on this point, see Guinard, art. “Castration, Richet’s Dictionnoire de Physiologie. The general results of castration are summarized by Robert Muller in ch. vii of his Sexuallnologie ; a so bv F. II. A. Marshall, The Physiology of Reproduction, ch. ix; see also E. Pittard, “Les Skoptzy,” L’Anthropologic, 1903, p. 463. ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 9 There can be no doubt that castrated men may still possess sexual impulses. This has been noted by observers in various countries in which eunuchs are made and employed. 1 It is important to remember that there are different degrees of castration, for in current language these are seldom distinguished. The Romans recognized four different degrees: 1. True castrati, from whom both the testicles and the penis had been removed. 2. Spadones, from whom the testicles only had been removed; this was the most common practice. 3. Thlibiw, in whom the testicles had not been removed, but destroyed by crushing; this practice is referred to by Hippocrates. 4. Thlasiw, in whom the spermatic cord had simply been cut. Millant, from whose Paris thesis (Castration Criminelle et Maniaque, 1902) I take these definitions, points out that it was recognized that spadones remained apt for coitus if the operation was performed after puberty, a fact appreciated by many Roman ladies, ad securas libidinationes, as St. Jerome remarked, while Martial (lib. iv) said of a Roman lady who sought eunuchs: “Vult futui Gallia, non parere.” (See also Millant, Les Eunuques a, Travers les Ages, 1909, and articles by Lipa Bey and Zambaco, Sexual-rroblcme, Oct. and Dec., 1911.) In China, Matignon, formerly physician to the French legation in Pekin, tells us that eunuchs are by no means without sexual feeling, that they seek the company of women and, he believes, gratify their sexual desires by such methods as are left open to them, for the sexual organs are entirely removed. It would seem probable that, the earlier the age at which the operation is performed, the less marked are the sexual desires, for Matignon mentions that boys castrated before the age of 10 are regarded by the Chinese as peculiarly virginal and pure. 2 At Constantinople, where the eunuchs are of negro race, castration is usually complete and performed before puberty, in order to abolish sexual potency and desire as far as possible. Even when castration is effected in infancy, sexual desire is not necessarily rendered impossible. Thus Marie has recorded the case of an insane Egyptian eunuch whose penis and scrotum were 1 For an ancient discussion of this point, see Schurig, Sperma- tologia, 1720, cap. ix. 2 J. J. Matignon, Superstition, Crime, et Mistre en Chine, “Les Eunuques du Palais Imperial de P6kin,” 1901. 10 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. removed in infancy; yet, he had frequent and intense sexual desire with ejaculation of mucus and belieAed that an invisib e princess touched him and aroused voluptuous sensations. Al¬ though the body had a feminine appearance, the prostate was normal and the vesiculse seminales not atrophied. 1 It may be added that Lancaster 2 quotes the following remark, made by a resident for many years in the land, concerning Nubian eunuchs: “As far as I can judge, sex feeling exists unmodified by absence of the sexual organs. The eunuch differs from the man not in the absence of sexual passion, but only in the fact that he cannot fully gratify it. As far as he can approach a gratification of it he does so.” In this connection it may be noted that (as quoted by Moll) Jager attributes the preference of some women— noted in ancient Rome and in the Last for castrated men as due not only to the freedom from risk of impregnation in such intercourse, but also to the longer duration of erection in the castrated. When castration is performed without removal of the penis it is said that potency remains for at least ten years afterward, and Disselhorst, who in his Die acccssorischen Geschlechtsdi iisen der Wirbelthiere takes the same view as has been here adopted, mentions that, according to Pelikan {Das SJcopzentum in Riiss- land) , those castrated at puberty are fit for coitus long after¬ ward. When castration is performed for surgical reasons at a later age it is still less likely to affect potency or to change the sexual feelings. 3 Guinard concludes that the sexual impulse after castration is relatively more persistent in man than in the lower animals, and is sometimes even heightened, being prob¬ ably more dependent on external stimuli. 4 Except in the East, castration is more often performed on women than on men, and then the evidence as to the influence 1 P. Marie, “Eunuchisme et Erotisme,” A ouvelle lconographie de la Salpetritre, 1906, No. 5, and Progres medical, Jan. 26, 1907. 2 Pedagogical Seminary, July, 1897, p. 121. 3 See, for instance, the case reported in another volume of these Studies (“Sexual Inversion”), in which castration was performed on a sexual invert without effecting any change. 4 Guinard, art. “Castration,” Dictionnaire de Physiologic. ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 11 of tlie removal of the ovaries on the sexual emotions shows varying results. It has been found that after castration sexual desire and sexual pleasure in coitus may either remain the same, be diminished or extinguished, or be increased. By some the diminution has been attributed to autosuggestion, the woman being convinced that she can no longer be like other women; the augmentation of desire and pleasure has been supposed to be due to the removal of the dread of impregnation. IVe have, of course, to take into account individual peculiarities, method of life, and the state of the health. In France Jayle (“E frets physiologiques de la Castration chez la Femme,” Revue de Gynecologic, 1897, pp. 403-57) found that, among 33 patients in whom ovariotomy had been performed, in 18 sexual desire remained the same, in 3 it was diminished, in 8 abolished, in 3 increased; while pleasure in coitus remained the same in 17, was diminished in 1, abolished in 4, and increased in 5, in 6 cases sexual intercourse was very painful. In two other groups of cases—one in which both ovaries and uterus were removed and another in which the uterus alone was removed—the results were not notably different. In Germany Glaveke (Archiv fur Gynakologie\ Bd. xxxv, 1889) found that desire remained in 6 cases, was diminished in 10, and disap¬ peared in 11, while pleasure in intercourse remained in 8, was diminished in 10, and was lost in 8. Pfister, again (Archiv fur Gynakologie, Bd. lvi, 1898), examined this point in 99 castrated women; he remarks that sexual desire and sexual pleasui'e in intercourse were usually associated, and found the former unchanged in 19 cases, decreased in 24, lost in 35 , never present in 21, while the latter was unchanged in 18 eases and diminished or lost in 60. Keppler (International Medical Congress, Berlin, 1890) found that among 46 castrated women sexual feeling was in no case abolished. Adler also, who discusses this question (Die Mangelhafte Gcschlechtsempfindung des Weibes, 1904, p. 75 et seq.), criticises Gliiveke’s statements and concludes that there is no strict relation between the sexual organs and the sexual feelings. Ivisch, who has known several cases in which the feelings remained the same as before the operation, brings together (The Sexual Life of Women) varying opinions of numerous authors regarding the effects of removal of the ovaries on the sexual appetite. In America Bloom (as quoted in Medical Standard, 1896, p. 121) found that in none of the cases of women investigated, in which oopho¬ rectomy had been performed before the age of 33, was the sexual appetite entirely lost; in most of them it had not materially diminished 12 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. and in a few it was intensified. There was, however, a general con¬ sensus of opinion that the normal vaginal secretion during coitus was greatly lessened. In the cases of women over 33, including also hyster¬ ectomies, a gradual lessening of sexual feeling and desire was found to occur most generally. Dr. Isabel Davenport records 2 cases (reported in lMedical Standard, 1895, p. 340) of women between 30 and 35 years of age whose erotic tendencies •were extreme; the ovaries and tubes were removed, in one case for disease, in the other with a 'iew of re moving the sexual tendencies; in neither case was there any change. Lapthorn Smith (Medical Record, vol. xlviii) has reported the case of an unmarried woman of 24 whose ovaries and tubes had boon re¬ moved seven years previously for pain and enlargement, and the periods had disappeared for six years; she had had experience of sexual inter¬ course, and declared that she had never felt such extreme sexual excite¬ ment and pleasure as during coitus at the end of this time. In England Lawson Tait and Bantock (British Medical Journal, October 14,°1S99, p. 975) have noted that sexual passion seems some¬ times to be inci'eased even after the removal of ovaries, tubes, and uterus. Lawson Tait also stated (British Gynecological Journal, Feb., 1887, p. 534) that after systematic and extensive inquiry he had not found a single instance in which, provided that sexual appetite existed before the removal of the appendages, it was abolished by that opera¬ tion. A Medical Inquiry Committee appointed by the Liverpool Medi¬ cal Institute (ibid., p. 617) had previously reported that a considerable number of patients stated that they had suffered a distinct loss of sex¬ ual feeling. Lawson Tait, however, throws doubts on the reliability of the Committee’s results, which were based on the statements of unin¬ telligent hospital patients. I may quote the following remarks from a communication sent to me by an experienced physician in Australia: “No rule can be laid down in cases in which both ovaries have been extirpated. Some women say that, though formerly passionate, they have since become quite indif¬ ferent, but I am of opinion that the majority of women who have had prior sexual experience retain desire and gratification in an equal degicc to that they had before operation. I know one case in which a young girl hardly 19 years old, who had been accustomed to congress for some twelve months, had trouble which necessitated the removal of the ovaries and tubes on both sides. Far from losing all her desire or gratification, both were very materially increased in intensity. Men¬ struation has entirely ceased, without loss of femininity in either dis¬ position or appearance. During intercourse, I am told, there is con¬ tinuous spasmodic contraction of various parts of the vagina and vulva.” ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 13 The independence of the sexual impulse from the disten¬ tion of the sexual glands is further indicated by the great fre¬ quency with which sexual sensations, in a faint or even strong degree, are experienced in childhood and sometimes in infancy, and by the fact that they often persist in women long after the sexual glands have ceased their functions. In the study of auto-erotism in another volume of these Studies I have brought together some of the evidence showing that even in very young children spontaneous self-induced sexual excitement, with orgasm, may occur. Indeed, from an early age sexual differences pervade the whole nervous tissue. I may here quote the remarks of an experienced gynecologist: “I venture to think,” Braxton Hicks said many years ago, “that those who have much attended to children will agree with me in saying that, almost from the cradle, a difference can be seen in manner, habits of mind, and in illness, requiring variations in their treatment. The change is certainly hastened and intensified at the time of puberty; but there is, even to an average observer, a clear differ¬ ence between the sexes from early infancy, gradually becoming more marked up to puberty. That sexual feelings exist [it would be better to say ‘may exist’] from earliest infancy is well known, and therefore this function does not depend upon puberty, though intensified by it. Hence, may we not conclude that the progress toward development is not so abrupt as has been generally supposed? . . . The changes of puberty are all of them dependent on the primordial force which, gradually gathering in power, culminates in the perfection both of form and of the sexual system, primary and secondary." There appear to have been but few systematic observations on the persistence of the sexual impulse in women after the menopause. It is regarded as a fairly fi-equent phenomenon by Kisch, and also by Lowen- feld (Sexualleben und Nervenleiden, p. 29). In America, Bloom (as quoted in Medical Standard, 1896), from an investigation of four hun¬ dred cases, found that in some cases the sexual impulse persisted to a very advanced age, and mentions a case of a woman of 1 0, twenty years past the menopause, who had been long a widow, but had recently •married, and who declared that both desire and gratification weie as great, if not greater, than before the menopause. Reference may finally be made to those cases in which the sexual impulse has developed notwithstanding the absence, verified or probable, of any sexual glands at all. In such cases sexual desire and sexual gratification are sometimes even stronger 14 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. than normal. Colnian has reported a case in which neither ovaries nor uterus could be detected, and the vagina was too small for coitus, but pleasurable intercourse took place by the rectum and sexual desire was at times so strong as to amount almost to nymphomania. Clara Barrus has reported the case of a woman in whom there was congenital absence of uterus and ovaries, as proved subsequently by autopsy, but the sexual impulse was very strong and she had had illicit intercourse with a lover. She suffered from recurrent mania, and then mastur¬ bated shamelessly; when sane she was attractively feminine. Macnaughton-Jones describes the case of a woman of 32 with normal sexual feelings and fully developed breasts, clitoris, and labia, but no vagina or internal genitalia could be detected even under the most thorough examination. In a case of Bridgman’s, again, the womb and ovaries were absent, and the vagina small, but coitus was not painful, and the voluptuous sensations were complete and sexual passion was strong. In a case of Cotterill’s, the ovaries and uterus were of minute size and functionless, and the vagina was absent, but the sexual feelings were normal, and the clitoris preserved its usual sensibility. Munde had recorded two similar cases, of which he presents photographs. In all these cases not only was the sexual impulse present in full degree, but the subjects were feminine in disposition and of normal womanly conformation; in most cases the external sexual organs were properly developed. 1 F6r6 ( L’Instinct sexuel, p. 241) lias sought to explain away some of these phenomena, in so far as they may be brought against the theory that the secretions and excretions of the sexual glands are the sole source of the sexual impulse. The persistence of sexual feelings after castration may be due, he argues, to the presence of the nerves in the cicatrices, just as the amputated have the illusion that the missing limb is still there. Exactly the same explanation has since been put 1M. A. Colman, Medical Standard, August, 1895; Clara Barrus, American Journal of Insanity, April, 1895; Macnaughton-Jones, Brit¬ ish Gynaecological Journal, August, 1902; W. G. Bridgman, Medical Standard, 1896; J. M. Cotterill, British Medical Journal, April 7, 1900 (also private communication); Paul F. Mund<‘, American Journal of Obstetrics, March, 1899. ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 15 forward by Moll, Medizinische Klinilc, 1905, Nrs. 12 and 13. In tbe same way the presence of sexual feelings after the menopause may be due to similar irritation determined by degeneration during involution of the glands. The precocious appearance of the sexual impulse in childhood he would explain as due to an anomaly of development in the sexual organs. F6r6 makes no attempt to explain the presence of the sexual impulse in the congenital absence of the sexual glands; here, however, Munde intervenes with the suggestion that it is possible that in most cases “an infinitesimal trace of ovary” may exist, and preserve femininity, though insufficient to produce ovulation or menstruation. It is proper to mention these ingenious arguments. They are, however, purely hypothetical, obviously invented to support a theory. It can scarcely be said that they carry conviction. W e may rather agree with Guinard that so great is the importance of reproduction that nature has multiplied the means by which preparation is made for the conjunction of the sexes and the roads by which sexual excitation may arrive. As Hirsclifeld puts it, in a discussion of this subject (Sexual- Prolleme, Feb., 1912), “Nature has several irons in the fire.” It will be seen that the conclusions we have reached indirectly involve the assumption that the spinal nervous centers, through which the sexual mechanism opei’ates, are not sufficient to account for the whole of the phenomena of the sexual impulse. The nervous circuit tends to involve a cerebral element, which may sometimes be of domi¬ nant importance. Various investigators, from the time of Gall onward, have attempted to localize the sexual instinct centrally. Such attempts, however, cannot be said to have succeeded, although they tend to show that there is a real connection between the brain and the generative organs. Thus Ceni, of Modena, by experiments on chickens, claims to have proved the influence of the cortical centers of procreation on the faculty of generation, for he found that lesions of the cortex led to sterility corresponding in degree to the lesion; but as these results followed even independently of any disturbance of the sexual instinct, their significance is not altogether clear (Carlo Ceni, “L’ Influenza dei Centri Cortieali sui Fenomeni della Generazione,” Revista Sperimentale di Freniatria, 1907, fasc. 2-3). At present, as Obici and Marchesini have well remarked, all that we can do is to assume the existence of cerebral as well as spinal sexual centers; a cerebral sexual center, in the strictest sense, remains purely hypothetical. Although Gall’s attempt to locate the sexual instinct in the cere¬ bellum-well supported as it was by observations—is no longer con¬ sidered to be tenable, his discussion of the sexual instinct was of great value, far in advance of his time, and accompanied by a mass of facts gathered from many fields. He maintained that the sexual instinct is 16 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. a function of the brain, not of the sexual organs. He combated the view ruling in his day that the seat of erotic mania must be sought in the sexual organs. He fully dealt with the development of the sexual instinct in many children before maturity of the sexual glands, the pro¬ longation of the instinct into old age, its existence in the castrated and in the congenital absence of the sexual glands; he pointed out that even with an apparently sound and normal sexual apparatus all sorts of psychic pathological deviations may yet occur. In fact, all the lines of* argument I have briefly indicated in the foregoing pages—although when they were first written this fact was unknown to me—had been fully discussed by this remarkable man nearly a century ago. (The greater part of the third volume of Gall’s Sur les Fonctions du Cerieau, in the edition of 1825, is devoted to this subject. For a good summary, sympathetic, though critical, of Gall’s views on this matter, see Mobius, “Ueber Gall’s Specielle Organologie,” Schmid?8 Jahrbiicher der Medicin, 1900, vol. cclxvii; also Ausgewahlte 1 Yerke, vol. vii.) It will be seen that the question of the nature of the sexual impulse has been slowly transformed. It is no longer a question of the formation of semen in the male, of the function of men¬ struation in the female. It has become largely a question of physiological chemistry. The chief parts in the drama of sex, alike on its psychic as on its physical sides ? are thus supposed to be played by two mysterious protagonists, the hormones, or internal secretions, of the testes and of the ovary. Even the part played by the brain is now often regarded as chemical, the brain being considered to be a great chemical laboratory. There is a tendency, moreover, to extend the sexual sphere so as to admit the influence of internal secretions from other glands. The thymus, the adrenals, the thyroid, the pituitary, even the kidneys: it is possible that internal secretions from all these glands may combine to fill in the complete picture of sexuality as we know it in men and women. 1 The subject is, however, l See Swale Vincent, Internal Secretion and the Ductless Glands, 1912; F. H. A. Marshall, The Physiology of Reproduction, 1910, ch. ix; Munzer, Berliner klinische Wochenschrift, Nov., 1910; C. Sajous, The Internal Secretions, vol. i, 1911. The adrenal glands have been fully and interestingly studied by Glynn, Quarterly. Journal of Medicine, Jan., 1912; the thyroid, by Ewan Waller, Practitioner, Aug., 1912; the internal secretion of the ovary, by A. Louise Mcllrov, Proceedings Royal Society Medicine, Julv, 1912. For a discussion at the Neurology Section of the British Medical Association Meeting, 1912, see British Medical Journal, Nov. 16, 1912. ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 17 so complex and at present so little known that it would be hazardous, and for the present purpose it is needless, to attempt to set forth any conclusions. It is sufficiently clear that there is on the surface a striking analogy between sexual desire and the impulse to evacuate an excretion, and that this analogy is not only seen in the frog, but extends also to the highest vertebrates. It is quite another matter, however, to assert that the sexual impulse can be ade¬ quately defined as an impulse to evacuate. To show fully the inadequate nature of this conception would require a detailed consideration of the facts of sexual life. That is, however, un- necessary. It is enough to point out certain considerations which alone suffice to invalidate this view. In the first place, it must be remarked that the trifling amount of fluid emitted in sexual intercourse is altogether out of proportion to the emotions aroused by the act and to its after-effect on the organism; the ancient dictum omne animal post coitum triste may not be exact, but it is certain that the effect of coitus on the organism is far more profound than that produced by the far more extensive evacuation of the bladder or bowels. Again, this definition leaves unexplained all those elaborate preliminaries which, both in man and the lower animals, precede the sexual act, pre¬ liminaries which in civilized human beings sometimes themselves constitute a partial satisfaction to the sexual impulse. It must also be observed that, unlike the ordinary excretions, this dis¬ charge of the sexual glands is not always, or in every person, necessary at all. Moreover, the theory of evacuation at once becomes hopelessly inadequate when we apply it to women; no one will venture to claim that an adequate psychological ex¬ planation of the sexual impulse in a woman is to be found in the desire to expel a little bland mucus from the minute glands of the genital tract. We must undoubtedly reject this view of the sexual impulse. It has a certain element of truth and it permits an instructive and helpful analogy; but that is all. The sexual act presents many characters which are absent in an ordinary act of evacuation, and, on the other hand, it lacks the 2 18 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. special characteristic of tlie evacuation proper, the elimination of waste material; the seminal fluid is not a waste materia , an its retention is, to some extent perhaps, rather an advantage than a disadvantage to the organism. Eduard von Hartmann long since remarked that the satis¬ faction of what we call the sexual instinct through an act carried out with a person of the opposite sex is a very wonderfu phenomenon. It cannot be said, however, that the conception of the sexual act as a simple process of evacuation does any¬ thing to explain the wonder. We are, at most, in the same posi¬ tion as regards the stilling of normal sexual desire as we should be as regards the emptying of the bladder, supposing it were very difficult for either sex to effect this satisfactorily withou the aid of a portion of the body of a person of the other sex acting as a catheter. In such a case our thoughts and ideals would center around persons of opposite sex, and we sliou d court their attention and help precisely as we do now in the case of our sexual needs. Some such relationship does actually exist in the case of the suckling mother and her infant. The mother is indebted to the child for the pleasurable relief of her dis¬ tended breasts; and, while in civilization more subtle pleasures and intelligent reflection render this massive physical satisfac¬ tion comparatively unessential to the act of suckling, in more primitive conditions and among animals the need of this pleas¬ urable physical satisfaction is a real bond between the mother and her offspring. The analogy is indeed very close: the erectile nipple corresponds to the erectile penis, the eager watery mouth of the infant to the moist and throbbing vagina, the vitally albuminous milk to the vitally albuminous semen. 1 The com- l Since this was written I have come across a passage in Eampa In 928), bv Rafael Salillas, the Spanish sociologist, which shows that the analogy* has been detected by the popular mind and been embodied in popular language: “A significant anatomico-pliysiological concordance supposes a resemblance between the mouth and the sexual oigans woman! between coitus and the ingestion of food, and between foods which do not require mastication and the spermatic ejaculation, thes representations find expression in the popular name popo given to women’s geffital organs. ‘Papo’ is the crop of birds, and is derived from ‘papav’ (Latin, pa'pare), to eat soft food such as we call pap. ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 19 plete mutual satisfaction, physical and psychic, of mother and child, in the transfer from one to the other of a precious or¬ ganized fluid, is the one true physiological analogy to the rela¬ tionship of a man and a woman at the climax of the sexual act. Even this close analogy, however, fails to cover all the facts of the sexual life. A very different view is presented to us in the definition of the sexual instinct as a reproductive impulse, a desire for offspring. Hegar, Eulenburg, Nac-ke, and Lowenfeld have ac¬ cepted this as, at all events, a partial definition. 1 Eo one, in¬ deed, would argue that it is a complete definition, although a few writers appear to have asserted that it is so sometimes as regards the sexual impulse in women. There is, however, con¬ siderable mental confusion in the attempt to set up such a definition. If we define an instinct as an action adapted to an end which is not present to consciousness, then it is quite true that the sexual instinct is an instinct of reproduction. But we do not adequately define the sexual instinct by merely stating its ultimate object. We might as well say that the im¬ pulse by which young animals seize food is “an instinct of nutrition.'’ The object of reproduction certainly constitutes no part of the sexual impulse whatever in any animal apart from man, and it reveals a lack of the most elementary sense of bio¬ logical continuity to assert that in man so fundamental and involuntary a process can suddenly be revolutionized. That this representation of infantile food is connected the term leche [milkl as applied to the ejaculated genital fluid.” Cleland, it may be added, in the most remarkable of English erotic novels, The Memoirs of Fanny Hill, refers to “the compressive exsuction with which the sensi¬ tive mechanism of that part [the vagina] thirstily draws and drains the nipple of Love,” and proceeds to compare it to the action of the child at the breast. It appears that, in some parts of the animal world at least, there is a real analogy of formation between the oral and vaginal ends of the trunk. This is notably the case in some insects, and the point has been elaborately discussed by Walter WeschG, “The Genitalia of Both the Sexes in Diptera, and their Relation to the Armature of the Mouth,” Transactions of the Linnean Society, second series, vol ix Zoology, 1906. ’ i Nftcke now expresses himself very dubiously on the point: see, e.g., Archiv fur Kriminal-Anthropologie, 1905, p. 186. 2Q PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. .. is TC ry often associated with a strong desire t Z nT ht an te no doubt, and in women the longrng Z a chUd-that is to say, the longing to fulfill those functions for which their bodies are constituted—may become so urgent and imperative that we may regard * rg^^Ste^and though it explains £ ^reproductive instinct might be found in l-«e-Uc animals, but would be meaningless, because useless, “ ° ^ “ver uromeatin^ by sexual union. A woman may not want a lore , buUnav yet want a child. This merely means that her materna instincts have teen aroused, while her sexual instincts aie s 1 latent A desire for reproduction, as soon as that desire becomes instinctive, necessarily takes on the form of the sexua impul , for there is no other instinctive mechanism by which it can pos sibly express itself. A “reproductive instinct,” apart from the sexual instinct and apart from the maternal instinct, cannot be admitted; it would be an absurdity. Even in "omen in whom the maternal instincts are strong, it may generally be observed ^although before a woman is in love, and also during the later stages of her love, the conscious desire for a d.dd may h etron» during the time when sexual passion is at its highest tlie thought of offspring, under normally happy conditions, tone s P recede into the background. Eeproduction is the natura end and object of the sexual instinct, but the statement t is part of the contents of the sexual impulse, or can in any way beused to define that impulse, must be dismissed as altoget e inacceptable. Indeed, although the term “reproductive instinct is frequently used, it is seldom used in a sense that we need take seriouslv; it is vaguely employed as a euphemism by those u o wish to veil the facts of the sexual life; it is more precise y employed mainly by those who are unconsciously domina e } a superstitious repugnance to sex. , I now turn to a very much more serious and elaborate at¬ tempt to define the constitution of the sexual impulse, that o Moll. He finds that it is made up of two separate componen s, ANALYSIS OF TIIE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 21 each of which may be looked upon as an uncontrollable impulse. 1 One of these is that by which the tension of the sexual organs is spasmodically relieved; this he calls the impulse of detumescence, 2 and he regards it as primary, resembling the impulse to empty a full bladder. The other impulse is the “instinct to approach, touch, and kiss another person, usually of the opposite sex”; this he terms the impulse of contrectation, and he includes under this head not only the tendency to general physical contact, but also the psychic inclination to become generally interested in a person of the opposite sex. Each of these primary impulses Moll re¬ gards as forming a constituent of the sexual instinct in both men and women. It seems to me undoubtedly true that these two impulses do correspond to the essential phenomena. The awkward and unsatisfactory part of Moll’s analysis is the rela¬ tion of the one to the other. It is true that he traces both impulses back to the sexual glands, that of detumescence di¬ rectly, that of contrectation indirectly; but evidently he does not regard them as intimately related to each other; he insists on the fact that they may exist apart from each other, that they do not appear synchronously in youth; the contrectation impulse he regards as secondary; it is, he states, an indirect result of the sexual glands, “only to be understood by the developmental history of these glands and the object which they subserve”; that is to say, that it is connected with the rise of the sexual method of reproduction and the desirability of the mingling of the two sexes in procreation, while the im¬ pulse of detumescence arose before the sexual method of re¬ production had appeared; thus the contrectation impulse was propagated by natural selection together with the sexual method of reproduction. The impulse of contrectation is secondary, and Moll even regards it as a secondary sexual character. While, therefore, this analysis seems to include all the phenomena and to be worthy of very careful study as a serious 1 Untersvehungen iiber die Libido fiexualis, Berlin, 1897-98. 2 Moll adopts the term “impulse of detumescence” ( Detumescenz- trieb) instead of “impulse of ejaculation,” because in women there is either no ejaculation or it cannot be regarded as essential. 22 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. and elaborate attempt to present an adequate psychological definition of the sexual impulse, it scarcely seems to me that we can accept it in precisely the form in winch Moll presents 1 . I believe, however, that by analyzing the process a little more minutely we shall find that these two constituents of the sexual impulse are really much more intimately associated than at the first glance appears, and that we need by no means go back to the time when the sexual method of reproduction arose to ex¬ plain the significance of the phenomena which Moll includes under the tenn contrectation. To discover the true significance of the phenomena m men it is necessary to observe carefully the phenomena of love-making not only among men, but among animals, in which the impulse of contrectation plays a very large part, and involves an enor¬ mous expenditure of energy. Darwin was the first to present a comprehensive view of, at all events a certain gioup o , ie phenomena of contrectation in animals; on Ins interpretation of those phenomena he founded his famous theory of sexual se¬ lection. We are not primarily concerned with that theory; but the facts on which Darwin based his theory lie at the very roots of our subject, and we are bound to consider their psychological significance. In the first place, since these phenomena are specially associated with Darwin’s name, it may not be out of place to ask what Darwin himself considered to be their ps}- chological significance. It is a somewhat important question even 'for those who are mainly concerned with the validity of the theory which Darwin established on those facts, but so far as I know it has not hitherto been asked. I find that a careful perusal of the Descent of Man reveals the presence in Darwin’s mind of two quite distinct theories, neither of them fully de¬ veloped, as to the psychological meaning of the facts he was collecting. The two following groups of extracts will serve to show this very conclusively: “The lower animals have a sense of beauty,” he declares, “powers of discrimination and taste on the part of the female” (p. 211*) ; “the females habitually 11 quote from the second edition, as issued in 1881. ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 23 or occasionally prefer the more beautiful males/ 5 “there is little improbability in the females of insects appreciating beauty in form or color 55 (p. 329); he speaks of birds as the most “esthetic 55 of all animals excepting man, and adds that they have “nearly the same taste for the beautiful as we have 55 (p. 359); he re¬ marks that a change of any kind in the structure or color of the male bird “appears to have been admired by the female 55 (p. 385). He speaks of the female Argus pheasant as possess¬ ing “this almost human degree of taste. 55 Birds, again, “seem to have some taste for the beautiful both in color and sound, 55 and “we ought not to feel too sure that the female does not attend to'each detail of beauty 55 (p. 421). Novelty, he says, is “admired by birds for its own sake 55 (p. 495). “Birds have fine powers of discrimination and in some few instances it can be shown that they have a taste for the beautiful 55 (p. 496). The “esthetic capacity 55 of female animals has been advanced by exercise just as our own taste has improved (p. 616). On the other hand, we find running throughout the book quite another idea. Of cicadas he tells us that it is probable that, “like female birds, they are excited or allured by the male with the most attractive voice 55 (p. 282); and, coming to Locustidce, he states that “all observers agree that the sounds serve either to call or excite the mute females 55 (p. 283). Of birds he says, “I am led to believe that the females prefer or are most excited by the more brilliant males 55 (p. 316). Among birds also the males “endeavor to charm or excite their mates by love-notes, 55 etc., and “the females are excited by certain males, and thus uncon¬ sciously prefer them 55 (p. 367), while ornaments of all kinds “apparently serve to excite, attract, or fascinate the female 55 (p. 394). In a supplemental note, also, written in 1876, five years after the first publication of the Descent of Man, and therefore a late statement of his views, Darwin remarks that “no supporter of the principle of sexual selection believes that the females select particular points of beauty in the males; they are merely excited or attracted in a greater degree by one male than by another, and this seems often to depend, especially 24 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. with birds, on brilliant coloring” (p. 623). Thus on the one hand, Darwin interprets the phenomena as involving a real esthetic element, a taste for the beautiful; on the ^ he states, without apparently any clear perception hat the two views are quite distinct, that the colors and sounds and other characteristics of the male are not an appeal to any esthetic sense of the female, but an appeal to her sexual emotions, a stimulus to sexual excitement, an allurement to sexual contact. According to the first theory, the female admires beauty, con¬ sciously or unconsciously, and selects the most beautifu par - ner 1 ; according to the second theory, there is no esthetic ques¬ tion involved, but the female is unconsciously influenced by the most powerful or complex organic stimulus to which she is subjected. There can be no question that it is the second, and not the first, of these two views which we are justified in accepting. Darwin, it must be remembered, was not a psy¬ chologist, and he lived before the methods of comparatiie psy¬ chology had begun to be developed; had he written twenty years later we may be sure he -would never have used so in¬ cautiously some of the vague and hazardous expressions I have quoted. He certainly injured his theory of sexual selection by stating it in too anthropomorphic language, by insisting on “choice,” “preference,” “esthetic sense,” etc. There is no need whatever to burden any statement of the actual facts by such terms borrowed from human psychology. The female responds to the stimulation of the male at the right moment just as the tree responds to the stimulation of the warmest days in spring. We should but obscure this fact by stating that the tree “chooses” the most beautiful days on which to put forth its young sprouts. In explaining the correlation between respon¬ sive females and accomplished males the supposition of esthetic l This is the theory which by many has alone been seen in Dar- , iA S," of Man. Thus even his friend Wallace states uncond.- tionally (Tropical Nature, p. 193) that Darwin accepted a voluntary or conscious sexual selection,” and seems to repeat the same statement in Darwinism (1889), p. 283. Lloyd Morgan, in his discussion of the pairing instinct in Habit and Instinct (1396), seems also only to see this side of Darwin’s statement. ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 25 choice is equally unnecessary. It is, however, interesting to observe that, though Darwin failed to see that the love-com¬ bats, pursuits, dances, and parades of the males served as a method of stimulating the impulse of contrectation—or, as it would be better to term it, tumescence—in the male himself, 1 he to some extent realized the part thus played in exciting the equally necessary activity of tumescence in the female. The justification for using the term “tumescence,” which I here propose, is to be found in the fact that vascular congestion, more espe¬ cially of the parts related to generation, is an essential preliminary to acute sexual desire. This is clearly brought out in Heape’s careful study of the “sexual season” in mammals. Heape distinguishes between the “pro-estrum,” or preliminary period of congestion, in female animals and the immediately following “estrus,” or period of desire. The latter period is the result of the former, and, among the lower animals at all events, intercourse only takes place during the estrus, not during the pro-estrum. Tumescence must thus be obtained before desire can become acute, and courtship runs pari passu with physiological processes. “Nor¬ mal estrus,” Heape states, “occurs in conjunction with certain changes in the uterine tissue, and this is accompanied by congestion and stimu¬ lation or irritation of the copulatory organs. . . . Congestion is invariably present and is an essential condition. . . . The first sign of pro-estrum noticed in the lower mammals is a swollen and con¬ gested vulva and a general restlessness, excitement, or uneasiness. There are other signs familiar to breeders of various mammals, such as the congested conjunctiva of the rabbit’s eye and the drooping ears of the pig. Many monkeys exhibit congestion of the face and nipples, as well as of the buttocks, thighs, and neighboring parts; sometimes they are congested to a very marked extent, and in some species a swelling, occasionally prodigious, of the soft tissues round the anal and generative openings, which is also at the time brilliantly congested, indicates the progress of the pro-estrum. . . . The growth of the stroma-tissue [in the uterus of monkeys during the pro-estrum] is rapidly followed by an increase in the number and size of the vessels of the stroma; the whole becomes richly supplied with blood, and the surface is flushed and highly vascular. This process goes on until the whole of the internal stroma becomes tense and brilliantly injected 1 In his Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, Darwin was puzzled by the fact that, in captivity, animals often cop¬ ulate without conceiving and failed to connect that fact with the processes behind his own theory of sexual selection. ‘26 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. with blood. ... In all essential points the menstruation or pro- estrum of the human female is identical with that of monkeys. . • • EstruB is possible only after the changes due to pro-estrum have taken place in the uterus. A wave of disturbance, at first evident in the external generative organs, extends to the uterus, and after the various phases of pro-estrum have been gone through in that organ, and the excitement there is subsiding, it would seem as if the external organs gain renewed stimulus, and it is then that estrus takes place . . • In all animals which have been investigated coition is not allowed by the female until some time after the swelling and congestion of the vulva and surrounding tissue are first demonstrated and in those animals which suffer from a considerable discharge of blood the main portion of that discharge, if not the whole of it, will be evacuated be¬ fore sexual intercourse is allowed.” (W. Heape, “The ‘Sexual Season o Mammals,” Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, vol. xliv, Part I, 1900. Estrus has since been fully discussed in Marshall s P lysio oyy of Reproduction,) This description clearly brings out the fundamen¬ tally vascular character of the process I have termed “tumescence ; it must be a^ded, however, that in man the nervous elements in the proc¬ ess tend to become more conspicuous, and more or less obliterate these primitive limitations of sexual desire. (See “Sexual Periodicity” in the first volume of these Studies.) Moll subsequently restated his position with reference to my somewhat different analysis of the sexual impulse, still maintaining his original view (“Analyse des Geschlechtstriebes,” Medizmtsche Klinik Nos. 12 and 13, 1905; also QescMecht und Gesellscliaft, vol. n, Nos. 9 and 10). Numa Praetoriu9 (Jahrbuch fur Sexuelle Zivischen- stufen, 1904, p. 592) accepts contreetation, tumescence, and detumes¬ cence as all being stages in the same process, contreetation, which he defines as the sexual craving for a definite individual, coming first. Robert Muller (Sexualbiologic, 1907, p. 37) criticises Moll much in the same sense as I have done and considers that contreetation and detumes¬ cence cannot be separated, but are two expressions of the same impulse ; so also Max Katte, “Die Praliminarien des Geschlechtsaktes, Zeit- schrift fur Scxualicissenscliaft, Oct., 1908, and G. Saint-Paul, L Homo sexualite et les Types Homosexuels, 1910, p. 390. While I regard Moll’s analysis as a valuable contribution to the elucidation of the sexual impulse, I must repeat that I cannot regard it as final or completely adequate. As I understand the process, eon- trectation is an incident in the development of tumescence, an ex¬ tremely important incident indeed, but not an absolutely fundamental and primitive part of it. It is equally an incident, highly important though not primitive and fundamental, of detumescence. Contreetation, ANALYSIS OP THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 27 from first to last, furnishes the best conditions for the exercise of the sexual process, but it is not an absolutely essential part of the process and in the early stages of zoological development it had no existence at all. Tumescence and detumescence are alike fundamental, primitive, and essential; in resting the sexual impulse on these necessarily con¬ nected processes we are basing ourselves on the solid bedrock of nature. Moreover, of the two processes, tumescence, which in time comes first, is by far the most important, and nearly the whole of sexual psycholog}' is rooted in it. To assert, with Moll, that the sexual proc¬ ess may be analyzed into contreetation and detumescence alone is to omit the most essential part of the process. It is ‘much the same as to analyze the mechanism of a gun into probable contact with the hand, and a more or less independent discharge, omitting all reference to the loading of the gun. The essential elements are the loading and the discharging. Contreetation is a part of loading, though not a neces¬ sary part, since the loading may be effected mechanically. But to understand the process of firing a gun and to comprehend the mechanism, of the discharge, we must insist on the act of loading and not merely on the contact of the hand. So it is in analyzing the sexual impulse. Contreetation is indeed highly important, but it is important only in so far as it aids tumescence, and so may be subordinated to tumescence, exactly as it may also be subordinated to detumescence. It is tumes¬ cence which is the really essential part of the process, and we cannot afford, with Moll, to ignore it altogether. Wallace opposed Darwin’s theory of sexual selection, but it can scarcely be said that his attitude toward it bears critical examination. On the one hand, as has already been noted, he saw but one side of that theory and that the unessential side, and, on the other hand, his own view really coincided with the more essential elements in Darwin’s theory. In his Tropical Mature he admitted that the male’s “persistency and energy win the day,” and also that this “vigor and liveliness” of the male are usually associated with intense coloration, while twenty years later (in his Darwinism) he admitted also that it is highly probable that the female is pleased or excited by the male’s display. But all that is really essential in Darwin’s theory is involved, directly or indirectly, in these admissions. Espinas, in 1878, in his suggestive book, Des Societes Ani¬ mates, described the odors, colors and forms, sounds, games, parades, and mock battles of animals, approaching the subject PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. 28 in a somewhat more psychological spirit than either Darwin or Wallace, and he somewhat more clearly apprehended t e o jec of these phenomena in producing mutual excitement and stimu¬ lating tumescence. He noted the significance of the action ot the hermaphroditic snails in inserting tlieir darts into each other’s flesh near the vulva in order to cause preliminary ex¬ citation. He remarks of this whole group of phenomena: t is the preliminary of sexual union, it constitutes the first act of it. By it the image of the male is graven on the conscious¬ ness of the female, and in a manner impregnates it, so as to determine there, as the effects of this representation descend to the depths of the organism, the physiological modifications necessary to fecundation.” Beaunis, again, in an analysis ot the sexual sensations, was inclined to think that the dances an parades of the male are solely intended to excite the female, not perceiving, however, that they at the same time serve to further excite the male also. 1 A better and more comprehensive statement was reached bv Tillier, who, to some extent, may be said to have anticipated Groos. Darwin, Tillier pointed out, had not sufficiently taken into account the coexistence of combat and courtship, nor the order of the phenomena. Courtship without combat, Tillier argued, is rare; "there is a normal coexistence of combat and courtship.” 2 Moreover, he proceeded, force is the chief factor 1 Beaunis Sensations Internes, cb. v, “Besoins Sesuels, ’ 1SS9. It may be' noted that many years “to y d rb >' sicai “ nt seemed to have the same effect m the female also. 2 It is scarcely necessary to point out that this is too extreme a ... ^ . ' T p Millais remarks of ducks (Natural History of British V nuclTv 45) in'courtship “success in winning the admiration of the Duels, p. 4. ), ynnttiv of nersieffent and active attention than Sal'Vrc, ” though to males Occasionally light over the female. Tlie ruff (Machetes pugnax) is a pugnacious bird, as his name indicateb. Ye? the reeve the female of this species, is, as E. Selous shows (‘ Sexual Selection ^Z Bivtl'Zoologist, Feb. and May, 1907), complete y mistress f.ar-’ts -snttg ~ ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 29 in determining tlic possession of the female by the male, who in some species is even prepared to exert force on her; so that the female has little opportunity of sexual selection, though she is always present at these combats. He then emphasized the significant fact that courtship takes place long after pairing has ceased, and the question of selection thus been eliminated. The object of courtship, he concluded, is not sexual selection by the female, but the sexual excitement of both male and female, such excitement, he asserted, not only rendering coupling easier, but favoring fecundation. Modesty, also, Tillier further argued, again anticipating Groos, works toward the same end; it renders the male more ardent, and by retarding coupling may also in¬ crease the secretions of the sexual glands and favor the chances of reproduction. * 1 In a charming volume entitled The Naturalist in La Plata (1S92) Mr. W. H. Hudson included a remarkable chapter on “Music and Dancing in Nature.” In this chapter he described many of the dances, songs, and love-antics of birds, but regarded all such phenomena as merely “periodical fits of gladness.” While, however, we may quite well agree with Mr. Hudson that conscious sexual gratification on the part of the female is not the cause of music and dancing performances in birds, nor of the brighter colors and ornaments that distinguish the male' such an opinion by no means excludes the conclusion that these phenomena are primarily sexual and intimately connected with the process of tumescence in both sexes. It is noteworthy that, according to H. E. Howard (“On Sexual Selection in Birds,” Zoologist, Nov., 1903), color is most developed just before pairing, rapidly becoming less beautiful—even within a few hours—after this, and the most beautiful male is most successful in getting paired. The fact that, as Mr. Hudson himself points out, it is at the season of love that these manifestations mainly, if not exclusively, appear, and that it is the more brilliant and highly endowed males which play the chief pait in them, only serves to confirm such a conclusion. To argue, with Mr. Hudson, that they cannot be sexual because they sometimes occur be¬ fore the arrival of the females, is much the same as to argue that the Moreover, as R. Muller points out (loo. cit., p. 290), fighting would not usuallv attain the end desired, for if the males expend their time and strength in a serious combat they merely afford a third less pugnacious male °a better opportunity of running off with the prize. l L. Tillier, L'Instinct Scxuel, 1889, pp. 74, 118,119,1-4 ct seq., 289. 30 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. antics of a kitten with a feather or a reel have no relationship what¬ ever to mice. The birds that began earliest to practise their accom¬ plishments would probably have most chance of success when the females arrived. Darwin himself said that nothing is commoner than for animals to take pleasure in practising whatever instinct they follow at other times for some real good. These manifestations are primarily for the sake of producing sexual tumescence, and could not well have been developed to the height they have reached unless they were con¬ nected closely with propagation. That they may incidentally serve to express “gladness” one need not feel called upon to question. Another observer of birds, Mr. E. Selous, has made observations which are of interest in this connection. lie finds that all bird-dances are not nuptial, but that some birds—the stone-curlew (or great plover), for example—have different kinds of dances. Among these birds he has made the observation, very significant from our present point of view, that the nuptial dances, taken part in by both of the pair, are imme¬ diately followed by intercourse. In spring “all such runnings and chas¬ ings are, at this time, but a part of the business of pairing, and one divines at once that such attitudes are of a sexual character. Here we have a bird with distinct nuptial (sexual) and social (non-sex- ual) forms of display or antics, and the former as well as the latter are equally indulged In by both sexes.” (E. Selous, Bird Watching, pp. 15-20.) The same author (ibid., pp. 79, 94) argues that in the fights of two males for one female—with violent emotion on one side and interested curiosity on the other—the attitude of the former “might gradually come to be a display made entirely for the female, and of the latter a greater or less degree of pleasurable excitement raised by it, with a choice in accordance.” On this view the interest of the female would first have been directed, not to the plumage, but to the frenzied actions and antics of the male. From these antics in undecorated birds would gradually develop the interest in waving plumes and fluttering wings. Such a dance might come to be of a quite formal and non-courting nature. Last, we owe to Professor Hacker what may fairly be regarded, in all main outlines, as an almost final statement of the matter. In his Qesang der Vogel (1900) he gives a very clear account of the evolution of bird-song, which he regards as the most essential element in all this group of manifestations, furnishing the key also to the dancing and other antics. Originally the song consists only of call-cries and recogni¬ tion-notes. Under the parallel influence of natural selection and sexual selection they become at the pairing season reflexes of excitement and thus develop into methods of producing excitement, in the male by the ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 31 muscular energy required, and in tlie female through the ear; finally they become play, though here also it is probable that use is not ex¬ cluded. Thus, so far as the male bird is concerned, bird-song possesses a primary prenuptial significance in attracting the female, a secondary nuptial significance in producing excitement (p. 48). He holds also that the less-developed voices of the females aid in attaining the same end (p. 51). Finally, bird-song possesses a tertiary extranuptial significance (including exercise play, expression of gladness). Hacker points out, at the same time, that the maintenance of some degree of sexual excitement beyond pairing time may be of value for the preserva¬ tion of the species, in case of disturbance during breeding and consequent necessity for commencing breeding over again. Such a theory as this fairly coincides with the views brought for¬ ward in the preceding pages,—views which are believed to be in harmony with the general trend of thought today,—since it emphasizes the im¬ portance of tumescence and all that favors tumescence in the sexual process. The so-called esthetic element in sexual selection is only in¬ directly of importance. The male’s beauty is really a symbol of his force. It will be seen that this attitude toward the facts of tumescence among birds and other animals includes the recognition of dances, songs, etc., as expressions of “gladness.” As such they are closely comparable to the art manifestations among human races. Here, as Weismann in his Gedanken iiber Musik has remarked, we may regard the artistic faculty as a by-product: “This [musical] faculty is, as it were, the mental hand with which we play on our own emotional nature, a hand not shaped for this purpose, not due to the necessity for the enjoyment of music, but owing its origin to entirely different requirements.” The psychological significance of these facts has been care¬ fully studied and admirably developed by Groos in his classic works on the play instinct in animals and in men. 1 Going beyond Wallace, Groos denies conscious sexual selection, but, as he points out, this by no means involves the denial of uncon¬ scious selection in the sense that “the female is most easily won by the male who most strongly excites her sexual instincts.” Groos further quotes a pregnant generalization of Ziegler: “In all animals a high degree of excitement of the nervous system is necessary to procreation , and thus we find an excited prelude IK. Groos, Die fipicle der Thiere, 1896; Die Spiele der Menschen, 1899; both are translated into English. 32 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. to procreation widely spread.” 1 Such a stage, indeed, as Groos points out, is usually necessary before any markedly passionate discharge of motor energy, as may be observed in angry dogs and the Homeric heroes. While, however, in other motor ex¬ plosions the prelude may be reduced to a minimum, in courtship it is foimd in a highly marked degree. The primary object of courtship, Groos insists, is to produce sexual excitement. It is true that Groos’s main propositions were by no means novel. Thus, as I have pointed out, he was at most points anticipated by Tillier. But Groos developed the argu¬ ment in so masterly a manner, and with so many wide-ranging illustrations, that he has carried conviction where the mere insight of others had passed unperceived. Since Darwin wrote th e Descent of Man the chief step in the development of the theory of sexual selection has been taken by Groos, who has at the same time made it clear that sexual selection is largely a special case of natural selection. 2 The conjunction of the sexes is seen to be an end only to be obtained with much struggle; the difficulty of achieving sexual erethism in both sexes, the difficulty of so stimulating such erethism in the fe¬ male that her instinctive coyness is overcome, these difficulties the best and most vigorous males, 3 those most adapted in other 1 Prof. IT. E. Ziegler, in a private letter to Professor Groos, Spiele der Thiere , p. 202. _ _ , . n . , , , 2 Die Spiele der Thiere , p. 244. Tins had been briefly pointed out by earlier writers. Thus, Haeckel (Gen. Morph., ii, p. 244) remarked that fighting for females is a special or modified kind of struggle for ex¬ istence, and that it acts on both sexes. 3 It may be added that in the human species, as Bray remarks (“Le Beau dans la Nature,” Revue Philosophique, October, 1901, p. 403), “the hymen would seem to tend to the same end, as if nature had wished‘to reinforce by a natural obstacle the moral restraint of modesty, so that only the vigorous male could insure his reproduction.” There can be no doubt that among many animals pairing is delayed so far as possible until maturity is reached. “It is a strict rule amongst birds,” remarks J. G. Millais (op. tit., p. 46), “that they do not breed until both sexes have attained the perfect adult plumage. L ntn that happens, it seems probable, the conditions for sexual excitation are not fully established. We know little, says Howard (Zoologist, 1903, p. 407), of the age at which birds begin to breed, but it is known that “there are yearly great numbers of individuals who do not breed, and the evidence seems to show that such individuals are immature.” ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 33 respects to carry on the race, may most easily overcome. In this connection we may note what Marro has said in another connection, when attempting to answer the question why it is that among savages courtship becomes so often a matter in which persuasion takes the form of force. The explanation, he remarks, is yet very simple. Force is the foundation of virility, and its psychic manifestation is courage. In the strug¬ gle for life violence is the first virtue. The modesty of women —in its primordial form consisting in physical resistance, active or passive, to the assaults of the male—aided selection by put¬ ting to the test man’s most important quality, force. Thus it is that when choosing among rivals for her favors a woman attributes value to violence. 1 Marro thus independently con¬ firms the result reached by Groos. The debate which has for so many years been proceeding concerning the validity of the theory of sexual selection may now be said to be brought to an end. Those who supported Darwin and those who opposed him were, both alike, in part right and in part wrong, and it is now possible to combine the elements of truth on either side into a coherent whole. This is now beginning to be widely recognized; Lloyd Morgan, 2 for in¬ stance, has readjusted his position as regards the “pairing instinct” in the light of Groos’s contribution to the subject. “The hypothesis of sexual selection,” he concludes, “suggests that the accepted male is the one which adequately evokes the pairing impulse. . . . Courtship may thus be regarded from the physiological point of view as a means of producing the requisite amount of pairing hunger; of stimulating the whole system and facilitating general and special vascular changes; of creating that state of profound and explosive irritability which has for its psychological concomitant or antecedent an imperious and irresistible craving. . . . Courtship is thus 1 A. Marro, La Puberty, 1901, p. 464. 2 Lloyd Morgan, Animal Behavior, 1900, pp. 264-5. It may be added that, on the esthetic side, Hirn, in his study (The Origins of Art, 1900), reaches conclusions which likewise, in the main, concord with those of Groos. 3 34 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. the strong and steady bending of the bow that the arrow may find its mark in a biological end of the highest importance in the survival of a healthy and vigorous race. Having thus viewed the matter broadly, we may consider in detail a few examples of the process of tumescence among the lower animals and man, for, as will be seen, the process in both is identical. As regards animal courtship, the best treasury of facts is Brehm s Tlucr- Icben, while BUcliner’s Licbe und IAcbes-Lebcn in der Thierwclt is a use¬ ful summary; the admirable discussion of bird-dancing and other forms of courtship in Hacker’s Oesang der Vogel, chapter iv, may also be con¬ sulted. As regards man, Wallaschek’s Primitive Music, chapter vn, brings together much scattered material, and is all the more valuable since the author rejects any form of sexual selection; Hirn’s Onytrw of Art, chapter xvii, is well worth reading, and Finck’s Primitive Love and Love-stories contains a large amount of miscellaneous information. I have preferred not to draw on any of these easily accessible sources (except that in one or two cases I have utilized references they sup¬ plied), but here simply furnish illustrations met with in the course of my own reading. . v ,, Even in the hermaphroditic slugs (Limas masimus) the process of courtship is slow and elaborate. It has been described by James Bladon (“The Loves of the Slug [Limas cinereus],” Zoologist, vol. xv, 1857, p. G272). It begins toward midnight on sultry summer nights, one slug slowly following another, resting its mouth on what may be called the taifof the first, and following its every movement. Finally tliev stop and begin crawling around each other, emitting large quan¬ tities of mucus. When this has constituted a mass of sufficient size and consistence they suspend themselves from it by a cord of mucus from nine to fifteen inches in length, continuing to turn round each other till their bodies form a cone. Then the organs of generation are protruded from their orifice near the mouth and, hanging down a short distance, touch each other. They also then begin again the same spiral motion, twisting around each other, like a two-strand cord, assuming various and beautiful forms, sometimes like an inverted agaric, or a foliated murex, or a leaf of curled parsley, the light falling on the ever-varying surface of the generative organs sometimes producing iridescence. It is not until after a considerable time that the organs untwist and are withdrawn and the bodies separate, to crawl up the suspending cord and depart. Some snails have a special organ for creating sexual excitement. A remarkable part of the reproductive system in many of the true Helicidae is the so-called dart, Liebespfeil, or telum T eneris. It consists ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 35 of a straight or curved, sometimes slightly twisted, tubular shaft of carbonate of lime, tapering to a fine point above, and enlarging grad¬ ually, more often somewhat abruptly, to the base. The sides of the shaft are sometimes furnished with two or more blades; these are apparently not for cutting purposes, but simply to brace the stem. The dart is contained in a dart-sac, which is attached as a sort of pocket to the vagina, at no great distance from its orifice. In Helix aspersa the dart is about five-sixteenths of an inch in length, and one- eighth of an inch in breadth at its base. It appears most probable that the dart is employed as an adjunct for the sexual act. Besides the fact of the position of the dart-sac anatomically, we find that the darts are extended and become imbedded in the flesh, just before or during the act of copulation. It may be regarded, then, as an organ whose functions induce excitement preparatory to sexual union. It only occurs in well-grown specimens. (Rev. L. H. Cooke, “Molluscs,” Cam¬ bridge Natural History , vol. iii, p. 143.) Racovitza has shown that in the octopus ( Octopus vulgaris) court¬ ship is carried on with considerable delicacy, and not brutally, as had previously been supposed. The male gently stretches out his third arm on the right and caresses the female with its extremity, eventually pass¬ ing it into the chamber formed by the mantle. The female contracts spasmodically, but does not attempt to move. They remain thus about an hour or more, and during this time the male shifts the arm from one oviduct to the other. Finally he withdraws his arm, caresses her with it for a few moments, and then replaces it with his other arm. (E. G. Racovitza, in Archives de Zoologie Experiment ale, quoted in Natural Science, November, 1894.) The phenomena of courtship are very well illustrated by spiders. Peckham, who has carefully studied them, tells us of Saitis pulex: “On May 24th we found a mature female, and placed her in one of the larger boxes, and the next day we put a male in with her. He saw her as she stood perfectly still, twelve inches away; the glance seemed to excite him, and he at once moved toward her; when some four inches from her he stood still, and then began the most remarkable per¬ formances that an amorous male could offer to an admiring female. She eyed him eagerly, changing her position from time to time so that he might be always in view. He, raising his whole body on one side by straightening out the legs, and lowering it on the other by folding the first two pairs of legs up and under, leaned so far over as to be in danger of losing his balance, which he only maintained by sliding rapidly toward the lowered side. The palpus, too, on this side was turned back to correspond to the direction of the legs nearest it. He moved in a semicircle for about two inches, and then instantly re- 36 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. versed tl,e position of the legs and eireled in the opposite direction gradually approaching nearer and nearer to the fema e. - dashes Lard him, while he, raising his first pair of legs extends Lm upward and forward as if to hold her off, but withal slowly re¬ treats. Again and again he circles from side to side» him in a softer mood, evidently admiring the grace of his antics. lh is repeated until we have counted one hundred and eleven circles made !,v the ardent little male. Now he approaches nearer and nearer an when almost within reach whirls madly around ond around her she ioinimr and whirling with him in a giddy maze. Again lie falls back ind resumes his semicircular motions with his body Wtod1 over; ** all excitement, lowers her head and raises her body so that it al • vertical; both draw nearer; she moves slowly under him, he crawling over her head, and the mating is accomplished. The same author thus describes the courtship of Dendryplumtes eleaans: “While from three to live inches distant from her, he begins to wave his plumy first legs in a way that reminds one of a windmill. She eyes him fiercely, and he keeps at a proper distance for a l °ng time lf he comes close she dashes at him, and he quickly retreats Jkmetunes he becomes bolder, and when within an inch, pauses, with the first legs outstretched before him, not raised as is common in other species, the palpi also are held stiffly out in front with the points together. Again she drives him off, and so the play continues. Now the male grows ex¬ cited as he approaches her, and while still several inches away, whirls completely around and around; pausing, lie runs closer and begins to make his’abdomcn quiver as he stands on tiptoe in front of her. Pranc- tag from side to side, he grows bolder and bolder, while Ac M-l-. fierce, and yielding to the excitement, lifts up her magnificently lr cent abdomen, holding it at one time vertical, and at another sideway to him. She no longer rushes at him, but retreats a little as lie ap¬ proaches. At last he comes close to her, lying flat, with lus first legs stretched out and quivering. With the tips of his front legs he gently pats her; this seems to arouse the old demon of resistance, and she drives him back. Again and again he pats her with a caressing moie- nient, gradually creeping nearer and nearer, which she now permits withouf resistance, until he crawls over her head to her abdomen far enough to reach the epigynum with Ins palpus. (Gr. V. Peckh , “Sexual Selection of Spiders,” Occasional Papers of the history Society of Wisconsin, 1889, quoted in Nature , August 21, 1890 ) The courtship of another spider, the Ayelena labynnthica, has been studied bv Ltcaillon (“Les Instincts et les Psychismes des Araignees,” Recue Scientific, Sept. 15, 1906. The male enters the female’s web and may be found there about the middle of July. When ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 37 courtship has begun it is not interrupted by the closest observation, even under the magnifying glass. At first it is the male which seeks to couple and he pursues the female over her web till she consents. The pursuit may last some hours, the male agitating his abdomen in a peculiar way, while the female simply retreats a short distance without allowing herself to be approached. At last the female holds herself completely motionless, and then the male approaches, seizes her, places her on her side, sometimes carxwing her to a more suitable part of the web. Then one of his copulative apparatus is applied to the female genital opening, and copulation begins. When completed (on an aver¬ age in about two hours) the male withdraws his copulatory palpus and turns over the female, who is still inert, on to her other side, then brings his second copulatory apparatus to the female opening and starts afresh. When the process is definitely completed the male leaves the female, suddenly retiring to a little distance. The female, who had remained completely motionless for four hours, suddenly runs after the male. But she only pursues him for a short distance, and the two spiders remain together without any danger to either. Leeaillon dis¬ believes the statement of Romanes (in his Animal Intelligence) that the female eats the male after copulation. But this certainly seems to occur sometimes among insects, as illustrated by the following instance described by so careful an observer of insects as Fabre. The Mantis religiosa is described by Fabre as contemplating the female for a long time in an attitude of ecstasy. She remains still and seems indiffei’ent. He is small and she is large. At last he appi’oaches; spreads his wings, which tremble convulsively; leaps on her back, and fixes himself there. The pi'eludes are long and the coupling itself sometimes occupies five or six hours. Then they sepai’ate. But the same day or the following day she seizes him and eats him up in small mouthfuls. She will permit a whole series of males to have intercourse with her, always eating them up directly afterward. Fabre lias even seen her eating the male while still on her back, his head and neck gone, but his body still firmly attached. (J. H. Fabre, Souvenirs Ento- mologiques, fifth series, p. 307.) Fabre also describes in great detail (ibid., ninth series, chs. xxi-xxii) the sexual paiudes of the Languedoc scorpion (Scorpio occitanus) , an arachnid. These parades aie in public; for their subsequent intercourse the couple seek complete seclusion, and the female finally eats the male. An insect (a species of Emjris) has been described which excites the female by manipulating a large balloon. “This is of elliptical shape, about seven millimeters long (nearly twice as long as the fly), hollow, and composed entirely of a single layer of minxxte bubbles, nearly uni¬ form in size, arranged in regular cii'cles concentric with the axis of the 38 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. structure. The beautiful, glistening whiteness of the object when the sun shines upon it makes it very conspicuous. The bubbles were slightly viscid, and in nearly every case there was a small fly pressed into the front end of the balloon, apparently as food for the Emjns. In all cases they were dead. The balloon appears to be made while the insect is flying in the air. Those flying highest had the smallest bal¬ loons The bubbles are probably produced by some modification of the anal organs. It is possible that the captured fly serves as a nucleus to betnn the balloon oh. One case of a captured fly but no balloon was observed. After commencing, it is probable that the rest of the struc¬ ture is made by revolving the completed part between the hind legs and adding more bubbles somewhat spirally. The posterior end of the bal¬ loon is left more or less open. The purpose of this structure is to attract the female. When numerous males were flying up and down the road, it happened several times that a female was seen to approach them from some choke-cherry blossoms near by. The males immediately gathered in her path, and she with little hesitation selected for a mate the one with the largest balloon, taking a position upon his back. After copulation had begun, the pair would settle down toward the ground, select a quiet spot, and the female would alight by placing her front legs across a horizontal grass blade, her head resting against the blade so° as to brace the body in position. Here she would continue to hold the male beneath her for a little time, until the process was finished. The male, meanwhile, would be rolling the balloon about in a variety of positions, juggling with it, one might almost say. After the male and female parted company, the male immediately dropped the balloon upon the cn-ound, and it was greedily seized by ants. No illustration could properly show the beauty of the balloon.” (Aldrich and Turley, “A Balloon-making Fly,” American Naturalist, October, 1899.) “In many speciea of moths the males ‘assemble’ around the freshly emerged female, but no special advantage appears to attend on early arrival. The female sits apparently motionless, while the little crowd of suitors buzz around her for several minutes. Suddenly, and, as far as one can see, without any sign from the female, one of the males pairs with her and all the others immediately disappear. In these cases the males do not fight or struggle in any way, and as one watches the cere¬ mony the wonder arises as to how the moment is determined, and why the pairing did not take place before. Proximity does not decide the point, for long beforehand the males often alight close to the female and brush against lier with fluttering wings. I have -watched the process exactly as I have described it in a common Northern Noctua, the antler moth (Charccax graminis), and I have seen the same thing among beetles.” (E. B. Poulton, The Colors of Animals, 1890, p. 391.) This ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 39 Ruthor mentions that among some butterflies the females take the active part. The example here quoted of courtship among moths illustrates how phenomena which are with difficulty explicable by the theory of sexual selection in its original form become at once intelligible when we realize the importance of tumescence in courtship. Of the Argentine cow-bird ( MolotKrus bonaricnsis ) Hudson says (Argentine Ornithology, vol. i, p. 73) : “The song of the male, partic¬ ularly when making love, is accompanied with gestures and actions somewhat like those of the domestic pigeon. He swells himself out, beating the ground with his wings, and uttering a series of deep in¬ ternal notes, followed by others loud and clear; and occasionally, when uttering them, he suddenly takes wing and flies directly away from the female to a distance of fifty yards, and performs a wide circuit about her in the air, singing all the time. The homely object of his passion always appears utterly indifferent to this curious and pretty perform¬ ance; yet she must be even more impressionable than most female birds, since she continues scattering about her parasitical and often wasted eggs during four months in every year.” Of a tyrant-bird (Pitangus Bolivianus) Hudson writes ( Argentine Ornithology, vol. i, p. 148): “Though the male and female are greatly attached, they do not go afield to hunt in company, but separate to meet again at intervals during the day. One of a couple (say, the female) returns to the trees where they are accustomed to meet, and after a time, becoming impatient or anxious at the delay of her consort, utters a very long, clear call-note. He is perhaps a quarter of a mile away, watching for a frog beside a pool, or beating over a thistle-bed, but he hears the note and presently responds with one of equal power. Then, perhaps, for half an hour, at intervals of half a minute, the birds answer each other, though the powerful call of the one must in¬ terfere with his hunting. At length he returns; then the two birds, perched close together, with their yellow bosoms almost touching, crests elevated, and beating the branch with their wings, scream their loudest notes in concert—a confused jubilant noise that rings through the whole plantation. Their joy at meeting is patent, and their action corresponds to the warm embrace of a loving human couple.” Of the red-breasted marsh-bird ( Lei-stes superciliaris) Hudson (Argentine Ornithology, vol. i, p. 100) writes: “These birds are migra¬ tory, and appear everywhere in the eastern part of the Argentine coun¬ try early in October, arriving singly, after which each male takes up a position in a field or open space abounding with coarse grass and herb¬ age, where he spends most of his time perched on the summit of a tall stalk or weed, his glowing crimson bosom showing at a distance like some splendid flower above the herbage. At intervals of two or three 40 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. minutes he soars vertically up to a height of twenty or twenty-five yards to utter his song, composed of a single long, powerful and rather musical note, ending with an attempt at a flourish, during which the bird flutters and turns about in the air; then, as if discouraged at his failure, he drops down, emitting harsh, guttural chirps, to resume his stand. Meanwhile the female is invisible, keeping closely concealed under the long grass. But at length, attracted perhaps by the bright bosom and aerial music of the male, she occasionally exhibits herself for a few moments, starting up with a wild zigzag flight, and, daiting this way and that, presently drops into the grass once more. The moment she appears above the grass the male gives chase, and they vanish from sight together.” “Courtship with the mallard,” says J. G. Millais ( Natural History of British Ducks, p. 6), “appears to be carried on by both sexes, though generally three or four drakes are seen showing themselves off to attract the attention of a single duck. Swimming round her, in a coy and semi-self-conscious manner, they now and again all stop quite still, nod, bow, and throw their necks out in token of their admiration and their desire of a favorable response. But the most interesting display is when all the drakes simultaneously stand up in the water and rapidly pass their bills down their breasts, uttering at the same time a low single note somewhat like the first half of the call that teal and pintail make when *showing off.* At other times the love-making of the drake seems to be rather passive than active, mile graciously allowing himself to be courted, he holds his head high with conscious pride, and accepts as a matter of course any attention that may be paid to him. A proud bird is lie when three or four ducks come swim¬ ming along beside and around him, uttering a curious guttural note, and at the same time dipping their bills in quick succession to right and left. He knows what that means, and carries himself with even greater dignity than before. In the end, however, he must give in. As a last appeal, one of his lady lovers may coyly lower herself in the water till only the top of her back, head, and neck is seen, and so fascinating an advance as this no drake of any sensibility can withstand. The courting of the Argus pheasant, noted for the extreme beauty of the male’s plumage, was observed by H. 0. Forbes in Sumatra. It is the habit of this bird to make “a large circus, some ten or twelve feet in diameter, in the forest, which it clears of every leaf and twig and branch, till the ground is perfectly swept and garnished. On the margin of this circus there is invariably a projecting branch or high-arched root, at a few feet elevation above the ground, on which the female bird takes its place, while in the ring the male—the male birds alone possess great decoration—shows off all its magnificence for the gratification and ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 41 pleasure of liis consort and to exalt himself in her eyes.” (H. 0. Forbes, A Naturalist’s Wanderings, 1885, p. 131.) “All ostriches, adults as well as chicks, have a strange habit known as ‘waltzing.’ After running for a few hundred yards they will also stop, and, with raised wings, spin around rapidly for some time after until quite giddy, when a broken leg occasionally occurs. Vicious cocks ‘roll’ when challenging to fight or when wooing the hen. The cock will suddenly bump down on to his knees (the ankle-joint), open his wings, and then swing them alternately backward and forward, as if on a pivot. . . . While rolling, every feather over the whole body is on end, and the plumes are open, like a large white fan. At such a time the bird sees very imperfectly, if at all; in fact, he seems so preoccupied that, if pursued, one may often approach unnoticed. Just before rolling, a cock, especially if courting the hen, will often run slowly and daintily on the points of his toes, with neck slightly in¬ flated, upright, and rigid, the tail half-drooped, and all his body-feathers fluffed up; the wings raised and expanded, the inside edges touching the sides of the neck for nearly the whole of its length, and the plumes showing separately, like an open fan. In no other attitude is the splendid beauty of his plumage displayed to such advantage.” (S. C. Cronwriglit Schreiner, “The Ostrich,” Zoologist, March, 1897.) As may be seen from the foregoing fairly typical examples, the phenomena of courtship are highly developed, and have been most care¬ fully studied, in animals outside the mammal series. It may seem a long leap from birds to man; yet, as will be seen, the phenomena among primitive human peoples, if not, indeed, among many civilized peoples also, closely resemble those found among birds, though, unfortunately, they have not usually been so carefully studied. In Australia, where dancing is carried to a high pitch of elabora¬ tion, its association with the sexual impulse is close and unmistakable. Tlius, Mr. Samuel Gason (of whom it has been said that “no man living has been more among blacks or knows more of their ways”) remarks concerning a dance of the Dieverie tribe: “This dance men and women only take part in, in regular form and position, keeping splendid time to the rattle of the beat of two boomerangs; some of the women keep time by clapping their hands between their thighs; promiscuous sexual intercourse follows after the dance; jealousy is forbidden.” Again, at the Mobierrie, or rat-harvest, “many weeks’ preparation befoi'e the dance comes off; no quax’reling is allowed; promiscuous sexual inter¬ course during the ceremony.” The fact that jealousy is foi-bidden at these festivals clearly indicates that sexual intercourse is a l’ecognized and probably essential element in the ceremonies. This is further emphasized by the fact that at other festivals open sexual intei’course 42 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. is not allowed. Thus, at the Mindarie, or dance at a peace festival (when a number of tribes comes together), “there is great rejoicing at the coming festival, which is generally held at the full of the moon, and kept up all night. The men are artistically decorated with down and feathers, with all kinds of designs. The down and feathers are stuck on their bodies with blood freshly taken from their penis; they are also nicely painted with various colors; tufts of boughs are tied on their ankles to make a noise while dancing. Promiscuous sexual intercourse is carried on secretly; many quarrels occur at this time.” (Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. xxiv, November, 1894, p. 174.) In Australian dances, sometimes men and women dance together, sometimes the men dance alone, sometimes the women. In one dance described by Eyre: “Women are the chief performers; their bodies are painted with white streaks, and their hair adorned with cockatoo feathers. They carry large sticks in their hands, and place themselves in a row in front, while the men with their spears stand in a row behind them. They then all commence their movements, but without intermingling, the males and females dancing by themselves. The women have occasionally another mode of dancing, by joining the hands together over the head, closing the feet, and bringing the knees into contact. The legs are then thrown outward from the knee, while the feet and hands are kept in their original position, and, being drawn quickly in again, a sharp sound is produced by the collision. This is also practised alone by young girls or by several together for their own amusement. It is adopted also when a single woman is placed in front of a row of male dancers to excite their passions.” (E. J. Eyx*e, Jour¬ nals of Expeditions into Central Australia, vol. ii, p. 235.) A charming Australian folk-tale concerning two sisters with wings, who disliked men, and their wooing by a man, clearly indicates, even among the Australians (whose love-making is commonly supposed to be somewhat brutal in character), the consciousness that it is by his beauty, charm, and skill in courtship that a man wins a woman. Unahanach, the lover, stole unperceived to the river where the girls were bathing and at last showed himself carelessly sitting on a high tree. The girls were startled, but thought it would be safe to amuse themselves by looking at the intruder. “Young and with the most active figure, yet of a strength that defied the strongest emu, and even enabled him to resist an ‘old man’ kangaroo, he had no equal in the chase, and conscious power gave a dignity to his expression that at one glance calmed the fears of the two girls. His large brilliant eyes, shaded by a deep fringe of soft black eyelashes, gazed down upon them admiringly, and his rich black hair hung around his well-formed face, smooth and shining from the emu-oil with which it was abundantly ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 43 covered.” At last be persuaded them to talk and by and by induced them to call him husband. Then they went off with him, with no thought of flight in their hearts. (“Australian Folklore Stories,” collected by W. Dunlop, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, new series, vol. i, 189S, p. 33.) Of the people of Torres Straits Haddon states ( Reports Anthro¬ pological Expedition to Torres Straits, vol. v, p. 222) : “It was during the secular dance, or Kap, that the girls usually lost their hearts to the young men. A young man who was a good dancer would find favor in the sight of the girls. This can be readily understood by anyone who has seen the active, skilful, and fatiguing dances of these people. A young man who could acquit himself well in these dances must be possessed of no mean strength and agility, qualities which everywhere appeal to the opposite sex. Further, he was decorated, according to local custom, with all that would render him more imposing in the eyes of the spectators. As the former chief of Mabuiag put it, ‘In England if a man has plenty of money, women want to marry him; so here, if a man dances well they too want him.’ In olden days the war-dance, which was performed after a successful foray, would be the most power¬ ful excitement to a marriageable girl, especially if a young man had distinguished himself sufficiently to bring home the head of someone he had killed.” Among the tribes inhabiting the mouth of the Wanigela River, New Guinea, “when a boy admires a girl, he will not look at her, speak to her, or go near her. He, however, shows his love by athletic bounds, posing, and pursuit, and by the spearing of imaginary enemies, etc., before her, to attract her attention. If the girl reciprocates his love she will employ a small girl to give to him an ugauga gauna, or love invitation, consisting of an areca-nut whose skin has been marked with different designs, significant of her wish to ugauga. After dark he is apprised of the place where the girl awaits him; repairing thither, he seats himself beside her as close as possible, and they mutually share in the consumption of the betel-nut.” This constitutes betrothal; henceforth he is free to visit the girl’s house and sleep there. Mar¬ riages usually take place at the most important festival of the year, the kapa, preparations for which are made during the three previous months, so that there may be a bountiful and unfailing supply of bananas. Much dancing takes place among the unmarried girls, who, also, are tattooed at this time over the whole of the front of the body, special attention being paid to the lower parts, as a girl who is not properly tattooed there possesses no attraction in the eyes of young men. Married women and widows and divorced women are not for¬ bidden to take part in these dances, but it would be considered ridic- ».W. r.* * • ;• .. * I* * •-» * - -* - -* 44 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. ulous for them to do so. (R. E. Guise, “On the Tribes of the Wanigela River,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, new series, vol. i, 1899, pp. 209, 214 et seq.) In the island of Nias in the Malay Archipelago, Modigliani (mainly on the excellent authority of Sundermann, the missionary) states, at a Avedding “dancing and singing go on throughout the day. The women, two or three at a time, a little apart from the men, take part in the dancing, which is A*ery Avell adapted to emphasize the curves of the flanks and the breasts, though at the same time the defects of their legs are exhibited in this series of rhythmic contortions Avhich constitute a Nias dance. The most graceful movement they execute is a lascivious undulation of the flanks while the face and breast are slowly Avound round by the sarong [a sort of skirt] held in the hands, and then again revealed. These movements are executed with jerks of the wrist and contortions of the flanks, not always graceful, but which excite the admiration of the spectators, even of the women, avIio form in groups to sing in chorus a compliment, more or less sincere, in which they say: ‘They dance with the grace of birds when they fly. They dance as the hawk flies; it is loA-ely to see.’ They sing and dance both at Aveddings and at other festivals.” (Elio Modigliani, Un Viaggio a Nias, 1890, p. 549.) In Sumatra Marsden states that chastity prevails more, perhaps, than among any other people: “But little apparent courtship piecedes their marriages. Their manners do not admit of it, the boojong and gecldas (youths of each sex) being carefully kept asunder and the latter seldom trusted from under the Avings of their mothers. . . . The opportunities which the young people have of seeing and conversing with each other are at the birnbangs, or public festivals. On these occasions the young people meet together and dance and sing in com¬ pany. The men, when determined in their regard, generally employ an old Avoman as their agent, by whom they make knoAvn their senti¬ ments, and send presents to the female of their choice. The parents then interfere, and the preliminaries being settled, a birnbang takes place. The young women proceed in a body to the upper end of the balli (hall), where there is a part divided off for them by a curtain. They do not ahvays make their appearance before dinner, that time, previous to a second or third meal, being appropriated to cock-fighting or other diversions peculiar to men. In the evening their other amusements take place, of which the dances are the principal. These are performed either singly or by two Avomen, tAvo men, or Avith both mixed. Their motions and attitudes are usually slow, approaching often to the las¬ civious. They bend forward as they dance, and usually carry a fan, which they close and strike smartly against their elboAVS at particular ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 45 cadences. . . . The assembly seldom breaks up before daylight and these Urribangs are often continued for several days together. The young men frequent them in order to look out for wives, and the lasses of course set themselves off to the best advantage. They wear their best silken dresses, of their own weaving, as many ornaments of filigree as they possess, silver rings upon their arms and legs, and ear-rings of a particular construction. Their hair is variously adorned with flowers, and perfumed with oil of benjamin. Civet is also in repute, but more used by the men. To render their skin fine, smooth, and soft they make use of a white cosmetic called poopoor [a mixture of ginger, patch-leaf, maize, sandal-wood, fairy-cotton, and mush-seed with a basis of fine rice].” (W. Marsden, History of Sumatra, 1783, p. 230.) The Alfuras of Seram in the Moluccas, who have not yet been spoilt by foreign influences, are very fond of music and dancing. Their malcu dances, which take place at night, have been described by Joest: “Great torches of dry bamboos and piles of burning resinous leaves light up the giant trees to their very summits and reveal in the distance the little huts which the Alfuras have built in the virgin forests, as well as the skulls of the slain. The women squat together by the fire, making a deafening noise with the gongs and the drums, while the young girls, richly adorned with pearls and fragrant flowers, await the beginning of the dance. Then appear the men and youths without weapons, but in full war-costume, the girdle freshly marked with the number of slain enemies. [Among the Alfuras it is the man who has the largest num¬ ber of heads to show who has most chance of winning the object of his love.] They hold each other’s arms and form a circle, which is not, however, completely closed. A song is started, and with small, slow steps this ring of bodies, like a winding snake, moves sideways, back¬ ward, closes, opens again, the steps become heavier, the songs and drums louder, the girls enter the circle and with closed eyes grasp the girdle of their chosen youths, who clasp them by the hips and necks, the chain becomes longer and longer, the dance and song more ardent, until the dancers grow tired and disappear in the gloom of the forest. (\\. Joest, Welt-Fahrten, 1895, Bd. ii, p. 159.) The women of the New Hebrides dance, or rather sway, to and fro in the midst of a circle formed by the men, with whom they do not directly mingle. They leap, show their genital parts to the men, and imitate the movements of coitus. Meanwhile the men unfasten the manou (penis-wrap) from their girdles with one hand, with the othei imitating the action of seizing a woman, and, excited by the women, also go through a mock copulation. Sometimes, it is said, the dancers mas¬ turbate. °This takes place amid plaintive songs, interrupted from time to time by loud cries and howls. ( Untrodden Fields of Anthropology , by a French army-surgeon, 1898, vol. ii, p. 341.) 46 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. Among the hill tribes of the Central Indian Hills may be traced a desire to secure communion with the spirit of fertility embodied in vegetation. This appears, for instance, in a tree-dance, which is car¬ ried out on a date associated not only with the growths of the crops or with harvest, but also with the seasonal period for marriage and the annual Saturnalia. (W. Crooke, “The Hill Tribes,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, new series, vol. i, 1899, p. 243.) The asso¬ ciation of dancing with seasonal ritual festivals of a generative char¬ acter—of which the above is a fairly typical instance—leads us to another aspect of these phenomena on which I have elsewhere touched in these Studies (vol. i) when discussing the “Phenomena of Periodicity.” The Tahitians, when first discovered by Europeans, appear to have been highly civilized on the sexual side and very licentious. Yet even at Tahiti, when visited by Cook, the strict primitive relationship between dancing and courtship still remained traceable. Cook found “a dance called Timorodee, which is performed by young girls, whenever eight or ten of them can be collected together, consisting of motions and gestures beyond imagination wanton, in the practice of which they are brought up from their earliest childhood, accompanied by words which, if it were possible, would more explicitly convey the same ideas. But the practice which is allowed to the virgin is prohibited to the woman from the moment that she has put these hopeful lessons in practice and realized the symbols of the dance.” He added, however, that among the specially privileged class of the Areoi these limitations were not observed, for he had heard that this dance was sometimes performed by them as a preliminary to sexual intercourse. (Hawkesworth, An Account of the Voyages, etc., 1775, vol. ii, p. 54.) Among the Marquesans at the marriage of a woman, even of high rank, she lies with her head at the bridegroom’s knees and all the male guests come in single file, singing and dancing—those of lower class first and the great chiefs last—and have connection with the woman. There are often a very large number of guests and the bride is some¬ times so exhausted at the end that she has to spend several days in bed. (Tautain, “Etude sur le Mariage chez les Polyn&siens,” UAnihropologie, November-December, 1895, p. 642.) The interesting point for us here is that singing and dancing are still regarded as a preliminary to a sexual act. It has been noted that in sexual matters the Polynesians, when first discovered by Europeans, had largely gone beyond the primi¬ tive stage, and that this applies also to some of their dances. Thus the hula-hula dance, while primitive in origin, may probably be compared more to a civilized than to a primitive dance, since it has become divorced from real life. In the same way, while the sexual pantomime dance of the Azimba girls of central Africa has a direct and recognized ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 47 relationship to the demands of real life, the somewhat allied dames du ventre of the Hamitic peoples of northern Africa are meiely an amuse¬ ment, a play more or less based on the sexual instinct. At the same time it is important to bear in mind that there is no rigid dis¬ tinction between dances that are, and those that are not, primitive. As Haddon truly points out in a book containing valuable detailed descriptions of dances, even among savages dances are so developed that it is difficult to trace their origin, and at Torres Straits, he remarks, “there are certainly play or secular dances, dances for pure amusement without any ulterior design.” (A. C. Haddon, Head Hunters, p. 233.) When we remember that dancing had probably become highly developed long before man appeared on the earth, this difficulty in determining the precise origin of human dancing cannot cause surprise. Spix and Martius described how the Muras of Brazil by moonlight would engage all night in a Bacchantic dance in a great circle, hand in hand, the men on one side, the women on the other, shouting out all the time, the men “Who will marry me?” the women, “You are a beautiful devil; all women will marry you.” (Spix and Martius, Reise in Brasilien, 1831, vol. iii, p. 1117.) They also described in detail the dance of the Brazilian Puris, performed in a state of complete naked¬ ness, the men in a row, the women in another row behind them. They danced backward and forward, stamping and singing, at first in a slow and melancholy style, but gradually with increasing vigor and excite¬ ment. Then the women began to rotate the pelvis backward and for¬ ward, and the men to thrust their bodies forward, the dance becoming a pantomimic representation of sexual intercourse {ibid., vol. i, 1823, pp. 373-5). Among the Apinages of Brazil, also, the women stand in a row, almost motionless, while the men dance and leap in front of them, both men and women at the same time singing. (Buscalioni, ‘Reise zu den Apinages,” Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, 1899, lit. 6, p. 650.) Among the Gilas of New Mexico, “when a young man sees a girl whom he desires for a wife, he first endeavors to gain the good-will of the parents; this accomplished, he proceeds to serenade his lady-love, and will often sit for hours, day after day, near her home, playing on his flute. Should the girl not appear, it is a sign she rejects him; but if, on the other hand, she comes out to meet him, he knows that Ins suit is accepted, and he takes her to his home. No marriage ceremony is performed.”! (H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific, vol. i, p. 549.) l It may be noted that the marriage ceremony itself is often of the nature of a‘courtship, a symbolic courtship, embodying a method of attaining tumescence. As Crawley, who has brought out this point. 48 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. “Among the Minnetarees a singular night-dance is, it is said, sometimes held. During this amusement an opportunity is given to the squaws to select their favorites. A squaw, as she dances, will advance to a person with whom she is captivated, either for his personal attractions or for his renown in arms; she taps him on the shoulder and immediately runs out of the lodge and betakes herself to the bushes, followed by the favorite. But if it should happen that he has a par¬ ticular preference for another from whom he expects the same favor, or if he is restrained by a vow, or is already satiated with indulgence, he politely declines her offer by placing his hand in her bosom, on which they return to the assembly and rejoin the dance.” It is worthy of remark that in the language of the Omalias the word loatche applies equally to the amusement of dancing and to sexual intercourse. (S. H. Long, Expedition to the Rocky Mountains , 1823, vol. i, p. 337.) At a Kaffir marriage “singing and dancing last until midnight. Each party [the bride’s and the bridegroom’s] dances in front of the other, but they do not mingle together. As the evening advances, the spirits and passions of all become greatly excited; and the power of song, the display of muscular action, and the gesticulations of the dancers and leapers are something extraordinary. The manner in which, at certain times, one man or woman, more excited than the rest, bounds from the ranks, leaps into the air, bounces forward, and darts backward beggars all description. These violent exercises usually close about mid¬ night, when each party retires; generally, each man selects a paramour, and, indulging in sexual gratification, spends the remainder of the night.” (W. C. Holden, The Kaffir Race, 1866, p. 192.) At the initiation of Kaffir boys into manhood, as described by Holden, they were circumcised. “Cattle are then slaughtered by the parents, and the boys are plentifully supplied with flesh meat; a good deal of dancing also ensues at this stage of the proceedings. The ukut- shila consists in attiring themselves with the leaves of the wild date in the most fantastic manner; thus attired they visit each of the kraals to which they belong in rotation, for the purpose of dancing. These dances are the most licentious which can be imagined. The Avomen act a prominent part in them, and endeavor to excite the passions of the novices by performing all sorts of obscene gesticulations. As soon as the soreness occasioned by the act of circumcision is healed the boys are, as it were, let loose upon society, and exempted from nearly all the puts it, “Marriage-rites of union are essentially identical with love charms,” and he refers in illustration to the custom of the Australian Arunta, among whom the man or woman by making music on the bull- roarer compels a person of the opposite sex to court him or her, the marriage being thus completed. (E. Crawley, The Mystic Rose, p. 318.) ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 49 restraints of law; so tliat should they even steal and slaughter their neighbor’s cattle they would not be punished; and they have the special privilege of seizing by force, if force be necessary, every unmarried woman they choose, for the purpose of gratifying their passions.” Sim¬ ilar festivals take place at the initiation of girls. (W. C. Holden, The Kaffir Race, 1S66, p. 185.) The Rev. J. Macdonald has described the ceremonies and customs attending and following the initiation-rites of a young girl on her first menstruation among the Zulus between the Tugela and Delagoa Bay. At this time the girl is called an intonjane. A beast is killed as a thank- offering to the ancestral spirits, high revel is held for several days, and dancing and music take place every night till those engaged in it are all exhausted or daylight arrives. “After a few days and when dancing has been discontinued, young men and girls congregate in the outer apart¬ ment of the hut, and begin singing, clapping their hands, and making a grunting noise to show their joy. At nightfall most of the young girls who were the intonjane’s attendants, leave for their own homes for the night, to return the following morning. Thereafter the young men and girls who gathered into the hut in the afternoon separate into pairs and sleep together in puris naturalibus, for that is strictly ordained by custom. Sexual intercourse is not allowed, but what is known as metsha, or ukumetsha is the sole purpose of the novel arrangement. Ukumetsha may be defined as partial intercourse. Every man who sleeps thus with a girl has to send to the father of the inton jane an assegai; should he have formed an attachment for his partner of the night and wish to pay her his addresses, he sends two assegais.” (Rev. J. Macdonald, “Manners, etc., of South African Tribes,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. xx, November, 1890, p. 117.) Goncourt reports the account given him by a French officer from Senegal of the dances of the women, “a dance which is a gentle oscilla¬ tion of the body, with gradually increasing excitement, from time to time a woman darting forward from the group to stand in front of her lover, contorting herself as though in a passionate embrace, and, on passing her hand between her thighs, showing it covered with the moisture of amorous enjoyment.” ( Journal, vol. ix, p. 79.) The dance here referred to is probably the Bamboula dance of the Wolofs, a spring festival which has been described by Pierre Loti in his Roman d’un Spahi, and concerning which various details are furnished by a French army-surgeon, acquainted with Senegal, in his Untrodden Fields of Anthropology. The dance, as described by the latter, takes place at night during full moon, the dancers, male and female, beginning timidly, but, as the beat of the tam-tams and the encouraging cries of the spec¬ tators become louder, the dance becomes more furious. The native 4 50 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. name of tlie dance is anamalis fobil, “the dance of the treading drake. “The dancer in his movements imitates the copulation of the gieat Indian duck. This drake has a member of a corkscrew shape, and a peculiar movement is required to introduce it into the duck. The woman tucks up her clothes and convulsively agitates the lower part of her body; she alternately shows her partner her vulva and hides it from him by a regular movement, backward and forward, of the body. (Untrodden Fields of Anthropology, Paris, 1898, vol. ii, p. 112.) Among the Gurus of the Ivory Coast (Gulf of Guinea), EyssGrio observes, dancing is usually carried on at night and more especially by the men, and on certain occasions women must not appear, for if they assisted at fetichistic dances “they would die.” Under other circum¬ stances men and women dance together with ardor, not forming couples but often vis-a-vis: their movements are lascivious. Even the dances following a funeral tend to become sexual in character. At the end of the rites attending the funeral of a chief’s son the entire population began to dance with ever-growing ardor; there was nothing ritualistic or°sad in these contortions, which took on the character of a lascivious dance. Men and women, boys and girls, young and old, sought to rival each other in suppleness, and the festival became joyous and general, as if in celebration of a marriage or a victory. (EyssSric, “La Cote d’Ivoire,” Nouvelles Archives des Missions Scientifiques, tome ix, 1899, pp. 241-49.) Mrs. French-Slieldon has described the marriage-rites she observed at Taveta in East Africa. “During this time the young people dance and carouse and make themselves generally merry and promiscuously drunk, carrving the excess of their dissipation to such an extent that they dance until they fall down in a species of epileptic fit.” It is the privilege of the bridegroom’s four groomsmen to enjoy the bride first, and she is then handed over to her legitimate husband. This people, both men and women, are “great dancers and merry-makers; the young fellows will collect in groups and dance as though in competition one with the other; one lad will dash out from the circle of his companions, rush into the middle of a circumscribed space, and scream out ‘Wow, wow!’ Another follows him and screams; then a third does the same. These men will dance with their knees almost rigid, jumping into the air until their excitement becomes very great and their energy almost spasmodic, leaving the ground frequently three feet as they spring into the air. At some of their festivals their dancing is carried to such an extent that I have seen a young fellow’s muscles quiver from head foot and his jaws tremble without any apparent ability on his part control them, until, foaming at the mouth and with his eyes rolling, he falls in a paroxysm upon the ground, to be carried off by hid corapan- -2 3 ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 51 ions. ’ The writer adds significantly that this dancing “would seem to emanate from a species of voluptuousness.” (Mrs. French-Sheldon, “Customs among the Natives of East Africa,” Journal of the Anthro¬ pological Institute, vol. xxi, May, 1892, pp. 366-67.) It may be added that among the Suaheli dances are intimately associated with weddings; the Suaheli dances have been minutely described by Velten (Sitte und Gebrdnche der Suaheli, pp. 144-175). Among the Akamba of British East Africa, also, according to II. R. Tate (Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Jan.-June, 1904, p. 137), the dances are fol¬ lowed by connection between the young men and girls, approved of by the parents. The dances of the Faroe Islanders have been described by Raymond Pilet (“Rapport sur une Mission en Islande et aux lies Feroe,” Nouvellcs Archives des Missions Scientifiques, tome vii, 1897, p. 285). These dances, which are entirely decorous, include poetry, music, and much mimicry, especially of battle. They sometimes last for two con¬ secutive days and nights. “The dance is simply a permitted and dis¬ creet method by which the young men may court the young girls. The islander enters the circle and places himself beside the girl to whom he desires to show his affection; if he meets with her approval she stays and continues to dance at his side; if not, she leaves the circle and appears later at another spot.” Pitre (Usi, etc., del Popolo Sieiliano, vol. ii, p. 24, as quoted in Marro’s Pubertd) states that in Sicily the youth who wishes to marry seeks to give some public proof of his valor and to show himself off. In Chiaramonte, in evidence of his virile force, he bears in procession the standard of some confraternity, a high and richly adorned standard which makes its staff bend to a semicircle, of such enormous weight that the bearer must walk in a painfully bent position, his head thrown back and his feet forward. On reaching the house of his betrothed he makes proof of his boldness and skill in wielding this extremely heavy standard which at this moment seems a plaything in his hands, but may yet prove fatal to him through injury to the loins or other parts. This same tendency, which we find in so highly developed a degree among animals and primitive human peoples, is also universal among the children of even the most civilized human races, although in a less organized and more confused way. It manifests itself as “showing-off.” Sanford Bell, in his study of the emotion of love in children, finds that “showing-ofi ’ is an essential element in the love of children in what he terms the second stage (from the eighth to the twelfth year in girls and the fourteenth in boys). “It constitutes one of the chief numbei's in the boy’s repertory of love charms, and is not totally absent from the girl’s. It is a most common sight to see the boys taxing their 52 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. resources in devising means of exposing their own excellencies, and often doing the most ridiculous and extravagant things. Running, jumping, dancing, prancing, sparring, wrestling, turning handsprings, somersaults, climbing, walking fences, swinging, gn ing yodels an yells, whistling, imitating the movements of animals, ‘taking people off,’ courting danger, affecting courage are some of its common forms. This ‘showing-off’ in the boy lover is the forerunner of the skilful, purposive, and elaborate means of self-exhibition in the adult male and the charming coquetry in the adult female, in their love- relations.” (Sanford Bell, “The Emotion of Love Between the Sexes, American Journal Psychology, July, 1902; of. “Showing-off and Bash¬ fulness,” Pedagogical Seminary, June, 1903.) If, in the light of the previous discussion, we examine such facts as those here collected, we may easily trace through¬ out the perpetual operations of the same instinct. It is every¬ where the instinctive object of the male, who is very rarely passive in the process of courtship, to assure by his activity in display, his energy or skill or beauty, both his own passion and the passion of the female. Throughout nature sexual conjugation only takes place after much expenditure of energy . 1 l The more carefully animals are observed, the more often this is found to be the case, even with respect to species which possess no ob¬ vious and elaborate process for obtaining tumescence. See, for instance, the detailed and very instructive account—too long to quote here—given bv E Selous of the preliminaries to intercourse practised by a pair of m-eat crested grebes, while nest-building. Intercourse only took place with much difficulty, after many fruitless invitations, more usually "iven by the female. (“Observational Diary of the Habits of the Great Crested Grebe,” Zoologist, September, 1901.) It is exactly the same with savages. The observation of Foley (Bulletin de la Societe d’Anthro- pologie de Paris, November 6, 1879) that in savages “sexual erethism is very difficult” is of great significance and certainly in accordance with the* facts. This difficulty of erethism is the real cause of many savage practices which to the civilized person often seem perverse; the women of the Caroline Islands, for instance, as described by Finscli, require the tongue or even the teeth to be applied to the clitoiis, oi a gieat ant to be applied to bite the parts, in order to stimulate oigasm. Westci- marck, after quoting a remark of .Mariner s concerning the women of Tonga!—“it must not be supposed that these women are always easily won*; the greatest attentions and the most fervent solicitations are some¬ times requisite, even though there be no other lover in the way,”—adds that these words “hold true for a gieat many, not to say all, savage and barbarous races now existing.” (Human Marriage, p. 163.) The old notions, however, as to the sexual licentiousness of peoples living in natural conditions have scarcely yet disappeared. See Appendix A: “The Sexual Instinct in Savages.” ANALYSTS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 53 We are deceived by what we see among highly fed domesticated animals, and among the lazy classes of human, society, whose sexual instincts are at once both unnaturally stimulated and unnaturally repressed, when we imagine that the instinct of detumescence is normally ever craving to be satisfied, and that throughout nature it can always be set off at a touch whenever the stimulus is applied. So far from the instinct of tumescence naturally needing to be crushed, it needs, on the contrary, in either sex to be submitted to the most elaborate and prolonged processes in order to bring about those conditions which de- tumescence relieves. A state of tumescence is not normallyj constant, and tumescence must be obtained before detunes-j cence is possible . 1 The whole object of courtship, of the mutual] approximation and caresses of two persons of the opposite sex/ is to create the state of sexual tumescence. It will be seen that the most usual method of attaining tumescence—a method found among the most various kinds of animals, from insects and birds to man—is some form of the dance. Among the Negritos of the Philippines dancing is de¬ scribed by A. B. Meyer as "jumping in a circle around a girl and stamping with the feet”; as we have seen, such a dance is, essentially, a form of courtship that is widespread among animals. "The true cake-walk,” again, Stanley Hall remarks, "as seen in the South is perhaps the purest expression of this impulse to courtship antics seen in man .” 2 Muscular movement of which the dance is the highest and most complex expression, is undoubtedly a method of autointoxication of the very greatest potency. All energetic movement, indeed, tends to produce active congestion. In its influence on the brain violent exercise may thus result in a state of intoxication even resembling in¬ sanity. As Lagrange remarks, the visible effects of exercise— 1 In men a certain degree of tumescence is essential before coitus can be effected at all; in women, though tumescence is not essential to coitus, it is essential to orgasm and the accompanying physical and psychic relief. The preference which women often experience for pro¬ longed coitus is not, as might possibly be imagined, due to sensuality, but has a profound physiological basis. 2 Stanley Hall, Adolescence, vol. i, p. 223. 54 PSYCHOLOGY OP SEX. heightened color, bright eyes, resolute air and walk are those of slight intoxication, and a girl who has waltzed for a quarter of an hour is in the same condition as if she had drunk cham¬ pagne . 1 Groos regards the dance as, above all, an intoxicating play of movement, possessing, like other methods of intoxication, —and even apart from its relationship to combat and love,— the charm of being able to draw us out of our everyday life and lead us into a self-created dream-world . 2 That the dance is not only a narcotic, but also a powerful stimulant, we may clearly realize from the experiments which show that this effect is pro¬ duced even by much less complex kinds of muscular movement. This has been clearly determined, for instance, by Fere, in the course of a long and elaborate series of experiments dealing with the various influences that modify work as measured by Mosso’s ergograph. This investigator found that muscular movement is the most efficacious of all stimulants in increasing muscular power . 3 It is easy to trace these pleasurable effects of com¬ bined narcotic and stimulant motion in everyday life and it is unnecessary to enumerate its manifestations . 4 1 See Lagrange’s Physiology of Bodily Exercise , especially chapter ii. It is a significant fact that, as Sergi remarks (Lcs Emotions, p. 330), the physiological results of dancing are identical with the physio¬ logical results of pleasure. 2 Groos, Spiele der Menschen, p. 112. Zmigrodzki (Die Mutter "bei den Volkern des Arischen Stain mes, p. 414 et seq.) has an interesting passage describing the dance—especially the Russian dance—in its orgiastic aspects. 3 F6r4, “L’Influence sur le Travail Yolontaire d’un muscle de l’activit§ d’autres muscles,” Nouvelles Iconographie de la SalpStridre, 1901. 4 “The sensation of motion,” Kline remarks (‘The Migratory Im¬ pulse,” American Journal of Psychology, October, 1898, p. 62), “as yet but little studied from a pleasure-pain standpoint, is undoubtedly a pleasure-giving sensation. For Aristippus the end of life is pleasure, which he defines as gentle motion. Motherhood long ago discovered its virtue as furnished by the cradle. Galloping to town on the parental knee is a pleasing pastime in every nursery. The several varieties of swings, the hammock, see-saw, flying-jenny, merry-go-round, shooting the chutes, sailing, coasting, rowing, and skating, together with the fondness of children for rotating rapidly in one spot until dizzy and for jumping from high places, are all devices and sports for stimulating the sense of motion. In most of these modes of motion the body is passive or semipassive, save in such motions as skating and rotating on the feet. ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 55 Dancing is so powerful an agent on tlie organism, as Sergi truly remarks ( Les Emotions, p. 288), because its excitation is general, be¬ cause it touches every vital organ, the higher centers no longer dominat¬ ing. Primitive dancing differs very widely from that civilized kind of dancing—finding its extreme type in the ballet—in which energy is con¬ centrated into the muscles below the knee. In the finest kinds of primitive dancing all the limbs, the whole body, take part. For in¬ stance, “the Marquisan girls,” Herman Melville remarked in Typee, “dance all over, as it were; not only do their feet dance, but their arms, hands, fingers,—ay, their very eyes seem to dance in their heads. In good sooth, they so sway their floating forms, arch their necks, toss aloft their naked arms, and glide, and swim, and whirl,” etc. If we turn to a very different people, we find this characteristic of primitive dancing admirably illustrated by the missionary, Holden, in the case of Kaffir dances. “So far as I have observed,” he states, “the perfection of the art or science consists in their being able to put every part of the body into motion at the same time. And as they are naked, the bystander has a good opportunity of observing the whole process, which presents a remarkably odd and grotesque appearance,—the head, the trunk, the arms, the legs, the hands, the feet, bones, muscles, sinews, skin, scalp, and hair, each and all in motion at the same time, with feathers waving, tails of monkeys and wild beasts dangling, and shields beating, accompanied with whistling, shouting, and leaping. It would appear as though the whole frame was hung on springing wires or cords. Dances are held in high repute, being the natural expression of joyous emotion, or creating it when absent. There is, perhaps, no exercise in greater accordance with the sentiments or feelings of a barbarous people, or more fully calculated to gratify their wild and ungoverned passions.” (W. C. Holden, The Kaffir Race, 1866, p. 274.) Dancing, as the highest and most complex form of muscular movement, is the most potent method of obtaining the organic excitement muscular movement yields, and thus we understand how from the earliest zoological ages it has been brought to the service of the sexual instinct as a mode of attaining tumes¬ cence. Among savages this use of dancing works harmoniously Avith the various other uses which dancing possesses in primi- The passiveness of the body precludes any important contribution of stimuli from kinesthetic sources. The stimuli are probably furnished, as Dr. Hall and others have suggested, by a redistribution of fluid pressure (due to the unusual motions and positions of the body) to the inner walls of the several vascular systems of the body.” 56 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. tive times and which cause it to occupy so large and vital a part in savage life that it may possibly even affect the organism to such an extent as to mold the bones; so that some authori¬ ties have associated platycnemia with dancing. As civilization advances, the other uses of dancing fall away, but it still re¬ mains a sexual stimulant. Burton, in his Anatomy of Melan¬ choly, brings forward a number of quotations from old authors showing that dancing is an incitement to love . 1 The Catholic theologians (Debreyne, Mccchialogie, pp. 190-199) for the most part condemn dancing with much severity. In Protestant Germany, also, it is held that dance meetings and musical gatherings are frequent occasions of unchastity. Thus in the Leipzig district when a girl is asked “How did you fall?” she nearly always replies “At the dance.” (Die G csch lech t lick-Sit 11 ich e Vcrhdltnisse im Deutschen Reiche, vol. i, p. 190.) It leads quite as often, and no doubt oftener, to mar¬ riage. Rousseau defended it on this account (? fouvelle Helo'ise, bk. iv, letter x) ; dancing is, he held, an admirable preliminary to courtship, and the best way for young people to reveal themselves to each other, in their grace and decorum, their qualities and defects, while its publicity is its safeguard. An International Congress of Dancing Masters was held at Barcelona in 1907. In connection with this Congress, Giraudet, president of the International Academy of Dancing Masters, issued an inquiry to over 3000 teachers of dancing throughout the world in order to ascertain the frequency with which dancing led to marriage. Of over one million pupils of dancing, either married or engaged to be married, it was found that in most countries more than 50 per cent, met their conjugal partners at dances. The smallest proportion was in Norway, with only 39 per cent., and the highest, Germany, with 97 per cent. In¬ termediate are France, 83 per cent.-, America, 80 per cent.; Italy, 70 per cent.; Spain, 68 per cent.; Holland, Bulgaria, and England, 65 per cent.; Australia and Roumania, 60 per cent., etc. Of the teachers themselves 92 .per cent, met their partners at dances. (Quoted from the Figaro in Beiblatt “Sexualreform” to Geschlecht und Gesell- schaft, 1907, p. 175.) In civilization, however, dancing is not only an incitement to love and a preliminary to courtship, but it is often a substitute for the normal gratification of the sexual instinct, procuring something of the pleasure and relief of gratified love. In occa- 1 Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii, sect, ii, mem. ii, subs. iv. ANALYSIS OL THE SEXUAL IMTULSE. 57 sional abnormal cases this may be consciously realized. Thus Sadger, who regards the joy of dancing as a manifestation of “muscular eroticism,” gives the case of a married hysterical woman of 21, with genital anesthesia, but otherwise strongly developed skin eroticism, who was a passionate dancer: “1 often felt as though I was giving myself to my partner in dancing,” she said, “and was actually having coitus with him. I have the feeling that in me dancing takes the place of coitus.” 1 Normally something of the same feeling is experienced by many young women, who will expend a prodigious amount of energy in danc¬ ing, thus procuring, not fatigue, but happiness and relief. 2 It is significant that, after sexual relations have begun, girls generally lose much of their ardor in dancing. Even our modern dances, it is worthy of note, are often of sexual origin; thus, the most typical of all, the waltz, was originally (as Schaller, quoted bv Groos, states) the close of a complicated dance which “repre¬ sented the romance of love, the seeking and the fleeing, the playful sulking and shunning, and finally the jubilation of the wedding.” 3 Not only is movement itself a source of tumescence, but even the spectacle of movement tends to produce the same effect. The pleasure of witnessing movement, as represented by its stimulating effect on the muscular system,—for states of well-being are accompanied by an increase of power,—has been found susceptible of exact measurement by Fere. He l Sadger, “Haut-, Sclileimhaut-, mid Muskel-erotik,” Jahrbuch fiir psychoanalytisclie Forschungcn, Bd. iii, 1912, p. 556. 2Marro ( Pubertd , p. 367 et seq.) has some observations on this point. It was an insight into this action of dancing which led the Spanish clergy of the eighteenth century to encourage the national en¬ thusiasm for dancing (as Baretti informs us) in the interests of morality. 3 It is scarcely necessary to remark that a. primitive dance, even when associated with courtship, is not necessarily a sexual pantomime; as Wallaschek, in his comprehensive survey of primitive dances, observes, it is more usually an auimal pantomime, but nonetheless connected with the sexual instinct, separation of the sexes, also, being no proof to the contrary. (Wallaschek, Primitive Music, pp. 211-13.) Grosse (Anfdnge der Kunst, English translation, p. 228) has pointed out that the best dancer would be the best fighter and hunter, and that sexual selection and natural selection would thus work in harmony. 58 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. has shown that to watch a colored disk when in motion produced stronger muscular contractions, as measured by the dyna¬ mometer, than to watch the same disk when motionless. Even in the absence of color a similar influence of movement was noted, and watching a modified metronome produced a greater increase of work with the ergograph than when working to the rhythm of the metronome without watching it. 1 This psycho¬ logical fact has been independently discovered by advertisers, who seek to impress the value of their wares on the public by the device of announcing them by moving colored lights. The pleasure given by the ballet largely depends on the same fact. Not only is dancing an excitation, but the spectacle of dancing is itself exciting, and even among savages dances have a public which becomes almost as passionately excited as the dancers themselves. 2 It is in virtue of this effect of dancing and similar movements that we so frequently find, both among the lower animals and savage man, that to obtain tumescence in both sexes, it is sufficient for one sex alone, usually the male, to take the active part. This point attracted the attention of Kulischer many years ago, and he showed how the dances of the men, among savages, excite the women, who watch them intently though unobtrusively, and are thus influenced in choosing their lovers. He was probably the first to insist that in man sexual selection has taken place mainly through the agency of dances, games, and festivals. 3 It is now clear, therefore, why the evacuation theory of the sexual impulse must necessarily be partial and inadequate. It leaves out of account the whole of the phenomena connected with tumescence, and those phenomena constitute the most prolonged, the most important, the most significant stage of 1 F£r6, “Le plaisir de la vue du Mouvement,” Comptes-rendus de la Socitte de Biologie, November 2, 1901; also Travail et Plaisir, cli. xxix. 2 Groos repeatedly emphasizes the significance of this fact ( Spiele der Menschen, pp. 81-9, 460 et seq.) ; Grosse (Anfdnge der Kunst, p. 215) had previously made some remarks on this point. 3 M. Kulischer, “Die Gesclilechtliche Zuclitwahl bei den Menschen in der Urzeit,” Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, 1876, p. 140 et seq. ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 59 tlie sexual process. It is during tumescence that the whole psychology of the sexual impulse is built up; it is as an inci¬ dent arising during tumescence and influencing its course that we must probably regard nearly every sexual aberration. It is with the second stage of the sexual process, when the instinct of detumescence arises, that the analogy of evacuation can alone be called in. Even here, that analogy, though real, is not complete, the nervous element involved in detumescence being out of all proportion to the extent of the evacuation. The typical act of evacuation, however, is a nervous process, and when we bear this in mind we may see whatever truth the evacuation theory possesses. Beaunis classes the sexual im¬ pulse with the “needs of activity,” but under this head he co¬ ordinates it with the “need of urination.” That is to say, that both alike are nervous explosions. Micturition, like detumes¬ cence, is a convulsive act, and, like detumescence also, it is certainly connected with cerebral processes; thus in epilepsy the passage of urine which may occur (as in a girl described by Gowers with minor attacks during which it was emitted con¬ sciously, but involuntarily) is really a part of the process. 1 There appears, indeed, to be a special and intimate connec¬ tion between the explosion of sexual detumescence and the explosive energy of the bladder; so that they may reinforce each other and to a limited extent act vicariously in relieving each other’s tension. It is noteworthy that nocturnal and diurnal in¬ continence of urine, as well as “stammering” of the bladder, are all specially liable to begin or to cease at puberty. In men and even infants, distention of the bladder favors tumescence by producing venous congestion, though at the same time it acts as a physical hindrance to sexual detumescence 2 ; in women— probably not from pressure alone, but from reflex nervous action —a full bladder increases both sexual excitement and pleasure, and I have been informed by several women that they have l Sir W. R. Gowers, Epilepsy, 2d ed., 1901, pp. 61, 138. 2Guyon, Legons Cliniqwcs sur les Maladies des Voies Urinaires, 3d ed., 1896, vol. ii, p. 397. 60 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. independently discovered this fact for themselves and anted in accordance with it. Conversely, sexual excitement increases the explosive force of the bladder, the desire to urinate is aroused, and in women the sexual orgasm, when very acute and occur¬ ring with a full bladder, is occasionally accompanied, alike in savage and civilized life, by an involuntary and sometimes full and forcible expulsion of urine. 1 The desire to urinate may possibly be, as has been said, the normal accompaniment of sexual excitement in women (just as it is said to be in mares; so that the Arabs judge that the mare is ready for the stallion when she urinates immediately on hearing him neigh). The association may even form the basis of sexual obsessions. 2 I have elsewhere shown that, of all the influences which increase the expulsive force of the bladder, sexual excitement is the most powerful. 3 It may also have a reverse influence and inhibit con¬ traction of the bladder, sometimes in association with shyness, but also independently of shyness. There is also reason to sup- 1 See, e.g., Fere, Ulnstinct Sexuel, pp. 222-23: Brantome was probably the first writer in modern times who referred to this phenom¬ enon. Macgillicuddy (Functional Disorders of the Xervous System in Women, p. 110) refers to the case of a lady who always had sudden and uncontrollable expulsion of urine whenever her husband even began to perform the marital act, on which account he finally ceased intercourse with her. Ivubary states that in Ponape (Western Carolines) the men are accustomed to titillate the vulva of their women with the tongue until the excitement is so intense that involuntary emission of urine takes place; this is regarded as the proper moment for intercourse. 2 Thus Pitres and RCgis (Transactions of the International Medical Congress, Moscow, vol. iv, p. 19) record the case of a young girl whose life was for some years tormented by a groundless fear of experiencing an irresistible desire to urinate. This obsession arose from once seeing at a theater a man whom she liked, and being overcome by sexual feeling accompanied by so strong a desire to urinate that she had to leave the theater. An exactly similar case in a young woman of erotic tempera¬ ment, but prudish, has been recorded by Freud (Zur Neuroscnlehrc, Bd. i, p. 54). Morbid obsessions of modesty involving the urinary sphere and appearing at puberty are evidently based on transformed sexual emotion. Such a case has been recorded by Marandon de Montyel (Archives de Neurologie, vol. xii, 1901, p. 30); this lady, who was of somewhat neuropathic temperament, from puberty onward, in order to be able to urinate found it necessary not only to be absolutely alone, but to feel assured that no one even knew what was taking place. 3 H. Ellis, “The Bladder as a Dynamometer,” American Journal of Dermatology, May, 1902. ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 61 pose tliat the nervous energy expended in an explosion of the tension of the sexual organs may sometimes relieve the bladder; it is well recognized that a full bladder is a factor in producing sexual emissions during sleep, the explosive energy of the bladder being inhibited and passing over into the sexual sphere. Con- versely, it appears that explosion of the bladder relieves sexual tension. An explosion of the nervous centers connected with the contraction of the bladder will relieve nervous tension generally; there are forms of epilepsy in which the act of urination con¬ stitutes the climax, and Gowers, in dealing with minor epilepsy, emphasizes the frequency of micturition, which “may occur with spasmodic energy when there is only the slightest general stiff¬ ness,” especially in women. He adds the significant remark that it “sometimes seems to relieve the cerebral tension,” 1 and gives the case of a girl in whom the aura consisted mainly of a desire to urinate; if she could satisfy this the fit was arrested; if not she lost consciousness and a severe fit followed. If micturition may thus relieve nervous tension generally, it is not surprising that it should relieve the tension of the centers with which it is most intimately connected. Serieux records the case of a girl of 12, possessed by an impulse to masturbation which she was unable to control, although anxious to conquer it, who only found relief in the act of urination ; this soothed her and to some extent satisfied the sexual excite¬ ment ; when the impulse to masturbate was restrained' the im¬ pulse to urinate became imperative; she would rise four or five times in the night for this purpose, and even urinate in bed or in her clothes to obtain the desired sexual relief. 2 I am acquainted with a lady who had a similar, but less intense, experience during childhood. Sometimes, especially in children, the act of urination becomes an act of gratification at the climax 1 Sir W. Gowers, “Minor Epilepsy,” British Medical Journal, Jan¬ uary 6, 1900; {&., Epilepsy, 2d ed., 1901, p. 106; see also II. Ellis, ait. “Urinary Bladder, Influence of the Mind on the, in Tuke s Dictioiwiy of Psychological Medicine. 2 SSrieux, Recherches 0Uniques sur les Anomalies de VInstinct Sexuel, p. 22. ft 62 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. of sexual pleasure, the imitative symbol of detumescence. Thus Schultze-Malkowsky describes a little girl of 7 who would bribe her girl companions with little presents to play the part of horses on all fours while she would ride on their necks with naked thighs in order to obtain the pleasurable sensation of close contact. With one special friend she would ride facing backward, and leaning forward to embrace her body impulsively, and at the same time pressing the neck closely between her thighs, would urinate. 1 Fere has recorded the interesting case of a man who, having all liis life after puberty been subject to monthly attacks of sexual excitement, after the age of 45 com¬ pletely lost the liability to these manifestations, but found him¬ self subject, in place of them, to monthly attacks of frequent and copious urination, accompanied by sexual day-dreams, but by no genital excitement. 2 Such a case admirably illustrates the com¬ pensatory relation of sexual and vesical excitation. This mutual interaction is easily comprehensible when we recall the very close nervous connection which exists between the mechanisms of the sexual organs and the bladder. For are such relationships found to be confined to these two centers; ia a lesser degree the more remote explosive cen¬ ters are also affected; all motor influences may spread to re¬ lated muscles; the convulsion of laughter, for instance, seems to be often in relation with the sexual center, and Groos has suggested that the laughter which, especially in the sexually minded, often follows allusions to the genital sphere is merely an effort to dispel nascent sexual excitement by liberating an explosion of nervous energy in another direction. 3 Nervous 1 Emil Schultze-Malkowsky, “Der Sexuelle Trieb in Ivindesalter,” Geschlecht und Gesellschaft, vol. ii, part 8, p. 372. 2 F£re, “Note sur un Cas de Periodicity Sexuelle cliez l’Homme,” Comptes-rendus Socitte de Biologie, July 23, 1904. 3 it is a familiar fact that, in women, occasionally, a violent ex¬ plosion of laughter may be propagated to the bladder-center and produce urination. “She laughed till she nearly wetted the floor,” I have heard a young woman in the country say, evidently using without thought a familiar locution. Professor Bechterew has recorded the case of a young married lady who, from childhood, wherever she might be— in friends’ houses, in the street, in her own drawing-room—had always ANALYSIS OF TIIE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 63 discharges tend to spread, or to act vicariously, because the motor centers are more or less connected. * 1 Of all the physio¬ logical motor explosions, the sexual orgasm, or detumescence, is the most massive, powerful, and overwhelming. So volcanic is it that to the ancient Greek philosophers it seemed to be a minor kind of epilepsy. The relief of detumescence is not merely the relief of an evacuation; it is the discharge, by the most powerful apparatus for nervous explosion in the body, of the energy accumulated and stored up in the slow process of tumescence, and that discharge reverberates through all the nervous centers in the organism. “The sophist of Abdera said that coitus is a slight fit of epilepsy, judging it to be an incurable disease.” (Clement of Alexandria, Pceda- gogus, bk. ii, chapter x.) And Coelius Aurelianus, one of the chief physicians of antiquity, said that “coitus is a brief epilepsy.” Fer6 has pointed out that both these forms of nervous storm are sometimes ac¬ companied by similar phenomena, by subjective sensations of sight or smell, for example; and that the two kinds of discharge may even be combined. (Fer£, Les Epileptiques, pp. 283-84; also “Exces VenCriens et Epilepsie,” Comptes-rendus de la Socitie de Biologie, April 3, 1897, and the same author's Instinct Sexual, pp. 209, 221, and his “Priapisme experienced an involuntary and forcible emission of urine, which could not be stopped or controlled, whenever she laughed; the bladder was quite sound and no muscular effort produced the same result. (W. Bechterew, Neurologisches Centralblatt, 1899.) In women these rela¬ tionships are most easily observed, partly because in them the explosive centers are more easily discharged, and partly, it is probable, so far as the bladder is concerned, because, although after death the resistance to the emission of urine is notably less in women, during life about the same amount of force is necessary in both sexes; so that a greater amount of energy flows to the bladder in women, and any nervous storm or disturbance is thus specially apt to affect the bladder. l “Every pain,” remarks Marie de Manaceine, “ produces a number of movements which are apparently useless: we cry out, we groan, we move our limbs, we throw ourselves from one side to the other, and at bottom all these movements are logical because by interrupting and breaking our attention they render us less sensitive to the pain. In the days before chloroform, skillful surgeons requested their patients to ciy out during the operation, as we are told by Gratiolet, who could not ex¬ plain so strange a fact, for in his time the antagonism of movements and attention was not recognized.” (Marie de ManacSine, Archives Italiennes de Biologie, 1894, p. 250.) This antagonism of attention by movement is but another way of expressing the vicarious relationship of motor discharges. 64 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. Epileptique,” La Mtdecine Moderne, February 4, 1899.) The epileptic convulsion in some cases involves the sexual mechanism, and it is note¬ worthy that epilepsy tends to appear at puberty. In modern times even so great a physician as Boerhaave said that coitus is a “true epilepsy,” and more recently Roubaud, Hammond, and Kowalevsky have empha¬ sized the resemblance between coitus and epilepsy, though without identifying the two states. Some authorities have considered that coitus is a cause of epilepsy, but this is denied by Christian, Strttmpell, and Lowenfeld. (Lowenfeld, Sexualleben und Nervenleiden, 1899, p. 68.) Fere has recorded the case of a youth in whom the adoption of the practice of masturbation, several times a day, was followed by epileptic attacks which ceased when masturbation was abandoned. (FGrG, Comptes-rendus de la Socitte de Biologie , April 3, 1897.) It seems unprofitable at present to attempt any more funda¬ mental analysis of the sexual impulse. Beaunis, in the work already quoted, vaguely suggests that we ought possibly to con¬ nect the sexual excitation which leads the male to seek the female with chemical action, either exercised directly on the protoplasm of the organism or indirectly by the intermediary of the nervous system, and especially by smell in the higher animals. Clevenger, Spitzka, Iviernan, and others have also regarded the sexual impulse as protoplasmic hunger, tracing it back to the presexual times when one protozoal form absorbed another. In the same way Joanny Roux, insisting that the sexual need is a need of the whole organism, and that “we love with the whole of our body,” compares the sexual instinct to hunger, and distinguishes between “sexual hunger” affecting the whole system and “sexual appetite” as a more localized desire; he concludes that the sexual need is an aspect of the nutritive need. 1 Useful as these views are as a protest against too crude and narrow a conception of the part played by the sexual impulse, they carry us into a speculative region where proof is difficult. 1 Joanny Roux, Psycliologie de VInstinct Sexuel, 1899, pp. 22-23. It is disputed whether hunger is located in the whole organism, and powerful arguments have been brought against the view. (W. Cannon, “The Nature of Hunger,” Popular Science Monthly, Sept., 1912.) Thirst is usually regarded as organic (A. Mayer, La Soif, 1901). ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE. 65 We are now, however, at all events, in a better position to define the contents of the sexual impulse. We see that there are certainly, as Moll lias indicated, two constituents in that impulse; but, instead of being unrelated, or only distantly related, we see that they are really so intimately connected as to form two distinct stages in. the same process: a first stage, in which—usually under the parallel influence of internal and external stimuli—images, desires, and ideals grow up within the mind, while the organism generally is charged with energy and the sexual apparatus congested with blood; and a second stage, in which the sexual apparatus is discharged amid pro¬ found sexual excitement, followed by deep organic relief. By the first process is constituted the tension which the second process relieves. It seems best to call the first impulse the process of tumescence; the second the process of detumescence. 1 The first, taking on usually a more active form in the male, has the double object of bringing the male himself into the condition in which discharge becomes imperative, and at the same time arousing in the female a similar ardent state of emotional excitement and sexual turgescence. The second proc¬ ess has the object, directly, of discharging the tension thus produced and, indirectly, of effecting the act by which the race is propagated. It seems to me that this is at present the most satisfactory way in which we can attempt to define the sexual impulse. i If there is any objection to these terms it is chiefly because they have reference to vascular congestion rather than to the underlying nervous charging and discharging, which is equally fundamental, and in man more prominent than the vascular phenomena. 5 LOVE AND PAIN. I. The Chief Key to the Relationship between Love and Pain to be Found in Animal Courtship—Courtship a Source of Combativity and of Cruelty—Human Play in the Light of Animal Courtship—The Fre¬ quency of Crimes Against the Person in Adolescence—Marriage by Capture and its Psychological Basis—Man’s Pleasure in Exerting Force and Woman’s Pleasure in Experiencing it—Resemblance of Love to Pain even in Outward Expression—The Love-bite—In what Sense Pain may be Pleasurable—The Natural Contradiction in the Emotional Attitude of Women Toward Men—Relative Insensibility to Pain of the Organic Sexual Sphere in Women—The Significance of the Use of the Ampallang and Similar Appliances in Coitus—The Sexual Subjection of Women to Men in Part Explainable as the Necessary Condition for Sexual Pleasure. The relation of love to pain is one of the most difficult problems, and yet one of the most fundamental, in the whole range of sexual psychology. Why is it that love inflicts, and even seeks to inflict, pain? Why is it that love suffers pain, and even seeks to suffer it? In answering that question, it seems to me, we have to take an apparently circuitous route, sometimes going beyond the ostensible limits of sex altogether; but if we can succeed in answering it we shall have come very near one of the great mysteries of love. At the same time we shall have made clear the normal basis on which rest the extreme aberrations of love. The chief key to the relationship of love to pain is to be found by returning to the consideration of the essential phe¬ nomena of courtship in the animal world generally. Court¬ ship is a play, a game; even its combats are often, to a large extent, mock-combats; but the process behind it is one of terrible earnestness, and the play may at any moment become deadly. Courtship tends to involve a mock-combat between males for the possession of the female which may at any time become a real combat; it is a pursuit of the female by the ( 66 ) LOVE AND PAIX. 67 male which may at an}’ time become a kind of persecution; so that, as Colin Scott remarks, “Courting may be looked upon as a refined and delicate form of combat.” The note of court¬ ship, more especially among mammals, is very easily forced, and as soon as we force it we reach pain. 1 The intimate and inevitable association in the animal world of combat—of the fighting and hunting impulses—with the process of courtship alone suffices to bring love into close connection with pain. Among mammals the male wins the female very largely by the display of force. The infliction of pain must inevitably be a frequent indirect result of the exertion of power. It is even more than this; the infliction of pain by the male on the female may itself be a gratification of the impulse to exert force. This tendency has always to be held in check, for it is of the essence of courtship that the male should win the female, and she can only be won by the promise of pleasure. The tendency of the male to inflict pain must be restrained, so far as the female is concerned, by the consideration of what is pleasing to her. Yet, the more carefully we study the essen¬ tial elements of courtship, the clearer it becomes that, playful as these manifestations may seem on the surface, in every direc¬ tion they are verging on pain. It is so among animals generally; it is so in man among savages. “It is precisely the alliance of pleasure and pain,” wrote the physiologist Burdach, “which con¬ stitutes the voluptuous emotion.” Yor is this emotional attitude entirely confined to the male. The female also in courtship delights to arouse to the highest degree in the male the desire for her favors and to withhold l Various mammals, carried away by the reckless fury of the sex¬ ual impulse, are apt to ill-treat their females (R. Muller, Sexualbiologie, p. 123). This treatment is, however, usually only an incident of court¬ ship, the result of excess of ardor. “The chaffinches and saffron-finches (Fringella and St/calis) are very rough wooers,” says A. G. Butler (Zoologist, 1902, p. 241) ; “they sing vociferously, and chase their hens violently, knocking them over in their flight, pursuing and savagely pecking them even on the ground; but when once the hens become submissive, the males change their tactics, and become for the time model husbands, feeding their wives from their crop, and assisting in rearing the young.” 68 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. those favors from him, thus finding on her part also the enjoy¬ ment of power in cruelty. ‘'One’s cruelty is one’s power,” Millament says in Congreve’s Way of the World, “and when one parts with one’s cruelty one parts with one’s power.” At the outset, then, the impulse to inflict pain is brought into courtship, and at the same time rendered a pleasurable idea to the female, because with primitive man, as well as among his immediate ancestors, the victor in love has been the bravest and strongest rather than the most beautiful or the most skilful. Until he can fight he is not reckoned a man and he cannot hope to win a woman. Among the African Masai a man is not supposed to marry until he has blooded his spear, and in a very different part of the world, among the Dyaks of Borneo, there can be little doubt that the chief incentive to head-hunting is the desire to please the women, the possession of a head decapitated by himself being an excellent way of winning a maiden’s favor. 1 Such instances are too well known to need multiplication here, and they survive in civilization, for, even among ourselves, although courtship is now chiefly ruled by quite other considerations, most women are in some degree emotionally affected by strength and courage. But the direct result of this is that a group of phenomena with which cruelty and the infliction of pain must inevitably be more or less allied is brought within the sphere of courtship and ren¬ dered agreeable to women. Here, indeed, we have the source of that love of cruelty which some have found so marked in women. This is a phase of courtship which helps us to under¬ stand how it is that, as we shall see, the idea of pain, having become associated with sexual emotion, may be pleasurable to women. Thus, in order to understand the connection between love and pain, we have once more to return to the consideration, under a somewhat new aspect, of the fundamental elements in the sexual impulse. In discussing the “Evolution of Mod¬ esty” we found that the primary part of the female in court- l Cf. A. C. Haddon, Head Hunters, p. 107. LOVE AND PAIN. 69 ship is the playful, yet serious, assumption of the role of a hunted animal who lures on the pursuer, not with the object of escaping, but with the object of being finally caught. In considering the “Analysis of the Sexual Impulse” we found that the primary part of the male in courtship is by the dis¬ play of his energy and skill to capture the female or to arouse in her an emotional condition which leads her to surrender herself to him, this process itself at the same time heightening his own excitement. In the playing of these two different parts is attained in both male and female that charging of nervous energy, that degree of vascular tumescence, necessary for ade¬ quate discharge and detumescence in an explosion by which sperm-cells and germ-cells are brought together for the propa¬ gation of the race. We are now concerned with the necessary interplay of the differing male and female roles in courtship, and with their accidental emotional by-products. Both male and female are instinctively seeking the same end of sexual union at the moment of highest excitement. There cannot, therefore, be real conflict. 1 But there is the semblance of a conflict, an apparent clash of aim, an appearance of cruelty. Moreover,— and this is a significant moment in the process from our present point of view,—when there are rivals for the possession of one female there is always a possibility of actual combat, so tending to introduce an element of real violence, of undisguised cruelty, which the male inflicts on his rival and which the female views with satisfaction and delight in the prowess of the successful claimant. Here we are brought close to the zoological root of the connection between love and pain. 2 1 Marro considers that there may be transference of emotion,—the impulse of violence generated in the male by his rivals being turned against his partner,—according to a tendency noted by Sully and illus¬ trated by Ribot in his Psychology of the Emotions, part i, chapter xii. 2 Several writers have found in the facts of primitive animal courtship the explanation of the connection between love and pain. Tlius, Krafft-Ebing (Psychopathia Sexualis, English translation of tenth German edition, p. 80) briefly notes that outbreaks of sadism are possibly atavistic. Mari’o (La Pvberta, 1898, p. 219 et seq.) has some suggestive pages on this subject. It would appear that this explanation was vaguely outlined by Jiiger. Laserre, in a Bordeaux thesis mentioned 70 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. In his admirable work on play in man Groos has fully discussed the plays of combat (Kampfspiele), which begin to develop even in childhood and assume full activity during ado¬ lescence; and he points out that, while the impulse to such play certainly has a wider biological significance, it still pos¬ sesses a relationship to the sexual life and to the rivalries of animals in courtship which must not be forgotten. * 1 Nor is it only in play that the connection between love and combativity may still be traced. With the epoch of the first sexual relationship, Marro points out, awakes the instinct of cruelty, which prompts the youth to acts which are some¬ times in absolute contrast to his previous conduct, and leads him to be careless of the lives of others as well as of his own life. 2 Marro presents a diagram showing how crimes against by F£r§, has argued in the same sense. F6r6 ( Ulnstinct Sexuel, p. 134), on grounds that are scarcely sufficient, regards this explanation as merely a superficial analogy. But it is certainly not a complete ex¬ planation. 1 ScliUfer (Jahrbiicher fiir Psychologie, Bd. ii, p. 128, and quoted by Krafft-Ebing in Psychopathia Sexualis), in connection with a case in which sexual excitement was produced by the sight of battles or of paintings of them, remarks: “Th? pleasure of battle and murder is so predominantly an attribute of the male sex throughout the animal kingdom that there can be no question about the close connection be¬ tween this side of the masculine character and male sexuality. I believe that I can show by observation that in men who are absolutely normal, mentally and physically, the first indefinite and incomprehensible pre¬ cursors of sexual'excitement may be induced by reading exciting scenes of chase and war. These give rise to unconscious longings for a kind of satisfaction in warlike games (wrestling, etc.) which express the fundamental sexual impulse to close and complete contact with a com¬ panion, with a secondary more or less clearly defined thought of con¬ quest.” Groos (Spicle der Mcnschen , 1899, p. 232) also thinks there is more or less truth in this suggestion of a subconscious sexual element in the playful wrestling combats of boys. Freud considers (Drei Abhandlungen eur Sexualtheorie, p. 49) that the tendency to sexual excitement through muscular activity in wrestling, etc., is one of the roots of sadism. I have been told of normal men who feel a conscious pleasure of this kind when lifted in games, as may happen, for instance, in football. It may be added that in some parts of the world the suitor has to throw the girl in a wrestling-bout in order to secure her hand. 2 A minor manifestation of this tendency, appearing even in quite normal and well-conditioned individuals, is the impulse among boys at and after puberty to take pleasure in persecuting and hurting lower animals or their own young companions. Some youths display a dia- LOVE AND PAIN. 71 the person in Italy rise rapidly from the age of 16 to 20 and reach a climax between 21 and 25. In Paris, Gamier states, crimes of blood are six times more frequent in adolescents (aged 16 to 20) than in adults. It is the same elsewhere. * 1 This tendency to criminal violence during the age-period of courtship is a by-product of the sexual impulse, a kind of tertiary sexual character. In the process of what is commonly termed “marriage by capture” we have a method of courtship which closely resem¬ bles the most typical form of animal courtship, and is yet foimd in all but the highest and most artificial stages of human so¬ ciety. It may not be true that, as MacLennan and others have argued, almost every race of man has passed through an actual stage of marriage by capture, hut the phenomena in question have certainly been extremely widespread and exist in popular custom even among the highest races today. George Sand has presented a charming picture of such a custom, existing in France, in her Mare aa Diable. Farther away, among the Kirghiz, the young woman is pursued by all her lovers, but she is armed with a formidable whip, which she does not hesi¬ tate to use if overtaken by a lover to whom she is not favor¬ able. Among the Malays, according to early travelers, court¬ ship is carried on in the water in canoes with double-bladed paddles; or, if no water is near, the damsel, stripped naked of all but a waistband, is given a certain start and runs off on foot followed by her lover. Vaughan Stevens in 1896 reported that this performance is merely a sport; but Skeat and Blagden, in their more recent and very elaborate investigations in the Malay States, find that it is a rite. bolical enjoyment and ingenuity in torturing sensitive juniors, and even a boy who is otherwise kindly and considerate may find enjoyment in deliberately mutilating a frog. In some cases, in boys and youths who have no true sadistic impulse and are not usually cruel, this infliction of torture on a lower animal produces an erection, though not neces¬ sarily any pleasant sexual sensations. l Marro, La Puberta, 1898, p. 223; Gamier, “La Criminalite Juvenile,” Comptes-rendus Congi'es Internationale d’A n thro polo gie Criminelle , Amsterdam, 1901, p. 296; Archivio di Psichiatria, 1899, fasc. v-vi, p. 572. 72 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. Even if we regard “marriage by capture” as simply a primi¬ tive human institution stimulated by tribal exigencies and early social conditions, yet, when we recall its widespread and per¬ sistent character, its close resemblance to the most general method of courtship among animals, and the emotional tend¬ encies which still persist even in the most civilized men and women, we have to recognize that we are in presence of a real psychological impulse which cannot fail in its exercise to intro¬ duce some element of pain into love. There are, however, two fundamentally different theories concerning “marriage by capture.” According to the first, that of MacLennan, which, until recently, has been very widely ac¬ cepted, and to which Professor Tylor has given the weight of his authority, there has really been in primitive society a recog¬ nized stage in which marriages were effected by the capture of the wife. Such a state of things MacLennan regarded as once world-wide. There can be no doubt that women very fre¬ quently have been captured in this way among primitive peoples. Nor, indeed, has the custom been confined to savages. In Europe we find that even up to comparatively recent times the abduction of women was not only very common, but was often more or less recognized. In England it was not until Henry VIPs time that the violent seizure of a woman was made a criminal offense, and even then the statute was limited to women possessed of lands and goods. A man might still carry off a girl provided she was not an heiress; but even the abduction of heiresses continued to be common, and in Ireland remained so until the end of the eighteenth century. But it is not so clear that such raids and abductions, even when not of a genuinely hostile char¬ acter, have ever been a recognized and constant method of marriage. According to the second set of theories, the capture is not real, but simulated, and may be accounted for by psychological reasons. Fustel de Coulanges, in La Cite Antique, 1 discussing simulated marriage by capture among the Romans, mentioned the * 1 Bk. ii, ch. ii. LOVE AND PAIN. 73 view that it was “a symbol of the young girl’s modesty,” but himself regarded it as an act of force to sjmibolize the husband’s power. He was possibly alluding to Herbert Spencer, who sug¬ gested a psychological explanation of the apparent prevalence of marriage by capture based on the supposition that, capturing a wife being a proof of bravery, such a method of obtaining a wife would be practised by the strongest men and be admired, while, on the other hand, he considered that “female coyness” was “an important factor” in constituting the more formal kinds of marriage by capture ceremonial. 1 Westennarck, while accepting true marriage by capture, considers that Spencer’s statement “can scarcely be disproved.” 2 In his valuable study of certain aspects of primitive marriage Crawley, developing the explana¬ tion rejected by Fustel de Coulanges, regards the fundamental fact to be the modesty of women, which has to be neutralized, and this is done by “a ceremonial use of force, which is half real and half make-believe.” Thus the manifestations are not sur¬ vivals, but “arising in a natural way from normal human feel¬ ings. It is not the tribe from which the bride is abducted, nor, primarily, her family and kindred, but her sex”; and her “sexual characters of timidity, bashfulness, and passivity are sym¬ pathetically overcome by make-believe representations of male characteristic actions.” 3 It is not necessary for the present purpose that either of these two opposing theories concerning the origin of the cus¬ toms and feelings we are here concerned with should be defi¬ nitely rejected. Whichever theory is adopted, the fundamental psychic element which here alone concerns us still exists in- 1 Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology, 1876, vol. i, p. 651. 2 Westennarck, Human Marriage, p. 388. Grosse is of the same opinion; he considers also that the mock-capture is often an imitation, due to admiration, of real capture; he does not believe that the latter has ever been a form of marriage recognized by custom and law, but only “an occasional and punishable act of violence.” (Die Formen der Familie, pp. 105-7.) This position is too extreme. 3 Ernest Crawley, The Mystic Rose, 1902, p. 350 et seq. Van Gennep rightly remarks that we cannot correctly say that the woman is abducted from “her sex,” but only from her “sexual society.” 74 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. tact. 1 It may be pointed out, however, that we probably have to accept two groups of such phenomena: one, seldom or never existing as the sole form of marriage, in which the capture is real; and another in which the “capture” is more or less cere¬ monial or playful. The two groups coexist among the Turco¬ mans, as described by Vambery, who are constantly capturing and enslaving the Persians of both sexes, and, side by side with this, have a marriage ceremonial of mock-capture of entirely playful character. At the same time the two groups some¬ times overlap, as is indicated by cases in which, while the “capture” appears to be ceremonial, the girl is still allou ed to escape altogether if she wishes. The difficulty of disentangling the two groups is shown by the fact that so careful an in¬ vestigator as Westermarck cites cases of real capture and mock- capture together without attempting to distinguish between them. From our present point of view it is quite unnecessary to at¬ tempt such a distinction. Whether the capture is simulated or real, the man is still playing the masculine and aggressive part proper to the male; the w^onian is still playing the feminine and defensive part proper to the female. The universal prev¬ alence of these phenomena is due to the fact that manifestations of this kind, real or pretended, afford each sex the very best opportunity for playing its proper part in courtship, and so, even when the force is real, must always gratify a profound instinct. It is not necessary to quote examples of marriage by capture from the numerous and easily accessible books on the evolution of marriage. (Sir A. B. Ellis, adopting MacLennan’s standpoint, presented a concise statement of the facts in an article on “Survivals from Marriage by Capture,” Popular Science Monthly, 1891, p. 207.) It may, however, be worth while to bring together from scattered sources a few of the facts concerning the phenomena in this group and their accompanying emo- i A. Van Gennep (Kites de Passage, 1909, pp. 175-186) has put for¬ ward a third theory, though also of a psychological character, according to which the “capture” is a rite indicating the separation of the young girl from the special societies of her childhood. Gennep regards this rite as one of a vast group of “rites of passage,” which come into action whenever a person changes his social oi* natural envii'onment. LOVE AND PAIN. 75 tional state, more especially as they bear on the association of love with force, inflicted or suffered. In New Caledonia, Foley remarks, the successful coquette goes off with her lover into the bush. “It usually happens that, when she is successful, she returns from her expedition, tumbled, beaten, scratched, even bitten on the nape and shoulders, her wounds thus bearing witness to the quadrupedal attitude she has assumed amid the foliage.” (Foley, Bulletin de la, Socicte d'Anthropologic, Paris, November 6, 1879.) Of the natives of New South Wales, Turnbull remarked at the be¬ ginning of the nineteenth century that “their mode of courtship is not without its singularity. When a young man sees a female to his fancy he informs her she must accompany him home; the lady refuses; he not only enforces compliance with threats but blows; thus the gallant, ac¬ cording to the custom, never fails to gain the victory, and bears off the willing, though struggling pugilist. The colonists for some time entertained the idea that the women were compelled and forced away against their inclinations; but the young ladies informed them that this mode of gallantry was the custom, and perfectly to their taste.” (J. Turnbull, A Voyage Bound, the World, 1813, p. 98; cf. Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, 1878, vol. i, p. 81.) As regards capture of women among Central Australian tribes, Spencer and Gillen remark: “We have never in any of these central tribes met with any such thing, and the clubbing part of the story may be dismissed, so far as the central area of the continent is concerned. To the casual observer what looks like a capture (we are, of course, only speaking of these tribes) is in reality an elopement, in which the woman is an aiding and abetting party.” (Northern Tribes of Central Australia, p. 32.) “The New Zealand method of courtship and matrimony is a most extraordinary one. A man sees a woman whom he fancies he should like for a wife; he asks the consent of her father, or, if an orphan, of her nearest relative, which, if he obtain, he carries his intended off by force, she resisting with all her strength, and, as the New Zealand girls are generally fairly robust, sometimes a dreadful struggle takes place; both are soon stripped to the skin and it is sometimes the work of hours to remove the fair prize a hundred yards. It sometimes happens that she secures her retreat into her father’s house, and the lover loses all chance of ever obtaining her.” (A. Earle, Narratives of Residence in New Zealand, 1832, p. 244.) Among the Eskimos (probably near Smith Sound) “there is no marriage ceremony further than that the boy is required to carry off his bride by main force, for even among these blubber-eating people the woman only saves her modesty by a show of resistance, although she 76 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. knows years beforehand that her destiny is sealed and that she is to become the wife of the man from whose embraces, when the nuptial day comes, she is obliged by the inexorable law of public opinion to free herself, if possible, by kicking and screaming with might and main until she is safely landed in the hut of her future lord, when she gives up the combat very cheerfully and takes possession of her new abode. The betrothal often takes place at a very early period of life and at very dissimilar ages.” Marriage only takes place w'hen the lover has killed his first seal; this is the test of manhood and maturity. (J. J. Hayes, Open Polar Sea? 1867, p. 432.) Marriage by “capture” is common in war and raiding in central Africa. “The women, as a rule,” Johnston says, “make no very great resistance on these occasions. It is almost like playing a game. A woman is surprised as she goes to get water at the stream, or when she is on the way to or from the plantation. The man has only got to show her she is cornered and that escape is not easy or pleasant and she submits to be carried off. As a general rule, they seem to accept very cheerfully these abrupt changes in their matrimonial existence.” (Sir H. H. Johnston, British Central Africa, p. 412.) Among the wild tribes of the Malay Peninsula in one form of wedding rite the bridegroom is required to run seven times around an artificial mound decorated with flowers and the emblem of the people’s religion. In the event of the bridegroom failing to catch the bride the marriage has to be postponed. Among the Orang Laut, or sea-gipsies, the pursuit sometimes takes the form of a canoe-race; the woman is given a good start and must be overtaken before she has gone a certain distance. (W. W. Skeat, Journal Anthropological Institute, Jan.-June, 1902, p. 134; Skeat and Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay, vol. ii, p. 69 et seq., fully discuss the ceremony around the mound.) “Calmuck women ride better than the men. A male Calmuck on horseback looks as if he was intoxicated, and likely to fall off every in¬ stant, though he never loses his seat; but the women sit with more ease, and ride with extraordinary skill. The ceremony of marriage among the Calmucks is performed on horseback. A girl is first mounted, who rides off at full speed. Her lover pursues, and if he overtakes her she becomes his wife and the marriage is consummated upon the spot, after which she returns with him to his tent. But it sometimes happens that the woman does not wish to marry the person by whom she is pursued, in which case she will not suffer him to overtake her; and we were assured that no instance occurs of a Calmuck girl being thus caught, unless she has a partiality for her pursuer. If she dislikes him, she rides, to use the language of English sportsmen, ‘neck or nothing,’ until she has completely escaped or until the pursuer’s horse is tired LOVE AND PAIN. 77 out, leaving her at liberty to return, to be afterward chased by some more favored admirer.” (E. D. Clarke, Travels, 1810, vol. i, p. 333.) Among the Bedouins marriage is arranged between the lover and the girl’s father, often without consulting the girl herself. “Among the Arabs of Sinai the young maid comes home in the evening with the cattle. At a short distance from the camp she is met by the future spouse and a couple of his young friends and carried off by force to her father’s tent. If she entertains any suspicion of their designs she de¬ fends herself with stones, and often inflicts wounds on the young men, even though she does not dislike the lover, for, according to custom, the more she struggles, bites, kicks, cries, and strikes, the more she is applauded ever after by her own companions.” After being taken to her father’s tent, where a man’s cloak is thrown over her by one of the bridegroom’s relations, she is dressed in garments provided by her future husband, and placed on a camel, “still continuing to struggle in a most unruly manner, and held by the bridegroom’s friends on both sides.” She is then placed in a recess of the husband's tent. Here the marriage is finally consummated, “the bride still continuing to cry very loudly. It sometimes happens that the husband is obliged to tie his bride, and even to beat her, before she can be induced to comply with his desires.” If, however, she really does not like her husband, she is perfectly free to leave him next morning, and her father is obliged to receive her back whether he wishes to or not. It is not considered proper for a widow or divorced woman to make any resistance on being married. (J. L. Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins and Wahdbys, 1830, p. 140 et seq.) Among the Turcomans forays for capturing and enslaving their Persian neighbors were once habitual. Vambery describes their “mar¬ riage ceremonial when the young maiden, attired in bridal costume, mounts a high-bred courser, taking on her lap the carcass of a lamb or goat, and setting off at full gallop, followed by the bridegroom and other young men of the party, also on horseback; she is always to strive, by adroit turns, etc., to avoid her pursuers, that no one approach near enough to snatch from her the burden on her lap. This game, called kokbiiri (green wolf), is in use among all the nomads of central Asia.” (A. V&mbery, Travels in Central Asia, 1864, p. 323.) In China, a missionary describes how, when he was called upon to marry the daughter of a Chinese Christian brought up in native customs, he was compelled to wait several hours, as the bride refused to get up and dress until long after the time appointed for the wedding ceremony, and then only by force. “Extreme reluctance and dislike and fear are the true marks of a happy and lively wedding.” (A. E. Moule, New China and Old, p. 128.) It is interesting to find that in the Indian art of love a kind of mock-combat, accompanied by striking, is a recognized and normal 78 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. method of heightening tumescence. Vatsyavana has a chapter “On Various Manners of Striking,” and he approves of the man striking the woman on the back, belly, flanks, and buttocks, before and during coitus, as a kind of play, increasing as sexual excitement inei’eases, which the woman, with cries and groans, pretends to bid the man to stop. It is mentioned that, especially in southern India, various instruments (scissors, needles, etc.) are used in striking, but this practice is con¬ demned as barbarous and dangerous. (Kama Sutra, French translation, iii, chapter v.) In the story of Aladdin, in the Arabian Nights, the bride is un¬ dressed by the mother and the other women, who place her in the bridegroom’s bed “as if by force, and, according to the custom of the newly married, she pretends to resist, twisting herself in every direc¬ tion, and seeking to escape from their hands.” (Les Mille Nuits, tr. Mardrus, vol. xi, p. 253.) It is said that in those parts of Germany where preliminary Probeniichte before formal marriage are the rule it is not uncommon for a young woman before finally giving herself to a man to provoke him to a physical struggle. If she proves stronger she dismisses him; if he is stronger she yields herself willingly. (W. Henz, “Probeniichte,” Sexual-Probleme, Oct., 1910, p. 743.) Among the South Slavs of Servia and Bulgaria, according to Krauss, it is the custom to win a woman by seizing her by the ankle and bringing her to the ground by force. This method of wooing is to the taste of the woman, and they are refractory to any other method. The custom of beating or being beaten before coitus is also found among the South Slavs. ( Kpvirrddia, vol. vi, p. 209.) In earlier days violent courtship was viewed with approval in the European world, even among aristocratic circles. Thus in the medi¬ eval Lai de Gradient of Marie de France this Breton knight is represented as very chaste, possessing a high ideal of love and able to withstand the wiles of women. One day when he is hunting in a forest he comes upon a naked damsel bathing, together with her handmaidens. Overcome by her beauty, he seizes her clothes in case she should be alarmed, but is persuaded to hand them to her; then he proceeds to make love to her. She replies that his love is an insult to a woman of her high lineage. Finding her so proud, Gradient sees that his prayers are in vain. He drags her by force into the depth of the forest, has his will of her, and begs her very gently not to be angry, promising to love her loyally and never to leave her. The damsel saw that he was a good knight, cour¬ teous, and wise. She thought within herself that if she were to leave him she would never find a better friend. Brantome mentions a lady who confessed that she liked to be “half-forced” by her husband, and he remarks that a woman who is “a LOVE AND PAIN. 79 little difficult and resists” gives more pleasure also to her lover than one who yields at once, just as a hard-fought battle is a more notable triumph than an easily won victory. (BrantSme, Vie des Dames Galantes, discours i.) Restif de la Bretonne, again, whose experience was extensive, wrote in his Anti-Justine that “all women of strong temperament like a sort of brutality in sexual intercourse and its accessories.” Ovid had said that a little force is pleasing to a woman, and that she is grateful to the ravisher against whom she struggles (Ars Ama- toria, lib. i). One of Janet’s patients (Raymond and Janet, Les Obsessions et la Psychasthenie, vol. ii, p. 406) complained that her husband was too good, too devoted. “He does not know how to make me suffer a little. One cannot love anyone who does not make one suffer a little.” Another hysterical woman (a silk fetichist, frigid with men) had dreams of men and animals abusing her: “I cried with pain and was happy at the same time.” (Clerambault, Archives cTAnthro- pologie Criminelle, June, 1908, p. 442.) It has been said that among Slavs of the lower class the wives feel hurt if they are not beaten by their husbands. Paullinus, in the seventeenth century, remarked that Russian women are never more pleased and happy than when beaten by their husbands, and regard such treatment as proof of love. (See, e.g., C. F. von Sclilichtegroll, Sachei'-ilasoch und der Masochismus, p. 69.) Krafft-Ebing believes that this is true at the present day, and adds that it is the same in Hungary, a Hungarian official having informed him that the peasant women of the Somogyer Comitate do not think they are loved by their husbands until they have received the first box on the ear. (Ivrafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, English translation of the tenth edition, p. 188.) I may add that a Russian proverb says “Love your wife like your soul and beat her like your slmla" (overcoat); and, according to another Russian proverb, “a dear one’s blows hurt not long.” At the same time it has been remarked that the domination of men by women is peculiarly frequent among the Slav peoples. (I. Sclilichtegroll, op. cit., p. 23.) Cellini, in an interesting passage in his Life (book ii, chapters xxxiv- xxxv), describes his own brutal treatment of his model Caterina, who was also his mistress, and the pleasure which, to his surprise, she took in it. Dr. Simon Forman, also, the astrologist, tells in his Autobiog¬ raphy (p. 7) how, as a young and puny apprentice to a hosier, he was beaten, scolded, and badly treated by the servant girl, but after some years of this treatment he turned on her, beat her black and blue, and ever after “Mary would do for him all that she could.” That it is a sign of love for a man to beat his sweetheart, and a sign much appreciated by women, is illustrated by the episode of Cariliarta and Repolido, in “Rinconete and Covtadillo,” one of Cervantes’s 80 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. Exemplary Novels. The Indian women of South America feel in the same way, and Mantegazza when traveling in Bolivia found that they complained when they were not beaten by their husbands, and that a girl was proud when she could say “He loves me greatly, for he often beats me.” (Fisiologia della Donna, chapter xiii.) The same feeling evidently existed in classic antiquity, for we Cud Lucian, in his “Dialogues of Courtesans,” makes a woman say: “He who has not rained blows on his mistress and torn her hair and her garments is not yet in love,” while Ovid advises lovers sometimes to be angry with their sweethearts and to tear their dresses. Among the Italian Camorrista, according to Russo, wives are very badly treated." Expression is given to this fact in the popular songs. But the women only feel themselves tenderly loved when they are badly treated by their husbands; the man who does not beat them they look upon as a fool. It is the same in the east end of London. “If anyone has doubts as to the brutalities practised on women by men,” writes a London magistrate, “let him visit the London Hospital on a Saturday night. Very terrible sights will meet his eye. Sometimes as many as twelve or fourteen women may be seen seated in the receiving room, waiting for their bruised and bleeding faces and bodies to be attended to. In nine cases out of ten the injuries have been inflicted by brutal and perhaps drunken husbands. The nurses tell me, however, that any remarks they may make reflecting on the aggressors are received with great indignation by the wretched sufferers. They positively will not hear a single word against the cowardly ruffians. ‘Sometimes,’ said a nurse to me, ‘when I have told a woman that her husband is a brute, she has drawn herself up and replied: “You mind your own business, miss. We find the rates and taxes, and the likes of you are paid out of ’em to wait on us.””’ (Montagu Williams, Round London, p. 79.) “The prostitute really loves her souteneur, notwithstanding all the persecutions he inflicts on her. Their torments only increase the devo¬ tion of the poor slaves to their ‘Alphonses.’ Parent-Duchatelet wrote that he had seen them come to the hospital with their eyes out of their heads, faces bleeding, and bodies torn by the blows of their drunken lovers, but as soon as they were healed they went back to them. Police- officers tell us that it is very difficult to make a prostitute confess any¬ thing concerning her souteneur. Thus, Rosa L., whom her ‘Alphonse’ had often threatened to kill, even putting the knife to her throat, would say nothing, and denied everything when the magistrate questioned her. Maria R., with her face marked by a terrible scar produced by her souteneur, still carefully preserved many years afterward the portrait of the aggressor, and when we asked her to explain her affection she replied: ‘But he wounded me because he loved me.’ The souteneur’s brutality only increases the ill-treated woman’s love; the humiliation LOVE AND PAIN. 81 and slavery in which the woman’s soul is drowned feed her love ” (Nice- foro, II Gergo, etc., 1897, p. 128.) In a modern novel written in autobiographic form by a young Australian lady the heroine is represented as striking her betrothed with a whip when he merely attempts to kiss her. Later on her behavior so stings him that his self-control breaks down and he seizes her fiercely by the arms. For the first time she realizes that he loves her. “I laughed a joyous little laugh, saying ‘Hal, we are quits’; when on dis¬ robing for the night I discovered on my soft white shoulders and arms— so susceptible to bruises—many marks, and black. It had been a very happy day for me.” (Miles Franklin, Mg Brilliant Career.) It is in large measure the existence of this feeling of attraction for violence which accounts for the love-letters received by men who are accused of crimes of violence. Thus in one instance, in Chicago (as Dr. Kiernan writes to me), “a man arrested for conspiracy to commit abortion, and also suspected of being a sadist, received many proposals of marriage and other less modest expressions of affection from unknown women. To judge by the signatures, these women belonged to the Germans and Slavs rather than to the Anglo-Celts.” Neuropathic or degenerative conditions sometimes serve to accent¬ uate or reveal ancestral traits that are very ancient in the race. Under such conditions the tendency to find pleasure in subjection and pain, Dibich is often faintly traceable even in normal civilized women, may become more pronounced. This may be seen in a case described in some detail in the Archivio di Psichiatria. The subject was a young lady of 19, of noble Italian birth, but born in Tunis. On the maternal side there is a somewhat neurotic heredity, and she is herself subject to attacks of hystero-epileptoid character. She was very carefully, but strictly, educated; she knows several languages, possesses marked in¬ tellectual aptitudes, and is greatly interested in social and political questions, in which she takes the socialistic and revolutionary side. She has an attractive and sympathetic personality; in complexion she is dark, with dark eyes and very dark and abundant hair; the fine down on the upper lip and lower parts of the cheeks is also much developed; the jaw is large, the head acroeephalic, and the external genital organs of noxmal size, but rather asymmetric. Ever since she was a child she has loved to work and dream in solitude. Her dreams have always been of love, since menstruation began as early as the age of 10, and accompanied by strong sexual feelings, though at that age these feelings remained vague and indefinite; but in them the desire for pleasure was always accompanied by the desire for pain, the desire to bite and destroy something, and, as it were, to annihilate herself. She experi¬ enced great relief after periods of “erotic rumination,” and if this rumi- 6 g2 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. nation took place at night she would = e vally ^lufformed^ secret Relationships with two & or three lovers in succes¬ sion 7 each of these relationships being, however, discovered by her faun and leading to ineffectual attempts at suicide. But the association of • with love which had developed spontaneously in her solitary “BecauTTwant sessed by force, to be hurt, suffocated, to be thrown down in as r ^~° At another time she said: “I want a man with all his vitality, so that he can torture and kill my body.” We seem to see here cleaidy the ancient biological character of animal courtship, the desire of the female to be violently subjugated by the male. , •fori +o cpnsitiveness to the sexual domination of an intellectual mai, "sS"ought to stimulate her lovers- intellectual testes. (Archivio di Psichiatria, vol. xx, fasc. 5-6, p. 528.) This association between love and pain still persists even among the most normal civilized men and women possessing well-developed sexual impulses. The masculine tendency to delight in domination, the feminine tendency to delight in sub¬ mission, still maintain the ancient traditions when the ma animal pursued the female. The phenomena of marriage by capture,” in its real and its simulated forms, have been traced to various causes. But it has to be remembered that these causes could only have been operative in the presence of a favorable emotional aptitude, constituted by the zoological his torv of our race and still traceable even today. To exert power, as psychologists well recognize, is one of our most primary impulses, and it always tends to be manifested m the altitude of a man toward the woman he loves. 1 ' l (L’Instinct Bexuel, p. 133) appears to regard the saw »JSrffiST'S SSrlr/a factor ^n the°emotionai SmTm when it only exist, in the sexual sphere it is reasonable to base this attitude laigt y on LOVE AND PAIN. 83 It might be possible to maintain that the primitive element of more or less latent cruelty in courtship tends to be more rather than less marked in civilized man. In civilization the opportunity of dissipating the surplus energy of the courtship process by inflicting pain on rivals usually has to be inhibited; thus the woman to be wooed tends to become the recipient of the whole of this energy, both in its pleasure-giving and its pain- giying aspects. Moreover, the natural process of courtship, as it exists among animals and usually among the lower human races, tends to become disguised and distorted in civilization, as well by economic conditions as by conventional social conditions and even ethical prescription. It becomes forgotten that the woman’s pleasure is an essential element in the process of courtship. A woman is often reduced to seek a man for the sake of main¬ tenance; she is taught that pleasure is sinful or shameful, that sex-matters are disgusting, and that it is a woman’s duty, and also her best policy, to be in subjection to her husband. Thus various external checks which normally inhibit any passing over of masculine sexual energy into cruelty are liable to be removed. W e have to admit that a certain pleasure in manifesting Ins power over a woman by inflicting pain upon her is an out¬ come and survival of the primitive process of courtship, and an almost or quite normal constituent of the sexual impulse in man. But it must be at once added that in the normal well- balanced and well-conditioned man this constituent of the sexual impulse, when present, is always held in check. When the normal man inflicts, or feels the impulse to inflict, some degree o pin sical pain on the woman he loves he can scarcely be said to be moved by cruelty. He feels, more or less obscurely, that the pam he inflicts, or desires to inflict, is really a part of his love, and that, moreover, it is not really resented by the woman SUL 1 !? 1 - 1 T re fundam< ; utal biological attitude of the male toward the female m the process of courtship. F6r6 regards this biological element Ml* moment in°tUe^normal"sexual ptcess” “ Dd a PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. on whom it is exercised. His feeling is by no means always according to knowledge, but it has to be taken ^ l s ^ force, an essential part of his emotional state. 1 py , der the teasing and bnllying, which he may be moved to exe t d^ the stress of sexual excitement, are, he usually m unconsciously persuades himself, not really ®«tometo the obiect of his love. 1 Moreover, we have to bear 1 fact— a very significant fact from more than one point of v that the normal manifestations of a woman’s sexual pleasuie exceedingly like those of pain. -The outward expressions of nain” as a lady very truly writes,—‘‘tears, cues, etc-., w are laid stress on to prove the cruelty of the P CTS0 ° it are not so different from those of a woman in the ec y passion, when she implores the man to desist though that is really the last thing she desires.”* If a man is convinced that he is causing real and unmitigated pain, he becomes repen an at It If this is not the case he must either be regarded as a radically abnormal person or as carried away by passion to point of temporary insanity. . The intimate connection of love with pain, its tendency to approach cruelty, is seen in one of the most widespread of the occasional and non-essential manifestations of strong sexua emotion, especially in women, the tendency o 1 - ■ find references to love-bites in the literature of orant: as well as of modem times, in the East as well as in the West Plautus, Catullus, Propertius, Horace, Ovid, Petronius, and other Latin writers refer to bites as associated with kisses and usually on the lips. Plutarch says that Elora, the mistress of Cmeus Pompey, in commending her lover remarked that he was so lovable that toward the woman he loves, >> u *the woman pleasuie, and that of cruelty are similar. love and pain. 85 she could never leave him without giving him a bite. In the Arabic Perfumed Garden there are many references to love-bites, while in the Indian Puma, Sutra of Vatsyayana a chapter is devoted to this subject. Biting in love is also common among the South Slavs. 1 The phenomenon is indeed sufficiently familiar to enable Heine, in one of his Pomuncero , to describe those marks by which the ancient chronicler states that Edith Swan- neck recognized Harold, after the Battle of Hastings, as the scars of the bites she had once given him. It would be fanciful to trace this tendency back to that process of devouring to which sexual congress has, in the primitive stages of its evolution, been reduced. But we may probably find one of the genus of the love-bite in the attitude of many mammals during or before coitus; in attaining a firm grip of the female it is not uncommon (as may be observed in the donkey) for the male to seize the female’s neck between his teeth. The horse sometimes bites the mare before coitus and it is said that among the Arabs when a mare is not apt for coitus she is sent to pasture with a small ardent horse, who excites her by playing with her and biting her. 2 It may be noted, also, that dogs often show their affection for their masters by gentle bites. Children also, as Stanley Hall has pointed out, are similarly fond of biting. Perhaps a still more important factor is the element of combat in tumescence, since the primitive conditions associated v ith tumescence provide a reservoir of emotions which are con¬ stantly drawn on even in the sexual excitement of individuals belonging to civilization. The tendency to show affection by biting is, indeed, commoner among women than among men and not only in civilization. It has been noted among idiot girls as well as among the women of various savage races. It may thus be that the conservative instincts of women have preseived a primitive tendency that at its origin marked the male more than the female. But in any case the tendency to 1 Kpirn-rdSia, vol. vi, p. 20S. ^Daumas, Chcvmx de Sahara, p. 49. 86 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. bite at the climax of sexual excitement is so common and wide¬ spread that it must be regarded, when occurring m women, as coming within the normal range of variation in such manifesta¬ tions. The gradations are of wide extent; while in its slight forms it is more or less normal and is one of the origins of the kiss, 1 in its extreme forms it tends to become one of the most violent and antisocial of sexual aberrations. A correspondent writes regarding liis experience of biting and being bitten: “I have often felt inclination to bite a woman I love, even when not in coitus or even excited. (I like doing so also with my little boy playfully, as a cat and kittens.) There seem to be several reasons for this: (1) the muscular effect relieves me; (2) I imagine I am giving the woman pleasure; (3) I seem to attain to a more intimate possession of the loved one. I cannot remember when I first felt desire to be bitten in coitus, or whether the idea was first suggested to me I was initiated into pinching by a French prostitute who once pinched my nates in coitus, no doubt as a matter of business; it heightened my pleasure, perhaps by stimulating muscular movement. It does not occur to me to ask to be pinched when I am very much excited alieady, but only at an earlier stage, no doubt with the object of promoting excitement. Apart altogether from sexual excitement, being pinched is unpleasant to me. It lias not seemed to me that women usually like to be bitten. One or two women have bitten and sucked my flesh. (The latter does not affect me.) I like being bitten, par. y or ae same reason as I like being pinched, because if spontaneous it is a sign of my partner’s amorousness and the biting never seems too hard. Women do not usually seem to like being bitten, though there are exceptions; ‘I should like to bite you and I should like you to bite me^ said one woman; I did so hard, in coitus, and she did not flinch “She is particularly anxious to eat me alive/ another correspondent writes, “and nothing gives her greater satisfaction than to tear open my clothes and fasten her teeth into my flesh until I yell for mercy. My experience has generally been, however,” the same correspondent con¬ tinues “that the cruelty is unconscious. A woman just grows mad with the desire to squeeze or bite something, with a complete uncon¬ sciousness of what result it will produce in the victim. She is astonished when she sees the result and will hardly believe she has done it. It is unnecessary to accumulate evidence of a tendency which is sufficiently eeromon to be fairly well known, but one or two quotations may be lSee in vol. iv of these Studies (“Sexual Selection in Man”), Appendix A, on “The Origins of the Kiss.” LOVE AND PAIN. 87 presented to show its wide distribution. In the Kama Sutra we read: If she is veiy exalted, and if in the exaltation of her passionate trans¬ ports she begins a sort of combat, then she takes her lover by the hair, draws his head to hers, kisses his lower lip, and then in her delirium bites him all over his body, shutting her eyes”; it is added that with the marks of such bites lovers can remind each other of their affections, and that such love will last for ages. In Japan the maiden of Ainu race feels the same impulse. A. H. Savage Landor (Alone with the Hairy Ainu, 1893, p. 140) says of an Ainu girl: “Loving and biting went to¬ gether with her. She could not do the one without the other. As we sat on a stone in the twilight she began by gently biting my fingers without hurting me, as affectionate dogs do to their masters. She then bit my arm, then my shoulder, and when she had worked herself up into a passion she put her arms around my neck and bit my cheeks. It was undoubtedly a curious way of making love, and, when I had been bitten all over, and was pretty tired of the new sensation, we retired to our respective homes. Kissing, apparently, was an unknown art to her.” The significance of biting, and the close relationship which, as will have to be pointed out later, it reveals to other phenomena, may be illustrated by some observations which have been made by Alonzi on the peasant women of Sicily. “The women of the people,” he remarks, “especially in the districts where crimes of blood are prevalent, give vent to their affection for their little ones by kissing and sucking them on the neck and arms till they make them cry convulsively; all the while they say: ‘How sweet you are! I will bite you, I will gnaw you all over,’ exhibiting every appearance of great pleasure. If a child com¬ mits some slight fault they do not resort to simple blows, but pursue it through the street and bite it on the face, ears, and arms until the blood flows. At such moments the face of even a beautiful woman is transformed, with injected eyes, gnashing teeth, and convulsive tremors. Among both men and women a very common threat is ‘I will drink your blood.’ It is told on ocular evidence that a man who had murdered another in a quarrel licked the hot blood from the victim’s hand.” (G. Alonzi, Archivio di Psichiatria, vol. vi, fasc. 4.) A few years ago a nurse girl in New York was sentenced to prison for cruelty to the baby in her charge. The mother had frequently noticed that the child was in pain and at last discovered the marks of teeth on its legs. The girl admitted that she had bitten the child because that action gave her intense pleasure. (Alienist and Neurologist, August, 1901, p. 558.) In the light of such observations as these we may understand a morbid perversion of affection such as was recorded in the London police news some years ago (1894). A man of 30 was charged with ill-treating his wife’s illegitimate daughter, aged 3, during a period of many months; her lips, eyes, and hands were bitten and bruised from sucking, and 88 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. sometimes her pinafore was covered with blood. “Defendant admitted he had bitten the child because he loved it.” It is not surprising that such phenomena as these should some¬ times be the stimulant and accompaniment to the sexual act. Ferriam thus reports such a case in the words of the young man’s mistress: “Certainly he is a strange, maddish youth, though he is fond of me and spends money on me when he has any. He likes much sexual inter¬ course, but, to tell the truth, he has worn out my patience, for before our embraces there are always struggles which become assaults. He tells me he has no pleasure except when he sees me crying on account of his bites and vigorous pinching. Lately, just before going with me, when I was groaning with pleasure, he threw himself on me and at the moment of emission furiously bit my right cheek till the blood came. Then he kissed me and begged my pardon, but would do it again if the wish took him.” (L. Ferriani, ArcUvio di Psicopatie Sessuale, vol. i, fasc. 7 and 8, 1890, p. 107.) In morbid cases biting may even become a substitute for coitus. Thus, Moll ('Die Kontrare Sexualempfindung, second edition, p. 323) records the case of a hysterical woman who was sexually anesthetic, though she greatly loved her husband. It was her chief delight to bite him till the blood flowed, and she was content if, instead of coitus, he bit her and she him, though she was grieved if she inflicted much pain. In other still more morbid cases the fear of inflicting pain is more or less abolished. An idealized view of the impulse of love to bite and devour is pre¬ sented in the following passage from a letter by a lady who associates this impulse with the idea of the Last Supper: “Your remarks about the Lord’s Supper in ‘Whitman’ make it natural to me to tell you my thoughts about that ‘central sacrament of Christianity.’ I cannot tell many people because they misunderstand, and a clergyman, a very great friend of mine, when I once told what I thought and felt, said I was carnal. He did not understand the divinity and intensity of human love as I understand it. Well, when one loves anyone very much, a child, a woman, or a man,—one loves everything belonging to him: the things he wears, still more his hands, and his face, every bit of his body. We always want to have all, or part, of him as part of ourselves. Hence the expression: I could devour you, I love you so. In some such warm, devouring way Jesus Christ, I have always felt, loved each and every human creature. So it was that he took this mystery of food, which by eating became part of ourselves, as the symbol of the most intense human love, the most intense Divine love. Some day, perhaps, love will be so understood by all that this sacrament will cease to be a superstition, a bone of contention, an ‘article’ of the church, and be¬ come, in all simplicity, a symbol of pure love.” LOVE AND PAIN. 89 While in men it is possible to trace a tendency to inflict pain, or the simulacrum of pain, on the women they love, it is still easier to trace in women a delight in experiencing phys¬ ical pain when inflicted by a lover, and an eagerness to accept subjection to liis will. Such a tendency is certainly normal. To abandon herself to her lover, to be able to rely on his ph) sical strength and mental resourcefulness, to be swept out of herself and beyond the control of her own will, to drift idly in delicious submission to another and stronger will—this is one of the commonest aspirations in a young woman’s intimate love-dreams. In our own age these aspirations most often only find their expression in such dreams. In ages when life was more nakedly lived, and emotion more openly expressed, it was easier to trace this impulse. In the thirteenth century we have found Marie de France—a French poetess living in England who has been credited with “an exquisite sense of the generosities and delicacy of the heart,” and whose work was certainly highly appreciated in the best circles and among the most cultivated class of her day—describing as a perfect, wise, and courteous knight a man who practically commits a rape on a woman who has refused to have anything to do with him, and, in so acting, he wins her entire love. The savage beauty of IS Tew Caledonia furnishes no better illustration of the fas¬ cination of force, for she, at all events, has done her best to court the violence she undergoes. In Middleton’s Spanish Gypsy we find exactly the same episode, and the unhappy Portu¬ guese nun wrote: “Love me for ever and make me suffer still more.” To find in literature more attenuated examples of the same tendency is easy. Shakespeare, whose observation so little escaped, has seldom depicted the adult passion of a grown woman, but in the play which he has mainly devoted to this subject he makes Cleopatra refer to “amorous pinches,” and she says in the end: “The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch, which hurts and is desired. “I think the Sabine woman enjoyed being carried off like that,” a woman remarked in front of Rubens’s “Pape of the Sabines/’ confessing that such a method of love- 90 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. making appealed strongly to herself, and it is probable that the majority of women would be prepared to echo that remaik. It may be argued that pain cannot give pleasure, and that when what would usually he pain is felt as pleasure it cannot be regarded as pain at all. It must be admitted that the emotional state is oftcn " 01 ^' what complex. Moreover, women by no means always agree n the statement of their experience. It is noteworthy ~ when the pleasurableness of pain in love is denied it is still admitted that, under some circumstances, pain, or the idea of pain, « felt as pleasurable. I am indebted to a lady for a somewhat elaborate^ dis¬ cussion of this subject, which I may here quote at length: As e < physical pain, though the idea of it is sometimes exciting, I think the reality is the reverse. A very slight amount of pain destiojs my pleasure completely. This was the case with me for fully a month after marriage, and since. When pain has occasionally been associated with passion, pleasure has been sensibly diminished. I can imagine that, when there is a want of sensitiveness so that the ten/- caress might fail to give pleasure, more forcible methods f but in that case what would be pain to a sensitive person viouiU be only a pleasant excitement, and it could not be truly said that such obtuse persons liked pain, though they might appear to do so. I ca nnot tlnnk that anyone enjoys what is pain to them, if only from the fact that it detracts and divides the attention. This, however, is only my own idea drawn from my own negative experience ^o woman has eve told me that she would like to have pain inflicted on her. On the other hand the desire to inflict pain seems almost universal among men. I have only met one man in whom I have never at any time been able to detect it. At the same time most men shrink from putting their ideas into practice. A friend of my husband finds his chief pleasure in imagining women hurt and ill-treated, but is too tender-hearted ever to inflict pain on them in reality, even when they are willing to submit to it Perhaps a woman’s readiness to submit to pain to please a man may sometimes be taken for pleasure in it. Even when women like the idea of pain, I fancy it is only because it implies subjection to the man, from association with the fact that physical pleasure must necessarily be preceded by submission to his w ill. In a subsequent communication this lady enlarged and perhaps somewhat modified her statements on this point:— “1 don’t think that what I said to you was quite correct. Act act pain gives me no pleasure, yet the idea of pain does, if inflicted by way of discipline and far the ultimate good of the person suffering it. This is essential. For instance, I once read a poem in wluch the devil and the lost souls in hell were represented as recognizing that they could not LOVE AND PAIN. 91 be good except under torture, but that while suffering the purifying actions of the flames of hell they so realized the beauty of holiness that they submitted willingly to their agony and praised God for the stern¬ ness of his judgment. This poem gave me decided physical pleasure, yet I know that if my hand were held in a fire for five minutes I should feel nothing but the pain of the burning. To get the feeling of pleasure, too, I must, for the moment, revert to my old religious beliefs and my old notion that mere suffering has an elevating influence; one’s emotions are greatly modified by one’s beliefs. When I was about fifteen I invented a game which I played with a younger sister, in which we were supposed to be going through a process of discipline and preparation for heaven after death. Each person was supposed to enter this state on dying and to pass successively into the charge of different angels named after the special virtues it was their function to instill. The last angel was that of Love, who governed solely by the quality whose name he bore. In the lower stages, we were under an angel called Severity who prepared us by extreme harshness and by exacting implicit '' to arbitrary orders for the acquirement of later virtues. Our e to superintend the weather, paint the sunrise and sunset, etc., the constant work involved exercising us in patience and submis¬ sion. The physical pleasure came in in inventing and recounting to each other our day’s work and the penalties and hardships we had been subjected to. We never told each other that we got any physical pleasure out of this, and I cannot therefore be sure that my sister did so; I only imagine she did because she entered so heartily into the spirit of the game. I could get as much pleasure by imagining myself the angel and inflicting the pain, under the conditions mentioned; but my sister did not like this so much, as she then had no companion in subjection. I could not, however, thus reverse my feelings in regard to a man, as it would appear to me unnatural, and, besides, the greater physical strength is essential in the superior position. I can, however, by imagining myself a man, sometimes get pleasure in conceiving my¬ self as educating and disciplining a woman by severe measures. There is, howevei’, no real cruelty in this idea, as I always imagine her liking it. “I only get pleasure in the idea of a woman submitting herself to pain and harshness from the man she loves when the following conditions are fulfilled: 1. She must be absolutely sure of the man’s love. 2. She must have perfect confidence in his judgment. 3. The pain must be deliberately inflicted, not accidental. 4. It must be inflicted in kindness and for her own improvement, not in anger or with any revengeful feelings, as that would spoil one’s ideal of the man. 5. The pain must not be excessive and must be what when we were children we used to call a ‘tidy 5 pain; i.e., there must be no mutilation, cutting, etc. 6. Last, one would have to feel very sure of one’s own influence over 92 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. the man. So much for the idea. As I have never suffered paumnder a combination of all these conditions, I have no right to say that I should or should not experience pleasure from its infliction in reality. Another lady writes: “I quite agree that the idea of pain may be pleasurable, but must be associated with something to be gained by it. My experience is that it [coitus] does often hurt for a few moments, but that passes and the rest is easy; so that the little hurt is no mg terrible, but all the same annoying if only for the sake of a few minutes pleasure, which is not long enough. I do not know how my experience compares with other women’s, but I feel sure that in my case the time needed is longer than usual, and the longer the better, always, with me. As to liking pain—no, I do not really like it, although I can tolerate pain very well, of any kind; but I like to feel force and strength; this is usual, I think, women being-or supposed to be- passive in love. I have not found that ‘pain at once kills pleasure. Again, another lady briefly states that, for her, pain has a mental fascination, and that such pain as she has had she has liked, but that, if it had been any stronger, pleasure would have been destroyed. The evidence thus seems to point, with various shades of grada¬ tion, to the conclusion that the idea or even the reality of pain in sexual emotion is welcomed by women, provided that this element of pain is of small amount and subordinate to the pleasure which is to follow it. Unless coitus is fundamentally pleasure the element of pain must necessarily be unmitigated pain, and a craving for pain unassociated with a greater satisfaction to follow it cannot be regarded as normal. In this connection I may refer to a suggestive chapter on “The Enjoyment of Pain” in Hirn’s Origins of Art. “If we take into ac- count/’ says Hirn, “the powerful stimulating effect which is produced by acute pain, we may easily understand why people submit to momen¬ tary unpleasantness for the sake of enjoying the subsequent excite¬ ment. This motive leads to the deliberate creation, not only of pain- sensations, but also of emotions in which pain enters as an element. The violent activity which is involved in the reaction against fear, and still more in that against anger, affords us a sensation of pleasurable excitement which is well worth the cost of the passing unpleasantness. It is, moreover, notorious that some persons have developed a peculiar art of making the initial pain of anger so transient that they can enjoy the active elements in it with almost undivided delight. Such an accom¬ plishment is far more difficult in the case of sorrow. . . . The creation of pain-sensations may be explained as a desperate device for enhancing the intensity of the emotional state. The relation of pain and pleasure to emotion has been thoroughly discussed, I may add, by H. It. Marshall in his Pain, Pleasure, and AEsthetics . He contends that pleasure and pain are “general qualities. LOVE AND PAIN. 93 one of which must, and either of which may, belong to any fixed element of consciousness.” “Pleasure,” he considers, “is experienced whenever the physical activity coincident with the psychic state to which the pleasure is attached involves the use of surplus stored force.” We can see, therefore, how, if pain acts as a stimulant to emotion, it becomes the servant of pleasure by supplying it with surplus stored force. This problem of pain is thus one of psychic dynamics. If we realize this we shall begin to understand the place of cruelty in life. “One ought to learn anew about cruelty,” said Nietzsche (Beyond Good and Evil , 229), “and open one’s eyes. Almost everything that we call ‘higher culture’ is based upon the spiritualizing and intensifying of cruelty. . . . Then, to be sure, we must put aside teaching the blundering psychology of former times, which could only teach with regard to cruelty that it originated at the sight of the suffering of others; there is an abundant, superabundant enjoyment even in one’s own suffering, in causing one’s own suffering.” The element of paradox disappears from this statement if we realize that it is not a question of “cruelty,” but of the dynamics of pain. Camille Bos in a suggestive essay (“Du Plaisir de la Douleur,” Revue Philosophique, July, 1902) finds the explanation of the mystery in that complexity of the phenomena to which I have already referred. Both pain and pleasure are complex feelings, the resultant of various components, and we name that resultant in accordance with the nature of the strongest component. “Thus we give to a complexus a name which strictly belongs only to one of its factors, and in pain all is not painful .” When pain becomes a desired end Camille Bos regards the desire as due to three causes: (1) the pain contrasts with and revives a pleasure which custom threatens to dull; (2) the pain by preceding the pleasure accentuates the positive character of the latter; (3) pain momentarily raises the lowered level of sensibility and restores to the organism for a brief period the faculty of enjoyment it had lost. It must therefore be said that, in so far as pain is pleasurable, it is so only in so far as it is recognized as a prelude to pleasure, or else when it is an actual stimulus to the nerves conveying the sensa¬ tion of pleasure. The nymphomaniac who experienced an orgasm at the moment when the knife passed through her clitoris (as recorded by Mantegazza) and the prostitute who experienced keen pleasure when the surgeon removed vegetations from her vulva (as recorded by Fer£) took no pleasure in pain, but in one case the intense craving for strong sexual emotion, and in the other the long-blunted nerves of pleasure, welcomed the abnormally strong impulse; and the pain of the incision, if felt at all, was immediately swallowed up in the sensation of pleasure. Moll remarks (Kontrare Sexualcmpfindung, third edition, p. 278) that even in man a trace of physical pain may be normally combined with 94 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. sexual pleasure, when the vagina contracts on the penis at the moment of ejaculation, the pain, when not too severe, being almost immediately felt as pleasure. That there is no pleasure in the actual pain, even in masochism, is indicated by the following statement which Ivrafft-Ebing gives as representing the experiences of a masochist ( Psychopathia Sexualis, English translation, p. 201): “The relation is not of such a nature that what causes physical pain is simply perceived as physical pleasure, for the person in a state of masochistic ecstasy feels no pain, either because by l’eason of his emotional state (like that of the soldier in battle) the physical effect on his cutaneous nerves is not apperceived, or because (as with religious martyrs and enthusiasts) in the preoccu¬ pation of consciousness with sexual emotion the idea of maltreatment remains merely a symbol, without its quality of pain. To a certain extent there is overcompensation of physical pain in psychic pleasure, and only the excess remains in consciousness as psychic lust. This also undergoes an increase, since, either through reflex spinal influence or through a peculiar coloring in the sensorium of sensory impressions, a kind of hallucination of bodily pleasure takes place, with a vague localization of the objectively projected sensation. In the self-torture of religious enthusiasts (fakirs, howling dervishes, religious flagellants) there is an analogous state, only with a difference in the quality of pleasurable feeling. Here the conception of martyrdom is also apper¬ ceived without its pain, for consciousness is filled with the pleasurably colored idea of serving God, atoning for sins, deserving Heaven, etc., through martyrdom.” This statement cannot be said to clear up the matter entirely; but it is fairly evident that, when a woman says that she finds pleasure in the pain inflicted by a lover, she means that under the special circumstances she finds pleasure in treatment which would at other times be felt as pain, or else that the slight real pain experi¬ enced is so quickly followed by overwhelming pleasure that in memory the pain itself seems to have been pleasure and may even be regarded as the symbol of pleasure. There is a special peculiarity of physical pain, which may be well borne in mind in considering the phenomena now before us, for it helps to account for the tolerance with which the idea of pain is regarded. I refer to the great ease with which physical pain is forgotten, a fact Avell known to all mothers, or to all who have been present at the birth of a child. As Professor von Tschisch points out (“Der Schmerz,” Zeit- sclirift fur Psychologie und Pliysiologie der Sinnesorgane, Bd. xxvi, lit. 1 and 2, 1901), memory can only preserve impressions as a whole; physical pain consists of a sensation and of a feeling. But memory cannot easily reproduce the definite sensation of the pain, and thus the whole memory is disintegrated and speedily forgotten. It is quite other- LOVE AND FAIN. 95 wise with moral suffering, which persists in memory and has far more influence on conduct. No one wishes to suffer moral pain or has any pleasure even in the idea of suffering it. It is the presence of this essential tendency which leads to a certain apparent contradiction in a woman’s emotions. On the one hand, rooted in the maternal instinct, we find pity, tenderness, and compassion; on the other hand, rooted in the sexual instinct, we find a delight in roughness, violence, pain, and danger, sometimes in herself, sometimes also in others. The one impulse craves something innocent and helpless, to cherish and protect; the other delights in the spectacle of reck¬ lessness, audacity, sometimes even effrontery . 1 A woman is not perfectly happy in her lover unless he can give at least some satisfaction to each of these two opposite longings. The psychological satisfaction which women tend to feel in a certain degree of pain in love is strictly co-ordinated with a physical fact. TV omen possess a minor degree of sensibility in the sexual region. This fact must not be misunderstood. On the one hand, it by no means begs the question as to whether women’s sensibility generally is greater or less than that of men; this is a disputed question and the evidence is still somewhat conflicting . 2 On the other hand, it also by no means involves a less degree of specific sexual pleasure in women, for the tactile sensibility of the sexual organs is no index to the specific sexual sensibility of those organs when in a state of tumescence. The real significance of the less tactile sensibility of the genital region in women is to be found in parturition and the special liability of the sexual region in women to injury . 3 1 De Stendhal (De VAmour) mentions that when in London he was on terms of friendship with an English actress who was the mistress of a wealthy colonel, but privately had another lover. One day the colonel arrived when the other man was present. “This gentleman has called about the pony I want to sell,” said the actress. “I have come for a very different purpose,” said the little man, and thus aroused a love which was beginning to languish. 2 See Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman, chapter vi, “The Senses.” 8 This liability is emphasized by Adler, Die Mangelhafte Gesclilechts- empfindung des Weibes, p. 125. 96 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. The worn on who fire loss sensitive in this rc»pect would be better able and more willing to endure the risks of childbirth, and would therefore tend to supplant those who were more sensitive. But, as a by-product of this less degree of sensibility, we have a condition in which physical irritation amounting even to pain may become to normal women in the state of extreme tumescence a source of pleasurable excitement, such as it would rarely be to normal men. To Calmann appear to be due the first carefully made observations showing the minor sensibility of the genital tract in women. (Adolf Calmann, “Sensibilitiitsprufungen am weiblicken Genitale nach foren- sichen Gesichtspunkten,” Archiv fur Cyniilcologie, 1898, p. 454.) He in¬ vestigated the vagina, urethra, and anus in eighteen women and found a great lack of sensibility, least marked in anus, and most marked in vagina. [This distribution of the insensitiveness alone indicates that it is due, as I have suggested, to natural selection.] Sometimes a finger in the vagina could not be felt at all. One woman, when a catheter was introduced into the anus, said it might be the vagina or urethra, but was certainly not the anus. (Calmann remarks that he was careful to put his questions in an intelligible form.) The women were only con¬ scious of the urine being drawn off when they heard the familiar sound of the stream or when the bladder was very full; if the sound of the stream was deadened by a towel they were quite unconscious that the bladder had been emptied. [In confirmation of this statement I have noticed that in a lady whose distended bladder it was necessary to empty by the catheter shortly before the birth of her first child—but who had, indeed, been partly under the influence of chloroform—there was no consciousness of the artificial relief; she merely remarked that she thought she could now relieve herself.] There was some sense of temperature, but sense of locality, tactile sense, and judgment of size were often widely erroneous. It is significant that virgins were just as insensitive as married women or those who had had children. Calmann s experiments appear to be confirmed by the experiments of Marco Treves, of Turin, on the thermoesthesiometry of mucous membranes, as re¬ ported to the Turin International Congress of Physiology (and briefly noted in Nature, November 21, 1901). Treves found that the sensitivity of mucous membranes is always less than that of the skin. The mucosa of the urethra and of the cervix uteri was quite incapable of heat and cold sensations, and even the cautery excited only slight, and that painful, sensation. In further illustration of this point reference may be made to the not infrequent cases in which the whole process of parturition and the LOVE AND PAIN. 97 enormous distention of tissues which it involves proceed throughout in an almost or quite painless manner. It is sufficient to refer to two cases reported in Paris by Mac6 and briefly summarized in the British Medical Journal, May 25, 1901. In the first the patient was a primipara 20 yea is of age, and, until the dilatation of the cervix was complete and efforts at expulsion had commenced, the uterine contractions were quite painless. In the second case, the mother, aged 25, a tripara, had previously had very rapid labors; she awoke in the middle of the night v ithout pains, but during micturition the fetal head appeared at the vulva, and was soon born. Fui ther illustration may be found in those cases in which severe inflammatory processes may take place in the genital canal without being noticed. Tlius, Maxwell reports the case of a young Chinese woman, certainly quite normal, in whom after the birth of° her first child the vagina became almost obliterated, yet beyond slight occasional pain she noticed nothing wrong until the husband found that penetra¬ tion was impossible (British Medical Journal, January 11, 1902, p. 78). The insensitiveness of the vagina and its contrast, in this respect, with the penis—though we are justified in regarding the penis as being, like oigans of special sense, relatively deficient in general sensibil¬ ity—are vividly presented in such an incident as the following, re¬ ported a few years ago in America by Dr. G. W. Allen in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal: A man came under observation with an edematous, inflamed penis. The wife, the night previous, on advice of fiiends, had injected pure carbolic acid into the vagina just previous to coitus. The husband, ignorant of the fact, experienced untoward burn¬ ing and smarting during and after coitus, but thought little of it, and soon fell asleep. The next morning there were large blisters on the penis, but it was no longer painful. When seen by Dr. Allen the pre¬ puce was retracted and edematous, the whole penis was much swollen, and there were large, perfectly raw surfaces on either side of the glans! In this connection we may well bring into line a remarkable group of phenomena concerning which much evidence has now accumulated. I refer to the use of various appliances, fixed in or around the penis, whether permanently or temporarily during coitus, such appliance being employed at the woman’s instigation and solely in order to heighten her excitement in congress. These appliances have their great center among the Indonesian peoples (in Borneo, Java, Sumatra, the Malay penin* sula, the Philippines, etc.), thence extending in a modified form through China, to become, it appears, considerably prevalent r 98 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. in Russia; I Rave also a note of their appearance in India. They have another widely diffused center, through which, how¬ ever, they are more sparsely scattered, among the American Indians of the northern and more especially of the southern continents. Amerigo Vespucci and other early travelers noted the existence of some of these appliances, and since Miklucho- Macleay carefully described them as used m Borneo their ex¬ istence has been generally recognized. They are usually re¬ garded merely as ethnological curiosities. As such they wou not concern us here. Their real significance for us is that they illustrate the comparative insensitiveness of the genital cana in women, while at the same time they show that a certain amount of what we cannot but regard as painful stimulation is craved by women, in order to heighten tumescence and increase sexual pleasure, even though it can only by procured by arti¬ ficial methods. It is, of course, possible to argue that m these cases we are not concerned with pain at all, but with a strong stimulation that is felt as purely pleasurable. There can be no doubt, however, that in the absence of sexual excitement this stimulation would be felt as purely painful, and—in the light of our previous discussion—we may, perhaps, fairly regard it as a painful stimulation which is craved, not because it is itself pleasurable, but because it heightens the highly pleasurable state of tumescence. Borneo, the geographical center of the Indonesian world, appears also to be the district in which these instruments are most popular. The cmpallang, palang, kambion, or sprit-sail yard, as it is variously termed, is a little rod of hone or metal nearly two inches in length, rounded at the ends, and used by the Kvans and Dyaks of Borneo. Before coitus it is inserted into a transverse orifice in the penis, made by a painful and somewhat dangerous operation and kept open by a quill. Two or more of these instruments are occasionally worn. Sometimes little brushes are attached to each end of the instrument. Another in¬ strument, used by the Dyaks, but said to have been borrowed from the Malays, is the palang anus, which is a ring or collar of plaited palm- fiber,* furnished with a pair of stiffish horns of the same wiry material; iZeitschrift fur Ethnologie, Bd. viii, 187G, pp. 22-28. LOVE AND PAIN. 99 it is worn on the neck of the glans and fits tight to the skin so as not to slip off. (Brooke Low, “The Natives of Borneo,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, August and November, 1892, p. 45; the ampallang and similar instruments are described by Ploss and Bartels l)as Weil), Bd. i, chapter xvii; also in Untrodden Fields of Anthropology by a French an ^ surgeon, 1898, vol. ii, pp. 135-141; also Mantegazza,’ (j i Amon degli Uomini, French translation, p. 83 et seq.) Riedel informed Miklucho-Macleay that in the Celebes the Alfurus fasten the eyelids of goats with the eyelashes round the corona of the glans penis, and m Java a piece of goatskin is used in a similar way, so as to form a hairy sheath ( Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, 1876, pp. 22-25), while among the Batta, of Sumatra, Hagen found that small stones are in¬ serted by an incision under the skin of the penis ( Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, 1891, lit. 3, p. 351). . In the ^ Iala y peninsula Stevens found instruments somewhat similar to the ampallang still in use among some tribes, and among ^ 6r ® farmerl y ia ^e. He thinks they were brought from Borneo. ( . V. Stevens, Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, 1S9G, lit. 4, p. 181.) Bloch who brings forward other examples of similar devices (Beitrdge zur Aetxologie der Psychopathia Sexualis, pp. 56-58), considers that the Australian mica operation may thus in part be explained. Such instruments are not, however, entirely unknown in Europe. In France, in the eighteenth century, it appears that rings, sometimes set with hard knobs, and called “aides,” were occasionally used by men to heighten the pleasure of women in intercourse. (Diihren, Marquis de Sade, 1901, p. 130.) In Russia, according to Weissenberg, of Eliza- bethsgrad, it is not uncommon to use elastic rings set with little teeth; these rings are fastened around the base of the glans. (Weissenberg, Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, 1893, ht. 2, p. 135.) This instrument must have been brought to Russia from the East, for Burton (in the notes to his Arabian Nights) mentions a precisely similar instrument as in use m China. Somewhat similar is the “Chinese hedgehog,” a wreath of fine, soft feathers with the quills solidly fastened by silver wire to a ring of the same metal, which is slipped over the glans. In South America ie Araucanians of Argentina use a little horsehair brush fastened aiound the penis; one of these is in the museum at La Plata; it is said the custom may have been borrowed from the Patagonians; these in¬ struments, called geskels, are made by the women and the workmanship is very delicate. (Lehmann-Nitsche, Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, 1900, ht. 6, p. 491.) It is noteworthy that a somewhat similar tuft of horse¬ hair is also worn in Borneo. (Breitenstein, 21 Jahre in India, 1899, pt. i, p. 227.) Most of the accounts state that the women attach great importance to the gratification afforded by such instruments. In Borneo 100 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. * ss’ss z<:. =~E£s*. :i — one time no •« similar appliance may rlrL P Tnrpeanc“:ntrL ad , especially CcLny, in t„e nse of a European coimtries, even in the absence of mistress' liked him so best (art. “Vegetations,” DicUonnane de Medemne “ such impulses and such devices to gratify them are altogether unnatural. This is not so. They have a zoological basis and in * any animals are eddied 1; tbe —^“de^ mett" of'rpent'closely resembling some of those artificially adopted Z tan Thus the guinea-pigs possess two horny styles attached to the nenis while the glans of the penis is covered with sharp spines. Some of the Caviidse also have two sharp, horny saws at the side of the penis. The cat, the rhinoceros, the tapir, and other animals possess P™J ect ™8 structures on the penis, and some species of ruminants, such as "e giraffe, and many antelopes, have, attached to the perns, long filiform processes through which the urethra passes. (*. H. A. tth ill The Physiology of Reproduction, pp. 246-^48.) We find" even in creatures so delicate and ethereal as the butter¬ flies a whole armory of keen weapons for use in coitus. These weie described in detail in an elaborate and fully illustrated memoir by P. H Gosse (“On the Clasping Organs Ancillary to Generation in Certain Groups of the Lepidoptera,” Transactions of the Lmruzan Society, second. 3 series, vol. ii, Zoology, 1882). These organs, which Gosse terms harpes (or grappling irons), are found in the Fapiliomd* and are very beautiful and varied, taking the forms of projecting claws hooks, pikes^ swords, knobs, and strange combinations of these, commonly brought to a keen edge and then cut into sharp teeth. It is probable that all these structures serve to excite the sexual apparatus of the female and to promote tumescence. To the careless observer there may seem to be something \iciou or perverted in such manifestations in man. That opinion becomes LOVE AXD TAIN. 101 \oir doubtful when we consider how these tendencies occur in people In ing under natural conditions in widely separated parts of the world. It becomes still further untenable if we are justified in believing that the ancestors of men possessed projecting epithelial appendages at¬ tached to the penis, and if we accept the discovery by Friedenthal of the rudiment of these appendages on the penis of the human fetus at an early stage (Friedenthal, “Sonderformen der menschlichen Leibesbil- dung,” Sexual-Problem e, Feb., 1912, p. 129). In this case human ingenuity would merely be seeking to supply an organ which nature has ceased to furnish, although it is still in some cases needed, espe¬ cially among peoples whose aptitude for erethism has remained at, or fallen to, a subhuman level. At first sight the connection between love and pain—the tendency of men to delight in inflicting it and women in suf- feiing it seems strange and inexplicable. It seems amazing that a tender and even independent woman should maintain a passionate attachment to a man who subjects her to physical and moral insults, and that a strong man, often intelligent, reasonable, and even kind-hearted, should desire to subject to such insults a woman whom he loves passionately and who has gi\en him every final proof of her own passion. In understand¬ ing such cases we have to remember that it is only within limits that a woman really enjoys the pain, discomfort, or subjection to which she submits. A little pain which the man knows he can himself soothe, a little pain which the woman gladly ac¬ cepts as the sign and forerunner of pleasure—this degree of pain comes within the normal limits of love and is rooted, as we have seen, in the experience of the race. But when it is canied beyond these limits, though it may still be tolerated because of the support it receives from its biological basis, it is no longer enjoyed. I ne natural note has been too violently struck, and the rhythm of love has ceased to be perfect. A woman may desire to be forced, to be roughly forced, to be ravished away beyond her own will. But all the time she only desires to be forced toward those things which are essentially and profoundly agreeable to her. A man who fails to realize this has made little progress in the art of love. “I like being knocked about and made to do things I don’t want to do,” a 102 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. woman said, but she admitted, on being questioned, that she would not like to have much pain inflicted, and that she might not care to be made to do important things she did not want to do. The story of Griselda’s unbounded submissiveness can scarcely be said to be psychologically right, though it has its artistic rightness as an elaborate fantasia on this theme justi¬ fied by its conclusion. This point is further illustrated by the following passage from a letter written by a lady: “Submission to the man’s will is still, and always must be^ the prelude to pleasure, and the association of ideas will probably always produce this much misunderstood instinct. Now, I find, indirectly from other women and directly from my own experi¬ ence, that, when the point in dispute is very important and the man exerts his authority, the desire to get one’s own way completely oblit¬ erates the sexual feeling, while, conversely, in small things the sexual feeling obliterates the desire to have one’s own way. Where the two are nearly equal a conflict between them ensues, and I can stand aside and wonder which will get the best of it, though I encourage the sexual feelin* when possible, as, if the other conquers, it leaves a sense of great mental irritation and physical discomfort. A man should command in small things, as in nine cases out of ten this will produce excitement. He should advise in large matters, or he may find either that lie is un¬ able to enforce his orders or that he produces a feeling of dislike and annoyance he was far from intending. Women imagine men must be stronger than themselves to excite their passion. I disagiee. A pas¬ sionate man lias the best chance, for in him the primitive instincts are strong. The wish to subdue the female is one of them, and in small things he will exert his authority to make her feel his power, while she knows that on a question of real importance she has a good chance of getting her own way by working on his greater susceptibility. Per¬ haps an illustration will show what I mean. I was listening to the band and a girl and her fiance came up to occupy two seats near me. The girl sank into one seat, but for some reason the man wished her to take °the other. She reiused. He repeated his order twice, the second time so peremptorily that she changed places, and I heard him say: I don’t think you heard what I said. I don’t expect to give an order three times.’ “This little scene interested me, and I afterward asked the girl the following questions:— f «‘Had you any reason for taking one chair more than the other V “ ‘No.’ * LOVE AND PAIN. 103 “ ‘Did Mr. -’s insistence on your changing give you any pleas¬ ure ?’ ‘“Yes’ (after a little hesitation). “ ‘Why?’ “ ‘I don’t know.’ “‘Would it have done so if you had particularly wished to sit in that chair; if, for instance, you had had a boil on your cheek and wished to turn that side away from him?’ “ ‘No; certainly not. The worry of thinking he was looking at it would have made me too cross to feel pleased.’ “Does this explain what I mean? The occasion, by the way, need not be really important, but, as in this imaginary case of the boil, if it seems important to the woman, irritation will outweigh the physical sensation.” I am well aware that in thus asserting a certain tendency in women to delight in suffering pain—however careful and qualified the position I have taken—many estimable people will cry out that I am degrading a whole sex and generally support¬ ing the “subjection of women.” But the day for academic discussion concerning the “subjection of women” has gone by. The tendency I have sought to make clear is too well estab¬ lished by the experience of normal and typical women—how¬ ever numerous the exceptions may be—to be called in question. I would point out to those who would deprecate the influence of such facts in relation to social progress that nothing is gained by regarding women as simply men of smaller growth. They are not so; they have the laws of their own nature; their development must be along their own lines, and not along masculine lines. It is as true now as in Bacon’s day that we only learn to command nature by obeying her. To ignore facts is to court disappointment in our measure of progress. The particular fact with which we have’here come in contact is very vital and radical, and most subtle in its influence. It is foolish to ignore it; we must allow for its existence. We can neither attain a sane view of life nor a sane social legislation of life unless we possess a just and accurate knowledge of the fundamental instincts upon which life is built. II. The Definition of Sadism—De Sade—Masochism to some Extent Normal— Sacher-Masoch—No Real Line of Demarcation between Sadism and Masochism—Algolagnia includes both Groups of Manifestations The Love-bite as a Bridge from Normal Phenomena to Algolagnia—The Fascination of Blood—The Most Extreme Perversions are Linked on to Normal Phenomena. We thus see that there are here two separate groups of feel¬ ings: one, in the masculine line, which delights in displaying force and often inflicts pain or the simulacrum of pain; the other, in the feminine line, which delights in submitting to that force, and even finds pleasure in a slight amount of pain, or the idea of pain, when associated with the experiences of love. We see, also, that these two groups of feelings are com¬ plementary. Within the limits consistent with noimal and healthy life, what men are impelled to give women love to receive. So that we need not unduly deprecate the “cruelty” of men within these limits, nor unduly commiserate the women who are subjected to it. Such a conclusion, however, as we have also seen, only holds good within those normal limits which an attempt has here been made to determine. The phenomena we have been considering are strictly normal phenomena, having tlieir basis in the conditions of tumescence and detumescence in animal and primitive human courtship. At one point, however, when discussing the phenomena of the love-bite, I referred to the facts which indicate how this purely normal manifestation yet insensibly passes over into the region of the morbid. It is an instance that enables us to realize how even the most 'terrible and repugnant sexual perversions are still demonstiablj linked on to phenomena that are fundamentally normal. The love- bite may be said to give us the key to that perverse impulse which has been commonly called sadism. ( 104 ) >4 LOVE AND PAIN. 105 There is some difference of opinion as to how “sadism” may be best defined. Perhaps the simplest and most usual definition is that of Krafft-Ebing, as sexual emotion asso¬ ciated with the wish to inflict pain and use violence, or, as he elsewhere expresses it, “the impulse to cruel and violent treat¬ ment of the opposite sex, and the coloring of the idea of such acts with lustful feeling /’ 1 2 A more complete definition is that of Moll, who describes sadism as a condition in which “the sexual impulse consists in the tendency to strike, ill-use, and humiliate the beloved person. - This definition has the advan¬ tage of bringing in the element of moral pain. A further ex¬ tension is made in Fere’s definition as “the need of association of violence and cruelty with sexual enjoyment, such violence or cruelty not being necessarily exerted by the person himself who seeks sexual pleasure in this association .” 3 Garnier’s definition, while comprising all these points, further allows for the fact that a certain degree of sadism may be regarded as normal. “Pathological sadism,” he states, “is an impulsive and obsessing sexual perversion characterized by a close connection between suffering inflicted or mentally represented and the sex¬ ual orgasm, without this necessary and sufficing condition fri¬ gidity usually remaining absolute .” 4 It must be added that these definitions are very incomplete if by “sadism” we are to understand the special sexual perversions which are displayed in De Sade’s novels. Iwan Bloch (“Eugen Diihren”), in the course of his book on De Sade, has attempted a definition strictly on this basis, and, as will be seen, it is necessary to make it very elaborate: “A connection, whether intentionally sought or offered by chance, of sexual excitement and sexual enjoyment with the real or only symbolic (ideal, illusionary) appearance of 1 Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathic 8exualis, English translation of tenth German edition, pp. 80, 209. It should be added that the object of the sadistic impulse is not necessarily a person of the opposite sex. 2 A. Moll, Die Kcmtrare Sexualcmpfindung, third edition, 1899, p. 309. 3 F6r6, UInstinct Sexuel, p. 133. 4 P. Gamier, “Des Perversions Sexuelles,” Thirteenth International Congress of Medicine, Section of Psychiatry, Paris, 1900. 106 PSYCHOLOGY OP SEX. frightful and shocking events, destructive occurrences and prac¬ tices, which threaten or destroy the life, health, and properly of man and other living creatures, and threaten and interrupt t ie continuity of inanimate objects, whereby the person who from such occurrences obtains sexual enjoyment may either himselt be the direct cause, or cause them to take place by means of other persons, or merely be the spectator, or, finally, be, vol¬ untarily or involuntarily, the object against which these proc¬ esses are directed .” 1 This definition of sadism as found in De Sade’s works is thus, more especially by its final clause, a very much wider conception than the usual definition. Donatien Alphonse Francois, Marquis De Sade, was born in 1740 at Paris in the house of the great Conde. He belonged to a very noble, ancient, and distinguished Provencal family; Petrarch’s Laura who married a De Sade, was one of his ancestors, and the family had cul¬ tivated both arms and letters with success. He was, according to La¬ croix, “an adorable youth whose delicately pale and dusky face, lighted up by two large black [according to another account blue] eyes, already bore the languorous imprint of the vice which was to corrupt his whole being”; his voice was “drawling and caressing”; liis gait had “a softly feminine grace.” Unfortunately there is no authentic portrait of him. His early life is sketched in letter iv of his Aline et Valcourt. On leaving the College-Louis-le-Grand he became a cavalry ofneer and went through the Seven Years’ War in Germany. There can be little doubt that the experiences of his military life, working on a femininely vicious temperament, had much to do with the development of his per¬ version. He appears to have got into numerous scrapes, of which the details are unknown, and his father sought to marry him to the daughter of an aristocratic friend of his own, a noble and amiable girl of 20. It so chanced that when young De Sade first went to the house of his future wife only her younger sister, a girl of 13, was at home; with her he at once fell in love and his love was reciprocated; they were both musical enthusiasts, and she had a beautiful voice. The parents insisted on carrying out the original scheme of marriage. De Sade’s wife loved him, and, in spite of everything, served his interests with Griselda-like devotion; she was, Ginisty remarks, a saint, a saint of conjugal life; but her love was from the first only requited with repul¬ sion, contempt, and suspicion. There were, however, children of the i E. Diiliren, Der Marquis de Sade und Seine Zeit, third edition, 1901, p. 449. LOVE AND PAIN. 107 marriage; the career of the eldest—an estimable young man who went into the army and also had artistic ability, but otherwise had no com¬ munity of tastes with his fathei'—lias been sketched by Paul Ginisty, who has also edited the letters of the Marquise. De Sade’s passion for the younger sister continued (he idealized her as Juliette), though she was placed in a convent beyond his reach, and at a much later period he eloped with her and spent perhaps the happiest period of his life, soon terminated by her death. It is evident that this un- happy marriage was decisive in determining De Sade’s career; he at once threw himself recklessly into every form of dissipation, spending his health and his substance sometimes among refinedly debauched nobles and sometimes among coarsely debauched lackeys. He was, however, always something of an artist, something of a student, something of a philosopher, and at an early period he began to write, apparently at the age of 23. It was at this age, and only a few months after his marriage, that on account of some excess lie was for a time confined in Vincennes. He was destined to spend 27 years of his life in prisons, if we include the 13 years which in old age he passed in the asylum at Charenton. His actual offenses were by no means so terrible as those he loved to dwell on in imagination, and for the most part they have been greatly exaggerated. His most extreme offenses were the indecent and forcible flagellation in 1768 of a young woman, Rosa Keller, who had accosted him in the street for alms, and whom he induced by false pretenses to come to his house, and the administration of aphrodisiacal bonbons to some prostitutes at Marseilles. It is owing to the fact that the prime of his manhood was spent in prisons that De Sade fell back on dreaming, study, and novel-writing. Shut out from real life, he solaced his imagination with the perverted visions—to a very large extent, however, founded on knowledge of the real facts of perverted life in his time—which he has recorded in Justine (1781); Les 120 Journees de Sodome ou VEcole du Libertinage (1785) ; Aline et Valcour ou le Roman Philosophique (1788); Juliette (1796); La Philosophic dans le Boudoir (1795). These books constitute a sort of encyclopedia of sexual perversions, an eighteenth century Psychopathia Sexualis, and embody, at the same time, a philosophy. He was the first, Bloch re¬ marks, who realized the immense importance of the sexual question. His general attitude may be illustrated by the following passage (as quoted by Lacassagne) : “If there are beings in the world whose acts shock all accepted prejudices, we must not preach at them or punish them . . . because their bizarre tastes no more depend upon them¬ selves than it depends on you whether you are witty or stupid, well made or hump-backed. . . . What would become of your laws, your morality, your religion, your gallows, your Paradise, your gods. 108 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. your hell, if it were shown that such and such fluids, such fibers, or a certain acridity in the blood, or in the animal spirits, alone suffice to make a man the object of your punishments or your rewards?” He was enormously well read, Bloch points out, and his interest extended to every field of literature: belles lettres, philosophy, theology, politics, sociology, ethnology, mythology, and history. Perhaps his favorite reading was travels. He was minutely familiar with the bible, though his attitude was extremely critical. His favorite philosopher was Lamettrie, whom he very frequently quotes, and he had carefully studied Machiavelli. De Sade had foreseen the Revolution; he was an ardent admirer of Marat, and at this period he entered into public life as a mild, gentle, rather bald and gray-haired person. Many scenes of the Revolution were the embodiment in real life of De Sade’s imagination; such, for instance, were the barbaric tortures inflicted, at the instigation of Th6roigne de Mfiricourt, on La Belle Bouquetifire. Yet De Sade played a very peaceful part in the events of that time, chiefly as a philan¬ thropist, spending much of his time in the hospitals. He saved his parents-in-law from the scaffold, although they had always been hostile to him, and by his moderation aroused the suspicions of the revolutionary party, and was again imprisoned. Later he wrote a pamphlet against Napoleon, who never forgave him and had him shut up in Charenton as a lunatic; it was a not unusual method at that time of disposing of persons whom it was wished to put out of the way, and, notwith¬ standing De Sade’s organically abnormal temperament, there is no reason to regard him as actually insane. Royer-C'ollard, an eminent alienist of that period, then at the head of Charenton, declared De Sade to be sane, and his detailed report is still extant. Other specialists were of the same opinion. Bloch, who quotes these opinions (Neue Forschun- gen, etc., p. 370), says that the only possible conclusion is that De Sade was sane, but neurasthenic, and Eulenburg also concludes that he cannot be regarded as insane, although he was highly degenerate. In the asylum he amused himself by organizing a theater. Lacroix, many years later, questioning old people who had known him, was sui prised to find that even in the memory of most virtuous and respectable persons he lived merely as an “aimdble mcuuvais sujet.” It is noteworthy that De Sade aroused, in a singular degree, the love and devotion of women, whether or not we may regard this as evidence of the fascination exerted on women by cruelty. Janin remarks that he had seen many pretty little letters written by young and charming women of the great world, beg¬ ging for the release of the “pauvre marquis .” Sardou, the dramatist, has stated that in 1855 he visited the BicStre and met an old gardener who had known De Sade during his LOTE AND PAIN. 109 reclusion there. He told that one of the marquis’s amusements was to procure baskets of the most beautiful and expensive roses; he would then sit on a footstool by a dirty streamlet which ran through the courtyard, and would take the roses, one by one, gaze at them, smell them with a voluptuous expression, soak them in the muddy water, and fling them away, laughing as he did so. He died on the 2d of December, 1814, at the age of 74. He was almost blind, and had long been a martyr to gout, asthma, and an affection of the stomach. It was his wish that acorns should be planted over his grave and his memory effaced. At a later period his skull was examined by a phrenologist, who found it small and well formed; “one would take it at first for a woman’s head.” The skull belonged to Dr. Londe, but about the middle of the century it was stolen by a doctor who con¬ veyed it to England, where it may possibly yet be found. [The fore¬ going account is mainly founded on Paul Lacroix, Revue de Paris, 1837, and Curiosites de VHistoire de France , second series, Procds Celebres, p. 225; Janin, Revue de Paris, 1834; Eugen Dtthren (Iwan Bloch), Der Marquis de Sade und Seine Zeit, third edition, 1901; id., Neue Forschun- gen iiber den Marquis de Sade und Seine Zeit, 1904; Lacassagne, Vacher VEventreur et les Crimes Sadiques, 1899; Paul Ginisty, La Marquise de Sade, 1901.] The attempt to define sadism strictly and penetrate to its roots in De Sade’s personal temperament reveals a certain weak¬ ness in the current conception of this sexual perversion. It is not, as we might infer, both from the definition usually given and from its probable biological heredity from primitive times, a perversion due to excessive masculinity. The strong man is more apt to be tender than cruel, or at all events lmows how to restrain within bounds any impulse to cruelty; the most extreme and elaborate forms of sadism (putting aside such as are associated with a considerable degree of imbecility) are more apt to be allied with a somewhat feminine organization. Montaigne, indeed, observed long ago that cruelty is usually accompanied by feminine softness. In the same way it is a mistake to suppose that the very feminine woman is not capable of sadistic tendencies. Even if we take into ac¬ count the primitive animal conditions of combat, the male must suffer as well as inflict pain, and the female must not only experience subjec¬ tion to the male, but also share in the emotions of her partner’s victory over his rivals. As bearing on these points, I may quote the following 110 PSYCHOLOGY OP SEX. remarks written by a lady: “It is said that, the weaker and more feminine a woman is, the greater the subjection she likes. I don’t think it has anything at all to do with the general character, but depends entirely on whether the feeling of constraint and helplessness affects her sexually. In men I have several times noticed that those who were most desirous of subjection to the women they loved had, in ordinary life, very strong and determined characters. I know of others, too, who with very weak characters are very imperious toward the women they care for. Among women I have often been surprised to see how a strong, determined woman will give way to a man she loves, and how tenacious of her own will may be some fragile, clinging creature who in daily life seems quite unable to act on her own responsibility. A certain amount of passivity, a desire to have their emotions worked on, seems to me, so far as my small experience goes, very common among ordinary, presumably normal men. A good deal of stress is laid on femininity as an attraction in a woman, and this may be so to very strong natures, but, so far as I have seen, the women who obtain extraor¬ dinary empire over men are those with a certain virility in their character and passions. If with this virility they combine a fragility or childishness of appearance which appeals to a man in another way at the same time, they appear to be irresistible.” I have noted some of the feminine traits in De Sade’s temperament and appearance. The same may often be noted in sadists whose crimes were very much more serious and brutal than those of De Sade. A man who stabbed women in the streets at St. Louis was a waiter with a high- pitched, effeminate voice and boyish appearance. Reidel, the sadistic murderer, was timid, modest, and delicate; he was too shy to urinate in the presence of other people. A sadistic zoophilist, described by A. Marie, who attempted to strangle a woman fellow-worker, had always been very timid, blushed with much facility, could not look even children in the eyes, or urinate in the presence of another person, or make sexual advances to women. Kiernan and Moyer are inclined to connect the modesty and timid¬ ity of sadists with a disgust for normal coitus. They were called upon to examine an inverted married woman who had inflicted several hundred wounds, mostly superficial, with forks, scissors, etc., on the genital organs and other parts of a girl whom she had adopted from a “Home.” This woman was very prominent in church and social matters in the city in which she lived, so that many clergymen and local persons of importance testified to her chaste, modest, and even prudish character; she was found to be sane at the time of the acts. (Moyer, Alienist and Neurologist, May, 1907, and private letter from Dr. Kiernan.) LOVE AND PAIN. Ill We are thus led to another sexual perversion, which is usually considered the opposite of sadism. Masochism is com¬ monly regarded as a peculiarly feminine sexual perversion, in women, indeed, as normal in some degree, and in man as a sort of inversion of the normal masculine emotional attitude, but this view of the matter is not altogether justified, for definite and pronounced masochism seems to be much rarer in women than sadism . 1 Krafft-Ebing, whose treatment of this phenomenon is, perhaps, his most valuable and original contribution to sexual psychology, has dealt very fully with the matter and brought forward many cases. He thus defines this perversion: “By masochism I understand a peculiar perversion of the psychical vita sexualis in which the individual affected, in sexual feeling and thought, is controlled by the idea of being completely and un¬ conditionally subject to the will of a person of the opposite sex, of being treated by this person as by a master, humiliated and abused. This idea is colored by sexual feeling; the masochist lives in fancies in which he creates situations of this kind, and he often attempts to realize them .” 2 In a minor degree, not amounting to a complete perversion of the sexual instinct, this sentiment of abnegation, the desire to be even physically subjected to the adored woman, cannot be regarded as abnormal. More than two centuries before Ivrafft- Ebing appeared, Robert Burton, who was no mean psychologist, dilated on the fact that love is a kind of slavery. “They are commonly slaves/’ he wrote of lovers, “captives, voluntary servants; amator amicce mmcipium, as Castilio terms him; his mistress’s servant, her drudge, prisoner, bondman, what not ?” 3 Before Burton’s time the legend of the erotic servitude of Aristotle was widely spread in Europe, and pictures exist of the 1 See, for instance, Bloch’s Beitrdge zur JEtiologie der Psycho- pathia Sexualis, part ii, p. 178. 2 Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, English translation of tenth German edition, p. 115. Stefanowsky, who also discussed this condition (Archives de V Anthropologie Criminelle, May, 1892, and translation, with notes by Kiernan, Alienist and Neurologist, Oct., 1892), termed it passivism. 2 Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii, section 2, mem. iii, subs, 1. 112 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. venerable philosopher on all fours ridden by a woman with a whip . 1 In classic times various masochistic phenomena are noted with approval by Ovid. It has been pointed out by Moll 2 that there are traces of masochistic feeling in some of Goethe’s poems, especially “Lilis Park” and “Erwin und Elmire.” Simi¬ lar traces have been foimd in the poems of Heine, Platen, Hamerling, and many other poets . 3 The poetry of the people is also said to contain many such traces. It may, indeed, be said that passion in its more lyric exaltations almost necessarily involves some resort to masochistic expression. A popular lady novelist in a novel written many years ago represents her hero, a robust soldier, imploring the lady of his love, in a moment of passionate exaltation, to trample on him, certainly without any wish to suggest sexual perversion. If it is true that the Antonio of Otway’s Venice Preserved is a caricature of Shaftes¬ bury, then it would appear that one of the greatest of English statesmen was supposed to exhibit very pronounced and char¬ acteristic masochistic tendencies; and in more recent days masochistic expressions have been noted as occurring in the love-letters of so emphatically virile a statesman as Bismarck. Thus a minor degree of the masochistic tendency may be said to be fairly common, while its more pronounced manifesta¬ tions are more common than pronounced sadism . 4 It very fre¬ quently affects persons of a sensitive, refined, and artistic tem¬ perament. It may even be said that this tendency is in the line of civilization. Krafft-Ebing points out that some of the most delicate and romantic love-episodes of the Middle Ages are distinctly colored by masochistic emotion . 5 The increasing 1 “Aristoteles als Masochist,” Geschlecht und Gesellschaft, Bd. ii, ht. 2. 2 Die Kontrare Sexualempfindung, third edition, p. 277. Cf. C. F. von Sclilichtegroll, Sacher-Masoch und der Masochismus, p. 120. 3 See C. F. von Sclilichtegroll, loc. cit., p. 124 et seq. 4 Iwan Bloch considers that it is the commonest of all sexual per¬ versions, more prevalent even than homosexuality. 5 It has no doubt been prominent in earlier civilization. A very pronounced masochist utterance may be found in an ancient Egyptian love-song written about 1200 b.c.: “Oh! were I made her porter, I LOVE AND PAIN. 113 tendency to masochism with increasing civilization becomes explicable if we accept Colin Scott’s “secondary law of court¬ ing” as accessory to the primary law that the male is active, and the female passive and imaginatively attentive to the states of the excited male. According to the secondary law, “the female develops a superadded activity, the male becoming rela¬ tively passive and imaginatively attentive to the psychical and bodily states of the female .” * 1 We may probably agree that this “secondary law of courting” does really represent a tend¬ ency of love in individuals of complex and sensitive nature, and the outcome of such a receptive attitude on the part of the male is undoubtedly in well-marked cases a desire of submis¬ sion to the female’s will, and a craving to experience in some physical or psychic form, not necessarily painful, the manifesta¬ tions of her activity. When we turn from vague and unpronounced forms of the masochistic tendency to the more definite forms in which it becomes an unquestionable sexual perversion, we find a very eminent and fairly typical example in Rousseau, an example all the more interesting because here the subject has himself portrayed his perversion in his famous Confessions. It is, how¬ ever, the name of a less eminent author, the Austrian novelist, Sacher-Masoch, which has become identified with the perversion through the fact that Krafft-Ebing fixed upon it as furnishing a convenient counterpart to the term “sadism.” It is on the strength of a considerable number of his novels and stories, more especially of Die Venus im Pelz, that Krafft-Ebing took the scarcely warrantable liberty of identifjfing his name, while yet living, with a sexual perversion. should cause her to be wrathful with me. Then when I did but hear her voice, the voice of her anger, a child shall I be for fear.” (Wiede¬ mann, Popular Literature in Ancient Egypt, p. 9.) The activity and independence of the Egyptian women at the time may well have offered many opportunities to the ancient Egyptian masochist. i Colin Scott, “Sex and Art,” American Journal of Psychology , vol. vii, No. 2, p. 208, 114 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. Sacher-Masoch’s biography has been written with intimate knowl¬ edge and much candor by C. F. von Schlichtegroll (Sacher-Masoch und der Masochisrmis, 1901) and, more indirectly, by his first wife Wanda von Sacher-Masoch in her autobiography (Heine Lelensbeichte, 1900; French translation, Confession de ma Vie, 1907). Schlichtegroll s book is written with a somewhat undue attempt to exalt his hero and to at¬ tribute his misfortunes to his first wife. The autobiography of the latter, however, enables us to form a more complete picture of Saclier- Masoch’s life, for, while his wife by no means spares herself, she clearly shows that Sacher-Masoch was the victim of his own abnormal tempera¬ ment, and she presents both the sensitive, refined, exalted, and generous aspects of his nature, and his morbid, imaginative, vain aspects. Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was born in 1330 at Lemberg in Galicia. He was of Spanish, German, and more especially Slavonic race. The founder of the family may be said to be a certain Don Matthias Sacher, a young Spanish nobleman, in the sixteenth century, who settled in Prague. The novelist’s father was director of police in Lemberg and married Charlotte von Masoch, a Little Russian ladj of noble birth. The novelist, the eldest child of this union, was. not born until after nine years of marriage, and in infancy was so delicate that he was not expected to survive. He began to improve, however, when his mother gave him to be suckled to a robust Russian peasant woman, from whom, as he said later, he gained not only health, but his soul ; from her he learned all the strange and melancholy legends of her people and a love of the Little Russians which never left him. While still a child young Sacher-Masoch was in the midst of the bloody scenes of the revolution which culminated in 1848. When he was 12 the family migrated to Prague, and the boy, though precocious in his development, then first learned the German language, of which he at¬ tained so fine a mastery. At a very early age he had found the atmosphere, and even some of the most characteristic elements, of the peculiar types which mark his work as a novelist. It is interesting to trace the germinal elements of those peculiari¬ ties Avhich so strongly affected his imagination on the sexual side. As a child, he was greatly attracted by representations of cruelty; he loved to gaze at pictures of executions, the legends of martyrs were his favorite reading, and with the onset of puberty he regularly dreamed that he was fettered and in the power of a cruel woman who tortured him. It has been said by an anonymous author that the women of Galicia either rule their husbands entirely and make them their slaves or themselves sink to be the wretchedest of slaves. At the age of 10, according to Schlichtegroll’s narrative, the child Leopold witnessed a scene in which a woman of the former kind, a certain Countess Xenobia LOVE AND PAIN. 115 X., a relative of his own on the paternal side, played the chief part, and this scene left an undying impress on his imagination. The Countess was a beautiful but wanton creature, and the child adored her, im¬ pressed alike by her beauty and the costly furs she wore. She accepted his devotion and little services and would sometimes allow him to assist her in dressing; on one occasion, as he was kneeling before her to put on her ermine slippers, he kissed her feet; she smiled and gave him a kick which filled him with pleasure. Not long afterward occurred the episode which so profoundly affected his imagination. Ho was playing with his sisters at hide-and-seek and had carefully hidden himself behind the dresses on a elothes-rail in the Countess’s bedroom. At this mo¬ ment the Countess suddenly entered the house and ascended the stairs, followed by a lover, and the child, who dared not beti'ay his presence, saw the countess sink down on a sofa and begin to caress her lover. But a few moments later the husband, accompanied by two friends, dashed into the room. Before, however, he could decide which of the lovers to turn against the Countess had risen and struck him so powerful a blow in the face with her fist that he fell back streaming with blood. She then seized a whip, drove all three men out of the room, and in the confusion the lover slipped away. At this moment the clothes-rail fell and the child, the involuntary witness of the scene, Avas revealed to the Countess, who now fell on him in anger, threw him to the ground, pressed her knee on his shoulder, and struck him unmercifully. The pain was great, and yet he was conscious of a strange pleasure. While this castigation was proceeding the Count returned, no longer in a rage, but meek and humble as a slave, and kneeled down before her to beg forgiveness. As the boy escaped he saw her kick her husband. The child could not resist the temptation to return to the spot; the door was closed and he could see nothing, but he heard the sound of the whip and the groans of the Count beneath his wife’s blows. It is unnecessary to insist that in this scene, acting on a highly sensiti\-e and someAvliat peculiar child, we have the key to the emotional attitude which affected so much of Sacher-Masoch’s work. As his biographer remarks, woman became to him, during a considerable part of his life, a creature at once to be loved and hated, a being Avhose beauty and brutality enabled her to set her foot at Avill on the necks of men, and in the heroine of his first important novel, the Emissar, dealing with the Polish Revolution, he embodied the contradictory personality of Countess Xenobia. Even the Avhip and the fur garments, Sacher-Masoch’s favorite emotional symbols, find their explanation in this early episode. He was accustomed to say of an attractiA r e Avoman: “I should like to see her in furs,” and, of an unattractive woman: “I could not imagine her in furs.” His AATiting-paper at one time Avas 116 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. adorned rrith the figure of a woman in Russian Boyar . her cloak lined with ermine, and brandishing a scourge On,ta^waUs liked to have pictures of women in furs, of the kind of which there is so magnificent^ an example by Rubens in the gallery at Munich, would Tven keep a woman’s fur cloak on an ottoman in his study and stroke it from time to time, finding that his brain thus 1 eeen e same kind of stimulation as Schiller found in the odor of rotten apples. At the age of 13, in the revolution of 1848, young Sacher-Masoch received his baptism of fire; carried away in the popular movement ,e helped to defend the barricades together with a young lady, a relative of his family, an amazon with a pistol in her girdle, such as later he foved toTepfct. This episode was, however, but a brief interruption of his education; he pursued his studies with brilliance, and on the higher sWetrerdtio/was aided by his father’s emetic tastes. Amateu theatricals were in special favor at his home, and plavs of Goethe and Gogol were performed, thus helping totmin direct the boy’s taste. It is, perhaps, however, significant that it was a tragic event which, at the age of 16, first brought to him the ul realization of life and the consciousness of Ins own power. This the sudden death of his favorite sister. He became serious and quiet, mid alwavs regarded this grief as a turning-point in Ins life. At the Universities of Prague and Graz he studied with such zeal that when only 19 he took his doctor’s degree in law and shortly after¬ ward became a pivat docent for German history at Graz Gradually, however, the chirms of literature asserted themselves definitely, and lie soon abandoned teaching. He took part however in the war °f I860 in Italv, and at the battle of Solfenno he was decorated on the field for bravery in action by the Austrian field-marshal These in¬ cidents however, had little disturbing influence on Sachei -Masocli merary career, and he was gradually acquiring a European reputation bv his novels and stories. - nr^st not be supposed that the attractioni of tur or is altogether accounted lor by such ■ «' “fly «P« le " c « . tcl exerted* by^furt uhether mani- Sng iS fl a 7 s love or fear, wouldappearr to be very ““““X children, and almost instinctive. Stanley Hall, m l obtained as (American Journal of Psychology, vol vm p 213) has obt ™ Jf manv as 111 well-developed cases of fear of fur, or, as ne teims , doraphobia, in some cases appealing as early ^ the age of ^months, nnrl he «ives many examples. He remarks that the still more common and concludes that ‘"both this lo\e anc Cc so Lmm and Ltinctive that they can hardly be fully accounted fo without recourse to a time when association with animals was fai closei Than now or perhaps when our remote ancestors were hairy.’’ (Cf. ‘‘Erotic Symbolism,” iv, in the fifth volume of these Studies.) LOVE AND PAIN. 117 A far more seriously disturbing influence had already begun to be exerted on his life by a series of love-episodes. Some of these were of slight and ephemeral character; some were a source of unalloyed happi¬ ness, all the more so if there was an element of extravagance to appeal to his Quixotic nature. He always longed to give a dramatic and romantic character to his life, his wife says, and he spent some blissful days on an occasion when he ran away to Florence with a Russian princess as her private secretary. Most often these episodes culminated in deception and misery. It was after a relationship of this kind from which he could not free himself for four years that he wrote Die Gescliiedene Frau, Passionsgeschiclite eines Idealisten, putting into it much of his own personal history. At one time he was engaged to a sweet and charming young girl. Then it was that he met a young woman at Graz, Laura Riimelin, 27 years of age, engaged as a glove- maker, and living with her mother. Though of poor parentage, with little or no knowledge of the world, she had great natural ability and intelligence. Schlichtegroll represents her as spontaneously engaging in a mysterious intrigue with the novelist. Her own detailed narrative renders the circumstances more intelligible. She approached Sacher- Masocli by letter, adopting for disguise the name of his heroine Wanda von Dunajev, in order to recover possession of some compromising letters which had been written to him, as a joke, by a friend of hers. Sacher-Masoch insisted on seeing his correspondent before returning the letters, and with his eager thirst for romantic adventure he imagined that she was a married woman of the aristocratic world, probably a Russian countess, whose simple costume was a disguise. Not anxious to reveal the prosaic facts, she humored him in his imaginations and a web of mystification was thus formed. A strong atti*action grew up on both sides and, though for some time Laura Riimelin maintained the mystery and held herself aloof from him, a relationship was formed and a child born. Thereupon, in 1893, they married. Before long, however, there was disillusion on both sides. She began to detect the morbid, chimerical, and unpractical aspects of his character, and he realized that not only w r as his wife not an aristocrat, but, what was of more importance to him, she was by no means the domineering heroine of his dreams. Soon after marriage, in the course of an innocent romp in which the whole of the small household took part, he asked his wife to inflict a whipping on him. She refused, and he thereupon suggested that the servant should do it; the wife failed to take this idea seriously; but he had it carried out, with great satisfaction at the severity of the castigation he received. When, however, his wife explained to him that, after this incident, it was impossible for the servant to stay, Sacher-Masoch quite agreed and she was at once discharged. But he constantly found pleasure in placing his wife in awkward or compromising circumstances, a pleasure she was too normal to share. This necessarily led to much domestic wretchedness. He had persuaded her, against her wish, to whip him nearly every day, with whips which he devised, having nails attached to them. He found this a stimulant to his literary work, and it enabled him to dispense in his novels with his stereotyped heroine who is always engaged in subjugating men, for, as he explained to his wife, when he had the reality in his life he was no longer obsessed by it in his imaginative dreams. Not content with this, however, he was con¬ stantly desirous for his wife to be unfaithful. He even put an adver¬ tisement in a newspaper to the effect that a young and beautiful woman desired to make the acquaintance of an energetic man. The wife, how¬ ever, though she wished to please her husband, was not anxious to do so to this extent. She went to an hotel by appointment to meet a stranger who had answered this advertisement, but when she had ex¬ plained to him the state of affairs he chivalrously conducted her home. It was some time before Saclier-Masocli eventually succeeded in render¬ ing his wife unfaithful. He attended to the minutest details of her toilette on this occasion, and as he bade her farewell at the door he exclaimed: “How' I envy him!” This episode thoroughly humiliated the wife, and from that moment her love for her husband turned to hate. A final separation was only a question of time. Sacher-Masoch formed a relationship with Hulda Meister, who had come to act as secretary and translator to him, while his wife became attached to Rosenthal, a clever journalist later known to readers of the Figaro as “Jacques St.-C&re,” who realized her painful position and felt sympathy and affection for her. She went to live with him in Paris and, having refused to divorce her husband, he eventually obtained a divoice from her; she states, however, that she never at any time had physical relationships with Rosenthal, who was a man of fragile organization and health. Sacher-Masoch united himself to Hulda Meister, who is described by the first wife as a prim and faded but coquettish old maid, and by the biographer as a highly accomplished and gentle woman, who cared for him with almost maternal devotion. No doubt there is truth in both descriptions. It must be noted that, as Wanda clearly shows, apart from his abnormal sexual temperament, Sacher- Masoch was kind and sympathetic, and he was strongly attached to his eldest child. Eulenburg also quotes the statement of a distinguished Austrian woman writer acquainted with him that, “apart from his sexual eccentricities, he was an amiable, simple, and sympathetic man with a touchingly tender love for his children.” He had very few needs, did not drink or smoke, and though he liked to put the woman he LOVE AND PAIN. 119 was attached to in rich furs and fantastically gorgeous raiment he dressed himself with extreme simplicity. His wife quotes the saying of another woman that he was as simple as a child and as naughty as a monkey. In 1883 Sacher-Masoch and Hulda Meister settled in Lindheim, a village in Germany near the Taunus, a spot to which the novelist seems to have been attached because in the grounds of his little estate was a haunted and ruined tower associated with a tragic medieval episode. Here, after many legal delays, Sacher-Masoch was able to render his union with Hulda Meister legitimate; here two children were in due course born, and here the novelist spent the remaining years of his life in comparative peace. At first, as is usual, treated with suspicion by the peasants, Sacher-Masoch gradually acquired great influence over them; he became a kind of Tolstoy in the rural life around him, the friend and confidant of all the villagers (something of Tolstoy’s com¬ munism is also, it appears, to be seen in the books he wrote at this time), while the theatrical performances which he inaugurated, and in which his wife took an active part, spread the fame of the household in many neighboring villages. Meanwhile his health began to break up; a visit to Nauheim in 1894 was of no benefit, and he died March 9, 1895. A careful consideration of the phenomena of sadism and masochism may be said to lead us to the conclusion that there is no real line of demarcation. Even De Sade himself was not a pure sadist, as Bloch’s careful definition is alone sufficient to indicate; it might even be argued that De Sade was really a masochist; the investigation of histories of sadism and maso¬ chism, even those given by Krafft-Ebing (as, indeed, Colin Scott and Fere have already pointed out), constantly reveals traces of both groups of phenomena in the same individual. They cannot, therefore, be regarded as opposed manifestations. This has been felt by some writers, who have, in consequence, proposed other names more clearly indicating the relationship of the phenomena. Fere speaks of sexual algophily 1 ; he only applies the term to masochism; it might equally well be applied to sadism. Schrenck-Notzing, to cover both sadism and maso¬ chism, has invented the term algolagnia (aXyog, pain, and hay- vog , sexually excited), and calls the former active, the latter 1 F6r6, L’lnstinct Sexuel, p. 138. 120 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. passive, algolagnia . 1 Eulenburg has also emphasized the close connection between these groups of perverted sexual mani¬ festations, and has adopted the same terms, adding the further group of ideal (illusionary) algolagnia, to cover the cases in which the mere autosuggestive representation of pain, inflicted or suffered, suffices to give sexual gratification." A brief discussion of the terms “sadism” and “masochism” has imposed itself upon us at this point because as soon as, in any study of the relationship between love and pain, we pass over the limits of normal manifestations into a region which is more or less abnormal, these two conceptions are always brought before us, and it was necessary to show on what grounds they are here rejected as the pivots on which the dis¬ cussion ought to turn. W e may accept them as useful terms to indicate two groups of clinical phenomena; but we cannot regard them as of any real scientific value. Having reached this result, we may continue our consideration of the love-bite, as the normal manifestation of the connection between love and pain which most naturally leads us across the frontier of the abnormal. The result of the love-bite in its extreme degree is to shed blood. This cannot be regarded as the direct aim of the bite in its normal manifestations, for the mingled feelings of close contact, of passionate gripping, of symbolic devouring, which constitute the emotional accompaniments of the bite would be too violently discomposed by actual wounding and real shed¬ ding of blood. With some persons, however, perhaps more espe¬ cially women, the love-bite is really associated with a conscious desire, even if more or less restrained, to draw blood, a real delight in this process, a love of blood. Probably this only occurs in persons who are not absolutely normal, but on the border-land of the abnormal. We have to admit that this crav¬ ing has, however, a perfectly normal basis. There is scarcely any 1 Sclirenck-Notzing, Zeitschrift fur Eypnotismus, Bd. ix, ht. 2, 1899. 2 Eulenburg, Sadismus und Masochismus, second edition, 1911, p. 5. LOVE AND PAIN. 121 natural object with so profoundly emotional an effect as blood, and it is very easy to understand why this should be so. 1 More¬ over, blood enters into the sphere of courtship by virtue of the same conditions by which cruelty enters into it; they are both accidents of combat, and combat is of the very essence of animal and primitive human courtship, certainly its most fre¬ quent accompaniment. So that the repelling or attracting fascination of blood may be regarded as a by-product of nor¬ mal courtship, which, like other such by-products, may become an essential element of abnormal courtship. 2 Normally the fascination of blood, if present at all during sexual excitement, remains more or less latent, either because it is weak or because the checks that inhibit it are inevitably very powerful. Occasionally it becomes more clearly manifest, and this may happen early in life. Fere records the case of a man of Anglo-Saxon origin, of sound heredity so far as could be ascertained and presenting no obvious stigmata of degeneration, who first experienced sexual manifestations at the age of 5 when a boy cousin was attacked by bleeding at the nose. It was the first time he had seen such a thing and he experienced erection and much pleasure at the sight. This was repeated the next time the coushFs nose bled and also whenever he witnessed any injuries or wounds, especially when occurring in males. A few 3 ’ears later he began to find pleasure in pinching and otherwise inflicting slight suffering. This sadism was not, however, further developed, although a tendency to inversion persisted. 3 11 have elsewhere dealt with this point in discussing the special emotional tone of red (Havelock Ellis, “The Psychology of Red,” Pop¬ ular Science Monthly, August and September, 1900)/ 2 It is probable that the motive of sexual murders is nearlv al¬ ways to shed blood, and not to cause death. Leppmann (Bulletin Inter¬ nationale de Droit Penal, vol. vi, 1896, p. 115) points out that such murders are generally produced by wounds in the neck or mutilation of the abdomen, never by wounds of the head. T. Claye Shaw, who terms the lust for blood hemothymia, has written an interesting and suggestive paper (“A Prominent Motive in Murder,” Lancet, June 19, 1909) on the natural fascination of blood. Blumrbder, in 1830, seems to have been the first who definitely called attention to the connection between lust and blood. 3 F6r6, Revue de Chirurgie, March 10, 1905, 122 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. Somewhat similar may have been the origin of the attraction of blood in a case which has been reported to me of a youth of 17, the youngest of a large family who are all very strong and entirely normal. He is himself, however, delicate, overgrown, with a narrow chest, a small head, and babyish features, while mentally he is backward, with very defective memory and scant powex's of assimilation. He is in¬ tensely nervous, peevish, and subject to fits of childish rage. He takes violent fancies to persons of his own sex. But he appears to have only one way of obtaining sexual excitement and gratification. It is his custom to get into a hot bath and there to produce erection and emission, not by masturbation, but by thinking of flowing blood. He does not associate himself with the causation of this imaginary flow of blood; he i 3 merely the passive but pleased spectator. He is aware of his peculiarity and endeavors to shake it off, but his efforts to obtain normal pleasure by thinking of a girl are vain. I may here narrate a case which has been communicated to me of algolagnia in a woman, combined with sexual hyperesthesia. R. D., aged 25, married, and of good social position; she is a small and dark woman, restless and alert in manner. She has one child. She has practised masturbation from an early ag o — e ver since she can remember—by the method of external friction and pressure. From the age of 17 she was able (and is still) to produce the orgasm almost without effort, by calling up the image of any man who had struck her fancy. She has often done so while seated talking to such a man, even when he is almost a stranger; in doing it, she says, a tightening of the muscles of the thighs and the slightest movement are sufficient. Ugly men (if not deformed), as well as men with the reputation of being roues, greatly excite her sexually, more especially if of good social position, though this is not essential. At the age of 18 she became hysterical, probably, she herself be¬ lieves, in consequence of a great increase at that time of indulgence in masturbation. The doctors, apparently suspecting her habits, urged her parents to get her married early. She married, at the age of 20, a man about twice her own age. As a child (and in a less degree still) she was very fond of watching dog-fights. This spectacle produced strong sexual feelings and usually orgasm, especially if much blood wa9 shed during the fight. Clean cuts and wounds greatly attract her, whether on herself or a man. She has frequently slightly cut or scratched herself “to see the blood,” and likes to suck the wound, thinking the taste “delicious.” This produces strong sexual feelings and often orgasm, especially if at the time she thinks of some attractive man and imagines that she is LOVE AND PAIN. 123 sucking liis blood. The sight of injury to a woman only very slightly affects her, and that, she thinks, only because of an involuntary associa¬ tion of ideas. Nor has the sight of suffering in illness any exciting effects, only that which is due to violence, and when there is a visible cause for the suffering, such as cuts and wounds. (Bruises, from the absence of blood, have only a slight effect.) The excitement is intensi¬ fied if she imagines that she has herself inflicted the injury. She likes to imagine that the man wished to rape her, and that she fought him in order to make him more greatly value her favor, so wounding him. Impersonal ideas of torture also excite her. She thinks Fox’s Book of Martyrs “lovely,” and the more horrible and bloody the tortures described the greater is the sexual excitement produced. The book excites her from the point of view of the torturer, not that of the victim. She has frequently masturbated while reading it. So far as practicable she has sought to carry out these ideas in her relations with her husband. She has several times bitten him till the blood came and sucked the bite during coitus. She likes to bite him enough to make him wince. The pleasure is greatly heightened by thinking of various tortures, chiefly by cutting. She likes to have her husband talk to her, and she to him, of all the tortures they could inflict on each other. She has, however, never actually tried to carry out these tortures. She would like to, but dares not, as she is sure he could not endure them. She has no desire for her husband to try them on her, although she likes to hear him talk about it. She is at the same time fond of normal coitus, even to excess. She likes her husband to remain entirely passive during connection, so that he can continue in a state of strong erection for a long time. She can thus, she says, procure for herself the orgasm a number of times in succession, even nine or ten, quite easily. On one occasion she even had the orgasm twenty-six times within about one and a quarter hours, her husband during this time having two orgasms. (She is quite certain about the accuracy of this statement.) During this feat much talk about torture was indulged in, and it took place after a month’s separation from her husband, during which she was careful not to masturbate, so that she might have “a real good time” when he came back. She acknowledges that on this occasion she was a “complete wreck” for a couple of days afterward, but states that usually ten or a dozen orgasms (or spasms, as she terms them) only make her “feel lively.” She becomes frenzied with excitement during intercourse and insensible to everything but the pleasure of it. She has never hitherto allowed anyone (except her husband after marriage) to know of her sadistic impulses, nor has she carried them out with anyone, though she would like to, if she dared. Nor has she 124 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. allowed any man but her husband to have connection with her or to take any liberties. Outbursts of sadism may occur episodically in fairly normal persons. Thus, Coutagne describes the case of a lad of 17 always regarded as quite normal, and without any signs of degeneracy, even on careful examination, or any traces of hysteria or alcoholism, though there was insanity among his cousins— who had had occasional sexual relations for a year or two, and on one occasion, being in a state of erection, struck the girl three times on the breast and abdomen with a kitchen knife bought for the purpose. He was much ashamed of his act immediately afterward, and, all the circumstances being taken into consideration, he was acquitted by the court. 1 Here we seem to have the obscure and latent fascination of blood, which is almost normal, germinating momentarily into an active impulse which is distinctly abnormal, though it produced little beyond those incisions which Vatsyayana disapproved of, but still regarded as a part of courtship. One step more and we are amid the most outrageous and extreme of all forms of sexual perversion: with the heroes of De Sade’s novels, who, in exemplification of their author’s most cherished ideals, plan scenes of debauchery in which the flowing of blood is an essential element of coitus; with the Marshall Gilles de Rais and the Hungarian Countess Bathory, whose lust could only be satiated by the death of innumerable victims. This impulse to stab—with no desire to kill, or even in most cases to give pain, but only to draw blood and so either stimulate or altogether gratify the sexual impulse—is no doubt the commonest form of sanguinary sadism. These women-stabbers have been known in France as piqueurs for nearly a century, and in Germany are termed Stecher or Messersteclier (they have been studied by Naeke, “Zur Psychologie der sadistischen Messersteclier,” Archiv fur Eriminalan- thropologie, Bd. 35, 1909). A case of this kind where a man stabbed l H. Coutagne, “Cas de Perversion Sanguinaire de l’Instinct Sexuel,” Annales Medico-Psychologiques, July and August, 1893. D. S. Booth (Alienist and Neurologist, Aug., 1906) describes the case of a man of neurotic heredity who slightly stabbed a woman with a penknife when on his way to a prostitute. LOVE AND PAIN. 125 girls in the abdomen occurred in Paris in the middle of the eighteenth century, and in 1819 or 1820 there seems to have been an epidemic of pi queues in Paris; as we learn from a letter of Charlotte von Schiller’s to Ivnebel; the offenders (though perhaps there was only one) fre¬ quented the Boulevards and the Palais Royal and stabbed women in the buttocks or thighs; they were never caught. About the same time similar cases of a slighter kind occurred in London, Brussels, Hamburg, and Munich. Stabbers are nearly always men, but cases of the same perversion in women are not unknown. Thus Dr. Iviernan informs me of an Irish woman, aged 40, and at the beginning of the menopause, who, in New York in 1909, stabbed five men with a hatpin. The motive was sexual and she told one of the men that she stabbed him because she “loved” him. Gilles de Rais, who had fought beside Joan of Arc, is the classic example of sadism in its extreme form, involving the murder of youths and maidens. Bernelle considers that there is some truth in the conten¬ tion of Huysmans that the association with Joan of Arc was a predispos¬ ing cause in unbalancing Gilles de Rais. Another cause was his luxurious habit of life. He himself, no doubt rightly, attached importance to the suggestions received in reading Suetonius. He appears to have been a sexually precocious child, judging from an obscure passage in his con¬ fessions. He was artistic and scholarly, fond of books, of the society of learned men, and of music. Bernelle sums him up as “a pious war¬ rior, a cruel and keen artist, a voluptuous assassin, an exalted mystic,” who was at the same time unbalanced, a superior degenerate, and morbidly impulsive. (The best books on Gilles de Rais are the Abbe Bossard’s Grilles de Rais, in which, however, the author, being a priest, treats his subject as quite sane and abnormally wicked; Huysmans’s novel, Ld-Bas, which embodies a detailed study of Gilles de Rais, and F. H. Bemelle’s These de Paris, La P&tjcJiose de Grilles de Rais, 1910.) The opinion has been hazarded that the history of Gilles de Rais is merely a legend. This view is not accepted, but there can be no doubt that the sadistic manifestations which occurred in the Middle Ages were mixed up with legendary and folk-lore elements. These elements centered on the conception of the werwolf, supposed to be a man temporarily transformed into a wolf with bloodthirsty impulses. (See, e.g., articles “Werwolf” and “Lycanthropy” in Encyclopaedia Britannica.) France, especially, was infested with werwolves in the sixteenth cen¬ tury. In 1603, however, it was decided at Bordeaux, in a trial in¬ volving a werwolf, that lycanthropy was only an insane delusion. Dumas (“Les Loup-Garous,” Journal de Psychologie ~N or male et Patliologiqve, May-June, 1907) argues that the medieval werwolves were 126 PSYCHOLOGY OF SBY. sadists whose crimes were largely imaginative, though sometimes real, the predecessor of the modern Jack the Ripper. The complex nature of the elements making up the belief in the werwolf is emphasized by Ernest Jones, Dcr Alptraum , 1912. Related to the werwolf, but distinct, was the vampire, supposed to be a dead person who rose from the dead to suck the blood of the living during sleep. By way of reprisal the living dug up, exorcised, and mutilated the supposed vampires. This was called vampirism. The name vampire was then transferred to the living person who had so treated a corpse. All profanation of the corpse, whatever its origin, is now frequently called vampirism (Epaulow, Yampirisme, These de Lyon, 1901; id., “Le Vampire du Muy,” Archives d’Anthropologie Criminelle, Sept., 1903). The earliest definite reference to necrophily is in Herodotus, who tells (bk. ii, ch. lxxxix) of an Egyptian who had con¬ nection with the corpse of a woman recently dead. Epaulow gives various old cases and, at full length, the case which he himself in¬ vestigated, of Ardisson, the “Vampire du Muy.” W. A. F. Browne also has an interesting article on “Necrophilism” ( Journal of Mental Sci¬ ence, Jan., 1875) which he regards as atavistic. When there is, in ad¬ dition, mutilation of the corpse, the condition is termed necrosadism. There seems usually to be no true sadism in either necrosadism or necrophilism. (See, however, Bloch, Beitrdge, vol. ii, p. 284 et seich was, for the most part, only gratified in imaginary visions developed to an inhuman extent under the influence of solitude _De Sade was simply, to those who knew him “un mA mauvah mjet " gifted with exceptional intellectual less we realize this we run the risk of confounding De Sadeand his like with men of whom Judge Jeffreys was the sinister tjpe It is necessary to emphasize this point because them be no doubt that De Sado is really a typical instance «* *■*““£ of perversions he represents, and when we understand that it painTnly and not cruelty, that is the essential in this group of manifestations we begin'to come nearer to tbeir expUnation. The masochist desires to experience pain, iu ic gen sires that it should be inflicted in love; the sadist desires to mfl t pain but in some cases, if not in most, he desires that it should be feu a8 love. How far De Sade consciously desired that the pain he sought to inflict should be felt as pleasure it may no now be possible to discover, except by indirect inference bu the con¬ fessions of sadists show that such a desire is quite com y essential. I am indebted to a lady for the following communication on the , c xv. aues tion: “I believe that, when a person otTem TJ Wm i0n Bv subaXg'to auditing her To passive 5E rime Z n.ot wSt I get pleasure out of the idea of subduing another it is this reflected pleasure I get. And if this is so 2! feel more kindly to persons guilty of cruelty, which hasi b herto always seemed the one unpardonable sin. Even cnmina , that they are themselves often very insensitive, ma, > . .. Jtie moment, imagine that they are only inflicting would be to them, and that their victim’s feelings are leally pleasurable The men I have known most given to inflicting pain are all particularly tender-hearted when their passions are not in question. I cannot under- LOVE AND PAIN. 161 stand how (as in a ease mentioned by Krafft-Ebing) a man could find any pleasure in binding a girl’s hands except by imagining what he supposed were her feelings, though he would probably be unconscious that he put himself in her place. ‘‘As a child I exercised a good deal of authority and influence over my youngest sister. It used to give me considerable pleasure to be somewhat arbitrary and severe with her, but, though I never ad¬ mitted it to myself or to her, I knew instinctively that she took pleasure in my treatment. I used to give her childish lessons, over which I was very strict. I invented catechisms and chapters of the Bible in which elder sisters were exhorted to keep their juniors under discipline, and younger sisters were commanded to give implicit sub¬ mission and obedience. Some parts of the Imitation lent themselves to this sort of parody, which never struck me as in any way irreverent. I used to give her arbitrary orders to ‘exercise her in obedience,’ as I told her, and I used to punish her if she disobeyed me. In all this I was, though only half consciously, guided through my own feelings as to what I should have liked in her place. For instance, I would make her put down her playthings and come and repeat a lesson; but, though she was in appearance having her will subdued to mine, I always chose a moment when I foresaw she would soon be tired of play. -There was sufficient resistance to make restraint pleasurable, not enough to render it irksome. In my punishments I acted on a similar principle. I used to tie her hands behind her (like the man in Krafft-Ebing 5 s case), but only for a few moments; I once shut her in a sort of cupboard-room, also for a very short time. On two or three occasions I completely undressed her, made her lie down on the bed, tied her hands and feet to the bedstead, and gave her a slight whipping. I did not wish to hurt her, only to inflict just enough pain to produce the desire to move or resist. My pleasure, a very keen one, came from the imagined excitement produced by the thwarting of this desire. (Are not your own words—that ‘emotion’ is ‘motion in a more or less arrested form’— an epigrammatic summary of all this, though in a somewhat different connection?) I did not undress her from any connection of nakedness with sexual feeling, but simply to enhance her feeling of helplessness and defenselessness under my hands. If I were a man and the woman I loved were refractory I should undress her before finding fault with her. A woman’s dress symbolizes to her the protection civilization affords to the weak and gives her a fictitious strength. Naked, she is face to face with primitive conditions, her weakness opposed to the man’s power. Besides, the sense of shame at being naked under the eyes of a man who regarded her with displeasure would extend itself to her offense and give him a distinct, though perhaps unfair, ad- 11 162 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. vantage. I used the bristle side of a brush to chastise her with, as suggesting the greatest amount of severity with the least possible pain. In fact, my idea was to produce the maximum of emotion with the minimum of actual discomfort. “You must not, however, suppose that at the time I reasoned about it at all in this way. I was very fond of her, and honestly be¬ lieved I was doing it for her good. Had I realized then, as I do now, that my sole aim and object was physical pleasure, I believe my pleas¬ ure would have ceased; in any case I should not have felt justified in so treating her. Do I at all persuade you that my pleasuxe was a ie- flection of hers ? That it was, I think, is clear from the fact that I only obtained it when she was willing to submit. Any real resistance or signs that I was overpassing the boundary of pleasure in her and urging on pain without excitement caused me to desist and my own pleasure to cease. “I disclaim all altruism in my dealings with my sister. What occurs appeal's to me to be this: A situation appeals to one in imagina¬ tion and one at once desires to ti'ansfer it to the realms of fact, being one’s self one of the principal actors. If it is the passive side which ap¬ peals to one, one would prefer to be passive; but if that is not ob¬ tainable then one takes the active part as next best. In either case, however, it is the realization of the imagined situation that gives the pleasure, not the other person’s pleasure as such, although his or her sup¬ posed pleasure creates the situation. If I were a man it would afford me great delight to hold a woman over a precipice, even if she disliked it. The idea appeals to me so strongly that I could not help imagining her pleasure, though I might know she got none, and even though she made every demonstration of feai - and dislike of it. The situation so often imagined w T ould have become a fact. It seems to me I have to say a thing is and is not in the same breath, but the confusion is only in the words. “Let me give you another example: I have a tame pigeon which has a great affection for me. It sits on my shoulder and squats down with its wings out as birds do when courting, pecking me to make me take notice of it, and flickering its wings. I like to hold it so that it can’t move its wings, because I imagine this increases its excitement. If it struggles, or seems to dislike my holding it, I let it go. “In an early engagement (aftenvard broken off) my fianc6 used to take an evident pleasui-e in telling me how he would punish me if I disobeyed him when we were married. Though we had but little in common mentally, I was frequently struck with the similarity between his ideas and what my own had been in regard to my sister. He used his authority over me most capriciously. On one occasion he would LOVE AND PAIN. 163 not let me have any supper at a dance. On another he objected to my drinking black coffee. No day passed without a command or prohibi¬ tion on some trifling point. Whenever he saw, though, that I really disliked the interference or made any decided resistance, which happened very seldom, he let me have my own way at once. I cannot but think, when I recall the various circumstances, that he got a certain pleasure, as I had done with my sister, by an almost unconscious transference of my feelings to himself. ‘‘I find, too, that, when I want a man to say or do to me what would cause me pleasure and he does not gratify me, I feel an intense longing to change places, to be the man and make him, as the woman, feel what I want to feel. Combined with this is a sense of irritation at not being gratified and a desire to punish him for my deprivation, for his stupidity in not saying or doing the right thing. I don’t feel any anger at a man not caring for me, but only for not divining my feelings when he does care. “Now let me take another case: that of the man who used to experience pleasure when surprising a woman making water. (Cf. Archives d’Anthropologie Criminelle, Nov. 15, 1900.) Here the woman’s embarrassment appears to be a factor; but it seems to me there must be more than this, as confusion might be produced in so many other ways, as if she were found bathing, or undressed, though it might not be so acute. In reality, I fancy she would be checked in what she was doing, and that the man, perhaps unconsciously, imagined this check and a resulting excitement. That such a check does sometimes produce excitement I know from experience in traveling. If the bladder is not emptied before connection the pleasure is often more intense. Long before I understood these things at all I was struck by this quotation” ‘Cette volupte que ressentent les bords de la mer, d’etre toujours pleins sans jamais deborder?’ What would be the effect on a man of a sudden check at the supreme moment of sexual pleasure ? In reality, I suppose, pain, as the nerves would be at their full tension and unable to respond to any further stimulus; but, in imagination, one’s nerves are not at their highest tension, and one imagines an increase or, at any rate, a prolongation of the pleasurable sensations. Something of all this, some vague reflection of the woman’s possible sensations, seems to enter in the man’s feelings in surprising the woman. In any case his pleasure in her confusion seems to me a reflection of her feelings, for the sense of shame and embarrassment before a man is very exciting, and doubly so if one realizes that the man enjoys it. Ouida speaks of the ‘delicious shame’ experienced by ‘Folle Farine.’ “It seems to me that whenever we are affected by another’s emo¬ tion we do practically, though unconsciously, put ourselves in his 164 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. place; but we are not always able to gauge accurately its intensity or to allow for differences between ourselves and another, and, in the case of pain, it is doubly difficult, as we can never recall the pain itself, but only the mental effects upon us of the pain. We cannot even recall the feeling of heat when we are cold, or vice versa, with any degree of vividness. “A woman tells me of a man who frequently asks her if she would not like him to whip her. He is greatly disappointed when she says she gets no pleasure from it, as it would give him so much to do it. He cannot believe she experiences none, because he would enjoy being whipped so keenly if he were a girl. In another case the man thinks the woman must enjoy suffering, because he would get intense pleasure from inflicting it! Why is this, unless he would like it if a woman, and confuses in his mind the two personalities? All the men I know who are sadistically inclined admit that if they were women they would like to be harshly treated. “Of course, I quite see there may be many complications; a man’s natural anger at resistance may come in, and also simple, not sexual, pleasure in acts of crushing, etc. I always feel inclined to crush any¬ thing very soft or a person with very pretty thick hair, to rub to¬ gether two shining surfaces, two bits of satin, etc., apart from any feelings of excitement. My explanation only refers to that part of sadism which is sexual enjoyment of another’s pain.” That the foregoing view holds good as regards the traces of sadism found within the normal limits of sexual emotion has already been stated. We may also believe that it is true in many genuinely perverse cases. In this connection reference may be made to an interesting case, reported by Moll, of a married lady 23 years of age, with pronounced sadistic feelings. She belongs to a normal family and is herself appar¬ ently quite healthy, a tall and strongly built person, of feminine aspect, fond of music and dancing, of more than average intelligence. Her perverse inclinations commenced obscurely about the age of 14, when she began to be dominated by the thought of the pleasure it would be to strike and torture a man, but were not clearly defined until the age of 18, while at an early age she was fond of teasing and contra¬ dicting men, though she never experienced the same impulse toward women. She has never, except in a very slight degree, actually car¬ ried her ideas into practice, either with her husband or anyone else, being restrained, she says, by a feeling of shame. Coitus, though fre¬ quently practised, gives her no pleasure, seems, indeed, somewhat dis¬ gusting to her, and has never produced orgasm. Her own ideas, also, though very pleasurable to her, have not pi’oduced definite sexual excite¬ ment, except on two or three occasions, when they had been combined LOYE AND PAIN. 165 with the influence of alcohol. She frankly regrets that modern social relationship makes it impossible for her to find sexual satisfaction in the only way in which such satisfaction would be possible to her. Her chief delight would be to torture the man she was attached to in every possible way; to inflict physical pain and mental pain would give her equal pleasure. “I would bite him till the blood came, as I have often done to my husband. At that moment all sympathy for him would disappear. She frequently identifies her imaginary lover with a real man to whom she feels that she could be much more at¬ tracted than she is to her husband. She imagines to herself that she makes appointments with this lover, and that she reaches the rendezvous in her carriage, but only after her lover has been waiting for her a very long time in the cold. Then he must feel all her power, he must be her slave with no will of his own, and she would torture him with various implements as seemed good to her. She would use a rod, a riding-whip, bind him and chain him, and so on. But it is to be noted that she declares “this could, in general, only give me enjoyment if the mein concerned endured such torture with a, certain pleasure. He must, indeed, writhe with pain, but at the same time be in a state of sexual ecstasy, followed by satisfaction.” His pleasure must not, however, be so great that it overwhelms his pain; if it did, her own pleasure would vanish, and she has found with her husband that when in kissing him her bites have given him much pleasure she has at once refrained. It is further noteworthy that only the pain she herself had in¬ flicted would give her pleasure. If the lover suffered pain from an ac¬ cident or a wound she is convinced that she would be full of sympathy for him. Outside her special sexual perversion she is sympathetic and very generous. (Moll, Eonirdre Sexualempfindung, 1899, pp. 507-510.) This case is interesting as an uncomplicated example of almost purely ideal sadism. It is interesting to note the feelings of the sadist subject toward her imaginary lover’s feelings. It is probably significant that, while his pleasure is regarded as essential, his pain is regarded as even more essential, and the resulting apparent confusion may well be of the very essence of the whole phenomenon. The pleasure "of the imaginaiy lover must be secured or the manifestation passes out of the sexual sphere; but his pleasure must, at all costs, be conciliated with his pain, for in the sadist’s eyes the victim’s pain has become a vica¬ rious form of sexual emotion. That, at the same time, the sadist desires to give pleasure rather than pain finds confirmation in the fact that he often insists on pleasure being feigned even though it is not felt. Some years ago a rich Jewish merchant became notorious for torturing girls with whom he had intercourse; his performances acquired for him the title of “I’homme qui pique,” and led to his prosecution. It 166 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. was his custom to spend some hours in sticking pins into various parts of the girl’s body, but it was essential that she should wear a smiling face throughout the proceedings. (Hamon, La France Sociale et Poli¬ tique, 1S91, p. 445 et seq.) We have thus to recognize that sadism by no means in¬ volves any love of inflicting pain outside the sphere of sexual emotion, and is even compatible with a high degree of gen¬ eral tender-heartedness. We have also to recognize that even within the sexual sphere the sadist by no means wishes to exclude the victim’s pleasure, and may even regard that pleas¬ ure as essential to his own satisfaction. We have, further, to recognize that, in view of the close connection between sadism and masochism, it is highly probable that in some cases the sadist is really a disguised masochist and enjoys his victim’s pain because he identifies himself with that pain. But there is a further group of cases, and a very impor¬ tant group, on account of the light it throws on the essential nature of these phenomena, and that is the group in which the thought or the spectacle of pain acts as a sexual stimulant, without the subject identifying himself clearly either with the inflicter or the sufferer of the pain. Such cases are sometimes classed as sadistic; but this is incorrect, for they might just as truly be called masochistic. The term algolagnia might properly be applied to them (and Eulenburg now classes them as ‘‘ideal algolagnia”), for they reveal an undifferentiated con¬ nection between sexual excitement and pain not developed into either active or passive participation. Such feelings may arise sporadically in persons in whom no sadistic or masochistic per¬ version can be said to exist, though they usually appear in indi¬ viduals of neurotic temperament. Casanova describes an instance of this association which came immediately under his own eyes at the torture and execution of Damiens in 1757. 1 W. G. Stearns 1 Casanova, Memoires, vol. viii, pp. 74-76. Goncourt in his Journal, under date of April, 1862 (vol. ii, p. 27), tells a story of an Englishman who engaged a room overlooking a scaffold where a murderer was to be hanged, proposing to take a woman with him and to avail himself of the excitement aroused by the scene. This scheme was frustrated by the remission of the death penalty. LOVE AND PAIN. 167 knew a man (having masturbated and had intercourse to excess) who desired to see his wife delivered of a child, and finally be¬ came impotent without this idea. He witnessed many deliveries and especially obtained voluptuous gratification at the delivery of a primipara when the suffering was greatest. 1 A very trifling episode may, however, suffice. In one case known to me a man, neither sadistic nor masochistic in his tendencies, when sitting looking out of his window saw a spider come out of its hole to capture and infold a fly which had just been caught in its web; as he watched the process he became conscious of a powerful erection, an occurrence which had never taken place under such circumstances before. 2 Under favoring conditions some inci¬ dent of this kind at an early age may exert a decisive influence on the sexual life. Tambroni, of Ferrara, records the case of a boy of 11 who first felt voluptuous emotions on seeing in an illustrated journal the picture of a man trampling on his daughter; ever afterward he was obliged to evoke this image in masturbation or coitus. 3 An instructive case has been re¬ corded by Fere. In this case a ladj r of neurotic heredity on one side, and herself liable to hysteria, experienced her first sexual crisis at the age of 13, not long after menstruation had become established, and when she had just recovered from an attack of chorea. Her old nurse, who had remained in the service of the family, had a ne’er-do-well son who had disap¬ peared for some years and had just now suddenly returned and thrown himself, crying and sobbing, at the knees of his mother, who thrust him away. The young girl accidentally witnessed this scene. The cries and the sobs provoked in her a sexual excitement she had never experienced before. She rushed away in surprise to the next room, where, however, she could still 1 Alienist and Neurologist, May, 1907, p. 204. 2 This spectacle of the spider and the fly seems indeed to be specially apt to exert a sexual influence. I have heard of a precisely similar ease in a man of intellectual distinction, and another in a lady who acknowledged to a feeling of “exquisite pleasure,” on one occasion, at the mere sound of the death agony of a fly in a spider’s web. 3 Quoted by Obici and Marchesini, Le Amicizie di Collegia, p. 245. 168 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. hear the sobs, and soon she was overcome by a sexual orgasm. She was much troubled at this occurrence, and at the attraction which she now experienced for a man she had never seen before and whom she had always looked upon as a worthless vagabond. Shortly afterward she had an erotic dream con¬ cerning a man who sobbed at her knees. Later she again saw the nurse’s son, but was agreeably surprised to find that, though a good-looking youth, he no longer caused her any emotion, and he disappeared from her mind, though the erotic dreams concerning an unknown sobbing man still occurred rather frequently. During the next ten years she suffered from various disorders of more or less hysterical character, and, although not disinclined to the idea of marriage, she re¬ fused all offers, for no man attracted her. At the age of 23, when staving in the Pyrenees, she made an excursion into Spain, and was present at a bull-fight. She was greatly excited by the charges of the bull, especially when the charge was suddenly arrested A She felt no interest in any of the men who took part in the performance or were present; no man was occupying her imagination. But she experienced sexual sensations and accompanying general exhilaration, which were highly agreeable. After one bull had charged successively several times the orgasm took place. She considered the whole performance barbarous, but could not resist the desire to be present at subsequent bull-fights, a desire several times grati¬ fied, always with the same results, which were often afterward l It may be noted that we have already several times encountered this increase of excitement produced by arrest of movement. The effect is produced whether the arrest is witnessed or is actually experienced. “A man can increase a woman’s excitement,” a lady writes, “by for¬ bidding her to respond in any way to his caresses. It is impossible to remain quite passive for more than a few seconds, but, during these few, excitement is considerably augmented.” In a similar way I have been told of a man of brilliant intellectual ability who very seldom has connection with a woman without getting her to compress with her hand the base of the urethral canal to such an extent as to impede the passage of the semen. On withdrawal of the hand copious emission occurs, but it is the shock of the arrest caused by the constriction which gives him supreme pleasure. He has practised this method for years without evil results. LOVE AND PAIN. 169 repeated in dreams. From that time she began to take an interest in horse-races, which she now found produced the same effect, though not to the same degree, especially when there was a fall. She subsequently married, but never experienced sexual satisfaction except under these abnormal circumstances or in dreams. 1 As the foregoing case indicates, horses, and especially running or struggling horses, sometimes have the same effect in stimulating the sexual emotions, especially on persons pre¬ disposed by neurotic heredity, as we have found that the spec¬ tacle of pain possesses. A medical correspondent in New Zealand tells me of a patient of his own, a young carpenter of 26, not in good health, who had never masturbated or had connection with a woman. He lived in a room overlooking a livery-stable yard where was kept, among other animals, a large black horse. Nearly every night he had a dream in which he seemed to be pursuing this large black horse, and when he caught it, which he invariably did, there was a copious emis¬ sion. A holiday in the country and tonic treatment dispelled the dreams and reduced the nocturnal emissions to normal frequency. Fere has recorded a case of a boy, of neuropathic heredity, who, when 14 years of age, was one day about to practise mutual masturbation with another boy of his own age. They were seated on a hillside overlooking a steep road, and at this moment a heavy wagon came up the road drawn by four horses, which struggled painfully up, encouraged by the cries and the whip of the driver. This sight increased the boy’s sexual excitement, which reached its climax when one of the horses suddenly fell. He had never before experienced such intense excitement, and always afterward a similar spec¬ tacle of struggling horses produced a similar effect. 2 In this connection reference may be made to the fre¬ quency with which dreams of struggling horses occur in con- 1 Fgre, “Le Sadisme aux Courses de Taureaux,” Revue de mtdecine, August, 1900. 2 F6r§, UInstinct sexuel, p. 255. 170 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. nection with disturbance or disease of the heart. In such cases it is clear that the struggling horses seem to dream- consciousness to embody and explain the panting struggles to which the heart is subjected. They become, as it were, a visual symbol of the cardiac oppression. In much the same way, it would appear, under the influence of sexual excitement, in which cardiac disturbance is one of the chief constituent elements, the struggling horses became a sexual symbol, and, having attained that position, they are henceforth alone ade¬ quate to produce sexual excitement. VI. Why is Pain a Sexual Stimulant?—It is the Most Effective Method of Arousing Emotion—Anger and Fear the Most Powerful Emo¬ tions—Their Biological Significance in Courtship—Their General and Special Effects in Stimulating the Organism—Grief as a Sexual Stimu¬ lant—The Physiological Mechanism of Fatigue Renders Pain Pleasur¬ able. V E have seen that the distinction between “sadism” and “masochism" cannot be maintained; not only was even De Sade himself something of a masochist and Sacher-Masoch some¬ thing of a sadist, but between these two extreme groups of phenomena there is a central group in which the algolagnia is neither active nor passive. “Sadism” and “masochism” are simply convenient clinical terms for classes of manifestations which quite commonly occur in the same person. We have further found that—as might have been anticipated in view of the foregoing result—it is scarcely correct to use the word “cruelty” in connection with the phenomena we have been considering. The persons who experience these impulses usu¬ ally show no love of cruelty outside the sphere of sexual emo¬ tion; they may even be very intolerant of cruelty. Even when their sexual impulses come into play they may still desire to secure the pleasure of the persons who arouse their sexual emotions, even though it may not be often true that those who desire to inflict pain at these moments identify them¬ selves with the feelings of those on whom they inflict it. We have thus seen that when we take a comprehensive surve} r of all these phenomena a somewhat general fonnula will alone cover them. Our conclusion so far must be that under certain abnormal circumstances pain, more especially the mental repre¬ sentation of pain, acts as a powerful sexual stimulant. The reader, however, who has followed the discussion to this point will be prepared to take the next and final step in our discussion and to reach a more definite conclusion. The ( 171 ) 172 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. question naturally arises: By what process does pain or its mental representation thus act as a sexual stimulant ? 1 he answer has over and over again been suggested by the facts brought forward in this study. Pain acts as a sexual stimulant because it is the most powerful of all methods for arousing emotion. The two emotions most intimately associated with pain are anger and fear. The more masculine and sthenic emotion of anger, the more passive and asthenic emotion of fear, are the fundamental animal emotions through which, on the psychic side, the process of natural selection largely works. Every animal in some degree owes its survival to the emotional reaction of anger against weaker rivals, to the emotional re¬ action of fear against stronger rivals. To this cause we owe it that these two emotions are so powerfully and deeply rooted in the whole zoological series to which we belong. But anger and fear are not less fundamental in the sexual life. Court¬ ship on the male’s part is largely a display of combativity, and even the very gestures by which the male seeks to appeal to the female are often those gestures of angry hostility by which he seeks to intimidate enemies. On the female’s part courtship is a skillful manipulation of her own fears, and, as we have seen elsewhere, when studying the phenomena of modesty, that fundamental attitude of the female in courtship is nothing but an agglomeration of fears. The biological significance of the emotions is now well recognized. “In general,” remarks one of the shrewdest writers on animal psychol¬ ogy, “we may say that emotional states are, under natural condi¬ tions, closely associated with behavior of biological value—with tend¬ encies that are beneficial in self-preservation and race preservation— with actions that promote survival, and especially with the behavior which clusters round the pairing and parental instincts. The value of the emotions in animals is that they are an indirect means of further¬ ing survival.” (Lloyd Morgan, Animal Behavior, p. 293.) Emotional aptitudes persist not only by virtue of the fact that they are still bene¬ ficial, but because they once were; that is to say, they may exist as survivals. In this connection I may quote from a suggestive paper on “Teasing and Bullying,” by F. L. Burk; at the conclusion of this study, LOVE AND PAIN. 173 which is founded on a large body of data concerning American children, the author asks: “Accepting for the moment the theories of Spencer and Ribot upon the transmission of rudimentary instincts, is it possible that the movements which comprise the chief elements of bullying, teasing, and the egotistic impulses in general of the classes cited— pursuing, throwing down, punching, striking, throwing missiles, etc.— are, from the standpoint of consciousness, broken neurological frag¬ ments, which are parts of old chains of activity involved in the pursuit, combat, capture, torture, and killing of men and enemies? ... Is not this hypothesis of transmitted fragments of instincts in accord with the strangely anomalous fact that children are at one moment seem¬ ingly cruel and at the next affectionate and kind, vibrating, as it were, between two worlds, egotistic and altruistic, without conscious sense of incongruity?” (F. L. Burk, “Teasing and Bullying,” Pedagogical Seminary , April, 1897.) The primitive connection of the special emotions of anger and fear with the sexual impulse has been well expressed by Colin Scott in his remarkable study of “Sex and Art”: “If the higher forms of courting are based on combat, among the males at least anger must be inti¬ mately associated with love. And below both of these lies the possi¬ bility of fear. In combat the animal is defeated who is first afraid. Competitive exhibition of prowess will inspire the less able birds with a deterring fear. Young grouse and woodcock do not enter the lists with the older birds, and sing very quietly. It is the same with the very oldest birds. Audubon says that the old maids and bachelors of the Canada goose move off by themselves during the courting of the younger birds. In order to succeed in love, fear must be overcome in the male as well as in the female. Courage is the essential male virtue, love is its outcome and reward. The strutting, crowing, dancing, and singing of male birds and the preliminary movements generally of animals must gorge the neuromotor and muscular systems with blood and put them in better fighting trim. The effects of this upon the feel¬ ings of the animal himself must be very great. Hereditary tendencies swell his heart. He has ‘the joy that warriors feel.’ He becomes regard¬ less of danger, and sometimes almost oblivious of his surroundings. This intense passionateness must react powerfully on the whole system, and more particularly on those parts which are capable, such as the brain, of using up a great surplus of blood, and on the naturally eretliic functions of sex. The flood of anger or fighting instinct is drained off by the sexual desires, the antipathy of the female is overcome, and sexual union successfully ensues. . . . Courting and combat shade into one another, courting tending to take the place of the more basal form of combat. The passions which thus come to be associated with love are 174 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. those of fear and anger, both of which, by arousing the whole nature and stimulating the nutritive sources from which they flow, come to increase the force of the sexual passion to which they lead up and in which they culminate and are absorbed.” (Colin Scott, “Sex and Art,” American Journal of Psychology, vol. vii, No. 2, pp. 170 and 215.) It must be remembered that fear is an element liable to arise in all courtship on one side or the other. It is usually on the side of the female, but not invariably. Among spiders, for instance, it is usually the male who feels fear, and very reasonably, for he is much weaker than the female. “Courtship by the male spider,” says T. H. Montgomery (“The Courtship of Araneads,” American Naturalist, March, 1910, p.. 166), “results from a combination of the state of desire for and fear of the female.” It is by his movements of fear that he advertises himself to the female as a male, and it is by the same movements that he is unconsciously impelled to display prominently his own ornamentation. We are thus brought to those essential facts of primitive courtship with which we started. But we are now able to un¬ derstand more clearly how it is that alien emotional states be¬ came abnormally associated with the sexual life. Normally the sexual impulse is sufficiently reinforced by the ordinary active energies of the organism which courtship itself arouses, ener¬ gies which, while they may be ultimately in part founded on anger and fear, rarely allow these emotions to be otherwise than latent. Motion, it may be said, is more prominent than emotion. Even normally a stimulant to emotional activities is pleas¬ urable, just as motion itself is pleasurable. It may even be useful, as was noted long ago by Erasmus Darwin; he tells of a friend of his who, when painfully fatigued by riding, would call up ideas arousing indignation, and thus relieve the fatigue, the indignation, as Darwin pointed out, increasing muscular activity. 1 It is owing to this stimulating action that discomfort, even pain, may be welcomed on account of the emotional waves they call up, because they “lash into movement the dreary calm of the sea’s soul,” and produce that alternation of pain and 1 Erasmus Darwin, Zoonamia, vol. i, p. 496. LOVE AND PAIN. 175 enjoyment for which Faust longed. Groos, who recalls this passage in his very thorough and profound discussion of the region wherein tragedy has its psychological roots, points out that it is the overwhelming might of the storm itself, and not the peace of calm after the storm, which appeals to us. In the same way, he observes, even surprise and shock may also be pleasurable, and fear, though the most depressing of emo¬ tional states, by virtue of the joy produced by strong stimuli is felt as attractive; we not only experience an impulse of pleasure in dominating our environment, but also have pleas¬ ure in being dominated and rendered helpless by a higher power. 1 Hirn, again, in his work on the origins of art, has an interesting chapter on “The Enjoyment of Pain,” a phe¬ nomenon which he explains by its resultant reactions in increase of outward activity, of motor excitement. Anger, he observes elsewhere, is “in its active stage a decidedly pleasurable emo¬ tion. Fear, which in its initial stage is paralyzing and de¬ pressing, often changes in time when the first shock has been relieved by motor reaction. . . . Anger, fear, sorrow, not¬ withstanding their distinctly painful initial stage, are often not only not avoided, but even deliberately sought.” 2 t In the ordinary healthy organism, however, although the stimulants of strong emotion may be vaguely pleasurable, they do not have more than a general action on the sexual sphere, nor are they required for the due action of the sexual mech¬ anism. But in a slightly abnormal organism—whether the anomaly is due to a congenital neuropathic condition, or to a possibly acquired neurasthenic condition, or merely to the physiological inadequacy of childhood or old age—the balance 1 K. Groos, Spiele der Menschen, pp. 200-210. 2 Hirn, Origins of Art, p. 54. Reference may here perhaps be made to the fact that unpleasant memories persist in women more than in men (American Journal of Psychology, 1899, p. 244). This had already been pointed out by Coleridge. “It is a remark that I have made many times,” we find it said in one of his fragments (Anima Poetce, p. 89), “and many times, I guess, shall repeat, that women are infinitely fonder of clinging to and beating about, hanging upon and keeping up, and reluctantly letting fall any doleful or painful or unpleasant subject, than men of the same class and rank.” 176 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. of nervous energy is less favorable for the adequate play of the ordinary energies in courtship. The sexual impulse is itself usually weaker, even when, as often happens, its irritability assumes the fallacious appearance of strength. It has become unusually sensitive to unusual stimuli and also, it is possible,— perhaps as a result of those conditions,—more liable to ata¬ vistic manifestations. An organism in this state becomes pecu¬ liarly apt to seize on the automatic sources of energy generated by emotion. The parched sexual instinct greedily drinks up and absorbs the force it obtains by applying abnormal stimuli to its emotional apparatus. It becomes largely, if not solely, dependent on the energy thus secured. The abnormal organ¬ ism in this respect may become as dependent on anger"err fear, and for the same reason, as in other respects it may become dependent on alcohol. We see the process very well illustrated by the occasional action of the emotion of anger. In animals the connection between love and anger is so close that even normally, as Groos points out, in some birds the sight of an enemy may call out the gestures of courtship. 1 As Krafft-Ebing remarks, both love and anger “seek their object, try to possess them¬ selves of it, and naturally exhaust themselves in a physical effect on it; both throw the psychomotor sphere into the most intense excitement, and by means of this excitement reach their normal expression.” 2 Fere has well remarked that the impatience of desire may itself be regarded as a true state of anger, and Stanley Hall, in his admirable study of anger, notes that “erethism of the breasts or sexual parts” was among the physical manifestations of anger occurring in some of his cases, and in one case a seminal emission accompanied every violent outburst. 3 Thus it is that anger may be used to reinforce a 1 Groos, Spiele der Thiere, p. 251. Maeder (Jahrbuch fur Psycho- analytische Foi'schungen, 1909, vol. i, p. 149) mentions an epileptic girl of 22 who masturbates when she is in a rage with anyone. 2 Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathic Sexualis , English translation of tenth edition, p. 78. 3 Stanley Hall, “A Study of Anger/' American Journal of Psychol¬ ogy, July, 1899, p. 549. LOVE AND PAIN. 177 weak sexual impulse, and cases have been recorded in which coitus could only be performed when the man had succeeded in working himself up into an artificial state of anger. 1 On the other hand, Fere has recorded a case in which the sexual ex¬ citement accompanying delayed orgasm was always transformed into anger, though without any true sadistic manifestations. 2 As a not unexpected complementary phenomenon to this connection of anger and sexual emotion in the male, it is some¬ times found that the spectacle of masculine anger excites pleas¬ urable emotion in women. The case has been recorded of a woman who delighted in arousing anger for the pleasure it gave her, and who advised another woman to follow her example and excite her husband’s anger, as nothing was so enjoyable as to see a man in a fury of rage 3 ; Lombroso mentions a woman who was mostly frigid, but experienced sexual feelings when she heard anyone swearing; and a medical friend tells me of a lady considerably past middle age who experienced sexual erethism after listening to a heated argument between her husband and a friend on religious topics. The case has also been recorded of a masochistic man who found sexual satisfaction in masturbating while a woman, by his instructions, addressed him in the lowest possible terms of abuse. 4 Such a feeling doubtless underlies that delight in teasing men which is so common among young women. Stanley Hall, referring to the almost morbid dread of witnessing manifestations of anger felt by many women, remarks: “In animals, females are often described as watching with complacency the conflict of rival males for their possession, and it seems probable that the 1 Krafft-Ebing refers to such a case as recorded by Schulz, Psycho- pathia Sexualis, p. 78. 2 F£r§, Ulnstinct sexuel, p. 213. 3 C. F. von Schlichtegroll, Sacher-Masoch und der Masochismus, p. 31. 4 Archivio di Psichiatria, vol. xv, p. 120. Mention may also be made of the cases (described as hysterical mixoscopia by Kiernan, Alienist and Neurologist, May, 1903) in which young women address to themselves anonymous letters of an abusive and disgusting character, and show them to others. 12 178 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. intense horror of this state, which many females report, is associated more or less unconsciously with the sexual rage which has followed it.” 1 The dread may well be felt at least as much as regards the emotional state in themselves as in the males. Even when the emotion aroused is disgust it may still act as a sexual stimulant. Stcherbak has narrated the instructive case of a very intelligent and elegant married lady of rather delicate constitution, an artist of some talent, who never experi¬ enced any pleasure in sexual intercourse, but ever since sexual feelings first began to be manifested at all (at the age of 18) lias only experienced them in relation to disgusting things. Anything that is repulsive, like vomit, etc., causes vague but pleasurable feelings which she gradually came to recognize as sexual. The sight of a crushed frog will cause very definite sexual sensations. She has had many admirers and she has observed that a declaration of love by a disagreeable or even repulsive man sexually excites her, though she has no desire for sexual intercourse with him. 2 After all that has gone before it is easy to see how the emotion of fear may act in an analogous manner to anger. Just as anger may reinforce the active forms of the sexual im¬ pulse to which it is allied, so fear may reinforce the passive forms of that impulse. The following observations, written by a lady, very well show how we may thus explain the sexual attractiveness of whipping: “The fascination of whipping, which has always greatly puzzled me, seems to be a sort of hankering after the stimulus of fear. In a wild state animals live in constant fear. In civilized life one but rarely feels it. A woman’s pleasure in being afraid of a husband or lover may be an equivalent of a man’s love of adventure; and the fear of children for their parents may be the dawning of the love of adventure. In a woman this desire of adventure receives a serious check when she begins to realize what she might be 1 Stanley Hall, loc. cit., p. 587. 2 Archives de Neurologie, Oct., 1907. LOVE AND PAIN". 179 subjected to by a man if she gratified it. Excessive fear is demoralizing, but it seems to me that the idea of being whipped gives a sense of fear which is not excessive. It is almost the only kind of pain (physical) which is inflicted on children or women by persons whom they can love and trust, and with a moral object. Any other kind of bodily ill treatment suggests malignity and may rouse resentment, and, in extreme cases, an excess of fear which goes beyond the limits of pleasurable excitement. Given a hereditary feeling of this sort, I think it is helped by the want of actual experience, as the associa¬ tion with excitement is freed from the idea of pain as such.” In his very valuable and suggestive study of fears, Stanley Hall, while recognizing the evil of excessive fear, has empha¬ sized the emotional and even the intellectual benefits of fear, and the great part played by fear in the evolution of the race as "the rudimentary organ on the full development and sub¬ sequent reduction of which many of the best things in the soul are dependent.” "Fears that paralyze some brains,” he re¬ marks, "are a good tonic for others. In some form and degree all need it always. Without the fear apparatus in us, what a wealth of motive would be lost I” 1 It is on the basis of this tonic influence of fear that in >.ome morbidly sensitive natures fear acts as a sexual stimulant. Gullerre has brought together a number of cases in both men and women, mostly neurasthenic, in which fits of extreme anxiety and dread, sometimes of a religious character and often in highly moral people, terminate in spontaneous orgasm or in masturba¬ tion^ Professor Gurlitt mentions that his first full sexual emis¬ sion took place in class at school, when he was absorbed in writing out the life of Aristides and very anxious lest he should not be able to complete it within the set time. 3 1 G. Stanley Hall, “A Study of Fears,” American Journal of Psy¬ chology, vol. viii. No. 2 . a . Gullerre, ‘De l’Excitation Sexuelle dans les Psychopathies Anxieuses, Archives de Neurologie, Feb., 1905. 7 t. 3 j L * 2? r i itt (Die ^ eue Generation, July, 1909). Moll (Sexual- leben des Kmdes, p. 84) also give examples of the connection between 180 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. Dread and anxiety not only excite sexual emotion, but in the more extreme morbid cases they may suppress and replace it. Terror, say Fliess, is transmuted coitus, and Freud believes that the neurosis of anxiety always has a sexual cause, while Ballet, Capgras, Lowenfeld, and others, though not regarding a sexual traumatism as the only cause, still regard it as frequent. It is worthy of note that not only fear, but even so de¬ pressing an emotion as grief, may act as a sexual stimulant, more especially in women. r l his fact is not sufficientl} recog nized, though probably everyone can recall instances from Ins personal knowledge, such cases being generally regarded as inexplicable. It is, however, not more surprising that grief should be transformed into sexual emotion than that (as in a case recorded by Stanley Hall) it should manifest itself as anger. In any case we have to bear in mind the frequency of this psychological transformation in the presence of cases wliicli might otherwise seem to call for a cynical interpretation. The case has been recorded of an English lady of good social posi¬ tion who fell in love with an undertaker at her father’s funeral and in¬ sisted on marrying him. It is known that some men have been so abnormally excited by the funeral trappings of death that only in such surroundings have they been able to effect coitus. A case has been recorded of a physician of unimpeachable morality who was unable to attend funerals, even of his own relatives, on account of the sexual excitement thus aroused. Funerals, tragedies at the theater, pictuies of martyrdom, scenes of execution, and trials at the law-courts have been grouped together as arousing pleasure in many people, especially women. (C. j?. von Schlichtegroll, Sacher-Masoch und der Masochismus, pp. 30-31.) Wakes and similar festivals may here find their psychological basis, and funerals are an unquestionable source of enjoyment among some peop e, especially of so-called “Celtic” race. The stimulating reaction after funerals is well known to many, and Leigh Hunt refers to this (in his Autobiography) as affecting the sincerely devoted friends who had just cremated Shelley. anxiety and sexual excitement. Freud (Der Wahn und die Traiime in Jensen’s Gradiva , p. 52) considers that in dream-interpretation we may replace “terror” by “sexual excitement.” In noting the general sexual effects of fear, we need not strictly separate the group of cases in which the sexual effects are physical only, and fail to be circuited through the brain. LOVE AND PAIN. 181 It may well be, as Kiernan has argued (Alienist and Xeurologist, 1891; ibid., 1902, p. 263), that in the disturbance of emotional balance caused by grief the primitive instincts become peculiarly apt to respond to stimulus, and that in the aboulia of grief the mind is specially liable to become the prey to obsessions. “When my child died at the age of 6 months,” a correspondent writes, “I had a violent paroxysm of weeping and for some days I could not eat. When I kissed the dead boy for the last time (I had never seen a corpse before) I felt I had reached the depths of misery and could never smile or have any deep emotions again. Yet that night, though my thoughts had not strayed to sexual subjects since the child’s death, I had a violent erection. I felt ashamed to desire carnal things when my dead child was still in the house, and explained to my wife. She was sympathetic, for her idea was that our common grief had intensified my love for her. I feel convinced, however, that my desire was the result of a stimulus propagated to the sexual centers from the centers affected by my grief, the transference of my emotion from one set of nerves to another. I do not perhaps express my meaning clearly.” How far the emotional influence of grief entered into the following episode it is impossible to say, for here it is probable that we are mainly concerned with one of those almost irresistible impulses by which ado¬ lescent girls are sometimes overcome. The narrative is from the lips of a reliable witness, a railway guard, who, some thirty years ago, when a youth of 18, in Cornwall, lodged with a man and woman who had a daughter of his own age. Some months later, when requiring a night’s lodging, he called at the house, and was gx-eeted warmly by the woman, who told him her husband had j”st died and that she and her daughter were very nervous and would be glad if he would stay the night, but that as the corpse occupied the other bedroom he would have to share their bed (“We don’t think very much of that among us,” my informant added). He agreed, and went to bed, and when, a little later, the two women also came to bed, the girl, at her own suggestion, lay next to the youth. Nothing happened during the night, but in the morning, when the mother went down to light the fire, the daughter immediately threw off the bedclothes, exposing her naked person, and before the youth had realized what was happening she had drawn him over on to her. He was so utterly surprised that nothing whatever happened, but the incident made a life-long impression on him. In this connection reference may be made to the story of the Ephesian matron in Petronius; the story of the widow, overcome by grief, who watches by her husband’s tomb, and very speedily falls into the arms of the soldier who is on guard. This story, in very various 182 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. forms, is found in China and India, and lias occurred repeatedly in European literature during the last two thousand years. The history of the wanderings of this story has been told by Grisebach (Eduard Grise- bach, Die Treulose Witwe, third edition, 1877). It is not probable, however, that all the stories of this type are actually related; in any case it would seem that their vitality is due to the fact that they have been found to show a real correspondence to life; one may note, for instance, the curious tone of personal emotion w'itli which George Chapman treated this theme in his play, Widow's Tears, f It may be added that, in explaining the resort to pam as an emotional stimulus, we have to take into account not only the biological and psychological considerations here brought forward, but also the abnormal physiological conditions under which stimuli usually felt as painful come specially to possess a sexually exciting influence. The neurasthenic and neuro¬ pathic states may be regarded as conditions of more or less permanent fatigue. It is true that under the conditions we are considering there may be an extreme sensitiveness to stimuli not usually felt as of sexual character, a kind of hyper¬ esthesia; but hyperesthesia, it has well been said, is nothing but the beginning of anesthesia. 1 Sergeant Bertrand, the clas¬ sical example of necrophily, 2 began to masturbate at the age of 9, stimulating a sexual impulse which may have been congeni¬ tally feeble by accompanying thoughts of ill-treating women. It was not till subsequently that he began to imagine that the women were corpses. The sadistic thoughts were only incidents in the emotional evolution, and the real object throughout was to procure strong emotion and not to inflict cruelty. Some ob¬ servations of Fere’s as to the conditions which influence the amount of muscular work accomplished with the ergograph are instructive from the present point of view: “Although sensi¬ bility diminishes in the course of fatigue,” Fere found that “there are periods during which the excitability increases before it disappears. As fatigue increases, the perception of the inter- l See the article on “Neurasthenia” by Rudolf Arndt in Tuke’s Dictionary of Psychological Medictne. 2Lunier, Annnles Medico-psychologiques, 1849, p. 153. LOVE AND PAIN. 183 current excitation is retarded; an odor is perceived as exciting before it is perceived as a differentiated sensation; the most fetid odors arouse feelings of well-being before being perceived as odors, and their painful quality only appears afterward, or is not noticed at all.” And after recording a series of results with the ergograph obtained under the stimulus of unpleasant odors he remarks: “We are thus struck by two facts: the diminution of work during painful excitation, and its incfcase when the excitation has ceased. When the effects following the excitation have disappeared the diminution is more rapid than in the ordinary state. When the fatigue is manifested by a notable diminution, if the same excitation is brought into action again, no diminution is produced, but a more or less durable increase, exactly as though there had been an agreeable excitation. Moreover, the stimulus which appears painful in a state of repose loses that painful character either partially or completely when acting on the same subject in a more and more fatigued state.” Fere defines a painful stimulus as a strong excitation which causes displays of energy which the will cannot utilize; when, as a result of diminished sensibility, the excitants are attenuated, the will can utilize them, and so there is no pain. 1 These experiments had no reference to the sexual instinct, but it will be seen at once that they have an extremely significant bearing on the subject before us, for they show us the mechanism of the process by which in an abnormal organism pain becomes a sexual stimulant. 1 F6r6, Comptes-rendus de la Socittt de Biologie, December 15 and 22, 1900; id., Atinee Psychologique, seventh year, 1901, pp. 82-129; more especially the same author’s Travail et Plaisir, 1904, VII. Summary of Results Reached—The Joy of Emotional Expansion— The Satisfaction of the Craving for Power—The Influence of Neuras¬ thenic and Neuropathic Conditions—The Problem of Pain in Love Largely Constitutes a Special Case of Erotic Symbolism. It may seem to some that in our discussion of the rela¬ tionships of love and pain we have covered a very wide field. This was inevitable. The subject is peculiarly difficult and complex, and if we are to gain a real insight into its nature we must not attempt to force the facts to fit into any narrow and artificial formulas of our own construction. Yet, as we have unraveled this seemingly confused mass of phenomena it will not have escaped the careful reader that the apparently diverse threads we have disentangled run in a parallel and uniform manner; they all have a like source and they all con¬ verge to a like result. We have seen that the starting-point of the whole group of manifestations must be found in the essential facts of courtship among animal and primitive human societies. Pain is seldom very far from some of the phases of primitive courtship; but it is not the pain which is the essential element in courtship, it is the state of intense emo¬ tion, of tumescence, with which at any moment, in some shape or another, pain may, in some way or another, be brought into connection. So that we have come to see that in the phrase “love and pain” we have to understand by “pain” a state of intense emotional excitement with which pain in the stricter sense may be associated, but is by no means necessarily asso¬ ciated. It is the strong emotion which exerts the irresistible fascination in the lover, in his partner, or in both. The pain is merely the means to that end. It is the lever which is em¬ ployed to bring the emotional force to bear on the sexual (184) LOVE AND PAIN. 185 impulse. The question of love and pain is mainly a question of emotional dynamics. In attaining this view of our subject we have learned that any impulse of true cruelty is almost outside the field altogether. The mistake was indeed obvious and inevitable. Let us suppose that every musical instrument is sensitive and that every musical performance involves the infliction of pain on the instrument. It would then be very difficult indeed to realize that the pleasure of music lies by no means in the infliction of pain. We should certainly find would-be scientific and analyt¬ ical people ready to declare that the pleasure of music is the pleasure of giving pain, and that the emotional effects of music are due to the pain thus inflicted. In algolagnia, as in music, it is not cruelty that is sought; it is the joy of being plunged among the waves of that great primitive ocean of emotions which underlies the variegated world of our everyday lives, and pain— a pain which, as we have seen, is often deprived so far as pos¬ sible of cruelty, though sometimes by very thin and feeble devices —is merely the channel by which that ocean is reached. If we try to carry our inquiry beyond the point we have been content to reach, and ask ourselves why this emotional intoxication exerts so irresistible a fascination, we might find a final reply in the explanation of Nietzsche—who regarded this kind of intoxication as of great significance both in life and in art—that it gives us the consciousness of energy and the satisfaction of our craving for power. 1 To carry the inquiry to this point would be, however, to take it into a somewhat speculative and metaphysical region, and we have perhaps done well not to attempt to analyze further the joy of emotional expansion. We must be content to regard the profound satis- i See, for instance, the section “Zur Physiologic der Kunst” in Nietzsche's fragmentary -work, Der Wille zur Macht, Werke, Bd. xv. Groos (Spiele der ilenschen, p. 89) refers to the significance of the fact that nearly all races have special methods of procuring intoxication. Of. Partridge’s study of the psychology of alcohol (American Journal of Psychology, April, 1900). “It is hard to imagine,” this writer remarks of intoxicants, “what the religious or social consciousness of primitive man would have been without them.” 186 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. faction of emotion as due to a widespread motor excitement, the elements of which we cannot yet completely analyze. 1 It is because the joy of emotional intoxication is the end really sought that we have to regard the supposed opposition between “sadism” and “masochism” as unimportant and indeed misleading. The emotional value of pain is equally great whether the pain is inflicted, suffered, witnessed, or merely exists as a mental imagination, and there is no reason why it should not coexist in all these forms in the same person, as, in fact, we frequently find it. The particular emotions which are invoked by pain to reinforce the sexual impulse are more especially anger and fear, and, as we have seen, these two very powerful and primi¬ tive emotions are—on the active and passive sides, respectively —the emotions most constantly brought into play in animal and early human courtship; so that they naturally constitute the emotional reservoirs from which the sexual impulse may still most easily draw. It is not difficult to show that the vari¬ ous forms in which “pain”—as we must here understand pain —is employed in the service of the sexual impulse are mainly manifestations or transformations of anger or fear, either in their simple or usually more complex forms, in some of which anger and fear may be mingled. We thus accept the biological origin of the psychological association between love and pain; it is traceable to the phe¬ nomena of animal courtship. We do not on this account ex¬ clude the more direct physiological factor. It may seem sur¬ prising that manifestations that have their origin in primeval l The muscular element is the most conspicuous in emotion, though it is not possible, as a careful student of the emotions (H. R. Marshall, Pain, Pleasure, and ^Esthetics, p. 84) well points out, “to limit the physical activities involved with the emotions to such effects of volun¬ tary innervation or alteration of size of blood-vessels or spasm of organic muscle, as Lange seems to think determines them; nor to increase or decrease of muscle-power, as F§r6’s results might suggest; nor to such changes, in relation of size of capillaries, in voluntary innervation, in respiratory and heart functioning, as Lehmann has observed. Emotions seem to me to be coincidents of reactions of the whole organ¬ ism tending to certain results.” LOVE AND PAIN. 187 forms of courtship should in many cases coincide with actual sensations of definite anatomical base today, and still more surprising that these traditional manifestations and actual sen¬ sations should so often be complementary to each other in their active and passive aspects: that is to say, that the pleasure of whipping should be matched by the pleasure of being whipped, the pleasure of mock strangling by the pleasure of being so strangled, that pain inflicted is not more desirable than pain suffered. But such coincidence is of the verv essence of the J whole group of phenomena. The manifestations of courtship were from the first conditioned by physiological facts; it is not strange that they should always tend to run pari passu with physiological facts. The manifestations which failed to find anchorage in physiological relationships might well tend to die Out. Even under the most normal circumstances, in healthy persons of healthy heredity, the manifestations we have been considering are liable to make themselves felt. Under such circumstances, however, they never become of the first im¬ portance in the sexual process; they are often little more than play. It is only under neurasthenic or neuropathic conditions —that is to say, in an organism which from acquired or con¬ genital causes, and usually perhaps both, has become enfeebled, irritable, “fatigued”—that these manifestations are liable to flourish vigorously, to come to the forefront of sexual conscious¬ ness, and even to attain such seriously urgent importance that they may in themselves constitute the entire end and aim of sexual desire. Under these pathological conditions, pain, in the broad and special sense in which we have been obliged to define it, becomes a welcome tonic and a more or less indis¬ pensable stimulant to the sexual system. It will not have escaped the careful reader that in follow¬ ing out our subject we have sometimes been brought into con¬ tact with manifestations which scarcely seem to come within any definition of pain. This is undoubtedly so, and the refer¬ ences to these manifestations were not accidental, for they serve to indicate the real bearings of our subject. The vela- 188 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. tionships of love and pain constitute a subject at once of so much, gravity and so much psychological significance that it was well to devote to them a special study. J3ut pain, as ue have here to understand it, largely constitutes a special case of what we shall later learn to know as erotic symbolism: that is to say, the psychic condition in which a part of the sexual process, a single idea or group of ideas, tends to assume un¬ usual importance, or even to occupy the whole field of sexual consciousness, the part becoming a symbol that stands for the whole. When we come to the discussion of this great group of abnormal sexual manifestations it will frequently be neces¬ sary to refer to the results we have reached in studying the sexual significance of pain. THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. A special and detailed study of the normal characters of the sexual impulse in men seems unnecessary. I have else¬ where discussed various aspects of the male sexual impulse, and others remain for later discussion. But to deal with it broadly as a whole seems unnecessary, if only because it is predominantly open and aggressive. Moreover, since the con¬ stitution of society has largely been in the hands of men, the nature of the sexual impulse in men has largely been expressed in the written and unwritten codes of social law. The sexual instinct in women is much more elusive. This, indeed, is in¬ volved at the outset in the organic psychological play of male and female, manifesting itself in the phenomena of modesty and courting. The same elusiveness, the same mocking mys¬ tery, meet us throughout when we seek to investigate the manifestations of the sexual impulse in women. Nor is it easy to find any full and authentic record of a social state clearly founded in sexual matters on the demands of woman’s nature. An illustration of our ignorance and bias in these matters is fur¬ nished by the relationship of marriage, celibacy, and divorce to suicide in the two sexes. There can be no doubt that the sexual emotions of women have a profound influence in determining suicide. This is in¬ dicated, among other facts, by a comparison of the suicide-rate in the sexes according to age; while in men the frequency of suicide increases progressively throughout life, in women there is an arrest after the age of 30 ; that is to say, when the period of most intense sexual emotion has been passed. This phenomenon is witnessed among peoples so un¬ like as the French, the Prussians, and the Italians. Now, how do marriage and divorce affect the sexual liability to suicide? We are al¬ ways accustomed to say that marriage protects women, and it is even asserted that men have self-sacrificingly maintained the institution of marriage mainly for the benefit of women. Professor Durkheim, how¬ ever, who has studied suicide elaborately from the sociological stand¬ point, so far as possible eliminating fallacies, has in recent years thrown considerable doubt on the current assumption. He shows that ( 189 ) 190 PSYCHOLOGY OP SEX. if we take the tendency to suicide as a test, and eliminate the influ¬ ence of children, who are an undoubted protection to women, it is not women, but men, who are protected by marriage, and that the protection of women from suicide increases regularly as divorces increase. After discussing these points exhaustively, “we reach a conclusion,” he states, “considerably removed from the current view of marriage and the part it plays. It is regarded as having been instituted for the sake of the wife and to protect her weakness against masculine caprices. Monogamy, especially, is very often presented as a sacrifice of man’s polygamous instincts, made in order to ameliorate the condition of woman in marriage. In reality, whatever may have been the historical causes which determined this restriction, it is man who has profited most. The liberty which he has thus renounced could only have been a source of torment to him. Woman had not the same reasons for abandoning freedom, and from this point of view we may say that in submitting to the same rule it is she who has made the sacrifice.” (E. Durkheim, Le Suicide, 1897, pp. 186-214, 289-311.) There is possibly some significance in the varying incidence of in¬ sanity in unmarried men and unmarried women as compared with the married. At Erlangen, for example, Hagen found that among insane women the preponderance of the single over the married is not nearly so great as among insane men, marriage appearing to exert a much more marked prophylactic influence in the case of men than of women. (F. W. Hagen, Statistische TJ nlersuchungen iiber Geisteskrankheiten, 1876, p. 153.) The phenomena are here, however, highly complex, and, as Hagen himself points out, the prophylactic influence of marriage, while very probable, is not the only or even the chief factor at work. It is worth noting that exactly the same sexual difference may be traced in England. It appears that, in ratio to similar groups in the general population (taking the years 1876-1900, inclusive), the number of admissions to asylums is the same for both sexes among married people (i.e., 8.5), but for the single it is larger among the men (4.8 to 4.5), as also it is among the widowed (17.9 to 13.9) ( Fifty-sixth Annual Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, England and Wales, 1902, p. 141). This would seem to indicate that when living apart from men the tendency to insanity is less in women, but is raised to the male level when the sexes live together in marriage. Much the same seems to hold true of criminality. It was long since noted by Horsley that in England marriage decidedly increases the tendency to crime in women, though it decidedly decreases it in men. Prinzing has shown ( Zeitschrift fiir Sozialmssenschaft, Bd. ii, 1899) that this is also the case in Germany. THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. 191 Similarly marriage decreases the tendency of men to become habitual drunkards and increases that of women. Notwithstanding the fact that the average age of the men is greater than that of the women, the majority of the men admitted to the inebriate reformatories under the English Inebriates Acts are single; the majority of the women are married; of 865 women so admitted 32 per cent, were single, 50 per cent, married, and 18 per cent, widows. (British Medical Journal, Sept. 2, 1911, p. 518.) It thus happens that even the elementary characters of the sexual impulse in women still arouse, even among the most competent physiological and medical authorities,—not least so when they are themselves women,—the most divergent opin¬ ions. Its very existence even may be said to be questioned. It would generally be agreed that among men the strength of the sexual impulse varies within a considerable range, but that it is very rarely altogether absent, such total absence being abnormal and probably more or less pathological. But if ap¬ plied to women, this statement is by no means always accepted. By many, sexual anesthesia is considered natural in women, some even declaring that any other opinion would be degrading to women; even by those who do not hold this opinion it is believed that there is an unnatural prevalence of sexual fri¬ gidity among civilized women. On these grounds it is desirable to deal generally with this and other elementary questions of allied character. T. The Primitive View of Women—As a Supernatural Element in Life—As Peculiarly Embodying the Sexual Instinct—The Modern Tend¬ ency to Underestimate the Sexual Impulse in Women This Tendency Confined to Recent Times—Sexual Anesthesia—Its Prevalence—Diffi¬ culties in Investigating the Subject—Some Attempts to Investigate it Sexual Anesthesia must be Regarded as Abnormal The Tendency to Spontaneous Manifestations of the Sexual Impulse in Young Girls at Puberty. From very early times it seems possible to trace two streams of opinion regarding women: on the one hand, a tend¬ ency to regard women as a supernatural element in life, more or iess superior to men, and, on the other hand, a tendency to regard women as especially embodying the sexual instinct and as peculiarly prone to exhibit its manifestations. In the most primitive societies, indeed, the two views seem to be to some extent amalgamated; or, it should rather be said, they have not yet been differentiated; and, as in such societies it is usual to venerate the generative principle of nature and its embodiments in the human body and in human functions, such a co-ordination of ideas is entirely rational. But with the development of culture the tendency is for this homogeneous conception to be split up into two inharmonious tendencies. Even apart from Christianity and before its ad¬ vent this may be noted. It was, however, to Christianity and the Christian ascetic spirit that we owe the complete differ¬ entiation and extreme development which these opposing views have reached. The condemnation of sexuality involved the glorification of the virgin; and indifference, even contempt, was felt for the woman who exercised sexual functions. It remained open to anyone, according to his own temperament, to identify the typical average woman with the one or with the other type; all the fund of latent sexual emotion which no ascetic rule can crush out of the human heart assured the ( 192 ) THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. 193 picturesque idealization alike of the angelic and the diabolic types of woman. e may trace the same influence subtly lurking even in the most would-be scientific statements of anthropologists and physicians today. 1 It may not be out of place to recall at this point, once more, the fact, fairly obvious indeed, that the judgments of men concerning women are very rarely matters of cold scientific observation, but are colored both by their own sexual emotions and by their own moral attitude toward the sexual impulse. The ascetic who is unsuccessfully warring with his own carnal impulses may (like the voluptuary) see nothing in women but incarnations of sexual impulse; the ascetic who has sub¬ dued his own carnal impulses may see no elements of sex in women at all. Thus the opinions regarding this matter are not only tinged by ele¬ ments of primitive culture, but by elements of individual disposition. Statements about the sexual impulses of women often tell us less about women than about the persons who make them. The curious manner in which for men women become incarnations of the sexual impulse is shown by the tendency of both general and personal names for women to become applicable to prostitutes only. This is the case with the words “garce” and “fille” in French, “Madehen” and “Dime” in German, as well as with the French “eatin” (Catherine) and the German “Metze” (Mathilde). (See, e.g., R. Kleinpaul, Die Rdthsel der Sprache, 1890, pp. 197-198.) At the same time, though we have to recognize the presence of elements which color and distort in various ways the judgments of men regarding women, it must not be hastily assumed that these elements render discussion of the question altogether unprofitable. In most cases such prejudices lead chiefly to a one-sided solution of facts, against which we can guard. While, however, these two opposing currents of opinion are of very ancient origin, it is only within quite recent times, and only in two or three countries, that they have led to any marked difference of opinion regarding the sexual aptitude of women. In ancient times men blamed women for concupis¬ cence or praised them for chastity, but it seems to have been reserved for the nineteenth century to state that women are 11 have had occasion to refer to the historic evolution of male opinion regarding women in previous volumes, as, e.g., Man and Woman, chapter i, and the appendix on “The Influence of Menstruation on the Position of Women” in the first volume of these Studies. 13 194 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. apt to be congenitally incapable oi experiencing complete sex¬ ual satisfaction, and peculiarly liable to sexua anesthesia This idea appears to have been almost unknown to the eighteen 1 century During the last century, however, and more especial y in England, Germany, and Italy, this opinion has been frequently set down, sometimes even as a matter of course, with a tine ure of contempt or pity for any woman afflicted with sexual emotions. In the treatise On Generation (chapter v), which until recent times was commonly ascribed to Hippocrates, it is stated that men have greater pleasure in coitus than women, though t ie p easure women lasts longer, and this opinion, though not usually accepted was treated with great respect by medical authors down to the end of the seventeenth century. Thus A. Laurentius (Du Laurens), after a long discussion, decides that men have stronger sexual desire and great pleasure in coitus than women. ( Jlistoria Anatomica Humam Corporis, 1599 lib. viii, quest, ii and vii.) ’About half a century ago a book entitled Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs, by W. Acton, a surgeon, passed through many editions and was popularly regarded as a standard autlionty on the subjects with which it deals. This extraordinary book is almost solely concerned with men; the author evidently regards the function of reproduction as almost exclusively appertaining to men Women, if “well brought up,” are, and should be, he states, in England, absolutelj ignorant of all matters concerning it. “I should say,” this author again remarks, “that the majority of women (happily for society) are not verv much troubled with sexual feeling of any kind.” The supposition that women do possess sexual feelings he considers “a vile aspeision. In the article “Generation,” contained in another medical work belonging to the middle of the nineteenth century,-Rees’s Cyclopedia ,- we find the following statement: “That a mucous fluid is s°™times found in coition from the internal organs and vagina is undoubted but this only happens in lascivious women, or such as live luxurious y. Gall had stated decisively that the sexual desires of men are stronger and more imperious than those of women. ( Fonctions du Cerveau, 1825, vol. iii, pp. 241-271.) Raciborski declared that three-fourths of women merely endure the approaches of men. ( De la Puberti chez la Femme, 1844, p. 486.) “When the question is carefully inquired into and without pieju- dice ” said Lawson Tait, “it is found that women have their sexual ap¬ petites far less developed than men.” (Lawson Tait, “Remote Effects of Removal of the Uterine Appendages,” Provincial Medical Journal, May, 1891.) “The sexual instinct is very powerful in man and com- THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IX WOMEN. 195 paratively weak in women/’ he stated elsewhere (Diseases of Women, 1889, p. 60). Hammond stated that, leaving prostitutes out of consideration, it is doubtful if in one-tenth of the instances of intercourse they [women] experience the slightest pleasurable sensation from first to last (Hammond, Sexual Impotence, p. 300), and he considered (p. 281) that this condition was sometimes congenital. Lombroso and Ferrero consider that sexual sensibility, as well as all other forms of sensibility, is less pronounced in women, and they bring forward various facts and opinions which seem to them to point in the same direction. ‘‘Woman is naturally and organically frigid.” At the same time they consider that, while erethism is less, sexuality is greater than in men. (Lombroso and Ferrero, La Donna Delinquente, la Prostituta, e la Donna Normale, 1893, pp. 54-58.) “It is an altogether false idea,” Fehling declared, in his rectorial address at the University of Basel in 1S91, “that a young woman has just as strong an impulse to the opposite sex as a young man. The appearance of the sexual side in the love of a young girl is patho¬ logical.” (H. Fehling, Die Bestimmung dor Frau, 1892, p. 18.) In his Lehrbuch der Frauenkrankheitcn the same gynecological authority states his belief that half of all women are not sexually excitable. Krafft-Ebing was of opinion that women require less sexual satis¬ faction than men, being less sensual. (Krafft-Ebing, “Ueber Neurosen und Psychosen durch sexuelle Abstinent,” Jahrbucher fiir Psychiatrie, 1888, Bd. viii, ht. 1 and 2.) In the normal woman, especially of the higher social classes,” states W indscheid, the sexual instinct is acquired, not inborn; when it is inborn, or awakes by itself, there is abnormality. Since women do not know this instinct before marriage, they do not miss it when they have no occasion in life to learn it.” (F. WTndseheid, “Die Beziehungen zwischen Gyniikologie und Neurologie,” Zentralblatt fiir Gyndkologie, 1896, No. 22; quoted by Moll, Libido Sexualis, Bd. i, p. 271.) “The sensuality of men,” Moll states, “is in my opinion very much greater than that of women.” (A. Moll, Die Kontrdre Sexual- empfindung, third edition, 1899, p. 592.) “W omen are, in general, less sensual than men,” remarks Niicke, “notwithstanding the alleged greater nervous supply of their sexual organs.” (P. Niicke, “Kritisches zum Kapitel der Sexualitat,” Archiv fiir Psychiatrie, 1899, p. 341.) Lowenfeld states that in normal young girls the specifically sexual feelings are absolutely unknown; so that desire cannot exist in them. Putting aside the not inconsiderable proportion of women in whom this absence of desire may persist and be permanent, even after sexual re- 29g PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. •a^ips liave begun? ^ a S larger number desire >«”. . unconditionally support Of relative frigidity. He adds that he can coldneag to the the view of Furbnnger, who is 11 L5 W enfeld, Sexualleben und majority of German married women. (L. Howentem, o Kervenleulen, 1899, second edition, p. H.) Adler, who discusses the question at some length, decides that tn 1 vpniiires stronger stimulation to arouse it, bu &SE iTsXs ?.tm a iaLcy d°„ 8 e to inbibition, wMob acfc line a foreign body in the brain (analogous to the psychic trauma of Brener and Freud in Hysteria), and demands^ edition, 1011; “Die Frigide Frau,” SewMl-I’rohUme, Jan., 1912.) It must not, however, he supposed tlmt this view of the natural tendency of women to frigidity lias everywhere found acceptance. It is not only an opinion of very recent growth, but is confined, on the whole, to a few countries. “Turn to history,” wrote Bricrre de Bcismont, “and on every page ml ■ * to recognize the predominance of erotic ideas in women. It is the same today, he adds, and he attributes it to the fact^that men are more easily able to gratify their sexual impulses. {Des Hallucm ll0US ’ The^laws^f ilanu attribute to women concupiscence and anger, •fiio in vp of bed and of adornment. The Jews attributed to women greater sexual ilesire than to men. Tins is illustrated, according to Knobel (as quoted by Dillmann), by “ Sl^y the romance and sentiment of love were mainly felt toward persons" of the same sex, and were divorced from the more purely sexual feelings felt for persons of opposite sex. Theogms com¬ pared marriage to cattle-breeding. In love between men and women the latter were nearly always regarded as taking the more active part n all Greek love-stories of early date the woman falls m love with the man and never the reverse, ^schylus makes even a father assume that his daughters will misbehave if left to themselves. Euripides emphasized the importance of women; “The Euripidean woman who fall--n^ove thinks first of all: ‘How can I seduce the man I love? (E. F. M. THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IX WOMEN. 197 Benecke, Antimaehus of Colophon and (he Position of Women in Greek Poetry, 1896, pp. 34, 54.) Tlie most famous passage in Latin literature as to the question of whether men or women obtain greater pleasure from sexual intercourse is that in which Ovid narrates the legend of Tiresias ( Metamorphoses , iii, 31 1 -333). Tiresias, having been both a man and a woman, decided in favor of women. This passage was frequently quoted down to the eighteenth century. In a passage quoted from a lost work of Galen by the Arabian biographer, Abu-l-Faraj, that great physician says of the Christians “that they practice celibacy, that even many of their women do so.” So that in Galen’s opinion it was more difficult for a woman than for a man to be continent. The same view is widely prevalent among Arabic authors, and there is an Arabic saying that “The longing of the woman for the penis is greater than that of the man for the vulva.” In China, remarks Dr. Coltman, “when an old gentleman of my acquaintance was visiting me my little daughter, 5 years old, ran into the room, and, climbing upon my knee, kissed me. My visitor expressed his surprise, and remarked: ‘We never kiss our daughters when they are so large; we may when they are very small, but not after they are 3 years old,’ said he, ‘because it is apt to excite in them bad emotions.’ ” (Coltman, The Chinese, 1900, p. 99.) The early Christian Fathers clearly show that they regard women as more inclined to sexual enjoyment than men. That was, for instance, the opinion of Tertullian (De Yirginibus Yelandis, chapter x), and it is clearly implied in some of St. Jerome’s epistles. Notwithstanding the influence of Christianity, among the vigorous barbarian races of medieval Europe, the existence of sexual appetite in women was not considered to be, as it later became, a matter to be concealed or denied. Thus in 1068 the ecclesiastical historian, Ordericus Vitalis (himself half Norman and half English), narrates that the wives of the Norman knights who had accompanied William the Con¬ queror to England two years earlier sent over to their husbands to say that they were consumed by the fierce flames of desire (“sseva libidinis face urebantur”), and that if their husbands failed to return very shortly they proposed to take other husbands. It is added that this threat brought a few husbands back to their wanton ladies (“lascivis dominabus suis”). During the medieval period in Europe, largely in consequence, no doubt, of the predominance of ascetic ideals set up by men who naturally regarded woman as the symbol of sex, the doctrine of the incontinence of woman became firmly fixed, and it is unnecessary and unprofitable to 198 PSYCHOLOGY OP SEX. quote examples. It is sufficient to mention the very comprehensive statement of Jean de Meung (in the Roman de la Rose , 9903) “Toutes estes, seres, ou fhtes De fait ou de volunte putes.” The satirical Jean de Meung was, however, a somewhat extreme and untypical representative of his age, and the fourteenth century Johannes de Sancto Amando (Jean de St. Amand) gives a somewhat more scientifically based opinion (quoted by Pagel, Neue htteransche Beitrage zur Mittelalterlichcn Medicin, 1896, p. 30) that sexual desire is stronger in women than in men. Humanism and the spread of the Renaissance movement hi ought in a spirit more sympathetic to women. Soon after, especially in Italy and France, we begin to find attempts at analyzing the sexual emotions, which are not always without a certain subtlety. In the seventeenth century a book of this kind was written by Yenette. In matters of love, Yenette declared, “men are but children compared to women. In these matters women have a more lively imagination, and they usually have more leisure to think of love. Women are much more lascivious and amorous than men.” This is the conclusion reached in a chapter devoted to the question whether men or women are the more amorous. In a subsequent chapter, dealing with the question whether men or women receive more pleasure from the sexual embrace, Venette con¬ cludes, after admitting the great difficulty of the question, that man s pleasure is greater, but woman’s lasts longer. (N. Yenette, De la Gtntration de VHomme ou Tableau de VAmour Conjugal, Amsterdam, 1688.) . , .. . At a much earlier date, however, Montaigne had discussed this matter with his usual wisdom, and, while pointing out that men have imposed their own rule of life on women and their own ideals, and have demanded from them opposite and contradictory virtues,—a statement not yet antiquated,—he argues that women are incomparably more apt and more ardent in love than men are, and that in this matter they always know far more than men can teach them, for “it is a discipline that is born in their veins.” (Montaigne, Essais, book iii, chapter v.) The old physiologists generally mentioned the appearance of sexual desire in girls as one of the normal signs of puberty. This may be seen in the numerous quotations brought together by Schuiig, in his Parthenologia, cap. ii. A long succession of distinguished physicians throughout the seventeenth century discussed at more or less length the relative amount of sexual desire in men and women, and the relative degree of their pleasure in coitus. It is remarkable that, although they usually attach THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IX WOMEN. 199 great weight to the supposed opinion of Hippocrates in the opposite sense, most of them decide that both desire and pleasure are greater in women. Plazzonus decides that women have more sources of pleasure in coitus than men because of the larger extent of surface excited; and if it were not so, he adds, women would not be induced to incur the pains and risks of pregnancy and childbirth. (Plazzonus, De Partibus Gcncr- ationi Inservientibus, 1621, lib. ii, cap. xiii.) “Without doubt,” says Ferrand, “woman is more passionate than man, and more often torn by the evils of love.” (Ferrand, De la Maladie d’Amour , 1623, chapter ii.) Zacchia, mainly on a priori grounds, concludes that women have more pleasure in coitus than men. (Zacchia, Quccstiones Medico-legales, 1630, lib. iii, quest, vii.) Sinibaldus, discussing whether men or women have more salacity, decides in favor of women. (J. B. Sinibaldus, Geneanthropeia, 1642, lib. ii, tract, ii, cap. v.) Hornius believed that women have greater sexual pleasure than men, though he mainly supported his opinion by the authority of classical poets. (Hornius, Historia 'Naturalis, 1670, lib. iii, cap. i.) Nenter describes what we may now call women’s affectability, and considers that it makes them more prone than men to the sexual emotions, as is shown by the fact that, notwithstanding their modesty, they sometimes make sexual advances. This greater proneness of women to the sexual impulse is, he remarks, entirely natural and right, for the work of generation is mainly carried on by women, and love is its basis: “generationis fimdamentum est amor.” (G. P. Neuter, Theoria Eominis Sani, 1714, cap. v, memb. ii.) The above opinions of seventeenth-century physicians are quoted from the original sources. Schurig, in his Gytuecologia (pp. 46-50 and 71-81), quotes a number of passages on this subject from medical authorities of the same period, on which I have not drawn. Senancour, in his fine and suggestive book on love, first published in 1806, asks: “Has sexual pleasure the same power on the sex which less loudly demands it? It has more, at all events in some respects. The very vigor and laboriousness of men may lead them to neglect love, but the constant cares of maternity make women feel how important it must ever be to them. We must remember also that in men the special emotions of love only have a single focus, while in women the organs of lactation are imited to those of conception. Our feelings are all determined by these material causes.” (Senancour, De VAmour, fourth edition, 1834, vol. i, p. 68.) A later psychologist of love, this time a woman, Ellen Key, states that woman’s erotic demands, 200 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. though more silent than man’s, are stronger. (Ellen Key, TJeber Liebe und Ehe, p. 138.) Michael Ryan considered that sexual enjoyment “is more deli¬ cious and protracted” in women, and ascribed this to a more sensitive nervous system, a finer and more delicate skin, more acute feelings, and the fact that in women the mammae are the seat of a vivid sensibility in sympathy with the uterus. (M. Ryan, Philosophy of Marriage, 1837, p. 153.) Busch was inclined to think women have greater sexual pleasure than men. (D. W. H. Busch, Das Geschlechtsleben des Weibes, 1839, vol. i, p. 09.) Ivobelt held that the anatomical conformation of the sexual organs in women led to the conclusion that this must be the case. Guttceit, speaking of his thirty years’ medical experience in Russia, says: “In Russia at all events, a girl, as very many have acknowledged to me, cannot resist the ever stronger impulses of sex beyond the twenty- second or twenty-third year. And if she cannot do so in natural ways she adopts artificial ways. The belief that the feminine sex feels the stimulus of sex less than the male is quite false.” (Guttceit, Dreissig Jahre Praxis, 1873, theil i, p. 313.) In Scandinavia, according to Vedeler, the sexual emotions are at least as strong in women as in men (Vedeler, “De Impotentia Femi- narum,” Norsk Magazin for Laegevidenskaben, March, 1894). In Sweden, Dr. Eklund, of Stockholm, remarking that from 25 to 33 per cent, of the births are illegitimate, adds: “We hardly ever hear anyone talk of a woman having been seduced, simply because the lust is at the worst in the woman, who, as a rule, is the seducing party."’ (Eklund, Transactions of the American Association of Obstetricians, Philadel¬ phia, 1892, p. 307.) On the opposite side of the Baltic, in the Kbnigsberg district, the same observation has been made. Intercourse before marriage is the rule in most villages of this agricultural district, among the working classes, with or without intention of subsequent marriage; “the girls are often the seducing parties, or at least very willing; they seek to bind their lovers to them and compel them to marriage.” In the Ivbslin district of Pomerania, where intercourse between the girls and youths is common, the girls come to the youths’ rooms even more frequently than the youths to the girls’. In some of the Dantzig districts the girls give themselves to the youths, and even seduce them, sometimes, but not always, with a view of marriage. (Wittenberg, Die geschlechtsit- tlichen Verhalten der Landbeioohner im Deutschen Reiche, 1895, Bd. i, pp. 47, 61, 83.) Mantegazza devoted great attention to this point in several of the THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. 201 works he published during fifty years, and was decidedly of the opinion that the sexual emotions are much stronger in women than in men, and that women have much more enjoyment in sexual intercourse. In his Fisiologia del Piacere he supports this view, and refers to the greater complexity of the genital apparatus in women (as well as its larger surface and more protected position), to what he considers to be the keener sensibility of women generally, to the passivity of women, etc.; and he considers that sexual pleasure is rendered more seductive to women by the mystery in which it is veiled for them by modesty and our social habits. In a more recent work ( Fisiologia della Donna, cap. \iii) Mantegazza returns to this subject, and remarks that long ex¬ perience, while confirming his early opinion, has modified it to the extent that he now believes that, as compared with men, the sexual emotions of women vary within far wider limits. Among men few are quite insensitive to the physical pleasures of love, while, on the other hand, few are thrown by the violence of its emotional manifestations into a state of syncope or convulsions. Among women, while some are absolutely insensitive, otliei's (as in cases with which he was acquainted) are so violently excited by the paradise of physical love that, after the sexual embrace, they faint or fall into a cataleptic condition for several hours. “Physical sex is a larger factor in the life of the woman. . . If this be true of the physical element, it is equally true of the mental element. ’ (Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, The Human Element in Sex, fifth edition, 1S94, p. 47.) “In the female sex,” remarks Clouston, “reproduction is a more dominant function of the organism than in the male, and has far larger, if not more int^ise, relationships to feeling, judgment, and volition.” (Clouston, Xeuroses of Development, 1891.) ‘ It may be said,'" Marro states, “that in woman the visceral sys¬ tem reacts, if not with greater intensity, certainly in a more general manner, to all the impressions, having a sexual basis, which dominate the life of woman, if not as sexual emotions properly so called, as related emotions closely dependent on the reproductive instinct.” (A. Marro, La Pubertd, 1898, p. 233.) Forel also believed (Die Sexuelle Frage, p. 274) that women are more erotic than men. The gynecologist Kisch states his belief that “The sexual impulse is so powerful in women that at certain periods of life its primitive force dominates her whole nature, and there can be no room left for reason to argue concerning reproduction; on the contrary, union is desired even in the presence of the fear of reproduction or when there can be no ques¬ tion of it.” He regards absence of sexual feeling in women as patho- 202 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. logical. (Kiseh, Bier Hit at des Weibes, second edition, pp. 205-206.) In liis later work (The Sexual Life of Woman) Kisch again asserts that sexual impulse always exists in mature women (in the absence of organic sexual defect and cerebral disease), though it varies in strength and may be repressed. In adolescent girls, however, it is weaker than in youths of the same age. After she has had sexual experiences, Kisch maintains, a woman’s sexual emotions are just as powerful as a man’s, though she has more motives than a man for controlling them. Eulenburg is of the same opinion as Kisch, and sharply criticises the loose assertion of some authorities w T ho have expressed themselves in an opposite sense. (A. Eulenburg, Sexuale Neuropathie, pp. 88-90; the same author has dealt with the point in the Zukunft, December 2, 1893.) Kossmann states that the opinion as to the widespread existence of frigidity among women is a fable. (Kossmann, Allgemeine Gynw- cologie, 1903, p. 362.) Bloch concludes that “in most cases the sexual coldness of women is in fact only apparent, either due to the concealment of glowing sexuality beneath the veil of outward reticence prescribed by conven¬ tional morality, or else to the husband who has not succeeded in arousing erotic sensations which are complicated and w 7 ith difficulty awakened. . . . The sexual sensibility of women is certainly different from that of men, but in strength it is at least as great.” (Iwan Bloch, Das Sexualleben unserer Zeit, 1907, eh. v.) Nystrum, also, after devoting a chapter to the discussion. of the causes of sexual coldness in women, concludes: “My conviction, founded on experience, is, that only a small number of women would be without sexual feeling if sound views and teaching prevailed in respect to the sexual life, if due weight were given to inner devotion and tender caresses as the preliminaries of love in marriage, and if couples who wish to avoid pregnancy would adopt sensible preventive methods instead of coitus interruptus.” (A. Nystrom, Das Geschlichtsleben und seine Gesetze, eighth edition, 1907, p. 177.) We thus find two opinions widely current: one, of world¬ wide existence and almost universally accepted in those ages and centers in which life is lived most nakedly, according to which the sexual impulse is stronger in women than in men; another, now widely prevalent in many countries, according to which the sexual instinct is distinctly weaker in women, if, indeed, it may not be regarded as normally absent altogether. A third view is possible: it may be held that there is no dif- THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN' WOMEN. 203 ference at all. This view, formerly not very widely held, is that of the French physiologist, Beaunis, as it is of Winckel; while llohleder, who formerly held that sexual feeling tends to be defective in women, now believes that men and women are equal in sexual impulse. At an earlier period, however, Donatus (De Medico, Eistoria Miiabili, 1013, lib. iv, cap. xvii) held the same view, and remarked that sometimes men and sometimes women are the more salacious, % arming vitk the individual. Roubaud (De I'hnpuissance, 1855, p. 38) stated that the question is so difficult as to be insoluble. In dealing with the characteristics of the sexual impulse in w omen, it will be seen, we have to consider the prevalence in them of what is commonly termed (in its slightest forms) frigidity or hyphedonia, and (in more complete form) sexual anesthesia or anaphrodism, or erotic blindness, or anhedonia. 1 Many modern writers have referred to the prevalence of fri¬ gidity among women. Shufeldt believes (Pacific Medical Journal, Nov., 19° i) that 75 per cent, of married women in New York are afflicted with sexual frigidity, and that it is on the increase; it is rare, how¬ ever, lie adds, among Jewish women. Hegar gives 50 per cent, as the proportion of sexually anesthetic women; Fiirbringer says the majority of women are so. Effertz (quoted by Lowenfeld, SexuaTleben und Nervenleiden, p. 11, apparently with approval) regards 10 per cent, among women generally as sexually anesthetic, but only 1 per cent, men. Moll states (Eulenburg’s Encyclopddie, fourth edition, art. “Geschlechtstrieb”) that the prevalence of sexual anesthesia among German women varies, according to different authorities, from 10 to G6 per cent. Elsewhere Moll (Eontrdre Seamalempfinduny, third edition, 1890, p. 510) emphasizes the statement that “sexual anesthesia in women is much more frequent than is generally supposed.” He ex¬ plains that he is referring to the physical element of pleasure and satisfaction in intercourse, and of desire for intercourse. He adds that the psychic side of love is often more conspicuous in women than in men. He cannot agree with Sollier that this kind of sexual frigidity 1 The terminology proposed by Ziehen (“Zur Lehre von den psyeliopathischen Konstitutionen,” Charite Annalen, vol. xxxxiii, 1909) is as follows: For absence of sexual feeling, anhedonia; for diminution of the same, hyphedonia; for excess of sexual feeling, hyperhedonia; for qualitative sexual perversions, parliedonia. “Erotic blindness” was suggested by Nardelli. 204 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. is a symptom of hysteria. Ferb ( L'lnstinct Scxuel, second edition, p. 112), in referring to the greater frequency of sexual anesthesia in women, remarks that it is often associated with neuropathic states, as well as with anomalies of the genital organs, or general troubles of nutrition, and is usually acquired. Some authors attribute great im¬ portance to amenorrhea in this connection; one investigator has found that in 4 out of 14 cases of absolute amenorrhea sexual feeling was absent. Lbwenfeld, again (Sexualleben tind Nervenleiden), referring to the common misconception that nervous disorder is associated with increased sexual desire, points out that nervously degenerate women far more often display frigidity than increased sexual desire. Else¬ where ( Uebcr die Sexuelle Konstitution) Lbwenfeld says it is only among the upper classes that sexual anesthesia is common. Campbell Clark, also, showed some years ago that, in young women with a tendency to chlorosis and a predisposition to insanity, defects of pelvic and mammary development are very prevalent. ( Journal of Mental Science, October, 1888.) As regards the older medical authors, Schurig ( Spermatologia , 1720, p. 243, and Ggnccologia, 1730, p. 81) brought together from the literature and from his own knowledge cases of women who felt no pleasure in coitus, as well as of some men who had erections without pleasure. There is, however, much uncertainty as to what precisely is meant by sexual frigidity or anesthesia. All the old medical authors carefully distinguish between the heat of sexual desire and the actual presence of pleasure in coitus; many modern writers also properly separate libido from voluptas, since it is quite possible to experience sexual desires and not to be able to obtain their gratification during sexual intercourse, and it is possible to hold, with Mantegazza, that women naturally have stronger sexual impulses than men, but are more liable than men to experience sexual anesthesia. But it is very much more difficult than most people seem to suppose, to obtain quite precise and definite data concerning the absence of either voluptas or libido in a woman. Even if we accept the statement of the woman who asserts that she has either or both, the statement of their absence is by no means equally conclusive and final. As even Adler—who discusses this question fully and has very pro¬ nounced opinions about it—admits, there are women who stoutly deny the existence of any sexual feelings until such feelings are THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. 205 actually discovered. 1 * Some of the most marked characteristics of the sexual impulse in women, moreover,—its association with modesty, its comparatively late development, its seeming pas¬ sivity, its need of stimulation,—all combine to render difficult the final pronouncement that a woman is sexually frigid. Most significant of all in this connection is the complexity of the sexual apparatus in women and the corresponding psychic diffi¬ culty—based on the fundamental principle of sexual selection— of finding a fitting mate. The fact that a woman is cold with one man or even with a succession of men by no means shows that she is not apt to experience sexual emotions; it merely shows that these men have not been able to arouse them. “I recall two very striking cases,” a distinguished gynecologist, the late Dr. Engelmann, of Boston, wrote to me, “of very attractive young married women—one having had a child, the other a mis¬ carriage—who were both absolutely cold to their husbands, as told me by both husband and wife. They could not understand desire or passion, and would not even believe that it existed. Yet, both these women with other men developed ardent passion, all the stronger perhaps because it had been so long latent.” In such cases it is scarcely necessary to invoke Adler’s theory of a morbid inhibition, or “foreign body in consciousness,” which has to be overcome. We are simply in the presence of the natural fact that the female throughout nature not only requires much loving, but is usually fastidious in the choice of a lover. In the human species this natural fact is often disguised and perverted. Women are not alwa 3 7 s free to choose the man whom they would prefer as a lover, nor even free to find out whether the man they prefer sexually fits them; they are, moreover, very often ex¬ tremely ignorant of the whole question of sex, and the victims of the prejudice and false conventions they have been taught. On the one hand, they are driven into an unnatural primness and austerity; on the other hand, they rebound to an equally unnatural facility or even promiscuity. Thus it happens that l O. Adler, Die Mangelhafte Geschlechtsem pfindung des Weihes, 1904, p. 146. 206 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. the men who find that a large number of women are not so facile as they themselves are, and as they have found a large number of women to be, rush to the conclusion that women tend to be “sexually anesthetic.” If we wish to be accurate, it is very doubtful whether we can assert that a woman is ever absolutely without the aptitude for sexual satisfaction. 1 She may unques¬ tionably be without any conscious desire for actual coitus. But if we realize to how large an extent woman is a sexual organism, and how diffused and even unconscious the sexual impulses may be, it becomes very difficult to assert that she has never shown any manifestation of the sexual impulse. All we can assert with some degree of positiveness in some cases is that she has not manifested sexual gratification, more particularly as shown by the occurrence of the orgasm, but that is very far indeed from warranting us to assert that she never will experience such gratification or still less that she is organically incapable of experiencing it. 2 It is therefore quite impossible to follow Adler when he asks us to accept the existence of a condition which he solemnly terms anaesthesia sexualis completa idio- pathica, in which there is no mechanical difficulty in the way or psychic inhibition, but an “absolute” lack of sexual sensibility and a complete absence of sexual inclination. 3 It is instructive to observe that Adler himself knows no “pure” case of this condition. To find such a case he has to go back nearly two centuries to Madame de Warens, to whom he 1 A correspondent tells me that he knows a woman who has been a prostitute since the age of 15, but never experienced sexual pleasure and a real, non-simulated orgasm till she was 23; since then she has become very sensual. In other similar cases the hitherto indifferent prostitute, having found the man who suits her, abandons her profes¬ sion, even though she is thereby compelled to live in extreme poverty. ‘‘An insensible woman,” as La Bruy&re long ago remarked in his chapter “Des Femmes,” “is merely one who has not yet seen the man she must love.” 2 Guttceit ( D-reissig Jahre Praxis, vol. i, p. 416) pointed out that the presence or absence of the orgasm is the only factor in “sexual anesthesia” of which we can speak at all definitely; and he believed that anaphrodism, in the sense of absence of the sexual impulse, never occurs at all, many women having confided to him that they had sexual desires, although those desires were not gratified by coitus. 3 Op. cit., p. 164. THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IX WOMEN. 207 devotes a whole chapter. He has, moreover, had the courage in vriting this chapter to rely entirely on Bousseau’s Confessions, which were written nearly half a century later than the episodes they narrated, and are therefore full of inaccuracies, besides being founded on an imperfect and false knowledge of Madame de "U arens s earlier life, and written by a man who was, there can be no doubt, not able to arouse women’s passions. Adler shows himself completely ignorant of the historical investigations of De Montet, Mugnier, Bitter, and others which, during recent years, lia\e thrown a flood of light on the life and character of Madame de W arens, and not even acquainted with the highly significant fact that she was hysterical. 1 2 This is the basis of “fact” on which we are asked to accept anaesthesia sexualis completa idiopathica!~ ‘'In dealing with the alleged absence of the sexual impulse,” a ■well- informed medical correspondent writes from America, “much caution has to be used in accepting statements as to its absence, from the fact that most women fear by the admission to place themselves in an impure category. I am also satisfied that influx of women into universi¬ ties, etc., is often due to the sexual impulse causing restlessness, and that this factor finds expression in the prurient prudishness so often presenting itself in such women, which interferes with coeducation. This is becoming especially noticeable at the University of Chicago, where prudishness interferes with classical, biological, sociological, and physio- logical discussion in the classroom. There have been complaints by such women that a given professor has not left out embryological facts not in themselves in any way implying indelicacy. I have even been informed that the opinion is often expressed in college dormitories that embryological facts and discussions should be left out of a course intended for both sexes.” Such prudishness, it is scarcely necessary to remark, whether found in women or men, indicates a mind that has become morbidly sensitive to sexual impressions. For the healthy mind embryological and allied facts have no emotionally sexual signifi¬ cance, and there is, therefore, no need to shun them. Kolischer, of Chicago (“Sexual Frigidity in Women,” American Journal of Obstetrics, Sept., 1905), points out that it is often the failure of the husband to produce sexual excitement in the wife which leads to voluntary repression of sexual sensation on her part, or an 1 Havelock Ellis, “Madame de Warens,” The Venture, 1903. 2 it is interesting to observe that finally even Adler admits (op. cit., p. 155) that there is no such thing as congenital lack of aptitude for sexual sensibility. 208 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. acquired sexual anesthesia. “Sexual excitement,” lie remarks, “not brought to its natural climax, the reaction leaves the woman in a very disagreeable condition, and repeated occurrences of this kind may even lead to general nervous disturbances. Some of these unfortunate women learn to suppress their sexual sensation so as to avoid all these disagreeable sequela;. Such a state of affairs is not only unfortunate, because it deprives the female partner of her natural rights, but it is also to be deplored because it practically brings down such a married woman to the level of the prostitute.” In illustration of the prevalence of inhibitions of various kinds, from without and from within, in suppressing or disguising sexual feeling in women, I may quote the following observations by an American lady concerning a series of women of her acquaintance:— “Mrs. A. This woman is handsome and healthy. She has never had children, much to the grief of herself and her husband. The man is also handsome and attractive. Mrs. A. once asked me if lovemaking between me and my husband ever originated with me. I replied it was as often so as not, and she said that in that event she could not see how passion between husband and wife could be regulated. When I seemed not to be ashamed of the matter, but rather to be positive in my views that it should be so, she at once tried to impress me with the fact that she did not wish me to think she ‘could not be aroused.’ This woman several times hinted that she had learned a great amount that was not edifying at boarding school, and I always felt that, with proper encouragement, she would have retailed suggestive stories. “Mrs. B. This woman lives to please her husband, who is a spoiled man. She gave birth to a child soon after marriage, but was left an invalid for some years. She told me coition always hurt her, and she said it made her sick to see her husband nude. I was there¬ fore surprised, years afterward, to hear her say, in reply to a remark of another person, ‘Yes; women are not only as passionate as men, I am sure they are more so.’ I therefore questioned the lack of passion she had on former occasions avowed, or else felt convinced her improve¬ ment in health had made intercourse pleasant. “Miss C. A teacher. She is emotional and easily becomes hysterical. Her life has been one of self-sacrifice and her rearing most Puritanical. She told me she thought women did not crave sexual satisfaction unless it had been aroused in them. I consider her one who physically is injured by not having it. “Mrs. D. After being married a few years this person told me she thought intercourse ‘horrid.’ Some years after this, however, she fell in love with a man not her hsuband, which caused their separation. She always fancied men in love with her, and she told me that she and THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IX WOMEN. 209 her husband tried to live without intercourse, fearing more children, but they could not do it; she also told of trying to refrain, for the same purpose, until safe parts of the menstrual month, but that ‘was just the time she cared least for it.’ These remarks made me doubt the sincerity of the first. ‘"Mrs. E. said she enjoyed intercourse as well as her husband, and she ‘didn’t see why she should not say so.’ This same woman, whether using a current phrase or not, afterward said her husband ‘did not bother her very often.’ “Mrs. F., the mother of several children, was married to a man she neither loved nor respected, but she said that when a strange man touched her it made her tremble all over. “Mrs. G., the mother of many children, divorced on account of the dissipation, drinking and otherwise, of her husband. She is of the creole type, but large and almost repulsive. She is a brilliant talker and she supports herself by writing. She has fallen in love with a number of young men, ‘wildly, madly, passionately,’ as one of them told me, and I am sure she suffers greatly from the lack of satisfaction. She would no doubt procure it if it were possible. “I believe,” the writer concludes, “women are as passionate as men, but the enforced restraint of years possibly smothers it. The fear of having children and the methods to prevent conception are, I am sure, potent factors in the injury to the emotions of married women. Perhaps the lack of intercourse acts less disastrously upon a woman because of the renewed feeling which comes after each menstrual period.” As bearing on the causes which have led to the disguise and mis¬ interpretation of the sexual impulse in women I may quote the follow¬ ing communication from another lady:— “I do think the coldness of women has been greatly exaggerated. Men’s theoretically ideal woman (though they don’t care so much about it in practice) is passionless, and women are afraid to admit that they have any desire for sexual pleasure. Rousseau, who was not very straight-laced, excuses the conduct of Madame de Warens on the ground that it was not the result of passion: an aggravation rather than a palliation of the offense, if society viewed it from the point of view of any other fault. Even in the modern novels written by the ‘new woman’ the longing for maternity, always an honorable sentiment, is dragged in to veil the so-called ‘lower’ desire. That some women, at any rate, have very strong passions and that great suffering is entailed by their repression is not, I am sure, sufficiently recognized, even by women them¬ selves. 210 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. “Besides the 'passionless ideal* which checks their sincerity, there are many causes which serve to disguise a woman’s feelings to herself and make her seem to herself colder than she really is. Briefly these are:— “1. Unrecognized disease of the reproductive organs, especially after the birth of children. A friend of mine lamented to me her in¬ ability to feel pleasure, though she had done so before the birth of her child, then 3 years old. With considerable difficulty I persuaded her to see a doctor, who told her all the reproductive organs were seriously congested; so that for three years she had lived in ignorance and regret for her husband’s sake and her own. “2. The dread of recommencing, once having suffered them, all the pains and discomforts of child-bearing. “3. Even when precautions are taken, much bother and anxiety is involved, which has a very dampening effect on excitement. “4. The fact that men will never take any trouble to find out what specially excites a woman. A woman, as a rule, is at some pains to find out the little things which particularly affect the man she loves,— it may be a trick of speech, a rose in her hair, or what not,—and she makes use of her knowledge. But do you know one man who will take the same trouble ? (It is difficult to specify, as what pleases one person may not another. I find that the things that affect me personally are the following: [a] Admiration for a man’s mental capacity will translate itself sometimes into direct physical excitement. [6] Scents of white flowers, like tuberose or svringa. [c] The sight of fireflies, [d] The idea or the reality of suspension, [e] Occasionally absolute passiv¬ ity.) “5. The fact that many women satisfy their husbands when them¬ selves disinclined. This is like eating jam when one does not fancy it, and has a similar effect. It is a great mistake, in my opinion, to do so, except very rarely. A man, though perhaps cross at the time, prefers, I believe, to gratify himself a few times, when the woman also enjoys it, to many times when she does not. “6. The masochistic tendency of women, or their desire for subjec¬ tion to the man they love. I believe no point in the whole question is more misunderstood than this. Nearly every man imagines that to secure a woman’s love and respect he must give her her own way in small things, and compel her obedience in great ones. Every man who desires success with a woman should exactly reverse that theory.” When tve are faced by these various and often conflicting statements of opinion it seems necessary to obtain, if possible, a THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IX WOMEN. 211 definite basis of objective fact. It would be fairly obvious in any case, and it becomes unquestionable in view of the statements I lave brought together, that the best-informed and most sagacious clinical observers, when giving an opinion on a very difficult and elusive subject which they have not studied with any attention d method, are liable to make unguarded assertions; sometimes also, they become the victims of ethical or pseudoethical preju¬ dices so as to be most easily influenced by that class of cases '■ nc 1 lappens to fit in best with their prepossessions. 1 In order o reach any conclusions on a reasonable basis it is necessary to take a series of unseleeted individuals and to ascertain carefully the condition of the sexual impulse in each. u Resent, however, this is extremely difficult to do at a satisfactorily and quite impossible, indeed, to do in a manner likely to yield absolutely unimpeachable results. Nevertheless a few series of observations have been made. Thus, Dr. Harry Campbell- records the result of an investigation, carried on in his hospital practice, of 52 married women of the poorer class- hey were not patients, but ordinary, healthy working-class en, an the inquiry was not made directly, but of the husbands, who were patients. Sexual instinct was said to be present m 12 cases before marriage, and absent in 40; in 13 0 f the 40 it never appeared at all; so that it altogether appeared in 39, or in the ratio of something over 75 per cent. Anmng the 12 in whom it existed before marriage it was said to have appeared in most with puberty; in 3, however, a few years before puberty and in 2 a few years later. In 2 of those in whom it appeared before puberty, menstruation began late; in the third it rose al- most to nym phomania on the day preceding the first menstrua- sexual alleged ciple which makes the young harlot an nld Jin+Li, « Same P nn ‘ saw is 212 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. tion. In nearly all the cases desire was said to be stronger in the husband than in the wife; when it was stronger in the wife, the husband was exceptionally indifferent. Of the 13 in whom desire was absent after marriage, 5 had been married for a period under two years, and Campbell remarks that it would be wrong to con¬ clude that it would never develop in these cases, for m this group of cases the appearance of sexual instinct was sometimes a matter of days, sometimes of years, after the date of marriage. In two- thirds of the cases there was a diminution of desire, usually gradual, at the climacteric; in the remaining third there was either no change or exaltation of desire. The most important general result, Campbell concludes, is that "the sexual instinct is very much less intense in woman than in man,” and to this he elsewhere adds a corollary that “the sexual instinct in the civilized woman is, I believe, tending to atrophy. An eminent gynecologist, the late hr. Matthews Duncan, has (in his work on Sterility in Women) presented a table which, although foreign to this subject, has a certain bearing on the matter. Matthews Duncan, believing that the absence of sexual desire and of sexual pleasure in coitus are powerful influences working for sterility, noted their presence or absence in a number of cases, and found that, among 191 sterile women between the ages of 15 and 45, 152, or 79 per cent., acknowledged the pres¬ ence of sexual desire; and among 196 sterile women (mostly the same cases), 134, or 68 per cent., acknowledged the presence of sexual pleasure in coitus. Omitting the cases over 35 years of age, which were comparatively few, the largest proportion of affirmative answers, both as regards sexual pleasure and sexual desire, was from between 30 and 34 years of age. Matthews Duncan assumes that the absence of sexual desire and sexual pleasure in women is thoroughly abnormal. 1 l Matthews Duncan considered that “the healthy performance of the functions of child-bearing is surely connected with a well-regulated condition of desire and pleasure.” “Desire and pleasure, he adds, may be excessive, furious, overpowering, without bringing the female into the class of maniacs; they may be temporary, healthy, and moderate; they may be absent or dull.” (Matthews Duncan, Goulstonmn Lectures on Sterility in Woman, pp. 91, 121.) THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IX WOMEN. 213 An English, non-medical author, in the course of a thought¬ ful discussion of sexual phenomena, revealing considerable knowledge and observation, 1 has devoted a chapter to this sub¬ ject in another of its aspects. Without attempting to ascertain the normal strength of the sexual instinct in women, he briefly describes 11 cases ot "sexual anesthesia” in women (in 2 or 3 of which there appears, however, to be an element of latent homo¬ sexuality) from among the circle of his own friends. This author concludes that sexual coldness is very common among English women, and that it involves questions of great social and ethical importance. I have not met with any series of observations made among seem¬ ingly healthy and normal women in other countries; there are, how¬ ever, various series of somewhat abnormal cases in which the point was noted, and the results are not uninstructive. Thus, in Vienna at Kraflft-Ebing’s psychiatric clinic, Gattel (Ueber die sexuellen Ursachen der A cur asthenic und Angstneurose, 1898) carefully investigated the cases of 42 women, mostly at the height of sexual life,— i.e., between 20 and 35,—who were suffering from slight nervous disorders, especially neurasthenia and mild hysteria, but none of them from grave nervous or other disease. Of these 42, at least 17 had masturbated, at one time or another, either before or after marriage, in order to obtain relief of sexual feelings. In the case of 4 it is stated that they do not obtain sexual satisfaction in marriage, but in these cases onlv coitus interrupts is practised, and the fact that the absence of sexual satis¬ faction was complained of seems to indicate an aptitude for experi¬ encing it. Ihese 4 cases can therefore scarcely be regarded as excep¬ tions. In all the other cases sexual desire, sexual excitement, or sexual satisfaction is always clearly indicated, and in a considerable proportion of cases it is noted that the sexual impulse is very strongly developed. Ihia series is valuable, since the facts of the sexual life are, as far as possible, recorded with much precision. The significance of the facts varies, however, according to the view taken as to the causation of neurasthenia and allied conditions of slight nervous disorder. Gattel argues that sexual irregularities are a peculiarly fruitful, if not in¬ variable, source of such disorders; according to the more commonly accepted view this is not so. If we accept the more usual view, these women fairly correspond to average women of lower class; if’ how¬ ever, we accept Gattel’s view, they may possess the sexual instinct in a more marked degree than average women. i Geoffrey Mortimer, Chapters on Human Love, 1898, ch. xvi 214 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. In a series of 116 German women in whom the operation of re¬ moving the ovaries was performed, Pfister usually noted briefly in what way the sexual impulse was affected by the operation (‘‘Die Wirkung der Castration auf den Weiblichen Organismus,” Arcliiv fur Gymkologie, 1898, p. 583). In 13 cases (all but 3 unmarried) the presence of sexual desire at any time was denied, and 2 of these expressed disgust of sexual matters. In 12 cases the point is left doubtful. In all the other cases sexual desire had once been present, and in 2 or 3 cases it was acknowledged to be so strong as to approach nymphomania. In about 30 of these (not including any in which it was previously very strong) it was extinguished by castration, in a few others it was diminished, and in the rest unaffected. Thus, when we exclude the 12 cases in which the point was not apparently investigated, and the 10 unmarried women, in whom it may have been latent or unavowed, we find that, of 94 married women, 91 women acknowledged the existence of sexual desire and only 3 denied it. Schroter, again in Germany, has investigated the manifestations of the sexual impulse among 402 insane women in the asylum at Eicli- berg in Rheingau. (“Wird bei jungen Unverheiratheten zur Zeit der Menstruation stiirkere sexuelle Erreglieit beobachtet? ’ Allgemeine Zeitschrift fur Psychiatric, vol. lvi, 1899, pp. 321-333.) There is no reason to suppose that the insane represent a class of the community specially liable to sexual emotion, although its manifestations may become unrestrained and conspicuous under the influence of insanity; and at the same time, while the appearance of such manifestations is evidence of the aptitude for sexual emotions, their absence may be only due to disease, seclusion, or to an intact power of self-control. Of the 402 women, 166 were married and 236 unmarried. Schroter divided them into four groups: (1) those below 20; (2) those between 20 and 30; (3) those between 30 and 40; (4) those from 40 to the menopause. The patients included persons from the lowest class of the population, and only about a quarter of them could fairly be regarded as curable. Tlius the manifestations of sexuality were diminished, for with advance of mental disease sexual manifestations cease to appear. Schroter only counted those cases in which the sexual manifestations were decided and fairly constant at the menstrual epoch; if not visibly manifested, sexual feeling was not taken into account. Sexual phenomena accompanied the entry of the menstrual epoch in 141 cases: i.c., in 20 (or in the proportion of 72 per cent.) of the first group, consisting entirely of unmarried women; in 33 (or 28 per cent.) of the second group;* in 55 (or 35 per cent.) of the third group; and in 33 (or 33 per cent.) of the fourth group. It was found that 181 patients showed no sexual phenomena at any time, while 80 showed sexual phenomena fre- THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. 215 quently between the menstrual epochs, but only in a slight degree, and not at all during the period. At all ages sexual manifestations were more prevalent among the unmarried than among the married, though this difference became regularly and progressively less with increase in age. Schroter inclines to think that sexual excitement is commoner among insane women belonging to the lower social classes than in those belonging to the better classes. Among 184 women in a private asylum, only 13 (6.13 per cent.) showed very marked and constant excitement at menstrual periods. He points out, however, that this may he due to a greater ability to restrain the manifestations of feeling. There is some interest in Schroter’s results, though they cannot be put on a line with inquiries made among the sane; they only represent the prevalence of the grossest and strongest sexual manifesta¬ tions when freed from the restraints of sanity. As a slight contribution toward the question, I have selected a series of 12 cases of women of whose sexual development I possess precise information, with the following results: In 2 cases distinct sexual feeling was experienced spontaneously at the age of 7 and 8, but the complete orgasm only occurred some years after puberty; in 5 cases sexual feeling appeared spon¬ taneously for a few months to a year after the appearance of menstruation, which began between 12 and 14 years of age, usually at 13; in another case sexual feeling first appeared shortly after menstruation began, but not spontaneously, being called out by a lover’s advances; in the remaining 4 cases sexual emotion never became definite and conscious until adult life (the ages being 26, 27, 34, 35), in 2 cases through being made love to, and in 2 cases through self-manipulation out of accident or curiosity. It is noteworthy that the sexual feelings first developed in adult life were usually as strong as those arising at puberty. It may be added that, of these 12 women, 9 had at some time or another masturbated (4 shortly after puberty, 5 in adult life), but, except in 1 case, rarely and at intervals. All belong to the middle class, 2 or 3 leading easy, though not idle, lives, while all the others are engaged in professional or other avocations often involving severe labor. They differ widely in character and mental ability; but, while 2 or 3 might be re¬ garded as slightly abnormal, they are all fairly healthy. 216 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. I am inclined to believe that the experiences of the fore¬ going group are fairly typical of the social class to which they belong. I may, however, bring forward another series of 35 women, varying in age from 18 to 40 (with 2 exceptions all over 25), and in every respect comparable with the smaller group, but concerning whom my knowledge, though reliable, is usually less precise and detailed. In this group 5 state that they have never experienced sexual emotion, these being all unmarried and lead¬ ing strictly chaste lives; in 18 cases the sexual impulse may be described as strong, or is so considered by the subject herself; in 9 cases it is only moderate; in 3 it is very slight when evoked, and with difficulty evoked, in 1 of these only appearing two years after marriage, in another the exhaustion and worry of house¬ hold cares being assigned for its comparative absence. It is note¬ worthy that all the more highly intelligent, energetic women in the series appear in the group of those with strong sexual emo¬ tions, and also that severe mental and physical labor, even when cultivated for this purpose, has usually had little or no influence in relieving sexual emotion. An American physician in the State of Connecticut sends me the following notes concerning a series of 13 married women, taken, as they occurred, in obstetric practice. They are in every way respectable and moral women:— “Mrs. A. says that her husband does not give her sufficient sexual attention, as he fears they will have more children than he can properly care for. Mrs. B. always enjoys intercourse; so does Mrs. C. Mrs. D. is easily excited and very fond of sexual attention. Mrs. E. likes inter course if her husband is careful not to hurt her. Mrs. F. never had any sexual desire until after second marriage, but it is now very urgent at times. Mrs. G. is not easily excited, but has never objected to her husband’s attention. Mrs. H. would prefer to have her husband exhibit more attention. Mrs. I. never refused her husband, but he does not trouble her much. Mrs. J. thinks that three or four times a week is satisfactory, but would not object to nightly intercourse. Mrs. K. does not think that her husband could give her more than she would like. Mrs. L. would prefer to live with a woman if it were not for sexual intercourse. Mrs. M., aged 40, says that her husband, aged 65, insists upon intercourse three times every night, and that he keeps her tired and disgusted. She each time has at least one orgasm, and would not object to reasonable attention.” THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IX WOMEX. 217 It ma 3 r be remarked that, while these results in English women of the middle class are in fair agreement with the Ger¬ man and Austrian observations I have quoted, they differ from Campbell’s results among women of the working class in London. This discrepancy is, perhaps, not difficult to explain. While the conditions of upper-class life may possibly be peculiarly favorable to the development of the sexual emotions, among the working classes in London, where the stress of the struggle for exist¬ ence under bad hygienic conditions is so severe, they may be peculiarly unfavorable. It is thus possible that there really are a smaller number of women experiencing sexual emotion among the class dealt with by Campbell than among the class to which my series belong. 1 A more serious consideration is the method of investigation. A working man, who is perhaps unintelligent outside his own work, and in many cases married to a woman who is superior in refinement, may possibly be able to arouse his wife’s sexual emo¬ tions, and also able to ascertain what those emotions are, and be willing to answer questions truthfully on this point, to the best of his ability, but he is by no means a witness whose evidence is final. While, however, Campbell’s facts may not be quite un¬ questionable, I am inclined to agree with his conclusion, and Mantegazza’s, that there is a very great range of variation in this matter, and that there is no age at which the sexual impulse in women may not appear. A lady who has received the confidence of very many women tells me that she has never found a woman 11 do not, however, attach much weight to this possibility. The sexual instinct among the lower social classes everywhere is subject to comparatively weak inhibition, and Lbwenfeld is probably right in be¬ lieving the women of the lower class do not suffer from sexual anesthesia to anything like the same extent as upper-class women. In England most women of the working class appear to have had sexual intercourse at some time in their lives, notwithstanding the risks of pregnancy, and if pregnancy occurs they refer to it calmly as an “accident," for which they cannot be held responsible; “Well, I couldn’t help that,” I have heard a young widow remark when mildly reproached for the existence of her illegitimate child. Again, among American negresses there seems to be no defect of sexual passion, and it is said that the majority of negresses in the Southern States support not only their children, but their lovers and husbands. 218 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. who was without sexual feeling. I should myself be inclined to say that it is extremely difficult to find a woman who is without the aptitude for sexual emotion, although a great variety of cir¬ cumstances may hinder, temporarily or permanently, the develop¬ ment of this latent aptitude. In other words, while the latent sexual aptitude may always be present, the sexual impulse is liable to be defective and the aptitude to remain latent, with consequent deficiency of sexual emotion, and absence of sexual satisfaction. This is not only indicated by the considerable proportion of my cases in which there is only moderate or slight sexual feeling. I have ample evidence that in many cases the element of pain, which may almost be said to be normal in the establishment of the sexual function, is never merged, as it normally is, in pleasurable sensations on the full establishment of sexual relationships. Sometimes, no doubt, this may be due to dyspareunia. Sometimes there may be an absolute sexual anesthesia, whether of congenital or hysterical origin. I have been told of the case of a married lady who has never been able to obtain sexual pleasure, although she has had relations with several men, partly to try if she could obtain the experience, and partly to please them; the very fact that the motives for sexual relationships arose from no stronger impulse itself indicates a congenital defect on the psychic as well as on the physical side. But, as a rule, the sexual anesthesia involved is not absolute, but lies in a disinclination to the sexual act due to various causes, in a defect of strong sexual impulse, and an inaptitude for the sexual orgasm. I am indebted to a lady who has written largely on the woman question, and is herself the mother of a numerous family, for several letters in regard to the prevalence among women of sexual coldness, a condition which she regards as by no means to be regretted. She considers that in all her own children the sexual impulse is very slightly developed, the boys being indifferent to women, the girls cold toward men and with no desire to marry, though all are intelligent and affectionate, the girls showing a very delicate and refined kind of beauty. (A large selection of photographs accompanied this communication.) Something of the same tendency is said to mark the stocks from which this family springs, and they are said to be notable for their longe\ it}, healthiness, and disinclination for excesses of all kinds. It is scarcely necessary to remark that a mother, however highly intelligent, is by no means an infallible judge as to the presence or absence in her chil¬ dren of so shy, subtle, and elusive an impulse as that of sex. At the THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. 219 same time I am by no means disposed, to question the existence in individuals, and even in families or stocks, of a relatively weak sexual impulse, which, while still enabling procreation to take place, is ac¬ companied by no strong attraction to the opposite sex and no marked inclination for marriage. (Adler, op. cit., p. 168, found such a condition transmitted from mother to daughter.) Such persons often possess a delicate type of beauty. Even, however, when the health is good there seems usually to be a certain lack of vitality. It seems to me that a state of sexual anesthesia, relative or absolute, cannot be considered as anything but abnormal. To take even the lowest ground, the satisfaction of the reproductive function ought to be at least as gratifying as the evacuation of the bowels or bladder; while, if we take, as we certainly must, higher ground than this, an act which is at once the supreme fact and symbol of love and the supreme creative act cannot under normal conditions be other than the most pleasurable of all acts, or it would stand in violent opposition to all that we find in nature. How natural the sexual impulse is in women, whatever difficulties may arise in regard to its complete gratification, is clearly seen when we come to consider the frequency with which in 3 r oung women we witness its more or less instinctive mani¬ festations. Such manifestations are liable to occur in a specially marked manner in the years immediately following the estab¬ lishment of puberty, and are the more impressive when we remember the comparatively passive part played by the female generally in the game of courtship, and the immense social force working on women to compel them to even an unnatural extern sion of that passive part. The manifestations to which I allude not only occur with most frequency in young girls, but, contrary to the common belief, they seem to occur chiefly in innocent and unperverted girls. The more vicious are skillful enough to avoid the necessity for any such open manifestations. We have to bear this in mind when confronted by flagrant sexual phenomena in young girls. “A young girl,” says Hammer (“Ueber die Sinnlichkeit gesunder Jungfrauen. Lie Neue Generation , Aug., 1911), “who has not pre- 220 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. viously adopted any method of self-gratification experiences at the beginning of puberty, about the time of the first menstruation and the sprouting of the pubic hair, in the absence of all stimulation by a man, spontaneous sexual tendencies of both local and psychic nature. On the psychic side there is a feeling of emptiness and dissatisfaction, a need of subjection and of serving, and, if the opportunity has so far been absent, the craving to see masculine nudity and to learn the facts of procreation. Side by side with these wishes, there are at the same time inhibitory desires, such as the wish to keep herself pure, either for a man whom she represents to herself as the ‘ideal/ or for her parents, who must not be worried, or as a member of a chosen people in whose spirit she must live and die, or out of love to Jesus or to some saint. On the physical side, there is the feeling of fresh power and energy, of enterprise; the agreeable tension of the genital regions, which easily become moist. Then there is the feeling of overirritability and excess of tension, and the need of relieving the tension through pinches, blows, tight lacing, and so forth. If the girl remains innocent of sex satisfaction, there takes place during sleep, at regular intervals of about three days, more or less the relief and emission of the tense glands, not corresponding to the menstrual period, but to intercourse, and serving better than sexual instruction to represent to her the phenomena of intercourse. If at this period actual intercourse takes place, it is, as a rule, free from pain, as also is the introduction of the speculum. Without any seduction from without, the chaste girl now frequently finds a way to relieve the excessive tension without the aid of a man. It is self-abuse that leads gradually to the production of pain in defloration. The menstrual phenomena correspond to birth; self-gratification or relief during sleep to intercourse.” This statement of the matter is somewhat too absolute and unqualified. I nder the artificial conditions of civilization the inhibitory influences of training speedily work powerfully, and more or less successfully, in banishing sexual phenomena into the subconscious, sometimes to work all the mischief there which Freud attributes to them. It must also be said (as I have pointed out in the discussion of Auto-erotism in another volume) that sexual dreams seem to be the exception rather than the rule in innocent girls. It remains true that sexual phenomena in girls at puberty must not be regarded as morbid or unnatural. There is also very good reason for believing (even apart from the testimony of so experienced a gynecologist as Hammer) that on the physical side sexual processes tend to be accomplished with a facility that is often lost in later years with prolonged chastity. This is true alike of intercourse and of childbirth. (See vol. vi of these Studies, ch. xii.) THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IX WOMEN. 221 Even, however, in the case of adults the active part played by women in real life in matters of love by no means corresponds to the conventional ideas on these subjects. Xo doubt nearly every woman receives her sexual initiation from an older and more experienced man. But, on the other hand, nearly every man receives his first initiation through the active and designed steps taken by an older and more experienced woman. It is too often forgotten by those who write on these subjects that the man who seduces a woman has usually himself in the first place been “seduced” by a woman. A well-known physician in Chicago tells me that on making in¬ quiry of 25 middle-class married men in succession be found that 16 had been first seduced by a woman. An officer in the Indian Medical Sendee writes to me as follows: “Once at a club in Burma we were some 25 at table and the subject of first intercourse came up. All had been led astray by servants save 2, whom their sisters’ governesses had initiated. We were all men in the ‘service,’ so the facts may be taken to be typical of what occurs in our stratum of society. All had had sexual relations with respectable unmarried girls, and most with the wives of men known to their fathers, in some instances these being old enough to be their lovers’ mothers. Apparently up to the age of 17 none had dared to make the first advances, yet from the age of 13 onward all had had ample opportunity for gratifying their sexual in¬ stincts with women. Though all had been to public schools where homosexuality was known to occur, yet (as I can assert from intimate knowledge) none had*given signs of inversion or perversion in Burma.” In Russia, Tehlenoff, investigating the sexual life of over 2000 Moscow students of upper and middle class (Archives d’Anthropologie Criminelle, Oct.-Nov., 1908), found that in half of them the first coitus took place between 14 and 17 years of age; in 41 per cent, with prosti¬ tutes, in 39 per cent, with servants, and in 10 per cent, with married women. In 41 per cent, the young man declared that he had taken the initiative, in 25 per cent, the women took it, and in 23 per cent, the incitement came from a comrade. The histories I have recorded in Appendix B (as well as in the two following volumes of these Studies) very well illustrate the tendency of young girls to manifest sexual impulses when freed from the con¬ straint which they feel in the presence of adult men and from the fear of consequences. These histories show especially how very frequently nurse-maids and servant-girls effect the sexual initiation of the young boys intrusted to them. How common this impulse is among adolescent 222 PSYCHOLOGY OP SEX. girls of low social class is indicated by the fact that certainly the majority of middle-class men can recall instances from their own child¬ hood. (I here leave out of account the widespread practice among nurses of soothing very young children in their charge by manipulating the sexual organs.) A medical correspondent, in emphasizing this point, writes that “many boys will tell you that, if a nurse-girl is allowed to sleep in the same room with them, she will attempt sexual manipulations. Either the girl gets into bed with the boy and pulling him on to her tickles the penis and inserts it into the vulva, making the boy imitate sexual move¬ ments, or she simply masturbates the child, to get him excited and interested, often showing him the female sexual opening in herself or in his sisters, teaching him to finger it. In fact, a nurse-girl may ruin a boy, chiefly, I think, because she has been brought up to regard the sexual organs as a mystery, and is in utter ignorance about them. She thus takes the opportunity of investigating the boy’s penis to find out how it works, etc., in order to satisfy her curiosity. I know of a case in which a nurse in a fashionable London Square garden used to collect all the boys and girls (gentlemen’s children) in a summer-house when it grew dark, and, turning up her petticoats, invite all the boys to look at and feel her vulva, and also incite the older boys of 12 or 14 to have coitus with her. Girls are afraid of pregnancy, so do not allow an adult penis to operate. I think people should take on a far higher class of nurses than they do.” “Children ought never to be allowed, under any circumstances whatever,” wrote Lawson Tait (Diseases of Women, 1889, p. 62), “to sleep with servants. In every instance where I have found a number of children affected [by masturbation] the contagion has been traced to a servant.” Freud has found CNeurologisches Centralbla.tt, No. 10, 1896) that in cases of severe youthful hysteria the starting point may frequently be traced to sexual manipulations by servants, nurse-girls, and governesses. “When I was about 8 or 9,” a friend writes, “a servant-maid of our family, who used to carry the candle out of my bedroom, often drew down the bedclothes and inspected my organs. One night she put the penis in her mouth. When I asked her why she did it her answer was that ‘sucking a boy’s little dangle’ cured her of pains in her stom¬ ach. She said that she had done it to other little boys, and declared that she liked doing it. This girl was about 16; she had lately been ‘converted.’ Another maid in our family used to kiss me warmly on the naked abdomen when I was a small boy. But she never did more than that. I have heard of various instances of servant-girls tampering with boys before puberty, exciting the penis to premature erection by THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. 223 manipulation, suction, and contact with their own parts.” Such over- stimulation must necessarily in some cases have an injurious influence on the boy’s immature nervous system. Thus, Hutchinson (Archives of Surgery , vol. iv, p. 200) describes a case of amblyopia in a boy, developing after he had been placed to sleep in a servant-girl’s room. Moll (Kontrare Sexualempfindung, third edition, 1899, p. 325) refers to the frequency with which servant-girls (between the ages of 18 and 30) carry on sexual practices with young boys (between 5 and 13) commited to their care. More than a century earlier Tissot, in his famous work on onanism, referred to the frequency with which servant- girls corrupt boys by teaching them to masturbate; and still earlier, in England, the author of Onania gave many such cases. We may, indeed, go back to the time of Rabelais, who (as Dr. Kiernan reminds me) represents the governesses of Gargantua, when he was a child, as taking pleasure in playing with his penis till it became wet, and joking with each other about it. (Gargantua, book i, chapter ix.) The prevalence of such manifestations among servant-girls wit¬ nesses to their prevalence among lower-class girls generally. In judging such acts, even when they seem to be very deliberate, it is important to lemember that at this age unreasoning instinct plays a very large part in the manifestations of the sexual impulse. This is clearly indi¬ cated by the phenomena observed in the insane. Thus, as we have seen (page 214), Sehroter has found that, among girls of low social class under 20 years of age, spontaneous periodical sexual manifestations at menstrual epochs occurred in as large a proportion as 72 per cent. Among girls of better social position these impulses are inhibited, or at all events modified, by good taste or good feeling, the influences of tradition or education; it is only to the latter that children should be intrusted. Hoche mentions a case in which a man was accused of repeatedly exhibiting his sexual organs to the servant-girl at a house; she enjoyed the spectacle (Xeurologisches Centralblatt, 1896, No. 2). It may well be that in some cases of self-exhibition the offender has good reason, on the ground of previous experience, for thinking that he is giving pleas¬ ure. “When we used to go to bathe while I was at school,” writes a correspondent, “girls from a poor quarter of the lower town (some quite 16) often followed us and stood to watch about a hundred yards from the river. They used to 'giggle’ and 'pass remarks.’ I have seen girls of this class peeping through chinks of a palisade around a bathing- place on the Thames.” A correspondent who has given special attention to the point tells me of the great interest displayed by young girls of the people in Italy in the sexual organs of men. 224 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. Curiosity—whether in the form of the desire for knowledge or the desire for sensation—is, of course, not confined to young girls and •women of lower social strata, though in them it is less often restrained by motives of self-respect and good feeling. “At the age of 8, wn es a correspondent, “I was one day playing in a spare room with a girl of about 12 or 13. She gave me a penholder, and, crouching upon her hands and knees, with her posterior toward me, invited me to mtio- duce the instrument into the vulva. This was the first time I had seen the female parts, and, as I appeared to be somewhat repelled she coaxed me to comply with her desire. I did as she directed, and s ie said that it gave her pleasure. Several times after I repeated the same act at her request. A friend tells me that when he was 10 a girl of 16 asked him to lace up her boots. While he was kneeling at her feet his hand touched her ankle. She asked him to put his hand higher, and repeated ‘Higher, higher,’ till lie touched the pudenda, and finally, at her request, put his finger into the vestibule. This girl was very hand¬ some and amiable, and a favorite of the boy’s mother. No one suspected this propensity.” Again, a correspondent (a man of science) tells me of a friend who lately, when dining out, met a girl, the daughter of a country vicar; he was not specially attracted to her and paid her no special atten¬ tion. “A few days afterward he was astonished to receive a call from her one afternoon (though his address is not discoverable from any recognized source). She sat down as near to him as she could, and rested her hand on his thigh, etc., while talking on different subjects and drinking tea. Then without any verbal prelude she asked him to have connection with her. Though not exactly a Puritan, he is not the man to jump at such an offer from a woman lie is not in love with, so, after ascertaining that the girl was virgo Intacta, lie declined and she went away. A fortnight or so later he received a letter from her in the country, making no reference to what had passed, but giving an account of her work with her Sunday-school class. He did not reply, and then came a curt note asking him to return her letter. My friend feels sure she was devoted to autoerotic performances, but, having become attracted to lnm, came to the conclusion she would like to try normal intei course. Wolbarst, studying the prevalence of gonorrhea among boys in New York (especially, it would appear, in quarters wheie the foieign born elements—mainly Russian Jew and south Italian are large), states: “In my study of this subject there have been observed 3 cases of gonorrheal urethritis, in boys aged, respectively, 4, 10, and 12 years, which were acquired in the usual manner, from girls ranging between 10 and 12 years of age. In each case, according to the story told by the victim, the girl made the first advances, and in 1 case, that of the 4-year-old boy, the act was consummated in the form of an assault, THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. 225 by a girl 12 years old, in which the child was threatened with injury unless he performed his part.” (A. L. Wolbarst, Journal of the American Medical Association, Sept. 28, 1901.) In a further series of cases (Medical Record, Oct. 29, 1910) Wolbarst obtained similar results, though he recognizes also the frequency of precocious sexuality in the young boys themselves. Gibb states, concerning assaults on children by women: “It is undeniably true that they occur much more frequently than is gen¬ erally supposed, although but few of the cases are brought to public notice, owing to the difficulty of proving the charge.” (W . T. Gibb, article “Indecent Assaults upon Children,” in A. McLane Hamilton s System of Legal Medicine, vol. i, p. 651.) Gibb's opinion carries weight, since he is medical adviser for the New York Society for the Protection of Children, and compelled to sift the evidence carefully in such cases. It should be mentioned that, while a sexual curiosity exercised on younger children is, in girls about the age of puberty, an ill-regulated, but scarcely morbid, manifestation, in older women it may be of patho¬ logical origin. Thus, Kiscli records the case of a refined and educated lady of 30 who had been married for nine years, but had never experi¬ enced sexual pleasure in coitus. For a long time past, however, she had felt a strong desire to play with the genital organs of children of either sex, a proceeding which gave her sexual pleasure. She sought to resist this impulse as much as possible, but during menstruation it was often irresistible. Examination showed an enlarged and letiollexed uterus and anesthesia of vagina. (Kisch, Die Sterilitat dcs II eibes, 1886, p. 103.) The psychological mechanism by which an anesthetic vagina leads to a feeling of repulsion for normal coitus and normal sexual organs, and directs the sexual feelings toward more infantile forms of sexuality, is here not difficult to trace. It is not often that the sexual attempts of girls and young women on boys—notwithstanding their undoubted frequency—become of med¬ icolegal interest. In France in the course of ten years (1874 to 1884) only 181 women, who were mostly between 20 and 30 years of age, were actually convicted of sexual attempts on children below 15. (Paul Bernard, ‘Wiols et attentats a la Pudeur,” Archives de VAnthropologie Criminelle, 1887.) Lop (“Attentats a la Pudeur commis par des Femmes sur des Petits Enfants,” id., Aug., 1896) brings together a number of cases chiefly committed by girls between the ages of lb and 20. In England such accusations against a young woman or girl may easily be circumvented. If she is under 16 she is protected by the Criminal Law Amendment Act and cannot be punished. In any case, when found out, she can always easily bring the sympathy to her side by declaring that she is not the aggressor, but the victim. Cases of 15 226 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. violent sexual assault upon girls, Lawson Tait remarks, while they un¬ doubtedly do occur, are very much rarer than the frequency with which the charge is made would lead us to suspect. At one time, by arrange¬ ment with the authority, 70 such charges at Birmingham were con¬ secutively brought before Lawson Tait. These charges were all made under the Criminal Law Amendment Act. In only 0 of these cases was he able to advise prosecution, in all of which cases conviction was obtained. In 7 other cases in which the police decided to prosecute there was either no conviction or a very light sentence. In at least 20 cases the charge was clearly trumped up. The average age of these girls was 12. “There is not a piece of sexual argot that ever had before reached my ears,” remarks Mr. Tait, “but was used by these children in the descriptions given by them of what had been done to them; and they introduced, in addition, quite a new vocabulary on the subject. The minute and detailed descriptions of the sexual act given by chits of 10 and 11 would do credit to the pages of Mirabeau. At first sight it is a puzzle to see how children so young obtained their information.” “About the use of the word ‘seduced,’ ” the same writer remarks, “I wish to say that the class of women from amongst whom the great bulk of these cases are drawn seem to use it in a sense altogether different from that generally employed. It is not with them a process in which male villainy succeeds by various arts in overcoming female virtue and reluctance, but simply a date at which an incident in their lives occurs for the first time; and, according to their use of the phrase, the ancient legend of the Sacred Scriptures, had it ended in the more ordinary and usual way by the virtue of Joseph yielding to the temptation offered, would have to read as a record of the seduction of Mrs. Potiphar.” With reference to Lawson Tait’s observation that violent assaults on women, while they do occur, are very much rarer than the frequency with which such charges are made would lead us to believe, it may be remarked that many medicolegal authorities are of the same opinion. (See, e.g., G. Vivian Poore’s Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence , 1901, p. 325. This writer also remarks: “I hold very strongly that a woman may rape a man as much as a man may rape a woman.”) There can be little doubt that the plea of force is very frequently seized on by women as the easiest available weapon of defense when her connection with a man has been revealed. She has been so permeated by the cur¬ rent notion that no “respectable” woman can possibly have any sexual impulses of her own to gratify that, in order to screen what she feels to be regarded as an utterly shameful and wicked, as well as foolish, act, she declares it never took place by her own will at all. “Now, I ask you, gentlemen,” I once heard an experienced counsel address the jury in a criminal case, “as men of the world, have you ever known 227 THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IX WOMEN. or heard of a woman, a single woman, confess that she had had sexual 0 T ect,on a “‘ l " ot <•<*>>« that force had been u Sed to compel S to such connection r- The statement is a little sweeping, but in this matter there is some element of truth in the “man of the world’s” Francteo ^ t0 ^ ^ (t ° ld by Et ™ Bourbon, by 0 " de . m , a religious w ork, and by Cervantes in Dol f am . w ft Par t- n ’ + Ch * X V) , C0UCernin " a magistrate who, when a girl ame before him to complain of rape, ordered the accused young man either to marry her or pay her a sum of money. The fine was paid, and from m w k f tLe maU t0 f ° Il0W the girl and take tbe money rom her by loree; the man obeyed, but the girl defended herself so energetically that he could not secure the money. Then the iud^e ca hug the parties before him again, ordered the fine to be Had jou defended your chastity as well as you have defended your “ranT’^inth JT taken ^ from ^ on ” In most oases of ape m the case of adults, there has probably been some degree of ■xrZT^i "7* at Partkl aSS6nt may have been baseI y secured by an appeal to the lower nervous centers alone, with no participation of the in e ligence and will. Freud (Zur PsycKopatliologie des Alltagslebem, ?! tl Tl S S ,i °" thiS gr ° Und the J ' udge ’ s deeision in Quixote s psychologically unjust,” because in such a case the woman’s strength para jze by the fact that an unconscious instinct in herself takes her assailant s part against her own conscious resistance. But it must bo remembered that the factor of iustinct plays a large part even “hen no violence is attempted. 1 neu Such facts and considerations as these tend to show that the .exua impulse is In no means so weak in women as many would ead ns to think. It would appear that, whereas in earlier ages there was generally a tendency to credit women with an unduly arge share of the sexual impulse, there is now a tendency to unduly minimize the sexual impulse in women. II. js “ “;f?SEH-i£S parent—The Physical Mechanism of thetaual ^ ^ S wS. Increased Alter «>e Estabiishment^Sexua. Kelationship^-Womenrh« r fSexual Impulee rXe^hZrotarTenC to Periodicity and a Wider Ka„ g e of Variation. So far I have been discussing the question of the sexual impulse in women on the ground upon which previous writers have usually placed it. The question, that is, has usua 3 P re cented itself to them as one concerning the relative s reng 1 0 he TmX in men and women. When so considered, no hastily and with prepossession, as is too often the case, u with a genuine desire to get at the real facts in all their as uects there is no reason, as we have seen, to conclude that, on the whole, the sexual impulse in women is lacking But we have to push our investigation of the matter tu ther In reality, the question as to whether the sexual impulse t or is not stronger in one sex than in the other » a some¬ what crude one. To put the question in that form 'S to revea ignorance of the real facts of the matter. And in that fonn, moreover no really definite and satisfactory answer can be givqn. It is necessary to put the matter on different ground In¬ stead of taking more or less insolvable questions as to the strength of the sexual impulse in the two sexes, it is m profitable to consider its differences. What are the special char- acters of the sexual impulse m women? There is certainly one purely natural sexual difference of a fundamental character, which lies at the basis of whatever truth may be in the assertion that women are not susceptible ( 228 ) THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IX WOMEN. 229 of sexual emotion. As may be seen when considering the phe¬ nomena of modesty, the part played by the female in court¬ ship throughout nature is usually different from that played by the male, and is, in some respects, a more difficult and com¬ plex part. Except when the male fails to play his part prop¬ erly, she is usually comparatively passive; in the proper playing of her part she has to appear to shun the male, to flee from his approaches—even actually to repel them. 1 Courtship resembles very closely, indeed, a drama or game; and the aggressiveness of the male, the coyness of the female, are alike unconsciously assumed in order to bring about in the most effectual manner the ultimate union of the sexes. The seeming reluctance of the female is not intended to inhibit sexual activity either in the male or in herself, but to increase it in both. The passivity of the female, therefore, is not a real, but only an apparent, passivity, and this holds true of our own species as much as of the lower animals. “Women are like delicately adjusted alembics,” said a seventeenth-century author. “Xo fire can be seen outside, but if } r ou look underneath the alembic, if you place 3 r our hand on the hearts of women, in both places you will find a great furnace.” 2 Or, as Marro has finely put it, the passivity of women in love is the passivity of the magnet, which in its apparent immobility is drawing the iron toward it. An intense energy lies behind such passivitv, an absorbed preoccupation in the end to be attained. Tarde, when exercising magistrate’s functions, once had to inquire into a case in which a young man was accused of murder. In questioning a girl of 18, a shepherdess, who appeared before him as a witness, she told him that on the morning following the crime she had seen the footmarks of the accused up to a certain point. He asked how she recognized them, and she replied, ingenuously but with assurance, that she could recognize the footprints of every young man in the neighborhood, even in 1 0\ id remarks (4rs Amatoria, bk. i) that, if men were silent, women would take the active and suppliant part. 2 Ferrand, De la Maladie d’Amour, 1623, ch. ii. 230 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. a plowed field. 1 No better illustration could be given of the real significance of the sexual passivity of women, even at its most negative point. “The women I have known,” a correspondent writes, “do not ex¬ press their sensations and feelings as much as I do. Nor have I fount women usually anxious to practise ‘luxuries.’ They seldom care to practice fellatio; I have only known one woman who offered to do fellatio because she liked it. Nor do they generally care to masturbate a man; that is, they do not care greatly to enjoy the contemplation of the other person’s excitement. (To me, to see the woman excited means almost more than my own pleasure.) They usually resist cunnihnctus, although they enjoy it. They do not seem to care to touch or look at a man’s parts so much as he does at theirs. And they seem to dislike the tongue-kiss unless they feel very sexual or really love a man. My correspondent admits that his relationships have been numerous and facile, while his erotic demands tend also to deviate from the normal path Under such circumstances, which not uncommonly occur, the woman’s passions fail to be deeply stirred, and she retains her normal attitude of relative passivity. . It is owing to the fact that the sexual passivity of women is only an apparent, and not a real, passivity that women are apt to sufler, as men are, from prolonged sexual abstinence. This, indeed, has been denied, but can scarcely be said to admit of doubt. The only question is as to the relative amount of such suffering, necessarily a very dif¬ ficult question. As far back as the fourteenth century Johannes de Sancto Amando stated that women are more injured than men by sexual abstinence. In modern times Maudsley considers that women “suffer more than men do from the entire deprivation of sexual inter¬ course” (“Relations between Body and Mind,” Lancet, May 28, 18.0). Bv some it has been held that this cause may produce actual disease Thus, Tilt, an eminent gynecologist of the middle of the nineteenth century, in discussing this question, wrote: “When we consider how much of the lifetime of woman is occupied by the various phases of the generative process, and how terrible is often the conflict within her between the impulse of passion and the dictates of duty, it may e we understood how such a conflict reacts on the organs of the sexual economy in the unimpregnated female, and principally on the ovaria, l Tarde, Archives d’Anthropologie Criminelle, _ May 15, 1897. Marro, who quotes this observation (Pubertd, p. 467; in French edition, p 61) remarks that his own evidence lends some support to Lombroso s conclusion that under ordinary circumstances woman s sensory acuteness is less than that of man. He is, however, inclined to impute this to de¬ fective attention; within the sexual sphere womens attention becomes concentrated, and their sensory perceptions then go far beyond those of men. There is probably considerable truth in this subtle observation. THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. 231 causing an orgasm, which, if often repeated, may possibly be productive of subacute ovaritis.’' (Tilt, On Uterine and Ovarian Inflammation , 1SG2, pp. 309-310.) Long before Tilt, Haller, it seems, had said that women are especially liable to suffer from privation of sexual inter¬ course to which they have been accustomed, and referred to chlorosis, hysteria, nymphomania, and simple mania curable by intercourse. Hegar considers that in women an injurious result follows the non¬ satisfaction of the sexual impulse and of the “ideal feelings,” and that symptoms thus arise (pallor, loss of flesh, cardialgia, malaise, sleepless¬ ness, disturbances of menstruation) which are diagnosed as “chlorosis.” (Hegar, Zusammenhang der Geschlechtskrankheiten mit nervosen Leiden , 1885, p. 45.) Freud, as well as Gattel, has found that states of anxiety (Angstzustande) are caused by sexual abstinence. Lowenfeld, on careful examination of his own cases, is able to confirm this connection in both sexes. He has specially noticed it in young women who marry elderly husbands. Lowenfeld believes, however, that, on the whole, healthy unmarried women bear sexual abstinence better than men. If, how- eyex*, they are of at all neuropathic disposition, ungratified sexual emo¬ tions may easily lead to various morbid conditions, especially of a hysteroneurasthenic character. (Lowenfeld, Sexualleben und Nerven- leiden, second edition, 1899, pp. 44, 47, 54-60.) Balls-Headley considers that unsatisfied sexual desires in women may lead to the following conditions: general atrophy, anemia, neuralgia and hysteria, irregular menstruation, leucorrhea, atrophy of sexual organs. He also refers to the frequency of myoma of the uterus among those who have not" be¬ come pregnant or who have long ceased to bear children. (Balls- Headley, art. “Etiology of Diseases of Female Genital Organs,” Allbutt and Playfair, System of Gynaecology, 1896, p. 141.) It cannot, however, be said that he brings forward substantial evidence in favor of these beliefs. It may be added that in America, during recent years, leading gynecologists have recorded a number of cases in which widow’s on remarriage have shown marked improvement in uterine and pelvic conditions. The question as to whether men or women suffer most from sexual abstinence, as well as the question whether definite morbid conditions are produced by such abstinence, remains, however, an obscure and debated problem. The available data do not enable us to answ’er it decisively. It is one of those subtle and complex questions which can only be investigated properly by a gynecologist who is also a psycholo¬ gist. Incidentally, however, we have met and shall have occasion to meet with evidence bearing on this question. It is sufficient to say here, briefly, that it is impossible to believe, even if no evidence were forthcoming, that the exercise or non-exercise of so vastly important a 232 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. function can make no difference to the organiem generaily ^ far as emotions have never been definitely aroused teudjn U xr^Vai%xUTvrbce s : ***** ««- - S^ar.t.Tn-sasat'ss £h=^ss i sf===£“^5 H5=5S-SS%^ ttat the chic, cause lies in the f t £fwUn ^^.T^ntsV^ women' which have^been dispersed when the sexual weakness and premature ejaculation of the husband have been cured. Tlie true nature of the passivity of the female is revealed by the ease with which it is thrown oil, more especially when the male refuses to accept his cue. Or, if we prefei to accep the analogy of a game, we may say that in the play of courtship the first move belongs to the male, but that, if he fails to play, it is then the female’s turn to play. Among many birds the males at mating time fall into a state of sexual frenzy, but “C^d"££&‘uEft UV, “where'l have" seen Tnything approaching frenzy in the female of any species while mating. THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. 233 Another great authority on birds, a very patient and skillful observer, Mr. Edmund Selous, remarks, however, in describing the courting habits of the ruffs and reeves (Machetes pugncx) that, notwith¬ standing the passivity of the females beforehand, their movements during and after coitus show that they derive at least as much pleasure as the males. (E. Selous, “Selection in Birds,” Zoologist, Feb. and May, 1907.) The same observer, after speaking of the great beauty of the male eider duck, continues: “These glorified males—there were a dozen of these, perhaps, to some six or seven females—swam closely about the latter, but more in attendance upon them than as actively pursuing them, for the females seemed themselves almost as active agents in the sport of being wooed as were their lovers in wooing them. The male bird first dipped down his head till his beak just touched the water, then raised it again in a constrained and tense manner,—the curious rigid action so frequent in the nuptial antics of birds,—at the same time uttering his strange haunting note. The air became filled with it; every moment one or other of the birds—sometimes several together—with upturned bill would softly laugh or exclaim, and while the males did this, the females, turning excitedly, and with little eager demonstrations from one to another of them, kept lowering and extending forward the head and neck in the direction of each in turn. ... I noticed that a female would often approach a male bird with her head and neck laid flat along the water as though in a very ‘coming on’ disposition, and that the male bird declined her advances. This, taken in conjunction with the actions of the female when courted by the male, appears to me to raise a doubt as to the universal application of the law that through¬ out nature the male, in courtship, is eager, and the female coy. Here, to all appearances, courtship was proceeding, and the birds had not yet mated. The female eider ducks, however,—at any rate, some of them,—appeared to be anything but coy.” (Bird Watching, pp. 144-146.) Among moor-hens and great-crested grebes sometimes what Selous terms “functional hermaphroditism” occurs and the females play the part of the male toward their male companions, and then repeat the sexual act with a reversion to the normal order, the whole to the satisfaction of both parties. (E. Selous, Zoologist, 1902, p. 196.) It is not only among birds that the female sometimes takes the active part, but also among mammals. Among white rats, for instance, the males are exceptionally eager. Steinaeh, who has made many valuable experiments on these animals (Archiv fiir die Gesammte Physiologic, Bd. lvi, 1894, p. 319), tells us that, when a female white rat is introduced into the cage of a male, he at once leaves off eating, or whatever else he may be doing, becomes indifferent to noises or any 234 PSYCHOLOGY OP SEX. other source of distraction, and devotes himself entirely to her. If, however, he is introduced into her cage the new environment renders him nervous and suspicious, and then it is she who takes the active pait, trying to attract him in every way. The impetuosity during heat of female animals of various species, when at length admitted to the male, is indeed well known to all who are familiar with animals. I have referred to the frequency with which, in the human species, _ allt l V ery markedly in early adolescence, when the sexual impulse is in a high degree unconscious and unrestrainedly instinctive,—similar mani¬ festations may often be noted. We have to recognize that they are not necessarily abnormal and still less pathological, they meielj represent the unseasonable apparition of a tendency which in due subordina¬ tion is implied in the phases of courtship throughout the animal world. Among some peoples and in some stages of culture, tending to withdraw the men from women and the thought of women, this phase of couit- sliip and this attitude assume a prominence which is absolutely normal. The literature of the Middle Ages presents a state of society in which men were devoted to war and to warlike sports, while the women took the more active part in love-making. The medieval poets represent women as actively encouraging backward lovers, and as delighting to offer to great heroes the chastity they had preserved, sometimes entering their bed-chambers at night. Schultz (Das Hofische Leben, Bd. i, pp. 594-598) considers that these representations are not exaggerated, Cf. Krabbes, Die Frau im AUfranzosischen Karls-Epos, 1884, p. 20 et seq.; and M. A. Potter, Sohrab and Rustem, 1902, pp. 152-163. Among savages and barbarous races in various parts of the world it is the recognized custom, reversing the more usual method, for the girl to take the initiative in courtship. This is especially so in New Guinea. Here the girls almost invariably take the initiative, and in consequence hold a very independent position. Women are always re¬ garded as the seducers: “Women steal men.” A youth who proposed to a girl would be making himself ridiculous, would be called a woman, and be laughed at by the girls. The usual method by which a girl proposes is to send a present to the youth by a third party, following this up by repeated gifts of food; the young man sometimes waits a month or two, receiving presents all the time, in order to assure him¬ self of the girl’s constancy before decisively accepting her advances. (A. C. Haddon, Cambridge Expedition to Torres Straits, vol. v, ch. viii; id., “Western Tribes of Torres Straits,” Journal of the Anthro¬ pological Institute, vol. xix, February, 1890, pp. 314, 356, 394, 395, 411, 413; id., Bead Hunters, pp. 158-164; It. E. Guise, “Tribes of the Wanigela River,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, new series, vol. i, February-May, 1899, p. 209.) Westermarck gives instances of THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IX WOMEN. 235 races among whom the women take the initiative in courtship. (Hi*, tonj of Marriage, p. 158; so also Finck, Primitive Love and Love-stories , 1899, p. 109 et seq and as regards Celtic women, see Rhys and Brynmor Jones, The Welsh People.) There is another characteristic of great significance by which the sexual impulse in women differs from that in men: the widely imlike character of the physical mechanism involved m the process of coitus. Considering how obvious this difference is, it is strange that its fundamental importance should so often be underrated. In man the process of tumescence and detumes- cence is simple. In women it is complex. In man we have the more or less spontaneously erectile penis, which needs but very simple conditions to secure the ejaculation which brings relief. In women we have in the clitoris a corresponding apparatus on a small scale, but behind this has developed a much more extensive mechanism, which also demands satisfaction, and requires for that satisfaction the presence of various conditions that are al¬ most antagonistic. Naturally the more complex mechanism is the more easily disturbed. It is the difference, roughly speaking, between a lock and a key. This analogy is far from indicating all the difficulties involved. We have to imagine a lock that not only requires a key to fit it, but should only be entered at the right moment, and, under the best conditions, may only become adjusted to the key by considerable use. The fact that the man takes the more active part in coitus has increased these difficul¬ ties; the woman is too often taught to believe that the whole function is low and impure, only to be submitted to at her husband’s will and for his sake, and the man has no proper knowledge of the mechanism involved and the best way of dealing with it. The grossest brutality thus may be, and not infrequently is, exercised in all innocence by an ignorant husband who simply believes that he is performing his “marital duties.” For a woman to exercise this physical brutality on a man is with dilfi- culty possible; a man’s pleasurable excitement is usually the necessary condition of the woman’s sexual gratification. But the reverse is not the ease, and, if the man is sufficiently ignorant or 236 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. sufficiently coarse-grained to be satisfied with the womans su - mission, he may easily become to her, in all innocence, a cause of torture. ., To the man coitus must be in some slight degree pleasura 3 e or it cannot take place at all. To the woman the same act which, under some circumstances, in the desire it arouses and the satis¬ faction it imparts, will cause the whole universe to shrivel into nothingness, under other circumstances will be a source ot anguish, physical and mental. This is so to some extent even m the presence of the right and fit man. There can be no coui whatever that the mucus which is so profusely poured out over the external sexual organs in woman during the excitement o sexual desire has for its end the lubrication of the parts and the facilitation of the passage of the intromittent organ.. The most casual inspection of the cold, contracted, dry vulva m its usual aspect and the same when distended, hot, and moist suffices to show which condition is and which is not that ready for inter¬ course, and until the proper condition is reached it is certain that coitus should not be attempted. # The varying sensitiveness of the female parts again offers difficulties. Sexual relations in women are, at the onset, almos inevitably painful; and to some extent the same experience may be repeated at every act of coitus. Ordinary tactile sensibility in the female genitourinary region is notably obtuse, but at the beginning of the sexual act there is normally a hyperesthesia which may be painful or pleasurable as excitement culminates, passing into a seeming anesthesia, which even craves for rough contact; so that in sexual excitement a woman normally dis¬ plays in quick succession that same quality of sensibility to super¬ ficial pressure and insensibility to deep pressure which the hysterical woman exhibits simultaneously. Thus we see that a highly important practical result fol¬ lows from the greater complexity of the sexual apparatus in women and the greater difficulty with which it is aroused In coitus the orgasm tends to occur more slowly m women than in men. It may easily happen that the whole process of de- THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. 237 tumescence is completed in the man before it has begun in his partner, who is left either cold or unsatisfied. This is one of the respects in which women remain nearer than men to the primi¬ tive stage of humanity. In the Hippocratic treatise, Of Generation , it is stated that, while woman has less pleasure in coitus than man, her pleasure lasts longer. (CEuvres d'Hip poor ate, edition Littr6, vol. vii, p. 477.) Beaunis considers that the slower development of the orgasm in women is the only essential difference in the sexual process in men and women. (Beaunis, Les Sensations Internes, 1S89, p. 151.) This characteristic of the sexual impulse in women, though recognized for so long a.period, is still far too often ignored or unknown. There is even a superstition that injurious results may follow if the male orgasm is not effected as rapidly as possible. That this is not so is shown by the experiences of the Oneida community in America, who in their system of sexual relationship carried prolonged intercourse without ejaculation to an extreme degree. There can be no doubt whatever that very prolonged intercourse gives the maximum amount of pleasure and relief to the woman. Not only is this the very decided opinion of women who have experienced it, but it is also indicated by the well- recognized fact that a woman who repeats the sexual act several times in succession often experiences more intense orgasm and pleasure with each repetition. This point is much better understood in the East than in the West. The prolongation of the man’s excitement, in order to give the woman time for orgasm, is, remarks Sir Bichard Burton (Arabian Nights, vol. v, p. 76), much studied by Moslems, as also by Hindoos, who, on this account, during the orgasm seek to avoid overtension of muscles and to preoccupy the brain. During coitus they will drink sherbet, chew betel-nut, and even smoke. Europeans devote no care to this matter, and Hindoo women, who require about twenty minutes to complete the act, contemptuously call them “village cocks.” I have received confirma¬ tion of Burton’s statements on this point from medical correspondents in India. While the European desires to perform as many acts of coitus in one night as possible, Breitenstein remarks, the Malay, as still more the Javanese, wishes, not to repeat the act many times, but to prolong it. His aim is to remain in the vagina for about a quarter of an hour. Unlike the European, also, he boasts of the pleasure he has given his partner far more than of his own pleasure. (Breitenstein, 21 Jahre in India, theil i, “Borneo,” p. 228.) Jager (Entdeckung der Seele, second edition, vol. i, 1884, p. 203), as quoted by Moll, explains the preference of some women for castrated 238 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. men as due, not merely to the absence of risk of impregnation, but to the prolonged erections that take place in the castrated. Aly-Belf&del remarks (Archivio di Psichiatria, 1903, p. 117) that he knows women who prefer old men in coitus simply because of their delay in ejaculation which allows more time to the women to become excited. A Russian correspondent living in Italy informs me that a Neapolitan girl of 17, who had only recently ceased to be a virgin, ex¬ plained to him that she preferred coitus in ore vulvce to real intercourse because the latter was over before she had time to obtain the orgasm (or, as she put it, “the big bird has fled from the cage and I am left in the lurch”), while in the other way she was able to experience the orgasm twice before her partner reached the climax. “This reminds me,” my correspondent continues, “that a Milanese cocotte once told me that she much liked intercourse with Jews because, on account of the circumcised penis being less sensitive to contact, they ejaculate more slowly then Christians. ‘With Christians,’ she said, ‘it constantly hap¬ pens that I am left unsatisfied because they ejaculate before me, while in coitus with Jews I sometimes ejaculate twice before the orgasm occurs in my partner, or, rather, I hold back the second orgasm until he is ready.’ This is confirmed,” my correspondent continues, “by what I was told by a Russian Jew, a student at the Zurich Polytechnic, who had a Russian comrade living with a mistress, also a Russian student, or pseudostudent. One day the Jew, going early to see his friend, was told to enter by a woman’s voice and found his friend’s mistress alone and in her chemise beside the bed. He was about to retire, but the young woman bade him stay and in a few minutes he was in bed with her. She told him that her lover had just gone away and that she never had sexual relief with him because he always ejaculated too soon. That morning he had left her so excited and so unrelieved that she was just about to masturbate—which she rarely did because it gave her headache—when she heard the Jew’s voice, and, knowing that Jews are slower in coitus than Christians, she had suddenly resolved to give herself to him.” I am informed that the sexual power of negroes and slower ejaculation (see Appendix A) are the cause of the favor with which they are viewed by some white women of strong sexual passions in America, and by many prostitutes. At one time there was a special house in New York City to which white women resorted for these “buck lovers”; the women came heavily veiled and would inspect the penises of the men before making their selection. It is thus a result of the complexity of the sexual mech¬ anism in women that the whole attitude of a woman toward THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IX WOMEN. 239 tliG sexual lelationship is liable to be affected disastrously bv the husband’s lack of skill or consideration in initiating her into this intimate mystery. Normally the stage of apparent repulsion and passivity, often associated with great sensitive¬ ness, ph\ sical and moral, passes into one of active participation and aid in the consummation of the sexual act. But if, from whate\er cause, there is partial arrest on the woman’s side of this evolution in the process of courtship, if her submission is merely a mental and deliberate act of will, and not an instinct¬ ive and impulsive participation, there is a necessary failure of sexual relief and gratification. When we find that a woman displays a certain degree of indifference in sexual relationships, and a failure of complete gratification, we have to recognize that the fault may possibly lie, not in her, but in the defective skill of a lover v ho lias not known how to play successfully the complex and subtle game of courtship. Sexual coldness due to the shock and suffering of the wedding-night is a phenomenon that is far too frequent . 1 Hence it is that many women may never experi¬ ence sexual gratification and relief, through no defect on their pait, but through the failure of the husband to understand the lovers part. We make a false analogy when we compare the courtship of animals exclusively with our own courtships before marriage. Courtship, properly understood, is the process whereby both the male and the female are brought into that state of sexual tumescence which is a more or less necessary condition for sexual intercourse. The play of courtship cannot, therefore, be considered to be definitely brought to an end by the ceremony of rnamage; it may more properly be regarded as the natural preliminary to even' act of coitus. Tumescence is not merely a more or less essential condition for proper sexual intercourse. It is probably of more fundamental sig¬ nificance as one of the favoring conditions of impregnation. This has, , 1 A well-known gynecologist writes from America: “Abhorrence due to suffering on first nights I have repeatedly seen. One verv marked case is that of a fine womanly young woman with splendid fi«nire; she is a very good woman, and admires her husband, but, though she tries to develop desire and passion, she cannot succeed. I fear the man will some day appear who will be able to develop the latent feelings.” 240 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. indeed, been long recognized. Van Swieten, when consulted by the childless Maria Theresa, gave the opinion “Ego vero censeo, vulvam Sacratissimse Majestatis ante coitum diutius esse titillandara, and thereafter she had many children. “I think it very nearly certain, Matthews Duncan wrote (Goulstonian Lectures on Sterility in Woman, 1884 p. 96), “that desire and pleasure in due or moderate degree are very’important aids to, or predisposing causes of, fecundity,” as bringing into action the complicated processes of fecundation. Hirst (Text-book of Obstetrics, 1899, p. 67) mentions the case of a childless married woman who for six years had had no orgasm during intercourse; then it occurred at the same time as coitus, and pregnancy resulted. Kisch is very decidedly of the same opinion, and considers that the popular belief on this point is fully justified. It is a fact, he states, that an unfaithful wife is more likely to conceive with her lover than with her husband, and he concludes that, whatever the precise mech¬ anism may be, “sexual excitement on the woman’s part is a necessary link in the chain of conditions producing impregnation. (E. H. Kisch, Die Sterilitat des Weibes, 1886, p. 99.) Kisch believes (p. 103) that in the majority of women sexual pleasure only appears gradually, after the first cohabitation, and then develops progressively, and that the first conception usually coincides with its complete awakening. In 556 cases of his own the most frequent epoch of first impregnation was found to be between ten and fifteen months after marriage. The removal of sexual frigidity thus becomes a matter of some importance. This removal may in some cases be effected by treatment through the husband, but that course is not always practicable. Dr. Douglas Bryan, of Leicester, informs me that in several cases lie has succeeded in removing sexual coldness and physical aversion in the wife by hypnotic suggestion. The suggestions given to the patient are “that all her womanly natural feelings would be quickly and satisfac¬ torily developed during coitus; that she would experience no feeling of disgust and nausea, would have no fear of the orgasm not developing; that there would be no involuntary resistance on her part.” The fact that such suggestions can be permanently effective tends to show how superficial the sexual “anesthesia” of women usually is. Not only, therefore, is the apparatus of sexual excitement in women more complex than in men^ but in part, possibl} as a result of this greater complexity—it much more frequently requires to be actively aroused. In men tumescence tends to oc¬ cur almost spontaneously, or under the simple influence of ac¬ cumulated semen. In women, also, especially in those who live THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IX WOMEN - . 241 a natural and healthy life, sexual excitement also tends to occur spontaneously, but by no means so frequently as in men. The comparative rarity of sexual dreams in women who have not had sexual relationships alone serves to indicate this sexual difference. In a very large number of women the sexual impulse lemains latent until aroused by a lovers caresses. The youth 'spontaneously becomes a man; but the maiden—as it has been said—‘"must be kissed into a woman.” One result of this characteristic is that, more especially when love is unduly delayed beyond the first youth, this com¬ plex apparatus has difficulty in responding to the unfamiliar demands of sexual excitement. Moreover, delayed normal sexual lelations, when the sexual impulse is not absolutely latent, tend to induce all degrees of perverted or abnormal sexual gratification, and the physical mechanism when trained to respond in other wavs often fails to respond normally when, at last, the normal conditions of response are presented. In all these wa}'s passivit3 r and even aversion may be produced in the conjugal relationship. The fact that it is almost normally the function of the male to arouse the female, and that the greater complexity of the sexual mechanism in women leads to more frequent disturbance of that mechanism, produces a simulation of organic sexual coldness which has deceived many. An instructive study of cases in which the sexual impulse has been thus perverted has been presented by Smith Baker (“The Neuropsychical Element in Conjugal Aversion,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Dis¬ ease, vol. xvii, September, 1892). Raymond and Janet, who believes that sexual coldness is extremely frequent in marriage, and that it plays an important part in the causation of physical and moral troubles, find that it is most often due to masturbation. (Les Obses¬ sions, xo\. ii, p. 307.) Adlei*, after discussing the complexity of the feminine sexual mechanism, and the difficulty which women find in ob¬ taining sexual gratification in normal coitus, concludes that “masturba¬ tion is a frequent, perhaps the most frequent, cause of defective sexual sensibility in women.” (Op. cit., p. 119.) He remarks that in women masturbation usually has less resemblance to normal coitus than in men and involves very frequently the special excitation of parts which are not the chief focus of excitement in coitus, so that coitus fails 16 242 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. to supply the excitation which has become habitual (pp. 113-116). In the discussion of “Auto-erotism” in the first volume of these Studies I had already referred to the divorce between the physical and the ideal sides of love which may, especially in women, be induced by mas¬ turbation. , , . Another cause of inhibited sexual feeling has been brought for¬ ward A married lady with normal sexual impulse states (Sexual- Probleme, April, 1912, p. 290) that she cannot experience orgasm and sexual satisfaction when the intercourse is not for conception. This is a psychic inhibition independent of any disturbance due to the process of prevention. She knows other women who are similarly affected. Such an inhibition must be regarded as artificial and abnormal, since the final result of sexual intercourse, under natural and normal conditions, forms no essential constituent of the psychic process of intercourse. As a result of the fact that in women the sexual emotions tend not to develop great intensity until submitted to powerful stimulation, we find that the maximum climax of sexual emotion tends to fall somewhat later in a woman’s life than in a man s. Among animals generally there appears to be frequently traceable a tendency for the sexual activities of the male to develop at a somewhat earlier age than those of the female. In the human species we may certainly trace the same tendency. As the great physiologist, Burdach, pointed out, throughout nature, with the accomplishment of the sexual act the part of the male in the work of generation comes to an endj hut that act lepiesents only the beginning of a woman’s generative activity. A youth of 20 may often display a passionate ardor in love which, is very seldom indeed found in women who are under 25. It is rare for a woman, even though her sexual emotions may awaken at puberty or earlier, to experience the great passion of her life until after the age of 25 has been passed. In confirmation of this statement, which is supported by daily observation, it may be pointed out that nearly all the most passionate love- letters of women, as well as their most passionate devotions, have come from women who had passed, sometimes long passed, theii first youth. When Heloise wrote to Abelard the first of the letters which have come down to us she was at least 32. Made¬ moiselle Aisse’s relation with the Chevalier began when she was THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. 243 32, and when she died, six years later, the passion of each was at its height. Mary W ollstoneeraft was 34 when her love-letters to Imla\ began, and her child was bom in the following year. Mademoiselle de Lespinasse was 43 when she began to write her letters to M. de Guibert. In some cases the sexual impulse may not even appear until after the period of the menopause has been passed. 1 In Roman times Ovid remarked ( Ars Amatoria, lib. ii) that a woman fails to understand the art of love until she has reached the age of 3o. “A girl of 18,” said Stendhal (De l’Amour, ch. viii), “has not the power to crystallize her emotions; she forms desires that are too limited by her lack of experience in the things of life, to be able to love with such passion as a woman of 28.” “Sexual needs,” said Restif de la Bretonne (Monsieur Nicolas, vol. xi, p. 221), “often only appears m young women when they are between 26 and 27 years of age ; at least, that is what I have observed.” Erb states that it is about the middle of the twenties that women begin to suffer^ physically, morally, and intellectually from their sexual needs. Xystrom (Das Geschlechtsleben, p. 163) considers that it is about the age of 30 that a woman first begins to feel conscious of sex needs. In a case of Adler’s (op. cit., p. 141), sexual feelings first appeared after the birth of the third child, at the age of 30. Forel (Die Sexuelle Frage, 1906, p. 219) considers that sexual desire in woman is often strongest between the ages of 30 and 40. Leith Xapier ( Menopause , p. 94) remarks that from 28 to 30 is often an important age in woman who have retained their virginity, erotism then appearing with the full maturity of the nervous system. Yellow- lees (art. “Masturbation,” Dictionary of Psychological Medicine), again, states that at about the age of 33 some women experience great sexual irritability, often resulting in masturbation. Audiffrent (Archives d’Anthropologic Criminelle, Jan. 15, 1902, p. 3) considers that it is toward the age of 30 that a woman reaches her full moral and physical development, and that at this period her emotional and idealizing impulses reach a degree of intensity which is sometimes i It is curious that, while the sexual impulse in women tends to develop at a late age more frequently than in men, it would also appear to develop more frequently at a very early age than in the other sex Ihe majority of cases of precocious sexual development seems to be n female children. W. Roger Williams (“Precocious Sexual Develop¬ ment, British Gynaecological Journal, May, 1902) finds that 80 such cases have been recorded in females and only 20 in males, and, while 13 is the earliest age at which boys have proved virile, girls have been known to conceive at 8. b PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. irresistible. It has already been mentioned that Matthews Duncan ® careful inquiries showed that it is between the ages of 30 and 34 that the largest proportion of women experience sexual desire and sexual pleasure. It may be remarked, also, that while the typical English novelists, who have generally sought to avoid touching the deeper an more complex aspects of passion, often choose very youthful heroines, French novelists, who have frequently had a predilection for the problems of passion, often choose heroines who are approaching the age of 30. Hirschfeld (Von Wesen der Liebe, p. 26) was consulted by a lady who, being without any sexual desires or feelings, married an inverted man in order to live with him a life of simple comradeship. Within six months, however, she fell violently in love with her husband, with the full manifestation of sexual feelings and accompanying emotions of jealousy. Under all the circumstances, however, she would not enter into sexual relationship with her husband, and the torture she en¬ dured became so acute that she desired to be castrated. In this connec¬ tion, also, I may mention a case, which has been communicated to me from Glasgow, of a girl—strong and healthy and menstruating regularly since the age of 17—who was seduced at the age of 20 without any sexual desire on her part, giving birth to a child nine months later. Subsequently she became a prostitute for three years, and during this period had "not the slightest sexual desire or any pleasure in sexual connection. Thereafter she met a poor lad with whom she has full sexual desire and sexual pleasure, the result being that she refuses to go with any other man, and consequently is almost without food for several days-every week. The late appearance of the great climax of sexual emotion in women is indicated by a tendency to nervous and psychic disturbances between the ages of 25 and about 33, which has been independently noted by various alienists (though it may be noted that 25 to 30 is not an unusual age for first attacks of insanity in men also). Thus, Krafft-Ebing states that adult unmarried women between the ages of 25 and 30 often show nervous symptoms and peculiarities. (Krafft- Ebing, “Ueber Neurosen und Psychosen durch Sexuelle Abstinenz,” Jahrbiicher fiir Psychiatric, Bd. viii, ht. 1-4, 1888.) Pitres and Regis find also (Comptes-rendue XIP Congres International de Medecine, Moscow, 1897, vol. iv, p. 45) that obsessions, which are commoner in women than in men and are commonly connected in their causation with strong moral emotion, occur in women chiefly between the ages of 26 and 30, though in men much earlier. The average age at which in England women inebriates begin drinking ip excess is 26. (British Medical Journal, Sept. 2, 1911, p. 518.) THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. 245 A case recorded by Serieux is instructive as regards the develop¬ ment of the sexual impulse, although it comes within the sphere of mental disorder. A woman of 32 with bad heredity had in childhood had weak health and become shy, silent, and fond of solitude, teased by her companions and finding consolation in hard work. Though very emotional, she never, even in the vaguest form, experienced any of those feelings and aspirations which reveal the presence of the sexual impulse. She had no love of dancing and was indifferent to any em¬ braces she might chance to receive from young men. She never mas¬ turbated or showed inverted feelings. At the age of 23 she married. She still, however, experienced no sexual feelings; twice only she felt a faint sensation of pleasure. A child was born, but her home was unhappy on account of her husband’s drunken habits. He died and she worked hard for her own living and the support of her mother. Then at the age of 31 a new phase occurs in her life: she falls in love with the master of her workshop. It was at first a purely psychic affection, without any mixture of physical elements; it was enough to see him, and she trembled when she touched anything that belonged to him. She was constantly thinking about him; she loved him for his eyes, which seemed to her those of her own child, and especially for his in¬ telligence. Gradually, however, the lower nervous centers began to take part in these emotions; one day in passing her the master chanced to touch her shoulder; this contact was sufficient to produce sexual turges- cence. She began to masturbate daily, thinking of her master, and for the first time in her life she desired coitus. She evoked the image of her master so constantly and vividly that at last hallucinations of sight, touch, and hearing appeared, and it seemed to her that he was present. These hallucinations were only with difficulty dissipated. (P. Serieux, Lcs Anomalies de VInstinct Sexnel, 1888, p. 50.) This case presents in an insane form a phenomenon which is certainly by no means uncommon and is very significant. Up to the age of 31 we should certainly have been forced to conclude that this woman was sexually anesthetic to an almost absolute degree. In reality, we see this was by no means the case. Weak health, hard work, and a brutal husband had pi’olonged the latency of the sexual emotions; but they were there, ready to explode with even insane intensity (this being due to the unsound heredity) in the presence of a man who appealed to these emotions. In connection with the late evolution of the sexual emotions in women reference may be made to what is usually termed “old maid’s insanity,” a condition not met with in men. In these cases, which are not, indeed, common, single women who have led severely strict and virtuous lives, devoting themselves to religious or intellectual work, 246 PSYCHOLOGY OP SEX. and carefully repressing tlie animal side of their natures, at last, just before the climacteric, experience an awakening of the erotic impulse; they fall in love with some unfortunate man, often a clergyman, perse¬ cute him with their attentions, and frequently suffer from the delusion that he reciprocates their affections. When once duly aroused, there cannot usually be any doubt concerning the strength of the sexual impulse in normal and healthy women. There would, however, appear to be a distinct difference between the sexes at this point also. Before sexual imion the male tends to be more ardent; after sexual union it is the female who tends to be more ardent. The sexual energy of women, under these circumstances, would seem to be the greater on account of the long period during which it has been dormant. Sinibaldus in the seventeenth century, in his Gcneanthropeia, argued that, though women are cold at first, and aroused with more difficulty and greater slowness than men, the flame of passion spreads in them the more afterward, just as iron is by nature cold, but when heated gives a great degree of heat. Similarly Mandeville said of women that “their passions are not so easily raised nor so suddenly fixed upon any particular object; but when this passion is once rooted in women it is much stronger and more durable than in men, and rather increases than diminishes by enjoying the person of the beloved.” (A Modest Defence of Public Stews, 1724, p. 34.) Burdach considered that women only acquire the full enjoyment of their general strength after marriage and pregnancy, while it is before marriage that men have most vigor. Schopenhauer also said that a man’s love decreases with enjoyment, and a woman’s increases. And Ellen Key has remarked (Love and Marriage) that “where there is no mixture of Southern blood it is a long time, sometimes indeed not till years after marriage, that the senses of the Northern women awake to consciousness.” Even among animals this tendency seems to be manifested. Ed¬ mund Selous (Bird Watching, p. 112) remarks, concerning sea-gulls: “Always, or almost always, one of the birds—and this I take to be the female—is more eager, has a more soliciting manner and tender begging look than the other. It is she who, as a rule, draws the male bird on. She looks fondly up at him, and, raising her bill to his, as though beseeching a kiss, just touches w ? ith it, in raising, the feathers of the throat—an action light, but full of endearment. And in every way she shows herself the most desirous, and, in fact, so worries and pesters the poor male gull that often, to avoid her importunities, he flies away. Inis may seem odd, but I have seen other instances of it. No doubt, THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. 247 in actual courting, before the sexes are paired, the male bird is usually the most eager, but after marriage the female often becomes the wooer. Of this I have seen some marked instances.” Selous mentions especially the plover, kestrel hawk, and rook. In association with the fact that women tend to show an increase of sexual ardor after sexual relationships have been set up may be noted the probably related fact that sexual in¬ tercourse is undoubtedly less injurious to women than to men. Other things being equal, that is to say, the threshold of excess is passed very much sooner by the man than by the woman. Thisjvas long ago pointed out by Montaigne. The ancient say- ing, Omne animal post coitum triste ” is of limited application at the best, but certainly has little reference to women . 1 Alacrity, rather than languor, as Robin has truly observed , 2 marks a woman after coitus, or, as a medical friend of my own has said, a woman then goes about the house singing . 3 It is, indeed, only after intercourse with a woman for whom, in reality! he feels contempt that a man experiences that revulsion of feeling described by Shakespeare (sonnet cxxix). Such a pass¬ age should not be quoted, as it sometimes has been quoted, as the representation of a normal phenomenon. But, with equal gratification on both sides, it remains true that, while after a single coitus the man may experience a not unpleasant lassitude and readiness for sleep, this is rarely the case with his partner, for whom a single coitus is often but a pleasant stimulus, the climax of satisfaction not being reached until a second or sub sequent act of intercourse. “Excess in venery,” which, rightly or wrongly, is set down as the cause of so many evils in men. seldom, indeed, appears in connection with women, although in every act of venery the woman has taken part . 4 11 find the same remark made by Plazzonus in the seventeenth century. 2 Art. “Fecondation,” Dictionnaire encyclophlique des sciences ifv u CWCvWco • 3 This also is an ancient remark, for in the early treatise De Secretxs Mulierum, once attributed to Michael Scot, it is stated, con¬ cerning the woman who finds pleasure in coitus, “cantat libenter.” 4 It is scarcely necessary to add that prostitutes can furnish little evidence one way or the other. Not only may prostitutes refuse to par- 248 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. That women bear sexual excesses better than men was noted by Cabanis and other early writers. Alienists frequently refer to the fact that women are less liable to be affected by insanity following such excesses. (See, e.g., Maudsley, “Relations between Body and Mind,” Lancet, May 28, 1870; and G. Savage, art. “Marriage and Insanity” in Dictionary of Psychological Medicine.) Trousseau remarked on the fact that women are not exhausted by repeated acts of coitus within a short period, notwithstanding that the nervous excitement in their case is as great, if not greater, and he considered that this showed that the loss of semen is a cause of exhaustion in men. Lowenfeld ( Sexualleben und ~S ervenleiden, pp. 74, 153) states that there cannot be question that the nervous system in women is less influenced by the after-effects of coitus than in men. Not only, he remarks, are prostitutes very little liable to suffer from nervous overstimulation, and neurasthenia and hysteria when occurring in them be easily traceable to other causes, but healthy women who are not given to prostitution, when they indulge in very frequent sexual intercourse, provided it is practised normally, do not experience the slightest injurious effect. I have seen many young married couples where the husband had been reduced to a pitiable con¬ dition of nervous prostration and general discomfort by the zeal with which he had exercised his marital duties, while the wife had been benefited and was in the uninterrupted enjoyment of the best health.” This experience is by no means uncommon. A correspondent writes: “It is quite true that the threshold of excess is less easily reached by women than by men. I have found that women can reach the orgasm much more frequently than men. Take an ordinary case. I spend two hours with -. I have the orgasm 3 times, with difficulty; she has it 6 or 8, or even 10 or 12, times. Women can also experience it a second or third time in succession, with no interval between. Sometimes the mere fact of realizing that the man is having the orgasm causes the woman to have it also, though it is true that a woman usually requires as many minutes to develop the orgasm as a man does seconds.” I may also refer to the case recorded in another part of this volume in which a wife had the orgasm 26 times to her husband’s twdce. Hutchinson, under the name of postmarital amblyopia (Archives of Surgery, vol. iv, p. 200), has described a condition occurring in men in good health w T ho soon after marriage become nearly blind, but re¬ cover as soon as the cause is removed. He mentions no cases in women ticipate in the sexual orgasm, but the evils of a prostitute’s life are obviously connected with causes quite other than mere excess of sexual gratification. THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IX WOMEN. 249 due to coitus, but finds that in women some failure of sight may occur after parturition. Kiicke states that, in his experience, while masturbation is, ap¬ parently, commoner in insane men than in insane women, masturbation lepeated seveial times a day is much commoner in the women. (P. Nacke, “Die Sexuellen Perversitaten in der Irrenanstalt,” Psychiatrische Bladen, 1899, No. 2.) Great excesses in masturbation seem also to be commoner among women who may be said to be sane than among men. Thus, Bloch (A ew Orleans Medical Journal , 1896) records the case of a young mar- lied woman of 25, of bad heredity, who had suffered from almost life¬ long sexual hyperesthesia, and would masturbate fourteen times daily during the menstrual periods. With regard to excesses in coitus the case may be mentioned of a country girl of 17, living in a rural district in North Carolina where prostitution was unknown, who would cohabit with men almost openly. On one Sunday she went to a secluded school-house and let three or foul men year themselves out cohabiting with her. On another occa¬ sion, at night, in a field, she allowed anyone who would to perform the sexual act, and 25 men and boys then had intercourse with her. When seen she was much prostrated and with a tendency to spasm, but quite rational. Subsequently she married and attacks of this nature became rare. Mr. Lawson made an “attested statement” of what he had ob¬ served among the Marquesan women. “He mentions one case in which he heard a parcel of boys next morning count over and name 103 men who during the night had intercourse with one woman.” ( Medico- Chirurgical Review, 1871, vol. ii, p. 360, apparently quoting Chevers.) This statement seems open to question, but, if reliable, would furnish a case which must be unique. There is a further important difference, though intimately related to some of the differences already mentioned, between the sexual impulse in women and in men. In women it is at once larger and more diffused. As Sinibaldus long ago said, the sexual pleasure of men is intensive, of women extensive. In men the sexual impulse is, as it were, focused to a single point. This is necessarily so, for the whole of the essentially necessary part of the male in the process of human procreation is confined to the ejaculation of semen into the vagina. But in women, mainly owing to the fact that women are the child-bearers, in place of one primary sexual center and one primary erogenous 250 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. region, there are at least three such sexual centers and erogenous regions: the clitoris (corresponding to the penis), the vaginal passage up to the womb, and the nipple. In both sexes there are other secondary and reflex centers, but there is good reason for believing that these are more numerous and more widespread in women than in men. 1 How numerous the secondary sexual cen¬ ters in women may be is indicated by the case of a woman men¬ tioned by Moraglia, who boasted that she knew fourteen different ways of masturbating herself. This great diffusion of the sexual impulse and emotions in women is as visible on the psychic as on the physical side. A woman can find sexual satisfaction in a great number of ways that do not include the sexual act proper, and in a great number of ways that apparently are not physical at all, simply because their physical basis is diffused or is to be found in one of the outlying sexual zones. It is, moreover, owing to the diffused character of the sexual emotions in women that it so often happens that emotion really having a sexual origin is not recognized as such even by the woman herself. It is possible that the great prevalence in women of the religious emotional state of “storm and stress,” noted by Professor Starbuck, 2 is largely due to unemployed sexual impulse. In this and similar ways it happens that the magnitude of the sexual sphere in woman is unrealized by the careless observer. 1 This is, for instance, indicated by the experiments of Gualino concerning the sexual sensitiveness of the lips (Archivio di Psichiatria, 1904, fasc. 3). He found that mechanical irritation applied to the lips produced more or less sexual feeling in 12 out of 20 women, but in only 10 out of 25 men, i.e., in three-fifths of the women and two-fifths of the men. 2 “Adolescence is for women primarily a period of storm and stress, while for men it is in the highest sense a "period of doubt.” (Starbuck, Psychology of Religion, p. 241.) It is interesting to note that in the religious sphere, also, the emotions of women are more diffused than those of men; Starbuck confirms the conclusion of Professor Coe that, while women have at least as much religious emotion as men, in them it is more all-pervasive, and they experience fewer struggles and acute crises. (Ibid., p. 80.) THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. 251 A number of converging facts tend to indicate that the sexual sphere is larger, and more potent in its influence on the organism, in women than in men. It would appear that among the males and females of lower animals the same difference may be found. It is stated that in birds there is a greater flow of blood to the ovaries than to the testes. In women the system generally is more affected by disturbances in the sexual sphere than in men. This appears to be the case as regards the eye. “The influence of the sexual system upon the eye in man, Powei states, ‘is far less potent, and the connection, in conse¬ quence, far less easy to trace than in woman.” (H. Power, “Relation of Ophthalmic Disease to the Sexual Organs,” Lancet , November 26 1887.) The greater predominance of the sexual system in women on the psychic side is clearly brought out in insane conditions. It is well known that, while satyriasis is rare, nymphomania is comparatively common. These conditions are probably often forms of mania, and in mania, while sexual symptoms are common in men, they are often stated to be the rule in women (see, e.g., Krafft-Ebing, Psychopatliia Sexualis, tenth edition, English translation, p. 465). Bouchereau, in noting this difl'erence in the prevalence of sexual manifestations during insanity, remarks that it is partly due to the naturally greater depend¬ ence of women on the organs of generation, and partly to the more active, independent, and laborious lives of men; in his opinion, satyria- S1S 13 specially apt to develop in men who lead lives resembling those of women. (Bouchereau, art. “Satyriasis,” Dictionnaire encyclopedique des sciences tnedicales.) Again, postconnubial insanity is very much commoner in women than in men, a fact which may indicate the more predominant part played by the sexual sphere in women. (Savage, art. “Marriage and Insanity,” Dictionary of Psychological Medicine.) ’ Insanity tends to remove the artificial inhibitory influences that rule in ordinary life, and there is therefore significance in such a fact as that the sexual appetite is often increased in general paralysis and to a notable extent in women. (Pactet and Colin, Les Alienes devant la Justice, 1902, p. 122.) Nacke, from his experiences among the insane, makes an interest¬ ing and possibly sound distinction regarding the character of the sexual manifestations in the two sexes. Among men he finds these manifesta¬ tions to be more of a reflex and purely spinal nature and chiefly mani¬ fested in masturbation; in women he finds them to be of a more cerebral character, and chiefly manifested in erotic gestures, lascivious conversation, etc. The sexual impulse would thus tend to involve to a gi eater extent the higher psychic region in women than in men. 252 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. Forel likewise (Die Sexuelle Frage, 1906, p. 276), remarking on the much greater prevalence of erotic manifestations among insane women than insane men (and pointing out that it is by no means due merely to the presence of a male doctor, for it remains the same when the doctor is a woman), considers that it proves that in women the sexual impulse resides more prominently in the higher nervous centers and in men in the lower centers. (As regards the great prevalence of erotic manifestations among the female insane, I may also refer to Claye Shaw’s interesting observations, “The Sexes in Lunacy,” St. Bartholo¬ mew's Hospital Reports, vol. xxiv, 1888; also quoted in Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman, p. 370 et seq.) Whether or not we may accept Nacke’s and Forel’s interpretation of the facts, which is at least doubt¬ ful, there can be little doubt that the sexual impulse is more funda¬ mental in women. This is indicated by Nacke’s observation that among idiots sexual manifestations are commoner in females than in males. Of 16 idiot girls, of the age of 16 and under, 15 certainly masturbated, sometimes as often as fourteen times a day, while the remaining girl probably masturbated; but of 25 youthful male idiots only 1 played with his penis. (P. Nacke, “Die Sexuellen Perversitiiten in der Irren- anstalt,” Psychiatrische Bladen, 1899, No. 2, pp. 9, 12.) On the physical side Bourneville and Sollier found (Progres medical, 1888) that puberty is much retarded in idiot and imbecile boys, while J. Yoisin (Annales d’Hygiene Pullique, June, 1894) found that in idiot and imbecile girls, on the contrary, there is no lack of full sexual develop¬ ment or retardation of puberty, while masturbation is common. In women, it may be added, as Ball pointed out (Folie trotique, p. 40), sexual hallucinations are especially common, while under the influence of anesthetics erotic manifestations and feelings are frequent in women, but rare in men. (Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman, p. 256.) The fact that the first coitus has a much more profound moral and psychic influence on a woman than on a man would also seem to indicate how much more fundamental the sexual region is in women. The fact may be considered as undoubted. (It is referred to by Marro, La Pubertd, p. 460.) The mere physical fact that, while in men coitus remains a merely exterior contact, in women it involves penetration into the sensitive and virginal interior of the body would alone indicate this difference. We are told that in the East there was once a woman named Moarbeda who was a philosopher and considered to be the wisest woman of her time. AVhen ^loarbeda as once ashen. In what part of a woman’s body does her mind reside?” she re¬ plied : “Between her thighs.” To many women,—perhaps, in- THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN. 253 deed, we might even say to most women,—to a certain extent may be applied—and in no offensive sense—the dictum of the wise woman of the East; in a certain sense their brains are in their wombs. Their mental activity may sometimes seem to be limited; they may appear to be passing through life always in a rather inert or dreamy state; but, when their sexual emotions are touched, then at once they spring into life; they become alert, resourceful, courageous, indefatigable. “But when I am not in love I am nothing!*’ exclaimed a woman when reproached by a French magistrate for living with a thief. There are many women who could truly make the same statement, not many men. That emotion, which, one is tempted to say, often unmans the man, makes the woman for the first time truly herself. omen are more occupied with love than men,” wrote De Senancour (De VAmour, vol. ii, p. 59); “it shows itself in all their movements, animates their looks, gives to their gestures a grace that is always new, to their smiles and voices an inexpressible charm; they live for love, while many men in obeying love feel that they are forgetting themselves.” Restif de la Bretonne (Monsieur Nicolas, vol. vi, p. 223) quotes a young girl who well describes the difference which love makes to a woman: “Before I vegetated; now all my actions have a motive, an end; they have become important. When I wake my first thought is ‘Some¬ one is occupied with me and desires me.’ I am no longer alone, as I was before; another feels my existence and cherishes it,” etc. “One is surprised to see in the south,” remarks Bonstetten, in his suggestive book, I/Ilomme du Midi et VHomme du Nord (1824),—and the remark by no means applies only to the south,—“how love imparts intelligence even to those who are most deficient in ideas. An Italian woman in love is inexhaustible in the variety of her feelings, all subor¬ dinated to the supreme emotion which dominates her. Her ideas follow one another with prodigious rapidity, and produce a lambent play which is fed by her heart alone. If she ceases to love, her mind becomes merely the scoria of the lava which yesterday had been so bright.” Cabanis had already made some observations to much the same effect. Referring to the years of nubility following puberty, he remarks: “I have very often seen the greatest fecundity of ideas, the most brill¬ iant imagination, a singular aptitude for the arts, suddenly develop in girls of this age, only to give place soon afterward to the most absolute mental mediocrity.” (Cabanis, “De Tlnfluence des Sexes,” etc., Rap- poi-ts du Physique et du Morale de VHomme.) 254 PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX. This phenomenon seems to be one of the indications of the immense organic significance of the sexual relations. Woman’s part in the world is less obtrusively active than man’s, but there is a moment when nature cannot dispense with energy and mental vigor in women, and that is during the reproductive period. The languidest woman must needs be alive when her sexual emotions are profoundly stirred. People often marvel at the infatuation which men display for women who, in the eyes of all the world, seem commonplace and dull. This is not, as we usually suppose, always entirely due to the proverbial blindness of love. For the man whom she loves, such a woman is often alive and transformed. He sees a woman who is hidden from all the world. He experiences something of that surprise and awe which Dostoieffsky felt when the seemingly dull and brutish criminals of Siberia suddenly exhibited gleams of ex¬ quisite sensibility. In women, it must further be said, the sexual impulse shows a much more marked tendency to periodicity than in men; not only is it less apt to appear spontaneously, but its spon¬ taneous manifestations are in a very pronounced manner corre¬ lated with menstruation. A woman who may experience almost overmastering sexual desire just before, during, or after the monthly period may remain perfectly calm and self-possessed during the rest of the month. In men such irregularities of the sexual impulse are far less marked. Thus it is that a woman may often appear capricious, unaccountable, or cold, merely be¬ cause her moments of strong emotion have been physiologically eo n fi red within a limited period. She may be one day capable of audacities of which on another the very memory might seem to have left her. Not only is the intensity of the sexual impulse in women, as compared to men, more liable to vary from day to day, or from week to week, but the same greater variability is marked when we compare the whole cycle of life in women to that of men. The stress of early womanhood, when the reproductive functions are in fullest activity, and of late womanhood, when 255 « THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IX WOMEN. they are ceasing, produces a profound organic fermentation, psychic as much as physical, which is not paralleled in the lives of men. This greater variability in the cycle of a woman’s life as compared with a man’s is indicated very delicately and pre¬ cisely by the varying incidence of insanity, and is made clearly visible in a diagram prepared by Marro showing the relative liability to mental diseases in the two sexes according 1 to age. 1 At the age of 20 the incidence of insanity in both sexes is equal; from that age onward the curve in men proceeds in a gradual and equable manner, with only the slightest oscillation, on to old age. But in women the curve is extremely irregular; it remains high during all the years from 20 to 30, instead of falling like the masculine curve; then it falls rapidly to considerably below the masculine curve, rising again considerably above the mascu¬ line level during the climacteric 3 r ears from 40 to 50, after which age the two sexes remain fairly close together to the end of life. Thus, as measured by the test of insanity, the curve of woman’s life, in the sudden rise and sudden fall of its sexual crisis, differs from the curve of man’s life and closely resembles the minor curve of her menstrual cycle. The general tendency of this difference in sexual life and impulse is to show a greater range of variation in women than in men. Fairly uniform, on the whole, in men generally and in the same man throughout mature life, sexual impulse varies widely between woman and woman, and even in the same woman at different periods. l Marro, La Pubertd, p. 233. This table covers all those cases, nearly 3000, of patients entering the Turin asylum, from 1886 to 1895, in which the age of the first appearance of insanity was known. III. Summary of Conclusions. In conclusion it may be worth 'while to sum up the main points brought out in this brief discussion of a very large ques¬ tion. We have seen that there are two streams of opinion re¬ garding the relative strength of the sexual impulse in men and women: one tending to regard it as greater in men, the other as greater in women. We have concluded that, since a laige body of facts may be brought forward to support either view, we may fairly hold that, roughly speaking, the distribution of the sexual impulse between the two sexes is fairly balanced. We have, however, further seen that the phenomena are in reality too complex to be settled by the usual crude method of attempting to discover quantitative differences in the sexual impulse. We more nearly get to the bottom of the question by a more analytic method, breaking up our mass of facts into groups. In this way we find that there are certain well-marked characteristics by which the sexual impulse in women differs from the same impulse in men: 1. It shows greater apparent passivity. 2. It is more complex, less apt to appear spontane¬ ously, and more often needing to be aroused, while the sexual orgasm develops more slowly than in men. 3. It tends to be¬ come stronger after sexual relationships are established. 4. The threshold of excess is less easily reached than in men. 5. The sexual sphere is larger and more diffused. 6. There is a more marked tendency to periodicity in the spontaneous mani¬ festations of sexual desire. 7. Largely as a result of these characteristics, the sexual impulse shows a greater range of variation in women than in men, both as between woman and woman and in the same woman at different periods. It may be added that a proper understanding of these sexual differences in men and women is of great importance, both in the practical management of sexual hygiene and in the comprehension of those wider psychological characteristics by which women differ from men. ( 256 ) APPENDICES. APPENDIX A. THE SEXUAL INSTINCT IN SAVAGES. I. In - the eighteenth century, when savage tribes in various parts of the world first began to be visited, extravagantly ro¬ mantic views widely prevailed as to the simple and idyllic lives cc y primitive peoples. During the greater part of the nine¬ teenth century the tendency of opinion was to the opposite ex- leme, and it became usual to insist on the degraded and licen- lions morals of savages.* In reality, however, savage life is just as little a prolonged debauch as a prolonged idyll. The inquiries of such writers as estermarck, Frazer, and Crawley are tending to introduce a soun er conception of the actual, often highly complex, con¬ ditions of primitive life in its relations to the sexual instinct. At the same time it is not difficult to account for the belief widely spread during the nineteenth century, in the unbridled leentiousness of savages. In the first place, the doctrine of evolution inevitably created a prejudice in favor of such a view It was assumed that modesty, chastity, and restraint were the inert and ultimate flowers of moral development; therefore at ie beginnings of civilization we must needs expect to find the opposite of these things. Apart, however, from any mere prej¬ udice of this kind, a superficial observation of the actual facts necessarily led to much misunderstanding. Just as the naked¬ ness of many savage peoples led to the belief that they were fifth edition lffl9 b ?ri«i^ rd Av , ebur .V), in the Origin of Civilization, uT\r 9 ’ bungs forward a number of references in evidence of 1S0Q tJvi' + 01 e Tece * tl y in his Primitive Love and Love-stories XvSS 8 d0ta in /*r o'.«* unbounded!! oentioiisnlfss hk oraCnow t^d"fg to p W re™Ii. tiat * ™ W ° f the mattcr instead of being a mere manifestation of licentiousness, may have a ritual significance, as a magical means of evoking the fruitfulness of fields and herds. 1 } Th 0 sacredness of sexual relations often applies also to individual marriage. Thus, Skeat, in his Malay Magic, shows that the bride and bridegroom are definitely recognized as sacred, in the same sense that the king is, and in Malay States the king is a very sacred person. See also, concerning the sacred character of coitus, whether individual or collective, A. Van Gennep, Kites de Passage, passim. 262 APPENDIX A. When a savage practises extracon jugal sexual intercourse, the act is frequently not, as it has come to be conventionally regarded in civilization, an immorality or at least an illegitimate indulgence; it is a useful and entirely justifiable act, producing definite benefits, conducing alike to cosmic order and social order, although these benefits are not always such as we in civilization believe to be caused by the act. Thus, speaking of the northern tribes of central Australia, Spencer and Gillen remark: “It is very usual amongst all of the tribes to allow considerable license during the performance of certain of their ceremonies when a large number of natives, some of them coming often from distant parts, are gathered together—in fact, on such, occasions all of the ordinary marital rules seem to be more or less set aside for the time being. Each day, in some tribes, one or more women are told off whose duty it is to attend at the corrobboree grounds,—sometimes only during the day, sometimes at night,—and all of the men, except those who are fathers, elder and younger brothers, and sons, have access to them. The idea is that the sexual intercourse assists in some way in the proper performance of the ceremony, causing everything to work smoothly and preventing the decorations from falling off. 1 It is largely this sacred character of sexual intercourse— the fact that it is among the things that are at once “divine” and “impure,” these two conceptions not being differentiated in primitive thought—which leads to the frequency with which in savage life a taboo is put upon its exercise. Robertson Smith added an appendix to his Religion of the Semites on “Taboo on the Intercourse of the Sexes .” 2 Westermarck brought together evidence shoving the frequency with which this and allied causes tended to the chastity of savages . 3 Frazer has very luminously expounded the whole primitive conception of sexual intercourse, and showed how it affected chastity . 4 Warriors must often be 1 Spencer and Gillen, 'Northern Tribes of Central Australia, p. 136. 2 Religion of the Semites, second edition, 1894, p. 454 et seq. 3 History of Marriage, pp. 66-70, 150-156, etc. 4 Golden Bough, third edition, part ii, Taboo and the Perils of the Soul. Frazer has discussed taboo generally. For a shorter account of THE SEXUAL INSTINCT IN SAVAGES. chaste; the men who go on any hunting or other expedition require to be chaste to be successful; the women left behind must be strictly chaste; sometimes even the whole of the people left behind, and for long periods, must be chaste in order to insure the success of the expedition. Hubert and Maus touched on the same point in their elaborate essay on sacrifice, pointing out how frequently sexual relationships are prohibited on the occasion of any ceremony whatever . 1 Crawley, in elaborating the primitive conception of taboo, has dealt fully with ritual and traditional influences making for chastity among savages. He brings for¬ ward, for instance, a number of cases, from various parts of the world, in which intercourse has to be delayed for days, weeks, even months, after marriage. He considers that the sexual con¬ tinence prevalent among savages is largely due to a belief in the enervating effects of coitus; so dangerous are the sexes to each other that, as he points out, even now sexual separation of the sexes commonly occurs . 2 There are thus a great number of constantly recurring oc¬ casions in savage life when continence must be preserved, and when, it is firmly believed, terrible risks would be incurred by its violation—during war, after victory, after festivals, during mourning, on journeys, in hunting and fishing, in a vast number of agricultural and industrial occupations. It might fairly be argued that the facility with which the savage places these checks on sexual intercourse itself bears witness to the weakness of the sexual impulse. Evidence of another order which seems to point to the undeveloped state of the sexual impulse among savages may be found in the com¬ paratively undeveloped condition of their sexual organs, a con- taboo, see art. “Taboo” by Northcote Thomas in Encyclopedia Britan- mca, eleventh edition, 1911. Freud has lately (Imago, 1912) made an at¬ tempt to explain the origin of taboo psychologically by comparing it to neurotic obsessions. Taboo, Freud believes, has its origin in a forbid¬ den act to perform which there is a strong unconscious tendency; an ambivalent attitude, that is, combining the opposite tendencies, is thus established. In this way Freud would account for the fact that tabooed persons and things are both sacred and unclean. 1 “Essai sur le Sacrifice,” L’A nnee Sociologiquc, 1899, pp. 50-51. 2 TJie Mystic Rose, 1902, p. 187 et seq., 215 et seq., 342 et seq. 264 APPENDIX A. dition not, indeed, by any means constant, but very frequently noted. As regards women, it has in many parts of the woild been observed to be the rule, and the data which Ploss and [Bartels have accumulated seem to me, on the whole, to point clearly in this direction . 1 At another point, also, it may be remarked, the repulsion between the sexes and the restraints on intercourse may be associated with weak sexual impulse. It is not improbable that a certain horror of the sexual organs may be a natural feeling which is extinguished in the intoxication of desire, yet still has a physiological basis which renders the sexual organs—disguised and minimized by convention and by artistic representation— more or less disgusting in the absence of erotic emotion . 2 And this is probably more marked in cases in which the sexual instinct is constitutionally feeble. A lady who had no marked sexual desires, and who considered it well bred to be indifferent to such matters, on inspecting her sexual parts in a mirror for the first time in her life was shocked and disgusted at the sight. Cer¬ tainly many women could record a similar experience on being first approached by a man, although artistic conventions present the male form with greater truth than the female. Moreover, —and here is the significant point—this feeling is by no means restricted to the refined and cultured. “When working at Michelangelo,” wrote a correspondent from Italy, “my upper gondolier used to see photographs and statuettes of all that man’s works. Stopping one day before the Night and Dawn of S. Lorenzo, sprawling naked women, he exclaimed: ‘How hideous 1 Das Weib, vol. i, section 6. 2 This statement has been questioned. It should, however, be fairly evident that the sexual organs in either sex, when closely exam¬ ined, can scarcely be regarded as beautiful except in the eyes of a person of the opposite sex who is in a condition of sexual excitement, and they are not always attractive even then. Moreover, it must be remembered that the snake-like aptitude of the penis to enter into a state of erection apart from the control of the will puts it in a different category from any other organ of the body, and could not fail to at¬ tract the attention of primitive peoples so easily alarmed by unusual manifestations. We find even in the early ages of Christianity that St. Augustine attached immense importance to this alarming aptitude of the penis as a sign of man’s sinful and degenerate state. THE SEXUAL INSTINCT IN SAVAGES. 265 they areP I pressed him to explain himself. He vent on: ‘The ugliest man naked is handsomer than the finest woman naked. ^ omen have crooked legs, and their sexual organs stink. I only once saw a naked woman. It was in a brothel, when I was 18. The sight of her “natura” made me go out and vomit into the canal. \ou know I have been twice married, but I never saw either of my wives without clothing/ Of very rank cheese he said one day: ‘Puzza come la natura d’ una donna/ ” This man, my correspondent added, was entirely normal and robust, but seemed to regard sexual congress as a mere evacuation, the sexual instinct apparently not being strong. It seems possible that, if the sexual impulse had no exist¬ ence, all men would regard women with this horror fenurue. As things are, however, at all events in civilization, sexual emo¬ tions begin to develop even earlier, usually, than acquaintance with the organs of the other sex begins; so that this disgust is inhibited. If, however, among savages the sexual impulse is habitually weak, and only aroused to strength under the impetus of powerful stimuli, often acting periodically, then we should expect the lioiior to be a factor of considerable importance. The weakness of the physical sexual impulse among savages is reflected in the psychic sphere. Many writers have pointed out that love plays but a small part in their lives. They practise few endearments; they often only kiss children (Westermarck notes that sexual love is far less strong than parental love); love- poems are among some primitive peoples few (mostly originating with the women), and their literature often gives little or no attention to passion. 1 Affection and devotion are, however, often strong, especially in savage women. It is not surprising that jealousy should often, though not b) any means invariably, be absent, both among men and among women. Among savages this is doubtless a proof of the weakness of the sexual impulse. Spencer and Gillen note the comparative 2(56 APPENDIX A. absence of jealousy in men among the Central Australian tribes they studied. 1 Negresses, it is said by a French army surgeon in his Untrodden Fields of Anthropology, do not know what jealousy is, and the first wife will even borrow money to buy the second wife. Among a much higher race, the women in a Korean household, it is said, live together happily, as an almost invariable rule, though it appears that this was not always the case among a polygamous people of European race, the Mormons. The tendency of the sexual instinct in savages to periodicity, to seasonal manifestations, I do not discuss here, as I have dealt with it in the first volume of these Studies . 2 It has, however, a very important bearing on this subject. Periodicity of sexual manifestations is, indeed, less absolute in primitive man than in most animals, but it is still very often quite clearl\ marked. It is largely the occurrence of these violent occasional outbursts of the sexual instinct—during which the organic impulse to tumescence becomes so powerful that external stimuli aie no longer necessary—that has led to the belief in the peculiar strength of the impulse in savages. 3 1 Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 99; cf. Finek, Primitive Love and Love-stories, p. 89 et seq. 2 “The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity.” The subject has .also been more recently discussed by W alter Heape, “The Sexual Season o Mammals,” Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, vol. xliv, 1900. See also F. H. A. Marshall, The Physiology of Reproduction, 1910. 3 This view finds a belated supporter in Max Marcuse (“Gescli- lechtstrieb des Urmenschens,” Sexual-Probleme, Oct., 1909), who, on grounds which I cannot regard as sound, seeks to maintain the belief that the sexual instinct is more highly developed among savage than among civilized peoples. II. The facts thus seem to indicate that among primitive peoples, while the magical, ceremonial, and traditional restraints on sexual intercourse are very numerous, very widespread, and nearly always very stringent, there is, underlying this prevalence of restraints on intercourse, a fundamental weakness of the sexual instinct, which craves less, and craves less frequently, than is the case among civilized peoples, but is liable to be powerfully manifested at special seasons. It is perfectly true that among savages, as Sutherland states, “there is no ideal which makes chastity a thing beautiful in itself’; but when the same writer goes on to state that “it is untrue that in sexual license the savage has everything to learn,” we must demand greater precision of statement. 1 Travelers, and too often w'ould-be scien¬ tific writers, have been so much impressed by the absence among savages of the civilized ideal of chastity, and by the frequent freedom of sexual intercourse, that they have not paused to in¬ quire moie carefully into the phenomena, or to put themselves at the primitive point of view r , but have assumed that freedom heie means all that it would mean in a European population. In order to illustrate the actual circumstances of savage life in this respect from the scanty evidence furnished by the most careful observers, I have brought together from scattered sources a few statements concerning primitive peoples in very various parts of the world. 2 1 A. Sutherland, Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct, vol. i, pp. S, 187 . As has been shown by, for instance, Dr. Iwan Bloch (Beitrage zur /FAiologie der Psychopathia Scxualis, Erster Theil, 1902), every perverse sexual practice may be found, somewhere or other, amon" savages or barbarians; but, as the same writer acutely points out (p! 58), these devices bear witness to the need of overcoming frigidity rather than to the strength of the sexual impulse. ° 2 Floss and Bartels have brought together in Das Weil a large number of facts in the same sense, more especially under the headings of A bshnenz-Vorschriften and Die Fernhaltung der 'Schicangeren. I have not drawn upon their collection. ( 267 ) 268 APPENDIX A. Among the Andamanese, Portman, who knows them well, says that sexual desire is very moderate; in males it appears at the age of 18, hut, as “their love for sport is greater than their passions, these are not gratified to any great extent till after marriage, which rarely takes place till a man is about 26. Although chastity is not esteemed by the Euegians, and virginity is lost at a very early age, yet both men and women are extremely moderate in sexual indulgence. 2 Among the Eskimo at the other end of the American con¬ tinent, according to Dr. F. Cook, the sexual passions are sup¬ pressed during the long darkness of winter, as also is the menstrual function usually, and the majority of the children are bom nine months after the appearance of the sun. 3 Among the Indians of North America it is the custom of many tribes to refrain from sexual intercourse during the whole period of lactation, as also D ? Orbigny found to be the case among South American Indians, although suckling went on for over three years. 4 Many of the Indian tribes have now been rendered licentious by contact with civilization. In the primitive condi¬ tion their customs were entirely different. Dr. Holder, who knows many tribes of North American Indians well, has dealt in some detail with this point. “Several of the virtues, he states, “and among them chastity, were more faithfully practised by the Indian race before the invasion from the East than these same virtues are practised by the white race of the present da\. The race is less salacious than either the negro or white race. . . . That the women of some tribes are now more careful of their virtue than the women of any other com¬ munity whose history I know, I am fully convinced.” 5 It is not only on the women that sexual abstinence is imposed. Among 1 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, May, 1896, p. 369. 2 Hyades and Deniker, Mission Scientifique du Cap Horn, vol. vii, p. 188 . 3 F. Cook, Nero York Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 1894. 4 A. d’Orbignv, L’Homme Americain, 1839, vol. i, p. 47. 5 A. B. Holder, “Gynecic Notes Among the American Indians,” American Journal of Obstetrics, 1892, vol. xxvi, No. 1. THE SEXUAL INSTINCT IN SAVAGES. 269 some branches of the Salish Indians of British Columbia a young widower must refrain from sexual intercourse for a year, and sometimes lives entirely apart during that period. 1 In many parts of Polynesia, although the sexual impulse seems often to have been highly developed before the arrival of Europeans, it is very doubtful whether license, in the Euro¬ pean sense, at all generally prevailed. The Marquesans, who have sometimes been regarded as peculiarly licentious, are espe¬ cially mentioned by Foley as illustrating his statement that sexual erethism is with difficulty attained by primitive peoples except during sexual seasons. 2 Herman Melville’s detailed ac¬ count in Typee of the Marquesans (somewhat idealized, no doubt) reveals nothing that can fairly be called licentiousness. At Rotuma, J. Stanley Gardiner remarks, before the missionaries came sexual intercourse before marriage was free, but gross im¬ morality and prostitution and adultery were unknown. Matters are much worse now. 3 The Maoris of Hew Zealand, in the old days, according to one who had lived among them, were more chaste than the English^ and, though a chief might lend his wife to a friend as an honor, it would be very difficult to take her (private communication). 4 Captain Cook also represented these people as modest and virtuous. Among the Papuans of New Guinea and Torres Straits, although intercourse before marriage is free, it is by no means unbridled, nor is it carried to excess. There are many circum- 1 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1905, p. 139. 2 Foley, Bulletin de la SociCte d’A nth ro polo pie, Paris, November 6, 1879. 3 J. S. Gardiner, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Febru¬ ary, 1898, p. 409. 4 As regards the modern Maoris, a medical correspondent in New Zealand writes: “It is nothing for members of both sexes to live in the same room, and for promiscuous intercourse to take place between father and daughter or brother and sister. Maori women, who will display a great deal of modesty when in the presence of male Maoris, will openly ask strange Europeans to have sexual intercourse with them, and without any desire for reward. The men, however, seem to prefer their own women, and even when staying in towns, where they can obtain prostitutes, they will remain continent until they return home again, a period of perhaps a month.” 270 APPENDIX A. stances restraining intercourse. Thus, unmarried men must not indulge in it during October and November at Torres Straits. It is the general rule also that there should be no sexual inter¬ course during pregnancy, while a child is being suckled (which goes on for three or four years), or even until it can speak op walk. 1 In Astrolabe Bay, New Guinea, according to Vahness, a young couple must abstain from intercourse for several weeks after marriage, and to break this rule would be disgraceful. 2 As regards Australia, Brough Smyth wrote: “Promiscuous intercourse between the sexes is not practised by the aborigines, and their laws on the subject, particularly those of New South Wales, are very strict. When at camp all the young unmarried men are stationed by themselves at the extreme end, while the married men, each with his family, occupy the center. No conversation is allowed between the single men and the girls or the married women. Infractions of these laws were visited by punishment; . . . five or six warriors threw from a comparatively short distance several spears at him [the offender]. The man was often severely wounded and sometimes killed.” 3 This author mentions that a black woman has been known to kill a white man who attempted to have intercourse with her by force. Yet both sexes have occasional sexual intercourse from an early age. After marriage, in various parts of Australia, there are numerous restraints on intercourse, which is forbidden not merely during menstruation, but during the latter part of pregnancy and for one moon after childbirth. 4 Concerning the people of the Malay Peninsula, Hrolf Vaughan Stevens states: “The sexual impulse among the Belendas is only developed to a slight extent; they are not sen¬ sual, and the husband has intercourse with his wife not oftener 1 Schellong, Zeitschrift fiir Ethnclogie, 1889, i, pp. 17, 19; Haddon, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, February, 1890, pp. 316, 397; Guise, ib., February and May, 1899, p. 207; Seligmann, ih., 1902, pp. 298, 301-302; Reports Cambridge Expedition, vol. v, pp. 199-200, 275. 2 Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, 1900, ht. v, p. 414. 3 R. Brough Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, vol. ii, p. 318. 4 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1894, pp. 170, 177, 187. THE SEXUAL INSTINCT IN SAVAGES. 271 than three times a month. The women also are not ardent. . . . The Orang Laut are more sensual than the Dyaks, who are, however, more given to obscene jokes than their neigh¬ bors. . . . With the Belendas there is little or no love- play in sexual relations.” 1 Skeat tells us also that among Malays in war-time strict chastity must be observed in a stock¬ ade, or the bullets of the garrison will lose their power. 2 It is a common notion that the negro and negroid races of Africa are peculiarly prone to sexual indulgence. This notion is not supported by those who have had the most intimate knowledge of these peoples. It probably gained currency in part owing to the open and expansive temperament of the negro, and in part owing to the extremely sexual character of many African orgies and festivals, though those might quite as legiti¬ mately be taken as evidence of difficulty in attaining sexual erethism. A French army surgeon, speaking from knowledge of the black races in various French colonies, states in his Untrodden Fields of Anthropology that it is a mistake to imagine that the negress is very amorous. She is rather cold, and indifferent to the refinements of love, in which respects she is very unlike the mulatto. The white man is usually powerless to excite her, partly from his small penis, partly from his rapidity of emis¬ sion ; the black man, on account of his blunter nervous S3 r stem, takes three times as long to reach emission as the white man. Among the Mohammedan peoples of West Africa, Daniell re¬ marks, as well as in central and northern Africa, it is usual to suckle a child for two or more years. From the time when pregnancy becomes apparent to the end of weaning no inter¬ course takes place. It is believed that this would greatly en¬ danger the infant, if not destroy it. This means that for every child the woman, at all events, must remain continent for about three years. 3 Sir H. H. Johnston, writing concerning the peo- 1 Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, 1896, iv, pp. 180-181. 2 W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 524. 3 W. F. Daniell, Medical Topography of Gulf of Guinea, 1849, p. 55. 272 APPENDIX A. pies of central Africa, remarks that the man also must remain chaste during these periods. Thus, among the Atonga the wife leaves her husband at the sixth month of pregnancy, and does not resume relations with him until five or six months after the birth of the child. If, in the interval, he has relations with any other woman, it is believed his wife will certainly die. “The negro is very rarely vicious,” Johnston says, “after he has at¬ tained to the age of puberty. He is only more or less uxorious. The children are vicious, as they are among most races of mankind, the boys outrageously so. As regards the little girls over nearly the whole of British Central Africa, chastity before puberty is an unknown condition, except perhaps among the A-nyanja. Before a girl is become a woman it is a matter of absolute indifference what she does, and scarcely any girl re¬ mains a virgin after about 5 years of age.” 1 Among the Bangala of the upper Congo a woman suckles her child for six to eighteen months and during all this period the husband has no intercourse with his wife, for that, it is believed, would kill the child. 2 Among the Yoruba-speaking people of West Africa A. B. Ellis mentions that suckling lasts for three years, during the whole of which period the wife must not cohabit with her husband. 3 Although chastity before marriage appears to be, as a rule, little regarded in Africa, this is not always so. In some parts of West Africa, a girl, at all events if of high birth, when found guilty of unchastity may be punished by the insertion into her vagina of bird pepper, a kind of capsicum, beaten into a mass; this produces intense pain and such acute inflammation that the canal may even be obliterated. 4 Among the Dahomey women there is no coitus during preg¬ nancy nor during suckling, which lasts for nearly three years. 1 Sir H. H. Johnston, British Central Africa, 1899, pp. 409, 414. 2 Rev. J. H. Weeks, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1910, p. 418. 3 Sir A. B. Ellis, Yoruba-Spcaking Peoples, p. 185. 4 W. F. Daniell, op. cit., p. 36. 273 THE SEXUAL INSTINCT IN SAVAGES. The same is true among the Jekris and other tribes on the Xiger, where it is believed that the milk would suffer if inter¬ course took place during lactation. 1 In another part of Africa, among the Suaheli, even after marriage only incomplete coitus is at first allowed and there is no intercourse for a year after the child’s birth. 2 Fai ther south, among the Ba Wenda of north Transvaal, says the Rev. R. Wessmann, although the young men are per¬ mitted to “play” with the young girls before marriage, no sexual intercourse is allowed. If it is seen that a girl’s labia are apart when she sits down on a stone, she is scolded, or even punished, as guilty of having had intercourse. 3 Among the higher races in India the sexual instinct is very developed, and sexual intercourse has been cultivated as an art, perhaps more elaborately than anjxvhere else. Here, however, we are far removed from primitive conditions and among a people closely allied to the Europeans. Farther to the east, as among the Cambodians, strict chastity seems to prevail, and if we cross the Himalayas to the north we find our¬ selves among wild people to whom sexual license is unknown. Thus, among the Turcomans, even a few days after the mar¬ riage has been celebrated, the young couple are separated for an entire year. 4 All the great organized religions have seized on this value of sexual abstinence, already consecrated by primitive magic and religion, and embodied it in their system. It was so in ancient Egypt. Thus, according to Diodorus, on the death of a king, the entire population of Egypt abstained from sexual intercourse for seventy-two days. The Persians, again, attached great value to sexual as to all other kinds of purity. Even involuntary semi- nal emission s were severely punishable. To lie with a menstruat- lono 1 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, August and November, ioyy, p. 106. 2 Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, 1899, ii and iii, p. 84; Velten, Bitten und Oebrauche der Suaheli, p. 12. 3 Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, 1896, p. 364. 4 VambCry, Travels in Central Asia, 1864, p. 323. is 274 appendix a. W woman, according to the Vendidad, was as serious a matter as to pollute holy fire, and to lie with a pregnant woman was to incur a penalty of 2000 strokes. Among the modem Parsees a man must not lie with his wife after she is four months and ten days pregnant. Mohammedanism cannot be described as an ascetic religion, yet long and frequent periods of sexual absti¬ nence are enjoined. There must be no sexual intercourse during the whole of pregnancy, during suckling, during menstruation (and for eight days before and after), nor during the thirty days of the Ramedan fast. Other times of sexual abstinence are also prescribed; thus among the Mohammedan Yezidis of Mardin in northern Mesopotamia there must be no sexual intercourse on Wednesdays or Fridays. 1 In the early Christian Church many rules of sexual absti¬ nence still prevailed, similar to those usual among savages, though not for such prolonged periods. In Egbert’s Penitential, belong¬ ing to the ninth century, it is stated that a woman must abstain from intercourse with her husband three months after conception and for forty days after birth. There were a number of other occasions, including Lent, when a husband must not know his wife. 2 “Some canonists say,” remarks Jeremy Taylor, “that the Church forbids a mutual congression of married pairs upon fes¬ tival days. . . . The Council of Eliberis. commanded absti¬ nence from conjugal rights for three or four or seven days before the communion. Pope Liberius commanded the same during the whole time of Lent, supposing the fast is polluted by such congressions.” 3 l Heard, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Jan.-June, 1911, p. 210. The same rule is also observed by the Christians of this district. 2Haddon and Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, vol. iii, p. 423. 3 Jeremy Taylor, The Rule of Conscience, bk. iii, ch. iv, rule xx. III. Thus it would seem probable that, contrary to a belief once widely prevalent, the sexual instinct has increased rather than diminished with the growth of civilization. This fact was clear to the insight of Lucretius, though it has often been lost sight of since . 1 Yet even observation of animals might have sug¬ gested the real bearing of the facts. The higher breeds of cattle, it is said, require the male more often than the inferior breeds . 2 Thorough-bred horses soon reach sexual maturity, and I understand that since pains have been taken to improve cart¬ horses the sexual instincts of the mares have become less trust¬ worthy. There is certainly no doubt that in our domestic ani¬ mals generally, which live under what may be called civilized conditions, the sexual system and the sexual needs are more developed than in the wild species most closely related to them . 3 All observers seem to agree on this point, and it is sufficient to refer to the excellent summary of the question furnished by Heape in the study of "The ‘Sexual Season’ of Mammals,” to which reference has already been made. He remarks, more¬ over, that, "while the sexual activity of domestic animals and of wild animals in captivity may be more frequently exhibited, it is not so violent as is shown by animals in the wild state .” 4 So that, it would seem, the greater periodicity of the instinct in the wild state, alike in animals and in man, is associated with greater violence of the manifestations when they do ap- i Be Rerum Nature, v, 1016. aRaciborski ( Trait-6 de la Menstruation, p. 43) quotes the observa¬ tion of an experienced breeder of choice cattle to this effect. 3 “The organs which in the feral state,” as Adlerz remarks (Bio- logisches Centralblatt, No. 4, 1902; quoted in Science, May 16, 1902), “are continually exercised in a severe struggle for existence, ho not under domestication compete so closely with one another for the less needed nutriment. Hence, organs like the reproductive glands, which are not so directly implicated in self-preservation, are able to avail themselves of more food.” 4 Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, vol. xliv, 1900, d. 12, 31, 39. ’ P ( 275 ) 276 APPENDIX A. pear. Certain rodents, such as the rat and the mouse, are well known to possess both great reproductive power and marked sexual proclivities. Ileape suggests that this also is “due to the advantages derived from their intimate relations with the luxuries of civilization.” Heape recognizes that, as regards reproductive power, the same development may be traced in man: “It would seem highly probable that the reproductive power of man has increased with civilization, precisely as it may be increased in the lower animals by domestication; that the effect of a regular supply of good food, together with all the other stimulating factors available and exercised in modem civi¬ lized communities, has resulted in such great activity of the generative organs, and so great an increase in the supply of the reproductive elements, that conception in the healthy human female may be said to be possible almost at any time during the reproductive period.” “People of sense and reflection are most apt to have violent and constant passions,” wrote Mary Wollstonecraft, “and to be preyed on by them .” 1 It is that fact which leads to the greater importance of sexual phenomena among the civilized as com¬ pared to savages. The conditions of civilization increase the sexual instinct, which consequently tends to be more intimately connected with moral feelings. Morality is bound up with the development of the sexual instinct. The more casual and periodic character of the impulse in animals, since it involves greater sexual indifference, tends to favor a loose tie between the sexes, and hence is not favorable to the development of morals as we understand morals. In man the ever-present im¬ pulse of sex, idealizing each sex to the other sex, draws men and women together and holds them together. Foolish and igno¬ rant persons may deplore the full development which the sexual instinct has reached in civilized man; to a finer insight that development is seen to be indissolubly linked with all that is most poignant and most difficult, indeed, but also all that is best, in human life as we know it. l “Love,” in Thoughts on the Education of Daughters. APPENDIX B. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. It is a very remarkable fact that, although for many years past serious attempts have been made to elucidate the psychol¬ ogy of sexual perversions, little or no endeavor has been made to study the development of the normal sexual emotions. Nearly every writer seems either to take for granted that he and his readers are so familiar with all the facts of normal sex psychology that ary detailed statement is altogether uncalled for, or else he is content to write a few fragmentary remarks, mostly made np of miscellaneous extracts from anatomical, philosophical, and historical works. Yet it is as unreasonable to take normal phenomena for granted here as in any other region of science. A knowledge of such phenomena is as necessary here as physiology is to pathology or anatomy to surgery. So far from the facts of normal sex development, sex emotions, and sex needs being uni¬ form and constant, as is assumed by those who consider their discussion unnecessary, the range of variation within fairly nor¬ mal limits is immense, and it is impossible to meet with two individuals whose records are nearly identical. There are two fundamental reasons why the endeavor should be made to obtain a broad basis of clear information on the subject. In the first place, the normal phenomena give the key to the abnormal phenomena, and the majority of sexual perversions, including even those that are most repulsive, are but exaggerations of instincts and emotions that are germinal in normal human beings. In the second place, we cannot even know what is normal until we are acquainted with the sexual life of a large number of healthy individuals. And until we know the limits of normal sexuality we are not in position to lay down any reasonable rules of sexual hygiene. ( 277 ) 278 APPENDIX B. On these grounds I have for some time sought to obtain the sexual histories, and more especially the early histories, of men and women who, on prime, facie grounds, may fairly be considered, or are at all events by themselves and others con¬ sidered, ordinarily healthy and normal. There are many difficulties about such a task, difficulties which are sufficiently obvious. There is, first of all, the natural reticence to reveal facts of so intimately personal a character. There is the prevailing ignorance and unintelligence which leads to the phenomena being obscure to the subject himself. When the first difficulty has been overcome, and the second is non-existent, there is still a lack of sufficiently strong motive to undertake the record, as well as a failure to realize the value of such records. I have, however, received a large number of such histories, for the most part offered spontaneously with permission to make such further inquiries as I thought desir¬ able. Some of these histories are extremely interesting and instructive. In the present Appendix, and in a corresponding Appendix to the two following volumes of these Studies, I bring forward a varied selection of these narratives. In a few cases, it will be seen, the subjects are, to say the least, on the borderland of the abnormal, but they do not come before us as patients desiring treatment. They are playing their, usually active, sometimes even distinguished, part in the world, which knows nothing of their intimate histories. History I.—E. T. (I reproduce this history, written in the third person, as it reached my hands.) T.’s earliest recollections of ideas of a sexual character are vaguely associated with thoughts upon whipping inflicted on companions by their parents, and sometimes upon his own person. About the age of 7 T. occasionally depicted to himself the appearance of the bare nates and genitalia of boys during flagellation. Reflection upon whipping gave rise to slight curious sensations at the base of the abdomen and in the nerves of the sexual system. The sight of a boy being whipped upon the bare nates caused erection before the age of 9. He cannot account for these excitations, as at the time he had not learned the most rudimentary facts of sex. The spectacle of the boy’s nudity had no attraction for him, while the beating aroused his indignation against the person who administered it. T. knew a boy THE DEVELOPMENT OF TIIE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 279 and girl of about bis own age whose imaginations dwelt somewhat mor¬ bidly upon whipping. The three used to talk together about such chastisement, and the little girl liked to read “stories that had whippings in them.” None of these children delighted in cruelty; the fascination in the theme of castigation seemed to be in imagining the spectacle of the exposed nates, though actual witnessing of the whipping made them angry at the time. Accustomed to watch a young sister being bathed, T. had no dis¬ tinct curiosity concerning the differences in sex until the age of 9. About this time he asked his father where babies came from, and was told to be quiet. When he persisted in the inquiry his father threatened to box his ears. His mother told him subsequently that doctors brought babies to mothers. He credited the story so far as to carefully watch the doctor who came when his mother “was going to have a new baby,” in the hope of seeing a bundle in his arm. T. was 9 when he interrogated a servant-girl of 16 about babies and their origin. She laughed and said that one day she would tell him how children came. One Sunday this servant took T. for a country walk and initiated him in sexual intercourse, telling him he was too young to be a father, but that was the way babies were made. The girl took him into a field, saying she would show him how to do something which would make him “feel as though he was in heaven,” informing him that she had often done this with young men. She then succeeded in causing erection and instructed him how to act. His feeling at the time was one of disgust; the appearance and odor of the female gen¬ italia repelled him. Afterward, however, he wished to repeat the ex¬ perience with girls of his own age. Finding the boy unresponsive, the girl took the masculine position and embraced him with great passion. T. can recall the expression of the girl’s face, the perspiration on her forehead, and the whispered query whether it pleased him. The em¬ brace lasted for about ten minutes, when the girl said it had “done her good.” Later the same day they met a girl cousin of this servant about 10 or 12 years old. The three went to a lonely part of the sea¬ shore. The servant there suggested that T. should repeat the act with the little girl. T. was too shy, though the girl seemed quite willing and experienced. The older girl told the younger to keep watch a few yards away, while she again brought about intercourse in the same way. The servant told T. not to tell anyone. Intercourse with the servant was never repeated after that day; from shame he kept the promise for many years. After this episode T. began to speculate about sexual matters and to observe the coupling of dogs with newly acquired interest. At 10 years he often lay awake, listening to a woman of 25 singing to a piano 280 APPENDIX B. accompaniment. The woman’s voice seemed very beautiful, and so strongly impressed him that he fell in love with her and longed to embrace her sexually. This secret attachment was much more romantic than sensual, though the idea of embracing the woman seemed to T. a natural part of the romance. He was beginning to invest the sex with angelic qualities. The thought of his adventure with the servant no longer caused repulsion, but rather pleasure. He reflected that if he could meet the girl now he could be very fond of her and under¬ stand things better. At this time he had not masturbated, nor even heard of the practice. One day, while playing with a girl of his own age, he succeeded in overcoming her shyness and induced her to expose herself, at the same time uncovering his own sexual parts. On this occasion and once afterward he succeeded in penetrating the vulva. Both he and the girl experienced imperfect enjoyment. At,boarding-school, where he was sent at 10, T. learned the vulgar phrases for sexual organs and sexual acts, and acquired the habit of moderate masturbation. Coarse talk and indecent jests about the op¬ posite sex were common amusements of the playroom and dormitories. At first the obscene conversation was very distasteful; later he became more used to it, but thought it strange that sex intimacy should be a subject for ridicule and jest. He began to read love-stories and think much about girls. At the same time he learned the nature of “the sin of fornication,” and won¬ dered why it should be considered so heinous. Parts of the Bible con¬ demning intercourse between the unmarried alarmed him. Being of a serious as well as emotional and amorous nature, he became converted to evangelic belief. His mother warned him to beware of unclean com¬ panions at school. He tried to act as a Christian and think only pure thoughts about women. The talk, however, was always of girls and of being in love. His mind was often engrossed with amatory ideas of a poetic, sensuous nature, his sexual experiences having a firm hold on his imagination, while they gave him gratifying assurance of actual knowledge concerning things merely imagined by most of his com¬ panions. His health was vigorous and he keenly enjoyed all outdoor games and excelled in daring and schoolboy mischief. At 12 he fell deeply in love with a girl of corresponding age. He never felt any powerful sexual desire for his sweetheart, and never attempted anything but kissing and decorous caresses. He liked to walk and sit with the girl, to hold her hand, and stroke her soft hair. He felt real grief when separated from her. His thoughts of her were seldom sensual. A year or so afterward he had a temporary passion for a woman of 30, who used to flirt with him and allow kissing. T. thought her queen-like and very lovely, and wished to be her knight. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 281 One day he saw, for a moment, in a friend’s house, a dark, earnest¬ looking girl of 13, who made a very deep impression upon him, and, though he did not exchange a word with her, he often thought about her afterward. Five years later he met the dark girl again, and the pair were mutually drawn to one another. He proposed marriage and avowed a most desperate passion. A refusal on the plea of youth caused him the deepest misery. About eight years thereafter T. married the girl, and the marriage proved a very happy one for both. When he was 15 T. made the acquaintance of a pretty blonde of the same age. She was a high-spirited hoiden. They were soon close friends and later lovers. They wrote a number of letters to each other and exchanged locks of hair and presents. Their talk about love was unreserved. One day she told T. that she had been sexually embraced by a former lover, a boy of 16, hinting very plainly that she would like T. to embrace her. This amour lasted for about six months. The lovers had many opportunities for clandestine intercourse. They used to consummate their passion in a part of a wood they called “the bower.” Now and then one or the other would experience a pricking of conscience, but they were too passionately attached to each other to sever the intimacy. At length the girl began to dread the risk of conception and the intercourse ceased. Looking back upon this episode T. avers that the attachment and its physical expression seemed quite natural, poetic, and beautiful, though at times his religious principles condemned his conduct. He now thinks that the experience is by no means to be regretted either by the girl or himself. It was a whole¬ some youthful passion, as innocent as the mating of birds, and the insight which it gave to both of the hidden emotions of human nature was morally advantageous in after-life. T. believes that his amative precocity was due to the early awak¬ ening of sex feeling by the servant-girl. But he also believes that the love passion would have asserted itself early in any case, since he in¬ herits a warm temperament, had erectile power long before puberty, and has considerable seminal capacity. Having closely watched the effects of suppressed normal emotions and desires in youth at the time of pubescence, he maintains that such suppression is disastrous, causing unhealthy thoughts and leading to the formation of a habit of mas¬ turbation which may persist throughout life. He believes that tem¬ porary sexual intimacies between boys and girls under 20 from the period of puberty would be far less harmful than separation of the sexes until marriage, with its resultants: masturbation, hysteria, re¬ pressed and disordered functions in young women, seduction, prosti¬ tution, venereal affections, and many other evils. % 282 APPENDIX B. History II.—The following narrative was written by a married lady: “My mother (herself a very passionate and attractive woman) recognized the difficulty for English girls of getting satisfactorily mar¬ ried, and determined, if possible, to shield us from disappointment by turning our thoughts in a different direction. Theoretically the idea was perhaps good, but in practice it proved useless. The natural desires were there. Disappointment and disillusion followed their repression none the less surely for having altered their natural shape. I think the love I had for my mother was almost sexual, as to be with her was a keen pleasure, and to be long away from her an almost unendurable pain. She used to talk to us a good deal on all sorts of subjects, but she never troubled about education in the ordinary sense. W hen 9 years old I had been taught nothing except to read and write. She never forbade us to read anything, but if by accident we got hold of a book of which she did not approve she used to say: C I think that is rather a silly story, don’t you?’ We were so eager to come up to her standard of taste that we at once imagined we thought it silly, too. In the same way she discouraged ideas about love or marriage, not by suggesting there was anything wrong or improper about them, but by implying great contempt for girls who thought about lovers, etc. Up to the age of about 20 I had a vague general impression that love was very well for ordinary women, but far beneath the dignity of a some¬ what superior person like myself. To show how little it entered my thoughts I may add that, up to 17, I fancied a woman got a child by being kissed on the lips by a man. Hence all the fuss in novels about the kiss on the mouth. “When I was 9 years old I began to feel a great craving for scien¬ tific knowledge. A Child’s Guide to Science, which I discovered at a second-hand book-stall (and which, by the way, informed me that heat is due to a substance called caloric), became a constant companion. In order to learn about light and gravitation, I saved up my money and ordered (of all books) Newton’s Principia, shedding bitter tears when I found I could not understand a word of it. At the same time I was horribly ashamed of this desire for knowledge. I got such books as I could surreptitiously and hid them in odd corners. Why, I cannot imag¬ ine, as no one would have objected, but, on the contrary, I should have been helped to suitable books. “My sisters and I were all violently argumentative, but our quar¬ rels were all on abstract subjects. We saw little of other children and made no friendships, preferring each other’s society to that of outsiders. When I was about 10 a girl of the same age came to stay with us for a few days. When we went to bed the first night she asked me if I ever played with myself, whereupon I took a great dislike to her. No THE DEVELOPMENT OE THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 283 sexual ideas or feelings were excited. When still quite a child, how¬ ever, I had feelings of excitement which I now recognize as sexual. Such feelings always came to me in bed (at least I cannot remember them at any other time) and were generally accompanied by a grad¬ ually increasing desire to make water. For a long time I would not dare to get out of bed for fear of being scolded for staying awake, and only did so at last when actually compelled. In the mean time the sexual excitement increased also, and I believe I thought the latter was the result of the former, or, perhaps, rather, that both were the same thing. (This was when I was about 7 or 8 years old.) So far as I can recollect, the excitement did not recur when the desire to make water had been gratified. I seemed to remember wondering why think¬ ing of certain things (I can’t remember what these were) should make one want to urinate. (In later life I have found that, if the bladder is not emptied before coitus, pleasure is often more intense.) There were also feelings, which I now recognize as sexual, in connection with ideas of whipping. “As a child and girl I had very strong religious feelings (I should have now if I could believe in the reality of religion), which were absent in my sisters. These feelings were much the same as I experi¬ enced later sexually; I felt toward God what I imagined I should like to feel to my husband if I married. This, I fancy, is what usually oc¬ curs. At 14 I went to a boarding-school where there were seventy girls between 7 and 19. I think it goes to show that there is but very little sexual precocity among English girls that during the three years I stayed there I never heard a word the strictest mother would have objected to. One or two of the older girls were occasionally a little sentimental, but on no occasion did I hear the physical side of things touched upon. I think this is partly due to the amount of exercise we took. When picturing my childhood I always see myself racing about, jumping walls, climbing trees. In France and Italy I have been struck by the greater sedateness of Continental children. Our idea of naughtiness consisted chiefly in having suppers in our bedrooms and sliding down the banisters after being sent to bed. The first gratified our natural appetite, while the second supplied the necessary thrill in the fear of being caught. “I made no violent friendships with the other girls, but I became much attached to the French governess. She was 30, and a born teacher, very strict with all of us, and doubly so with me for fear of showing favoritism. But she was never unjust, and I was rather proud of her severity and took a certain pleasure in being punished by her, the punishment always taking the form of learning by heart, which I rather liked doing. So I had my thrill, excitement, I don’t quite know 284 APPENDIX B. what to call it, without any very great inconvenience to myself. Just before we left school the sexual instinct began to show itself in en¬ thusiasm for art with a capital A, Ouida’s novels being mainly respon¬ sible. My sister and I agreed that we would spend our lives traveling about France, Italy, and the Continent, generally a la Tricotrin , with a violin in one pocket and an Atravante Dante in the other. To do this satisfactorily to ourselves w r e must be artists, and I resolved to go in for music and become a second Liszt. When my father offered to take us to Italy, the artist’s Mecca, for a couple of years, we were wild with delight. We went, and disillusionment began. It may perhaps seem absurd, but we suffered acutely that first summer. Our villa was quite on the beach, the lowest of its flight of steps being washed by the Mediterranean. At the back were grounds w T hich seemed a paradise. Long alleys covered over with vines and carpeted with long grass and poppies, grassy slopes dotted with olives and ilex, roses everywhere, and almost every flower in profusion, with, at night, the fireflies and the heavy scents of syringa and orange blossoms. In the midst of every possible excitement to the senses there was one thing wanting, and we did not know what that was. “We attributed our restlessness and dissatisfaction to the slow progress in our artistic education, and consoled ourselves by thinking when once we had mastered the technical difficulties w r e should feel all right. And of course we did derive a very real pleasure from all the beauties of art and nature with which Italy abounds. “It seems to me, however, that the art craze is one of the modern phases of woman’s sexual life. When we were in Italy the great centers of the country were simply overrun with girls studying art, most of whom had very little talent, but who had mistaken the restlessness due to the first awakening of the sexual instinct for the divine flame of genius. In our case it did not matter, as we were not dependent upon our own exertions. But it must have been terribly hard for girls who had burned their boats and chosen art as a career, to have added to the repression of their natural desires the bitterness of knowing that in their chosen walk of life they were failures. The results as far as work goes might not be so bad if the passions, as in men, were occasionally gratified. It is the constant drudgery combined with the disappointment and finding that art alone docs not satisfy which is so paralyzing. Besides, sexual gratification is always followed by exaltation of the mental faculties, with, in my experience, no depressing reaction such as follows pleasure excited by mental causes alone. “At one time when living at the villa I met a man about 45, who took rather a fancy to me. I mention this because it woke me up; no emotion was excited, but I realized for the first time (I must have been THE DEVELOPMENT OF TIIE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 285 nearly 20) that I was no longer a child, and that a man could think of me in connection with love. It was only after this, and not imme¬ diately after, either, that men’s society began to have an interest for me, and that I began to think a man’s love would be a pleasant thing to possess, after all. “The sexual instinct, at any rate as regards consciousness, thus developed slowly and in what I believe to be a very usual sequence: religion, admiration for an older woman, and art. I am not sure that I have made quite enough of the first, yet I do not know that there is any more to say. There were very strong physical feelings connected with all these which were identical with those now connected with passion, but they were completely satisfied by the mental idea which excited them. “The first time I can remember feeling keen physical pleasure was when I was between 7 and 8 years old. I can’t recollect the cause, but I remember lying quite still in my little cot clasping the iron rails at the top. It may be said that this is hardly slow development, but I mean slow as regards (1) any connection of the idea with a man or (2) any physical means of excitation. “I have laid stress on my desire for knowledge, as I think my sexual feelings were affected by it. A great part of my feeling for my mother was due to the stores of information she appeared to possess. The omniscience of God was to me his most striking attribute. My French teacher’s capacity was her chief attraction. When, as a girl, I thought of marriage, I desired a man who ‘could explain things to me.’ One learns later to live one’s mental and sexual life separately to a great extent. But at 20 I could not have done so; given the opportunity, I should have made the mistake of Dorothea in Middle- march. “1 have spoken of the depressing after-effects of pleasure brought about by a purely mental cause, but I do not think this is the case in childhood and early youth. (Perhaps some women feel no such depres¬ sion afterward, and this may account for their coldness in regard to men.) This may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that it occurs much more rarely, and also it is perhaps a natural process before the sexual organs fully develop, and so not harmful. “I always find it difficult in expressing the different degrees of physical excitement even to myself, though I know exactly what I felt. As a child, from the time of the early experience already mentioned (about the age of 7 or 8), and as a young girl, the second stage (secretion of mucus) was always reached. The amount of secretion has always been excessive, but at first secretion only lasted a short time; later it began to last for several hours, or even sometimes the whole 286 APPENDIX B. night, if the natural gratification has been withheld for a long time (say, three months). I do not remember ever feeling the third stage (complete orgasm) until I saw the first man I fancied I cared for. I do not think that mental causes alone have ever produced more than the first two stages (general diffuse excitement and secretion). I have sometimes wondered whether I could produce the third mechanically, but I have a curious unreasonable repugnance to trying the experiment; it would seem to materialize it too much. As a child and a girl I was contented to arrive at the second stage, possibly because I did not realize that there was any other, and perhaps this is why I have ex¬ perienced no evil results. “In dreams the third stage seems to come suddenly without any leading up to it, either mental or physical, of which I am conscious. I do not, however - , remember having any such dreams before I was en¬ gaged. They came at a later period; even then, w’hen great pleasure was experienced, it came, as a rule, suddenly and sharply, with no dreams leading up to it. The dreams generally take a sad form (an Evangeline and Gabriel business), where one vainly seeks the person who eludes one. I have, however, sometimes had pleasurable dreams of men who were quite indifferent to me and of whom I never thought when awake. The impression on waking is so strong one could almost fancy one’s self really in love with them. I can quite understand falling in love with a person by dreaming of him in this way. “The first time I remember experiencing the third stage in waking moments was at a picnic, when the man, to whom I have before re¬ ferred as the first that I fancied I cared for, leaned against me acciden¬ tally in passing a plate or dish; but I was already in a violent state of excitement at being with him. There was no possibility of anything be¬ tween us, as he was married. If he guessed my feelings, they were never admitted, as I did my best to hide them. I never experienced this, except at the touch of some one I loved. (I think the saying about the woman ‘desiring the desire of the man’ is just about as true as most epigrams. It is the man’s personality alone which affects me. His feelings toward me are of—I was going to say—indifference, but at any rate quite secondary importance, and the gratification of my own vanity counts as nothing in such relations.) “As a rule, to reach even the second stage the exciting ideas must be associated with some particular person, except in the case of a story, where one identifies one’s self with one of the characters. In childhood and early youth it was, in the ease of religion, the idea of God and the presence and the personality of God which aroused my feelings and always seemed very vivid to me. In the case of my governess, my feelings were aroused in exactly the same way as later they would be THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 287 by one’s lover. In the art craze I am rather vague as to how it came about, but I think, as a rule, there was rather a craving for pleasure than pleasure itself. I do not remember ever thinking much about the physical feeling. It seemed as natural that a pleasant emotion should produce pleasant physical effects as that a painful one should cause tears. As a child, one takes so much for granted, and later on my mind was so much occupied with worrying about the truth of religion that I hardly thought enough about anything else to analyze it care¬ fully. “I may summarize my own feelings thus: First, exciting ideas alone produce, as a rule, merely the first stage of sexual excitement. Second, the same ideas connected with a particular person will produce the second stage. Third, the same may be said of the presence of the beloved person. Fourth, actual contact appears necessary for the third stage. If the first stage only be reached, the sensation is not pleasur¬ able in reality, or would not be but for its association. If pi’oduced, as I have sometimes found it to be, by a sense of mental incapacity, it is distinctly disagreeable, especially if one feels that the energy which might have been used in coping with the difficulty is being thus dis¬ sipated. If it be produced, as it may be, as the result of physical or mental restraint, it is also unpleasant unless the restraint were put upon one by a person one loves. Then, however, the second stage would probably be reached, but this would depend a good deal on one’s mood. If the first stage only were reached, I think it would be disagreeable; it would mean a conflict between one’s will and sexual feeling. Perhaps women who feel actual repugnance to the sexual act with a man they love have never gone beyond the first stage, when their dislike to it would be quite intelligible to me. ‘‘Some time after the life in Italy had come to an end I became engaged. There was considerable difficulty in the way of marriage, but we saw a good deal of each other. My fianct often dined with us, and we met every day. The result of seeing him so frequently was that I was kept in a constant state of strong, but suppressed, sexual excite¬ ment. This was particularly the case when we met in the evening and wandered about the moonlit garden together. When this had gone on about three months I began to experience a sense of discomfort after each of his visits. The abdomen seemed to swell with a feeling of full¬ ness and congestion; but, though these sensations were closely con¬ nected with the physical excitement, they were not sufficiently painful to cause me any alarm or make me endeavor to avoid their pleasurable cause. Tl^e symptoms got worse, however, and no longer passed off quickly as at first. The swelling increased; considerable pain and a dragged-down sensation resulted the moment I tried to walk even a 288 APPENDIX B. short distance. I was troubled with constant indigestion, weight in the chest, pain in the head and eyes, and continual slight diarrhea. This went on for about nine months, and then my fianc6 was called away from the neighborhood. After his depai'ture I got a trifle better, but the symptoms remained, though in less acute form. A few months later the engagement was broken off, and for some weeks I was se¬ verely ill with influenza and was on my back for several weeks. When I could get about a little, though very weak, all the swelling was gone, but pain returned whenever I tried to walk or stand for long. The indigestion and diarrhea were also very troublesome. I was treated for both by a physician, but without success. Next year I became engaged to my husband and was shortly after married. The indigestion and diarrhea disappeared soon after. The pain and drag¬ ging feeling in the abdomen bothered me much in walking or any kind of exercise. One day I came across a medical work, The Elements of Social Science, in which I found descriptions of symptoms like those I suffered from ascribed to uterine disease. I again applied to a doctor, telling him I thought there was displacement and possibly congestion. He confirmed my opinion and told me to wear a pessary. He ascribed the displacement to the relaxing climate, and said he did not think I should ever get quite right again. After the pessary had been placed in position every trace of pain, etc., left me. A year later I thought I would try and do without the pessary, and to my great satisfaction none of the old trials came back after its removal, in spite of much trouble, anxiety, sick nursing, and fatigue. I attribute the disorder entirely to violent sexual excitement which was not permitted its nat¬ ural gratification and relief. “I have reason to believe that suppression acts very injuriously on a woman’s mental capacity. When excitement is naturally relieved the mind turns of its own accord to another subject, but when sup¬ pressed it is unable to do this. Personally, in the latter event, I find the greatest difficulty in concentrating my thoughts, and mental effort becomes painful. Other women have complained to me of the same difficulty. I have tried mechanical mental work, such as solving arith¬ metical or algebraic problems, but it does no good; in fact, it seems only to increase the excitement. (I may remark here that my feelings are always very strong not only before and after the monthly period, but also during the time itself; very unfortunately, as, of course, they cannot then be gratified. This only applies to desire from within, as I am strongly susceptible to influences from without at any time.) There seems nothing to be done but to bow to the storm till it passes over. Anything I do during the time it lasts, even household work, is badly done. The brain seems to become addled for the time being, 289 THE DEVELOPMENT OF TIIE SEXUAL INSTINCT. while after gratification of desire it seems to attain an additional quickness and cleverness. Perhaps this cause contributes to the small amount of intellectual and artistic work done by women, admitting their natural inferiority to men in artistic impulse. A woman whose passions are satisfied generally has her strength sapped by maternity, Mlnle her attention is drawn from abstract ideas to her children.” History III.— B. states that his first sexual thoughts and acts were curiously connected with whipping. At 12 he and another boy used to beat each other witli a cricket bat upon the bare nates, and afterward indulge in mutual masturbation. He cannot remember the beginning of his sexual speculation as a child, nor how he learned mas¬ turbation. When he was 13 he used to discuss erotic matters with a schoolfellow who was in the habit of engaging in vulvar intercourse with a girl of his own age. The intercourse was practised on the way lome from school, and in a standing posture. B. embraced the girl in the same way. He is not interested in the psychological aspects of the sexual emotion. Although his sex passion was early kindled, he never had commerce with prostitutes. He thinks that his youthful experi¬ ences had no ill effect upon him morally, mentallv, or'physically. He practised masturbation in moderation till he married, at the age'of 31. History TV. “I can remember” (writes the subject) “trotting away as a youngster about 5 with another boy to ‘see a girl’s legs’; the idea emanated from the other boy, but I was vaguely interested. How or where we were going to see the object in question I do not remember nor anything further than the intention. When 6 or 7 I remember being put to bed with the nurse girl and feeling her bare arm with undoubted sexual excitement; I remember, too, gradually feeling along the arm very cautiously, fearing the girl would wake and being bitterly disap¬ pointed to find it was merely the arm. I am almost certain I had then no idea of sex, but the disappointment was actual. “These are the only early experiences of the sort I can remember. Y\ hen about 9 I had others. On the coast of the north of England, which had then very few visitors and seemed to me very remote, I lived in a farm-house and used to assist the girls of the farm in looking after young cattle. These girls certainly instilled sexual ideas, though I did not realize them with precision. They used to talk about things a good many of which, I can now see, I did not then understand as they did. - I liked to see these girls wading with their dresses tucked up. About this time I fell passionately in love with a girl cousin, but do not remember having any sensual ideas in regard to her. I cannot say that these early experiences had any influence on my later sexual develop¬ ment so far as I am consciously aware. I have always remembered them vaguely, never with sexual excitement. 19 290 APPENDIX B. “Sexual dreams took place first at about the age of 13; there was then emission and sensation in sleep. These were, however, not much associated with distinctly sexual dreams. All that I recall after them was the sensation, which, however, I did not even then absolutely local¬ ize. Masturbation was undoubtedly the direct result of these dreams. It was tried at first tentatively, out of curiosity to determine if the sen¬ sation of the dream could be so reproduced. Sexual dreams, such as I have described, occurred frequently, although I cannot say at what interval. I have never experienced the slightest attraction for the same SGX* ,J History V.—“My maternal grandfather” (writes the subject of this history) “was a small farmer who kept a few beagles and grey¬ hounds for hare-hunting. He had three daughters, one of whom be¬ came my mother. One of his sporting companions, a doctor of prof¬ ligate habits and a drunkard, seduced my mother at the age of 20. When her condition was discovered she had to flee from the violence of her father, and I was born some distance from her home. Aftei my grandfather’s death I was reared by my grandmother, and saw nothing of my mother until I was nearly 16; she had left the country in shame and disgrace. “I believe that in my heredity the transmission comes chiefly from my mother, who is now 58 years old. Although her life has been blame¬ less in every particular since her youthful indiscretion, she has never got over it.‘ I feel in my character a reflection of her overstrung condi¬ tion during pregnancy. “I can distinctly remember from the age of 9 years, and am sure that I had no sexual feelings before the age of 13, though always in the company of girls. I had many boyish passions for girls, always older than myself, but these were never accompanied by sexual desires. I deified all my sweethearts, and was satisfied if I got a flower, a handkerchief, or even a shred of clothing of my inamorata for the time being. These things gave me a strange idealistic emotion, but caused no sexual desire or erection. “At 13 a 26-year-old sister of a boy companion once sat down on a sheaf of corn so as to expose the mons veneris and enticed me to copulate. There was slight erection, and after the act had been con¬ tinued some time a pleasurable sensation of ejaculation, but without true emission. I had frequent relations with this woman after that. “About this time the farm servant of a neighbor taught me mastur¬ bation. The mistress of the farm, a thin, willowy, dark woman, the mother of several children, treated me with such familiarity as once to urinate in my presence, so that I saw her very hirsute mons veneris. From that moment I conceived a great passion for her, and used to THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 291 tremble as soon as I saw her. I had become well developed and virile, but, though I think she was a lustful woman, I never ventured to touch her. I found an extreme ecstasy in masturbating while gazing upon some article of her clothing. This gave me much greater sexual pleas¬ ure than actual connection with the ever-willing sister of my school¬ fellow. I think I loved the married woman best because the mons veneris was more covered witli hair. This has always had a peculiar attraction for me. Later, when accosted by prostitutes, I never would go with them unless I was as- sured the mons veneris was very hirsute. Never much addicted to masturbation, I derived no great enjoyment therefrom unless I had hair or part of the clothing of the woman with whom I was indulging in psychic coitus. At lo I left school and went to a large city to learn a business. At this time the sexual appetite was very strong. I frequently had intercourse with three women in one evening. ‘T have had but few lascivious dreams. In these the phantom partner was almost invariably a dead woman. (When about 8 I had seen the dead body of an aunt who died at 24.) hen 20 I went to London and took all the pleasure which came my way. I cared only for normal coitus. Offers of another type created disgust. I once allowed a woman to exhaust me sexually orally, but felt degraded thereby. Women with whom I had become very intimate often urged me to cumiilingus, but I could not do it. I have practised intermammary coitus a very few times. “At 26 I married a pure, gentle woman, after having for ten months before marriage led a life of celibacy. My wife died when I was 30, and for about eight months I lived a celibate life. Lascivious dreams sometimes occurred, but I invariably awoke before ejaculation. Eventually I gave way to the cravings of my strong sexual nature, but never wished for anything out of the usual except intercourse from be¬ hind. A woman with marked development of the nates has great at¬ traction for me. Solitary masturbation has for some time ceased, but a nude woman in the act of masturbation with her back to me gives me great pleasure. I am as strong sexually at 38 as I was at 20, only I never want women unless I am brought into actual contact A\ith them and they are hairy and have large pelvic development. I am in excellent health. Genitals are well developed, and I am clothed with hair from the chin to the genitals. My skull is dolichocephalic. I am violent and tenacious in temper, high-strung, and rapid in thought and action. My digestion is good, but I have a tendency to constipation. Occasionally I have a twinge of pain below the occipital region. 292 APPENDIX B. “My early views of women have changed; I no longer deify them, though I study them. I have known very sensual women living at home in respectable middle-class society. One, in particular, a girl of 18, after coitus used to excite me lingually. I have had a sweetheart who remained virgo Intacta. Had I seduced her, as I could have done, I should have lost all interest in her. I could never bear the presence of naked men, and would never go to a public swimming bath for that reason. I regard myself as a man of abnormally strong, but, on the whole, healthy and wholesome, sexual feelings. As a rule, I have coitus twice or oftener in one week and I practise withdrawal. I am a, total abstainer, and never could embrace a woman who smelled of drink.” History VI.—The writer of the following is a man of letters, married. “Quite early I remember a strange and romantic interest in the feminine. Certainly before I was 9 I had a strong affection for a little girl playmate; our family lost sight of hers, and I saw and heard nothing of her for sixteen years; then, hearing she was com¬ ing to town, I experienced quite a flutter of heart, so strong had been the impression caused at even the early age of our acquaintance. Hot that I mean to say I never wavered in between! Through the whole of my boyhood I remember persistent romantic interests in girls and women, whose smooth, fair faces and sweet voices exercised ever a subtle attraction over me. Before I was 12 I had picked out my future wife’ a dozen times at least! (A different one each time of course!) Curiosity as to the physical detail of sex and birth was singularly ab¬ sent. Possibly this was partly due to the fact that the only younger member of our family was born when I was but 4 years old. Grave, shy, and reserved, I was never taken into the counsels of prurient schoolmates. I was unaware that there was such discussion between them—though it is, I suppose, not probable that our school was exempt. I was a great reader, and when about 12 or 13 I came across a lefer- ence to an illegitimate child which puzzled me. Ere long, however, in my random and extensive reading I hit on a book that touched on phallicism, and I learned that there were male and female organs of generation. I had neither shame nor curiosity; I jumped to the conclu¬ sion that during close caresses somehow a subtle aroma arose from the man to fertilize the woman; I left the subject at this, satisfied, and had no inkling of the real intimacy of the embrace. “About 14, much interested in Bradlaugh, I bought both the Knowlton pamphlet and Mrs. Besant’s population book. I found the physical details in scientific language so dull that I could not peruse them. By reading the argumentative passages I learned that somehow (I knew not how) children could be produced or not produced as de- THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 293 sired; and in this stage of the matter it seemed to me so admirable that it should be so that I wondered why there should be cavil. “About this age my elder brother believed it to be his duty to tell me the secrets of sex; I remember his talking to me, while I, bored and uninterested, thought of something else. When he finished I had heard nothing. Remember, I felt no shame on the matter—none at all. I was simply bored. This I attribute to two things: first, my pre¬ ponderating interest in the romantic side of things; secondly (and this bears with it a strong moral), the feeling that the knowledge lag always uithin my grasp kept me from that curiosity which so oft consumes those who think it is hidden axcay from them-. “The changes of puberty came naturally and without startling rue. Even the fact of emissions—which took place during sleep at in¬ tervals, unaccompanied by dreams or by any physical prostration after¬ ward—has left on my memory no recollection of surprise; I knew it to be somehow connected with generation, but I had no physical trouble, and I am quite sure I did not bother further about it. The best pos¬ sible proof of this lies in the fact that my memory is a blank on the matter. At the age of 21 (I take this from a diary, so I know it is correct) I was still ignorant as to intrinsic fact. Then I pulled myself together and felt it was really time I learned the actual details of the matter. I went to a clever friend of mine and asked him to tell me all about it. He expressed himself astounded at my not knowing; and he had very great shyness about telling me. In fact, I had to drag facts out of him by a real cross-examination, during which he persist¬ ently marveled at my ignorance. Though he had a great deal of false shame about the matter, I had none at all. His revelations considerably surprised me, because I had no idea that there was actual intromission. When I came to reflect on what I had learned the fact of this close physical intimacy appealed to me as being quite poetic and beautiful between two lovers; and I have had no reason since to change my opinion. “Summary .— 1 . Romantic interest in girls and women commencing early and remaining persistently. “2. Knowledge before puberty of the fact that this interest was based on the all-important process of reproduction. “3. Absence of further physical curiosity even at puberty itself. “4. Knowledge ultimately acquired without shock. “The physical in sex has never been any bother to me, neither have I bothered about it. I have recognized it, frankly, and don’t see why I shouldn’t, but my unashamed recognition has probably been be¬ cause the merely physical is less absorbing to me than to most. Mental and emotional interest in passion has absorbed me greatly, but the 294 : APPENDIX B. merely physical has sunk into what I call its natural place of sub¬ ordination. Nature is kind. It is our ‘conspiracy of silence’ which tends to emphasize physical detail.” Histoby VII.—G. D., who is a doctor and a man of science, writes: “There is a strong history of gout on the paternal side. No history of alcohol, tubercle, brain trouble, or of the arthropathies. There is some reason to believe that two of my maternal aunts were sexually frigid, and perhaps this was true to a less extent of my mother, who had a contracted pelvis, necessitating the induction of labor at the eighth month of pregnancy. “About the age of 7 a German nursery governess, B., took charge of me, and 1 soon became devoted to her. I was then a delicate child, and used to suffer frequently from nightmare, waking up screaming and covered with sweat. When this happened, B. would sometimes take me into her bed and soothe me with kisses, etc. These I returned, and can remember that I was particularly fond of kissing her breasts. “About this time a girl cousin, A., about a year older than myself, was one of my most frequent playmates. I endeavored to monopolize her company and attention, and on this account often came to blows with C., a cousin rather younger than myself, who has since told me that he was then ‘in love’ with A. and ‘jealous’ of me. I believe I was really jealous and in love at the time, but cannot remember that anything in the nature of caresses took place between A. and myself. “Some time later, probably when I W'as about 9, something led up to B. saying that she was not built like I was, that she had no penis, etc. (I cannot remember my nursery term for penis.) I was incredulous, and demanded to be allowed to see if it was true; this was refused, and I made many plans to gratify my curiosity, such as slipping into her room when she was dressing, tipping up the chair she was sitting in, and trying to suddenly thrust my hand up under her skirts. I did not succeed in finding out, but have since thought that, although she did not allow me to attain the object of my efforts, the later game caused her pleasurable sensations. I regard these efforts as being prompted purely by curiosity; I had no feelings of warmth or irritations of the genitals, and I certainly never manipulated them, nor was I, as far as I can judge, an unusually prurient small boy. B. left when I was about 10, when I went to a preparatory school. “At 12 % I was sent to a public school, and was then told by my father the chief facts of sex and warned to avoid masturbation. My first wet dream took place when I was 14. Rather before this I had begun to suffer with severe intermittent testicular neuralgia which practically defied all treatment and continued on and off for four or five years, the attacks gradually becoming fewer and less severe. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 295 “When 15, circumstances compelled me to leave school and to live for t\\ o years at the seaside with no companions of my own age. I had, however, the run of a well-stocked library, and fished and collected insects energetically. “At 1G I made love to the trained nurse attending my mother, but, owing more, I think, to my timidity than to the austerity of her virtue, got no further than kissing. About this time wet dreams be¬ came incomcniently frequent; they would occur three or four times weekly, and resisted the stock remedies. At 17 I was advised to try connection. This I did, and found but little pleasure in the act, there being a strong esthetic objection to the ‘love that keeps awake for lure.’ “About this time I found in the United States Pharmacopoeia a remedy for my emissions, which have, however, always remained rather more frequent than those of the average individual, judging from the experience of my friends. Emissions are generally accompanied by lascivious dreams, but at times take place when I dream that I am hurrying to catch a train, or to micturate against time. “I have of late years (not noticed till after 20) observed that the dream accompanying emission is shorter; so that, whereas up to, say, 21 I generally performed the whole physiological act with my dream- charmer, I now almost invariably emit and awake before intromission has taken place. There has been no alternation comparable to this in the performance of the act while I am awake. “As regards my physique I should mention that all my reflexes are very brisk, though I am only slightly ticklish in the ordinary sense of the term. I sweat easily and am very shy, not only with women, but with any strangers. I have, however, trained myself not to show this. About averagely passionate, I should say, and extremely critical where women are concerned, the latter quality often keeping me chaste for months at a time.” Histoby VIII.—“When I was about 8 years old” (states the lady who is the subject of the present observation) “I remember that, with several other children, we used to play in an old garden at being father and mother, unfastening our drawers and bringing the sexual parts to¬ gether, as we imagined married people to do, but no sexual feelings were aroused, nor did the boys have erections.” When about 10 years old she became conscious of a pleasurable sensation associated with the smell of leather, which has ever since persisted. At that age she vas sometimes left to wait in the office of a wholesale business house full of leather-bound ledgers. She did not then notice the sensation particularly, and was certainly not conscious of any connection with sexual emotion. Menstruation was established at 13 y 2 years. Distinct 29 6 APPENDIX B. sexual feelings were first observed a few months later. The first feel¬ ings of love which I ever felt were at the age of 14 for a nice, manly boy of my own age, who often came to our house. He liked me, but was not in love with me. It was very seldom that he would sit by me and hold my hand, as I wished him. This went on till I was about 17, w r hen he went to the university. After his first term he came back and was then attracted to me; but, though I loved him very much, I was too proud to show it. When he tried to kiss me, I resisted, though I longed for it. Thinking I was greatly offended, he apologized, which only made me angry. All these years I was worshiping at his shrine and mixed him up with all my ideas of life.” Whenever she was near him she experienced physical sensations, with moistening of the vulva. This continued till she was about 20, but the object of these emotions never again attempted any advances. At 19 she became engaged to someone else. At the beginning she was physically indifferent to her lover, but when he first kissed her she became greatly excited. The engagement, however, was soon broken off from absence of strong affection on either side and chiefly, it would seem, from the cooling of the lover’s ardor. She thinks he would have been more strongly attached to her if she had been colder to him, or pretended to be, instead of responding with simplicity and frankness. During the next few years little occurred. She was working hard, and her amusements would mostly, she says, be regarded as rather childish. She "was extremely fond of dancing, and she was always pleased when anyone paid her attention. She was frequently conscious of sexual feelings, sometimes tormented by them, and she regarded this as something to be ashamed of. The constant longing for lo\e vas affected little or not at all by hard work. “At about this time I was very fond of abandoning myself to day-dreams. I -was very glad if I could get everyone out of the house and lie on an easy chair or the bed. I liked especially to read poetry, all the more if I did not quite understand it. This would lead me on to all sorts of dreams of love, which, however, never went beyond the preliminaries of actual love— as that was all I then knew of love.” The only climax to her dream of love was founded on a piece of information volunteered by a married woman many years earlier, -when she was about 12. This lady—evi¬ dently agreeing with Rousseau (who in Emile commended the mother’s reply to the child’s query whence babies come, “Les femmes les pissent, mon enfant, avec des grands douleurs”) that the unknown should first be explained to the young in terms of the known—told her that the husband micturated into the wife. She therefore used to imagine a lover who would bear her away into a forest and do this on her as she lay at the foot of a tree. (At a later date she accidentally dis- THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 297 covered that a full bladder tended to enhance sexual feelings, and occasionally resorted to this physical measure of heightening excite¬ ment.) All the physical sensations of sexual desire were called out by these day-dreams, with abundant secretion, but never the orgasm. Her reveries never led to masturbation or to allied manifestations, which have never taken place. Such a method of relief has, indeed, never offered any temptation to her and she doubts even its possibility in her case. (At a later period of life, however, at the age of 31, masturbation began and was practised at intervals.) At the same time she remarks that, while no orgasm (of which, indeed, she was then ignorant) ever occurred, the sexual excitement produced by the day-dreams was suffi¬ ciently great to cause a feeling of relief afterward. These day-dreams were the only way in which the sexual erethism was discharged. She cannot recall having erotic dreams or any sexual manifestations during sleep. Spontaneous sexual excitement was present a few days before 'menstruation, and fairly marked during and immediately after the period. It also tended to recur in the middle of the intermenstrual period. The pleasurable sensation connected with the smell of leather became more marked as she approached adult age. It was especially pronounced about the age of 24, and the sexual emotion it produced (with moisture of the vulva) was then clearly conscious. No other odor produced this effect in such a marked degree. It was often asso¬ ciated w 7 ith leather bags, but not with boots, though on rubbing the leather of shoes she found that this odor was given out. She cannot account for its origin, and does not connect any association with it. It never affected her conduct or led to fetichistic habits. Some other odors affect her in the same way, though not to the same degree as leather. This is more especially the case with some flowers, especially white flowers with heavy odors, like gardenias. Many flowers, on the other hand, like primroses, seem rather opposed to sex effect, too fresh, though stimulating to the mind. Some artificial scents tend to produce sexual effects also. Personal odors have no influence of this kind. (At a later period the sexual influence of personal odors was occasionally experienced, but the present history deals only with the period before marriage.) She believes that most beautiful things, however unconnected with sex, have a tendency to produce distinctively sexual feelings in a faint degree, although sometimes more marked, with secretion. She has, how¬ ever, never experienced homosexual feeling, and, on first consideration, was inclined to believe that the sight of a beautiful woman had no sexual effect on her, though she could quite understand such an effect. 298 APPENDIX B. Subsequently, on recalling as well as observing her experiences more carefully, she found that a lovely woman’s face and figure (especially on one occasion the very graceful figure of a beautiful fairy in a ballet) produced distinct sexual sensations (with mucous emission). Music, however, has strongly emotional effects upon her, and she cannot recall that she ever felt any equally powerful influence of this kind in the absence of music. Looking back on the development of her feelings she finds that, though in some respects they may have been slow, they were simple, natural, spontaneous, and correspond to “the dawning and progress which go on in the development of every girl. While it is going on in actual fact, the girl does not know T or bother herself about trying to understand it. Afterward it seems quite clear and simple. Full occupa¬ tion of the brain, and hands too, while it does not do away with desire, is a great help and safeguard to a growing girl, when combined with proper information about herself and her relation to man the animal, so that she may realize where she is and how to choose the right man —though under the best conditions failure may occur.” Histoby IX.—The subject belongs to a large family having some neurotic members; she spent her early life on a large farm. She is vigorous and energetic, has intellectual tastes, and is accustomed to think for herself, from unconventional standpoints, on many subjects. Her parents were very religious, and not, she thinks, of sensual tem¬ perament. Her own early life was free from associations of a sexual character, and she can recall little that now seems to be significant in this respect. She remembers that in childhood and for some time later she believed that children were born through the navel. Her activities went chiefly into humanitarian and utopian directions, and she cherished ideas of a large, healthy, free life, untrammeled by civilization. She regards herself as very passionate, but her sexual emotions appear to have developed very slowly and have been somewhat intellectualized. After reaching adult life she has formed several successive relationships with men to whom she has been attracted by affinity in temperament, in intellectual views, and in tastes. These relationships have usually been followed by some degree of disillusion, and so have been dissolved. She does not believe in legal marriage, though under fitting circum¬ stances she would much like to have a child. She never masturbated until the age of 27. At that time a mar¬ ried friend told her that such a thing could be done. She found it gave her decided pleasure, indeed, more than coitus had ever given her ex¬ cept with one man. She has never practised it to excess, only at rare intervals, and is of the opinion that it is decidedly beneficial when thus moderately indulged in. She has sometimes found, for instance, that. THE DEVELOPMENT OF TIIE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 299 aftei the mental excitement produced by delivering a lecture, sleep would be impossible if masturbation were not resorted to as a sedative to relieve the tension. Spontaneous sexual excitement is strongest just before the monthly period. Definite sexual dreams and sexual excitement during sleep have not occurred except possibly on one or two occasions. She has from girlhood experienced erotic day-dreams, imagining love-stories of which she herself was the heroine; the climax of these stories has developed with her own developing knowledge of sexual matters. SKe is not inverted, and has never been in love with a woman. She finds, however, that a beautiful woman is distinctly a sexual ex¬ citation, calling out definite physical manifestations of sexual emotion. She explains this by saying that she thinks she instinctively puts her¬ self in the place of a man and feels as it seems to her a man would feel. She finds that music excites the sexual emotions, as well as rnanv scents, whether of flowers, the personal odor of the beloved person, or artificial perfumes. Histoby X. —The subject is of German extraction on both sides. The father is of marked intellectual tastes, as also is she herself. There is no unhealthy strain in the family so far as she is aware, though they all have very strong passions. She is well developed, healthy, vigorous, and athletic, any trouble to which she is subject being mainly due to overwork. Looking back on her childhood, she can now see various sexual manifestations occurring at a period when she was quite ignorant of sex matters. “The very first,” she writes, “was at the age of 6. I re¬ member once sitting astride a banister while my parents were waiting for me outside. I distinctly remember a pleasurable sensation—prob¬ ably in part due to a physical feeling—in the thought of staying there when I knew I ought to have run out to them. From that year till the age of 10 I simply reveled in the idea of being tortured. I went gladly to bed every night to imagine myself a slave, chained, beaten, made to carry loads and do ignominious work. One of my imaginings, I remember, was that I was chained to a moldering skeleton.” As she grew older these fancies were discontinued. At the same time there was a trace of sadistic tendency: “I used to frighten and tease a young child, driven to it by an irresistible impulse, and experiencing a certain pleasurable feeling in so doing. But this, I am glad to say, was rare, as I hate all cruelty.” One of her favorite imaginings as a child was that she was a boy, and especially that she was a knight rescuing damsels in distress. She 300 APPENDIX B. was not fond of girls’ occupations, and has always had a sort of chiv- alrous feeling toward women. “When I first heard of the sexual act,” she writes, “it appeared to me so absurd that I took little notice. About the age of 10 I dis¬ cussed it a good deal with other girls, and we used to play childishly indecent games—out of pure mischief and not from any definite physical feeling.” About a year after menstruation was established she accidentally discovered the act of masturbation by leaning over a table. “I dis¬ covered it naturally; no one taught me; and the very naturalness of the impulse that led me to it often made me in later years question the harmfulness.” Both her sisters masturbated from a very early age, but not, to her knowledge, her brother. The practice of masturbation was continued. “For many years, imbued w'ith the old ideas of moral¬ ity, I struggled against it in vain. The sight of animals copulating, the perusal of various books (Shakespeare, Rabelais, Gautier’s Made¬ moiselle de Maupin, etc.), the sight of the nude in some Bacchanalian pictures (such as Rubens’s), all aroused passion. Coexistent with this —perhaps (thovigh I doubt it) due to it—arose a disgust for normal intercourse. I fell in love and enjoyed kisses, etc., but the mere thought of anything beyond disgusted me. Had my lover suggested such a thing I would have lost all love for him. But all this time I went on masturbating, though as seldom as possible and without thought of my lover. Love was to me a thing ideal and quite apart from lust, and I still think that it is false to try to connect the two. I fear that even now, if I fell in love, sexual intercourse would break the charm. At the age of 18 I came across Tolstoy’s Kreutser Sonata and was over¬ joyed to find all I had thought written down there. Gradually, through seeing a friend happily married, I have grown to a more normal view of things. I am very critical of men and have never met one liberal- minded and just enough to please me. Perhaps if I did I might take a perfectly healthy view of things.” In course of time various devices had been adopted to heighten sexual excitement when indulging in masturbation. Thus, for instance, she found that the effects of sexual excitement are increased by keep¬ ing the bladder full. But the chief method which she had devised for heightening and prolonging the preliminary excitement consisted in wearing tight stays (as a rule, she wears loose stays) and in painting her face. She cannot herself explain this. Self-excitement is completed by friction, or sometimes by the introduction of a piece of wood into the vagina. She finds that, the more frequently she masturbates, the more easily she is excited. Spontaneous sexual feeling is strongest before and after the menstrual period; not so much so during the periods. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 301 There are various faint traces of homosexuality, it may be gath¬ ered, in the history of this subject’s sexual development. Recently these have come to a climax in the formation of a homosexual relationship with a girl friend. This relationship has given her great pleasure and satisfaction. She does not, however, regard herself as being a really inverted person. There have been vivid sexual dreams from about 17 (apparently about the period of the relationship with the lover). These dreams have not, however, had special reference to persons of either sex. Apart from the influence of books and pictures already mentioned, she remarks that she is sexually affected by the personal odor of a beloved person, but is not consciously affected by any other odors. History XI.—Widower, aged 40 years. Surgeon. “My experience of sexual matters began early. When I was about 10 years of age a boy friend who was staying with us told me that his sister made him uncover his person, with which she played and encouraged him to do the same for her. He said it was great fun, and suggested that we should take two of my sisters into an old barn and repeat his experi¬ ence on them. This we did, and tried all we could to have connection with them; they were nothing loath and did all they could to help us, but nothing was effected and I experienced no pleasure in it. “When I went back to school I attracted the attention of one of the big boys who slept in the same room with me; he came into my bed and began to play with my member, saying that it was the usual thing to do and would give me pleasure. I did not feel any pleasure, but I liked the attention, and rather enjoyed playing with his member, which was of large size, and surrounded by thick pubic hair. After I had played with him for some time I was surprised at his having an emission of sticky matter. Afterward he rubbed me again, saying that if I let him do it long enough he would produce the same substance from me. This he failed to do, however, though he rubbed me long and frequently, on that and many other occasions. I was very disappointed at not being able to have an emission, and on every occasion that offered I endeavored to excite myself to the extent of compassing this. T used to ask to go out of school two or three times a day, and retired to the closet, where I practised on myself most diligently, but to no purpose, at that time, though I began to have pleasurable emotions in the act. “When I went home for the holidays I took a great interest in one of my father’s maids, whose legs I felt as she ran upstairs one day. I was in great fear that she would complain of what I had done, but I was delighted to find that she did nothing of the sort; on the con¬ trary, she took to kissing and fondling me, calling me her sweetheart and saying that I was a forward boy. This encouraged me greatly, and 303 APPENDIX B. I was not long in getting to more intimate relations with her. She called me into her room one day when we were alone in the house, she being in a half-dressed condition, and put me on the bed and laid herself on me, kissing me passionately on the mouth. She next unbuttoned my trousers and fondled and kissed my member, and directed my hand to her privates. I became very much excited and trembled violently, but was able to do for her what she wanted in the way of masturba¬ tion until she became wet. After this we had many meetings in which we embraced and she let me introduce my member until she had satisfied herself, though I was too young to have an emission. “On return to school I practised mutual masturbation with several of my schoolfellows, and finally, at the age of 14 years, had my first real emission. I was greatly pleased thereat, and, with this and the growth of hair which began to show on my pubis, began to feel myself quite a man. I loved lying in the arms of another boy, pressing against his body, and fondling his person and being fondled by him in return. We always finished up with mutual masturbation. We never indulged in any unnatural connections. “After leaving school I had no opportunity of indulging in rela¬ tions with my own sex, and, indeed, did not wish for such, as I became a slave to the charms of the other sex, and passed most of my time in either enjoying, or planning to enjoy, love passages with them. “The sight of a woman’s limbs or bust, especially if partly hidden by pretty underclothing, and the more so if seen by stealth, was suffi¬ cient to give a lustful feeling and a violent erection, accompanied by palpitation of the heart and throbbing in the head. “I had frequent coitus at the age of 17, as well as masturbating regularly. I liked to perform masturbation on a girl, even more than I liked having connection with her; and this was especially so in the case of girls who had never had masturbation practised on them before; I loved to see the look of surprised pleasure appear on their faces as they felt the delightful and novel sensation. “To gratify this desire I persuaded dozens of girls to allow me to take liberties with them, and it would surprise you to learn what a number of girls, many of them in good social position, permitted me the liberty I desired, though the supply was never equal to my demand. “With a view to enlarging my opportunities T took up the study of medicine as a profession, and reveled in the chances it gave of being on intimate sexual terms with many who would have been, otherwise, out of my reach. “At the age of 25 I married the daughter of an officer, a beautiful girl with a fully developed figure and an amorous disposition. While engaged, we used to pass hours wrapped in each other’s arms, practising THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 303 mutual masturbation, or I would kiss her passionately on the mouth, introducing my tongue into her mouth at intervals, with the invariable result that I had an emission and she went off into sighs and shivers. After marriage we practised all sorts of fancy coitus, coitus reservatus, etc., and rarely passed twenty-four hours without two conjunctions, until she got far on in the family way, and our play had to cease for a while. “During this interval I went to stay at the house of an old school¬ fellow, who had been one of my lovers of days gone by. It happened that on account of the number of guests staying in the house the bed accommodation was somewhat scanty, and I agreed to share my friend’s bedroom. The sight of his naked body as he undressed gave rise to lustful feelings in me; and when he had turned out the light I stole across to his bed and got in beside him. He made no objection, and we passed the night in mutual masturbation and embraces, coitus inter femora, etc. I was surprised to find how much I preferred this state of affairs to coitus with my wife, and determined to enjoy the occasion to the full. e passed a fortnight together in the above fashion, and, though I afterward went back and did my duty by my wife, I never took the same pleasure in her again, and when she died, five years later, I felt no inclination to contract another marriage, but devoted myself heart and soul to my old school-friend, with whom I continued tender relations until his death by accident last year. Since then I have lost all interest in life.” “The patient,” writes the well-known alienist to whom I am in¬ debted for the above history, “consulted me lately. I found him a fairly healthy man to look at, suffering from some neurasthenia and a tendency to melancholia. Generative organs large, one testicle shows some wast¬ ing* pubic hair abundant, form of body distinctly masculine; tempera¬ ment neurotic. He improved under treatment, and, after seeing me three times and writing out the above history, came no more.” History XII.—-Mrs. B., aged 32. Father’s family normal; mother’s family clever, eccentric, somewhat neuropathic. She is her¬ self normal, good-looking, usually healthy, highly intelligent, and with much practical ability, though at some periods of life, and especially in childhood, she has shared to some extent in the high-strung and supersensitive temperament of her mother’s family. As a child she was sometimes spoiled and sometimes cuffed, and suffered tortures from nervousness. She has, however, acquired a large measure of self- control. The first sensations which she now recognizes as sexual were ex¬ perienced at the age of 3, when her mother gave her an injection; after¬ ward she declared herself unable to relieve her bowels naturally in 304 APPENDIX B. order to obtain a repetition of this experience, which was several times repeated. At the age of 7 a man pursued her with attentions and at¬ tempted to take liberties, but she rejected his advances in terror; four years later another man attempted to assault her, but she resisted vigorously, struck him, and escaped by running. Neither of these sexual attempts appears to have left any serious permanent impression on the child’s mind. At the age of 11, when her mother was giving her a bath, the sensation of her mother’s fingers touching her private parts gave her what she now knows to be sexual feelings, and a year later when taking her bath she would pour hot water on to the sexual region in order to cause these sensations; this did not lead to masturbation, but she had a vague idea that it was “wrong.” At the age of 12 menstruation began; she suffered very severely from dysmenorrhea, the period sometimes lasting for ten days, and the pain being often extreme. She was not treated for this condition, her mother being of opinion that she would outgrow it. From the age of 14 or 15 until 23, or about the period of her marriage, she suffered from anemia. She had little curiosity about sexual matters; her mother wished that she should always come to her for information about things she became acquainted with as to the general facts of sex; she did not, however, know definitely the facts of copulation until her marriage. She knew nothing of erection or semen, and thought that when a man and woman placed their organs together a child resulted. She hated talking about these subjects indecently, and would not listen to the sexual con¬ versation of her schoolfellows. She never felt any homosexual attrac¬ tion. Once another girl w r as much in love with her, but she despised and disliked her attentions; again, when a girl much older than herself, a friend of her mother’s, slept with her and made advances, she repelled her and refused to sleep with her again. She always got on well with men, and men were attracted to her. She was direct and sincere, without undue modesty. But she never allowed men to touch her or kiss her. She was a good dancer, and fond of dancing, but denies that it ever led to sexual feelings. She never felt any sexual attraction for a man until, at the age of 20, she fell in love with her future husband five years or more before marriage. At this period she began to feel vague discomfort, which she knew to be localized near her sexual organs. She was aware, in a dim W’ay, that it was connected with her love, and was of a sexual nature. But there was no definite idea of sexual intercourse. She felt nervous and depressed. If she had been asked to state what would relieve her, she could only have said B.’s presence and tenderness. A few days before 305 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. he declared his love she experienced the nearest approach to sexual feeling she had ever had. It was summer and, with B. and some of her family, she had gone on a little expedition. One evening, in the train aftei a days excursion, B. took her hand (unperceived by the others) and held it for some time. This aroused the strongest emotions in her; she closed her eyes, and, though she was not at the time aware that her sensations were localized in her sexual organs, she thinks, in the lio-ht of subsequent knowledge, that she then experienced the orgasm. During the engagement, which lasted between two and three years, circumstances prevented frequent meetings. B. would kiss her/ suck her nipples, which became erect, and lie on her. She allowed him to take these liberties, feeling that if she refused him all satisfaction he might have relations with other women. She still felt no definite desire for contact of the sexual organs. She longed rather to be em- biaced and kissed, and to lie in her lover’s arms all night. A few months before marriage, however, she masturbated occasionally, just before or just after menstruation, imagining, while doing it, that she was in her lover’s arms. The act was usually followed by a sick feeling. Just before marriage she underwent an operation" for the relief of the dysmenorrhea. She was somewhat shocked and sickened by the experiences of the wedding night. It seemed to her that her husband approached her with the violence of an animal, and there was some difficulty in effecting entrance. Coitus, though incomplete, took place some seven times on this first night. The bleeding from rupture of the hymen continued, so that for two days she had to wear a towel. For two months subsequently there was great pain during intercourse^ although she suppressed the indications of this. There were several children born of the marriage and for some years she lived happily, on the whole, with her husband, notwithstanding various hardships and difficulties and some incompatibility of temper. As regards her sexual feelings she considers, from what other women have told her, that her feelings are, if anything, stronger than the average. The orgasm, however, was not fully developed until about five years after marriage. Sexual feeling is most pronounced before, during, and after the menstrual period, more especially before and about the third day (the period usually lasts from five to seven days). There is more sexual desire during pregnancy, especially toward the end, than at any other time. She never refused normal intercourse to her husband, but any abnormal or perverted method of sexual gratification is repellent. She was awakened one night about the third month of pregnancy by her husband inserting his penis in ore; the child was born with palate defect and she is herself inclined to believe that this incident was the cause of the defect. Though she desires normal inter- 20 306 APPENDIX B. course, she has seldom obtained complete gratification. For a long time she disliked seeing or touching the penis, and the feel, and especially the smell, of the semen produced nausea and even vomiting. (She has a very delicate sense of smell as well as of taste; though fond of the scent of flowers, no sexual feelings are thus aroused.) Withdrawal an the use of condoms are unsatisfactory to her, and mutual masturbation gives no relief and produces headache. Feelings of friendship for her husband have been most potent in arousing the sexual emotions, and she has had most pleasure in intercourse after a day spent in bicycling together. She has been for many months at a time without sexual intercourse, and during such periods has suffered much from pain in the head; this, however, she has now completely surmounted. She event¬ ually discovered that her husband’s abstinence from marital inter¬ course was due to infidelity. This led to a definite separation. She still occasionally experiences sexual desire, but has no inclination to mastur¬ bate. Her life is full and busy, affording ample scope for her energies and intelligence; moreover, she has her children to train and educate. She herself believes that her sexual life is at an end. History XIII.—G. R., army officer. “I am 35 years of age. My parents married at the ages of 38 and 25, and my father is now 84 and my mother 71; both are particularly strong and healthy in body and mind. I am of old lineage on both sides, and know of no disease, defect, or abnormality among any of my ancestors or relations, except that my mother’s family has a slight tendency to drink and excess, the present members of it all being considered eccentric. I have one brother and one sister living (brother unmarried, sister with several children) and am the youngest of a family of five. My brother is abnormal, but I don’t know exactly in what way or from what cause. I have a strong suspicion that he masturbates to excess. My father is artistic and my mother musical. I have no aptitude for either, but appreciate both enormously, though not until about ten years ago. My principal reading is religion, science, and philosophy, with an occasional standard novel, or a modern novel of the ‘improper’ type by way of relaxation. I be¬ came a convinced and militant rationalist about five years ago, but have been an unbeliever since I left school. I was anemic and threatened with bowel complaint at the age of 7, and was in consequence taken abroad for my health. I am now strong and vigorous, with great powers of endurance, and enjoy all forms of sport and exercise, par¬ ticularly hunting, pig-sticking, and polo. I drink a left, and am never fitter than when eating, drinking, and taking exercise in what most people would call excess. It takes more alcohol than I can hold to make me drunk when in England; but not so in the East. I have been told that I am very good-looking. the development of the sexual instinct. 307 zlzxit™ xz:i =- 5 r s s: xr to wT X” Xe?rep^^2ir°^rd m ^“tTr X ^ ““'I l e XeV a , s,K ™°™^y I took .» interest in my own penis. I used t0 t £!° r L to an the anus as it would go, and got a vague satisfaction from it I went S uX tiferTtr 11001 at ***-' n - 1 “'' i "= pXusiyXd by my mother of the manner of birth of men and animal, of which T he S ?a« ‘ Sn0T /r t She made ”» of the p,’,rt taken by t e father, and I never thought about it. Even then I was left with e impression that one was born through the navel. I was initiated * „ h ,°° ’ nnd used *° handIe ‘he penis of the hoy who told me ‘ On ^vera oecasmns f did fellatio for him, and liked it,'but he never offered •o it IZZtr 7’ TV dra,t thi " k he satisfactionTut . ooon after this I became conscious of pleasurable sensation* XtifXyseT tTat St ° maCl ' ereeti ° n ' a " d USCd «*<«i»nally to was ‘wiek^and L^o’ Can ”* for «hool tradition that it ‘ ba( * for one * 0° one occasion, when talking at ni»ht with another boy, we compared our organs, both in erection and I then or the first time thought of trying what I had heard vaguely mentioned viz., two boys playing at man and woman. I lav on hL !? ’ perns on his stomach and almost at once had an orgasm with emission d experienced acute pleasure, though both he and I supposed that T had involuntarily micturated. I was 13 when this happened I did it :;™ ruX—’i' z r^r ber x r»-* r ilcr hoys and had a grelt £ ZZfcTZZ :iz “ “khr r z jirss ‘d'xridVy tie t other hn an,)t Of the whole seho. g wL e^ftnaVtad Z^ y '^VJZ I saw more of ,t because I was attracted by it, and that other schol 308 APPENDIX B. re the same really. Things involving certain expulsion if found out wL done Tore or less in public, and I have myself openly got into bed with or masturbated other boys, and on more than one owaonh helped forcibly to masturbate small boys or to hold them whileothe hadlSon with thorn, the idea of the last two acts being: hat tie boy would thereby he seduced and become available for and will g perform, homosexuality. Before I became big enough to have b y myself I masturbated frequently (on one occasrort threei tunes m the day), and invariably by lying on my stomach without the use^ hands In having connection with other boys I use the thighs or on the stomach, and I never heard of any other way at that school. Pccdicatio would disgust me, and, moreover, would depme me of the principal pleasure of intercourse, viz., the feeling o jmg ace ffee and stomach to stomach. Of course, the satisfaction used to be mutual, but, though good-looking, I was never the passive pai y on }, lil-e some small boys who might be called professionals and whom I usedto paylr their services. I went back after I had left and had a boy in the dark whom I had never seen before, having been told that he was all right. I used to have a very genuine affection for any P^ty t my pleasure, though I took delight in torturing one in particular but Z whatReason I cannot say. For one boy I developed a deep love which lasted Ion" after we had left school and had ceased all sexual "of was as strong as anything I have ever el., “I don’t remember whether it was while I was at school or later that I first be"an again to take a sexual interest in animals. I use masturbate a good deal and was always trying to find new ways of doing it and new substances to lie on. It was while teeling the vulva of a y 0ung mare that the brilliant thought struck me of trying to copulate with her, and thus getting the advantage of the soft vagina. It - forded me great satisfaction and I had an emission though I did not then nor at any other time with any other animal, succeed m pen ™ttag properly. I afterward did the same with other mares and with a certain cow whenever I got a safe opportunity, which was not as often as I could have wished. I have not had connection with an an.ma for about ten years, hut would have no objection to doing so and feel sure I could perform the act properly now. After I left school at 1« , occasionally had longings for boys, but it was the exception and not the rule I continued to masturbate, but not to excess, and used to make ineffectual efforts to stop it, but never succeeded for very long, ''hen 1 was confirmed, at the age of 15, I became intensely religious and was so remorseful at my first lapse from virtue that I burnt my leg[with a red-hot poker, and I hear the scar still. On leaving school I went to Germany and there had my first coitus with a woman, a fat old German 309 THE DEVELOPMENT OE THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. who gave me von little satisfaction. My next, a Jewess, gave me more than I asked for, in the shape of a soft chancre. In my ignorance I never had it treated, hut it must have been very mild, for it disappeared of its own accord, men cramming in England I occasionally went home with a prostitute, but did not care much about them and could not afford good ones. On one occasion I was impotent. It may have been through drink, but it disgusted me with myself. I liked seeing the women naked, and always insisted that they should strip, especially the breasts, which I liked large and full. I had not learned to kiss on the lips, and had no desire to kiss the body, except the breasts, which I vas generally too shy to do. But as I nearly always wore a condom and found penetration difficult I did not much enjoy "the actual coitus. I am fully convinced that if women had been more accessible, if I had not thought myself bound to use preventives in self-defense, and if the act had not been looked upon with such disfavor by those in authority over me, I should have masturbated less or not at all, and would not have been tempted to bestiality. When I was 22 I had coitus with a girl who was not a prostitute for the first time. I was violently excited and enjoyed it more than anything I had yet experienced, in spite of the facts that she would not undress and insisted on withdrawal before emission. On one other occasion only have I had coitus with a non¬ professional unmarried woman. Shortly after this I caught syphilis from a girl of the streets. I was circumcised and stayed in a private hospital for six weeks. It never went beyond the primary stage, and I have felt no ill effects from it, except that I have got a hydrocele in the right testicle. Of course, this incident necessitated the use of a condom on every occasion, and it greatly spoiled my pleasure. About this time a brother-officer older than myself made advances to me. He compared me to a Greek statue, and wanted to kiss me. I would have nothing to do with him, but was glad to have his confessions of homosexuality and somewhat surprised to learn that he was not alone in the regiment. I afterward fell in love with his sister, and he married and had children. He was bisexual in his inclinations, but was really in love with me for a short time. ‘•I had little to do with professionals until I went to South Africa, and though I was fond of ladies’ society, and liked by ladies, I looked upon them as something apart, especially married women, and never attempted to take liberties with them; though I used to with shopgirls, etc., in my cramming days, and had often been in love. In South Africa I first began really to enjoy coitus, and on going to India continued to do so; in fact, I thought sexually of nothing else and rarely masturbated,—perhaps once in three weeks. I would go to brothels wherever they were available, Durban, Cape Town, Colombo, 310 APPENDIX B. Calcutta, Bombay, and at one time preferred black women to white. I used to have horrible orgies with my brother-officers, and on one occasion I ordered six women to my bungalow in order to celebrate my birthday, and made a present of them to five of my friends after dinner. During this period, and until I went home, I rarely spoke to a lady, the chief exception being No. 1, a brother-officer’s wife, with whom I began to be in love. “Shortly after the South African War I fell violently in love with a young brother-officer, ‘Z.’ It amounted to a passion and I was forced to make overtures to him. He did not understand, being ignorant of homosexuality and quite virile, and would have nothing to do with me, though lie was very nice about it. This lasted for about a year, and then, thinking no doubt that he had better stop it, as I was leally making myself very ridiculous and was mad with love, he threw me up altogether. I was intensely miserable for some time, and then I re¬ covered and we made it up, and are now firm friends. I still want to kiss and stroke him when I see him naked, but would do nothing more. I went home by way of Japan after several years’ absence from home, taking the 'women of the Eastern ports as I went, until I contracted gonorrhea in the Tokio Yosliiwara. I could not get rid of it, and ar¬ rived home in that state, having been deprived of the pleasure of trying several new races on the way in consequence. In England I rushed into a society which I had quit on such different terms, and it received me with open arms. I very soon began a flirtation with a married woman, and she completed my education in kissing which had been begun by the Japanese harlots. I was just coming to the point with this woman when I met No. 1 again, and my love for her w r as at once re¬ newed. I told her so, but I knew that she did not return it. I then became attracted to No. 2, a girl older than myself, whom I had known all my life. I kissed her and fondled her breasts; but she would not allow anything else, until one night, when in the train with her, I got my hand down farther than she intended. It ended in my performing cunmlingus on her first, and then obtaining satisfaction between her thighs—a large step to take after the former limitations. Previous to this I had on several occasions obtained an emission, without meaning to, by lying on her fully dressed. She was aware of my disease, -which that time had become a gleet and did not incouv enience me in any wav. From -Slat time until I went back to India we went through the same performance whenever possible, I masturbating her sometimes with the finger, sometimes with the tongue, and having connection with various parts of her body, including the breasts, but always with a condom on account of my disease. She used to strip for my edification, and we frequently spent the night in the same bed. I was attracted toff THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 311 her mentally, but not very much physically; that is to say, that if cir¬ cumstances had not thrown us together I should never have picked her out from other g,rls as being sexually attractive to me. I returned to for fi - 7°\’ th ° Ugh 1 kept faithful to No ‘ 2 in ™>rd a nd deed i\e months, but gradually the overmastering influence of No. 1 “b tS " 7\ m6 ‘ And then 1 met N °- 3 - We were attracted 7 acquaintance, and the attraction was mental and , ‘ ic ''as, married and m love with another man, but that did and IT ' 7 7 Sin§ 1 hCr breast3 ’ ^sturbated her, and had emissions by lying on her, but she drew the line at one thing WtltrT 0n "'I 1 ?*; ^ 1 dreW !t St C0itus ‘ We arranged a trip though U !’ 1D i 77 WeDt t0 bed With her ’ but never ha d coitus^ g we both had frequent orgasms in other ways. Before starting on this trip I had thought that I should not see No. 1 again, and she let me kiss her, to my unspeakable joy. Circumstances, however, inter- vened and I went straight to No. 1 after parting with No. 3, told her all I had done and then kissed her again, leaving her just before her . Io ' er ’' vlth " hom s he was then living, arrived. Later I returned gam to *0.1, now in child to her lover. We lived together for three nights in spite of this. She then went home, and I had no connection wHb any woman for two years, except one black woman, being con¬ sumed with love and worship for No. I. I was much in societv, but never had any luck. At the end of this time I was traveling one night with a young officer (‘X’), slight and effeminate and preferring^en towomen I watT h"! • a tb