Erection may further be stimulated by excitation of the centre in the

spinal cord. The direct electrical excitation of the spinal cord in

dogs evokes vigorous erections. The irritation of the spinal cord in

some spinal diseases often produces erections. Sleep, while lying on

the back, is known to produce vigorous erections, by increasing the

flow of blood to the spinal cord and by allowing the blood to settle

in the medulla oblongata and in the cord, so as to produce a passive

congestion.

Erections may finally be evoked by the stimulation of the peripheral

nerves at the genitals as on the glans and on the skin of the penis.

Especially the prostatic urethra and the colliculus are recognized as

the most sensitive area, the focal point of the nervous impressions on

the genital system. Pressure of the metal sound on the prostate or its

cauterization, tumors, calculi and inflammations, e. c., gonorrhoea,

may often excite erections. The prostatic mucous membrane is supposed

to be the seat of the pleasurable sensations. During any kind of sexual

activity, the prostatic area is intensely congested, and its nerves are

in a high state of tension. Excitations at the neighboring parts of the

genital organs, as evoked by hemorrhoids, stone in the bladder, full

bladder, worms or full rectum, may also produce erections.

The peripheral excitations of the genitals are transmitted to the

central nervous system, i. e., the centres in the pons and in the

medulla, by reflex action. From these centres the stimulus is

conveyed to the centres of erection in the lumbar region. If the

individual is in a state of unconsciousness as in sleep, the stimulus

at the periphery takes the direct road to the centre of erection. The

excitation of this centre is then carried by the way of the nervi

erigentes to the corpora cavernosa.

_Centre of inhibition._—All the nervous elements, the cerebral centre

of voluptas or sex-desire, the spinal centre of erection, and the

nerves at the periphery, not only at the genitals, but the nerve

endings of the skin through the entire body, work in perfect harmony.

Hence a man in full vigor of virility would have vigorous erections at

the slightest touch or even sight of a comely woman. Given our present

mode of life, with the ubiquitous opportunities for such sights at all

times, normal healthy men would have to walk around on the streets in a

state of permanent priapism, but for the cerebral centre of inhibition.

The influence emanating from this inhibitory centre works upon the

spinal centre to prevent erection. When the influence of this centre

is removed, erection is facilitated. When the spinal cord of a dog

is severed in the lumbar region, the irritation of the genitals more

readily provokes erection. With the removal of the inhibitory influence

during sleep, the least excitation of the genitals causes vigorous

erections. When the stimulation of the inhibitory centre is unusually

increased, as in neurasthenics and other nervous disorders, erections

fail to appear, when they are most desired.

Thus, by the inhibitory action of the brain, the tonus of the centre of

erection preserves the equilibrium, and it requires longer preparations

and more intense excitations than is ordinarily furnished in social

intercourse to evoke erections, necessary for the performance of the

sexual act. When cerebral inhibition is removed, as in sleep, erections

are facilitated. On the other hand, when the inhibitory influences are

increased, as in a state of intense mental occupation or of depressing

emotion, as fear of inability to consummate the act, or fear of

detection, or at the loss of the object of one’s affections, or in

cases of extreme modesty or disgust, etc., erections may be prevented

or entirely arrested. Hence the normal accomplishment of the sex-act

requires complete absence of doubts, apprehensions, of any anxiety

whatever, and want of confidence in one’s own power. Otherwise the

inhibitory influences will prevent a perfect erection.

_Centre of ejaculation._—The centre of ejaculation has its seat in the

level of the fourth lumbar vertebra. In a state of perfect health, the

excitability of this centre is much lower than that of erection. Hence

it requires more intense stimuli and longer preparation to produce an

ejaculation than an erection. The best stimulus for this centre is the

tender, soft, warm vaginal mucosa, when rubbing against the glans and

the skin of the penis.

_Orgasmus._—The complicated reflex nerve phenomena taking place in a

complete and perfect male sexual act may be described as follows:

At the first voluptuous thrill of a physical pleasurable sensation, and

at the first tactile excitation of the sensual organs, the cerebral

centre of inhibition is at once paralyzed and its influence is removed.

The centre of erection has now opportunity for the full display of its

vasodilatory influences. The tonus of the genital vessels is removed,

and an increased amount of blood flows into the arteries and caverns so

as to render the penis stone hard. Through the increased blood supply

and under the greatly increased nervous tension, the genital glands,

the testicles, seminal vesicles, and prostate secrete an increased

amount of their respective fluids. These secretions pour into the

urethral bulb and distend the same. The excitations, radiating from

this distension, serve to stimulate the centre of ejaculation, and the

contractions of the muscles bulbo-cavernosus and accelerator urinae

take place. The result of these contractions is the phenomenon of

ejaculation.

Simultaneously with the ejaculation, the nervous tension, which

was increased to the highest degree through the excitations of the

different organs, is also removed. This explosion of the nervous

tension during the crisis produces the pleasurable sensations which are

known under the name orgasm[E] (from the Greek word ὀργᾶν, to swell

with lust).

After ejaculation and the removal of the genital congestion, the

paralysis of the inhibitory centre ceases, and the normal nerve tonus

of the blood vessels gradually reappears. The influx of blood into

the genital vessels is thus cut off, and the erection of the corpora

cavernosa ceases. Only the colliculus remains yet swelled, for some

time. For this reason micturition is impossible immediately after

ejaculation. After the act follows a state of exhaustion, weariness,

weakness and inclination to sleep. Although the frantic condition

and the semi-delirium generally lasts a short time only, still it is

sufficiently long to exhaust completely the strength of the ordinary

organism. After a certain time of rest, sex connection in a healthy

person is followed by a joyous feeling and fresh vigor. The head feels

more free and easy, the body more elastic, and a greater disposition to

physical and intellectual labor results.

CHAPTER VIII

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE FEMALE GENITAL ORGANS

_Functions of the ovary._—The ovary is lined by a layer of genital

epithelia (“Keimepithel”), which undergo certain changes during

the entire sexual life of the woman. The epithelia are continually

transformed into ova. When a single genital epithelium leaves the

ovarian lining to be transformed into an ovum it moves from the

periphery toward the centre. It then surrounds itself with follicular

epithelia and forms the Graafian follicle. Through its growth the

Graafian follicle approaches again the periphery. All ripe Graafian

follicles are, therefore, situated near the periphery of the ovary.

_Ovulation._—About once a month a general congestion of the entire

genital system takes place.[F] This congestion causes an effusion of

serum and blood into the Graafian follicle and the rupture of the same.

In this way the ovum is set free and is seized by the fimbriae of the

Fallopian tube. The ovum begins now its journey towards the uterus.

During its progress through the oviduct the maturition of the ovum, or

the reduction of its chromosomes to half the number peculiar to its

species, takes place by a double segmentation. The ovum is divided,

twice in succession, each time into two quite unequal parts. The

smaller segments, called polar bodies, remain near the periphery of the

ovum and are extruded later on. The ovum is now ripe for fertilization.

According to Bischoff and Hiss, the impregnation takes place in the

distal end of the tube. After impregnation the zygote continues its

wandering by the current of the ciliated epithelia of the tube,

towards the uterus. The ovum needs, according to Hensen, from three to

five days, according to Bischoff eight days, to transverse this way, in

the woman. It could not last any longer, says Von Winckel, because the

uterine end of the tube, in the human female, has a diameter of only

two to three millimeters, while the diameter of the ovum, in the second

week of pregnancy, is three to six millimeters already. Hence, when a

retardation, for one cause or another, takes place, a tubal pregnancy

will be the result.

When the impregnated ovum has reached the cavity of the uterus it

penetrates through the epithelium into the submucous fibrous tissues of

the uterus, where it completes its development.

_Internal ovarian secretion._—Besides the function of preparing the

ova, the ovary has an internal secretion which is the cause of the

female secondary characteristics. When both ovaries are removed before

puberty, the time when the stamp of sex is becoming impressed on every

part of the body, the essential feminine features fail to develop. The

absence of the ovaries leads to the development of a colorless, neuter

creature of angular form, strident voice, striding gait, and even of

bearded chin.

_Function of the Fallopian tubes._—The function of the ducts is to

furnish a path for the ovum in its passage towards the uterus and for

the spermatozoa on their way to meet the ovum. The current of the tubal

ciliated epithelia is directed towards the uterus. In this way the ovum

which does not possess self-motion, as do the spermatozoa, is carried

towards its destination, while the spermatozoa have to swim against the

current.

_Menstruation._—The main function of the uterus is to serve as a couch

or resting place for the fertilized ovum during its development.

For this end a wound has to be set in the lining of the uterus to

facilitate the grafting of the fertilized ovum, just as the gardner

makes a slit for ingrafting the young shoot. The preparation of the

ingrafting of the young animal is accomplished by the monthly changes

in the uterus preceding menstruation. The monthly general congestion

of the genital organs, necessary for the ovum to leave the Graafian

follicle, also causes the uterine mucous membrane to swell from one

to three millimeters in the thickness.[G] The mucosa becomes thus

turgid and velvety. The epithelial cells of the endometrium swell

and multiply. The openings of the uterine glands are enlarged, and a

whitish, opaque mucus is poured out. The glandular cells are enlarged,

and there is a multiplication of the round cells of the stroma. The

cells are cloudy and filled with fat granules. This fatty degeneration

involves the glandular cells, the cells of the inter-glandular tissue,

and the cells of the blood vessels which are distended with blood.

The endometrium or lining is thus prepared for the reception of the

impregnated ovum. These alterations develop independently of the

haemorrhage. The swelling begins a long time before the period and

reaches its maximum only at this time.

If the ovum has become impregnated it is ready to respond to these

preparations. If, however, nature’s attempt to reproduce an individual

of the species has been frustrated, and the ovum has not been

impregnated, the latter has to be cast out, and all the preparations

are eliminated. The exuberant epithelial cells are exfoliated. The

delicate capillaries, engorged with blood, sweat drops of blood by

diapedesis or burst and discharge their contents. The congested and

engorged glands secrete and excrete profusely.

This mingled mass of epithelial cells, blood and mucus leaves the

body in form of menstrual discharges. Menstruation, therefore, is a

retrograde process, in consequence of the failure of the impregnation

of the ovum. The monthly flow is like the shedding of the leaves by the

tree, the getting rid of some material the function of which has been

frustrated and for which the economy has no more use.

Menstruation is thus the manifest phenomenon of the retrograde

metamorphosis which ensues at the failure of the ovum to become

fertilized. Where there is fertilization there is no menstruation.

Hence, those women who marry immediately after menstruation sets in,

at puberty,[H] and are impregnated and those women who are impregnated

immediately after they finished nursing their babies, will seldom show

the phenomenon of menstruation. This is the reason why menstruation is

so rarely observed among animals.[I]

_The concubitalis function of the uterus._—Another highly important

function of the uterus is to serve as an organ of copulation. During

the orgasm, at the moment of the highest excitement, the uterus

descends deeper into the small pelvis.[J] It is assisted in the

descent by the pressure of the abdominal muscles. The uterus, usually

flattened in the sagittal direction, assumes a round, pear-shaped

form during the orgasm and for some time afterwards. In this way a

real cavum uteri is produced, and through the vacuum thus produced,

the uterus is able to suck in the semen by means of aspiration.

Furthermore, through the excitation, the circular fibres of the cervix

contract at the same time as the longitudinal fibres. The result is a

dilatation of the cervical orifice. The formerly flat opening becomes

round. At the same time the uterine orifices of the tubes, which

are generally closed, open widely and challenge the entrance of the

spermatozoa.

_Female ejaculation._—The contraction of the cervical fibres also

causes the erection of the vaginal portion and of the neck of the

uterus. This erection, at the moment of the highest orgasm, serves

to expel Kristeller’s slimy plug from the cervix. This expulsion

represents female ejaculation. After the expulsion the cervix becomes

soft and flabby. The erection and sudden relaxation of the cervix

cause the external os to open, sometimes to the extent of fully three

centimeters, and to make several successive gasps. Each time the

gasp draws powerfully the external os into the cervix and causes the

aspiration of the semen.

_Function of the vagina._—The function of the vagina is to serve as a

receptacle of penis and semen. The erectile tissue which runs along

the entire length between the different membranes, forming the vaginal

wall, helps the vagina to adjust itself to the volume of the penis

and to augment its turgescence. The muscular fibres, situated within

the tunica media of the vaginal mucous membrane, contract during the

ejaculation of the semen. The contraction is of a peristaltic nature,

starting from the vaginal aperture. In this way the semen is stowed

toward the uterine orifice under a certain pressure and is prevented

from flowing off.

Previous to this contraction the sphincter cunni, the analogous muscle

to the musculus bulbo-cavernosus in the male, also contracts and

clinches the penis, pressing, at the same time, upon the two bulbs

of the vestibule. In this way the vaginal orifice is more firmly

compressed.

_Function of the Bartholinian glands._—Through the activity of the

constrictor cunni, the Bartholinian glands are also compressed.

Normally these glands are inactive. They only secrete on irritation.[K]

At the first voluptuary thrills, the lubricating fluid gushes forth

from the Bartholinian glands, moistens the sexual organs, prepares

the way for the painless entrance of the male organ and furnishes the

ante-orgastic libido which is second only to the orgasm itself, and is

the only libido experienced by many women throughout their lives.

The alkaline lubricating fluid from the Bartholinian glands serves

the further purpose of neutralizing the vaginal contents which are of

an acid reaction. But for the alkaline secretions, before the male

ejaculation, the spermatozoa would be killed by the acids, or, at

least, checked in their movements. The secretion of the Bartholinian

glands has, therefore, a threefold purpose: it facilitates the

frictions, neutralizes somewhat the vaginal contents, and increases or

furnishes the ant-orgastic libido.

_Function of the clitoris._—The most sensitive organ of the female

genital apparatus is the clitoris. In the female child the clitoris,

analogous to the penis in the male, represents the main erogenous zone,

and its activity manifests itself by frequent twitchings and erections.

After puberty the main function of the clitoris is, according to Freud,

to transmit the stimuli to the other genital organs.

The erection of the clitoris is produced in the same way as the

erection of the penis, by the relaxation of the arteries of the

corpora cavernosa of the clitoris, which are thus filled with blood.

The erection is further helped by the contraction of the muscles

ischio-cavernosus and constrictor cunni. The clitoris has a direction,

inverse to that of the erected penis, namely, downward. By virtue of

its direction and its angle, the erected clitoris is able to yield

and descend to meet the dorsal face of the glans and body of the

penis, without being in a position to rise again during its action.

The contraction of the two last named muscles will, therefore, help

to press the right-angled clitoris on the dorsal side of the penis.

The erection and the bending of the clitoris are further helped by the

action of the bulbs of the vestibule which, through the pressure of the

penis, send their fluid to the corpora cavernosa and the glans of the

clitoris and thus increase the sensitiveness.

_Ordo rei._—According to the functions of the different organs, the

initus muliebris takes the following course. As soon as the mentula

reaches the vestibule, the glans of the clitoris is pressed down

to the vaginal edge of the orifice of the vagina to meet the glans

fascini. Under the influence of the erotic irritation, the tonus of

the blood vessels of the corpora cavernosa clitoridis and of the bulbs

is removed, and the organs fill with blood. The erected clitoris, bent

down and pressing upon the dorsal surface fascini, is thus unable to

rise again.

At the first touch of these sensitive organs, the lubricating fluid

gushes forth from the Bartholinian glands, moistens the vaginal

orifice, and prepares the way for the painless entrance fascini. The

glans fascini passes now the two edges of the vaginal bulbs, et collum

corpusque fascini are seized by the protruding parts of these bulbs.

The constrictor cunni now clinches the vaginal orifice, and the vagina,

by means of its erectile tissue, adjusts itself to the volume mentulæ.

At the moment of the male ejaculation a peristaltic contraction of the

vagina takes place, by which the sperma is stowed toward the uterus and

is prevented from flowing off until the female ejaculation has taken

place.

In the meantime the uterus descends deeper into the small pelvis,

and its muscles open the three uterine orifices. The secretions of

the cervical glands, or Kristeller’s plug, are now expressed through

the open external os, and a suction of small amounts of sperma into

the cervical canal ensues. The expression of the cervical secretions

represents the female ejaculation and takes place at the moment of the

highest orgasm.

CHAPTER IX

LIBIDO SEXUALIS

During the entire sexual spasm, especially at the height of the

venereal crisis, certain pleasurable or lustful sensations, or libido,

are experienced by both mates. The quality of the libido is different

in different individuals. In some people the pleasure may be excessive,

furious, overpowering. Some people are thrown by the violence of their

emotional manifestations in a state of syncope or convulsions.[L] Hence

the speculation whether the quality of sexual libido is higher in the

male or in the female is entirely futile. Libido being a subjective

feeling, no one will ever be able to measure the same in another

individual, just as he is unable to measure the amount of pleasure his

fellowman has gained at any other occasion of enjoyment (e. c. banquet,

dance, theatre, etc.). Hence, we will never be able to decide about the

quality of libido in the two sexes. But the symptoms of libido being

in both sexes almost identical, the inference may be drawn that the

quality will also be similar.

_Symptoms of libido._—The normal libido and orgasm show certain

defined symptoms by which the presence of the larger lust may be

easily diagnosed. While in libido corpora conjugum are in a state of

excitement, caused by the irritation of the fibres of the sympathetic

nerves. The irritation spreads over the entire extent of the vasomotor

system and causes a paralysis of the vasomotor nerves. The result is

the widening of the coronary arteries, hyperaemia of the heart muscles,

and hence an increased excitation of the heart ganglia and palpitation

of the heart. The circulation is accelerated, the arteries beat

strongly, and the venous blood, arrested in the vessels, augments the

animal heat. The stagnation of the blood, more pronounced in the brain

by contraction of the muscles of the neck and the retraction of the

head, causes a momentary cerebral congestion. During its continuance

the intellectual faculties are held in abeyance. The eyes are markedly

injected, the bulbi of the eyes protuberate, and the pupils are

enlarged almost twice their normal size. The eyes become haggard, and

the sight is dimmed, or the eyes are spasmodically closed in order to

shut out light. The respiration is rapid and panting, coming in short

and quick intervals, the air being expelled spasmodically. Some times

the respiration is entirely suspended by a convulsive contraction

of the larynx, and the breath is ejected in the shape of babbling,

incoherent words. The congested nerve-centres communicate only vague

and confused outside sensations. Mobility and sensibility are held

in suspension. The limbs are convulsively agitated or are subject to

clonic contractions. The nostrils are dilated, the jaws are firmly set,

and the teeth are ground one against the other.

These different expressions of the summa libido are accompanied by

caressing words. Ovid, the master in matters of sensuality, sings in

his “Ars Amandi”:

“Nec blandae voces jucundaque murmura cessent

“Nec taceant mediis improba verba jocis

“Adspicies oculos tremulos fulgore micantes

“Ut sol a liquida saepe refulget aqua

“Accedent questus, accedet amabile murmur

“Et dulces gemitus aptaque verba joco.”

Where these symptoms are wanting, the absence of the potency of

experiencing libido may be assumed.

_The orgasm._—Simultaneously with the objective phenomena of

erection and ejaculation, runs the course of the subjective

pleasurable feelings. The libido may be divided into three phases:

the ant-orgastic, orgastic and post-orgastic phases. During the

ant-orgastic stage, the lustful sensation grows by degrees in intensity

up to the moment of commencing ejaculation. The libido remains then

relatively constant for some time. The largest lust swells then

suddenly to the maximum and reaches its acme, the orgasm, at the

instant of emission. After the ejaculation the libido disappears

rapidly. It falls to zero and is followed by a phase of indifference

and in some individuals even of depression. In the female the

pleasurable feelings occur later than in the male, come on more slowly,

and generally outlast the act of ejaculation. The female post-orgastic

libido does not rapidly disappear, as in the male, but dies away as the

tune of the tuning-fork.[M]

[Illustration: CUT XXXIV.

_Curve illustrating the course of the orgasm._

1, ant-orgastic; 2, orgastic; 3, post-orgastic phases.]

After the orgasm the sexual excitement gives place in the male to

a state of exhaustion and to an inclination to sleep, and to a

comfortable feeling of lassitude in the normal woman. “Omne animal post

coitum triste est praeter mulierem gallumque,” says Galen. After a few

moments rest a comfortable lassitude takes possession of the whole body

in both mates.

“Cum pariter victi faemina virque jacent.”

At this period, even if the man would be in a position ad pergendam

commixtionem (e. c. eunuches and in priapism), further permulsiones are

not wanted and their discontinuance is demanded by the normal woman.

“Aspiciem dominae victos amantis ocellos

“Langueat et tangi se vetet illa diu.”

A woman desiring the continuance of uninterrupted penetrations, or

who even allows them, plainly shows that, while she may have felt

ant-orgastic libido, she has surely not experienced the supreme

gratification which is found in the state of orgasm. Except in early

youth, and then only after a protracted continence, it is impossible

even for a woman to experience further libido immediately after

the orgasm. The general notions about the great feminine potency

are erroneous. They are based upon the confusion of the potency of

cohabitation with the potency of experiencing the orgasm, which is

not one and the same even in the male. So far as cohabitation is

concerned it is true that the weakest, most delicate woman, is able to

tire out the strongest man. Playing the passive part, she could stand

concarnatio continua for a long time, in fact, as long as the mucous

membrane of the vagina will last, and the vaginal pavement epithelia

are by nature very strong. Even Ovid knew this fact. He says in his

“Ars Amoris”:

“Conteritur ferrum, silices teneantur ab usu

“Sufficit et damni pars caret illa metu.”

But in regard to the potency of experiencing libido the woman is

generally inferior to the man. After three complete orgasms in one

night even a young, strong woman will be completely enervated during

the following day, and the woman who regularly experiences a daily

orgasm, for a protracted period, will, no less than her active partner,

fall a victim to neurasthenia after some time.

_Intensity of libido._—The intensity of the pleasure varies in

different individuals. With some the intensity reaches a very high

degree. There are those who cry and bite at the height of orgasm.[N]

On the other hand, there are individuals who scarcely have any lustful

feelings, or, if capable of experiencing ant-orgastic libido, are

lacking in the feeling of orgasm. Normally the intensity of libido

and orgasm increases with the number and dignity of the points which

produce the pleasure.

The source of any kind of pleasure lies in the five senses. Of these

the sense of touch is best adapted to provoke sexual pleasure. The

tactile sense is the fundamental and generic sense from which all

others take their rise, and by which they are verified. All the

perceptions of our senses have to be supplemented by our tactile sense.

The foetus, within the uterus, receives the first knowledge of its

own individuality, of its own ego, by the tactile sense. In touching

with its body the wall of the womb, it receives one impression, while

in touching one part of its body with another part, it receives two

impressions, at both points of contact. In this way it learns by

repeated experience of the existence of bodies outside of his own. Thus

it differentiates its own ego from the outside world by the sense of

touch, at a time when the other senses could not as yet functionate.

Touch is, therefore, the primary sense. The other senses are only

modified tactile senses. Waves of sound touch the tympanic membrane of

the ear: rays of light touch the retina in the eye; odors touch the

nerve-endings of the olfactory nerve, and food the taste-papillae.

The sense of touch is, therefore, the sense above all others to evoke

pleasurable sensations. The touch of a soft and smooth surface pleases;

that of a rough object displeases. Many people like to feel smooth

objects, such as velvet. Others prefer smooth plants; yet others are

fond of caressing animate beings, such as cats or dogs with a smooth

fur. There are those who delight to touch the soft, smooth skin of

babies. Now the softest and smoothest skin in the human body is

found on the parts covered with a mucous membrane. The pleasurable

sensations, therefore, increase when two individuals touch each other

at parts covered with such a membrane. Hence, kissing on the lips, by

reason of their covering, is accompanied by pleasure. This undoubtedly

accounts for the origin of kissing.

The same reason is responsible for the universal tendency among lovers

to approach and touch one another’s lips. For, affection fed by sight,

sound, taste and odor, reaches its climax in touch. The combined power

of contact with softness and warmth amounts to a considerable pitch

of material pleasure, and a predisposed affection, as among lovers,

renders the contact thrilling. Love pleasure, therefore, begins and

ends in sensual contact. The intensity of the sensual pleasure will

be proportional with the area of contact and with the dignity of the

organs touched. Nudity with the greater area of direct contact will

increase the pleasure.

The values of the organs producing sexual libido are successively:

in the male, glans et corpus penis, scrotum, labia oris, lingua,

palma manus, and the gluteal region; in the female, clitoris, vulva,

labia majora, nymphae, vestibule, vagina, vaginal portion of cervix,

mamillae, labiae oris, lingua, palma manus and the gluteal region.[O]

The more points of the highly sensible organs are touched, the larger

the extent of the skin-surface that enters into the realm of touch, the

more the frictions are conducive to excitation, the better the function

of the sphincter cunni,[P] the greater will be the intensity of the

sensual libido in both mates. If more special senses are excited, such

as sight by beauty, the smell by sweet odors, the touch by soft, smooth

skin, if imagination coöperates, and if inhibitory effects are absent,

then the intensity is much greater.

_Inhibition of libido._—The inhibitory effects upon the libido have

various causes, and are mostly brought on by the different senses. The

most inhibiting effects emanate from the sense of smell. The sense

of smell plays an important rôle in provoking or inhibiting sexual

desire. For that reason women are possessed of certain odors to

attract their mates.[Q] The vaginal mucus, or rather contents, have

a stale, characteristic odor. This odor belongs to the class of the

capryl-odors, which may be designated as the specifically erotic odors.

The natural vaginal odor becomes stronger during the menstrual period.

Some women transpire at the time of menstruation the disagreeable odor

of trimethyl-amin.

In some country-districts in Europe, it is reported, the young

peasants, when going to a dance, place their handkerchiefs into their

arm-pits to imbibe the peculiar odor of the man, and, unaware to the

girls, hand over the same to the women they are in love with to smell.

The peculiar odor is supposed to excite the girls to love.

All this serves to show that the quality of the odor is not a matter

of indifference to the excitation of sexual voluptas. The disagreeable

smell from any part of the body of one mate will act as an inhibition

upon the libido of the other. The sense of sight, if offended, works

much the same way. Ugliness will, therefore, act as a check not only

upon the voluptas, but also upon the libido. Pain or cold have also

inhibitory effects. Hence defloration, accompanied by more or less

pain, checks the libido of the woman.

Hatred has a great inhibitory influence upon voluptas and libido.

In men, it is self-evident that where there is no voluptas there

is no erection and consequently no congress or libido. But even in

women where sexual conjugation is possible against her will, libido

can seldom be compelled. She may be debauched, physically, and even

ejaculation may take place, for when fully excited, the muscular

contractions become independent of the will, but the excitation can

not induce full libido.[R] Virtually, a woman can rarely be violated.

If in a case of rape the woman experiences complete orgasm, then she

consented physiologically, though she may have morally struggled

against the impropriety of the act.

_Spatium concarnationis._—Spatium temporis concubitus, to a certain

extent, depends upon the will. The man and the woman are able to delay

the orgasm for a certain time. It is in the individual’s power, if it be

not neurasthenic or tabetic, to induce the orgasm earlier or later. But

this power is limited. It is not altogether voluntary to induce orgasm

or prevent it.

The duration varies in different animals as well as in different

individuals. In some animals a single stimulant suffices to induce

orgasm; other animals remain in conjugio for hours or even days. If

the duration of the ant-orgastic stage is too short in the female,

analogous to the ejaculation ante portas in the male, the deficiency

must be corrected. Though the precipitate orgasm in the female has not

the same importance as in the male, because her orgasm does not of

necessity terminate congressum as in the male. Yet it may, sometimes,

have a damaging effect upon the potency of procreation. For the ideal

intercourse, in the interest of procreation, is the one in which the

female ejaculation occurs immediately after the male emission or

simultaneously with the same. Besides, the longer duration creates

greater intensity of libido, which is desirable for the well-being of

both mates. For this reason Ovid advises in his “Ars Amandi”:

“Crede mihi, non est veneris properanda voluptas,

“Sed sensim tarda prolicienda mora.”

_The post-orgastic stage._—Soon after the orgasm the libido ceases, and

a state of languor ensues.

“Cum pariter victi faemina virque jacent.”

In normal individuals and in affectionate lovers the lassitude is of

an agreeable nature. The serenity of the mind depends largely upon the

intensity of the experienced libido. If the act is executed with great

pleasure, it will give the nervous system a pleasurable excitement

and will act as a helpful tonic upon the nerves. The blood under its

animating influence flows more freely through the capillary vessels of

the skin. The countenance becomes expanded, its expression brightens

and its whole surface acquires the ruddy tint and genial glow of

health. Every function seems to be gladdened by the tonic. It causes

a universal expansion of vital action. The body feels buoyant and

lively, and there is a consequent disposition to quick and cheerful

muscular motions, as running, jumping, dancing, laughing, and singing.

Furthermore, the act executed with a great intensity of pleasure

serves to appease the sexual desire for a time and naturally leads to

moderation. The serenity and well-being, following such an act, have

a great influence upon the continuance of the lovers’ affections.

An agreeable calmness will increase and even create attachment.

Some conventional marriages turn for that reason into affectionate

love-affairs.

If the intensity of the libido is insignificant, a depression of the

mind post concarnationem will result. Where coition is performed with

aversion, without affection for the mate or with fear of infection or

conception, it will act as a nerve-depressor, and a state of dejection

will be the result. Such an act does not satisfy and appease the sexual

desire. Like a distasteful meal that does not satiate, concubitus

without pleasure or great affection creates desires for more sexual

indulgences, keeps the nerves in a state of sexual excitement, and

leads to many kinds of debauchery. Even if originally a good deal of

affection existed, a sexually unsuitable match may reduce the intensity

of the libido to a minimum. If then the languor is disagreeably felt,

if the individual remains excited and is unable to sleep, and the

following morning feels enervated, the former affection will gradually

disappear, and a romantic love-affair of long duration may turn out a

complete failure after marriage.[S]

FOOTNOTES:

[C] This quality may explain the Talmud’s (Berachoth 60a, Nidah 31)

assertion that if the female orgasm occurs first, the child is of

the masculine sex, while when the male orgasm precedes that of the

female, a girl is born. When the male orgasm occurs first, the semen

is discharged within the acid vaginal contents. The spermatozoa are,

therefore, weakened, and a girl is born. When the woman’s orgasm

occurs first, the semen is then ejaculated into the alkaline cervical

secretion which was expelled with Kristeller’s plug. Hence, the

spermatozoa remain strong and vigorous and a boy is born. The modern

theory of sex is that it is determined by the germ-cells as every other

unit character. Every spermatozoön and ovum possess originally male and

female determiners. But during the maturition the determiners of one

sex are cast off, and the gametes are either male or female. Hence,

when the ovum is male, only a male spermatozoön will be admitted within

its interior, and a boy will be the result. If the ovum is female, only

a female spermatozoön will be able to penetrate it, and a girl will be

born.

[D] Explanatory remarks: When a voluptuary thought originates in

the centre of voluptas 11, it is transmitted by fibre 12 to the

vasodilatory centre 4 in the medulla oblongata, hence by fibre 14 in

the spinal cord to the centre of erection 16 in the lumbar part of

the cord; hence through the nervi erigentes 17 to the genitals at the

periphery 10, where it responds by an erection. The excitation of the

erection is then, if strong enough, transmitted through the centripetal

or sensory nerve 9 to the centre of ejaculation 7; hence again through

the centrifugal ejaculatory nerve 8 to the periphery, where ejaculation

takes place.

When an excitation originates at the periphery 10, as in sleep, it is

transmitted through the sensory nerve 18 to the centre of erection 16,

and through nerve 15 to the vasodilatory centre 4; hence back to the

periphery by the nerves 14 and 17, after the inhibitory nerve 13 has

been paralyzed. The excitation of the erection is then transmitted, as

previously described, through nerve 9 to centre 7 and nerve 8 to the

periphery where ejaculation takes place. In either case the excitation

of the ejaculation is then carried through the sensory nerve 5 to the

centre of libido 3 and is there experienced as a pleasurable feeling.

When the centre of erection 16 is directly irritated, for example, by

electricity, after the spinal cord has been severed, the stimulus is

directly transmitted through nerve 17 to the periphery 10 to respond

with erection. The same road is taken by the excitation of the centre

of erection 16 during sleep.

In spermatorrhoea the stimulus at the centre of voluptas 11 is directly

transmitted through nerve 6 to the centre of ejaculation 7, hence

through nerve 8 to the periphery 10, and ejaculation takes place

without erection.

[E] Many authorities (among others Rohleder, Berliner Klinik, 1909,

Heft 257) claim that the libido, or the pleasurable sensations,

originate at the orifices of the ejaculatory ducts during the passage

of the thick semen through these narrow openings. This hypothesis

will not stand a critical analysis. People who began to masturbate in

early childhood relate that for years they experienced orgasm without

noticing the least trace of an ejaculation. One day, usually between

the fourteenth and sixteenth year, they were surprised by the first

ejaculation. Still there was no material change in the quality of

the libido during the orgasm accompanied by ejaculation from that

experienced during the previous orgasms without ejaculations. This

tends to show that the libido experienced at the sexual paroxysm has

its cause not in the removal of the material congestion but in the

relief from the nervous tension. The orgastic paroxysm has its analogy

in the epileptic crisis. The nervous tension in the epileptic patient

is gradually increased until one day an explosion ensues, and the

epileptic attack removes, so to say, the accumulated nervous energy.

The patient is then relieved for a certain time. An analogous relief

from the nervous tension is effected during the orgastic crisis,

and the cause of the libido in men and in women is this discharge

of nervous energy. The ejaculation of the few drops of semen or of

Kristeller’s plug is only an accidental incident, which may contribute

to the well-being of the individual, just as the discharge from bladder

and rectum, but which is not the cause of orgastic libido.

[F] This monthly periodicity is attributed by some authorities to

cosmic influences (the new moon and full moon). But since other vital

processes also show a certain undulatory increase and decrease in

strength (e. c. the systole and diastole of the heart), it is more

probable that the periodicity of ovulation is due to an undulatory

motion, where the length of the wave is about four weeks.

[G] According to Pflüger (Veit’s Handb. der Gyn. 1908, Vol. 3, p. 25)

the pressure of the periodically growing Graafian follicle causes a

continual irritation of the ovarian nerves, which, by reflex action, is

the cause of the great congestion of the genitals. When the stimulus

has reached a certain height, the congestion leads, on the one side,

to the rupture of the follicle, on the other hand, to the menstrual

change of the uterine mucosa. This theory has been abandoned, and the

modern trend of opinion is to attribute the general congestion to

chemical substances, thus returning to Brown-Sequard teachings that the

periodical congestion is caused by a chemical substance which, produced

within the ovary, enters the blood circulation.

According to L. Meyer, under the influence of ovulation, a continual

production of substances, oophorines, necessary for the growth of the

foetus, takes place. These substances circulate in the blood, and,

when they are present in large amounts, cause a stimulation of the

entire nervous system. This explains the nervous irritation and other

phenomena of this period. During menstruation these substances are

excreted.

G. Klein (Münch. med. Wochenschr. 1911, p. 997) thinks that the

oophorines cause a chemical change of the uterine mucosa and of the

blood circulating in the latter, and are themselves chemically changed.

They then leave the body simultaneously with the menstrual blood. Hence

menstruation is a real catharsis, in the sense of Hypokrates, a freeing

of the body from the toxic effects of the oophorines. The presence of

the oophorines during this period accounts for the different smell of

menstrual blood from ordinary blood. The peculiar smell from the mouths

of some menstruating women may also be attributed to the presence of

the oophorines in the body.

When pregnancy has once been established, menstruation ceases for the

entire period the mother is nursing her offspring, be the nursing

within the uterus during gestation or later on during lactation, with

the breast. Both periods comprise the time when the mother has to give

her vital fluids for the nutrition of her offspring.

[H] The Hindus recommend the marriage of the girl before the first

menstruation has set in. Among many savages the first menstruation is

the signal for marrying off the girl. Such women become impregnated

with each succeeding child immediately after they have finished nursing

the preceding one. By the time propagation ceases, the climacerium sets

in. In this way these women only menstruate a few times during their

lives.

[I] Another reason why menstruation is so rarely observed among animals

is their posture. If the preparations preceding menstruation are

for the purpose of ingrafting the fertilized ovum, it follows that

menstruation must occur in all those animals in which the fertilized

egg is fully developed to complete maturity within the interior of

the mother. This is indeed what happens. All animals with so intimate

an attachment of the foetal and maternal organisms that the foetal

placenta cannot be detached from the mother without a haemorrhage, show

the phenomenon of menstruation.

Menstruation was formerly regarded as the exclusive prerogative of

woman, but we know now that woman shares the privilege with many

animals. All warm-blooded animals that stand or walk erect, without

exception, menstruate. The appearance of the discharge is simply due

to posture. The process is going on in all quadrupeds, as the sheep,

the cow, the dog, the cat, etc., but on account of the position of

the uterus (in quadrupeds the fundus of the uterus is situated lower

than the neck) the blood is usually retained in that organ, reabsorbed

through the lymphatics into the blood, and consumed in the vital

process or eliminated through excretory glands.

In some animals the discharge consists of mucus. In dogs the writer

saw real blood. It is only a play of nature, that in one species the

congestion of the genitals manifests itself by a sweating of viscous

mucus, in the other by a flow of blood.

Even the lower animals shed the same degenerated material. They

menstruate through the lymphatics, if for one cause or another

impregnation has been prevented. But as a rule, in animals, living in

freedom, impregnation always follows the preparation of the uterus,

and the phenomenon of menstruation fails to appear. It is only among

domesticated animals that the discharge from the genitals is sometimes

observed.

[J] According to Bischoff, at the moment of the highest excitement the

uterus is pressed down into the small pelvis, and the uterine orifice

opens and receives the sperma by a kind of suction.

Eichstedt claims that the uterus, which is usually flattened in the

sagittal direction, assumes a round, pear-shaped form during the

excitement and for some time afterwards. In this way a real cavum

uteri is produced, where previously only a virtual cavity existed. The

vacuity then sucks in the sperma by means of aspiration like a pump.

Kisch says: During the orgasm the uterus descends deeper into the

pelvis. It is assisted in its descent by the pressure of the abdominal

muscles. The muscles of the uterus open then the uterine orifice, and

the formerly flat opening becomes round. At the same time the uterine

orifices of the tubes also open. Simultaneously the secretion of the

cervical glands is expressed, and a suction of a small amount of sperma

into the cervix ensues.

Rohleder says: The plicae palmatae of the cervix form an obstacle

to the penetration of any fluid into the uterus. But during the

excitement, this obstacle is overcome by the increased secretion of the

cervical glands. At the same time the uterine orifices of the tubes,

which are generally closed, open widely through the excitement and

almost challenge the entrance of the spermatozoa.

Kristeller describes the secretion of a clear transparent mucus in

the form of a cord about one to four millimeters thick and one to six

centimeters long in the uterus of every mature woman, who never was

pregnant. This cord is hanging out of the orificium externum uteri.

According to Wernich, a preparatory erection of the vaginal portion

and of the neck of the uterus takes place in the beginning of the act.

Then in the moment of the highest orgastic excitement, and almost

simultaneously with the mutual ejaculation, the cervix becomes flabby

and soft again. This sudden relaxation of the erected cervix is made

possible by a particular arrangement of the nerves and causes the

aspiration of the sperma. The erection of the lower part of the uterus

during the sexual excitement has, therefore, almost the same importance

for propagation as the erection of the penis for copulation. It serves

the purpose of expelling Kristeller’s slimy plug from the cervix, in

the moment of the highest orgasm.

Mundé has seen the gushing, almost in jets, of clear viscid mucus

from the external os during evident sexual excitement, produced by

the rather prolonged digital and specular examination, in an erotic

woman. The lips of the external os alternately opened and closed, with

each gasping emitting clear mucus, until the excitement, which was

intentionally prolonged by gently titillating the cervix with a sound

through a Sims speculum, reached such a height as to cause the woman to

sit up on the table and thus end the experiment.

Beck (St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal, Sep. 1872, p. 449)

observed an orgasm while examining a woman with prolapsus uteri.

The orifice of the uterus was just inside of the vulva and could be

observed without a speculum. The woman was very prone, by reason of her

passionate nature, to have an orgasm produced at the slightest contact

with the fingers. The action of the uterus during the two observations

was almost identical. The cervix of the uterus had been firm, hard, and

generally in a normal condition, with the os closed so as not to admit

the uterine probe without difficulty. But immediately when the orgasm

began, the os opened to the extent of fully an inch, made five to six

successive gasps, drawing the external os into the cervix, each time,

powerfully and at the same time becoming quite soft to the touch. After

about twelve seconds all was over. The os had closed again, and the

cervix hardened. During the crisis an intense congestion of the parts

could be noticed. The sensations experienced were described as being of

the same quality as they ever were during coition. But they were not

the same in quantity, the normal orgasm lasting longer.

Talmey (New York Medical Journal, June, 23, 1917) observed an orgasm

while examining a case where the cervix was found to be of normal

consistency, and the external os was just passable for a uterine

sound. Suddenly the cervix became red, congested, and soft, and the

sound within the uterine cavity began to execute certain movements,

resembling pendulum swings. The os opened so wide as to admit the index

finger besides the sound, and the cervical lips made three gasps,

each time drawing the lips within the canal. After a few seconds the

paroxysm was over.

These direct observations on the uterus by the last named American

authors place the uterine action during the orgasm into the realm

of scientific facts and entirely remove it from the province of

theoretical speculation. The fact has been established beyond the

shadow of a doubt that propagation is greatly facilitated by the

suction-movements of the uterus during the orgasm.

This suction is also the cause why douches which are often recommended

as anti-conceptional remedies must fail, even if they are made

immediately after congress. By the uterine suction the spermatozoa are

drawn within the uterine cavity and immediately removed from any action

the douches could have on them. Hence when the female orgasm follows

the male, as it usually does in the normal woman, anti-conceptional

douches will always be a failure. Only when the female orgasm precedes

that of the male, and the spermatozoa are left upon their own resources

to reach the uterine cavity, then there is a chance to kill the

spermatozoa by an immediate antiseptic, acid or bacteriocide douche.

[K] The Bartholinian gland, not being under muscular control, an

ejaculatory discharge of its contents would seem to be impossible.

Still in a patient, a married lady of 35 years, after a protracted

contact stimulation of the external genitals the author observed an

ejaculation-like discharge from the left gland, resembling the flow

from an hypodermic syringe under pressure. In four other cases, the

only ones in which the author had the opportunity to observe the

Bartholinian glands in action, the secretion appeared in small drops,

slowly oozing out from the pin-head-like orifices.

[L] One of the author’s patients, a young lady 22 years of age, mother

of one child, lost consciousness for half an hour every time after the

production of the summa libido.

[M] According to Moll, the highest orgasm may be induced and

complete satisfaction enjoyed by the female without ejaculation. The

satisfaction may be experienced when the corpora cavernosa of the

clitoris, after their erection, relax again.

[N] One of the author’s patients bit his wife in the breast that she

had to be treated for some time afterwards. Another patient bawled

every time she reached the state of orgasm. Another young woman lost

consciousness every time at the moment of the orgasm.

[O] Thus woman commands over a greater number of erogenous zones than

the man. Hence the intensity of her libido ought naturally to be higher

than that of the man.

According to Hammond the neck and mouth of the uterus are supplied with

sensibility in its character, like that possessed by the clitoris. On

the other hand, Roubaud says that many women have confessed to him that

they are perfectly insensible to the titillations of the clitoris,

and experience libido only by the touch of the walls of the vaginal

entrance. One of the author’s patients experiences a painful sensation

by the titillation of the clitoris, while the touch of the vaginal wall

induces magnam libidinem.

[P] Some women know how to train the sphincter cunni that it becomes

as strong as the sphincter ani. This art is especially studied by

the Parisian demi-mondaine, and it is said that therein lies a great

deal of her much vaunted piquancy. The author had occasion to observe

the regular voluntary contractions of the sphincter cunni during the

vaginal examination of a young erotic woman of thirty years of age.

[Q] Women, says Hagen, in his “Sexuelle Osphresiologie,” are like the

flowers who spread their intoxicating fragrance during dawn and dusk—at

the first rays of the rising and the last rays of the setting sun. With

some the sweetest odors emanate during night-time. Before a thunder

storm, when the air is close, the “parfum de la femme” is particularly

pronounced. The transpiration of lean women is less pronounced than in

the stout, who possess usually large sudoriparous pores and sebaceous

glands. Brunettes have a stronger odor feminae than blondes, and both

are surpassed by the red-haired.

According to Jaeger, the balmy fragrance of the pure, innocent virgin

is of an extraordinary purity. As soon as the girl falls in love, the

fragrance at once changes.

Long sexual continence is claimed by Galopin to increase the

transpiratory odor feminae.

According to Monin, the woman’s respiration at the time of menstruation

has the odor of onions.

Before and after conjugation the natural odor corporis of the woman is

more intense. Two of the author’s patients were reported to exhale an

odor somewhat resembling that of onions, immediately after the orgasm.

[R] Roubaud says: Whatsoever the degree of coldness and aversion may

be that the woman brings to ad concubitum, the mere presence of the

mentula within the vagina will produce in her organs a certain action,

which although in the beginning only local, will, if prolonged, change

into a libidinous excitation.

[S] For the same reasons stuprum cum fornicatricibus to appease the

passions is highly deleterious to the man’s health, even if he escapes

infection. No man has any real affection for his temporary chance

acquaintance of the street. This lack of affection, together with the

fear of infection, renders meretricious venery highly unhygienic in the

long run.

PART V.

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX

CHAPTER X

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX ATTRACTION

A law regulating and governing phenomena is only possible on the

assumption that the law is the expression of the modus operandi of

the governing power which has established the fixed rules for the

performance of a certain action leading to a certain end. The law

governing the phenomena of sex has evidently been prescribed for the

purpose of the preservation of the species. This preservation is at

the basis of sexual desire, and because the ultimate aim is unknown to

the agent, the desire is instinctive in nature. For every instinct is

an inward impulse, an unconscious, involuntary prompting to action,

without a distinct apprehension of the end which nature has designed

should be accomplished thereby. Hunger for love and hunger for food are

both based upon the two instincts of preservation, the instinct of the

preservation of the individual and the instinct of the preservation of

the kind.

The hunger for food, manifested already by the new-born baby,[T] is

based upon the instinct of the preservation of the individual, the

sex-urge, manifested by youths and maidens at the time of puberty,

before they have ever experienced any copulative libido, is based upon

the instinct of the preservation of the species. The active principle

of the mind, which is energetically devoted to the gratification of

the sensual desire and the state of mind which is constantly yearning

to satisfy the sensual want, are the promptings of this instinct. They

exist at this early period independent of all experience. The absorbing

feeling which seeks the consummation of its purpose, as well as the

selection of the means to be employed, is not based upon previous

experience. They are internal, unconscious messages which give rise to

the conscious impulses, without waiting for the external stimuli which,

later on, coöperate with the impulse to affect the nervous centres.

The conscious impulses, composing the sexual instinct, are, according

to Moll, the impulse of contrectation, or the desire to effect a real

or a virtual contact with an individual of the opposite sex, and the

impulse of detumescence, or the desire to effect a certain material and

nervous discharge. Any inclination, to become an impulse, must possess

two qualities: it must move the individual to commit an act in which

logic and calculation have no part; and secondly, while committing the

act, the individual must be conscious of its immediate aim. The two

component impulses of the sex-instinct possess these two qualities.

They are unreasoning promptings to actions, the end of which is present

in the individual’s consciousness.

_Impulse of contrectation._—The impulse of contrectation is the

conscious desire of the individual to obtain a contact with an

individual of the opposite sex, if possible by the tactile sense

proper; if not, at least, by the visual or aural senses, or by the

imagery, by looking at a comely individual of the other sex, by

listening to its voice, or by thinking of the person. This impulse

is at the basis of the lovers’ desire to caress and fondle each

other. This impulse is entirely distinct from the desire for sensual

conjugation. It is found in children who have as yet no knowledge of

sex. An individual may have the wish to touch an individual of the

opposite sex, as for instance, in a public conveyance or at a dance,

without any thought of sex-congress, and where sensual conjugation is

entirely out of the question.

During the gratification of this impulse of contrectation (from the

Latin word contrectare, to touch with lust), a certain tumescence (from

the Latin word tumescere, to swell), or congestion of all the organs of

the body, particularly of the genital organs, and an increased amount

of nervous energy throughout the entire organism, takes place.

_Impulse of detumescence._—At this stage the second component of the

sexual instinct, the impulse of detumescence (from the Latin word

detumescere, to diminish in swelling) comes into play. Tumescence

causes a certain oppression, and the individual is impelled to cause

a discharge of the material congestion and a spasmodic relief of the

nervous tension. The procedure of this material and nervous discharge

is specific. The man’s impulse is “penem in vaginam intromittere et

semen ejaculare,” and the woman’s impulse is “membrum viri atque semen

in vaginam suscipere eodemque tempore detumescere.” If the opportunity

for the specific discharge is lacking, other unnatural means for

emission are employed, or the organism rids itself of the oppression

during the state of unconsciousness, as in sleep. Ejaculation, hence,

gives pleasure because it relieves the mechanical as well as the

nervous tension and causes a change both in the blood and the nerve

supply. Hence, the impulse of detumescence is less a craving to gain a

positive lust feeling as the impulse of contrectation.

_Children’s affection._—The impulse of contrectation is already met

with in small children. The desire to effect a physical contact is

often observed among very small children. There are some children

who are even susceptible to sexual excitement, but these are the

exceptions, their emotions are pathological. Normally there appears to

be no erethism of the sexual organs in children during the process of

love-making. They have no knowledge of the meaning of sex. With them

the caressing contact is an end in itself.

In the love-making of children we can distinguish two different modes,

according to the age of the child. In the first period, between three

and eight years of age, the child is perfectly ignorant of the meaning

of sex. Still it may indulge in the pleasure of bodily contact with

an individual of the opposite sex. During the second period, between

eight to twelve years of age, the children are aware of the difference

and even meaning of sex, still the erethism in the organs is still

absent.

The presence of the emotion of love in children of the first period is

shown in many ways. Children of the opposite sex fall in love with one

another. They seek each other’s company. They sit close to each other

and indulge in kissing, embracing, and lifting each other. They often

present gifts to, and make sacrifices for each other. Even jealousy is

not absent. The lover tries to monopolize the allegiance of the beloved

one. This love in early childhood is characterized by the absence of

shyness or of any sense of shame, which shows the complete sexual

anaesthesia.

With the appearance of shyness and modesty in children of the second

period, the love-making may be traced to the conscious sex instinct.

The instinct is manifested by the tendency to conceal the love affairs.

Modesty is a characteristic trait of the young lovers. When in each

other’s presence they feel embarrassed and ill at ease. They appear

awkward when left alone to themselves. They try to avoid each other and

may even appear to the casual observer to hate each other. Especially

does the boy try to simulate resentment. The girl is, on the whole,

more aggressive in these early love affairs. The woman’s innate love of

being wooed comes to surface later on when she has reached maturity.

Yet even the boy’s emotions are discernible by the keen observer. The

emotions of infatuated children may assume all the appearances of true

love, with its joys and sorrows. Yet any thought of the reproductive

organs is entirely absent.

_Puberty._—Before puberty the sexual activity of the child consists

thus in the desire and gratification of the impulse of contrectation.

This contrectation does not cause yet a state of tumescence in the

child, and without tumescence the impulse of detumescence is also

absent. The first state of spontaneous tumescence is called into

existence by internal messages.

At the time of puberty, the generative centre or the centre of

voluptas begins rapidly to grow and comes into increased activity.

The internal messages become then so frequent that they charge the

entire body with a considerable amount of nerve energy and cause in the

generative organs a certain congestion, stimulation and irritation.

This spontaneous tumescence, produced with the growth of the centre of

voluptas in the brain, is then the cause of calling to life the impulse

of detumescence. The individual has the strong desire to free itself

of the material congestion and of the nervous tension. In animals the

impulse of detumescence is, with a very few exceptions, identical

with the sex-instinct. Most animals have no desire for contrectation.

In man the impulse of contrectation is the more important. If the

individual practises total abstinence, i. e., if he abstains even from

the gratification of the impulse of contrectation, then the state of

spontaneous tumescence would return through the internal messages, at

certain periods, just as rut periodically appears in the animal. As a

rule, however, total abstinence from the gratification of the impulse

of contrectation, material or mental, is very rarely or never found

in the civilized adult man or woman. Hence the state of tumescence in

man is not given the chance to reach its periodicity, but is always

produced by the gratification of the impulse of contrectation.

_Mechanism of sex-activity._—The mechanism of sex-activity may thus

be compared with the charging of a Leyden jar with electricity. The

generative organs must first be charged, like the jar, with a certain

material turgescence and with nervous energy, in order to evoke the

impulse of detumescence. The comparison with the Leyden jar may

be moved even a step farther. Just as the charge of the jar with

electricity is of a longer duration, compared with the instantaneous

discharge at its contact with the earth, so is the charge of the

organism with nervous sex-tension usually of longer duration in

comparison with the short duration of the discharge.

During the gratification of the impulse of contrectation, by

imagination, look, word or actual contact, the organs are charged

with nervous energy and vital fluids. This charging is connected with

a certain kind of fore-pleasure and may last considerable time, from

a few minutes to several hours or even days. The satisfaction of the

impulse of detumescence when the vital fluids and nervous energy is

discharged by coition, pollution or any other way, is of very short

duration, normally lasting a few minutes only. Sexual activity, hence,

consists in the charging and discharging of the vital fluids and

nervous tension. The sexual act and copulation are not synonymous. The

act begins with the satisfaction of the impulse of contrectation, which

comprises by far the greatest part of sex activity. Copulation, on the

other hand, represents only the final stage of the drama and is of

short duration.

_Emotions of puberty._—The state of tumescence is a necessary

condition of sexual gratification, and in ordinary life is effected by

contrectation, i. e., it is, as a rule, voluntarily produced. The case

is different at the time of puberty. At this period, the tumescence is

evoked by internal promptings.

With the beginning of pubescence, the stepping-stone between the child

and the man or woman, the secondary characteristics, as beard, enlarged

larynx, musculature in man, and filling out and rounding of the body,

development of the breasts, enlargement of the pelvis in woman, are

becoming noticeable. It is the period of the rapid acceleration in

the growth of the centres of generation, and indefinable yearnings

and moods, wishes and fears assume domination of the growing child.

Sweet inexpressable emotions of wonder, awe, and amazement disturb

the thoughts and actions of the awakening consciousness. Mysterious

sensations, foretastes and impulses fill the heart of the ripening

individual. For the man it is the beginning of the period of “storm

and stress.” It is the time when the elemental cosmic fire of love is

bestowed upon the eyes of youth, and an infinite yearning is implanted

into his soul by an invisible power. At the approach of this time, a

tender fledgeling of longing is implanted into the heart of the girl.

She becomes quiet and shy. She shows a shrinking timidity and coyly

takes flight at the least approach of him at whose sight her hungry

emotions are profoundly stirred.

With the increase in size and vigor of the generative organs, the

bodings of sexual desires and the cravings of the natural instinct take

possession of the individual’s thoughts and fancy and awaken in him

erotic ideas and lustful feelings and the strong impulse for the organs

to function.

When the genital centres have been fully developed, the individual gets

a conscious realization of its sexual power, and the psychological

reactions of animal passion manifest themselves in the irresistible

desire for intimacy with an individual of the opposite sex. This desire

is inscrutable and transcendental. There is no knowable reason for

its existence present. Ordinarily the idea of a desire is realized by

bringing vividly to the mind the memory of a former desire gratified.

But at this time the individual has not as yet had the experience

of carnal pleasure, neither is it conscious of the ultimate object

of the sexual instinct, the propagation of the species. Yet it is

instinctively drawn towards the person of the opposite sex, and at

its sight the hungry emotions are peeping through every action. The

individual’s nature is both chaste and voluptuous. It is chaste because

the individual has no knowledge as yet of libido or lust, yet it is

voluptuous, it is all-impulse.

The impulse of contrectation is the first to impress itself upon the

mind of the individual. With the intimacy, the impulse of detumescence

becomes also imperious, and the desire to enjoy the full possession

of the beloved object begins to manifest itself. These are, then,

the two desires the individual is henceforth well aware of and which

it is anxious to gratify. The real purpose of the instinct of sex

has been hidden to man. Seldom or never is amativeness guided by

the desire to propagate the race. Sex-activity is chiefly desired

for the satisfaction of the sensual cravings.[U] The animal in

its sex-relations is largely or exclusively guided by the impulse

of detumescence. The same is the case with men in a low state of

civilization, with their promiscuous admiration of the opposite sex.

What such savages desire is a relaxation of the nervous tension and a

discharge of the genital congestion. In men of high culture the impulse

of contrectation is the more imperious, and mental attraction is added

as a factor in the love-game, i. e., civilized men are more erotic than

libidinous in their nature.

The different phenomena appear in the just described order, if no

disturbances interrupted the natural course. If the individual was

allowed to reach adolescence without interference, then at the period

of puberty, when the centres of generation begin to increase very

rapidly, and the generative organs reach their full development, a

certain kind of material congestion and nervous tension would ensue.

But the congestion and tension would be of slight intensity to require

a specific discharge. The absorptive power of the seminal vesicles and

of the uterus would easily master the increased secretions, or the

overflow would be discharged once or twice a month during sleep, mostly

without even awakening the sleeper. Such a frequency of nocturnal

emissions, especially if not accompanied by bad effects the next day,

are perfectly normal.

But in ordinary life natural development without disturbance is rarely

or never met with. Hence the sexual activities take an entirely

different course. Boys and girls are brought up promiscuously in flats,

in schools or on the streets. The first component of the sex-instinct,

the impulse of contrectation, has an early opportunity to develop, even

before puberty, as may be seen in the early attachment of children. By

the time puberty is reached this impulse has been completely developed.

The opportunity for the gratification of this impulse is everywhere

present. Hence the tumescence is not evoked by internal messages and

natural promptings but through the actual contact. With the beginning

of the contact, be it in thought, look, word, or touch, simultaneously

also begins the sex-act. Having begun the act it is natural and

normal for the lovers to have it completed. If the stimulation of

the erogenous zones is prolonged beyond a reasonable space of time

without relaxation by an emission, a sense of incompleteness and

dissatisfaction will ensue.

By some strange quirk of the human mind the error and fallacy have

been fixed, even among thinkers, that sex-activity begins and ends

with copulation.[V] The charging of the body with the necessary energy

is considered a negligible quantity. We have taken out the final

part of the act and elevated it to a fetich, in law as well as in

sentiment, and consider all other sex activities as of no consequence.

Yet the stimuli received through the other senses, causing the

libidinous turgescence of the body, are the main part of the sexual

chain of activities. The sexual act begins with the amorous caress,

be it a caress in thought, look, or touch, as hugging or kissing.

For contrectation or tumescence and detumescence represent only

one act. One impulse is the sequel of the other. The Sermon on the

Mount, preaching, “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her has

committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew v, 28), is

nearer the physiological truth than the common accepted view.

The same disturbances which cause a break in the chain of sexual

activity during childhood, puberty and adolescence are also responsible

that in civilized men we can hardly speak any longer of an instinct

of sex. If the instinct has not been disturbed by the intrusion of

the stimuli of the senses and of the imagery before the period of

maturity, the instinct of sex should enter into play at the time of

puberty. But, as a rule, the stimulation of the erogenous zones is

effected already before the time has arrived for the sex-instinct

to make its appearance. During this stimulation, which, as we have

seen, is already a part of the sex-act, a certain fore-pleasure is

experienced. Henceforth the individual is desirous of the repetition of

this experience. Especially when the orgasm has once been tasted, the

memory of the same causes the individual to look for a repetition of

the highest lustful sensation in human experience. Sexual activity is

henceforth chiefly desired for the positive lust-feeling connected with

it. This means to say that calculation enters into the activity, and

with the entrance of calculation the activity ceases to be instinctive.

Hence in modern men and women neither sex-activity nor propagation

partake of the nature of an instinct. Normal sex-attraction being an

offshoot of the reproductive impulse, it is perfectly natural that if

the parent impulse loses its instinctive nature, the offspring will

also lose it.

CHAPTER XI

DEVELOPMENT OF THE REPRODUCTIVE IMPULSE

The instinct of propagation is normally derived from the impulse for

the satisfaction of protoplasmatic hunger. In lower animal life the

incipient sexual union is effected by two exhausted cells coming

together for the mutual exchange of nuclear material. This mode

represents the first step in the scale of conjugation.

In the lowest form of unicellular life, as the schizomycetes (yeast)

or bacteria, the necessity for conjugation does not appear to exist.

In the reproduction of these unicellular organisms the animal simply

divides into two, the division of the nucleus, as a rule, preceding

that of the cytoplasm by a more or less karyokynetic method.

The ordinary protozoon does not form a composite structure. It divides

and multiplies, but the products of the division do not remain

together, they leave each other and lead a separate existence. Hence

there is no real death in these animals. In the metazoa, or many-celled

animals, only the reproductive cells may escape death and continue to

live in the offspring. The somatic cells, or the body, die after a

longer or shorter period. The unicellular animals do not possess any

somatic cells, they are all reproductive cells. Hence we may rightly

speak of the “immortality” of the protozoa.

The method of binary fission or splitting, by which the body of the

parent becomes divided into two equal parts, into halves, is the

simplest method of multiplication. This method is made use of in the

amoeba. In this kind of reproduction there is no parent nor child. The

children, the new amoebae, are simply the parent cut in two (vide Page

60).

The next simple generation is budding, which is the breaking off of a

part smaller than half from a certain individual. The budded-off part

has the capacity of growing into a new individual like the parent.

This mode of reproduction is found in the hydra.

Another simple mode of generation is that of sporulation. Here the

interior of the body of the individual subdivides into more than two

parts. Sometimes the parts number many hundreds and are called spores.

These three methods are the simplest modes of generation and are

exclusively found in the lowest forms of unicellular organisms.

When we go a step farther, in the class of unicellular protozoa, the

simple mode of multiplication continues, in most forms, only for a

certain number of generations. Then the necessity for conjugation, i. e.,

for a temporary or permanent fusion with another individual, sets

in. If this conjugation be prevented, the animal soon degenerates and

dies.[W]

[Illustration: CUT XXXV.

Infusorium reproducing by sporulation.]

The simplest terms of conjugation are found in Chilodon, a minute

fresh-water infusorium, which multiplies for a considerable length of

time by transverse division. After a time, however, the physiological

necessity for conjugation sets in. The different animals place

themselves side by side, in pairs, and partly fuse together. The

nucleus of each individual divides now into two portions, one of which

passes from each infusorium into the other to unite with the half of

the nucleus that remained stationary. The two animals then separate,

each having received a half of the nucleus of the other. Thereupon a

period of renewed activity for each ensues, manifested by rapid growth

and multiplication by division, until a certain weakening in the

vital activities indicates the periodically recurring necessity for

conjugation.

The next step in conjugation is found in those animals in which after

their fusion the two animals do not separate any more, as found in the

fission of monads, which is preceded by the absorption of one form

by another. One monad is fixed upon the sarcode of another, and the

substance of the lesser, which is the lower one, passes into the upper

one. In about two hours the merest trace of the lower one is only left,

and in four hours fission and multiplication of the larger one has

taken place.

From these two modes of generation it is easily seen that the impelling

force leading to conjugation is, as Rolph puts it, simply cell hunger.

These modes of multiplication are also found in the simpler forms of

colonial protozoa,[X] where the cells are not yet differentiated and

all the members of the colony take part in reproduction.

In the next higher class of colonial protozoa, the first

differentiation of the members or cells of the colony takes place. One

part of the cells is set apart to continue the task of reproduction,

while the main body of the colony does not participate any longer in

the function of generation. As a rule, the reproductive cells are

divided into two kinds, and these two kinds of cells conjugate with

each other. The conjugation takes place either between different

members of the same colony or between members of different colonies of

the same species.

The conjugating individuals are similar in the simpler kinds of

colonies. In the higher forms the two conjugating cells are easily

seen to be very different from each other. One kind of cells is large,

spherical and inactive. They are for this reason called egg-cells. The

other kind of cells is small, with ovoid head and tapering tail and

free-swimming. For this reason they are called sperm cells.

When the differentiation between the reproductive cells into two kinds

has taken place, they are called sex cells. The sex cells are usually

situated in groups, and the groups are called sexual glands. The groups

of sperm cells are called testicles and those of egg cells are called

ovaries.

In the lower classes in the animal kingdom the male and female glands

are situated at different parts of the same animal, or near each other.

Sometimes the same gland is producing both kinds of cells, male and

female. In the hermaphroditic species of round worms, for instance,

it is found that, when the reproductive organ is fully formed, it

functions first as a testicle. The germ-cells at the anterior end of

the sexual gland begin to divide rapidly and become small spermatozoa

which are stored up in a receptacle of the uterus. Later on other

cells, also situated at the anterior end of the sex-gland, begin to

grow larger, store up yolk and become large egg-cells. They then enter

the uterus and become fertilized by their own spermatozoa. This mode

of fertilization is the so-called self-fertilization. It is found in

the slightly complex animals, as the tape-worm or the leech, where one

and the same individual produces both egg-cells and sperm-cells. In

colonial jelly-fishes certain members of the colony produce only sperm

cells, and certain other members produce only egg-cells.

In the hermaphroditic animals the sperm cells of the same individual

may fertilize their own egg-cells or ova, as in the feat-worm

(self-fertilization), while in the earth worm, although it is also

hermaphroditic, cross-fertilization takes place. Two earth-worms

mutually fertilize each other, the sperm cells of one fertilize the ova

of the other, and the sperm cells of the latter fertilize the ova of

the former.

_Fertilization in plants._—This mode of cross-fertilization is the

one generally found in phanerogamous (φανερός = apparent and γάμος =

marriage) plants.

In the lower forms of the organic world the line of demarkation

between plant and animal is somewhat blotted, and the identity of the

mode of fertilization does not need to be particularly emphasized. In

the higher forms the division is generally made by the mode of the

assimilation of food and of motion. Plants generally break up the

inorganic compounds into separate elements and recombine them into

organic compounds, or potential energy. These organic compounds serve

then the animal as food or as source of energy. The inorganic compounds

being, as a rule, ubiquitous, the plants have hence a certainty of

food supply and do not depend upon the facility of motion. They are,

therefore, marked by a fixity to the soil. They are also surrounded

by an outer skeleton, or a coat of cellulose and are less affected by

outer stimuli; hence they possess slight consciousness. For the animals

the food-supply is more uncertain, hence they need greater movement.

For this reason they generally lack the external skeleton and hence

possess higher consciousness.

Apart from this division plant and animal are closely related cousins,

and the mode of fertilization of most of the higher plants is about the

same as in the hermaphroditic animals.

The sexual organs of the phanerogamous plants are represented by the

flowers.[Y] Showy flowers consist usually of four sets of organs,

pistils, stamens, petals, and sepals. The sepals taken together

constitute the calyx, the petals taken together constitute the corolla.

The essential organs of the flower are the stamens and pistils. The

stamen represents the male organ, and the pistil the female organ of

the plant, while the calyx and corolla form the floral envelopes, or

the so-called perianth and are analogous to the external genital

organs in the animal. Flowers which contain all the four sets of organs

are said to be complete flowers, those which have the essential organs

only are called perfect flowers.

[Illustration: CUT XXXVI.

_A complete flower._

st, stamen; pi, pistil; pe, petal; s, sepal; ca, calyx; c, corolla.

After Bergen.]

Complete and perfect flowers are hermaphroditic. The male organ or the

androcele and the female organ or the gynocele are situated in one and

the same flower. The unisexual flowers are those where the stamens

and the pistils are produced on separate flowers, as in the willow.

Stamen and pistil may not only be produced on separate flowers, but the

staminate and pistillate flowers themselves may be borne on different

plants, as in hickory, hazel, or Indian corn. Such plants are called

dioecious or of two households. When both kinds of flowers appear on

the same individual, the plant is called monoecious or of one household.

[Illustration: CUT XXXVII.

_Stamen._

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

[Illustration: CUT XXXVIII.

_Pollen grains._

s, spots where the inner coat bursts. After Bergen.]

The stamen, or the male sexual organ of the flower, consists of a

hollow portion called the anther, which is borne on a stalk called the

filament. Inside of the anther is found a powdery or pasty substance

called the pollen. The shape of the anther and the way in which it

opens depend largely upon the way in which the pollen is to be

discharged and how it is carried from flower to flower. As a rule, the

anther opens by the cells being split length-wise, or by little holes

at the top.

The pollen in many plants is a fine dry powder, in others it is

somewhat sticky or pasty. The forms of the pollen grains are various.

Each pollen-grain consists of a single cell and is covered by a thick

outer and a thin inner wall or coat. At the outer coat there are spots

at which the inner coat of the grain is finally to burst through the

outer one, pushing its way out in the form of a slender thin-walled

tube. The contents of the pollen is a thickish protoplasma, full of

little opake particles, and usually containing grains of starch and

little drops of oil.

[Illustration: CUT XXXIX.

_Pistil._

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

The pistil, or the female sexual organ of the flower, usually consists

of a small hollow chamber called the ovary, which contains the ovules,

and of a slender portion or stalk, called the style. At the top of the

latter is found a ridge, knob, or point which is called the stigma.

The stigma consists of cells loosely arranged over the surface. These

cells secrete a moist substance, to which the pollen grains adhere

when they come in contact with the stigma. Beneath these superficial

cells, running down through the style, there are found long cells, with

intermediate spaces, through which the pollen tube reaches the ovary.

[Illustration: CUT XL.

_Stigma of thorn-apple with pollen._

p, pollen forming into a pollen-tube; i, intermediate space. After

Bergen.]

The ovules are not borne indiscriminately by any part of the lining of

the ovary. They grow in a line running along one side of the ovary,

as may be seen in the pea pod. This ovule-bearing line is called the

placenta.

The ovule usually exists as a roundish or egg-shaped mass, with a small

opening leading into the apex. This opening leads to a sac inside the

ovule, which is filled with a soft protoplasmatic material and cells

and is known as the embryo sac. Minute cells are found at the apex of

the ovule from the development of which the embryo is produced, after

the union of the pollen with a cell at the apex of the embryo sac of

the ovule has taken place.

[Illustration: CUT XLI.

_Fertilization of the ovule._

st, stigma; p, pollen; pt, pollen-tube; o, ovary; e, embryo-sac. After

Bergen.]

_Fertilization._—As soon as the pollen grain lodges on the stigma, it

begins to form into a pollen tube. In more or less time it makes its

way through the style into the ovary. It then penetrates the opening

at the apex of the ovule, reaches one of the cells and transfers its

nucleus into an egg-cell. The latter begins at once to form cell-walls

and increases by continued subdivision to the plant embryo. Only one

pollen tube is necessary to fertilize each ovule. Still plants produce

more pollen than ovules—the ratio is from 1:8 to 1:1000—because so many

pollen are lost on their way to the ovules.

The mechanism of the forwarding of the pollen to the ovule varies

in different plants. In self-fertilization or in those plants in

which the ovule may be impregnated by the pollen of the same flower,

fertilization is comparatively easy. But in a great many plants

cross-fertilization is the rule. In order to accomplish the most

successful fertilization, the pollen must come from another plant of

the same species. Here nature has devised different ways to carry the

pollen from one plant to another.

In the first place, there is the wind which accomplishes the task of

forwarding the pollen. The wind-fertilized flowers have dry and powdery

pollen, and the pistils are feathery, adapted to catch flying pollen

grains. The flowers are characterized by their inconspicuousness. They

are usually greenish, without any odor or nectar.

Another device to forward the pollen is by way of insects. Most of the

showy, sweet-scented or otherwise conspicuous kinds of flowers are

entirely dependent for fertilization on the transference of pollen from

one plant to another by insects. The showy colors and odors serve to

attract insects to visit them for their nectar. Insects and flowers are

interdependent upon one another. For many insects depend mainly upon

the nectar and pollen of flowers for their food. These insects usually

visit only one kind of flower during the day and thus carry only one

kind of pollen. Butterflies, moths, and most of the bees go straight

from one flower to another and carry a good deal of pollen entangled in

the scales or hairs of their bodies. On its way, the insect leaves a

good deal of the pollen on the stigma of the pistil and becomes dusted

with new pollen to be carried to other flowers.

The means to attract insects are threefold: nectar, odor and color.

The nectar is a sweet liquid which the flower secretes by means of

nectar glands. The latter are usually situated near the base of the

flower. Other plants attract insect visitors by giving up a sweet

scent. These are especially the small flowers, like the mignonette

or evening primrose. The color is another means by which the flower

attracts insects and birds. The color of the flower is, as a rule, due

to showy petals. Different kinds of insects are especially attracted by

different colors. Some flowers with very long tubulated corollas depend

entirely upon birds with long beaks to carry their pollen for them.

In complete and perfect flowers, where stamen and pistil are present in

the same flower, self-fertilization would be the rule, if there were

not certain means for its prevention. In the first place the pollen of

another plant frequently prevails over that which the flower may shed

over its own pistil. When both kinds are placed over the stigma, at the

same time, it is the foreign pollen which causes fertilization. Another

means to prevent self-fertilization consists in the stamens and pistils

maturing at different times. The insect visitor, on its way to the

nectary, brushes against the ripe stamens of a certain flower in its

earlier stage. It cannot deposit the acquired pollen upon the stigma of

the same flower and thus cause self-fertilization because the pistil is

not ripe yet. But, in flying to a flower in the later stage, when the

stigma has already ripened and the stamens have shed all their pollen,

the insect will lodge the pollen first acquired on the ripe stigma, and

in this way produce the desired cross-fertilization.

_Sex-differentiation._—When we rise higher in the scale of animal life

we find that the egg-cells and sperm-cells are almost always produced

by different individuals. Those which produce egg-cells or ova are

called female, and those which produce sperm-cells or spermatozoa are

called male animals. The formation of a new being results in these

species from the conjugation of two cellular elements of two different

animals. In this way the origin of the organism, or the zygote from

which the new individual develops is composed of parts of two different

individuals, and a difference between the offspring and parents

is insured. The intermixing of body-substance from two distinct

individuals and the development therefrom of the new individual produce

variation.[Z]

When the scale of animal life is reached where egg-cell and sperm-cell

have their habitats in different individuals, the attraction

between ovum and spermatozoön, which is based upon a kind of erotic

chemotropismus, is transferred to the two hosts who harbor the two

different sex-cells. Thus the erotic chemotropismus between two cells

has now grown to sex-attraction between two animals. But even at this

stage the attraction sometimes exists only between the sex-cells,

namely when fertilization takes place outside of the mother’s body. The

best example of outside fertilization are the fishes. The female fish

contains the roe, which is a mass of small eggs. At the proper time the

female lets the roe fall on the ground of rivers or the dark bottom of

lakes, etc., at a favorable place called spawning bed, secure against

enemies. The male fishes swim over the spawn and pour their semen or

milt over it. The two kinds of cells attract each other like iron and

magnet. When the milt has reached the spawn, the eggs are fertilized

and develop into new fishes.

In the next higher class, in birds, fertilization is internal, and only

the development is external. The female bird has an ovary containing a

large number of eggs or ova, within its body. The male animal possesses

an organ serving for the introduction of the semen into the body of the

female. The fertilized egg is laid and develops outside, either by the

sun-heat or hatched by the mother’s warmth.

The last step in generation is reached in the mammals. Here not only

fertilization is accomplished within the body of the female, but also

the entire development of the fertilized ovum is carried out in the

uterus, inside the female body. Hence mammals give birth to living

mature young.

In these higher animals the attraction of the sex cells has been

definitely transferred to, or rather changed into, the attraction of

the hosts of these cells or into the sexual instinct. The sex-instinct

is, therefore, if not identical with the instinct of propagation, thus

an offshoot of the latter instinct.

In the more advanced species of the higher animals the instinct

relating to the preservation of the kind is composed of three

definite impulses. There is first the impulse relating to the act of

conjugation, universal in all organic life. The average individual

grows up surrounded by others of the opposite sex and normally

unexcited by this difference until the age of puberty approaches. Then

some day, the boy or girl find arising within an incipient impulse

which, naturally, were there no artificial restrictions, would lead

them to exercise their sexual powers, just as found among animals.

The second impulse relates to the pursuit and attraction of mates. It

is first found among the lower types of the animal kingdom. The sweet

odors and showy colors found in flowers are nothing else but the means

of attracting the insects that carry the pollen for fertilization. The

bright colors of some animals, especially among birds, and other animal

adornments also serve to attract the mates. The woman’s love for finery

also emanates from no other source than from the impulse of pursuit and

attraction of mates.

The third impulse stands in relation to permanent mating and the

protection of the young. It is the impulse relating to the germs of

family life, and is present among those animals that have gained a

higher place in the ascending scale of complexity and whose young are

more difficultly provided for.[AA]

Through the whole range of animal life, where the period of infancy

is comparatively short (e. g. horse, dog, cat, etc.), the male part

is ended with impregnation or copulation. The nursing of the young is

left to the female,[AB] and she will sacrifice her own life in the

protection of her breed. In animals whose young are not easily provided

for (e. g. fox, wildcat, eagle, sparrow, pigeon, stork, etc.), not

only the mother will sacrifice her own existence in the protection of

her offspring, but also the father will do his utmost in the interest

of his young ones. In these animals the males remain attached to the

females they have secured at the first period of oestrum even after the

time of propagation has passed, provide mutually for their offspring

until the latter can provide for themselves, and at each succeeding

period of rut, yield again to love and never seek a new mate until the

old one dies. Ernest Thompson Seton found that hawks practise monogamy

and that wolves consort for life, and, in case of death, the survivor

remains alone. The Canadian wild goose, when it has lost its mate,

will never seek another. Thus the instinct of permanent mating or of

monogamic marriage, is a phenomenon already found among many animals.

Now, among all animals, the prenatal period and the period of the

maternal feeding are almost the longest in man. The helplessness of the

human infant is unique among the creatures of the animal kingdom. The

new-born baby is devoid of nearly all instinctive capacities, except

the taking-in and assimilation of food. It is unable to stand or wander

in search of food. It is nearly blind and deaf. It is perfectly naked,

without fur or feathers, and hence is in need of a certain amount of

heat, being injured by the least draught. It is in need of the utmost

cleanliness, still it is unable to keep itself clean. It is unable

to fast longer than a few hours. In short, the human infant is the

most complete picture of helpless dependence. Hence without the help

and strength of fatherhood, afforded to motherhood, the human race

could not have survived the primitive stage, when couples still lived

separated. The length and feebleness of human infancy required a union

of male and female of considerable duration. By the time the last

child was able to emancipate itself from the parental protection, the

period of sexual activity had been passed. Permanent mating among men,

especially in the prehuman stage, was a condition sine qua non, all the

preachings of the free-lovers to the contrary notwithstanding.[AC]

Permanent mating is, therefore, a natural impulse among human beings.

It is necessary for the protection and preservation of the lives of

a lesser number of offspring of a higher grade. Permanent mating is,

hence, of fundamental racial value. In man this impulse is of a more

complex form and broader range, which leads the individual to wish not

for momentary excitement, but for a permanent union, for a home, for a

family. Even to the man who regularly indulges in meretricious venery

there comes a time when these bonds of mere passion do not satisfy

any longer. He begins to crave for a permanent mate and a home. This

impulse appears later in life and is not present in the earlier impulse

for mere conjugation, arising at the period of puberty. The amatory

feelings at that time of life are bestowed upon the first pleasing

individual of the opposite sex and are seldom of long duration. They

are transferred from individual to individual. Later in life, after

character is formed, there comes for men and women the dawn of a deeper

affection, which involves bonds of stronger form and more permanent

type than any that mere passion can arouse. This unconscious and

involuntary craving for a permanent mate and home is of an altruistic

nature. It has been wisely implanted in the interest of the race.

There is nothing egotistical connected with this impulse. Personal

gratification does not enter into consideration, for the joy and

pleasure connected with personal satisfaction may be found with any

temporary mate.

CHAPTER XII

SENSUAL LOVE

Permanent mating is altruistic in character, but the altruism extends

only to the future generation. Even the fastidiousness found in

permanent mating is in the interest of the unborn. The mates are only

tools in the hands of the commanding Spirit, whose all-governing

principle has only one thought, only one prosaic aim, the propagation

of the human species. The attachment between both mates cannot,

therefore, be properly called love. For in love the mate is of primary

importance. But the permanent-mating impulse is the stepping-stone

to love which is first found in the human race. In human love a

distinction must be made, according to Finck, between two different

kinds; love as an instinct, or sensual love[AD] and love as a

sentiment, or sentimental love.

Sensual love is the only kind of love the greater part of humanity

knows.[AE] This love has no depth or duration, and when satisfied,

cares no longer for the object for which it temporarily hungered. For

when sense forms the chief part of the compound feeling, love will not

long survive possession. There may be a strong individual preference in

sensual love. The charm exuding from the personality of one individual

may possess a kind of personal magnetism for another of the opposite

sex. The luscious intoxicating essences, exhaling from one person,

may have a particular idiosyncratical attraction for the other. Hence

sensual love may be as fastidious as pure love. It may temporarily

focus its interest on one person only. Yet in sensual love the intense

desire for exclusive possession, the jealousy toward rivals, the

coy-resistance, and the moods of doubt and hope are only emanations of

selfish lust, of eagerness to gratify an appetite with a particular

victim for whom the lover has no adoration or self-sacrificing

devotion. Such a lover loves only himself; his one object is to please

his own beloved “I,” without any regards for the feelings of his mate.

The latter figures only as a means to the end, that end being his own

gratification. To such a lover, “I love you” means “I long for you,

covet you, and am eager to enjoy you.” All indulgences and favors shown

to the mate are only meant as means to gain a certain end, and when

this cannot be attained, sensual love will change into the contrary

passion of hatred. In sentimental love such a thing as hatred is

impossible. For to understand a thing thoroughly, forever puts that

thing beyond the pale of hatred; to love a thing merely is to subject

oneself to the possibility of hating that thing.

Sensual love, says Duboc, starts as an ideal notion and fancy from

the sensual enjoyment which the sexual feeling promises. Whoever

promises to satisfy to perfection appears as an ideal, by being the

representative of this enjoyment; he becomes the object of the highest

wish and desire. But as soon as he loses this significance, this symbol

of sexual union, he immediately is deprived of his ideal character.

By no means can, therefore, sensual love renounce, because with the

resignation and renunciation the deposition of the ideal immediately

begins, while true love can only prove its genuineness by the very

renunciation.

Sensual love is thus characterized by the egoism that lies at its

foundation. Joy and sorrow, hope and fear, which may be found in

sensual love, are only the selfish aspects of passion. The moods of

hope and despair may disquiet or delight also those who love only as

a carnal appetite. A desire which is the most violent and the most

engrossing of all passions, a craving which next to hunger and thirst

is the most powerful and imperious of all appetites may cause all kinds

of selfish pleasures and selfish pains. Even attachment and fondness

are no proof of the existence of pure love. The manifestations of

attachment may spring from selfish interest, they may be the rewards

for favors to come. Fondness, displaying a silly extravagance or

unseemly demonstrativeness, does not prove true love; it may be only a

foolish, doting indulgence. The old maid is also fond of her dog and

the little girl of her doll. Some men love their wives as children love

dolls, and, as a natural result, treat them just as dolls are treated.

They dress them in all the finery they are able to procure, pet and

exhibit them until they become old, and then they turn aside for their

neighbors’ dolls. Even the doll’s admired beauty is valued not for the

pure artistic delight of loveliness, but as an incentive to the chase.

This is not true love. The person is here only valued as an object

without which the beloved “ego” could not have its selfish indulgence.

Even adoration is no proof of true love. Husbands are often adored for

their coldness, hardness, arrogance and contemptuousness, and beaten

wives do often most warmly adore. Yet such husbands are certainly not

truly loved.

Fondness, liking and attachment even to the degree of committing

suicide upon the loss of the person coveted, may not be true love

withal. Suicide is no test of true love. Many a man commits suicide

after losing his wealth, yet money is not loved for its own sake, but

for the power it possesses of procuring the means for enjoyment. A

person may take his own life because it feels lonely after the failure

to secure the desired union. An individual may risk life and comfort to

obtain possession of a coveted body for its own enjoyment. Such actions

are no indication of genuine love and, generally, they prove just the

contrary, just as the unrestrained, unlimited desire which ignores

all considerations of honor, prosperity and peace, does not prove

true love but, on the contrary, the urgings of the primal instinct.

Neither should the sacred term “true love” be applied to the feeling

that animates selfish and impulsive idiots to assassinate cowardly an

unresponding mate. Such designs just prove the selfish lust. The gross,

sensual infatuation which leads a man to shoot a woman who rejects him,

or which leads a woman to throw acid in the face of the beloved man,

is absolutely antithetic to refined, ardent, sentimental love, which

impels the lover to sacrifice his own life and comfort rather than let

any harm come to the one beloved.

This true love is only possible among the refined and cultured.

Hence the greater part of humanity has never known the emotions of

sentimental love. The only love it knows is sensual love.[AF] Men and

women with blunt intellects also have blunt feelings and are incapable

of experiencing true love. They can only be inspired by the love of the

body. This love, to be sure, is not necessarily coarse or obscene, yet

it is a stranger to true sentimental love.

CHAPTER XIII

SENTIMENTAL LOVE

Sentimental, or true love, is a conscious altruism and is the

antithesis of the egotistic sensual love. Before applying the term

true love to the relation of both mates, the test of disinterested

affection, as found in the instinctive parental love, must be applied.

The distinction between sensual and sentimental love is the selfish

desire of libido in the former and the self-sacrificing ardor of

altruistic affection in the latter.

The two emotions have some characteristics in common, and for that

reason, sensual love is, as a rule, mistaken for sentimental love,

even by the greatest thinkers and best poets. An essential and

invariable ingredient in sentimental, as well as in sensual love, is

the imperative desire for an absolute monopoly of the beloved person.

But while in sensual love this desire springs from an egotistic source,

selfish elements are foreign to this desire in sentimental love. The

latter knows only devotion and sympathy, which urge the lover to seek

the welfare of the one beloved, if need be at the expense of his own.

The only true index of genuine love lies, therefore, in the sacrifice

of one’s own happiness for another’s sake. Pure love is always ready

to lose its own life in an effort to save another’s. The sentimental

lover is, indeed, not less overjoyed to have his affection returned;

but if it is not reciprocated, his love is, unlike sensual love that

turns into resentment, none the less affectionate. He never slakes

his thirst with the blood of his beloved, even if he is rejected. His

constant solicitude is how he can make the beloved happy and save the

adored person from grief, at whatever cost to his own comfort. He

feels the joys and sorrows of his beloved, as if they were his own.

He has completely surrendered himself and his own peculiarity to the

other and has, in a certain respect, died as something specific and

individual.[AG]

True love, therefore, was slow in coming and is a child of a higher

civilization, and is, even then, known only to the cultured. Only when

humanity has reached that state of civilization when men and women

show not only their respective physical but also mental secondary

characters, then admiration and respect enter into the relation of

the sexes. Love becomes more and more fastidious and more regardful

of intellectual worth and moral beauty, and sentimental love is made

possible. For true love cannot exist without respect, and genuine

affection is chiefly evoked by intellectual, emotional and moral

qualities.

The secondary mental characters in the man are strength, hardiness,

robustness, courage, aggressiveness, activity, creativeness, stern

justice, gallantry, generosity, manly will, manly grace, tenderness,

and intelligence. The feminine qualities are gentleness, kindness,

patience, tenderness, benevolence, sympathy, self-sacrifice, meekness,

sensitiveness, emotionality, modesty, demureness, coyness, and

domesticity. The highest phases of genuine love are possible only where

the secondary psychic qualities are highly developed. Such persons do

not care to possess in the low, coarse way that characterizes sensual

love. They are content to love and be silent, to worship even at a

distance.

Love, says Horowicz, growing up as a mighty passion from the substratum

of sexual life has, under the repressing influences of habits and

customs, taken on an entirely new, supersensual, ethereal character,

so that to the true lover every thought of naturalia seems indelicate

and improper. True love is, therefore, only possible between refined

and cultured people, between a man capable of adoration, sympathy and

affection and a woman equipped with mental and moral charms. In true

love the woman must show the same traits as in her maternal capacity.

She has to be a real mother to the man she loves. The man starts life

at a woman’s knees, and it is to a woman’s knees that he returns when

he marries. Woe to him and her, if the second woman’s love is less

selfish and sacrificing than that of the first.

A sympathetic disposition is as essential to the individual who wishes

to be loved truly and permanently as all the other secondary psychic

qualities. Cruel indifference is not incompatible with sensual love,

but it is fatal to love based upon sentiment. Ordinary, sensual

infatuation could be strong and unprincipled enough to lead a person to

sacrifice honor and self-respect for the caprices of another. But true

love would turn into contempt for the one who could wantonly subject

it to persistent insults and degradation; and contempt is the death of

genuine love, though yet compatible with sensual love.[AH]

True love is, therefore, characterized by patience, kindness,

generosity, humility, unselfishness, good temper, and sincerity. This

spectrum of true love shows the same elements as does that of genuine

friendship. True love, therefore, can only be acquired in the same

way as true friendship, namely, after a long probationary interval.

Then only will the true love supply the universal need of friendship.

Marriage is no barrier to the existence of unselfish and sexless love,

which is the essence of the truest and purest friendship. If a husband

be truly the friend of his wife, his love for her as a friend would

be just as strong, just as tender, just as permanent and unswerving

as if she were not his wife, nor ever might be. Nay, it may be said

with Tolstoy that unless married people have been united by pure love,

without a mixture of animal passion, the time must come when they will

become weary of each other.

Duboc had only sensual love in mind when he said: To be adored and

admired is, in distinction from friendship, the criterion of love,

while the criterion of friendship, in distinction from love, is to be

understood and esteemed; the latter is delighted in its illusions,

the former harbors an element inimical to all illusions. Sentimental

love is also an enemy to illusions. Sentimental love, as distinguished

from friendship, is dependent upon sexual differentiation. Pure oxygen

would burn the lungs after a very short time, pure nitrogen suffocates

every animal, but “both combined maintain life,” says Ellen Key. Mere

sensual attraction is not love, nor is friendship love; in combination

they are the air of life. When two souls have joys which the senses

share, and when the senses have delights which the souls ennoble, then

the result is neither desire nor friendship, it is a new feeling. The

only distinction between true love and pure friendship is that the most

ideal relation between man and man in friendship is transferred to man

and woman in love. Hence these two relationships must possess the same

qualities. Paternal, filial and fraternal love partake each, in some

degree, of instinct and are, to that extent, impulsive and blind. But

in true love, instinct and sensuality have no place. “She is sacred to

me,” says Goethe’s Werther, “all desire is silent in her presence.” A

gleam of such wedded friendship transcends all other kinds of love.

Wherever there is a pure and unselfish love for another for that

other’s own sake, a love contingent neither on its return nor on its

recognition, there is true friendship.

Sentimental love, like its comrade friendship, furthers the display

of nobility and native virtues of the human soul. To love one’s soul

for its beauty, grace and truth, to be inspired by the charm of its

character to an affection which is pure and chaste, is to open the way

to appreciate all beautiful and true and gracious souls. It offers

the most refined of the pleasures which make life worth living. Joy

demands that its joy should be shared.[AI] We need sympathy; hence we

crave friendship and love. By the devotion of the other we feel our own

power, our own value enhanced. Love tends to make man kinder and better

through his complete identification with the existence of another. In

the beauty of a loving attachment, man learns to comprehend all his

fellowmen and to value and look at all the world by the glorious light

of an inner community of emotions.

Such love must be proved and purified by the fire of reasoning. It

is only possible after a thorough study of the character. The subtle

elective affinity, of which we hear so much praised on the lecture

platform, on the stage, in the magazines and in the papers, cannot

be relied upon; its thrill is uncertain and needs to be tested and

corrected by a long trial, whether it is really spiritual kinship or

only emotional impulse. If after the veil of fantasy has been removed,

the beloved object is still found worthy of the highest and warmest

esteem, the emotion will be far nobler than, and different from, the

unconscious fondness which overlooks the exact estimation of the

beloved. In all love, considered as a virtue or grace, there must

always be the conscious will, which is also the foundation of morality.

Such love may also reach the highest state of passion, but in

distinction from sensual love, it seeks its own happiness _in_ the

felicity of the other, and conscious of its own disinterested purity,

considers its desires as noble and above general motives of human

action. Such emotions can only exist between men and women of pure

souls.

True love is, therefore, rational, conscious, unselfish, deep,

enduring, constant, refined, self-denying, and is willing to make the

greatest sacrifices for the sake of the happiness of another. It is

conscious altruism, never faltering in its ethical sense of duty. It is

love tested and purified in the fire of the intellect; it comes slowly,

but it endures; it gives more than it takes, and has a tinge of tender

gratitude for a thousand kind actions. It is, therefore, an ideal

sentiment which has hitherto been reached only by a very few select.

But if we look at love in the light of evolution, when we find how

cell-division developed into sexuality, conjugation, permanent mating,

sensual love and, finally, into sentimental love, there is reason for

hope that the still rare fruits of an apparently more than earthly

paradise of love, which only the forerunners of the race have been

privileged to gather, will some day, when humanity has reached the

state of Nietzsche’s Superman, become the universal food of the human

race.

_Development of love in the individual._—The evolutionary trend in

this world can be detected not only in the mere preservation, but also

in increasing perfection. Not only the preservative instinct, i. e.,

the will to live and the will to reproduce, has contributed to the

advancement of organic life to higher forms, but the two perfective

human instincts, i. e., the will to act and the will to rule, have

also served as a means for the evolution of human activities, as

science, art, economics, etc.[AJ] One of such activities is sentimental

love which had to pass through all the different stages of evolution

before it reached the complexity of its present structure. Evolution is

a truly universal principle. The meaning of life is its advance towards

higher forms. There is not a trait, physical, psychical or spiritual

that is wholly finished. The higher emotions as love and hate, fear and

shame, etc., are not born with the child; they are evolved slowly by

degrees.

According to Nordau every individual is in love with his own ideal,

throughout his entire life. Every man and woman falls in love with the

representative identical with, or at least most resembling, his or her

ideal. The craving for love is the desire to possess the organic ideal.

The ideal of the mate begins to be distinctly evolved by the organism

at the time of puberty and is complete only late in life. The ideal,

except in its general features, is not stationary; it grows with the

individual’s physical and mental development. With the beginning of the

material growth of the centre of generation, the imagination begins

to receive from the mysterious depths of the cells and tissues the

conception of the image of the mate. The organism hears indistinctive

voices, all telling the tale of the future partner in life. In this way

the image of the ideal grows up in the brain during the individual’s

amatory life.

Higher eroticism requires, then, the beloved to be a vehicle of a

projected personality. Love for a man or a woman is the attempt to

realize one’s ideal in the man or the woman. The impulse to love is

the search after the incarnation of the inward ideal, and falling in

love is the instinctive conviction that the ideal has been found. The

lower and simpler the individual himself, the simpler will be the

qualities of his ideal in corporate form. Among people of a low state

of civilization the qualities required of the ideal are so few that

almost every individual of one sex represents the ideal of the other

sex. They may both be paired like animals, and love does not yet exist.

The more cultivated a person becomes, the more complicated become the

qualities demanded of his ideal, and the harder it is for him to find

the same. A person looking for physical qualities in his ideal or for

external beauty only, will easily find them, and a case of love at

first sight, about which romantic dreamers go into such raptures, is

naturally possible. But such love is only sensual and does not deserve

to be thus extolled. For true love among men and women of a higher

state of culture is an ideal symphony of tones of all kinds.

Generally bodily perfection and a retiring, tender, beneficent,

confiding nature in woman constitute an attractive ideal for the man,

while mental superiority in man constitutes the attractive power for

the cultured woman. In her love the regard for masculine beauty usually

forms an unimportant ingredient. The woman, says Kant, has an exquisite

feeling for the beautiful, so far as she herself is concerned, but

for the noble so far as it is found in the man. The man, on the

contrary, has a decided feeling for the noble, which belongs to his own

qualities, but for the beautiful so far as it is met with in the woman.

Hence it follows that the aims of nature are directed through love upon

making men still nobler and women more beautiful.

The masculine virtues which impress true women are physical strength,

courage, nobility of mind, chivalry and self-confidence. These virtues

constitute the beauty which arouses the woman’s love, these are the

conspicuous features of her ideal. The female virtues that impress

the man are beauty, tenderness, goodness, refinement, truth and

patience. These are the virtues his ideal possesses. The more highly

cultivated mentally and physically he or she are, the more complex and

differentiated are the qualities of their ideals. Hence refined and

complex natures experience a great deal of difficulty in meeting with

their ideals or any one closely approximating them. But when two happen

to perfectly compliment each other, when each happens to represent the

ideal of the other, then there is true and lasting love. Such people

know their ideal when they meet it and have been given time to study

it, and they also know that they will never find another one in this

world; they know that only this being and no other is suited to them as

one triangle is to its congruent.

This knowledge can only be gained after a long study of the qualities

of the person found, as to whether they really coincide with the mental

qualities of the ideal; and it takes such noble beings longer to fall

in love. Coarser natures are readily able to fall in love. The sensual

qualities which attract a man or a woman to a paramour are easily

discovered. When the affections mount no higher than mere feeling, a

true communion of hearts is not indispensable. When the union of the

man and the woman is regarded only from the physical basis, when the

object is only self-gratification, the finer phases may be and really

are ignored. Mere sensual enjoyment can be experienced by two persons

who otherwise despise each other.[AK] But true love has far nobler

aspirations than sensual enjoyment, and promises a union of heart and

soul.

Among intellectual persons mere instinct becomes more and more

powerless until it is almost totally extinguished. True love among

them is, then, a voluntary act. The plans for its accomplishment

are elaborated in the mind slowly and intelligently. It has then

all the qualities of true friendship, combined with an affection in

which sensual desire is working to a greater or less extent only

unconsciously. As fusing body and mind it may become one of the

strongest, deepest and most influential of the passions of our nature.

It opens up horizons above and beyond the earth so vast that this

mundane sphere dwindles into insignificance.

_Woman’s love._—In emotional natures love exerts a predominant and

frequently even supreme influence upon the whole consciousness of the

individual. It produces effects upon his judgment, his fantasy and his

will. It excites conceptions borrowed from the domain of sex and gives

to all the work of the brain an erotic tendency and a sexual polarity.

Now, the woman lives more by her emotions than the man. The part she

plays in the propagation of the kind is also by far the more important

one. She has to supply the whole material for the formation of the new

being; the man only supplies the stimulation to this heroic work. The

woman’s centre of sexual activity is, therefore, more developed. The

activity of the generative centres occupies an important position in

the activity of her brain as a whole. Sexual life concerns her more

nearly, more deeply and more lastingly than the man. She is able to

do nothing else but love. Sexual matters imperiously mingle with all

her motives and influence all her aims. To her love is life. Marriage

is her highest ideal, and domestic happiness is and ever will be her

ultimate aim.[AL]

Women, even maidens, says Hume, take more offence at satires upon

matrimony than taunts upon their sex. Woman knows the attraction her

sex has upon the other, and smiles at the insincerity of sex-criticism.

But matrimony is holy to her. She has a natural tendency to regard

wedded love as the single aim and substance of the life of human

beings. Sexual consciousness is stronger in her than in man, and her

need of true love is greater. She lives largely in her affections, and

her constant desire is to attract and please.

In her natural state the woman, therefore, possesses a more distinctly

developed ideal. On dissecting and analyzing the female heart at any

age, and however married, we should probably find that the original

ideal is still lingering there. Woman is constantly groping and making

experiments, whereby she attempts to realize the ideal of her dreams

in the actual men of her acquaintance. The instinct of selection is

very important to her. By it she recognizes her affinity, the man best

fitted by nature to father her children. She unconsciously feels the

need of a partner who will organically compliment her. She possesses an

instinctive sensation of what is organically necessary to her for the

continuation and intensification of her qualities in the offspring.

For the woman the step of choosing a partner is the most important

act of her life. She has an instinctive sensation that she ought

not to make a mistake, and is extremely careful to avoid the least

likelihood of error. She instinctively feels that her mistakes cannot

be corrected. She is monoandric in character. She is aware that purely

sensual love cannot last. Hence she looks more for mental merits,

and has a high appreciation of a fine character. She is looking for

qualities that will outlive the freshness of physical charms. Her

innate solicitude is to continue the love-charm all through married

life. Hence she is governed by ideas of the sublime and the beautiful.

Only a man endowed with such qualities can inspire in her true love

and its unsurpassed pleasure and joy in life. When so inspired, she

surrounds the object of her love with the halo of perfection.

The man, says Dessoir, is able to accomplish and find pleasure in sex

activity without his soul partaking in it, but the woman does not find

gratification in this activity if the soul has not been first excited

by the beauty, strength and personality of her partner.

Love to a woman is an exalted and noble thing; she stakes her life

upon it. She has, therefore, to be more fastidious in her choice of a

consort than the man. This partly explains the mystery of modesty and

coyness. She remains passive while she is wooed for her favor. Love,

says Walker, is the empire of woman. The consciousness of weakness in

woman leads her instinctively to her dissimulation, her finesse, her

little contrivances, her manners, her graces and her coquetry. By these

means she simultaneously endeavors to create love, and not to show

what she feels, while by means of modesty she feigns to refuse what she

desires to grant.

By an imperious power and charming tyranny she tries to prevent the

man she loves from stirring from her side. She is ever desirous to

fascinate and bewitch him. She feels herself to be a powerful centre

of love and attraction around which everything ought to revolve.

The woman, says Kant, has from early girlhood the confidence in her

ability to please; the youth, the fear to displease. He is, therefore,

shy in the presence of women. His desire is to be governed—before

marriage—hence the chivalry of youth, while the woman’s desire is to

rule. She wants man to surround her with an insatiable desire. She

wishes to be loved and yearns to evoke man’s admiration for her by all

her womanly qualities. She gives herself up entirely and irrevocably

and never forgives the chosen possessor for examining too little the

value of his treasure.

_Obstructions of love’s development._—Healthy and natural love is

always clearly conscious of its purpose, the ideal is always in

existence, waiting for the opportunity to meet the materialized

duplicate. Men and women have an unconscious sensation of the

qualities of their ideals of the other sex, that by their union their

respective qualities may be transmitted in an intensified degree

to their offspring. Hence if the instinct has not become dulled by

monetary considerations, if social reasons, religious prejudices or

customs do not rise to confuse and pervert the instinct, men and women

will, should there be many from whom to choose, select with unerring

certainty the one who most closely approximates the psychic ideal which

they have elaborated within themselves at the moment of sexual maturity.

But true love is only possible if the natural development has not been

disturbed nor the natural course interrupted, and the young people have

been given the opportunity to develop their ideals. If the development

is arrested, if the growth of the erotic instinct is disturbed, at

the time of restlessness and nerve-irritability, then the image of

the ideal in the mind is confused and the discovery of its organic

counterpart is impossible. Now, the whole nervous system is under great

tension during the formation period. Inquietude, vague unrest and

dissatisfaction disturbs the boy’s equanimity. His heart is tremulous

with emotion and represents a volcano of agitation in perpetual

eruption. He exudes intense feeling and passion. The mind of the girl

is confused with vague dissatisfaction and vaguer desires which she

vainly endeavors to define even to herself. Her heart is wildly stirred

and issues from its chrysalis to renewed dreams of chimerical bliss.

Joy and sorrow, exultation and depression alternate like dawn and dusk.

All the complex subtleties of the feminine heart give rein to a single

emotion. She lives in the realm of romance, her soul keeps soaring in

the land of glamor. Hence the least disturbance will be fatal to the

development of a clear and distinct image of the ideal.

Such disturbances are ever present in our advanced civilization.

The early intimate association with the other sex, among the poorer

classes, gives palpable suggestions of the libido connected with the

functions of reproduction, at a time when mystery ought to shroud its

object. Animal passion, especially in great cities, obtrudes itself

upon the attention of young children, and they become conscious of the

greatest of all human needs through the desire of the flesh, and not by

a gradual growing sympathy for a noble being, possessing lasting gifts

of sentiment and thought. The sentiments are, therefore, not of true

love but of lust; and to transform lust into love is a difficult task.

Besides the unfavorable environment, certain radical doctrines,

widely spread among the laboring classes, also prevent true love from

taking root. In the literature, often read by these classes, excuses

are readily made for the supremacy of the passions. Dithyrambs are

sung upon the crudest emotions. The rational ethics of these radical

moralists teach that “love worketh no evil.” True love may really do no

evil, but gross passion, which these teachers of the new sex-morality

call love, is capable to do all the harm in the world. Temporary sexual

attraction, which is sensuality pure and simple, is called by the

name of love and is made the basis of the new morality. The name of

the sublimest emotion which appeals to the grandest impulses, to the

noblest sentiments of men and women, which makes chivalrous, gentle,

refined and helpful all who are touched by its magic wand, which

informs its disciples with the spirit of honor (Walker), the name of

this noble emotion is conferred upon the coarse emotion of sensuality,

as if sensuality ever possessed all these ennobling qualities. The

greater part of humanity is declared to be polygamous in nature.

According to these radical doctrines only few men and women possess

the instinct of exclusiveness, all other are naturally varietists.

Consequently promiscuity is the ordained order of nature, and the

monogamic marriage is decried as forced upon humanity by priest and

tyrant.[AM]

Among the cultured and exclusive classes there is another danger

lurking to the development of true sentimental love. It is the

literary fiction of our time which is thoroughly imbued with the most

unwholesome forms of love. The first knowledge of the world and of

life is usually derived by the children of these classes from novels,

and these novels deal from the first line to the last with nothing

but love. The heroes and heroines in these novels are usually the

creations of pathological brains, in different stages of degeneration,

and are represented as worthy of emulation. These heroes change with

every novel, and the children admire every day another ideal, imposed

upon them from without, before their imaginations had the time for the

conception of an ideal from the mysterious depths of the cells of the

growing centre of generation. Besides, the authors of these novels

are, as a rule, dealing with a perverted kind of love, which they call

holy, beneficent, infallible, and which they consider above all laws.

Their teachings are to obey the impulse of love with a fanaticism that

disregards all bounds and barriers, codes and warnings of the sages.

All obstacles, such as duty, modesty, honor, respect for the family and

the rights of fellow men, that weave around everyone of us a firm and

massy weft, all of them are treated like cobwebs that love tears away

and treads upon to gain its end.

The eroding operations carried on by these mongrel degenerated brains

cannot help but have a poisonous effect, especially upon the minds

of young girls. While in the literature of half a century ago the

heroine represented the fundamental type of woman, who is a mother of

men, calling out men’s sacrifice and sacrificing herself for them,

without calculation or barter, the heroine of the contemporary novel

gives herself up to voluptuous excesses. The absence of chastity is

considered a sign of the warmth of her feeling, moral decrepitude is

called by the doubtful name “self-assertion,” and the exaggerated taste

for self-indulgence is termed “self-expression.” Feminine selfishness

is represented as an enviable instead of a base quality. Under such

circumstances true love must, indeed, be a rare occurrence.

More fatal even to true love are the activities of the immoral plays,

because they are so deceptive and disingenuous and sail under the guise

of moral reforms. There are first the comic plays, nowadays filling

most of the stages, which treat immorality as a subject for jocularity,

and where an unchaste situation is made the subject of a jest. Then

there are some serious plays where sin and the life of immorality

are idealized. The career of the courtesan is pictured as a life of

gentleness, refinement and renunciation. (La Dame aux Camélias.) In

recent times a third kind of immoral plays has made its appearance upon

the stage where immoral situations are portrayed, without regard to

time-honored conventionalities, with such exactness that the warnings

against the evils fail to fulfill their purpose.