The sexual life of woman—the appearance of the first indications of
sexual activity, the development of that activity and its culmination in
sexual maturity, the decline of that activity and its ultimate
extinction in sexual death—the entire process of the most perfect work
of natural creation—has throughout all ages kindled the inspiration of
poets, aroused the enthusiasm of artists, and supplied thinkers with
inexhaustible material for reflection.
In the following pages, this sexual life of woman will be considered
both in relation to the female genital organs, and in relation to the
feminine organism as a whole; in relation both to the physical and to
the mental development of the individual; and in relation alike to the
state of health and to the processes of disease. Thus from the
standpoint of clinical investigation and of practical experience, the
book will be a contribution towards the solution of the sexual problem,
nowadays recognized as one of supreme importance.
It is thirty years since I published a work on the histological changes
that occur in the ovaries during the climacteric period (Archiv. für
Gynecologie, Vol. xii, Section 3); and ever since that time, the
influence exerted upon the general health of women by the physiological
and pathological processes occurring in their reproductive organs, has
been to me a favourite subject for observation and experiment. The
result of these studies is incorporated in my monographs, “The
Climacteric Period in Women” (Erlangen, 1874), “Sterility in Women” (2nd
Ed., Vienna, 1895), “The Uterus and the Heart” (Leipzig, 1898), and in
various contributions to medical periodicals. I now have a welcome
opportunity of drawing a general picture of sexual activity in women,
and of illuminating this picture both by the light of my own experience
and by numerous references to the works of other authors. In passing, I
have devoted considerable attention to questions of education and
personal hygiene, both of which are greatly influenced by the processes
of the sexual life. Thus, I hope, the work will be rendered more
interesting to the physician, and the general picture it is intended to
convey will be more fully characterized by contemporary actuality.
Natural divisions of the subject are, I consider, furnished by the three
great landmarks of the sexual life of woman: the _onset_ of
menstruation—the _menarche_: the _culmination_ of sexual activity—the
_menacme_; and the _cessation_ of menstruation—the _menopause_. These
several sexual epochs are differentiated by characteristic anatomical
states of the reproductive organs, by the external configuration of the
feminine body, by functional effects throughout the entire organism,
and, finally, by pathological disturbances of the normal vital
processes.
Thus in separate chapters a description is given of sexual processes, a
detailed exposition of which will be vainly sought in the textbooks of
gynecology, yet which are none the less of far-reaching importance in
relation to the physical, mental, and social well-being of women, and in
relation also to the development of human society; such topics are, the
sexual impulse, copulation, fertility, sterility, the employment of
means for the prevention of conception, the determination of sex, sexual
hygiene. To the topics of pregnancy, parturition, lying-in, and
lactation, since these are adequately discussed in works on midwifery,
but little space has here been allotted.
It is my earnest hope that physicians and biologists may derive benefit
from the book equal in amount to the pleasure I have gained in the work
of writing it.