The sexual impulse in women is subject to morbid changes, both in the
way of increase and of diminution, exhibiting abnormal violent increase
(nymphomania), or declining to the state of complete frigidity and
sexual indifference, or, finally, manifesting itself in some perverse
manner (psychopathia sexualis).
Psychopathically increased sexual impulse in woman is known as
nymphomania or uteromania. In such women there is a dominant state of
psychical hyperæthesia, principally in the genital sphere. The most
indifferent perceptions give rise to erotic sensations and to lascivious
impulses. All sensory perceptions obtain a sexual content, and induce
stimulation of the cerebral cortex. All sensation and all activity in
such unhappy beings ultimately concentrates itself in the act of
copulation, or in some other form of sexual gratification, the greatest
perversities of sexual practice frequently arising, masturbation,
tribadism, and, for the most part, prostitution, even in the case of
married women.
The nymphomaniacal woman, says _von Krafft-Ebing_, endeavors to allure
men by means of exposure of the genital organs or indecent gestures; the
sight of man produces intense sexual excitement, which is gratified by
masturbation or by stimulatory movements of the pelvis. According to
this author, nymphomania is not very infrequent at the climacteric
period; it may even occur in old age. Abstinence in association with
simultaneous excitement of the sexual sphere by mental or by peripheral
stimuli (pruritus pudendi, oxyuris, etc.), may induce these states,
probably, however, only in those hereditarily predisposed.
The history of antiquity contains records of the corrupt practices of
nymphomaniacal empresses. Thus, Messalina furnishes a well-known
historical example of the abnormal violence of a pathologically
intensified sexual impulse in woman. She was given the agnomen of
_invicta_, having received the embraces of fourteen athletes. _Pliny_
says of her, _die ac nocte superavit quinto et vicessimo concubitu_; and
_Juvenal_ writes of her the verses,
... tamen ultima cellam
Clausit, adhuc ardens rigidæ tintigine vulvæ
Et resupina jacens multorum absorbuit ictus
Et lassata viris, necdum satiata, recessit.
In corrupt Rome, Messalina was not the only woman _necdum satiata_, ever
insatiable; we need only refer to the orgies of an Aggripina, a Livia, a
Mallonia, or a Poppæa; and _Seneca_ hurls against the women of his day
the reproach, _adeo perversum commentæ genus impudicitiæ viros ineunt_.
And of Cleopatra, the beautiful Egyptian queen, Marcus Antonius writes
in a letter to his physician, Soranus, that she had such violent sexual
desire as to lead to her having connection in a brothel with 106 men.
Through the report of _Herodotus_ it is well known that the pyramid of
Cheops was built by the numerous lovers of the daughter of this king,
who raised this enormous monument in recognition of the innumerable
times she had yielded herself to their desires. On record also are the
sexual excesses of the Roman ladies at the festival of Saturn, the
festival of the Bona Dea, and the festival of Priapus; indeed, many of
these women allowed themselves to be debauched in the temples (_Ploss_
and _Bartels_).
But returning to the present day, both gynecologists and alienists
record numerous cases of great pathological increase in the intensity of
the sexual impulse in women. According to _Lombroso_, such continued
ardency of sexual desire occurs chiefly in women with an inherited
tendency to crime and to prostitution, whose natures exhibit a
commingling of lasciviousness with barbarism. He gives examples of such
women, one of whom surrendered herself to her husband’s laborers;
another had as her lovers all the desperadoes of Texas; a third had
intercourse with all the herdsmen of her village; a fourth, though her
husband occupied a good social position, led the life of a prostitute; a
fifth, a cultured and intelligent woman, entertained a common
bricklayer, and wrote to him letters full of shameless declarations of
her sexual passion; further he writes of a series of criminals, in whom,
indeed, increased sexual desire is a common phenomenon; one of these, a
thief, experienced sexual excitement at a mere glance at a good-looking
man; a murderess, in whom lascivious feeling induced masturbation
whenever she saw a man, and who made experiments in sexual intercourse
with dogs; another, who often took to bed with her, in addition to her
son, three or four men selected at random from the streets; and many
others. _Jolly_ reports the case of a widow, a celebrated _lionne_ of
the _demi-monde_, who kept in her desk, side by side with devotional
literature, a number of lascivious books and preparations of
cantharides, and entertained quite a number of powerfully-built lovers
drawn from the lowest _canaille_.
In hysterical women the sexual impulse is frequently excessive, and may
increase to such a degree as to produce hallucinations of coitus;
sometimes, on the other hand, the impulse is extinguished, or
psychopathically metamorphosed, passing in a most paradoxical manner
from sexual frigidity to lascivious reflections and continuous
occupation with sexual affairs; not uncommon in such women are false
accusations of indecent assaults of which they assert themselves the
victims.
_Lombroso_ gives several examples of the increase of the sexual impulse
in hysterical women: “A hysterical girl visited a physician, and said to
him: ‘I am still a virgin, take me;’ she submitted him to the utmost
extremity of provocation, and asserted afterward that she had been
violated. Another hysterical subject, a rich young lady, met a workman
in the street, offered herself to him, was accepted, and when she
returned home related the affair with laughter. A third sought men from
the street in order to find one suffering from syphilis, her object
being to infect her own husband with the disease.”
According to the observations of _Schüle_, young married, hysterical
women not infrequently run away with a waiter during the honeymoon
journey. This author also points out that in women moral insanity is
especially apt to manifest itself during the first years of married
life. Many advocate a far-reaching libertinism, and threaten to enter a
brothel. In these forms we observe, in addition to ill-temper and
malignity, especially obscenity and tribadism.
Such a case, observed by _Giraud_ and quoted by _von Krafft-Ebing_, is
the following: Marianne L., of Bordeaux, during the night, while her
master was sleeping soundly under the influence of narcotics she had
administered, was in the habit of giving up her master’s children to her
lover for his sexual gratification, and made them witnesses of the most
immoral scenes. It appeared that L. was hysterical, suffering from
hemianæsthesia and convulsive seizures, and that before her illness she
had been a sensible and trustworthy individual. After the illness,
however, she prostituted herself in the most shameless manner and
completely lost her moral sense.
_Galen_ relates of his own mother that she suffered from nymphomania,
and that in the attacks she bit her female slaves like a wild animal.
As a negative aspect of the sexual impulse in woman we must regard the
absence of the impulse, or anæsthesia sexualis, and also the deficiency
of the sensation of pleasure during the act of copulation, or
dyspareunia.
Of dyspareunia we shall speak more at length later, in connection with
the pathology of copulation. As regards the entire lack of the sexual
impulse, however, in women whose genital organs are normally developed
and normal in the performance of their functions, and whose cerebral
condition is also normal, we must consider such lack an extremely rare
condition, if indeed it ever occurs. It is only in cases in which the
female genital organs are wanting, wholly or to a considerable extent,
or in which there are important cerebral disturbances or states of
mental degeneration, that the sexual impulse is wanting.
Normally, in the young, sexually unspoiled girl, the sexual instinct[34]
slumbers in the cerebral cortex, but becomes active, as sensation,
perception, and impulse, as soon as the cerebral centre has been aroused
by mental impressions or by physical peripheral stimulation of the
genital organs and their environment. Among stimuli of the latter class
must be reckoned the menstrual stimulus, set on foot by the
developmental processes of puberty. These stimuli arouse in the cerebral
cortex sensations and perceptions which, rising to specific sexual
feelings, produce an impulse to increase the intensity of these feelings
by purposive action; thus is awakened the sexual impulse, the strength
of which is extremely variable.
Only when the cerebral cortex, as the place of origin of sensations and
perceptions, fails to perform its functions in the manner just
described, or when the anatomico-physiological processes in the genital
organs which normally act as peripheral stimuli fail to occur, or when
there is a failure in the conducting tracts, are sexual perceptions and
impulses lacking. Such anomalies may be congenital. A milder form is
that, likewise congenital, in which a woman has a sexually “cold
nature;” in these cases the sexual impulse is not completely wanting,
but it is so slight in intensity that it can be awakened only by very
powerful stimuli, and in her normal state the woman so affected is quite
free from any wish for sexual gratification.
Such congenital subnormal intensity or entire lack of the sexual impulse
may be due to very various causes. According to _von Krafft-Ebing_,
these causes may be organic or functional, mental or physical, and
central or peripheral. The declining intensity of the sexual impulse
with the advance of years, and the temporary disappearance of that
impulse after the sexual act, are both physiological occurrences.
Education and mode of life have a marked influence on the intensity of
the vita sexualis. Strenuous mental activity, earnest study, severe
physical exertion, mental depression, and sexual continence, notably
diminish the excitability of the sexual impulse. At first, indeed,
abstinence leads to an increase in the intensity of the impulse, but
sooner or later the functional activity of the organs of generation
declines, and therewith also the intensity of the sexual impulse. As
peripheral causes of diminution or disappearance of the sexual impulse,
_von Krafft-Ebing_ mentions oöphorectomy, degeneration of the
reproductive glands, marasmus, sexual excess, whether in the form of
coitus or of masturbation, and alcoholism. In like manner is to be
interpreted the disappearance of the sexual impulse in general disorders
of nutrition (diabetes, morphinism, etc.).
A decline in the intensity of the sexual impulse in consequence of
degeneration of the conducting tracts, is found, according to _von
Krafft-Ebing_, in diseases of the brain and the spinal cord. Central
affection of the sexual impulse may be due to organic disease of the
cerebral cortex (dementia paralytica, general paralysis of the insane,
in the later stages), or it may be due to functional disorder, such as
hysteria, or to mental diseases (melancholia or hypochondriasis).
Finally, in some instances, the sexual impulse in women manifests
itself, not in the normal manner with copulation with the male as its
goal, but in a form demanding some abnormal kind of gratification
(psychopathia sexualis), whether it be because sexual intercourse with
the male affords the woman no enjoyment, or simply because no
opportunity exists for such intercourse.
Masturbation is very frequent; the habit having been acquired from bad
example by the girl during the menarche, it is sometimes continued by
the wife during married life. In these cases we often find distinct
changes in the genital organs, such as hypertrophy of the clitoris,
enlargement and bluish discoloration of the nymphæ, retroversion of the
uterus, tenderness and displacement of the ovaries, considerable vaginal
discharge, and sometimes menorrhagia.
_Kussmaul_ draws attention to the connection between masturbation and
nymphomania, on the one hand, and imperfect development of the uterus
and the other genital organs, on the other. _Campbell_ records the case
of a woman addicted to masturbation, who had never menstruated, and who,
in addition to imperfectly developed genital organs, had a dermoid cyst
of the ovary. In a young woman who indulged in masturbation, _Aran_
found that the uterus and its annexa were imperfectly developed.
_Vaddington_ also describes a case of abnormal sexual impulse which was
associated with absence of the uterus.
_Troggler_ reports the case of a woman twenty years of age, who had been
six months married to a healthy, potent man, was herself healthy and
blooming, with a good family history, and had never suffered from any
severe illness. At the age of thirteen she had learned to masturbate,
effecting this by stimulation of the clitoris. Now she found no
gratification in coitus, so that she continued to masturbate, and during
coitus obtained satisfaction by manual friction of the clitoris.
Examination showed that the clitoris was strikingly large, the vagina
flaccid, and that there was some vaginal discharge; in other respects
the genital organs were normal.
Not infrequent, it may be in those whose mental condition is in other
respects fairly normal or it may be in psychopathic subjects, is the
existence of contrary sexual sensation, or sexual inversion, a condition
which has been described by _Casper_, _Westphal_, _von Krafft-Ebing_,
and _Moll_, and has indeed been well known since the days of antiquity.
In the case of a considerable number of notable women, homosexual
practices have been recorded. According to the observations of
_Coffignon_, in Paris the homosexual instinct, when occurring in other
women than prostitutes, is found chiefly among the ladies of the
aristocracy.
Of homosexually inclined women, some engage in the practice of
tribadism, familiar to the ancient world, and recorded by _Martial_ in a
satire, in which sexual gratification is obtained by mutual friction of
the genital organs, or by penetration of one woman’s clitoris into the
vagina of the other; whilst some indulge in the _amor lesbicus_, in
which gratification is obtained _lambendo linguâ genitalia_, a very
ancient practice indeed, transported from Phœnicia to Greece (where in
especial it was indulged in by the women of Lesbos), and later from
Syria to Italy, where it was widely diffused among the Romans of the
imperial age. _Sappho_, celebrated as the tenth muse, is supposed to
have been addicted to the practice of Lesbian love.
All such homosexual (female) individuals are, then, endowed with the
perverse instinct toward sexual connection with women instead of with
men. In such cases, the genitals are usually quite normal; sometimes,
however, the woman thus affected is markedly of a male type, being
called by _von Krafft-Ebing_ a _gynandrist_, the affection itself being
termed _gynandry_; when the woman concerned not only possesses a
homosexual impulse, but also in other respects exhibits tendencies
properly characteristic of the male sex, she is called _virago_, and the
affection is termed _viraginity_.
I had under my care such a woman, belonging to the upper circles of
society, who had been married sixteen years before, had lived a married
life for six years (during which she remained barren), and had then
separated from her husband. She was of a very masculine disposition,
smoked, gamed, drank like a student, and preferred to wear men’s
clothing, and she bestowed her affections on a female companion.
Examination of the genital organs disclosed no abnormality beyond a
slight vaginal catarrh. Menstruation was regular, and the general
appearance showed no departure, with the exception of a slight moustache
that shaded the upper lip, from that of a normal feminine beauty.
_Mantegazza_ is of opinion that in the case of many unhappy marriages,
in which the source of the unhappiness is obscure, the trouble is to be
found in the homosexual inclination of the wife. _Martineau_ and _Moll_
report that married women who are homosexually inclined, indulge in
sexual intercourse with other women behind their husbands’ back.
_Duhousset_, at a meeting of the Anthropological Society at Paris in
1877, related the almost incredible case of a married homosexual woman
who, in intercourse with another woman, transferred to the latter her
husband’s semen, so as to induce pregnancy.
Many writers on forensic medicine, _Tardieu_, _Pfaff_, _Schauenstein_,
_Wald_, and _Mantegazza_, for instance, have recorded that in numerous
circles of European society women practice masturbation and tribadism
(sodomy, so called) with dogs and monkeys; and _Plutarch’s_ statement is
well known regarding Egyptian women and the sacred goat, Mendes, that
the women who were locked in with this animal practiced sodomy
therewith; and again it is asserted that the serpents in the temple of
Æsculapius and also in private houses were employed in the practice of
sodomy.
_Von Maschka_ records a case which came before the courts a few years
ago in Prague, in which a woman forty-four years old confessed that “in
consequence of the very ardent temperament she possessed, she had,
perhaps, as often as six times indulged herself with her house dog,
which jumped between her legs and licked her; that she took the animal
between her bare legs, stroked its belly until its penis became erect;
then, supporting herself on the back of a chair, she pressed the animal
against herself, introduced its penis between her labia majora, and let
it continue its movements until its semen had been ejaculated.”
Examination of the genital organs of this woman disclosed no
abnormality.
_Schauenstein_ reports the case of a girl who carried out unchaste
practices with a little dog to an utterly immoderate extent, so that
after the lapse of some years she died in an asylum. In a case recorded
by _Wald_, a maid servant was observed in lewd practices with a poodle;
she supported herself on elbows and knees, while the dog copulated with
her from behind.
A woman about thirty years of age, who had lived with her husband in
sterile marriage for nine years, complained to me that she had not for a
long time had sexual intercourse, since during copulation she not only
experienced no sexual pleasure, but actually felt a loathing to the act;
on the other hand, she was subject to an uncontrollable impulse to
handle the genital organs of children, both of the male and of the
female sex, and this performance gave her sexual gratification; during
the menstrual period, this impulse overpowered her will. Local
examination in this patient showed that the uterus was enlarged and
retroflexed, and that there was anæsthesia of the vagina.
_Anjel_ reports the following case of periodic psychopathia sexualis,
associated with menstruation. A lady of quiet disposition, near the
climacteric. Serious congenital predisposition. During youth suffered
from attacks of minor epilepsy. Married, but childless. Several years
ago, after violent emotional disturbance, she had a hystero-epileptic
seizure, followed by post-epileptic mania lasting several weeks.
Thereafter, insomnia for several months. As a sequel, continually
recurrent menstrual insomnia, accompanied by an impulse to embrace boys
under ten years of age, to kiss them, and to handle their genital
organs. Impulse toward coitus, to close sexual contact with a grown man,
non-existent at this time. The patient often speaks openly of her morbid
impulse, and begs that she may be supervised, as she feels unable to
answer for her own conduct. In the intervals, however, she carefully
avoids all reference to the matter, is strictly decent in her conduct,
and in no way sexually ardent.
Tribadism is frequently mentioned by the writers of classical antiquity,
especially by those of Greece, where the cult of naked beauty encouraged
sexual excitement of this character. This form of unchastity was common
among the flute-playing girls of Greece, and at the secret festivals of
such associates Aphrodite Peribasia was invoked. _Lucian_, in his
dialogues of hetairai, depicts the intensely passionate nature of these
homosexual unions between girls. _Lombroso_ reproduces _Juvenal’s_
description of such a love-feast. “When the flute calls to the dance,
the mænads, inflamed with wine and beer, loosen their long tresses, they
sigh languishingly and eagerly, and an ardent desire draws them one to
another, the desire and the passion of the dance gives their voices an
alluring sound; nothing now can serve to bridle their unrestrained
desires. _Lacasella_ swings her wreath, which she has won in the contest
of lascivious gestures and movements, but even she must give way before
Medullina with her ardent postures. About these games there is no trace
of unreality, and the most rigid Spartan, hardened from the very cradle,
even old Nestor himself, notwithstanding his hernia, could not fail to
be stimulated by such an inflammatory spectacle.”
In the present day, also, the practice of tribadism is more widely
diffused than people in general imagine. I have often encountered
instances of it in ladies of good position, who were past their first
youth, who would not or could not marry, and who undertook extensive and
long-enduring journeys with a female “companion,” of similar age, or
perhaps a little younger. Their erotic needs, which could not be
gratified in normal fashion, led to this sexual perversion—a tendency
observable especially in persons with neuropathic predisposition, or
with a liability to hysteria or to epilepsy. Sometimes such girls, even
before puberty, show an inclination to wear boys’ clothes, to avoid all
feminine manual occupations, and to examine and to handle the genital
organs of their playmates. Even after puberty, such tribadists like to
make a parade of masculine attitudes, they have their hair cut short,
wear clothes of a masculine cut, smoke a great deal, and show in their
conversation, and still more in their letters, great exaltation of the
passions. It not infrequently happens that an elderly lady who has lived
well in her day, and from youth upward has had much intercourse with
men, comes at last to lament her worthlessness to men, and from this
proceeds to the idea of obtaining sexual enjoyment by means of
tribadism. The tribadistic union sometimes lasts for several years, but
in most cases the alliances are quickly and frequently changed.
According to _Taxil_, tribadism is fairly common among the married women
of Paris, and in upper-class women is extremely prevalent. This author
describes with what industry and perseverance many elderly tribadists
endeavor to win for themselves and to seduce young girls, just as old
women often work hard to gain money for the enjoyment of the favored
person.
In these unions, according to the descriptions of _Lombroso_, very
remarkable phenomena occur. A particular jargon arises with tender
designations for this or that bodily beauty; a violent jealousy
develops, and a newly united pair keep together as much as possible for
fear of losing one another’s affection; the “friends” tread always in
one another’s footsteps. This author rightly points out that the very
numerous romances describing relations of this kind prove the diffusion
of this vice in “high life.” Novels of this class are referred to by
_Mantegazza_ in his book, “Woman as Criminal and Prostitute.” He
mentions: _Diderot_, “La Religieuse;” _Balzac_, “La Fille aux Yeux
d’Or;” _Gautier_, “Mademoiselle de Maupin;” _Feydeau_, “Le Comtesse de
Cholis;” _Flaubert_, “Salammbô;” _Bélot_, “Mademoiselle Giraud ma
Femme;” _Willbraud_, “Fridolins Heimliche Ehe;” _Graf Stadion_, “Brick
and Brack;” _Sacher-Masoch_, “Venus im Pelz.” _Zola_, also, in “Nana”
and “La Curée,” and _Butti_ in “L’Antona,” make some reference to this
matter.
_Sauval_ relates of the dissolute life at the court of the French king,
Francis I, that the women learned also to play the part of men; a
princess had a hermaphrodite maid-of-honor, and the court and all Paris
gossiped about the Lesbian-loving ladies, whose husbands were delighted,
since they were thus quite freed from jealousy, and prized their wives
above all on this account. Such a mode of life was so pleasing to many
ladies that they refused to marry, and refused also to allow their
“friends” to marry.
Tribadism is very common among prostitutes. According to
_Parent-Duchatelet_, tribadism begins only after prostitution has long
been practised, between the twenty-fifth and the thirtieth year of life;
generally there is a notable difference in age and also in beauty
between the two women forming a tribadistic alliance, and as a rule the
younger and prettier of the pair is the more passionately sensitive and
the more constant. _Parent-Duchatelet_ endeavours to explain the origin
of tribadism by referring to the manner in which in brothels and
reformatories the women are closely packed together, to the enforced
abstinence from normal sexual intercourse (in prisons and
reformatories), to the loathing for men sometimes felt by prostitutes,
and to the opportunities for mutual observation of the most intimate
nudities. Even women who at first object to it most vehemently, commonly
give way to this vice after eighteen or twenty months.
Among 103 prostitutes examined by _Lombroso_, he found tribadism to be
practiced by five. He considers the principal cause of tribadism to be
in the lascivious search for new and unnatural pleasures, and quotes in
illustration the characteristic remark of Catharine II, herself a
tribadist, “Why did not nature endow us with a sixth sense?” Female
criminals who seduce others to the practice of tribadism have usually
themselves acquired the vice during a long term of imprisonment—it is,
in fact, the long-sentence criminals, women with a congenital
inclination toward crime, that incline also to unnatural vice. The
influence of environment is, according to _Lombroso_, indicated by the
fact that the most confirmed criminals, in prisons for women, corrupt in
this manner so many of the inmates who are merely “criminaloids,” and
corrupt even the wardresses. Further, he is led to conclude, the
confinement in close association of so many extremely sensual and
prostituted women, leads to the origin of a kind of ferment of new
lascivious desires, and causes an increase of one form of degeneracy by
means of another. Prostitutes often see one another naked, sleep two or
three together in the same bed; similar things occur in
boarding-schools. In asylums also we may observe that the admission of a
tribadist will result in the infection of all the inmates with this
vice.
According to _Moll’s_ estimate, 25 per cent. of the prostitutes of
Berlin practice tribadism. According to the experience of this author,
in cases in which tribadists live in concubinage, one of them is always
a prostitute; the active and the passive rôle are always played by the
same respective members of the alliance; the active member is called
“papa” or “uncle,” is usually a prostitute, and, like the man in the
married state, possesses great comparative freedom in sexual matters,
whilst the passive member, the “mother,” is not allowed to form any
sexual relations outside the concubinage.
According to _Ricardi_, many frigid prostitutes practice with pleasure
clitoris-masturbation, cunnilictio, and, especially, sapphism,
preferring these perversions to the normal sexual act. Moreover, among
prostitutes and female criminals there is no lack of lovers of
martyrization, of flagellation, even to the drawing of blood, of
tyrannical treatment, and of the initiation of children into the
mysteries of sex.
[For a detailed account of Sadism and Masochism, see _von
Krafft-Ebing’s_ “Psychopathia Sexualis.” These particular perversions,
common in men, are rare in women; hence but passing allusion is made to
them in the present work.]
_Lombroso_ records on account of its rarity a case of masochism observed
by him in a woman thirty-five years of age, who liked being whipped.
_Moraglia_ reports a remarkable instance of sexual perversion in a girl
of eighteen, who preferred to coitus, masturbation associated with the
stimulating influence of the odor of male urine; this peculiar form of
irritability was so powerful as to drive the girl to masturbation in
public urinals, notwithstanding the risk of arrest, which indeed often
occurred.
According to _Carlier_, there are four or five brothels in Paris which
are not infrequently visited by rich ladies in search of tribadistic
enjoyments, and ladies of “high life” assemble there for communal
orgies; it is noteworthy that prostitutes surrender themselves for such
purposes to these women who are outside their own circle with great
reluctance, and only for a very high fee.
Speaking generally, however, sexual perversion is rarer and less intense
in women than in men. This fact is explained by _Lombroso_ on the ground
that the erotic element in women’s nature is less active, and that women
are less often affected by epilepsy, the principal source of these
anomalies. In cases in which the genital organs are healthy we must,
with _Westphal_, conclude, with reference to contrary sexual sensation,
that the abnormal sexual feelings have a cortical origin.
From _von Maschka’s_ elaborate account of unnatural offences, in his
_Handbook of Forensic Medicine_, we abstract the following passage
relating to the female sex: “Lascivious procedures liable under certain
circumstances to legal punishment may consist: 1. In handling or other
manipulation of the genitals, without actual intercourse. If the genital
organs of a female have merely been gently handled, without any more
violent manipulations, we shall not, as a rule, either in the case of
children or of adults, find any local changes as a result; contrariwise,
if the handling has been rough and brutal, if the fingers have been
forcibly thrust within the vulval cleft, or if the pudendum has been
pulled and rent, we may expect to find excoriations, redness, swelling,
laceration of the hymen, or even of the vagina and the perineum. 2. In
licking the female genitals (cunnilingere). An analogous process also
effected by members of the female sex, whether children or adults, is
_irrumare, id est, penem in os arrigere; fellare, id est, vel labiis vel
lingua perfricandi atque exsugendi officium penis præstare_. 3. In
introduction of the membrum virile into the rectum, either of children
or of adults, pæderasty.” That this form of sexual gratification is not
infrequently practiced upon women has been pointed out especially by
_Parent-Duchatelet_, and is asserted by _von Maschka_ from personal
knowledge of cases in which it has occurred.
Tribadism and Lesbian love, unnatural vice practiced by two individuals
of the female sex, occur, according to _von Maschka’s_ description in
the following manner: _a._) By masturbation, either one person
gratifying the other by manipulation, or mutual masturbation. In a case
of this kind recorded by _Tardieu_, a wife still young repeatedly, and
by day as well as by night, introduced her finger deeply into the vagina
or the rectum of her little girl, moving it about there sometimes for as
long as an hour. According to the child’s account, the mother herself at
these times was in a condition of excitement, no doubt sexual, which she
gratified in this manner. In another case, several older girls engaged
with their own fingers and tongues in lascivious practices with the
genital organs of a little girl of seven. According to _Krausold_, among
female prisoners such “forbidden friendships” are extremely common,
formed for the purpose of mutual masturbation, and in connection with
which the bitterest jealousy and the most ardent love are exhibited.
_b._) With the assistance of an enlarged clitoris, with which one woman
performs the sexual act by introducing the organ within the vagina of
another. In France in the nineteenth century a woman is said to have
lived whose genital organs were so formed that, on the one hand, as a
woman she played the passive part in intercourse with men, and, on the
other hand, was able to give sexual gratification to women by assuming
the active part of the male. _c._) By the employment of an artificial
_membrum virile_. This mode of obtaining satisfaction of sexual desire
was known already to the ancients, and such a priapus was by the Greeks
termed ὸλισθος. The fact that such articles are manufactured and sold,
affords sufficient proof that their use is not unknown in our own day.
_Von Maschka_ describes such priapi as being made of india rubber, of
the size and shape of an erect penis, perforated longitudinally and
fitted at the lower end with a testicle-like attachment, to be filled
with warm water or milk, so that by squeezing it an ejaculation can be
counterfeited. This priapus is also so constructed that it can be
attached to the body by means of a girdle and can thus be employed for
the gratification of another individual.
We have already referred to sodomy, unnatural intercourse with the lower
animals. _Von Maschka_ gives several instances of this, which we have
previously mentioned, and states also that some years before, during his
stay in Paris, a female was accustomed to hold a secret exhibition, the
entry to which cost ten francs, and at which she had sexual intercourse
with a bulldog trained for the purpose.
According to _Lombroso_, even at the present day, the inmates of
licensed brothels frequently hold exhibitions, for admission to which a
fee is charged, of tribadistic couples in _poses plastiques_, and of
another prostitute in _coitus caninus_.
In his widely-celebrated work on _Psychopathia Sexualis, von
Krafft-Ebing_ discusses these morbid sexual processes in women. We
select certain data from his exposition. Regarding the congenital morbid
phenomenon of the lack of sexual feeling in women, as contrasted with
perversion of sexual feeling, and the sexual impulse toward an
individual of the same sex (antipathic sexual feeling), _von
Krafft-Ebing_ writes: “The woman-loving woman feels herself sexually to
be a man, she rejoices in the exhibition of courage, of masculine
sentiments, since these characteristics make the man desirable to the
woman. The female _urning_,[35] therefore, likes to have her hair cut
short and her clothes of a masculine cut; and one of her greatest
pleasures is when opportunity offers to appear in male attire. Her
ideals are notable feminine personalities, distinguished by spirituality
and energy; in the theatre and in the circus, it is only the female
performers that attract her interest; and in the same way, in
collections of pictures and statues, it is only the representations of
women that awaken her æsthetic sense and her sensibility.” _Von
Krafft-Ebing_ insists that in nearly all cases of antipathic sexual
feeling in which a family history was attainable, that history was found
to exhibit instances of neuroses, psychoses, stigmata of degeneration,
etc. In hysteria, according to this author, the sexual life is
especially often abnormal; in cases with neuropathic inheritance, one
may say always: “All possible anomalies of the sexual functions occur in
such cases, with the utmost variety and the strangest commingling, based
upon hereditary degenerative processes, and accompanied by moral
imbecility in its most perverse manifestations. * * *. Frequently, in
hysterical subjects, the sexual life is morbidly excitable. This
excitement may be intermittent (? menstrual). Shameless prostitution may
result, even in married women. In cases of a milder type, the sexual
impulse is exhibited in the form of onanism, nude perambulations about
the room, wearing of male attire, etc. In cases of hysterical mental
disorder, the morbidly excited sexual life may manifest itself in the
form of maniacal jealousy, baseless complaints against men of indecent
assault, hallucinations of coitus, etc. Sometimes there may be
frigidity, with lack of sexual pleasure, commonly due to genital
anæsthesia.”
Incest in women, dependent upon psychopathic causes, is also alluded to
by _von Krafft-Ebing_; it occurs in those in whom a partial imbecility
that leaves the sense of modesty undeveloped is combined with eroticism.
Thus, a case reported by _Schürmayer_ is mentioned, in which a mother
had, or attempted, intercourse with her son, aged five and one-half
years; and again a case reported by _Lafarque_, in which a girl of
seventeen laid her thirteen-year-old brother on herself for the
gratification _conjunctionis membrorum_, while simultaneously
masturbating her brother; _Magnan’s_ case, an unmarried woman
twenty-nine years of age, who could hardly resist the impulse toward
copulation with her nephews as long as they were quite young;
_Legrand’s_ cases, in one of which a girl fifteen years of age seduced
her brother to the performance of all possible sexual excesses on her
body; another, a married woman aged thirty-five, who committed incest
with her eighteen-year-old brother; and a third, a mother aged
thirty-nine, who committed incest with her son.
According to _Moll_, women who suffer from antipathic sexual sensation
are, in many cases, married; it appears, however, that for the most part
they have no inclination to marry. In isolated cases there may exist a
psychical hermaphroditism, the woman thus affected having sexual
inclination both towards men and towards women. In the case of
homosexual women, normal intercourse appears not to furnish complete
satisfaction. As regards fetichistic, masochistic, and sadistic
inclinations on the part of women with antipathic sexual sensation,
_Moll_ was unable to obtain any trustworthy information. Sometimes in
women the perverse sexual impulse appears periodically, being then often
associated with the appearance of other psychical abnormalities. In some
women the perverse impulse is especially active at the menstrual
periods; whilst at other times these subjects, even though not quite
sexually normal, are still very much quieter. Antipathic sexual
sensation in women may depend upon inherited predisposition, and may
often be traced back to a very early age. In many cases an exciting
cause may be demonstrated.
_Mantegazza_, who relates that homosexual practices are common among the
inmates of harems, believes that antipathic sexual feeling is readily
curable in women soon after marriage, but that later a cure is rare.
A perverse form of sexual gratification sometimes met with in women is
flagellation. By chastisement with birches, straps, or whips on the bare
buttocks, the nerves of the sexual apparatus are stimulated, and these
organs become congested, with an effect resembling that of onanism. Such
flagellation was practiced by the wanton ladies of ancient Rome. In the
Middle Ages, hysterical women derived great pleasure from the
stimulatory effect of whippings. It is reported of Catharine de Medici,
that she had herself whipped, and that she delighted in seeing the
ladies of her court undergoing similar treatment. In the present day
many women derive intense sexual pleasure from being birched by their
lovers on bared portions of their bodies. In Paris and other large towns
there are special places of resort for those who pursue this form of
perverse sexual gratification. Sometimes such women are only the active
_fouetteuses_ for worn-out, perversely-feeling men.
Among the Greeks, a woman who had remained barren during the early years
of marriage would visit the temple of Juno, in order to receive from a
priest of Pan the gift of fertility. She stripped naked, and, while thus
exposed to the flagellant priests, she received all over the back of her
body numerous blows inflicted with thongs of a he-goat’s hide—this
process being supposed to induce fertility. The object of this form of
flagellation would appear to be to induce an increase of sexual desire.
Sexual neurasthenia is defined by _Eulenburg_ as a neuropsychosis of
chronic course, manifesting itself chiefly in the form of excessive
irritability of the sensory and psychosensory neuron-systems, in
association with excessive tendency to exhaustion of the motor and
psychomotor neuron-systems. This exhaustion occurs especially in
relation to the genital system, in which we see exhibited the phenomena
of irritable weakness, of increased excitability combined with increased
tendency to fatigue of the genital nerve apparatus—such chronic morbid
disturbances are, according to this author, comparatively rare in women,
that is to say, the developed typical picture of the disease does not
occur in women, or occurs very rarely. Among 168 patients suffering from
sexual neurasthenia, only six were women. Two of these latter were
addicted to masturbation, and in the anatomical sense both were still
virgins; the rest were married women, not receiving sufficient sexual
gratification in their married life, two of these were probably also
addicted to masturbation, two indulged in homosexual practices.
Onanism, according to _Eulenburg_, is the cause of sexual neurasthenia
in women as well as in men. If, however, among the relatively very large
number of women addicted to masturbation, there appears to be such a
very small proportion of instances of sexual neurasthenia, this depends
on the fact that from the nature of onanism in women the physical and
also as a rule the psychical consequences are as a whole apt to be much
less severe than those arising from similar practices in men; but it
depends also on the circumstances that neuromental abnormalities of
other kinds and denoted by other names, such as dyspareunia, vaginismus,
sexual hysteria, nymphomania, feminine sadism, and tribadism, are apt to
arise in consequence of onanism. As regards onanism, so also may it be
in regard to sexual excesses and aberrations in general; they may be on
the one hand causes, but on the other symptoms and sequelæ, of sexual
neurasthenia. Early-acquired or inherited homosexual tendencies and
habits may, as _Eulenburg_ further points out, lead to sexual
neurasthenia only, but then very easily, when such individuals have
allowed themselves, against their nature but in obedience to
conventional points of view and to the advice of the relatives, to be
persuaded into marriage. That sexual abstinence alone is competent to
induce sexual neurasthenia must be dismissed as a fable.