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THE
SEXUAL QUESTION
A SCIENTIFIC, PSYCHOLOGICAL, HYGIENIC
AND SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY
BY
AUGUST FOREL, M.D., PH.D., LL.D.
Formerly Professor of Psychiatry at and Director of the
Insane Asylum in Zurich (Switzerland)
_ENGLISH ADAPTATION FROM THE SECOND GERMAN
EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED_
BY
C.F. MARSHALL, M.D., F.R.C.S.
Late Assistant Surgeon to the Hospital for
Diseases of the Skin, London
ILLUSTRATED
_REVISED EDITION_
[Illustration]
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS BOOK COMPANY
HENRY AND PACIFIC STREETS
1931
Copyright, 1906
Copyright, 1922
OWNED BY
PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS BOOK CO.
PRINTED IN U.S.A.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
This book is the fruit of long experience and reflection. It has two
fundamental ideas--the study of nature, and the study of the
psychology of man in health and in disease.
To harmonize the aspirations of human nature and the data of the
sociology of the different human races and the different epochs of
history, with the results of natural science and the laws of mental
and sexual evolution which these have revealed to us, is a task which
has become more and more necessary at the present day. It is our duty
to our descendants to contribute as far as is in our power to its
accomplishment. In recognition of the immense progress of education
which we owe to the sweat, the blood, and often to the martyrdom of
our predecessors, it behoves us to prepare for our children a life
more happy than ours.
I am well aware of the disproportion which exists between the
magnitude of my task and the imperfections of my work. I have not been
able to study as much as should be done the innumerable works which
treat of the same subject. Others, better versed than myself in the
literature of the subject, will be able later on to fill this
regrettable lacuna. I have endeavored, above all things, to study the
question from all points of view, in order to avoid the errors which
result from any study which is made from one point of view only. This
is a thing which has generally been neglected.
I must express my thanks to my friend, _Professor Mahaim_, and
especially to my publisher and cousin, _S. Steinheil_, for the help
and excellent advice which they have given me in the revision of my
work; also to _Professor Boveri_, who has been kind enough to revise
the figures, 1 to 17.
DR. A. FOREL.
Chigny pres Morges (Suisse).
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
The text of the first edition has been revised and corrected, but,
apart from some points of detail, the subject matter has not been
changed. The examples at the end of Chapter V (First Edition) no
longer form a special appendix; they have been included in the parts
of the book which specially concern them; some of them have been
omitted as being superfluous.
In the domain with which we are concerned the French public are too
much afraid, I think, of crudities and of calling things by their
proper name. By veiled words and by indirect locution one may say
anything, but I have decided not to employ such subterfuges in
treating of such a vital social question with the seriousness that it
requires. It seems that there is a fear of young people hearing the
sexual question spoken of freely and openly; but it is not taken into
account that in hiding these things under half-understood words one
only excites their curiosity, and, owing to their being blindfolded,
they are delivered into the snares and surprises of debauchery.
I cannot better illustrate the error that I have just pointed out than
by quoting, among several others of the same kind, a letter which I
have received from a young girl, aged 21 years, intelligent, virtuous,
educated, and well brought up, but without restraint.
Having read my book she put several questions to me to which I
replied. On my part I requested her to tell me frankly:
(1). If, in her opinion, I had been mistaken in my judgment of the
sexual psychology of the normal young girl; (2). If my book had done
her the least harm, moral or otherwise.
I begged her to criticise me without pity, for I wished above all
things to be clear on the effect produced by my book. This is her
letter:
"I must thank you for the deep and unalterable impression which
your book has produced on me. I am a young girl of 21 years, and
you know how difficult it is for us to see clearly into those
natural things which so closely concern us. I cannot, therefore,
thank you too much for the calm enlightenment which has been
produced in me, and for the just and humane words which you
devote to the education of our sex. I hope one day to have the
good fortune to apply to my children the ideas on education with
which you have inspired me.
"You ask me for the impression which your book has made on me.
It is true that I am still very young, but I have read much. My
mother has brought me up very freely, so that I can count myself
among the young girls who are free from prejudice. In spite of
this, a sort of internal anxiety or false shame has hindered me
from speaking of all the things of which you treat. All that I
knew I had read in books or derived by instinct. Although I knew
very well that my mother would always answer my questions I
never asked any.
"I declare that latterly my mind had been in a state of
veritable chaos. I was obsessed and tormented by a fear of
everything of which I was ignorant and some day ought to learn.
This is why I was anxious to read your book which a friend
showed me. I will now express myself more clearly.
"The first chapters were difficult for me, not because I could
not understand them, but owing to the strange and novel
experience which the truth made in me when plainly and
scientifically expounded. Wishing to read everything I applied
myself to the book laboriously. My first impression was that of
disgust for all human beings and mistrust of everything. But I
was soon glad to find that I was a very normal young girl, so
that this impression soon passed away. I was no longer excited
over conversations which I heard, but took a real interest in
them, and I was happy to have become acquainted with some one
who understood us young girls.
"I am, therefore, a young girl whose sensations are neither cold
nor perverse, and I am always rejoiced, in reading your book, to
see with what truth you describe our sexual impressions. Those
who maintain that we feel in this way the same as men make me
smile. In your book ("Hygiene of Marriage," p. 479) you say that
the idea of marriage awakens in a normal young girl a kind of
anguish and disgust, and that this feeling disappears as soon as
she has found some one whom she loves. This is extremely true
and well observed. I am in complete agreement with a friend with
whom I have often discussed your book; we young girls are very
little attracted by the purely sexual side of marriage, and we
should prefer to see children come into the world by some other
way than that ordained by Nature. This will, perhaps, make you
laugh. However, I think you will understand my feelings.
"When I had finished reading your book I became absolutely
tranquil, and my ideas were enlightened. It goes without saying
that it is no longer possible for me to be ingenuous, but I
should like to know what one gains by such naivety. It is very
easy to be innocent when one knows nothing, and this is of no
account. I never thought for a moment to find your book immoral,
and that is why I do not think you have done me any harm. Excuse
me for having written at such length, but I could not abbreviate
when dealing with such a serious question."
The author of this letter has, at my request, authorized me to publish
it anonymously. I think that the candor, the loyalty and the maturity
of judgment of the sentiments expressed by this young girl are of much
more value and are much more healthy than all the prudishness and
false shame of our conventional morality.
DR. A. FOREL.
Chigny pres Morges (Suisse).
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
The reproduction of living beings--History of the germ--
Cell-division--Parthenogenesis--Conjugation--Mneme--Embryonic
development--Difference of sexes--Castration--Hermaphrodism--
Heredity--Blastophthoria 6