While the activity of man is terminated at conception, that of woman

only begins at this moment. In the first chapter we have indicated in

a few words the transformations of the human embryo up to its birth.

During nine months it grows from the size of a pin's head (the ovule)

to that of the new-born child. Although a woman seldom bears more than

one embryo at the same time, twins being rare on the whole, she has

nevertheless more pain and fatigue to bear than any female animal.

This is due not only to the fact that our artificial and alcoholized

civilization, with its specialized labor which disturbs vital

equilibrium, has made women indolent and degenerate, but also to the

enormous development of the human brain. The head of the human embryo

is disproportionately large because the brain, as I showed with

_Schiller_ in 1889, already contains at birth all the nerve elements

which it will possess during the rest of its life (_Comptes rendus de

l'Academie des Sciences_). No doubt these elements are small and

embryonic but the nerve fibers are ready to be covered with myelin and

to enter upon their functions, and all this requires a cranium of

considerable size. But it is not everything for the mother to nourish

with her blood the brain and the cranium of the child; it is also

necessary for this relatively large head to pass through the pelvis at

the time of childbirth, and we know that this moment is the most

dangerous for the life of the pregnant woman. As boys have on the

average a larger brain and cranium than those of girls, their birth is

usually more difficult.

=Accouchement.=--The sexual organs of woman undergo great changes in

order to render childbirth possible. These organs become larger and

more vascular, especially the womb, the growth of which is

astonishing. Originally the size of a small egg (a guinea fowl's) it

exceeds the size of a human head, and there is an enormous increase of

muscular tissue in its walls. Large blood vessels develop in the

uterine wall, especially in the placenta (Figs. 22 and 23), where they

enter into endosmotic relations with the circulation of the embryo.

From the abdomen of the embryo arises an organ, the _allantois_, which

is destined to carry the blood-vessels of the embryo to the placenta,

and at the same time to give rise to the formation of the latter. In

the placenta the blood-vessels of the embryo are separated from those

of the mother by walls so thin that the nutritive juices of the

maternal blood transude into the venous blood of the embryo, as well

as combined oxygen in the blood necessary for its respiration. Up to

this point the vitellus of the egg, nourished by endosmosis through

its membranes, had sufficed for the nutrition of the still very small

embryo. While these phenomena are taking place, and while the

substance of the two conjugated germs divides into an ever increasing

number of cells, which become differentiated in layers to form the

future organs (Fig. 21), while certain groups of cells are prepared

some to form the intestinal canal, others the muscles and blood

vessels, others the skin and organs of sense, others arising from the

last to form the brain, the spinal cord and the nerves, the mother can

still live her ordinary life. She suffers, however, from different

disorders connected with what is passing on in her body.

It is a curious fact that these disorders are more accentuated at the

commencement of pregnancy, when the womb is hardly enlarged, than at

the end. They consist chiefly of nervous troubles--slight derangement

of the cerebral functions and sensations, etc. Obstinate vomiting,

peculiar desires, and changes of temper are some of the most frequent

troubles of pregnant women, and probably arise more from local nervous

irritation than from general transformations of the nutrition of the

body. The mother's body is becoming adapted to the development of the

infant in the womb. However embarrassed a woman may be in the last

months of pregnancy by the great swelling of the belly (Fig. 22) the

disorders are less accentuated than at the beginning of pregnancy.

During pregnancy menstruation ceases. The sexual appetite is very

variable; in many pregnant women it is diminished, in others there is

no change, and it is seldom increased. There are other troubles which

are more or less frequent, such as varicose veins in the legs caused

by pressure of the uterus on the veins.

But all the sufferings of pregnancy and childbirth are compensated for

by the ardent desire of the normal woman to have a child, and by the

happiness of hearing its first cry. Proud and happy to give life to a

new human being, which she hopes soon to suckle and carry in her arms,

she cheerfully bears all the inconveniences and pains of pregnancy and

childbirth. The latter is actually painful, for in spite of all that

nature does to relax the pelvis and render it elastic, to dilate the

neck of the womb, the vagina and the vulva, the passage of the

enormous head of a human infant through all these relatively narrow

apertures is extremely difficult (Figs. 22 and 23). The passage is

forced by the powerful contractions of the muscles of the womb.

However, they do not always succeed by themselves, and in this case

the accoucheur is obliged to apply the forceps to extract the head of

the child. Very often the neck of the womb, the vagina or the perineum

(the part situated between the anus and the vulva) become torn during

labor, and this may lead later on to disorders such as prolapse of the

womb, etc.; disorders which may last through life.

When the child is born, the umbilical cord (that is the transformed

allantois, Fig. 23) cut, and the placenta extracted, the connecting

nutrition and respiration between the child and its mother are

suddenly interrupted. Nourished hitherto by its mother's blood through

the placenta and the vessels of the umbilical cord which supplied the

necessary oxygen, the infant is suddenly obliged to breathe and feed

for itself. Its lungs, hitherto inactive, expand instantaneously under

the nervous influence produced by the blood saturated with carbonic

acid, and the first cry is produced. Thus commences individual

respiration. Several hours later the cessation of maternal nutrition

causes hunger, and this the reflex movements of suction, and the child

takes the breast. During this time the empty womb contracts strongly

and retracts enormously in a few days. The increase of blood produced

by the maternal organism, by its adaptation to the nutrition of the

embryo, is then employed in the production of milk in the breasts or

lactiferous glands, which were already well developed during

pregnancy.

=Suckling. Maternity.=--The mother is instinctively disposed to suckle

her child as the infant is to suck. At the end of four to six weeks,

the womb has almost completely regained its former size.

In savage races suckling at the breast lasts for two years or more. It

is useless to mention here to what point the capacity for suckling and

the production of milk have diminished among the modern women of

civilized countries. This sad sign of degeneration is due to a large

extent, as _Bunge_ has shown by careful statistics, to the habit of

taking alcoholic drinks, and is combined with other blastophthoric

degenerations due to hereditary alcoholism. The future will show

whether the artificial feeding of infants with cows' milk will benefit

humanity. In any case it allows infants to survive who would die

without it. On the other hand the development of a degeneration can

hardly be an advantage for the species and we should hope for a return

to the natural rule by abstinence from all alcoholic drinks.

The false modesty of women concerning their pregnancy and everything

that concerns childbirth, the pleasantries often made with regard to

pregnant women are a sad sign of the degeneration and even corruption

of our refined civilization. Pregnant women ought not to hide

themselves, or to be ashamed to carry a child in their womb; on the

contrary they should be proud. Such pride would certainly be much more

justified than that of the fine officers parading in their uniforms.

The external signs of the formation of humanity are more honorable to

their bearers than the symbols of destruction, and woman should become

imbued more and more with this truth! They will then cease to hide

their pregnancy and to be ashamed of it. Conscious of the grandeur of

their sexual and social duty they will raise aloft the standard of

our descent, which is that of the true future life of man, at the same

time striving for the emancipation of their sex. Viewed in this way,

the sexual role of woman becomes elevated and solemn. Man should less

and less maintain his indifference towards the social miseries to

which the slavery of woman has led, which has lasted thousands of

years and which has dishonored the highest functions of her sex, by

abuses without number.

The hygiene of pregnancy, labor and its sequels, is of the highest

importance. It certainly should not consist in exaggerated care and

precaution, for in spoiling and softening women by inaction more harm

than good is done. On the other hand, the social cruelty which

neglects poor women of the people in confinement, often even without

giving them sufficient nourishment, is revolting, and it is here

especially that the reform of social hygiene becomes an elementary

necessity for humanity.

All that we have just spoken of binds the woman for months or years to

each of her children, and we can understand that her whole soul is

adapted in consequence to maternity. Even when birth has detached the

child from the maternal body, it remains attached to its mother by a

hundred bonds, not only during the period of suckling, but long

afterward when the conventions do not violate natural laws. Little

children are deeply attached to their mother, and while the father is

impatient with their cries and the embarrassment which they cause, the

mother takes a natural delight in them. When pregnancies succeed each

other at reasonable intervals of one or two years, the normal woman

lives with her children for many years in intimacy which never

entirely ceases in a family animated by human and social sentiments.

In normal circumstances the special bonds which unite the mother to

her children last for life, while the father, if all goes well,

becomes simply the best friend of his growing children. It is time

that fathers began to recognize these natural laws, instead of

clinging so tenaciously to the historic and artificial prestige of a

worm-eaten and unnatural patriarchal authority. No doubt there are

many pathological and degenerate mothers, but such an anomaly only

proves the rule that we have just laid down.

=Correlative Sexual Characters.=--The correlative sexual characters,

which we have previously spoken of in animals, are well known in man.

Man is in the average larger, broader in the shoulders and more

robust; his skeleton is more solid but his pelvis narrower. At the age

of puberty, from 16 to 20 years, the beard grows on the face, while in

the pubic region hair develops in both sexes. At the same time the

testicles and external genital organs enlarge. The sexual glands as

well as the external genital organs have remained so far in an

embryonic state although the mechanism of erection is already

established in young boys. But this mechanism, in the normal boy, is

not associated with any voluptuous sensation or any glandular

secretion.

Man possesses the rudiments of the correlative sexual characters of

woman, such as nipples without lactiferous glands, etc. In a general

way each part of the external genital organs of one sex has its

corresponding embryonic homologue in the other, which is explained by

the different transformations which were originally the same in the

embryo. The clitoris of woman corresponds to the penis of man, the

labia majora to the scrotum, etc. In certain individuals these

rudiments are more strongly developed, and may by exaggeration and

transition lead to pathological hermaphrodism (Chapter I); such are

bearded women, and those possessing a large clitoris, or beardless men

with effeminate bodies and small sexual organs. Such cases are not

examples of hermaphrodism, but of incomplete embryological

differentiation. They consist in certain correlative sexual characters

which show a tendency toward the other sex, a tendency which we find,

from the mental point of view, in homosexuals.

There is also to be noticed the "breaking" of the voice which occurs

in man at the age of puberty, and is connected with the nervous

system.

In women the body is smaller and more delicate, the bones weaker, the

pelvis wider and the chest narrower. The normal woman has no beard

while the pubic hairs are the same as in man. The pubis, covered with

a layer of fat, is slightly prominent in women and is called the _mons

Veneris_. There is more fat under the skin in a woman's body, and the

voice does not break. After puberty breasts develop with their

lactiferous glands and nipples for suction. Puberty takes place a

little earlier in women than in men, and corresponds to the growth of

the internal and external sexual organs, at the same time that the

ovules commence to mature and menstruation is established.

The mental correlative sexual characters are much more important than

those of the body. The psychology of man is different from that of

woman. Many books have been written on this subject, usually with more

sentimentality than exactitude. Mysogynists, like the philosopher

_Schopenhauer_, disparage woman from all points of view, while the

friends of the female sex often exalt her in an exaggerated manner. In

contemporary literature we see women authors judging man in quite

different ways according as they are affected with "misandery" or

"philandery"--that is enemies or friends of men. Quite recently

_Moebius_ has published a mysogynistic work on the "Physiological

Imbecility of Woman." (_Der physiologische Schwachsinn des Weibes_).

One must be a misogynist of very high degree to introduce the

pathological notion of imbecility into the evolution of the normal

mentality of woman. In reality, the individual differences are much

greater in man and woman from the psychological than from the physical

point of view, so that they render a definition of the average

extremely difficult.

We are acquainted with bearded women, athletic women, as well as

beardless men and puny men. From the mental point of view, there are

also viragos and men with feminine instincts. Imbeciles are not

wanting in both sexes, but no reasonable person will deny that an

intelligent woman is superior to a narrow-minded man even from the

purely intellectual point of view. In spite of these difficulties, I

shall attempt to bring forward the principal points which distinguish,

in a general way, the masculine mind from the feminine, relying on my

own observations and especially on the mental phenomena of both

sexes.

=The Weight of the Brain.=--According to statistics, the weight of the

brain in men of our race is on the average 1350 grammes, while that of

women averages 1200 grammes. The absolute weight is, however, not of

much importance, because part of the cerebral substance in the larger

animals is only for the supply of a greater number of cellular

elements of the rest of the body, which necessitates a greater number

of nervous elements.

To make the matter clear, it is necessary to separate the weight of

the cerebral hemispheres from the other nervous centers, such as the

cerebellum, corpora striata, the optic thalami, the mid-brain, the

pons Varolii, the medulla oblongata and the spinal cord, for these

centers constitute parts which are phylogenetically older, that is to

say, inherited from lower animal ancestors. Compared with the cerebral

hemispheres, these nerve centers are relatively more important in

other vertebrates than in man, and are in more constant proportion to

the size of the body, the muscular, glandular and sensory elements of

which they supply. When the intelligence is about the same, they are,

therefore, compared with the cerebral hemispheres, much more developed

in the larger than in the smaller animals. For example, they are very

large in the ox, but small in mice. I have weighed a considerable

number of human brains separated in this way with the following

results:

CEREBRAL HEMISPHERES OTHER CEREBRAL CENTERS

Man 1060 grammes, 78.5% | 290 grammes, 21.5%

Woman 955 grammes, 77.9% | 270 grammes, 22.1%

Thus the cerebellum and basal ganglia are a little smaller in men than

in women, compared with the cerebral hemispheres.

These figures appear to show that the cerebral hemispheres in woman

are on the average a little smaller than in man, even proportionately

to the stature; for, according to a general law in the animal kingdom,

woman being smaller, her cerebral hemispheres should be, with equal

mentality, proportionately a little larger. There are, however, female

brains larger than many male brains, and the absolute and relative

size of the cerebral hemispheres does not give a complete measure of

the productive faculties. Remarkable men have been known to possess

rather small brains and imbeciles heavy ones. We must not forget the

great importance of the hereditary or engraphic predispositions of the

nerve element or _neurone_, to certain activities and especially to

work in general, that is to say, their aptitude to produce energy, or

if one prefers it, their disposition to "will."

It is also interesting to consider the relationship of the frontal

lobe to the rest of the cerebral hemispheres, the frontal lobe being

without doubt the principal seat of intellectual activity. According

to _Meynert_, the weight of the frontal lobe in man exceeds that of

woman, not only absolutely, but relatively to the rest of the brain.

In his _resume_ of the statistical data collected on this subject and

from the results of my own material (autopsies at the asylum of

Burgholzli in Zurich), _Mercier_ has confirmed the opinion of

_Meynert_. The average weight of the hemispheres separated from the

rest of the brain is 1019 grammes in man (frontal lobe 428, the rest

591), and 930 in woman (frontal lobe 384, rest 546). Here, atrophied

brains (except general paralytics) have been weighed with others,

which lowers the average total weight without altering the proportion.

Thus, the rest of the cerebral hemispheres exceeds the frontal lobe by

163 grammes in man and 162 grammes in woman, which means that in man

the frontal lobe constitutes 42 per cent. of the cerebral hemispheres

and in woman 41.3 per cent. The difference is not great, but it is

definite, for it is based on a large number of observations.

=Mental Capacity of the Two Sexes.=--The fundamental difference

between the psychology of woman and that of man is constituted by the

irradiations of the sexual sphere in the cerebral hemispheres, which

constitute what may be called _sexual mentality_. We shall discuss

this in the following chapters, for it constitutes the foundation of

our subject. We are only concerned here with the correlative

differences.

Adhering in a general way to the main definitions of psychology, we

assert that from the purely intellectual point of view, man

considerably excels woman in his creative imagination, his faculty for

combination and discovery, and by his critical mind. For a long time

this was said to be explained by the statement that women had not the

opportunity of measuring their intelligence against that of men; but,

thanks to the modern movement of the emancipation of women, this

assertion becomes more and more untenable. It is so with regard to

artistic creations, for women have at all times taken part in works of

art. When certain people maintain that a few generations of activity

suffice to elevate the intellectual development of women, they

confound the results of education with those of heredity and phylogeny

(vide Chapter II). Education is a purely individual matter and only

requires one generation to produce its results. But neither mnemic

engraphia, nor even selection can modify hereditary energies in two or

three generations. Tied down hitherto partly by servitude, the mental

faculties of woman will doubtless rise and flourish in all their

natural power as soon as they are absolutely free to develop in

society equally with those of men, by the aid of equal rights. But

what does not exist in the hereditary mneme, that is to say in the

energies of germs, inherited through thousands or millions of years,

cannot be created in a few generations. The specific characters and

consequently the sexual characters have quite another constancy than

is believed by the superficial prattlers, who deafen us with their

jargon on a question of which they only grasp the surface. There is no

excuse, at the present day, for confounding hereditary correlative

sexual characters with the individual results of education. The latter

are acquired by habit and can only be inherited as such by an

infinitesimal engraphia, possibly after hundreds of generations.

On the other hand woman possesses, from the intellectual point of

view, a faculty of reception and comprehension as well as a facility

of reproduction which are almost equal to those of man. In higher

education at the universities the women I have had the opportunity of

observing at Zurich for many years, show a more equal level than that

of the men. The most intelligent men reproduce best and the most

stupid men reproduce worse than the corresponding female extremes. I

do not think one can say much more concerning the purely intellectual

domain.

Artistic production confirms this opinion. Woman is here on the

average much inferior as regards creation or production, properly so

called, and even her best results are wanting in originality and do

not open up new paths. On the contrary, as virtuosos, women compare

well with men in simply reproductive art. There are, however,

exceptional women whose productions are original, creative and

independent. The philosopher _Stuart Mill_ points out the intuitive

gift of woman who, led by her individual observations, rapidly and

clearly discovers a general truth, and applies it in particular cases,

without troubling with abstract theories. This may be called the

intuitive or subconscious judgment of woman.

In the domain of sentiment the two sexes differ very much from each

other, but we cannot say that one surpasses the other. Both are

passionate, but in different ways. The passions of man are coarser and

less durable, and are only more elevated when associated with more

original and more complex intellectual aims. In woman sentiment is

more delicate and more finely shaded esthetically and morally; it is

also more durable, at least on the average, although its objects are

often of a mean and banal nature.

When man compares himself with woman he usually identifies himself,

more or less unconsciously, with the highest male intellects, with the

men of genius in art and science, and complaisantly ignores the crowd

of idiots of his own sex! In the life of sentiment the two sexes may

complement each other admirably; while man raises the height of the

ideal and of objects to be attained, woman has the necessary tact to

soften and refine the tones, and to adapt their shades to each special

situation, by the aid of her natural intuition, where man risks

spoiling everything by the violence of his passions and his efforts.

This reciprocal influence should conduce to the best and highest

harmony of sentiments in a happy sexual combination.

As regards will power, woman is, in my opinion, on the average

superior to man. It is in this psychological domain more than in any

other, that she will always triumph. This is generally misunderstood,

because men have so far apparently held the scepter of an unlimited

omnipotence; because by the abuse of brute force, aided by superiority

of inventive genius, humanity has been hitherto led by strong

masculine wills, and because the strongest feminine wills have been

dominated by the law of the right of the stronger. But the

unprejudiced observer is soon obliged to recognize that the directive

will of the family is only, in general, represented externally by the

master. Man parades his authority much more often than he puts it into

practice; he lacks the perseverance, tenacity and elasticity which

constitute the true power of will, and which are peculiar to woman. It

is needless to say that I am only speaking of the average and that

there are many women whose will power is feeble. But these easily

become the prey of prostitution, which causes their disappearance.

This is perhaps one of the causes which have strengthened by selection

the will power in women. Man is impulsive and violent as regards his

will power, but often inconstant and irresolute, yielding as soon as

he has to strive persistently for a certain object. From these facts

it naturally results that, on the average, it is the man in the family

who provides the ideas and impulses, but the woman who, with the

finesse of her tact and perseverance, instinctively makes the

distinction between the useful and the harmful, utilizing the former

and constantly combating the latter; not because she is fundamentally

superior, but because she is more capable of dominating herself, which

proves the superiority of her will power.

Nothing is more unjust than to disparage one sex relatively to the

other. The parthenogenesis of the lower animals having ceased in the

vertebrates, each sex is indispensable, not only to the preservation

of species, but also to each conception or reproduction of the

individual. Both are thus equivalent and belong to each other as the

two halves of a whole, one being incapable of resisting without the

other. Everything which benefits one of the halves benefits the other.

If by the magic wand of a fairy, the male half or the female half of

our humanity, such as it is to-day, was rendered capable and obliged

to reproduce alone, men would soon degenerate owing to the weakness of

their will combined with their sensual passions, and women from their

incapacity to raise their intellectual level by means of creative

ideas.

We need not dwell here on the numerous psychological peculiarities of

woman, inherent in her capacity as mother, nor on those of man

adapted to his muscular strength and to his capacity as protector of

the family. These are derived from sexual differences which are

mentioned in Chapter V. Nor need we describe correlative differences

of less importance which are well known and which arise from those of

which we have spoken or from direct sexual differences. They can be

observed, on the one hand, in purely male reunions in saloons, smoking

rooms and other similar places; on the other hand, in feminine circles

of all classes, among the common people, among the fashionable, or

even in philanthropic associations. On the average, woman is more

artful and more modest; man coarser and more cynical, etc. After much

personal experience, gained in societies in which the two sexes

possess the same rights and are admitted to the same titles, I am

obliged to declare that I have never found any confirmation (at least

in the German-Swiss country) of the popular saying that gossip and

intrigue are the special appanage of woman. I have found these two

vices quite as often in man.

CHAPTER IV

THE SEXUAL APPETITE

If we sum up the three preceding chapters we arrive at the

philosophical conclusion that reproduction depends on the general

natural tendency of all living beings to multiply indefinitely.

Fission and sexual reproduction arise from the simple fact that the

growth of each individual is necessarily limited in space as well as

time. Reproduction is thus destined to assure the continuation of

life; the individual dies but is perpetuated in his progeny. We do not

know why the crossing of individuals is rendered necessary by the

phenomenon of conjugation. On this subject we can only build

hypotheses, but the study of nature shows us that where conjugation

ceases reproduction is etiolated and finally disappears, even when it

is still possible for a certain time.

From the commencement of life there is thus a powerful law of

attraction with the object of reproduction. At first there are

unicellular organisms, in which one cell penetrates the other in the

act of conjugation. Their substances combine intimately, while the

molecules of each nucleus become so arranged as to give the new

individual a more fresh and powerful energy of growth.

In the lower multicellular plants and animals which bud, fresh buds

live at the expense of the old trunk to give life to new branches, and

the male cells or pollen fecundate the female cells so as to disperse

the germs capable of growth and of thus reproducing the species. It is

also the same in the madrepores and other agglomerated animals (such

as the solitary worms), composed of parameres or metameres, so long as

a single central nervous system does not coordinate the metameres, or

primary agglutinated animals, into a single organism.

In the higher animals, the complex polycellular individuals formed by

the agglomeration of several primitive animals, are transformed into a

higher and mobile unity by the aid of the great vital apparatus called

the nervous system, which becomes the mental director of the living

organism and invests it with its individual character. However, this

higher unity of life, which always becomes more psychic, that is to

say, at the same time intellectual, sentimental and voluntary, by its

complication and its numerous relations with other individuals, this

unity called the _central nervous system_ cannot do without the

necessity for reproduction. In animal phylogeny, as soon as

hermaphrodism has ceased and each individual has become the sole

bearer of one of the two kinds of sexual cells, the species will

eventually disappear if the male cells cannot reach the female cells

by the active movement of the whole individual. Thus is produced the

marvelous phenomenon of the desire of increase and reproduction,

originally peculiar to the male cell, penetrating the nervous system,

that is to say life and soul in its entirety, the life of the higher

unity of the individual. An ardent desire, a powerful impulse thus

arises in the nervous system at the time of puberty and attracts the

individual toward the opposite sex. The care and the pleasure of self

preservation, which had hitherto fully occupied his attention, become

effaced by this new impulse. The desire to procreate dominates

everything. A single pleasure, a single desire, a single passion lays

hold of the organism and urges it toward the individual of the

opposite sex, and to become united with it in intimate contact and

penetration. It is as if the nervous system or the whole organism felt

as if it had for the moment become a germinal cell, so powerful is the

desire to unite with the other sex.

In some beautiful verses the German poet-philosopher _Goethe_

(West-Oestlicher Divan, book VIII, "Suleika") describes the desire to

procreate (p. 63):

Und mit eiligem Bestreben

Sucht sich, was sich angehoert,

Und zu ungemessnem Leben

Ist Gefuehl und Blick gekehrt.

Sei's ergreifen, sei es raffen,

Wenn es nur sich fasst und haelt!

Allah braucht nicht mehr zu schaffen,

Wir erschaffen seine Welt!

If we look at nature we see everywhere the same desire and the same

attraction of the sexes for each other; the bird which warbles, the

mammal which ruts, the insect which hums while pursuing the female

with implacable tenacity, at the risk of their own life, employing

sometimes cunning, sometimes dexterity, and sometimes force to attain

their object. The ardor of the female is not always much less, but she

uses coquetry, pretending to resist, and simulates repulsion. The more

eager the male, the more coquettish is the female. If we observe the

amorous sport of butterflies and birds, we see what efforts it costs

the male to attain his object. On the other hand when the male is

clumsy and slow the female often comes toward him or at any rate does

not resist him, for instance in certain ants the males of which are

wingless while the females have wings. The final act always consists

in intimate union at the moment of copulation.

In some animals Nature is prodigal in the means she employs to pursue

her great object, reproduction, by aid of the sexual appetite. The

apiary raises hundreds of male bees. As soon as the single queen-bee

takes wing for its nuptial flight all the males follow, but a single

male only, the strongest and most nimble, succeeds in reaching her. In

the intoxication of copulation he abandons all his genital organs to

the body of the queen and dies. The other males, now useless, are all

massacred in autumn by the working bees.

Sexual connection among butterflies of the Bombyx family is no less

marvelous. They live for months as caterpillars and sometimes for two

years as chrysalids, hibernating in a cocoon in some corner of the

earth or in the bark of trees. Finally the butterfly, brilliantly

colored, emerges from the cocoon and spreads its wings. It only

possesses, however, a rudimentary intestinal canal for the short life

which remains, for it does not require much nourishment and is only

devoted to sexual connection. The female remains quiet and waits. The

male, furnished with large antennae which perceive the odor of the

female at a distance of several kilometers, commences an infatuated

flight through the woods and fields, as soon as his wings are

sufficiently strong. His sole object is to reach the female. Here

again there are numerous competitors. The one who arrives first

possesses the female, but expires shortly afterward. His competitors

die also, exhausted by their long flight and by starvation, but

without having attained their object. After copulation, the female

searches for the green plants which will ensure a long caterpillar

life for her offspring. There she deposits her fecundated eggs in

considerable numbers and then expires in her turn, like a faded flower

which has fulfilled the object of its existence and falls after

leaving the fruit in its place.

The French naturalist _Fabre_ has described these phenomena, relying

on conclusive experiments, and my own observations and those of other

naturalists confirm them fully. Among the ants, all the males die

also, soon after an aerial nuptial flight, in which copulation is

generally polyandrous, one male hardly waiting for the preceding one

to discharge his semen before taking his place. Here the female

possesses a receptacle for semen which often contains the sperm of

many males, and which allows it to fecundate the eggs one after

another for several years as she lays them, and thus to act as the

mother of an ant's nest during a period which may extend to eleven or

twelve years, or even more.

In the lower organisms, love consists only in sexual instinct or

appetite. As soon as the function is accomplished love disappears. It

is only in the higher animals that we see a more or less durable

sympathy develop between the two sexes. However, here also and even in

man the sexual passion intoxicates for the moment all the senses. In

his sexual rut even man is dominated as by a magic influence, and for

the time he sees the world only under the aspect inspired by this

influence. The object loved appears to him under celestial colors,

which veil all the defects and miseries of reality. Each moment of his

amorous feeling inspires sentiments which it seems to him should last

eternally. He swears impossible things and believes in immortal

happiness. A reciprocal illusion transforms life momentarily into

mirages of paradise. The most common things, and even certain things

which usually disgust him, are then the object of the most violent

desire. But, as soon as the orgasm is ended and the appetite satisfied

the feeling of satiety appears. A curtain falls on the scene, and, at

least for the moment, repose and reality reappear.

Such are, in a few words, the general phenomena of the normal sexual

appetite among sexual organisms in the whole of living nature. I am

not speaking here of degenerations, such as onanism and prostitution.

Let us now analyze this appetite further.

The natural appetites are inherited instincts the roots of which lie

far back in the phylogenetic history of our ancestors. Hunger forms

the basis for the preservation of the individual, the sexual appetite

that for the preservation of the species, as soon as reproduction

takes place by separate sexes. All appetite belongs to the motor side

of nervous activity; there is something internal which urges us to an

act, but, on the other hand, one or more sensations may exist at the

base of this something to put it in action. I have proved, for

example, that the egg-laying instinct in the corpse fly (_Lucilia

caesar_) is only produced by the odor of putrefaction. As soon as the

antennae, which contain the organ of smell, are removed from these

flies they cease to lay, while other more severe operations, or

removal of one antenna only does not produce this result.

The mechanism of appetites is thus a lower mechanism and has its seat

in the primitive nervous centers. As _Yersin_ has proved, a cricket

deprived of its brain may copulate so long as the sensory irritations

can reach the sexual nervous centers.

We can thus say that the mechanism of appetites belongs to automatic

actions deeply inherited by phylogeny. Although complicated and

composed of coordinated reflex movements which follow one another in

regular succession, it has no actual power of modifying the so-called

voluntary acts, which depend entirely on the cerebral hemispheres, and

of which we men only have a conscious feeling. The appetites are not

capable of adapting themselves to new circumstances and cease to be

produced when the chain is interrupted. We are obliged to admit that

the instincts or appetites are accompanied by a sub-conscious

introspection which, as such, can hardly enter into direct relation

with our higher consciousness, that is, with our ordinary

consciousness in the waking state.

In spite of this, when their intensity increases, the appetites

overcoming the central nervous resistances, reach the cerebral

hemispheres, and consequently our introspection or higher

consciousness, under a _synthetic or unified appearance_, and

influence in a high degree the cerebral activities, which are

reflected in association with all the elements of what we call our

mind in the proper sense of the term, that is to say, our intellect,

sentiments and will. It is from this point of view that sexual

appetite must be considered in order to make it comprehensible. Love,

with all that appertains to it, belongs as such to our mind, that is,

to the activity of our cerebral hemispheres, but it is produced there

by a secondary irradiation from the sexual appetite, which alone

concerns us at present. We may also remark that sexual ideas when once

awakened in the cerebral hemispheres by sexual appetite, are worked up

there by the attention, that is to say by concentrated cerebral

activity, then associated with other ideas, which on their side react

strongly on the sexual appetite, developing or paralyzing it,

attracting or repelling it, or finally transforming its attributes and

objects.

By sexual desire (libido sexualis) we mean the manner in which the

sexual appetite manifests itself in man. Each term may be employed for

the other.

=The Sexual Appetite in Man.=--Man represents the active element in

sexual union, and in him the sexual appetite, or desire for coitus, is

at first the stronger. This desire develops spontaneously, and the

role of fecundator represents the principal male activity. This

appetite powerfully affects the male mind, although sexual life plays

a less important part in him than in the female.

In boys, the sexual appetite is often prematurely awakened, excited in

unnatural ways by bad example. Moreover, it varies enormously in

different individuals, a point to which we shall return when dealing

with pathology. Leaving aside unnatural appetites and abnormal forms

of sexual instinct we shall describe here its most spontaneous and

normal form.

=Puberty. Awakening of the Sexual Instinct in Boys.=--Sooner or later

in different individuals, the boy pays attention to his erections,

which are at first produced in a reflex and involuntary manner.

Mental development and reflection, so precocious in man, are causes

which draw attention to the differences of the sexes before the sexual

appetite is developed. It is, however, the first signs of this

appetite which concentrate the attention on these differences, for in

their absence, the boy is more indifferent to them than to the

straight or crooked form of a nose. Man has the habit of passing by

without notice anything which does not interest him, and this is why

we find, in individuals whose sexual appetite is developed late or

feebly, an indifference and ignorance in these matters which appear

almost incredible to those whose sexual appetite is precocious and

violent; while, on the contrary, the lively interest which the latter

show in everything concerning the sexes appears foolish and absurd to

the sexually indifferent.

The pairing of animals, even of insects, awakens a curious interest in

those whose sexual dispositions are strong and precocious; they

comprehend very quickly the reason and are led to draw analogies with

their own sensations in the same domain. The aspect of the female sex

has, however, a much stronger action still on the normal man. But here

is produced a peculiar phenomenon. What especially excites the boy in

the aspect of the female sex is anything unusual; the sight of certain

parts of the skin which are normally covered, the clothes or

ornaments, particular odors, women whom the boy is not accustomed to

see, etc. It is for this reason that brothers and sisters do not

excite, or excite very little, their reciprocal sexual appetite, at

least if there are no anomalies or exceptional exhibitions. The sexual

appetites of boys among savage peoples who live naked is hardly at all

excited by naked girls; on the other hand, it is strongly excited by

those who are clothed or ornamented in a peculiar manner. The sexual

appetite of a Mahometan is strongly excited by the nudity of the

feminine face, that of the European by that of a woman's legs, because

women are accustomed to veil their faces in the first case and their

legs in the second. These are naturally only relative differences.

When the sexual appetite of man is violent and unsatisfied woman

excites it in a general way, if she is not too old or repulsive.

A second important character of the normal sexual appetite is the

special attraction that appearances of health and strength in woman

produce in man. Healthy forms, normal odors, a normal voice, a skin

healthy in appearance and to the touch, constitute attractions which

charm and excite man, while all that is unhealthy or faded, every

pathological odor, produce a repulsive effect and hinders or

diminishes sexual desire.

Everything connected with the sexual organs, their appearance, touch

and odor, tend to excite the sexual appetite, all the more when they

are usually covered; it is the same with the breasts.

The first sexual sensations are of a quite indeterminate nature;

something unconscious and obscure inclines the boy toward the female

sex and makes it appear desirable. A boy may thus become enamored of

the portrait of a woman with a swelling bosom and alluring eyes and be

seized with desire, either at their sight or only on remembrance. This

desire is not concentrated especially on the sexual act, as with an

adult who is already experienced in these matters; it is more

generalized and vague, although sensual.

For a long time, these repeated aspirations, impulses and desires,

remain unsatisfied. In different individuals the imagination

associates the most diverse images with such manifestations of the

sexual appetite. The objects of the latter appear in dreams and

provoke nocturnal erections. The boy soon remarks a sensory

localization of his appetites in his sexual organs, especially in the

glans penis, but also in the surrounding parts, and the known or only

vaguely defined image of the female sexual organs, which is hardly

present at the first appearance of his desires, begin to excite him

more and more.

In natural or savage man, as well as in animals, the boy then makes

attempts at coitus and soon attains his object, for, in the state of

nature, man marries as soon as puberty is attained.

=Nocturnal Emissions.=--In civilized man such difficulties are opposed

to marriage, that he replaces it by prostitution, or by more or less

unnatural means, as soon as his sexual appetite becomes strong. In

those who abstain, the images produced by sexual excitation, combined

with erections, act more strongly during sleep than waking and

produce ejaculations of semen called nocturnal emissions or

pollutions. These generally occur during erotic dreams, and as the

dreams produce the illusion of real perception, in quality as well as

in intensity, it is not surprising that they are followed by an orgasm

and ejaculation of semen.

=Masturbation.=--In the waking state the unsatisfied sexual appetite

may produce such excitation that the boy applies friction to the glans

penis, which cause voluptuous sensations. As soon as he has made this

discovery he repeats the act and provokes ejaculation of semen

artificially. Thus arises the bad habit of masturbation or onanism, a

habit which is both depressing and exhausting, which takes an

increasing hold on those who practice it. Although from the purely

mechanical point of view masturbation causes a more normal ejaculation

than nocturnal emissions, which are often interrupted by awakening and

the vanishing of the dream which produced them, it has a much more

harmful effect, by its frequency and especially by its depressing

action on sentiment and will. We shall return to this subject in

Chapter VIII.

The accumulation of semen in the seminal vesicles strongly excites the

sexual appetite of man, and he is momentarily satisfied by their

evacuation. But we shall soon see that this purely organic or

mechanical excitation, which seems at first to be only adapted for

natural wants, does not in man play the principal role. We can easily

understand that it cannot be the principal moving power of the sexual

act. In fact, for any of the animals in which copulation occurs, the

possibility of accomplishing this is not connected solely with the

accumulation of semen, for it depends on obtaining a female. It is

necessary, therefore, for the accumulated semen to wait, and for the

perception of the female by the aid of the senses to excite the male

to coitus.

=External Signs of the Sexual Appetite.=--Like every other desire the

sexual appetite betrays itself by the physionomy. This consists in the

play of cerebral activity, that is the thoughts, sentiments and

resolutions, on the muscles by means of motor nerves and nerve

centers. It is not limited to the face but extends to the whole body.

The abdomen, the hands and even the feet have their physionomy; that

of the muscles of the face and eyes is, however, the most active and

most expressive. Sexual desire betrays itself in looks, by the

expression of the face and by certain movements in the presence of the

female sex. Men differ greatly in the way in which they betray or hide

their sentiments and thoughts by the play of their muscles, so that

the inner self is not always reflected without. Moreover, the

expression of sexual desire by the play of the physionomy may be

confounded with that of other sentiments, so that one who appears

libidinous is not always so in reality, and inversely.

=Continence in Man.=--Abstinence or sexual continence is by no means

impracticable for a normal young man of average constitution,

assiduous in intellectual and physical work, abstaining from all

artificial excitations, especially from all narcotics and alcohol in

particular, for these substances paralyze the judgment and will. When

sexual maturity is complete, that is after about twenty years,

continence is usually facilitated by nocturnal emissions accompanied

by corresponding dreams. The health does not suffer from these in any

way. However, in the long run this state cannot be considered as

normal, especially when there is no hope of it coming to an end in a

reasonable time. What is much more abnormal are the numerous

artificial sexual excitations that civilization brings with it.

=Sexual Power.=--The individual variations in the sexual instinct are

enormous, and may be said to vary from zero to an intense and

perpetual excitation called _Satyriasis_. By sexual power is

understood the faculty of accomplishing coitus. This power in the

first place requires strong and complete erections, as well as the

faculty of following them by frequent seminal ejaculations, without

being precipitate. Impotence or incapacity for coitus belongs to

pathology and consists usually in the absence or defectiveness of

erections. Sexual power and appetite generally go together, but not

always, for it is possible to be powerful with feeble sexual appetite,

and intense appetite sometimes goes with impotence; the latter

condition, it is true, is pathological. Sexual power also varies so

much in individuals that it is hardly possible to fix a limit between

the normal and the pathological.

The sexual power and appetite in man are strongest on the average

between 20 and 40 years, especially between 25 and 35. But, while

young men of 18 to 20 years or more may be still tranquil, without

having had seminal ejaculations, one often finds, among races who

mature earlier, boys of 12 or 16 who are fully developed both in

sexual power and appetite. In our Aryan races, however, when this

occurs before the age of 14, it is a case of pathological precocity.

The late appearance of sexual power and appetite is rather a sign of

strength and health.

After the age of 40, the sexual power slowly diminishes, and after the

seventieth year, or even before this, becomes extinct. Exceptionally

one finds old men of 80 who are still capable. Normally the sexual

appetite diminishes with age; often, however, especially when it is

artificially excited, it lasts longer than sexual power.

As regards sexual power we must distinguish between that of copulation

and that of fecundation. The power may exist without the latter, when

the testicles have ceased to functionate, while the other glands, in

particular the prostate, second the venereal orgasm by their

secretion, when the power of erection is still preserved. Inversely,

the testicles may contain healthy spermatozoa in the impotent. In this

case artificial fecundation by the syringe is practicable.

=Individual Variations in Sexual Power.=--The fact that there are men

who for several years can copulate several times a day proves to what

extent sexual power varies in man. Sexual excitation and desire may

sometimes attain such a degree that they are repeated a few minutes

after ejaculation. It is not rare for a man to perform coitus ten or

fifteen times in a single night, in brothels and elsewhere, although

such excess borders on the domain of pathology. I know a case in which

coitus was performed thirty times. I was once consulted by an old

woman of 65 who complained of the insatiable sexual appetite of her

husband, aged 73! He awakened her every morning at three o'clock to

have connection, before going to work. Not content with this, he

repeated the performance every evening and often also after the

mid-day meal. Inversely, I have seen healthy looking husbands, at the

age of greatest sexual power, accuse themselves of excess for having

cohabited with their wives once a month or less. The reformer,

_Luther_, who was a practical man, laid down the average rule of two

or three connections a week in marriage, at the time of highest sexual

power. I may say that my numerous observations as a physician have

generally confirmed this rule, which seems to me to conform very well

to the normal state to which man has become gradually adapted during

thousands of years.

Husbands who would consider this average as an imprescriptible right

would, however, make wrong pretensions, for it is quite possible for a

normal man to contain himself much longer, and it is his duty to do

so, not only when his wife is ill, but also during menstruation and

pregnancy.

The question of sexual relations during pregnancy is more difficult,

on account of its long duration. In this case caution is necessary,

but total abstinence from sexual connection is, in my opinion,

superfluous.

=The Desire of Change in Man.=--A peculiarity of the sexual appetite

in man, which is fatal for society, is his desire for change. This

desire is not only one of the principal causes of polygamy, but also

of prostitution and other analogous organizations. It arises from the

want of sexual attraction in what one is accustomed to and from the

stronger excitation produced by all that is new; a phenomenon of which

we have spoken above. On the average, woman has a hereditary

disposition which is much more monogamous than man. The sexual

appetite thus loses its intensity from the prolonged habit of

connection with the same woman, but, becomes much more intense with

other women, if not in all men at any rate in most. Such desires may

generally be overcome by the aid of a true and noble love, and by

sentiments of duty and fidelity toward the family and toward a

respected wife. We cannot, however, deny that they exist, nor that

they are the cause of the worst excesses, and the most violent scenes,

often with a tragic result. We shall return to this subject later.

=Excitation and Cooling of the Sexual Appetite.=--Without touching the

domain of pathology, I must again dwell on the great individual

diversity of the objects of the male sexual appetite. It is usually

young but mature female forms of healthy appearance, and especially

the sight of the nudity of certain parts of the body which are usually

covered, particularly the breasts and sexual organs, which most

strongly excite the sexual appetite in man. It is the same with the

corresponding odors. The voice, the physionomy, the clothing and many

other details may also provoke his desires. There are, however, men

who are more excited by thin and pale women.

Certain attributes excite one and not another; for instance, the hair,

certain odors, certain forms of face, a certain fashion of clothing,

the form of the breasts, etc. The peculiarities, which are absent in

women with whom a man has been on familiar terms in his youth are

generally those which attract the most. In sexual matters contrasts

tend to mutual attraction. Thin people often become enamored of fat,

short ones of long ones, and inversely. One cannot, however, fix any

rules. One often sees young men excited at the sight of women of older

age, and old men enamored of very young women, even of children. All

these discrepancies constitute the more important points of origin of

sexual pathology. In spite of all, there still exist a great number of

tranquil men with monogamous instincts and not fond of change. Lastly,

we must not forget that super-abundant feeding and idleness exalt the

sexual appetite and tend to polygamy, while hard work, especially

physical, and frugal diet diminish it.

It is needless to say that the mental qualities react powerfully on

the sexual appetite. A quarrelsome temper, coldness and repulsion on

the part of a woman cool the desires of the man, while an ardent

sexual desire on the part of the woman, her love and tenderness, tend

to increase and maintain them. We are dealing here with purely animal

sexual instinct, and we may state that the sexual appetite of woman

generally excites strongly that of man, and considerably increases his

pleasure during coitus. There are, however, exceptions in the inverse

sense, in which coldness and disgust on the part of the woman excite

the passion of certain men, who have, however, no taste for libidinous

women. All degrees are found in this domain.

Active in the sexual act the man desires corresponding sentiments in

the woman. But, on the other hand, all want of natural reserve, and

delicate sentiment, and all cynical sexual provocation on the part of

a woman, produce in the normal man a repulsive effect. The normal

woman possesses an admirable instinct in these matters and knows how

to betray her feelings in a sufficiently fine and delicate manner, so

as not to hurt those of the man.

A phenomenon, which we shall meet with in Chapter VIII, under the name

of _psychic impotence_, shows the powerful and disturbing interference

of thoughts on the automatic action of instinctive sexual activity. A

momentary psychic impotence is not necessarily pathological. While

voluptuous sensations alternate during coitus with desire and

corresponding erotic representations, a sudden idea of the

ridiculousness of the situation, signs of pain or of bad temper in the

woman, the idea of impotence or of the real object of coitus; finally,

anything which acts as a contrast to the sensations and impulses of

coitus, may interrupt it, so that the voluptuous sensations and sexual

appetite disappear and erection subsides. Voluntary efforts are often

incapable of putting things right again. The charm is broken, and only

new images and new sentiments associated instinctively with the sexual

appetite can be reestablished, by making the subconscious state

preponderate over the reasoning consciousness.

=Influence of Modern Civilization. Pornography.=--Human sexuality has

been unfortunately perverted and in part grossly altered by

civilization, which has even developed it artificially in a

pathological sense. The point has been reached of considering as

normal, relations which are in reality absolutely abnormal. For

example, it is maintained that prostitution produces normal coitus in

man. How can this term be seriously employed in speaking of connection

with a prostitute who is absolutely indifferent to it, and who seeks

only to excite her clients artificially and to get their money,

without mentioning venereal diseases which she so often presents them

with! Forgetful of the natural aim of the sexual appetite,

civilization has transformed it into artificial enjoyment, and has

invented all possible means to increase and diversify it.

As far back as the history of civilization goes we see this state of

affairs, and in this sense we are neither better nor worse than our

ancestors. But we possess more diverse and more refined measures than

barbarian peoples, and than our direct ancestors, to satisfy our

unwholesome desires. Modern art in particular often serves to excite

eroticism, and we must frankly admit that it often descends to the

level of pornography. Hypocritical indignation against those who dare

to say this often serves only to cover in the name of art the most

indecent excitants of eroticism.

Photography and all the perfected methods of reproduction of pictures,

the increasing means of travel which facilitate clandestine sexual

relations, the industrial art which ornaments our apartments, the

increasing luxury and comfort of dwellings, beds, etc., are, at the

present day, so many factors in the science of erotic voluptuousness.

Prostitution itself has become adapted to all the pathological

excrescences of vice. In a word, the artificial culture of the human

sexual appetite has given rise to a veritable high school of

debauchery. The artistic and realistic representations of erotic

sexual scenes, so widespread at the present day, are much more capable

of exciting the sexual appetite than the crude and unnatural pictures

of former days, when, however, erotic objects of art generally

belonged to a few rich persons or to museums.

=Influence of Repeated Sexual Excitations.=--The artificial and varied

repetition of sexual excitation, by means of objects which provoke it,

increases the sexual appetite. This cannot be doubted, for the law of

exercise is a general truth in the physiology of the nervous system.

This law, which is also called the law of training, shows that every

kind of nervous activity is increased by exercise. A man becomes a

glutton by accustoming himself to eat too much, a good walker by

exercising his legs. The habit of wearing fine clothes or of washing

in cold water causes these things to become a necessity. By

continually occupying ourselves with a certain thing, we take a liking

for it and often become virtuosos. By always thinking of a disease we

are led to imagine that we suffer from it. A melody too often repeated

often becomes automatic and we whistle or hum it unconsciously.

Inversely, inactivity weakens the effect of irritations which

correspond to it. By neglecting certain activities or the provocation

of certain sensations, these diminish in intensity, and we cease more

and more to be affected by them. We become idle when we are inactive,

for the cerebral resistance accumulates, and idleness renders the

renewal of the corresponding activity more difficult. It is not

surprising, therefore, to find this law in the phenomena of the sexual

appetite, which diminishes with abstinence and increases with repeated

excitation and satisfaction. However, another force, that of the

accumulation of semen in the seminal vesicles, associated with an old

natural inherited instinct, often counteracts the law of exercise of

the nervous system, as the empty stomach excites the instinct of

nutrition. But, however imperious the hunger, and however

indispensable its satisfaction for the maintenance of life, this does

not impair the truth of the old saying, "Appetite comes by eating."

The exaggerated desire for sleep experienced by idle people is an

analogous phenomenon. Although sufficient sleep is a necessity for

healthy and productive cerebral activity, an exaggerated desire for

sleep may be artificially developed.

These phenomena are of fundamental importance in the question of the

sexual appetite. Here, the well-known axiom of moderation which says,

"Abuse does not exclude use" finds its application. An English

commentator on _Cicero_ erroneously attributes to him the following:

"True moderation consists in the absolute domination of the passions

and appetites, as well as all wrong desires, by reason. It exacts

total abstinence from all things which are not good and which are not

of an absolutely innocent character." This definition is excellent,

although it is not _Cicero's_. It excludes, for example, the use of a

toxic substance such as alcohol, which is not a natural food, but not

the moderate satisfaction of the sexual appetite which is normally

intended for the preservation of the species, for this satisfaction

may be good or bad, normal or vicious, innocent or criminal, according

to circumstances. In this connection, the application of the right

measure, and choice of the appropriate object raise delicate and

complicated questions. So-called moral sermons lead to nothing in this

domain.

After numerous personal observations made on very diverse individuals

who have consulted me with regard to sexual questions, I think I can

affirm that when a man wishes to be loyal to himself he is generally

able to distinguish between natural desire and artificial excitation

of the sexual appetite. To be pursued and tormented by sexual images

and desires, even when striving against them, and when the legitimate

and normal occasion to satisfy them is absent, is not the same thing

as to pass the time in inventing means of artificial excitement to

pleasure and orgy while leading an idle and egoistic life. I speak

here of the normal man and not of certain pathological states in which

the sexual appetite takes the character of a perpetual obsession, even

against the will of the patient. By serious and persevering work and

by avoiding all means of excitation, the sexual appetite can usually

be kept within the bounds of moderation.

We have mentioned above pornographic art as one of the means which

artificially excite the sexual appetite. Along with the interested

exploitation of the habit of taking alcoholic drinks, exploitation of

the sexual appetite constitutes one of the largest fields of what may

be called _social brigandage_. Besides pornographic pictures, the

principal means employed to artificially excite the sexual weaknesses

of man are the following:

_Pornographic novels_ in which sexual desire is excited by all the

artifice of the novelist, and in which the illustrations often rival

those we have just spoken of to seduce the purchaser.

_Alcohol_ which, by paralyzing the judgment and will as well as moral

inhibitory sentiments, excites the sexual appetite and renders it

grossly impulsive. Its first fumes make man enterprising, and he falls

an easy prey to proxenetism and prostitution, although it soon weakens

the sexual power.

But it is the modern arsenal of _prostitution_ which plays the

principal role. The proxenets (pimps) exploit both the sexual

appetites of men and the weakness and venality of women. Their chief

source of gain consisting in the artificial excitation of the male

sexual appetite by all possible means, their art consists in dressing

their merchandise, the prostitutes, with attractive refinement,

especially when dealing with rich clients who pay well. It is on this

soil that are cultivated the most disgusting artifices, intended to

excite even the most pathological appetites.

Other causes are added to lucre, or are the consequences of it. A boy

led to masturbation by pornographic pictures, or by the seduction of a

corrupted individual, becomes in his turn the seducer of his comrades.

Certain libidinous and unscrupulous women have often persuaded

adolescents and schoolboys to sleep with them, thus awakening

precocious and unhealthy sexual appetites.

Such habits which excite the sexual appetite and cause it to

degenerate artificially, develop in their turn a mode of sexual

boasting in men, the effects of which are deplorable. To appear manly,

the boy thinks he ought to have a cigar in his mouth, even if it makes

him sick. In the same way the spirit of imitation leads youth to

prostitution. The fear of not doing as the others and especially the

terror of ridicule constitute a powerful lever which is abused and

exploited. Fearing mockery, a youth is the more easily seduced by bad

example the less he is put on guard by parents or true friends.

Instead of explaining to him in time, seriously and affectionately,

the nature of sexual connection, its effects and dangers, he is

abandoned to the chance of the worst seductions.

In this way the sexual appetite is not only artificially increased and

often directed into unnatural channels, but also leads to the

poisoning and ruin of youth by venereal diseases, to say nothing of

alcoholism.

We have referred especially to educated youth, but the youth of the

lower classes are perhaps in a still worse condition, owing to the

promiscuity of their life in miserable dwellings. They often witness

coitus between their parents, or are themselves trained in evil ways

for purposes of exploitation.

It is astonishing that the results of such abominable deviation of the

sexual appetite are not worse. No doubt excesses disturb the ties of

marriage and of the family, and often provoke impotence and other

disorders of the sexual functions. It must, however, be admitted that

their satellites, the venereal diseases, and their most common

companion, alcoholism, are in reality the greatest destroyers of

health, and make much more considerable ravages in society than the

artificial increase and abnormal deviations of the sexual appetite

itself. However, the latter by themselves very often poison the mind

and social morality, as we shall have occasion to see.

Immoderate sexual desire, provoked in men by the artificial

excitations of prostitution, etc., is a bad acquisition. It renders

difficult the accustomance to marriage, fidelity and ideal and

life-long love for the same woman. It is true, that many old _roues_

and _habitues_ of brothels later on become faithful husbands and

fathers, especially when they have had the luck to escape venereal

disease.

But whoever looks behind the scenes may soon convince himself that the

happiness of most unions of this kind is very relative. The

degradation of the sexual sentiment of a man who has long been

accustomed to live with prostitutes is never entirely effaced, and

generally leaves indelible traces in the human brain.

I readily admit that a man with good hereditary dispositions, who has

only yielded for a short time to seductive influences, may be reformed

by a true and profound love. But even in him, excesses leave traces

which later on may easily lead him astray when he becomes tired of the

monotony of conjugal relations with the same woman. On the other hand,

we must also recognize that sexual relations in themselves, even in

marriage, create a habit which often urges a married man to

extra-nuptial coitus, even when he had remained continent before

marriage.

The tricks which are played on a man by his sexual appetite,

especially by his polygamous instincts, must not, however, be

confounded with the systematic, artificial and abnormal training of

the same appetite. The physical and psychic attractions of a woman are

capable of completely diverting the sexual desires of a man from their

primary object, and of directing them on the siren who captivates his

senses. The elements of the sexual appetite here form an inextricable

mixture with those of love, and constitute the inexhaustible theme of

novels and most true and sensational love stories.

Hereditary pathological dispositions play a considerable role in many

cases of this kind. Also, marriages of sudden and passionate love (we

are not dealing here with love marriages concluded after sufficient

reflection and deep mutual acquaintanceship) are not more stable than

the so-called "_mariages de convenance_," for passionate natures,

usually more or less pathological, are apt to fall from one extreme to

the other. The power exercised by sexual passion in such cases is

terrible. It produces conditions that may lead to suicide or

assassination. In men whose power of reason is neither strong nor

independent, opinions and conceptions are frequently changed; love may

change to hatred and hatred to love, the sentiment of justice may lead

to injustice, the loyal man may become a liar, etc. In fact the sexual

appetite is let loose like a hurricane in the brain and becomes the

despot of the whole mind. The sexual passion has often been compared

to drunkenness or to mental disease. Even in its mildest forms it

often renders the husband incapable of sexual connection with his

wife.

For example, a man may cherish, respect and even adore his wife, and

yet her presence and touch may not appeal to his senses, nor excite

his appetite or erection; while some low-minded woman will produce in

him an irresistible sensual attraction, even when he experiences

neither esteem nor love for her. In such cases sexual appetite is in

more or less radical opposition to love. Such extreme phenomena are

not rare, but hardly common. Although excited to coitus with the woman

in question, the husband would not in any case have her for wife, nor

even have children by her, for after the slightest reflection he

despises and fears her. Here, the sexual appetite represents the old

atavistic animal instinct, attracted by libidinous looks, exuberant

charms, in a word by the sensual aspect of woman.

On the contrary, in a higher domain of the human mind, the sentiments

of sympathy of true love, deeply associated with fidelity, and with

intellectual and moral intimacy, unite against the elementary power of

the animal instinct. Here we see dwelling in the same breast (or, to

speak more correctly, in the same central nervous system) two souls,

which struggle with each other.

We are not dealing here with cases in which a new passion arrives to

turn the man from his old affection. No doubt the extreme cases of

which we have spoken are not usual, but we see in most men more or

less considerable mixtures of analogous sentiments in all possible

degrees, especially when the woman loved loses her physical

attractions from age or other causes.

=The Procreative Instinct.=--The sexual appetite of man does not

consist exclusively in the desire for coitus. In many cases it is

combined, more or less strongly and more or less consciously, with the

desire to procreate children. Unfortunately, this desire is far from

being always associated with higher sentiments and with love of

children or the paternal instinct. In fact, conscious reasoning plays

a smaller part than the animal instinct of self-expansion. We shall

see later on that the procreative instinct often plays an important

role in our present civilization.

=The Sexual Appetite in Woman.=--In the sexual act the role of the

woman differs from that of the man not only by being passive, but also

by the absence of seminal ejaculations. In spite of this the analogies

are considerable. The erection of the clitoris and its voluptuous

sensations, the secretion from the glands of _Bartholin_ which

resembles ejaculation in the male, the venereal orgasm itself which

often exceeds in intensity that of man, are phenomena which establish

harmony in sexual connection.

Although the organic phenomenon of the accumulation of semen in the

seminal vesicles is absent in woman, there is produced in the nerve

centers, after prolonged abstinence, an accumulation of sexual desire

corresponding to that of man. A married woman confessed to me, when I

reproached her for being unfaithful to her husband, that she desired

coitus at least once a fortnight, and that when her husband was not

there, she took the first comer. No doubt the sentiments of this woman

were hardly feminine, but her sexual appetite was relatively normal.

=Frequency of the Sexual Appetite in Woman.=--As regards pure sexual

appetite, extremes are much more common and more considerable in woman

than in man. In her this appetite is developed much less often

spontaneously than in him, and where it is so, it is generally later.

Voluptuous sensations are usually only awakened by coitus.

In a considerable number of women the sexual appetite is completely

absent. For these, coitus is a disagreeable, often disgusting, or at

any rate an indifferent act. What is more singular, at least for

masculine comprehension, and what gives rise to the most frequent

"quid pro quos," is the fact that such women, absolutely cold as

regards sexual sensations, are often great coquettes, over-exciting

the sexual appetites of man, and have often a great desire for love

and caresses. This is more easy to understand if we reflect that the

unsatiated desires of the normal woman are less inclined toward coitus

than toward the assemblage of consequences of this act, which are so

important for her whole life. When the sight of a certain man awakes

in a young girl sympathetic desires and transports, she aspires to

procreate children with this man only, to give herself to him as a

slave, to receive his caresses, to be loved by him only, that he may

become both the support and master of her whole life. It is a question

of general sentiments of indefinite nature, of a powerful desire to

become a mother and enjoy domestic comfort, to realize a poetic and

chivalrous ideal in man, to gratify a general sensual need distributed

over the whole body and in no way concentrated in the sexual organs or

in the desire for coitus.

=Nature of the Sexual Appetite in Woman.=--The zone of sexual

excitation is less specially limited to the sexual organs in woman

than in man. The nipples constitute in her an entire zone and their

friction excites voluptuousness. If we consider the importance in the

life of woman, of pregnancy, suckling, and all the maternal functions,

we can understand why the mixture of her sentiments and sensations is

so different from that of man. Her smaller stature and strength,

together with her passive role in coitus, explain why she aspires to a

strong male support. This is simply a question of natural phylogenetic

adaptation. This is why a young girl sighs for a courageous, strong

and enterprising man, who is superior to her, whom she is obliged to

respect, and in whose arms she feels secure. Strength and skill in man

are the ideal of the young savage and uncultured girl, his

intellectual and moral superiority that of the young cultivated girl.

As a rule women are much more the slaves of their instincts and habits

than men. In primitive peoples, hardiness and boldness in men were

qualities which made for success. This explains why, even at the

present day, the boldest and most audacious Don Juans excite most

strongly the sexual desires of women, and succeed in turning the heads

of most young girls, in spite of their worst faults in other respects.

Nothing is more repugnant to the feminine instinct than timidity and

awkwardness in man. In our time women become more and more

enthusiastic over the intellectual superiority of man, which excites

their desire. Without being indifferent to it, simple bodily beauty in

man excites the appetite of women to a less extent. It is astonishing

to see to what point women often become enamored of old, ugly or

deformed men. We shall see later on that the normal woman is much more

particular than man in giving her love. While the normal man is

generally attracted to coitus by nearly every more-or-less young and

healthy woman, this is by no means the case in the normal woman with

regard to man. She is also much more constant than man from the sexual

point of view. It is rarely possible for her to experience sexual

desire for several men at once; her senses are nearly always attracted

to one lover only.

The instinct of procreation is much stronger in woman than in man, and

is combined with the desire to give herself passively, to play the

part of one who devotes herself, who is conquered, mastered and

subjugated. These negative aspirations form part of the normal sexual

appetite of woman.

A peculiarity of the sexual sentiments of woman is an ill-defined

pathological phenomenon with normal sensations, a phenomenon which in

man, on the contrary, forms a very marked contrast with the latter; I

refer to the _homosexual_ appetite, in which the object is an

individual of the same sex. Normally, the adult man produces on

another man an absolutely repulsive effect from the sexual point of

view; it is only pathological subjects, or those excited by sexual

privation who are affected with sensual desires for other men. But in

woman a certain sensual desire for caresses, connected more or less

with unconscious and ill-defined sexual sensations, is not limited to

the male sex but extends to other women, to children, and even to

animals, apart from pathologically inverted sexual appetites. Young

normal girls often like to sleep together in the same bed, to caress

and kiss each other, which is not the case with normal young men. In

the male sex such sensual caresses are nearly always accompanied and

provoked by sexual appetite, which is not the case in women. As we

have already seen, man may separate true love from the sexual appetite

to such an extent that two minds, each feeling in a different way, may

inhabit the same brain. A man may be a loving and devoted husband and

at the same time satisfy his animal appetites with prostitutes. In

woman, such sexual dualism is much more rare and always unnatural, the

normal woman being much less capable than man of separating love from

sexual appetite.

These facts explain the singular caprices of the sexual appetite and

orgasm in the normal woman, in whom these phenomena are not easily

produced without love.

The same woman who loves one man and not another is susceptible to

sexual appetite and voluptuous sensations when she cohabits with the

first, while she is often absolutely cold and insensible to the most

passionate embraces of the second. This fact explains the possibility

of prostitution as it exists among women. The worst prostitutes, who

have connection with innumerable paying clients without feeling the

least pleasure, generally have a "protector" with whom they are

enamored and to whom they devote all their love and sincere orgasms,

all the time allowing themselves to be plundered and exploited by him.

What the normal woman requires from man is love, tenderness, a firm

support for life, a certain chivalrous nature, and children. She can

renounce the voluptuous sensations of coitus infinitely more easily

than the exigencies I have just indicated, which are for her the

principal things. Nothing makes a woman more indignant than the

indifference of her husband, when, for instance, he treats her simply

as a housekeeper. Some have maintained that the average woman is more

sensual than man, others that she is less so. Both these statements

are false: she is sensual _in another manner_.

All the peculiarities of the sexual appetite in woman are thus the

combined product of: (1) the profound influence of the sexual

functions on her whole existence; (2) her passive sexual role; (3) her

special mental faculties. By these, and more especially by her passive

sexual role, are explained her instinctive coquettishness, her love of

fiery and personal adornment, in a word her desire to please men by

her external appearance, by her looks, movements and grace. These

phenomena betray the instinctive sexual desires of the young girl,

which as we have just seen, do not normally correspond to a direct

desire for coitus.

While a virgin experiences in her youth the sensations we have just

described, things change after marriage, and as a general rule after

repeated sexual connections. If these do not provoke voluptuous

sensations in some women, they do in the majority, and this is no

doubt the normal state of affairs. Habit, then, produces an increasing

desire for coitus and its sensations, and it is not rare, in the

course of a long life in common, for the roles to be reversed and the

woman become more libidinous than the man. This partly explains why so

many widows are anxious to remarry. They easily attain their object,

as men quickly succumb to the sexual desire of woman when it is

expressed in an unequivocal manner.

In widows, two strong sentiments struggle against each other, with

variable results in different individuals; on the one hand, feminine

constancy in love, and the memory of the deceased; on the other hand,

the acquired habit of sexual connection and its voluptuous sensations,

which leaves a void and appeals for compensation. The sexual appetite

being equal, the first sentiment prevails generally in religious women

or those of a deeply moral or sentimental character, while the second

prevails in women of more material or less-refined nature, or in those

simply guided by their reason. In these internal struggles, the more

delicate sentiments and the stronger will of the woman result from the

fact that when she wishes she can overcome her appetites much better

than man. But, in spite of this, the power of the sexual appetite

plays an important part in the inward struggle we have just mentioned.

When this appetite is absent there is no struggle, and the widow's

conduct is dictated either by her own convenience, or by the instinct

which naturally leads a woman to yield to the amorous advances of a

man.

At the critical age, that is the time when menstruation ceases,

neither the sexual appetite nor voluptuous sensations disappear,

although desire diminishes normally as age advances. In this respect

it is curious to note that old women possess no sexual attraction for

men, while they often feel libidinous desires almost as strongly as

young women. This is a kind of natural anomaly.

As we have already stated, individual differences in the sexual

appetite are much greater in woman than in man. Some women are

extremely excitable, and from their first youth experience violent

sexual desire, causing them to masturbate or to throw themselves onto

men. Such women are usually polyandrous by nature, although the sexual

appetite in woman is normally much more monogamous than that of man.

Such excesses in woman take on a more pathological character than in

man, and go under the name of _nymphomania_. The insatiability of

these females, who may be met with in all classes of society, may

become fabulous. Night and day, with short interruptions for sleeping

and eating, they are, in extreme cases, anxious for coitus. They

become less exhausted than men, because their orgasm is not

accompanied by loss of semen.

Although in the normal state woman is naturally full of delicacy and

sentiments of modesty, nothing is easier than to make these disappear

completely by training her systematically to sexual immodesty or to

prostitution. Here we observe the effects of the routine and

suggestible character of feminine psychology, of the tendency of woman

to become the slave of habit and custom, as well as of her

perseverance when her determined will pursues a definite end.

Prostitution gives us sad proofs of this fact.

The psychology of prostitutes is very peculiar. Attempts to restore

them to a moral life nearly always fail hopelessly; it is rare to see

them permanently successful. Most of these women have a heredity of

bad quality and are of weak character, idle and libidinous. They find

it much easier to gain their living by prostitution, and forget their

work, if they have ever learned any. The poverty, drunkenness and

shame which follow seduction and illegitimate birth have no doubt

driven more than one prostitute to her sad trade, but the naturally

evil dispositions of these women constitute without any doubt the

principal cause. Alcohol, venereal diseases and bad habits, combined

with continually repeated sexual degradation, afterwards determine

progressive decadence.

Some of these women, however, of better quality, only surrender

themselves to prostitution by compulsion; they suffer from this

existence and strive to escape from it. The grisettes and lorettes[2]

form a group intermediate between prostitution and natural love; they

are women who hire themselves for a time to one man in particular, and

are maintained and paid by him in return for satisfying his sexual

appetites. Here again, sexual desire only exceptionally plays the

chief role. The conduct of these women results from their loose

character and pecuniary interest.

If, therefore, we admit on the one hand that the sexual excesses of

the female sex are especially grafted on hereditary disposition of

character, or are primarily due to strong appetites, we are obliged on

the other hand to recognize that the great role played by sexuality in

the brain of woman renders it more difficult for her than for man to

return to better ways when she has once prostituted herself, or when

she has surrendered in any way to sexual licentiousness, even when her

original quality was not bad.

In man the sexual appetite is much more easily separated than in woman

from other instincts, sentiments and intellectual life in general, and

possesses in him, however powerful it may be, a much more transient

character, which prevents it dominating the whole mental life.

I have dwelt so much on this point because it is essential to know the

differences which exist between man and woman in this respect, and to

take them into account if we wish to give a just and healthy judgment

on the sexual question from the social point of view. The more it is

our duty to give the same rights to both sexes, the more absurd it is

to disregard the profoundness of their differences and to imagine that

these can ever be effaced.

=Flirtation.=--If we look in an English dictionary for the meaning of

the word _flirt_, we find it equivalent to coquetry. But this English

term has become fixed and modernized in another sense which has become

international, to express the old idea of a series of well-known

phenomena which must be clearly distinguished from coquetry.

Coquetry, an especially feminine attribute, is not in itself dependent

on the sexual appetite; it is an indirect irradiation, purely

psychical, and we shall speak of it later on. Flirtation, as we now

understand the term, is directly connected with the sexual appetite,

and constitutes its external impression in all the wealth of its

forms, as much in man as in woman. In a word, flirtation is a

polymorphous language which clearly expresses the sexual desires of an

individual to the one who awakens these desires, actual coitus alone

excepted.

Flirtation may be practiced in a more or less unconscious manner. It

is by itself neither a psychic attribute nor sexual appetite, for a

human being may so hide and overcome his appetites that no one remarks

them; and on the contrary, he may simulate sexual appetite without

feeling it, or at any rate behave in such a way as to excite it in his

partner. Flirtation thus consists in an activity calculated to

disclose the eroticism of the subject as well as to excite that of

others. It is needless to say that the nature of coquetry disposes to

flirtation.

Flirtation comprises all the sport of love, kisses, caresses and all

kinds of sexual excitation even to orgasm, without reaching the

consummation of coitus. All degrees may be noted; and, according to

temperament, flirtation may be limited to slight excitation of the

sexual appetite or may extend to violent and rapidly increasing

emissions. The considerable individual differences which exist in

sexual sensibility result in the same perception or the same act

having little effect on one individual, while it excites another to a

high degree. In the latter case, especially in man, flirtation may

even lead to venereal orgasm without coitus, and even without any

manipulations which resemble it. A woman of exuberant form, assuming

sensual and voluptuous attitudes, may thus provoke an ejaculation by

the slight and repeated friction of her dress against the penis of an

excitable dancer.

The same thing often occurs when a passionate couple caress and

embrace each other without the genital organs being touched or even

exposed. In this respect the woman is better protected than the man,

but when she is very excitable an orgasm may be produced in her during

the caresses of a passionate flirtation by the pressure or friction of

her legs against each other (a variety of masturbation in woman).

As a rule, however, things do not go so far as this in flirtation. The

sight and touch are used alternately. The eyes play an important part,

for they may express much and consequently act powerfully. A pressure

of the hands, an apparently chance movement, touching the dress and

the skin, etc., are the usual means of flirtation. In situations where

people are close together or pressed against each other, as in railway

carriages, or at table, the legs play a well-known part, by pressure

of the knees and feet.

This dumb conversation of the sexual appetite begins at first in a

prudent and apparently innocent manner, so that the acting party does

not risk being taxed with impropriety; but as soon as he who began the

flirtation perceives that his slight invitations are welcome he grows

bolder, a tacit mutual agreement is established, and the game

continues without a single word betraying the reciprocal sensations.

Many who practice flirtation, both men and women, avoid betraying

themselves by words, and they take pleasure in this mutual excitation

of their genital sensibility, however incomplete it may be.

Flirtation may assume very different forms according to education and

temperament. The action of alcohol on the brain develops the coarsest

forms of flirtation. Every one knows the clumsy embraces of

semi-intoxicated persons which can often be seen at night or on

Sundays and holidays, in the street or in railway carriages, etc. I

designate these by the term "alcoholic flirtation." Even in the best

and most refined society flirtation loses its delicacy even under the

effect of the slightest degree of alcoholic intoxication.

Flirtation assumes a more delicate and more complicated character,

rendering it gracious and full of charm, in persons of higher

education, especially when they are highly intellectual or artistic.

We must also mention the intellectual variety of flirtation which is

not expressed by sight or touch, but only by language. Delicate

allusions to sexual matters and somewhat lascivious conversation

excite eroticism as much as looks and touch. According to the

education of the persons concerned, this talk may be coarse and

vulgar, or on the contrary refined and full of wit, managed with more

or less skill, or clumsily. Here the natural finesse of woman plays a

considerable part. Men wanting in tact are clumsy and offensive in

their attempts at flirtation, and thus extinguish instead of exciting

the woman's eroticism. The manner in which alcoholic flirtation

manifests itself in cynical, dull, obtrusive and stupid conversation,

corresponds to its other forms of expression. Woman desires

flirtation; but does not wish it to assume an unbecoming form.

One can say anything to a woman; all depends on the way in which it is

said. I have seen lady doctors with whom one could discuss the most

ticklish subjects, profoundly shocked by the misplaced pleasantries of

a tactless professor. In themselves these pleasantries were quite

innocent for medical ears, as my lady colleagues were finally obliged

to admit, when I pointed out to them the specially feminine character

of their psychic reaction, proving to them that they listened without

a frown to things ten times worse, when the lecturer gave them a moral

tone.

Men also generally feel disgusted with the dull, cynical or clumsy

form of female eroticism, although they are not usually over-refined

themselves in this respect.

This last phenomenon leads us to distinguish between flirtation in man

and in woman. For woman it constitutes the only permissible way of

expressing erotic sentiments, and even then much restraint is imposed

on her. Circumstances develop in her the art of flirtation and give

it remarkable finesse. Unless she exposes herself to great danger,

woman can only leave her sensuality to be guessed. Every audacious and

tactless provocation fails in its object; it drives away the men and

destroys a young girl's reputation. Even when possessed by the most

violent erotic desire woman cannot ostensibly depart from her passive

role without compromising herself. Nevertheless, she succeeds on the

whole very easily in exciting the passions of man, by the aid of a few

artifices. No doubt she does not entirely dominate him by this means.

She must be very delicate and adroit, at any rate at first, in the

provocative art of flirtation. These frivolities are greatly

facilitated by her whole nature and by the character of her habitual

eroticism. Man, on the other hand, may be more audacious in the

expression of his passion. This brings us back to what has been said

concerning the sexual differences.

A whole volume could be written on the forms of flirtation, which is

the indispensable expression of all sexual desire. Among engaged

couples it assumes a legal character and even a conventional form. The

way in which barmaids flirt with their customers is also somewhat

conventional, although in quite a different way. In society,

flirtation is generally seasoned with more Attic salt, whether it is

not allowed to exceed certain limits, or whether it leads to free

liaisons after the manner of the Greek hetaira. In the country, among

peasant girls and boys it takes a grosser form, if not more sensual,

than among the cultivated classes; in the latter, language takes the

principal part. Among rich idlers in watering places, large hotels,

and even in some sanatoriums, flirtation takes a dominant place and

constitutes, in all its degrees, the chief occupation of a great

number of the visitors. It grows like a weed wherever man has a

monotonous occupation or suffers from the ennui of idleness.

In certain individuals, flirtation takes the place of coitus from the

sensual, and love from the sentimental point of view. There are modern

crazy natures who spend their existence in all kinds of artificial

excitation of the senses, creatures of both sexes incapable of a

useful action.

As a momentary and transient expression of all the necessities of

love, flirtation has a right to existence; but, when cultivated on its

own account and always remaining as flirtation, it becomes a symptom

of degeneration or sexual depravity, among idle, crazy and vicious

persons of all kinds.

FOOTNOTES:

[2] The terms _grisette_ and _lorette_ are now obsolete, and the names

given to this class of women constantly varies. I shall, nevertheless,

employ them in the course of this work because they clearly define

certain special varieties of remunerated concubinage.

CHAPTER V

LOVE AND OTHER IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE IN THE HUMAN MIND

=Generalities. Jealousy.=--We have seen that the mechanism of the

appetites consists in instincts inherited from our animal ancestors by

mnemic engraphia and selection, and that it is situated in the

primordial or lower cerebral centers (basal ganglia, spinal cord,

etc.). In some of the lower animals we already find other instinctive

nervous reactions which constitute the indirect effects or derivatives

of the sexual appetite. The most evident of these is _jealousy_, or

the feeling of grief and anger produced in an individual when the

object of his sexual appetite is disputed by another individual of the

same sex. Jealousy may also arise from other instincts, such as those

of nutrition, ambition, etc.; but it forms one of the most typical

complements of the sexual appetite, and leads, as we know, to furious

combats, especially between males, sometimes also between females.

Owing to its profoundly hereditary origin, this passion has a very

instinctive character, and might quite as well have been mentioned in

the preceding chapter. I deal with it here because it is naturally

associated with other irradiations of the sexual appetite, and because

it has a peculiarly mental character.

=Relation Between Love and Sexual Appetite. Sympathy.=--Having entered

the higher brain, or organ of mind, and become modified, complicated,

and combined with the different branches of psychic activity, the

sexual appetite takes the name of _love_, properly so-called. In order

to better understand the relations of love to the sexual appetite we

must refer to Chapter II. Let us begin with a short exposition of the

phylogeny of the sentiments of sympathy, or the altruistic and social

sentiments.

In the lower animals with no separate sexes egoism reigns absolutely.

Each individual eats as much as it wants, then divides, buds or

conjugates, thus fulfilling the sole object of its existence. The same

principle holds in the lower stages of reproduction by separate sexes.

Spiders give us a good example. In these, copulation is a dangerous

act for the male, for if he is not extremely careful he is devoured by

the female, sometimes even before having attained his object, often

soon afterward, in order that nothing may be lost. However, the female

shows a certain consideration for her eggs, and sometimes even for the

young after they are hatched.

In higher stages of the animal kingdom sentiments of sympathy may be

observed, derived from the sexual union of individuals. These are

sentiments of attachment of the male for the female, and especially of

the female (sometimes the male also) for their progeny.

Such sentiments become developed and may be transformed into intense

love between the sexes, of long duration. Birds, for instance, often

remain faithful for many years, and even for life. From these simple

facts is evolved the intimate relationship which exists between sexual

love and other sentiments of sympathy, that is to say affection, or

love in the more vague and more extended sense of the term.

To every sentiment of sympathy between two individuals (sympathy forms

part of the sentiments of pleasure) there is a corresponding contrary

correlative sentiment of grief, when the object of sympathy dies,

becomes sick, takes flight or is carried off. This sentiment often

takes the form of simple sadness, but it may attain a degree of

incurable melancholy. Among certain monkeys and parrots, we often see

the death of one of the conjoints lead to the refusal of all food and

finally to death of the survivor, after increasing sadness and

depression. Removal of the young produces a profound sadness in the

female ape. But when an animal discovers the cause of the grief, when,

for instance, a stranger attempts to take away his mate or his young,

a mixed reaction of sentiment is produced, that is to say anger or

even fury against the perpetrator of the deed.

Jealousy is only a special form of this anger. The sentiment of anger

and its violent and hostile expression constitute the natural reaction

against one who disturbs a sentiment of pleasure, a reaction which

tends to reestablish the latter. The power of the sentiment of anger

increases with the offensive and defensive faculties, while, in weak

and peaceful beings, terror and sadness to a great extent take their

place. On the other hand, the sight of defenseless prey suffices to

provoke, in the rapacious who are strong and well armed, by simple

reflex association, a cruel sentiment of voluptuous anger, which is

also observed in man.

=Sentiment of Duty.=--Another derivative of the sentiment of sympathy

is that of _duty_, that is the moral sense. All sentiment of love or

sympathy urges the one who loves to certain acts destined to increase

the welfare of the object loved. This is why the mother nourishes her

young and plucks feathers and hairs to make them a soft bed; and why

the father brings food to his wife and young, and defends them against

their enemies. All these acts, which are not to the advantage of the

individual but to the object or objects of his sympathy, exact more or

less laborious efforts, courage in the face of danger, etc. They thus

provoke an internal struggle between the sentiment of sympathy and

egoism, or the unpleasantness of undertaking things which are

troublesome and disagreeable for the individual himself. From this

struggle between two opposed series of sentiments is derived a third

group of complex or mixed sentiments, that of duty, or _moral

conscience_. When the sentiment of sympathy prevails, when the animal

does his duty toward his young and his conjoint, he feels a sentiment

of pleasure, of duty accomplished. If, on the contrary, he has been

negligent, the egoistic instincts having for the moment prevailed, the

remorse of conscience results, that is the painful uneasiness which

follows all disobedience to the instinctive sentiments of sympathy.

This uneasiness accumulates in the brain in the form of

self-discontent, and may lead to an accentuated sentiment of

_repentance_.

These phenomena exist both in the male and in the female, and if it

was not so, the accomplishment of duty would be impossible; the cat

would run away instead of defending her young; would eat her prey

instead of giving it to them, etc. We thus see the elements of human

social sentiment already very marked in many animals. Remorse and

repentance can only be formed on the basis of preexisting sentiments

of sympathy.

=Sentiment of Kinship.=--A higher degree of the sentiments of sympathy

is developed when these do not remain limited to a temporary union,

but when the union of the sexes is transformed into durable or even

life-long marriage, as we see in monkeys and in most birds. In another

manner the sentiments of sympathy are developed by extension of the

family community to a greater number of individuals, who are grouped

together for the common defense, as we see in swallows, crows, and to

a higher degree, in the large organized communities of social animals,

as the beavers, bees, ants, etc. In the latter, the sentiment of

sympathy and duty nearly always affects all the individuals of the

community, while anger and jealousy are extended toward every being

which does not form part of it.

We must be blinded by prejudice not to comprehend that these same

general facts, revealed by the study of biology and animal psychology,

are repeated in the human mind. Some animals are even superior to the

majority of men in the intensity of their sentiments of sympathy and

duty, as well as in love and conjugal fidelity--monkeys and parrots,

for example. In the social insects, such as the ants and bees, with

their communities so solidly organized and so finely coordinated on

the basis of instinct, the sentiment of social duty has almost

entirely replaced the individual sentiments of sympathy. An ant or a

bee only loves, so to speak, the whole assemblage of his companions.

It does not sacrifice itself for any one of them in particular, but

only for the community. In these animals the individual is only

regarded as a number in the community whose motto is--one for all, but

never all for one.

In bees especially, the degree of sympathy extended to a member or a

class of the hive is exactly proportional to the utility of this

member to the community. The working bees will kill themselves or die

of hunger in order to nourish their queen, while in the autumn they

ruthlessly massacre all the males or drones which have become

useless.

=Sentiments of Patriotism and Humanity.=--The human brain, so powerful

and so complicated, contains a little of all these things, with

enormous individual variations. In man, the sentiments of sympathy and

duty relate especially to the family, that is to say, they are to a

great extent limited to individuals interested in a sexual community,

viz., the conjoints and children, as occurs generally in mammals. It

follows that sentiments of sympathy connected with larger communities

such as remote relatives, the clan, the community, the country, those

who speak the same language, etc., are relatively much weaker, and

result from education and custom rather than from instinct. The

weakest sentiment is certainly that of _humanity_, which regards each

man as a brother and companion, and from which is evolved the general

sentiment of solidarity or social duty. How can it be otherwise in a

species which has lived for thousands or perhaps millions of years as

small hostile tribes, separated from each other? Primitive men were so

destitute of all humanitarian sentiment that they not only killed one

another and practiced mutual slavery, but also martyred, tortured and

even devoured one another.

In spite of all this, and as the result of custom and life in common,

the individual sentiments of sympathy in man are easily extended to

members of other races, especially as regards different sexes, so much

so that enemies conquered and taken prisoners often became later on,

owing to life in common, the friends or mates of their conquerors.

=Antipathy.=--Inversely, individual antipathies and enmity often occur

not only between members of the same tribe but even between those of

the same family. The latter may lead to parricide, fratricide,

infanticide, or assassination of a conjoint.

=Phylogeny of Love.=--The social life of ants offers us some

instructive analogies. In spite of the intense hostility of different

colonies of ants among themselves, there may be obtained by habitude,

often after many desperate combats, alliances between colonies which

were hitherto enemies, even between colonies of different species.

These alliances henceforth become permanent. This is very curious to

observe at the time when the alliance begins to be formed. We then see

certain individual hatreds persist, to a varying extent, for several

days. Certain individuals of the weaker party are maltreated by other

individuals of the conquering party. They cut off their limbs and

antennae and often martyrize them to death with a rabidness that sadly

resembles human sentiments! Hatred and dispute between individuals of

the same colony of ants are, on the other hand, extremely rare. I can

guarantee the correctness of all these observations, having often

repeated them myself and having recorded them in my works on the

habits of ants. Moreover, they have since been confirmed by other

writers.

After what we have just said, and especially if we take into

consideration the numerous observations which have been made in

biology, we can hardly doubt that the sentiment of sexual attraction,

or the sexual appetite, has been the primary source of nearly all, if

not all, the sentiments of sympathy and duty which have been developed

in animals and especially in man. Many of these sentiments are no

doubt little by little completely differentiated and rendered entirely

independent of sexual sentiment, forming a series of corresponding

conceptions adapted to divers social objects in the form of sentiments

of amity. The latter in their turn have often become the generators of

social formations and of a more generalized altruism. Many others,

however, have remained more or less consciously associated with the

sexual appetite, as is certainly the case in man.

This short sketch which we have given of the phylogenetic history of

love and its derivatives is sufficient to show the immense influence

which sexual life has exercised on the whole development of the human

mind.

On the other hand, we must avoid exaggerating the actual importance of

this influence. Young children, who possess neither sexual appetite

nor corresponding sensations, already give evidence not only of

intense sentiments of sympathy and antipathy, anger and jealousy, but

also of commiseration, when they see those whom they love suffer; they

may even show that they already possess the sentiment of duty or

disinterested devotion. All these phylogenetic derivatives of the

sentiments of sexual attraction are thus developed in the individual

long before the sexual instinct itself, from which they have become

absolutely independent. This does not prevent them being powerfully

influenced by the sexual instinct when this awakes, or from being

associated with its direct derivatives when the sexual appetite,

properly so-called, is absent. Thus we see absolutely cold women

become loving and devoted wives and mothers, and possessing a highly

developed sense of kinship. Maternal love is a sentiment of sympathy

derived from the sexual sentiment, adapted directly to children, who

are the products of sexual life.

=Constellations.=--From all this results the immense complication of

the peculiarities of the human mind which are connected with love.

Individual variations of the disposition to sexual appetite are

combined with individual dispositions to the higher qualities of

mind--general sentiments, intelligence and will--to form the most

diverse individual combinations, which we may call _constellations_.

Moreover, inherited individual dispositions are combined in man with a

great number of experiences and remembrances, acquired in all domains

in the course of his life, accumulating them in his brain by what is

called education or adaptation to environment. From the immense

complexity of energies resulting from hereditary dispositions combined

with acquired factors, the resolutions and acts of man are derived,

without his being able to account for the infinite multiplicity of

causes which determine them.

It is thus that a man may be a model of conduct or morality, simply

from the fact that his sexual appetite is almost nil. Another, on the

contrary, suffers from an exaggerated sexual appetite, but is devoted,

conscientious, and even scrupulous; this results in violent internal

struggles, from which he does not always emerge victorious. A third is

moderate in his appetites; if his sentiment of duty is strong and he

possesses a strong will, he will resist his desires, while if his will

is weak or his moral sense defective, he will succumb to the first

temptation.

Love and sexual appetite may be intimately connected or completely

separated in the same individual. In the same way that a cold woman

may be a good mother, a very sensual woman may be a bad one, but the

inverse may also be met with.

=Love.=--I speak here of the true love of a higher nature of one sex

for the other, or _sexual love_, which is not simple friendship, but

is combined with sexual appetite. To write on love is almost to pour

water into the ocean, for literature is three parts composed of

dissertations on love. There can be no doubt that the normal man feels

a great desire for love. The irradiations of love in the mind

constitute one of the fundamental conditions of human happiness and

one of the principal objects of life. Unfortunately, the question is

too often treated with exaggerated sentiment, or on the other hand,

with sensual cynicism; it is examined from one side only, or else it

is misunderstood.

First of all, love appears to be usually kindled by the sexual

appetite. This is the celebrated story of Cupid's arrow. One falls in

love with a face, a look, a smile, a white breast, a sweet and

melodious voice, etc. However, the relations between love and sexual

appetite are extremely delicate and complex. In man, the second may

exist without the first and love may often persist without appetite,

while in woman the two things are difficult to separate, and in any

case, in her, the original appetite without love is much more rare.

The two things are thus not identical; even the most materialistic and

libidinous egoist will agree to this, if he is not too narrow-minded.

It may also happen that love precedes appetite, and this often leads

to the most happy unions. Two characters may have extreme mutual

sympathy, and this purely intellectual and sentimental sympathy may at

first develop without a shadow of sensuality. This is nearly always

the case when it exists from infancy. In modern society an enormous

number of sexual unions, or marriages, are consummated without a trace

of love, and are based on pure speculation, conventionality or

fortune. Here it is tacitly assumed that the normal sexual appetite

combined with custom will cement the marriage and render it durable.

As the normal man has not, as a rule, extreme sentiments, such

prevision is usually realized on the whole, the conjoints becoming

gradually adapted to one another, more or less successfully according

to the discoveries which are made after marriage.

Even when they are relatively true, love stories generally deal with

exceptional cases, often even pathological; for the average marriage

does not appear to the novelist sufficiently piquant or interesting to

captivate his readers. We are not concerned here with extremes, or

with the tragic situations met with in novels, but with normal and

ordinary love, as it most often occurs in reality.

After what we have just said, it is clear that love is derived from

two factors: (1) _momentary sexual passion_; (2) _the hereditary and

instinctive sentiments of sympathy which are derived from the

primordial sexual appetite of our animal ancestors, but which have

become completely independent of this appetite_. Between these two

terms are placed the sentiments of sympathy experienced by the

individual in his former life, which have most often been provoked by

sexual desire for an individual of the opposite sex, and which may be

evoked by the aid of remembrance, kindled afresh, and contribute

strongly to maintain constancy of love. These different sentiments

pass into each other in all possible shades, and continually react on

each other. Sexual appetite, for example, awakens sympathy, and is

awakened by the latter in its turn; on the contrary, it is cooled or

extinguished under the influence of bad conduct on the part of the

person loved.

Let us here recall a law of the sentiments of sympathy, a law which is

well known, but generally forgotten in human calculations. Man loves

best those to whom he devotes himself, and not those from whom he

receives benefits.[3] It is easy to be convinced of the reality of

this fact in the relations of parents to their children, as well as in

marriage. When one of the conjoints in marriage adulates the other,

the latter may easily find this adulation quite natural, and may love

the other conjoint much less than a spoilt child, to which is devoted

all the transports of an unreasonable affection. The spoilt child, the

object of such blind affection, more often responds to it by

indifference, or even by ingratitude, disdain and impertinence. We

find everywhere this play of sentiments, which considerably impedes

mutuality in love. It may even concern inanimate objects. We like a

garden, a house or a book over which we have taken much pains, and we

remain indifferent to the most beautiful and precious gifts which come

by themselves without our making any effort to obtain them. In the

same way, the child becomes attached to some toy which he has made

himself, and disdains the costly presents given by his parents. As a

poet has said: "Man only enjoys for long and without remorse the goods

dearly paid for by his efforts." (Sully-Prudhomme: "_Le Bonheur_.")

There is, therefore, a profound psychology in the old and wise saying

that true love expresses itself as often by refusal as by compliance,

and should always associate itself with reason. No doubt this is not

primitive love; it is a love elevated and purified by its combination

with the elements of intelligence.

In marriage, more than one husband thinks he ought to be separated

from his wife and children so as not to spoil them. There is no need

of a long explanation to show the fallacy of this idea. To be

complete, love should be reciprocal, and to remain mutual it requires

mutual education in marriage. Every husband should above all be

separated from himself, and not from his wife. If each one did all in

his power to promote the happiness of the other, this altruistic

effort would strengthen his own sentiments of sympathy. This requires

a constant and loyal effort on each side, but it avoids the illusion

of a false love, provoked by the senses, vanishing like smoke or

becoming changed to hatred. Without being blind to the weaknesses of

his partner he must learn to like them as forming part of the person

to whom he has devoted his heart, and employ all his skill in

correcting them by affection, instead of increasing his own weakness

by leaning on them. It is necessary, therefore, neither to admire nor

to dislike the defects of the loved one, but to try and attenuate them

by aid of integral love.

Love has been defined as "dual egoism." The reciprocal adulation of

two human beings easily degenerates into egoistic enmity toward the

rest of the human race, and this often reacts harmfully on the quality

of love. Human solidarity is too great, especially at the present day,

for such exclusivism in love not to suffer.

I would define ideal love as follows: _After mature consideration, a

man and a woman are led by sexual attraction, combined with harmony of

character, to form a union in which they stimulate each other to

social work, commencing this work with their mutual education and that

of their children._

Such a conception of love refines this sentiment and purifies it to

such an extent that it loses all its pettiness, and it is pettiness

which so often causes it to degenerate, even in its most loyal forms.

The social work in common of a man and woman united by true affection,

full of tenderness and devotion for one another, mutually encouraging

each other to perseverance and to action, will easily triumph over

petty jealousies and all other instinctive reactions of the

phylogenetic exclusiveness of natural love. The sentiments of love

will thus become ever more ideal, and will no longer provide egoism

with the soil of idleness and comfort on which it grows like a weed.

=Inconvenience of Abstinence from Sexual Connection Between Married

Couples by Medical Orders.=--It is a matter of common observation that

in marriage, at least during mature life, sexual connection

strengthens and maintains love, even when it only constitutes part of

that which cements tenderness and affection. In many cases I have

observed that medical orders, given no doubt with good intentions, and

forbidding sexual connection, on account of certain morbid conditions,

have had the effect of cooling the sentiments of love and sympathy and

producing indifference which soon becomes incurable. Physicians should

always bear this in mind in their prescriptions, of which they too

often see the immediate object only. The medical prohibition of sexual

connection in marriage should be reserved for cases of absolute

necessity. For example: A virtuous and capable man marries for love an

intelligent but somewhat ill-developed girl. The marriage is happy and

they have several children. But after a time certain local disorders

in the woman induce the medical man to forbid sexual connection with

her husband. They begin to sleep in separate rooms, and little by

little intimate love becomes so far cooled that the renewal of sexual

relations later on becomes impossible. The husband's sentiments are so

much affected as to render him unfaithful to his moral principles,

and to lead him occasionally to visit prostitutes. Although they have

become essentially strangers to each other, the husband and wife

continue to live together an apparently happy life; but this is far

from always the case.

=Durable Love.=--It may be stated as a principle that true and

elevated love is durable, and that the sudden passion which lets loose

the sexual appetite toward an individual of the opposite sex, hitherto

a stranger, in no way represents the measure of true love. Passion

warps the judgment, conceals the most evident faults, colors

everything in celestial purple, renders the lovers blind, and veils

the true character of each from the other. We are only speaking here

of cases where each is loyal and where the sexual appetite is not

associated with the cold calculations of egoism. Reason only returns

when the first tempest of a passion which seemed insatiable has

subsided, when the honeymoon of marriage, or of a free union, has

passed. Then only is it possible to see if what remains is true love,

indifference, hatred or a mixture of these three sentiments, capable

or not of becoming more or less adaptable and tolerable. This is why

sudden amours are always dangerous, and why only long and profound

mutual acquaintance before marriage can lead to a happy and lasting

union.

Even in this case the unforseen is not absent, for it is very rarely

that one knows a man and his ancestry; moreover, acquired diseases or

mental anomalies may cause his character to degenerate later on.

Let us now examine some psychic phenomena more or less connected with

love. For reasons which we have mentioned the irradiations of sexual

love are on the whole less developed in man than in woman.

PSYCHIC IRRADIATIONS OF LOVE IN MAN

=Masculine Audacity.=--In the normal male the sentiment of sexual

power favors self-exaltation, while the contrary sentiment of

impotence, or even that of mediocre sexual power, depresses this

sentiment of exaltation. Yet, in reality, the sexual power of man has

not the capital importance for a normal and virgin woman that men

imagine, influenced as they are by self-exaltation; what imposes on

women is especially masculine audacity, and in sexual matters this

increases with experience and practice. The company of prostitutes

often renders men incapable of understanding feminine psychology, for

prostitutes are hardly more than automata trained for the use of male

sensuality. When men look among these for the sexual psychology of

woman they only find their own mirror.

Man's flirtation, and his art of paying court to women are naturally

combined with his audacity, as we have already observed in birds and

mammals, and some of the lower animals. The male seeks to please the

female to gain her favors. The brilliant colors of butterflies and

birds, song, skill and proof of strength, often come to the aid of the

male sexual instinct. Even in certain animals supplicant and plaintive

sounds assist the male after his repeated refusal, apparently or in

reality, by the female. We shall see in Chapter VI that savage men

have a much greater tendency to tattoo and adorn themselves than have

the women.

The art which man employs to seduce and conquer woman has been

described to satiety in romances and novels, as well as in

ethnographic works; so that we shall not dwell on it here. On the

contrary, we shall show that in higher civilizations man is in general

more sought after than woman, so that the latter has surpassed him in

the art of flirtation or sexual conquest.