Marriage by purchase has followed marriage by rape, and forms a

slightly higher stage of civilization, developed by exchange of money

or other symbols. It first appears, in Australia, for example, as

marriage by exchange (exchange of a woman for a sister or a daughter).

Afterward young men gain their wives by working as servants for the

father. In marriage by purchase the price is based on the beauty,

health and social position of the woman. A young girl is generally

worth more than a widow or a rejected woman. Skill in female manual

labor also increases the price. Among the Indians of British Columbia

a wife will cost from twenty to forty pounds sterling, while in Oregon

they are exchanged for bisons' skins or blankets. Among the Kaffirs

from three to ten cows is a low price, twenty to thirty a high price

for a wife. When a wife was given gratis, her parents had a right to

the children. Marriage by purchase and by exchange still exists among

the lower races as it formerly ruled among civilized peoples. We still

possess the rudiments.

Marriage by rape or by purchase has, however, never been in general

usage. Certain races in India and Africa considered it a disgrace to

pay a price for a wife.

From the historical point of view it is interesting to note that, in

the ceremonies of marriage by purchase, a simulated and symbolical

rape of the betrothed still recalls the old form of marriage by rape;

also, in races where a higher form has replaced marriage by purchase,

traces of the latter are still preserved in certain nuptial symbols.

DECADENCE OF MARRIAGE BY PURCHASE--THE DOT

The position of woman has undergone steady improvement in higher

civilization by the progress of altruism. This is why culture, in

India, China, Greece, Rome and Germany, etc., has gradually

discredited marriage by purchase. This was at first replaced by the

custom of giving wedding presents to the bride; afterward the opposite

custom was introduced of the bride bringing her _dot_ to the

bridegroom.

A singular transition between these two systems is constituted by

simulated purchase, in which the bridegroom offers presents to the

bride's parents, which are afterward returned to him. Among certain

savages the bride's parents return the purchase money of their

daughter to the bridegroom in another form. Such restitution was often

the origin of the _dot_.

Among the Romans the _dot_ became the property of the husband, and

from this is derived the modern custom which usually gives the husband

the right to administer his wife's _dot_, which remains the property

of the wife and her family.

Among the Mexicans, where divorce for conjugal discord is frequent,

and among certain Mahometans, division of property exists in marriage,

and the wife's property is returned to her when she is separated or

divorced.

In Europe at the present time, especially under the influence of

French customs, there is established a kind of marriage by inverse

purchase (which already existed among the Greeks), in the sense that

the parents of young girls obtain husbands for them by means of a

large _dot_. Westermark concludes this subject with the following

words: "If she does not possess special personal attractions, a young

girl without a _dot_, at the present day, runs a great chance of not

getting married. This state of things is quite naturally developed in

a society where monogamy is legally enforced; where women are more

numerous than men; where many men never marry, and where married women

too often lead a life of idleness." If we add to this: "in a society

where Mammon rules as absolute master," the picture will not be

wanting in accuracy.

NUPTIAL CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES

In primitive races where the wife is simply bought like merchandise,

often after mutual agreement, nuptial ceremonies do not exist. They

generally originate later from the symbols of a form of marriage since

abandoned. The ceremony being concluded and the marriage recognized as

legal, it is followed by feasting. Certain religious ceremonies are

generally combined with marriage. The customs of our modern marriages

arise from the same source. At the time of early Christianity there

were no religious ceremonies and even up till the year 1563, the date

of the end of the Council of Trent, religious benediction of marriage

was not obligatory. Luther held that marriage should be purely civil,

but legal civil marriage was only introduced among us by the French

Revolution, while it had existed in remote times among the Peruvians,

Nicaraguans and others. Among certain races, marriages concluded

without _dot_, without ceremony, or without purchase, and even those

between different castes, are often regarded as concubinage.

FORMS OF MARRIAGE

Leaving aside hermaphrodites, such as the snails, in which each

individual has both kinds of sexual organs and plays the part of both

male and female, there are among animals with separate sexes five

forms of conjugal union:

(1). _Temporary or perpetual monogamy_, or marriage between one

individual of one sex and one of the other sex. This is the case with

most birds and mammals and many races of man.

(2). _Polygymy or polygamy_, or the marriage of one male with several

females. This occurs in ruminants, stags, fowls, and other animals, as

well as in some human beings; for example, the Islamites, negroes,

American Indians, Mormons, etc.

(3). _Polyandry_, or the marriage of one female with several males.

This is met with chiefly in the ants, in which each female is

generally fecundated successively by several males. In most of the

higher animals, the jealousy of the males renders polyandry

impossible. In man it is rare but exists among certain races.

(4). _Marriage in groups_, or marriage between several males and

several females. This singular custom is rare but exists in the Togas,

a tribe of savages. I am not aware of its existence among animals.

(5). _Promiscuity_, or free sexual intercourse between males and

females. This occurs in many animals, especially in the lower animals

in which the sexual instinct of the male is not associated with any

regard for the female or the progeny. Promiscuity is still more

natural when the female does not look after her young after she has

laid her eggs. Nevertheless, in most animals the female limits herself

to sexual intercourse before each brood, so that real promiscuity is

not so frequent as would at first appear. In man, on the contrary, it

attains its apogee in prostitution, which is the only absolutely

complete form of promiscuity. But the result of prostitution as

regards the preservation of the species, which is the proper object of

all sexual union, is absolutely destructive.

Polygamy or polygymy were licit among most ancient races, and is so

still among most savages and among many civilized nations; but it has

several varieties.

In Mexico, Peru, Japan and China a man only possesses one legitimate

wife, but has several concubines whose children are considered as

legitimate as those of his wife. Polygamy existed legally among the

Jews up to the Middle Ages. King Solomon possessed seven hundred wives

and three hundred concubines. In Islamite countries the Jews are still

polygamous. The Koran allows them four wives and as many concubines as

they please. The latter do not enjoy the protection of their father,

but apart from this they have the same rights as the legitimate wives.

The Hindus and Persians are polygamous. The Romans were strictly

monogamous, but they also had concubines.

In Christian Europe, polygamy has occasionally been allowed or

tolerated: St. Augustus did not condemn it. Luther allowed Philip of

Hesse to marry two wives; and after the treaty of Westphalia bigamy

was allowed because of the depopulation of Germany. The mistresses of

the present princes are a relic of polygamy. Jesus having said nothing

concerning polygamy, Luther did not prohibit it.

The Mormons have introduced it into their religion. The negro king of

Loango shows us what degree polygamy may reach among princes and

chiefs, for he possesses seven thousand wives, while the chiefs of the

Fiji Islands are content with twenty to one hundred.

Among savage races we find monogamy in the natives of the Andaman

islands, among the Touaregs, the Weddas, the Iroquois, the Wyandottes,

and even in some Australian tribes. With others, polygamy is only

permitted to the chiefs. But most of the population are monogamous

even among polygamous races, and there are very few peoples in which

all the men possess several wives. In India, 95 per cent. of the

Islamites are monogamous, and in Persia even 98 per cent. Polygamy is

nearly everywhere a privilege of princes, chiefs, and rich men.

The two following facts also show a tendency to monogamy among

polygamous races:

(1). One of the wives, generally the first, has prerogatives over the

others.

(2). In reality, the polygamous man nearly always gives sexual

preference to one only, or to a few of his wives. There are, however,

some polygamous races in which the husband has sexual intercourse with

each of his wives according to a regular programme, taking each of

them in turn for several days, weeks or months. With others, on the

contrary, a number of married women remain in reality virgins, because

the husband does not desire them, and they are nothing more than

domestics. Among these people the husband as a rule only takes a

second wife when the first has grown old, so that bigamy becomes the

ordinary form of marriage.

The Cingalese were polyandrous before the English conquest, and so

many as seven men had one wife in common. Polyandry is especially the

custom in Thibet. Among polyandrous peoples the husbands are not all

on the same footing of equality, some hold an inferior position,

corresponding nearly to that of concubines, another sign of the

tendency to monogamy.

Among the Togas marriage in groups is constituted as follows: All the

brothers are husbands of the wife of the elder brother, and all the

sisters of this wife are at the same time wives of their

brothers-in-law. If we except prostitution, this is the only case in

man which approaches promiscuity. Marriage in groups, however, is

extremely restricted promiscuity.

To resume, monogamy is by far the most widespread form of marriage.

This is explained by the relative number of men to women. It has often

been stated that the number of individuals of the two sexes is nearly

the same, and this has been used as an argument in favor of monogamy.

But this statement is incorrect; sometimes it is the men, but more

often the women, who predominate. Among the natives of Oregon there

are seven hundred men to eleven hundred and eighty-five women. Among

the Punkas and other races the number of women is two or three times

greater than that of the men. In Kotcha-Hamba there is only one man to

five women. Among other races there are, on the contrary, more men

than women, especially in Australia, Tasmania, and Hayti. In the

latter island there is only one woman to five men. In Cashmere there

are three men to one woman. Among the negroes, on the contrary, the

women predominate, sometimes in the proportion of three to one, but

more generally as three to two.

In Europe, more boys than girls are born on the average, but from the

age of fifteen to twenty the numbers become equal, and after twenty

the women predominate. This is due to the greater mortality among men,

owing to war, the greater danger of masculine occupations, and also to

alcoholism. In the fifteen largest towns in Switzerland alcoholism is

the direct or indirect cause of death in 10.5 per cent. of men above

the age of twenty.

Among savages the women often take part in war, for instance the

Amazons of Dahomey. Drinking habits are also the same or absent in

both sexes, which equalizes matters. When the men predominate in these

people, this is often due to infanticide committed on young girls, and

also to overwork of the women. With the Cingalese the natality of boys

is greater than that of girls, while in Asia Minor two girls, in

Arabia even four girls, are born to one boy. The Arab says, "Allah has

given us more women than men; it is, therefore, clear that polygamy is

a divine commandment."

=Production of Sexes at Will.=--I will say a few words on the question

of the causes of production of the sexes. There is no want of

hypotheses, assertions, nor even of experiments on this subject; but,

we are obliged to admit that up to the present we know nothing

certain. No one has yet succeeded in producing experimentally in

animals males or females at will. According to one theory, which has

created much impression, overfeeding produces females and underfeeding

males. Although this appears to be true in certain cases among some

animals, it is in no way proved in a positive manner.

It has also been suggested that selection produces the sex which is

deficient in numbers; but here again proofs are wanting. It has been

maintained that crossing tends to breed females, while consanguineous

marriages produce males; in other words, that mongrel races show an

excess of female births, while races in which marriages are very

consanguineous, and polyandrous tribes show an excess of males. It is

much better to leave this question alone till science has furnished us

with conclusive proofs. Certain results obtained with the lower

animals give hope that the future may shed some light on this point.

Again, marriage customs are not always in relation to the excess of

one of the sexes. Races in which men predominate are not always

polyandrous, and those in which women are in excess are not always

polygamous; sometimes even the contrary exists. Polygamy is thus not

always due to a surplus of female births, or to the death of many men,

but often to religious prescripts, as among the Islamites and Mormons.

In polyandry, poverty often plays a greater part than consanguineous

marriages or surplus of male births. Religious prescription of the

husband's continence during his wife's menstrual periods, pregnancy,

and even the period of nursing, a period which often lasts from two to

four years in savages, is an important cause of polyandry. At Sierra

Leone, coitus of the husband with his wife before the last-born child

can walk is regarded as a crime.

Although very advantageous to the wife's health this custom is

entirely based on religious ideas and superstitions. Many savages

consider that every woman is impure and bewitched during her monthly

periods, during pregnancy and suckling. If we add to this the fact

that, being usually treated as beasts, the women soon grow old, we can

easily understand that the men are inclined to polygamy. It is

remarkable with what rapidity the savage woman grows old. She is only

fresh from thirteen to twenty years; after twenty-five she is old and

sterile, and a little later she has the aspect of an old sorceress.

This premature senility is not so much due to early sexual intercourse

as to the terribly hard work they undergo, and also to the prolonged

period of suckling.

Another cause of polygamy is man's natural desire for change. The

negroes of Angola exchange wives. The instinct of procreation, love of

glory and riches cooperate with the sterility of many women in

propagating polygamy. Certain races only tolerate it when the woman is

sterile, or has only daughters, which clearly proves that it is based

on the fear of remaining without male descendants.

On the whole, savage women are less fecund than civilized, owing to

their long continence during the two or four years nursing of each

child. If we add to this the high infant mortality, we can understand

how polygamy becomes among these people a means of reproduction in the

struggle for existence, and even in African races a natural law. A

native of Central Africa may have a hundred wives, who also act as

servants and retainers. In this case polygamy is the expression of

pomp and wealth. It is especially developed in agricultural peoples

owing to the value of the woman's labor. On the other hand it is

impossible among nomadic tribes. In Dahomey the king had thousands of

wives, the nobility hundreds, the simple citizen a dozen and the

soldier none at all.

Jealousy and rivalry among the wives is not always the rule in

polygamous families. In equatorial Africa the wives themselves incline

to polygamy and regard a rich man who restricts the number of his

wives as miserly. Livingstone relates that the women of Makololo

declared they would not live in monogamous England, for any

respectable man should prove his wealth by the number of his wives. We

must not forget that among most savages the moral conception of good

and evil are confounded with that of riches and poverty. In reality,

the supernumerary wives bought by a polygamist are simply slaves. His

power and authority do not easily allow jealousy among them;

nevertheless suicide sometimes occurs among the old wives who have

been passed over in favor of younger ones. Sometimes they kill their

children at the same time. Among the Indians of Terra del Fuego a hut

containing three or four women often resembles a battlefield. We have

already pointed out the way in which jealous Fiji women cut off the

noses of their rivals. Among the Islamites and Hindus intrigue and

jealousy are common with the women; the same in Abyssinia, among the

Hovas of Madagascar and the Zulus. The Hova term for polygamy is

_rafy_, which signifies adversary. To prevent the jealousy of his

wives the polygamous man often places them in separate houses; this is

common among the South American Indians.

In Colombia I made the acquaintance of a French explorer, Le Comte de

Brettes, who has studied closely the Goajires Indians by becoming

himself a member of the tribe. The country of the Goajires is a

peninsula of Colombia bordering on Venezuela. Polygamy among these

people is very interesting. When a young Goajire wishes to marry he

has to pay the bride's parents a number of cattle, but the consent of

the bride is necessary. Besides this the husband has to clear a

certain area of forest, plant vegetables and build a hut. He must then

make a present of all this to his wife and add to it the necessary

cattle. The wife thus becomes the legal proprietor of the house and

land, and it is she who rules over the domain. The husband only has

authority over the male children; but the wife is strictly enforced to

be faithful. If he wishes to marry a second wife, he is obliged to buy

her also and present her with similar property as the first, in

another district. The two wives can never dwell together in the same

house nor in the same district; each of them is thus a proprietor on

her own account. In this manner the different wives of a Goajire are

not only independent, but separated from each other and have no

communication; this excludes all jealousy, especially as these women

have a deep respect for the laws of their country. Under such

conditions polygamy can hardly extend to more than two women without

exhausting the forces a man requires to cultivate each of the domains.

We thus see that certain forms of polygamy, combined with

matriarchism, are compatible with high social position of the wife,

for among the Goajires and other Indian tribes the man passes from one

wife to the other, while it is the wife who is mistress of the house,

the children and the domain.

However, we may say that on the whole monogamy reigns where there is

more altruism, respect for women and sentiment for family life; for

instance, in Nicaragua, among the Dyaks, the Andamanese, etc., in whom

the wife is highly esteemed and possesses political influence. The

wife is also proprietor of the house among the Santalese and

Mounda-Kols.

In the question we are considering the nature of the amorous passions

also plays a great part. When they are purely sensual they do not last

long as a rule; but when love arises from mental affinities it may be

prolonged till old age. Bain remarks that other passions, such as

maternal love, hatred, the desire of domination may be extended to

many objects, while love has a tendency to concentrate itself on a

single one which then takes preeminence over the others and tends to

monogamy. We have seen that birds and monkeys generally love only one

female. With some conjugal love is so strong that one of the conjoints

cannot survive the other; this fact has been observed with certainty,

even when the survivor was provided with another mate. Thus, the male

of a certain species of monkey (_Hapale jacchus_) after the death of

his mate, covers his eyes with his hands, ceases to eat and remains in

the same position till he dies. Suicide for love is not rare among

certain savage races; a point to which we shall return later.

Westermark is certainly right in considering this tendency of love to

concentrate itself on a single object as one of the most powerful

factors in monogamy. Jealousy is no doubt the reverse of such

sentiment, but is the profound despair at seeing the sole object of

love desert or become unfaithful. On the other hand, this

concentration of love, which may be excellent for isolated families

living alone after the manner of wild beasts, is in no way adapted to

a society of which all the members are responsible. This is a point we

must insist upon. There is certainly a real antinomy which is

difficult to reconcile between this dual egoism of exclusive and

concentrated love and social solidarity or human altruism. The problem

is not insoluble, but we must admit that the solution is not easy.

To resume, we first of all observe an evolution from monogamy toward

polygamy. The higher apes and the most primitive men are monogamous;

among these there are no differences of rank, nor class distinctions,

and they live in very small groups. Wealth, civilization, larger

communities, agriculture and the domination of castes have gradually

given rise to polygamy. Thus, the ancient Hindus were at first

monogamous and later on became polygamous. The prerogative of the

first wife over the others is only a vestige of monogamy in polygamy.

A higher degree of culture then diminishes warfare, shortens the

period of nursing, does away with the prejudices against coitus during

pregnancy, and improves the social position of women. Ageing less

quickly, and adding to her bodily charms those of her mental

development woman restores man to monogamy. As the same time wives and

children gradually cease to constitute riches, and this diminishes the

instinct of procreation. Finally, machinery replaces the female labor

of former times. In this way, with a higher degree of human culture,

all the factors tend to restore monogamy.

The instinctive desires of woman are monogamous. The progress of

civilization is continually extending her rights, and the more refined

sentiments of sympathy among civilized people are less and less

compatible with polygamy. As regards polyandry, Westermark shows that

it has always been an exception and that it has only been established

among phlegmatic races, having a certain degree of civilization and

being unacquainted with jealousy.

Spencer believes that monogamy will prevail in the future, while

Lubbock inclines to polygamy. Westermark thinks that if the progress

of civilization continues as hitherto to become more altruistic, and

that if love tends to become more refined, the conjoints having more

and more regard for each other, monogamy will always become more

strict.

For my part, I think it idle to prophesy. If mental culture ever

succeeds in overcoming brutality and barbarism, and if it continues to

make real progress, I do not think that any of the old systems of

marriage will persist in their primary form. Primitive monogamy

adapted to an unsocial savage condition, is incompatible with the

social requirements which become more and more imposed upon humanity.

Marriage by purchase and Islamite polygamy, which regard woman as

merchandise and place her entirely under the dependence of man, are

barbarous customs of semi-civilized people, which have already fallen

into disuse. Polyandry is contrary to human nature and to the

requirements of reproduction, and its implantation is everywhere a

sign of decadence. Our present religious monogamy, completed by the

shameful promiscuity of prostitution, is both hypocritical and

unhealthy. Till the contrary is proved, I consider the most

advantageous form of marriage for the future a kind of free monogamy

(eventually polygamy), accompanied by obligations relative to the

procreation of children and to the children procreated. Polyandry

should only have an accessory right to existence in certain

pathological or exceptional cases. We shall return to this point

later.

DURATION OF MARRIAGE

Among birds, marriage is generally concluded for life; among mammals

rarely for more than a year, with the exception of the anthropoid apes

and man.

The duration of marriage varies enormously in man. Among the

Andamanese, the Weddas, certain Papous, marriage can only cease with

death. Among the North American Indians, on the contrary, it is only

concluded for a limited period. Among the Wyandottes the custom exists

of trial marriages for several days. In Greenland, divorce often takes

place at the end of six months. Among the Creeks marriage does not

last more than a year. In this way is constituted a kind of polygamy

by succession or limited monogamy, which results in the father not

knowing his children.

Among the Botocudos, marriage is performed without ceremonies and only

lasts a short time; it can be broken off on the slightest pretext, for

the pleasure of changing; divorce then becomes as frequent as

marriage. This is also the case in Queensland, Tasmania and the Samoan

islands. Among the Dyaks and Cingalese, quite young men and women have

already had several wives or husbands; a man often marries and deserts

the same woman several times, to take others during the intervals.

Among the Mantras there are men who have been married forty or fifty

times.

In Persia a woman may marry for periods varying from one hour to

ninety-nine years. In Egypt similar customs are met with; a monthly

change is allowed, so that a man may marry twenty or thirty times in

two years. Among the Maues of Sahara the women consider it

fashionable to marry as often as possible, and a long married life is

considered by them as vulgar. The Abyssinians, negroes, etc., marry on

trial or for limited periods. Among the Greeks, Romans and ancient

Germans, divorce was very frequent.

In nearly all savage tribes, and in a number of civilized people the

man possesses an unlimited right of rejection. The Hovas compare

marriage to a loosely tied knot. Among the ancient Jews, Romans,

Greeks and Germans, discontent of the husband was a sufficient reason

for rejection. On the contrary, among a number of savage races

(Westermark mentions about twenty-five) rejection and divorce are

extremely rare and marriage lasts for life.

It is especially where there are children that divorce is rare. With

most races, sterility of the wife and adultery constitute the

principal causes of legal divorce.

Among civilized races marriage for life is much more common than with

savages. This was the case with the Aztecs, etc. Among the Chinese

there exist seven reasons for divorce: sterility, unchastity,

negligence toward parents-in-law, talkativeness, desertion, ill-temper

and chronic disease. In Japan the laws are similar, but in spite of

this divorce is rare in China and Japan.

In Christian countries divorce was formerly permitted and was only

prohibited by the Council of Trent. The modern Catholic says: "Man

must not separate what God has united." Among many savages, on the

contrary, divorce is left to the free will of the married couple.

Elsewhere it is sometimes the man, sometimes both husband and wife who

have the right to exact divorce for divers reasons, such as

drunkenness, adultery, prodigality, etc. In Europe, as elsewhere, it

is the desire for change which is the most common cause of divorce.

Children constitute the surest cement against conjugal separations.

With most savages the rejected wife regains not only her _dot_, but

also part of the common property, or even the whole of it. On the

contrary, the purchase value of the wife is only as a rule returned to

the husband when sterility, adultery or other grave reasons are the

causes of divorce. It results from this that divorce is always very

rare among peoples where the women are very dear.

The right of the children after divorce varies a good deal in

different races; sometimes they are adjudged to the husband, sometimes

to the wife. Divorced women often become prostitutes, for example,

among the Chinese and Arabs. As a rule, marriages for love are more

lasting than others, especially when the couple were acquainted before

marriage.

It is extremely probable that in primitive man marriage only lasted

till the birth of a child, or at the most a few years. With

civilization the duration of marriage has been prolonged, higher

motives having become added to bodily charms, sexual appetite and the

instinct of procreation, and tending toward more lasting unions.

Moral reasons have given rise to laws of protection in marriage, but

the mania which man possesses of dogmatizing on everything has often

caused these laws to degenerate into abuse or religious absurdities.

In this way the modern form of our Christian monogamy has been imposed

by a tyrannical dogma of the Roman Church; a dogma which no doubt

started from an ideal point of view, but fell into disuse in practice,

owing to the fact that it did not take sufficient account of the

natural conditions and sexual requirements of the race. This explains

the present tendency to greater legal liberty, even when the moral

causes which tend to render monogamous unions durable multiply with

the progress of civilization.

HISTORY OF EXTRA-CONJUGAL SEXUAL INTERCOURSE

As monogamous marriage exists among the anthropoid apes, we have every

reason to believe that it existed with primitive man. In neither case

has it been the result of artificial laws, but the result of brute

force and congenital instincts inherited by natural evolution. It

often happened that one male vanquished another and took possession of

the female, or wife, of the vanquished. Others abducted the female by

surprise. Later on, marriage by exchange or by purchase, derived from

marriage by rape, probably constituted the first stage toward a legal

monogamous or polygamous union, as an element in the most primitive

human conventional organizations. In this way we can imagine the main

points of the prehistoric evolution of marriage.

When the conception of marriage took on a legal character, either that

of possession by the male, or that of a more or less equitable

contract between the two sexes, we can easily imagine that sexual

intercourse apart from marriage resulted as an inevitable complement.

Every artificial barrier which the human mind opposes to natural

instincts immediately gives rise to a movement of opposition on the

part of the latter. The matrimonial laws of primitive or

semi-civilized races punished adultery in the most barbarous manner by

torture and death, but were unable to prevent the sexual passions

pursuing their course in one way or another.

Certain abuses or exceptions had, therefore, to be tolerated, or

certain complementary institutions had to be organized. However, these

laws generally branded all forms of sexual intercourse apart from

marriage, with the stigma of inferiority, or contempt, if not of

crime. The woman, being the weaker, was naturally the one to suffer

most from this stigma and its consequences.

The great diversity in the customs of different human tribes, makes it

necessary, in order to avoid errors, to guard against generalizing

without strong reasons. We cannot, however, here enter into details

which would lead us too far. We can, however, affirm that among the

lower or primitive races brute force played the principal role and was

the fundamental support of marriage, while in higher civilizations

legal regulation took the upper hand, however absurd or even immoral

it might be.

Illegal or extra-conjugal forms of sexual intercourse have always

formed two principal groups: _prostitution_ and _concubinage_. No

doubt, these two varieties are insensibly connected by numerous shades

of transition, but as their development depends on different

principles we must distinguish these two forms.

Prostitution is a trade in which a human being sells her body for

money, while concubinage consists in more or less free sexual

intercourse apart from marriage, the motive of which is simply the

sexual appetite, convenience or love, although sometimes violence

plays a part in it. We therefore find in extra-marital sexual

intercourse the same motives as in legal unions; legal or religious

sanction only is wanting.

It is needless to say that the motives which lead to concubinage may

be more or less tainted by interested calculation. In all

civilizations concubinage and prostitution constitute the complement

of legal marriage. Their regulation has ever produced the singular

results of surrounding them with a moral nimbus.

In Babylon, every woman once in her life, had to prostitute herself

for money to any stranger at the temple of Venus. Solon founded houses

of prostitution for the people and furnished them with slaves, "in

order to protect the sanctity of marriage against the passions of

youth."

The Romans had also their houses of prostitution or lupanari, public

or private, as well as free prostitutes. In the Middle Ages,

prostitution developed especially after the Crusades. It is related

that the Council of Constance attracted fifteen hundred prostitutes to

this town. Prostitutes followed the armies everywhere.

In India, young girls give themselves to the priests, who are the

representatives of God and enjoy great honors. Under the name of

Temple girls, the girls of the flower boats of China are really

prostitutes. It is the same with the puzes of Java, the girls in the

Japanese tea-houses, etc. In some civilized states, certain refined

and intelligent prostitutes have always obtained great honors and high

favors, only charging high prices, and ending by substituting for

prostitution the pecuniary exploitation of rich men whom they have

seduced.

Concubinage may be more or less free. The concubines were formerly

often slaves, possessed by men in high positions, in addition to their

wives. At the present day the omnipotence of money produces almost

analogous results. Free concubinage, in which sexual intercourse

between the two contracting parties is absolutely free and more or

less independent of pecuniary questions, is very different and of a

higher moral character. It has also existed in antiquity in various

forms. The Greek hetairas were concubines of high position, no doubt

prostitutes of a kind and giving themselves for money; but they became

the friends or companions of great men. Living in luxury, especially

at the time of Pericles and later, several of them became celebrated;

statues were raised to them and they became the concubines of kings.

Phryne served as the model for the statue of Venus, and offered to

restore the halls of the Thebeans at her own expense. Thais was the

mistress of Alexander and gave heirs to the throne. The neglected

education of the Greek wives caused the intellectual accomplishments

of the hetairas to shine by contrast.

The whole question regarding the Greek customs is summed up in a few

words by Demosthenes: "We marry wives in order to have legitimate

children and a faithful guardian for our household; we have concubines

for our daily service, and hetairas for the enjoyment of love."

In some countries, such as Japan, the children of concubines are

considered by the husbands as legitimate, and have the same rights as

those of his wife; this gives concubinage the character of marriage of

the second rank.

In modern times hetairas are not wanting. Under the title of

courtesans and mistresses, we find them everywhere as the favorites of

kings and nobles, as mistresses of men in high positions, and often

playing the part of vampires in all classes of society.

On the other hand, women of high position or wealth have also their

favorites, whom we may call male hetairas. Certain female members of

royal families have at all times furnished examples of this kind.

At all periods in the history of civilized races, pathology has also

led to extra-conjugal sexual intercourse. Here, homosexual love in

general, and love of boys or pediastry, has always played the

principal part. We shall speak of this in Chapter VIII. Among the

Hebrews, Persians, Etruscans, and especially the Greeks, it was held

in high esteem. The Greek philosophers regarded it as based on an

ideal homosexual love, and not as a vile form of prostitution. Solon,

Aristides, Sophocles, Phidias, and Socrates were strongly suspected of

homosexual practices, and they regarded this form of love as superior

to the normal love of woman. Lesbian love, and other sexual

aberrations, such as sadism, have also played a historical role, as we

shall see.

CONCLUSIONS

Primitive human marriage was probably of short duration; when man

later on became carnivorous, and had to obtain food for his children

by hunting, sexual unions assumed a more constant character. It is not

the class or the tribe, but the family which constituted the primitive

social condition of man, a condition in which marriage was a heritage

from "pithecomorphous" ancestors, _i.e._, related to monkeys.

Free sexual intercourse before marriage and frequent changes in the

latter were then no doubt very common, but true promiscuity has never

been the rule in primitive man.

Patriarchism with its disastrous consequences has been the result of

the preponderance of male power. In a higher degree of civilization

this preponderance has produced marriage by purchase and polygamy. The

barbarous form of the latter is now decreasing.

A true higher culture leads gradually to durable love based on

altruism and ethics, _i.e._, a relative and free monogamy.

The development of marriage in civilization has gradually increased

the rights of woman, and marriage contracts tend more and more in

their modern forms to stipulate for complete equality of rights for

both sexes. As Westermark says: "The history of human marriage is the

history of a union in which women have gradually triumphed over the

passions, prejudices and egoism of men." The term reemancipation of

women is historically more correct than the simple term emancipation,

for before the institution of marriage, woman was free. Invented by

the stronger male when he began to reason, marriage was at first only

the servitude of woman. To give her complete liberty, it must be

transformed afresh from top to bottom.

APPENDIX

=Influence of the Race on Sexual Life.=--If I were an ethnographer I

should attempt to establish whether, and in what way, racial

differences affect the sexual life of man; but the question is so

delicate that it would require a skilled specialist to settle it. With

the exception of the pages dealing with the history of extra-conjugal

intercourse, the statements in this chapter are based on the work of

Westermark. The chief difficulty consists in separating, in the

customs of each race, that which arises from habit and historical

tradition from that which depends on more or less specific hereditary

peculiarities. It is here very easy to fall into error in formulating

false conclusions.

A good deal has been said concerning the hot blood of warm climates,

and on the whole it appears true that people who inhabit these

climates have a more violent and more precocious sexual temperament

than those who live in cold regions. But this is not a racial

character. The Jews, who have preserved their race unaltered in all

climates and under all possible conditions of existence, furnish an

object lesson which is particularly appropriate to decide the

question. The traits of their character are reflected in their sexual

life. Their sexual appetites are generally strong and their love is

distinguished by great family attachment. Their sexual life is also

influenced by their mercantile spirit, and we find them everywhere

connected with the traffic of women and prostitution. They are not

very jealous and are much addicted to concubinage, at the same time

remaining affectionate to their wife and family.

The Mongols also lead a very intense sexual life. Among the

polyandrous people of Thibet jealousy appears to be completely absent:

this may be the result of custom or may be due to phylogenetic

instinct. The Mormons, who are descended from monogamous races,

confirm the idea that polygamy is not a specific racial character. It

would be interesting to study the mixed races of North America from

this point of view. At first sight, it seems that the Americanization

of customs in the mixture of races of the United States is also

extended to sexual life, and that we cannot discover the fundamental

differences between the Irish, Scandinavians, French, Germans and

Italians who constitute this mixture. But it is possible that this is

only a superficial impression, and that a deeper study of the details

would lead to another result. One thing appears to be unquestionable

in the negro race; that is the violence of its sexual passion combined

with its mental inferiority.

A striking trait is furnished by the French race which has remained

pure in the eastern provinces of Canada, whose sexual customs are very

different from those of the present population of France. The French

Canadian is extremely pure and chaste, leads a regular life and has a

numerous family. Families of fifteen or twenty are not rare among

French Canadians. We can here, therefore, observe the effect of

climate and custom on a single race. For reasons mentioned above, I

shall content myself with a few remarks, but I am certain that a

profound study of the question would discover, in the character of the

individuals, specific peculiarities of their race which are only

marked externally by customs. It is obvious that such characters will

be all the more distinct, the more the race differs from its

congeners, and the purer its ethnical separation. As among animals, it

is necessary to distinguish between slight variations, and races or

sub-species which are more constant and more divergent. Hereditary or

phylogenetic individual differences must also be distinguished from

those of races or varieties.

=Weight of the Brain in Different Races and Sexes.=--Bebel has stated

that among savages the difference between the brain of the men and

women is less than among civilized people. This statement is quite

wrong. Prof. Rudolph Martin, of Zurich, has given me statistics of the

cranial capacity of the two sexes in different races, drawn from

reliable sources. According to Martin the weight of the brain

represents about 87 per cent. of the cranial capacity. His table of

statistics is given on the opposite page.

These figures show that the difference between the two sexes is always

about the same, while the average absolute weight of the brain in the

two sexes is lower in the lower races. Reckoning it 87 per cent. of

the cranial capacity, it is in the Weddas 1111 grammes for males and

991 grammes for females, which corresponds to the weight of the

brains of idiots or general paralytics with us. Martin assures me that

in the Malay peninsula he has found as much difference between the men

and women as in Europeans.

According to Martin, men living at the present day may be divided into

three classes according to their cranial capacity:

MEN. WOMEN.

Aristencephalous (large brains) over 1450 gr. over 1300 gr.

Euencephalous (medium brains) 1300 to 1450. 1150 to 1300.

Oligencephalous (small brains) under 1300. under 1150.

AVERAGE CRANIAL CAPACITY IN DIFFERENT RACES

Men Women Difference

{Badois { 48 Craniums m. } 1513 1330 183

{ { 26 " f. }

Civilized {

{Bavarian {100 " m. } 1503 1335 168 (11.2 %)

{ {100 " f. }

{Malay { 26 " m. } 1414 1223 191

{ { 2 " f. }

Semi-Civilized {

{Aino { 87 " m. } 1462 1308 154

{ { 64 " f. }

Lowest Race { 22 " m. } 1277 1139 138 (10.8%)

Weddas { 10 " m. }

CHAPTER VII

SEXUAL EVOLUTION

The evolution of every living being is twofold. We must distinguish:

(1) its _ontogeny_, or the entire cycle of development of the

individual from its conception till natural death at an advanced age;

(2) its _phylogeny_, or the series of organic forms through which its

ancestors passed, by successive transformations, from the primitive

cells of the oldest and most obscure geological periods, up to its

present organization.

In its chief outlines ontogeny is determined by phylogeny by means of

the laws of heredity, even when it is only an abridged recapitulation.

Regarded from this point of view the sexual life of man is also based

on phylogenetic conditions, determined by his ancestral lineage.

Moreover, it presents an individual or ontogenetic evolution during

the life of each person, which in its principal traits is

predetermined in the germ, by the phylogenetic or hereditary energies

of the species. The phenomena of the hereditary mneme show clearly how

ontogeny is the result of engraphia combined with selection, in the

series of ancestors. We have already mentioned these points on several

occasions, but must now review the whole question.

PHYLOGENY OF SEXUAL LIFE

In Chapter II we have briefly described phylogeny in general or

metamorphosis, and in the first part of Chapter IV we have specially

considered the phylogeny of the sexual appetite in the phenomenon of

cell division and conjugation of nuclei in unicellular organisms,

which we have described in Chapter I. In order for animals to

reproduce themselves without degenerating, crossing, or the

combination of different germs, is necessary, and such combinations

are only possible by the mutual attraction of two kinds of germinal

cells. But, when the individual becomes multicellular and bears only

one kind of germinal cells, the attractive energy which was originally

limited to these cells is transmitted to the whole organism, and this

necessitates the existence of sensory and motor nerve centers.

The attraction of one kind of germinal cell and its bearer for the

other must also be more or less mutual. As a rule the bearer of one of

the germinal cells becomes active and penetrating; that of the other

passive and receptive. However, the latter, who after copulation (when

this occurs) becomes the sole bearer of the future individual, is

obliged to desire union with the active bearer of the other germinal

cell, so that reproduction may become harmonious. This is the basis on

which is founded sexual reproduction, and with it the sexual appetite,

in plants (as regards cellular conjugation only) as well as in

animals, but especially in the latter, in whom the germinal cells are

carried by mobile and independent individuals. On the same basis is

developed the difference between the sexual appetite in man and woman,

as well as that between love and the other irradiations of this

appetite in the mental life of both sexes. (Vide Chapters IV and V.)

The immense complication of human sexual life makes us regard animals

with a certain degree of contempt, and flatter our vanity in

qualifying the baser part of our sexual appetite by the term _animal

instinct_. But we are really very unjust toward animals. This

injustice is partly due to the fact that vocal and written language

gives us a means of penetrating into the psychology of our fellow

creatures. By the aid of the common symbolism of our thoughts it is

easy for us to compare them. Language thus enables us to construct a

general human psychology. The absence of language, even in the higher

animals, renders it difficult for us to penetrate their mind. Our

inductive reasoning in this matter is very uncertain, for we can only

judge the mental power of animals by their acts. The brain, and

consequently the mind, of the higher mammals being less highly

organized than that of man, their sexual psychology is also more

primitive, and differs from ours in proportion to the cerebral

development of the species. Comparative anatomy confirms this fact in

the whole series of organisms which possess a central nervous system.

The psychology of the higher apes is thus nearer our own than that of

the dog; the psychology of the dog resembles ours more than that of

the rabbit, etc.

On the other hand, the highly developed cerebral organization of man,

although it has complicated the mental irradiations of his sexual

appetite, has not always ennobled them; on the contrary, it has often

directed them into pernicious paths. We have seen in Chapter VI

numerous and striking proofs of the degeneration, brutality and

cruelty of the manifestations of the human sexual appetite, and we

shall study them further in Chapter VIII. Comparative biology shows us

that the sexual appetite is transformed into love in very different

ways. In order to avoid the immensity of detail of comparative biology

I shall only give a few examples.

While the female spider often kills and eats the male, monkeys, and

parrots give proof of such a great mutual attachment that when one of

the conjoints dies the other sinks into complete despair, ceases to

eat, and perishes in its turn.

In this domain we find singular adaptations to special conditions of

existence. Among the bees and ants, a third class of individuals, or

neuters, formed by differentiation of females, do not copulate, and

lay at the most a few eggs which are not fecundated and which

occasionally develop by parthenogenesis.

Among the termites, another species of social ants, a similar state of

things exists, but the neuters, or workers, are derived from the male

sex as well as the female and their sexual organs are quite

rudimentary. The third sex, or worker, not only has a cerebral

development superior to the sexual individuals, but also inherits the

social sympathetic irradiations of the sexual appetite, which results

in his devotion to a brood which is not his own. Among the social

insects the males are little more than flying sexual organs, which

after copulation are incapable of leading an independent existence and

die of hunger and exhaustion in the case of ants or termites, or are

massacred by the workers in the case of bees.

The fecundated females, on their part, become breeding machines whose

activity is incessant. Among the ants, however, the females are at

first capable of nourishing a few larvae by the aid of a portion of

their eggs and their secretions, till the workers are hatched, who

henceforth undertake all the work including the maternal care of the

brood.

Whoever has observed the fidelity of a pair of swallows and the way in

which the male and female nourish and rear their young, must be struck

by the analogy to the conjugal and family love of the faithful type of

human beings. This is especially remarkable when the same couple

return every year to the old nest. This family life of the swallows

does not prevent a certain social life, which manifests itself in

organized attacks on birds of prey, and in combined emigration in the

autumn and spring.

On the other hand, we are instinctively indignant at the want of

fidelity in other animals, between conjoints, parents and offspring

(dogs and rabbits, for instance), because we involuntarily expect to

find in them our own moral sense, which is not at all just.

From the phylogenetic point of view we can only compare ourselves to

the higher apes, by their analogies with primitive man. (Vide Chapter

VI.) The question which concerns us here is as follows: If we consider

the peculiarities of our sexual customs with those of our direct

ancestors, what are those which are derived from ancient and profound

phylogenetic instincts, those which are derived from less profound

ancestral energies (_i.e._, relatively more recent) and lastly those

which depend simply on old customs fixed by tradition, prejudice and

habit? If we are careful we shall immediately recognize that it is not

only the sexual appetite itself, but also a large part of its

correlatives and irradiations, in which the phylogenetic roots are

deep. Jealousy, coquetry, instinctive maternal love, fidelity and

conjugal love, which are more or less developed in primitive man, are

also present in monkeys and birds. We have even seen that the conjugal

fidelity of these often exceeds our own. It is, therefore, not true

that our animal ancestors are only allied to us by sexual appetite; on

the contrary, we must admit that they have much more noble sentiments

and instincts, derived it is true from this appetite, but belonging to

the domain of a higher social morality. All that we can say in a

general way concerning the complex entanglement of our sentiments and

instincts is that, the most deeply rooted characters in human nature

are at the same time, phylogenetically speaking, the most ancient.

Among the most profound instincts of sexual life, we find moral and

intellectual incongruities. Along with excitement of the sexual

appetite in the male by the odor of the female genital organs, or by

the sight of erotic pictures, we find the most touching conjugal love,

and life-long devotion of one conjoint for the other and for the

children. Prostitution, marriage by purchase, religious marriage,

disgrace attached to illegitimate births, conjugal and family rights

of one or the other sex, etc., are, on the contrary, things which do

not depend on recent phylogeny, but only on the customs and traditions

of certain races. They are partly outgrowths from egoism, the spirit

of domination, mysticism and hypocrisy, and partly the shifts of an

overheated social life which is becoming more and more complicated.

Westermark's studies are very instructive in this respect. All the

absurdities and contradictions, brought to light by the historical and

ethnographical study of the customs and matrimonial abuses in man,

allow us to clearly distinguish that which is due to fashion or

custom, from that which is deeply rooted in our heredity. To avoid

repetition I refer my readers to Chapter VI, to examine the

differences between heredity and custom.

Between these two extremes there is, however, one important domain,

viz., that of _recent phylogeny_, or in other words _variation_. The

fixed appetites and instincts of the species which are proper to every

normal man, and are as we have seen fundamentally connected with many

animal forms, belong to ancient and profound phylogeny. But there is

another group of very variable peculiarities, strongly developed in

some men and little in others, sometimes completely absent, which do

not depend on custom but on what is called individual hereditary

disposition, or individual character. While some men have monogamous

instincts others are polygamous. Some men are by instinct and heredity

very egoistic, others more altruistic. This peculiarity is reflected

in their sexual life and changes the character of their love (but not

that of their sexual instinct). The egoist may love his wife, but this

love is interested and very different from that of the altruist.

Between the two extremes there is an infinite number of gradations

according to the nature of the instincts and dispositions. The same

man may be a good and generous father, and a social exploiter with

neither shame nor pity. Another will pose as a social benefactor,

while at home he is an egoist and a tyrant. The individual

dispositions of recent phylogeny are combined in every way with

education, customs, habit and social position to produce results which

are often paradoxical, and the factors of which are ambition, vanity,

temper, etc. Recent phylogeny is reflected also in many of the

irradiations of the sexual appetite of which we have spoken in Chapter

V. Audacity, jealousy, sexual braggardism, hypocrisy, prudery,

pornography, coquetry, exaltation, etc., depend in each particular

case, according to their degree of development, on a combination of

individual sexual hereditary dispositions with individual dispositions

in the other domains of sentiment, intelligence and will. In this way,

the sexual individuality of one man is constituted in a very complex

and very different way to that of other men, owing to the high

development of the human brain, as well as to the infinite variability

and adaptability of his aptitudes. It is impossible to give even an

incomplete explanation of all the symphonic gradations (often

cacophonic) which represent an individuality, or to fix clearly what

distinguishes it from others. However, when the principle is

understood, it is not difficult to estimate the sexual individuality

of each person more or less correctly.

Strong hereditary dispositions of character may be recognized in early

infancy. When the ancestry of a man is well known the roots of his

recent phylogeny may be traced to his ancestors. Here we observe the

effect of crossing between varieties or different races, or on the

contrary that of consanguinity. This effect is observed in character

and in sexual disposition, as much as in the shape of the nose, or the

color of the skin and hair, etc. It is important that men should learn

to know themselves, and also study each other from this point of view

before marrying. On the whole, we may say that the average civilized

man of our race possesses as his "phylogenetic baggage" a strong

sexual appetite, very variable sentiments of love, generally somewhat

mediocre, (we have seen that conjugal love is more strongly developed

in most monkeys than in man), lastly altruistic or social sentiments

which are still deplorably weak. The latter, no doubt, form no part of

the sexual life, but they must be taken into consideration for they

are its most important derivatives, and it is indispensable for our

modern social life to develop them in harmony with family and conjugal

love.

Hereditary instincts can easily be observed in children. When one of

them is good, it gives evidence at an early age of the sentiments of

sympathy or altruism, such as pity and affection, as well as an

instinctive sentiment of duty, the object of which is not yet social.

All these sentiments are at first only applied to human individuals

known to the child, domestic animals, or even inanimate objects. On

the other hand, the ant, from the beginning of its existence, shows an

inherited instinct or sentiment of complete social duty. In man,

social sentiments properly so-called, have to be acquired by

education, but they require for their expansion a considerable degree

of inherited sentiments of sympathy and duty. A person without morals

can easily acquire social phraseology but not social sentiment. A few

more points require to be considered.

Monogamy is no doubt an old and well-established phylogenetic

heritage, while polygamy is on the whole rather an aberration produced

by individual power and wealth. But phylogenetic monogamy is by no

means identical with the religious or other formality of our present

legal monogamy. It assumes first of all an early marriage immediately

after puberty, while our civilization has placed between this and

marriage, which it only allows later as a rule, the unhealthy swamp of

prostitution, which so often sows in the individual the destructive

seed for his future legal union, before this has taken place. Again,

phylogenetic monogamy imposes no legal constraint; on the contrary, it

assumes a free, natural and instinctive inclination in each of the

conjoints, when it is not the result of the brute force of the male.

Lastly, it by no means excludes a change after a certain time. We are

speaking only of man, and not of birds and monkeys, who are more

monogamous than ourselves.

Monogamy without children has little reason for its existence and must

be considered simply as a means to satisfy the sexual appetite or as a

union for convenience. It is the same with certain marriages between

individuals of very different ages, especially the marriage of a young

man with a woman already old and sterile.

As far as we can ascertain, the majority of sexual perversions, of

which we shall speak in Chapter VIII, are a sad pathological

acquisition of the human race. We observe, however, especially in the

higher mammals, acts of pederasty between males when the female is

wanting.

The sexual repulsion which normally exists between animals of

different species rests on a selective basis, the hereditary mneme of

their reciprocal germs being unable to place itself in homophony, and

their blood also having a mutual toxic action. In speaking of sodomy

we shall see that this instinctive repulsion may disappear in

pathological cases, both in man and in animals, owing to bad habits or

unsatisfied sexual appetite. We cannot absolutely demonstrate the

phylogenetic existence of an instinctive disgust for consanguineous

sexual intercourse.

The sexual advances made by women in civilized countries, show how

easily we may be deceived in attributing to a phylogenetic or

hereditary origin, certain details which are only due to external

circumstances. In man, the bearer of the active germ, the instinct of

sexual advance has deep phylogenetic roots. It is quite natural to him

and is evident among savage races, where the man risks more by

remaining single than the woman. Violent combats between rivals to

obtain the woman, who remains passive like most animals, are evidence

of this.

Civilization has changed all this, and has developed two castes of

women, the old maids and the prostitutes. The latter satisfy the

appetites of men in an artificial and unhealthy manner, while marriage

and family cares only bring them labor and burdens instead of riches.

Owing to the promiscuous polyandry of prostitution, man can always

obtain enough women, while woman can with difficulty obtain a suitable

husband. These circumstances have more and more developed the art of

flirtation, coquetry and advances on the part of girls, and we can now

see, especially in the United States, that advances come more and more

from the female side, if not in principle, at any rate in fact. This

is not a question of a phylogenetic or hereditary transformation of

the sexes among civilized peoples, but an unhealthy effect resulting

from abnormal circumstances, that is the non-satisfaction of the

sexual desires of woman, together with the satiety of those of men.

Woman makes advances from the fear of remaining celibate; she will

cease to do so when the unnatural causes which have produced this

state of things have been done away with.

As a rule, a normal and adaptable man will conduct himself in sexual

matters as in others according to the prevailing fashion. He will most

often succeed in accommodating his sentiments to those of his

conjoint. On the other hand, this average representative of normal

mediocrity easily becomes the slave of routine and incapable of new

ideas. However normal he may be, he has less faculty of adaptation or

mental plasticity and less liberty, than a man of higher nature

independent of prejudices.

ONTOGENY OF SEXUAL LIFE

The first striking fact in the ontogeny of sexual life is the

following: All the sexual organs, both external and internal, remain

in an embryonic and non-functional state, not only in the embryo but

for a long time in the child. The organs and their elements exist, but

they are still small, imperfectly developed, and in a state of rest.

At the time of puberty, which varies in different individuals, the

sexual glands and the other copulatory apparatus enlarge and begin to

functionate. In the European races puberty occurs between the age of

twelve and seventeen years in girls, and between fourteen and nineteen

in boys; it is generally earlier in the South and later in the North.

It is curious to note that the correlative irradiations of the sexual

appetite in the human mind develop much earlier than the organs, or

even the sexual appetite. Again, the sexual appetite often appears

before the normal development of the genital organs. In other rare

cases the sexual appetite is absent in the adult, even when the

corresponding organs are well-developed. (Vide Chapter VIII.) Such

irregularities of the sexual appetite belong to the domain of

pathology.

On the other hand, it is quite normal for young girls and boys to show

early signs of mental differences corresponding to those we have

described in Chapter V. In young girls we observe coquetry and

jealousy and the desire for finery. Their love of dolls and the care

they take of them, is very characteristic of the precocious instinct

of their sex. This is an early sign of instinctive maternal love,

before the development of any sexual sensation or function. Among boys

we observe a tendency to brag and to boast of their strength before

girls, to show their contempt for dolls and the coquetry of little

girls, and also to pose as protectors, etc.

Sexual jealousy already exists in young children. We see little boys,

seeking for the favors of little girls, show violent jealousy when

another is preferred to them. All these phenomena depend either on

subconscious instincts, or on vague sexual presentiments which play a

large part in the infantile exaltation of sentiment. Portraits of

pretty women, the sight of certain parts of the body or feminine

clothing often provoke exalted sentiments in boys; girls rather admire

boldness, an imposing presence and often beauty, in the other sex.

Puberty is produced by certain phenomena which occur in the sexual

organs. In the boy erections occur at an early age when the penis is

still very small. It is curious to note that certain pathological

conditions and friction of the glans penis, especially in the case of

phimosis and as a result of bad example, are often sufficient to

produce sexual sensations and appetites in very young boys. The same

thing is produced in little girls by excitation of the clitoris. All

these phenomena lead to onanism or masturbation, of which we shall

speak later on. As the testicles of young boys do not secrete semen,

masturbation only provokes secretion from the accessory glands, but

this is accompanied by orgasm.

More singular still are cases of coitus between little boys and girls

whose sexual glands are still undeveloped and produce no germinal

cells. Although they are pathological, these phenomena are

characteristic, because they clearly show that the brain has acquired

by phylogeny a sexual appetite relatively independent of the

development of the sexual glands. No doubt the sexual appetite does

not develop, or disappears, in eunuchs when they are castrated quite

young; but it is preserved together with the secretions and functions

of the external genitals when castration is performed after puberty is

established.

The important conclusion which results from these facts is that the

existence of a sexual excitation or appetite of this nature is not

sufficient to prove that they are normal. In Chapter VIII we shall

prove that not only the anomalies of the hereditary sexual

disposition, but artificial excitations and bad habits may also

produce all kinds of misconduct and excesses which should be

energetically combated.

We have described in Chapter IV the great individual variations of the

sexual appetite in the two sexes, as well as that of the sexual power

in man. The sexual power and appetite in man are strongest between the

years of twenty and forty. We may even consider this period as the

most advantageous for the procreation of strong and healthy offspring

and that the procreator is at his best before the age of thirty.

The ontogenetic development of the sexual appetite and love generally

produces in man a peculiar phenomenon. While habitual gratification

and education of the sexual appetite tends to make it more and more

calculating and cynical, love, on the contrary, becomes more elevated

and refined with age and less egoistical than in youth. Owing to

general mental development, the education of sentiments progresses and

becomes refined, while the sexual appetite diminishes in intensity and

becomes more imperious and more coarse. We are only speaking here of

normal cases.

In youth, the intoxication of love combined with intense sexual

appetite triumphs; when the appetite is once satisfied the unbridled

and egoistic passions of this age come to the surface and are often

antagonistic to love. At a more advanced age, on the contrary, love

becomes more constant and more tranquil. The mistake that is so often

made is the confusion of love with sexual appetite. The novelists who

speculate on the eroticism of the public are no doubt more interested

in describing sexual passion and amorous intoxication, with all the

catastrophes and conflicts which arise from them, than the tranquil

and regular love of a couple more advanced in age, the greatest

happiness of which consists in harmony of sentiment and thought, as

well as the mutual regard and devotion of the couple for each other.

Sexual appetite and sexual power in man become extinguished between

the ages of sixty and eighty; old men of eighty are sometimes still

capable, but they are no longer fecund. As a rule sexual power

diminishes before sexual appetite, and this sometimes leads old men to

use artificial means to revive their power, or to satisfy their sexual

desires. This explains why the egoists who have never known true love

often become so base in their sexual manifestations when they grow

old. Their experience of sexual life makes them experts in the art of

seduction. If this fact appears to be antagonistic to the law that

true love is refined with advancing age, we must bear in mind that the

ontogenetic development of the sexual appetite is not the same as that

of love; that in some respects it develops in a contrary direction;

and that the result may consequently become inverted according as one

or other predominates. It is needless to say that there are a number

of intermediate gradations, and that inverse phenomena may be produced

concurrently in the same individual.

According to Westermark elderly men generally fall more easily in love

with middle-aged women than with young girls. No doubt this is often

the case when reason and love predominate, but it is necessary to

avoid generalization, and it is curious to observe how often very old

men become enamored of quite young girls, as the latter may fall in

love with old men. It is common knowledge that young girls do not

marry old graybeards solely for their money or their name. No doubt

this is not uncommon, but I have often seen girls of eighteen or

twenty fall in love with old _roues_, when money, name and position

were theirs and not the man's. However, in such cases it is most often

the old man who is amorous. Westermark maintains that this condition

is not normal, and we shall see that very often it is a case of

commencing _senile dementia_, a pathological cerebral condition in

which the sexual appetite becomes suddenly revived.

The love of a young girl for an old man may be explained by the

intellectual superiority of the old man or by the absence of another

object for love. It is often also due to hysteria and consequently

pathological.

In old age, when the sexual life of two conjoints is extinguished,

there remains a purified love which colors the evening of their life

with autumn tints. The modern detractors of marriage too often forget

this phenomenon. No doubt the evening of conjugal life is often

troubled with discord and sorrow, but then it is usually a question of

"_mariage de convenance_," marriage for money or position, mutual

misunderstanding, or irreflective amorous intoxication. Quarrels may

also arise when pathological conditions become introduced into

marriage.

In woman, sexual ontogeny is not the same as in man. She matures

earlier and more rapidly. In our race, a woman at eighteen is sexually

mature; between eighteen and twenty-five she is in the best condition

for sexual life; toward fifty the menopause occurs, and with it

cessation of fecundity. Hence the period during which a woman is

fecund is much shorter than in man and terminates much earlier.

Owing to this, the development of the intellectual and sentimental

irradiations of the sexual appetite in woman is more rapid than in

man. A young girl is much more mature and full grown as regards her

reproductive power than a young man. These phenomena extend to the

whole mental life of woman, who is less capable of an ulterior

development in old age than man, because she generally becomes settled

and automatic much more rapidly than the latter. No doubt these

phenomena are partly due to the defective mental education of women,

but this explanation is insufficient. Here again we must distinguish

the phylogenetic disposition of woman from the effects of education

during her ontogenetic development.

The sexual appetite of woman manifests itself at first in vague

desires, in a want of love, and does not as a rule develop locally

till after coitus. It often follows that in ontogenetic evolution the

sexual appetite of women increases at a more advanced age (between

thirty and forty). At this age women often become enamored with young

boys, whom they seduce easily. Widows are especially disposed to form

unions with men younger than themselves; these unions are rarely

happy, for the woman who is older than her husband easily becomes

jealous, and the husband soon becomes tired of a woman whose charms

have faded. We can therefore affirm that, as a rule, in order to be

both normal and lasting, a monogamous union requires that the husband

should be from six to twelve years older than his wife, and that the

latter should marry as young as possible.

In the sexual ontogeny of normal woman, pregnancies, childbirth, the

nursing and education of children play an infinitely greater role than

the sexual appetite. These important events in woman's life, together

with affection for her husband occupy a great part of the cerebral

activity of every woman, and are at the same time the conditions for

her true happiness.

We should expect the sexual appetite in woman to diminish or cease at

the menopause; but this is not usually the case, and elderly women are

sometimes tormented by the sexual appetite, which is all the more

painful because men are not attracted by them. Such hyperaesthesia

cannot, however, be considered as normal; most often the sexual

appetite diminishes with age and is replaced, as in man, by the

tranquil love of old age, of which we have spoken.

Old women are often spoken of with contempt. No doubt, unsatisfied

passions and wounded feelings of all kinds, want of intellectual

culture and high ideals, and especially a pathological condition of

the brain, make many old women anything but amiable. I am, however,

convinced that the elevation of woman's social position, and greater

care in her education, will considerably facilitate the development of

her faculties. Education should not develop mundane qualities in

women, but depth of sentiment. There are many aged women who can be

cited as examples of activity and perseverance, for their sound and

clear judgment, as well as for their affability and simplicity of

manners. Although their intellectual productiveness ceases earlier

than that of man, this in no way excludes an excellent and persevering

activity of mind, combined with much judgment and sentimental

qualities. A woman who is growing old and has lost the members of her

family, especially her husband, requires some object to replace them

in her affection. To devote herself to social activity will be the

best antidote against the peevish, querulous or sorrowful moods which

so easily take possession of the aged woman. It appears that love,

which is a phylogenetic derivative of the sexual appetite, and which

in middle life is intimately associated with this appetite, becomes

afterwards more and more independent of it and then requires more

compensation. There is here a great adaptation of love to life, an

adaptation which it is necessary to bear in mind.

In infancy the individual is naturally egoistic; his appetites all

tend to self-preservation. There are even then, however, great

individual differences, and we meet with children who are endowed with

a remarkable sentiment of duty and a great sensibility to the troubles

of others. After puberty man's sexual desire leads him to love, toward

dual egoism, and this desire becomes the principal factor in the

reproduction of the species. In old age the individual has no

reproductive aims to fulfill; his life is only a burden on society, if

it is not directed with a view to benefit others and society in

general. By expansion and purification love, at first sexual, is

gradually transformed into purely humanitarian love, _i.e._,

altruistic or social. At least this is what it should be, and then the

fundamental biogenetic law of Haeckel (ontogeny is an abridged

repetition of phylogeny) will receive an ultimate confirmation. Our

primitive unicellular animal ancestor lived for itself alone; later on

sexual reproduction without love was established; then conjugal and

family love appeared (birds, monkeys, mammals, etc.), finally social

love or altruism was produced, _i.e._, the sense of social solidarity

based on the sentiment of duty.

The last is still very weak in man, while some animal species, such as

the bees and ants, have developed it in a more complete manner, on the

basis of instinct. According to this natural law, all social

organization naturally develops altruism or the sentiment of duty. The

history of humanity proves that our social union is only developed

slowly and laboriously through innumerable contests, and that it is

derived, directly or indirectly, from the family union of individuals.

Extension of communication on the surface of the earth causes the

artificial development of social organization to advance much more

rapidly than the natural phylogenetic development by evolution of the

sentiments or social instincts. The latter are, however, forced to

follow the movement, resting first on the deep roots of family and

friendly altruism, as well as on that of caste or clan (patriotism);

_i.e._, on sentiments of sympathy and duty toward certain individuals

who are more closely connected with us, sentiments which are

hereditary in man. A vague general humanitarian sentiment, a hothouse

flower which is still feeble, has already commenced to grow on this

natural basis. Let us hope that it will live.

It would be a fundamental error to try and found social solidarity

solely on our phylogenetic sentiments of sympathy, or on our ideal

faculty of devotion and self-sacrifice; but to try and take egoism as

a basis for this solidarity is a still greater error. We must not make

an antinomy of egoism and altruism, but regard them as two elements

inseparable from all human society, as well as the individuals who

compose it. We cannot deny that the altruist, endowed with strong

sentiments of sympathy and duty, is an excellent social worker, while

the pure egoist constitutes an element of decomposition for society.

It is, therefore, a social duty to proceed by the sexual route to a

selection which will cause the first to multiply and eliminate the

second as far as possible by sterilizing his germs.

CHAPTER VIII

SEXUAL PATHOLOGY

On this subject we refer the reader to the well-known work of

Krafft-Ebing, "Psychopathia Sexualis,"[4] in which will be found a

number of observations, the details of which we cannot enter into

here. We may first of all say that with the exception of venereal

diseases the genital organs by themselves only play a very small part

in sexual pathology. The brain is the true domain of nearly all sexual

anomalies.

In the second place, we may remark that the disorders of sexual life

only rarely belong to acute affections which the physician can treat

with pharmaceutical or other common remedies. They almost exclusively

originate in the mental constitution, _i.e._, in the hereditary

dispositions of the brain of the individual. But the pathology of

mental or cerebral conditions offers an extremely vast field, capable

of so much extension that no definite limit can be fixed between the

normal state and morbid states, which are themselves connected by

numerous transitions. A great number of acts due to mental conditions

which the public and even learned theologians, jurists and physicians

not initiated in psychiatry, consider as criminal, sinful, or

infamous, are only the product of pathological aberrations due to

hereditary dispositions. I was recently consulted by a patient of this

kind, otherwise possessed of noble sentiments, who told me that a

physician in Germany to whom he related his troubles, turned on him

furiously and said, "These things are filthy; you are a pig; hold your

tongue and get away from here!" As a matter of fact this unfortunate

patient was sustaining a heroic struggle against his perverted

pathological sexual appetites. Knowing little or nothing of these

matters human society, with few exceptions, is of the same opinion as

the ignorant doctor mentioned above. For this reason I think it

necessary at least to give an outline of phenomena which, although

very repulsive in themselves, throw much light on the sexual question.

PATHOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL ORGANS

Every deformity, disease or operation which destroys the sexual glands

in the child, or prevents them from developing, gives rise to the

phenomena which we have described when speaking of castration. This is

the case, for instance, with cryptorchidism in which the testicles

remain in the inguinal canal and become atrophied, instead of

descending into the scrotum. The following case is an example, and is

interesting in other respects:

A young man was affected with imbecility and congenital

cryptorchidism with atrophy of the testicles. A eunuch from

birth, he developed no sexual appetite and no correlative

masculine character. To make a man of him, his too eager aunts

married him to a strong girl, who was anything but innocent. She

attempted by all kinds of manipulations to cure the sexual

blindness of her husband; but this was a waste of labor, as the

unhappy wretch only regarded the performance as disgusting and

filthy. He was violently excited and became somnambulistic.

Soon afterwards the wife consoled herself with a lover of normal

sexual power, and they both overwhelmed the poor eunuch with

raillery. The latter, becoming furious, offered his wife a cake

poisoned with arsenic on her birthday, but she saw through the

stratagem. The poor wretch was sent for trial and condemned to a

long term of imprisonment for attempted poisoning. I consider

this judgment as a legal crime. In spite of my protests,

imbecility was not admitted, and the somnambulism was looked

upon as simulated.

On the other hand, the same lesions when they occur in the adult

neither destroy the correlative sexual characters, nor the power of

coitus, nor the voluptuous sensation of the orgasm.

In man, _aspermia_ sometimes occurs; the testicles appear to be well

formed, but the semen contains no spermatozoa. In spite of this the

aspermatic individual generally has erections, a certain amount of

sexual power and orgasm, and is capable of amorous feelings, although

his sexual functions are generally feeble. But he is incapable of

fecundating a woman.

Some women who have never menstruated possess normal ovaries and may

become pregnant.

Tuberculosis, tumors and inflammations of the testicles and ovaries

may cause sterility.

The erection of the penis is often rendered impossible by certain

deformities, such as _hypospadias_ and _epispadias_, in which the

urethral canal opens respectively below or above the penis.

Involuntary emissions of semen without erection, with or without

voluptuous sensation, is called _spermatorrhea_. This is often a

result of onanism, nervousness or constipation. Too much importance

has been attached to it. In hypochondriacs spermatorrhea becomes a

bugbear, which often makes them the dupes of charlatans. The less

attention is paid to it the quicker it disappears; especially when it

is of purely nervous origin, as is usually the case.

Phimosis, or narrowness of the opening of the prepuce is nearly always

of embryonic origin. It prevents the glans penis from becoming

exposed, at least during erection. It is a very common condition and

very disagreeable. If the prepuce is forcibly drawn back behind the

glans penis before erection, as is often the case in masturbation, the

penis is gripped by the prepuce so that it cannot sometimes be drawn

forward and inflammation with oedema results; this condition is called

_paraphimosis_, and may become dangerous. Secretions, urine and semen

accumulate and decompose in a phimosed prepuce, cause irritation and

lead to masturbation. All cases of phimosis should be operated upon in

infancy, by complete or partial circumcision.

In women, the number of diseases which prevent conception is much

greater than in man. The ovary may undergo cystic degeneration or

become the seat of a tumor; but affections of the uterus and vagina

cause more sterility than ovarian affections. This results chiefly

from catarrh and inflammation which destroy the spermatozoa before

they can reach the egg during its descent. Disorders of menstruation

have much less influence on fecundity. The womb sometimes remains in

an _infantile state_, which may also cause sterility. Other diseases

of the female sexual organs have a more general pathological

character and hardly influence sexual intercourse.

A method of rendering women sterile without castration (removal of the

ovaries) consists in interrupting the communication between the

ovaries and the womb by dislocation of the Fallopian tubes: this

avoids all the evil effects of castration.

Certain inflammations and displacements of the uterus and ovaries are

often the origin of pains, indispositions and nervous disorders in

women. Irregularity and pain in menstruation are a frequent cause of

neuroticism.

The hymen is seldom so strongly developed as to offer a serious

obstacle to coitus; but when this occurs it may be removed by a slight

operation. Young women often suffer from vaginismus, or painful spasms

occurring when an object, such as the finger or penis, is introduced

into the vagina.

Hermaphrodism in man is always pathological, extremely rare, and when

it exists nearly always incomplete. These cases are generally

incomplete mixtures concerning principally the correlative characters.

A double function only exists in legends. I have myself seen a

celebrated hermaphrodite named Catherine Hohmann who had a well-formed

testicle on the left side enclosed in a fold of skin which resembled

the larger lip of the vulva, while the penis was very short and

resembled a clitoris. This individual, who was baptized as a woman,

was certainly male on one side; on the other hand, the feminine nature

was more than problematical. Menstruation was alleged to have occurred

but was not established with certainty, any more than an ovary or

uterus.

Much more frequent are inverted correlative sexual characters, such as

bearded women, men with breasts; also mental sexual inversions, of

which we shall speak later.

VENEREAL DISEASES[5]

We cannot give here a complete description of the venereal diseases,

which constitute a terrible evil for humanity, by bringing a great

deal of misfortunes and decadence into family and social life. Let us

first point out the common error which attributes to sexual excess the

evil effects which are really due to venereal disease. Although it may

be uncommon, one may be infected by these diseases after an innocent

kiss, a cut finger, by sitting on a privy contaminated by a person

suffering from venereal disease, by the use of contaminated linen,

etc., etc. A pachydermatous Don Juan, on the contrary, may abandon

himself to the wildest sexual excess without being infected, if he is

prudent and has good luck. On the other hand, young men may be

infected after having been with a prostitute only once in their lives,

and thus ruin their whole existence.

There are three kinds of venereal disease, which we will describe in a

few words. To these may be added certain parasites, such as crab-lice

and the itch, which are easily communicated by sexual intercourse with

infected persons, but also in other ways.

=Gonorrhea or Clap.=--This disease consists in a purulent inflammation

of the urethra caused by a microbe called the _gonococcus_. When

treated properly it may be cured in a few weeks, but very often the

inflammation becomes chronic and attacks the neighboring organs.

Chronic clap, or "morning-drop," may lead in the male to permanent

stricture of the urethra, which in turn may produce retention of

urine, catarrh of the bladder and disease of the kidneys, which may be

fatal. One attack of gonorrhea in no way protects against a second

infection, but rather predisposes to it, and when this disease becomes

chronic exacerbations or relapses of the acute stage often occur

without fresh infection.

In women the results of gonorrhea are, if possible, still worse than

in men, because it is more difficult to cure. A prostitute affected

with gonorrhea may infect an enormous number of men, and in this case

medical inspection of brothels is no guarantee. The gonococci are

concealed in all the corners and folds of the internal genital organs

of woman, where they set up inflammation of the womb, the Fallopian

tubes and even the ovaries, which may lead to adhesions between the

abdominal organs. Women affected with chronic gonorrhea generally

become sterile. When the womb and the ovaries are affected there is

much suffering and the woman may be confined to bed for some years.

Stricture of the urethra and inflammation of the bladder are more rare

in women than in men, as the result of gonorrhea.

But gonorrhea is not confined to the adults of both sexes. The

innocent child, who at birth has to pass through its mother's vulva,

when this is affected with gonorrhea, undergoes a baptism of gonococci

which attack the conjunctiva of the eyes and set up a severe purulent

inflammation, called ophthalmia of the newly born (_ophthalmia

neonatorum_). This is one of the chief causes of total blindness, and

if the child is not entirely blind, there are often large white

patches left on the cornea which considerably interfere with sight.

Gonorrheal ophthalmia may also occur in adults by conveying pus from

the urethra to the eyes by the fingers.

=Syphilis.=--This disease is still more formidable than gonorrhea. It

is caused by a microbe which has been recently discovered (_Spirochaeta

pallida_). Syphilis is much more chronic than gonorrhea and commences

with a small sore indurated at its base and called the hard chancre.

This is situated on the genital organs or elsewhere; in the mouth, for

instance, when this has been in contact with the buccal or genital

organs of a person infected with syphilis. The syphilitic poison

spreads through the body by means of the blood and lymph. At the end

of a few weeks eruptions appear on the body and face, and then

commences a series of disasters the cause of which may be suspended

over the victim for his whole life, like the sword of Damocles, even

when he believes himself cured; for the cure of syphilis is often

uncertain. This disease may remain latent for months and years, to

reappear later on in different organs and cause fresh lesions.

Syphilis causes ulcers of the skin and mucous membranes; it sometimes

causes decay of the bones; it may cause disease of the internal

organs, such as the liver and lungs; it affects the walls of the blood

vessels, causing them to become hard and brittle (atheroma); it causes

disease of the eyes, especially of the iris and retina, tumors (or

gummata) in the brain, paralysis etc. In fact, it spares none of the

organs of the body.

Among the most terrible results of syphilis we must mention _locomotor

ataxy_ (sclerosis of the posterior columns of the spinal cord), with

its lightning pains and paralysis of the legs and arms; also _general

paralysis of the insane_, which by causing gradual atrophy of the

brain, destroys one after the other, sensations, movements and all the

mental faculties. These two diseases, which are so common at the

present day, only occur in old syphilitics, five to twenty years, or

more often ten to fifteen years after infection, and as a rule in

persons who think they have been completely cured. Both these diseases

are fatal. Before causing death, locomotor ataxy causes intolerable

pain for several years. General paralysis first gives rise to

grandiose ideas, and after disintegrating the human personality bit by

bit, ends by transforming the individual into a being much inferior to

animals, and of an aspect as miserable as it is repulsive. A general

paralytic in his last stage is little more than a vegetating ruin, in

whom the nervous activities are decomposed little by little, after the

gradual disappearance of all the mental faculties. This is the result

of slow atrophy of the brain and gradual destruction of its

microscopic elements, or _neurones_.

The early stages of syphilis may easily pass unnoticed owing to their

partly latent and completely painless character. Small eruptions may

be mistaken for other affections, and mercurial treatment generally

disperses the symptoms of _primary_ and _secondary_ syphilis. But

syphilitics who are apparently cured are never safe from being

attacked, after perhaps many years, with locomotor ataxy, general

paralysis or the _tertiary_ or _quaternary_ manifestations of

syphilis, such as disease of the bones, internal organs, eyes, brain,

etc. The sores of the first two or three years of syphilis are

contagious but painless, and hence do not prevent coitus when they

occur in the genitals. After three years syphilis becomes less

contagious, but there is no definite time limit and cases have been

recorded in which contagious lesions occurred ten or fifteen years

after the onset of the disease.

A syphilitic man may transmit the disease to his children without

infecting his wife, and these children may die before birth or may be

born with congenital syphilis. This is due to the spermatozoa being

infected with syphilis. However, this is fortunately not always the

case, for many cured syphilitics have healthy children. A child

affected with congenital syphilis (from the father) may infect the

mother during pregnancy; this is called "syphilis by conception."

Congenital syphilis may also cause locomotor ataxy and general

paralysis.

It is difficult to enumerate all the infirmities which syphilis in the

parents may transmit to the children. Syphilis often renders marriage

sterile. It is more frequent in men than in women, because the number

of prostitutes is small compared with the number of men who go with

them; a single prostitute may contaminate a whole regiment. On their

part, the clients of prostitutes convey gonorrhea and syphilis to

their wives, thus spreading in society this abominable plague and all

the evils resulting from it.

=Soft Chancre.=--The third kind of venereal disease is the soft

chancre, thus called in distinction to hard chancre, which is the

primary sore of syphilis. Soft chancre is the least dangerous and the

least common of the three diseases. It consists of an ulcer which

remains localized to the genital organs (unless it is complicated with

syphilis, which is frequent). The ulcerated parts are destroyed, but

the sore heals generally without trouble.

Venereal diseases constitute one of the worst satellites of the sexual

appetite. If men were not so ignorant and careless, it would be on the

whole easy to avoid them and cause their gradual disappearance. One of

the most absurd and infamous organizations which can be imagined is

that of the State regulation of prostitution which, under the pretext

of hygiene, compels prostitutes to be registered by the police or to

live in brothels. They then undergo regular medical examination, the

object of which is to prevent those who are diseased from practicing

their trade, and compel them to be treated in hospital. We shall see

later on that this system absolutely fails in its object, for the

simple reason that the treatment of venereal diseases is by no means

the panacea which many people imagine.

The first attack of gonorrhea in man is very often spontaneously

cured, while unskillful treatment often aggravates it. The relapses of

this disease, on the other hand, especially in their chronic form,

often resist all kinds of treatment and sometimes become incurable.

The gonococci become hidden in the folds of the deep parts of the

mucous membrane, both in men and women, and cannot all be destroyed.

With regard to syphilis, mercurial treatment, although remarkable in

its immediate effect, requires prolonged administration. And it is by

such means that it is proposed to make prostitutes clean! There is

only one radical cure for venereal diseases; that is not to contract

them! However, this does not prevent us from recommending all those

who are affected with them to seek immediate treatment by a skilled

specialist.

It is sad to see ladies of high position defending such barbarous

institutions as proxenetism (the business of keeping brothels) and the

regulation of prostitution, imagining that they thereby protect their

daughters against seduction. Such aberration can only be explained by

suggestive influence on the part of men. Among men, and especially

among many physicians, the belief in the efficacy of regulation

depends on a mixture of blind routine, faith in authority and want of

judgment, combined perhaps with more or less unconscious eroticism. We

shall consider this point in detail later on.

One of the most tragic effects of venereal disease is the

contamination of an innocent wife, whose whole life, hitherto chaste

and pure, becomes brutally deprived of its fruits, and whose dreams of

the ideal and hopes of happiness become swamped in the mire with which

prostitution has contaminated her. Is it surprising that love in such

cases becomes replaced by bitterness and despair? Some modern authors,

such as Brieux (_Les Avaries_) and Andre Couvreur (_La Graine_), have

pictured in their dramas and novels the tragic effects of venereal

disease and heredity in the family, as well as their social

consequences. What is deplorable, is the enormous proportion of

persons who are infected with venereal diseases.

SEXUAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

With the exception of what is called sexual inversion and pathological

love of the insane, sexual psychopathology (_i.e._, sexual pathology

of mind) is chiefly limited to the domain of the sexual appetite, and

originates mainly in fetichism (see Chapter V), to which it is closely

allied. Let us first examine certain anomalies which partly concern

the lower nervous functions.

First of all a general question presents itself. Hereditary or

congenital sexual anomalies have been distinguished from those which

are said to result from vicious habits. Krafft-Ebing, in his

celebrated book which we have already quoted, makes a capital

difference between these two causes, and stigmatizes the acquired

vices with great indignation. I do not deny that there is reason for

the distinction, but we must take exception to two fundamental errors

in the manner in which the facts are presented.

In the first place, the difference between hereditary and acquired

sexual anomalies is only relative and gradual, so that it is necessary

to avoid opposing one against the other. When an anomaly arrives

spontaneously in the first sexual glimmer of the child's mind during

its development, it is obvious that it is the expression of a profound

hereditary taint, the result of blastophthoria or of unfortunate

combinations of ancestral energies which have been associated by the

conjugation of the two procreative germs. In such a case it is

comparatively easy to prove that this is a pathological symptom

independent of the will of the individual. But a continuous series of

degrees in the intensity of a hereditary predisposition to a certain

sexual anomaly, or to other anomalies or peculiarities apt to provoke

this anomaly, insensibly connects the purely hereditary pathological

appetite with that which is simply the effect of acquired vicious

habits. In this way a strong hereditary predisposition may exaggerate

a moderate normal sexual appetite, or may give it a pathological

direction under influences which would have had no effect in a less

predisposed individual. Again, a slightly marked tendency to

homosexuality in a man may increase under the seductive influence of a

passionate invert, when the same individual would have lost this

tendency if he had fallen seriously in love with a woman. On the other

hand, the invert would have no influence on an individual who was not

predisposed.

If the hereditary disposition is very strong, it is developed

spontaneously or under the influence of very slight circumstances. If

it is mediocre, it may remain latent and even become extinct when

favorable circumstances do not awaken it. When it is entirely absent

the most powerful seduction and the most evil influence cannot give

rise to the corresponding anomaly. These facts are sufficient to show

what abuse is made of the term _acquired vice_. Under this heading are

designated a number of peculiarities the roots of which are to a great

extent contained in the germ of heredity.

The power of words on the human mind produces antinomies which do not

really exist; such is the case with the terms _vice_ and _disease_.

Vices depend on a hereditary mnemic disposition, of varying strength

and more or less pathological, or at any rate unilateral (_i.e._,

developed in one direction only, or connected with a single group of

objects); according to the good or evil influence of the environment

they may develop, become limited or even fail to appear. Inversely, we

may say that many diseases, especially of the brain, are the source of

vices.

In the second place, it follows from this fundamental principle, that

the vicious and apparently acquired conduct of certain individuals

should not be considered as the product of perverted free will, but

rather as the unfortunate and destructive result of a bad hereditary

disposition developed under the influence of the bad habits of a

corrupt environment. This environment being itself composed of men,

there is a vicious circle of cause and effect which will not escape

the mind of the thoughtful reader. Bad habits are made by hereditary

forces, and bad habits develop in their turn by custom, and may even

create, by blastophthoria, vicious hereditary dispositions. The

indignation of the moralists who condemn vicious persons are very like

the temper of a child who strikes the fire which burnt him.

REFLEX ANOMALIES

We have already mentioned vaginismus, which is often produced in women

by the first coitus. Priapism in man is somewhat analogous to

vaginismus. It is produced by an exaggerated reflex irritability of

the nerve centers for erection, and results in continual and painful

erections, which sometimes end in ejaculation without sensation.

Another anomaly, more or less reflex and very frequent, produces

voluptuous sensations and premature ejaculation after short and

incomplete erections. In some nervous women also, the venereal orgasm

occurs very rapidly and briefly. These anomalies belong to the domain

of medicine and are of little importance for our subject.

PSYCHIC IMPOTENCE

Psychic impotence is a symptom which occurs accidentally in the normal

state and very frequently in psychopathological conditions.

A representation or idea of any kind, may suddenly paralyze by

suggestive action the normal reflex mechanism of the center for

erection. The blood ceases to accumulate in the corpora cavernosa and

erection is either arrested or not produced at all. For example, a

very excited lover, who has had strong erections at the moment when he

prepared to copulate, may be suddenly overcome with the idea that he

will fail, or by some other thought which paralyzes erection and

renders coitus impossible. The remembrance of such a failure and the

distress and shame attached to it, even efforts to produce erection

indirectly for another attempt, constitute further causes of

inhibition of the cerebro-spinal activity; they temporarily extinguish

the sexual appetite, and prevent by their interference the automatic

mechanism of erection which they strive to produce. The greater the

fear of failure, the more the psychic impotence increases. This

phenomenon may be limited to a certain woman, but it is more often

general. Sometimes an incomplete erection is produced, which is

insufficient.

This condition, which depends on auto-suggestion, is best treated by

hypnotic suggestion. The sentiment of impotence powerfully depresses a

man, and the depression increases his impotence. This condition often,

however, disappears by itself.

A special variety of psychic impotence is that in which erection takes

place, but the idea of ejaculation predominates so much that it

paralyzes the voluptuous sensations, and causes ejaculation to occur

without pleasure, or even erection to cease.

Impotence may occur at the first coitus, or may come on gradually. It

is often produced suddenly at the time of marriage in persons who

have hitherto been very capable, even in Don Juans. Men may have

normal erections and pollutions, but these may be stopped by

counter-suggestions at each attempt at coitus. Habitual masturbation

may in some cases contribute to produce impotence, but we must not

generalize from such cases, nor construct a dogma from them, for

continence may also be a cause of impotence.

All these details, which are combined in all kinds of ways with other

sexual troubles, but which are also produced alone in men who are

otherwise normal, throw much light on the relation of the momentary

mental state of man to his sexual appetite and the accomplishment of

coitus.

I do not know under what heading the following case should be placed:

A young man of steady habits, and normal sexual appetite, had

always abstained from sexual connection and masturbation. He

only had emissions during sleep. The latter were accompanied by

erotic dreams, but never produced an orgasm, while disagreeable

sensations occurred on waking. He married for love a woman in

whom the hymen was resistant, and vaginismus occurred on each

attempt at coitus. These attempts failed constantly in spite of

the most intense love and the most ardent desire for children on

both sides. The husband's erections were incomplete, and he

never had an ejaculation except when asleep. By the aid of

hypnotism I succeeded in strengthening his erections, and an

operation on the hymen cured his wife's vaginismus. The first

attempts at coitus were not immediately successful, but

suggestion acted after a time; finally the attempts were crowned

with success, and followed by a first and second pregnancy. The

children were healthy.

In this case, the impotence, which had lasted about eighteen

months, did not affect the mutual love and respect of the

couple, because the husband's affection combined with his sexual

appetite had sufficed for the happiness of a woman who was on

the whole normal.

This case is very instructive in several ways, for it gives a good

example of the nature of the sexual instinct in woman; it also shows

how the auto-suggestion of emissions occurring only during sleep may

hinder copulation in the waking state. But such phenomena are

extremely rare.

It is hardly necessary to say that there is no true impotence in

woman; but the same mental paralysis may occur as in man, preventing

orgasm and often causing disgust.

SEXUAL PARADOXY

By this term is understood the appearance of the sexual appetite, or

even of love, at an abnormal age. Infantile paradoxy is, however, very

different to senile paradoxy.

Infantile paradoxy must not be confounded with certain forms of

masturbation, to which we shall return. Some races, especially in the

tropics, have a much earlier sexual development than others; depending

more on race than climate. In some, sexual maturity occurs in boys

between the age of twelve and fourteen, and in girls between nine and

ten years, while in others the former are hardly mature at twenty and

the latter before seventeen or eighteen. Again, individual variations

may be very great in the same race. But, owing to hereditary

satyriasis or nymphomania, we sometimes in our own country see sexual

appetite appear in children of eight, seven, or even three or four

years of age, in a spontaneous manner without any external excitation.

Lombroso mentions the case of a girl three years old who had an

irresistible tendency to onanism. I have myself observed the two

following cases:

(1). A boy of seven years, the son of a brothel keeper, and a

kind of satyr who committed great excesses, began spontaneously

to attack little girls of his own age or even younger. He was so

artful that all means failed in curing him of this habit, and he

was sent to an asylum of which I was superintendent. He then

tried to renew his exploits with a boy older than himself. He

was also idle and disposed to all kinds of folly. He did not,

however, attempt to copulate with adult women or men. His sexual

organs were absolutely infantile, without any abnormal

development. His paradoxy was thus of cerebral origin.

(2). _A girl of nine years was brought to my office addicted to

self-abuse. Upon examination, I found this child highly

neurotic, the major part of her life had been under unhygienic

atmosphere, case history, father psychopathic, had been in an

insane asylum, mother aenemic. The child was sent to a state

institution for girls and improved remarkably._

In this case I was told that there was no hereditary taint, but such

statements prove nothing. Individuals of this kind generally become

criminals, or else give themselves up to masturbation or prostitution.

Occasionally, the sexual appetite may be preserved for a long time in

old men, or reappear for a time, with or without sexual power, but as

a rule, the paradoxy of old men is the initial symptom of _senile

dementia_. As this disorder is only commencing when sexual excitation

occurs, it is not noticed, and the patient is regarded as an immoral,

vicious or criminal individual. I have seen a patient of this kind

masturbate openly in an asylum, so great was his sexual excitation.

In most old men affected with senile sexual paradoxy, the sexual

appetite is directed toward very young girls or even children, which

aggravates their case from the legal point of view. Very often this

appetite is perverted and assumes one of the forms we shall speak of

later. Some of these old men are still capable, but others are not,

and then their excitation only manifests itself in manipulations of

the genital organs, etc. Such cases play a considerable part in law

scandals. The patient (for so he must be called) often becomes the

victim of blackmail on the part of vicious girls or children, incited

by unnatural parents. One often sees also, at the onset of senile

dementia, an old man become enamored of some prostitute or adventuress

who makes him marry her and thus takes possession of his fortune. The

law generally makes the matter valid, under the pretext that

individual liberty must be respected. Such sanction consists in

reality in sacrificing a patient for the profit of a female swindler.

SEXUAL ANAESTHESIA OR CONGENITAL ABSENCE OF THE SEXUAL SENSE AND

APPETITE

Sexual sensations are so intimately connected with the sexual appetite

that it is difficult to separate them. No doubt in the adult a certain

degree of sexual appetite may exist without any voluptuous sensation,

but this is a secondary phenomenon.

Complete sexual anaesthesia is very rare in man; it is not a special

form of anomaly, but the reduction to zero of a normal sensation and

the appetite which corresponds to it. The characteristic feature of

these cases is that, contrary to what occurs in eunuchs and

cryptorchids, not only the testicles, but all the correlative sexual

attributes (the beard, voice, character, etc.) are normally developed,

and are in no way inverted as in homosexual individuals. Sexual

anaesthesia causes no more suffering than color-blindness, but like the

latter it occasions individual troubles resulting from misunderstanding.

The sexual anaesthetic, having a more or less false idea of marriage,

often marries in complete ignorance, and the results are then

disastrous, thanks to our laws and customs.

In women, sexual anaesthesia is very common. Krafft-Ebing is wrong in

maintaining that in all such cases the women are always neurotic. A

number of absolutely normal and intelligent women remain all their

life completely cold from the sexual point of view, apart from the

normally passive character of the female sex in coitus. It is rather

the very libidinous woman who is pathological.

We have seen that the normal sexual sentiment of woman is developed

rather in the direction of love, and desire for children. Erotic men

often complain of the sexual coldness of their wives, which is

disagreeable to them; for pleasure in one sex excites and completes

that of the other. Cold women submit to coitus as a duty, or at any

rate only mentally enjoy their husband's caresses.

Sexual anaesthesia occurs normally in old age. It may occur at an

earlier age, owing to destruction or atrophy of the sexual glands,

great excesses, or on the contrary, extreme continence. Certain

diseases and psychoses may also cause it.

The following are a few examples of sexual anaesthesia:

(1). A normally built man, of high culture and moral sense, was

affected with complete sexual anaesthesia since birth. He

occasionally had nocturnal emissions, and also matutinal

erections, but no erotic images. When he arrived at mature age

he had no idea of sexual intercourse, and was completely

indifferent to everything concerning sexuality. He did not even

comprehend anything relating to sexual affairs, and his replies

reminded me of conversations with color-blind persons on the

distinction between red and green! According to his ideas,

marriage was an intellectual and sentimental union in which

children came by themselves!

He eventually married a young girl, well educated but extremely

prudish. One can imagine the revelations which followed! The

wife, who had a strong desire for children, soon perceived the

sexual blindness of her husband. She became very unhappy and

bitterly reproached him. The husband then became aware that

there should be something in marriage which he had not taken

into account; but the explanations of coitus by the medical man

were useless, and hypnotic suggestion was incapable of producing

the least sexual sensation.

In spite of all this, the husband was full of respect and

affection for his wife, but was incapable of simulating the

least sexual appetite. As regards the wife, what she required

was not coitus, which was simply a means to an end, but

children. However, her prudery made her prefer this state of

things to a divorce, which would create scandal. We may notice

that in such cases erections are only produced mechanically

during sleep, which renders coitus impossible.

(2). A timid but vain young man of retiring habits, sexually

cold, had occasional nocturnal emissions sometimes accompanied

by slightly erotic dreams. Although better informed than the

preceding case on sexual relations, his sexual appetite was

almost entirely absent, and he regarded marriage as a purely

intellectual alliance. He married an intelligent and passionate

young girl whose sexual appetite was strongly developed, and at

once began to treat her with great coldness, as a kind of

domestic servant.

The wife's family were in favor of divorce, but having pity on

the husband, sent him to me for advice. I explained the matter

to him, made him understand that the fault was entirely on his

side, and that his first duty was to show affection for his

wife, or if not, to accept divorce. The effect was purely

psychical, and from this moment he became amiable and

affectionate toward his wife. This was sufficient to cause the

wife to give up the idea of divorce. I then told her that, on

account of her husband's timidity and anomaly, the only thing to

do was to reverse their roles, and for her to make the sexual

advances. I have not heard anything more from this singular

couple.

(3). A young man who had never had sexual connection before

marriage, in spite of a strong sexual appetite, made the

acquaintance of an intelligent young girl of excellent

character. Marriage followed, and the wife was loyal to her

husband, but remained sexually cold. She was insensible to

coitus and only regarded it as a disagreeable complement of

love. In spite of this she was fond of caresses, devoted to her

husband, and had several children.

(4). An intelligent and cultured man, normal from the sexual

point of view, who had frequented prostitutes in his youth, but

not excessively, married a rather nervous but apparently very

amorous young woman. The marriage night produced on her the

effect of a cold douche, and coitus offended and horrified her.

The husband in his discomfiture took patience; but his love,

which was never very strong, became shattered. To avoid all

scandal each of the conjoints practiced dissimulation and

adapted themselves more or less to each other. The wife allowed

coitus, the husband tolerated her coldness. Several children

were born, but the family was unhappy, and after a few years

divorce put an end to it.