noted the existence of sexual periodicity. Thus, in a case of
general paralysis, attacks of continuous sexual excitement, with
sleeplessness, occurred every twenty-eight days; at other times,
the patient, a man of 42, in the stage of dementia, slept well,
and showed no signs of sexual excitation (_Société de Biologie_,
October 6, 1900). In another case, of a man of sound heredity and
good health till middle life, periodic sexual manifestations
began from puberty, with localized genital congestion, erotic
ideas, and copious urination, lasting for two or three days.
These manifestations became menstrual, with a period of
intermenstrual excitement appearing regularly, but never became
intense. Between the age of 36 and 42, the intermenstrual crises
gradually ceased; at about 45, the menstrual crises ceased; the
periodic crises continued, however, with the sole manifestation
of increased frequency of urination (_Société de Biologie_, July
23, 1904). In a third case, of sexual neurasthenia, Féré found
that from puberty, onwards to middle life, there appeared, every
twenty-five to twenty-eight days, tenderness and swelling below
the nipple, accompanied by slight sexual excitation and erotic
dreams, lasting for one or two days (_Revue de Médecine_, March,
1905).
It is in the domain of disease that the most strenuous and, on the whole,
the most successful efforts have been made to discover a menstrual cycle
in men. Such a field seems promising at the outset, for many morbid
exaggerations or defects of the nervous system might be expected to
emphasize, or to free from inhibition, fundamental rhythmical processes of
the organism which in health, and under the varying conditions of social
existence, are overlaid by the higher mental activities and the pressure
of external stimuli. In the eighteenth century Erasmus Darwin wrote a
remarkable and interesting chapter on "The Periods of Disease," dealing
with solar and lunar influence on biological processes.[121] Since then,
many writers have brought forward evidence, especially in the domain of
nervous and mental disease, which seems to justify a belief that, under
pathological conditions, a tendency to a male menstrual rhythm may be
clearly laid bare.
We should expect an organ so primitive in character as the heart, and with
so powerful a rhythm already stamped upon its nervous organization, to be
peculiarly apt to display a menstrual rhythm under the stress of abnormal
conditions. This expectation might be strengthened by the menstrual rhythm
which Mr. Perry-Coste has found reason to suspect in pulse-frequency
during health. I am able to present a case in which such a periodicity
seems to be indicated. It is that of a gentleman who suffered severely for
some years before his death from valvular disease of the heart, with a
tendency to pulmonary congestion, and attacks of "cardiac asthma." His
wife, a lady of great intelligence, kept notes of her husband's
condition,[122] and at last observed that there was a certain periodicity
in the occurrence of the exacerbations. The periods were not quite
regular, but show a curious tendency to recur at about thirty days'
interval, a few days before the end of every month; it was during one of
these attacks that he finally died. There was also a tendency to minor
attacks about ten days after the major attacks. It is noteworthy that the
subject showed a tendency to periodicity when in health, and once remarked
laughingly before his illness: "I am just like a woman, always most
excitable at a particular time of the month."
Periodicity has been noted in various disorders of nervous
character. Periodic insanity has long been known and studied
(see, e.g., Pilcz, _Die periodischen Geistesstörungen_, 1901); it
is much commoner in women than in men. Periodicity has been
observed in stammering (a six-weekly period in one case), and
notably in hemicrania or migraine, by Harry Campbell, Osler, etc.
(The periodicity of a case of hemicrania has been studied in
detail by D. Fraser Harris, _Edinburgh Medical Journal_, July,
1902.) But the cycle in these cases is not always, or even
usually, of a menstrual type.
It is now possible to turn to an investigation which, although of very
limited extent, serves to place the question of a male menstrual cycle for
the first time on a sound basis. If there is such a cycle analogous to
menstruation in women, it must be a recurring period of nervous erethism,
and it must be demonstrably accompanied by greater sexual activity. In the
_American Journal of Psychology_ for 1888, Mr. Julius Nelson, afterward
Professor of Biology at the Rutgers College of Agriculture, New Brunswick,
published a study of dreams in which he recorded the results of detailed
observations of his dreams, and also of seminal emissions during sleep (by
him termed "gonekbole" or "ecbole"), during a period of something over two
years. Mr. Nelson found that both dreams and ecboles fell into a
physiological cycle of 28 days. The climax of maximum dreaming (as
determined by the number of words in the dream record) and the climax of
maximum ecbole fell at the same point of the cycle, the ecbolic climax
being more distinctly marked than the dream climax.
The question of cyclic physiological changes is considerably
complicated by our uncertainty regarding the precise length of
the cycle we may expect to find. Nelson finds a 28-day cycle
satisfactory. Perry-Coste, as we shall see, accepts a strictly
lunar cycle of 29½ days. Fliess has argued that in both women and
men, many physiological facts fall into a cycle of 23 days, which
he calls male, the 28-day cycle being female. (W. Fliess, _Die
Beziehungen zwischen Nase und weiblichen Geschlechts-Organen_,
1897, pp. 113 et seq.) Although Fliess brings forward a number of
minutely-observed cases, I cannot say that I am yet convinced of
the reality of this 23-day cycle. It is somewhat curious,
however, that at the same time as Fliess, though in apparent
independence, and from a different point of view, another worker
also suggested that there is a 23-day physiological cycle (John
Beard, _The Span of Gestation and the Cause of Birth_, Jena,
1897). Beard approaches the question from the embryological
standpoint, and argues that there is what he terms an "ovulation
unit" of about 23½ days, in the interval from the end of one
menstruation to the beginning of the next. Two "ovulation units"
make up one "critical unit," and the length of pregnancy,
according to Beard, is always a multiple of the "critical unit;"
in man, the gestation period amounts to six critical units. These
attempts to prove a new physiological cycle deserve careful study
and further investigation. The possibility of such a cycle should
be borne in mind, but at present we are scarcely entitled to
accept it.
So far as I am aware, Professor Nelson's very interesting series of
observations, which, for the first time, placed the question of a
menstrual rhythm in men on a sound and workable basis, have not directly
led to any further observations. I am, however, in possession of a much
more extended series of ecbolic observations completed before Nelson's
paper was published, although the results have only been calculated at a
comparatively-recent date. I now propose to present a summary of these
observations, and consider how far they confirm Nelson's conclusions.
These observations cover no less a period than twelve years, between the
ages of 17 and 29, the subject, W.K., being a student, and afterward
schoolmaster, leading, on the whole, a chaste life. The records were
faithfully made throughout the whole of this long period. Here, if
anywhere, should be material for the construction of a menstrual rhythm
on an ecbolic basis. While the results are in many respects instructive,
it can scarcely, perhaps, be said that they absolutely demonstrate a
monthly cycle. When summated in a somewhat similar manner to that adopted
by Nelson in his ecbolic observations, it is not difficult to regard the
maximum, which is reached on the 19th to 21st days of the summated
physiological month, as a real menstrual ecbolic climax, for no other
three consecutive days at all approach these in number of ecboles, while
there is a marked depression occurring four days earlier, on the 16th day
of the month. If, however, we split up the curve by dividing the period of
twelve years into two nearly equal periods, the earlier of about seven
years and the latter of about four years, and summate these separately,
the two curves do not present any parallel as regards the menstrual cycle.
It scarcely seems to me, therefore, that these curves present any
convincing evidence in this case of a monthly ecbolic cycle (and,
therefore, I refrain from reproducing them), although they seem to suggest
such a cycle. Nor is there any reason to suppose that by adopting a
different cycle of thirty days, or of twenty-three days, any more
conclusive results would be obtained.
It seems, however, when we look at these curves more closely, that they
are not wholly without significance. If I am justified in concluding that
they scarcely demonstrate a monthly cycle, it may certainly be added that
they show a rudimentary tendency for the ecboles to fall into a
fortnightly rhythm, and a very marked and unmistakable tendency to a
weekly rhythm. The fortnightly rhythm is shown in the curve for the
earlier period, but is somewhat disguised in the curve for the total
period, because the first climax is spread over two days, the 7th and 8th
of the month. If we readjust the curve for the total period by presenting
the days in pairs, the fortnightly tendency is more clearly brought out
(Chart I).
A more pronounced tendency still is traceable to a weekly rhythm. This is,
indeed, the most unquestionable fact brought out by these curves. All the
maxima occur on Saturday or Sunday, with the minima on Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, or Friday. This very pronounced weekly rhythm will serve to
swamp more or less completely any monthly rhythm on a 28-day basis.
Although here probably seen in an exaggerated form, it is almost certainly
a characteristic of the ecbolic curve generally.[123] I have been told by
several young men and women, especially those who work hard during the
week, that Saturday, and especially Sunday afternoon, are periods when the
thoughts spontaneously go in an erotic direction, and at this time there
is a special tendency to masturbation or to spontaneous sexual excitement.
It is on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, according to Guerry's
tables,[124] that the fewest suicides are committed, Tuesday, Wednesday,
and Thursday, with, however, a partial fall on Wednesday, those on which
most suicides are committed, so that there would appear to be an
antagonism between sexual activity and the desire to throw off life. It
also appears (in the reports of the Bavarian factory inspectors) that
accidents in factories have a tendency to occur chiefly at the beginning
of the week, and toward the end rather than in the middle.[125] Even
growth, as Fleischmann has shown in the case of children, tends to fall
into weekly cycles. It is evident that the nervous system is profoundly
affected by the social influences resulting from the weekly cycle.
The analysis of this series of ecbolic curves may thus be said to recall
the suggestion of Laycock, that the menstrual cycle is really made up of
four weekly cycles, the periodic unit, according to Laycock, being three
and one-half days. I think it would, however, be more correct to say that
the menstrual cycle, perhaps originally formed with reference to the
influence of the moon on the sexual and social habits of men and other
animals, tends to break up by a process of segmentation into fortnightly
and weekly cycles. If we are justified in assuming that there is a male
menstrual cycle, we must conclude that in such a case as that just
analyzed, the weekly rhythm has become so marked as almost entirely to
obliterate the larger monthly rhythm.
However constituted, there seems little doubt that a physiological weekly
cycle really exists. This was, indeed, very clearly indicated many years
ago by the observations of Edward Smith, who showed that there are weekly
rhythms in pulse, respiration, temperature, carbonic acid evolution, urea,
and body-weight, Sunday being the great day of repair and increase of
weight.[126]
In an appendix to this volume I am able to present the results of another
long series of observations of nocturnal ecbolic manifestations carried
out by Mr. Perry-Coste, who has elaborately calculated the results, and
has convinced himself that on the basis of a strictly lunar month, thus
abolishing the disturbing influence of the weekly rhythm, which in his
case also appears, a real menstrual rhythm may be traced.[127]
It does not appear to me, however, even yet, that a final answer to the
question whether a menstrual sexual rhythm occurs in men can be decisively
given in the affirmative. That such a cycle will be proved in many cases
seems to me highly probable, but before this can be decisively affirmed it
is necessary that a much larger number of persons should be induced to
carry out on themselves the simple, but protracted, series of observations
that are required.
Since the first edition of this volume appeared, numerous series
of ecbolic records have reached me from different parts of the
world. The most notable of these series comes from a professional
man, of scientific training, who has for the past six years lived
in different parts of India, where the record was kept. Though
the record extends over nearly six years, there are two breaks in
it, due to a visit to England, and to loss of interest. Both
involuntary and voluntary discharges are included in the record.
The involuntary discharges occurred during sleep, usually with an
erotic dream, in which the subject invariably awaked and
frequently made an effort to check the emission. The voluntary
discharges in most cases commenced during sleep, or in the
half-waking state; deliberate masturbation, when fully awake, was
comparatively rare. The proportion of involuntary to more or less
voluntary ecboles was about 3 to 1. A third kind of sexual
manifestation (of frequency intermediate between the other two
forms) is also included, in which a high degree of erethism is
induced during the half waking state, culminating in an orgasm in
which the power of preventing discharge has been artificially
acquired. The subject, E.M., was 32 years of age when the record
began. He belongs to a healthy family, and is himself physically
sound, 5 feet 6 inches in height, but weight low, due to rickets
in infancy. In early life he stammered badly; his temperament is
emotional and self-conscious, while his work is unusually
exacting, and he lives for most of the year in a very trying
climate. As a boy he was very religious, and has always felt
obliged to resist sexual vice to the utmost, though there have
been occasional lapses.
As regards lunar periodicity, E.M., has summated his results in a
curve, after the same manner as Mr. Perry-Coste, beginning with
the new moon. The periods covered include 54 lunar months, and
the total number of discharges is 176; the average frequency is
about 3 per month of twenty-eight days. The curve, for the most
part, zigzags between a frequency of 4 and 9, but on the
twenty-fourth day it falls to 1, and then rises uninterruptedly
to a height of 11 on the twenty-seventh day, falling to 2 on the
next day. Whether a really menstrual rhythm is thus indicated I
do not undertake to decide, but I am inclined to agree with E.M.
himself that there is no definite evidence of it. "It looks to
me," he writes, "as if the only real rhythm (putting aside the
annual cycle) will be found to be the average period between the
ecboles, varying in different persons, but in my case, about nine
and one-eighth days. May not the ecbolic period in men be
compared to the menstrual period in women, and be an example of
the greater katabolic activity of men? There is the period of
tumescence, and the ecbole constituting the detumescence. The
week-end holiday would hasten the detumescence, but about every
third week-end there would tend to be delay to enable the system
to get back into its regulation nine or ten days' stride. This
might possibly be the explanation of the curves. The recent
emissions were nearly all involuntary during sleep. Age may have
something to do with the change in character."
E.M.'s curves frequently show the influence of weekly
periodicity, in the tendency to ecbole on Sunday, or sometimes on
Saturday or Monday. In recent years there has been some tendency
for this climax to be thrown towards the middle of the week, but,
on the whole, Wednesday is the point of lowest frequency.
In another case, the subject, A.N., who has spent nearly all his
life in the State of Indiana, has kept a record of sexual
manifestations between the ages of 30 and 34. The data, which
cover four years, have not been sent to me in a form which
enables the possibility of a monthly curve to be estimated, but
A.N., who has himself arranged the data on a lunar monthly basis,
considers that a monthly curve is thus revealed. "My memoranda,"
he writes, "show that discharges occur most frequently on the
first, second, and third days after new moon. There is also
another period on the fourteenth and fifteenth, which might
indicate a semi-lunar rhythm. The days of minimum discharge are
the seventh, eighth, twenty-second, and twenty-third." It may be
added that the yearly average of ecbolic manifestations, varying
between 50 and 55, comes out as 52, or exactly one per week.
A weekly periodicity is very definitely shown by A.N.'s data.
Sunday once more stands at the head of the week as regards
frequency, in this case very decisively. The figures are as follows:--
Sun. Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. Sat.
48 21 24 35 28 26 27
In another case which has reached me from the United States, the
data are slighter, but deserve note, as the subject is a trained
psychologist, and I quote the case in his own words. Here, it
will be seen, there appears to be a tendency for the ecbolic
cycle to cover a period of about six weeks. In this case, also,
there is a tendency for the climax to occur about Saturday or
Sunday. "X. is 38 years old, unmarried, fair health, pretty good
heredity; university trained, and engaged in academic pursuits.
He thinks he may have completed puberty at about 13, though he
has no proof that he was in the full possession of his sex-powers
until he was 15 years 3 months old (when he had his first
emission). His sex life has been normal. He masturbated somewhat
when he slept with other boys (or men) during early manhood, but
not to excess.
"During the autumn of 1889 (when 28 years of age) he observed
that at certain times he had an itching feeling about the
testicles; that he felt slightly irritable; that the penis
erected with the slightest provocation, and that this peculiar
feeling usually passed away with a nightly emission. Indeed, so
regular was the matter that he usually wore a loin garment at
these times, to prevent the semen getting on the bedding. This
peculiar feeling ordinarily continued for two or three days. He
recalls at these times that he felt that he would like to wrestle
with some one, for there seemed to be a muscular tension. These
states returned with apparent regularity, and the intervals
seemed to be about six weeks, though no effort was made to
measure the periods until 1893. The following notes are taken
from the diaries of X.:--
"Thursday, December 29, 1892. The peculiar feeling.
(This is the only entry.)
"Thursday, February 9, 1893. The peculiar feeling.
(The diary notes that X. awoke nights to find erections, and
that the feeling continued until Sunday night following, when
there was an emission.)
"Friday, March 27, 1893. The peculiar feeling.
(The diary notes that there was an emission the next night,
and that the feeling disappeared.)
"Wednesday, May 3, 1893. The peculiar feeling.
(The diary notes that it continued until Saturday night, when
X. had sexual relations, and that it then disappeared.)
"Wednesday, June 14, 1893. The peculiar feeling.
(The diary states that the next night X. had an emission,
and the disappearance of the feeling.)
"Thursday, July 27, 1893. The peculiar feeling.
(The diary notes that it was apparent at about 3 o'clock
that afternoon. That night at 10 o'clock, X. had sexual
intercourse, and the feeling was not noted the next day.)
"Friday, September 8, 1893. The peculiar feeling.
(Continued until Tuesday, the 11th, and then disappeared.
No sexual intercourse, and no nightly emission.)
"Wednesday, October 25, 1893. The peculiar feeling.
(Continued until Saturday night, when there was a nightly
emission.)
"Saturday, December 9, 1893. The peculiar feeling.
(Continued until Monday night, when there was sexual
relations.)
"It will be noted that the intervals observed were of about six
weeks' duration, excepting one, that from September to October,
when it was nearly seven weeks.
"These observations were not recorded after 1893. X. thinks that
in 1894 the intervals were longer, an opinion which is based on
the fact that for a period of six months he had no sexual
intercourse and no nightly emissions. The times during this six
months when he had the 'peculiar feeling,' the sensation was so
slight as to be scarcely noted. In 1895, the feeling seemed more
pronounced than ever before, and X. thinks that it may have
recurred as often as once a month. In 1896, 1897, and 1898, the
intervals, he thinks, lengthened--at times, he thought, wholly
disappeared. During 1899, while they did not recur often, when
they did come the sensation was pronounced, although the
emission was less common. There was a peculiar 'heavy' feeling
about the testicles, and a marked tendency towards erection of
the penis, especially at night-time (while sleeping). X. often
awoke to find a tense erection. Moreover, these feelings usually
continued a week.
"1. In general, X. is of the opinion that as he grows older these
intervals lengthen, though this inference is not based on
_recorded_ data.
"2. He notes that a discharge (through sexual intercourse or in
sleep) invariably brings the peculiar feeling to a close for the
time being.
"3. He notes that sexual intercourse _at the time_ stops it; but,
when there has been sexual intercourse within a week or ten days
of the time (based upon the observations of 1893), that it had no
tendency to check the feeling."
In another case, that of F.C., an Irish farmer, born in
Waterford, the data are still more meagre, though the periodicity
is stated to be very pronounced. He is chaste, steady, with
occasional lapses from strict sobriety, healthy and mentally
normal, living a regular open-air life, far from the artificial
stimuli of towns. The observations refer to a period when he was
from 20 to 27 years of age. During this period, nocturnal
emissions occurred at regular intervals of exactly a month. They
were ushered in by fits of irritability and depression, and
usually occurred in dreamless sleep. The discharges were abundant
and physically weakening, but they relieved the psychic symptoms,
though they occasioned mental distress, since F.C. is scrupulous
in a religious sense, and also apprehensive of bad constitutional
effects, the result of reading alarmist quack pamphlets.
In another case known to me, a young man leading a chaste life,
experienced crises of sexual excitement every ten to fourteen
days, the crisis lasting for several days.
Finally, an interesting contribution to this subject, suggested
by this _Study_, has been made and published (in the proceedings
of the Amsterdam International Congress of Psychology, in 1907)
by the well-known Amsterdam neurologist and psychologist, Dr.
L.S.A.M. Von Römer under the title, "Ueber das Verhältniss
zwischen Mondalter und Sexualität." Von Römer's data are made up
not of nocturnal involuntary emissions, but of the voluntary acts
of sexual intercourse of an unmarried man, during a period of
four years. Von Römer believes that these, to a much greater
extent than those of a married man, would be liable to periodic
influence, if such exist. On making a curve of exact lunar length
(similarly to Perry-Coste), he finds that there are, every month,
two maxima and two minima, in a way that approximately resemble
Perry-Coste's curve. The main point in Von Römer's results is,
however, the correspondence that he finds with the actual lunar
phases; the chief maximum occurs at the time of the full moon,
and the secondary maximum at the time of the new moon, the minima
being at the first and fourth quarters. He hazards no theory in
explanation of this coincidence, but insists on the need for
further observations. It will be seen that A.N.'s results (_ante_
p. 117) seem in the main to correspond to Von Römer's.
FOOTNOTES:
[117] Even counting the pulse is a comparatively recent method of
physiological examination. It was not until 1450 that Nicolas of Cusa
advocated counting the pulse-beats. (Binz, _Deutsche medizinische
Wochenschrift_, October 6, 1898.)
[118] I leave this statement as it stands, though since the first
publication of this book it has ceased to be strictly accurate.
[119] Sanctorius, _Medicina Statica_, Sect. I, aph. lxv.
[120] _American Journal of Obstetrics_, xiv, 1882.
[121] _Zoönomia_, Section XXXVI.
[122] I reproduced these notes in full in earlier editions of this volume.
[123] Moll refers to the case of a man whose erotic dreams occurred every
fortnight, and always on Friday night (_Libido Sexualis_, Band I, p. 136).
One is inclined to suspect an element of autosuggestion in such a case;
still, the coincidence is noteworthy.
[124] See Durkheim, _Le Suicide_, p. 101.
[125] We must, of course, see here the results of the disorganization
produced by holidays, and the exhaustion produced by the week's labor; but
such influences are still the social effects of the cosmic week.
[126] E. Smith, _Health and Disease_, Chapter III. I may remark that,
according to Kemsoes (_Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift_, January 20,
1908, and _British Medical Journal_, January 29, 1898), school-children
work best on Monday and Tuesday.
[127] See Appendix B.
III.
The Annual Sexual Rhythm--In Animals--In Man--Tendency of the Sexual
Impulse to become Heightened in Spring and Autumn--The Prevalence of
Seasonal Erotic Festivals--The Feast of Fools--The Easter and Midsummer
Bonfires--The Seasonal Variations in Birthrate--The Causes of those
Variations--The Typical Conception-rate Curve for Europe--The Seasonal
Periodicity of Seminal Emissions During Sleep--Original
Observations--Spring and Autumn the Chief Periods of Involuntary Sexual
Excitement--The Seasonal Periodicity of Rapes--Of Outbreaks among
Prisoners--The Seasonal Curves of Insanity and Suicide--The Growth of
Children According to Season--The Annual Curve of Bread-consumption in
Prisons--Seasonal Periodicity of Scarlet Fever--The Underlying Causes of
these Seasonal Phenomena.
That there are annual seasonal changes in the human organism, especially
connected with the sexual function, is a statement that has been made by
physiologists and others from time to time, and the statement has even
reached the poets, who have frequently declared that spring is the season
of love.
Thus, sixty years ago, Laycock, an acute pioneer in the
investigation of the working of the human organism, brought
together (in a chapter on "The Periodic Movements in the
Reproductive Organs of Woman," in his _Nervous Diseases of
Women_, 1840, pp. 61-70) much interesting evidence to show that
the system undergoes changes about the vernal and autumnal
equinoxes, and that these changes are largely sexual.
Edward Smith, also a notable pioneer in this field of human
periodicity, and, indeed, the first to make definite observations
on a number of points bearing on it, sums up, in his remarkable
book, _Health and Disease as Influenced by Daily, Seasonal, and
Other Cyclical Changes in the Human System_ (1861), to the effect
that season is a more powerful influence on the system than
temperature or atmospheric pressure; "in the early and middle
parts of spring every function of the body is in its highest
degree of efficiency," while autumn is "essentially a period of
change from the minimum toward the maximum of vital conditions."
He found that in April and May most carbonic acid is evolved,
there being then a progressive diminution to September, and then
a progressive increase; the respiratory rate also fell from a
maximum in April to a minimum maintained at exactly the same
level throughout August, September, October, and November;
spring was found to be the season of maximum, autumn of minimum,
muscular power; sensibility to tactile and temperature
impressions was also greater in spring.
Kulischer, studying the sexual customs of various human races,
concluded that in primitive times, only at two special
seasons--at spring and in harvest-time--did pairing take place;
and that, when pairing ceased to be strictly confined to these
periods, its symbolical representation was still so confined,
even among the civilized nations of Europe. He further argued
that the physiological impulse was only felt at these periods.
(Kulischer, "Die geschlechtliche Zuchtwahl bei den Menschen in
der Urzeit," _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1876, pp. 152 and
157.) Cohnstein ("Ueber Prädilectionszeiten bei Schwangerschaft,"
_Archiv für Gynäkologie_, 1879) also suggested that women
sometimes only conceive at certain periods of the year.
Wiltshire, who made various interesting observations regarding
the physiology of menstruation, wrote: "Many years ago, I
concluded that every women had a law peculiar to herself, which
governed the times of her bringing forth (and conceiving); that
she was more prone to bring forth at certain epochs than at
others; and subsequent researches have established the accuracy
of the forecast." He further stated his belief in a "primordial
seasonal aptitude for procreation, the impress of which still
remains, and, to some extent, governs the breeding-times of
humanity." (A. Wiltshire, "Lectures on the Comparative Physiology
of Menstruation," _British Medical Journal_, March, 1883, pp.
502, etc.)
Westermarck, in a chapter of his _History of Human Marriage_,
dealing with the question of "A Human Pairing Season in Primitive
Times," brings forward evidence showing that spring, or, rather,
early summer, is the time for increase of the sexual instinct,
and argues that this is a survival of an ancient pairing season;
spring, he points out, is a season of want, rather than
abundance, for a frugivorous species, but when men took to herbs,
roots, and animal food, spring became a time of abundance, and
suitable for the birth of children. He thus considers that in
man, as in lower animals, the times of conception are governed by
the times most suitable for birth.
Rosenstadt, as we shall see later, also believes that men to-day
have inherited a physiological custom of procreating at a certain
epoch, and he thus accounts for the seasonal changes in the
birthrate.
Heape, who also believes that "at one period of its existence the
human species had a special breeding season," follows Wiltshire
in suggesting that "there is some reason to believe that the
human female is not always in a condition to breed." (W. Heape,
"Menstruation and Ovulation of _Macacus rhesus_," _Philosophical
Transactions_, 1897; id. "The Sexual Season of Mammals,"
_Quarterly Journal Microscopical Science_, 1900.)
Except, however, in one important respect, with which we shall presently
have to deal, few attempts have been made to demonstrate any annual
organic sexual rhythm. The supposition of such annual cycle is usually
little more than a deduction from the existence of the well-marked
seasonal sexual rhythm in animals. Most of the higher animals breed only
once or twice a year, and at such a period that the young are born when
food is most plentiful. At other periods the female is incapable of
breeding, and without sexual desires, while the male is either in the same
condition or in a condition of latent sexuality. Under the influence of
domestication, animals tend to lose the strict periodicity of the wild
condition, and become apt for breeding at more frequent intervals. Thus
among dogs in the wild state the bitch only experiences heat once a year,
in the spring. Among domesticated dogs, there is not only the spring
period of heat, early in the year, but also an autumn period, about six
months later; the primitive period, however, remains the most important
one, and the best litters of pups are said to be produced in the spring.
The mare is in season in spring and summer; sheep take the ram in
autumn.[128] Many of the menstruating monkeys also, whether or not sexual
desire is present throughout the year, only conceive in spring and in
autumn. Almost any time of the year may be an animal's pairing season,
this season being apparently in part determined by the economic conditions
which will prevail at birth. While it is essential that animals should be
born during the season of greatest abundance, it is equally essential that
pairing, which involves great expenditure of energy, should also take
place at a season of maximum physical vigor.
As an example of the sexual history of an animal through the
year, I may quote the following description, by Dr. A.W.
Johnstone, of the habits of the American deer: "Our common
American deer, in winter-time, is half-starved for lack of
vegetation in the woods; the low temperature, snow, and ice, make
his conditions of life harder for lack of the proper amount of
food, whereby he becomes an easier prey to carnivorous animals.
He has difficulty even in preserving life. In spring he sheds his
winter coat, and is provided with a suit of lighter hair, and
while this is going on the male grows antlers for defence. The
female about this time is far along in pregnancy, and when the
antlers are fully grown she drops the fawn. When the fawns are
dropped vegetation is plentiful and lactation sets in. During
this time the male is kept fully employed in getting food and
guarding his more or less helpless family. As the season advances
the vegetation increases and the fawn begins to eat grass. When
the summer heat commences the little streams begin to dry up, and
the animal once more has difficulty in supporting life because of
the enervating heat, the effect of drought on the vegetation, and
the distance which has to be traveled to get water; therefore,
fully ten months in each year the deer has all he can do to live
without extra exertion incident to rutting. Soon after the autumn
rains commence vegetation becomes more luxurious, the antlers of
the male and new suits of hair for both are fully grown, heat of
the summer is gone, food and drink are plentiful everywhere, the
fawns are weaned, and both sexes are in the very finest
condition. Then, and then only, in the whole year, comes the rut,
which, to them as to most other animals, means an unwonted amount
of physical exercise besides the everyday runs for life from
their natural enemies, and an unusual amount of energy is used
up. If a doe dislikes the attention of a special buck, miles of
racing result. If jealous males meet, furious battles take place.
The strain on both sexes could not possibly be endured at any
other season of the year. With approach of cold weather, climatic
deprivations and winter dangers commence and rut closes. In all
wild animals, rut occurs only when the climatic and other
conditions favor the highest physical development. This law holds
good in all wild birds, for it is then only that they can stand
the strain incident to love-making. The common American crow is a
very good study. In the winter he travels around the ricefields
of the South, leading a tramp's existence in a country foreign to
him, and to which he goes only to escape the rigors of the
northern climate. For several weeks in the spring he goes about
the fields, gathering up the worms and grubs. After his long
flight from the South he experiences several weeks of an almost
ideal existence, his food is plentiful, he becomes strong and
hearty, and then he turns to thoughts of love. In the pairing
season he does more work than at any other time in the year:
fantastic dances, racing and chasing after the females, and
savage fights with rivals. He endures more than would be possible
in his ordinary physical state. Then come the care of the young
and the long flights for water and food during the drought of the
summer. After the molt, autumn finds him once more in flock, and
with the first frosts he is off again to the South. In the wild
state, rut is the capstone of perfect physical condition." (A.W.
Johnstone, "The Relation of Menstruation to the other
Reproductive Functions," _American Journal of Obstetrics_, vol.
xxxii, 1895.)
Wiltshire ("Lectures on the Comparative Physiology of
Menstruation," _British Medical Journal_, March, 1888) and
Westermarck (_History of Human Marriage_, Chapter II) enumerate
the pairing season of a number of different animals.
With regard to the breeding seasons of monkeys, little seems to
be positively known. Heape made special inquiries with reference
to the two species whose sexual life he investigated. He was
informed that _Semnopithecus entellus_ breeds twice a year, in
April and in October. He accepts Aitcheson's statement that the
_Macacus rhesus_, in Simla, copulates in October, and adds that
in the very different climate of the plains it appears to
copulate in May. He concludes that the breeding season varies
greatly in dependence on climate, but believes that the breeding
season is always preserved, and that it affects the sexual
aptitude of the male. He could not make his monkeys copulate
during February or March, but is unable to say whether or not
sexual intercourse is generally admitted outside the breeding
season. He quotes the observation of Breschet that monkeys
copulate during pregnancy.
In primitive human races we very frequently trace precisely the same
influence of the seasonal impulse as may be witnessed in the higher
animals, although among human races it does not always result that the
children are born at the time of the greatest plenty, and on account of
the development of human skill such a result is not necessary. Thus Dr.
Cook found among the Eskimo that during the long winter nights the
secretions are diminished, muscular power is weak, and the passions are
depressed. Soon after the sun appears a kind of rut affects the young
population. They tremble with the intensity of sexual passion, and for
several weeks much of the time is taken up with courtship and love. Hence,
the majority of the children are born nine months later, when the four
months of perpetual night are beginning. A marked seasonal periodicity of
this kind is not confined to the Arctic regions. We may also find it in
the tropics. In Cambodia, Mondière has found that twice a year, in April
and September, men seem to experience a "veritable rut," and will
sometimes even kill women who resist them.[129]
These two periods, spring and autumn--the season for greeting the
appearance of life and the season for reveling in its final
fruition--seem to be everywhere throughout the world the most usual
seasons for erotic festivals. In classical Greece and Rome, in India,
among the Indians of North and South America, spring is the most usual
season, while in Africa the yam harvest of autumn is the season chiefly
selected. There are, of course, numerous exceptions to this rule, and it
is common to find both seasons observed. Taking, indeed, a broad view of
festivals throughout the world, we may say that there are four seasons
when they are held: the winter solstice, when the days begin to lengthen
and primitive man rejoices in the lengthening and seeks to assist it;[130]
the vernal equinox, the period of germination and the return of life; the
summer solstice, when the sun reaches its height; and autumn, the period
of fruition, of thankfulness, and of repose. But it is rarely that we find
a people seriously celebrating more than two of these festival seasons.
In Australia, according to Müller as quoted by Ploss and Bartels, marriage
and conception take place during the warm season, when there is greatest
abundance of food, and to some extent is even confined to that period.
Oldfield and others state that the Australian erotic festivals take place
only in spring. Among some tribes, Müller adds, such as the Watschandis,
conception is inaugurated by a festival called _kaaro_, which takes place
in the warm season at the first new moon after the yams are ripe. The
leading feature of this festival is a moonlight dance, representing the
sexual act symbolically. With their spears, regarded as the symbols of the
male organ, the men attack bushes, which represent the female organs.
They thus work themselves up to a state of extreme sexual excitement.[131]
Among the Papuans of New Guinea, also, according to Miklucho-Macleay,
conceptions chiefly occur at the end of harvest, and Guise describes the
great annual festival of the year which takes place at the time of the yam
and banana harvest, when the girls undergo a ceremony of initiation and
marriages are effected.[132] In Central Africa, says Sir H.H. Johnston, in
his _Central Africa_, sexual orgies are seriously entered into at certain
seasons of the year, but he neglects to mention what these seasons are.
The people of New Britain, according to Weisser (as quoted by Ploss and
Bartels), carefully guard their young girls from the young men. At certain
times, however, a loud trumpet is blown in the evening, and the girls are
then allowed to go away into the bush to mix freely with the young men. In
ancient Peru (according to an account derived from a pastoral letter of
Archbishop Villagomez of Lima), in December, when the fruit of the
_paltay_ is ripe, a festival was held, preceded by a five days' fast.
During the festival, which lasted six days and six nights, men and women
met together in a state of complete nudity at a certain spot among the
gardens, and all raced toward a certain hill. Every man who caught up with
a woman in the race was bound at once to have intercourse with her.
Very instructive, from our present point of view, is the account given by
Dalton, of the festivals of the various Bengal races. Thus the Hos (a
Kolarian tribe), of Bengal, are a purely agricultural people, and the
chief festival of the year with them is the _mágh parah_. It is held in
the month of January, "when the granaries are full of grain, and the
people, to use their own expression, full of devilry." It is the festival
of the harvest-home, the termination of the year's toil, and is always
held at full moon. The festival is a _saturnalia_, when all rules of duty
and decorum are forgotten, and the utmost liberty is allowed to women and
girls, who become like bacchantes. The people believe that at this time
both men and women become overcharged with vitality, and that a safety
valve is absolutely necessary. The festival begins with a religious
sacrifice made by the village priest or elders, and with prayers for the
departed and for the vouchsafing of seasonable rain and good crops. The
religious ceremonies over, the people give themselves up to feasting and
to drinking the home-made beer, the preparation of which from fermented
rice is one of a girl's chief accomplishments. "The Ho population," wrote
Dalton, "are at other seasons quiet and reserved in manner, and in their
demeanor toward women gentle and decorous; even in their flirtations they
never transcend the bounds of decency. The girls, though full of spirits
and somewhat saucy, have innate notions of propriety that make them modest
in demeanor, though devoid of all prudery, and of the obscene abuse, so
frequently heard from the lips of common women in Bengal, they appear to
have no knowledge. They are delicately sensitive under harsh language of
any kind, and never use it to others; and since their adoption of clothing
they are careful to drape themselves decently, as well as gracefully; but
they throw all this aside during the _mágh_ feast. Their nature appears to
undergo a temporary change. Sons and daughters revile their parents in
gross language, and parents their children; men and women become almost
like animals in the indulgence of their amorous propensities. They enact
all that was ever portrayed by prurient artists in a bacchanalian festival
or pandean orgy; and as the light of the sun they adore, and the presence
of numerous spectators, seems to be no restraint on their indulgence, it
cannot be expected that chastity is preserved when the shades of night
fall on such a scene of licentiousness and debauchery." While, however,
thus representing the festival as a mere debauch, Dalton adds that
relationships formed at this time generally end in marriage. There is also
a flower festival in April and May, of religious nature, but the dances
at this festival are quieter in character.[133]
In Burmah the great festival of the year is the full moon of October,
following the Buddhist Lent season (which is also the wet season), during
which there is no sexual intercourse. The other great festival is the New
Year in March.[134]
In classical times the great festivals were held at the same time as in
northern and modern Europe. The _brumalia_ took place in midwinter, when
the days were shortest, and the _rosalia_, according to early custom in
May or June, and at a later time about Easter. After the establishment of
Christianity the Church made constant efforts to suppress this latter
festival, and it was referred to by an eighth century council as "a wicked
and reprehensible holiday-making." These festivals appear to be intimately
associated with Dionysus worship, and the flower-festival of Dionysus, as
well as the Roman Liberales in honor of Bacchus, was celebrated in March
with worship of Priapus. The festivals of the Delian Apollo and of
Artemis, both took place during the first week in May and the Roman
Bacchanales in October.[135]
The mediæval Feast of Fools was to a large extent a seasonal orgy licensed
by the Church. It may be traced directly back through the barbatories of
the lower empire to the Roman _saturnalia_, and at Sens, the ancient
ecclesiastical metropolis of France, it was held at about the same time as
the _saturnalia_, on the Feast of the Circumcision, i.e., New Year's Day.
It was not, however, always held at this time; thus at Evreux it took
place on the 1st of May.[136]
The Easter bonfires of northern-central Europe, the Midsummer (St. John's
Eve) fires of southern-central Europe, still bear witness to the ancient
festivals.[137] There is certainly a connection between these bonfires and
erotic festivals; it is noteworthy that they occur chiefly at the period
of spring and early summer, which, on other grounds, is widely regarded as
the time for the increase of the sexual instinct, while the less frequent
period for the bonfires is that of the minor sexual climax. Mannhardt was
perhaps the first to show how intimately these spring and early summer
festivals--held with bonfires and dances and the music of violin--have
been associated with love-making and the choice of a mate.[138] In spring,
the first Monday in Lent (Quadrigesima) and Easter Eve were frequent days
for such bonfires. In May, among the Franks of the Main, the unmarried
women, naked and adorned with flowers, danced on the Blocksberg before the
men, as described by Herbels in the tenth century.[139] In the central
highlands of Scotland the Beltane fires were kindled on the 1st of May.
Bonfires sometimes took place on Halloween (October 31st) and Christmas.
But the great season all over Europe for these bonfires, then often held
with erotic ceremonial, is the summer solstice, the 23d of June, the eve
of Midsummer, or St. John's Day.[140]
The Bohemians and other Slavonic races formerly had meetings with sexual
license. This was so up to the beginning of the sixteenth century on the
banks of rivers near Novgorod. The meetings took place, as a rule, the day
before the Festival of John the Baptist, which, in pagan times, was that
of a divinity known by the name of Jarilo (equivalent to Priapus). Half a
century later, a new ecclesiastical code sought to abolish every vestige
of the early festivals held on Christmas Day, on the Day of the Baptism,
of Our Lord, and on John the Baptist's Day. A general feature of all these
festivals (says Kowalewsky) was the prevalence of the promiscuous
intercourse of the sexes. Among the Ehstonians, at the end of the
eighteenth century, thousands of persons would gather around an old ruined
church (in the Fellinschen) on the Eve of St. John, light a bonfire, and
throw sacrificial gifts into it. Sterile women danced naked among the
ruins; much eating and drinking went on, while the young men and maidens
disappeared into the woods to do what they would. Festivals of this
character still take place at the end of June in some districts. Young
unmarried couples jump barefoot over large fires, usually near rivers or
ponds. Licentiousness is rare.[141] But in many parts of Russia the
peasants still attach little value to virginity, and even prefer women who
have been mothers. The population of the Grisons in the sixteenth century
held regular meetings not less licentious than those of the Cossacks.
These were abolished by law. Kowalewsky regards all such customs as a
survival of early forms of promiscuity.[142]
Frazer (_Golden Bough_, 2d ed., 1900, vol. iii, pp. 236-350)
fully describes and discusses the dances, bonfires and festivals
of spring and summer, of Halloween (October 31), and Christmas.
He also explains the sexual character of these festivals. "There
are clear indications," he observes (p. 305), "that even human
fecundity is supposed to be promoted by the genial heat of the
fires. It is an Irish belief that a girl who jumps thrice over
the midsummer bonfire will soon marry and become the mother of
many children; and in various parts of France they think that if
a girl dances round nine fires she will be sure to marry within a
year. On the other hand, in Lechrain, people say that if a young
man and woman, leaping over the midsummer fire together, escape
unsmirched, the young woman will not become a mother within
twelve months--the flames have not touched and fertilized her.
The rule observed in some parts of France and Belgium, that the
bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent should be kindled by the
person who was last married, seems to belong to the same class of
ideas, whether it be that such a person is supposed to receive
from, or impart to, the fire a generative and fertilizing
influence. The common practice of lovers leaping over the fires
hand-in-hand may very well have originated in a notion that
thereby their marriage would be more likely to be blessed with
offspring. And the scenes of profligacy which appear to have
marked the midsummer celebration among the Ehstonians, as they
once marked the celebration of May Day among ourselves, may have
sprung, not from the mere license of holiday-makers, but from a
crude notion that such orgies were justified, if not required, by
some mysterious bond which linked the life of man, to the courses
of the heavens at the turning-point of the year."
As regards these primitive festivals, although the evidence is scattered
and sometimes obscure, certain main conclusions clearly emerge. In early
Europe there were, according to Grimm, only two seasons, sometimes
regarded as spring and winter, sometimes as spring and autumn, and for
mythical purposes these seasons were alone available.[143] The appearance
of each of these two seasons was inaugurated by festivals which were
religious and often erotic in character. The Slavonic year began in March,
at which time there was formerly, it is believed, a great festival, not
only in Slavonic but also in Teutonic countries. In Northern Germany there
were Easter bonfires always associated with mountains or hills. The Celtic
bonfires were held at the beginning of May, while the Teutonic May-day, or
_Walpurgisnacht_, is a very ancient sacred festival, associated with
erotic ceremonial, and regarded by Grimm as having a common origin with
the Roman _floralia_ and the Greek _dionysia_. Thus, in Europe, Grimm
concludes: "there are four different ways of welcoming summer. In Sweden
and Gothland a battle of winter and summer, a triumphal entry of the
latter. In Schonen, Denmark, Lower Saxony, and England, simply May-riding,
or fetching of the May-wagon. On the Rhine merely a battle of winter and
summer, without immersion, without the pomp of an entry. In Franconia,
Thuringia, Meissen, Silesia, and Bohemia only the carrying out of wintry
death; no battle, no formal introduction of summer. Of these festivals the
first and second fall in May, the third and fourth in March. In the first
two, the whole population take part with unabated enthusiasm; in the last
two only the lower poorer class.... Everything goes to prove that the
approach of summer was to our forefathers a holy tide, welcomed by
sacrifice, feast, and dance, and largely governing and brightening the
people's life."[144] The early spring festival of March, the festival of
Ostara, the goddess of spring, has become identified with the Christian
festival of Resurrection (just as the summer solstice festival has been
placed beneath the patronage of St. John the Baptist); but there has been
only an amalgamation of closely-allied rites, for the Christian festival
also may be traced back to a similar origin. Among the early Arabians the
great _ragab_ feast, identified by Ewald and Robertson Smith with the
Jewish _paschal_ feast, fell in the spring or early summer, when the
camels and other domestic animals brought forth their young and the
shepherds offered their sacrifices.[145] Babylonia, the supreme early
centre of religious and cosmological culture, presents a more decisive
example of the sex festival. The festival of Tammuz is precisely analogous
to the European festival of St. John's Day. Tammuz was the solar god of
spring vegetation, and closely associated with Ishtar, also an
agricultural deity of fertility. The Tammuz festival was, in the earliest
times, held toward the summer solstice, at the time of the first wheat and
barley harvest. In Babylonia, as in primitive Europe, there were only two
seasons; the festival of Tammuz, coming at the end of winter and the
beginning of summer, was a fast followed by a feast, a time of mourning
for winter, of rejoicing for summer. It is part of the primitive function
of sacred ritual to be symbolical of natural processes, a mysterious
representation of natural processes with the object of bringing them
about.[146] The Tammuz festival was an appeal to the powers of Nature to
exhibit their generative functions; its erotic character is indicated not
only by the well-known fact that the priestesses of Ishtar (the Kadishtu,
or "holy ones") were prostitutes, but by the statements in Babylonian
legends concerning the state of the earth during Ishtar's winter absence,
when the bull, the ass, and man ceased to reproduce. It is evident that
the return of spring, coincident with the Tammuz festival, was regarded as
the period for the return of the reproductive instinct even in man.[147]
So that along this line also we are led back to a great procreative
festival.
Thus the great spring festivals were held between March and June,
frequently culminating in a great orgy on Midsummer's Eve. The next great
season of festivals in Europe was in autumn. The beginning of August was a
great festival in Celtic lands, and the echoes of it, Rhys remarks, have
not yet died out in Wales.[148] The beginning of November, both in Celtic
and Teutonic countries, was a period of bonfires.[149] In Germanic
countries especially there was a great festival at the time. The Germanic
year began at Martinmas (November 11th), and the great festival of the
year was then held. It is the oldest Germanic festival on record, and
retained its importance even in the Middle Ages. There was feasting all
night, and the cattle that were to be killed were devoted to the gods; the
goose was associated with this festival.[150] These autumn festivals
culminated in the great festival of the winter solstice which we have
perpetuated in the celebrations of Christmas and New Year. Thus, while
the two great primitive culminating festivals of spring and autumn
correspond exactly (as we shall see) with the seasons of maximum
fecundation, even in the Europe of to-day, the earlier spring (March)
and--though less closely--autumn (November) festivals correspond with the
periods of maximum spontaneous sexual disturbance, as far as I have been
able to obtain precise evidence of such disturbance. That the maximum of
physiological sexual excitement should tend to appear earlier than the
maximum of fecundation is a result that might be expected.
The considerations so far brought forward clearly indicate that among
primitive races there are frequently one or two seasons in the
year--especially spring and autumn--during which sexual intercourse is
chiefly or even exclusively carried on, and they further indicate that
these primitive customs persist to some extent even in Europe to-day. It
would still remain, to determine whether any such influence affects the
whole mass of the civilized population and determines the times at which
intercourse, or fecundation, most frequently takes place.
This question can be most conveniently answered by studying the seasonal
variation in the birthrate, calculating back to the time of conception.
Wargentin, in Sweden, first called attention to the periodicity of the
birthrate in 1767.[151] The matter seems to have attracted little further
attention until Quetelet, who instinctively scented unreclaimed fields of
statistical investigation, showed that in Belgium and Holland there is a
maximum of births in February, and, consequently, of conceptions in May,
and a minimum of births about July, with consequent minimum of conceptions
in October. Quetelet considered that the spring maximum of conceptions
corresponded to an increase of vitality after the winter cold. He pointed
out that this sexual climax was better marked in the country than in
towns, and accounted for this by the consideration that in the country
the winter cold is more keenly felt. Later, Wappäus investigated the
matter in various parts of northern and southern Europe as well as in
Chile, and found that there was a maximum of conceptions in May and June
attributable to season, and in Catholic countries strengthened by customs
connected with ecclesiastical seasons. This maximum was, he found,
followed by a minimum in September, October, and November, due to
gradually increasing exhaustion, and the influence of epidemic diseases,
as well as the strain of harvest-work. The minimum is reached in the south
earlier than in the north. About November conceptions again become more
frequent, and reach the second maximum at about Christmas and New Year.
This second maximum is very slightly marked in southern countries, but
strongly marked in northern countries (in Sweden the absolute maximum of
conceptions is reached in December), and is due, in the opinion of
Wappäus, solely to social causes. Villermé reached somewhat similar
results. Founding his study on 17,000,000 births, he showed that in France
it was in April, May, and June, or from the spring equinox to the summer
solstice, and nearer to the solstice than the equinox, that the maximum of
fecundations takes place; while the minimum of births is normally in July,
but is retarded by a wet and cold summer in such a manner that in August
there are scarcely more births than in July, and, on the other hand, a
very hot summer, accelerating the minimum of births, causes it to fall in
June instead of in July.[152] He also showed that in Buenos Ayres, where
the seasons are reversed, the conception-rate follows the reversed
seasons, and is also raised by epochs of repose, of plentiful food, and of
increased social life. Sormani studied the periodicity of conception in
Italy, and found that the spring maximum in the southern provinces occurs
in May, and gradually falls later as one proceeds northward, until, in the
extreme north of the peninsula, it occurs in July. In southern Italy there
is only one maximum and one minimum; in the north there are two. The
minimum which follows the spring or summer maximum increases as we
approach the south, while the minimum associated with the winter cold
increases as we approach the north.[153] Beukemann, who studied the matter
in various parts of Germany, found that seasonal influence was specially
marked in the case of illegitimate births. The maximum of conceptions of
illegitimate children takes place in the spring and summer of Europe
generally; in Russia it takes place in the autumn and winter, when the
harvest-working months for the population are over, and the period of
rest, and also of minimum deathrate (September, October, and November),
comes round. In Russia the general conception-rate has been studied by
various investigators. Here the maximum number of conceptions is in
winter, the minimum varying among different elements of the population.
Looked at more closely, there are maxima of conceptions in Russia in
January and in April. (In Russian towns, however, the maximum number of
conceptions occurs in the autumn.) The special characteristics of the
Russian conception-rate are held to be due to the prevalence of marriages
in autumn and winter,[154] to the severely observed fasts of spring, and
to the exhausting harvest-work of summer.
It is instructive to compare the conception-rate of Europe with that of a
non-European country. Such a comparison has been made by S.A. Hill for the
Northwest Provinces of India. Here the Holi and other erotic festivals
take place in spring; but spring is not the period when conceptions
chiefly take place; indeed, the prevalence of erotic festivals in spring
appears to Hill an argument in favor of those festivals having originated
in a colder climate. The conceptions show a rise through October and
November to a maximum in December and January, followed by a steady and
prolonged fall to a minimum in September. This curve can be accounted for
by climatic and economic conditions. September is near the end of the long
and depressing hot season, when malarial influences are rapidly
increasing to a maximum, the food-supply is nearly exhausted, and there is
the greatest tendency to suicide. With October it forms the period of
greatest mortality. December, on the other hand, is the month when food is
most abundant, and it is also a very healthy month.[155]
For a summary of the chief researches into this question, see
Ploss and Bartels, _Das Weib_; also, Rosenstadt, "Zur Frage nach
den Ursachen welche die Zahl der Conceptionen, etc,"
_Mittheilungen aus den embryologischen Institute Universität
Wien_, second series, fasc. 4, 1890. Rosenstadt concludes that
man has inherited from animal ancestors a "physiological custom"
which has probably been further favored by climatic and social
conditions. "Primitive man," he proceeds, "had inherited from his
ancestors the faculty of only reproducing himself at determined
epochs. On the arrival of this period of rut, fecundation took
place on a large scale, this being very easy, thanks to the
promiscuity in which primitive man lived. With the development of
civilization, men give themselves up to sexual relations all the
year around, but the 'physiological custom' of procreating at a
certain epoch has not completely disappeared; it remains as a
survival of the animal condition, and manifests itself in the
recrudescence of the number of conceptions during certain months
of the year." O. Rosenbach ("Bemerkungen über das Problem einer
Brunstzeit beim Menschen," _Archiv für Rassen und
Gesellschafts-Biologie_, Bd. III, Heft 5) has also argued in
favor of a chief sexual period in the year in man, with secondary
and even tertiary climaxes, in March, August, and December. He
finds that in some families, for several generations, birthdays
tend to fall in the same months, but his paper is, on the whole,
inconclusive.
Some years ago, Prof. J.B. Haycraft argued, on the basis of data
furnished by Scotland, that the conception-rate corresponds to
the temperature-curve (Haycraft, "Physiological Results of
Temperature Variation," _Transactions of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh_, vol. xxix, 1880). "Temperature," he concluded, "is
the main factor regulating the variations in the number of
conceptions which occur during the year. It increases their
number with its elevation, and this on an average of 0.5 per
cent, for an elevation of 1° F." Whether or not this theory may
fit the facts as regards Scotland, it is certainly altogether
untenable when we take a broader view of the phenomena.
Recently Dr. Paul Gaedeken of Copenhagen has argued in a detailed
statistical study ("La Réaction de l'Organisme sous l'Influence
Physico-Chimiques des Agents Météorologiques," _Archives
d'Anthropologie Criminelle_, Feb., 1909) that the
conception-rate, as well as the periodicity of suicide and allied
phenomena, is due to the action of the chemical rays on the
unpigmented skin in early spring, this action being
physiologically similar to that of alcohol. He seeks thus to
account for the marked and early occurrence of such periodic
phenomena in Greenland and other northern countries where there
is much chemical action (owing to the clear air) in early spring,
but little heat. This explanation would not cover an autumnal
climax, the existence of which Gaedeken denies.
In order to obtain a fairly typical conception-curve for Europe, and to
allow the variations of local habit and custom to some extent to
annihilate each other, I have summated the figures given by Mayr for about
a quarter of a million births in Germany, France, and Italy,[156]
obtaining a curve (Chart 2) of the conception-rate which may be said
roughly to be that of Europe generally. If we begin at September as the
lowest point, we find an autumn rise culminating in the lesser maximum of
Christmas, followed by a minor depression in January and February. Then
comes the great spring rise, culminating in May, and followed after June
by a rapid descent to the minimum.
In Canada (see e.g., _Report of the Registrar General of the
Province of Ontario_ for 1904), the maximum and minimum of
conceptions alike fall later than in Europe; the months of
maximum conception are June, July, and August; of minimum
conception, January, February, and March. June is the favorite
month for marriage.
It would be of some interest to know the conception-curve for the
well-to-do classes, who are largely free from the industrial and
social influences which evidently, to a great extent, control the
conception-rate. It seems probable that the seasonal influence
would here be specially well shown. The only attempt I have made
in this direction is to examine a well-filled birthday-book. The
entries show a very high and equally maintained maximum of
conceptions throughout April, May and June, followed by a marked
minimum during the next three months, and an autumn rise very
strongly marked, in November. There is no December rise. As will
be seen, there is here a fairly exact resemblance to the yearly
ecbolic curve of people of the same class. The inquiry needs,
however, to be extended to a very much larger number of cases.
Mr. John Douglass Brown, of Philadelphia, has kindly prepared and
sent me, since the above was written, a series of curves showing
the, annual periodicity of births among the educated classes in
the State of Pennsylvania, using the statistics as to 4,066
births contained in the Biographical Catalogue of Matriculates of
the College of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Brown prepared
four curves: the first, covering the earliest period, 1757-1859;
the second, the period 1860-1876; the third, 1877-1893; while the
fourth presented the summated results for the whole period. (The
dates named are those of the entry to classes, and not of actual
occurrence of birth.) A very definite and well-marked curve is
shown, and the average number of births (not conceptions) per
day, for the whole period, is as follows:--
Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.
10.5 11.4 11 8.3 10.2 10.5 11.5 12.6 12.3 11.6 12 11.7
There is thus a well-marked minimum of conceptions (a depression
appearing here in each of the three periods, separately) about
the month of July. (In the second period, however, which contains
the smallest number of births, the minimum occurs in September.)
From that low minimum there is steady and unbroken rise up to the
chief maximum in November. (In the first period, however, the
maximum is delayed till January, and in the second period it is
somewhat diffused.) There is a tendency to a minor maximum in
February, specially well marked in the third and most important
period, and in the first period delayed until March.
A very curious and perhaps not accidental coincidence might be briefly
pointed out before we leave this part of the subject. It is found[157] by
taking 3000 cases of children dying under one year that, among the general
population, children born in February and September (and therefore
conceived in May and December) appear to possess the greatest vitality,
and those born in June, and, therefore, conceived in September, the least
vitality.[158] As we have seen, May and December are precisely the periods
when conceptions in Europe generally are at a maximum, and September is
precisely the period when they are at a minimum, so that, if this
coincidence is not accidental, the strongest children are conceived when
there is the strongest tendency to procreate, and the feeblest children
when that tendency is feeblest.
Nelson, in his study of dreams and their relation to seasonal ecbolic
manifestations, does not present any yearly ecbolic curve, as the two
years and a half over which his observations extend scarcely supply a
sufficient basis. On examining his figures, however, I find there is a
certain amount of evidence of a yearly rhythm. There are spring and autumn
climaxes throughout (in February and in November); there is no December
rise. During one year there is a marked minimum from May to September,
though it is but slightly traceable in the succeeding year. These figures
are too uncertain to prove anything, but, as far as they go, they are in
fair agreement with the much more extensive record, that of W.K. (_ante_
p. 113), which I have already made use of in discussing the question of a
monthly rhythm. This record, covering nearly twelve years, shows a general
tendency, when the year is divided into four periods (November-January,
February-April, May-July, August-October) and the results summated, to
rise steadily throughout, from the minimum in the winter period to the
maximum in the autumn period. This steady upward progress is not seen in
each year taken separately. In three years there is a fall in passing from
the November-January to the February-April quarter (always followed by a
rise in the subsequent quarter); in three cases there is a fall in passing
from the second to the third quarter (again always followed by a rise in
the following quarter), and in two successive years there is a fall in
passing from the third to the fourth quarter. If, however, beginning at
the second year, we summate the results for each year with those for all
previous years, a steady rise from season to season is seen throughout. If
we analyze the data according to the months of the year, still more
precise and interesting results (as shown in the curve, Chart 3) are
obtained; two maximum points are seen, one in spring (March), one in
autumn (October, or, rather, August-October), and each of these maximum
points is followed by; a steep and sudden descent to the minimum points in
April and in December. If we compare this result with Perry-Coste's also
extending over a long series of years, we find a marked similarity. In
both alike there are spring and autumn maxima, in both the autumn maximum
is the highest, and in both also there is an intervening fall. In both
cases, again, the maxima are followed by steep descents, but while in both
the spring maximum occurs in March, in Perry-Coste's case the second
maximum, though of precisely similar shape, occurs earlier, in
June-September instead of August-October. In Perry-Coste's case, also,
there is an apparently abnormal tendency, only shown in the more recent
years of the record, to an additional maximum in January. The records
certainly show far more points of agreement than of discrepancy, and by
their harmony, as well with each other as with themselves, when the years
are taken separately, certainly go far to prove that there is a very
marked annual rhythm in the phenomena of seminal emissions during sleep,
or, as Nelson has termed it, the ecbolic curve. We see, also, that the
great yearly organic climax of sexual effervescence corresponds with the
period following harvest, which, throughout the primitive world, has been
a season of sexual erethism and orgy; though those customs have died out
of our waking lives, they are still imprinted on our nervous texture, and
become manifest during sleep.
The fresh records that have reached me since the first edition of
this book was published show well-marked annual curves, though
each curve always has some slight personal peculiarities of its
own. The most interesting and significant is that of E.M. (see
_ante_ p. 116), covering four years. It is indicated by the
following monthly frequencies, summated for the four years:--
Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.
16 13 14 22 19 19 12 12 14 14 12 24
E.M. lives in India. April, May, and June, are hot months, but
not unhealthy, and during this season, moreover, he lives in the
hills, under favorable conditions, getting plenty of outdoor
exercise. July, August, and September, are nearly as hot, but
much damper, and more trying; during these months, E.M. is living
in the city, and his work is then, also, more exacting than at
other times, September is the worst month of all; he has a short
holiday at the end of it. During December, January, and February,
the climate is very fine, and E.M.'s work is easier. It will be
seen that his ecbolic curve corresponds to his circumstances and
environment, although until he analyzed the record he had no idea
that any such relationship existed. Unfavorable climatic
conditions and hard work, favorable conditions and lighter work,
happen to coincide in his life, and the former depress the
frequency of seminal emissions; the latter increase their
frequency. At the same time, the curve is not out of harmony with
the northern curves. There is what corresponds to a late spring
(April) climax, and another still higher, late autumn (December)
climax. A very interesting point is the general resemblance of
the ecbolic curves to the Indian conception-curves as set forth
by Hill (_ante_ p. 140). The conception-curve is at its lowest
point in September, and at its highest point in December-January,
and this ecbolic curve follows it, except that both the minimum
and the maximum are reached a little earlier. When compared with
the English annual ecbolic curves (W.K. and Perry-Coste), both
spring and autumn maxima fall rather later, but all agree in
representing the autumn rise as the chief climax.
The annual curve of A.N. (_ante_ p. 117), who lives in Indiana,
U.S.A., also covers four years. It presents the usual spring
(May-June, in this case) and autumn (September-October) climaxes.
The exact monthly results, summated for the four years, are given
below; in order to allow for the irregular lengths of the months,
I have reduced them to daily averages, for convenience treating
the four years as one year:--
Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.
13 9 13 20 23 22 20 20 21 23 9 16
.42 .32 .42 .66 .74 .73 .64 .64 .70 .74 .30 .52
In his book on _Adolescence_, Stanley Hall refers to three
ecbolic records in his possession, all made by men who were
doctors of philosophy, and all considering themselves normal. The
best of these records made by "a virtuous, active and able man,"
covered nearly eight years. Stanley Hall thus summarizes the
records, which are not presented in detail: "The best of these
records averages about three and a half such experiences per
month, the most frequent being 5.14 for July, and the least
frequent 2.28, for September, for all the years taken together.
There appears also a slight rise in April, and another in
November, with a fall in December." The frequency varies in the
different individuals. There was no tendency to a monthly cycle.
In the best case, the minimum number for the year was
thirty-seven, and the maximum, fifty. Fifty-nine per cent. of all
were at an interval of a week or less; forty per cent. at an
interval of from one to four days; thirty-four per cent, at an
interval of from eight to seventeen days, the longest being
forty-two days. Poor condition, overwork, and undersleep, led to
infrequency. Early morning was the most common time. Normally
there was a sense of distinct relief, but in low conditions, or
with over-frequency, depression. (G.S. Hall, _Adolescence_, vol.
i, p. 453.) I may add that an anonymous article on "Nocturnal
Emissions" (_American Journal of Psychology_, Jan., 1904) is
evidently a fuller presentation of the first of Stanley Hall's
three cases. It is the history of a healthy, unmarried, chaste
man, who kept a record of his nocturnal emissions (and their
accompanying dreams) from the age of thirty to thirty-eight. In
what American State he lived is not mentioned. He was ignorant of
the existence of any previous records. The yearly average was 37
to 50, remaining fairly constant; the monthly average was 3.43. I
reproduce the total results summated for the months, separately,
and I have worked out the daily average for each month, for
convenience counting the summated eight years as one year:--
Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.
27 27 27 31 29 28 36 25 18 27 30 24
.87 .94 .87 1.03 .93 .93 1.16 .81 .60 .87 1.00 .77
Here, as in all the other curves we have been able to consider,
we may see the usual two points of climax in spring and in
autumn; the major climax covers April, May, June, and July, the
minor autumnal climax is confined to November. In the light of
the evidence which has thus accumulated, we may conclude that the
existence of an annual ecbolic curve, with its spring and autumn
climaxes, as described in the first edition of this book, is now
definitely established.
If we are to believe, as these records tend to show, that the nocturnal
and involuntary voice of the sexual impulse usually speaks at least as
loudly in autumn as in spring, we are confronted by a certain divergence
of the sleeping sexual impulse from the waking sexual instinct, as
witnessed by the conception-curve, and also, it may be added, by the
general voice of tradition, and, indeed, of individual feeling, which
concur, on the whole, in placing the chief epoch of sexual activity in
spring and early summer, more especially as regards women.[159] It is not
impossible to reconcile the contradiction, assuming it to be real, but I
will refrain here from suggesting the various explanations which arise.
We need a broader basis of facts.
There are many facts to show that early spring and, to a certain extent,
autumn are periods of visible excitement, mainly sexual in character. We
have already seen that among the Eskimo menstruation and sexual desire
occur chiefly in spring, but cases are known of healthy women in temperate
climes who only menstruate twice a year, and in such cases the menstrual
epochs appear to be usually in spring and autumn. Such, at all events, was
the case in a girl of 20, whose history has been recorded by Dr. Mary
Wenck, of Philadelphia.[160] She menstruated first when 15 years old. Six
months later the flow again appeared for the second time, and lasted three
weeks, without cessation. Since then, for five years, she menstruated
during March and September only, each time for three weeks, the flow being
profuse, but not exhaustingly so, without pain or systemic disturbance.
Examination revealed perfectly normal uterus and ovarian organs.
Treatment, accompanied by sitz-baths during the time of month the flow
should appear, accomplished nothing. The semi-annual flow continued and
the girl seemed in excellent health.
It is a remarkable fact that, as noted by Dr. Hamilton Wey at Elmira,
sexual outbursts among prisoners appear to occur at about March and
October. "Beginning with the middle of February," writes Dr. Wey in a
private letter, "and continuing for about two months, is a season of
ascending sexual wave; also the latter half of September and the month of
October. We are now (March 30th) in the midst of a wave."
According to Chinese medicine, it is the spring which awakens
human passions. In early Greek tradition, spring and summer were
noted as the time of greatest wantonness. "In the season of
toilsome summer," says Hesiod (_Works and Days_, xi, 569-90),
"the goats are fattest, wine is best, women most wanton, and men
weakest." It was so, also, in the experience of the Romans. Pliny
(_Natural History_, Bk. XII, Ch. XLIII) states that when the
asparagus blooms and the cicada sings loudest, is the season when
women are most amorous, but men least inclined to pleasure.
Paulus Ægineta said that hysteria specially abounds during spring
and autumn in lascivious girls and sterile women, while more
recent observers have believed that hysteria is particularly
difficult to treat in autumn. Oribasius (_Synopsis_, lib. i, cap.
6) quotes from Rufus to the effect that sexual feeling is most
strong in spring, and least so in summer. Rabelais said that it
was in March that the sexual impulse is strongest, referring this
to the early warmth of spring, and that August is the month least
favorable to sexual activity (_Pantagruel_, liv. v, Ch. XXIX).
Nipho, in his book on love dedicated to Joan of Aragon, discussed
the reasons why "women are more lustful and amorous in summer,
and men in winter." Venette, in his _Génération de l'homme_,
harmonized somewhat conflicting statements with the observation
that spring is the season of love for both men and women; in
summer, women are more amorous than men; in autumn, men revive to
some extent, but are still oppressed by the heat, which,
sexually, has a less depressing effect on women. There is
probably a real element of truth in this view, and both extremes
of heat and cold may be regarded as unfavorable to masculine
virility. It is highly probable that the well-recognized tendency
of piles to become troublesome in spring and in autumn, is due to
increased sexual activity. Piles are favored by congestion, and
sexual excitement is the most powerful cause of sudden congestion
in the genito-anal region. Erasmus Darwin called attention to the
tendency of piles to recur about the equinoxes (_Zoönomia_,
Section XXXVI), and since his days Gant, Bonavia, and Cullimore
have correlated this periodicity with sexual activity.
Laycock, quoting the opinions of some earlier authorities as to
the prevalence of sexual feeling in spring, stated that that
popular opinion "appears to be founded on fact" (_Nervous
Diseases of Women_, p. 69). I find that many people, and perhaps
especially women, confirm from their own experience, the
statement that sexual feeling is strongest in spring and summer.
Wichmann states that pollutions are most common in spring (being
perhaps the first to make that statement), and also nymphomania.
(In the eighteenth century, Schurig recorded a case of extreme
and life-long sexual desire in a woman whose salacity was always
at its height towards the festival of St. John, _Gynæcologia_, p.
16.) A correspondent in the Argentine Republic writes to me that
"on big estancias, where we have a good many shepherds, nearly
always married, or, rather, I should say, living with some woman
(for our standard of morality is not very high in these parts),
we always look out for trouble in springtime, as it is a very
common thing at this season for wives to leave their husbands and
go and live with some other man." A corresponding tendency has
been noted even among children. Thus, Sanford Bell ("The Emotion
of Love Between the Sexes," _American Journal Psychology_, July,
1902) remarks: "The season of the year seems to have its effect
upon the intensity of the emotion of sex-love among children. One
teacher, from Texas, who furnished me with seventy-six cases,
said that he had noticed that in the matter of love children
seemed 'fairly to break out in the springtime.' Many of the
others who reported, incidentally mentioned the love affairs as
beginning in the spring. This also agrees with my own
observations."
Crichton-Browne remarks that children in springtime exhibit restlessness,
excitability, perversity, and indisposition to exertion that are not
displayed at other times. This condition, sometimes known as "spring
fever," has been studied in over a hundred cases, both children and
adults, by Kline. The majority of these report a feeling of tiredness,
languor, lassitude, sometimes restlessness, sometimes drowsiness. There is
often a feeling of suffocation, and a longing for Nature and fresh air and
day-dreams, while work seems distasteful and unsatisfactory. Change is
felt to be necessary at all costs, and sometimes there is a desire to
begin some new plan of life.[161] In both sexes there is frequently a wave
of sexual emotion, a longing for love. Kline also found by examination of
a very large number of cases that between the ages of four and seventeen
it is in spring that running away from home most often occurs. He suggests
that this whole group of phenomena may be due to the shifting of the
metabolic processes from the ordinary grooves into reproductive channels,
and seeks to bring it into connection with the migrations of animals for
reproductive purposes.[162]
It has long been known that the occurrence of insanity follows an annual
curve,[163] and though our knowledge of this curve, being founded on the
date of admissions to asylums, cannot be said to be quite precise, it
fairly corresponds to the outbreaks of acute insanity. The curve
presented in Chart 4 shows the admissions to the London County Council
Lunatic Asylums during the years 1893 to 1897 inclusive; I have arranged
it in two-month periods, to neutralize unimportant oscillations. In order
to show that this curve is not due to local or accidental circumstances,
we may turn to France and take a special and chronic form of mental
disease: Garnier, in his _Folie à Paris_, presents an almost exactly
similar curve of the admissions of cases of general paralysis to the
Infirmerie Spéciale at Paris during the years 1886-88 (Chart 5). Both
curves alike show a major climax in spring and a minor climax in autumn.
Crime in general in temperate climates tends to reach its maximum
at the beginning of the hot season, usually in June. Thus, in
Belgium, the minimum is in February; the maximum in June, thence
gradually diminishing (Lentz, _Bulletin Société Médecine Mentale
Belgique_, March, 1901). In France, Lacassagne has summated the
data extending over more than 40 years, and finds that for all
crimes June is the maximum month, the minimum being reached in
November. He also gives the figures for each class of crime
separately, and every crime is found to have its own yearly
curve. Poisonings show a chief maximum in May, with slow fall and
a minor climax in December; assassinations have a February and a
November climax. Parricides culminate in May-June, and in October
(Lacassagne's tables are given by Laurent, _Les Habitués des
Prisons de Paris_, Ch. 1).
Notwithstanding the general tendency for crime to reach its
maximum in the first hot month (a tendency not necessarily due to
the direct influence of heat), we also find, when we consider the
statistics of crime generally (including sexual crime), that
there is another tendency for minor climaxes in spring and
autumn. Thus, in Italy, Penta, taking the statistics of nearly
four thousand crimes (murder, highway robbery, and sexual
offences), found the maximum in the first summer months, but
there were also minor climaxes in spring and in August and
September (Penta, _Rivista Mensile di Psichiatria_, 1899). In
nearly all Europe (as is shown by a diagram given by Lombroso and
Laschi, at the end of the first volume of _Le Crime Politique_),
while the chief climaxes occur about July, there is, in most
countries, a distinct tendency to spring (usually about March)
and autumn (September and November) climaxes, though they rarely
rise as high as the July climax.
If we consider the separate periodicity of sexual offences, we
find that they follow the rule for crimes generally, and usually
show a chief maximum in early summer. Aschaffenburg finds that
the annual periodicity of the sexual impulse appears more
strongly marked the more abnormal its manifestations, which he
places in the following order of increasing periodicity:
conceptions in marriage, conceptions out of marriage, offences
against decency, rape, assaults on children (_Centralblatt für
Nervenheilkunde_, January, 1903). In France, rapes and offences
against modesty are most numerous in May, June, and July, as
Villermé, Lacassagne, and others have shown. Villermé,
investigating 1,000 such cases, found a gradual ascent in
frequency (only slightly broken in March) to a maximum in June
(oscillating between May and July, when the years are considered
separately), and then a gradual descent to a minimum in December.
Legludic gives, for the 159 cases he had investigated, a table
showing a small February-March climax, and a large June-August
maximum, the minimum being reached in November-January.
(Legludic, _Attentats aux Moeurs_, 1896, p. 16.) In Germany,
Aschaffenburg finds that sexual offences begin to increase in
March and April, reach a maximum in June or July, and fall to a
minimum in winter (_Monatsschrift für Psychiatrie_, 1903, Heft
2). In Italy, Penta shows that sexual offences reach a minor
climax in May (corresponding, in his experience, with the maximum
for crimes generally, as well as with the maximum for
conceptions), and a more marked climax in August-September
(Penta, _I Pervertimenti Sessuali_, 1893, p. 115; id. _Rivista
Mensile di Psichiatria_, 1899).
Corre, in his _Crime en Pays Créole_, presents charts of the
seasonal distribution of crime in Guadeloupe, with relation to
temperature, which show that while, in a mild temperature like
that of France and England, crime attains its maximum in the hot
season, it is not so in a more tropical climate; in July, when in
Guadeloupe the heat attains its maximum degree, crime of all
kinds falls suddenly to a very low minimum. Even in the United
States, where the summer heat is often excessive, it tends to
produce a diminution of crime.
Dexter, in an elaborate study of the relationship of conduct to
the weather, shows that in the United States assaults present the
maximum of frequency in April and October, with a decrease during
the summer and the winter. "The unusual and interesting fact
demonstrated here with a certainty that cannot be doubted is," he
concludes, "that the unseasonably hot days of spring and autumn
are the pugnacious ones, even though the actual heat be much less
than for summer. We might infer from this that conditions of
heat, up to a certain extent, are vitalizing, while, at the same
time, irritating, but above that limit, heat is so devitalizing
in its effects as to leave hardly energy enough to carry on a
fight." (E.G. Dexter, _Conduct and the Weather_, 1899, pp. 63 _et
seq._)
It is not impossible that the phenomena of seasonal periodicity
in crimes may possess a real significance in relation to sexual
periodicity. If, as is possible, the occurrence of spring and
autumn climaxes of criminal activity is due less to any special
exciting causes at these seasons than to the depressing
influences of heat and cold in summer and winter, it may appear
reasonable to ask whether the spring and autumn climaxes of
sexual activity are not really also largely due to a like
depressing influence of extreme temperatures at the other two
seasons.
Not only is there periodicity in criminal conduct, but even within the
normal range of good and bad conduct seasonal periodicity may still be
traced. In his _Physical and Industrial Training of Criminals_, H.D. Wey
gives charts of the conduct of seven prisoners during several years, as
shown by the marks received. These charts show that there is a very
decided tendency to good behavior during summer and winter, while in
spring (February, March, and April) and in autumn (August, September and
October) there are very marked falls to bad conduct, each individual
tending to adhere to a conduct-curve of his own. Wey does not himself
appear to have noticed this seasonal periodicity. Marro, however, has
investigated this question in Turin on a large scale and reaches results
not very dissimilar from those shown by Wey's figures in New York. He
noted the months in which over 4,000 punishments were inflicted on
prisoners for assaults, insults, threatening language, etc., and shows the
annual curve in Tavola VI of his _Caratteri dei Delinquenti_. There is a
marked and isolated climax in May; a still more sudden rise leads to the
chief maximum of punishment in August; and from the minimum in October
there is rapid ascent during the two following months to a climax much
inferior to that of May.
The seasonal periodicity of bad conduct in prisons is of interest
as showing that we cannot account for psychic periodicity by
invoking exclusively social causes. This theory of psychic
periodicity has been seriously put forward, but has been
investigated and dismissed, so far as crime in Holland is
concerned, by J.R.B. de Roos, in the Transactions of the sixth
Congress of Criminal Anthropology, at Turin, in 1906 (_Archivio
di Psichiatria_ fasc. 3, 1906).
The general statistics of suicides in Continental Europe show a very
regular and unbroken curve, attaining a maximum in June and a minimum in
December, the curve rising steadily through the first six months, sinking
steadily through the last six months, but always reaching a somewhat
greater height in May than in July.[164] Morselli shows that in various
European countries there is always a rise in spring and in autumn (October
or November).[165] Morselli attributes these spring and autumn rises to
the influence of the strain of the early heat and the early cold.[166] In
England, also, if we take a very large number of statistics, for instance,
the figures for London during the twenty years between 1865 and 1884, as
given by Ogle (in a paper read before the Statistical Society in 1886), we
find that, although the general curve has the same maximum and minimum
points, it is interrupted by a break on each side of the maximum, and
these two breaks occur precisely at about March and October.[167] This is
shown in the curve in Chart 6, which presents the daily average for the
different months.
The growth of children follows an annual rhythm. Wahl, the director of an
educational establishment for homeless girls in Denmark, who investigated
this question, found that the increase of weight for all the ages
investigated was constantly about 33 per cent. greater in the summer
half-year than in the winter half-year. It was noteworthy that even the
children who had not reached school-age, and therefore could not be
influenced by school-life, showed a similar, though slighter, difference
in the same direction. It is, however, Malling-Hansen, the director of an
institution for deaf-mutes in Copenhagen, who has most thoroughly
investigated this matter over a great many years. He finds that there are
three periods of growth throughout the year, marked off in a fairly sharp
manner, and that during each of these periods the growth in weight and
height shows constant characteristics. From about the end of November up
to about the end of March is a period when growth, both in height and
weight, proceeds at a medium rate, reaching neither a maximum nor a
minimum; increase in weight is slight, the increase in height, although
trifling, preponderating. After this follows a period during which the
children show a marked increase in height, while increase in weight is
reduced to a minimum. The children constantly lose in weight during this
period of growth in height almost as much as they gain in the preceding
period. This period lasts from March and April to July and August. Then
follows the third period, which continues until November and December.
During this period increase in height is very slight, being at its early
minimum; increase in weight, on the other hand, at the beginning of the
period (in September and October), is rapid and to the middle of December
very considerable, daily increase in weight being three times as great as
during the winter months. Thus it may be said that the spring sexual
climax corresponds, roughly, with growth in height and arrest of growth in
weight, while the autumn climax corresponds roughly with a period of
growth in weight and arrest of growth in height. Malling-Hansen found that
slight variations in the growth of the children were often dependent on
changes in temperature, in such a way that a rise of temperature, even
lasting for only a few days, caused an increase of growth, and a fall of
temperature a decrease in growth. At Halle, Schmid-Monnard found that
nearly all growth in weight took place in the second half of the year, and
that the holidays made little difference. In America, Peckham has shown
that increase of growth is chiefly from the 1st of May to the 1st of
September.[168] Among young girls in St. Petersburg, Jenjko found that
increase in weight takes place in summer. Goepel found that increase in
height takes place mostly during the first eight months of the year,
reaching a maximum in August, declining during the autumn and winter, in
February being _nil_, while in March there is sometimes loss in weight
even in healthy children.
In the course of a study as to the consumption of bread in Normal schools
during each month of the year, as illustrating the relationship between
intellectual work and nutrition, Binet presents a number of curves which
bring out results to which he makes no allusion, as they are outside his
own investigation. Almost without exception, these curves show that there
is an increase in the consumption of bread in spring and in autumn, the
spring rise being in February, March, and April; the autumn rise in
October or November. There are, however, certain fallacies in dealing with
institutions like Normal schools, where the conditions are not perfectly
regular throughout the year, owing to vacations, etc. It is, therefore,
instructive to find that under the monotonous conditions of prison-life
precisely the same spring and autumn rises are found. Binet takes the
consumption of bread in the women's prison at Clermont, where some four
hundred prisoners, chiefly between the ages of thirty and forty, are
confined, and he presents two curves for the years 1895 and 1896. The
curves for these two years show certain marked disagreements with each
other, but both unite in presenting a distinct rise in April, preceded and
followed by a fall, and both present a still more marked autumn rise, in
one case in September and November, in the other case in October.[169]
Some years ago, Sir J. Crichton-Browne stated that a
manifestation of the sexual stimulus of spring is to be found in
the large number of novels read during the month of March
("Address in Psychology" at the annual meeting of the British
Medical Association, Leeds, 1889; _Lancet_, August 14, 1889).
The statement was supported by figures furnished by lending
libraries, and has since been widely copied. It would certainly
be interesting if we could so simply show the connection between
love and season, by proving that when the birds began to sing
their notes, the young person's fancy naturally turns to brood
over the pictures of mating in novels. I accordingly applied to
Mr. Capel Shaw, Chief Librarian of the Birmingham Free Libraries
(specially referred to by Sir J. Crichton-Browne), who furnished
me with the Reports for 1896 and 1897-98 (this latter report is
carried on to the end of March, 1898).
The readers who use the Birmingham Free Lending Libraries are
about 30,000 in number; they consist very largely of young people
between the ages of 14 and 25; somewhat less than half are women.
Certainly we seem to have here a good field for the determination
of this question. The monthly figures for each of the ten
Birmingham libraries are given separately, and it is clear at a
glance that without exception the maximum number of readers of
prose-fiction at all the libraries during 1897-98 is found in the
month of March. (I have chiefly taken into consideration the
figures for 1897-98; the figures for 1896 are somewhat abnormal
and irregular, probably owing to a decrease in readers,
attributed to increased activity in trade, and partly to a
disturbing influence caused by the opening of a large new library
in the course of the year, suddenly increasing the number of
readers, and drafting off borrowers from some of the other
libraries.) Not only so, but there is a second, or autumnal
climax, almost equaling the spring climax, and occuring with
equal certainty, appearing during 1897-98 either in October or
November, and during 1896, constantly in October. Thus, the
periodicity of the rate of consumption of prose-fiction
corresponds with the periodicity which is found to occur in the
conception rate and in sexual ecbolic manifestations.
It is necessary, however, to examine somewhat more closely the
tables presented in these reports, and to compare the rate of the
consumption of novels with that of other classes of literature.
In the first place, if, instead of merely considering the
consumption of novels per month, we make allowance for the
varying length of the months, and consider the average _daily_
consumption per month, the supremacy of March at once vanishes.
February is really the month during which most novels were read
during the first quarter of 1898, except at two libraries, where
February and March are equal. The result is similar if we
ascertain the daily averages for the first quarter in 1897,
while, in 1896 (which, however, as I have already remarked, is a
rather abnormal year), the daily average for March in many of the
libraries falls below that for January, as well as for February.
Again, when we turn to the other classes of books, we find that
this predominance which February possesses, and to some extent
shares with March and January, by no means exclusively applies to
novels. It is not only shared by both music and poetry,--which
would fit in well with the assumption of a sexual _nisus_,--but
the department of "history, biography, voyages, and travels"
shares it also with considerable regularity; so, also, does that
of "arts, sciences, and natural history," and it is quite well
marked in "theology, moral philosophy, etc.," and in "juvenile
literature." We even have to admit that the promptings of the
sexual instinct bring an increased body of visitors to the
reference library (where there are no novels), for here, also,
both the spring and autumnal climaxes are quite distinct.
Certainly this theory carries us a little too far.
The main factor in producing this very marked annual periodicity
seems to me to be wholly unconnected with the sexual impulse. The
winter half of the year (from the beginning of October to the end
of March), when outdoor life has lost its attractions, and much
time must be spent in the house, is naturally the season for
reading. But during the two central months of winter, December
and January, the attraction of reading meets with a powerful
counter-attraction in the excitement produced by the approach of
Christmas, and the increased activity of social life which
accompanies and for several weeks follows Christmas. In this way
the other four winter months--October and November at the
autumnal end, and February and March at the spring end--must
inevitably present the two chief reading climaxes of the year;
and so the reports of lending libraries present us with figures
which show a striking, but fallacious, resemblance to the curves
which are probably produced by more organic causes.
I am far from wishing to deny that the impulse which draws young
men and women to imaginative literature is unconnected with the
obscure promptings of the sexual instinct. But, until the
disturbing influence I have just pointed out is eliminated, I see
no evidence here for any true seasonal periodicity. Possibly in
prisons--the value of which, as laboratories of experimental
psychology we have scarcely yet begun to realize--more reliable
evidence might be obtained; and those French and other prisons
where novels are freely allowed to the prisoners might yield
evidence as regards the consumption of fiction as instructive as
that yielded at Clermont concerning the consumption of bread.
Certain diseases show a very regular annual curve. This is notably the
case with scarlet fever. Caiger found in a London fever hospital a marked
seasonal prevalence: there was a minor climax in May (repeated in July),
and a great autumnal climax in October, falling to a minimum in December
and January. This curve corresponds closely to that usually observed in
London.[170] It is not peculiar to London, or to urban districts, for in
rural districts we find nearly the same spring minor maximum and major
autumnal maximum. In Russia it is precisely the same. Many other epidemic
diseases show very similar curves.
An annual curve may be found in the expulsive force of the bladder as
measured by the distance to which the urinary stream can be projected.
This curve, as ascertained for one case, is interesting on account of the
close relationship between sexual and vesical activity. After a minimum
point in autumn there is a rise through the early part of the year to a
height maintained through spring and summer, and reaching its maximum in
August.[171] This may be said to correspond with the general tendency
found in some cases of nocturnal seminal emissions from a winter minimum
to an autumn maximum.
There is an annual curve in voluntary muscle strength. Thus in Antwerp,
where the scientific study of children is systematically carried out by a
Pedological Bureau, Schuyten found that, measured by the dynamometer, both
at the ages of 8 and 9, both boys and girls showed a gradual increase of
strength from October to January, a fall from January to March and a rise
to June or July. March was the weakest month, June and July the
strongest.[172]
Schuyten also found an annual curve for mental ability, as tested by power
of attention, which for much of the year corresponded to the curve of
muscular strength, being high during the cold winter months. Lobsien, at
Kiel, seeking to test Schuyten's results and adopting a different method
so as to gauge memory as well as attention, came to conclusions which
confirmed those of Schuyten. He found a very marked increase of ability in
December and January, with a fall in April; April and May were the
minimum months, while July and October also stood low.[173] The inquiries
of Schuyten and Lobsien thus seem to indicate that the voluntary aptitudes
of muscular and mental force in children reach their maximum at a time of
the year when most of the more or less involuntary activities we have been
considering show a minimum of energy. If this conclusion should be
confirmed by more extended investigations, it would scarcely be matter for
surprise and would involve no true contradiction. It would, indeed, be
natural to suppose that the voluntary and regulated activities of the
nervous system should work most efficiently at those periods when they are
least exposed to organic and emotional disturbance.
So persistent a disturbing element in spring and autumn suggests that some
physiological conditions underlie it, and that there is a real metabolic
disturbance at these times of the year. So few continuous observations
have yet been made on the metabolic processes of the body that it is not
easy to verify such a surmise with absolute precision. Edward Smith's
investigations, so far as they go, support it, and Perry-Coste's
long-continued observations of pulse-frequency seem to show with fair
regularity a maximum in early spring and another maximum in late
autumn.[174] I may also note that Haig, who has devoted many years of
observations to the phenomena of uric-acid excretion, finds that uric acid
tends to be highest in the spring months, (March, April, May) and lowest
at the first onset of cold in October.[175]
Thus, while the sexual climaxes of spring and autumn are rooted in animal
procreative cycles which in man have found expression in primitive
festivals--these, again, perhaps, strengthening and developing the sexual
rhythm--they yet have a wider significance. They constitute one among many
manifestations of spring and autumn physiological disturbance
corresponding with fair precision to the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.
They resemble those periods of atmospheric tension, of storm and wind,
which accompany the spring and autumn phases in the earth's rhythm, and
they may fairly be regarded as ultimately a physiological reaction to
those cosmic influences.
FOOTNOTES:
[128] F. Smith, _Veterinary Physiology_; Dalziel, _The Collie_.
[129] Mondière, Art "Cambodgiens," _Dictionnaire des Sciences
Anthropologiques_.
[130] This primitive aspect of the festival is well shown by the human
sacrifices which the ancient Mexicans offered at this time, in order to
enable the sun to recuperate his strength. The custom survives in a
symbolical form among the Mokis, who observe the festivals of the winter
solstice and the vernal equinox. ("Aspects of Sun-worship among the Moki
Indians," _Nature_, July 28, 1898.) The Walpi, a Tusayan people, hold a
similar great sun-festival at the winter solstice, and December is with
them a sacred month, in which there is no work and little play. This
festival, in which there is a dance dramatizing the fructification of the
earth and the imparting of virility to the seeds of corn, is fully
described by J. Walter Fewkes (_American Anthropologist_, March, 1898).
That these solemn annual dances and festivals of North America frequently
merge into "a lecherous _saturnalia_" when "all is joy and happiness," is
stated by H.H. Bancroft (_Native Races of Pacific States_, vol. i, p.
352).
[131] As regards the northern tribes of Central Australia, Spencer and
Gillen state that, during the performance of certain ceremonies which
bring together a large number of natives from different parts, the
ordinary marital rules are more or less set aside (_Northern Tribes of
Central Australia_, p. 136). Just in the same way, among the Siberian
Yakuts, according to Sieroshevski, during weddings and at the great
festivals of the year, the usual oversight of maidens is largely removed.
(_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, Jan.-June, 1901, p. 96.)
[132] R.E. Guise, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1899, pp.
214-216.
[133] Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, pp. 196 et seq. W. Crooke (_Journal
of the Anthropological Institute_, p. 243, 1899) also refers to the annual
harvest-tree dance and _saturnalia_, and its association with the seasonal
period for marriage. We find a similar phenomenon in the Malay Peninsula:
"In former days, at harvest-time, the Jakuns kept an annual festival, at
which, the entire settlement having been called together, fermented
liquor, brewed from jungle fruits, was drunk; and to the accompaniments of
strains of their rude and incondite music, both sexes, crowning themselves
with fragrant leaves and flowers, indulged in bouts of singing and
dancing, which grew gradually wilder throughout the night, and terminated
in a strange kind of sexual orgie." (W.W. Skeat, "The Wild Tribes of the
Malay Peninsula," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1902, p.
133.)
[134] Fielding Hall, _The Soul of a People_, 1898, Chapter XIII.
[135] See e.g., L. Dyer, _Studies of the Gods in Greece_, 1891, pp. 86-89,
375, etc.
[136] For a popular account of the Feast of Fools, see Loliée, "La Fête
des Fous," _Revue des Revues_, May 15, 1898; also, J.G. Bourke,
_Scatologic Rites of all Nations_, pp. 11-23.
[137] J. Grimm (_Teutonic Mythology_, p. 615) points out that the
observance of the spring or Easter bonfires marks off the Saxon from the
Franconian peoples. The Easter bonfires are held in Lower Saxony,
Westphalia, Lower Hesse, Geldern, Holland, Friesland, Jutland, and
Zealand. The Midsummer bonfires are held on the Rhine, in Franconia,
Thuringia, Swabia, Bavaria, Austria, and Silesia. Schwartz (_Zeitschrift
für Ethnologie_, 1896, p. 151) shows that at Lauterberg, in the Harz
Mountains, the line of demarcation between these two primitive districts
may still be clearly traced.
[138] _Wald und Feldkulte_, 1875, vol. i, pp. 422 et seq. He also mentions
(p. 458) that St. Valentine's Day (14th of February),--or Ember Day, or
the last day of February,--when the pairing of birds was supposed to take
place, was associated, especially in England, with love-making and the
choice of a mate. In Lorraine, it may be added, on the 1st of May, the
young girls chose young men as their valentines, a custom known by this
name to Rabelais.
[139] Rochholz, _Drei gaugöttinnen_, p, 37.
[140] Mannhardt, ibid., pp. 466 et seq. Also J.G. Frazer, _Golden Bough_,
vol ii, Chapter IV. For further facts and references, see K. Pearson (_The
Chances of Death_, 1897, vol, ii, "Woman as Witch," "Kindred
Group-marriage," and Appendix on "The '_Mailehn_' and '_Kiltgang_,'") who
incidentally brings together some of the evidence concerning primitive
sex-festivals in Europe. Also, E. Hahn, _Demeter und Baubo_, 1896, pp.
38-40; and for some modern survivals, see Deniker, _Races of Man_, 1900,