interruptus_ and the condom, are all very untrustworthy, as we learn
from the extreme frequency of deliberate, artificial abortion in all
countries, and among all classes of the population.[737] Artificial
abortion is, as is well known, a criminal offence, punishable by a long
term of imprisonment for all those concerned, the pregnant woman herself
and her accomplices. In the Orient and among savage races, however,
abortion is not punishable. Among the civilized nations of Europe
artificial abortion is punished; in Germany the mere =attempt= at
abortion is punishable, even though only an imaginary pregnancy is
present. That the State must take steps to prevent abortion, as an
immoral and unnatural action, is obvious, and this is necessary above
all because intentional abortion in so many cases endangers the life and
health of women. But in order that such punishment should be
reasonable, it is essential that society should work to this end, that
the =social conditions= upon which the frequency of the practice depends
should be abolished; =society should abandon the artificial defamation
of illegitimate motherhood=, and should in every possible way work for
the improvement of the possibilities of motherhood--should found homes
for mothers and for pregnant women, should provide for the insurance of
mothers, etc. It is a remarkable contradiction, to which Gisela von
Streitberg[738] draws attention, that illegitimate pregnancy is regarded
as sinful and shameful: simultaneously the life of the child =about to
be born= is regarded as sacred; whilst this same child, =as soon as it
is born=, is once more regarded as infamous. In fact, to the
illegitimate child, in the social morality of our time, which is at once
ridiculous and profoundly perverted, there inevitably attaches something
despicable and dishonourable. It is right that those who make the
procuring of abortion a =professional occupation= should be severely
punished; but, on the other hand, it is doubtful whether it is right to
punish mothers, and more particularly the mothers of illegitimate
infants, against whom the Criminal Code is especially directed, for
artificially inducing abortion. It is, in fact, open to question whether
the punishment is even legal. It is well known that according to § 1 of
the Civil Code the rights of a human being are said to begin only with
the completion of birth,[739] and it is certainly open to question
whether the as yet undeveloped human fœtus has any personal rights at
all. Without doubt we have to do with a being which has not yet begun to
exist, but which is only in process of becoming. Thus, juristically, and
from the standpoint of the philosophy of law, the foundation for the
punishment for abortion is a very unstable one. Consider, for example,
impregnation resulting from =rape=. Should not the woman concerned have
the right to employ any and all means available to her to destroy at the
very outset the child thus =forced upon her=?
The means for the induction of abortion[740] prior to the twenty-eighth
or thirtieth week of pregnancy are very various, and may be considered
under the two categories of =internal= and =mechanical= means
respectively. Infallible internal abortifacients =do not exist=; and
almost all abortifacients are =dangerous= owing to their toxic effects.
Those most commonly employed are ergot, ethereal oil of savin
(_Juniperus sabina_), varieties of thuja, yew (_Taxus baccata_),
turpentine, oleum succini, tansy, rue, camphor, cantharides, aloes,
phosphorus, etc. Mechanically, abortion may be effected by blows, by
violent movements (for example, during coitus), massage, perforation of
the membranes, hot injections, steam, manipulations with the finger at
the os uteri, the introduction of sounds and other objects through the
os uteri, venesection, application of the electric current, etc. With
all these practices there is involved great danger of injury, poisoning,
infection, rupture and perforation of the uterus, the entry of air into
the uterine veins, scalding of the internal genital organs, etc. It is,
therefore, not to be wondered at that death so frequently ensues, and
that almost always severe illnesses result from the use of these
abortifacients.
The State would in this way best put a stop to artificial abortion if,
in addition to the above-mentioned removal of the disgrace attached to
illegitimate motherhood, it diffused widely among all classes of society
a knowledge of the =permissible= means for the prevention of pregnancy.
The fact that neo-malthusian methods are chiefly employed =in large
towns=, indicates their dependence upon economical considerations, and
upon the struggle for existence, which is especially severe in large
towns. Hope for the future rests upon the removal of moral and legal
coercion in marriage, in which Gutzkow (“Säkularbilder,” i. 174, 175)
saw the principal causes of social and sexual misery; and upon the
rational regulation of methods for the prevention of pregnancy, which
must be regarded as in no way identical with the hostility to
“fruitfulness” in the sense of Weininger. On the contrary, the yearning
for children, and the joy in their possession, will then, for the first
time, obtain their natural satisfaction.
[709] _Cf._ his classical essay, “Population: its Natural Subdivision
and Movement,” published in “Elements of General Political Economy,”
vol. i., pp. 158-187 (Leipzig, 1901).
[710] _Cf._ Franz Oppenheimer, “The Law of Population of T. R.
Malthus, and the more Recent Political Economists: a Demonstration and
a Criticism” (Bern, 1900). See also the interesting demonstration and
criticism of the malthusian doctrine in the work of Henry George,
“Progress and Poverty.”
[711] A notable example of such advances is found in the recently
discovered method of =inoculating the soil with nitrifying organisms=,
whereby barren lands are made fertile at trifling cost.-TRANSLATOR.
[712] Eli Metchnikoff, “The Nature of Man.”--English translation by
Chalmers Mitchell, pp. 101-107; Heinemann, London, 1903.
[713] A more detailed account of this interesting
“politico-economical” operation will be found in the work of Max
Bartels, “Medicine among Savage Races,” pp. 297, 298 (Leipzig, 1893).
[714] The ancients were also familiar with preventive methods of
intercourse and with abortion. Widely renowned is the passage of the
historian Polybius (XXXVII. ix. 5) in which we read: “In my time the
whole of Greece suffered from =an insufficiency of children=--speaking
generally, from =a lack of men=; for men had become so much accustomed
to good living, to the greed for money, and to every comfort, that
=they no longer wished to marry, or, at any rate, they wished to have
only a few children=. Not the sword of the enemy was it that
depopulated the ancient States, but the lack of offspring.” In Spain
also, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in consequence of
the wealth acquired in the New World, there resulted an overwhelming
dread of marriage and child-bearing, so that the population became
reduced to nine millions, and the bringing up of four children was
rewarded with a title of nobility (_cf._ J. Unold, “Duties and Aims of
Human Life,” p. 110; Leipzig, 1904).
[715] _Cf._ E. H. Kisch, “Artificial Sterility,” published in
Eulenburg’s “Real-Enzyklopädie,” third edition, 1900, vol. xxiii., p.
372. See also the elaborate discussion of artificial sterility and
means for the prevention of conception in Kisch’s work, “The Sexual
Life of Woman,” English translation by M. Eden Paul (Rebman Limited,
London, 1908).
[716] A. Hegar, “The Sexual Impulse,” pp. 58, 59, 104, 105 (Stuttgart,
1894).
[717] M. Gruber, “Hygiene of the Sexual Life,” pp. 60-62 (Stuttgart,
1905).
[718] L. Löwenfeld, “The Sexual Life and Nervous Disorders,” pp.
154-156.
[719] C. Hasse (Mensinga), “Facultative Sterility,” fourth edition
(Berlin and Neuwied, 1885); same author, “How is the Life of Married
Women best Safeguarded?” (Berlin and Neuwied, 1895); same author,
“Prognosis of Married Life for Women” (Berlin and Neuwied, 1892); same
author, “Vom Sichinachtnehmen” [_Coitus interruptus_, see p. 702]
(Neuwied, 1905).
[720] P. Fürbringer, “Sexual Hygiene in Married Life,” published in
Senator and Kaminer’s, “Health and Disease in Relation to Marriage and
the Married State,” p. 209 (London, Rebman Limited, 1906).
[721] Spener, the article “Artificial Sterility,” published in
Eulenburg’s _Encyclopedic Annual of the Medical Sciences_, vol. i.,
pp. 456-459 (Berlin and Vienna, 1903).
[722] L. Bergeret, “Des Fraudes dans l’Accomplissment des Fonctions
Génératrices,” fourteenth edition (Paris, 1893). See also Toulouse,
“Les Conflits Intersexuels,” pp. 41-58 (Paris, 1904).
[723] H. Ferdy, “Means for the Prevention of Conception,” eighth
edition, two parts (Leipzig, 1907); same author, “Moral
Self-restraint: the Reflections of a Malthusian” (Hildesheim, 1904).
[724] Karl Buttenstedt, “Happiness in Marriage (Revelation in Woman):
a Nature Study,” third edition (Friedrichshagen, 1904).
[725] Richard E. Funcke, “A New Revelation of Nature: a Secret of the
Sexual Life. No more Prostitution” (Hanover, 1906).
[726] Dietrich Wilhelm Busch, “The Sexual Life of Woman in
Physiological, Pathological, and Therapeutical Relations,” vol. ii.,
p. 94 (Leipzig, 1840): “The gradual swelling of the breasts, and the
presence of milk in these organs, arouses to a high degree the
suspicion of pregnancy, but gives no certain proof of the existence of
this condition. These organs often swell very gradually in certain
pathological states, and in virgins, unimpregnated wives, widows, old
women, and even in men, milk has been found in the breasts.”
[727] Mensinga, in a most readable short study, “A Contribution to the
Mechanism of Conception” (Berlin and Neuwied, 1891), has considered
this question in detail.
[728] To propagate Damm’s idea, the German Society for Regeneration
was founded, whose first president was the above-named Peters; the
organ of the society is the newspaper _Volkskraft_.
[729] S. Freud, “Collection of Minor Writings upon the Doctrine of
Neurosis,” pp. 70, 71 (1906).
[730] The most convenient and complete apparatus for vaginal douching
is the American irrigating syringe known as the “Lady’s Friend.” The
technique of vaginal douching is very thoroughly described by L.
Volkmann, “Solution of the Social Problem by Means of Woman,” pp.
29-31 (Berlin and Leipzig, 1891).
[731] R. Braun recently reported (“Experiments made with
Spermathanaton Pastilles,” _Medizin. Woch._, 1906, No. 13) successful
results with this means. But, in general, this, like all chemical
means, cannot be absolutely depended upon to prevent pregnancy.
[732] L. Blumreich, “Diseases of Women, including Sterility,” in
Senator-Kaminer, “Health and Disease in Relation to Marriage and the
Married State,” p. 769 _et seq._ (London, Rebman Limited, 1906).
[733] _Cf._ the account of herpes progenitalis given in Iwan Bloch’s
“Origin of Syphilis,” part ii., pp. 385-388.
[734] A detailed account of “Operative Sterility” will be found in
Kisch’s “The Sexual Life of Woman,” English translation by M. Eden
Paul (Rebman Limited, 1908).
[735] _Cf._ the accounts of this operation among the Australians given
by Max Bartels, “Medicine among Savage Races,” pp. 306, 307 (Leipzig,
1895).
[736] _Cf._ R. Schwaeblé, the chapter “Ovariées” in “Les Detraquées de
Paris,” pp. 255-258. [This aspect of the operation of oöphorectomy is
the foundation of some of the most striking incidents in Zola’s novel
“Fécondité.”--TRANSLATOR.]
[737] _Cf._ H. Ploss, “The History of Abortion” (Leipzig, 1883);
Galliot, “Recherches Historiques sur l’Avortement Criminel” (Paris,
1884).
[738] Countess Gisela von Streitberg, “The Right to Destroy the
Germinating Life: § 218 of the Criminal Code, from a New Point of
View” (Oranienburg, 1904).
[739] In a work recently published, which I have not yet been able to
obtain, entitled “Nasciturus: Life before Birth, and the Legal Rights
of the Being about to be Born,” the gynæcologist F. Ahlfeld discusses
this question very thoroughly.
[740] _Cf._ Lewin and Brenning, “Abortion induced by Means of Poisons”
(Berlin, 1899); E. von Hoffmann’s “Textbook of Forensic Medicine,”
edited by A. Kolisko, ninth edition, pp. 220-258 (Berlin and Vienna,
1903).
CHAPTER XXVIII
SEXUAL HYGIENE
“_Man scans with scrupulous care the character and pedigree of his
horse, cattle, and dogs, before he matches them; but when he comes to
his own marriage, he rarely, or never, takes such care. Yet he might
by selection do something, not only for the bodily constitution and
frame of his offspring, but for their intellectual and moral
qualities._”--CHARLES DARWIN.
CONTENTS OF CHAPTER XXVIII
Sexual hygiene as social hygiene -- Its foundation by Darwin -- Recent
works -- “Reproductive hygiene” -- Degeneration and regeneration
(hereditary taint and hereditary enfranchisement) -- Possibility of
the disappearance of morbid tendencies -- “Eugenics” (Galton) --
Love’s choice and sexual selection -- Principles -- Darwin’s
prescriptions regarding sexual selection -- Prohibition of marriage --
Inheritance of morbid tendencies and morbid constitutions -- Danger of
alcoholism for the offspring -- Families of drinkers -- Direct
influence of alcohol upon the germ-plasm -- Observations on this
subject -- Syphilis as a cause of racial degeneration -- Syphilis and
the duration of life -- Degenerative effects of tuberculosis -- Direct
infection -- Inheritance of the tubercular habit of body -- Mental
disorders, diatheses, and malignant tumours -- Nervous disorders --
Inheritable atrophy of the female mammary glands -- Recent works on
this subject -- Effect of excessive youth or excessive age of the
married pair -- Influence of blood-relationship -- Significance of
breeding in-and-in in relation to the evolution of the race -- The
dangers of too close blood-relationship -- Importance of spiritual
qualities in relation to love’s choice -- The breeding of talent --
Importance of this in relation to the woman’s question -- In relation
to the improvement of the race -- Greater resisting powers possessed
by women towards degenerative influences -- A quotation from Carl Vogt
-- Unfavourable influence of coercive marriage morality and of
mammonism -- Importance of racial hygiene and of the sexual sense of
responsibility.
CHAPTER XXVIII
Sexual hygiene in individual relationships has already been discussed in
previous chapters, and more especially in those upon the prophylaxis and
suppression of venereal diseases, upon the question of sexual
abstinence, upon sexual education, and upon the use of methods for the
prevention of pregnancy. Here we merely propose to deal shortly with the
=social= relationships of the hygiene of the sexual life. After Darwin,
more particularly in his work on the “Descent of Man,” had published
fundamental observations regarding the social importance of sexual
hygiene, other writers, influenced by recent anthropological and
ethnological research, occupied themselves with these problems, more
especially Hegar,[741] A. Ploetz,[742] and R. Kossmann;[743] the
subjects considered by these writers have been aptly comprised under the
name “=reproductive hygiene=,” which constitutes a part of general
racial biology.
Unfortunately, racial biology, as Max Gruber[744] justly remarks, has
formed exaggerated estimates of the ideas of “degeneration” and
“hereditary taint”; and, on the other hand, the complementary ideas of
“regeneration” and “hereditary enfranchisement” have been unduly
neglected. And yet it is certain that these latter influences are
continually in active operation in the direction of the resanation and
invigoration of the race: that the introduction of =new and healthy
blood= is competent to bring about reanimation and regeneration, even in
degenerate families. Gruber says with justice (“Hygiene of the Sexual
Life,” p. 55, 1905):
“Completely normal, and entirely free from hereditary taint, no single
human being can be; and, on the other hand, experience teaches us,
that just as morbid tendencies make their appearance in certain
families, so also =they may disappear= from these families. Many of
these tendencies can be rendered ineffective by a suitably chosen mode
of life for the individual; and by means of repeated crossing with
stems which are free from these particular taints, the morbid tendency
can be led to disappear, unless the degenerative impulse is too
powerful.”
The recognition of this fact does not in the least diminish the great
importance of purposive choice in love and marriage; nor does it
diminish the sense of sexual responsibility in relation to the great
fact of =heredity=. But the recognition of the fortunate fact of
hereditary enfranchisement supports, on the other hand, all our
endeavours in the direction of rational “eugenics” (Galton),[745] in
accordance with which we must, as Nietzsche says, not merely reproduce,
but produce in an upward direction (“_nicht bloss fort-, sondern auch
=hinaufpflanzen= sollen_”).
The central problem of reproductive hygiene is that of =love’s choice=,
of sexual selection. It is a most difficult task, one which is rarely
fulfilled to the utmost, for the right man to find the right woman, so
that their individualities may in every respect correspond to and
complement one another. In most cases it is necessary to be contented
with relative harmony, and with sufficient =health= on both sides. The
laws of a refined, differentiated marriage choice have not yet been
discovered. Havelock Ellis[746] has instituted exhaustive researches on
this subject, without, however, attaining any positive result. He was
only able to establish the general proposition, that in love’s choice
=identity of race= and of =individual= characters (homogamy), and at the
same time =unlikeness in the secondary sexual= characters (heterogamy),
are to be preferred. In other respects, however, very various and
complicated influences are determinative in sexual selection. Havelock
Ellis also detected a natural disinclination towards love between
blood-relatives, which, however, he regards as merely due to the
customary life in close association from childhood onwards.
Darwin propounded the principle for sexual selection, that both sexes
should avoid marriage when in any pronounced degree they were defective,
either physically or mentally. Upon this idea rests the old and widely
diffused custom of killing or exposure of sickly children, as well as
the more recent prohibitions of marriage in certain States of the
American Union--for example, Michigan, in which the marriage (also
sexual union for procreative purposes?) is forbidden on the part of
those mentally diseased and of those who are infected with tubercle or
syphilis.[747]
The most important fundamental principle, however, of rational
reproductive hygiene is, without doubt, that only =healthy= individuals
should pair, or, at any rate, those only whose abnormalities or
diseases, if any, would not injure their offspring, physically or
mentally. Not in disease itself, but in the =inheritance= of disease,
lies the great danger for the deterioration of the family and the race.
It is for this reason that the study of the inheritance of morbid
predispositions and morbid constitutions is of such enormous importance
in racial biology.
With regard to illnesses to which attention must especially be paid in
connexion with sexual selection, we have here, in the first place, to
consider the “three scourges” of humanity: =alcoholism=, =syphilis=, and
=tuberculosis=.
Apart from the fact that alcoholism leads in the drinker himself to
nervous weakness, to mental disturbances of all kinds (delirium tremens,
imbecility, mania, peripheral neuritis, etc.), it also exercises a very
serious influence upon the offspring, who are, unfortunately, in many
cases very numerous,[748] as the study of “drinker families” shows
(_cf._ Jörger, “The Family Zero,” published in the _Archives for Racial
Biology_, 1905, vol. ii., pp. 494-559). Only a very small fraction of
the offspring of such families are physically and mentally normal (about
7 to 17 %); the majority display a =rapidly progressive degeneration=,
which manifests itself physically more especially by the tendency to
tuberculosis and epilepsy, and mentally by the tendency to drunkenness,
crime, and imbecility. Alcohol is a direct poison to the germ cells, so
much so that, according to the degree of drunkenness, it is almost
possible to estimate beforehand the degree of hereditary taint.
Moreover, an =otherwise healthy= father, in a single severe acute
alcoholic intoxication, may procreate a child either quite incompetent
to live, or weakly, or completely degenerate. On the other hand, it has
been observed that a person given to chronic alcoholism is competent,
during a temporary =diminution= in his consumption of alcohol, to
procreate a comparatively vigorous child. From this it follows that
marriage, or sexual union in general for reproductive purposes, with a
man or woman addicted to alcohol, and no less the act of procreation in
a state of intoxication, are absolutely to be condemned.
The danger of alcoholism to the offspring is illustrated by the
experience that about one-eighth of the surviving children of drunken
parents become affected with epilepsy, and that more than one-half of
idiotic children are born of drunken parents (Kraepelin, “The
Psychiatric Duties of the State,” p. 3; Jena, 1900).
In an earlier chapter (pp. 361-363) attention was drawn to the fact that
syphilis rivals alcohol in its potency as a cause of racial
degeneration.[749] Thanks to the researches of Alfred Fournier and of
Tarnowsky, the sinister influence of syphilis in this respect is now
widely recognized. E. Heddaeus rightly[750] asserts that since at the
present day the whole world is contaminated with congenital or acquired
syphilis, the eradication of syphilis is the most important task of
reproductive hygiene. The previously mentioned etiological and
prophylactic-therapeutic researches, among which may be included the
quite recent discovery of syphilitic antibodies in the system of those
who have formerly suffered from syphilis,[751] open to us a prospect of
the realization of this magnificent idea. The weakening and degeneration
of the individual by acquired and inherited syphilis, is also shown by
the recent researches into the influence of syphilis upon the duration
of life, among which I may mention the works of A. Blaschko[752] and
Hans Tilesius.[753] Regarding the disastrous influence of syphilis
continued into the second and third generations, see the monograph of B.
Tarnowsky, “La Famille Syphilitique et sa Descendence” [Clermont (Oise),
1904]. (See note ^{325} to p. 363.)
The third disease leading to degeneration is tuberculosis, which may be
inherited either by direct infection of the germ, or (more frequently)
by the transmission of a predisposition to the offspring. This simple
predisposition, recognized by the so-called “tubercular physique” (long,
thin individuals, with a flattened chest, poorly developed muscles, and
a pale countenance), does not offer any absolute ground for prohibiting
reproductive activity, since the health of the other party to the
marriage may diminish or entirely remove the danger of inheritance. But,
on the other hand, manifest tuberculosis or scrofula is a
contra-indication to marriage.
The same is true of actual =mental disorders=, of severe diatheses, such
as gout, obesity, or diabetes; and of cancer and other malignant
tumours; whereas the bulk of “nervous” affections and other bodily
diseases only exclude marriage in certain special circumstances.[754]
Very unfavourable to the offspring is the atrophy of the female breasts,
and the consequent incapacity for lactation, a matter to which
Mensinga,[755] G. von Bunge,[756] G. Hirth,[757] Emil Abderhalden,[758]
A. Hegar,[759] and others, have referred, and which exercises a very
unfavourable influence upon the offspring, since natural lactation
cannot be adequately replaced by artificial feeding. According to Bunge,
alcoholism, tuberculosis, syphilis, and mental disorders of the ancestry
are the principal causes of atrophy of the mammary glands. Whether
atrophy of the mammary glands is really on the increase, and whether it
is hereditary, are matters demanding, as Abderhalden insists, more
careful critical investigation.
Marriage at an age =too youthful= (below twenty on the part of the
woman, below twenty-four on the part of the man) and at =too advanced=
an age (above forty on the part of the woman, above fifty on the part of
the man) is also disadvantageous to the offspring, as manifested by
higher mortality of the infants, by the more frequent occurrence of
malformations, idiotcy, rickets, etc. Equally disadvantageous is =too
close relationship by blood=,[760] since in this way any unfavourable
tendencies are greatly strengthened. Upon a certain degree of
inbreeding, or, rather, upon an approximation to inbreeding, depends the
formation of every race. The “racial problem” in this sense is a kind of
exaltation of the inbreeding principle, for the very idea of =race=
implies a more or less close relationship between all the members of a
definite stock. Thus the entire absence of fresh blood does not
necessarily give rise to any degeneration; but it is certain that
=long-continued close in-and-in breeding= on the part of near
blood-relatives in the same family results in a =progressive tendency to
degeneration=, because, among those who unite in marriage, the same
morbid tendencies are present, and accumulate in consequence of the
inbreeding. This is shown very clearly by some statistics collected by
Morris (published by Gruber, _op. cit._, p. 32). Marriage between uncle
and niece, or between aunt and nephew, and the, unfortunately, far too
frequent marriages between first cousins, are therefore to be condemned.
The greatest value is to be placed, in love’s choice, upon
=intellectual= qualities. Intelligent persons, and those full of
character, are to be preferred. Precisely in relation to the breeding of
talents, Nietzsche recommended (“Posthumous Works,” vol. xii., p. 188;
Leipzig, 1901) polygamy for men or women of predominant intellectual
capacity, so that they might have the opportunity of reproducing their
kind in intercourse with several persons of the opposite sex, and in
this way, since the later children of the same women are not so powerful
nor of such striking capacity as the first-born, they might have the
possibility of being the parents of several talented and distinguished
individuals. In relation to the woman’s question, the breeding of women
well endowed with talent is a matter of especial interest. Charles
Darwin[761] writes:
“In order that woman should reach the same standard as man, she ought,
when nearly adult, to be trained to energy and perseverance, and to
have her reason and imagination exercised to the highest point; then
she would probably transmit these qualities chiefly to her adult
daughters. All women, however, could not be thus raised, unless
during many generations those who excelled in the above robust virtues
were married, and produced offspring in larger numbers than other
women.”
In a valuable work W. Schallmayer[762] has recently discussed the great
importance of the offspring of talented persons in the improvement of
the race, and has considered the details of psychical inheritance.
As in the entire animal world, so also in the human race, the feminine
nature has a more conservative character, one more disinclined to
variations, whether favourable or unfavourable, as contrasted with the
more variable nature of the male, which is also more prone to submit to
degenerative influences. For this reason, in declining races, we meet
many more women free from degeneration than men. Carl Vogt, in a passage
which appears to be very little known, writes on this subject in the
following terms:[763]
“It is the women, my friend, who maintain the race, who for the
longest time safeguard the type of the people in body and spirit, and
for this reason they form the mirror at once of the future and of the
past which are allotted to that people. You will no doubt have noticed
how, in many races, there exists a disharmony between men and women,
so that in one race the male and in another the female stands behind
the other in physical beauty and in mental development. This
relationship between the two sexes is precisely that from which we are
able to learn the past and the future of the nation. Good and bad,
advance and retrogression, are first undertaken by the man, and by him
passed to the woman, whose conservative nature much more gradually
yields to strange influences. But since the stages of mental culture
through which a race passes are not only reflected in its bodily
development, but actually depend upon this development, it is easy to
understand that in a nature which is striving upwards, which we see in
the process of advance towards better things, the men possess the
advantage in the matter of beauty and of intellectual capacity;
whereas when the race is a declining one, the advantages in these
respects will lie with woman. If you find a race in which the women
are beautiful, but as a rule the men are ugly and badly formed, you
can with certainty conclude that this race has long since passed its
culminating point in development, and has long been undergoing a
process of decline.”
For racial biology it is at least equally important, if not even more
important, that healthy, vigorous, and talented men should reproduce
their kind, rather than that in love’s choice the corresponding
qualities in women should be regarded as determinative. Racial biology,
if it really wishes to obtain success in the breeding of humanity, is
compelled to demand the abolition of the present evil coercive marriage
morality, and, according to the suggestions of Nietzsche, von Ehrenfels,
and others, will not hesitate, =in certain cases=, to regard polygamy as
desirable, if only from this standpoint--that coercive marriage is the
sole cause of the domination of “mammonism” in the sexual life, to the
deleterious influence of which we have before alluded.[764]
Mammonism is dangerous if for this alone, because it involves =the
annihilation of the sense of sexual responsibility=, and in consequence
of this, natural love is rejected on one side, and all considerations of
a racial hygienic nature are cast away on the other. The lack of both is
the cause of degeneration.
[741] A. Hegar, “The Sexual Impulse” (Stuttgart, 1894).
[742] A. Ploetz, “Outlines of Racial Hygiene” (Berlin, 1895).
[743] R. Kossmann, “Breeding--Politics” (Schmargendorf--Berlin, 1905).
[744] Max Gruber, “Does Hygiene lead to Racial Degeneration?”
published in the _Münchener Medizinische Wochenschrift_, October 6 and
13, 1903.
[745] Francis Galton, “Eugenics: its Definition, Scope, and Aims”
(Sociological Society Papers, vols. i. and ii.), 1905; comments on
this work by A. Ploetz, published in the _Archives for Racial and
Social Biology_, 1905, vol. ii., pp. 812-829; also W. Schallmayer,
“Marriage, Inheritance, and the Ethics of Reproduction,” published in
“The Book of the Child,” edited by Adele Schreiber, vol. i., pp. ix-xx
(Leipzig and Berlin, 1907); Alfred Grotjahn, “Social Hygiene and the
Problem of Degeneration” (Jena, 1904).
[746] Havelock Ellis, “Studies in the Psychology of Sex,” vol. iv.:
“Selection in Man.”
[747] Regarding marriage prohibitions, cf. P. Näcke, “Marriage
Prohibitions,” published in the _Archives for Criminal Anthropology_,
1906, vol. xxii.; M. Marcuse, “Legislative Marriage Prohibitions for
Persons who are Diseased or Deficient Mentally or Physically,”
published in _Sociale Medizin und Hygiene_, 1907, Nos. 2 and 3. It is
said that in Dakota medical examination of those who wish to marry is
legally prescribed (_Archives for Criminal Anthropology_, 1903, vol.
xi., pp. 266, 267).
[748] See especially the excellent treatise of A. Leppmann,
“Alcoholism, Morphinism, and Marriage,” published in Senator-Kaminer,
“Health and Disease in Relation to Marriage and the Married State,” p.
1057 _et seq._ (London, Rebman Limited, 1906). See also, regarding
alcohol as a “Racial Destroyer,” the fundamental study by Alfred
Ploetz, “The Significance of Alcohol in Relation to the Life and
Development of the Race,” published in the _Archives for Racial and
Social Biology_, 1904, vol. i., pp. 229-253. [English readers should
consult the works of Archdall Reid, “The Present Evolution of Man,”
“Alcoholism, a Study in Heredity,” and “The Principles of
Heredity.”--TRANSLATOR.]
[749] See also R. Ledermann, “Syphilis and Marriage,” published in
Senator-Kaminer, “Health and Disease in Relation to Marriage and the
Married State,” p. 561 (London, Rebman Limited); Alfred Fournier,
“Syphilis and Marriage.”
[750] E. Heddaeus, “The Breeding of Healthy Human Beings,” published
in the _Allgemeine Medizinische Zentral-Zeitung_, 1901, No. 6.
[751] A. Wassermann and F. Plaut, “The Occurrence of Syphilitic
Antibodies in the Cerebrospinal Fluid of General Paralytics,”
published in the _Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift_, 1906, No. 44.
[752] A. Blaschko, “The Influence of Syphilis upon the Duration of
Life,” published in the “Transactions of the Fourth International
Congress of Medical Examiners in Life Insurance,” pp. 95-149 (Berlin,
1906).
[753] Hans Tilesius, “Syphilis in Relation to Life Insurance,” _op.
cit._, pp. 201-213.
[754] In the great work of Senator-Kaminer (“Health and Disease in
Relation to Marriage and the Married State,” London, Rebman Limited,
1906) we find a detailed account of the circumstances and
possibilities which have here to be considered.
[755] Mensinga, “Incapacity for Lactation, and its Cure” (Berlin and
Neuwied, 1888).
[756] G. von Bunge, “The Increasing Incapacity of Women to Suckle
their Children” (Munich, 1903).
[757] G. Hirth, “The Maternal Breast: its Indispensability and its
Education for the Restoration of its Primitive Forces,” published in
“Ways to Love,” pp. 1-57.
[758] Emil Abderhalden, “The Question of the Incapacity of Mothers to
Suckle their Children,” published in _Medizinische Klinik_, 1906, No.
45.
[759] A. Hegar, “Atrophy of the Mammary Glands and the Incapacity for
Lactation,” published in the _Archives for Racial and Social Hygiene_,
1905, vol. ii., pp. 830-844.
[760] _Cf._ F. Kraus, “Blood-Relationship in Marriage and its
Consequences to the Offspring,” published in Senator-Kaminer, “Health
and Disease in Relation to Marriage and the Married State,” p. 79
(London, Rebman Limited, 1906).
[761] Charles Darwin, “The Descent of Man,” vol. ii., pp. 354, 355
(London, 1898).
[762] W. Schallmayer, “The Sociological Importance of the Offspring of
Talented Persons, and Psychical Inheritance,” published in the
_Archives of Racial and Social Biology_, 1905, vol. ii., pp. 36-75.
_Cf._ also S. R. Steinmetz, “The Offspring of Talented Persons,”
published in the _Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft_, 1904, No. 1.
[763] Carl Vogt, “The Ocean and the Mediterranean: Letters of Travel,”
vol. ii., pp. 203, 204 (Frankfurt-on-the-Main, 1848).
[764] Alexander von Humboldt (“Journey in Tropical Regions,” vol. ii.,
p. 17) remarks that in Europe a greatly deformed or hideous girl, if
only she possesses property, can marry, and that the children
frequently inherit the malformations of the mother; whereas among
savage races there exists a natural disinclination to such
marriages--a disinclination which money is not able to overcome.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE SEXUAL LIFE IN ITS PUBLIC RELATIONSHIPS (SEXUAL QUACKERY,
ADVERTISEMENTS, AND SCANDALS)
“_One of the principal reasons which makes the eradication of quackery
for ever impossible is to be found in the fact which finds incisive
expression in the proverb ‘Die Dummen werden nicht alle.’_”
[“_Stupidity is a hardy perennial._”]--WILHELM EBSTEIN.
CONTENTS OF CHAPTER XXIX
Greater publicity of the sexual life in the age of commerce -- Three
forms of this publicity -- Sexual quackery -- The relations of
quackery to the sexual life -- Recent examples -- The trade in sexual
nostrums and other articles of immoral use -- Public puffing of sexual
nostrums -- Quack advertisements.
Newspaper advertisements for sexual purposes -- Matrimonial
advertisements -- Their history -- The two oldest matrimonial
advertisements -- Mercenary marriages and marriages for position --
Nominal marriages -- Immoral advertisements -- Loan advertisements --
Acquaintance advertisements -- Friendship advertisements -- Employment
advertisements -- Heterosexual and homosexual advertisements --
Advertisements regarding correspondence -- Advertisements of rooms for
sexual purposes -- Advertisements regarding instruction -- Rendezvous
and _postillon d’amour_ advertisements -- _Poste restante_
correspondence -- Private inquiries -- Advertisements for the purpose
of sexual perversions -- Street handbills -- Brothel guides.
Public scandals of a sexual character -- Murders and suicides from
love -- Seductions, duels, procuress trials -- Orgies and the life of
swindlers.
CHAPTER XXIX
In this age of commerce, of telegraphs, and of the press, the rôle which
the sexual life plays =before the public eye= is notably greater than it
used to be. From very early times, indeed, sexual matters formed the
principal constituent of the _chronique scandaleuse_, but it was not
then possible to disseminate such scandals by means of daily newspapers,
as it is now so easy to do. In three forms at the present day the sexual
life attains publicity: in the form of an unscrupulous =quackery=; in
the form of =newspaper advertisements= relating to the sexual life; and
in the form of =sexual scandals= diffused by means of the press. We
propose to refer briefly to the principal aspects of all three, and we
shall find that they are, for the most part, of an unpleasant character.
According to the well-known saying that hunger and love rule the world,
quackery has from its very earliest beginnings concerned itself by
preference with the provinces of disorders of digestion and of sexual
troubles; and especially in respect of the latter have its developments
been so astounding--in fact, there appears to be nothing else which
gives such instructive information regarding the possibilities of human
folly, depravity, and superstition. When we regard the history of
quackery and medical charlatanry of all times,[765] we discern beyond
question the justice of the assertion that “=quackery is identical with
the diffusion of sexual vice and of fornication=.” These relationships
of quackery to the sexual life and to sexual crime have recently had a
vivid light thrown upon them by C. Reissig[766] and C. Alexander.[767]
Reissig deals more especially with the “immoral practices of many
magnetizers, lay hypnotizers, and similar individuals, who, under the
pretence of giving help to the sick, seek and find opportunity for the
gratification of =all kinds of immoral lusts=”; and he gives
characteristic examples of these practices. Police reports have shown
that numerous _masseuses_ and male quacks, who commonly appear under
the high-sounding names of “professor,” “director,” “hygienologist,”
“magnetopath,” etc., and who profess to treat “secret diseases” or
“diseases of women,” are in reality concerned with =abortion
mongering, the production of artificial sexual excitement, and the
provision of human material for the gratification of perverse lusts=.
Who does not know the ominous words, “_Rat und Hilfe!_” (“Advice and
help!”)? Under the mantle of quackery the worst kinds of immorality
are practised. Thus, Alexander (_op. cit._, p. 48) speaks of an “ear
specialist” who, paving the way by gigantic advertisements in the
local papers, travelled from place to place, nominally in order to
relieve “defects of hearing,” but who in reality utilized his
opportunities in order to make immoral attempts upon young girls
(Glatz Assizes, July 10, 1896). The “magnetizer” M---- hypnotized
young girls, and then violated them; another examined the genital
organs when professing to treat ear troubles, and carried out improper
manipulations. In an article, “Serene Highness’s Quackery,” in the
_Aerztliche Vereinsblatt_, No. 418, August, 1900, Dr. Reissig reports
that “to Her Serene Highness the Princess Maria von Rohan in Salzburg”
it appears to be a sacred duty to bear witness to the joiner (!)
Kuhne, in Leipzig, under date November 9, 1889, that his sexual
friction baths (!) “had proved to be of inestimable value, and had had
a wonderful effect,” and she felt impelled “to recommend to physicians
the most careful examination and trial of this new method of cure.”
The treatment of “secret diseases,”[768] in the hands of quacks, does
incredible harm; and the same is true of the uncleanly and dangerous
practices of “masseuses” and of professional abortion-mongers. Closely
connected with quackery is the =trade in sexual nostrums and in other
articles of immoral use=.[769] This trade is occupied in the manufacture
and public recommendation of “sexual articles” of every kind:
aphrodisiacs; “protective articles”; various celebrated measures for the
relief of “sexual weakness,” infertility, pollutions, lack of voluptuous
sensation, etc. The artificial sterilization, not of women, but of men,
by means of Roentgen rays is recommended.[770] The newspapers overflow
with advertisements recommending all these articles. Beneath the aliases
of “chiromancy” and “astrology,” sexual quackery also lies concealed. It
allures its clients chiefly by means of newspaper advertisements.
Newspaper advertisements for sexual purposes are not more than 200 years
old. Their oldest and most harmless form was that of matrimonial
advertisements, the first two of which appeared on July 19, 1695, in the
_Collection for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade_, published by
Houghton, the father of English advertising.[771] These two remarkable
and historical advertisements run as follows:
A gentleman, thirty years of age, who says that he has considerable
property, would be glad to marry a young lady with property amounting
to about £3,000. He will make a suitable settlement.
A young man, twenty-five years of age, with a good business, and whose
father is prepared to give him £1,000, would be glad to make a
suitable marriage. He has been brought up by his parents as a
dissenter, and is a sober man.
We see that from the very outset matrimonial advertisements did not
forget the _punctum saliens_, which I need not specify.[772] All, down
to those of the present day, are alike. The only difference is that, in
addition to these “money marriages,” advertisements of “nominal
marriages” and also of “marriages for position” appear freely in the
papers. The majority of matrimonial advertisements are inserted for
mercenary or interested purposes, and really belong to the category of
“=immoral advertisements=,” which conceal themselves under all possible
titles. I give a short classification of some of the commonest immoral
advertisements, and append some actual advertisements of each kind taken
from leading German and Austrian newspapers.
1. =Loan Advertisements.=--In most cases a “young,” “smart” lady begs an
older gentleman for a loan, or _vice versa_, a young man directs the
same request to a “lady belonging to the best circles.” Frequently also
it is a “lady living alone,” “a young widow,” or a “recently married
woman,” who, “without the knowledge of her husband,” and “in temporary
want of money,” seeks a “helper.” Almost invariably the need and the
marriage are fictitious. These are in most cases the advertisements of
secret prostitutes, of a similar character to the advertisements of
_masseuses_. The following advertisement must otherwise be interpreted:
What noble-minded lady would be willing to lend, to a young,
widely-travelled engineer, the sum of 12,000 marks [£600], for six
months, on good security?
2. =Acquaintanceship Advertisements, Friendship Advertisements, and
Employment Advertisements.=--These may be divided into the two classes
of heterosexual and homosexual advertisements. Examples of the former
are the following:
A young widow, twenty-seven years of age, desires friendly intercourse
with a man of position, who will assist her with word and deed.
A young stranger desires acquaintanceship (!) to relieve her of a
temporary difficulty.
A merchant, a man of middle age, desires the acquaintanceship of a
good-looking lady (a slender figure preferred), for the purpose of
friendly intercourse.
The following advertisements have a more or less definite homosexual
note:
A well-placed young lady, nearing the age of thirty, desires an
honourable, trustworthy lady friend.
A cultured lady of middle age desires a ladies’ club.
A well-placed elderly gentleman desires friendly intercourse with a
young man.
A young merchant, between twenty and thirty years of age, desires
friendly intercourse with a young man of good family.
A young lady, a stranger to the town, desires a lady friend; apply by
letter to “Lesbos” at the office of this paper.[773]
A newspaper, now defunct, which formerly appeared in Munich,
characterized by homosexual “psychologico-erosophical” tendencies,
entitled _Der Seelenforscher_ (edited by August Fleischmann), appears to
have laid itself open to such advertisements. In No. 11 of the second
year of issue, November, 1903, I find the following distinctive
advertisements:
A young vigorous (!) man, a Swiss, twenty-four years of age, well
recommended, desires a situation with a gentleman living alone.
A young man, twenty years of age, of agreeable appearance, with an
honourable and ideal mind, desires a position as correspondent or
companion in the house of a well-to-do, even if elderly, gentleman.
A wealthy, talented uranian young man desires the patronage of a noble
well-to-do urning.
A good, affectionate, and bright young man, who at the present time is
in an official position, desires to find a =well-to-do, kind-hearted,
and lonely gentleman=, to whom he could be a true life-companion, and
to whom, until the end of his life, he would give true affection. He
would faithfully fulfil all his duties.[774]
The numerous advertisements, also, in which young girls and women, or
widows, desire “positions” as housekeepers, companions, etc., in the
houses of “well-to-do” gentlemen “living alone” have, as a rule, an
immoral basis.
3. =Advertisements regarding Correspondence.=--These also form a
permanent constituent of the advertisements of the daily papers, and
serve in part the aims of prostitution or of assignations for sexual
intercourse, but in part really aim at an exchange of more or less
erotic letters, as is obviously the case in respect of the following
advertisements:
Young cultured man desires a stimulating (!) correspondence with a
young lady.
Young lady desires to enter into correspondence with a lady of good
position, with similar ideas.
4. =Advertisements of Rooms.=--Among these advertisements, we find that
of the “convenient room” or the room “with a separate entrance”--the
“storm-free diggings” of the student. Such rooms are usually offered to
men; women must seek them for themselves, as in the following
advertisement:
A lady artist desires a well-furnished convenient room, with bath-room
and piano, as an only tenant.
The advertisements regarding rooms to be let “during the day” mostly
refer to opportunities for fornication (“houses of accommodation”).
5. =Pseudo-Educational Advertisements.=--Here also there is a form of
advertisement which enables us without difficulty to recognize their
true purpose--for example:
A young Englishwoman gives stimulating instruction.
=Jeune= Française, =gaie= (!), bien recomm. qui enseigne de méthode
facile et rapide, donne des léçons.
Very frequent are announcements of sadistic or masochistic
“instruction,” in which the “energy” or “imposing appearance” of the
instructor or instructress is emphasized, or in which the word
“discipline” is displayed in a significance which cannot be
misunderstood.
6. =Rendezvous and Postilion d’Amour Advertisements.=--These subserve
the appointment of lovers, often adulterous lovers; but also the opening
up of acquaintanceship. Examples:
Veronika.
To-day unfortunately prevented, therefore 21st.
=“Wireless Telegraphy.”=
Best thanks for dear letter. Drive to-day. A thousand kisses.--L.
=“Good Report.”=
A letter will be found addressed to “Sophie G.,” post restante,
Vienna, I/1, principal post-office.
=M.S.A.=
To-day, 4. Please bring news. Most intimate.--K. D. D.
=A. 15.=
Je n’oublie pas et j’espère.
Very frequent also are requests from male advertisers, addressed to
ladies they have chanced to meet in the railway, electric tram, etc.,
asking where the latter may live. These advertisements give a
description of the appearance, costume, time, and place of the first
meeting, and beg the lady to give her address “in confidence,” or to
come to some specified place of meeting. A very large number of =letters
addressed post restante= are of an erotic nature, and belong to this
category.
7. =Private Inquiries.=--Under this heading persons advertise in the
newspapers that for an honorarium (usually a very high one) they will
undertake to watch secretly any desired person--and almost invariably
such watching relates to the sexual life and activity of the person
under observation; when employed, they use all the methods of the most
unscrupulous detective. These individuals play a principal part in
divorce proceedings, and in conjugal quarrel based upon jealousy; they
are a cancer of our time[775] which cannot be too energetically
suppressed. A detective advertisement of this character is the
following:
=Private Inquiry.=
Confidential! Enlightening! Unfailing! Truthful! Universal!
Extraordinarily satisfactory conjugal inquiries; mode of life, family
relationships, liaisons, peculiarities of character, occupations,
present condition, past misconduct, future prospects, state of
property, secret intercourse, etc., etc.
8. =Advertisements relating to Sexual Perversions.=--We have already
referred to homosexual advertisements. An even more important part is
played by =sadistic= and =masochistic= advertisements, which usually
appear under the cloak of “massage,” “instruction,” or of an
“energetic” person. Examples:
=Masoch.= Who is interested in this matter? Address “Kismet,” office
of this paper.
Widow of noble birth, middle-aged, =energetic=, desires position in
the house of a gentleman of standing, as reader, or in some other
capacity.
Cabinet de massage, par dame diplômée, hydrothérapie. Mme. D., 82, Rue
Blanche.
Massage suédois, par dame diplômée, tous les jours de 10 à 8 heures.
Madame Martinet, leçons de maintien....
Monsieur dés. gouvernante gr. et forte, 40 a. =sévère= pour educ.
enfant diffic. A. B. p.r. Amiens.
=Energetic= distinguished lady, in temporary need, wishes to receive a
considerable loan, but will meet only the actual lender.
Severin is seeking his Wanda!
A young man begs 30 marks from a lady. “Sacher Masoch,” Post Office,
Köpenickerstrasse.
Even fetichistic advertisements sometimes appear, such as the following,
from a shoe fetichist:
A young man of means buys for his private collection elegant shoes,
which have been worn by leading actresses, or by ladies of high rank.
9. =Handbills.=--In large towns these are distributed by persons
standing at the street corners, and usually relate to restaurants with
women attendants. One example will suffice:
=The Restaurant of the Good-Natured Saxon Girl.=
The attendants at this restaurant are young and pretty girls from
Saxony; Miss Elly waits at the bar. Piano-playing and singing. Your
kind patronage is requested by =The Young Hostess=.
“Chiromantists,” magnetopaths, and other charlatans, advertise
themselves by means of street handbills. In the Latin countries, and
more especially in Paris, true “=brothel guides=” stand at the street
corners, and conduct the passers-by to improper dramatic
representations, or provide for them children for fornicatory purpose,
or invite them to homosexual intercourse, etc.
The third form under which the sexual life makes a public appearance is
that of the great scandals and sensational occurrences with a sexual
background, which are discussed by the press. I allude here, without
attempting completeness, to =murders= and =suicides= arising from
jealousy, from rejected love, or from love unsuccessful for some other
reason--occurrences which afford sufficient proof that individual
=falling in love= in our own time is just as violent and passionate as
it was formerly; further, to =abduction= and =seduction=; to =divorce
scandals= and =divorce proceedings=; in general, to all =law-court
proceedings relating to sexual offences=; to =duels= dependent upon
erotic motives; to =family tragedies= upon a similar basis; to the great
=procuress trials=; to the discovery of =secret sexual clubs= and of
=erotic orgies=; to =revelations from nunneries and from secular
institutions=; to the exploits of =swindlers=, who very frequently make
use of sexual passion in others to assist them in their pursuit of
plunder, etc. Examples of all these varieties of scandals and
sensational occurrences are found day by day in the newspapers. Very
frequently, on account of the very nature of sexual psychology, they
exercise a suggestive influence, so that we often hear of similar
occurrences at brief intervals. If we assume the existence of psychical
contagion, there is no doubt that these sensational newspaper reports
play a far greater part therein than the =whole= of the so-called erotic
literature.
[765] _Cf._ the valuable historical and critical monograph of
Professor Wilhelm Ebstein, “Charlatanry and Quackery in the German
Empire” (Stuttgart, 1905).
[766] C. Reissig, “Medical Science and Quackery,” p. 114 _et seq._
(Leipzig, 1900).
[767] C. Alexander, “The True and the False Healing Art,” pp. 46-49
(Berlin, 1899).
[768] _Cf._ C. Alexander, “Venereal Diseases and Quackery,” published
in the “Reports of the German Society for the Suppression of Venereal
Diseases,” 1902-1903, vol. i., Nos. 6 and 7; Hennig, “Venereal
Diseases and Quackery,” _op. cit._, No. 7; “Petition of the German
Society for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases to the German
Imperial Chancellor, regarding the Injury done to Venereal Patients by
Quacks,” _op. cit._, No. 7.
[769] _Cf._ the work of H. Beta, which is still of value in relation
to present conditions, “The Trade in Sexual Nostrums and Other
Articles of Immoral Use, as advertised in the Daily Press” (Berlin,
1872), at which early date we find mention of the “hygienologist,”
Jakobi, the Nestor of the Berlin quacks.
[770] _Cf._ W. Ebstein, _op. cit._, p. 46.
[771] _Cf._ the complete history of matrimonial advertisements which
is given in my “Sexual Life in England,” vol. i., pp. 140-159
(Charlottenburg, 1901).
[772] “Proputty, proputty, proputty--that’s what I ’ears ’em
saäy.”--TRANSLATOR.
[773] _Cf._ Paul Näcke, “Newspaper Advertisements by Female
Homosexuals,” published in the _Archives for Criminal Anthropology_,
edited by Hans Gross, 1902, vol. x., pp. 225-229 (taken from Munich
newspapers).
[774] _Cf._ Paul Näcke, “Supply of and Demand for Homosexuals in the
Newspapers,” published in the _Archives for Criminal Anthropology_,
1902, vol. viii., pp. 319-350.
[775] _Cf._ also the account of these detectives given in the essay
“The Love-Market,” published in “Roland von Berlin,” No. 45, of
November 8, 1906. In this case, a jealous young woman offered 1,500
marks (£75) in order to have her husband “watched” by such a
detective.
CHAPTER XXX
PORNOGRAPHIC LITERATURE AND ART
“_Wer will das Höchste aus Wollust machen, der krönt ein Schwein in
wüster Lache._” [“_He who devotes his talents to the glorification of
lust is like one who crowns a pig in the midst of a dismal
swamp._”]--HANS BURGKMAIR.
CONTENTS OF CHAPTER XXX
Distinction between pornography and eroticism -- An old medical thesis
concerning obscene books, dating from the year 1688 -- Definition of
obscenity in this thesis -- Modern definition of an obscene book --
Treatment of purely sexual relationships from the artistic and
scientific standpoints respectively -- Summary of the general tendency
-- Morality-fanaticism and medical authorship -- The artistic
treatment of sexual matters -- Humorous mode of treatment -- The
erotic in caricature -- The mystic-satanic conception of the sexual --
The importance of the individuality and the age of the reader or
onlooker -- Danger of Bible-reading for children -- A remark of John
Milton upon this subject -- Importance of the standard of the time,
and of contemporary moral ideas, in our judgment of an erotic work --
Example of the works of Nicolas Chorier and of the Marquis de Sade --
Observation regarding the recent German translations of pornographic
works -- Comparison of obscene books with natural poisons -- Recent
obscene literature -- Remarkable fondness of great artists and poets
for the pornographic-erotic element -- French celebrities as
pornographists (Voltaire, Mirabeau, de Musset, Gautier, Droz, etc.) --
Goethe and Schopenhauer as erotic writers -- Schiller’s and Goethe’s
fondness for French erotic writings -- Occupation of women with
pornographic literature -- Obscene pictures by great painters, from
Lucas Cranach to the present time -- Pornographic garbage literature
and garbage art -- Origin of these -- Dangers of hawkers’ literature
-- Futility of the efforts of Purity Societies -- Historical examples
of this -- The true means to render pornography harmless.
CHAPTER XXX
What is an obscene, pornographic book or picture? In order to obtain an
accurate and objective definition of this idea, we must always keep
clearly before our minds the distinction between “=pornography=” and
“=eroticism=.” The confusion between these two ideas explains the great
conflict of opinion on the part of expert witnesses in connexion with
the question whether any specified book or picture is to be regarded as
“immoral” or “indecent.”
The obscene differs _toto cœlo_ from the erotic. In my own possession is
a rare work which is probably the first monograph regarding obscene
books. It dates from the year 1688, and is the thesis of a Leipzig
doctor.[776] At that time it was still possible to compose =academic=
essays upon such topics. To-day this would only be possible in the legal
faculty and from the criminal standpoint. In respect of the unprejudiced
scientific and historical consideration of pornography, we have
experienced a notable retrogression, and at the present day a certain
degree of courage is needed to make these things an object of scientific
study, to consider in an unprejudiced and objective manner these
peculiar outgrowths of the human soul.
In the above-mentioned essay the learned writer gives, on p. 5, a
definition of the obscene, which shows that he had not thoroughly
differentiated it from the erotic, but confused the two ideas under the
same term. In his view, obscene writings are “all such writings whose
authors use distinctly improper language, and speak plainly about the
sexual organs, or describe the shameless acts of voluptuous and impure
human beings, in such words that chaste and tender ears would shudder to
hear them.”
But such improper descriptions might occur in a work without its being
possible to designate this as obscene. =A book can justly be called
obscene only when it has been composed simply, solely, and exclusively
for the purpose of producing sexual excitement=--when its contents aim
at inducing in its readers a condition of coarse and brutish sensuality.
This definition clearly excludes all those literary products which,
notwithstanding the existence of isolated erotic, or even obscene,
passages, =are yet composed for purposes radically different from that
above described=--it excludes, for example, artistic, religious, and
scientific works (the history of civilization, poetry, belles-lettres,
medicine, folk-lore, etc.).
The question, namely, whether =simple sexual relationships= can properly
be made the object of =artistic= or =scientific= representation, may be
answered with an unconditional affirmative, if we presuppose a purely
artistic or scientific critical representation and consideration of
erotic objects; that is to say, in the work of art, or the scientific
work, as the case may be, the purely sexual must completely disappear
behind the higher artistic or scientific conception. This is possible
only when that which is represented is =completely devoid of actuality=;
when time and place are entirely ignored, so that the object is regarded
rather from its =general human= aspect; and when, further, in the
artistic representation of the purely sexual we find expression also, on
the part of the artist, of a conception enlightening and to a degree
=overcoming= the purely physical; or when, finally, on the part of the
man of science, we recognize a critical point of view, by means of which
the =causal= relationships of the sexual find expression.
The =general tendency= is determinative, not the shocking individual
detail. I need not waste any more words upon the importance of medical,
ethnological, psychological, and historical works upon the sexual
life.[777] This fact is, fortunately, now fully recognized even by the
greatest morality fanatics, and it would hardly now be possible in
Germany that a law-court--as recently in Belgium[778]--should witness
proceedings against a medical undertaking on account of pornographic (!)
illustrations.[779]
The same is true of the artistic consideration of sexual matters. For
example, how readily everything sexual lends itself to the =humorous=
point of view! How short here is the step from the sublime to the
ridiculous! In a copy which lies before me of Fr. Th. Vischers’ first
work, “The Sublime and the Ridiculous” (Stuttgart, 1837), which was once
in the possession of a friend of Goethe, the Driburg physician, Anton
Theobald Brück, we find on p. 203, in his handwriting, the apt marginal
note: “Wit gilds the nickel of the obscene.” Sexual matters actually
provoke humour. This fact was enunciated by Schopenhauer, and was
ascribed by him to the profound earnestness which underlies the sexual
(“Welt als Wille und Vorstellung,” i., 330). For this reason, as Eduard
Fuchs[780] rightly insists, the majority of all erotic creations are of
the nature of caricatures. The most brilliant advocate of this humorous
view of sexual matters is the brilliant English artist Thomas
Rowlandson, whose works, both in England and in Germany, have long been
kept under lock and key.
The =mystic-satanic= element in the sexual also stimulates artistic
representations, and in the works of Baudelaire, Barbey d’Aurevilly,
Félicien Rops, Aubrey Beardsley, Toulouse Lautrec, etc., we see that the
“perverse” also is thoroughly capable of erotic representation. But even
pure obscenity, without any underlying idea--as, for example, we see it
to-day in the obscene drawings of Carracci--may have the effect of a
simple artistic product, if the taste of the onlooker is so far matured
that the purely sexual can recede completely behind the artistic
conception. We must, generally speaking, not fail to take into account
the individuality and the age of the spectator or reader. For =children=
and =immature= persons, even works that are obviously =not obscene=,
such as artistic, religious, and scientific literature, may, in certain
circumstances, be dangerous--works which adults regard and judge in the
spirit of their own time, as, for example, the =Bible= and the writings
of the =Fathers of the Church=. John Milton, who was certainly not
lacking in piety, wrote: “The Bible often relates =blasphemies= in no
very delicate manner; it describes the =fleshly lusts of vicious men=
not without elegance.”[781] =Books which are to be read by children=
cannot be chosen too carefully, for a very large proportion also of the
literature which is not, properly speaking, obscene, but which deals
with sexual matters, has =upon the childish imagination= an effect
equivalent to that of true pornography upon the adult.
In passing judgment on an erotic work, we must, finally, take into
consideration the =standard of the epoch= to which the work belongs; we
must bear in mind the nature of the =contemporary moral ideas=. Much
which to us to-day appears obscene was not so in the middle ages. On
the other hand, we must not excuse everything on this plea, for our
forefathers were also familiar with pornographic and utterly obscene
books. Works such as those of the Marquis de Sade or of Nicolas Chorier
(“Gespräche der Aloysia Sigaea”) have not only an importance in the
history of civilization: they also have an interest for anthropologists
and medical men. They constitute remarkable documents of the nature and
mode of manifestation of sexual perversities in earlier times. Moreover,
all pornographic writings afford us valuable assistance in our study of
the genesis of sexual perversions. But while we admit the importance of
such writings--for example, those of de Sade--to learned men and
bibliophiles, we cannot condemn in sufficiently strong terms the insane
undertaking of translating de Sade’s books in our own day. This is
simply pornology; for all those who, as medical men, psychologists, or
historians of civilization, are occupied with pornographic literature,
are--or, at any rate, should be--competent to read these authors in the
original tongue.[782] I feel therefore that the mass of recently
published German translations of the pornographic writings of John
Cleland, Mirabeau, Nerciat, de Sade, of the “Antijustine” of Rétif de la
Bretonne, of the “Portier des Chartreux,” of Alfred de Musset’s
“Gamiani,” etc., can only be described as pornography, although I must
admit that the original editions are often inaccessible to the
scientific student interested in the matter, who in such cases must,
_faute de mieux_, content himself with translations.
These obscene writings may be compared with =natural poisons, which must
also be carefully studied=, but which can be entrusted =only to those=
who are fully acquainted with their dangerous effects, who know how to
control and counteract these effects, and who regard them as an object
of natural research by means of which they will be enabled to obtain an
understanding of other phenomena.
The pornographic element of literature and art[783] has an ancient
history. In Greece, Rome, and Egypt, but more especially in India,
Japan, and China, there existed an extensive obscene literature. In
Europe the =French=, =Italian=, and =English= obscene literature
occupies the first place as regards comprehensiveness and wide
diffusion. Exceptionally dangerous in their effect are French
pornographic writings, because their mode of expression is so elegant,
whereas the English obscene books, with the single exception of
Cleland’s “Fanny Hill,” are positively deterrent, on account of the
coarse phraseology employed in them. The German writings in this
department are not much better than the English, and consist to a large
extent of bad translations of foreign pornographic works--if we except a
few older writings, which are repeatedly reissued, such as the
“Denkwürdigkeiten des Herrn von H.,” by Schilling, or the “Memoiren
einer Sängerin,” the first part of which is ascribed to the celebrated
Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient. Speaking generally, it is a remarkable
phenomenon (and one which is in flat contradiction to the assertion so
frequently made that pornography and true art cannot possibly be
associated) that so many spirits of the first rank, great artists either
in literature or plastic art, have enriched pornography themselves by
works of their own, or, failing this, have at least been notorious
lovers of pornography. This fact was clearly manifested at the time of
the Italian renascence, but it can be traced down to the present day.
Men like Voltaire (“La Pucelle d’Orléans”), Mirabeau (“L’Éducation de
Laure,” “Ma Conversion,” etc.), Alfred de Musset (“Gamiani”), Guy de
Maupassant (“Les Cousines de la Colonelle”), Théophile Gautier (“Lettre
à la Présidente”), and Gustave Droz (“Un Été à la Campagne”), have
written indubitably pornographic books. But the heroes of our own German
literature have not been free from such tendencies. Goethe not only
wrote the “Tagebuch,” but composed other (=still completely unknown=)
erotica, which, by command of the Grand Duchess Sophie, were sealed and
hidden away.[784] Schopenhauer,[785] who said to Frauenstädt that a
philosopher must be active, “not only with his head, but also with his
genital organs,” was a lover of pornography, even of a skatological
character, and was fond of telling “bawdy stories which will not bear
repetition”--for example, he would enumerate the different kinds of
kissing, describe the varieties of the sexual impulse, etc.[786]
Schiller and Goethe enjoyed reading Diderot’s “The Nun” (“La
Religieuse”) and his “Bijoux Indiscrets,” Rétif’s “Monsieur Nicolas,”
and the “Liaisons Dangereuses” of Choderlos de Laclos, books which would
nowadays be suppressed as “immoral.” Lichtenberg also was a very zealous
reader, and a connoisseur, not only of erotic, but also of pornographic
literature. In his letters he alludes to reading such pornographic works
as Cleland’s “Woman of Pleasure” (“Letters,” edition Leitzmann and
Schüddekopf, vol. ii., p. 187) and “Lyndamine,” etc. Talented women of
that period also read pornographic works. Pauline Wiesel, the beloved of
Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, greatly admired Mirabeau’s obscene
writings, as we learn from a letter of Friedrich Gentz, in which the
latter decries them as “cold libertinage,” and recommends to his friend
similar products of Voltaire, Crébillon, and Grécourt.[787]
These facts do not excuse pornography, but they refute the assertion
that pornography and true artistic perception are incompatible. As
Schopenhauer truly says, many contrasts can exist side by side in the
same human being. This is even more clearly manifest in pictorial art.
Anyone who turns over the leaves of Eduard Fuchs’ book upon the erotic
element in caricature will learn that the greatest painters have
occasionally painted deliberately =improper, obscene= pictures. I need
mention only the names of Lucas Cranach, Annibale Carracci, H. S. Beham,
Rembrandt, G. Aldegrever, Adrian van Ostade, Watteau, Boucher,
Fragonard, Vivan-Denon, Gillray, Lawrence, Rowlandson, Heinrich Ramberg,
Wilhelm von Kaulbach, Schadow, Otto Greiner, Willette, Kubin, Julius
Pascin,[788] Beardsley, etc.[789]
Side by side with these higher pornographic works there exists also a
lower kind--obscene garbage writings and pornographic pictures of the
worst possible kind, such as picture postcards, “act-photographs,” etc.,
in which all possible sexual perversities are represented, either in
printed matter or by pictures (masturbation, _poses lubriques_,
representations of nude portions of the body, copralagnistic and
urolagnistic acts, bestiality, sadism, masochism, pæderasty, incest,
fornicatory acts with children, orgies, obscene paraphrases of proverbs,
rape, etc.). Kemmer (_op. cit._, pp. 31-45) gives a detailed account of
the sale of these obscenities, and of the way in which they are
advertised in catalogues, etc. They are manufactured in France, Germany,
Belgium, and Spain (especially in Barcelona). The dangerous character of
these articles is indisputable; they have a suggestive influence, and
stimulate those who look at them to imitative acts. They may thus
directly give rise to sexual perversities.[790] But they are not so
dangerous as the true =hawkers’ literature=[791] and =popular garbage
writings= about “secret sins.” These inflame the imagination, and thus
lead to crime and sexual infamies. This is an old experience. In the
year 1901, at the trial of the boy murderers Thärigen and Kroft
(_Vossische Zeitung_, No. 161, April 5, 1901), the two murderers
confessed that they had been incited to the commission of crime by
backstairs romances, and by tales of Indians and robbers. The same cause
was alleged, in December, 1906, in Kottbus, by a boy fourteen years of
age, who was accused of murder.
How are we to counteract the moral harm done by such literature? I
consider all the efforts of societies for the suppression of immorality
to be illusory and two-edged, for they =always fail= to attain their
end; and in addition, unfortunately--a matter of which there is no
doubt--they endanger the freedom of art and science.[792] All measures
calculated to keep away from children and immature persons books which
might serve to give rise to sexual stimulation are worthy of support;
and it must be remembered that =for children and immature persons
scientific books, religious writings--as, for example, the unexpurgated
Bible--and also illustrated comic papers, etc., may be dangerous=. But,
for the most part, all prohibitions, and the whole campaign against
immorality, =serve only to favour pornography=. The stricter the
measures taken against it, =the wider becomes its diffusion=. This is a
=very old experience=, an incontrovertible fact. Tacitus (“Ann.,” XIV.,
c. 50) rightly explained this peculiar phenomenon: “_Libros exuri
jussit_, =conquisitos lectitatosque, donec cum periculo parabantur=:
_mox licentia habendi oblivionem attulit_” (“He issued a decree that the
books were to be burned; =but as long as it was dangerous to publish
them they were in great request, and were eagerly read=: whereas as soon
as people were permitted to possess them they passed into oblivion”).
The pornographic books which during the last five hundred years have
been burned by the public executioner, which have been confiscated, and
which have been repeatedly destroyed to the last copy, the obscene
engravings of which the plates have been destroyed--have all these
disappeared from the surface of the earth, have all these confiscations
and condemnations[793] of _livres défendus_ been of any use whatever?
No. All the pornographic writings, confiscated and destroyed a thousand
times over, =reappear again and again=; indeed, they become more
numerous the more the attempt is made to suppress them. The campaign
against them has always been a campaign against a hydra, a labour of the
Danaïdes, which has no object, and only entails the disadvantage that,
in the general zeal to put an end to immoral literature, scientific and
artistic interests are most seriously endangered. Happily, this campaign
is to-day less vigorous than it was of yore. In proportion to the
population, immoral literature in Germany was before 1870 far more
widely diffused than it is at the present day. During the sixth and
seventh decades of the nineteenth century it flourished more
luxuriantly; even during the time of the war of liberation numerous
original obscene books were printed in Germany. To-day the interest in
social, scientific, technical, and philosophic questions, and in sport,
has become so great, and the interest in sexual questions has become so
much =more profound=, that an overgrowth of pornography is no longer to
be feared. From these facts we recognize at once =the only way=, and
=the right way=, which we must follow in order to paralyze the evil
influences of pornography. This is to take a proper care for =genuine
popular culture, to increase educational opportunities=, and to =reduce
the price of books=. A single undertaking such as that of A. Reimann,
who, in his _Deutsche Bücherei_, publishes for threepence a volume a
collection of choice literature, containing not only the best fiction,
but also popularly written scientific works from the pens of leading men
of science and essayists--such an enterprise is far more effective in
the suppression of garbage literature than all the Unions for the
Promotion of Morality.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE TO CHAPTER XXX.--In connexion with the questions
discussed in this chapter, the reader may profitably consult the
recently published book of Willy Schindler (written, however, from an
unduly subjective standpoint), “The Erotic Element in Literature and
Art” (Berlin, 1907).
[English readers interested in the question of the dangers of
pornographic literature and art in relation to that “liberty of
unlicensed printing” which is so essential to the welfare of the
modern social democratic State, should read the thoughtful and
luminous discussion of the topic by H. G. Wells, in one of the later
chapters of his admirable “Mankind in the Making.”--TRANSLATOR.]
[776] Johannes David Schreber (of Meissen), “De libris obscoenis”
(Leipzig, 1688, quarto).
[777] _Cf._ Iwan Bloch, “The Lex Heinze and Medical Authorship,”
published in _Die Medizinsche Woche_, No. 9, March 12, 1900.
[778] _Cf._, regarding this matter, the _Aerztlicher
Zentral-Anzeiger_, No. 24, June 10, 1901.
[779] Unfortunately, I was mistaken in this optimistic assumption. In
the _Journal of the German Book Trade_, No. 77, April 3, 1906, I find
among the list of confiscated works “Means for the Prevention of
Conception”--a separate impression of the _Deutsche Medizinische
Presse_, Berlin, No. 7, April 5, 1899. By the decision of one of the
Berlin courts the further issue of this work, and the further use of
the stereotype forms from which it was printed, were forbidden.
[780] Eduard Fuchs, “The Erotic Element in Caricature,” p. 10 (Berlin,
1904), _Cf._ also Paul Leppin, “The Ludicrous in the Erotic,”
published in _Das Blaubuch_, edited by Ilgenstein and Kalthoff, No 4,
February 1, 1906, pp. 149-155.
[781] John Milton’s “Areopagitica.”
[782] An exception must be made of the work of Aretino, which in the
Italian original is extremely difficult to understand. I, therefore,
regard the masterly translation published by the Insel-Verlag as a
justifiable undertaking.
[783] To those desirous of obtaining information regarding modern
pornography, I can recommend, above all, the work of Ludwig Kemmer,
based upon official material, “Die graphische Reklame der
Prostitution,” Munich, 1906. _Cf._ also Heinrich Stümcke, “The Immoral
Literature of the Present Day,” published in “_Zwischen den Garben_,”
pp. 100-107 (Leipzig, 1899); same author, “Literary Sins and Affairs
of the Heart,” pp. 30-34 (Berlin, 1894); Sebastian Brant,
“Prostitution as displayed in the Great Art Exhibition of Berlin,
1895” (second edition, Berlin, 1895). Consult also the chapter
concerning erotic literature and art in my “Recent Researches
regarding the Marquis de Sade,” 1904 (pp. 237-272), and my “Sexual
Life in England,” vol. iii., pp. 235-473.
[784] _Cf._ G. Hirth, “Ways to Love,” p. 352. This fact has been
confirmed to me by Herr F. von Biedermann. When Frauenstädt once said
to Schopenhauer that Goethe, when away from the Court, gladly made use
of coarse expressions, Schopenhauer replied: “Yes, many contrasts can
exist side by side in the same human being,” and he confirmed the fact
from his own experience that Goethe was fond of gross phrases. _Cf._
Sohopenhauer’s “Gespräche und Selbstgespräche,” edited by E.
Grisebach, p. 40 (Berlin, 1902). Certain “Secret Epigrams of Goethe”
have recently been privately printed (forty copies only were issued).
Many similar erotic poems of Goethe’s are still carefully preserved in
Goethe-Archives, and withheld from publication.
[785] “Arthur Schopenhauer,” by E. O. Lindner, and “Memorabilia,
Letters, and Posthumous Pieces,” edited by Julius Frauenstädt, p. 270
(Berlin, 1862).
[786] Schopenhauer’s “Gespräche und Selbstgespräche,” pp. 42, 53, 106.
[787] Rudolf von Gottschall, “The German National Literature of the
Nineteenth Century,” vol. i., p. 255 (fifth edition, Breslau, 1881).
[788] Julius Pascin. Regarding this painter of the perverse, who has
recently become more widely known, see Max Ludwig, “Erregungen und
Beruhigungen,” published in _Welt am Montag_, December, 21, 1906.
[789] The name of Hokusai may well be added to this list. There exists
a series of outline drawings by this great Japanese artist, in which
the beauty of the draughtmanship is only equalled by the ingenuity
with which sexual perversions are depicted.--TRANSLATOR.
[790] _Cf._, regarding this matter, my “Contributions to the Etiology
of Psychopathia Sexualis,” vol. i., pp. 194-200.
[791] _Cf._ Paul Dehn, “Modern Hawkers’ Literature” (Stuttgart, 1894);
“The Repression of Garbage Literature,” published in the
_Nationalzeitung_, No. 683, December 11, 1906; Johannes Liebert, “Das
Indianerbuch und die Backfischerzählung,” published in _Der
Zeitgeist_, No. 51, of December 17, 1906.
[792] The literature dealing with the campaign against pornography is
very extensive. I may mention: Francisque Sarcey, “La Presse
Pornographique,” published in _Le Livre: Bibliographie Moderne_,
November, 1880, pp. 287-289 (Paris, 1880); Hermann Roeren, “Public
Immorality and its Repression” (Cologne, 1903); F. S. Schultze,
“Immorality and the Christian Family” (Leipzig, 1892); Jacques
Jolowicz, “The Campaign against Immorality” (Leipzig, 1904). Works of
an opposite tendency: Karl Frenzel, “Art and the Criminal Law”
(Berlin, 1885); rejoinder to this by Max Heinemann, “The Graef Trial
and German Art” (Berlin, 1885); “The Moral Salvation Army in Berlin: a
Union of Men for the Repression of Public Immorality. A Contemporary
Picture by * * *” (Berlin, 1889); “Against Prudery and Lying” (Munich,
1892), contains, _inter alia_; “The Campaign against Immorality on the
Part of the Pietists, and Free Literature,” by Dr. Oskar Panizza;
Georg Keben, “The Pons Asinorum of Morality” (Berlin, 1900); Heinrich
Schneegans, “Prudery and Science,” published in the _Frankfurter
Zeitung_, No. 123, May 5, 1906; “Punishment and Morality,” published
in the _Vossische Zeitung_, No. 447, September 24, 1903 (condemning
the confiscation of Hans von Kahlenberg’s “Nixchen”).
[793] With regard to the extent of this campaign against pornography,
consult: “Catalogue des Ecrits, Gravures et Dessins condamnés depuis
1814 jusqu’au 1^{er} Janvier, 1850, suivi de la Liste des Individus
condamnés pour délits de Presse” (Paris, 1850); “Catalogue des
Ouvrages condamnés comme contraire à la Morale publique et aux bonnes
Mœurs du 1^{er} Janvier, 1814, au 31 Decembre, 1873” (Paris, 1874);
Fernand Drujon, “Catalogue des Ouvrages, écrits et Dessins de toute
Nature poursuivis, supprimés ou condamnés depuis le 21 Octobre, 1814,
jusqu’au 31 Juillet, 1877, etc.” (Paris, 1878); Index Librorum
Prohibitorum Sanctissimi Domini, Pii IX. Pont. Max. Jussu editus.
Editio novissima in qua libri omnes ab Apostolica Sede usque ad annum
1786, proscripti suis locis recensentur (Rom, 1876); Catalogue des
Livres défendus par la Commission Impériale et Royale jusqu’à l’année
1786 (Brüssel, 1788); O. Delepierre, “Des Livres condamnés au Feu en
Angleterre.” For Germany, see the recorded reports regarding forbidden
and confiscated matter contained in the _Journal of the German
Book-Trade_.
CHAPTER XXXI
LOVE IN POLITE (BELLETRISTIC) LITERATURE
“_The question arises whether it is not absolutely_ =necessary= _that
art should represent this erotic element forbidden by the culture of
our time, because it corresponds to a profound subjective human need,
to a yearning for the completion of man’s imperfect
existence_.”--KONRAD LANGE.
CONTENTS OF CHAPTER XXXI
Love the nucleus of belletristic literature -- Necessity for the
erotic element in polite literature -- Remarks of the æsthetic Konrad
Lange on this subject -- Sexual topics in belles-lettres are
principally problem-literature -- As a mirror of the times --
Description of puberty in our poems -- The _demi-vierge_ type -- The
“Vera” books -- Misogyny and ascetic romances, and rejoinders -- The
“intimacy” and free love in literature -- Irregular sexual intercourse
in literature -- Marriage in literature -- Novels of divorce -- The
emancipated woman in belletristic literature -- Novels dealing with
“fallen woman” -- Precursors and imitations of the “Diary of a Lost
Woman” -- Belletristic descriptions of brothel life, and of the life
of prostitution -- Alcoholism and syphilis in literature -- Sexual
perversities in belletristic literature -- Larocque’s “Voluptueuses,”
etc. -- Homosexuality and bisexuality in belles-lettres -- Masochism
and sadism -- Psychological love romances -- More earnest and more
profound grasp of sexual questions displayed in modern belletristic
literature.
CHAPTER XXXI
It is a familiar fact that from the very earliest uprising of
belletristic literature its nucleus has always been the passion of love.
There are, indeed, very few recent romances or dramas in which love does
not play a part. It is a fable to say that sexual matters have =to-day
for the first time= been freely discussed in belletristic literature, to
assert that the predominance of erotic literature (which is to be
distinguished from pornographic literature by its artistic intention and
form) is especially characteristic of modern civilization. A glance at
the catalogue of the library of the poet and bibliophile Eduard
Grisebach,[794] which contains the erotic literature of the world,
teaches us that such literature has existed at all times and among all
civilized nations. The erotic in belles-lettres has not merely a
permissive existence, but by necessity forms a part of it--a fact very
justly recognized by the æsthetic Konrad Lange.[795] Who that knows
human nature can doubt the fact? Lange remarks:
“Art which represents the nude, because an opportunity exists for it
to delight in the representation of the flesh, because it regards
humanity as the crown of creation, and because it admires the
purposive anatomical structure of the human body--such an art is
=within its own rights=, and does what it =may= and =must=.
“If we regard the representation of the nude in painting and sculpture
as not repulsive, although it does not suit us in ordinary life to go
naked, =so also in the poesy of the erotic we must sometimes allow a
form to which in ordinary life a justification is refused=. Indeed,
the question arises whether it is not absolutely =essential= that art
should represent the erotic, although this is forbidden by the
civilization of our time; for this corresponds to a profound
subjective human need, a yearning for the completion of man’s
imperfect existence.
“Next to hunger and thirst, love is the strongest human emotion; next
to death, its enjoyment is the most important human experience. It is
not to be wondered at that art is especially fond of depicting it. Art
which wishes to represent life in general cannot leave unconsidered an
instinct which plays so important a part in the life of the majority
of human beings, and from which such a number of conflicts proceed.
With regard to the degree and the kind of representation, =the
decision depends not upon moral, but exclusively upon æsthetic,
considerations=. The task of the poet is no more than this: to
describe transgressions of the moral code in such a manner that they
appear to arise by an inner necessity out of the whole course of
activity, out of the characters, out of the objective relationships.
Then the immoral content comes to the help of the illusion.”
It is naturally impossible, within the narrow compass of this work, to
give an exhaustive account of the sexual element in modern belletristic
literature. I shall only refer to a few well-known phenomena which all
exhibit a common feature. Love and sexual topics in belles-lettres are
principally =problem= literature. The earnest and profound social
perception with which sexual problems are to-day considered and
explained is reflected also in the literature of our time. The adult
will long ago in these matters have risen above the level of shallow
story-telling and schoolgirl morality, and demands an earnest and honest
representation of sexual problems. Frey[796] justly observes that it is
a general and a healthy tendency of the time, not a tendency to perverse
lust, which impels the choice of erotic material. In the economically
determined forced labour of persons of average ability, in the monotony
and the poverty of adventure of our civilized life, it is only by
eroticism that into many a life any individual colouring is brought.
In the following brief sketch of the sexual problems treated in recent
belletristic literature, I hope to give some idea of the =very numerous=
and interesting topics which the various phenomena of the sexual life
now offer to the poet.
The very =first= sexual activities of the child have been subjected to
poetic treatment, as in Frank Wedekind’s drama, “Frühlingserwachen”
(“The Awakening of Spring”); and the sexual note of the time of puberty
is treated in Bonnetain’s celebrated onanistic novel, “Charlot s’Amuse,”
in Walter Bloem’s novel, “Der krasse Fuchs,” in Max von Münchhausen’s
“Eckhart von Jeperen,” and very strikingly in the novel “Lothar oder
Untergang einer Kindheit” (“Lothar, or the Ruin of Childhood”), by Oscar
A. H. Schmitz. In connexion with the consideration of the time of
puberty in belletristic literature, the following works may also be
mentioned: “Unterm Rad,” by Hermann Hesse; “Freund Hein,” by Emil
Strauss; “Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törless,” by Robert Musil; “Was
zur Sonne Will,” by Hans Hart; “Eine Gymnasiastentragödie,” a drama in
four acts, by Robert Sandeks. Consult also Gustav Zieler’s review of
“Frühlingserwachen,” published in _Das Literarische Echo_ of August 15,
1907.
The type of girl who ripens to a premature sexuality, and who, though
physically still intact, is spiritually corrupt, has been made widely
known by Marcel Prévost’s “Demivierge.” A companion novel to this is
“Nixchen,” by Hans von Kahlenberg. Nobler types of girls playing with
this vice are described by Clara Eysell-Kilburger in “Dilettanten des
Lasters.”
Diametrically opposed to these are the “Vera” characters, so called
after the book by Vera, “Eine für Viele. Aus dem Tagebuche eines
Mädchens” (“One for Many. From the Diary of a Girl”), which demands from
the man before marriage the same purity and chastity that man himself
demands from his future wife. Svava, in Björnsen’s drama “Der
Handschuh,” is a similar type. Regarding this problem an entire
literature has sprung into being, which associated itself with Vera’s
above-mentioned book, such as “Eine für sich Selbst” (“One for
Herself”), by “Auch Jemand” (“Somebody Else”); “Einer für Viele” (“One
Man for Many”); “Eine für Vera. Aus dem Tagebuche einer jungen Frau”
(“One for Vera. From the Diary of a Young Wife”)--these in favour of
Vera’s demand--and Christine Thaler’s “Eine Mutter für Viele” (“One
Mother for Many”); by Verus, “Einer für Viele” (“One Man for Many”), and
“Kranke Seelen. Von einem Arzte” (“Morbid Souls. By a Physician”)--these
in opposition to Vera’s demand--for masculine abstinence from sexual
intercourse before marriage.[797]
Next we may mention certain novels glorifying =misogyny=, such as
Strindberg’s “Beichte eines Toren” (“Confessions of a Fool”) and
“Vergangenheit eines Toren” (“The Past of a Fool”); and Tolstoi’s “The
Kreutzer Sonata,” in which absolute asceticism is demanded. These ideas,
which in Weininger found a pseudo-scientific apologist, have been
contested in an interesting autobiography in the form of a romance, “Das
Weib vom Manne erschaffen: Bekenntnisse einer Frau” (“Woman created from
Man: Confessions of a Woman”), translated from the Norwegian by Tyra
Bentsen. Zola’s magnificent hymn in favour of fruitfulness in
“Fécondité” is also a refutation of this extreme ascetic-malthusian
standpoint.
The “intimacy” and “free love” are to-day the subject of innumerable
romances and novels. Tovote discusses the problem in “Im Liebesrausch”
(“In the Intoxication of Love”), and in other novels, more superficially
from the grossly sensual side; the ideal free love, ending indeed in
marriage, is described in Peter Nansen’s “Maria.”[798] Similarly,
Frenssen, in “Hilligenlei,” deals with the preconjugal sexual
intercourse so common in country districts, and he reproves in powerful
words the repression of natural impulses by conventional morality.[799]
In “Martin Birks Jugend,” Hjalmar Söderberg has described the great
difficulties of ideal-minded young men who are not in a position to
marry, and who are repelled by the idea of intercourse with common
prostitutes.
In contrast to this, Camille Lemonnier, in “Die Liebe im Menschen,”
describes the great danger of an =overgrowth= of the sexual; and Arthur
Schnitzler, in his admirable “Reigen,” describes the utter misery of
=irregular sexual intercourse=, of true “wild love,” and displays
vividly before our eyes the results of sexual promiscuity.
The social contempt and the other disastrous consequences which to-day
follow free love, in the form of =illegitimate motherhood=, have been
described in dramas, such as Sudermann’s “Heimat” and Gerhart
Hauptmann’s “Rose Bernd,” and in romances such as Gabriele Reuter’s “Aus
guter Familie,” Johann Bojer’s “Eine Pilgerfahrt,” and Ernst
Eberhardt’s “Das Kind.” The manifold conflicts resulting from free love
and illegitimate motherhood are also described by Marcelle Tinayre in
“La Rebelle.”
In belles-lettres we also find numerous accounts of the burning question
of our day--that of =coercive marriage=. Above all, Ibsen, in “Ghosts,”
“A Doll’s House,” “The Lady from the Sea,” “Hedda Gabler,” and “Little
Eyolf,” has exposed the manifold injuries resulting from modern
conventional marriage, and has propounded the ideal of a new marriage,
based upon a deeply subjective conception of love and upon life’s work
in common. The influence of Ibsen is further shown in numerous dramas
and romances dealing with the marriage problem. Of these, it will
suffice to mention a few of the most successful, such as “Die Sklavin,”
by Ludwig Fulda; “Fanny Roth: eine Jungfrauengeschichte,” by Grete
Meisel-Hess; and “Was siehst du aber den Splitter,” by Karl Larsen.
The important question of differences in class and social position in
married life is considered by Ernst von Wildenbruch in his drama, “Die
Haubenlerche.”
The classical novels of adultery are, and will remain, Erneste Feydeau’s
delightful “Fanny,” and Gustave Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary.” In French
literature in general, in dramas as well as romances, adultery is a
favourite motive.[800]
Isolated but especially characteristic phenomena of the sexual life have
also found expression in poetry. Thus Ernst von Wolzogen, in “Das Dritte
Geschlect,” describes the various types of =emancipated women=; the same
question forms the theme of “Die Neue Eva,” by Maria Janitschek. Anna
Mahr, also, in Gerhart Hauptmann’s “Einsame Menschen,” is such a type.
In all of these the conflict between woman and personality is described;
and this is done with exceptional force and clearness in “Das Neue
Weib,” by M. Janitschek.[801]
The contrast to the woman who wishes to become a personality is to be
found in the woman who has never possessed a personality, or who has
lost it, the woman who has become only a chattel, an object of enjoyment
for man--=the prostitute=. I alluded before (p. 315) to the fact that
Margarete Böhme, in her sensational “Diary of a Lost Woman,” was not the
first to describe the life of a prostitute. Already from the sixteenth
century there date such romances as, for example, the celebrated “Lozana
Andaluza” of Francisco Delgado; also Defoe’s “History of Moll Flanders,”
and Abbé Prévost’s “Manon Lescaut” (both belonging to the eighteenth
century). Besides the “Memoirs of a Hamburg Prostitute” (_vide supra_,
p. 315), there exist still other precursors, belonging to the nineteenth
century, of the “Diary of a Lost Woman,” such as E. de Goncourt’s “Fille
Elisa,” Leon Leipsiger’s “Ballhaus-Anna,” etc. The “Diary of a Lost
Woman” naturally soon found imitations, such as Hedwig Hard’s
“Confessions of a Fallen Woman,” the “Diary of Another Lost Woman”; and
the purely pornographic “History of Josephine Mutzenbecher, a Viennese
Prostitute,” Daudet’s “Sapho,” Zola’s “Nana,” Cristian Krogh’s
“Albertine,” and George Moore’s “Esther Waters,” belong to the same
class.[802]
=Brothel life= and the =life of prostitution=, in all their
relationships to modern civilization, and in their influence upon human
character, are described by Frank Wedekind in “Die Büchse der Pandora”
(“Pandora’s Box”) and in his “Hidalla”; and with exceptional vividness
by Oscar Metenier, in his romance cycle, extending to seven volumes,
“Tartufes et Satyres.”
The rôle of =alcohol= and of =syphilis= in the sexual life have also
been discussed in belletristic literature. In Gerhart Hauptmann’s “Vor
Sonnenaufgang” (“Before Sunrise”), Loth abandons his beloved Helne as
soon as he learns that she springs from a degenerate family of
drunkards. The disastrous consequences of syphilis are described by
Ibsen in “Ghosts,” and recently most vividly by Brieux in “Les
Avariés.”[803]
Extraordinarily comprehensive, especially in France, is the belletristic
literature of =sexual perversities=. After the manner of the
“Rougon-Macquart” series by Zola, Jean Larocque has written a romance
cycle of eleven volumes, under the general title of “Les Voluptueuses”
(the separate titles are: “Isey,” “Viviane,” “Odile,” “Fausta,”
“Daphne,” “Phœbe,” “Fusette,” “La Naïade,” “Louvette,” “Lucine,” and
“Hémine”; in the last volume we find even a discussion of copralagnistic
details!). Some volumes of this series--for example, “Phœbe”--have even
been translated into English. The works also of Baudelaire, Verlaine,
and Guy de Maupassant, offer a rich material for the study of
psychopathia sexualis. In this connexion I may also mention the poetic
collections “La Légende des Sexes,” by Edmond Haraucourt; “Rimes de
Joie,” by Théodore Hannon; and also the “Chants de Maldoror.” Octave
Mirbeau also, in his “Journal d’une Femme de Chambre,” provides us with
a review of the entire register of sexual perversities.[804] He, and
also the talented Rachilde (who in her romances “Monsieur Venus,” “Les
Hors Nature,” and “Madame Adonis,” considers the question of
homosexuality), never fail to exhibit the artistic spirit in their
descriptions of these delicate topics--and, indeed, _l’art pour l’art_
doctrine seems to have been created especially in relation to this
department of thought.
=Homosexuality= and =bisexuality= have been considered in such a large
number of works that it is quite impossible to mention them all here. A
fairly complete bibliography of these will be found in the volumes of
the _Annual for Sexual Intermediate Stages_.[805] I can allude here only
to a few especially well-known and artistically important homosexual
romances and poems. Jouy, in his admirable “Galerie des Femmes” (Paris,
1799), devotes to the “Lesbiennes” a special chapter; Théophile Gautier,
in “Mademoiselle de Maupin,” discusses the interesting problem of
bisexuality; Zola, in “Nana,” represents the Lesbian relationship; Paul
Verlaine in 1867 published tribadistic poetry under the title of “Les
Amis.”[806] Since that time Englishmen, Germans, Belgians, and Italians
have published belletristic descriptions of homosexual relationships. I
may allude to Oscar Wilde’s “Dorian Grey,” Georges Eekhoud’s
“Escal-Vigor,” Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” Prime-Stevenson’s
“Irenæus,” Louis d’Herdy’s “L’Homme-Sirene,” F. G. Pernauhm’s “Ercole
Tomei,” “Die Infamen,” and “Der junge Kurt”; also the sensational
“Idylle Sapphique” of the demi-mondaine Liane de Pougy, the epic
“Ganymedes” of C. W. Geissler, and the drama “Jasminblüte” of Dilsner.
Masochism found its introduction to belles-lettres by the writer from
whom the very name is derived, L. von Sacher-Masoch, more especially in
“Vermächtnis Kains.” Of his novels, the best known is “Venus im Pelz”;
others are “Galizischen Geschichten,” “Messalinen Wiens,” “Die schwarze
Zarin,” and “Wiener Hofgeschichten.” He still remains the only writer
who has treated this peculiar perversity in an artistic manner. The more
recent masochistic and sadistic novels belong to the worst kind of
hawker’s literature. Lou Andreas-Salomé only, in “Eine Ausschweifung,”
has artistically described the spiritual masochism of a woman with the
fine psychological characterization peculiar to her work.
Quite recently there has actually appeared a masochistic monthly
magazine, entitled _Geissel und Rute: Archiv für Erziehung_ [_sic!_]
_Erwachsener_ (_Whip and Rod: Archives for the Education_ [_sic!_] _of
Adults_), edited by C. vom Stein, Buda-Pesth. The first number appeared
on February 1, 1907. It contains masochistic stories, correspondence,
historical sketches, and advertisements.
Sadistic love is the theme of Oscar Wilde’s “Salome,” and of the
“Diaboliques” of Barbey d’Aurevilly. The satanic element is dealt with
in Huysmans’ “La Bas,” and in various novels by St. Przybyszewski.
Herbert Eulenburg’s drama “Ritter Blaubart” also represents a sadistic
type.
In conclusion, I may allude to some authors who represent to us the
whole psychology of modern love, and, above all, the depths of the love
of reflection, its spiritual refinement, all the manifold moods,
illusions, and dreams of the modern eros. J. P. Jakobsen’s “Niels
Lyhne,” Hans Jäger’s “Christiania-Bohême,” Oskar Mysing’s “Grosse
Leidenschaft,” Heinrich Mann’s “Jagd nach Liebe,” Gabriele d’Annunzio’s
“Il Piacere,” “Trionfo della Morte,” and “Fuoco,” represent aspects of
love. With the profoundest art, Lou Andreas-Salomé, in her
stories--which in this respect I regard as among the most valuable
products of modern literature--“Ruth,” “Fenitschka,” “Ma,” and
“Menschenkinder,” represents the finer spiritual relationships between
man and woman. This writer appears to possess the most intimate
knowledge of the soul of the modern woman. Elisabeth Dauthendey, also
(“Vom neuen Weibe und seiner Liebe”), Gabriele Reuter (“Liselotte von
Reckling,” “Ellen von der Weiden”), and Rosa Mayreder (“Idole”), give
most powerful descriptions of complicated feminine characters.[807] An
important and interesting topic is discussed by Yvette Guilbert in “Les
Demivieilles”--the psychology of the woman beginning to grow old, who
cannot yet renounce love and yet is forced to do so by rude reality.
The writings to which I have referred in this chapter--the number of
which could easily be increased tenfold without exhausting the abundance
of recent belletristic literature occupied in the discussion of the
sexual problem--should suffice to give some idea of how great is the
interest in the important problems of the sexual life, how detailed and
complicated the problems of that life have become under the influence of
modern civilization, and with what earnestness they are treated in the
belles-lettres of the day. The light and frivolous mood of Wieland and
Clauren is no longer found to-day. In its place we have grandiose moral
description, a more =dramatic= treatment of sexual problems, an
unsparing exposure of the gloomier aspects of amatory life, and a
psychological penetration into all the activities of the loving soul.
Regarded =as a whole=, love in modern belletristic literature is treated
from far worthier and higher standpoints than formerly. =There is no
ground whatever for regarding the widespread discussion of sexual
problems in modern literature as a stigma of degeneration.= In this
respect our literature is merely a mirror of our time; and its
tendencies indicate very clearly the emergence of a new, earnest, and
more profound conception of the sexual relations between man and
woman.
[794] Eduard Grisebach, “Catalogue of World Literature, with Literary
and Bibliographical Annotations” (second edition, Berlin, 1905).
[795] K. Lange, “The Nature of Art,” vol. ii., pp. 161-177 (Berlin,
1901).
[796] Philipp Frey, “The Battle of the Sexes,” pp. 33, 34 (Vienna,
1904).
[797] Reference has previously been made (p. 673) to an English novel
similar in character to Vera’s book--viz., “The Heavenly Twins,” by
Sarah Grand. But the classical English example of a novel devoted to
the consideration of the differing standards by which preconjugal
sexual intercourse is judged in man and in woman respectively is “Tess
of the D’Urbervilles,” by Thomas Hardy.
[798] In “The Woman who Did,” by Grant Allen, we have an English novel
advocating free love; like “Eine für Viele,” this evoked a number of
novels with allied titles, such as “The Woman who Didn’t,” “The Woman
who Wouldn’t,” and the like. A far profounder study of a free union
between a man whose wife refused to divorce him (on “moral” grounds)
and another woman is George Meredith’s “One of Our Conquerors.” In
“Jude the Obscure,” by Thomas Hardy, we have another detailed
consideration of the difficulties attendant on a free union in a
society under the dominion of Philistine morality. A recent novel in
which freer sexual relationships are discussed from a somewhat ideal
standpoint is “In the Days of the Comet,” by H. G. Wells. (In the
character of Sue Bridehead, in “Jude the Obscure,” we have a
remarkable study of the “frigid” type of woman. I have before alluded,
in a note to p. 435, to a recent novel by Hubert Wales, “Mr. and Mrs.
Villiers,” devoted to the question of sexual frigidity in
woman.)--TRANSLATOR.
[799] “Bourgeois morality is the arch-murderer, which murders your
youth and the youth of many of your sisters. If we lived in natural
conditions, you would always, from the days of your childhood, be
surrounded by young persons of the other sex. One of these would have
contracted a friendship for you; another would have honoured you from
a distance; with a third you would have played joyfully. But from your
twentieth year onwards, three or four or more of them would have
ardently wooed you, because you are strong and beautiful and chaste.
And so with tears, and passion, and suffering, with games and kisses,
you would have gladly become a woman; thus it is even yet among the
children of manual labourers. A beautiful, chaste, diligent workman’s
child has wooers enough. But among the so-called cultured people,
morality has distorted and destroyed all the beauty of nature....
Where the middle-class youth goes to and fro, there goes also, like an
old youth-hating aunt, morality, and destroys for each poor girl the
best time of her life; and many never come to marriage, and many come
too late.”
[800] In “Divorçons,” a comedy by V. Sardou and E. de Najac, we have
an exceedingly witty, though trivial, treatment of the idea of a
terminable marriage contract.--TRANSLATOR.
[801] An early example of the “emancipated woman” in English
literature is to be found in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Aurora
Leigh.” This conception of feminine character aroused the usual
hostility in minds working along the older grooves, so that Edward
Fitzgerald, when Mrs. Browning died, is said to have exclaimed: “Thank
God! No more ‘Aurora Leighs’!”--TRANSLATOR.
[802] George Gissing’s “The Unclassed” is a powerful study of the life
of a London prostitute.--TRANSLATOR.
[803] Bayet, “À propos des ‘Avariés’” (Brussels, 1902).
[804] We may include in this category Willy’s “La Môme Picrate,” and
also the “Claudine” novels by the same author (“Claudine à l’École,”
“Claudine à Paris,” etc.).
[805] Consult also the work “Lieblingsminne und Freundesliebe in der
Weltliteratur,” by Elisar von Kupffer.
[806] And at a later date Verlaine wrote other homosexual poems, “Les
Hommes,” which for the most part are still unpublished.
[807] A work of similar character to these is the notable novel
recently published (February, 1907) “Die Stimme,” by Grete Meisel-Hess
(Berlin, 1907).
CHAPTER XXXII
THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE OF THE SEXUAL LIFE
“_Stress has been laid upon the harm which can be done by the
publication of works dealing with sexual problems. Undoubtedly the
pornographic interest of the laity, and also of men of science, does
play a part here!_ =But the benefits which the unreserved scientific
elucidation of the sexual problem is able to diffuse throughout the
widest circles of the population are so extensive that this
consideration of any possible harm that may ensue becomes
infinitesimal in comparison.=”--A. VON SCHRENCK-NOTZING.
CONTENTS OF CHAPTER XXXII
Indispensable need for the scientific investigation of sexual problems
-- Insignificance and ludicrous character of the objections made to
such investigation -- The diffusion of sexual perversities was just as
extensive before their scientific study was first undertaken -- de
Sade’s system of psychopathia sexualis -- Recent additions to the
scientific literature of the subject -- Works upon homosexuality --
Upon erotic symbolism -- General investigations regarding the sexual
impulse -- General works upon the sexual problem -- Periodical
literature relating to the sexual life.
CHAPTER XXXII
Truth is always a good thing, even truth regarding the sexual life.
Neither prudery nor moral hypocrisy can controvert this proposition. He
who recognizes the immense importance of sexuality in relationship to
civilization at large--he who, like the author of the present work, has
been occupied for many years in the study of the subject from the points
of view of medicine, anthropology, ethnology, literature, and the
history of civilization--is not only entitled, but will also consider it
his duty, to publish his investigations, to make publicly known his
views and his opinions, and to take a definite and clear position in
relation to the burning questions of the day in this province of
thought.
Such men as Ploss-Bartels, who, in their celebrated and purely
scientific work, “Woman in Natural History and Folklore,” could not
avoid collecting numerous piquant and even obscene details, and who, for
example, have described in a special chapter the various postures
assumed during sexual intercourse; such a man as von Krafft-Ebing, whose
“Psychopathia Sexualis”[808] contains a number of detailed
autobiographies and clinical histories of sexually perverse
individuals--such men as these have been blamed because their books have
been diffused in numerous editions, extending to many thousands of
copies, and because these books have been read more by laymen than by
medical men. Apart from the fact that in earlier times much more
dangerous books--such, for example, as the works of Virey, Flittner, G.
F. Most, and Rozier, characterized by a lascivious style, or such a book
as the dictionary “Eros”--obtained the widest possible circulation;
apart, also from the fact that even in works conceived and executed in a
strictly scientific spirit--such as the numerous monographs of Martin
Schurig, or the work of Frenzel (belonging to the nineteenth century)
concerning impotence (see, for example, Frenzel, _op. cit._, pp. 155,
156, 161)--obscene passages and incredibly depraved stories occur; and
apart, finally, from the incredible mass of pornographic writings, in
comparison with which the scientific literature of the sexual life is
almost infinitesimally small--putting on one side all these
considerations, it is merely necessary to refer to the =established
fact= that all possible sexual perversities were known to exist before
the publication of von Krafft-Ebing’s “Psychopathia Sexualis,” and that
they made their appearance spontaneously at all times and in all places.
In the eighteenth century the Marquis de Sade, in his romance “The One
Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom,” was able to found a system of
psychopathia sexualis which not only contained =all= the perverse types
described by von Krafft-Ebing, but was even more varied in its contents,
and exhibited yet more numerous categories of sexual anomalies than the
book of the Viennese alienist.[809] This work is a document of enormous
importance to civilization,[810] because it provides a complete
refutation to the fable of modern degeneration, and because it gives us
a proof that =quite shortly= before the powerful upheaval of the French
nation and the heroic campaigns of the Napoleonic epoch, in this nation
there were diffused the most frightful perversities, regarding the
reality of which there can, according to recent experience, be no doubt
whatever.
Scientific authorship--even popular scientific works[811]--dealing with
the province of the sexual life cannot therefore be made responsible, in
any respect, for the diffusion of sexual perversities. The founder of
modern sexual science, A. von Schrenck-Notzing,[812] insisted on this
fact; and recently it has been once more emphasized by S. Freud, who has
probably gone further than any other writer in biologico-physiological
derivation of sexual perversions.
Havelock Ellis’s “Analysis of the Sexual Impulse” (vol. iii. of this
writer’s “Studies in the Psychology of Sex,” published by the F. A.
Davis Co., Philadelphia)--a book in which we find an admirable analysis
of the development and variations of the sexual impulse, including an
account of sadism and masochism, enriched by numerous examples--has
recently appeared in a German translation (Würzburg, 1903). The
translator, Dr. H. Kurella, in his preface to this work, says (pp. ix,
x), in my opinion with perfect justice:
“Daily experience among my patients suffering from nervous
diseases--patients who were for the most part women and girls--has
shown me how extremely important is enlightenment regarding the sexual
life for women suffering from nervous disorders. =For this reason, I
hope the book will have the widest possible circulation among the
mothers of daughters about to grow up.= If they will employ in a
proper manner the knowledge which they will be able to obtain from its
contents, in this way an immeasurable quantity of sorrow and misery
can be prevented. This use of its teaching will, by itself, suffice to
compensate the author and the translator for the scruples they must
always feel in giving to the world a book which is likely to be valued
by some simply as providing prurient reading matter, and which by such
persons will perhaps be circulated for this purpose--a fate to which
every book dealing with erotic subjects is exposed, however earnest
its style and tendency may be.”
The lively scientific activity which now animates the department of
sexual problems is a matter for rejoicing, since it indicates the
advance of knowledge in one of the most important of all vital problems.
Whereas earlier none but alienists and neurologists concerned themselves
with sexual questions, an interest in these questions is now very
generally displayed by the circles of other medical men, of
anthropologists, folk-lorists, psychologists, æsthetics, and historians
of civilization. One good result of this wide diffusion of interest is,
as I have already remarked (pp. 455 _et seq._), that a one-sided
consideration of the problems under investigation will thereby be
prevented. Every earnest investigator, to whatever discipline he may
personally belong, can here contribute something =new=, something which
will advance knowledge; but most helpful, unquestionably, can the
=physician= be who, as von Schrenck-Notzing[813] declared, is competent
to consider the question in relation to various other departments--those
of biology, anthropology, history, belles-lettres, psychology, and
forensic medicine.
It would subserve no useful purpose to enumerate once more in this place
the works of all the recent authors who have dealt with the subject of
the sexual life. In the text of the present book they have for the most
part received sufficient mention.[814]
Of larger monographs upon homosexuality, there still remain to be
mentioned those of Havelock Ellis and J. A. Symonds,[815] A. Moll,[816]
J. Chevalier,[817] and Laupts.[818] In these works we find extensive
reports of cases; and more especially in the two first mentioned do we
find a record of all the historical and critical data of homosexuality
up to the time of the first publication of the “Annual for Sexual
Intermediate Stages” (1899 _et seq._).
A new work by Havelock Ellis[819] recently reached me, the fifth volume
of the American edition of his “Studies in the Psychology of Sex,”[820]
giving an account of “Erotic Symbolism” (fetichism, exhibitionism,
etc.), the “Mechanism of Detumescence,” and the “Psychical Condition
during Pregnancy,” with an appendix giving an analysis of the sexual
development of various individuals. This book, full of interesting
details, will doubtless, like the earlier volumes of his “Studies,” soon
appear in a German translation.
The fundamental work of A. Marro on “Puberty in Man and Woman” also
deserves especial mention. It can most usefully be consulted in the
French edition, “La Puberté chez l’Homme et chez la Femme. Etudiée dans
ses Rapports avec l’Anthropologie, la Psychiatrie, la Pedagogie, et la
Sociologie” (Paris, 1902; 536 pp.).
Special studies on the subject of the sexual impulse have been published
by Moll[821] and Féré.[822] In Moll’s work, of which hitherto the first
part only has appeared, the sexual impulse is divided into two
components, the “detumescence impulse”--that is, the impulse towards the
evacuation of the reproductive products--and the “contrectation
impulse”--that is, the impulse towards the other individual; and from
these two components the various manifestations of sexuality are
explained. Féré, more especially, has made an exhaustive study of the
instinctive element of the sexual impulse; and, apart from this, he
appears to be the most extreme advocate of the atavistic theory of
sexual perversions.
An interesting study of sexual psychology, based upon the doctrine of
Freud, has been published by Otto Rank.[823] The tendency of this work
also is in opposition to the degeneration-phobia.
The work of the Italian psychiatrist Pasquale Penta, “I pervertimenti
sessuali nell’ uomo e Vincenzo Verzeni strangolatore di donne” (“The
Sexual Perversions observed in Vincenzo Verzeni, the Strangler of
Women”), Naples, 1893, contains numerous interesting details. In the
first chapter the author gives contributions to a history of
psychopathia sexualis; the second chapter contains a detailed report of
Verzeni and an account of his lust-murders; in the third chapter Penta
discusses the similarities and differences between the sexual impulse in
man and in the lower animals; in the fourth chapter he deals with the
biological foundations of lust-murder; in the fifth chapter he reviews
the different sexual perversions; in the sixth chapter he considers
rape; and in the seventh and last chapter he discusses the forensic
importance of rape and of sexual perversions.
The recently published work on “Sexual Biology,” by Robert Müller
(Berlin, 1907), is written from the standpoint of veterinary medicine,
and the sub-title of the book, “Comparative and Evolutionary Studies in
the Sexual Life of Man and the Higher Mammals,” indicates the author’s
intention to elucidate the general biological roots of sexual phenomena.
This =comparative= consideration of the sexual life of man and of the
higher mammals throws a new light on many matters, and enables us to
understand a number of phenomena of the sexual life which have hitherto
seemed obscure.
A comprehensive, general, popular work upon the sexual life is now in
course of publication--“Man and Woman.” It is issued by R. Kossmann and
J. Weiss, with the collaboration of a number of leading specialists
(Stuttgart, 1907). A number of illustrated sections have already been
issued.
Finally, two other works must be mentioned which consider the sexual
life as a whole, a larger work and a smaller one. Forel’s[824]
comprehensive book is distinguished from beginning to end by an
=original, subjective= grasp of the question, and by an =optimistic view
of the future=, as I have pointed out in my review of this book in the
_Deutsche Aerztezeitung_. As such a subjective programme of a future
solution of sexual problems, it will ever retain a value; and we can
always follow with pleasure the demonstrations of the talented and
sympathetic author, although the book is perhaps somewhat monotonous in
character. Its merits, moreover, are counterbalanced by the almost
complete neglect of the numerous recent researches in almost every
department of the sexual life. More particularly the chapter upon
syphilis and venereal diseases, the chapter upon homosexuality and
sexual perversions, and the chapter upon marriage betray this fault. The
chapter on marriage is a mere extract from Westermarck. The author is
fully conscious of these defects, and freely admits them; and in spite
of them the book must not be ignored, because its value really lies in
its subjectivity, and because we find in it so profound a conviction of
the great importance of =social= activity for the higher development of
love. A shorter consideration of sexual problems, but one abounding in
paradoxes, is to be found in a book by Leo Berg.[825]