The Object of Detumescence--Erogenous Zones--The Lips--The Vascular
Characters of Detumescence--Erectile Tissue--Erection in Woman--Mucous
Emission in Women--Sexual Connection--The Human Mode of
Intercourse--Normal Variations--The Motor Characters of
Detumescence--Ejaculation--The Virile Reflex--The General Phenomena of
Detumescence--The Circulatory and Respiratory Phenomena--Blood
Pressure--Cardiac Disturbance--Glandular Activity--Distillatio--The
Essentially Motor Character of Detumescence--Involuntary Muscular
Irradiation to Bladder, etc.--Erotic Intoxication--Analogy of Sexual
Detumescence and Vesical Tension--The Specifically Sexual Movements of
Detumescence in Man--In Woman--The Spontaneous Movements of the Genital
Canal in Woman--Their Function in Conception--Part Played by Active
Movement of the Spermatozoa--The Artificial Injection of Semen--The Facial
Expression During Detumescence--The Expression of Joy--The Occasional
Serious Effects of Coitus.
We have seen what the object of detumescence is, and we have briefly
considered the organs and structures which are chiefly concerned in the
process. We have now to inquire what are the actual phenomena which take
place during the act of detumescence.
Detumescence is normally linked closely to tumescence. Tumescence is the
piling on of the fuel; detumescence is the leaping out of the devouring
flame whence is lighted the torch of life to be handed on from generation
to generation. The whole process is double and yet single; it is exactly
analogous to that by which a pile is driven into the earth by the raising
and then the letting go of a heavy weight which falls on to the head of
the pile. In tumescence the organism is slowly wound up and force
accumulated; in the act of detumescence the accumulated force is let go
and by its liberation the sperm-bearing instrument is driven home.
Courtship, as we commonly term the process of tumescence which takes place
when a woman is first sexually approached by a man, is usually a highly
prolonged process. But it is always necessary to remember that every
repetition of the act of coitus, to be normally and effectively carried
out on both sides, demands a similar double process; detumescence must be
preceded by an abbreviated courtship.
This abbreviated courtship by which tumescence is secured or heightened in
the repetition of acts of coitus which have become familiar, is mainly
tactile.[98] Since the part of the man in coitus is more active and that
of the woman more passive, the sexual sensitivity of the skin seems to be
more pronounced in women. There are, moreover, regions of the surface of a
woman's body where contact, when sympathetic, seems specially liable to
arouse erotic excitement. Such erogenous zones are often specially marked
in the breasts, occasionally in the palm of the hand, the nape of the
neck, the lobule of the ear, the little finger; there is, indeed, perhaps
no part of the surface of the body which may not, in some individuals at
some time, become normally an erogenous zone. In hysteria the erotic
excitability of these zones is sometimes very intense. The lips are,
however, without doubt, the most persistently and poignantly sensitive
region of the whole body outside the sphere of the sexual organs
themselves. Hence the significance of the kiss as a preliminary of
detumescence.[99]
The importance of the lips as a normal erogenous zone is shown by
the experiments of Gualino. He applied a thread, folded on itself
several times, to the lips, thus stimulating them in a simple
mechanical manner. Of 20 women, between the ages of 18 and 35,
only 8 felt this as a merely mechanical operation, 4 felt a
vaguely erotic element in the proceeding, 3 experienced a desire
for coitus and in 5 there was actual sexual excitement with
emission of mucus. Of 25 men, between the ages of 20 and 30, in
15 all sexual feeling was absent, in 7 erotic ideas were
suggested with congestion of the sexual organs without erection,
and in 3 there was the beginning of erection. It should be added
that both the women and the men in whom this sexual reflex was
more especially marked were of somewhat nervous temperament; in
such persons erotic reactions of all kinds generally occur most
easily. (Gualino, "Il Rifflesso Sessuale nell' eccitamento alle
labbre," _Archivio di Psichiatria_, 1904, p. 341.)
As tumescence, under the influence of sensory stimulation, proceeds toward
the climax when it gives place to detumescence, the physical phenomena
become more and more acutely localized in the sexual organs. The process
which was at first predominantly nervous and psychic now becomes more
prominently vascular. The ancient sexual relationship of the skin asserts
itself; there is marked surface congestion showing itself in various ways.
The face tends to become red, and exactly the same phenomenon is taking
place in the genital organs; "an erection," it has been said, "is a
blushing of the penis." The difference is that in the genital organs this
heightened vascularity has a definite and specific function to
accomplish--the erection of the male organ which fits it to enter the
female parts--and that consequently there has been developed in the penis
that special kind of vascular mechanism, consisting of veins in connective
tissue with unstriped muscular fibers, termed erectile tissue.[100]
It is not only the man who is supplied with erectile tissue which in the
process of tumescence becomes congested and swollen. The woman also, in
the corresponding external genital region, is likewise supplied with
erectile tissue now also charged with blood, and exhibits the same changes
as have taken place in her partner, though less conspicuously visible. In
the anthropoid apes, as the gorilla, the large clitoris and the nymphæ
become prominent in sexual excitement, but the less development of the
clitoris in women, together with the specifically human evolution of the
mons veneris and larger lips, renders this sexual turgescence practically
invisible, though it is perceptible to touch in an increased degree of
spongy and elastic tension. The whole feminine genital canal, including
the uterus, indeed, is richly supplied with blood-vessels, and is capable
during sexual excitement of a very high degree of turgescence, a kind of
erection.
The process of erection in woman is accompanied by the pouring out of
fluid which copiously bathes all parts of the vulva around the entrance to
the vagina. This is a bland, more or less odorless mucus which, under
ordinary circumstances, slowly and imperceptibly suffuses the parts. When,
however, the entrance to the vagina is exposed and extended, as during a
gynæcological examination which occasionally produces sexual excitement,
there may be seen a real ejaculation of the fluid which, as usually
described, comes largely from the glands of Bartholin, situated at the
mouth of the vagina. Under these circumstances it is sometimes described
as being emitted in a jet which is thrown to a distance.[101] This mucous
ejaculation was in former days regarded as analogous to the seminal
ejaculation in man, and hence essential to conception. Although this
belief was erroneous the fluid poured out in this manner whenever a high
degree of tumescence is attained, and before the onset of detumescence,
certainly performs an important function in lubricating the entrance to
the genital canal and so facilitating the intromission of the male
organ.[102] Menstruation has a similar influence in facilitating coitus,
as Schurig long since pointed out.[103] A like process takes place during
parturition when the same parts are being lubricated and stretched in
preparation for the protrusion of the foetal head. The occurrence of the
mucous flow in tumescence always indicates that that process is actively
affecting the central sexual organs, and that voluptuous emotions are
present.[104]
The secretions of the genital canal and outlet in women are
somewhat numerous. We have the odoriferous glands of sebaceous
origin, and with them the prepuce of the clitoris which has been
described as a kind of gigantic sebaceous follicle with the
clitoris occupying its interior. (Hyrtl.) There is the secretion
from the glands of Bartholin. There is again the vaginal
secretion, opaque and albuminous, which appears to be alkaline
when secreted, but becomes acid under the decomposing influence
of bacteria, which are, however, harmless and not pathogenic.
(Gow, _Obstetrical Society of London_, January 3, 1894.) There
is, finally, the mucous uterine secretion, which is alkaline,
and, being poured out during orgasm, is believed to protect the
spermatozoa from destruction by the acid vaginal secretion.
The belief that the mucus poured out in women during sexual
excitement is feminine semen and therefore essential to
conception had many remarkable consequences and was widespread
until the seventeenth century. Thus, in the chapter "De Modo
coeundi et de regimine eorum qui coeunt" of _De Secretis
Mulierum_, there is insistence on the importance of the proper
mixture of the male semen with the female semen and of arranging
that it shall not escape from the vagina. The woman must lie
quiet for several hours at least, not rising even to urinate, and
when she gets up, be very temperate in eating and drinking, and
not run or jump, pretending that she has a headache. It was the
belief in feminine semen which led some theologians to lay down
that a woman might masturbate if she had not experienced orgasm
in coitus. Schurig in his _Muliebria_ (1729, pp. 159, et seq.)
discusses the opinions of old authors regarding the nature,
source, and uses of the female genital secretions, and quotes
authorities against the old view that it was female semen. In a
subsequent work (_Syllepsilogia_, 1731, pp. 3, et seq.) he
returns to the same question, quotes authors who accept a
feminine semen, shows that Harvey denied it any significance, and
himself decides against it. It has not seriously been brought
forward since.
When erection is completed in both the man and the woman the conditions
necessary for conjugation have at last been fulfilled. In all animals,
even those most nearly allied to man, coitus is effected by the male
approaching the female posteriorly. In man the normal method of male
approach is anteriorly, face to face. Leonardo da Vinci, in a well-known
drawing representing a sagittal section of a man and a woman connected in
this position of so-called Venus obversa; has shown how well adapted the
position is to the normal position of the organs in the human
species.[105]
Among monkeys, it is stated, congress is sometimes performed when
the female is on all fours; at other times the male brings the
female between his thighs when he is sitting, holding her with
his forepaws. Froriep informed Lawrence that the male sometimes
supported his feet on the female's calves. (Sir W. Lawrence,
_Lectures on Physiology_, 1823, p. 186.) A summary of the methods
of congress practiced by the various animals below mammals will
be found in the article "Copulation" by H. de Varigny in Richet's
_Dictionnaire de Physiologie_, vol. iv.
The anterior position in coitus, with the female partner lying
supine, is so widespread throughout the world that it may fairly
be termed the most typically human attitude in sexual congress.
It is found represented in Egyptian graves at Benihassan,
belonging to the Twelfth Dynasty; it is regarded by Mohammedans
as the normal position, although other positions are permitted by
the Prophet: "Your wives are your tillage: go in unto your
tillage in what manner soever you will;" it is that adopted in
Malacca; it appears, from Peruvian antiquities, to have been the
position generally, though not exclusively, adopted in ancient
Peru; it is found in many parts of Africa, and seems also to have
been the most usual position among the American aborigines.
Various modifications of this position are, however, found. Thus,
in some parts of the world, as among the Suahelis in Zanzibar,
the male partner adopts the supine position. In Loango, according
to Pechuel-Loesche, coitus is performed lying on the side.
Sometimes, as on the west coast of Africa, the woman is supine
and the man more or less erect; or, as among the Queenslanders
(as described by Roth) the woman is supine and the man squats on
his heels with her thighs clasping his flanks, while he raises
her buttocks with his hands.
The position of coitus in which the man is supine is without
doubt a natural and frequent variation of the specifically human
obverse method of coitus. It was evidently familiar to the
Romans. Ovid mentions it (_Ars Amatoria_, III, 777-8),
recommending it to little women, and saying that Andromache was
too tall to practice it with Hector. Aristophanes refers to it,
and there are Greek epigrams in which women boast of their skill
in riding their lovers. It has sometimes been viewed with a
certain disfavor because it seems to confer a superiority on the
woman. "Cursed be he," according to a Mohammedan saying, "who
maketh woman heaven and man earth."
Of special interest is the wide prevalence of an attitude in
coitus recalling that which prevails among quadrupeds. The
frequency with which on the walls of Pompeii coitus is
represented with the woman bending forward and her partner
approaching her posteriorly has led to the belief that this
attitude was formerly very common in Southern Italy. However that
may be, it is certainly normal at the present day among various
more or less primitive peoples in whom the vulva is often placed
somewhat posteriorly. It is thus among the Soudanese, as also, in
an altogether different part of the world, among the Eskimo
Innuit and Koniags. The New Caledonians, according to Foley,
cohabit in the quadrupedal manner, and so also the Papuans of New
Guinea (Bongu), according to Vahness. The same custom is also
found in Australia, where, however other postures are also
adopted. In Europe the quadrupedal posture would seem to prevail
among some of the South Slavs, notably the Dalmatians. (The
different methods of coitus practiced by the South Slavs are
described in Kryptadia vol. vi, pp. 220, et seq.)
This method of coitus was recommended by Lucretius (lib. iv) and
also advised by Paulus Æginetus as favorable to conception. (The
opinions of various early physicians are quoted by Schurig,
_Spermatologia_, 1720, pp. 232, et seq.). It seems to be a
position that is not infrequently agreeable to women, a fact
which may be brought into connection with the remarks of Adler
already quoted (p. 131) concerning the comparative lack of
adjustment of the feminine organs to the obverse position. It is
noteworthy that in the days of witchcraft hysterical women
constantly believed that they had had intercourse with the Devil
in this manner. This circumstance, indeed, probably aided in the
very marked disfavor in which coitus _a posteriori_ fell after
the decay of classic influences. The mediæval physicians
described it as _mos diabolicus_ and mistakenly supposed that it
produced abortion (Hyrtl, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 87). The
theologians, needless to say, were opposed to the _mos
diabolicus_, and already in the Anglo-Saxon Penitential of
Theodore, at the end of the seventh century, 40 days' penance is
prescribed for this method of coitus.
From the frequency with which they have been adopted by various
peoples as national customs, most of the postures in coitus here
referred to must be said to come within the normal range of
variation. It is a mistake to regard them as vicious perversions.
Up to the point to which we have so far considered it, the process of
detumescence has been mainly nervous and vascular in character; it has, in
fact, been but the more acute stage of a process which has been going on
throughout tumescence. But now we reach the point at which a new element
comes in: muscular action. With the onset of muscular action, which is
mainly involuntary, even when it affects the voluntary muscles,
detumescence proper begins to take place. Henceforward purposeful psychic
action, except by an effort, is virtually abolished. The individual, as a
separate person, tends to disappear. He has become one with another
person, as nearly one as the conditions of existence ever permit; he and
she are now merely an instrument in the hands of a higher power--by
whatever name we may choose to call that Power--which is using them for an
end not themselves.
The decisive moment in the production of the instinctive and involuntary
orgasm occurs when, under the influence of the stimulus applied to the
penis by friction with the vagina, the tension of the seminal fluid poured
into the urethra arouses the ejaculatory center in the spinal cord and the
bulbo-cavernosus muscle surrounding the urethra responsively contracts in
rhythmic spasms. Then it is that ejaculation occurs.[106]
"The circulation quickens, the arteries beat strongly," wrote Roubaud in a
description of the physical state during coitus which may almost be termed
classic; "the venous blood, arrested by muscular contraction, increases
the general heat, and this stagnation, more pronounced in the brain by the
contraction of the muscles of the neck and the throwing of the head
backward, causes a momentary cerebral congestion, during which
intelligence is lost and the faculties abolished. The eyes, violently
injected, become haggard, and the look uncertain, or, in the majority of
cases, the eyes are closed spasmodically to avoid the contact of the
light. The respiration is hurried, sometimes interrupted, and may be
suspended by the spasmodic contraction of the larynx, and the air, for a
time compressed, is at last emitted in broken and meaningless words. The
congested nervous centers only communicate confused sensations and
volitions; mobility and sensation show extreme disorder; the limbs are
seized by convulsions and sometimes by cramps, or are thrown wildly about
or become stiff like iron bars. The jaws, tightly pressed, grind the
teeth, and in some persons the delirium is carried so far that they bite
to bleeding the shoulders their companions have imprudently abandoned to
them. This frantic state of epilepsy lasts but a short time, but it
suffices to exhaust the forces of the organism, especially in man. It is,
I believe, Galen, who said: 'Omne animal post coitum triste præter
mulierem gallumque.'"[107] Most of the elements that make up this typical
picture of the state of coitus are not absolutely essential to that state,
but they all come within the normal range of variation. There can be no
doubt that this range is considerable. There would appear to be not only
individual, but also racial, differences; there is a remarkable passage in
Vatsyayana's _Kama Sutra_ describing the varying behavior of the women of
different races in India under the stress of sexual excitement--Dravidian
women with difficulty attaining erethism, women of the Punjaub fond of
being caressed with the tongue, women of Oude with impetuous desire and
profuse flow of mucus, etc.--and it is highly probable, Ploss and Bartels
remark, that these characterizations are founded on exact
observations.[108]
The various phenomena included in Roubaud's description of the condition
during coitus may all be directly or indirectly reduced to two groups: the
first circulatory and respiratory, the second motor. It is necessary to
consider both these aspects of the process of detumescence in somewhat
greater detail, although while it is most convenient to discuss them
separately, it must be borne in mind that they are not really separable;
the circulatory phenomena are in large measure a by-product of the
involuntary motor process.
With the approach of detumescence the respiration becomes shallow, rapid,
and to some extent arrested. This characteristic of the breathing during
sexual excitement is well recognized; so that in, for instance, the
_Arabian Nights_, it is commonly noted of women when gazing at beautiful
youths whose love they desired, that they ceased breathing.[109] It may be
added that exactly the same tendency to superficial and arrested
respiration takes place whenever there is any intense mental
concentration, as in severe intellectual work.[110]
The arrest of respiration tends to render the blood venous, and thus aids
in stimulating the vasomotor centers, raising the blood-pressure in the
body generally, and especially in the erectile tissues. High
blood-pressure is one of the most marked features of the state of
detumescence. The heart beats are stronger and quicker, the surface
arteries are more visible, the conjunctivæ become red. The precise degree
of blood-pressure attained during coitus has been most accurately
ascertained in the dog. In Bechterew's laboratory in St. Petersburg a
manometer was introduced into the central end of the carotid artery of a
bitch; a male dog was then introduced, and during coitus observations were
made on the blood-pressure at the peripheral and central ends of the
artery. It was found that there was a great general elevation of
blood-pressure, intense hyperæmia of the brain, rapid alternations, during
the act, of vasoconstriction and vasodilatation of the brain, with
increase and diminution of the general arterial tension in relation with
the various phases of the act, the greatest cerebral vasodilatation and
hyperæmia coinciding with the moment following the intromission of the
penis; the end of the act is followed by a considerable fall in the
blood-pressure.[111] I am not acquainted with any precise observations on
the blood-pressure in human subjects during detumescence, and there are
obvious difficulties in the way of such observations. It is probable,
however, that the conditions found would be substantially the same. This
is indicated, so far as the very marked increase of blood-pressure is
concerned, by some observations made by Vaschide and Vurpas with the
sphygmanometer on a lady under the influence of sexual excitement. In this
case there was a relationship of sympathy and friendly tenderness between
the experimenter and the subject, Madame X, aged 25. Experimenter and
subject talked sympathetically, and finally, we are told, while the latter
still had her hands in the sphygmanometer, the former almost made a
declaration of love. Madame X was greatly impressed, and afterward
admitted that her emotions had been genuine and strong. The
blood-pressure, which was in this subject habitually 65 millimeters, rose
to 150 and even 160, indicating a very high pressure, which rarely occurs;
at the same time Madame X looked very emotional and troubled.[112]
Some authorities are of opinion that irregularities in the
accomplishment of the sexual act are specially liable to cause
disturbances in the circulation. Thus Kisch, of Prague, refers to
the case of a couple practising coitus interruptus--the husband
withdrawing before ejaculation--in which the wife, a vigorous
woman, became liable after some years to attacks termed by Kisch
_neurasthenia cordis vasomotoria_, in which there was at daily or
longer intervals palpitation, with feelings of anxiety, headache,
dizziness, muscular weakness and tendency to faint. He regards
coitus as a cause of various heart troubles in women: (1) Attacks
of tachycardia in very excitable and sexually inclined women; (2)
attacks of tachycardia with dyspnoea in young women, with
vaginismus; (3) cardiac symptoms with lowered vascular tone in
women who for a long time have practised coitus interruptus
without complete sexual gratification (Kisch, "Herzbeschwerden
der Frauen verursacht durch den Cohabitationsact," _Münchener
Medizinisches Wochenschrift_, 1897, p. 617). In this connection,
also, reference may probably be made to those attacks of anxiety
which Freud associates with psychic sexual lesions of an
emotional character.
Associated with this vascular activity in detumescence we find a general
tendency to glandular activity. Various secretions are formed abundantly.
Perspiration is copious, and the ancient relationship between the
cutaneous and sexual systems seems to evoke a general activity of the skin
and its odoriferous secretions. Salivation, which also occurs, is very
conspicuous in many lower animals, as for instance in the donkey, notably
the female, who just before coitus stands with mouth open, jaws moving,
and saliva dribbling. In men, corresponding to the more copious secretion
in women, there is, during the latter stages of tumescence, a slight
secretion of mucus--Fürbringer's _urethrorrhoea ex libidine_--which
appears in drops at the urethral orifice. It comes from the small glands
of Littré and Cowper which open into the urethra. This phenomenon was well
known to the old theologians, who called it _distillatio_, and realized
its significance as at once distinct from semen and an indication that the
mind was dwelling on voluptuous images; it was also known in classic
times[113]; more recently it has often been confused with semen and has
thus sometimes caused needless anxiety to nervous persons. There is also
an increased secretion of urine, and it is probable that if the viscera
were more accessible to observation we might be able to demonstrate that
the glands throughout the body share in this increased activity.
The phenomena of detumescence culminate, however, and have their most
obvious manifestation in motor activity. The genital act, as Vaschide and
Vurpas remark, consists essentially in "a more and more marked tension of
the motor state which, reaching its maximum, presents a short tonic phase,
followed by a clonic phase, and terminates in a period of adynamia and
repose." This motor activity is of the essence of the impulse of
detumescence, because without it the sperm cells could not be brought into
the neighborhood of the germ cell and be propelled into the organic nest
which is assigned for their conjunction and incubation.
The motor activity is general as well as specifically sexual. There is a
general tendency to more or less involuntary movement, without any
increase of voluntary muscular power, which is, indeed, decreased, and
Vaschide and Vurpas state that dynamometric results are somewhat lower
than normal during sexual excitement, and the variations greater.[114] The
tendency to diffused activity of involuntary muscle is well illustrated by
the contraction of the bladder associated with detumescence. While this
occurs in both sexes, in men erection produces a mechanical impediment to
any evacuation of the bladder. In women there is not only a desire to
urinate but, occasionally, actual urination. Many quite healthy and normal
women have, as a rare accident supervening on the coincidence of an
unusually full bladder with an unusual degree of sexual excitement,
experienced a powerful and quite involuntary evacuation of the bladder at
the moment of orgasm. In women with less normal nervous systems this has,
more rarely, been almost habitual. Brantôme has perhaps recorded the
earliest case of this kind in referring to a lady he knew who "quand on
lui faisait cela elle se compissait à bon escient."[115] The tendency to
trembling, constriction of throat, sneezing, emission of internal gas, and
the other similar phenomena occasionally associated with detumescence, are
likewise due to diffusion of the motor disturbance. Even in infancy the
motor signs of sexual excitement are the most obvious indications of
orgasm; thus West, describing masturbation in a child of six or nine
months who practiced thigh-rubbing, states that when sitting in her high
chair she would grasp the handles, stiffen herself, and stare, rubbing her
thighs quickly together several times, and then come to herself with a
sigh, tired, relaxed, and sweating, these seizures, which lasted one or
two minutes, being mistaken by the relations for epileptic fits.[116]
The essentially motor character of detumescence is well shown by
the extreme forms of erotic intoxication which sometimes appear
as the result of sexual excitement. Féré, who has especially
called attention to the various manifestations of this condition,
presents an instructive case of a man of neurotic heredity and
antecedents, in whom it occasionally happened that sexual
excitement, instead of culminating in the normal orgasm, attained
its climax in a fit of uncontrollable muscular excitement. He
would then sing, dance, gesticulate, roughly treat his partner,
break the objects around him, and finally sink down exhausted and
stupefied. (Féré, _L'Instinct Sexuel_, Chapter X.) In such a case
a diffused and general detumescence has taken the place of the
normal detumescence which has its main focus in the sexual
sphere.
The same relationship is shown in a case of impotence accompanied
by cramps in the calves and elsewhere, which has been recorded by
Brügelmann ("Zur Lehre vom Perversen Sexualismus," _Zeitschrift
für Hypnotismus_, 1900, Heft I). These muscular conditions ceased
for several days whenever coitus was effected.
An instructive analogy to the motor irradiations preceding the
moment of sexual detumescence may be found in the somewhat
similar motor irradiations which follow the delayed expulsion of
a highly distended bladder. These sometimes become very marked in
a child or young woman unable to control the motor system
absolutely. The legs are crossed, the foot swung, the thighs
tightly pressed together, the toes curled. The fingers are flexed
in rhythmic succession. The whole body slowly twists as though
the seat had become uncomfortable. It is difficult to concentrate
the mind; the same remark may be automatically repeated; the eyes
search restlessly, and there is a tendency to count surrounding
objects or patterns. When the extreme degree of tension is
reached it is only by executing a kind of dance that the
explosive contraction of the bladder is restrained.
The picture of muscular irradiation presented under these
circumstances differs but slightly from that of the onset of
detumescence. In one case the explosion is sought, in the other
case it is dreaded; but in both cases there is a retarded
muscular tension,--in the one case involuntary, in the other case
voluntary--maintained at a point of acute intensity, and in both
cases the muscular irradiations of this tension spread over the
whole body.
The increased motor irritability of the state of detumescence
somewhat resembles the conditions produced by a weak anæsthetic
and there is some interest in noting the sexual excitement liable
to occur in anæsthesia. I am indebted to Dr. J.F.W. Silk for some
remarks on this point:--
"I. Sexual emotions may apparently be aroused during the stage of
excitement preceding or following the administration of any
anæsthetic; these emotions may take the form of mere delirious
utterances, or may be associated with what is apparently a sexual
orgasm. Or reflex phenomena connected with the sexual organs may
occasionally be observed under special circumstances; or, to put
it in another way, such reflex possibilities are not always
abolished by the condition of narcosis or anæsthesia.
"II. Of the particular anæsthetics employed I am inclined to
think that the possibility of such conditions arising is
inversely proportionate to their strength, e.g., they are more
frequently observed with a weak anæsthetic like nitrous oxide
than with chloroform.
"III. Sexual emotions I believe to be rarely observable in men,
and this is remarkable, or, I should say, particularly
noticeable, for the presence of nurses, female students, etc.,
might almost have led one to expect that the contrary would have
been the case. On the other hand, it is among men that I have
frequently observed a reflex phenomenon which has usually taken
the shape of an erection of the penis when the structures in the
neighborhood of the spermatic cord have been handled.
"IV. Among females the emotional sexual phenomena most frequently
obtrude themselves, and I believe that if it were possible to
induce people to relate their dreams they would very often be
found to be of a sexual character."
Much more important than the general motor phenomena, more purposive
though involuntary, are the specifically sexual muscular movements. From
the very beginning of detumescence, indeed, muscular activity makes itself
felt, and the peripheral muscles of sex act, according to Kobelt's
expression, as a peripheral sexual heart. In the male these movements are
fairly obvious and fairly simple. It is required that the semen should be
expressed from the vesiculæ seminales, propelled along the urethra, in
combination with the prostatic fluid which is equally essential, and
finally ejected with a certain amount of force from the urethral orifice.
Under the influence of the stimulation furnished by the contact and
friction of the vagina, this process is effectively carried out, mainly by
the rhythmic contractions of the bulbo-cavernosus muscle, and the semen is
emitted in a jet which may be ejaculated to a distance varying from a few
centimeters to a meter or more.
With regard to the details of the psychic sides of this process a
correspondent, a psychologist, writes as follows:--
"I have never noticed in my reading any attempt to analyze the
sensations which accompany the orgasm, and, as I have made a good
many attempts to make such an analysis myself, I will append the
results on the chance that they may be of some value. I have
checked my results so far as possible by comparing them with the
experience of such of my friends as had coitus frequently and
were willing to tell me as much as they could of the psychology
of the process.
"The first fact that I hit upon was the importance of pressure.
As one of my informants picturesquely phrases it--'the tighter
the fit the greater the pleasure.' This agrees, too, with their
unanimous testimony that the pleasurable sensations were much
greater when the orgasm occurred simultaneously in the man and
woman. Their analysis seldom went further than this, but a few
remarked that the distinctive sensations accompanying the orgasm
seem to begin near the root of the penis or in the testes, and
that they are qualitatively different from the tickling
sensations which precede them.
"These tickling sensations are caused, I think, by the friction
of the glands against the vaginal walls, and are supplemented by
other sensations from the urethra, whose nerves are stimulated by
pressure of the vaginal walls and sphincter. The specific
sensation of the orgasm begins, I believe, with a strong
contraction of the muscles of the urethral walls along the entire
length of the canal, and is felt as a peculiar ache starting
from the base of the penis and quickly becoming diffused through
the whole organ. This sensation reaches its climax with the
expulsion of the semen into the urethra and the consequent
feeling of distention, which is instantly followed by the
rhythmic peristaltic contractions of the urethral muscles which
mark the climax of the orgasm.
"The most careful introspection possible under the circumstances
seems to show that these sensations arise almost wholly from the
urethra and in a far less degree from the corona. During periods
of great sexual excitement the nerves of the urethra and corona
seem to possess a peculiar sensitivity and are powerfully
stimulated by the violent peristaltic contractions of the muscles
in the urethral walls during ejaculation. It seems possible that
the intensity and volume of sensation felt at the glans may be
due in part to the greater area of sensitive surface presented in
the fossa as well as to the sensitivity of the corona, and in
part to the fact that during the orgasm the glans is more highly
congested than at any other time, and the nerve endings thus
subjected to additional pressure.
"If the foregoing statements are true, it is easy to see why the
pleasure of the man is much increased when the orgasm occurs at
the same time in his partner and himself, for the contractions of
the vagina upon the penis would increase the stimulation of all
the nerve endings in that organ for which a mechanical stimulus
is adequate, and the prominence of the corpus spongiosum and
corona would ensure them the greatest stimulation. It seems not
improbable that the specific sensation of orgasm rises from the
stimulation of the peculiar form of nerve end-bulbs which Krause
found in the corpus spongiosum and in the glans.
"The characteristic massiveness of the experience is probably due
largely to the great number of sensations of strain and pressure
caused by the powerful reflex contraction of so many of the
voluntary muscles.
"Of course, the foregoing analysis is purely tentative, and I
offer it only on the chance that it may suggest some line of
inquiry which may lead to results of value to the student of
sexual psychology."
In man the whole process of detumescence, when it has once really
begun, only occupies a few moments. It is so likewise in many
animals; in the genera Bos, Ovis, etc., it is very short, almost
instantaneous, and rather short also in the Equidæ (in a vigorous
stallion, according to Colin, ten to twelve seconds). As
Disselhorst has pointed out, this is dependent on the fact that
these animals, like man, possess a vas deferens which broadens
into an ampulla serving as a receptacle which holds the semen
ready for instant emission when required. On the other hand, in
the dog, cat, boar, and the Canidæ, Felidæ, and Suidæ generally,
there is no receptacle of this kind, and coitus is slow, since a
longer time is required for the peristaltic action of the vas to
bring the semen to the urogenital sinus. (R. Disselhorst, _Die
Accessorischen Geschlechtsdrusen der Wirbelthiere_, 1897, p.
212.)
In man there can be little doubt that detumescence is more
rapidly accomplished in the European than in the East, in India,
among the yellow races, or in Polynesia. This is probably in part
due to a deliberate attempt to prolong the act in the East, and
in part to a greater nervous erethism among Westerns.
In the woman the specifically sexual muscular process is less visible,
more obscure, more complex, and uncertain. Before detumescence actually
begins there are at intervals involuntary rhythmic contractions of the
walls of the vagina, seeming to have the object of at once stimulating and
harmonizing with those that are about to begin in the male organ. It would
appear that these rhythmic contractions are the exaggeration of a
phenomenon which is normal, just as slight contraction is normal and
constant in the bladder. Jastreboff has shown, in the rabbit, that the
vagina is in constant spontaneous rhythmic contraction from above
downward, not peristaltic, but in segments, the intensity of the
contractions increasing with age and especially with sexual development.
This vaginal contraction which in women only becomes well marked just
before detumescence, and is due mainly to the action of the sphincter
cunni (analogous to the bulbo-cavernosus in the male), is only a part of
the localized muscular process. At first there would appear to be a reflex
peristaltic movement of the Fallopian tubes and uterus. Dembo observed
that in animals stimulation of the upper anterior wall of the vagina
caused gradual contraction of the uterus, which is erected by powerful
contraction of its muscular fiber and round ligaments while at the same
time it descends toward the vagina, its cavity becoming more and more
diminished and mucus being forced out. In relaxing, Aristotle long ago
remarked, it aspirates the seminal fluid.
Although the active participation of the sexual organs in woman, to the
end of directing the semen into the womb at the moment of detumescence, is
thus a very ancient belief, and harmonizes with the Greek view of the womb
as an animal in the body endowed with a considerable amount of
activity,[117] precise observation in modern times has offered but little
confirmation of the reality of this participation. Such observations as
have been made have usually been the accidental result of sexual
excitement and orgasm occurring during a gynæcological examination. As,
however, such a result is liable to occur in erotic subjects, a certain
number of precise observations have accumulated during the past century.
So far as the evidence goes, it would seem that in women, as in mares,
bitches, and other animals, the uterus becomes shorter, broader, and
softer during the orgasm, at the same time descending lower into the
pelvis, with its mouth open intermittently, so that, as one writer
remarks, spontaneously recurring to the simile which commended itself to
the Greeks, "the uterus might be likened to an animal gasping for
breath."[118] This sensitive, responsive mobility of the uterus is,
indeed, not confined to the moment of detumescence, but may occur at other
times under the influence of sexual emotion.
It would seem probable that in this erection, contraction, and descent of
the uterus, and its simultaneous expulsion of mucus, we have the decisive
moment in the completion of detumescence in woman, and it is probable that
the thick mucus, unlike the earlier more limpid secretion, which women are
sometimes aware of after orgasm, is emitted from the womb at this time.
This is, however, not absolutely certain. Some authorities regard
detumescence in women as accomplished in the pouring out of secretions,
others in the rhythmic genital contractions; the sexual parts may,
however, be copiously bathed in mucus for an indefinitely long period
before the final stage of detumescence is achieved, and the rhythmic
contractions are also taking place at a somewhat early period; in neither
respect is there any obvious increase at the final moment of orgasm. In
women this would seem to be more conspicuously a nervous manifestation
than in men. On the subjective side it is very pronounced, with its
feeling of relieved tension and agreeable repose--a moment when, as one
woman expresses it, together with intense pleasure, there is, as it were,
a floating up into a higher sphere, like the beginning of chloroform
narcosis--but on the objective side this culminating moment is less easy
to define.
Various observations and remarks made during the past two or
three centuries by Bond, Valisneri, Dionis, Haller, Günther, and
Bischoff, tending to show a sucking action of the uterus in both
women and other female animals, have been brought together by
Litzmann in R. Wagner's _Handwörterbuch der Physiologie_ (1846,
vol. iii, p. 53). Litzmann added an experience of his own: "I had
an opportunity lately, while examining a young and very erethic
woman, to observe how suddenly the uterus assumed a more erect
position, and descended deeper in the pelvis; the lips of the
womb became equal in length, the cervix rounded, softer, and more
easily reached by the finger, and at the same time a high state
of sexual excitement was revealed by the respiration and voice."
The general belief still remained, however, that the woman's part
in conjugation is passive, and that it is entirely by the energy
of the male organ and of the male sexual elements, the
spermatozoa, that conjunction with the germ cell is attained.
According to this theory, it was believed that the spermatozoa
were, as Wilkinson expresses it, in a history of opinion on this
question, "endowed with some sort of intuition or instinct; that
they would turn in the direction of the os uteri, wading through
the acid mucus of the vagina; travel patiently upward and around
the vaginal portion of the uterus; enter the uterus and proceed
onward in search of the waiting ovum." (A.D. Wilkinson,
"Sterility in the Female," _Transactions of the Lincoln Medical
Society_, Nebraska, 1896.)
About the year 1859 Fichstedt seems to have done something to
overthrow this theory by declaring his belief that the uterus was
not, as commonly supposed, a passive organ in coitus, but was
capable of sucking in the semen during the brief period of
detumescence. Various authorities then began to bring forward
arguments and observations in the same sense. Wernich,
especially, directed attention to this point in 1872 in a paper
on the erectile properties of the lower segment of the uterus
("Die Erectionsfahigkeit des untern Uterus-Abschnitts," _Beiträge
zur Geburtshülfe und Gynäkologie_, vol. i, p. 296). He made
precise observations and came to the conclusion that owing to
erectile properties in the neck of the uterus, this part of the
womb elongates during congress and reaches down into the pelvis
with an aspiratory movement, as if to meet the glans of the male.
A little later, in a case of partial prolapse, Beck, in ignorance
of Wernich's theory, was enabled to make a very precise
observation of the action of the uterus during excitement. In
this case the woman was sexually very excitable even under
ordinary examination, and Beck carefully noted the phenomena that
took place during the orgasm. "The os and cervix uteri," he
states, "had been about as firm as usual, moderately hard and,
generally speaking, in a natural and normal condition, with the
external os closed to such an extent as to admit of the uterine
probe with difficulty; but the instant that the height of
excitement was at hand, the os opened itself to the extent of
fully an inch, as nearly as my eye can judge, made five or six
successive gasps as if it were drawing the external os into the
cervix, each time powerfully, and, it seemed to me, with a
regular rhythmical action, at the same time losing its former
density and hardness and becoming quite soft to the touch. Upon
the cessation of the action, as related, the os suddenly closed,
the cervix again hardened itself, and the intense congestion was
dissipated." (J.R. Beck, "How do the Spermatozoa Enter the
Uterus?" _American Journal of Obstetrics_, 1874.) It would appear
that in the early part of this final process of detumescence the
action of the uterus is mainly one of contraction and ejaculation
of any mucus that may be contained; Dr. Paul Mundé has described
"the gushing, almost in jets," of this mucus which he has
observed in an erotic woman under a rather long digital and
specular examination. (_American Journal of Obstetrics_, 1893.)
It is during the latter part of detumescence, it would seem, and
perhaps for a short time after the orgasm is over, that the
action of the uterus is mainly aspiratory.
While the active part played by the womb in detumescence can no longer be
questioned, it need not too hastily be assumed that the belief in the
active movements of the spermatozoa must therefore be denied. The vigorous
motility of the tadpole-like organisms is obvious to anyone who has ever
seen fresh semen under the microscope; and if it is correct, as Clifton
Edgar states, that the spermatozoa may retain their full activity in the
female organs for at least seventeen days, they have ample time to exert
their energies. The fact that impregnation sometimes occurs without
rupture of the hymen is not decisive evidence that there has been no
penetration, as the hymen may dilate without rupturing; but there seems no
reason to doubt that conception has sometimes taken place when ejaculation
has occurred without penetration; this is indicated in a fairly objective
manner when, as has been occasionally observed, conception has occurred in
women whose vaginas were so narrow as scarcely to admit the entrance of a
goose-quill; such was the condition in the case of a pregnant woman
brought forward by Roubaud. The stories, repeated in various books, of
women who have conceived after homosexual relations with partners who had
just left their husbands' beds are not therefore inherently
impossible.[119] Janke quotes numerous cases in which there has been
impregnation in virgins who have merely allowed the penis to be placed in
contact with the vulva, the hymen remaining unruptured until
delivery.[120]
It must be added, however, that even if the semen is effused merely at the
mouth of the vagina, without actual penetration, the spermatozoa are still
not entirely without any resource save their own motility in the task of
reaching the ovum. As we have seen, it is not only the uterus which takes
an active part in detumescence; the vagina also is in active movement, and
it seems highly probable that, at all events in some women and under some
circumstances, such movement favoring aspiration toward the womb may be
communicated to the external mouth of the vagina.
Riolan (_Anthropographia_, 1626, p. 294) referred to the
constriction and dilation of the vulva under the influence of
sexual excitement. It is said that in Abyssinia women can, when
adopting the straddling posture of coitus, by the movements of
their own vaginal muscles alone, grasp the male organ and cause
ejaculation, although the man remains passive. According to
Lorion the Annamites, adopting the normal posture of coitus,
introduce the penis when flaccid or only half erect, the
contraction of the vaginal walls completing the process; the
penis is very small in this people. It is recognized by
gynæcologists that the condition of vaginismus, in which there is
spasmodic contraction of the vagina, making intercourse painful
or impossible, is but a morbid exaggeration of the normal
contraction which occurs in sexual excitement. Even in the
absence of sexual excitement there is a vague affection,
occurring in both married and unmarried women, and not, it would
seem, necessarily hysterical, characterized by quivering or
twitching of the vulva; I am told that this is popularly termed
"flackering of the shape" in Yorkshire and "taittering of the
lips" in Ireland. It may be added that quivering of the gluteal
muscles also takes place during detumescence, and that in Indian
medicine this is likewise regarded as a sign of sexual desire in
women, apart from coitus.
A non-medical correspondent in Australia, W.J. Chidley, from whom
I have received many communications on this subject, is strongly
of opinion from his own observations that not only does the
uterus take an active part in coitus, but that under natural
conditions the vagina also plays an active part in the process.
He was led to suspect such an action many years ago, as well by
an experience of his own, as also by hearing from a young woman
who met her lover after a long absence that by the excitement
thus aroused a tape attached to the underclothes had been drawn
into the vagina. Since then the confidences of various friends,
together with observations of animals, have confirmed him in the
view that the general belief that coitus must be effected by
forcible entry of the male organ into a passive vagina is
incorrect. He considers that under normal circumstances coitus
should take place but rarely, and then only under the most
favorable circumstances, perhaps exclusively in spring, and, most
especially, only when the woman is ready for it. Then, when in
the arms of the man she loves, the vagina, in sympathy with the
active movements of the womb, becomes distended at the touch of
the turgescent, but not fully erect, penis, "flashes open and
draws in the male organ." "All animals," he adds, "have sexual
intercourse by the male organ being _drawn_, not forced, into the
female. I have been borne out in this by friends who have seen
horses, camels, mules and other large animals in the coupling
season. What is more absurd, for instance, than to say that an
entire _penetrates_ the mare? His penis is a sensitive, beautiful
piece of mechanism, which brings its light head here and there
till it touches the right spot, when the mare, _if ready_, takes
it in. An entire's penis could not penetrate anything; it is a
curve, a beautiful curve which would easily bend. A bull's,
again, is turned down at the end and, more palpably still, would
fold on itself if pressed with force. The womb and vagina of a
beautiful and healthy woman constitute a living, vital, moving
organ, sensitive to a look, a word, a thought, a hand on the
waist."
A well-known American author thus writes in confirmation of the
foregoing view: "In nature the woman wooes. When impassioned her
vagina becomes erect and dilated, and so lubricated with abundant
mucus to the lips that entrance is easy. This dilatation and
erectile expansion of vagina withdraws the hymen so close to the
walls that penetration need not tear it or cause pain. The more
muscular, primitive and healthy the woman the tougher and less
sensitive the hymen, and the less likely to break or bleed. I
think one great function of the foreskin also is to moisten the
glans, so that it can be lubricated for entrance, and then to
retract, moist side out, to make entrance still easier. I think
that in nature the glans penetrates within the labia, is
withstood a moment, vibrating, and then all resistance is
withdrawn by a sudden 'flashing open' of the gates, permitting
easy entrance, and that the sudden giving up of resistance, and
substitution of welcome, with its instantaneous deep entrance,
causes an almost immediate male orgasm (the thrill being
irresistibly exciting). Certainly this is the process as observed
in horses, cattle, goats, etc., and it seems likely something
analogous is natural in man."
While it is easily possible to carry to excess a view which would
make the woman rather than the man the active agent in coitus
(and it may be recalled that in the Cebidæ the penis, as also the
clitoris, is furnished with a bone), there is probably an element
of truth in the belief that the vagina shares in the active part
which, there can now be little doubt, is played by the uterus in
detumescence. Such a view certainly enables us to understand how
it is that semen effused on the exterior sexual organs can be
conveyed to the uterus.
It was indeed the failure to understand the vital activity of the
semen and the feminine genital canal, co-operating together
towards the junction of sperm cell and germ cell, which for so
long stood in the way of the proper understanding of conception.
Even the genius of Harvey, which had grappled successfully with
the problem of the circulation, failed in the attempt to
comprehend the problem of generation. Mainly on account of this
difficulty, he was unable to see how the male element could
possibly enter the uterus, although he devoted much observation
and study to the question. Writing of the uterus of the doe after
copulation, he says: "I began to doubt, to ask myself whether the
semen of the male could by any possibility make its way by
attraction or injection to the seat of conception, and repeated
examination led me to the conclusion that none of the semen
reached this seat." (_De-Generatione Animalium_, Exercise lxvii.)
"The woman," he finally concluded, "after contact with the
spermatic fluid _in coitu_, seems to receive an influence and
become fecundated without the co-operation of any sensible
corporeal agent, in the same way as iron touched by the magnet is
endowed with its powers."
Although the specifically sexual muscular process of detumescence in
women--as distinguished from the general muscular phenomena of sexual
excitement which may be fairly obvious--is thus seen to be somewhat
complex and obscure, in women as well as in men detumescence is a
convulsion which discharges a slowly accumulated store of nervous force.
In women also, as in men, the motor discharge is directed to a specific
end--the intromission of the semen in the one sex, its reception in the
other. In both sexes the sexual orgasm and the pleasure and satisfaction
associated with it, involve, as their most essential element, the motor
activity of the sexual sphere.[121]
The active co-operation of the female organs in detumescence is
probably indicated by the difficulty which is experienced in
achieving conception by the artificial injection of semen. Marion
Sims stated in 1866, in _Clinical Notes on Uterine Surgery_, that
in 55 injections in six women he had only once been successful;
he believed that that was the only case at that time on record.
Jacobi had, however, practiced artificial fecundation in animals
(in 1700) and John Hunter in man. See Gould and Pyle, _Anomalies
and Curiosities of Medicine_, p. 43; also Janke (_Die
Willkürliche Hervorbringen des Geschlechts_, pp. 230 et seq.) who
discusses the question of artificial fecundation and brings
together a mass of data.
The facial expression when tumescence is completed is marked by a high
degree of energy in men and of loveliness in women. At this moment, when
the culminating act of life is about to be accomplished, the individual
thus reaches his supreme state of radiant beauty. The color is heightened,
the eyes are larger and brighter, the facial muscles are more tense, so
that in mature individuals any wrinkles disappear and youthfulness
returns.
At the beginning of detumescence the features are frequently more
discomposed. There is a general expression of eager receptivity to sensory
impressions. The dilatation of the pupils, the expansion of the nostrils,
the tendency to salivation and to movements of the tongue, all go to make
up a picture which indicates an approaching gratification of sensory
desires; it is significant that in some animals there is at this moment
erection of the ears.[122] There is sometimes a tendency to utter broken
and meaningless words, and it is noted that sometimes women have called
out on their mothers.[123] The dilatation of the pupils produces
photophobia, and in the course of detumescence the eyes are frequently
closed from this cause. At the beginning of sexual excitement, Vaschide
and Vurpas have observed, tonicity of the eye-muscles seems to increase;
the elevators of the upper lids contract, so that the eyes look larger and
their mobility and brightness are heightened; with the increase of
muscular tonicity strabismus occurs, owing to the greater strength of the
muscles that carry the eyes inward.[124]
The facial expression which marks the culmination of tumescence,
and the approach of detumescence is that which is generally
expressive of joy. In an interesting psycho-physical study of the
emotion of joy, Dearborn thus summarizes its characteristics:
"The eyes are brighter and the upper eyelid elevated, as also are
the brows, the skin over the glabella, the upper lip and the
corners of the mouth, while the skin at the outer canthi of the
eye is puckered. The nostrils are moderately dilated, the tongue
slightly extended and the cheeks somewhat expanded, while in
persons with largely developed pinnal muscles the ears tend
somewhat to incline forwards. The whole arterial system is
dilated, with consequent blushing from this effect on the dermal
capillaries of the face, neck, scalp and hands, and sometimes
more extensively even; from the same cause the eyes slightly
bulge. The whole glandular system likewise is stimulated, causing
the secretions,--gastric, salivary, lachrymal, sudoral, mammary,
genital, etc.--to be increased, with the resulting rise of
temperature and increase in the katobolism generally. Volubility
is almost regularly increased, and is, indeed, one of the most
sensitive and constant of the correlations in emotional
delight.... Pleasantness is correlated in living organisms by
vascular, muscular and glandular extension or expansion, both
literal and figurative." (G. Dearborn, "The Emotion of Joy,"
_Psychological Review Monograph Supplements_, vol. ii, No. 5, p.
62.) All these signs of joy appear to occur at some stage of the
process of sexual excitement.
In some monkeys it would seem that the muscular movement which in
man has become the smile is the characteristic facial expression
of sexual tumescence or courtship. Discussing the facial
expression of pleasure in children, S.S. Buckman has the
following remarks: "There is one point in such expression which
has not received due consideration, namely, the raising of lumps
of flesh each side of the nose as an indication of pleasure.
Accompanying this may be seen small furrows, both in children and
adults, running from the eyes somewhat obliquely towards the
nose. What these characters indicate may be learned from the male
mandril, whose face, particularly in the breeding season, shows
colored fleshy prominences each side of the nose, with
conspicuous furrows and ridges. In the male mandril these
characters have been developed because, being an unmistakable
sign of sexual ardor, they gave the female particular evidence of
sexual feelings. Thus such characters would come to be recognized
as habitually symptomatic of pleasurable feelings. Finding
similar features in human beings, and particularly in children,
though not developed in the same degree, we may assume that in
our monkey-like ancestors facial characters similar to those of
the mandril were developed, though to a less extent, and that
they were symptomatic of pleasure, because connected with the
period of courtship. Then they became conventionalized as
pleasurable symptoms." (S.S. Buckmann, "Human Babies: What They
Teach," _Nature_, July 5, 1900.) If this view is accepted, it may
be said that the smile, having in man become a generalized sign
of amiability, has no longer any special sexual significance. It
is true that a faint and involuntary smile is often associated
with the later stages of tumescence, but this is usually lost
during detumescence, and may even give place to an expression of
ferocity.
When we have realized how profound is the organic convulsion involved by
the process of detumescence, and how great the general motor excitement
involved, we can understand how it is that very serious effects may follow
coitus. Even in animals this is sometimes the case. Young bulls and
stallions have fallen in a faint after the first congress; boars may be
seriously affected in a similar way; mares have been known even to fall
dead.[125] In the human species, and especially in men--probably, as Bryan
Robinson remarks, because women are protected by the greater slowness with
which detumescence occurs in them--not only death itself, but innumerable
disorders and accidents have been known to follow immediately after
coitus, these results being mainly due to the vascular and muscular
excitement involved by the processes of detumescence. Fainting, vomiting,
urination, defæcation have been noted as occurring in young men after a
first coitus. Epilepsy has been not infrequently recorded. Lesions of
various organs, even rupture of the spleen, have sometimes taken place. In
men of mature age the arteries have at times been unable to resist the
high blood-pressure, and cerebral hæmorrhage with paralysis has occurred.
In elderly men the excitement of intercourse with strange women has
sometimes caused death, and various cases are known of eminent persons who
have thus died in the arms of young wives or of prostitutes.[126]
These morbid results, are, however, very exceptional. They usually occur
in persons who are abnormally sensitive, or who have imprudently
transgressed the obvious rules of sexual hygiene. Detumescence is so
profoundly natural a process; it is so deeply and intimately a function of
the organism, that it is frequently harmless even when the bodily
condition is far from absolutely sound. Its usual results, under favorable
circumstances, are entirely beneficial. In men there normally supervenes,
together with the relief from the prolonged tension of tumescence, with
the muscular repose and falling blood-pressure,[127] a sense of profound
satisfaction, a glow of diffused well-being,[128] perhaps an agreeable
lassitude, occasionally also a sense of mental liberation from an
overmastering obsession. Under reasonably happy circumstances there is no
pain, or exhaustion, or sadness, or emotional revulsion. The happy lover's
attitude toward his partner is not expressed by the well-known Sonnet
(CXXIX) of Shakespeare:--
"Past reason hunted, and no sooner had
Past reason hated."
He feels rather with Boccaccio that the kissed mouth loses not its charm,
"Bocca baciata non perde ventura."
In women the results of detumescence are the same, except that the
tendency to lassitude is not marked unless the act has been several times
repeated; there is a sensation of repose and self-assurance, and often an
accession of free and joyous energy. After completely satisfactory
detumescence she may experience a feeling as of intoxication, lasting for
several hours, an intoxication that is followed by no evil reaction.
Such, so far as our present vague and imperfect knowledge extends, are the
main features in the process of detumescence. In the future, without
doubt, we shall learn to know more precisely a process which has been so
supremely important in the life of man and of his ancestors.