Orleans, Regent of France, during the minority of Louis XV., gives the
following amusing account of a love potion, to the powerful effects of
which he considered himself indebted for his existence. "An old
bachelor, of Brivas, had engaged to marry a young lady of only sixteen
years of age. The night before the wedding he assembled the wise heads
of his family for the purpose of consulting upon the best means of
enabling him to perform his part creditably in the approaching amorous
conflict. Opinions were divided; some maintained that nature was
adequate to the occasion at any age, while others recommended a certain
preparation in the Pharmacopeia, which would amply supply the defect of
youth in a sexaginary husband. The old gentleman chose, without
hesitation, the surest and speediest of these two chances of success.
The prescription was sent to the shop of my worthy father, who was an
apothecary in the town, and he accordingly immediately set to work, and
made up a draught which would have awakened desire even in Methusaleh
himself. This valuable philter was not to be sent to the party till the
next day. It was late, and my mother," continues the Cardinal, "desired
her husband to retire to rest and he, tired with his day's work, quickly
undressed himself, blew out his candle, and deposited himself, like a
loving husband, by the side of his dear spouse. Awakening in the middle
of the night, he complained of being excessively thirsty, and his better
half, roused from her slumbers, got up in the dark, and groping about
for something wherewith to quench his thirst, her hand encountered the
invigorating philter, which it truly proved to be, for I came into the
world precisely nine months after that memorable night."[143]
Although love-potions and philters, as well as the other preparations
had recourse to, for animating and arousing the organs for reproduction
frequently owe, as we have shewn, their advantages to cantharides, and
are, but too often productive of terrible effects, yet it cannot be
denied that when administered by a skilful, cautious, and experienced
physician, they have restored the desired vigour when all other means
have failed.
The flesh of the Schinck (scincus), an amphibious animal of the lizard
species, and sometimes of the land lizard, or crocodile, is said, when
reduced to powder and drunk with sweet wine, to act miraculously in
exciting the venereal action; it is also prepared for the same object in
the form of the electuary known by the name of Diasatyrion. Ælius
recommends that in order to cause the erection of the virile organ, the
flesh of this animal should be taken from the vicinity of its genital
apparatus.[144] It is a well known fact that the Egyptian peasants
carried their lizards to Cairo, whence they were forwarded, _viâ_
Alexandria, to Venice and Marseilles. This species of lizard, which
feeds upon aromatic plants, was also used as an aphrodisiac by the
Arabs, and the well known anti-poisonous quality of its flesh had caused
it, in more ancient times, to be employed as an ingredient in the
far-famed Mithridates, or antidote to poison. Browne informs us[145]
"that in Africa, no part of the Materia Medica is so much in requisition
as those which stimulate to venereal pleasure. The _Lacerta scincus_ in
powder, and a thousand other articles of the same kind, are in continual
demand." The plant Chervri (_sandix ceropolium_) is also accounted as
capable of exciting amorous propensities, so much so that Tiberius, the
Roman emperor, the most lascivious, perhaps, of men, is said to have
exacted a certain quantity of it from the Germans, by way of tribute,
for the purpose of rendering himself vigorous with his women and
catamites; and Venette says that the Swedish ladies give it to their
husbands when they find them flag in their matrimonial duties.[146]
But it was upon the plant called Satyrion (_orchis mascula_) that those
who required aphrodisiacal remedies rested their most sanguine hopes.
This plant, Theophrastus assures us, possesses so wonderful a property
of exciting venery that a mere application of it to the parts of
generation will enable a man to accomplish the act of love twelve times
successively. Speaking of this plant, Venette[147] says that the herb
which the Indian King Androphyl sent to King Antiochus was that it was
so efficacious in exciting men to amorous enjoyment as to surpass in
that quality, all other plants, the Indian who was the bearer of it
assuring the king "qu'elle lui avait donné de la vigueur pour soixante
dix embrassements," but he owned "qu'aux derniers efforts ce qu'il
rendait n'était plus de semence."
Matthoile, however, observing that those persons who made use of it did
not appear much given to lasciviousness, concluded that we had lost the
true satyrion of the ancients; but, it is nevertheless certain,
notwithstanding so adverse an opinion, that this plant long preserved
its reputation, and was recommended by all botanists for its aphrodisiac
potency. Of all the species of this plant the one popularly known as
dog-stones is reputed to possess the greatest virtue.
The Turks have also their Satyrion (_orchis morio_), which grows upon
the mountains near Constantinople, and which they make use of to repair
their strength, and stimulate them to the generative act. From this root
is made the salep of which the inhabitants of Turkey, Persia, and Syria,
are extremely fond, being looked upon as one of the greatest
restoratives and provocatives to venery in the whole vegetable world.
But besides the aphrodisiacal qualities attributed to this plant by the
above people, they give it credit for other ones, which good opinion
experience has confirmed, and therefore whenever they undertake a long
voyage, they never omit to carry it with them as a specific against all
diseases. Modern practitioners likewise commend its restorative,
mucilaginous and demulcent qualities as rendering it of considerable
utility, particularly in sea scurvy, diarrhœa, dysentery, and stone
or gravel. In addition to this property, salep also possesses the very
singular one of concealing the taste of sea water, hence to prevent the
dreadful calamity of perishing by thirst at sea it has been proposed
that the powder of this plant should form part of the provisions of
every ship's company.
Borax is likewise considered to possess peculiar aphrodisiacal
qualities. "Il pénètre," says Venette, "toutes les parties de notre
corps et ouvre tous les vaisseaux, et par la ténuité de sa substance,
_il conduit aux parties génitales_ tout ce qui est capable de nous
servir de matière à la semence."[148]
The plant Rocket (_Brasica eruca_) has likewise been especially
celebrated by the ancient poets for possessing the virtue of restoring
vigour to the sexual organs, on which account it was consecrated to and
sown around, the statue of Priapus; thus Columella says:--
"Et quæ frugifero seritur vicina Priapo
Excitet ut veneri tardos eruca maritos."[149]
"Th' eruca, Priapus, near thee we sow
To rouse to duty husbands who are slow."
Virgil attributes to it the same quality, designing it as--
"... Et venerem revocans eruca morantem."[150]
"Th'eruca, plant which gives to jaded appetite the spur."
Lobel[151] gives an amusing account of the effects of this plant upon
certain monks in the garden of whose monastery it was sown, an infusion
of it being daily doled out to them under the impression that its
cheering and exhilarating qualities would rouse them from the state of
inactivity and sluggishness so common to the inmates of such
establishments. But, alas! the continual use of it produced an effect
far more powerful than had been contemplated by the worthy itinerant
monk who had recommended it, for the poor cenobites were so stimulated
by its aphrodisiacal virtues that, transgressing alike their monastic
wall and vows, they sought relief for their amorous desires in the fond
embraces of the women residing in the neighbourhood.
Salt, mala Bacchica[152] Cubebs, Surag,[153] and radix Chinæ (bark),
were also regarded by ancient physicians as powerful aphrodisiacs.
Gomez[154] asserts of the first of these substances, that women who much
indulge in it are thereby rendered more salacious, and that, for this
reason, Venus is said to have arisen from the sea; whence the epigram:
"Unde tot in Veneta scortorum millia cur sunt?
In promptu causa est. Venus orta mari."
"In Venice why so many punks abound?
The reason sure is easy to be found:
Because, as learned sages all agree,
Fair Venus' birth-place was the _salt, salt sea_."
To the last of the above-mentioned plants, Baptista Porta ascribes the
most wonderful powers, his words being: Planta quæ non solum edentibus,
sed et genitale languentibus tantum valet, ut coire summe desiderant,
quoties fere velint, possint; alios _duodecies_ profecisse, alios ad
_sexaginta vices_ pervenisse, refert.[155]
Certain condiments are also aphrodisiacal, acting as they undoubtedly
do, as powerful stimulants. Thus Tourtelle and Peyrible assure us that
pepper is a provocative to venereal pleasures, while Gesner and Chappel
cured an atony of the virile member of three or four years' duration, by
repeated immersions of that organ in a strong infusion of mustard seed.
The principal ingredient of the _Bang_ so much used by the Indians, as
well as of the _Maslac_ of the Turks is a species of the hemp plant. The
Indians, says Acosta,[156] masticate the seeds and leaves of several
species of that plant, in order to increase their vigour in the venereal
congress, and very frequently combine with it, ambergris, musk, and
sugar, preparing it in the form of an electuary. It has been remarked,
moreover, that even in our own climate, the caged birds that are fed
with hemp seed are the most amorously inclined.
According to Browne[157] whole fields are in Africa sown with _hashish_,
the _bang_ of the East Indies, for the purpose of being used as a
stimulant to amorous dalliance. It is used in a variety of forms, but in
none, it is supposed, more effectually than what in Arabic, is called
Maijûn, a kind of electuary, in which both men and women indulge to
excess.
It is said that the Chinese, domesticated at Batavia, avail themselves
of a certain electuary for the purpose of stimulating their appetite for
sexual intercourse. This preparation, called by them Affion, is chiefly
composed of opium, and it is asserted that its effect is so violent that
a brutal passion supervenes and continues throughout the night, the
female being obliged to flee from the too energetic embraces of her
lover.[158]
Narcotics, in general, and especially, opium, have been considered as
direct aphrodisiacs, an opinion which, if well founded, would enable us
to account more easily far those agreeable sensations by which the use
of these substances is followed.
But it is very probable that narcotics act upon the genital organs in no
other way than they do upon the other ones, that is to say, they
certainly do simulate them, but only proportionately to the increase of
force in the circulation of the blood and to the power or tone of the
muscular fibre. It is also very probable that the voluptuous
impressions superinduced by them depend upon the circumstances under
which those persons are, who habitually indulge in them, and that they
are connected with other impressions or with particular ideas which
awaken them. If, for instance, in a Sultan reclining upon his sofa, the
intoxication of opium is accompanied by images of the most ravishing
delight, and if it occasions in him that sweet and lively emotion which
the anticipation of those delights awakens throughout the whole nervous
system, the same inebriation is associated in the mind of a Janizary or
a Spahi with ideas of blood and carnage, with paroxysms, the brutal fury
of which has certainly, nothing in common with the tender emotions of
love. It is in vain to allege in proof of the aphrodisiacal qualities of
opium the state of erection in which the genital members of Turks are
found when lying dead on a field of battle,[159] for this state depends
upon, or is caused by, the violent spasm or universal convulsive
movements with which the body is seized in the moment of death: the same
phenomenon frequently appears in persons who suffer hanging. In warm
countries, it is the concomitant of death from convulsive diseases, and
in our own climate, it has been observed in persons who have died from
apoplectic attacks.
The power which certain odours possess of exciting venereal desires
admits not the slightest doubt, at least as far as the inferior animals
are concerned. Nearly all the mammifera exhale or emit, in the rutting
season, peculiar emanations serving to announce from afar to the male
the presence of the female and to excite in him the sexual desire. Facts
have been observed with respect to insects even, which cannot be
otherwise accounted for than by odorous effluvia. If, for instance, the
female of the bombyx butterfly, be placed in a box accurately closed, it
will not be long before several males will be seen flying around the
prison, and which could not possibly have known, by means of their
visual organs, the presence of their captive Dulcinea. Now the question
is, does anything analogous take place in our own species? Many authors
assert that there does, and among them Virey, who, speaking of such
exhalations, says: "L'extrême propreté des hommes et des femmes,
l'habitude de se baigner et de changer souvent de linge _font
disparaïtre_ les odeurs génitales.[160] ... On doit aussi remarquer que
la haire des Cénobites, la robe des Capucins, le froc des moines, les
vêtements rudes et mal-propres de diverses corporations religieuses
exposent ceux qui les portent à de fortes tentations, à cause de la
qualité stimulante et de la sueur fétide dont étaient bientôt empreintes
toutes ces sortes d'habillements."[161] "Odours," observes Cabanis[162]
"act powerfully upon the nervous system, they prepare it for all the
pleasurable sensations; they communicate to it that slight disturbance
or commotion which appears as if inseperable from emotions of delight,
all which may be accounted for by their exercising a special action
upon those organs whence originate the most rapturous pleasure of which
our nature is susceptible. In infancy its influence is almost nothing,
in old age it is weak, its true epoch being that of youth, that of
love."
It is certain that among most nations, and from the remotest antiquity,
voluptuous women strengthened their amorous propensities by the use of
various perfumes, but particularly of musk, to which has been attributed
the power of exciting nocturnal emissions. The great Henry IV., of
France, no novice in love affairs, was opposed to the use of odours,
maintaining that the parts of generation should be allowed to retain
their natural scent, which, in his opinion, was more effectual than all
the perfumes ever manufactured by art.
Another aphrodisiacal remedy, which for a long time enjoyed a great
reputation was the penis of the stag, which was supposed to possess the
virtue of furnishing a man with an abundance of seminal fluid. Perhaps
the reason why the ancients attributed this property to the genital
member of that animal was from the supposition that it was the
receptacle of the bile; that the abundance and acrid quality of this
fluid caused lasciviousness, and that the stag being transported by an
erotic furor during the rutting season, he was the most salacious of
animals, and consequently that the genital organ of this quadruped
would, when applied to man's generative apparatus, impart thereto
considerable heat and irritation. A somewhat similar opinion respecting
the horse appears to have obtained among the Tartars, if we may judge
from the following account given by Foucher d'Obsonville:[163] "Les
palefreniers aménent un cheval de sept à huit ans, mais nerveux, bien
nourri et en bon état. On lui présente une jument comme pour la saillir,
et cependant on le retient de façon à bien irriter ses idées. Enfin,
dans le moment où il semble qu'il va lui être libre de s'élancer dessus,
l'on fait adroitment passer la verge dans un cordon dont le nœud
coulant est rapproché au ventre, ensuite, saisissant à l'instant où
l'animal parait dans sa plus forte érection, deux hommes qui tiennent
les extrémités du cordon le tirent avec force et, sur le champ, le
membre est séparé du corps au dessus le nœud coulant. Par ce moyen,
les esprits sont retenus et fixés dane cette partie laquelle rests
gonflée; aussitôt on la lave et la fait cuire avec divers aromatiques et
épiceries aphrodisiaques."
The means of procuring the vigour necessary for sexual delights has also
been sought for in certain preparations celebrated by the alchymists.
Struck by the splendour of gold, its incorruptibility, and other rare
qualities, some physicians imagined that this metal might introduce into
the animal economy an inexhaustible source of strength and vitality;
while empirics, abusing the credulity of the wealthy and the voluptuous
made them pay exorbitantly for aphrodisiacal preparations in which they
assured their dupes that gold, under different forms, was an ingredient.
Among innumerable other instances, is that of a French lady who, to
procure herself an heir, strove to reanimate an exhausted constitution
by taking daily in soup what she was made to believe was potable gold,
to the value of 50 francs, a fraud to expose which it suffices to say
that the largest dose of perchloride of gold that can be safely
administered is 1/6th of a grain. The tincture of gold known by the name
of _Mademoiselle Grimaldi's potable gold_ enjoyed a wonderful reputation
towards the close of the 18th century as an efficacious restorative and
stimulant; and numerous instances of its all but miraculous powers were
confidently adduced. Dr. Samuel Johnson, indeed, in a note upon a
well-known passage in Shakespeare,[164] denies the possibility of making
gold potable: "There has long," he observes, "prevailed an opinion that
a solution of gold has great medicinal virtues, and that the
incorruptibility of gold might be communicated to the body impregnated
with it. Some have pretended to make gold _potable_ among other frauds
practised upon credulity." So far back, however, as the 17th century the
Abbé Guence shewed that it was feasible, and even described the process
minutely; and it is now known to every chemist that gold is susceptible
of entering into immediate combination with chlorine by the agency of
heat, that it may even be dissolved in water charged with chlorine, and
that various methods exist of obtaining chlorate of gold, a combination
which is often successfully employed in the treatment of syphilitic
cases. Ether, naptha, and essential oils take gold from its solvent, and
form liquors which have been called _potable_ gold.
Even the Christian Church itself possessed, in its early times,
aphrodisiacs peculiarly its own. "On trouve," says Voltaire,[165] "dans
la lettre à Maitre Acacius Lampirius (Literæ virorum obscurorum) une
raillerie assez forte sur la conjuration qu'on employait pair se faire
aimer des filles. Le secret consistoit à prendre un cheveu be la fille,
on le plaçoit d'abord dans son haut-de-chausses; on faisoit une
confession générale et on fesoit dire trois messes, pendant les quelles
on mettoit le cheveu autour de son col; on allumait un cièrge béni au
dernier Evangile en on prononcait cette formule. 'O Vierge! je te
conjure par la vertu du Dieu tout-puissant, par des neuf chœurs des
anges, par la vertu gosdrienne, amène moi icelle fille, en chair et en
os, afin que _je la saboule_ à mon plaisir.'"
Bourchard, Bishop of Worms, has transmitted to us[166] an account of
certain aphrodisiacal charms practised by women of his time, the
disgusting obscenity of which is such that we cannot venture upon
translating the passage:
"Fecisti quod quædam mulieres facere solent? Tollunt
menstruum suum sanguinem et immiscunt cibo vel potui et dant
viris suis ad manducandum vel ad bibendum ut plus diligantur
ab eis. Si fecisti, quinque annos per legitimas ferias
pœniteas.
"Gustasti de semine viri tui ut propter tua diabolica facta
plus in amorem exardisceret? Si fecisti, septem annos per
legitimas ferias pœnitere debeas.
"Fecisti quod quædam mulieres facere solent? Prosternunt se
in faciem et discoopertis natibus, jubent ut supra nudas
nates conficirtur panis, ut eo decocto tradunt maritis suis
ad comedendum. Hoc ideo faciunt ut plus exardescant in
amorem suum. Si fecisti, duos annos per legitimas ferias
pœniteas.
"Fecisti quad quædam mulieres facere solent? Tollunt piscem
vivum et mittunt eum in puerperium suum, et tamdiu ibi
tenent, donec mortuus fuerit, et decocto pisce vel assato,
maritis suis ad comedendum tradunt. Ideo faciunt ut plus in
amorem suum exardescant. Si fecisti, duos annos per
legitimas ferias pœniteas."
Remedies taken internally are not the only ones which stimulate man to
sexual intercourse. External applications materially contribute to that
end, and liniments have been composed wherewith to anoint the parts of
generation. These washes are made of honey, liquid storax, oil and fresh
butter, or the fat of the wild goose, together with a small quantity of
spurge, pyrethrum, ginger or pepper to insure the remedy's penetrating:
a few grains of ambergris, musk, or cinnamon are to be added by way of
perfume.
Remedies for the same purpose may also be applied to men's testicles
especially; as according to the opinion of Galen, those parts are the
second source of heat, which they communicate to the whole of the body;
for, besides the power of engendering, they also elaborate a spirituous
humour or fluid which renders man robust, hardy, and courageous. The
best application of this kind is that composed of cinnamon powder,
gilliflower, ginger and rose water, together with theriac, the crumb of
bread, and red wine.
In addition to the means already mentioned for restoring vigour to the
generative organs, two others may be reckoned which have been
successfully resorted to for bracing them in such persons whose
reproductive faculties lie dormant rather than extinct: these two
methods are known as _flagellation_ and _urtication_.[167]
Flagellation was recommended by several of the ancient physicians as an
effectual remedy in many disorders, and this upon the physiological
axiom of Hippocrates--_ubi stimulus, ibi affluxus_. Seneca considers it
as able to remove the quartan ague. Jerome Mercurialis speaks of it as
employed by many physicians in order to impart embonpoint to thin,
meagre persons; and Galen informs us that slave merchants used it as a
means of clearing the complexion of their slaves and plumping them up.
Alædeus of Padua, recommends flagellation with green nettles, that is,
urtication, to be performed on the limbs of young children for the
purpose of hastening the eruption of the small pox. Thomas
Campanella[168] attributes to flagellation the virtue of curing
intestinal obstructions, and adduces in proof to his assertion, the case
of the Prince of Venosa, one of the best musicians of his time, who
could not go to stool, without being previously flogged by a valet kept
expressly for that purpose.
Even at a later period the same opinion obtained as to the efficacy of
flagellation, it being supposed by many physicians to reanimate the
torpid circulation of the capillary and cutaneous vessels, to increase
muscular energy, to promote absorption, and to favour the necessary
secretions of our nature.[169] As an erotic stimulant, more particularly
it may be observed that, considering the many intimate and sympathetic
relations existing between the nervous branches of the extremity of the
spinal marrow, it is impossible to doubt that flagellation exercised
upon the buttocks and the adjacent parts, has a powerful effect upon the
organs of generation.
Meibomius,[170] the great advocate for the use of this remedy, remarks,
that stripes inflicted upon the back and loins are of great utility in
exciting the venereal appetite, because they create warmth in those
parts whose office it is to elaborate the semen and to convey it to the
generative organs. He, therefore, considered it by no means wonderful
that the miserable victims of debauchery and lasciviousness, as well as
those whose powers have been exhausted by age or excess, should have
recourse to flagellation as a remedy. He observes that its effect is
very likely to be that of renewing warmth in the now frigid parts, and
of furnishing heat to the semen, an effect in producing which the pain
itself materially contributes by the blood and heat which is thereby
drawn down to the part until they are communicated to the reproductive
organs, the erotic passion being thus raised, even in spite of nature
herself, beyond her powers. A similar view is taken by a modern writer,
whose opinion is "that the effect of flagellation may be easily referred
to the powerful sympathy which exists between the nerves of the lower
part of the spinal marrow and other organs. Artificial excitement
appears in some degree natural; it is observed in several animals,
especially in the feline race. Even snails plunge into each other a
bony, prickly spur, that arises from their throats, and which, like the
sting of the wasp, frequently breaks off, and is left in the
wound."[171]
After the appearance of the Abbé Boileau's _Histoire de la
Flagellation_, the Jesuits condemned several propositions found either
in that work or in others approved by him. The following is one: