every species of excitement and in having little or no communication
with the sex, and the earlier such restraint is imposed, the better. "He
that is chaste and continent, not to impair his strength, or terrified
by contagion, will hardly be heroically virtuous. Adjourn not that
virtue until those years when Cato could lend out his wife, and impotent
satyrs write satires against lust--but be chaste in thy flaming days,
when Alexander dared not trust his eyes upon the fair sisters of
Darius, and when so many men think that there is no other way than that
of Origen."[191][192]
The next means is that of carefully abstaining from the perusal of all
publications calculated to inflame the passions, by which publications
are meant, not obscene books only. With respect to these, indeed, a
great error obtains, for the persons most anxious to peruse them are,
for the most part, old, worn-out debauchees, men whose generative powers
are, comparatively, feeble, if not altogether destroyed, and who,
unfortunately for themselves, require this unnatural and detestable kind
of stimulus, while, on the contrary, young men and those in middle life,
who had not drawn too largely upon their constitution, and for whom the
allurements of nature are themselves a sufficient provocative, regard
such publications with horror and disgust. It is not, therefore, we
repeat, works of this description which we allude to, but those the
perusal of which is more dangerous during the period of the
passions--novels, more especially such as, under the pretext of
describing the working of the human heart, draw the most seducing and
inflammatory pictures of illicit love, and throw the veil of sentimental
philosophy over the orgies of debauchery and licentiousness. Nothing is
more perilous to youth, especially of the female sex, than this
description of books. Their style is chaste, not one word is found that
can offend the ear, while the mind of the unsuspecting reader is often
tainted and corrupted by the most impure ideas and descriptions clothed
in the most elegant phraseology. How admirably does Voltaire stigmatise
this attention to a mere superficial (if the epitaph be allowed) purity!
"Plus," says he "les mœurs sont dépravés, plus les expressions
deviennent mésurées: on croit de gagner en langage ce qu'on a perdu en
vertu. La pudeur s'est enfuite des cœurs et s'est refugiée sur les
lèvres."
There are two kinds of study particularly adapted to preserve the mind
and the affections from the assaults of vice and libidinousness. The
first of these is the _Mathematics_, whose efficacy in this respect has
been proved by frequent experience. The Venetian lady mentioned by
Rousseau in his "Confessions" was not ignorant of this their power,
when, seeing the singular effect which her charms had produced upon the,
as yet, youthful philosopher, said to him, "_Gianetto, lascia le donne e
studia la matimatica_." "James, give up the ladies, and apply yourself
to mathematics." It will, indeed, be found that, in all ages,
mathematicians have been but little disposed or addicted to love, and
the most celebrated among them, Sir Isaac Newton, is reputed to have
lived without ever having had sexual intercourse. The intense mental
application required by philosophical abstraction forcibly determines
the nervous fluid towards the intellectual organs, and hinders it from
being directed towards those of reproduction.
After the study of the Mathematics comes that of _Natural History_,
which will be found to be almost equally beneficial, requiring as it
does, the unremitting attention of the student, his perambulation of the
open country, and the personal observation of all animated objects.
This peculiar influence of the above-mentioned studies ought
particularly to engage the attention of persons who superintend the
education of youth; there being no doubt that the effervescence of
youthful passions may, to a great extent, be allayed by directing the
juvenile mind to either of those studies, according as the constitution
exhibits greater or less ardour and precocity. Sometimes, however, there
are found idiosyncrasies which bid defiance to remedies of this
description, but, nevertheless, yield to the force of medicine: of such,
the following is an instance:
"A man, by profession a musician, of an athletic figure and
sanguine complexion, with red hair, and a very warm
temperament, was so tormented with erotic desires that the
venereal act, repeated several times in the course of a few
hours, failed to satisfy him. Disgusted with himself, and
fearing, as a religious man, the punishment with which
concupiscence is threatened in the Gospel, he applied to a
medical practitioner, who prescribed bleeding and the use of
sedatives and refrigerants, together with a light diet.
Having found no relief from this course of treatment, he was
then recommended to have recourse to wedlock, and, in
consequence, married a robust and healthy young woman, the
daughter of a farmer. At first, the change appeared to
benefit him, but, in a short time, he tired his wife out by
his excessive lubricity, and relapsed into his former
satyriasis. His medical friend now recommended frequent
fasting, together with prayer, but these also failing of
effect, the unhappy man proposed to submit to castration, an
operation which was judged to be highly improper,
considering the great risks the patient must necessarily
incur. The latter, however, still persisted that his wish
should be complied with, when, fortunately, a case having
occurred in Paris, in which a person afflicted with
nephritic pains occasioned by the presence of a calculus,
was cured by a preparation of nitre, at the expense,
however, of being for ever incapacitated for the pleasures
of love, the hint was taken, and doses of nitre dissolved in
_aqua nymphæ_ were given, night and morning, during the
space of eight days, and with such success that, at the end
of that time, he could scarcely satisfy the moderate claims
of his wife."[193]
Some physicians place great confidence in the medicines called
refrigerants. The most favourite of these are infusions from the leaves
or flowers of the white water-lily (_nymphea alba_), sorrel, lettuce,
perhaps also from mallows, violets, and endive (cichorium), oily seeds,
and waters distilled from lettuce, water lily, cucumbers, purslain, and
endives. In equal esteem are the syrups of orgeat, lemons, and vinegar,
to which may be added cherry-laurel water, when given in proper and
gradually-increasing doses. Hemlock, camphor, and agnus-castus, have
likewise been much recommended as moderators of the sexual appetite.
According to Pliny,[194] the nymphea alba was considered so powerful
that these who take it for twelve days successively will then find
themselves incapable of propagating their species, and if it be used for
forty days, the amorous propensity will be entirely extinguished.
With respect to hemlock, it is too dangerous a medicine to repose
confidence in.
The ancients had a high opinion of camphor, a reputation which this drug
preserved until, comparatively, a late period, for Scaliger informs
that, in the 17th century, monks were compelled to smell and masticate
it for the purpose of extinguishing concupiscence; and it was a
favourite maxim of the medical school of Salernum[195] that--
"Camphora per nares castrat odore mares."
Camphor if smell'd
A man will geld.
This fatal property, however, has been denied by modern medical
authorities, and apparently with reason, if the fact be true that such
workmen as are employed in extracting this useful vegetable product, and
who may be said to live constantly in a highly camphorated atmosphere,
do not find themselves in the leash degree incapacitated for gratifying
the calls of _l'amour physique_.
There is no doubt, on the other hand, that camphor has been successfully
employed in cases of nymphomania, and that several medical writers have
asserted its efficacy in neutralising the properties of cantharides,
adducing instances which would appear to prove its sedative power: the
following one is related by Groenvelt:--[196]
A young man who had taken a large dose of cantharides in some wine, felt
at first, a sort of violent itching, accompanied by great irritation in
the bladder, and soon after he suffered greatly from extreme heat,
together with an intolerable strangury. Bleeding, emulsions, injections,
and opium preparations afforded not the slightest relief. Groenvelt
prescribed two scruples of camphor in two boluses. The first dose partly
mitigated the pains, and the second one removed them entirely. The
remedies which were first administered had, no doubt, weakened the
inflammation, and the strangury being no longer kept up by the spasmodic
state of the urinary apparatus, camphor sufficed to effect a cure.
Burton asserts the value of camphor as an anti-aphrodisiac, and says
that when fastened to the parts of generation, or carried in the
breeches, it renders the virile member flaccid.
Agnus castus, so called from the down on its surface resembling that
upon the skin of a lamb, and from its supposed anti-aphrodisiacal
qualities, was in great repute among the Athenians, whose women, during
the celebration of the Thesmophoria, or feasts and sacrifices in honour
of Ceres or Thesmophoria, the legislatress, abstained for some days from
all the pleasures of love, separating themselves entirely for that time
from the men. It was also usual with them during the solemnities to
strew their beds with agnus castus, fleabane, and other herbs as were
supposed to have the power of expelling amorous inclinations. Arnaud de
Villeneuve[197] exaggerates, almost to a ridiculous degree, the virtue
of the agnus castus, asserting as he does, that the surest way to
preserve chastity, is to carry about the person, a knife with a handle
made of its wood. It was also, and perhaps is still, much used by the
monks, who made an emulsion of its seeds steeped in Nenuphar water, and
of which they daily drank a portion, wearing at the same time round
their loins a girdle made of its branches. Lettuce has also the
reputation of being anti-aphrodisiacal. Lobel instances the case of an
English nobleman who had long been desirous of having an heir to his
estates, but all in vain. Being, however, at length advised to
discontinue eating lettuces, of which he was particularly fond, his
wishes were gratified by his being blessed with a numerous offspring.
The desire for coition was also supposed to be diminished by drinking a
decoction of the pounded leaves of the willow. Vervain, dried coriander,
and also mustard, drunk in a fluid state, are also said to prevent the
erection of the penis. Alexander Benedictus declares that a topaz having
been previously rubbed against the right testicle of a wolf, then
steeped in oil or in rose water and worn as a ring, induces a disgust
for venereal pleasures, as does also, if we may credit the same sapient
physiologist, a powder made of dried frog. The two following
prescriptions are also said to be of great efficacy:--
"Da verbena in potu, et non erigitur virga sex diebus. Utere
menthâ siccâ cum aceto: genitalia illinita succo hyoscyami
aut cicutæ coitûs appetitum sedant."
It has even been asserted that coffee possesses the same property. In
the year 1695 it was maintained, in a thesis at the Ecole de Médicine at
Paris, that the daily use of coffee deprived both man and woman of the
generative power. M. Hecquet[198] relates the following anecdote as a
proof of such effect:--
A Queen of Persia seeing some grooms using all their efforts to throw a
horse upon the ground, enquired the reason of the trouble they were thus
taking. Her attendants gave her to understand as delicately as they
could, that it was far the purpose of castrating him.
"How unnecessary is so much trouble," said her majesty,
"they have only to give him coffee, and their object will be
fully and easily attained."[199]
Most probably the queen spoke from her own experience of its
anti-aphrodisiacal effects upon her royal consort.
There are some diseases which are considered as anti-aphrodisiacal, on
account of the decided aversion which the patient who is afflicted with
them feels for the pleasures of the sexual union. Thus a species of
epidemic leprosy is common among the Cossacks of the Jaik, which is
attended by pains in the joints and a disgust for copulation, a disgust
the more extraordinary, not only because exanthematous diseases, in
general excite a desire for the above act, but also inasmuch as this
malady, in particular usually attacks persons in the prime of their
youth. Another disease analogous to the one just mentioned, the
Plica-Polonica, rages, during the autumnal season, in Poland, Lithuania,
and Tartary. It is said to have been introduced into the first of these
countries by the Tartars, who had it originally from India. One of the
most singular phenomena attending this disorder, and which evidently
proves the close sympathy existing between the head and the organs of
generation, is that when the patient is bald, the Plica not unfrequently
fastens upon the sexual parts, and acquires such a length as to descend
below the calves of the legs. The mode of treatment, that of mercury and
sudorifics, proves the mucous character of the disorder, and,
consequently, accounts for its well known tendency to strike the whole
animal economy with that prostration of strength which produces a total
indifference to the sex.
Continual exercise on horseback was considered by Hippocrates[200] as
anti-aphrodisiacal and Van Sweiten commenting upon that opinion, justly
observes that the continual joltings caused by so violent an exercise,
added to the compression produced upon the parts of generation by the
weight of the body, was by no means unlikely to produce a focal
relaxation of those organs to such an extent as to prevent erection
altogether.
If whatever opposes an obstacle to the gratification of the
sexual appetite may be considered as having a place among the
anti-aphrodisiacs, certain mechanical processes may be ranked as such.
Of these, _fibulation_, from the Latin word _fibula_ (a buckle or ring)
was the very reverse of circumcision, since the operation consisted in
drawing the prepuce over the glans, and preventing its return, by the
insertion of the ring.[201]
The _Fibula_ (buckle) is so called, because it serves to fix together
and to re-unite parts which are separated. It was, formerly a surgical
instrument which, besides the use now particularly in question, served
also to keep closed the lips of any extensive wounds. It is mentioned as
being so applied by Oribuse,[202] and by Scribonius Largus.[203]
Employed, therefore, as it was for various uses, the _fibula_ appears to
have different shapes, now but little known to us. Rhodius[204] has
treated of all those mentioned in the writings of antiquity.
Meinsius thinks that the custom of infibulating may be traced back to
the time of the siege of Troy, for the singer Demodocus, who was left
with Clytemnestra by Agamemnon,[205] appears to that critic, to have
been a eunuch, or, at least, to here been infibulated.[206]
Among the ancients, as well as among many modern nations, the laws of
chastity and the restraints of honour appeared scarcely sufficient to
hinder the sexes from uniting, in spite of all the obstacles opposed by
a vigilant watch and strict seclusion.[207] Indeed, what Roman virgin
could entertain very strict ideas of modesty while she saw the goddess
of love honoured in the temple, or the amours of Venus and Mars
celebrated, while the poor cuckolded Vulcan, after seizing the amorous
couple in his net, way only thereby exposed to the ridicule of the
Olympic Divinities. There can be little doubt but that excess of this
description bastardized and corrupted the ancient Greeks and Romans, and
that recourse was necessarily had to the _fibula_ when the deities
themselves set the example. Of what use, indeed, could be the moral
lessons of a Plato or a Socrates, even when enforced by infibulation, if
vice was thus sanctioned by divine example? The only aim of such a state
of things was to vanquish obstacles. The art of eluding nature was
studied, marriage was despised, notwithstanding the edicts of Augustus
against bachelors; the depopulated republic wallowed in the most
abandoned lust, and, as a natural consequence, the individual members of
it became corrupted and enervated from their very infancy.
The infibulation of boys, sometimes on account of their voice, and not
unfrequently, to prevent masturbation, was performed by having the
prepuce drawn over the glans; it was then pierced, and a thick thread
was passed through it, remaining there until the cicatrizing of the
hole; when that took place, a rather large ring was then substituted,
which was not removed but with the permission of the party ordering the
operation.[208] The Romans infibulated their singers in order to
preserve their voice:
"Si gaudet cantu; _nullius fibula_ durat
Vocem vendentis prætoribus."[209]
"But should the dame in music take delight,
The public singer is disabled quite;
In vain the prætor guards him all he can,
She slips the buckle (_fibula_) and enjoys her man."
They even subjected to the same operation most of their
actors:
"Solvitur his magno comœdi fibula. Sunt, quæ
Chrysogonum cantare vetent."[210]
"Take from Chrysogonus the power to sing,
Loose, at vast prices, the comedian's ring."
"Dic mihi, simpliciter, comœdis et citharœdis,
Fibula, quod præstat?... carius ut futuunt."[211]
"Tell me, clasp! frankly, of what advantage are you to actresses and
lute-players? To enhance their favours."
"Menophili, penem tam grandis fibula vestit
Ut sit comœdis omnibus, una satis
Hunc ego credideram (nam sæpe lavamur in unum)
Sollicitum voci parcere, Flacce, suæ;
Dum ludit media populo spectante palæstra,
Delapsa est misero, fibula; verpus erat."[212]
"Una si gran fibula copre il membro di Menofila, che sola
basterebbe a tutti i commenianti. Io O Flacco, avevo creduto
(imperocche si siamo sovente lavati insiême) che esso
sollecito avesse cura delle sua voce; lotta in mezzo la
palestra a vista del popolo, la fibula cascó sventvrato; era
un' inciso."
Nor were dancers and gladiators exempted from the same operation,
especially the latter, in order that they might preserve all the vigour
required in their horrible and degrading occupation.
The best description of the _fibula_ is that given by Holiday: "The
fibula," says he, "does not strictly signifie a button, but also a
buckle or clasp, or such like stay. In this place, the poet expresses by
it the instrument of servilitie applied to those that were employed to
sing upon the stage; the Prætor who set forth playes for the delight of
the people, buying youths for that purpose, and that they might not, by
lust, spoil their voice, their overseers closed their shame with a case
of metal having a sharp spike of the same metal passing by the side of
it, and sometimes used one of another form; or by a nearer crueltie,
they thrust a brazen or silver wire thought that part which the Jew did
lose in circumcision.
"The form of the first, and also another fashion, the curious reader may
here see (being without any immodestie) as they are represented by
Pignerius, _de servis_, p. 82. But whatsoever the fashion or invention
was, the trust was but fond that was committed to them, seeing that the
art of lust and gold could make them as vain as the Italian engines of
jealousy in this day. Thus, 'O Lentulus,' says the poet, speaking
figuratively to some nobleman, 'it is that thou art married; but it is
some musician's or fencer's bastard that is born under thy lordly
canopie.'"[213]
[Illustration: PLATE VII., Figs. 1-2, PHALLIC FIBULÆ.]
Winkleman furnishes us with a description of an infibulated
musician,[214] it being a small bronze statue representing a naked
deformed individual, as thin as a skeleton, and carrying a ring in his
_enormi mentula_. Martial, who laughs at everything, speaks of these
singers sometimes breaking their ring, and says that it becomes
necessary to send them to the fibula-makers in order to have the damage
repaired:[215]
"Et cujus refibulavit turgidum, faber, penem,
Il di cui turgido membro abbia fabro fibbiato."
The practice of infibulation was very common in India, from religious
motives. As a proof of their sanctity, many of the Santons, or
Mohammedan saints, as well as other devout persons, bonzes, fakirs, and
the like, devoted themselves to perpetual virginity. Whether it was with
the intention of placing themselves beyond the possibility of breaking
their vow, or of giving evidence of their constancy, certain it is that
they loaded their prepuce with an enormous fibula, or ring; and, in
their warm climate, where nudity does not shock ideas of propriety or
decency, devout women not unfrequently repaired to these _soi-disant_
saints, to admire and venerate such efforts of virtue and self-denial;
they are even reported to have knelt down, and, in that humiliating
posture, to have kissed the preputial ring, no doubt with the vain hope
of thereby obtaining indulgences. In some places, these martyrs fasten
their fibula with a lock, the key which they deposit with the magistrate
of the town or village. But, nature insisting upon her rights, is often
too strong for this self-violence, nor can desire, or the
not-to-be-mistaken symptom of it, be opposed, or even prevented, from
being gratified; and since the lock, which obstructs the extremity of
the prepuce only, cannot hinder a kind of erection, nor, indeed, of
effusion of the seminal fluid, it cannot do more than oppose the
introduction of the male organ into the receptacle destined for it.
Another description of fakirs were formerly to be seen in India, and,
especially, in its southern peninsula, whose custom it was to traverse
the country in a state of nudity, and who had been rendered impotent by
the following regimen. The children destined for this penitential state
are taken away from their parents at the age of six or seven years, and
made to eat, daily, a quantity of the young leaves of a tree called
_Mairkousie_. At first, the dose given them is not larger than a
filbert. This regimen must be persisted in until the party reaches the
age of five-and-twenty years, the dose being increased till, at the
maximum, it is as large as a duck's egg. During all this time, the
devotee is subjected to no other regimen, except a light purge, once in
six months, by means of _Kadoukaie_, or the black mirobolan. Although
rendered completely impotent by this mode of treatment, so far from
their physical strength and beauty of form being diminished or
deteriorated thereby, they are, on the contrary, improved by it; the
enjoyment of constant good health is likewise almost an invariable
consequence.
Infibulation is not confined to the male sex exclusively, for it is
practised on girls and women in India, Persia, and the East, generally,
and most commonly consists in joining together the female sexual organ,
or closing the labia of the vagina by a suture made with waxed thread, a
small aperture being left for the egress of the urine and the menstrua.
Linschet witnessed the operation at Pegu, as did also Schultz, Brown saw
it performed, at Darfour, on females from eleven to twelve years of
age.[216] At the time of marriage, a cut of the bistouri dissevers the
parts which have been closed by the effects of the suture. Sometimes
jealousy contents itself by passing a ring through the parts. Women, as
well as girls, are subjected to this disgusting operation, the only
difference being that the ring of the latter cannot be removed, while
that of the former has a kind of lock, the key of which is in the
husband's possession. Pallas informs us that the beautiful nation of the
Tcherkesses, or Circassians carefully preserve the virginity of their
girls by means of a leathern girdle, or rather corslet made of skin, and
sewn immediately upon the naked body. The husband alone has the right of
severing this corslet, which he does, on the nuptial night.