curves for these two years show certain marked disagreements with each
other, but both unite in presenting a distinct rise in April, preceded and
followed by a fall, and both present a still more marked autumn rise, in
one case in September and November, in the other case in October.[169]
Some years ago, Sir J. Crichton-Browne stated that a manifestation of the sexual stimulus of spring is to be found in
the large number of novels read during the month of March
("Address in Psychology" at the annual meeting of the British
Medical Association, Leeds, 1889; _Lancet_, August 14, 1889).
The statement was supported by figures furnished by lending
libraries, and has since been widely copied. It would certainly
be interesting if we could so simply show the connection between
love and season, by proving that when the birds began to sing
their notes, the young person's fancy naturally turns to brood
over the pictures of mating in novels. I accordingly applied to
Mr. Capel Shaw, Chief Librarian of the Birmingham Free Libraries
(specially referred to by Sir J. Crichton-Browne), who furnished
me with the Reports for 1896 and 1897-98 (this latter report is
carried on to the end of March, 1898).
The readers who use the Birmingham Free Lending Libraries are
about 30,000 in number; they consist very largely of young people
between the ages of 14 and 25; somewhat less than half are women.
Certainly we seem to have here a good field for the determination
of this question. The monthly figures for each of the ten
Birmingham libraries are given separately, and it is clear at a
glance that without exception the maximum number of readers of
prose-fiction at all the libraries during 1897-98 is found in the
month of March. (I have chiefly taken into consideration the
figures for 1897-98; the figures for 1896 are somewhat abnormal
and irregular, probably owing to a decrease in readers,
attributed to increased activity in trade, and partly to a
disturbing influence caused by the opening of a large new library
in the course of the year, suddenly increasing the number of
readers, and drafting off borrowers from some of the other
libraries.) Not only so, but there is a second, or autumnal
climax, almost equaling the spring climax, and occuring with
equal certainty, appearing during 1897-98 either in October or
November, and during 1896, constantly in October.
Thus, the
periodicity of the rate of consumption of prose-fiction
corresponds with the periodicity which is found to occur in the
conception rate and in sexual ecbolic
manifestations.
It is necessary, however, to examine somewhat more closely the
tables presented in these reports, and to compare the rate of the
consumption of novels with that of other classes of literature.
In the first place, if, instead of merely considering the
consumption of novels per month, we make allowance for the
varying length of the months, and consider the average _daily_
consumption per month, the supremacy of March at once vanishes.
February is really the month during which most novels were read
during the first quarter of 1898, except at two libraries, where
February and March are equal. The result is similar if we
ascertain the daily averages for the first quarter in 1897,
while, in 1896 (which, however, as I have already remarked, is a
rather abnormal year), the daily average for March in many of the
libraries falls below that for January, as well as for February.
Again, when we turn to the other classes of books, we find that
this predominance which February possesses, and to some extent
shares with March and January, by no means exclusively applies to
novels. It is not only shared by both music and poetry,--which
would fit in well with the assumption of a sexual _nisus_,--but
the department of "history, biography, voyages, and travels"
shares it also with considerable regularity; so, also, does that
of "arts, sciences, and natural history," and it is quite well
marked in "theology, moral philosophy, etc.," and in
"juvenile
literature." We even have to admit that the promptings of the
sexual instinct bring an increased body of visitors to the
reference library (where there are no novels), for here, also,
both the spring and autumnal climaxes are quite distinct.
Certainly this theory carries us a little too far.
The main factor in producing this very marked annual periodicity
seems to me to be wholly unconnected with the sexual impulse. The
winter half of the year (from the beginning of October to the end
of March), when outdoor life has lost its attractions, and much
time must be spent in the house, is naturally the season for
reading. But during the two central months of winter, December
and January, the attraction of reading meets with a powerful
counter-attraction in the excitement produced by the approach of
Christmas, and the increased activity of social life which
accompanies and for several weeks follows Christmas.
In this way
the other four winter months--October and November at the
autumnal end, and February and March at the spring end--must
inevitably present the two chief reading climaxes of the year;
and so the reports of lending libraries present us with figures
which show a striking, but fallacious, resemblance to the curves
which are probably produced by more organic causes.
I am far from wishing to deny that the impulse which draws young
men and women to imaginative literature is unconnected with the
obscure promptings of the sexual instinct. But, until the
disturbing influence I have just pointed out is eliminated, I see
no evidence here for any true seasonal periodicity.
Possibly in
prisons--the value of which, as laboratories of experimental
psychology we have scarcely yet begun to realize--
more reliable
evidence might be obtained; and those French and other prisons
where novels are freely allowed to the prisoners might yield
evidence as regards the consumption of fiction as instructive as
that yielded at Clermont concerning the consumption of bread.
Certain diseases show a very regular annual curve. This is notably the
case with scarlet fever. Caiger found in a London fever hospital a marked
seasonal prevalence: there was a minor climax in May (repeated in July),
and a great autumnal climax in October, falling to a minimum in December
and January. This curve corresponds closely to that usually observed in
London.[170] It is not peculiar to London, or to urban districts, for in
rural districts we find nearly the same spring minor maximum and major
autumnal maximum. In Russia it is precisely the same.
Many other epidemic
diseases show very similar curves.
An annual curve may be found in the expulsive force of the bladder as
measured by the distance to which the urinary stream can be projected.
This curve, as ascertained for one case, is interesting on account of the
close relationship between sexual and vesical activity.
After a minimum
point in autumn there is a rise through the early part of the year to a
height maintained through spring and summer, and reaching its maximum in
August.[171] This may be said to correspond with the general tendency
found in some cases of nocturnal seminal emissions from a winter minimum
to an autumn maximum.
There is an annual curve in voluntary muscle strength.
Thus in Antwerp,
where the scientific study of children is systematically carried out by a
Pedological Bureau, Schuyten found that, measured by the dynamometer, both
at the ages of 8 and 9, both boys and girls showed a gradual increase of
strength from October to January, a fall from January to March and a rise
to June or July. March was the weakest month, June and July the
strongest.[172]
Schuyten also found an annual curve for mental ability, as tested by power
of attention, which for much of the year corresponded to the curve of
muscular strength, being high during the cold winter months. Lobsien, at
Kiel, seeking to test Schuyten's results and adopting a different method
so as to gauge memory as well as attention, came to conclusions which
confirmed those of Schuyten. He found a very marked increase of ability in
December and January, with a fall in April; April and May were the
minimum months, while July and October also stood low.[173] The inquiries
of Schuyten and Lobsien thus seem to indicate that the voluntary aptitudes
of muscular and mental force in children reach their maximum at a time of
the year when most of the more or less involuntary activities we have been
considering show a minimum of energy. If this conclusion should be
confirmed by more extended investigations, it would scarcely be matter for
surprise and would involve no true contradiction. It would, indeed, be
natural to suppose that the voluntary and regulated activities of the
nervous system should work most efficiently at those periods when they are
least exposed to organic and emotional disturbance.
So persistent a disturbing element in spring and autumn suggests that some
physiological conditions underlie it, and that there is a real metabolic
disturbance at these times of the year. So few continuous observations
have yet been made on the metabolic processes of the body that it is not
easy to verify such a surmise with absolute precision.
Edward Smith's
investigations, so far as they go, support it, and Perry-Coste's
long-continued observations of pulse-frequency seem to show with fair
regularity a maximum in early spring and another maximum in late
autumn.[174] I may also note that Haig, who has devoted many years of
observations to the phenomena of uric-acid excretion, finds that uric acid
tends to be highest in the spring months, (March, April, May) and lowest
at the first onset of cold in October.[175]
Thus, while the sexual climaxes of spring and autumn are rooted in animal
procreative cycles which in man have found expression in primitive
festivals--these, again, perhaps, strengthening and developing the sexual
rhythm--they yet have a wider significance. They constitute one among many
manifestations of spring and autumn physiological disturbance
corresponding with fair precision to the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.
They resemble those periods of atmospheric tension, of storm and wind,
which accompany the spring and autumn phases in the earth's rhythm, and
they may fairly be regarded as ultimately a physiological reaction to
those cosmic influences.
FOOTNOTES:
[128] F. Smith, _Veterinary Physiology_; Dalziel, _The Collie_.
[129] Mondière, Art "Cambodgiens," _Dictionnaire des Sciences
Anthropologiques_.
[130] This primitive aspect of the festival is well shown by the human
sacrifices which the ancient Mexicans offered at this time, in order to
enable the sun to recuperate his strength. The custom survives in a
symbolical form among the Mokis, who observe the festivals of the winter
solstice and the vernal equinox. ("Aspects of Sun-worship among the Moki
Indians," _Nature_, July 28, 1898.) The Walpi, a Tusayan people, hold a
similar great sun-festival at the winter solstice, and December is with
them a sacred month, in which there is no work and little play. This
festival, in which there is a dance dramatizing the fructification of the
earth and the imparting of virility to the seeds of corn, is fully
described by J. Walter Fewkes (_American Anthropologist_, March, 1898).
That these solemn annual dances and festivals of North America frequently
merge into "a lecherous _saturnalia_" when "all is joy and happiness," is
stated by H.H. Bancroft (_Native Races of Pacific States_, vol. i, p.
352).
[131] As regards the northern tribes of Central Australia, Spencer and
Gillen state that, during the performance of certain ceremonies which
bring together a large number of natives from different parts, the
ordinary marital rules are more or less set aside (_Northern Tribes of
Central Australia_, p. 136). Just in the same way, among the Siberian
Yakuts, according to Sieroshevski, during weddings and at the great
festivals of the year, the usual oversight of maidens is largely removed.
(_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, Jan.-June, 1901, p. 96.)
[132] R.E. Guise, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1899, pp.
214-216.
[133] Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, pp. 196 et seq. W.
Crooke (_Journal
of the Anthropological Institute_, p. 243, 1899) also refers to the annual
harvest-tree dance and _saturnalia_, and its association with the seasonal
period for marriage. We find a similar phenomenon in the Malay Peninsula:
"In former days, at harvest-time, the Jakuns kept an annual festival, at
which, the entire settlement having been called together, fermented
liquor, brewed from jungle fruits, was drunk; and to the accompaniments of
strains of their rude and incondite music, both sexes, crowning themselves
with fragrant leaves and flowers, indulged in bouts of singing and
dancing, which grew gradually wilder throughout the night, and terminated
in a strange kind of sexual orgie." (W.W. Skeat, "The Wild Tribes of the
Malay Peninsula," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1902, p.
133.)
[134] Fielding Hall, _The Soul of a People_, 1898, Chapter XIII.
[135] See e.g., L. Dyer, _Studies of the Gods in Greece_, 1891, pp. 86-89,
375, etc.
[136] For a popular account of the Feast of Fools, see Loliée, "La Fête
des Fous," _Revue des Revues_, May 15, 1898; also, J.G.
Bourke,
_Scatologic Rites of all Nations_, pp. 11-23.
[137] J. Grimm (_Teutonic Mythology_, p. 615) points out that the
observance of the spring or Easter bonfires marks off the Saxon from the
Franconian peoples. The Easter bonfires are held in Lower Saxony,
Westphalia, Lower Hesse, Geldern, Holland, Friesland, Jutland, and
Zealand. The Midsummer bonfires are held on the Rhine, in Franconia,
Thuringia, Swabia, Bavaria, Austria, and Silesia.
Schwartz (_Zeitschrift
für Ethnologie_, 1896, p. 151) shows that at Lauterberg, in the Harz
Mountains, the line of demarcation between these two primitive districts
may still be clearly traced.
[138] _Wald und Feldkulte_, 1875, vol. i, pp. 422 et seq. He also mentions
(p. 458) that St. Valentine's Day (14th of February),--
or Ember Day, or
the last day of February,--when the pairing of birds was supposed to take
place, was associated, especially in England, with love-making and the
choice of a mate. In Lorraine, it may be added, on the 1st of May, the
young girls chose young men as their valentines, a custom known by this
name to Rabelais.
[139] Rochholz, _Drei gaugöttinnen_, p, 37.
[140] Mannhardt, ibid., pp. 466 et seq. Also J.G.
Frazer, _Golden Bough_,
vol ii, Chapter IV. For further facts and references, see K. Pearson (_The
Chances of Death_, 1897, vol, ii, "Woman as Witch,"
"Kindred
Group-marriage," and Appendix on "The '_Mailehn_' and
'_Kiltgang_,'") who
incidentally brings together some of the evidence concerning primitive
sex-festivals in Europe. Also, E. Hahn, _Demeter und Baubo_, 1896, pp.
38-40; and for some modern survivals, see Deniker, _Races of Man_, 1900,
Chapter III. On a lofty tumulus near the megalithic remains at Carnac, in
Brittany, the custom still prevails of lighting a large bonfire at the
time of the summer solstice; it is called Tan Heol, or Tan St. Jean. In
Ireland, the bonfires also take place on St. John's Eve, and a
correspondent, who has often witnessed them in County Waterford, writes
that "women, with garments raised, jump through these fires, and conduct
which, on ordinary occasions would be reprobated, is regarded as excusable
and harmless." Outside Europe, the Berbers of Morocco still maintain this
midsummer festival, and in the Rif they light bonfires; here the fires
seem to be now regarded as mainly purificatory, but they are associated
with eating ceremonies which are still regarded as multiplicative.
(Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folk-Lore_, March, 1905.)
[141] Mannhardt (op. cit., p. 469) quotes a description of an Ehstonian
festival in the Island of Moon, when the girls dance in a circle round the
fire, and one of them,--to the envy of the rest, and the pride of her own
family,--is chosen by the young men, borne away so violently that her
clothes are often torn, and thrown down by a youth, who places one leg
over her body in a kind of symbolical coitus, and lies quietly by her side
till morning. The spring festivals of the young people of Ukrainia, in
which, also, there is singing, dancing, and sleeping together, are
described in "Folk-Lore de l'Ukrainie." Kryptadia, vol.
v, pp. 2-6, and
vol. viii, pp. 303 et seq.
[142] M. Kowalewsky, "Marriage Among the Early Slavs,"
_Folk-Lore_,
December, 1890.
[143] A. Tille, however (_Yule and Christmas_, 1899), while admitting that
the general Aryan division of the year was dual, follows Tacitus in
asserting that the Germanic division of the year (like the Egyptian) was
tripartite: winter, spring, and summer.
[144] Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_ (English translation by Stallybrass),
pp. 612-630, 779, 788.
[145] Wellhausen, _Reste Arabischen Heidentums_, 1897, p. 98.
[146] See, e.g., the chapter on ritual in Gérard-Varet's interesting book,
_L'Ignorance et l'Irreflexion_, 1899, for a popular account of this and
allied primitive conceptions.
[147] Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia_, especially pp.
485, 571; regarding
the priestesses, Jastrow remarks: "Among many nations, the mysterious
aspects of woman's fertility lead to rites that, by a perversion of their
original import, appear to be obscene. The prostitutes were priestesses
attached to the Ishtar cult, and who took part in ceremonies intended to
symbolize fertility." Whether there is any significance in the fact that
the first two months of the Babylonian year (roughly corresponding to our
March and April), when we should expect births to be at a maximum, were
dedicated to Ea and Bel, who, according to varying legends, were the
creators of man, and that New Year's Day was the festival of Bau, regarded
as the mother of mankind, I cannot say, but the suggestion may be put
forward.
[148] _Celtic Heathendom_, p. 421.
[149] Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_, p. 1465. In England, the November,
bonfires have become merged into the Guy Fawkes celebrations. In the East,
the great primitive autumn festivals seem to have fallen somewhat earlier.
In Babylonia, the seventh month (roughly corresponding to September) was
specially sacred, though nothing is known of its festivals, and this also
was the sacred festival month of the Hebrews, and originally of the Arabs.
In Europe, among the southern Slavs, the Reigen, or Kolo--wild dances by
girls, adorned with flowers, and with skirts girt high, followed by sexual
intercourse--take place in autumn, during the nights following harvest
time.
[150] A. Tille, _Yule and Christmas_, p. 21, etc.
[151] Long before Wargentin, however, Rabelais had shown some interest in
this question, and had found that there were most christenings in October
and November, this showing, he pointed out, that the early warmth of
spring influenced the number of conceptions (_Pantagruel_, liv. v, Ch.
XXIX). The spring maximum of conceptions is not now so early in France.
[152] Villermé, "De la Distribution par mois des conceptions," _Annales
d'Hygiène Publique_, tome v, 1831, pp. 55-155.
[153] Sormani, _Giornale di Medicina Militare_, 1870.
[154] Throughout Europe, it may be said, marriages tend to take place
either in spring or autumn (Oettinger _Moralstatistik_, p. 181, gives
details). That is to say, that there is a tendency for marriages to take
place at the season of the great public festivals, during which sexual
intercourse was prevalent in more primitive times.
[155] Hill, _Nature_, July 12, 1888.
[156] G. Mayr, _Die Gesetzmässigkeit im Gesellschaftsleben_, 1877, p. 240.
[157] Edward Smith (_Health and Disease_), who attributes this to the
lessened vitality of offspring at that season. Beukemann also states that
children born in September have most vitality.
[158] Westermarck has even suggested that the December maximum of
conceptions may be due to better chance of survival for September
offspring (_Human Marriage_, Chapter II). It may be noted that though the
maximum of conceptions is in May, relatively the smallest proportion of
boys is conceived at that time. (Rauber, _Der Ueberschuss an
Knabengeburten_, p. 39.)
[159] Krieger found that the great majority of German women investigated
by him menstruated for the first time in September, October, or November.
In America, Bowditch states that the first menstruation of country girls
more often occurs in spring than at any other season.
[160] _Women's Medical Journal_, 1894.
[161] It is, perhaps, worth while noting that the wisdom of the mediæval
Church found an outlet for this "spring fever" in pilgrimages to remote
shrines. As Chaucer wrote, in the _Canterbury Tales_:--
"Whané that Aprille with his showers sote The droughts of March hath piercèd to the root, Thaen longen folk to gon on pilgrimages, And palmers for to seeken strangé stronds."
[162] L.W. Kline, "The Migratory Impulse," _American Journal of
Psychology_, 1898, vol. x, especially pp. 21-24.
[163] Mania comes to a crisis in spring, said the old physician, Aretæus
(Bk. 1, Ch. V).
[164] This is, at all events, the case in France, Prussia, and Italy. See,
for instance, Durkheim's discussion of the cosmic factors of suicide, _Le
Suicide_, 1897, Chapter III. In Spain, as Bernaldo de Quirós shows
(_Criminologia_, p. 69), there is a slight irregular rise in December, but
otherwise the curve is perfectly regular, with maximum in June, and
minimum in January.
[165] This holds good of a south European country, taken separately. A
chart of the annual incidence of suicide by hanging, in Roumania,
presented by Minovici (_Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle_, 1905, p.
587), shows climaxes of equal height in May and September.
[166] Morselli, _Suicide_, pp. 55-72.
[167] Ogle himself was inclined to think that these breaks were
accidental, being unaware of the allied phenomena with which they may be
brought into line. It is true that (as Gaedeken objects to me) the
autumnal break is very slight, but it is probably real when we are dealing
with so large a mass of data.
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