these _Studies_, "Sexual Selection in Man," Sect.
III.) In
Catholic days theological influence worked
wholesomely in the
same direction, although the theologians were so
keen to detect
the mortal sin of lust. It is true that the Catholic
insistence
on the desirability of simultaneous orgasm was
largely due to the
mistaken notion that to secure conception it was
necessary that
there should be "insemination" on the part of the wife as well as
of the husband, but that was not the sole source of
the
theological view. Thus Zacchia discusses whether a
man ought to
continue with his wife until she has the orgasm and
feels
satisfied, and he decides that that is the husband's
duty;
otherwise the wife falls into danger either of
experiencing the
orgasm during sleep, or, more probably, by self-
excitation, "for
many women, when their desires have not been
satisfied by coitus,
place one thigh on the other, pressing and rubbing
them together
until the orgasm occurs, in the belief that if they
abstain from
using the hands they have committed no sin." Some theologians, he
adds, favor that belief, notably Hurtado de Mendoza
and Sanchez,
and he further quotes the opinion of the latter that
women who
have not been satisfied in coitus are liable to
become hysterical
or melancholic (_Zacchiæ Quæstionum Medico-legalium
Opus_, lib.
vii, tit. iii, quæst. VI). In the same spirit some
theologians
seem to have permitted _irrumatio_ (without
ejaculation), so long
as it is only the preliminary to the normal sexual
act.
Nowadays physicians have fully confirmed the belief
of Sanchez.
It is well recognized that women in whom, from
whatever cause,
acute sexual excitement occurs with frequency
without being
followed by the due natural relief of orgasm are
liable to
various nervous and congestive symptoms which
diminish their
vital effectiveness, and very possibly lead to a
breakdown in
health. Kisch has described, as a cardiac neurosis
of sexual
origin, a pathological tachycardia which is an
exaggeration of
the physiological quick heart of sexual excitement.
J. Inglis
Parsons (_British Medical Journal_, Oct. 22, 1904,
p. 1062)
refers to the ovarian pain produced by strong
unsatisfied sexual
excitement, often in vigorous unmarried women, and
sometimes a
cause of great distress. An experienced Austrian
gynæcologist
told Hirth (_Wege zur Heimat_, p. 613) that of every
hundred
women who come to him with uterine troubles seventy
suffered from
congestion of the womb, which he regarded as due to
incomplete
coitus.
It is frequently stated that the evil of incomplete
gratification
and absence of orgasm in women is chiefly due to
male withdrawal,
that is to say _coitus interruptus_, in which the
penis is
hastily withdrawn as soon as involuntary ejaculation
is
impending; and it is sometimes said that the same
widely
prevalent practice is also productive of slight or
serious
results in the male (see, e.g., L.B. Bangs,
_Transactions New
York Academy of Medicine_, vol. ix, 1893; D.S.
Booth, "Coitus
Interruptus and Coitus Reservatus as Causes of
Profound Neurosis
and Psychosis," _Alienist and Neurologist_, Nov., 1906; also,
_Alienist and Neurologist_, Oct., 1897, p. 588).
It is undoubtedly true that coitus interruptus,
since it involves
sudden withdrawal on the part of the man without
reference to the
stage of sexual excitation which his partner may
have reached,
cannot fail to produce frequently an injurious
nervous effect on
the woman, though the injurious effect on the man,
who obtains
ejaculation, is little or none. But the practice is
so widespread
that it cannot be regarded as necessarily involving
this evil
result. There can, I am assured, be no doubt
whatever that
Blumreich is justified in his statement (Senator and
Kaminer,
_Health and Disease in Relation to Marriage_, vol.
ii, p. 783)
that "interrupted coitus is injurious to the genital system of
those women only who are disturbed in their
sensation of delight
by this form of cohabitation, in whom the orgasm is
not produced,
and who continue for hours subsequently to be
tormented by
feelings of an unsatisfied desire." Equally
injurious effects
follow in normal coitus when the man's orgasm occurs
too soon.
"These phenomena, therefore," he concludes, "are not characteristic of interrupted coitus, but
consequences of an
imperfectly concluded sexual cohabitation as such."
Kisch,
likewise, in his elaborate and authoritative work on
_The Sexual
Life of Woman_, also states that the question of the
evil results
of _coitus interruptus_ in women is simply a
question of whether
or not they receive sexual satisfaction. (Cf. also
Fürbringer,
_Health and Disease in Relation to Marriage_, vol.
i, pp. 232 _et
seq._) This is clearly the most reasonable view to
take
concerning what is the simplest, the most
widespread, and
certainly the most ancient of the methods of
preventing
conception. In the Book of Genesis we find it
practiced by Onan,
and to come down to modern times, in the sixteenth
century it
seems to have been familiar to French ladies, who,
according to
Brantôme, enjoined it on their lovers.
Coitus reservatus,--in which intercourse is
maintained even for
very long periods, during which the woman may have
orgasm several
times while the man succeeds in holding back
orgasm,--so far from
being injurious to the woman, is probably the form
of coitus
which gives her the maximum of gratification and
relief. For most
men, however, it seems probable that this self-
control over the
processes leading to the involuntary act of
detumescence is
difficult to acquire, while in weak, nervous, and
erethic persons
it is impossible. It is, however, a desirable
condition for
completely adequate coitus, and in the East this is
fully
recognized, and the aptitude carefully cultivated.
Thus W.D.
Sutherland states ("Einiges über das Alltagsleben und die
Volksmedizin unter den Bauern Britischostindiens,"
_Münchener
Medizinische Wochenschrift_, No. 12, 1906) that the
Hindu smokes
and talks during intercourse in order to delay
orgasm, and
sometimes applies an opium paste to the glans of the
penis for
the same purpose. (See also vol. iii of these
_Studies_, "The
Sexual Impulse in Women.") Some authorities have, indeed, stated
that the prolongation of the act of coitus is
injurious in its
effect on the male. Thus R.W. Taylor (_Practical
Treatise on
Sexual Disorders_, third ed., p. 121) states that it
tends to
cause atonic impotence, and Löwenfeld (_Sexualleben
und
Nervenleiden_, p. 74) thinks that the swift and
unimpeded
culmination of the sexual act is necessary in order
to preserve
the vigor of the reflex reactions. This is probably
true of
extreme and often repeated cases of indefinite
prolongation of
pronounced erection without detumescence, but it is
not true
within fairly wide limits in the case of healthy
persons.
Prolonged _coitus reservatus_ was a practice of the
complex
marriage system of the Oneida community, and I was
assured by the
late Noyes Miller, who had spent the greater part of
his life in
the community, that the practice had no sort of evil
result.
_Coitus reservatus_ was erected into a principle in
the Oneida
community. Every man in the community was
theoretically the
husband of every woman, but every man was not free
to have
children with every woman. Sexual initiation took
place soon
after puberty in the case of boys, some years later
in the case
of girls, by a much older person of the opposite
sex. In
intercourse the male inserted his penis into the
vagina and
retained it there for even an hour without emission,
though
orgasm took place in the woman. There was usually no
emission in
the case of the man, even after withdrawal, and he
felt no need
of emission. The social feeling of the community was
a force on
the side of this practice, the careless, unskilful
men being
avoided by women, while the general romantic
sentiment of
affection for all the women in the community was
also a force.
Masturbation was unknown, and no irregular relations
took place
with persons outside the community. The practice was
maintained
for thirty years, and was finally abandoned, not on
its demerits,
but in deference to the opinions of the outside
world. Mr. Miller
admitted that the practice became more difficult in
ordinary
marriage, which favors a more mechanical habit of
intercourse.
The information received from Mr. Miller is
supplemented in a
pamphlet entitled _Male Continence_ (the name given
to _coitus
reservatus_ in the community), written in 1872 by
the founder,
John Humphrey Noyes. The practice is based, he says,
on the fact
that sexual intercourse consists of two acts, a
social and a
propagative, and that if propagation is to be
scientific there
must be no confusion of these two acts, and
procreation must
never be involuntary. It was in 1844, he states,
that this idea
occurred to him as a result of a resolve to abstain
from sexual
intercourse in consequence of his wife's delicate
health and
inability to bear healthy children, and in his own
case he found
the practice "a great deliverance. It made a happy household." He
points out that the chief members of the Oneida
community
"belonged to the most respectable families in
Vermont, had been
educated in the best schools of New England morality
and
refinement, and were, by the ordinary standards,
irreproachable
in their conduct so far as sexual matters are
concerned, till
they deliberately commenced, in 1846, the experiment
of a new
state of society, on principles which they had been
long maturing
and were prepared to defend before the World." In relation to
male continence, therefore, Noyes thought the
community might
fairly be considered "the Committee of Providence to test its
value in actual life." He states that a careful
medical
comparison of the statistics of the community had
shown that the
rate of nervous disease in the community was
considerably below
the average outside, and that only two cases of
nervous disorder
had occurred which could be traced with any
probability to a
misuse of male continence. This has been confirmed
by Van de
Warker, who studied forty-two women of the community
without
finding any undue prevalence of reproductive
diseases, nor could
he find any diseased condition attributable to the
sexual habits
of the community (cf. C. Reed, _Text-Book of
Gynecology_, 1901,
p. 9).
Noyes believed that "male continence" had never previously been a
definitely recognized practice based on theory,
though there
might have been occasional approximation to it. This
is probably
true if the coitus is _reservatus_ in the full
sense, with
complete absence of emission. Prolonged coitus,
however,
permitting the woman to have orgasm more than once,
while the man
has none, has long been recognized. Thus in the
seventeenth
century Zacchia discussed whether such a practice is
legitimate
(_Zacchiæ Quæstionum Opus_, ed. of 1688, lib. vii,
tit. iii,
quæst. VI). In modern times it is occasionally
practiced, without
any theory, and is always appreciated by the woman,
while it
appears to have no bad effect on the man. In such a
case it will
happen that the act of coitus may last for an hour
and a quarter
or even longer, the maximum of the woman's pleasure
not being
reached until three-quarters of an hour have passed;
during this
period the woman will experience orgasm some four or
five times,
the man only at the end. It may occasionally happen
that a little
later the woman again experiences desire, and
intercourse begins
afresh in the same way. But after that she is
satisfied, and
there is no recurrence of desire.
It may be desirable at this point to refer briefly
to the chief
variations in the method of effecting coitus in
their
relationship to the art of love and the attainment
of adequate
and satisfying detumescence.
The primary and essential characteristic of the
specifically
human method of coitus is the fact that it takes
place face to
face. The fact that in what is usually considered
the typically
normal method of coitus the woman lies supine and
the man above
her is secondary. Psychically, this front-to-front
attitude
represents a great advance over the quadrupedal
method. The two
partners reveal to each other the most important,
the most
beautiful, the most expressive sides of themselves,
and thus
multiply the mutual pleasure and harmony of the
intimate act of
union. Moreover, this face-to-face attitude
possesses a great
significance, in the fact that it is the outward
sign that the
human couple has outgrown the animal sexual attitude
of the
hunter seizing his prey in the act of flight, and
content to
enjoy it in that attitude, from behind. The human
male may be
said to retain the same attitude, but the female has
turned
round; she has faced her partner and approached him,
and so
symbolizes her deliberate consent to the act of
union.
The human variations in the exercise of coitus, both
individual
and national, are, however, extremely numerous. "To be quite
frank," says Fürbringer (Senator and Kaminer,
_Health and Disease
in Relation to Marriage_, vol. i, p. 213), "I can hardly think of
any combination which does not figure among my case-
notes as
having been practiced by my patients." We must not too hastily
conclude that such variations are due to vicious
training. That
is far from being the case. They often occur
naturally and
spontaneously. Freud has properly pointed out (in
the second
series of his _Beiträge zur Neurosenlehre_,
"Bruchstück" etc.)
that we must not be too shocked even when the idea
of _fellatio_
spontaneously presents itself to a woman, for that
idea has a
harmless origin in the resemblance between the penis
and the
nipple. Similarly, it may be added, the desire for
_cunnilinctus_, which seems to be much more often
latently
present in women than is the desire for its
performance in men,
has a natural analogy in the pleasure of suckling, a
pleasure
which is itself indeed often erotically tinged (see
vol. iv of
these _Studies_, "Sexual Selection in Man," Touch, Sect. III).
Every variation in this matter, remarks Remy de
Gourmont
(_Physique de l'Amour_, p. 264) partakes of the sin
of luxury,
and some of the theologians have indeed considered
any position
in coitus but that which is usually called normal in
Europe as a
mortal sin. Other theologians, however, regarded
such variations
as only venial sins, provided ejaculation took place
in the
vagina, just as some theologians would permit
_irrumatio_ as a
preliminary to coitus, provided there was no
ejaculation. Aquinas
took a serious view of the deviations from normal
intercourse;
Sanchez was more indulgent, especially in view of
his doctrine,
derived from the Greek and Arabic natural
philosophers, that the
womb can attract the sperm, so that the natural end
may be
attained even in unusual positions.
Whatever difference of opinion there may have been
among ancient
theologians, it is well recognized by modern
physicians that
variations from the ordinary method of coitus are
desirable in
special cases. Thus Kisch points out (_Sterilität
des Weibes_, p.
107) that in some cases it is only possible for the
woman to
experience sexual excitement when coitus takes place
in the
lateral position, or in the _a posteriori_ position,
or when the
usual position is reversed; and in his _Sexual Life
of Woman_,
also, Kisch recommends several variations of
position for coitus.
Adler points out (op. cit., pp. 151, 186) the value
of the same
positions in some cases, and remarks that such
variations often
call forth latent sexual feelings as by a charm.
Such cases are
indeed, by no means infrequent, the advantage of the
unusual
position being due either to physical or psychic
causes, and the
discovery of the right variation is sometimes found
in a merely
playful attempt. It has occasionally happened, also,
that when
intercourse has habitually taken place in an
abnormal position,
no satisfaction is experienced by the woman until
the normal
position is adopted. The only fairly common
variation of coitus
which meets with unqualified disapproval is that in
the erect
posture. (See e.g., Hammond, op. cit. pp. 257 et
seq.)
Lucretius specially recommended the quadrupedal
variation of
coitus (Bk. iv, 1258), and Ovid describes (end of
Bk. iii of the
_Ars Amatoria_) what he regards as agreeable
variations, giving
the preference, as the easiest and simplest method,
to that in
which the woman lies half supine on her side.
Perhaps, however,
the variation which is nearest to the normal
attitude and which
has most often and most completely commended itself
is that
apparently known to Arabic erotic writers as _dok el
arz_, in
which the man is seated and his partner is astride
his thighs,
embracing his body with her legs and his neck with
her arms,
while he embraces her waist; this is stated in the
Arabic
_Perfumed Garden_ to be the method preferred by most
women.
The other most usual variation is the inverse normal
position in
which the man is supine, and the woman adapts
herself to this
position, which permits of several modifications
obviously
advantageous, especially when the man is much larger
than his
partner. The Christian as well as the Mahommedan
theologians
appear, indeed, to have been generally opposed to
this superior
position of the female, apparently, it would seem,
because they
regarded the literal subjection of the male which it
involves as
symbolic of a moral subjection. The testimony of
many people
to-day, however, is decidedly in favor of this
position, more
especially as regards the woman, since it enables
her to obtain a
better adjustment and greater control of the
process, and so
frequently to secure sexual satisfaction which she
may find
difficult or impossible in the normal position.
The theologians seem to have been less unfavorably
disposed to
the position normal among quadrupeds, _a
posteriori_, though the
old Penitentials were inclined to treat it severely,
the
Penitential of Angers prescribing forty days
penance, and
Egbert's three years, if practiced habitually. (It
is discussed
by J. Petermann, "Venus Aversa," _Sexual-Probleme_, Feb., 1909).
There are good reasons why in many cases this
position should be
desirable, more especially from the point of view of
women, who
ind