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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.
FOOTNOTES:
[98] The elements furnished by the sense of touch in sexual selection have
been discussed in the first section of the previous volume of these
_Studies_.
[99] See Appendix A. "The Origins of the Kiss," in the previous volume.
[100] See, e.g., Art. "Erection," by Retterer, in Richet's _Dictionnaire
de Physiologie_, vol. v.
[101] Guibaut, _Traité Clinique des Maladies des Femmes_, p. 242. Adler
discusses the sexual secretions in women and their significance, _Die
Mangelhafte Geschlechtsempfindung des Weibes_, pp. 19-26.
[102] In some parts of the world this is further aided by artificial
means. Thus it is stated by Riedel (as quoted by Ploss and Bartels) that
in the Gorong Archipelago the bridegroom, before the first coitus, anoints
the bride's pudenda with an ointment containing opium, musk, etc. I have
been told of an English bride who was instructed by her mother to use a
candle for the same purpose.
[103] _Parthenologia_, pp. 302, et seq.
[104] The connection of this mucous flow with sexual emotion was discussed
early in the eighteenth century by Schurig in his _Gynæcologia_, pp. 8-11;
it is frequently passed over by more modern writers.
[105] The drawing is reproduced by Ploss and Bartels, _Das Weib_, vol. i,
Chapter XVII; many facts bearing on the ethnography of coitus are brought
together in this chapter.
[106] Onanoff (Paris Société de Biologie, May 3, 1890) proposed the name
of bulbo-cavernous reflex for the smart contraction of the ischio-and
bulbo-cavernosus muscles (erector penis and accelerator urinæ) produced by
mechanical excitation of the glans. This reflex is clinically elicited by
placing the index-finger of the left hand on the region of the bulb while
the right hand rapidly rubs the dorsal surface of the glands with the edge
of a piece of paper or lightly pinches the mucous membrane; a twitching of
the region of the bulb is then perceived. This reflex is always present in
healthy adult subjects and indicates the integrity of the physical
mechanism of detumescence. It has been described by Hughes. (C.H. Hughes,
"The Virile or Bulbo-cavernous Reflex," _Alienist and Neurologist_,
January, 1898.)
[107] Roubaud, _Traité de l'Impuissance_, 1855, p. 39.
[108] _Das Weib_, seventh edition, vol. i, p. 510.
[109] The influence of impeded respiration in exciting more or less
perverted forms of sexual gratification has been discussed in a section of
"Love and Pain" in the third volume of these _Studies_.
[110] See, e.g., the experiments of Obici on this point, _Revista
Sperimentale di Freniatria_, 1903, pp. 689, et seq.
[111] Summarized in _Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle_, March, 1903, p.
188. The tendency to closure of the eyes noted by Roubaud, to avoid
contact of the light, indicates dilatation of the pupils, for which we
need not seek other explanation than the general tendency of all
peripheral stimulation, according to Schiff's law, to produce such
dilatation.
[112] Vaschide and Vurpas, "Du Coefficient Sexuel de l'Impulsion
Musicale," _Archives de Neurologie_, May, 1904.
[113] In the _Priapeia_ is an inscription which has thus been
translated:--
"You see this organ, after which I'm called And which is my certificate, is humid; This moisture is not dew nor drops of rain, It is the outcome of sweet memory,
Recalling thoughts of a complacent maid."
The translator supposes that semen is referred to, but without doubt the
allusion is to the theologians' _distillatio_.
[114] A woman of 30, normal and intelligent, after conversing on love and
passion, and then listening to the music of Grieg and Schumann, felt real
and strong sexual excitement, increased by memories recalled by the
presence of a sympathetic person. When then tested by the dynamometer the
average of ten efforts with the right hand was found to be 28.2 (her
normal average being 31.1) and with the left hand 28.0
(the normal being
30.0). There was, however, great variability in the individual pressures
which sometimes equaled and even exceeded the subject's normal efforts.
The voluntary muscles are thus in harmony with the approaching general
sexual avalanche. (Vaschide and Vurpas, "Quelques Données Expérimentales
sur l'Influence de l'Excitation Sexuelle," _Archivio di Psichiatria_,
1903, fasc. v-vi.)
[115] Cf. MacGillicuddy, _Functional Disorders of the Nervous System in
Women_, p. 110; Féré, _L'Instinct Sexuel_, second edition, p. 238; id.,
"Note sur une Anomalie de l'instinct Sexuel," _Belgique Médicale_, 1905;
also "Analysis of the Sexual Impulse," in an earlier volume of these
_Studies_.
[116] J.P. West, "Masturbation in Early Childhood,"
_Medical Standard_,
November, 1895.
[117] Cf. the discussion of hysteria in "Auto-Erotism,"
vol. i of these
_Studies_.
[118] Hirst, _Text-Book of Obstetrics_, 1899, p. 67.
[119] The earliest story of the kind with which I am acquainted, that of a
widow who was thus impregnated by a married friend, is quoted in Schurig's
_Spermatologia_ (p. 224) from Amatus Lusitanus, _Curationum Centuriæ
Septum_, 1629.
[120] Janke, _Die Willkürliche Hervorbringen des Geschlechts_, p. 238.
[121] Cf. Adler, _Die Mangelhafte Geschlechtsempfindung des Weibes_, pp.
29-38.
[122] Féré, _Pathologie des Emotions_, p. 51.
[123] This is an instinctive impulse under all strong emotion in primitive
persons. "The Australian Dieri," says A.W. Howitt (_Journal
Anthropological Institute_, August, 1890), "when in pain or grief cry out
for their father or mother."
[124] Vaschide and Vurpas, _Archives de Neurologie_, May, 1904.
[125] F.B. Robinson, _New York Medical Journal_, March 11, 1893.
[126] Féré deals fully with the various morbid results which may follow
coitus, _L' Instinct Sexuel_, Chapter X; id., _Pathologie des Emotions_,
p. 99.
[127] With regard to the relationship of detumescence to the
blood-pressure Haig remarks: "I think that as the sexual act produces low
and falling blood-pressure, it will of necessity relieve conditions which
are due to high and rising blood-pressure, such, for instance, as mental
depression and bad temper; and, unless my observation deceives me, we have
here a connection between conditions of high blood-pressure, with mental
and bodily depression, and the act of masturbation, for this act will
relieve those conditions, and will tend to be practiced for this purpose."
(A. Haig, _Uric Acid_, sixth edition, p. 154.)
[128] A medical correspondent speaks of subjective feelings of temperature
coming over the body from 20 to 24 hours after congress, and marked by
sensations of cooling of body and glow of cheeks. In another case, though
lassitude appears on the second day after congress, the first day after is
marked by a notable increase in mental and physical activity.
III.
The Constituents of Semen--Function of the Prostate--The Properties of
Semen--Aphrodisiacs--Alcohol, Opium, etc.--
Anaphrodisiacs--The Stimulant
Influence of Semen in Coitus--The Internal Effects of Testicular
Secretions--The Influence of Ovarian Secretion.
The germ cell never comes into the sphere of consciousness and cannot
therefore concern us in the psychological study of the phenomena of the
sexual instinct. But it is otherwise with the sperm cell, and the seminal
fluid has a relationship, both direct and indirect, to psychic phenomena
which it is now necessary to discuss.
While the spermatozoa are formed in the glandular tissue of the testes,
the seminal fluid as finally emitted in detumescence is not a purely
testicular product, but is formed by mixture with the fluids poured out at
or before detumescence by various glands which open into the urethra, and
notably the prostate.[129] This is a purely sexual gland, which in animals
only becomes large and active during the breeding season, and may even be
hardly distinguishable at other times; moreover, if the testes are removed
in infancy, the prostate remains rudimentary, so that during recent years
removal of the testes has been widely advocated and practiced for that
hypertrophy of the prostate which is sometimes a distressing ailment of
old age. It is the prostatic fluid, according to Fürbringer, which imparts
its characteristic odor to semen. It appears, however, to be the main
function of the prostatic fluid to arouse and maintain the motility of the
spermatozoa; before meeting the prostatic fluid the spermatozoa are
motionless; that fluid seems to furnish a thinner medium in which they
for the first time gain their full vitality.[130]
When at length the semen is ejaculated, it contains various substances
which may be separated from it,[131] and possesses various qualities, some
of which have only lately been investigated, while others have evidently
been known to mankind from a very early period. "When held for some time
in the mouth," remarked John Hunter, "it produces a warmth similar to
spices, which lasts some time."[132] Possibly this fact first suggested
that semen might, when ingested, possess valuable stimulant qualities, a
discovery which has been made by various savages, notably by the
Australian aborigines, who, in many parts of Australia, administer a
potion of semen to dying or feeble members of the tribe.[133] It is
perhaps noteworthy that in Central Africa the testes of the goat are
consumed as an aphrodisiac.[134] In eighteenth century Europe, Schurig, in
his _Spermatologia_, still found it necessary to discuss at considerable
length the possible medical properties of human semen, giving many
prescriptions which contained it.[135] The stimulation produced by the
ingestion of semen would appear to form in some cases a part of the
attraction exerted by _fellatio_; De Sade emphasized this point; and in a
case recorded by Howard semen appears to have acted as a stimulant for
which the craving was as irresistible as is that for alcohol in
dipsomania.[136]
It must be remembered that the early history of this subject is
more or less inextricably commingled with folk-lore practices of
magical origin, not necessarily founded on actual observation of
the physiological effects of consuming the semen or testes. Thus,
according to W.H. Pearse (_Scalpel_, December, 1897), it is the
custom in Cornwall for country maids to eat the testicles of the
young male lambs when they are castrated in the spring, the
survival, probably, of a very ancient religious cult. (I have not
myself been able to hear of this custom in Cornwall.) In
Burchard's Penitential (Cap. CLIV, Wasserschleben, op. cit., p.
660) seven years' penance is assigned to the woman who swallows
her husband's semen to make him love her more. In the seventeenth
century (as shown in William Salmon's _London Dispensatory_,
1678) semen was still considered to be good against witchcraft
and also valuable as a love-philter, in which latter capacity its
use still survives. (Bourke, _Scatalogic Rites_, pp.
343, 355.)
In an earlier age (Picart, quoted by Crawley, _The Mystic Rose_,
p. 109) the Manichæans, it is said, sprinkled their eucharistic
bread with human semen, a custom followed by the Albigenses.
The belief, perhaps founded in experience, that semen possesses
medical and stimulant virtues was doubtless fortified by the
ancient opinion that the spinal cord is the source of this fluid.
This was not only held by the highest medical authorities in
Greece, but also in India and Persia.
The semen is thus a natural stimulant, a physiological
aphrodisiac, the type of a class of drugs which have been known
and cultivated in all parts of the world from time immemorial.
(Dufour has discussed the aphrodisiacs used in ancient Rome,
_Histoire de la Prostitution_, vol. II, ch. 21.) It would be vain
to attempt to enumerate all the foods and medicaments to which
has been ascribed an influence in heightening the sexual impulse.
(Thus, in the sixteenth century, aphrodisiacal virtues were
attributed to an immense variety of foods by Liébault in his
_Thresor des Remèdes Secrets pour les Maladies des Femmes_, 1585,
pp. 104, et seq.) A large number of them certainly have no such
effect at all, but have obtained this credit either on some
magical ground or from a mistaken association. Thus the potato,
when first introduced from America, had the reputation of being a
powerful aphrodisiac, and the Elizabethan dramatists contain many
references to this supposed virtue. As we know, potatoes, even
when taken in the largest doses, have not the slightest
aphrodisiac effect, and the Irish peasantry, whose diet consists
very largely of potatoes, are even regarded as possessing an
unusually small measure of sexual feeling. It is probable that
the mistake arose from the fact that potatoes were originally a
luxury, and luxuries frequently tend to be regarded as
aphrodisiacs, since they are consumed under circumstances which
tend to arouse the sexual desires. It is possible also that, as
has been plausibly suggested, the misunderstanding may have been
due to sailors--the first to be familiar with the potato--who
attributed to this particular element of their diet ashore the
generally stimulating qualities of their life in port. The eryngo
(_Eryngium maritimum_), or sea holly, which also had an erotic
reputation in Elizabethan times, may well have acquired it in the
same way. Many other vegetables have a similar reputation, which
they still retain. Thus onions are regarded as aphrodisiacal, and
were so regarded by the Greeks, as we learn from Aristophanes. It
is noteworthy that Marro, a reliable observer, has found that in
Italy, both in prisons and asylums, lascivious people are fond of
onions (_La Pubertà_, p. 297), and it may perhaps be worth while
to recall the observation of Sérieux that in a woman in whom the
sexual instinct only awoke in middle age there was a horror of
leeks. In some countries, and especially in Belgium, celery is
popularly looked upon as a sexual stimulant. Various condiments,
again, have the same reputation, perhaps because they are hot and
because sexual desire is regarded, rightly enough, as a kind of
heat. Fish--skate, for instance, and notably oysters and other
shellfish--are very widely regarded as aphrodisiacs, and Kisch
attributes this property to caviar. It is probable that all these
and other foods which have obtained this reputation, in so far as
they have any action whatever on the sexual appetite, only
possess it by virtue of their generally nutritious and
stimulating qualities, and not by the presence of any special
principle having a selective action on the sexual sphere. A
beefsteak is probably as powerful a sexual stimulant as any food;
a nutritious food, however, which is at the same time easily
digestible, and thus requiring less expenditure of energy for its
absorption, may well exert a specially rapid and conspicuous
stimulant effect. But it is not possible to draw a line, and, as
Aquinas long since said, if we wish to maintain ourselves in a
state of purity we shall fear even an immoderate use of bread and
water.
More definitely aphrodisiacal effects are produced by drugs, and
especially by drugs which in large doses are poisons. The
aphrodisiac with the widest popular reputation is cantharides,
but its sexually exciting effects are merely an accidental result
of its action in causing inflammation of the genito-urinary
passage, and it is both an uncertain and a dangerous result,
except in skillful hands and when administered in small doses.
Nux vomica (with its alkaloid strychnia), by virtue of its
special action on the spinal cord, has a notably pronounced
effect in heightening the irritability of the spinal ejaculatory
center, though it by no means necessarily exerts any strengthening influence. Alcohol exerts a sexually exciting
effect, but i