bridal night. If in the morning the same thread would not go
around her neck it was a sure sign that she had lost her
virginity during the night; if not, she was still a virgin or had
been deflowered at an earlier period. Catullus alluded to this
custom, which still exists, or existed until lately, in the south
of France. It is perfectly sound, for it rests on the intimate
response by congestion of the thyroid gland to sexual excitement.
(_Parthenologia_, p. 283; Biérent, _La Puberté_, p.
150; Havelock
Ellis, _Man and Woman_, fourth edition, p. 267.) Some say, Schurig tells us, that the voice, which in the virgin
is shrill, becomes rougher and deeper after the first coitus. He
quotes Riolan's statement that it is certain that the voice of
those who indulge in venery is changed. On that account the
ancients bound down the penis of their singers, and Martial said
that those who wish to preserve their voices should avoid coitus.
Democritus who one day had greeted a girl as
"maiden" on the
following day addressed her as "woman," while in the same way it
is said that Albertus Magnus, observing from his study a girl
going for wine for her master, knew that she had had sexual
intercourse by the way because on her return her voice had become
deeper. Here, again, the ancient belief has a solid basis, for
the voice and the larynx are really affected by sexual
conditions. (_Parthenologia_, p. 286; Marro, _La Puberté_, p.
303; Havelock Ellis, op. cit., pp. 271, 289.) Others, again, Schurig proceeds, have judged that the goaty smell
given out in the armpits during the venereal act is also no
uncertain sign of defloration, such odor being perceptible in
those who use much venery, and not seldom in harlots and the
newly married, while, as Hippocrates said, it is not perceived in
boys and girls. (_Parthenologia_, p. 286; cf. the previous volume
of these _Studies_, "Sexual Selection in Man," p.
64.)
In virgins, Schurig remarks, the pubic hair is said to be long
and not twisted, while in women accustomed to coitus it is
crisper. But it is only after long and repeated coitus, some
authors add, that the pubic hairs become crisp. Some recent
observers, it may be remarked, have noted a connection between
sexual excitation and the condition of the pubic hair in women.
(Cf. the present volume, _ante_ p. 127.) A sign to which the old authors often attached much importance
was furnished by the urinary stream. In the _De Secretis
Mulierum_, wrongly attributed to Albertus Magnus, it is laid down
that "the virgin urinates higher than the woman."
Riolan, in his
_Anthropographia_, discussing the ability of virgins to ejaculate
urine to a height, states that Scaliger had observed women who
were virgins emit urine in a high jet against a wall, but that
married women could seldom do this. Bouaciolus also stated that
the urine of virgins is emitted in a small stream to a distance
with an acute hissing sound. (_Parthenologia_, p.
281.) A
folk-lore belief in the reality of this influence is evidenced by
the Picardy _conte_ referred to already (_ante_, p.
53), "La
Princesse qui pisse au dessus les Meules." There is no doubt a
tendency for the various stresses of sexual life to produce an
influence in this direction, though they act far too slowly and
uncertainly to be a reliable index to the presence or the absence
of virginity.
Another common ancient test of virginity by urination rests on a
psychic basis, and appears in a variety of forms which are really
all reducible to the same principle. Thus we are told in _De
Secretis Mulierum_ that to ascertain if a girl is seduced she
should be given to eat of powdered crocus flowers, and if she has
been seduced she immediately urinates. We are here concerned with
auto-suggestion, and it may well be believed that with nervous
and credulous girls this test often revealed the truth.
A further test of virginity discussed by Schurig is the presence
of modesty of countenance. If a woman blushes her virtue is safe.
In this way girls who have themselves had experience of the
marriage bed are said to detect the virgin. The virgin's eyes are
cast down and almost motionless, while she who has known a man
has eyes that are bright and quick. But this sign is equivocal,
says Schurig, for girls are different, and can simulate the
modesty they do not feel. Yet this indication also rests on a
fundamentally sound psychological basis. (See "The Evolution of
Modesty," in the first volume of these _Studies_.) In his _Syllepsilogia_ (Section V, cap. I-II), published in 1731,
Schurig discusses further the anciently recognized signs of
pregnancy. The real or imaginary signs of pregnancy sought by
various primitive peoples of the past and present are brought
together by Ploss and Bartels, _Das Weib_, bd. i, Chapter XXVII.
Both physically and psychically the occurrence of pregnancy is, however, a
distinct event. It marks the beginning of a continuous physical process,
which cannot fail to manifest psychic reactions. A great center of vital
activity--practically a new center, for only the germinal form of it in
menstruation had previously existed--has appeared and affects the whole
organism. "From the moment that the embryo takes possession of the woman,"
Robert Barnes puts it, "every drop of blood, every fiber, every organ, is
affected."[170]
A woman artist once observed to Dr. Stratz, that as the final aim of a
woman is to become a mother and pregnancy is thus her blossoming time, a
beautiful woman ought to be most beautiful when she is pregnant. That is
so, Stratz replied, if her moment of greatest physical perfection
corresponds with the early months of pregnancy, for with the beginning of
pregnancy metabolism is increased, the color of the skin becomes more
lively and delicate, the breasts firmer.[171] Pregnancy may, indeed, often
become visible soon after conception by the brighter eye, the livelier
glance, resulting from greater vascular activity, though later, with the
increase of strain, the face may tend to become somewhat thin and
distorted. The hair, Barnes states, assumes a new vigor, even though it
may have been falling out before. The temperature rises; the weight
increases, even apart from the growth of the foetus. The efflorescence of
pregnancy shows itself, as in the blossoming and fecundated flower, by
increased pigmentation.[172] The nipples with their areolæ, and the
mid-line of the belly, become darker; brown flecks (lentigo) tend to
appear on the forehead, neck, arms, and body; while striæ--at first
blue-red, then a brilliant white--appear on the belly and thighs, though
these are scarcely normal, for they are not seen in women with very
elastic skins and are rare among peasants and savages.[173] The whole
carriage of the woman tends to become changed with the development of the
mighty seed of man planted within her; it simulates the carriage of pride
with the arched back and protruded abdomen.[174] The pregnant woman has
been lifted above the level of ordinary humanity to become the casket of
an inestimable jewel.
It is in the blood and the circulation that the earliest of the most
prominent symptoms of pregnancy are to be found. The ever increasing
development of this new focus of vascular activity involves an increased
vascular activity in the whole organism. This activity is present almost
from the first--a few days after the impregnation of the ovum--in the
breasts, and quickly becomes obvious to inspection and palpation. Before a
quite passive organ, the breast now rapidly increases in activity of
circulation and in size, while certain characteristic changes begin to
take place around the nipples.[175] As a result of the additional work
imposed upon it the heart tends to become slightly hypertrophied in order
to meet the additional strain; there may be some dilatation also.[176]
The recent investigations of Stengel and Stanton tend to show
that the increase of the heart's work during pregnancy is less
considerable than has generally been supposed, and that beyond
some enlargement and dilatation of the right ventricle there is
not usually any hypertrophy of the heart.
The total quantity of blood is raised. While increased in quantity, the
blood appears on the whole to be somewhat depreciated in quality, though
on this point there are considerable differences of opinion. Thus, as
regards hæmoglobin, some investigators have found that the old idea as to
the poverty of hæmoglobin in pregnancy is quite unfounded; a few have even
found that the hæmoglobin is increased. Most authorities have found the
red cells diminished, though some only slightly, while the white cells,
and also the fibrin, are increased. But toward the end of pregnancy there
is a tendency, perhaps due to the establishment of compensation, for the
blood to revert to the normal condition.[177]
It would appear probable, however, that the vascular phenomena of
pregnancy are not altogether so simple as the above statement would imply.
The activity of various glands at this time--well illustrated by the
marked salivation which sometimes occurs--indicates that other modifying
forces are at work, and it has been suggested that the changes in the
maternal circulation during pregnancy may best be explained by the theory
that there are two opposing kinds of secretion poured into the blood in
unusual degree during pregnancy: one contracting the vessels, the other
dilating them, one or the other sometimes gaining the upper hand.
Suprarenal extract, when administered, has a vasoconstricting influence,
and thyroid extract a vasodilating influence; it may be surmised that
within the body these glands perform similar functions.[178]
The important part played by the thyroid gland is indicated by its marked
activity at the very beginning of pregnancy. We may probably associate the
general tendency to vasodilatation during early pregnancy with the
tendency to goitre; Freund found an increase of the thyroid in 45 per
cent. of 50 cases. The thyroid belongs to the same class of ductless
glands as the ovary, and, as Bland Sutton and others have insisted, the
analogies between the thyroid and the ovary are very numerous and
significant. It may be added that in recent years Armand Gautier has noted
the importance of the thyroid in elaborating nucleo-proteids containing
arsenic and iodine, which are poured into the circulation during
menstruation and pregnancy. The whole metabolism of the body is indeed
affected, and during the latter part of pregnancy study of the ingesta and
egesta has shown that a storage of nitrogen and even of water is taking
place.[179] The woman, as Pinard puts it, forms the child out of her own
flesh, not merely out of her food; the individual is being sacrificed to
the species.
The changes in the nervous system of the pregnant woman correspond to
those in the vascular system. There is the same increase of activity, a
heightening of tension. Bruno Wolff, from experiments on bitches,
concluded that the central nervous system in women is probably more easily
excited in the pregnant than in the non-pregnant state, though he was not
prepared to call this cerebral excitability
"specific."[180] Direct
observations on pregnant women have shown, without doubt, a heightened
nervous irritability. Reflex action generally is increased. Neumann
investigated the knee-jerk in 500 women during pregnancy, labor, and the
puerperium, and in a large number found that there was a progressive
exaggeration with the advance of pregnancy, little or no change being
observed in the early months; sometimes when no change was observed during
pregnancy the knee-jerk still increased during labor, reaching its maximum
at the moment of the expulsion of the foetus; the return to the normal
condition took place gradually during the puerperium.
Tridandani found in
pregnant women that though the superficial reflexes, with the exception of
the abdominal, were diminished, the deep and tendon reflexes were markedly
increased, especially that of the knee, these changes being more marked in
primiparæ than in multiparæ, and more pronounced as pregnancy advanced,
the normal condition returning with ten days after labor. Electrical
excitability was sensibly diminished.[181]
One of the first signs of high nervous tension is vomiting. As is well
known, this phenomenon commonly appears early in pregnancy, and it is by
many considered entirely physiological. Barnes regards it as a kind of
safety valve, a regulating function, letting off excessive tension and
maintaining equilibrium.[182] Vomiting is, however, a convulsion, and is
thus the simplest form of a kind of manifestation--to which the heightened
nervous tension of pregnancy easily lends itself--that finds its extreme
pathological form in eclampsia. In this connection it is of interest to
point out that the pregnant woman here manifests in the highest degree a
tendency which is marked in women generally, for the female sex, apart
altogether from pregnancy, is specially liable to convulsive
phenomena.[183]
There is some slight difference of opinion among authorities as
to the precise nature and causation of the sickness of pregnancy.
Barnes, Horrocks and others regard it as physiological; but many
consider it pathological; this is, for instance, the opinion of
Giles. Graily Hewitt attributed it to flexion of the gravid
uterus, Kaltenbach to hysteria, and Zaborsky terms it a neurosis.
Whitridge Williams considers that it may be (1) reflex, or (2)
neurotic (when it is allied to hysteria and amenable to
suggestion), or (3) toxæmic. It really appears to lie on the
borderland between healthy and diseased manifestations. It is
said to be unknown to farmers and veterinary surgeons. It appears
to be little known among savages; it is comparatively infrequent
among women of the lower social classes, and, as Giles has found,
women who habitually menstruate in a painless and normal manner
suffer comparatively little from the sickness of pregnancy.
We owe a valuable study of the sickness of pregnancy to Giles,
who analyzed the records of 300 cases. He concluded that about
one-third of the pregnant women were free from sickness
throughout pregnancy, 45 per cent. were free during the first
three months. When sickness occurred it began in 70
per cent. of
cases in the first month, and was most frequent during the second
month. The duration varied from a few days to all through.
Between the ages of 20 and 25 sickness was least frequent, and
there was less sickness in the third than in any other pregnancy.
(This corresponds with the conclusion of Matthews Duncan that 25
is the most favorable age for pregnancy.) To some extent in
agreement with Guéniot, Giles believes that the vomiting of
pregnancy is "one form of manifestation of the high nervous
irritability of pregnancy." This high nervous tension may
overflow into other channels, into the vascular and excretory
system, causing eclampsia; into the muscular system, causing
chorea, or, expending itself in the brain, give rise to hysteria
when mild or insanity when severe. But the vagi form a very ready
channel for such overflow, and hence the frequency of sickness in
pregnancy. There are thus three main factors in the causation of
this phenomenon: (1) An increased nervous irritability; (2) a
local source of irritation; (3) a ready efferent channel for
nervous energy. (Arthur Giles, "Observations on the Etiology of
the Sickness of Pregnancy," _Transactions Obstetrical Society of
London_, vol. xxv, 1894.)
Martin, who regards the phenomenon as normal, points out that
when nausea and vomiting are absent or suddenly cease there is
often reason to suspect something wrong, especially the death of
the embryo. He also remarks that women who suffer from large
varicose veins are seldom troubled by the nausea of pregnancy.
(J.M.H. Martin, "The Vomiting of Pregnancy,"
_British Medical
Journal_, December 10, 1904.) These observations may be connected
with those of Evans (_American Gynæcological and Obstetrical
Journal_, January, 1900), who attributes primary importance to
the undoubtedly active factor of the irritation set up by the
uterus, more especially the rhythmic uterine contractions;
stimulation of the breasts produces active uterine contractions,
and Evans found that examination of the breasts sufficed to bring
on a severe attack of vomiting, while on another occasion this
was produced by a vaginal examination. Evans believes that the
purpose of these contractions is to facilitate the circulation of
the blood through the large venous sinuses, the surcharging of
the relatively stagnant pools with effete blood producing the
irritation which leads to rhythmic contractions.
It is on the basis of the increased vascular and glandular activity and
the heightened nervous tension that the special psychic phenomena of
pregnancy develop. The best known, and perhaps the most characteristic of
these manifestations, is that known as "longings." By this term is meant
more or less irresistible desires for some special food or drink, which
may be digestible or indigestible, sometimes a substance which the woman
ordinarily likes, such as fruit, and occasionally one which, under
ordinary circumstances, she dislikes, as in one case known to me of a
young country woman who, when bearing her child, was always longing for
tobacco and never happy except when she could get a pipe to smoke,
although under ordinary circumstances, like other young women of her
class, she was without any desire to smoke. Occasionally the longings lead
to actions which are more unscrupulous than is common in the case of the
same person at other times; thus in one case known to me a young woman,
pregnant with her first child, insisted to her sister's horror on entering
a strawberry field and eating a quantity of fruit. These
"longings" in
their extreme form may properly be considered as neurasthenic obsessions,
but in their simple and less pronounced forms they may well be normal and
healthy.
The old medical authors abound in narratives describing the
longings of pregnant women for natural and unnatural foods. This
affection was commonly called _pica_, sometimes _citra_ or
_malatia_. Schurig, whose works are a comprehensive treasure
house of ancient medical lore, devotes a long chapter (cap. II)
of his _Chylologia_, published in 1725, to pica as manifested
mainly, though not exclusively, in pregnant women.
Some women, he
tells us, have been compelled to eat all sorts of earthy
substances, of which sand seems the most common, and one Italian
woman when pregnant ate several pounds of sand with much
satisfaction, following it up with a draught of her own urine.
Lime, mud, chalk, charcoal, cinders, pitch are also the desired
substances in other cases detailed. One pregnant woman must eat
bread fresh from the oven in very large quantities, and a certain
noble matron ate 140 sweet cakes in one day and night. Wheat and
various kinds of corn as well as of vegetables were the foods
desired by many longing women. One woman was responsible for 20
pounds of pepper, another ate ginger in large quantities, a third
kept mace under her pillow; cinnamon, salt, emulsion of almonds,
treacle, mushrooms were desired by others. Cherries were longed
for by one, and another ate 30 or 40 lemons in one night. Various
kinds of fish--mullet, oysters, crabs, live eels, etc.--are
mentioned, while other women have found delectation in lizards,
frogs, spiders and flies, even scorpions, lice and fleas. A
pregnant woman, aged 33, of sanguine temperament, ate a live fowl
completely with intense satisfaction. Skin, wool, cotton, thread,
linen, blotting paper have been desired, as well as more
repulsive substances, such as nasal mucus and feces (eaten with
bread). Vinegar, ice, and snow occur in other cases.
One woman
stilled a desire for human flesh by biting the nates of children
or the arms of men. Metals are also swallowed, such as iron,
silver, etc. One pregnant woman wished to throw eggs in her
husband's face, and another to have her husband throw eggs in her
face.
In the next chapter of the same work Schurig describes cases of
acute antipathy which may arise under the same circumstances
(cap. III, "De Nausea seu Antipathia certorum ciborum"). The list
includes bread, meat, fowls, fish, eels (a very common
repulsion), crabs, milk, butter (very often), cheese (often),
honey, sugar, salt, eggs, caviar, sulphur, apples (especially
their odor), strawberries, mulberries, cinnamon, mace, capers,
pepper, onions, mustard, beetroot, rice, mint, absinthe, roses
(many pages are devoted to this antipathy), lilies, elder
flowers, musk (which sometimes caused vomiting), amber, coffee,
opiates, olive oil, vinegar, cats, frogs, spiders, wasps, swords.
More recently Gould and Pyle (_Anomalies and Curiosities of
Medicine_, p. 80) have briefly summarized some of the ancient and
modern records concerning the longings of pregnant women.
Various theories are put forward concerning the causation of the longings
of pregnant women, but none of these seems to furnish by itself a complete
and adequate explanation of all cases. Thus it is said that the craving is
the expression of a natural instinct, the system of the pregnant woman
really requiring the food she longs for. It is quite probable that this is
so in many cases, but it is obviously not so in the majority of cases,
even when we confine ourselves to the longings for fairly natural foods,
while we know so little of the special needs of the organism during
pregnancy that the theory in any case is insusceptible of clear
demonstration.
Allied to this theory is the explanation that the longings are for things
that counteract the tendency to nausea and sickness.
Giles, however, in
his valuable statistical study of the longings of a series of 300 pregnant
women, has shown that the percentage of women with longings is exactly the
same (33 per cent.) among women who had suffered at some time during
pregnancy from sickness as among the women who had not so suffered.
Moreover, Giles found that the period of sickness frequently bore no
relation to the time when there were cravings, and the patient often had
cravings after the sickness had ceased.
According to another theory these longings are mainly a matter of
auto-suggestion. The pregnant woman has received the tradition of such
longings, persuades herself that she has such a longing, and then becomes
convinced that, according to a popular belief, it will be bad for the
child if the longing is not gratified. Giles considers that this process
of auto-suggestion takes place "in a certain number, perhaps even in the
majority of cases."[184]
The Duchess d'Abrantès, the wife of Marshal Junot, in her
_Mémoires_ gives an amusing account of how in her first pregnancy
a longing was apparently imposed upon her by the anxious