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APPENDIX
A.
THE INFLUENCE OF MENSTRUATION ON THE
POSITION OF WOMEN.
A question of historical psychology which, so far as
I know, has never been fully investigated is the influence
of menstruation in constituting the emotional atmosphere
through which men habitually view women.[353] I do not
purpose to deal fully with this question, because it
is one which may be more properly dealt with at length
by the student of culture and by the historian, rather
than from the standpoint of empirical psychology. It
is, moreover, a question full of complexities in regard
to which it is impossible to speak with certainty. But
we here strike on a factor of such importance, such
neglected importance, for the proper understanding of
the sexual relations of men and women, that it cannot
be wholly ignored.
Among the negroes of Surinam a woman must live in solitude
during the time of her period; it is dangerous for any
man or woman to approach her, and when she sees a person
coming near she cries out anxiously: "_Mi kay!
Mi kay!_"--I am unclean! I am unclean! Throughout
the world we find traces of the custom of which this
is a typical example, but we must not too hastily assume
that this custom is evidence of the inferior position
occupied by semi-civilized women. It is necessary to
take a broad view, not only of the beliefs of semi-civilized
man regarding menstruation, but of his general beliefs
regarding the supernatural forces of the world.
There is no fragment of folk-lore so familiar to the
European world as that which connects woman with the
serpent. It is, indeed, one of the foundation stones
of Christian theology.[354] Yet there is no fragment
of folk-lore which remains more obscure. How has it
happened that in all parts of the world the snake or
his congeners, the lizard and the crocodile, have been
credited with some design, sinister or erotic, on women?
Of the wide prevalence of the belief there can be no
doubt. Among the Port Lincoln tribe of South Australia
a lizard is said to have divided man from woman.[355]
Among the Chiriguanos of Bolivia, on the appearance
of menstruation, old women ran about with sticks to
hunt the snake that had wounded the girl. Frazer, who
quotes this example from the "_Lettres edifiantes
et curieuses_," also refers to a modern Greek folk-tale,
according to which a princess at puberty must not let
the sun shine upon her, or she would be turned into
a lizard.[356] The lizard was a sexual symbol among
the Mexicans. In some parts of Brazil at the onset of
puberty a girl must not go into the woods for fear of
the amorous attacks of snakes, and so it is also among
the Macusi Indians of British Guiana, according to Schomburgk.
Among the Basutos of South Africa the young girls must
dance around the clay image of a snake. In Polynesian
mythology the lizard is a very sacred animal, and legends
represent women as often giving birth to lizards.[357]
At a widely remote spot, in Bengal, if you dream of
a snake a child will be born to you, reports Sarat Chandra
Mitra.[358] In the Berlin Museum fuer Volkerkunde there
is a carved wooden figure from New Guinea of a woman
into whose vulva a crocodile is inserting its snout,
while the same museum contains another figure of a snake-like
crocodile crawling out of a woman's vulva, and a third
figure shows a small round snake with a small head,
and closely resembling a penis, at the mouth of the
vagina. All these figures are reproduced by Ploss and
Bartels. Even in modern Europe the same ideas prevail.
In Portugal, according to Reys, it is believed that
during menstruation women are liable to be bitten by
lizards, and to guard against this risk they wear drawers
during the period. In Germany, again, it was believed,
up to the eighteenth century at least, that the hair
of a menstruating woman, if buried, would turn into
a snake. It may be added that in various parts of the
world virgin priestesses are dedicated to a snake-god
and are married to the god.[359] At Rome, it is interesting
to note, the serpent was the symbol of fecundation,
and as such often figures at Pompeii as the _genius
patrisfamilias_, the generative power of the family.[360]
In Rabbinical tradition, also, the serpent is the symbol
of sexual desire.
There can be no doubt that--as Ploss and Bartels, from
whom some of these examples have been taken, point out--in
widely different parts of the world menstruation is
believed to have been originally caused by a snake,
and that this conception is frequently associated with
an erotic and mystic idea.[361] How the connection arose
Ploss and Bartels are unable to say. It can only be
suggested that its shape and appearance, as well as
its venomous nature, may have contributed to the mystery
everywhere associated with the snake--a mystery itself
fortified by the association with women--to build up
this world-wide belief regarding the origin of menstruation.
This primitive theory of the origin of menstruation
probably brings before us in its earliest shape the
special and intimate bond which has ever been held to
connect women, by virtue of the menstrual process, with
the natural or supernatural powers of the world. Everywhere
menstruating women are supposed to be possessed by spirits
and charged with mysterious forces. It is at this point
that a serious misconception, due to ignorance of primitive
religious ideas, has constantly intruded. It is stated
that the menstruating woman is "unclean" and
possessed by an evil spirit. As a matter of fact, however,
the savage rarely discriminates between bad and good
spirits. Every spirit may have either a beneficial or
malignant influence. An interesting instance of this
is given in Colenso's _Maori Lexicon_ as illustrated
by the meaning of the Maori word _atua_.
The importance of recognizing the special sense in which
the word "unclean" is used in this connection
was clearly pointed out by Robertson Smith in the case
of the Semites. "The Hebrew word _tame_ (unclean),"
he remarked, "is not the ordinary word for things
physically foul; it is a ritual term, and corresponds
exactly to the idea of _taboo_. The ideas 'unclean'
and 'holy' seem to us to stand in polar opposition to
one another, but it was not so with the Semites. Among
the later Jews the Holy Books 'defiled the hands' of
the reader as contact with an impure thing did; among
Lucian's Syrians the dove was so holy that he who touched
it was unclean for a day; and the _taboo_ attaching
to the swine was explained by some, and beyond question
correctly explained, in the same way. Among the heathen
Semites,[362] therefore, unclean animals, which it was
pollution to eat, were simply holy animals." Robertson
Smith here made no reference to menstruation, but he
exactly described the primitive attitude toward menstruation.
Wellhausen, however, dealing with the early Arabians,
expressly mentions that in pre-Islamic days, "clean"
and "unclean" were used solely with reference
to women in and out of the menstrual state. At a later
date Frazer developed this aspect of the conception
of taboo, and showed how it occurs among savage races
generally. He pointed out that the conceptions of holiness
and pollution not having yet been differentiated, women
at childbirth and during menstruation are on the same
level as divine kings, chiefs, and priests, and must
observe the same rules of ceremonial purity. To seclude
such persons from the rest of the world, so that the
dreaded spiritual danger shall not spread, is the object
of the taboo, which Frazer compares to "an electrical
insulator to preserve the spiritual force with which
these persons are charged from suffering or inflicting,
harm by contact with the outer world." After describing
the phenomena (especially the prohibition to touch the
ground or see the sun) found among various races, Frazer
concludes: "The object of secluding women at menstruation
is to neutralize the dangerous influences which are
supposed to emanate from them at such times. The general
effect of these rules is to keep the girl suspended,
so to say, between heaven and earth. Whether enveloped
in her hammock and slung up to the roof, as in South
America, or elevated above the ground in a dark and
narrow cage, as in New Zealand, she may be considered
to be out of the way of doing mischief, since, being
shut off both from the earth and from the sun, she can
poison neither of these great sources of life by her
deadly contagion. The precautions thus taken to isolate
or insulate the girl are dictated by regard for her
own safety as well as for the safety of others.... In
short, the girl is viewed as charged with a powerful
force which, if not kept within bounds, may prove the
destruction both of the girl herself and of all with
whom she comes in contact. To repress this force within
the limits necessary for the safety of all concerned
is the object of the taboos in question. The same explanation
applies to the observance of the same rules by divine
kings and priests. The uncleanliness, as it is called,
of girls at puberty and the sanctity of holy men do
not, to the primitive mind, differ from each other.
They are only different manifestations of the same supernatural
energy, which, like energy in general, is in itself
neither good nor bad, but becomes beneficent or malignant
according to its application."[363]
More recently this view of the matter has been further
extended by the distinguished French sociologist, Durkheim.
Investigating the origins of the prohibition of incest,
and arguing that it proceeds from the custom of exogamy
(or marriage outside the clan), and that this rests
on certain ideas about blood, which, again, are traceable
to totemism,--a theory which we need not here discuss,--Durkheim
is brought face to face with the group of conceptions
that now concern us. He insists on the extreme ambiguity
found in primitive culture concerning the notion of
the divine, and the close connection between aversion
and veneration, and points out that it is not only at
puberty and each recurrence of the menstrual epoch that
women have aroused these emotions, but also at childbirth.
"A sentiment of religious horror," he continues,
"which can reach such a degree of intensity, which
can be called forth by so many circumstances, and reappears
regularly every month to last for a week at least, cannot
fail to extend its influence beyond the periods to which
it was originally confined, and to affect the whole
course of life. A being who must be secluded or avoided
for weeks, months, or years preserves something of the
characteristics to which the isolation was due, even
outside those special periods. And, in fact, in these
communities, the separation of the sexes is not merely
intermittent; it has become chronic. The two elements
of the population live separately." Durkheim proceeds
to argue that the origin of the occult powers attributed
to the feminine organism is to be found in primitive
ideas concerning blood. Not only menstrual blood but
any kind of blood is the object of such feelings among
savage and barbarous peoples. All sorts of precautions
must be observed with regard to blood; in it resides
a divine principle, or as Romans, Jews, and Arabs believed,
life itself. The prohibition to drink wine, the blood
of the grape, found among some peoples, is traced to
its resemblance to blood, and to its sacrificial employment
(as among the ancient Arabians and still in the Christian
sacrament) as a substitute for drinking blood. Throughout,
blood is generally taboo, and it taboos everything that
comes in contact with it. Now woman is chronically "the
theatre of bloody manifestations," and therefore
she tends to become chronically taboo for the other
members of the community. "A more or less conscious
anxiety, a certain religious fear, cannot fail to enter
into all the relations of her companions with her, and
that is why all such relations are reduced to a minimum.
Relations of a sexual character are specially excluded.
In the first place, such relations are so intimate that
they are incompatible with the sort of repulsion which
the sexes must experience for each other; the barrier
between them does not permit of such a close union.
In the second place, the organs of the body here specially
concerned are precisely the source of the dreaded manifestations.
Thus it is natural that the feelings of aversion inspired
by women attain their greatest intensity at this point.
Thus it is, also, that of all parts of the feminine
organization it is this region which is most severely
shut out from commerce." So that, while the primitive
emotion is mainly one of veneration, and is allied to
that experienced for kings and priests, there is an
element of fear in such veneration, and what men fear
is to some extent odious to them.[364]
These conceptions necessarily mingled at a very early
period with men's ideas of sexual intercourse with women
and especially with menstruating women. Contact with
women, as Crawley shows by abundant illustration, is
dangerous. In any case, indeed, the same ideas being
transferred to women also, coitus produces weakness,
and it prevents the acquisition of supernatural powers.
Thus, among the western tribes of Canada, Boas states:
"Only a youth who has never touched a woman, or
a virgin, both being called _te 'e 'its_, can become
shamans. After having had sexual intercourse men as
well as women, become _t 'k-e 'el_, i.e., weak, incapable
of gaining supernatural powers. The faculty cannot be
regained by subsequent fasting and abstinence."[365]
The mysterious effects of sexual intercourse in general
are intensified in the case of intercourse with a menstruating
woman. Thus the ancient Indian legislator declares that
"the wisdom, the energy, the strength, the sight,
and the vitality of a man who approaches a woman covered
with menstrual excretions utterly perish."[366]
It will be seen that these ideas are impartially spread
over the most widely separated parts of the globe. They
equally affected the Christian Church, and the Penitentials
ordained forty or fifty days penance for sexual intercourse
during menstruation.
Yet the twofold influence of the menstruating woman
remains clear when we review the whole group of influences
which in this state she is supposed to exert. She by
no means acts only by paralyzing social activities and
destroying the powers of life, by causing flowers to
fade, fruit to fall from the trees, grains to lose their
germinative power, and grafts to die. She is not accurately
summed up in the old lines:--
"Oh! menstruating woman, thou'rt a fiend From whom
all nature should be closely screened."
Her powers are also beneficial. A woman at this time,
as AElian expressed it, is in regular communication
with the starry bodies. Even at other times a woman
when led naked around the orchard protected it from
caterpillars, said Pliny, and this belief is acted upon
(according to Bastanzi) even in the Italy of to-day.[367]
A garment stained with a virgin's menstrual blood, it
is said in Bavaria, is a certain safeguard against cuts
and stabs. It will also extinguish fire. It was valuable
as a love-philter; as a medicine its uses have been
endless.[368] A sect of Valentinians even attributed
sacramental virtues to menstrual blood, and partook
of it as the blood of Christ. The Church soon, however,
acquired a horror of menstruating women; they were frequently
not allowed to take the sacrament or to enter sacred
places, and it was sometimes thought best to prohibit
the presence of women altogether.[369] The Anglo-Saxon
Penitentials declared that menstruating women must not
enter a church. It appears to have been Gregory II who
overturned this doctrine.
In our own time the slow disintegration of primitive
animistic conceptions, aided certainly by the degraded
conception of sexual phenomena taught by mediaeval monks--for
whom woman was "_templum aedificatum super cloacam_"--has
led to a disbelief in the more salutary influences of
the menstruating woman. A fairly widespread faith in
her pernicious influence alone survives. It may be traced
even in practical and commercial--one might add, medical--quarters.
In the great sugar-refineries in the North of France
the regulations strictly forbid a woman to enter the
factory while the sugar is boiling or cooling, the reason
given being that, if a woman were to enter during her
period, the sugar would blacken. For the same reason--to
turn to the East--no woman is employed in the opium
manufactory at Saigon, it being said that the opium
would turn and become bitter, while Annamite women say
that it is very difficult for them to prepare opium-pipes
during the catamenial period.[370] In India, again,
when a native in charge of a limekiln which had gone
wrong, declared that one of the women workers must be
menstruating, all the women--Hindus, Mahometans, aboriginal
Gonds, etc.,--showed by their energetic denials that
they understood this superstition.[371]
In 1878 a member of the British Medical Association
wrote to the _British Medical Journal_, asking whether
it was true that if a woman cured hams while menstruating
the hams would be spoiled. He had known this to happen
twice. Another medical man wrote that if so, what would
happen to the patients of menstruating lady doctors?
A third wrote (in the _Journal_ for April 27, 1878):
"I thought the fact was so generally known to every
housewife and cook that meat would spoil if salted at
the menstrual period, that I am surprised to see so
many letters on the subject in the _Journal_. If I am
not mistaken, the question was mooted many years ago
in the periodicals. It is undoubtedly the fact that
meat will be tainted if cured by women at the catamenial
period. Whatever the rationale may be, I can speak positively
as to the fact."
It is probably the influence of these primitive ideas
which has caused surgeons and gynaecologists to dread
operations during the catamenial period. Such, at all
events, is the opinion of a distinguished authority,
Dr. William Goodell, who wrote in 1891[372]: "I
have learned to unlearn the teaching that women must
not be subjected to a surgical operation during the
monthly flux. Our forefathers, from time immemorial,
have thought and taught that the presence of a menstruating
woman would pollute solemn religious rites, would sour
milk, spoil the fermentation in wine-vats, and much
other mischief in a general way. Influenced by hoary
tradition, modern physicians very generally postpone
all operative treatment until the flow has ceased. But
why this delay, if time is precious, and it enters as
an important factor in the case? I have found menstruation
to be the very best time to curette away fungous vegetations
of the endometrium, for, being swollen then by the afflux
of blood, they are larger than at any other time, and
can the more readily be removed. There is, indeed, no
surer way of checking or of stopping a metrorrhagia
than by curetting the womb during the very flow. While
I do not select this period for the removal of ovarian
cysts, or for other abdominal work, such as the extirpation
of the ovaries, or a kidney, or breaking up intestinal
adhesions, etc., yet I have not hesitated to perform
these operations at such a time, and have never had
reason to regret the course. The only operations that
I should dislike to perform during menstruation would
be those involving the womb itself."
It must be added to this that we still have to take
into consideration not merely the surviving influence
of ancient primitive beliefs, but the possible existence
of actual nervous conditions during the menstrual period,
producing what may be described as an abnormal nervous
tension. In this way, we are doubtless concerned with
a tissue of phenomena, inextricably woven of folk-lore,
autosuggestion, false observation, and real mental and
nervous abnormality. Laurent (loc. cit.) has brought
forward several cases which may illustrate this point.
Thus, he speaks of two young girls of about 16 and 17,
slightly neuropathic, but without definite hysterical
symptoms, who, during the menstrual period, feel themselves
in a sort of electrical state, "with tingling and
prickling sensations and feelings of attraction or repulsion
at the contact of various objects." These girls
believe their garments stick to their skin during the
periods; it was only with difficulty that they could
remove their slippers, though fitting easily; stockings
had to be drawn off violently by another person, and
they had given up changing their chemises during the
period because the linen became so glued to the skin.
An orchestral performer on the double-bass informed
Laurent that whenever he left a tuned double-bass in
his lodgings during his wife's period a string snapped;
consequently he always removed his instrument at this
time to a friend's house. He added that the same thing
happened two years earlier with a mistress, a _cafe-concert_
singer, who had, indeed, warned him beforehand. A harpist
also informed Laurent that she had been obliged to give
up her profession because during her periods several
strings of her harp, always the same strings, broke,
especially when she was playing. A friend of Laurent's,
an official in Cochin China, also told him that the
strings of his violin often snapped during the menstrual
periods of his Annamite mistress, who informed him that
Annamite women are familiar with the phenomenon, and
are careful not to play on their instruments at this
time. Two young ladies, both good violinists, also affirmed
that ever since their first menstruation they had noted
a tendency for the strings to snap at this period; one,
a genuine artist, who often performed at charity concerts,
systematically refused to play at these times, and was
often embarrassed to find a pretext; the other, who
admitted that she was nervous and irritable at such
times, had given up playing on account of the trouble
of changing the strings so frequently. Laurent also
refers to the frequency with which women break things
during the menstrual periods, and considers that this
is not simply due to the awkwardness caused by nervous
exhaustion or hysterical tremors, but that there is
spontaneous breakage. Most usually it happens that a
glass breaks when it is being dried with a cloth; needles
also break with unusual facility at this time; clocks
are stopped by merely placing the hand upon them.
I do not here attempt to estimate critically the validity
of these alleged manifestations (some of which may certainly
be explained by the unconscious muscular action which
forms the basis of the phenomena of table-turning and
thought-reading); such a task may best be undertaken
through the minute study of isolated cases, and in this
place I am merely concerned with the general influence
of the menstrual state in affecting the social position
of women, without reference to the analysis of the elements
that go to make up that influence.
There is only one further point to which attention may
be called. I allude to the way in which the more favorable
side of the primitive conception of the menstruating
woman--as priestess, sibyl, prophetess, an almost miraculous
agent for good, an angel, the peculiar home of the divine
element--was slowly and continuously carried on side
by side with the less favorable view, through the beginnings
of European civilization until our own times. The actual
physical phenomena of menstruation, with the ideas of
taboo associated with that state, sank into the background
as culture evolved; but, on the other hand, the ideas
of the angelic position and spiritual mission of women,
based on the primitive conception of the mystery associated
with menstruation, still in some degree persisted.
It is evident, however, that, while, in one form or
another, the more favorable aspect of the primitive
view of women's magic function has never quite died
out, the gradual decay and degradation of the primitive
view has, on the whole, involved a lower estimate of
women's nature and position. Woman has always been the
witch; she was so even in ancient Babylonia; but she
has ceased to be the priestess. The early Teutons saw
"_sanctum aliquid et providum_" in women who,
for the mediaeval German preacher, were only "_bestiae
bipedales_"; and Schopenhauer and even Nietzsche
have been more inclined to side with the preacher than
with the half-naked philosophers of Tacitus's day. But
both views alike are but the extremes of the same primitive
conception; and the gradual evolution from one extreme
of the magical doctrine to the other was inevitable.
In an advanced civilization, as we see, these ideas
having their ultimate basis on the old story of the
serpent, and on a special and mysterious connection
between the menstruating woman and the occult forces
of magic, tend to die out. The separation of the sexes
they involve becomes unnecessary. Living in greater
community with men, women are seen to possess something,
it may well be, but less than before, of the angel-devil
of early theories. Menstruation is no longer a monstrific
state requiring spiritual taboo, but a normal physiological
process, not without its psychic influences on the woman
herself and on those who live with her.
FOOTNOTES:
[353] Several recent works, however, notably Frazer's
_Golden Bough_ and Crawley's _Mystic Rose_, throw light
directly or indirectly on this question.
[354] Robertson Smith points out that since snakes are
the last noxious animals which man is able to exterminate,
they are the last to be associated with demons. They
were ultimately the only animals directly and constantly
associated with the Arabian _jinn_, or demon, and the
serpent of Eden was a demon, and not a temporary disguise
of Satan (_Religion of Semites_, pp. 129 and 442). Perhaps
it was, in part, because the snake was thus the last
embodiment of demonic power that women were associated
with it, women being always connected with the most
ancient religious beliefs.
[355] In the northern territory of the same colony menstruation
is said to be due to a bandicoot scratching the vagina
and causing blood to flow (_Journal of the Anthropological
Institute_, p. 177, November, 1894). At Glenelg, and
near Portland, in Victoria, the head of a snake was
inserted into a virgin's vagina, when not considered
large enough for intercourse (Brough Smyth, _Aborigines
of Victoria_, vol. ii, p. 319).
[356] Frazer, _Golden Bough_, vol. ii, p. 231. Crawley
(_The Mystic Rose_, p. 192) also brings together various
cases of primitive peoples who believe the bite of a
snake to be the cause of menstruation.
[357] Meyners d'Estrez, "Etude ethnographique sur
le lezard chez les peuples malais et polynesiens,"
_L'Anthropologie_, 1892; see also, as regards the lizard
in Samoan folk-lore, _Globus_, vol. lxxiv, No. 16.
[358] _Journal Anthropological Society of Bombay_, 1890,
p. 589.
[359] Boudin (_Etude Anthropologique: Culte du Serpent_,
Paris, 1864, pp. 66-70) brings forward examples of this
aspect of snake-worship.
[360] Attilio de Marchi, _Il Culto privato di Roma_,
p. 74. The association of the power of generation with
a god in the form of a serpent is, indeed, common; see,
e.g. Sir W.M. Ramsay, _Cities of Phrygia_, vol. i, p.
94.
[361] It is noteworthy that one of the names for the
penis used by the Swahili women of German East Africa,
in a kind of private language of their own, is "the
snake" (Zache, _Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie_, p.
73, 1899). It may be added that Maeder ("Interpretation
de Quelques Reves," _Archives de Psychologie_,
April, 1907) brings forward various items of folk-lore
showing the phallic significance of the serpent, as
well as evidence indicating that, in the dreams of women
of to-day, the snake sometimes has a sexual significance.
[362] W.R. Smith, _Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia_,
1885, p. 307. The point is elaborated in the same author's
_Religion of Semites_, second edition, Appendix on "Holiness,
Uncleanness, and Taboo," pp. 446-54. See also Wellhausen,
_Reste Arabischen Heidentums_, second edition, pp. 167-77.
Even to the early Arabians, Wellhausen remarks (p. 168),
"clean" meant "profane and allowed,"
while "unclean" meant "sacred and forbidden."
It was the same, as Jastrow remarks (_Religion of Babylonia_,
p. 662), among the Babylonian Semites.
[363] J.C. Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, Chapter IV.
[364] E. Durkheim, "La Prohibition de l'Inceste
et ses Origines," _L'Annee Sociologique_, Premiere
Annee, 1898, esp. pp. 44, 46-47, 48, 50-57. Crawley
(_Mystic Rose_, p. 212) opposes Durkheim's view as to
the significance of blood in relation to the attitude
towards women.
[365] _British Association Report on North Western Tribes
of Canada_, 1890, p. 581.
[366] _Laws of Manu_, iv, 41.
[367] Pliny, who, in Book VII, Chapter XIII, and Book
XXVIII, Chapter XXIII, of his _Natural History_, gives
long lists of the various good and evil influences attributed
to menstruation, writes in the latter place: "Hailstorms,
they say, whirlwinds, and lightnings, even, will be
scared away by a woman uncovering her body while her
monthly courses are upon her. The same, too, with all
other kinds of tempestuous weather; and out at sea,
a storm may be stilled by a woman uncovering her body
merely, even though not menstruating at the time. At
any other time, also, if a woman strips herself naked
while she is menstruating, and walks round a field of
wheat, the caterpillars, worms, beetles, and other vermin
will fall from off the ears of corn."
[368] See Bourke, _Scatologic Rites of all Nations_,
1891, pp. 217-219, 250 and 254; Ploss and Max Bartels,
_Das Weib_, vol. i; H.L. Strack, _Der Blutaberglaube
in der Menschheit_, fourth edition, 1892, pp. 14-18.
The last mentioned refers to the efficacy frequently
attributed to menstrual blood in the Middle Ages in
curing leprosy, and gives instances, occurring even
in Germany to-day, of girls who have administered drops
of menstrual blood in coffee to their sweethearts, to
make sure of retaining their affections.
[369] See, e.g., Dufour, _Histoire de la Prostitution_,
vol. iii, p. 115.
[370] Dr. L. Laurent gives these instances, "De
Quelques Phenomenes Mecaniques produits au moment de
la Menstruation," _Annales des Sciences Psychiques_,
September and October, 1897.
[371] _Journal Anthropological Society of Bombay_, 1890,
p. 403. Even the glance of a menstruating woman is widely
believed to have serious results. See Tuchmann, "La
Fascination," _Melasine_, 1888, pp. 347 _et seq._
[372] As quoted in the _Provincial Medical Journal_,
April, 1891.
APPENDIX B.
SEXUAL PERIODICITY IN MEN.
BY F.H. PERRY-COSTE, B. Sc. (LOND.).
In a recent _brochure_ on the "Rhythm of the Pulse"[373]
I showed _inter alia_ that the readings of the pulse,
in both man and woman, if arranged in lunar monthly
periods, and averaged over several years, displayed
a clear, and sometimes very strongly marked and symmetrical,
rhythm.[374] After pointing out that, in at any rate
some cases, the male and female pulse-curves, both monthly
and annual, seemed to be converse to one another, I
added: "It is difficult to ignore the suggestion
that in this tracing of the monthly rhythm of the pulse
we have a history of the monthly function in women;
and that, if so, the tracing of the male pulse may eventually
afford us some help in discovering a corresponding monthly
period in men: the existence of which has been suggested
by Mr. Havelock Ellis and Professor Stanley Hall, among
other writers. Certainly the mere fact that we can trace
a clear monthly rhythm in man's pulse seems to point
strongly to the existence of a monthly physiological
period in him also."
Obviously, however, it is only indirectly and by inference
that we can argue from a monthly rhythm of the pulse
in men to a male sexual periodicity; but I am now able
to adduce more direct evidence that will fairly demonstrate
the existence of a sexual periodicity in men.
We will start from the fact that celibacy is profoundly
unnatural, and is, therefore, a physical--as well as
an emotional and intellectual--abnormality. This being
so, it is entirety in accord with all that we know of
physiology that, when relief to the sexual secretory
system by Nature's means is denied, and when, in consequence,
a certain degree of tension or pressure has been attained,
the system should relieve itself by a spontaneous discharge--such
discharge being, of course, in the strict sense of the
term, pathological, since it would never occur in any
animal that followed the strict law of its physical
being without any regard to other and higher laws of
concern for its fellows.
Notoriously, that which we should have anticipated _a
priori_ actually occurs; for any unmarried man, who
lives in strict chastity, periodically experiences,
while sleeping, a loss of seminal fluid--such phenomena
being popularly referred to as _wet dreams_.[375]
During some eight or ten years I have carefully recorded
the occurrence of such discharges as I have experienced
myself, and I have now accumulated sufficient data to
justify an attempt to formulate some provisional conclusions.[376]
In order to render these observations as serviceable
as may be to students of periodicity, I here repeat
(at the request of Mr. Havelock Ellis) the statement
which was subjoined, for the same reasons, to my "Rhythm
of the Pulse." These observations upon myself were
made between the ages of 20 and 33. I am about 5 feet,
9 inches tall, broad-shouldered, and weigh about 10
stone 3 lbs. _net_--this weight being, I believe, about
7 lbs. below the normal for my height. Also I have green-brown
eyes, very dark-brown hair, and a complexion that leads
strangers frequently to mistake me for a foreigner--this
complexion being, perhaps, attributable to some Huguenot
blood, although on the maternal side I am, so far as
all information goes, pure English. I can stand a good
deal of heat, enjoy relaxing climates, am at once upset
by "bracing" sea-air, hate the cold, and sweat
profusely after exercise. To this it will suffice to
add that my temperament is of a decidedly nervous and
emotional type.
Before proceeding to remark upon the various rhythms
that I have discovered, I will tabulate the data on
which my conclusions are founded. The numbers of discharges
recorded in the years in question are as follows:--
In 1886, 30. (Records commenced in April.) In 1887,
40. In 1888, 37. In 1889, 18. (Pretty certainly not
fully recorded.) In 1890, 0 (No records kept this year.[377])
In 1891, 19. (Records recommenced in June.) In 1892,
35. In 1893, 40. In 1894, 38. In 1895, 36. In 1896,
36. In 1897, 35. Average, 37. (Omitting 1886, 1889,
and 1891.)
Thus I have complete records for eight years, and incomplete
records for three more; and the remarkable concord between
the respective annual numbers of observations in these
eight years not only affords us intrinsic evidence of
the accuracy of my records, but, also, at once proves
that there is an undeniable regularity in the occurrence
of these sexual discharges, and, therefore, gives us
reason for expecting to find this regularity rhythmical.
Moreover, since it seemed reasonable to expect that
there might be more than one rhythm, I have examined
my data with a view to discovering (1) an annual, (2)
a lunar-monthly, and (3) a weekly rhythm, and I now
proceed to show that all three such rhythms exist.
THE ANNUAL RHYTHM.
It is obvious that, in searching for an annual rhythm,
we must ignore the records of the three incomplete years;
but those of the remaining eight are graphically depicted
upon Chart 8. The curves speak so plainly for themselves
that any comment were almost superfluous, and the concord
between the various curves, although, of course, not
perfect, is far greater than the scantiness of the data
would have justified us in expecting. The curves all
agree in pointing to the existence of three well-defined
maxima,--viz., in March, June, and September,--these
being, therefore, the months in which the sexual instinct
is most active; and the later curves show that there
is also often a fourth maximum in January. In the earlier
years the March and June maxima are more strikingly
marked than the September one; but the uppermost curve
shows that on the average of all eight years the September
maximum is the highest, the June and January maxima
occupying the second place, and the March maximum being
the least strongly marked of all.
Now, remembering that, in calculating the curves of
the annual rhythm of the pulse, I had found it necessary
to average two months' records together, in order to
bring out the full significance of the rhythm, I thought
it well to try the effect upon these curves also of
similarly averaging two months together. At first my
results were fairly satisfactory; but, as my data increased
year by year, I found that these curves were contradicting
one another, and therefore concluded that I had selected
unnatural periods for my averaging. My first attempted
remedy was to arrange the months in the pairs December-January,
February-March, etc., instead of in January-February,
March-April, etc.; but with these pairs I fared no better
than with the former. I then arranged the months in
the triplets, January-February-March, etc.; and the
results are graphically recorded on Chart 7. Here, again,
comment would be quite futile, but I need only point
out that, _on the whole_, the sexual activity rises
steadily during the first nine months in the year to
its maximum in September, and then sinks rapidly and
abruptly during the next three to its minimum in December.
The study of these curves suggests two interesting questions,
to neither of which, however, do the data afford us
an answer.
In the first place, are the alterations, in my case,
of the maximum of the discharges from March and June
in the earlier years to September in the later, and
the interpolation of a new secondary maximum in January,
correlated with the increase in age; or is the discrepancy
due simply to a temporary irregularity that would have
been equally averaged out had I recorded the discharges
of 1881-89 instead of those from 1887 to 1897?
The second question is one of very great importance--socially,
ethically, and physically. How often, in this climate,
should a man have sexual connection with his wife in
order to maintain himself in perfect physiological equilibrium?
My results enable us to state definitely the minimum
limits, and to reply that 37 embraces annually would
be too few; but, unfortunately, they give us no clue
to the maximum limit. It is obvious that the necessary
frequency should be greater than 37 times annually,--possibly
very considerably in excess thereof,--seeing that the
spontaneous discharges, with which we are dealing, are
due to over-pressure, and occur only when the system,
being denied natural relief, can no longer retain its
secretions; and, therefore, it seems very reasonable
to suggest that the frequency of natural relief should
be some multiple of 37. I do not perceive, however,
that the data in hand afford us any clue to this multiple,
or enable us to suggest either 2, 3, 4, or 5 as the
required multiple of 37. It is true that other observations
upon myself have afforded me what I believe to be a
fairly satisfactory and reliable answer so far as concerns
myself; but these observations are of such a nature
that they cannot be discussed here, and I have no inclination
to offer as a counsel to others an opinion which I am
unable to justify by the citation of facts and statistics.
Moreover, I am quite unable to opine whether, given
37 as the annual frequency of spontaneous discharges
in a number of men, the multiple required for the frequency
of natural relief should be the same in every case.
For aught I know to the contrary, the physiological
idiosyncrasies of men may be so varied that, given two
men with an annual frequency of 37 spontaneous discharges,
the desired multiple may be in one case X and in the
other 2X.[378] Our data, however, do clearly denote
that the frequency in the six or eight summer months
should bear to the frequency of the six or four winter
months the proportion of three or four to two.[379]
It should never be forgotten, however, that, under all
conditions, both man and wife should exercise prudence,
both _selfward_ and _otherward_, and that each should
utterly refuse to gratify self by accepting a sacrifice,
however willingly offered, that may be gravely prejudicial
to the health of the other; for only experience can
show whether, in any union, the receptivity of the woman
be greater or less than, or equal to, the _physical_
desire of the man. To those, of course, who regard marriage
from the old-fashioned and grossly immoral standpoint
of Melancthon and other theologians, and who consider
a wife as the divinely ordained vehicle for the chartered
intemperance of her husband, it will seem grotesque
in the highest degree that a physiological inquirer
should attempt to advise them how often to seek the
embraces of their wives; but those who regard woman
from the standpoint of a higher ethics, who abhor the
notion that she should be only the vehicle for her husband's
passions, and who demand that she shall be mistress
of her own body, will not be ungrateful for any guidance
that physiology can afford them. It will be seen presently,
moreover, that the study of the weekly rhythm does afford
us some less inexact clue to the desired solution.
One curious fact may be mentioned before we quit this
interesting question. It is stated that "Solon
required [of the husband] three _payments_ per month.
By the Misna a daily debt was imposed upon an idle vigorous
young husband; _twice a week_ on a citizen; once in
thirty days on a camel-driver; once in six months on
a seaman."[380] Now it is certainly striking that
Solon's "three payments per month" exactly
correspond with my records of 37 discharges annually.
Had Solon similarly recorded a series of observations
upon himself?
THE LUNAR-MONTHLY RHYTHM.
We now come to that division of the inquiry which is
of the greatest physiological interest, although of
little social import. Is there a monthly period in man
as well as in woman? My records indicate clearly that
there is.
In searching for this monthly rhythm I have utilized
not only the data of the eight completely-recorded years,
but also those of the three years of 1886, 1889, and
1891, for, although it would obviously have been inaccurate
to utilize these incomplete records when calculating
the yearly rhythm, there seems no objection to making
use of them in the present section of the inquiry. It
is hardly necessary to remark that the terms "first
day of the month," "second day," "third
day," etc., are to be understood as denoting "new-moon
day," "day after new moon," "third
lunar day," and so on; but it should be explained
that, since these discharges occur at night, I have
adopted the astronomical, instead of the civil, day;
so that a new moon occurring between noon yesterday
and noon to-day is reckoned as occurring yesterday,
and yesterday is regarded as the first lunar day: thus,
a discharge occurring in the night between December
31st and January 1st is tabulated as occurring on December
31st, and, in the present discussion, is assigned to
the lunar day comprised between noon of December 31st
and noon of January 1st.
Since it is obvious that the number of discharges in
any one year--averaging, as they do, only 1.25 per day--are
far too few to yield a curve of any value, I have combined
my data in two series. The dotted curve on Chart 9 is
obtained by combining the results of the years 1886-92:
two of these years are incompletely recorded, and there
are no records for 1890; the total number of observations
was 179. The broken curve is obtained by combining those
of the years 1893-97, the total number of observations
being 185. Even so, the data are far too scanty to yield
a really characteristic curve; but the _continuous_
curve, which sums up the results of the eleven years,
is more reliable, and obviously more satisfactory.
If the two former curves be compared, it will be seen
that, on the whole, they display a general concordance,
such differences as exist being attributable chiefly
to two facts: (1) that the second curve is more even
throughout, neither maximum nor minimum being so strongly
marked as in the first; and (2) that the main maximum
occurs in the middle of the month instead of on the
second lunar day, and the absence of the marked initial
maximum alters the character of the first week or so
of this curve. It is, however, scarcely fair to lay
any great stress on the characters of curves obtained
from such scanty data, and we will, therefore, pass
to the continuous curve, the study of which will prove
more valuable.[381]
Now, even a cursory examination of this continuous curve
will yield the following results:--
1. The discharges occur most frequently on the second
lunar day.
2. The days of the next most frequent discharges are
the 22d; the 13th; the 7th, 20th, and 26th; the 11th
and 16th; so that, if we regard only the first six of
these, we find that the discharges occur most frequently
on the 2d, 7th, 13th, 20th, 22d, and 26th lunar days--i.e.,
the discharges occur most frequently on days separated,
on the average, by four-day intervals; but actually
the period between the 20th and 22d days is that characterized
by the most frequent discharges.
3. The days of minimum of discharge are the 1st, 5th,
15th, 18th, and 21st.
4. The curve is characterized by a continual see-sawing;
so that every notable maximum is immediately followed
by a notable minimum. Thus, the curve is of an entirely
different character from that representing the monthly
rhythm of the pulse,[382] and this is only what one
might have expected; for, whereas the _mean_ pulsations
vary only very slightly from day to day,--thus giving
rise to a gradually rising or sinking curve,--a discharge
from the sexual system relieves the tension by exhausting
the stored-up secretion, and is necessarily followed
by some days of rest and inactivity. In the very nature
of the case, therefore, a curve of this kind could not
possibly be otherwise than most irregular if the discharges
tended to occur most frequently upon definite days of
the month; and thus the very irregularity of the curve
affords us proof that there is a regular male periodicity,
such that on certain days of the month there is greater
probability of a spontaneous discharge than on any other
days.
5. Gratifying, however, though this irregularity of
the curve may be, yet it entails a corresponding disadvantage,
for we are precluded thereby from readily perceiving
the characteristics of the monthly rhythm as a whole.
I thought that perhaps this aspect of the rhythm might
be rendered plainer if I calculated the data into two-day
averages; and the result, as shown in Chart 10, is extremely
satisfactory. Here we can at once perceive the wonderful
and almost geometric symmetry of the monthly rhythm;
indeed, if the third maximum were one unit higher, if
the first minimum were one unit lower, and if the lines
joining the second minimum and third maximum, and the
fourth maximum and fourth minimum, were straight instead
of being slightly broken, then the curve would, in its
chief features, be geometrically symmetrical; and this
symmetry appears to me to afford a convincing proof
of the representative accuracy of the curve. We see
that the month is divided into five periods; that the
maxima occur on the following pairs of days: the 19th-20th,
13th-14th, 25th-26th, 1st-2d, 7th-8th; and that the
minima occur at the beginning, end, and exact middle
of the month. There have been many idle superstitions
as to the influence of the moon upon the earth and its
inhabitants, and some beliefs that--once deemed equally
idle--have now been re-instated in the regard of science;
but it would certainly seem to be a very fascinating
and very curious fact if the influence of the moon upon
men should be such as to regulate the spontaneous discharges
of their sexual system. Certainly the lovers of all
ages would then have "builded better than they
knew," when they reared altars of devotional verse
to that chaste goddess Artemis.
THE WEEKLY RHYTHM.
We now come to the third branch of our inquiry, and
have to ask whether there be any weekly rhythm of the
sexual activity. _A priori_ it might be answered that
to expect any such weekly rhythm were absurd, seeing
that our week--unlike the lunar month of the year--is
a purely artificial and conventional period; while,
on the other hand, it might be retorted that the existence
of an _induced_ weekly periodicity is quite conceivable,
such periodicity being induced by the habitual difference
between our occupation, or mode of life, on one or two
days of the week and that on the remaining days. In
such an inquiry, however, _a priori_ argument is futile,
as the question can be answered only by an induction
from observations, and the curves on Chart 11 (_A_ and
_B_) prove conclusively that there is a notable weekly
rhythm. The existence of this weekly rhythm being granted,
it would naturally be assumed that either the maximum
or the minimum would regularly occur on Saturday or
Sunday; but an examination of the curves discloses the
unexpected result that the day of maximum discharge
varies from year to year. Thus it is[383]
Sunday in 1888, 1892, 1896. Tuesday in 1894. Thursday
in 1886, 1897. Friday in 1887. Saturday in 1893 and
1895.
Since, in Chart 11, the curves are drawn from Sunday
to Sunday, it is obvious that the real symmetry of the
curve is brought out in those years only which are characterized
by a Sunday maximum; and, accordingly, in Chart 12 I
have depicted the curves in a more suitable form.
Chart 12 _A_ is obtained by combining the data of 1888,
1892, and 1896: the years of a Sunday maximum. Curve
12 _B_ represents the results of 1894, the year of a
Tuesday maximum--multiplied throughout by three in order
to render the curve strictly comparable with the former.
Curve 12 _C_ represents 1886 and 1897--the years of
a Thursday maximum--similarly multiplied by 1.5. In
Curve 12 _D_ we have the results of 1887--the year of
a Friday maximum--again multiplied by three; and in
Curve 12 _E_ those of 1893 and 1895--the years of a
Saturday maximum--multiplied by 1.5. Finally, Curve
12 _F_ represents the combined results of all nine years
plus (the latter half of) 1891; and this curve shows
that, on the whole period, there is a very strongly
marked Sunday maximum.
I hardly think that these curves call for much comment.
In their general character they display a notable concord
among themselves; and it is significant that the most
regular of the five curves are _A_ and _E_, representing
the combinations of three years and of two years, respectively,
while the least regular is _B_, which is based upon
the records of one year only. In every case we find
that the maximum which opens the week is rapidly succeeded
by a minimum, which is itself succeeded by a secondary
maximum,--usually very secondary, although in 1894 it
nearly equals the primary maximum,--followed again by
a second minimum--usually nearly identical with the
first minimum,--after which there is a rapid rise to
the original maximum. The study of these curves fortunately
amplifies the conclusion drawn from our study of the
annual rhythm, and suggests that, in at least part of
the year, the physiological condition of man requires
sexual union at least twice a week.
As to Curve 12_F_, its remarkable symmetry speaks for
itself. The existence of two secondary maxima, however,
has not the same significance as had that of our secondary
maximum in the preceding curves; for one of these secondary
maxima is due to the influence of the 1894 curve with
its primary Tuesday maximum, and the other to the similar
influence of Curve _C_ with its primary Thursday maximum.
Similarly, the veiled third secondary maximum is due
to the influence of Curve _E_. Probably, any student
of curves will concede that, on a still larger average,
the two secondary maxima of Curve _F_ would be replaced
by a single one on Wednesday or Thursday.
One more question remains for consideration in connection
with this weekly rhythm. Is it possible to trace any
connection between the weekly and yearly rhythms of
such a character that the weekly day of maximum discharge
should vary from month to month in the year; in other
words, does the greater frequency of a Sunday discharge
characterize one part of the year, that of a Tuesday
another, and so on? In order to answer this question
I have re-calculated all my data, with results that
are graphically represented in Chart 13. These curves
prove that the Sunday maxima discharges occur in March
and September, and the minima in June; that the Monday
maxima discharges occur in September, Friday in July,
and so on. Thus, there is a regular rhythm, according
to which the days of maximum discharge vary from one
month of the year to another; and the existence of this
final rhythm appears to me very remarkable. I would
especially direct attention to the almost geometric
symmetry of the Sunday curve, and to the only less complete
symmetry of the Thursday and Friday curves. Certainly
in these rhythms we have an ample field for farther
study and speculation.
I have now concluded my study of this fascinating inquiry;
a study that is necessarily incomplete, since it is
based upon records furnished by one individual only.
The fact, however, that, even with so few observations,
and notwithstanding the consequently exaggerated disturbing
influence of minor irregularities, such remarkable and
unexpected symmetry is evidenced by these curves, only
increases one's desire to have the opportunity of handling
a series of observations sufficiently numerous to render
the generalizations induced from them absolutely conclusive.
I would again appeal[384] to heads of colleges to assist
this inquiry by enlisting in its aid a band of students.
If only one hundred students, living under similar conditions,
could be induced to keep such records with scrupulous
regularity for only twelve months, the results induced
from such a series of observations would be more than
ten times as valuable as those which have only been
reached after ten years' observations on my part; and,
if other centuries of students in foreign and colonial
colleges--e.g., in Italy, India, Australia, and America--could
be similarly enlisted in this work, we should quickly
obtain a series of results exhibiting the sexual needs
and sexual peculiarities of the male human animal in
various climates. Obviously, however, the records of
any such students would be worse than useless unless
their care and accuracy, on the one hand, and their
habitual chastity, on the other, could be implicitly
guaranteed.
FOOTNOTES:
[373] First published in the _University Magazine and
Free Review_ of February, 1898, and since reprinted
as a pamphlet. A preliminary communication appeared
in _Nature_, May 14, 1891.
[374] [Later study (1906) has convinced me that my attempt
to find a lunar-monthly period in the female pulse was
vitiated by a hopeless error: for any monthly rhythm
in a woman must be sought by arranging her records according
to her own menstrual month; and this menstrual month
may vary in different women, from considerably less
than a lunar month to thirty days or more.]
[375] I may add, however, that in my own case these
discharges are--so far as I can trust my waking consciousness--frequently,
if not usually, dreamless; and that strictly sexual
dreams are extremely rare, notwithstanding the possession
of a strongly emotional temperament.
[376] If I can trust my memory, I first experienced
this discharge when a few months under fifteen years
of age, and, if so, within a few weeks of the time when
I was, in an instant, suddenly struck with the thought
that possibly the religion in which I had been educated
might be false. It is curiously interesting that the
advent of puberty should have been heralded by this
intellectual crisis.
[377] This unfortunate breach in the records was due
to the fact that, failing to discover any regularity
in, or law of, the occurrences of the discharges, I
became discouraged and abandoned my records. In June,
1891, a re-examination of my pulse-records having led
to my discovery of a lunar-monthly rhythm of the pulse,
my interest in other physiological periodicities was
reawakened, and I recommenced my records of these discharges.
[378] As a matter of fact, I take it that we may safely
assert that no man who is content to be guided by his
own instinctive cravings, and who neither suppresses
these, on the one hand, nor endeavors to force himself,
on the other hand, will be in any danger of erring by
either excess or the contrary.
[379] [It is obvious that the opportunity of continuing
such an inquiry as that described in this Appendix,
ceases with marriage; but I may add (1906) that certain
notes that I have kept with scrupulous exactness during
eight years of married life, lend almost no support
to the suggestion made in the text--i.e., that sexual
desire is greater at one season of the year than at
another. The nature of these notes I cannot discuss;
but, they clearly indicate that, although there is a
slight degree more of sexual desire in the second and
third quarters of the year, than in the first and fourth,
yet, this difference is so slight as to be almost negligible.
Even if the months be rearranged in the triplets--November-December-January,
etc.,--so as to bring the maximum months of May, June,
and July together, the difference between the highest
quarter and the lowest amounts to an increase of only
ten per cent, upon the latter--after allowing, of course,
for the abnormal shortness of February; and, neglecting
February, the increase in the maximum months (June and
July) over the minimum (November) is equal to an increase
of under 14 per cent, upon the latter. These differences
are so vastly less than those shown on Chart 7 that
they possess almost no significance: but, lest too much
stress be laid upon the apparently _equalizing_ influence
of married life, it must be added that the records discussed
in the text were obtained during residence in London,
whereas, since my marriage, I have lived in South Cornwall,
where the climate is both milder and more equable.]
[380] Selden's _Uxor Hebraica_ as quoted in Gibbon's
_Decline and Fall_, vol. v, p. 52, of Bonn's edition.
[381] I may add that the curve yielded by 1896-97 is
remarkably parallel with that yielded by the preceding
nine years, but I have not thought it worth while to
chart these two additional curves.
[382] See "Rhythm of the Pulse," Chart 4.
[383] As will be observed, I have omitted the results
of the incompletely recorded years of 1889 and 1891.
The apparent explanation of this curious oscillation
will be given directly.
[384] See "Rhythm of the Pulse," p. 21.
APPENDIX C.
THE AUTO-EROTIC FACTOR IN RELIGION.
The intimate association between the emotions of love
and religion is well known to all those who are habitually
brought into close contact with the phenomena of the
religious life. Love and religion are the two most volcanic
emotions to which the human organism is liable, and
it is not surprising that, when there is a disturbance
in one of these spheres, the vibrations should readily
extend to the other. Nor is it surprising that the two
emotions should have a dynamic relation to each other,
and that the auto-erotic impulse, being the more primitive
and fundamental of the two impulses, should be able
to pass its unexpended energy over to the religious
emotion, there to find the expansion hitherto denied
it, the love of the human becoming the love of the divine.
"I was not good enough for man, And so am given
to God."
Even when there is absolute physical suppression on
the sexual side, it seems probable that thereby a greater
intensity of spiritual fervor is caused. Many eminent
thinkers seem to have been without sexual desire.
It is a noteworthy and significant fact that the age
of love is also the age of conversion. Starbuck, for
instance, in his very elaborate study of the psychology
of conversion shows that the majority of conversions
take place during the period of adolescence; that is,
from the age of puberty to about 24 or 25.[385]
It would be easy to bring forward a long series of observations,
from the most various points of view, to show the wide
recognition of this close affinity between the sexual
and the religious emotions. It is probable, as Hahn
points out, that the connection between sexual suppression
and religious rites, which we may trace at the very
beginning of culture, was due to an instinctive impulse
to heighten rather than abolish the sexual element.
Early religious rites were largely sexual and orgiastic
because they were largely an appeal to the generative
forces of Nature to exhibit a beneficial productiveness.
Among happily married people, as Hahn remarks, the sexual
emotions rapidly give place to the cares and anxieties
involved in supporting children; but when the exercise
of the sexual function is prevented by celibacy, or
even by castration, the most complete form of celibacy,
the sexual emotions may pass into the psychical sphere
to take on a more pronounced shape.[386] The early Christians
adopted the traditional Eastern association between
religion and celibacy, and, as the writings of the Fathers
amply show, they expended on sexual matters a concentrated
fervor of thought rarely known to the Greek and Roman
writers of the best period.[387] As Christian theology
developed, the minute inquisition into sexual things
sometimes became almost an obsession. So far as I am
aware, however (I cannot profess to have made any special
investigation), it was not until the late Middle Ages
that there is any clear recognition of the fact that,
between the religious emotions and the sexual emotions,
there is not only a superficial antagonism, but an underlying
relationship. At this time so great a theologian and
philosopher as Aquinas said that it is especially on
the days when a man is seeking to make himself pleasing
to God that the Devil troubles him by polluting him
with seminal emissions. With somewhat more psychological
insight, the wise old Knight of the Tower, Landry, in
the fourteenth century, tells his daughters that "no
young woman, in love, can ever serve her God with that
unfeignedness which she did aforetime. For I have heard
it argued by many who, in their young days, had been
in love that, when they were in the church, the condition
and the pleasing melancholy in which they found themselves
would infallibly set them brooding over all their tender
love-sick longings and all their amorous passages, when
they should have been attending to the service which
was going on at the time. And such is the property of
this mystery of love that it is ever at the moment when
the priest is holding our Saviour upon the altar that
the most enticing emotions come." After narrating
the history of two queens beyond the seas who indulged
in amours even on Holy Thursday and Good Friday, at
midnight in their oratories, when the lights were put
out, he concludes: "Every woman in love is more
liable to fall in church or at her devotion than at
any other time."
The connection between religious emotion and sexual
emotion was very clearly set forth by Swift about the
end of the seventeenth century, in a passage which it
may be worth while to quote from his "Discourse
Concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit."
After mentioning that he was informed by a very eminent
physician that when the Quakers first appeared he was
seldom without female Quaker patients affected with
nymphomania, Swift continues: "Persons of a visionary
devotion, either men or women, are, in their complexion,
of all others the most amorous. For zeal is frequently
kindled from the same spark with other fires, and from
inflaming brotherly love will proceed to raise that
of a gallant. If we inspect into the usual process of
modern courtship, we shall find it to consist in a devout
turn of the eyes, called _ogling_; an artificial form
of canting and whining, by rote, every interval, for
want of other matter, made up with a shrug, or a hum;
a sigh or a groan; the style compact of insignificant
words, incoherences, and repetitions. These I take to
be the most accomplished rules of address to a mistress;
and where are these performed with more dexterity than
by the _saints_? Nay, to bring this argument yet closer,
I have been informed by certain sanguine brethren of
the first class, that in the height and _orgasmus_ of
their spiritual exercise, it has been frequent with
them[388]; ... immediately after which, they found the
_spirit_ to relax and flag of a sudden with the nerves,
and they were forced to hasten to a conclusion. This
may be farther strengthened by observing with wonder
how unaccountably all females are attracted by visionary
or enthusiastic preachers, though never so contemptible
in their _outward mien_; which is usually supposed to
be done upon considerations purely spiritual, without
any carnal regards at all. But I have reason to think,
the sex hath certain characteristics, by which they
form a truer judgment of human abilities and performings
than we ourselves can possibly do of each other. Let
that be as it will, thus much is certain, that however
spiritual intrigues begin, they generally conclude like
all others; they may branch upwards toward heaven, but
the root is in the earth. Too intense a contemplation
is not the business of flesh and blood; it must, by
the necessary course of things, in a little time let
go its hold, and fall into _matter_. Lovers for the
sake of celestial converse, are but another sort of
Platonics, who pretend to see stars and heaven in ladies'
eyes, and to look or think no lower; but the same _pit_
is provided for both."
To come down to recent times, in the last century the
head-master of Clifton College, when discussing the
sexual vices of boyhood, remarked that the boys whose
temperament exposes them to these faults are usually
far from destitute of religious feelings; that there
is, and always has been, an undoubted co-existence of
religion and animalism; that emotional appeals and revivals
are far from rooting out carnal sin; and that in some
places, as is well known, they seem actually to stimulate,
even at the present day, to increased licentiousness.[389]
It is not difficult to see how, even in technique, the
method of the revivalist is a quasi-sexual method, and
resembles the attempt of the male to overcome the sexual
shyness of the female. "In each case," as
W. Thomas remarks, "the will has to be set aside,
and strong suggestive means are used; and in both cases
the appeal is not of the conflict type, but of an intimate,
sympathetic and pleading kind. In the effort to make
a moral adjustment it consequently turns out that a
technique is used which was derived originally from
sexual life, and the use, so to speak, of the sexual
machinery for a moral adjustment involves, in some cases,
the carrying over into the general process of some sexual
manifestations."[390]
The relationship of the sexual and the religious emotions--like
so many other of the essential characters of human nature--is
seen in its nakedest shape by the alienist. Esquirol
referred to this relationship, and, many years ago,
J.B. Friedreich, a German alienist of wide outlook and
considerable insight, emphasized the connection between
the sexual and the religious emotions, and brought forward
illustrative cases.[391] Schroeder van der Kolk also
remarked: "I venture to express my conviction that
we should rarely err if, in a case of religious melancholy,
we assumed the sexual apparatus to be implicated."[392]
Regis, in France, lays it down that "there exists
a close connection between mystic ideas and erotic ideas,
and most often these two orders of conception are associated
in insanity."[393] Berthier considered that erotic
forms of insanity are those most frequently found in
convents. Bevan-Lewis points out how frequently religious
exaltation occurs at puberty in women, and religious
depression at the climacteric, the period of sexual
decline.[394] "Religion is very closely allied
to love," remarks Savage, "and the love of
woman and the worship of God are constantly sources
of trouble in unstable youth; it is very interesting
to note the frequency with which these two deep feelings
are associated."[395] "Closely connected with
salacity, particularly in women," remarks Conolly
Norman, when discussing mania (Tuke's _Dictionary of
Psychological Medicine_), "is religious excitement....
Ecstasy, as we see in cases of acute mental disease,
is probably always connected with sexual excitement,
if not with sexual depravity. The same association is
constantly seen in less extreme cases, and one of the
commonest features in the conversation of an acutely
maniacal woman is the intermingling of erotic and religious
ideas." "Patients who believe," remarks
Clara Barrus, "that they are the Virgin Mary, the
bride of Christ, the Church, 'God's wife,' and 'Raphael's
consort,' are sure, sooner or later, to disclose symptoms
which show that they are some way or other sexually
depraved."[396] Forel, who devotes a chapter of
his book _Die Sexuelle Frage_, to the subject, argues
that the strongest feelings of religious emotion are
often unconsciously rooted in erotic emotion or represent
a transformation of such emotion; and, in an interesting
discussion (Ch. VI) of this question in his _Sexualleben
unserer Zeit_, Bloch states that "in a certain
sense we may describe the history of religions as the
history of a special manifestation of the human sexual
instinct." Ball, Brouardel, Morselli, Vallon and
Marie,[397] C.H. Hughes,[398] to mention but a few names
among many, have emphasized the same point.[399] Krafft-Ebing
deals briefly with the connection between holiness and
the sexual emotion, and the special liability of the
saints to sexual temptations; he thus states his own
conclusions: "Religious and sexual emotional states
at the height of their development exhibit a harmony
in quantity and quality of excitement, and can thus
in certain circumstances act vicariously. Both,"
he adds, "can be converted into cruelty under pathological
conditions."[400]
After quoting these opinions it is, perhaps, not unnecessary
to point out that, while sexual emotion constitutes
the main reservoir of energy on which religion can draw,
it is far from constituting either the whole content
of religion or its root. Murisier, in an able study
of the psychology of religious ecstasy, justly protests
against too crude an explanation of its nature, though
at the same time he admits that "the passion of
the religious ecstatic lacks nothing of what goes to
make up sexual love, not even jealousy."[401]
Serieux, in his little work, _Recherches Cliniques sur
les Anomalies de l'Instinct Sexuel_, valuable on account
of its instructive cases, records in detail a case which
so admirably illustrates this phase of auto-erotism
on the borderland between ordinary erotic day-dreaming
and religious mysticism, the phenomena for a time reaching
an insane degree of intensity, that I summarize it.
"Therese M., aged 24, shows physical stigmata of
degeneration. The heredity is also bad; the father is
a man of reckless and irregular conduct; the mother
was at one time in a lunatic asylum. The patient was
brought up in an orphanage, and was a troublesome, volatile
child; she treated household occupations with contempt,
but was fond of study. Even at an early age her lively
imagination attracted attention, and the pleasure which
she took in building castles in the air. From the age
of seven to ten she masturbated. At her first communion
she felt that Jesus would for ever be the one master
of her heart. At thirteen, after the death of her mother,
she seemed to see her, and to hear her say that she
was watching over her child. Shortly afterward she was
overwhelmed by a new grief, the death of a teacher for
whom she cherished great affection on account of her
pure character. On the following day she seemed to see
and hear this teacher, and would not leave the house
where the body lay. Tendencies to melancholy appeared.
Saddened by the funeral ceremonies, exhorted by nuns,
fed on mystic revery, she passed from the orphanage
to a convent. She devoted herself solely to the worship
of Jesus; to be like Jesus, to be near Jesus, became
her constant pre-occupations. The Virgin's name was
rarely seen in her writings, God's name never. 'I wanted',
she said, 'to love Jesus more than any of the nuns I
saw, and I even thought that he had a partiality for
me.' She was also haunted by the idea of preserving
her purity. She avoided frivolous conversation, and
left the room when marriage was discussed, such a union
being incompatible with a pure life; 'it was my fixed
idea for two years to make my soul ever more pure in
order to be agreeable to Him; the Beloved is well pleased
among the lilies.'
"Already, however, in a rudimentary form appeared
contrary tendencies [strictly speaking they were not
contrary, but related, tendencies]. Beneath the mystic
passion which concealed it sexual desire was sometimes
felt. At sixteen she experienced emotions which she
could not master, when thinking of a priest who, she
said, loved her. In spite of all remorse she would have
been willing to have relations with him. Notwithstanding
these passing weaknesses, the idea of purity always
possessed her. The nuns, however, were concerned about
her exaltation. She was sent away from the convent,
became discouraged, and took a place as a servant, but
her fervor continued. Her confessor inspired her with
great affection; she sends him tender letters. She would
be willing to have relations with him, even though she
considers the desire a temptation of the devil. The
ground was now prepared for the manifestation of hallucinations.
'One evening in May', she writes, 'after being absorbed
in thoughts of my confessor, and feeling discouraged,
as I thought that Jesus, whom I loved so much, would
have nothing to do with me, "Mother," I cried
out, "what must I do to win your son?" My
eyes were fixed on the sky, and I remained in a state
of mad expectation. It was absurd. I to become the mother
of the World! My heart went on repeating: "Yes,
he is coming; Jesus is coming!"' The psychic erethism,
reverberating on the sensorial and sensory centres,
led to genital, auditory, and visual hallucinations,
which produced the sensation of sexual connection. 'For
the first time I went to bed and was not alone. As soon
as I felt that touch, I heard the words: "Fear
not, it is I." I was lost in Him whom I loved.
For many days I was cradled in a world of pleasure;
I saw Him everywhere, overwhelming me with His chaste
caresses.' On the following day at mass she seemed to
see Calvary before her. 'Jesus was naked and surrounded
by a thousand voluptuous imaginations; His arms were
loosened from the cross, and he said to me: "Come!"
I longed to fly to Him with my body, but could not make
up my mind to show myself naked. However, I was carried
away by a force I could not control, I threw myself
on my Saviour's neck, and felt that all was over between
the world and me.' From that day, 'by sheer reasoning,'
she has understood everything. Previously she thought
that the religious life was a renunciation of the joys
of marriage and enjoyment generally; now she understands
its object. Jesus Christ desires that she should have
relations with a priest; he is himself incarnated in
priests; just as St. Joseph was the guardian of the
Virgin, so are priests the guardians of nuns. She has
been impregnated by Jesus, and this imaginary pregnancy
pre-occupies her in the highest degree. From this time
she masturbated daily. She cannot even go to communion
without experiencing voluptuous sensations. Her delusions
having thus become systematized, nothing shakes her
tenacity in seeking to carry them out; she attempts
at all costs to have relations with her confessor, embraces
him, throws herself at his knees, pursues him, and so
becomes a cause of scandal. When brought to the asylum,
there is intense sexual excitement, and she masturbates
a dozen times a day, even when talking to the doctor.
The sexual organs are normal, the vulva moist and red,
the vagina is painful to touch; the contact of the finger
causes erectile turgescence. She has had no rest, she
says, since she has learned to love her Jesus. He desires
her to have sexual relations with someone, and she cannot
succeed; 'all my soul's strength is arrested by this
constant endeavor.' Her new surroundings modify her
behavior, and now it is the doctor whom she pursues
with her obsessions. 'I expected everything from the
charity of the priests I have known; I have not deserved
what I wanted from them. But is not a doctor free to
do everything for the good of the patients intrusted
to him by Providence? Cannot a doctor thus devote himself?
Since I have tasted the tree of life I am tormented
by the desire to share it with a loving friend.' Then
she falls in love with an employee, and makes the crudest
advances to him, believing that she is thus executing
the will of Jesus. 'Necessity makes laws,' she exclaims
to him, 'the moments are pressing, I have been waiting
too long.' She still speaks of her religious vocation
which might be compromised by so long a delay. 'I do
not want to get married.' Gradually a transformation
took place; the love of God was effaced and earthly
love became more intense than ever. 'Quitting the heights
in which I wished to soar, I am coming so near to earth
that I shall soon fix my desires there.' In a last letter
Therese recognizes with terror the insanity to which
the exaltation of her imagination had led her. 'Now
I only believe in God and in suffering; I feel that
it is necessary for me to get married.'"
Mariani[402] has very fully described a case of erotico-religious
insanity (climacteric paranoia on an hysterical basis)
in a married woman of 44. During the early stages of
her disorder she inflicted all sorts of penances upon
herself (fasting, constant prayer, drinking her own
urine, cleaning dirty plates with her tongue, etc.).
Finally she felt that by her penances she had obtained
forgiveness of her sins, and then began a stage of joy
and satisfaction during which she believed that she
had entered into a state of the most intimate personal
relationship with Jesus. She finally recovered. Mariani
shows how closely this history corresponds with the
histories of the saints, and that all the acts and emotions
of this woman can be exactly paralleled in the lives
of famous saints.[403]
The justice of these comparisons becomes manifest when
we turn to the records that have been left by holy persons.
A most instructive record from this point of view is
the autobiography of Soeur Jeanne des Anges, superior
of the Ursulines of Loudun in the seventeenth century.[404]
She was clever, beautiful, ambitious, fond of pleasure,
still more of power. With this, as sometimes happens,
she was highly hysterical, and in the early years of
her religious life was possessed by various demons of
unchastity and blasphemy with whom for many years she
was in constant struggle. She fell in love with a priest
of Loudun, Grandier, a man whom she had never even seen,
only knowing of him as a powerful and fascinating personality
at whose feet all women fell, and she imagined that
she and the other nuns of her convent were possessed
through his influence. She was thus the cause of the
trial and execution of Grandier, a famous case in the
annals of witchcraft. In her autobiography Soeur Jeanne
describes in detail how the demons assailed her at night,
appearing in lascivious attitudes, making indecent proposals,
raising the bed-clothes, touching all parts of her body,
imploring her to yield to them, and she tells how strong
her temptation was to yield. On one night, for instance,
she writes: "I seemed to feel someone's breath,
and I heard a voice saying: 'The time for resistance
has gone by, you must no longer rebel; by putting off
your consent to what has been proposed you will be injured;
you cannot persist in this resistance; God has subjected
you to the demands of a nature which you must satisfy
on occasions so urgent.' Then I felt impure impressions
in my imagination and disordered movements in my body.
I persisted in saying at the bottom of my heart that
I would do nothing. I turned to God and asked Him for
strength in this extraordinary struggle. Then there
was a loud noise in my room, and I felt as if someone
had approached me and put his hand into my bed and touched
me; and having perceived this I rose, in a state of
restlessness, which lasted for a long time afterward.
Some days later, at midnight, I began to tremble all
over my body as I lay in bed, and to experience much
mental anxiety without knowing the cause. After this
had lasted for some time I heard noises in various parts
of my room; the sheet was twice pulled without entirely
uncovering me; the oratory close to my bed was upset.
I heard a voice on the left side, toward which I was
lying. I was asked if I had thought over the advantageous
offer that had been made to me. It was added: 'I have
come to know your reply; I will keep my promise if you
will give your consent; if, on the contrary, you refuse,
you will be the most miserable girl in the world, and
all sorts of mischances will happen to you.' I replied:
'If there were no God I would fear those threats; I
am consecrated to Him.' It was replied to me: 'You will
not get much help from God; He will abandon you.' I
replied: 'God is my father; He will take care of me;
I have resolved to be faithful to Him.' He said: 'I
will give you three days to think over it.' I rose and
went to the Holy Sacrament with an anxious mind. Having
returned to my room, and being seated on a chair, it
was drawn from under me so that I fell on the floor.
Then the same things happened again. I heard a man's
voice saying lascivious and pleasant things to seduce
me; he pressed me to give him room in my bed; he tried
to touch me in an indecent way; I resisted and prevented
him, calling the nuns who were near my room; the window
had been open, it was closed; I felt strong movements
of love for a certain person, and improper desire for
dishonorable things."
She writes again, at a later period: "These impurities
and the fire of concupiscence which the evil spirit
caused me to feel, beyond all that I can say, forced
me to throw myself on to braziers of hot coal, where
I would remain for half an hour at a time, in order
to extinguish that other fire, so that half my body
was quite burnt. At other times, in the depth of winter,
I have sometimes passed part of the night entirely naked
in the snow, or in tubs of icy water. I have besides
often gone among thorns so that I have been torn by
them; at other times I have rolled in nettles, and I
have passed whole nights defying my enemies to attack
me, and assuring them that I was resolved to defend
myself with the grace of God." With her confessor's
permission, she also had an iron girdle made, with spikes,
and wore this day and night for nearly six months until
the spikes so entered her flesh that the girdle could
only be removed with difficulty. By means of these austerities
she succeeded in almost exorcising the demons of unchastity,
and a little later, after a severe illness, of which
she believed that she was miraculously cured by St.
Joseph, she appeared before the world almost as a saint,
herself possessing a miraculous power of healing; she
traveled through France, bringing healing wherever she
went; the king, the queen, and Cardinal Richelieu were
at her feet, and so great became the fame of her holiness
that her tomb was a shrine for pilgrims for more than
a century after her death. It was not until late in
life, and after her autobiography terminates, that sexual
desire in Soeur Jeanne (though its sting seems never
to have quite disappeared) became transformed into passionate
love of Jesus, and it is only in her later letters that
we catch glimpses of the complete transmutation. Thus,
in one of her later letters we read: "I cried with
ardor, 'Lord! join me to Thyself, transform Thyself
into me!' It seemed to me that that lovable Spouse was
reposing in my heart as on His throne. What makes me
almost swoon with love and admiration is a certain pleasure
which it seems to me that He takes when all my being
flows into His, restoring to Him with respect and love
all that He has given to me. Sometimes I have permission
to speak to our Lord with more familiarity, calling
Him my Love, interesting Him in all that I ask of Him,
as well for myself as for others."
The lives of all the great saints and mystics bear witness
to operations similar to those so vividly described
by Soeur Jeanne des Anges, though it is very rarely
that any saint has so frankly presented the dynamic
mechanism of the auto-erotic process. The indications
they give us, however, are sufficiently clear. It is
enough to refer to the special affection which the mystics
have ever borne toward the Song of Songs,[405] and to
note how the most earthly expressions of love in that
poem enter as a perpetual refrain into their writings.[406]
The courage of the early Christian martyrs, it is abundantly
evident, was in part supported by an exaltation which
they frankly drew from the sexual impulse. Felicula,
we are told in the acts of Achilles and Nereus,[407]
preferred imprisonment, torture, and death to marriage
or pagan sacrifices. When on the rack she was bidden
to deny Christianity, she exclaimed: "_Ego non
nego amatorem meum!_"--I will not deny my lover
who for my sake has eaten gall and drunk vinegar, crowned
with thorns, and fastened to the cross.
Christian mysticism and its sexual coloring was absorbed
by the Islamic world at a very early period and intensified.
In the thirteenth century it was reintroduced into Christendom
in this intensified form by the genius of Raymond Lull
who had himself been born on the confines of Islam,
and his "Book of the Lover and the Friend"
is a typical manifestation of sexual mysticism which
inspired the great Spanish school of mystics a few centuries
later. The "delicious agony" the "sweet
martyrdom," the strongly combined pleasure and
pain experienced by St. Theresa were certainly associated
with physical sexual sensations.[408]
The case of Marguerite-Marie Alacoque is typical. Jesus,
as her autobiography shows, was always her lover, her
husband, her dear master; she is betrothed to Him, He
is the most passionate of lovers, nothing can be sweeter
than His caresses, they are so excessive she is beside
herself with the delight of them. The central imagination
of the mystic consists essentially, as Ribot remarks,
in a love romance.[409]
If we turn to the most popular devotional work that
was ever written, _The Imitation of Christ_, we shall
find that the "love" there expressed is precisely
and exactly the love that finds its motive power in
the emotions aroused by a person of the other sex. (A
very intellectual woman once remarked to me that the
book seemed to her "a sort of religious aphrodisiac.")
If we read, for instance, Book III, Chapter V, of this
work ("De Mirabili affectu Divini amoris"),
we shall find in the eloquence of this solitary monk
in the Low Countries neither more nor less than the
emotions of every human lover at their highest limit
of exaltation. "Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing
stronger, nothing higher, nothing broader, nothing pleasanter,
nothing fuller nor better in heaven or in earth. He
who loves, flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free and
cannot be held. He gives all in exchange for all, and
possesses all in all. He looks not at gifts, but turns
to the giver above all good things. Love knows no measure,
but is fervent beyond all measure. Love feels no burden,
thinks nothing of labor, strives beyond its force, reckons
not of impossibility, for it judges that all things
are possible. Therefore it attempts all things, and
therefore it effects much when he who is not a lover
fails and falls.... My Love! thou all mine, and I all
thine."
There is a certain natural disinclination in many quarters
to recognize any special connection between the sexual
emotions and the religious emotions. But this attitude
is not reasonable. A man who is swayed by religious
emotions cannot be held responsible for the indirect
emotional results of his condition; he can be held responsible
for their control. Nothing is gained by refusing to
face the possibility that such control may be necessary,
and much is lost. There is certainly, as I have tried
to indicate, good reason to think that the action and
interaction between the spheres of sexual and religious
emotion are very intimate. The obscure promptings of
the organism at puberty frequently assume on the psychic
side a wholly religious character; the activity of the
religious emotions sometimes tends to pass over into
the sexual region; the suppression of the sexual emotions
often furnishes a powerful reservoir of energy to the
religious emotions; occasionally the suppressed sexual
emotions break through all obstacles.
FOOTNOTES:
[385] Starbuck, _The Psychology of Religion_, 1899.
Also, A.H. Daniels, "The New Life," _American
Journal of Psychology_, vol. vi, 1893. Cf. William James,
_The Varieties of Religious Experience_.
[386] Ed. Hahn, _Demeter und Baubo_, 1896, pp. 50-51.
Hahn is arguing for the religious origin of the plough,
as a generative implement, drawn by a sacred and castrated
animal, the ox. G. Herman, in his _Genesis_, develops
the idea that modern religious rites have arisen out
of sexual feasts and mysteries.
[387] Bloch (_Beitraege zur AEtiologie der Psychopathia
Sexualis_, Bd. I, p. 98) points out the great interest
taken by the saints and ascetics in sex matters.
[388] This omission was made by the original publisher
of the "Discourse;" several of the most important
passages throughout have been similarly cut out.
[389] Rev. J.M. Wilson, _Journal of Education_, 1881.
At about the same period (1882) Spurgeon pointed out
in one of his sermons that by a strange, yet natural
law, excess of spirituality is next door to sensuality.
Theodore Schroeder has recently brought together a number
of opinions of religious teachers, from Henry More the
Platonist to Baring Gould, concerning the close relationship
between sexual passion and religious passion, _American
Journal of Religious Psychology_, 1908.
[390] W. Thomas, "The Sexual Element in Sensibility,"
_Psychological Review_, Jan., 1904.
[391] _System der gerichtlichen Psychologie_, second
edition, 1842, pp. 266-68; and more at length in his
_Allgemeine Diagnostik der psychischen Krankheiten_,
second edition, 1832, pp. 247-51.
[392] _Handboek van de Pathologie en Therapie der Krankzinnigheid_,
1863, p. 139 of English edition.
[393] _Manuel pratique de Medecine mentale_, 1892, p.
31.
[394] _Text-book of Mental Diseases_, p. 393.
[395] G.H. Savage, _Insanity_, 1886.
[396] _American Journal of Insanity_, April, 1895.
[397] "Des Psychoses Religieuses," _Archives
de Neurologie_, 1897.
[398] "Erotopathia," _Alienist and Neurologist_,
October, 1893.
[399] Reference may be specially made to the interesting
chapter on "Delire Religieux" in Icard's _La
Femme pendant la Periode Menstruelle_, pp. 211-234.
[400] _Psychopathia Sexualis_, eighth edition, pp. 8
and 11. Gannouchkine ("La Volupte, la Cruante et
la Religion," _Annales Medico-Psychologique_, 1901,
No. 3) has further emphasized this convertibility.
[401] E. Murisier, "Le Sentiment Religieux dans
l'Extase," _Revue Philosophique_, November, 1898.
Starbuck, again (_Psychology of Religion_, Chapter XXX),
in a brief discussion of this point, concludes that
"the sexual life, although it has left its impress
on fully developed religion, seems to have originally
given the psychic impulse which called out the latent
possibilities of developments, rather than to have furnished
the raw material out of which religion was constructed."
[402] "Una Santa," _Archivio di Psichiatria_,
vol. xix, pp. 438-47, 1898.
[403] With regard to the sexual element in the worship
of the Virgin, see "Ueber den Mariencultus,"
L. Feuerbach's _Sammtliche Werke_, Bd. I, 1846.
[404] Published for the first time (with a Preface by
Charcot) in a volume of the _Bibliotheque Diabolique_,
1886.
[405] The Hebrews, themselves, used the same word for
the love of woman and for the Divine love (Northcote,
_Christianity and Sex Problems_, p. 140).
[406] Thus, in St. Theresa's _Conceptos del Amor de
Dios_, the words "_Beseme con el beso de su boca_,"--Let
him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth--constantly
recur.
[407] _Acta Sanctorum_, May 12th.
[408] Leuba and Montmorand, in their valuable and detailed
studies of Christian mysticism, though differing from
each other in some points, are agreed on this; H. Leuba,
"Les Tendances Religieuses chez les Mystiques Chretiens,"
_Revue Philosophique_, July and Nov., 1902; B. de Montmorand,
"L'Erotomanie des Mystiques Chretiens," id.,
Oct., 1903. Montmorand points out that physical sexual
manifestations were sometimes recognized and frankly
accepted by mystics. He quotes from Molinos, a passage
in which the famous Spanish quietist states that there
is no reason to be disquieted even at the occurrence
of pollutions or masturbation, _et etiam pejora_.
[409] Ribot, _La Logique des Sentiments_, p. 174.
INDEX OF AUTHORS.
Abricosoff, G. Addinsell Adler AElian AEschines Aetius
Alacoque, M. Albrecht Allin Anagnos Angelucci Anges,
Soeur Jeanne des Angus, H.C. Anstie Apuleius Aquinas,
St. Thomas Archemholtz Aretaeus Aretino Aristophanes
Aristotle Arnold, G.J. Aschaffenburg Ashe, T. Ashwell
Athenaeus Augustine, St. Avicenna Axenfeld Azara
Babinsky Bachaumont Baelz Baker, Smith Baldwin, J.M.
Ball Ballantyne Ballion Balls-Headley Bancroft, H.H.
Baraduc Bargagli Barnes, K. Barrus, Clara Bartels, Max
Bastanzi Bastian Batut Bauer, Max Baumann Bazalgette
Beard Beard, J. Bechterew Bee, J. Bekkers Bell, Blair
Bell, Sanford Berger Bellamy Berkhan Berthier Beukemann
Beuttner Bevan-Lewis Biernacki Billuart Binet Binswanger
Bishop, Mrs. Blackwell, Elizabeth Blandford Bloch, Iwan
Block Blumenbach Boas, F. Boethius Bohnius Bolton, T.L.
Bonavia Bond, C.H. Bonnier Bossi Boudin Bourke, J.G.
Brachet Brantome Breuer Briquet Brockman Brouardel Brown,
J.D. Brown-Sequard Brunton, Sir Lauder Bryce, T. Buchan,
A.P. Buechler Buechner Buffon Bunge Burchard Burdach
Burk, F. Burnet Burns, J. Burr Burton, Robert Buxton,
D.W.
Caiger Callari Calmeil Camerer Cameron Campbell, H.
Caramuel Carmichael Carpenter, E. Carrara Casanova Chamberlain,
A.F. Chapman, J. Charcot Charrin Chaucer Christian Chrysostom
Cicero Clark, Campbell Clement of Alexandria Clement
of Rome Clipson Clouston Coe, H.C. Cohn, Hermann Cohn,
Salmo Cohnstein Colenso, W. Cook, Capt. Cook, Dr. F.
Corre Coryat Crawley, A.E. Crichton-Browne, Sir J. Crooke,
W. Croom, Sir J. Halliday Cullen Cullingworth Curr Curschmann
Cuvier Cyprian
Dallemagne Dalton, E.T. Dalziel Dana Dandinus Daniels
Dartigues Darwin, C. Darwin, Erasmus Davidsohn Debreyne
Deniker Dennis Denuce Depaul D'Epinay, Mme. Dercum Deslandes
Dessoir, Max Dexter Diday Diderot Distant, W.L. Donkin
Down, Langdon Dudley Dufour, P. Dugas Duehren, _see_
Bloch, Iwan. Dukes, C. Dulaure Du Maurier Duncan, Matthews
Durr Duval, A. Duveyrier Dyer, L.
Ellenberger Ellis, Sir A.B. Ellis, Havelock Ellis, Sir
W. Ellis, W.G. Emin, Pasha Emminghaus Epicharmus Eram
Erb Ernst Esquirol Eulenburg Evans, M.M. Ezekiel
Fahne Fasbender Fehling Felkin Fere Fernel Ferrero Ferriani
Fewkes, J.W. Findley Fleischmann Fliess Forel Forestus
Forster, J.R. Fortini Fothergill, J.M. Fournier Foville
Franklin, A. Frazer, J.G. Freeman, R.A. French-Sheldon,
Mrs. Freud Friedreich, J.B. Fritsch, G. Fuchs Fuerbringer
Gaedeken Galen Gall Gant Gardiner, J.S. Garland, Hamlin
Gamier Gason Gattel Gehrung Gennep, A. von Gerard-Varet
Gerland Gibbon Giessler Giles, A.E. Gillen Gilles de
la Tourette Gioffredi Girandeau Godfrey Goepel Goethe
Goncourt Goodell, W. Goodman Gould Gourmont, Remy de
Gowers, Sir W.R. Grashoff Greenlees Griesinger Grimaldi
Grimm, J. Groos Grosse Gruner Gruenfeld Gualino Gubernatis
Gueniot Guerry Guibout Guise, R.E. Gury Guttceit Guyau
Guyot
Haddon, A.C. Hahn, E. Haig Hall, Fielding Hall, G. Stanley
Haller Hammond, W. Harris, D.F. Hartmann Hawkesworth,
J. Haycraft Heape, W. Hegar Helbigius, O. Heifer, J.W.
Henle Herman Herodotus Herondas Herrick Hersman Herter
Hesiod Hick, P. Hill, S.A. Hinton, James Hippocrates
Hirschsprung Hirth, G. Hoche Hohenemser Holder, A.B.
Holm Homer Hopkins, H.R. Houssay Howe, J.W. Huchard
Hufeland Hughes, C.H. Hummel Hunter, John Hutchinson,
Sir J. Hyades Hyrtl
Icard Imbert-Goubeyre
Jacobi, M.P. Jacobs Jaeger James James, W. Janet, Pierre
Jastrow, Morris Jenjko Jerome, St. Jessett Joal Joest
Johnston, Sir H.H. Johnstone, A.W. Jolly Jones, Lloyd
Jortin Juvenal
Kaan Kahlbaum Keill Keith Keller Kellogg Kemble, Fanny
Kemsoes Kiernan, J.G. Kind, A. King, A.F.A. Kleinpaul
Klemm, K. Kline, L.W. Koch, J.L.A. Koster Kossmann Kowalewsky,
M. Kraepelin Krafft-Ebing Krauss, F.S. Krauss, W.C.
Krieger Kreichmar Kroner Kulischer
Lacassagne Lactantius Lallemand Landouzy Landry Lane
Laschi Laupts Laurent, L. Laycock Learoyd, Mabel Lecky
Legludic Lentz Lepois, C. Letamendi Letourneau Leuba
Leyden Liguori Lippert Lipps Lobsien Loiman Loliee Lombroso,
C. Lombroso, P. Lorion Loewenfeld Lucretius Lull, Raymond
Luther Luzet Lydston
MacDonald, A. MacGillicuddy Mackenzie, J.N. MacLean
MacMurchy Maeder Malins Malling-Hansen Man, E.H. Mandeville
Mannhardt Mantegazza Marchi, Attilio de Marcuse, J.
Mariani Marie, A. Marie, P. Marro Marsh Marshall, F.
Marston Martial Martineau Mason, Otis Matignon Maudsley
Mayr, G. Melinaud Menjago Mercier Metchnikoff Meteyard
Meyners, d'Estrez Michelet Miklucho-Macleay Minovici
Mirabeau Mitchell, H.W. Mitford Modigliani Moliere Moll
Mondiere Mongeri Montague, Lady M.W. Montaigne Montmorand
Moraglia Morris, R.T. Morselli Mortimer, G. Moryson,
Fynes Moses, Julius Mueller, R. Murisier
Naecke Nansen Negrier Nelson, J. Neugebauer Niceforo
Nicolas of Cusa Niebuhr, C. Nietzsche Nipho Norman,
Conolly Northcote, H.
Oettinger Ogle Oldfield Oliver Omer, Haleby Oribasius
Osier Ossendovsky Osterloh Ostwald, Hans Ott, von Overbury,
Sir T. Ovid
Paget, Sir J. Paget, John Pare, A. Parent-Duchatelet
Parke, T.H. Partridge Passek Paulus, AEgineta Pausanias
Pearson, K. Pechuel-Loesche Peckham Penta Pepys, S.
Perez Perry-Coste Peschel Peyer, A. Peyer, J. Pick Pierracini
Pilcz Pitcairn Pitres Plant Plato Plazzon Pliny the
Elder Ploss Plutarch Pouchet Pouillet Poulet Power Prat
Priestley, Sir W. Procopius Pyle
Quetelet Quiros, Bernaldo de
Rabelais Raciborski Raffalovich Ramsay, Sir W.M. Rasmussen
Ratzel Rauber Raymond Regis Reinach, S. Reinl Rengger
Renooz, Mine. Celine Renouvier Restif de la Bretonne
Reuss Reverdin Reys Rhys, Sir J. Ribbing Ribot Richelet
Richer Richet Riedel Ries Riolan Ritter Rochholz Rohe
Rohleder Roland, Mme. Rolfincius Roemer, L.S.A.M. von
Roos, J. de Rosenbach Rosenstadt Rosenthal Rosner Rosse,
Irving Roth, H. Ling Roth, W. Roubaud Rousseau Routh,
A. Rudeck Rush
Sade, De St. Andre St. Hilaire, J.G. St. Paul, Dr. Salerni
Sanchez, T. Sanctis, Sante de Sanctorius Savage Savill
Schemer Schmid-Monnard Schrenck-Notzing Schroeder, T.
Schroeder, van der Kolk Schuele Schultz, Alwyn Schulz
Schurig Schurtz Schuyten Schwartz Schweinfurth Scott,
Colin Seerley Selden Seler Selous, E. Semon Semper Senancour
Serieux Sergi Shakespeare Shaw, Capel Shufeldt, R.W.
Shuttleworth Siebert Sieroshevski Skeat, W.W. Skene
Smith, E. Smith, E.H. Smith, F. Smith, Robertson Smith,
Theodate Smyth, Brough Sollier Solon Somerville Sonnini
Sorel Sormani Soutzo Spencer, Baldwin Spencer, Herbert
Spitta Spitzka, E.C. Spurgeon Starbuck Stein, G. Steinen,
Karl von den Stendhal Stephenson Stern, B. Sterne Stevens,
H.V. Stieda Stirling Stockman Stokes Storer Strack Stratz
Stubbs Sudduth Sumner, W.G. Susruta Sutton, Bland Swift
Sydenham
Tacitus Tait, Lawson Tallemont des Reaux Tardieu Taylor,
R.W. Teacher, J. Tertullian Theresa, St. Thomas, W.
Thucydides Thurn, Sir E. im Tille Tillier Tilt Tissot
Toulouse Tout, Hill Townsend, C.W. Treutler Trousseau
Tuchmann Turner
Uffelmann
Vahness Valera Valleix Vallon Vedeler Velde, van de
Velpeau Venette Venturi Viazzi Villagomez Villermay
Villerme Virchow Vogel Volkelt Voltaire Voornveld, van
Wade, Sir W.F. Wahl Waitz Walker, A. Wappaeus Ward,
H. Wargentin Warman Wasserschleben Wedge wood Weismann
Weisser Wellhausen Wenck West, C. West, J.P. Westcott,
Wynn Westermarck Wey, H.D. Wichmann Wiel, Van der Willis
Wilson, J.M. Wiltshire, A. Winckel Winkler, G. Winter,
J.T. Witkowski Wollstonecraft, M. Wood, H.C. Wraxall,
Sir N.
Yellowlees
Zacchia Zache Zeller
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
Africa, modesty in sexual periodicity in Ainu, modesty
of American Indians, menstruation in modesty of Anaemia
and hysteria Andamanese modesty Animals, breeding season
of hysteria in masturbation in modesty in their dislike
of dirt Annual sexual rhythm Anus as a centre of modesty
Apes, masturbation in menstruation in Arabian festivals
Arabs, modesty in their ancient conception of uncleanness
Art and auto-erotism Asafoetida in hysteria _Attitudes
passionnelles_ Australia, modesty in sexual festivals
in Autumn festivals
Baboon, menstruation in Babylonian festivals Bashfulness
Bathing, promiscuous Beltane fires Bengal, modesty in
sexual periodicity in Birds, dreams of Birthrate, periodicity
of Bladder, as a source of dreams foreign bodies in
periodicity in expulsive force of Blindness in relation
to modesty Blood, primitive ideas about supposed virtues
of menstrual Blood-pressure Blushing, the significance
of Bonfire festivals Borneo, modesty in Bosom in relation
to modesty Brazil, modesty in Bread, periodicity in
consumption of Breeding season _Brumalia_
Camargo Catholic theologians, on _delectatio morosa_
on erotic dreams on masturbation Celibacy and religion
Ceremonial element in religion Chastity in Polynesia
Chemical rays and sexual periodicity Childbirth, modesty
in Children, masturbation in periodicity of growth in
spring fever in their lack of modesty Chimpanzee, menstruation
in Chinese modesty Chivalry and modesty Chlorosis and
hysteria Christianity, in relation to modesty its attitude
towards masturbation Christmas festivals Clothing and
modesty Cod-piece Coitus, and ceremonial ritual as a
sedative in relation to masturbation in relation to
menstruation in relation to modesty often painful in
hysteria Conception rate Conduct, periodicity in Continence,
importance of Convents, hysteria in Coquetry, function
of Courtship, the essential element in Crime, periodicity
of Criminals, masturbation among sexual outbursts in
Crow, breeding habits of Cycling in relation to sexual
excitement
Dancing, auto-erotic aspects of Dancing and modesty
Darkness in relation to blushing Day-dreaming Deer,
breeding habits of _Delectatio morosa_ Denmark, modesty
in Diogenes Dionysian festivals Disgust as a factor
of modesty _Distillatio_ Dog, breeding season of Drawers,
origin of feminine Dreams, and sexual periodicity day
erotic Freud on inverted vesical
Easter festivals Eating, modesty in Ecbolic curve Economic
factor of modesty Elephants, masturbation in Enuresis,
nocturnal Epilepsy, anciently confused with hysteria
in relation to masturbation Erotic dreams festivals
hallucinations Eskimo, menstruation in modesty of sexual
habits of Etruscans, modesty among Evil eye and modesty
Excretory customs and modesty Eye disorders and masturbation
Face as a centre of modesty Fear, modesty based on Ferrets,
masturbation in Festivals, erotic Fools, Feast of Foot
and modesty Frigidity caused by masturbation Fuegians,
modesty of
General paralysis, annual curve of _Globus hystericus_
Goethe Gogol Greeks, festivals of modesty among their
attitude towards masturbation
Growth, periodicity in
Hair-pin used in masturbation Hallucinations, erotic
Head, covering the Heart disease, monthly rhythm in
"Heat" in animals its relation to menstruation
Hemicrania, periodicity in Horse exercise and sexual
excitement Horses, masturbation in Hottentots, masturbation
among Hymen in relation to modesty Hysteria, alleged
seasonal prevalence of and chlorosis and masturbation
Breuer and Freud on Charcot and coitus often painful
in in relation to sexual emotion nocturnal hallucinations
of physiological the theory of
Iceland, modesty in Illegitimate births, periodicity
of Incubus India, conception rate in masturbation in
modesty in Infants, masturbation in Insane, masturbation
in the modesty in the Insanity and masturbation periodicity
of Inversion, dreams in Ireland, modesty in Ishtar Italy,
modesty in
Japanese, masturbation among modesty of Jealousy in
relation to modesty
Kadishtu Kierkegaard
Lapps, menstruation among modesty of Lizard and women
in folk-lore Love largely based on modesty
Macaque, menstruation in Malay festivals Maori, modesty
Marriage caused by masturbation, aversion to Marriage
and the hysterical Masturbation among animals among
lower human races among higher human races as a sedative
combined with religious emotions in men of genius interrupted
in the insane methods of periodicity of prevalence of
symptoms and results of May-day festivals Mediaeval
modesty Medicean Venus, attitude of Menstrual blood,
supposed virtues of Menstrual cycle in men Menstruation,
among primitive peoples and hysteria and modesty and
pregnancy and social position of women as a continuous
process as a process of purification cause doubtful
euphemisms for in animals occasional absence in health
origin of precocity in primitive theory of relation
to "heat" relation to ovulation relation to
sexual desire Mental energy, periodicity of Metabolism,
seasonal influences on _Mittelschmerz_ Mohammedans,
attitude towards menstruation modesty of mysticism among
Midsummer festivals Monkeys, breeding season of masturbation
in menstruation in
Moon and masturbation Moral element in modesty Moritz,
K.P. Muscular force, periodicity of Mysticism and sexual
emotion
Nakedness, chaste in its effects in relation to modesty
Narcissism Nates as a centre of modesty Negroes, modesty
of Nervous diseases and masturbation Neurasthenia and
masturbation New England, modesty in New Georgians,
modesty among New Guinea, folk-lore of menstruation
in modesty in New Hebrides, modesty in New Zealand,
modesty in Nicobarese modesty Night-inspiration Novel-reading,
alleged sexual periodicity in
Obscenity, Roman horror of Oestrus "Onanism,"
the term Orang-utan, menstruation in Orgasm, spontaneous
Ornament as a sexual lure Ovaries with hysteria, alleged
association of Ovulation and menstruation
Papuans, modesty of sexual periodicity among _Penis
suecedaneus_ _Pollutio_ _Pollutio interruptus_ Polynesian
modesty Precocity, sexual Pregnancy, menstrual cycle
during Prostitutes, hysteria among masturbation in modesty
of Prudery Prurience based on modesty Psychic coitus
Psychic traumatism Pulse, periodicity of the
Railway travelling as cause of sexual excitement Rapes,
periodicity of Religion and sexual emotions Revery Rhythm
Riding as a cause of sexual excitement Ritual factor
of modesty Roland, Mme. Romans, modesty of Rosalia Rousseau
Russia, conception rate in modesty in Rest
Sacro-pubic region as a centre of modesty St. John's
Eve, festival of Samoa Samoyeds, menstruation among
Saturnalia Scarlet fever, periodicity of Schools, auto-erotic
phenomena in Seasonal periodicity of sexual impulse
Seduction and menstruation Seminal emissions during
sleep Serpent in folk-lore Sewing-machine as a cause
of sexual excitement Sexual anaesthesia induced by masturbation
Sexual factor of modesty Sexual desire, in relation
to blushing in relation to hysteria in relation to menstruation
in relation to modesty in relation to season in women
Sexual periodicity in men what we owe to irradiations
of Sexual organs viewed differently by savage and civilized
peoples Shame, definition and nature of Short sight
and modesty Shyness Slang, private Sleep in relation
to sexual activity Snake and women in folk-lore Somnambulism
of bladder Speech, modesty in Spring, as season of sexual
excitement festivals of Swinging, auto-erotic aspects
of Succubus Suicide, periodicity of
Taboo and menstruation and modesty Tahiti Tammuz festival
Theologians, opinions of Theresa, St. Thigh-friction
Thumb-sucking Timidity Tight-lacing as a cause of sexual
excitement Torres Straits, modesty at Turkish modesty
Uncleanness, primitive conception of Uric acid, excretion,
periodicity of Urine, incontinence of Urtication, as
a form of auto-erotism
Valentine's Day Veil, origin of the Vesical dreams Vocabularies,
private
_Walpurgisnacht_ Weekly sexual rhythm Witches, erotic
hallucinations of Womb anciently thought source of hysteria
Women, as property in relation to modesty masturbation
among menstruation in sexual impulse in their auto-erotic
manifestations in sleep their night-inspiration whether
more modest than men
Year, primitive divisions of
Zeus, auto-erotic manifestations in
DIAGRAMS
I.--The Monthly Ecbolic Curve. II.--The Annual Curve
of the Conception-rate in Europe. III.--The Annual Ecbolic
Curve. IV.--Curve of the Annual Incidence of Insanity
in London. V.--Curve of the Annual Incidence of General
Paralysis in Paris (Garnier). VI.--The Suicide-rate
in London. VII. VIII. IX.--Lunar-monthly Rhythm of Male
Sexual Period. X.--Curves of Lunar-monthly Rhythm as
Smoothed by taking Pairs of Days. XIa.--Weekly Rhythm
of Male Sexual Period. XIb.--Weekly Rhythm of Male Sexual
Period. XII.--Weekly Rhythm of Male Sexual Period. XIII.--Joint
Weekly Rhythm of Male Sexual Period, years 1886, 1887,
1888, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897 combined.
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