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THE
PHENOMENA OF SEXUAL PERIODICITY.
I.
The Various Physiological and Psychological Rhythms--Menstruation--The
Alleged Influence of the Moon--Frequent Suppression
of Menstruation among Primitive Races--Mittelschmerz--Possible
Tendency to a Future Intermenstrual Cycle--Menstruation
among Animals--Menstruating Monkeys and Apes--What is
Menstruation--Its Primary Cause Still Obscure--The Relation
of Menstruation to Ovulation--The Occasional Absence
of Menstruation in Health--The Relation of Menstruation
to "Heat"--The Prohibition of Intercourse
during Menstruation--The Predominance of Sexual Excitement
at and around the Menstrual Period--Its Absence during
the Period Frequently Apparent only.
Throughout the vegetable and animal worlds the sexual
functions are periodic. From the usually annual period
of flowering in plants, with its play of sperm-cell
and germ-cell and consequent seed-production, through
the varying sexual energies of animals, up to the monthly
effervescence of the generative organism in woman, seeking
not without the shedding of blood for the gratification
of its reproductive function, from first to last we
find unfailing evidence of the periodicity of sex. At
first the sun, and then, as some have thought, the moon,
have marked throughout a rhythmic impress on the phenomena
of sex. To understand these phenomena we have not only
to recognize the bare existence of that periodic fact,
but to realize its implications.
Rhythm, it is scarcely necessary to remark, is far from
characterizing sexual activity alone. It is the character
of all biological activity, alike on the physical and
the psychic sides. All the organs of the body appear
to be in a perpetual process of rhythmic contraction
and expansion. The heart is rhythmic, so is the respiration.
The spleen is rhythmic, so also the bladder. The uterus
constantly undergoes regular rhythmic contractions at
brief intervals. The vascular system, down to the smallest
capillaries, is acted on by three series of vibrations,
and every separate fragment of muscular tissue possesses
rhythmic contractility. Growth itself is rhythmic, and,
as Malling-Hansen and subsequent observers have found,
follows a regular annual course as well as a larger
cycle. On the psychic sides attention is rhythmic. We
are always irresistibly compelled to impart a rhythm
to every succession of sounds, however uniform and monotonous.
A familiar example of this is the rhythm we can seldom
refrain from hearing in the puffing of an engine. A
series of experiments, by Bolton, on thirty subjects
showed that the clicks of an electric telephone connected
in an induction-apparatus nearly always fell into rhythmic
groups, usually of two or four, rarely of three or five,
the rhythmic perception being accompanied by a strong
impulse to make corresponding muscular movements.[75]
It is, however, with the influence--to some extent real,
to some extent, perhaps, only apparent--of cosmic rhythm
that we are here concerned. The general tendency, physical
and psychic, of nervous action to fall into rhythm is
merely interesting from the present point of view as
showing a biological predisposition to accept any periodicity
that is habitually imposed upon the organism.[76] Menstruation
has always been associated with the lunar revolutions.[77]
Darwin, without specifically mentioning menstruation,
has suggested that the explanation of the allied cycle
of gestation in mammals, as well as incubation in birds,
may be found in the condition under which ascidians
live at high and low water in consequence of the phenomena
of tidal change.[78] It must, however, be remembered
that the ascidian origin of the vertebrates has since
been contested from many sides, and, even if we admit
that at all events some such allied conditions in the
early history of vertebrates and their ancestors tended
to impress a lunar cycle on the race, it must still
be remembered that the monthly periodicity of menstruation
only becomes well marked in the human species.[79] Bearing
in mind the influence exerted on both the habits and
the emotions even of animals by the brightness of moonlight
nights, it is perhaps not extravagant to suppose that,
on organisms already ancestrally predisposed to the
influence of rhythm in general and of cosmic rhythm
in particular, the periodically recurring full moon,
not merely by its stimulation of the nervous system,
but possibly by the special opportunities which it gave
for the exercise of the sexual functions, served to
implant a lunar rhythm on menstruation. How important
such a factor may be we have evidence in the fact that
the daily life of even the most civilized peoples is
still regulated by a weekly cycle which is apparently
a segment of the cosmic lunar cycle.
Mantegazza has suggested that the sexual period became
established with relation to the lunar period because
moonlight nights were favorable to courting,[80] and
Nelson remarks that in his experience young and robust
persons are subject to recurrent periods of wakefulness
at night which they attribute to the action of the full
moon. One may perhaps refer also to the tendency of
bright moonlight to stir the emotions of the young,
especially at puberty, a tendency which in neurotic
persons may become almost morbid.[81]
It is interesting to point out that, the farther back
we are able to trace the beginnings of culture, the
more important we find the part played by the moon.
Next to the alteration of day and night, the moon's
changes are the most conspicuous and startling phenomena
of Nature; they first suggest a basis for reckoning
time; they are of the greatest use in primitive agriculture;
and everywhere the moon is held to have vast influence
on the whole of organic life. Hahn has suggested that
the reason why mythological systems do not usually present
the moon in the supreme position which we should expect,
is that its immense importance is so ancient a fact
that it tends, with mythological development, to become
overlaid by other elements.[82] According to Seler,
Quetzalcouatl and Tezeatlipoca, the two most considerable
figures in the Mexican pantheon, are to be regarded
mainly as complementary forms of the moon divinity,
and the moon was the chief Mexican measurer of time.[83]
Even in Babylonia, where the sun was most specially
revered, at the earliest period the moon ranked higher,
being gradually superseded by the worship of the sun.[84]
Although such considerations as these will by no means
take us as far back as the earliest appearance of menstruation,
they may serve to indicate that the phases of the moon
probably played a large part in the earliest evolution
of man. With that statement we must at present rest
content.
It is possible that the monthly character of menstruation,
while representing a general tendency of the human race,
always and everywhere prevalent, may be modified in
the future. It is a noteworthy fact that among many
primitive races menstruation only occurs at long intervals.
Thus among Eskimo women menstruation follows the peculiar
cosmic conditions to which the people are subjected;
Cook, the ethnologist of the Peary North Greenland expedition,
found that menstruation only began after the age of
nineteen, and that it was usually suppressed during
the winter months, when there is no sun, only about
one in ten women continuing to menstruate during this
period.[85] It was stated by Velpeau that Lapland and
Greenland women usually only menstruate every three
months, or even only two or three times during the year.
On the Faroe Islands it is said that menstruation is
frequently absent. Among the Samoyeds, Mantegazza mentions
that menstruation is so slight that some travelers have
denied its existence. Azara noted among the Guaranis
of Paraguay that menstruation was not only slight in
amount, but the periods were separated by long intervals.
Among the Indians in North America, again, menstruation
appears to be scanty. Thus, Holder, speaking of his
experience with the Crow Indians of Montana, says: "I
am quite sure that full-blood Indians in this latitude
do not menstruate so freely as white women, not usually
exceeding three days."[86] Among the naked women
of Tierra del Fuego, it is said that there is often
no physical sign of the menses for six months at a time.
These observations are noteworthy, though they clearly
indicate, on the whole, that primitiveness in race is
a very powerless factor without a cold climate. On the
other hand, again, there is some reason to suppose that
in Europe there is a latent tendency in some women for
the menstrual cycle to split up further into two cycles,
by the appearance of a latent minor climax in the middle
of the monthly interval. I allude to the phenomenon
usually called _Mittelschmerz_, middle period, or intermenstrual
pain.
Since the investigations of Goodman, Stephenson, Van
Ott, Reinl, Jacobi, and others, it has been generally
recognized that menstruation is a continuous process,
the flow being merely the climax of a menstrual cycle,
a physiological wave which is in constant flux or reflux.
This cycle manifests itself in all a woman's activities,
in metabolism, respiration, temperature, etc., as well
as on the nervous and psychic side. The healthier the
woman is, the less conscious is the cyclic return of
her life, but the cycle may be traced (as Hegar has
found) even before puberty takes place, while Salerni
has found that even in amenorrhoea the menstrual cycle
still manifests itself in the temperature and respiration.
(_Rivista Sperimentale di Freniatria_, XXX, fasc. 2-3.)
For a summary of the phenomena of the menstrual cycle,
see Havelock Ellis, _Man and Woman_, fourth ed., revised
and enlarged, Ch. XI; "The Functional Periodicity
of Women." Cf. Keller, _Archives Generales de Medecine_,
May, 1897; Hegar, _Allgemeine Zeitschrift fuer Psychiatrie_,
1901, Heft 2 and 3; Helen MacMurchy, _Lancet_, Oct.
5. 1901; A.E. Giles, _Transactions Obstetrical Society
London_, vol. xxxix, p. 115, etc.
_Mittelschmerz_ is a condition of pain occurring about
the middle of the intermenstrual period, either alone
or accompanied by a slight sanguineous discharge, or,
more frequently, a non-sanguineous discharge. (In a
case described by Van Voornveld, the manifestation was
confined to a regularly occurring rise of temperature.)
The phenomenon varies, but seems usually to occur about
the fourteenth day, and to last two or three days. Laycock,
in 1840 (_Nervous Diseases of Women_, p. 46), gave instances
of women with an intermenstrual period. Depaul and Gueniot
(_Dictionnaire Encyclopedique des Sciences Medicales_,
Art., "Menstruation," p. 694) speak of intermenstrual
symptoms, and even actual flow, as occurring in women
who are in a perfect state of health, and constituting
genuine "_regles surnumeraries_." The condition
is, however, said to have been first fully described
by Valleix; then, in 18725 by Sir William Priestley;
and subsequently by Fehling, Fasbender, Sorel, Halliday
Croom, Findley, Addinsell, and others. (See, for instance,
"Mittelschmerz," by J. Halliday Croom, _Transactions
of Edinburgh Obstetrical Society_, vol. xxi, 1896. Also,
Krieger, _Menstruation_, pp. 68-69.) Fliess (_Die Beziehungen
zwischen Nase und weiblichen Geschlechts-Organen_, p.
118) goes so far as to assert that an intermenstrual
period of menstrual symptoms--which he terms _Nebenmenstruation_--is
"a phenomenon well known to most healthy women."
Observations are at present too few to allow any definite
conclusions, and in some of the cases so far recorded
a pathological condition of the sexual organs has been
found to exist. Rosner, of Cracow, however, found that
only in one case out of twelve was there any disease
present (_La Gynecologie_, June, 1905), and Storer,
who has met with twenty cases, insists on the remarkable
and definite regularity of the manifestations, wholly
unlike those of neuralgia (_Boston Medical and Surgical
Journal_, April 19, 1900). There is no agreement as
to the cause of _Mittelschmerz_. Addinsell attributed
it to disease of the Fallopian tubes. This, however,
is denied by such competent authorities as Cullingworth
and Bland Sutton. Others, like Priestley, and subsequently
Marsh (_American Journal of Obstetrics_, July, 1897),
have sought to find the explanation in the occurrence
of ovulation. This theory is, however, unsupported by
facts, and eventually rests on the exploded belief that
ovulation is the cause of menstruation. Rosner, following
Richelet, vaguely attributes it to the diffused hyperaemia
which is generally present. Van de Velde also attributes
it to an abnormal fall of vascular tone, causing passive
congestion of the pelvic viscera. Others again, like
Armand Routh and MacLean, in the course of an interesting
discussion on _Mittelschmerz_ at the Obstetric Society
of London, on the second day of March, 1898, believe
that we may trace here a double menstruation, and would
explain the phenomenon by assuming that in certain cases
there is an intermenstrual as well as a menstrual cycle.
The question is not yet ripe for settlement, though
it is fully evident that, looking broadly at the phenomena
of rut and menstruation, the main basis of their increasing
frequency as we rise toward civilized man is increase
of nutrition, heat and sunlight being factors of nutrition.
When dealing with civilized man, however, we are probably
concerned not merely with general nutrition, but with
the nervous direction of that nutrition.
At this stage it is natural to inquire what the corresponding
phenomena are among animals. Unfortunately, imperfect
as is our comprehension of the human phenomena, our
knowledge of the corresponding phenomena among animals
is much more fragmentary and incomplete. Among most
animals menstruation does not exist, being replaced
by what is known as heat, or oestrus, which usually
occurs once or twice a year, in spring and in autumn,
sometimes affecting the male as well as the female.[87]
There is, however, a great deal of progression in the
upward march of the phenomena, as we approach our own
and allied zooelogical series. Heat in domesticated
cows usually occurs every three weeks. The female hippopotamus
in the Zooelogical Gardens has been observed to exhibit
monthly sexual excitement, with swelling and secretion
from the vulva. Progression is not only toward greater
frequency with higher evolution or with increased domestication,
but there is also a change in the character of the flow.
As Wiltshire,[88] in his remarkable lectures on the
"Comparative Physiology of Menstruation,"
asserted as a law, the more highly evolved the animal,
the more sanguineous the catamenial flow.
It is not until we reach the monkeys that this character
of the flow becomes well marked. Monthly sanguineous
discharges have been observed among many monkeys. In
the seventeenth century various observers in many parts
of the world--Bohnius, Peyer, Helbigius, Van der Wiel,
and others--noted menstruation in monkeys.[89] Buffon
observed it among various monkeys as well as in the
orang-utan. J.G. St. Hilaire and Cuvier, many years
ago, declared that menstruation exists among a variety
of monkeys and lower apes. Rengger described a vaginal
discharge in a species of cebus in Paraguay, while Raciborski
observed in the Jardin des Plantes that the menstrual
haemorrhage in guenons was so abundant that the floor
of the cage was covered by it to a considerable extent;
the same variety of monkey was observed at Surinam,
by Hill, a surgeon in the Dutch army, who noted an abundant
sanguineous flow occurring at every new moon, and lasting
about three days, the animal at this time also showing
signs of sexual excitement.[90]
The macaque and the baboon appear to be the non-human
animals, in which menstruation has been most carefully
observed. In the former, besides the flow, Bland Sutton
remarks that "all the naked or pale-colored parts
of the body, such as the face, neck, and ischial regions,
assume a lively pink color; in some cases, it is a vivid
red."[91] The flow is slight, but the coloring
lasts several days, and in warm weather the labia are
much swollen.
Heape[92] has most fully and carefully described menstruation
in monkeys. He found at Calcutta that the _Macacus cynomolgus_
menstruated regularly on the 20th of December, 20th
of January, and about the 20th of February. The _Cynocephalus
porcaria_ and the _Semnopithecus entellus_ both menstruated
each month for about four days. In the _Macaci rhesus_
and _cynomolgus_ at menstruation "the nipples and
vulva become swollen and deeply congested, and the skin
of the buttocks swollen, tense, and of a brilliant-red
or even purple color. The abdominal wall also, for a
short space upward, and the inside of the thighs, sometimes
as far down as the heel, and the under surface of the
tail for half its length or more, are all colored a
vivid red, while the skin of the face, especially about
the eyes, is flushed or blotched with red." In
late gestation the coloring is still more vivid. Something
similar is to be seen in the males also.
Distant, who kept a female baboon for some time, has
recorded the dates of menstruation during a year. He
found that nine periods occurred during the year. The
average length between the periods was nearly six weeks,
but they occurred more frequently in the late autumn
and the winter than in the summer.[93]
It is an interesting fact, Heape noted, that, notwithstanding
menstruation, the seasonal influence, or rut, still
persisted in the monkeys he investigated.
In the anthropoid apes, Hartmann remarks that several
observers have recorded periodic menstruation in the
chimpanzee, with flushing and enlargement of the external
parts, and protrusion of the external lips, which are
not usually visible, while there is often excessive
enlargement and reddening of these parts and of the
posterior callosities during sexual excitement. Very
little, however, appears to be definitely known regarding
any form of menstruation in the higher apes. M. Deniker,
who has made a special study of the anthropoid apes,
informs me that he has so far been unable to make definite
observations regarding the existence of menstruation.
Moll remarks that he received information regarding
such a phenomenon in the orang-utan. A pair of orang-utans
was kept in the Berlin Zooelogical Gardens some years
ago, and the female was stated to have at intervals
a menstrual flow resembling that of women, and during
this period to refrain from sexual congress, which was
otherwise usually exercised at regular intervals, at
least every two or three days; Moll adds, however, that,
while his informant is a reliable man, the length of
time that has elapsed may have led him to make mistakes
in details. Keith, in a paper read before the Zooelogical
Society of London, has described menstruation in a chimpanzee;
it occurred every twenty-third or twenty-fourth day,
and lasted for three days; the discharge was profuse,
and first appeared in about the ninth or tenth year.[94]
What is menstruation? It is easy to describe it, by
its obvious symptoms, as a monthly discharge of blood
from the uterus, but nearly as much as that was known
in the infancy of the world. When we seek to probe more
intimately into the nature of menstruation we are still
baffled, not merely as regards its cause, but even as
regards its precise mechanism. "The primary cause
of menstruation remains unexplained"; "the
cause of menstruation remains as obscure as ever";
so conclude two of the most thorough and cautious investigators
into this subject.[95] It is, however, widely accepted
that the main cause of menstruation is a rhythmic contraction
of the uterus,--the result of a disappointed preparation
for impregnation,--a kind of miniature childbirth. This
seems to be the most reasonable view of menstruation;
i.e., as an abortion of a decidua. Burdach (according
to Beard) was the first who described menstruation as
an abortive parturition. "The hypothesis,"
Marshall and Jolly conclude, "that the entire pro-oestrous
process is of the nature of a preparation for the lodgment
of the ovum is in accordance with the facts."[96]
Fortunately, since we are here primarily concerned with
its psychological aspects, the precise biological cause
and physiological nature of menstruation do not greatly
concern us.
There is, however, one point which of late years has
been definitely determined, and which should not be
passed without mention: the relation of menstruation
to ovulation. It was once supposed that the maturation
of an ovule in the ovaries was the necessary accompaniment,
and even cause, of menstruation. We now know that ovulation
proceeds throughout the whole of life, even before birth,
and during gestation,[97] and that removal of the ovaries
by no means necessarily involves a cessation of menstruation.
It has been shown that regular and even excessive menstruation
may take place in the congenital absence of a trace
of ovaries or Fallopian tubes.[98] On the other hand,
a rudimentary state of the uterus, and a complete absence
of menstruation, may exist with well-developed ovaries
and normal ovulation.[99] We must regard the uterus
as to some extent an independent organ, and menstruation
as a process which arose, no doubt, with the object,
teleologically speaking, of cooperating more effectively
with ovulation, but has become largely independent.[100]
It is sometimes stated that menstruation may be entirely
absent in perfect health. Few cases of this condition
have, however, been recorded with the detail necessary
to prove the assertion. One such case was investigated
by Dr. H.W. Mitchell, and described in a paper read
to the New York County Medical Society, February 22,
1892 (to be found in _Medical Reprints_, June, 1892).
The subject was a young, unmarried woman, 24 years of
age. She was born in Ireland, and, until her emigration,
lived quietly at home with her parents. Being then twenty
years of age, she left home and came to New York. Up
to that time no signs of menstruation had appeared,
and she had never heard that such a function existed.
Soon after her arrival in New York, she obtained a situation
as a waiting-maid, and it was noticed, after a time,
that she was not unwell at each month. Friends filled
her ears with wild stories about the dreadful effects
likely to follow the absence of menstruation. This worried
her greatly, and as a consequence she became pale and
anaemic, with loss of flesh, appetite, and sleep, and
a long train of imaginary nervous symptoms. She presented
herself for treatment, and insisted upon a uterine examination.
This revealed no pathological condition of her uterus.
She was assured that she would not die, or become insane,
nor a chronic invalid. In consequence she soon forgot
that she differed in any way from other girls. A course
of chalybeate tonics, generous diet, and proper care
of her general health, soon restored her to her normal
condition. After close observation for several years,
she submitted to a thorough examination, although entirely
free from any abnormal symptoms. The examination revealed
the following physical condition: Weight, 105 pounds
(her weight before leaving Ireland was 130); girth of
chest, twenty-nine and a half inches; girth of abdomen,
twenty-five inches; girth of pelvis, thirty-four and
a half inches; girth of thigh, upper third, twenty inches;
heart healthy, sounds and rhythm perfectly normal; pulse,
76; lungs healthy; respiratory murmur clear and distinct
over every part; respiration, easy and twenty per minute;
the mammae are well developed, firm, and round; nipples,
small, no areola; her skin is soft, smooth, and healthy;
figure erect, plump, and symmetrical; her bowels are
regular; kidneys, healthy. She has a good appetite,
sleeps well, and in no particular shows any sign of
ill health. The uterine examination reveals a short
vagina, and a small, round cervix uteri, rather less
in size than the average, and projecting very slightly
into the vaginal canal. Depth of uterus from os to fundus,
two and a quarter inches, is very nearly normal. No
external sign of abnormal ovaries. She is a well-developed,
healthy young woman, performing all her physiological
functions naturally and regularly, except the single
function of menstruation. No vicarious menstruation
takes the place of the natural function, though she
has been watched very closely during the past two years,
nor the least periodical excitement. It is added that,
though the clitoris is normal, the mons veneris is almost
destitute of hair, and the labia rather undeveloped,
while, "as far as is known," sexual instincts
and desire are entirely absent. These latter facts,
I may add, would seem to suggest that, in spite of the
health of the subject, there is yet some concealed lack
of development of the sexual system, of congenital character.
In a case recorded by Plant (_Centralblatt fuer Gynaekologie_,
No. 9, 1896, summarized in the _British Medical Journal_,
April 4, 1896), in which the internal sexual organs
were almost wholly undeveloped, and menstruation absent,
the labia were similarly undeveloped, and the pubic
hair scanty, while the axillary hair was wholly absent,
though that of the head was long and strong.
We may now regard as purely academic the discussion
formerly carried on as to whether menstruation is to
be regarded as analogous to heat in female animals.
For many centuries at least the resemblance has been
sufficiently obvious. Raciborski and Pouchet, who first
established the regular periodicity of ovulation in
mammals, identified heat and menstruation.[101] During
the past century there was, notwithstanding, an occasional
tendency to deny any real connection. No satisfactory
grounds for this denial have, however, been brought
forward. Lawson Tait, indeed, and more recently Beard,
have stated that menstruation cannot be the period of
heat, because women have a disinclination to the approach
of the male at that time.[102] But, as we shall see
later, this statement is unfounded. An argument which
might, indeed, be brought forward is the very remarkable
fact that, while in animals the period of heat is the
only period for sexual intercourse, among all human
races, from the very lowest, the period of menstruation
is the one period during which sexual intercourse is
strictly prohibited, sometimes under severe penalties,
even life itself. This, however, is a social, not a
physiological, fact.
Ploss and Bartels call attention to the curious contrast,
in this respect, between heat and menstruation. The
same authors also mention that in the Middle Ages, however,
preachers found it necessary to warn their hearers against
the sin of intercourse during the menstrual period.
It may be added that Aquinas and many other early theologians
held, not only that such intercourse was a deadly sin,
but that it engendered leprous and monstrous children.
Some later theologians, however, like Sanchez, argued
that the Mosaic enactments (such as Leviticus, Ch. XX,
v. 18) no longer hold good. Modern theologians--in part
influenced by the tolerant traditions of Liguori, and,
in part, like Debreyne (_Moechialogie_, pp. 275 et seq.)
informed by medical science--no longer prohibit intercourse
during menstruation, or regard it as only a venial sin.
We have here a remarkable, but not an isolated, example
of the tendency of the human mind in its development
to rebel against the claims of primitive nature. The
whole of religion is a similar remolding of nature,
a repression of natural impulses, an effort to turn
them into new channels. Prohibition of intercourse during
menstruation is a fundamental element of savage ritual,
an element which is universal merely because the conditions
which caused it are universal, and because--as is now
beginning to be generally recognized--the causes of
human psychic evolution are everywhere the same. A strictly
analogous phenomenon, in the sexual sphere itself, is
the opposed attitude in barbarism and civilization toward
the sexual organs. Under barbaric conditions and among
savages, when no magico-religious ideas intervene, the
sexual organs are beautiful and pleasurable objects.
Under modern conditions this is not so. This difference
of attitude is reflected in sculpture. In savage and
barbaric carvings of human beings, the sexual organs
of both sexes are often enormously exaggerated. This
is true of the archaic European figures on which Salomon
Reinach has thrown so much light, but in modern sculpture,
from the time when it reached its perfection in Greece
onward, the sexual regions in both men and women are
systematically minimized.[103]
With advancing culture--as again we shall see later--there
is a conflict of claims, and certain considerations
are regarded as "higher" and more potent than
merely "natural" claims. Nakedness is more
natural than clothing, and on many grounds more desirable
under the average circumstances of life, yet, everywhere,
under the stress of what are regarded as higher considerations,
there is a tendency for all races to add more and more
to the burden of clothes. In the same way it happens
that the tendency of the female to sexual intercourse
during menstruation[104] has everywhere been overlaid
by the ideas of a culture which has insisted on regarding
menstruation as a supernatural phenomenon which, for
the protection of everybody, must be strictly tabooed.[105]
This tendency is reinforced, and in high civilization
replaced, by the claims of an aesthetic regard for concealment
and reserve during this period. Such facts are significant
for the early history of culture, but they must not
blind us to the real analogy between heat and menstruation,
an analogy or even identity which may be said to be
accepted now by most careful investigators.[106]
If it is, perhaps, somewhat excessive to declare, with
Johnstone, that "woman is the only animal in which
rut is omnipresent," we must admit that the two
groups of phenomena merge into or replace each other,
that their object is identical, that they involve similar
psychic conditions. Here, also, we see a striking example
of the way in which women preserve a primitive phenomenon
which earlier in the zooelogical series was common to
both sexes, but which man has now lost. Heat and menstruation,
with whatever difference of detail, are practically
the same phenomenon. We cannot understand menstruation
unless we bear this in mind.
On the psychic side the chief normal and primitive characteristic
of the menstrual state is the more predominant presence
of the sexual impulse. There are other mental and emotional
signs of irritability and instability which tend to
slightly impair complete mental integrity, and to render,
in some unbalanced individuals explosions of anger or
depression, in rarer cases crime, more common;[107]
but the heightening of the sexual impulse, languor,
shyness, and caprice are the more human manifestations
of an emotional state which in some of the lower female
animals during heat may produce a state of fury.
The actual period of the menstrual flow, at all events
the first two or three days, does not, among European
women, usually appear to show any heightening of sexual
emotion.[108] This heightening occurs usually a few
days before, and especially during, the latter part
of the flow, and immediately after it ceases.[109] I
have, however, convinced myself by inquiry that this
absence of sexual feeling during the height of the flow
is, in large part, apparent only. No doubt, the onset
of the flow, often producing a general depression of
vitality, may tend directly to depress the emotions,
which are heightened by the general emotional state
and local congestion of the days immediately preceding;
but among some women, at all events, who are normal
and in good health, I find that the period of menstruation
itself is covered by the period of the climax of sexual
feeling. Thus, a married lady writes: "My feelings
are always very strong, not only just before and after,
but during the period; very unfortunately, as, of course,
they cannot then be gratified"; while a refined
girl of 19, living a chaste life, without either coitus
or masturbation, which she has never practiced, habitually
feels very strong sexual excitement about the time of
menstruation, and more especially during the period;
this desire torments her life, prevents her from sleeping
at these times, and she looks upon it as a kind of illness.[110]
I could quote many other similar and equally emphatic
statements, and the fact that so cardinal a relationship
of the sexual life of women should be ignored or denied
by most writers on this matter, is a curious proof of
the prevailing ignorance.[111]
This ignorance has been fostered by the fact that women,
often disguise even to themselves the real state of
their feelings. One lady remarks that while she would
be very ready for coitus during menstruation, the thought
that it is impossible during that time makes her put
the idea of it out of her mind. I have reason to think
that this statement may be taken to represent the real
feelings of very many women. The aversion to coitus
is real, but it is often due, not to failure of sexual
desire, but to the inhibitory action of powerful extraneous
causes. The absence of active sexual desire in women
during the height of the flow may thus be regarded as,
in part, a physiological fact, following from the correspondence
of the actual menstrual flow to the period of _pro-oestrum_,
and in part, a psychological fact due to the aesthetic
repugnance to union when in such a condition, and to
the unquestioned acceptance of the general belief that
at such a period intercourse is out of the question.
Some of the strongest factors of modesty, especially
the fear of causing disgust and the sense of the demands
of ceremonial ritual, would thus help to hold in check
the sexual emotions during this period, and when, under
the influence of insanity, these motives are in abeyance,
the coincidence of sexual desire with the menstrual
flow often becomes more obvious.[112]
It must be added that, especially among the lower social
classes, the primitive belief of the savage that coitus
during menstruation is bad for the man still persists.
Ploss and Bartels mention that among the peasants in
some parts of Germany, where it is believed that impregnation
is impossible during menstruation, coitus at that time
would be frequent were it not thought dangerous for
the man.[113] It has also been a common belief both
in ancient and modern times that coitus during menstruation
engenders monsters.[114]
Notwithstanding all the obstacles that are thus placed
in the way of coitus during menstruation, there is nevertheless
good reason to believe that the first coitus very frequently
takes place at this point of least psychic resistance.
When still a student I was struck by the occurrence
of cases in which seduction took place during the menstrual
flow, though at that time they seemed to me inexplicable,
except as evidencing brutality on the part of the seducer.
Negrier,[115] in the lying-in wards of the Hotel-Dieu
at Angers, constantly found that the women from the
country who came there pregnant as the result of a single
coitus had been impregnated at or near the menstrual
epoch, more especially when the period coincided with
a feast-day, as St. John's Day or Christmas.
Whatever doubt may exist as to the most frequent state
of the sexual emotions during the period of menstruation,
there can be no doubt whatever that immediately before
and immediately after, very commonly at both times,--this
varying slightly in different women,--there is usually
a marked heightening of actual desire. It is at this
period (and sometimes during the menstrual flow) that
masturbation may take place in women who at other times
have no strong auto-erotic impulse. The only women who
do not show this heightening of sexual emotion seem
to be those in whom sexual feelings have not yet been
definitely called into consciousness, or the small minority,
usually suffering from some disorder of sexual or general
health, in whom there is a high degree of sexual anaesthesia.[116]
The majority of authorities admit a heightening of sexual
emotion before or after the menstrual crisis. See e.g.,
Krafft-Ebing, who places it at the post-menstrual period
(_Psychopathia Sexualis_, Eng. translation of tenth
edition, p. 27). Adler states that sexual feeling is
increased before, during and after menstruation (_Die
Mangelhafte Geschlechtsempfindung des Weibes_, 1904,
p. 88). Kossmann (Senator and Kaminer, _Health and Disease
in Relation to Marriage_, I, 249), advises intercourse
just after menstruation, or even during the latter days
of the flow, as the period when it is most needed. Guyot
says that the eight days after menstruation are the
period of sexual desire in women (_Breviaire de l'Amour
Experimentale_, p. 144). Harry Campbell investigated
the periodicity of sexual desire in healthy women of
the working classes, in a series of cases, by inquiries
made of their husbands who were patients at a London
hospital. People of this class are not always skilful
in observation, and the method adopted would permit
many facts to pass unrecorded; it is, therefore, noteworthy
that only in one-third of the cases had no connection
between menstruation and sexual feeling been observed;
in the other two-thirds, sexual feeling was increased,
either before, after, or during the flow, or at all
of these times; the proportion of cases in which sexual
feeling was increased before the flow, to those in which
it was increased after, was as three to two. (H. Campbell,
_Nervous Organization of Men and Women_, p. 203.)
Even this elementary fact of the sexual life has, however,
been denied, and, strange to say, by two women doctors.
Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, of New York, who furnished valuable
contributions to the physiology of menstruation, wrote
some years ago, in a paper on "The Theory of Menstruation,"
in reference to the question of the connection between
oestrus and menstruation: "Neither can any such
rhythmical alternation of sexual instinct be demonstrated
in women as would lead to the inference that the menstrual
crisis was an expression of this," i.e., of oestrus.
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, again, in her book on _The
Human Element in Sex_, asserts that the menstrual flow
itself affords complete relief for the sexual feelings
in women (like sexual emissions during sleep in men),
and thus practically denies the prevalence of sexual
desire in the immediately post-menstrual period, when,
on such a theory, sexual feeling should be at its minimum.
It is fair to add that Dr. Blackwell's opinion is merely
the survival of a view which was widely held a century
ago, when various writers (Bordeu, Roussel, Duffieux,
J. Arnould, etc.), as Icard has pointed out, regarded
menstruation as a device of Providence for safeguarding
the virginity of women.
FOOTNOTES:
[75] Thaddeus L. Bolton, "Rhythm," _American
Journal of Psychology_, January, 1894.
[76] It is scarcely necessary to warn the reader that
this statement does not prejudge the question of the
inheritance of acquired characters, although it fits
in with Semon's Mnemic theory. We can, however, very
well suppose that the organism became adjusted to the
rhythms of its environment by a series of congenital
variations. Or it might be held, on the basis of Weismann's
doctrine, that the germ-plasm has been directly modified
by the environment.
[77] Thus, the Papuans, in some districts, believe that
the first menstruation is due to an actual connection,
during sleep, with the moon in the shape of a man, the
girl dreaming that a real man is embracing her. (_Reports
Cambridge Expedition to Torres Straits_, vol. v, p.
206.)
[78] Darwin, _Descent of Man_, p. 164.
[79] While in the majority of women the menstrual cycle
is regular for the individual, and corresponds to the
lunar month of 28 days, it must be added that in a considerable
minority it is rather longer, or, more usually, shorter
than this, and in many individuals is not constant.
Osterloh found a regular type of menstruation in 68
per cent, healthy women, four weeks being the most usual
length of the cycle; in 21 per cent, the cycle was always
irregular. See Naecke, "Die Menstruation und ihr
Einfluss bei chronischen Psychosen," _Archiv fuer
Psychiatrie_, 1896, Bd, 28, Heft 1.
[80] Among the Duala and allied negro peoples of Bantu
stock dances of markedly erotic character take place
at full moon. Gason describes the dances and sexual
festivals of the South Australian blacks, generally
followed by promiscuous intercourse, as taking place
at full moon. (_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
November, 1894, p. 174.) In all parts of the world,
indeed, including Christendom, festivals are frequently
regulated by the phases of the moon.
[81] It has often been held that the course of insanity
is influenced by the moon. Of comparatively recent years,
this thesis has been maintained by Koster (_Ueber die
Gesetze des periodischen Irreseins und verwandter Nervenzustaende_,
Bonn, 1882), who argues in detail that periodic insanity
tends to fall into periods of seven days or multiples
of seven.
[82] Ed. Hahn, _Demeter und Baubo_, p. 23.
[83] E. Seler, _Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie_, 1907,
Heft I, p. 39. And as regards the primitive importance
of the moon, see also Frazer, _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_,
Ch. VIII.
[84] Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia_, 1898, pp. 68,
75-79, 461.
[85] Even in England, Barnes has known women of feeble
sexual constitution who menstruated only in summer (R.
Barnes, _Diseases of Women_, 1878, p. 192).
[86] A.B. Holder, "Gynecic Notes among American
Indians," _American Journal of Obstetrics_, No.
6, 1892.
[87] In the male, the phenomenon is termed rut, and
is most familiar in the stag. I quote from Marshall
and Jolly some remarks on the infrequency of rut: "'The
male wild Cat,' Mr. Cocks informs us, (like the stag),
'has a rutting season, calls loudly, almost day and
night, making far more noise than the female.' This
information is of interest, inasmuch as the males of
most carnivores, although they undoubtedly show signs
of increased sexual activity at some times more than
at others, are not known to have anything of the nature
of a regularly recurrent rutting season. Nothing of
the kind is known in the Dog, nor, so far as we are
aware, in the males of the domestic Cat, or the Ferret,
all of which seem to be capable of copulation at any
time of the year. On the other hand, the males of Seals
appear to have a rutting season at the same time as
the sexual season of the female." (Marshall and
Jolly, "Contributions to the Physiology of Mammalian
Reproduction," _Philosophical Transactions_, 1905,
B. 198.)
[88] A. Wiltshire, _British Medical Journal_, March,
1883. The best account of heat known to me is contained
in Ellenberger's _Vergleichende Physiologie der Haussauegethiere_,
1892, Band 4, Theil 2, pp. 276-284.
[89] Schurig (_Parthenologia_, 1729, p. 125), gives
numerous references and quotations.
[90] Quoted by Icard, _La Femme_, etc., p. 63.
[91] Bland Sutton, _Surgical Diseases of the Ovaries_,
and _British Gynecological Journal_, vol. ii.
[92] W. Heape, "The Menstruation of _Semnopithecus
Entellus_," _Philosophical Transactions_, 1894;
"Menstruation and Ovulation of _Macacus Rhesus_,"
_Philosophical Transactions_, 1897.
[93] W.L. Distant, "Notes on the Chacma Baboon,"
_Zooelogist_, January, 1897, p, 29.
[94] _Nature_, March 23, 1899.
[95] W. Heape, "The Menstruation of _Semnopithecus
Entellus_," _Philosophical Transactions_, 1894,
p. 483; Bland Sutton, _Surgical Diseases of the Ovaries_,
1896.
[96] T. Bryce and J. Teacher (_Contributions to the
Study of the Early Development of the Human Ovum_, 1908),
putting the matter somewhat differently, regard menstruation
as a cyclical process, providing for the maintenance
of the endometrium in a suitable condition of immaturity
for the production of the decidua of pregnancy, which
they believe may take place at any time of the month,
though most favorably shortly before or after a menstrual
period which has been accompanied by ovulation.
[97] Robinson, _American Gynecological and Obstetrical
Journal_, August, 1905.
[98] Bossi, _Annali di Ostetrica e Ginecologia_, September,
1896; summarized in the _British Medical Journal_, October
31, 1896. As regards the more normal influence of the
ovaries over the uterus, see e.g. Carmichael and F.H.A.
Marshall, "Correlation of the Ovarian and Uterine
Functions," _Proceedings Royal Society_, vol. 79,
Series B, 1907.
[99] Beuttner, _Centralblatt fuer Gynaekologie_, No.
49, 1893; summarized in _British Medical Journal_, December,
1893. Many cases show that pregnancy may occur in the
absence of menstruation. See, e.g., _Nouvelles Archives
d'Obstetrique et de Gynecologie_, 25 Janvier, 1894,
supplement, p. 9.
[100] It is still possible, and even probable, that
the primordial cause of both phenomena is the same.
Heape (_Transactions Obstetrical Society of London_,
1898, vol. xl, p. 161) argues that both menstruation
and ovulation are closely connected with and influenced
by congestion, and that in the primitive condition they
are largely due to the same cause. This primary cause
he is inclined to regard as a ferment, due to a change
in the constitution of the blood brought about by climatic
influences and food, which he proposes to call gonadin.
(W. Heape, _Proceedings of Royal Society_, 1905, vol.
B. 76, p. 266.) Marshall, who has found that in the
ferret and other animals, ovulation may be dependent
upon copulation, also considers that ovulation and menstruation,
though connected and able to react on each other, may
both be dependent upon a common cause; he finds that
in bitches and rats heat can be produced by injection
of extract from ovaries in the oestrous state (F.H.A.
Marshall, _Philosophical Transactions_, 1903, vol. B.
196; also Marshall and Jolly, id., 1905, B. 198). Cf.
C.J. Bond, "An Inquiry Into Some Points in Uterine
and Ovarian Physiology and Pathology in Rabbits,"
_British Medical Journal_, July 21, 1906.
[101] Pouchet, _Theorie de l'Ovulation Spontanee_, 1847.
As Blair Bell and Pontland Hick remark ("Menstruation,"
_British Medical Journal_, March 6, 1909), the repeated
oestrus of unimpregnated animals (once a fortnight in
rabbits) is surely comparable to menstruation.
[102] Tait, _Provincial Medical Journal_, May, 1891;
J. Beard, _The Span of Gestation_, 1897, p. 69. Lawson
Tait is reduced to the assertion that ovulation and
menstruation are identical.
[103] As Moll points out, even the secondary sexual
characters have undergone a somewhat similar change.
The beard was once an important sexual attraction, but
men can now afford to dispense with it without fear
of loss in attractiveness. (_Libido Sexualis_, Band
I, p. 387.) These points are discussed at greater length
in the fourth volume of these _Studies_, "Sexual
Selection in Man."
[104] It is not absolutely established that in menstruating
animals the period of menstruation is always a period
of sexual congress; probably not, the influence of menstruation
being diminished by the more fundamental influence of
breeding seasons, which affect the male also; monkeys
have a breeding season, though they menstruate regularly
all the year round.
[105] See Appendix A.
[106] Bland Sutton, loc. cit., p. 896.
[107] See H. Ellis, _Man and Woman_, Chapter XI.
[108] This is by no means true of European women only.
Thus, we read in an Arabic book, _The Perfumed Garden_,
that women have an aversion to coitus during menstruation.
On the other hand, the old Hindoo physician, Susruta,
appears to have stated that a tendency to run after
men is one of the signs of menstruation.
[109] The actual period of the menstrual flow corresponds,
in Heape's terminology, to the congestive stage, or
_pro-oestrum_, in female animals; the _oestrus_, or
period of sexual desire, immediately follows the _pro-oestrum_,
and is the direct result of it. See Heape, "The
'Sexual Season' of Mammals," _Quarterly Journal
of Microscopical Science_, 1900, vol. xliv, Part I.
[110] It may be noted that (as Barnes, Oliver, and others
have pointed out) there is heightened blood-pressure
during menstruation. Haig remarks that he has found
a tendency for high pressure to be accompanied by increased
sexual appetite (_Uric Acid_, 6th edition, p. 155).
[111] Sir W.F. Wade, however, remarked, some years ago,
in his Ingleby Lectures (_Lancet_, June 5, 1886): "It
is far from exceptional to find that there is an extreme
enhancement of concupiscence in the immediate precatamenial
period," and adds, "I am satisfied that evidence
is obtainable that in some instances, ardor is at its
maximum during the actual period, and suspect that cases
occur in which it is almost, if not entirely, limited
to that time." Long ago, however, the genius of
Haller had noted the same fact. More recently, Icard
(_La Femme_, Chapter VI and elsewhere, e.g., p. 125)
has brought forward much evidence in confirmation of
this view. It may be added that there is considerable
significance in the fact that the erotic hallucinations,
which are not infrequently experienced by women under
the influence of nitrous oxide gas, are more likely
to appear at the monthly period than at any other time.
(D.W. Buxton, _Anesthetics_, 1892, p. 61.)
[112] Gehrung considers that in healthy young girls
amorous sensations are normal during menstruation, and
in some women persist, during this period, throughout
life. More usually, however, as menstrual period after
menstrual period recurs, without the natural interruption
of pregnancy, the feeling abates, and gives place to
sensations of discomfort or pain. He ascribes this to
the vital tissues being sapped of more blood than can
be replaced in the intervals. "The vital powers,
being thus kept in abeyance, the amative sensations
are either not developed, or destroyed. This, superadded
by the usual moral and religious teachings, is amply
sufficient, by degrees, to extinguish or prevent such
feelings with the great majority. The sequestration
as 'unclean,' of women during their catamenial period,
as practiced in olden times, had the same tendency."
(E.C. Gehrung, "The Status of Menstruation,"
_Transactions American Gynecology Society_, 1901, p.
48.)
[113] It is possible there may be an element of truth
in this belief. Diday, of Lyons, found that chronic
urethorrhoea is an occasional result of intercourse
during menstruation. Raciborski (_Traite de la Menstruation_,
1868, p. 12), who also paid attention to this point,
while confirming Diday, came to the conclusion that
some special conditions must be present on one or both
sides.
[114] See, e.g., Ballantyne, "Teratogenesis,"
_Transactions of the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society_,
1896, vol. xxi, pp. 324-25.
[115] As quoted by Icard, _La Femme_, etc., p. 194.
I have not been able to see Negrier's work.
[116] I deal with the question of sexual anaesthesia
in women in the third volume of these _Studies_: "The
Sexual Impulse in Women."
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