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diff --git a/old/13613.txt b/old/13613.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b18c653 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13613.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12345 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4 +(of 6), by Havelock Ellis + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4 (of 6) + +Author: Havelock Ellis + +Release Date: October 8, 2004 [eBook #13613] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX, +VOLUME 4 (OF 6)*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX, VOLUME IV + + Sexual Selection In Man + I. Touch. Ii. Smell. Iii. Hearing. Iv. Vision. + +by + +HAVELOCK ELLIS + +1927 + + + + + + + +PREFACE. + + +As in many other of these _Studies_, and perhaps more than in most, the +task attempted in the present volume is mainly of a tentative and +preliminary character. There is here little scope yet for the presentation +of definite scientific results. However it may be in the physical +universe, in the cosmos of science our knowledge must be nebulous before +it constellates into definitely measurable shapes, and nothing is gained +by attempting to anticipate the evolutionary process. Thus it is that +here, for the most part, we have to content ourselves at present with the +task of mapping out the field in broad and general outlines, bringing +together the facts and considerations which indicate the direction in +which more extended and precise results will in the future be probably +found. + +In his famous _Descent of Man_, wherein he first set forth the doctrine of +sexual selection, Darwin injured an essentially sound principle by +introducing into it a psychological confusion whereby the physiological +sensory stimuli through which sexual selection operates were regarded as +equivalent to aesthetic preferences. This confusion misled many, and it is +only within recent years (as has been set forth in the "Analysis of the +Sexual Impulse" in the previous volume of these _Studies_) that the +investigations and criticisms of numerous workers have placed the doctrine +of sexual selection on a firm basis by eliminating its hazardous aesthetic +element. Love springs up as a response to a number of stimuli to +tumescence, the object that most adequately arouses tumescence being that +which evokes love; the question of aesthetic beauty, although it develops +on this basis, is not itself fundamental and need not even be consciously +present at all. When we look at these phenomena in their broadest +biological aspects, love is only to a limited extent a response to beauty; +to a greater extent beauty is simply a name for the complexus of stimuli +which most adequately arouses love. If we analyze these stimuli to +tumescence as they proceed from a person of the opposite sex we find that +they are all appeals which must come through the channels of four senses: +touch, smell, hearing, and, above all, vision. When a man or a woman +experiences sexual love for one particular person from among the multitude +by which he or she is surrounded, this is due to the influences of a group +of stimuli coming through the channels of one or more of these senses. +There has been a sexual selection conditioned by sensory stimuli. This is +true even of the finer and more spiritual influences that proceed from one +person to another, although, in order to grasp the phenomena adequately, +it is best to insist on the more fundamental and less complex forms which +they assume. In this sense sexual selection is no longer a hypothesis +concerning the truth of which it is possible to dispute; it is a +self-evident fact. The difficulty is not as to its existence, but as to +the methods by which it may be most precisely measured. It is +fundamentally a psychological process, and should be approached from the +psychological side. This is the reason for dealing with it here. Obscure +as the psychological aspects of sexual selection still remain, they are +full of fascination, for they reveal to us the more intimate sides of +human evolution, of the process whereby man is molded into the shapes we +know. + +HAVELOCK ELLIS. + +Carbis Water, + +Lelant, Cornwall, England. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +SEXUAL SELECTION IN MAN. + +The External Sensory Stimuli Affecting Selection in Man. The Four Senses +Involved. + + +TOUCH. + +I. + +The Primitive Character of the Skin. Its Qualities. Touch the Earliest +Source of Sensory Pleasure. The Characteristics of Touch. As the Alpha and +Omega of Affection. The Sexual Organs a Special Adaptation of Touch. +Sexual Attraction as Originated by Touch. Sexual Hyperaesthesia to Touch. +The Sexual Associations of Acne. + +II. + +Ticklishness. Its Origin and Significance. The Psychology of Tickling. +Laughter. Laughter as a Kind of Detumescence. The Sexual Relationships of +Itching. The Pleasure of Tickling. Its Decrease with Age and Sexual +Activity. + +III. + +The Secondary Sexual Skin Centres. Orificial Contacts. Cunnilingus and +Fellatio. The Kiss. The Nipples. The Sympathy of the Breasts with the +Primary Sexual Centres. This Connection Operative both through the Nerves +and through the Blood. The Influence of Lactation on the Sexual Centres. +Suckling and Sexual Emotion. The Significance of the Association between +Suckling and Sexual Emotion. The Association as a Cause of Sexual +Perversity. + +IV. + +The Bath. Antagonism of Primitive Christianity to the Cult of the Skin. +Its Cult of Personal Filth. The Reasons which Justified this Attitude. The +World-wide Tendency to Association between Extreme Cleanliness and Sexual +Licentiousness. The Immorality Associated with Public Baths in Europe down +to Modern Times. + +V. + +Summary. Fundamental Importance of Touch. The Skin the Mother of All the +Other Senses. + + +SMELL. + +I. + +The Primitiveness of Smell. The Anatomical Seat of the Olfactory Centres. +Predominance of Smell among the Lower Mammals. Its Diminished Importance +in Man. The Attention Paid to Odors by Savages. + +II. + +Rise of the Study of Olfaction. Cloquet. Zwaardemaker. The Theory of +Smell. The Classification of Odors. The Special Characteristics of +Olfactory Sensation in Man. Smell as the Sense of Imagination. Odors as +Nervous Stimulants. Vasomotor and Muscular Effects. Odorous Substances as +Drugs. + +III. + +The Specific Body Odors of Various Peoples. The Negro, etc. The European. +The Ability to Distinguish Individuals by Smell. The Odor of Sanctity. The +Odor of Death. The Odors of Different Parts of the Body. The Appearance of +Specific Odors at Puberty. The Odors of Sexual Excitement. The Odors of +Menstruation. Body Odors as a Secondary Sexual Character. The Custom of +Salutation by Smell. The Kiss. Sexual Selection by Smell. The Alleged +Association between Size of Nose and Sexual Vigor. The Probably Intimate +Relationship between the Olfactory and Genital Spheres. Reflex Influences +from the Nose. Reflex Influences from the Genital Sphere. Olfactory +Hallucinations in Insanity as Related to Sexual States. The Olfactive +Type. The Sense of Smell in Neurasthenic and Allied States. In Certain +Poets and Novelists. Olfactory Fetichism. The Part Played by Olfaction in +Normal Sexual Attraction. In the East, etc. In Modern Europe. The Odor of +the Armpit and its Variations. As a Sexual and General Stimulant. Body +Odors in Civilization Tend to Cause Sexual Antipathy unless some Degree +of Tumescence is Already Present. The Question whether Men or Women are +more Liable to Feel Olfactory Influences. Women Usually more Attentive to +Odors. The Special Interest in Odors Felt by Sexual Inverts. + +IV. + +The Influence of Perfumes. Their Aboriginal Relationship to Sexual Body +Odors. This True even of the Fragrance of Flowers. The Synthetic +Manufacture of Perfumes. The Sexual Effects of Perfumes. Perfumes perhaps +Originally Used to Heighten the Body Odors. The Special Significance of +the Musk Odor. Its Wide Natural Diffusion in Plants and Animals and Man. +Musk a Powerful Stimulant. Its Widespread Use as a Perfume. Peau +d'Espagne. The Smell of Leather and its Occasional Sexual Effects. The +Sexual Influence of the Odors of Flowers. The Identity of many Plant Odors +with Certain Normal and Abnormal Body Odors. The Smell of Semen in this +Connection. + +V. + +The Evil Effects of Excessive Olfactory Stimulation. The Symptoms of +Vanillism. The Occasional Dangerous Results of the Odors of Flowers. +Effects of Flowers on the Voice. + +VI. + +The Place of Smell in Human Sexual Selections. It has given Place to the +Predominance of Vision largely because in Civilized Man it Fails to Act at +a Distance. It still Plays a Part by Contributing to the Sympathies or the +Antipathies of Intimate Contact. + + +HEARING + +I. + +The Physiological Basis of Rhythm. Rhythm as a Physiological Stimulus. The +Intimate Relation of Rhythm to Movement. The Physiological Influence of +Music on Muscular Action, Circulation, Respiration, etc. The Place of +Music in Sexual Selection among the Lower Animals. Its Comparatively Small +Place in Courtship among Mammals. The Larynx and Voice in Man. The +Significance of the Pubertal Changes. Ancient Beliefs Concerning the +Influence of Music in Morals, Education and Medicine. Its Therapeutic +Uses. Significance of the Romantic Interest in Music at Puberty. Men +Comparatively Insusceptible to the Specifically Sexual Influence of Music. +Rarity of Sexual Perversions on the Basis of the Sense of Hearing. The +Part of Music in Primitive Human Courtship. Women Notably Susceptible to +the Specifically Sexual Influence of Music and the Voice. + +II. + +Summary. Why the Influence of Music in Human Sexual Selection is +Comparatively Small. + + +VISION. + +I. + +Primacy of Vision in Man. Beauty as a Sexual Allurement. The Objective +Element in Beauty. Ideals of Feminine Beauty in Various Parts of the +World. Savage Women sometimes Beautiful from European Point of View. +Savages often Admire European Beauty. The Appeal of Beauty to some Extent +Common even to Animals and Man. + +II. + +Beauty to Some Extent Consists Primitively in an Exaggeration of the +Sexual Characters. The Sexual Organs. Mutilations, Adornments, and +Garments. Sexual Allurement the Original Object of Such Devices. The +Religious Element. Unaesthetic Character of the Sexual Organs. Importance +of the Secondary Sexual Characters. The Pelvis and Hips. Steatopygia. +Obesity. Gait. The Pregnant Woman as a Mediaeval Type of Beauty. The Ideals +of the Renaissance. The Breasts. The Corset. Its Object. Its History. +Hair. The Beard. The Element of National or Racial Type in Beauty. The +Relative Beauty of Blondes and Brunettes. The General European Admiration +for Blondes. The Individual Factors in the Constitution of the Idea of +Beauty. The Love of the Exotic. + +III. + +Beauty Not the Sole Element in the Sexual Appeal of Vision. Movement. The +Mirror. Narcissism. Pygmalionism. Mixoscopy. The Indifference of Women to +Male Beauty. The Significance of Woman's Admiration of Strength. The +Spectacle of Strength is a Tactile Quality made Visible. + +IV. + +The Alleged Charm of Disparity in Sexual Attraction. The Admiration for +High Stature. The Admiration for Dark Pigmentation. The Charm of Parity. +Conjugal Mating. The Statistical Results of Observation as Regards General +Appearance, Stature, and Pigmentation of Married Couples. Preferential +Mating and Assortative Mating. The Nature of the Advantage Attained by the +Fair in Sexual Selection. The Abhorrence of Incest and the Theories of its +Cause. The Explanation in Reality Simple. The Abhorrence of Incest in +Relation to Sexual Selection. The Limits to the Charm of Parity in +Conjugal Mating. The Charm of Disparity in Secondary Sexual Characters. + +V. + +Summary of the Conclusions at Present Attainable in Regard to the Nature +of Beauty and its Relation to Sexual Selection. + + +APPENDIX A. + +The Origins of the Kiss. + + +APPENDIX B. + +Histories of Sexual Development. + + + + +SEXUAL SELECTION IN MAN. + +The External Sensory Stimuli Affecting Selection in Man--The Four Senses +Involved. + + +Tumescence--the process by which the organism is brought into the physical +and psychic state necessary to insure conjugation and detumescence--to +some extent comes about through the spontaneous action of internal forces. +To that extent it is analogous to the physical and psychic changes which +accompany the gradual filling of the bladder and precede its evacuation. +But even among animals who are by no means high in the zooelogical scale +the process is more complicated than this. External stimuli act at every +stage, arousing or heightening the process of tumescence, and in normal +human beings it may be said that the process is never completed without +the aid of such stimuli, for even in the auto-erotic sphere external +stimuli are still active, either actually or in imagination. + +The chief stimuli which influence tumescence and thus direct sexual choice +come chiefly--indeed, exclusively--through the four senses of touch, +smell, hearing, and sight. All the phenomena of sexual selection, so far +as they are based externally, act through these four senses.[1] The +reality of the influence thus exerted may be demonstrated statistically +even in civilized man, and it has been shown that, as regards, for +instance, eye-color, conjugal partners differ sensibly from the unmarried +persons by whom they are surrounded. When, therefore, we are exploring the +nature of the influence which stimuli, acting through the sensory +channels, exert on the strength and direction of the sexual impulse, we +are intimately concerned with the process by which the actual form and +color, not alone of living things generally, but of our own species, have +been shaped and are still being shaped. At the same time, it is probable, +we are exploring the mystery which underlies all the subtle appreciations, +all the emotional undertones, which are woven in the web of the whole +world as it appeals to us through those sensory passages by which alone it +can reach us. We are here approaching, therefore, a fundamental subject of +unsurpassable importance, a subject which has not yet been accurately +explored save at a few isolated points and one which it is therefore +impossible to deal with fully and adequately. Yet it cannot be passed +over, for it enters into the whole psychology of the sexual instinct. + +Of the four senses--touch, smell, hearing, and sight--with which we are +here concerned, touch is the most primitive, and it may be said to be the +most important, though it is usually the last to make its appeal felt. +Smell, which occupies the chief place among many animals, is of +comparatively less importance, though of considerable interest, in man; it +is only less intimate and final than touch. Sight occupies an intermediate +position, and on this account, and also on account of the very great part +played by vision in life generally as well as in art, it is the most +important of all the senses from the human sexual point of view. Hearing, +from the same point of view, is the most remote of all the senses in its +appeal to the sexual impulse, and on that account it is, when it +intervenes, among the first to make its influence felt. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Taste must, I believe, be excluded, for if we abstract the parts of +touch and smell, even in those abnormal sexual acts in which it may seem +to be affected, taste could scarcely have any influence. Most of our +"tasting," as Waller puts it, is done by the nose, which, in man, is in +specially close relationship, posteriorly, with the mouth. There are at +most four taste sensations--sweet, bitter, salt, and sour--if even all of +these are simple tastes. What commonly pass for taste sensations, as shown +by some experiments of G.T.W. Patrick (_Psychological Review_, 1898, p. +160), are the composite results of the mingling of sensations of smell, +touch, temperature, sight, and taste. + + + + +TOUCH. + +I. + +The Primitive Character of the Skin--Its Qualities--Touch the Earliest +Source of Sensory Pleasure--The Characteristics of Touch--As the Alpha and +Omega of Affection--The Sexual Organs a Special Adaptation of +Touch--Sexual Attraction as Originated by Touch--Sexual Hyperaesthesia to +Touch--The Sexual Associations of Acne. + + +We are accustomed to regard the skin as mainly owing its existence to the +need for the protection of the delicate vessels, nerves, viscera, and +muscles underneath. Undoubtedly it performs, and by its tough and elastic +texture is well fitted to perform, this extremely important service. But +the skin is not merely a method of protection against the external world; +it is also a method of bringing us into sensitive contact with the +external world. It is thus, as the organ of touch, the seat of the most +widely diffused sense we possess, and, moreover, the sense which is the +most ancient and fundamental of all--the mother of the other senses. + +It is scarcely necessary to insist that the primitive nature of the +sensory function of the skin with the derivative nature of the other +senses, is a well ascertained and demonstrable fact. The lower we descend +in the animal scale, the more varied we find the functions of the skin to +be, and if in the higher animals much of the complexity has disappeared, +that is only because the specialization of the various skin regions into +distinct organs has rendered this complexity unnecessary. Even yet, +however, in man himself the skin still retains, in a more or less latent +condition, much of its varied and primary power, and the analysis of +pathological and even normal phenomena serves to bring these old powers +into clear light. + + Woods Hutchinson (_Studies in Human and Comparative Pathology_, + 1901, Chapters VII and VIII) has admirably set forth the immense + importance of the skin, as in the first place "a tissue which is + silk to the touch, the most exquisitely beautiful surface in the + universe to the eye, and yet a wall of adamant against hostile + attack. Impervious alike, by virtue of its wonderful responsive + vitality, to moisture and drought, cold and heat, electrical + changes, hostile bacteria, the most virulent of poisons and the + deadliest of gases, it is one of the real Wonders of the World. + More beautiful than velvet, softer and more pliable than silk, + more impervious than rubber, and more durable under exposure than + steel, well-nigh as resistant to electric currents as glass, it + is one of the toughest and most dangerproof substances in the + three kingdoms of nature" (although, as this author adds, we + "hardly dare permit it to see the sunlight or breathe the open + air"). But it is more than this. It is, as Woods Hutchinson + expresses it, the creator of the entire body; its embryonic + infoldings form the alimentary canal, the brain, the spinal cord, + while every sense is but a specialization of its general organic + activity. It is furthermore a kind of "skin-heart," promoting the + circulation by its own energy; it is the great heat-regulating + organ of the body; it is an excretory organ only second to the + kidneys, which descend from it, and finally it still remains the + seat of touch. + + It may be added that the extreme beauty of the skin as a surface + is very clearly brought out by the inadequacy of the comparisons + commonly used in order to express its beauty. Snow, marble, + alabaster, ivory, milk, cream, silk, velvet, and all the other + conventional similes furnish surfaces which from any point of + view are incomparably inferior to the skin itself. (Cf. Stratz, + _Die Schoenheit des Weiblichen Koerpers_, Chapter XII.) + + With reference to the extraordinary vitality of the skin, + emphasized by Woods Hutchinson, it may be added that, when + experimenting on the skin with the electric current, Waller found + that healthy skin showed signs of life ten days or more after + excision. It has been found also that fragments of skin which + have been preserved in sterile fluid for even as long as nine + months may still be successfully transplanted on to the body. + (_British Medical Journal_, July 19, 1902.) + + Everything indicates, remark Stanley Hall and Donaldson ("Motor + Sensations in the Skin," _Mind_, 1885), that the skin is "not + only the primeval and most reliable source of our knowledge of + the external world or the archaeological field of psychology," but + a field in which work may shed light on some of the most + fundamental problems of psychic action. Groos (_Spiele der + Menschen_, pp. 8-16) also deals with the primitive character of + touch sensations. + + Touch sensations are without doubt the first of all the sensory + impressions to prove pleasurable. We should, indeed, expect this + from the fact that the skin reflexes have already appeared before + birth, while a pleasurable sensitiveness of the lips is doubtless + a factor in the child's response to the contact of the maternal + nipple. Very early memories of sensory pleasure seem to be + frequently, perhaps most frequently, tactile in character, though + this fact is often disguised in recollection, owing to tactile + impression being vague and diffused; there is thus in Elizabeth + Potwin's "Study of Early Memories" (_Psychological Review_, + November, 1901) no separate group of tactile memories, and the + more elaborate investigation by Colegrove ("Individual Memories," + _American Journal of Psychology_, January, 1899) yields no + decisive results under this head. See, however, Stanley Hall's + valuable study, "Some Aspects of the Early Sense of Self," + _American Journal of Psychology_, April, 1898. Kuelpe has a + discussion of the psychology of cutaneous sensations (_Outlines + of Psychology_ [English translation], pp. 87 et seq.) + + Harriet Martineau, at the beginning of her _Autobiography_, + referring to the vivid character of tactile sensations in early + childhood, remarks, concerning an early memory of touching a + velvet button, that "the rapture of the sensation was really + monstrous." And a lady tells me that one of her earliest memories + at the age of 3 is of the exquisite sensation of the casual + contact of a cool stone with the vulva in the act of urinating. + Such sensations, of course, cannot be termed specifically sexual, + though they help to furnish the tactile basis on which the + specifically sexual sensations develop. + + The elementary sensitiveness of the skin is shown by the fact + that moderate excitation suffices to raise the temperature, while + Heidenhain and others have shown that in animals cutaneous + stimuli modify the sensibility of the brain cortex, slight + stimulus increasing excitability and strong stimulus diminishing + it. Fere has shown that the slight stimulus to the skin furnished + by placing a piece of metal on the arm or elsewhere suffices to + increase the output of work with the ergograph. (Fere, _Comptes + Rendus Societe de Biologie_, July 12, 1902; id., _Pathologic des + Emotions_, pp. 40 et seq.) + + Fere found that the application of a mustard plaster to the skin, + or an icebag, or a hot-water bottle, or even a light touch with a + painter's brush, all exerted a powerful effect in increasing + muscular work with the ergograph. "The tonic effect of cutaneous + excitation," he remarks, "throws light on the psychology of the + caress. It is always the most sensitive parts of the body which + seek to give or to receive caresses. Many animals rub or lick + each other. The mucous surfaces share in this irritability of the + skin. The kiss is not only an expression of feeling; it is a + means of provoking it. Cataglottism is by no means confined to + pigeons. The tonic value of cutaneous stimulation is indeed a + commonly accepted idea. Wrestlers rub their hands or limbs, and + the hand-shake also is not without its physiological basis. + + "Cutaneous excitations may cause painful sensations to cease. Many + massage practices which favor work act chiefly as sensorial + stimulants; on this account many nervous persons cannot abandon + them, and the Greeks and Romans found in massage not only health, + but pleasure. Lauder Brunton regards many common manoeuvres, like + scratching the head and pulling the mustache, as methods of + dilating the bloodvessels of the brain by stimulating the facial + nerve. The motor reactions of cutaneous excitations favor this + hypothesis." (Fere, _Travail et Plaisir_, Chapter XV, "Influence + des Excitations du Toucher sur le Travail.") + +The main characteristics of the primitive sense of touch are its wide +diffusion over the whole body and the massive vagueness and imprecision of +the messages it sends to the brain. This is the reason, why it is, of all +the senses, the least intellectual and the least aesthetic; it is also the +reason why it is, of all the senses, the most-profoundly emotional. +"Touch," wrote Bain in his _Emotions and Will_, "is both the alpha and the +omega of affection," and he insisted on the special significance in this +connection of "tenderness"--a characteristic emotional quality of +affection which is directly founded on sensations of touch. If tenderness +is the alpha of affection, even between the sexes, its omega is to be +found in the sexual embrace, which may be said to be a method of +obtaining, through a specialized organization of the skin, the most +exquisite and intense sensations of touch. + + "We believe nothing is so exciting to the instinct or mere + passions as the presence of the hand or those tactile caresses + which mark affection," states the anonymous author of an article + on "Woman in her Psychological Relations," in the _Journal of + Psychological Medicine_, 1851. "They are the most general stimuli + in lower animals. The first recourse in difficulty or danger, and + the primary solace in anguish, for woman is the bosom of her + husband or her lover. She seeks solace and protection and repose + on that part of the body where she herself places the objects of + her own affection. Woman appears to have the same instinctive + impulse in this respect all over the world." + +It is because the sexual orgasm is founded on a special adaptation and +intensification of touch sensations that the sense of touch generally is +to be regarded as occupying the very first place in reference to the +sexual emotions. Fere, Mantegazza, Penta, and most other writers on this +question are here agreed. Touch sensations constitute a vast gamut for the +expression of affection, with at one end the note of minimum personal +affection in the brief and limited touch involved by the conventional +hand-shake and the conventional kiss, and at the other end the final and +intimate contact in which passion finds the supreme satisfaction of its +most profound desire. The intermediate region has its great significance +for us because it offers a field in which affection has its full scope, +but in which every road may possibly lead to the goal of sexual love. It +is the intimacy of touch contacts, their inevitable approach to the +threshold of sexual emotion, which leads to a jealous and instinctive +parsimony in the contact of skin and skin and to the tendency with the +increased sensitiveness of the nervous system involved by civilization to +restrain even the conventional touch manifestation of ordinary affection +and esteem. In China fathers leave off kissing their daughters while they +are still young children. In England the kiss as an ordinary greeting +between men and women--a custom inherited from classic and early Christian +antiquity--still persisted to the beginning of the eighteenth century. In +France the same custom existed in the seventeenth century, but in the +middle of that century was beginning to be regarded as dangerous,[2] while +at the present time the conventional kiss on the cheek is strictly +differentiated from the kiss on the mouth, which is reserved for lovers. +Touch contacts between person and person, other than those limited and +defined by custom, tend to become either unpleasant--as an undesired +intrusion into an intimate sphere--or else, when occurring between man and +woman at some peculiar moment, they may make a powerful reverberation in +the emotional and more specifically sexual sphere. One man falls in love +with his future wife because he has to carry her upstairs with a sprained +ankle. Another dates his love-story from a romp in which his cheek +accidentally came in contact with that of his future wife. A woman will +sometimes instinctively strive to attract the attention of the man who +appeals to her by a peculiar and prolonged pressure of the hand--the only +touch contact permitted to her. Dante, as Penta has remarked, refers to +"sight or touch" as the two channels through which a woman's love is +revived (_Purgatorio_, VIII, 76). Even the hand-shake of a sympathetic man +is enough in some chaste and sensitive women to produce sexual excitement +or sometimes even the orgasm. The cases in which love arises from the +influence of stimuli coming through the sense of touch are no doubt +frequent, and they would be still more frequent if it were not that the +very proximity of this sense to the sexual sphere causes it to be guarded +with a care which in the case of the other senses it is impossible to +exercise. This intimacy of touch and the reaction against its sexual +approximations leads to what James has called "the _antisexual instinct_, +the instinct of personal isolation, the actual repulsiveness to us of the +idea of intimate contact with most of the persons we meet, especially +those of our own sex." He refers in this connection to the unpleasantness +of the sensation felt on occupying a seat still warm from the body of +another person.[3] The Catholic Church has always recognized the risks of +vuluptuous emotion involved in tactile contacts, and the facility with +which even the most innocent contacts may take on a libidinous +character.[4] + + The following observations were written by a lady (aged 30) who + has never had sexual relationships: "I am only conscious of a + very sweet and pleasurable emotion when coming in contact with + honorable men, and consider that a comparison can be made between + the idealism of such emotions and those of music, of beauties of + Nature, and of productions of art. While studying and writing + articles upon a new subject I came in contact with a specialist, + who rendered me considerable aid, and, one day, while jointly + correcting a piece of work, he touched my hand. This produced a + sweet and pure sensation of thrill through the whole system. I + said nothing; in fact, was too thrilled for speech; and never to + this day have shown any responsive action, but for months at + certain periods, generally twice a month, I have experienced the + most pleasurable emotions. I have seen this friend twice since, + and have a curious feeling that I stand on one side of a hedge, + while he is on the other, and, as neither makes an approach, + pleasure of the highest kind is experienced, but not allowed to + go beyond reasonable and health-giving bounds. In some moments I + feel overcome by a sense of mastery by this man, and yet, feeling + that any approach would be undignified, some pleasure is + experienced in restraining and keeping within proper bounds this + passional emotion. All these thrills of pleasurable emotion + possess a psychic value, and, so long as the nervous system is + kept in perfect health, they do not seem to have the power to + injure, but rather one is able to utilize the passionate emotions + as weapons for pleasure and work." + + Various parts of the skin surface appear to have special sexual + sensitiveness, peculiarly marked in many individuals, especially + women; so that, as Fere remarks (_L'Instinct Sexuel_, second + edition, 1902, p. 130), contact stimulation of the lips, lobe of + ear, nape of neck, little finger, knee, etc., may suffice even to + produce the orgasm. Some sexually hyperaesthetic women, as has + already been noted, experience this when shaking hands with a man + who is attractive to them. In some neurotic persons this + sensibility, as Fere shows, may exist in so morbid a degree that + even the contact of the sensitive spot with unattractive persons + or inanimate objects may produce the orgasm. In this connection + reference may be made to the well-known fact that in some + hysterical subjects there are so-called "erogenous zones" simple + pressure on which suffices to evoke the complete orgasm. There + is, perhaps, some significance, from our present point of view, + in the fact that, as emphasized by Savill ("Hysterical Skin + Symptoms," _Lancet_, January 30, 1904), the skin is one of the + very best places to study hysteria. + + The intimate connection between the skin and the sexual sphere is + also shown in pathological conditions of the skin, especially in + acne as well as simple pimples on the face. The sexual + development of puberty involves a development of hair in various + regions of the body which previously were hairless. As, however, + the sebaceous glands on the face and elsewhere are the vestiges + of former hairs and survive from a period when the whole body was + hairy, they also tend to experience in an abortive manner this + same impulse. Thus, we may say that, with the development of the + sexual organs at puberty, there is correlated excitement of the + whole pilo-sebaceous apparatus. In the regions where this + apparatus is vestigial, and notably in the face, this abortive + attempt of the hair-follicles and their sebaceous appendages to + produce hairs tends only to disorganization, and simple + _comedones_ or pustular acne pimples are liable to occur. As a + rule, acne appears about puberty and dies out slowly during + adolescence. While fairly common in young women, it is usually + much less severe, but tends to be exacerbated at the menstrual + periods; it is also apt to appear at the change of life. (Stephen + Mackenzie, "The Etiology and Treatment of Acne Vulgaris," + _British Medical Journal_, September 29, 1894. Laycock [_Nervous + Diseases of Women_, 1840, p. 23] pointed out that acne occurs + chiefly in those parts of the surface covered by sexual hair. A + lucid account of the origin of acne will be found in Woods + Hutchinson's _Studies in Human and Comparative Pathology_, pp. + 179-184. G.J. Engelmann ["The Hystero-neuroses," _Gynaecological + Transactions_, 1887, pp. 124 et seq.] discusses various + pathological disorders of the skin as reflex disturbances + originating in the sexual sphere.) + + The influence of menstruation in exacerbating acne has been + called in question, but it seems to be well established. Thus, + Bulkley ("Relation between Certain Diseases of the Skin and the + Menstrual Function," _Transactions of the Medical Society of New + York_, 1901, p. 328) found that, in 510 cases of acne in women, + 145, or nearly one-third, were worse about the monthly period. + Sometimes it only appeared during menstruation. The exacerbation + occurred much more frequently just before than just after the + period. There was usually some disturbance of menstruation. + Various other disorders of the skin show a similar relationship + to menstruation. + + It has been asserted that masturbation is a frequent or constant + cause of acne at puberty. (See, e.g., discussion in _British + Medical Journal_, July, 1882.) This cannot be accepted. Acne very + frequently occurs without masturbation, and masturbation is very + frequently practiced without producing acne. At the same time we + may well believe that at the period of puberty, when the + pilo-sebaceous system is already in sensitive touch with the + sexual system, the shock of frequently repeated masturbation may + (in the same way as disordered menstruation) have its + repercussion on the skin. Thus, a lady has informed me that at + about the age of 18 she found that frequently repeated + masturbation was followed by the appearance of _comedones_. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] A. Franklin, _Les Soins de Toilette_, p. 81. + +[3] W. James, _Principles of Psychology_, vol. ii. p. 347. + +[4] Numerous passages from the theologians bearing on this point are +brought together in _Moechialogia_, pp. 221-220. + + + + +II. + +Ticklishness--Its Origin and Significance--The Psychology of +Tickling--Laughter--Laughter as a Kind of Detumescence--The Sexual +Relationships of Itching--The Pleasure of Tickling--Its Decrease with Age +and Sexual Activity. + + +Touch, as has already been remarked, is the least intellectual of the +senses. There is, however, one form of touch sensation--that is to say, +ticklishness--which is of so special and peculiar a nature that it has +sometimes been put aside in a class apart from all other touch sensations. +Scaliger proposed to class titillation as a sixth, or separate, sense. +Alrutz, of Upsala, regards tickling as a milder degree of itching, and +considers that the two together constitute a sensation of distinct quality +with distinct end-organs, for the mediation of that quality.[5] However we +may regard this extreme view, tickling is certainly a specialized +modification of touch and it is at the same time the most intellectual +mode of touch sensation and that with the closest connection with the +sexual sphere. To regard tickling as an intellectual manifestation may +cause surprise, more especially when it is remembered that ticklishness is +a form of sensation which reaches full development very early in life, and +it has to be admitted that, as compared even with the messages that may be +sent through smell and taste, the intellectual element in ticklishness +remains small. But its presence here has been independently recognized by +various investigators. Groos points out the psychic factor in tickling as +evidenced by the impossibility of self-tickling.[6] Louis Robinson +considers that ticklishness "appears to be one of the simplest +developments of mechanical and automatic nervous processes in the +direction of the complex functioning of the higher centres which comes +within the scope of psychology,"[7] Stanley Hall and Allin remark that +"these minimal touch excitations represent the very oldest stratum of +psychic life in the soul."[8] Hirman Stanley, in a somewhat similar +manner, pushes the intellectual element in ticklishness very far back and +associates it with "tentacular experience." "By temporary self-extension," +he remarks, "even low amoeboid organisms have slight, but suggestive, +touch experiences that stimulate very general and violent reactions, and +in higher organisms extended touch-organs, as tentacles, antennae, hair, +etc., become permanent and very delicately sensitive organs, where minimal +contacts have very distinct and powerful reactions." Thus ticklishness +would be the survival of long passed ancestral tentacular experience, +which, originally a stimulation producing intense agitation and alarm, has +now become merely a play activity and a source of keen pleasure.[9] + +We need not, however, go so far back in the zooelogical series to explain +the origin and significance of tickling in the human species. Sir J.Y. +Simpson suggested, in an elaborate study of the position of the child in +the womb, that the extreme excitomotory sensibility of the skin in various +regions, such as the sole of the foot, the knee, the sides, which already +exists before birth, has for its object the excitation and preservation of +the muscular movements necessary to keep the foetus in the most favorable +position in the womb.[10] It is, in fact, certainly the case that the +stimulation of all the ticklish regions in the body tends to produce +exactly that curled up position of extreme muscular flexion and general +ovoid shape which is the normal position of the foetus in the womb. We may +well believe that in this early developed reflex activity we have the +basis of that somewhat more complex ticklishness which appears somewhat +later. + +The mental element in tickling is indicated by the fact that even a child, +in whom ticklishness is highly developed, cannot tickle himself; so that +tickling is not a simple reflex. This fact was long ago pointed out by +Erasmus Darwin, and he accounted for it by supposing that voluntary +exertion diminishes the energy of sensation.[11] This explanation is, +however, inadmissible, for, although we cannot easily tickle ourselves by +the contact of the skin with our own fingers, we can do so with the aid of +a foreign body, like a feather. We may perhaps suppose that, as +ticklishness has probably developed under the influence of natural +selection as a method of protection against attack and a warning of the +approach of foreign bodies, its end would be defeated if it involved a +simple reaction to the contact of the organism with itself. This need of +protection it is which involves the necessity of a minimal excitation +producing a maximal effect, though the mechanism whereby this takes place +has caused considerable discussion. We may, it is probable, best account +for it by invoking the summation-irradiation theory of pain-pleasure, the +summation of the stimuli in their course through the nerves, aided by +capillary congestion, leading to irradiation due to anastomoses between +the tactile corpuscles, not to speak of the much wider irradiation which +is possible by means of central nervous connections. + + Prof. C.L. Herrick adopts this explanation of the phenomena of + tickling, and rests it, in part, on Dogiel's study of the tactile + corpuscles ("Psychological Corollaries of Modern Neurological + Discoveries," _Journal of Comparative Neurology_, March, 1898). + The following remarks of Prof. A. Allin may also be quoted in + further explanation of the same theory: "So far as ticklishness + is concerned, a very important factor in the production of this + feeling is undoubtedly that of the summation of stimuli. In a + research of Stirling's, carried on under Ludwig's direction, it + was shown that reflex contractions only occur from repeated + shocks to the nerve-centres--that is, through summation of + successive stimuli. That this result is also due in some degree + to an alternating increase in the sensibility of the various + areas in question from altered supply of blood is reasonably + certain. As a consequence of this summation-process there would + result in many cases and in cases of excessive nervous discharge + the opposite of pleasure, namely: pain. A number of instances + have been recorded of death resulting from tickling, and there is + no reason to doubt the truth of the statement that Simon de + Montfort, during the persecution of the Albigenses, put some of + them to death by tickling the soles of their feet with a feather. + An additional causal factor in the production of tickling may lie + in the nature and structure of the nervous process involved in + perception in general. According to certain histological + researches of recent years we know that between the sense-organs + and the central nervous system there exist closely connected + chains of conductors or neurons, along which an impression + received by a single sensory cell on the periphery is propagated + avalanchelike through an increasing number of neurons until the + brain is reached. If on the periphery a single cell is excited + the avalanchelike process continues until finally hundreds or + thousands of nerve-cells in the cortex are aroused to + considerable activity. Golgi, Ramon y Cajal, Koelliker, Held, + Retzius, and others have demonstrated the histological basis of + this law for vision, hearing, and smell, and we may safely assume + from the phenomena of tickling that the sense of touch is not + lacking in a similar arrangement. May not a suggestion be + offered, with some plausibility, that even in ideal or + representative tickling, where tickling results, say, from + someone pointing a finger at the ticklish places, this + avalanchelike process may be incited from central centres, thus + producing, although in a modified degree, the pleasant phenomena + in question? As to the deepest causal factor, I should say that + tickling is the result of vasomotor shock." (A. Allin, "On + Laughter," _Psychological Review_, May, 1903.) + +The intellectual element in tickling conies out in its connection with +laughter and the sense of the comic, of which it may be said to constitute +the physical basis. While we are not here concerned with laughter and the +comic sense,--a subject which has lately attracted considerable +attention,--it may be instructive to point out that there is more than an +analogy between laughter and the phenomena of sexual tumescence and +detumescence. The process whereby prolonged tickling, with its nervous +summation and irradiation and accompanying hyperaemia, finds sudden relief +in an explosion of laughter is a real example of tumescence--as it has +been defined in the study in another volume entitled "An Analysis of the +Sexual Impulse"--resulting finally in the orgasm of detumescence. The +reality of the connection between the sexual embrace and tickling is +indicated by the fact that in some languages, as in that of the +Fuegians,[12] the same word is applied to both. That ordinary tickling is +not sexual is due to the circumstances of the case and the regions to +which the tickling is applied. If, however, the tickling is applied within +the sexual sphere, then there is a tendency for orgasm to take place +instead of laughter. The connection which, through the phenomena of +tickling, laughter thus bears to the sexual sphere is well indicated, as +Groos has pointed out, by the fact that in sexually-minded people sexual +allusions tend to produce laughter, this being the method by which they +are diverted from the risks of more specifically sexual detumescence.[13] + + Reference has been made to the view of Alrutz, according to which + tickling is a milder degree of itching. It is more convenient and + probably more correct to regard itching or pruritus, as it is + termed in its pathological forms, as a distinct sensation, for it + does not arise under precisely the same conditions as tickling + nor is it relieved in the same way. There is interest, however, + in pointing out in this connection that, like tickling, itching + has a real parallelism to the specialized sexual sensations. + Bronson, who has very ably interpreted the sensations of itching + (New York Neurological Society, October 7, 1890; _Medical News_, + February 14, 1903, and summarized in the _British Medical + Journal_, March 7, 1903; and elsewhere), regards it as a + perversion of the sense of touch, a dysaesthesia due to obstructed + nerve-excitation with imperfect conduction of the generated force + into correlated nervous energy. The scratching which relieves + itching directs the nervous energy into freer channels, sometimes + substituting for the pruritus either painful or voluptuous + sensations. Such voluptuous sensations may be regarded as a + generalized aphrodisiac sense comparable to the specialized + sexual orgasm. Bronson refers to the significant fact that + itching occurs so frequently in the sexual region, and states + that sexual neurasthenia is sometimes the only discoverable cause + of genital and anal pruritus. (Cf. discussion on pruritus, + _British Medical Journal_, November 30, 1895.) Gilman, again + (_American Journal of Psychology_, vi, p. 22), considers that + scratching, as well as sneezing, is comparable to coitus. + +The sexual embrace has an intimate connection with the phenomena of +ticklishness which could not fail to be recognized. This connection is, +indeed, the basis of Spinoza's famous definition of love,--"_Amor est +titillatio quaedam concomitante idea causae externae_,"--a statement which +seems to be reflected in Chamfort's definition of love as "_l'echange de +deux fantaisies, et le contact de deux epidermes_." The sexual act, says +Gowers, is, in fact, a skin reflex.[14] "The sexual parts," Hall and Allin +state, "have a ticklishness as unique as their function and as keen as +their importance." Herrick finds the supreme illustration of the summation +and irradiation theory of tickling in the phenomena of erotic excitement, +and points out that in harmony with this the skin of the sexual region is, +as Dogiel has shown, that portion of the body in which the tactile +corpuscles are most thoroughly and elaborately provided with anastomosing +fibres. It has been pointed out[15] that, when ordinary tactile +sensibility is partially abolished,--especially in hemianaesthesia in the +insane,--some sexual disturbance is specially apt to be found in +association. + +In young children, in girls even when they are no longer children, and +occasionally in men, tickling may be a source of acute pleasure, which in +very early life is not sexual, but later tends to become so under +circumstances predisposing to the production of erotic emotion, and +especially when the nervous system is keyed up to a high tone favorable +for the production of the maximum effect of tickling. + + "When young," writes a lady aged 28, "I was extremely fond of + being tickled, and I am to some extent still. Between the ages of + 10 and 12 it gave me exquisite pleasure, which I now regard as + sexual in character. I used to bribe my younger sister to tickle + my feet until she was tired." + + Stanley Hall and Allin in their investigation of the phenomena of + tickling, largely carried out among young women teachers, found + that in 60 clearly marked cases ticklishness was more marked at + one time than another, "as when they have been 'carrying on,' or + are in a happy mood, are nervous or unwell, after a good meal, + when being washed, when in perfect health, when with people they + like, etc." (Hall and Allin, "Tickling and Laughter," _American + Journal of Psychology_, October, 1897.) It will be observed that + most of the conditions mentioned are such as would be favorable + to excitations of an emotionally sexual character. + + The palms of the hands may be very ticklish during sexual + excitement, especially in women, and Moll (_Kontraere + Sexualempfindung_, p. 180) remarks that in some men titillation + of the skin of the back, of the feet, and even of the forehead + evokes erotic feelings. + + It may be added that, as might be expected, titillation of the + skin often has the same significance in animals as in man. "In + some animals," remarks Louis Robinson (art. "Ticklishness," + _Dictionary of Psychological Medicine_), "local titillation of + the skin, though in parts remote from the reproductive organs, + plainly acts indirectly upon them as a stimulus. Thus, Harvey + records that, by stroking the back of a favorite parrot (which he + had possessed for years and supposed to be a male), he not only + gave the bird gratification,--which was the sole intention of the + illustrious physiologist,--but also caused it to reveal its sex + by laying an egg." + +The sexual significance of tickling is very clearly indicated by the fact +that the general ticklishness of the body, which is so marked in children +and in young girls, greatly diminishes, as a rule, after sexual +relationships have been established. Dr. Gina Lombroso, who investigated +the cutaneous reflexes, found that both the abdominal and plantar +reflexes, which are well marked in childhood and in young people between +the ages of 15 and 18, were much diminished in older persons, and to a +greater extent in women than in men, to a greater extent in the abdominal +region than on the soles of the feet;[16] her results do not directly show +the influence of sexual relationship, but they have an indirect bearing +which is worth noting. + +The difference in ticklishness between the unmarried woman and the married +woman corresponds to their difference in degree of modesty. Both modesty +and ticklishness may be said to be characters which are no longer needed. +From this point of view the general ticklishness of the skin is a kind of +body modesty. It is so even apart from any sexual significance of +tickling, and Louis Robinson has pointed out that in young apes, puppies, +and other like animals the most ticklish regions correspond to the most +vulnerable spots in a fight, and that consequently in the mock fights of +early life skill in defending these spots is attained. + + In Iceland, according to Margarethe Filhes (as quoted by Max + Bartels, _Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie_, 1900, ht. 2-3, p. 57), it + may be known whether a youth is pure or a maid is intact by their + susceptibility to tickling. It is considered a bad sign if that + is lost. + + I am indebted to a medical correspondent for the following + communication: "Married women have told me that they find that + after marriage they are not ticklish under the arms or on the + breasts, though before marriage any tickling or touching in these + regions, especially by a man, would make them jump or get + hysterical or 'queer,' as they call it. Before coitus the sexual + energy seems to be dissipated along all the nerve-channels and + especially along the secondary sexual routes,--the breasts, nape + of neck, eyebrows, lips, cheeks, armpits, and hair thereon, + etc.,--but after marriage the surplus energy is diverted from + these secondary channels, and response to tickling is diminished. + I have often noted in insane cases, especially mania in + adolescent girls, that they are excessively ticklish. Again, in + ordinary routine practice I have observed that, though married + women show no ticklishness during auscultation and percussion of + the chest, this is by no means always so in young girls. Perhaps + ticklishness in virgins is Nature's self-protection against rape + and sexual advances, and the young girl instinctively wishing to + hide the armpits, breasts, and other ticklish regions, tucks + herself up to prevent these parts being touched. The married + woman, being in love with a man, does not shut up these parts, as + she reciprocates the advances that he makes; she no longer + requires ticklishness as a protection against sexual aggression." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] Alrutz's views are summarized in _Psychological Review_, Sept., 1901. + +[6] _Die Spiele der Menschen_, 1899, p. 206. + +[7] L. Robinson, art. "Ticklishness," Tuke's _Dictionary of Psychological +Medicine_. + +[8] Stanley Hall and Allin, "Tickling and Laughter," _American Journal of +Psychology_, October, 1897. + +[9] H.M. Stanley, "Remarks on Tickling and Laughter," _American Journal of +Psychology_, vol. ix, January, 1898. + +[10] Simpson, "On the Attitude of the Foetus in Utero," _Obstetric +Memoirs_, 1856, vol. ii. + +[11] Erasmus Darwin, _Zooenomia_, Sect. XVII, 4. + +[12] Hyades and Deniker, _Mission Scientifique du Cap Horn_, vol. vii. p. +296. + +[13] Such an interpretation is supported by the arguments of W. McDougall +("The Theory of Laughter," _Nature_, February 5, 1903), who contends, +without any reference to the sexual field, that one of the objects of +laughter is automatically to "disperse our attention." + +[14] Even the structure of the vaginal mucous membrane, it may be noted, +is analogous to that of the skin. D. Berry Hart, "Note on the Development +of the Clitoris, Vagina, and Hymen," _Transactions of the Edinburgh +Obstetrical Society_, vol. xxi, 1896. + +[15] W.H.B. Stoddart, "Anaesthesia in the Insane," _Journal of Mental +Science_, October, 1899. + +[16] Gina Lombroso, "Sur les Reflexes Cutanes," International Congress of +Criminal Anthropology, Amsterdam, _Comptes Rendus_, p. 295. + + + + +III. + +The Secondary Sexual Skin Centres--Orificial Contacts--Cunnilingus and +Fellatio--The Kiss--The Nipples--The Sympathy of the Breasts with the +Primary Sexual Centres--This Connection Operative both through the Nerves +and through the Blood--The Influence of Lactation on the Sexual +Centres--Suckling and Sexual Emotion--The Significance of the Association +between Suckling and Sexual Emotion--This Association as a Cause of Sexual +Perversity. + + +We have seen that the skin generally has a high degree of sensibility, +which frequently tends to be in more or less definite association with the +sexual centres. We have seen also that the central and specific sexual +sensation, the sexual embrace itself, is, in large measure, a specialized +kind of skin reflex. Between the generalized skin sensations and the great +primary sexual centre of sensation there are certain secondary sexual +centres which, on account of their importance, may here be briefly +considered. + +These secondary centres have in common the fact that they always involve +the entrances and the exits of the body--the regions, that is, where skin +merges into mucous membrane, and where, in the course of evolution, +tactile sensibility has become highly refined. It may, indeed, be said +generally of these frontier regions of the body that their contact with +the same or a similar frontier region in another person of opposite sex, +under conditions otherwise favorable to tumescence, will tend to produce a +minimum and even sometimes a maximum degree of sexual excitation. Contact +of these regions with each other or with the sexual region itself so +closely simulates the central sexual reflex that channels are set up for +the same nervous energy and secondary sexual centres are constituted. + +It is important to remember that the phenomena we are here concerned with +are essentially normal. Many of them are commonly spoken of as +perversions. In so far, however, as they are aids to tumescence they must +be regarded as coming within the range of normal variation. They may be +considered unaesthetic, but that is another matter. It has, moreover, to be +remembered that aesthetic values are changed under the influence of sexual +emotion; from the lover's point of view many things are beautiful which +are unbeautiful from the point of view of him who is not a lover, and the +greater the degree to which the lover is swayed by his passion the greater +the extent to which his normal aesthetic standard is liable to be modified. +A broad consideration of the phenomena among civilized and uncivilized +peoples amply suffices to show the fallacy of the tendency, so common +among unscientific writers on these subjects, to introduce normal aesthetic +standards into the sexual sphere. From the normal standpoint of ordinary +daily life, indeed, the whole process of sex is unaesthetic, except the +earlier stages of tumescence.[17] + +So long as they constitute a part of the phase of tumescence, the +utilization of the sexual excitations obtainable through these channels +must be considered within the normal range of variation, as we may +observe, indeed, among many animals. When, however, such contacts of the +orifices of the body, other than those of the male and female sexual +organs proper, are used to procure not merely tumescence, but +detumescence, they become, in the strict and technical sense, perversions. +They are perversions in exactly the same sense as are the methods of +intercourse which involve the use of checks to prevent fecundation. The +aesthetic question, however, remains the same as if we were dealing with +tumescence. It is necessary that this should be pointed out clearly, even +at the risk of misapprehension, as confusions are here very common. + + The essentially sexual character of the sensitivity of the + orificial contacts is shown by the fact that it may sometimes be + accidentally developed even in early childhood. This is well + illustrated in a case recorded by Fere. A little girl of 4, of + nervous temperament and liable to fits of anger in which she + would roll on the ground and tear her clothes, once ran out into + the garden in such a fit of temper and threw herself on the lawn + in a half-naked condition. As she lay there two dogs with whom + she was accustomed to play came up and began to lick the + uncovered parts of the body. It so happened that as one dog + licked her mouth the other licked her sexual parts. She + experienced a shock of intense sensation which she could never + forget and never describe, accompanied by a delicious tension of + the sexual organs. She rose and ran away with a feeling of shame, + though she could not comprehend what had happened. The impression + thus made was so profound that it persisted throughout life and + served as the point of departure of sexual perversions, while the + contact of a dog's tongue with her mouth alone afterward sufficed + to evoke sexual pleasure. (Fere, _Archives de Neurologie_, 1903, + No. 90.) + + I do not purpose to discuss here either _cunnilingus_ (the + apposition of the mouth to the female pudendum) or _fellatio_ + (the apposition of the mouth to the male organ), the agent in the + former case being, in normal heterosexual relationships, a man, + in the latter a woman; they are not purely tactile phenomena, but + involve various other physical and psychic elements. + _Cunnilingus_ was a very familiar manifestation in classic times, + as shown by frequent and mostly very contemptuous references in + Aristophanes, Juvenal, and many other Greek and Roman writers; + the Greeks regarded it as a Phoenician practice, just as it is + now commonly considered French; it tends to be especially + prevalent at all periods of high civilization. _Fellatio_ has + also been equally well known, in both ancient and modern times, + especially as practiced by inverted men. It may be accepted that + both _cunnilingus_ and _fellatio_, as practiced by either sex, + are liable to occur among healthy or morbid persons, in + heterosexual or homosexual relationships. They have little + psychological significance, except to the extent that when + practiced to the exclusion of normal sexual relationships they + become perversions, and as such tend to be associated with + various degenerative conditions, although such associations are + not invariable. + + The essentially normal character of _cunnilingus_ and _fellatio_, + when occurring as incidents in the process of tumescence, is + shown by the fact that they are practiced by many animals. This + is the case, for instance, among dogs. Moll points out that not + infrequently the bitch, while under the dog, but before + intromission, will change her position to lick the dog's + penis--apparently from an instinctive impulse to heighten her own + and his excitement--and then return to the normal position, while + _cunnilingus_ is of constant occurrence among animals, and on + account of its frequency among dogs was called by the Greeks + skylax (Rosenbaum, _Geschichte der Lustseuche im Altertume_, + fifth edition, pp. 260-278; also notes in Moll, _Untersuchungen + ueber pie Libido Sexualis_, Bd. I, pp. 134, 369; and Bloch, + _Beitraege zur AEtiologie der Psychopathia Sexualis_, Teil II, pp. + 216 et seq.) + + The occurrence of _cunnilingus_ as a sexual episode of tumescence + among lower human races is well illustrated by a practice of the + natives of the Caroline Islands (as recorded by Kubary in his + ethnographic study of this people and quoted by Ploss and + Bartels, _Das Weib_, vol. i). It is here customary for a man to + place a piece of fish between the labia, while he stimulates the + latter by his tongue and teeth until under stress of sexual + excitement the woman urinates; this is regarded as an indication + that the proper moment for intercourse has arrived. Such a + practice rests on physiologically sound facts whatever may be + thought of it from an aesthetic standpoint. + + The contrast between the normal aesthetic standpoint in this + matter and the lover's is well illustrated by the following + quotations: Dr. A.B. Holder, in the course of his description of + the American Indian _bote_, remarks, concerning _fellatio_: "Of + all the many varieties of sexual perversion, this, it seems to + me, is the most debased that could be conceived of." On the other + hand, in a communication from a writer and scholar of high + intellectual distinction occurs the statement: "I affirm that, of + all sexual acts, _fellatio_ is most an affair of imagination and + sympathy." It must be pointed out that there is no contradiction + in these two statements, and that each is justified, according as + we take the point of view of the ordinary onlooker or of the + impassioned lover eager to give a final proof of his or her + devotion. It must be added that from a scientific point of view + we are not entitled to take either side. + +Of the whole of this group of phenomena, the most typical and the most +widespread example is certainly the kiss. We have in the lips a highly +sensitive frontier region between skin and mucous membrane, in many +respects analogous to the vulvo-vaginal orifice, and reinforcible, +moreover, by the active movements of the still more highly sensitive +tongue. Close and prolonged contact of these regions, therefore, under +conditions favorable to tumescence sets up a powerful current of nervous +stimulation. After those contacts in which the sexual regions themselves +take a direct part, there is certainly no such channel for directing +nervous force into the sexual sphere as the kiss. This is nowhere so well +recognized as in France, where a young girl's lips are religiously kept +for her lover, to such an extent, indeed, that young girls sometimes come +to believe that the whole physical side of love is comprehended in a kiss +on the mouth; so highly intelligent a woman as Madam Adam has described +the agony she felt as a girl when kissed on the lips by a man, owing to +the conviction that she had thereby lost her virtue. Although the lips +occupy this highly important position as a secondary sexual focus +in the sphere of touch, the kiss is--unlike _cunnilingus_ and +_fellatio_--confined to man and, indeed, to a large extent, to civilized +man. It is the outcome of a compound evolution which had its beginning +outside the sphere of touch, and it would therefore be out of place to +deal with the interesting question of its development in this place. It +will be discussed elsewhere.[18] + +There is yet another orificial frontier region which is a highly important +tactile sexual focus: the nipple. The breasts raise, indeed, several +interesting questions in their intimate connection with the sexual sphere +and it may be worth while to consider them at this point. + +The breasts have from the present point of view this special significance +among the sexual centres that they primarily exist, not for the contact of +the lover, but the contact of the child. This is doubtless, indeed, the +fundamental fact on which all the touch contacts we are here concerned +with have grown up. The sexual sensitivity of the lover's lips to +orificial contacts has been developed from the sensitivity of the infant's +lips to contact with his mother's nipple. It is on the ground of that +evolution that we are bound to consider here the precise position of the +breasts as a sexual centre. + +As the great secreting organs of milk, the function of the breasts must +begin immediately the child is cut off from the nutrition derived from +direct contact with his mother's blood. It is therefore essential that the +connection between the sexual organs proper, more especially the womb, and +the breasts should be exceedingly intimate, so that the breasts may be in +a condition to respond adequately to the demand of the child's sucking +lips at the earliest moment after birth. As a matter of fact, this +connection is very intimate, so intimate that it takes place in two +totally distinct ways--by the nervous system and by the blood. + + The breasts of young girls sometimes become tender at puberty in + sympathy with the evolution of the sexual organs, although the + swelling of the breasts at this period is not normally a + glandular process. At the recurring periods of menstruation, + again, sensations in the breasts are not uncommon. + + It is not, however, until impregnation occurs that really + decisive changes take place in the breasts. "As soon as the ovum + is impregnated, that is to say within a few days," as W.D.A. + Griffith states it ("The Diagnosis of Pregnancy," _British + Medical Journal_, April 11, 1903), "the changes begin to occur in + the breast, changes which are just as well worked out as are the + changes in the uterus and the vagina, which, from the + commencement of pregnancy, prepare for the labor which ought to + follow nine months afterward. These are changes in the direction + of marked activity of function. An organ which was previously + quite passive, without activity of circulation and the effects of + active circulation, begins to grow and continues to grow in + activity and size as pregnancy progresses." + + The association between breasts and womb is so obvious that it + has not escaped many savage peoples, who are often, indeed, + excellent observers. Among one primitive people at least the + activity of the breast at impregnation seems to be clearly + recognized. The Sinangolo of British New Guinea, says Seligmann + (_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, July-December, 1902, + p. 298) believe that conception takes place in the breasts; on + this account they hold that coitus should never take place before + the child is weaned or he might imbibe semen with the milk. + + It is natural to assume that this connection between the activity + of the womb and the glandular activity of the breasts is a + nervous connection, by means of the spinal cord, and such a + connection certainly exists and plays a very important part in + the stimulating action of the breasts on the sexual organs. But + that there is a more direct channel of communication even than + the nervous system is shown by the fact that the secretion of + milk will take place at parturition, even when the nervous + connection has been destroyed. Mironoff found that, when the + mammary gland is completely separated from the central nervous + system, secretion, though slightly diminished, still continued. + In two goats he cut the nerves shortly before parturition and + after birth the breasts still swelled and functioned normally + (_Archives des Sciences Biologiques_, St. Petersburg, 1895, + summarized in _L'Annee Biologique_; 1895, p. 329). Ribbert, + again, cut out the mammary gland of a young rabbit and + transplanted it into the ear; five months after the rabbit bore + young and the gland secreted milk freely. The case has been + reported of a woman whose spinal cord was destroyed by an + accident at the level of the fifth and sixth dorsal vertebrae, + yet lactation was perfectly normal (_British Medical Journal_, + August 5, 1899, p. 374). We are driven to suppose that there is + some chemical change in the blood, some internal secretion from + the uterus or the ovaries, which acts as a direct stimulant to + the breasts. (See a comprehensive discussion of the phenomena of + the connection between the breasts and sexual organs, though the + conclusions are not unassailable, by Temesvary, _Journal of + Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the British Empire_, June, 1903). + That this hypothetical secretion starts from the womb rather than + the ovaries seems to be indicated by the fact that removal of + both ovaries during pregnancy will not suffice to prevent + lactation. In favor of the ovaries, see Beatson, _Lancet_, July, + 1896; in favor of the uterus, Armand Routh, "On the Interaction + between the Ovaries and the Mammary Glands," _British Medical + Journal_, September 30, 1899. + +While, however, the communications from the sexual organs to the breast +are of a complex and at present ill understood character, the +communication from the breasts to the sexual organs is without doubt +mainly and chiefly nervous. When the child is put to the breast after +birth the suction of the nipple causes a reflex contraction of the womb, +and it is held by many, though not all, authorities that in a woman who +does not suckle her child there is some risk that the womb will not return +to its normal involuted size. It has also been asserted that to put a +child to the breast during the early months of pregnancy causes so great a +degree of uterine contraction that abortion may result. + + Freund found in Germany that stimulation of the nipples by an + electrical cupping apparatus brought about contraction of the + pregnant uterus. At an earlier period it was recommended to + irritate the nipple in order to excite the uterus to parturient + action. Simpson, while pointing out that this was scarcely + adequate to produce the effect desired, thought that placing a + child to the breast after labor had begun might increase uterine + action. (J.Y. Simpson, _Obstetric Memoirs_, vol. i, p. 836; also + Fere, _L'Instinct Sexuel_, second edition, p. 132). + + The influence of lactation over the womb in preventing the return + of menstruation during its continuance is well known. According + to Remfry's investigation of 900 cases in England, in 57 per + cent. of cases there is no menstruation during lactation. (L. + Remfry, in paper read before Obstetrical Society of London, + summarized in the _British Medical Journal_, January 11, 1896, p. + 86). Bendix, in Germany, found among 140 cases that in about 40 + per cent. there was no menstruation during lactation (paper read + before Duesseldorf meeting of the Society of German Naturalists + and Physicians, 1899). When the child is not suckled menstruation + tends to reappear about six months after parturition. + + It is possible that the divergent opinions of authorities + concerning the necessarily favorable influence of lactation in + promoting the return of the womb to its normal size may be due to + a confusion of two distinct influences: the reflex action of the + nipple on the womb and the effects of prolonged glandular + secretion of the breasts in debilitated persons. The act of + suckling undoubtedly tends to promote uterine contraction, and in + healthy women during lactation the womb may even (according to + Vineberg) be temporarily reduced to a smaller size than before + impregnation, thus producing what is known as "lactation + atrophy." In debilitated women, however, the strain of + milk-production may lead to general lack of muscular tone, and + involution of the womb thus be hindered rather than aided by + lactation. + +On the objective side, then, the nipple is to be regarded as an erectile +organ, richly supplied with nerves and vessels, which, under the +stimulation of the infant's lips--or any similar compression, and even +under the influence of emotion or cold,--becomes firm and projects, mainly +as a result of muscular contraction; for, unlike the penis and the +clitoris, the nipple contains no true erectile tissue and little capacity +for vascular engorgement.[19] We must then suppose that an impetus tends +to be transmitted through the spinal cord to the sexual organs, setting up +a greater or less degree of nervous and muscular excitement with uterine +contraction. These being the objective manifestations, what manifestations +are to be noted on the subjective side? + +It is a remarkable proof of the general indifference with which in Europe +even the fairly constant and prominent characteristics of the psychology +of women have been treated until recent times that, so far as I am +aware,--though I have made no special research to this end,--no one before +the end of the eighteenth century had recorded the fact that the act of +suckling tends to produce in women voluptuous sexual emotions. Cabanis in +1802, in the memoir on "Influence des Sexes" in his _Rapports du Physique +et du Moral de l'Homme_, wrote that several suckling women had told him +that the child in sucking the breast made them experience a vivid +sensation of pleasure, shared in some degree by the sexual organs. There +can be no doubt that in healthy suckling women this phenomenon is +exceedingly common, though in the absence of any methodical and precise +investigation it cannot be affirmed that it is experienced by every woman +in some degree, and it is highly probable that this is not the case. One +lady, perfectly normal, states that she has had stronger sexual feelings +in suckling her children than she has ever experienced with her husband, +but that so far as possible she has tried to repress them, as she regards +them as brutish under these circumstances. Many other women state +generally that suckling is the most delicious physical feeling they have +ever experienced. In most cases, however, it does not appear to lead to a +desire for intercourse, and some of those who make this statement have no +desire for coitus during lactation, though they may have strong sexual +needs at other times. It is probable that this corresponds to the normal +condition, and that the voluptuous sensations aroused by suckling are +adequately gratified by the child. It may be added that there are probably +many women who could say, with a lady quoted by Fere,[20] that the only +real pleasures of sex they have ever known are those derived from their +suckling infants. + +It is not difficult to see why this normal association of sexual emotion +with suckling should have come about. It is essential for the preservation +of the lives of young mammals that the mothers should have an adequate +motive in pleasurable sensation for enduring the trouble of suckling. The +most obvious method for obtaining the necessary degree of pleasurable +sensation lay in utilizing the reservoir of sexual emotion, with which +channels of communication might already be said to be open through the +action of the sexual organs on the breasts during pregnancy. The +voluptuous element in suckling may thus be called a merciful provision of +Nature for securing the maintenance of the child. + + Cabanis seems to have realized the significance of this + connection as the basis of the sympathy between mother and child, + and more recently Lombroso and Ferrero have remarked (_La Donna + Delinquente_, p. 438) on the fact that maternal love has a sexual + basis in the element of venereal pleasure, though usually + inconsiderable, experienced during suckling. Houzeau has referred + to the fact that in the majority of animals the relation between + mother and offspring is only close during the period of + lactation, and this is certainly connected with the fact that it + is only during lactation that the female animal can derive + physical gratification from her offspring. When living on a farm + I have ascertained that cows sometimes, though not frequently, + exhibit slight signs of sexual excitement, with secretion of + mucus, while being milked; so that, as the dairymaid herself + observed, it is as if they were being "bulled." The sow, like + some other mammals, often eats her own young after birth, + mistaking them, it is thought, for the placenta, which is + normally eaten by most mammals; it is said that the sow never + eats her young when they have once taken the teat. + + It occasionally happens that this normal tendency for suckling to + produce voluptuous sexual emotions is present in an extreme + degree, and may lead to sexual perversions. It does not appear + that the sexual sensations aroused by suckling usually culminate + in the orgasm; this however, was noted in a case recorded by + Fere, of a slightly neurotic woman in whom intense sexual + excitement occurred during suckling, especially if prolonged; so + far as possible, she shortened the periods of suckling in order + to prevent, not always successfully, the occurrence of the orgasm + (Fere, _Archives de Neurologie_ No. 30, 1903). Icard refers to + the case of a woman who sought to become pregnant solely for the + sake of the voluptuous sensations she derived from suckling, and + Yellowlees (Art. "Masturbation," _Dictionary of Psychological + Medicine_) speaks of the overwhelming character of "the storms of + sexual feeling sometimes observed during lactation." + + It may be remarked that the frequency of the association between + lactation and the sexual sensations is indicated by the fact + that, as Savage remarks, lactational insanity is often + accompanied by fancies regarding the reproductive organs. + +When we have realized the special sensitivity of the orificial regions and +the peculiarly close relationships between the breasts and the sexual +organs we may easily understand the considerable part which they normally +play in the art of love. As one of the chief secondary sexual characters +in women, and one of her chief beauties, a woman's breasts offer +themselves to the lover's lips with a less intimate attraction than her +mouth only because the mouth is better able to respond. On her side, such +contact is often instinctively desired. Just as the sexual disturbance of +pregnancy is accompanied by a sympathetic disturbance in the breasts, so +the sexual excitement produced by the lover's proximity reacts on the +breasts; the nipple becomes turgid and erect in sympathy with the +clitoris; the woman craves to place her lover in the place of the child, +and experiences a sensation in which these two supreme objects of her +desire are deliciously mingled. + + The powerful effect which stimulation of the nipple produces on + the sexual sphere has led to the breasts playing a prominent part + in the erotic art of those lands in which this art has been most + carefully cultivated. Thus in India, according to Vatsyayana, + many authors are of the opinion that in approaching a woman a + lover should begin by sucking the nipples of her breasts, and in + the songs of the Bayaderes of Southern India sucking the nipple + is mentioned as one of the natural preliminaries of coitus. + + In some cases, and more especially in neurotic persons, the + sexual pleasure derived from manipulation of the nipple passes + normal limits and, being preferred even to coitus, becomes a + perversion. In girls' schools, it is said, especially in France, + sucking and titillation of the breasts are not uncommon; in men, + also, titillation of the nipples occasionally produces sexual + sensations (Fere, _L'Instinct Sexuel_, second edition, p. 132). + Hildebrandt recorded the case of a young woman whose nipples had + been sucked by her lover; by constantly drawing her breasts she + became able to suck them herself and thus attained extreme sexual + pleasure. A.J. Bloch, of New Orleans, has noted the case of a + woman who complained of swelling of the breasts; the gentlest + manipulation produced an orgasm, and it was found that the + swelling had been intentionally produced for the sake of this + manipulation. Moraglia in Italy knew a very beautiful woman who + was perfectly cold in normal sexual relationships, but madly + excited when her husband pressed or sucked her breasts. Lombroso + (_Archivio di Psichiatria_, 1885, fasc. IV) has described the + somewhat similar case of a woman who had no sexual sensitivity in + the clitoris, vagina, or labia, and no pleasure in coitus except + in very strange positions, but possessed intense sexual feelings + in the right nipple as well as in the upper third of the thigh. + + It is remarkable that not only is suckling apt to be accompanied + by sexual pleasure in the mother, but that, in some cases, the + infant also appears to have a somewhat similar experience. This + is, at all events, indicated in a remarkable case recorded by + Fere (_L'Instinct Sexuel_, second edition, p. 257). A female + infant child of slightly neurotic heredity was weaned at the age + of 14 months, but so great was her affection for her mother's + breasts, though she had already become accustomed to other food, + that this was only accomplished with great difficulty and by + allowing her still to caress the naked breasts several times a + day. This went on for many months, when the mother, becoming + again pregnant, insisted on putting an end to it. So jealous was + the child, however, that it was necessary to conceal from her the + fact that her younger sister was suckled at her mother's breasts, + and once at the age of 3, when she saw her father aiding her + mother to undress, she became violently jealous of him. This + jealousy, as well as the passion for her mother's breasts, + persisted to the age of puberty, though she learned to conceal + it. At the age of 13, when menstruation began, she noticed in + dancing with her favorite girl friends that when her breasts came + in contact with theirs she experienced a very agreeable + sensation, with erection of the nipples; but it was not till the + age of 16 that she observed that the sexual region took part in + this excitement and became moist. From this period she had erotic + dreams about young girls. She never experienced any attraction + for young men, but eventually married; though having much esteem + and affection for her husband, she never felt any but the + slightest sexual enjoyment in his arms, and then only by evoking + feminine images. This case, in which the sensations of an infant + at the breast formed the point of departure of a sexual + perversion which lasted through life, is, so far as I am aware, + unique. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] Jonas Cohn (_Allgemeine AEsthetik_, 1901, p. 11) lays it down that +psychology has nothing to do with good or bad taste. "The distinction +between good and bad taste has no meaning for psychology. On this account, +the fundamental conceptions of aesthetics cannot arise from psychology." It +may be a question whether this view can be accepted quite absolutely. + +[18] See Appendix A: "The Origins of the Kiss." + +[19] See J.B. Hellier, "On the Nipple Reflex," _British Medical Journal_, +November 7, 1896. + +[20] Fere, _L'Instinct Sexuel_, second edition, p. 147. + + + + +IV. + +The Bath--Antagonism of Primitive Christianity to the Cult of the +Skin--Its Cult of Personal Filth--The Reasons which Justified this +Attitude--The World-wide Tendency to Association between Extreme +Cleanliness and Sexual Licentiousness--The Immorality Associated with +Public Baths in Europe down to Modern Times. + + +The hygiene of the skin, as well as its special cult, consists in bathing. +The bath, as is well known, attained under the Romans a degree of +development which, in Europe at all events, it has never reached before or +since, and the modern visitor to Rome carries away with him no more +impressive memory than that of the Baths of Caracalla. Since the coming of +Christianity the cult of the skin, and even its hygiene, have never again +attained the same general and unquestioned exaltation. The Church killed +the bath. St. Jerome tells us with approval that when the holy Paula noted +that any of her nuns were too careful in this matter she would gravely +reprove them, saying that "the purity of the body and its garments means +the impurity of the soul."[21] Or, as the modern monk of Mount Athos still +declares: "A man should live in dirt as in a coat of mail, so that his +soul may sojourn more securely within." + + Our knowledge of the bathing arrangements of Roman days is + chiefly derived from Pompeii. Three public baths (two for both + men and women, who were also probably allowed to use the third + occasionally) have so far been excavated in this small town, as + well as at least three private bathing establishments (at least + one of them for women), while about a dozen houses contain + complete baths for private use. Even in a little farm house at + Boscoreale (two miles out of Pompeii) there was an elaborate + series of bathing rooms. It may be added that Pompeii was well + supplied with water. All houses but the poorest had flowing + jets, and some houses had as many as ten jets. (See Man's + _Pompeii_, Chapters XXVI-XXVIII.) + + The Church succeeded to the domination of imperial Rome, and + adopted many of the methods of its predecessor. But there could + be no greater contrast than is presented by the attitude of + Paganism and of Christianity toward the bath. + + As regards the tendencies of the public baths in imperial Rome, + some of the evidence is brought together in the section on this + subject in Rosenbaum's _Geschichte der Lustseuche im Alterthume_. + As regards the attitude of the earliest Christian ascetics in + this matter I may refer the reader to an interesting passage in + Lecky's _History of European Morals_ (vol. ii, pp. 107-112), in + which are brought together a number of highly instructive + examples of the manner in which many of the most eminent of the + early saints deliberately cultivated personal filth. + + In the middle ages, when the extreme excesses of the early + ascetics had died out, and monasticiam became regulated, monks + generally took two baths a year when in health; in illness they + could be taken as often as necessary. The rules of Cluny only + allowed three towels to the community: one for the novices, one + for the professed, and one for the lay brothers. At the end of + the seventeenth century Madame de Mazarin, having retired to a + convent of Visitandines, one day desired to wash her feet, but + the whole establishment was set in an uproar at such an idea, and + she received a direct refusal. In 1760 the Dominican Richard + wrote that in itself the bath is permissible, but it must be + taken solely for necessity, not for pleasure. The Church taught, + and this lesson is still inculcated in convent schools, that it + is wrong to expose the body even to one's own gaze, and it is not + surprising that many holy persons boasted that they had never + even washed their hands. (Most of these facts have been taken + from A. Franklin, _Les Soins de Toilette_, one of the _Vie Privee + d'Autrefois_ series, in which further details may be found.) + + In sixteenth-century Italy, a land of supreme elegance and + fashion, superior even to France, the conditions were the same, + and how little water found favor even with aristocratic ladies we + may gather from the contemporary books on the toilet, which + abound with recipes against itch and similar diseases. It should + be added that Burckhardt (_Die Cultur der Renaissance in + Italien_, eighth edition, volume ii, p. 92) considers that in + spite of skin diseases the Italians of the Renaissance were the + first nation in Europe for cleanliness. + + It is unnecessary to consider the state of things in other + European countries. The aristocratic conditions of former days + are the plebeian conditions of to-day. So far as England is + concerned, such documents as Chadwick's _Report on the Sanitary + Condition of the Laboring Population of Great Britain_ (1842) + sufficiently illustrate the ideas and the practices as regards + personal cleanliness which prevailed among the masses during the + nineteenth century and which to a large extent still prevail. + +A considerable amount of opprobrium has been cast upon the Catholic Church +for its direct and indirect influence in promoting bodily uncleanliness. +Nietzsche sarcastically refers to the facts, and Mr. Frederick Harrison +asserts that "the tone of the middle ages in the matter of dirt was a form +of mental disease." It would be easy to quote many other authors to the +same effect. + +It is necessary to point out, however, that the writers who have committed +themselves to such utterances have not only done an injustice to +Christianity, but have shown a lack of historical insight. Christianity +was essentially and fundamentally a rebellion against the classic world, +against its vices, and against their concomitant virtues, against both its +practices and its ideals. It sprang up in a different part of the +Mediterranean basin, from a different level of culture; it found its +supporters in a new and lower social stratum. The cult of charity, +simplicity, and faith, while not primarily ascetic, became inevitably +allied with asceticism, because from its point of view: sexuality was the +very stronghold of the classic world. In the second century the genius of +Clement of Alexandria and of the great Christian thinkers who followed him +seized on all those elements in classic life and philosophy which could be +amalgamated with Christianity without, as they trusted, destroying its +essence, but in the matter of sexuality there could be no compromise, and +the condemnation of sexuality involved the condemnation of the bath. It +required very little insight and sagacity for the Christians to +see--though we are now apt to slur over the fact--that the cult of the +bath was in very truth the cult of the flesh.[22] However profound their +ignorance of anatomy, physiology, and psychology might be, they had +before them ample evidence to show that the skin is an outlying sexual +zone and that every application which promoted the purity, brilliance, and +healthfulness of the skin constituted a direct appeal, feeble or strong as +the case might be, to those passions against which they were warring. The +moral was evident: better let the temporary garment of your flesh be +soaked with dirt than risk staining the radiant purity of your immortal +soul. If Christianity had not drawn that moral with clear insight and +relentless logic Christianity would never have been a great force in the +world. + + If any doubt is felt as to the really essential character of the + connection between cleanliness and the sexual impulse it may be + dispelled by the consideration that the association is by no + means confined to Christian Europe. If we go outside Europe and + even Christendom altogether, to the other side of the world, we + find it still well marked. The wantonness of the luxurious people + of Tahiti when first discovered by European voyagers is + notorious. The Areoi of Tahiti, a society largely constituted on + a basis of debauchery, is a unique institution so far as + primitive peoples are concerned. Cook, after giving one of the + earliest descriptions of this society and its objects at Tahiti + (Hawkesworth, _An Account of Voyages_, etc., 1775, vol. ii, p. + 55), immediately goes on to describe the extreme and scrupulous + cleanliness of the people of Tahiti in every respect; they not + only bathed their bodies and clothes every day, but in all + respects they carried cleanliness to a higher point than even + "the politest assembly in Europe." Another traveler bears similar + testimony: "The inhabitants of the Society Isles are, among all + the nations of the South Seas, the most cleanly; and the better + sort of them carry cleanliness to a very great length"; they + bathe morning and evening in the sea, he remarks, and afterward + in fresh water to remove the particles of salt, wash their hands + before and after meals, etc. (J.R. Forster, "_Observations made + during a Voyage round the World_," 1798, p. 398.) And William + Ellis, in his detailed description of the people of Tahiti + (_Polynesian Researches_, 1832, vol. i, especially Chapters VI + and IX), while emphasizing their extreme cleanliness, every + person of every class bathing at least once or twice a day, + dwells on what he considers their unspeakable moral debasement; + "notwithstanding the apparent mildness of their disposition and + the cheerful vivacity of their conversation, no portion of the + human race was ever perhaps sunk lower in brutal licentiousness + and moral degradation." + + After leaving Tahiti Cook went on to New Zealand. Here he found + that the people were more virtuous than at Tahiti, and also, he + found, less clean. + +It is, however, a mistake to suppose that physical uncleanliness ruled +supreme through mediaeval and later times. It is true that the eighteenth +century, which saw the birth of so much that marks our modern world, +witnessed a revival of the old ideal of bodily purity. But the struggle +between two opposing ideals had been carried on for a thousand years or +more before this. The Church, indeed, was in this matter founded on an +impregnable rock. But there never has been a time when influences outside +the Church have not found a shelter somewhere. Those traditions of the +classic world which Christianity threw aside as useless or worse quietly +reappeared. In no respect was this more notably the case than in regard to +the love of pure water and the cult of the bath. Islam adopted the +complete Roman bath, and made it an institution of daily life, a necessity +for all classes. Granada is the spot in Europe where to-day we find the +most exquisite remains of Mohammedan culture, and, though the fury of +Christian conquest dragged the harrow over the soil of Granada, even yet +streams and fountains spring up there and gush abundantly and one seldom +loses the sound of the plash of water. The flower of Christian chivalry +and Christian intelligence went to Palestine to wrest the Holy Sepulchre +from the hands of pagan Mohammedans. They found there many excellent +things which they had not gone out to seek, and the Crusaders produced a +kind of premature and abortive Renaissance, the shadow of lost classic +things reflected on Christian Europe from the mirror of Islam. + + Yet it is worth while to point out, as bearing on the + associations of the bath here emphasized, that even in Islam we + may trace the existence of a religious attitude unfavorable to + the bath. Before the time of Mohammed there were no public baths + in Arabia, and it was and is believed that baths are specially + haunted by the djinn--the evil spirits. Mohammed himself was at + first so prejudiced against public baths that he forbade both men + and women to enter them. Afterward, however, he permitted men to + use them provided they wore a cloth round the loins, and women + also when they could not conveniently bathe at home. Among the + Prophet's sayings is found the assertion: "Whatever woman enters + a bath the devil is with her," and "All the earth is given to me + as a place of prayer, and as pure, except the burial ground and + the bath." (See, e.g., E.W. Lane, _Arabian Society in the Middle + Ages_, 1883, pp. 179-183.) Although, therefore, the bath, or + _hammam_, on grounds of ritual ablution, hygiene, and enjoyment + speedily became universally popular in Islam among all classes + and both sexes, Mohammed himself may be said to have opposed it. + +Among the discoveries which the Crusaders made and brought home with them +one of the most notable was that of the bath, which in its more elaborate +forms seems to have been absolutely forgotten in Europe, though Roman +baths might everywhere have been found underground. All authorities seem +to be agreed in finding here the origin of the revival of the public bath. +It is to Rome first, and later to Islam, the lineal inheritor of classic +culture, that we owe the cult of water and of physical purity. Even to-day +the Turkish bath, which is the most popular of elaborate methods of +bathing, recalls by its characteristics and its name the fact that it is a +Mohammedan survival of Roman life. + +From the twelfth century onward baths have repeatedly been introduced from +the East, and reintroduced afresh in slightly modified forms, and have +flourished with varying degrees of success. In the thirteenth century they +were very common, especially in Paris, and though they were often used, +more especially in Germany, by both sexes in common, every effort was made +to keep them orderly and respectable. These efforts were, however, always +unsuccessful in the end. A bath always tended in the end to become a +brothel, and hence either became unfashionable or was suppressed by the +authorities. It is sufficient to refer to the reputation in England of +"hot-houses" and "bagnios." It was not until toward the end of the +eighteenth century that it began to be recognized that the claims of +physical cleanliness were sufficiently imperative to make it necessary +that the fairly avoidable risks to morality in bathing should be avoided +and the unavoidable risks bravely incurred. At the present day, now that +we are accustomed to weave ingeniously together in the texture of our +lives the conflicting traditions of classic and Christian days, we have +almost persuaded ourselves that the pagan virtue of cleanliness comes next +after godliness, and we bathe, forgetful of the great moral struggle which +once went on around the bath. But we refrain from building ourselves +palaces to bathe in, and for the most part we bathe with exceeding +moderation.[23] It is probable that we may best harmonize our conflicting +traditions by rejecting not only the Christian glorification of dirt, but +also, save for definitely therapeutic purposes, the excessive heat, +friction, and stimulation involved by the classic forms of bathing. Our +reasonable ideal should render it easy and natural for every man, woman, +and child to have a simple bath, tepid in winter, cold in summer, all the +year round. + + For the history of the bath in mediaeval times and later Europe, + see A. Franklin, _Les Soins de Toilette_, in the _Vie Privee + d'Autrefois_ series; Rudeck, _Geschichte der oeffentlichen + Sittlichkeit in Deutschland_; T. Wright, _The Homes of Other + Days_; E. Duehren, _Das Geschlechtsleben in England_, bd. 1. + + Outside the Church, there was a greater amount of cleanliness + than we are sometimes apt to suppose. It may, indeed, be said + that the uncleanliness of holy men and women would have attracted + no attention if it had corresponded to the condition generally + prevailing. Before public baths were established bathing in + private was certainly practiced; thus Ordericus Vitalis, in + narrating the murder of Mabel, the Countess de Montgomery, in + Normandy in 1082, casually mentions that she was lying on the bed + after her bath (_Ecclesiastical History_, Book V, Chapter XIII). + In warm weather, it would appear, mediaeval ladies bathed in + streams, as we may still see countrywomen do in Russia, Bohemia, + and occasionally nearer home. The statement of the historian + Michelet, therefore, that Percival, Iseult, and the other + ethereal personages of mediaeval times "certainly never washed" + (_La Sorciere_, p. 110) requires some qualification. + + In 1292 there were twenty-six bathing establishments in Paris, + and an attendant would go through the streets in the morning + announcing that they were ready. One could have a vapor bath only + or a hot bath to succeed it, as in the East. No woman of bad + reputation, leper, or vagabond was at this time allowed to + frequent the baths, which were closed on Sundays and feast-days. + By the fourteenth century, however, the baths began to have a + reputation for immorality, as well as luxury, and, according to + Dufour, the baths of Paris "rivaled those of imperial Rome: love, + prostitution, and debauchery attracted the majority to the + bathing establishments, where everything was covered by a decent + veil." He adds that, notwithstanding the scandal thus caused and + the invectives of preachers, all went to the baths, young and + old, rich and poor, and he makes the statement, which seems to + echo the constant assertion of the early Fathers, that "a woman + who frequented the baths returned home physically pure only at + the expense of her moral purity." + + In Germany there was even greater freedom of manners in bathing, + though, it would seem, less real licentiousness. Even the + smallest towns had their baths, which were frequented by all + classes. As soon as the horn blew to announce that the baths were + ready all hastened along the street, the poorer folk almost + completely undressing themselves before leaving their homes. + Bathing was nearly always in common without any garment being + worn, women attendants commonly rubbed and massaged both sexes, + and the dressing room was frequently used by men and women in + common; this led to obvious evils. The Germans, as Weinhold + points out (_Die Deutschen Frauen im Mittelalter_, 1882, bd. ii, + pp. 112 et seq.), have been fond of bathing in the open air in + streams from the days of Tacitus and Caesar until comparatively + modern times, when the police have interfered. It was the same in + Switzerland. Poggio, early in the sixteenth century, found it the + custom for men and women to bathe together at Baden, and said + that he seemed to be assisting at the _floralia_ of ancient Rome, + or in Plato's Republic. Senancour, who quotes the passage (_De + l'Amour_, 1834, vol. i, p. 313), remarks that at the beginning of + the nineteenth century there was still great liberty at the Baden + baths. + + Of the thirteenth century in England Thomas Wright (_Homes of + Other Days_, 1871, p. 271) remarks: "The practice of warm bathing + prevailed very generally in all classes of society, and is + frequently alluded to in the mediaeval romances and stories. For + this purpose a large bathing-tub was used. People sometimes + bathed immediately after rising in the morning, and we find the + bath used after dinner and before going to bed. A bath was also + often prepared for a visitor on his arrival from a journey; and, + what seems still more singular, in the numerous stories of + amorous intrigues the two lovers usually began their interviews + by bathing together." + + In England the association between bathing and immorality was + established with special rapidity and thoroughness. Baths were + here officially recognized as brothels, and this as early as the + twelfth century, under Henry II. These organized bath-brothels + were confined to Southwark, outside the walls of the city, a + quarter which was also given up to various sports and amusements. + At a later period, "hot-houses," bagnios, and hummums (the + eastern _hammam_) were spread all over London and remained + closely identified with prostitution, these names, indeed, + constantly tending to become synonymous with brothels. (T. + Wright, _Homes of Other Days_, 1871, pp. 494-496, gives an + account of them.) + + In France the baths, being anathematized by both Catholics and + Huguenots, began to lose vogue and disappear. "Morality gained," + remarks Franklin, "but cleanliness lost." Even the charming and + elegant Margaret of Navarre found it quite natural for a lady to + mention incidentally to her lover that she had not washed her + hands for a week. Then began an extreme tendency to use + cosmetics, essences, perfumes, and a fierce war with vermin, up + to the seventeenth century, when some progress was made, and + persons who desired to be very elegant and refined were + recommended to wash their faces "nearly every day." Even in 1782, + however, while a linen cloth was advised for the purpose of + cleaning the face and hands, the use of water was still somewhat + discountenanced. The use of hot and cold baths was now, however, + beginning to be established in Paris and elsewhere, and the + bathing establishments at the great European health resorts were + also beginning to be put on the orderly footing which is now + customary. When Casanova, in the middle of the eighteenth + century, went to the public baths at Berne he was evidently + somewhat surprised when he found that he was invited to choose + his own attendant from a number of young women, and when he + realized that these attendants were, in all respects, at the + disposition of the bathers. It is evident that establishments of + this kind were then already dying out, although it may be added + that the customs described by Casanova appear to have persisted + in Budapest and St. Petersburg almost or quite up to the present. + The great European public baths have long been above suspicion in + this respect (though homosexual practices are not quite + excluded), while it is well recognized that many kinds of hot + baths now in use produce a powerfully stimulating action upon the + sexual system, and patients taking such baths for medical + purposes are frequently warned against giving way to these + influences. + + The struggle which in former ages went on around bathing + establishments has now been in part transferred to massage + establishments. Massage is an equally powerful stimulant to the + skin and the sexual sphere,--acting mainly by friction instead of + mainly by heat,--and it has not yet attained that position of + general recognition and popularity which, in the case of bathing + establishments, renders it bad policy to court disrepute. + + Like bathing, massage is a hygienic and therapeutic method of + influencing the skin and subjacent tissues which, together with + its advantages, has certain concomitant disadvantages in its + liability to affect the sexual sphere. This influence is apt to + be experienced by individuals of both sexes, though it is perhaps + specially marked in women. Jouin (quoted in Paris _Journal de + Medecine_, April 23, 1893) found that of 20 women treated by + massage, of whom he made inquiries, 14 declared that they + experienced voluptuous sensations; 8 of these belonged to + respectable families; the other 6 were women of the _demimonde_ + and gave precise details; Jouin refers in this connection to the + _aliptes_ of Rome. It is unnecessary to add that the + gynaecological massage introduced in recent years by the Swedish + teacher of gymnastics, Thure-Brandt, as involving prolonged + rubbing and kneading of the pelvic regions, "_pression glissante + du vagin_" etc. (_Massage Gynecologique_, by G. de Frumerie, + 1897), whatever its therapeutic value, cannot fail in a large + proportion of cases to stimulate the sexual emotions. (Eulenburg + remarks that for sexual anaesthesia in women the Thure-Brandt + system of massage may "naturally" be recommended, _Sexuale + Neuropathie_, p. 78.) I have been informed that in London and + elsewhere massage establishments are sometimes visited by women + who seek sexual gratification by massage of the genital regions + by the _masseuse_. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] "_Dicens munditiam corporis atque vestitus animae esse +immunditiam_"--St. Jerome, _Ad Eustochium Virginem_. + +[22] With regard to the physiological mechanism by which bathing produces +its tonic and stimulating effects Woods Hutchinson has an interesting +discussion (Chapter VII) in his _Studies in Human and Comparative +Pathology_. + +[23] Thus among the young women admitted to the Chicago Normal School to +be trained as teachers, Miss Lura Sanborn, the director of physical +training, states (_Doctor's Magazine_, December, 1900) that a bath once a +fortnight is found to be not unusual. + + + + +V. + +Summary--Fundamental Importance of Touch--The Skin the Mother of All the +Other Senses. + + +The sense of touch is so universally diffused over the whole skin, and in +so many various degrees and modifications, and it is, moreover, so truly +the Alpha and the Omega of affection, that a broken and fragmentary +treatment of the subject has been inevitable. + +The skin is the archaeological field of human and prehuman experience, the +foundation on which all forms of sensory perception have grown up, and as +sexual sensibility is among the most ancient of all forms of sensibility, +the sexual instinct is necessarily, in the main, a comparatively slightly +modified form of general touch sensibility. This primitive character of +the great region of tactile sensation, its vagueness and diffusion, the +comparatively unintellectual as well as unaesthetic nature of the mental +conceptions which arise on the tactile basis make it difficult to deal +precisely with the psychology of touch. The very same qualities, however, +serve greatly to heighten the emotional intensity of skin sensations. So +that, of all the great sensory fields, the field of touch is at once the +least intellectual and the most massively emotional. These qualities, as +well as its intimate and primitive association with the apparatus of +tumescence and detumescence, make touch the readiest and most powerful +channel by which the sexual sphere may be reached. + +In disentangling the phenomena of tactile sensibility ticklishness has +been selected for special consideration as a kind of sensation, founded on +reflexes developing even before birth, which is very closely related to +sexual phenomena. It is, as it were, a play of tumescence, on which +laughter supervenes as a play of detumescence. It leads on to the more +serious phenomena of tumescence, and it tends to die out after +adolescence, at the period during which sexual relationships normally +begin. Such a view of ticklishness, as a kind of modesty of the skin, +existing merely to be destroyed, need only be regarded as one of its +aspects. Ticklishness certainly arose from a non-sexual starting-point, +and may well have protective uses in the young animal. + +The readiness with which tactile sensibility takes on a sexual character +and forms reflex channels of communication with the sexual sphere proper +is illustrated by the existence of certain secondary sexual foci only +inferior in sexual excitability to the genital region. We have seen that +the chief of these normal foci are situated in the orificial regions where +skin and mucous membrane meet, and that the contact of any two orificial +regions between two persons of different sex brought together under +favorable conditions is apt, when prolonged, to produce a very intense +degree of sexual erethism. This is a normal phenomenon in so far as it is +a part of tumescence, and not a method of obtaining detumescence. The kiss +is a typical example of these contacts, while the nipple is of special +interest in this connection, because we are thereby enabled to bring the +psychology of lactation into intimate relationship with the psychology of +sexual love. + +The extreme sensitiveness of the skin, the readiness with which its +stimulation reverberates into the sexual sphere, clearly brought out by +the present study, enable us to understand better a very ancient +contest--the moral struggle around the bath. There has always been a +tendency for the extreme cultivation of physical purity to lead on to the +excessive stimulation of the sexual sphere; so that the Christian ascetics +were entirely justified, on their premises, in fighting against the bath +and in directly or indirectly fostering a cult of physical uncleanliness. +While, however, in the past there has clearly been a general tendency for +the cult of physical purity to be associated with moral licentiousness, +and there are sufficient grounds for such an association, it is important +to remember that it is not an inevitable and fatal association; a +scrupulously clean person is by no means necessarily impelled to +licentiousness; a physically unclean person is by no means necessarily +morally pure. When we have eliminated certain forms of the bath which must +be regarded as luxuries rather than hygienic necessities, though they +occasionally possess therapeutic virtues, we have eliminated the most +violent appeals of the bath to the sexual impulse. So imperative are the +demands of physical purity now becoming, in general opinion, that such +small risks to moral purity as may still remain are constantly and wisely +disregarded, and the immoral traditions of the bath now, for the most +part, belong to the past. + + + + +SMELL. + +I. + +The Primitiveness of Smell--The Anatomical Seat of the Olfactory +Centres--Predominance of Smell among the Lower Mammals--Its Diminished +Importance in Man--The Attention Paid to Odors by Savages. + + +The first more highly organized sense to arise on the diffused tactile +sensitivity of the skin is, in most cases, without doubt that of smell. At +first, indeed, olfactory sensibility is not clearly differentiated from +general tactile sensibility; the pit of thickened and ciliated epithelium +or the highly mobile antennae which in many lower animals are sensitive to +odorous stimuli are also extremely sensitive to tactile stimuli; this is, +for instance, the case with the snail, in whom at the same time olfactive +sensibility seems to be spread over the whole body.[24] The sense of smell +is gradually specialized, and when taste also begins to develop a kind of +chemical sense is constituted. The organ of smell, however, speedily +begins to rise in importance as we ascend the zooelogical scale. In the +lower vertebrates, when they began to adopt a life on dry land, the sense +of smell seems to have been that part of their sensory equipment which +proved most useful under the new conditions, and it developed with +astonishing rapidity. Edinger finds that in the brain of reptiles the +"area olfactoria" is of enormous extent, covering, indeed, the greater +part of the cortex, though it may be quite true, as Herrick remarks, that, +while smell is preponderant, it is perhaps not correct to attribute an +exclusively olfactory tone to the cerebral activities of the _Sauropsida_ +or even the _Ichthyopsida_. Among most mammals, however, in any case, +smell is certainly the most highly developed of the senses; it gives the +first information of remote objects that concern them; it gives the most +precise information concerning the near objects that concern them; it is +the sense in terms of which most of their mental operations must be +conducted and their emotional impulses reach consciousness. Among the apes +it has greatly lost importance and in man it has become almost +rudimentary, giving place to the supremacy of vision. + + Prof. G. Elliot Smith, a leading authority on the brain, has well + summarized the facts concerning the predominance of the olfactory + region in the mammal brain, and his conclusions may be quoted. It + should be premised that Elliot Smith divides the brain into + rhinencephalon and neopallium. Rhinencephalon designates the + regions which are pre-eminently olfactory in function: the + olfactory bulb, its peduncle, the tuberculum olfactorium and + locus perforatus, the pyriform lobe, the paraterminal body, and + the whole hippocampal formation. The neopallium is the dorsal cap + of the brain, with frontal, parietal, and occipital areas, + comprehending all that part of the brain which is the seat of the + higher associative activities, reaching its fullest development + in man. + + "In the early mammals the olfactory areas form by far the greater + part of the cerebral hemisphere, which is not surprising when it + is recalled that the forebrain is, in the primitive brain, + essentially an appendage, so to speak, of the smell apparatus. + When the cerebral hemisphere comes to occupy such a dominant + position in the brain it is perhaps not unnatural to find that + the sense of smell is the most influential and the chief source + of information to the animal; or, perhaps, it would be more + accurate to say that the olfactory sense, which conveys general + information to the animal such as no other sense can bring + concerning its prey (whether near or far, hidden or exposed), is + much the most serviceable of all the avenues of information to + the lowly mammal leading a terrestrial life, and therefore + becomes predominant; and its particular domain--the + forebrain--becomes the ruling portion of the nervous system. + + "This early predominance of the sense of smell persists in most + mammals (unless an aquatic mode of life interferes and deposes + it: compare the _Cetacea, Sirenia_, and _Pinnipedia_, for + example) even though a large neopallium develops to receive + visual, auditory, tactile, and other impressions pouring into the + forebrain. In the _Anthropoidea_ alone of nonaquatic mammals the + olfactory regions undergo an absolute (and not only relative, as + in the _Carnivora_ and _Ungulata_) dwindling, which is equally + shared by the human brain, in common with those of the other + _Simiidae_, the _Cercopithecidae_, and the _Cebidae_. But all the + parts of the rhinencephalon, which are so distinct in macrosmatic + mammals, can also be recognized in the human brain. The small + ellipsoidal olfactory bulb is moored, so to speak, on the + cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone by the olfactory nerves; so + that, as the place of attachment of the olfactory peduncle to the + expanding cerebral hemisphere becomes removed (as a result of the + forward extension of the hemisphere) progressively farther and + farther backward, the peduncle becomes greatly stretched and + elongated. And, as this stretching involves the gray matter + without lessening the number of nerve-fibres in the olfactory + tract, the peduncle becomes practically what it is usually + called--i.e., the olfactory 'tract.' The tuberculum olfactorium + becomes greatly reduced and at the same time flattened; so that + it is not easy to draw a line of demarcation between it and the + anterior perforated space. The anterior rhinal fissure, which is + present in the early human foetus, vanishes (almost, if not + altogether) in the adult. Part of the posterior rhinal fissure is + always present in the 'incisura temporalis,' and sometimes, + especially in some of the non-European races, the whole of the + posterior rhinal fissure is retained in that typical form which + we find in the anthropoid apes." (G. Elliot Smith, in + _Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Physiological + Series of Comparative Anatomy Contained in the Museum of the + Royal College of Surgeons of England_, second edition, vol. ii.) + A full statement of Elliot Smith's investigations, with diagrams, + is given by Bullen, _Journal of Mental Science_, July, 1899. It + may be added that the whole subject of the olfactory centres has + been thoroughly studied by Elliot Smith, as well as by Edinger, + Mayer, and C.L. Herrick. In the _Journal of Comparative + Neurology_, edited by the last named, numerous discussions and + summaries bearing on the subject will be found from 1896 onward. + Regarding the primitive sense-organs of smell in the various + invertebrate groups some information will be found in A.B. + Griffiths's _Physiology of the Invertebrata_, Chapter XI. + +The predominance of the olfactory area in the nervous system of the +vertebrates generally has inevitably involved intimate psychic +associations between olfactory stimuli and the sexual impulse. For most +mammals not only are all sexual associations mainly olfactory, but the +impressions received by this sense suffice to dominate all others. An +animal not only receives adequate sexual excitement from olfactory +stimuli, but those stimuli often suffice to counterbalance all the +evidence of the other senses. + + We may observe this very well in the case of the dog. Thus, a + young dog, well known to me, who had never had connection with a + bitch, but was always in the society of its father, once met the + latter directly after the elder dog had been with a bitch. He + immediately endeavored to behave toward the elder dog, in spite + of angry repulses, exactly as a dog behaves toward a bitch in + heat. The messages received by the sense of smell were + sufficiently urgent not only to set the sexual mechanism in + action, but to overcome the experiences of a lifetime. There is + an interesting chapter on the sense of smell in the mental life + of the dog in Giessler's _Psychologie des Geruches_, 1894, + Chapter XI, Passy (in the appendix to his memoir on olfaction, + _L'Annee Psychologique_, 1895) gives the result of some + interesting experiments as to the effects of perfume on dogs; + civet and castoreum were found to have the most powerfully + exciting effect. + + The influences of smell are equally omnipotent in the sexual life + of many insects. Thus, Fere has found that in cockchafers sexual + coupling failed to take place when the antennae, which are the + organs of smell, were removed; he also found that males, after + they had coupled with females, proved sexually attractive to + other males (_Comptes Rendus de la Societe de Biologie_, May 21, + 1898). Fere similarly found that, in a species of _Bombyx_, males + after contact with females sometimes proved attractive to other + males, although no abnormal relationships followed. (_Soc. de + Biol_, July 30, 1898.) + +With the advent of the higher apes, and especially of man, all this has +been changed. The sense of smell, indeed, still persists universally and +it is still also exceedingly delicate, though often neglected.[25] It is, +moreover, a useful auxiliary in the exploration of the external world, +for, in contrast to the very few sensations furnished to us by touch and +by taste, we are acquainted with a vast number of smells, though the +information they give us is frequently vague. An experienced perfumer, +says Piesse, will have two hundred odors in his laboratory and can +distinguish them all. To a sensitive nose nearly everything smells. Passy +goes so far as to state that he has "never met with any object that is +really inodorous when one pays attention to it, not even excepting glass," +and, though we can scarcely accept this statement absolutely,--especially +in view of the careful experiments of Ayrton, which show that, contrary +to a common belief, metals when perfectly clean and free from traces of +contact with the skin or with salt solutions have no smell,--odor is still +extremely widely diffused. This is especially the case in hot countries, +and the experiments of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition on the +sense of smell of the Papuans were considerably impeded by the fact that +at Torres Straits everything, even water, seemed to have a smell. Savages +are often accused more or less justly of indifference to bad odors. They +are very often, however, keenly alive to the significance of smells and +their varieties, though it does not appear that the sense of smell is +notably more developed in savage than in civilized peoples. Odors also +continue to play a part in the emotional life of man, more especially in +hot countries. Nevertheless both in practical life and in emotional life, +in science and in art, smell is, at the best, under normal conditions, +merely an auxiliary. If the sense of smell were abolished altogether the +life of mankind would continue as before, with little or no sensible +modification, though the pleasures of life, and especially of eating and +drinking, would be to some extent diminished. + + In New Ireland, Duffield remarks (_Journal of the Anthropological + Institute_, 1886, p. 118), the natives have a very keen sense of + smell; unusual odors are repulsive to them, and "carbolic acid + drove them wild." + + The New Caledonians, according to Foley (_Bulletin de la Societe + d'Anthropologie_, November 6, 1879), only like the smells of meat + and fish which are becoming "high," like _popoya_, which smells + of fowl manure, and _kava_, of rotten eggs. Fruits and vegetables + which are beginning to go bad seem the best to them, while the + fresh and natural odors which we prefer seem merely to say to + them: "We are not yet eatable." (A taste for putrefying food, + common among savages, by no means necessarily involves a distaste + for agreeable scents, and even among Europeans there is a + widespread taste for offensively smelling and putrid foods, + especially cheese and game.) + + The natives of Torres Straits were carefully examined by Dr. C.S. + Myers with regard to their olfactory acuteness and olfactory + preferences. It was found that acuteness was, if anything, + slightly greater than among Europeans. This appeared to be + largely due to the careful attention they pay to odors. The + resemblances which they detected among different odorous + substances were frequently found to rest on real chemical + affinities. The odors they were observed to dislike most + frequently were asafoetida, valerianic acid, and civet, the last + being regarded as most repulsive of all on account of its + resemblance to faecal odor, which these people regard with intense + disgust. Their favorite odors were musk, thyme, and especially + violet. (_Report of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to + Torres Straits_, vol. ii, Part II, 1903.) + + In Australia Lumholtz (_Among Cannibals_, p. 115) found that the + blacks had a keener sense of smell than he possessed. + + In New Zealand the Maoris, as W. Colenso shows, possessed, + formerly at all events, a very keen sense of smell or else were + very attentive to smell, and their taste as regarded agreeable + and disagreeable odors corresponded very closely to European + taste, although it must be added that some of their common + articles of food possessed a very offensive odor. They are not + only sensitive to European perfumes, but possessed various + perfumes of their own, derived from plants and possessing a + pleasant, powerful, and lasting odor; the choicest and rarest was + the gum of the _taramea_ (_Aciphylla Colensoi_), which was + gathered by virgins after the use of prayers and charms. Sir + Joseph Banks noted that Maori chiefs wore little bundles of + perfumes around their necks, and Cook made the same observation + concerning the young women. References to the four chief Maori + perfumes are contained in a stanza which is still often hummed to + express satisfaction, and sung by a mother to her child:-- + + "My little neck-satchel of sweet-scented moss, + My little neck-satchel of fragrant fern, + My little neck-satchel of odoriferous gum, + My sweet-smelling neck-locket of sharp-pointed _taramea_." + + In the summer season the sleeping houses of Maori chiefs were + often strewed with a large, sweet-scented, flowering grass of + powerful odor. (W. Colenso, _Transactions of the New Zealand + Institute_, vol. xxiv, reprinted in _Nature_, November 10, 1892.) + + Javanese women rub themselves with a mixture of chalk and strong + essence which, when rubbed off, leaves a distinct perfume on the + body. (Stratz, _Die Frauenkleidung_, p. 84.) + + The Samoans, Friedlaender states (_Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie_, + 1899, p. 52), are very fond of fragrant and aromatic odors. He + gives a list of some twenty odorous plants which they use, more + especially as garlands for the head and neck, including + ylang-ylang and gardenia; he remarks that of one of these plants + (cordyline) he could not himself detect the odor. + + The Nicobarese, Man remarks (_Journal of the Anthropological + Institute_, 1889, p. 377), like the natives of New Zealand, + particularly dislike the smell of carbolic acid. Both young men + and women are very partial to scents; the former say they find + their use a certain passport to the favor of their wives, and + they bring home from the jungle the scented leaves of a certain + creeper to their sweethearts and wives. + + Swahili women devote much attention to perfuming themselves. When + a woman wishes to make herself desirable she anoints herself all + over with fragrant ointments, sprinkles herself with rose-water, + puts perfume into her clothes, strews jasmine flowers on her bed + as well as binding them round her neck and waist, and smokes + _udi_, the perfumed wood of the aloe; "every man is glad when his + wife smells of _udi_" (Velten, _Sitten und Gebraueche der + Suaheli_, pp. 212-214). + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[24] Emile Yung, "Le Sens Olfactif de l'Escargot (Helix Pomata)," +_Archives de Psychologie_, November, 1903. + +[25] The sensitiveness of smell in man generally exceeds that of chemical +reaction or even of spectral analysis; see Passy, _L'Annee Psychologique_, +second year, 1895, p. 380. + + + + +II. + +Rise of the Study of Olfaction--Cloquet--Zwaardemaker--The Theory of +Smell--The Classification of Odors--The Special Characteristics of +Olfactory Sensation in Man--Smell as the Sense of Imagination--Odors as +Nervous Stimulants--Vasomotor and Muscular Effects--Odorous Substances as +Drugs. + + +During the eighteenth century a great impetus was given to the +physiological and psychological study of the senses by the philosophical +doctrines of Locke and the English school generally which then prevailed +in Europe. These thinkers had emphasized the immense importance of the +information derived through the senses in building up the intellect, so +that the study of all the sensory channels assumed a significance which it +had never possessed before. The olfactory sense fully shared in the +impetus thus given to sensory investigation. At the beginning of the +nineteenth century a distinguished French physician, Hippolyte Cloquet, a +disciple of Cabanis, devoted himself more especially to this subject. +After publishing in 1815 a preliminary work, he issued in 1821 his +_Osphresiologie, ou Traite des odeurs, du sens et des organes de +l'Olfaction_, a complete monograph on the anatomy, physiology, psychology, +and pathology of the olfactory organ and its functions, and a work that +may still be consulted with profit, if indeed it can even yet be said to +be at every point superseded. After Cloquet's time the study of the sense +of smell seems to have fallen into some degree of discredit. For more than +half a century no important progress was made in this field. Serious +investigators seemed to have become shy of the primitive senses generally, +and the subject of smell was mainly left to those interested in "curious" +subjects. Many interesting observations were, however, incidentally made; +thus Laycock, who was a pioneer in so many by-paths of psychology and +anthropology, showed a special interest in the olfactory sense, and +frequently touched on it in his _Nervous Diseases of Women_ and +elsewhere. The writer who more than any other has in recent years restored +the study of the sense of smell from a by-path to its proper position as a +highway for investigation is without doubt Professor Zwaardemaker, of +Utrecht. The invention of his first olfactometer in 1888 and the +appearance in 1895 of his great work _Die Physiologie des Geruchs_ have +served to give the physiology of the sense of smell an assured status and +to open the way anew for much fruitful investigation, while a number of +inquirers in many countries have had their attention directed to the +elucidation of this sense. + +Notwithstanding, however, the amount of work which has been done in this +field during recent years, it cannot be said that the body of assured +conclusions so far reached is large. The most fundamental principles of +olfactory physiology and psychology are still somewhat vague and +uncertain. Although sensations of smell are numerous and varied, in this +respect approaching the sensations of vision and hearing, smell still +remains close to touch in the vagueness of its messages (while the most +sensitive of the senses, remarks Passy, it is the least precise), the +difficulty of classifying them, the impossibility of so controlling them +as to found upon them any art. It seems better, therefore, not to attempt +to force the present study of a special aspect of olfaction into any +general scheme which may possibly not be really valid. + + The earliest and most general tendency in regard to the theory of + smell was to regard it as a kind of chemical sense directly + stimulated by minute particles of solid substance. A vibratory + theory of smell, however, making it somewhat analogous to + hearing, easily presents itself. When I first began the study of + physiology in 1881, a speculation of this kind presented itself + to my mind. Long before Philipp von Walther, a professor at + Landshut, had put forward a dynamic theory of olfaction + (_Physiologie des Menschen_, 1807-8, vol. ii, p. 278). "It is a + purely dynamic operation of the odorous substance in the + olfactory organ," he stated. Odor is conveyed by the air, he + believed, in the same way as heat. It must be added that his + reasons for this theory will not always bear examination. More + recently a similar theory has been seriously put forward in + various quarters. Sir William Ramsay tentatively suggested such a + theory (_Nature_, vol. xxv, p. 187) in analogy with light and + sound. Haycraft (_Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh_, + 1883-87, and _Brain_, 1887-88), largely starting from + Mendelieff's law of periodicity, similarly sought to bring smell + into line with the higher senses, arguing that molecules with the + same vibration have the same smell. Rutherford (_Nature_, August + 11, 1892, p. 343), attaching importance to the evidence brought + forward by von Brunn showing that the olfactory cells terminate + in very delicate short hairs, also stated his belief that the + different qualities of smell result from differences in the + frequency and form of the vibrations initiated by the action of + the chemical molecules on these olfactory cells, though he + admitted that such a conception involved a very subtle conception + of molecular vibration. Vaschide and Van Melle (Paris Academy of + Sciences, December 26, 1899) have, again, argued that smell is + produced by rays of short wave-lengths, analogous to light-rays, + Roentgen rays, etc. Chemical action is however, a very important + factor in the production of odors; this has been well shown by + Ayrton (_Nature_, September 8, 1898). We seem to be forced in the + direction of a chemico-vibratory theory, as pointed out by + Southerden (_Nature_, March 26, 1903), the olfactory cells being + directly stimulated, not by the ordinary vibrations of the + molecules, but by the agitations accompanying chemical changes. + + The vibratory hypothesis of the action of odors has had some + influence on the recent physiologists who have chiefly occupied + themselves with olfaction. "It is probable," Zwaardemaker writes + (_L'Annee Psychologique_, 1898), "that aroma is a + physico-chemical attribute of the molecules"; he points out that + there is an intimate analogy between color and odor, and remarks + that this analogy leads us to suppose in an aroma ether + vibrations of which the period is determined by the structure of + the molecule. + + Since the physiology of olfaction is yet so obscure it is not + surprising that we have no thoroughly scientific classification + of smells, notwithstanding various ambitious attempts to reach a + classification. The classification adopted by Zwaardemaker is + founded on the ancient scheme of Linnaeus, and may here be + reproduced:-- + + I. Ethereal odors (chiefly esters; Rimmel's fruity series). + + II. Aromatic odors (terpenes, camphors, and the spicy, + herbaceous, rosaceous, and almond series; the chemical types are + well determined: cineol, eugenol, anethol, geraniol, + benzaldehyde). + + III. The balsamic odors (chiefly aldehydes, Rimmel's jasmin, + violet, and balsamic series, with the chemical types: terpineol, + ionone, vanillin). + + IV. The ambrosiacal odors (ambergris and musk). + + V. The alliaceous odors, with the cacodylic group (asafoetida, + ichthyol, etc.). + + VI. Empyreumatic odors. + + VII. Valerianaceous odors (Linnaeus's _Odores hircini_, the capryl + group, largely composed of sexual odors). + + VIII. Narcotic odors (Linnaeus's _Odores tetri_). + + IX. Stenches. + + A valuable and interesting memoir, "Revue Generale sur les + Sensations Olfactives," by J. Passy, the chief French authority + on this subject, will be found in the second volume of _L'Annee + Psychologique_, 1895. In the fifth issue of the same year-book + (for 1898) Zwaardemaker presents a full summary of his work and + views, "Les Sensations Olfactives, leurs Combinaisons et leurs + Compensations." A convenient, but less authoritative, summary of + the facts of normal and pathological olfaction will be found in a + little volume of the "Actualites Medicales" series by Dr. Collet, + _L'Odorat et ses Troubles_, 1904. In a little book entitled + _Wegweiser zu einer Psychologie des Geruches_ (1894) Giessler has + sought to outline a psychology of smell, but his sketch can only + be regarded as tentative and provisional. + +At the outset, nevertheless, it seems desirable that we should at least +have some conception of the special characteristics which mark the great +and varied mass of sensations reaching the brain through the channel of +the olfactory organ. The main special character of olfactory images seems +to be conditioned by the fact that they are intermediate in character +between those of touch or taste and those of sight or sound, that they +have much of the vagueness of the first and something of the richness and +variety of the second. AEsthetically, also, they occupy an intermediate +position between the higher and the lower senses.[26] They are, at the +same time, less practically useful than either the lower or the higher +senses. They furnish us with a great mass of what we may call +by-sensations, which are of little practical use, but inevitably become +intimately mixed with the experiences of life by association and thus +acquire an emotional significance which is often very considerable. Their +emotional force, it may well be, is connected with the fact that their +anatomical seat is the most ancient part of the brain. They lie in a +remote almost disused storehouse of our minds and show the fascination or +the repulsiveness of all vague and remote things. It is for this reason +that they are--to an extent that is remarkable when we consider that they +are much more precise than touch sensations--subject to the influence of +emotional associations. The very same odor may be at one moment highly +pleasant, at the next moment highly unpleasant, in accordance with the +emotional attitude resulting from its associations. Visual images have no +such extreme flexibility; they are too definite to be so easily +influenced. Our feelings about the beauty of a flower cannot oscillate so +easily or so far as may our feelings about the agreeableness of its odor. +Our olfactory experiences thus institute a more or less continuous series +of by-sensations accompanying us through life, of no great practical +significance, but of considerable emotional significance from their +variety, their intimacy, their associational facility, their remote +ancestral reverberations through our brains. + +It is the existence of these characteristics--at once so vague and so +specific, so useless and so intimate--which led various writers to +describe the sense of smell as, above all others, the sense of +imagination. No sense has so strong a power of suggestion, the power of +calling up ancient memories with a wider and deeper emotional +reverberation, while at the same time no sense furnishes impressions which +so easily change emotional color and tone, in harmony with the recipient's +general attitude. Odors are thus specially apt both to control the +emotional life and to become its slaves. With the use of incense religions +have utilized the imaginative and symbolical virtues of fragrance. All the +legends of the saints have insisted on the odor of sanctity that exhales +from the bodies of holy persons, especially at the moment of death. Under +the conditions of civilization these primitive emotional associations of +odor tend to be dispersed, but, on the other hand, the imaginative side of +the olfactory sense becomes accentuated, and personal idiosyncrasies of +all kinds tend to manifest themselves in the sphere of smell. + + Rousseau (in _Emile_, Bk. II) regarded smell as the sense of the + imagination. So, also, at an earlier period, it was termed + (according to Cloquet) by Cardano. Cloquet frequently insisted on + the qualities of odors which cause them to appeal to the + imagination; on their irregular and inconstant character; on + their power of intoxicating the mind on some occasions; on the + curious individual and racial preferences in the matter of odors. + He remarked on the fact that the Persians employed asafoetida as + a seasoning, while valerian was accounted a perfume in antiquity. + (Cloquet, _Osphresiologie_, pp. 28, 45, 71, 112.) It may be + added, as a curious example familiar to most people of the + dependence of the emotional tone of a smell on its associations, + that, while the exhalations of other people's bodies are + ordinarily disagreeable to us, such is not the case with our own; + this is expressed in the crude and vigorous dictum of the + Elizabethan poet, Marston, "Every man's dung smell sweet i' his + own nose." There are doubtless many implications, moral as well + as psychological, in that statement. + + The modern authorities on olfaction, Passy and Zwaardemaker, both + alike insist on the same characteristics of the sense of smell: + its extreme acuity and yet its vagueness. "We live in a world of + odor," Zwaardemaker remarks (_L'Annee Psychologique_, 1898, p. + 203), "as we live in a world of light and of sound. But smell + yields us no distinct ideas grouped in regular order, still less + that are fixed in the memory as a grammatical discipline. + Olfactory sensations awake vague and half-understood perceptions, + which are accompanied by very strong emotion. The emotion + dominates us, but the sensation which was the cause of it remains + unperceived." Even in the same individual there are wide + variations in the sensitiveness to odors at different times, more + especially as regards faint odors; Passy (_L'Annee + Psychologique_, 1895, p. 387) brings forward some observations on + this point. + + Maudsley noted the peculiarly suggestive power of odors; "there + are certain smells," he remarked, "which never fail to bring back + to me instantly and visibly scenes of my boyhood"; many of us + could probably say the same. Another writer (E. Dillon, "A + Neglected Sense," _Nineteenth Century_, April, 1894) remarks that + "no sense has a stronger power of suggestion." + + Ribot has made an interesting investigation as to the prevalence + and nature of the emotional memory of odors (_Psychology of the + Emotions_, Chapter XI). By "emotional memory" is meant the + spontaneous or voluntary revivability of the image, olfactory or + other. (For the general question, see an article by F. Pillon, + "La Memoire Affective, son Importance Theorique et Pratique," + _Revue Philosophique_, February, 1901; also Paulhan, "Sur la + Memoire Affective," _Revue Philosophique_, December, 1902 and + January, 1903.) Ribot found that 40 per cent. of persons are + unable to revive any such images of taste or smell; 48 per cent, + could revive some; 12 per cent, declared themselves capable of + reviving all, or nearly all, at pleasure. In some persons there + is no necessary accompanying revival of visual or tactile + representations, but in the majority the revived odor ultimately + excites a corresponding visual image. The odors most frequently + recalled were pinks, musk, violets, heliotrope, carbolic acid, + the smell of the country, of grass, etc. Pieron (_Revue + Philosophique_, December, 1902) has described the special power + possessed by vague odors, in his own case, of evoking ancient + impressions. + + Dr. J.N. Mackenzie (_American Journal of the Medical Sciences_, + January, 1886) considers that civilization exerts an influence in + heightening or encouraging the influence of olfaction as it + affects our emotions and judgment, and that, in the same way, as + we ascend the social scale the more readily our minds are + influenced and perhaps perverted by impressions received through + the sense of smell. + +Odors are powerful stimulants to the whole nervous system, causing, like +other stimulants, an increase of energy which, if excessive or prolonged, +leads to nervous exhaustion. Thus, it is well recognized in medicine that +the aromatics containing volatile oils (such as anise, cinnamon, +cardamoms, cloves, coriander, and peppermint) are antispasmodics and +anaesthetics, and that they stimulate digestion, circulation, and the +nervous system, in large doses producing depression. The carefully +arranged plethysmographic experiments of Shields, at the Johns Hopkins +University, have shown that olfactory sensations, by their action on the +vasomotor system, cause an increase of blood in the brain and sometimes in +addition stimulation of the heart; musk, wintergreen, wood violet, and +especially heliotrope were found to act strongly in these ways.[27] + +Fere's experiments with the dynamometer and the ergograph have greatly +contributed to illustrate the stimulating effects of odors. Thus, he found +that smelling musk suffices to double muscular effort. With a number of +odorous substances he has found that muscular work is temporarily +heightened; when taste stimulation was added the increase of energy, +notably when using lemon was "colossal." A kind of "sensorial +intoxication" could be produced by the inhalation of odors and the whole +system stimulated to greater activity; the visual acuity was increased, +and electric and general excitability heightened.[28] Such effects may be +obtained in perfectly healthy persons, though both Shields and Fere have +found that in highly nervous persons the effects are liable to be much +greater. It is doubtless on this account that it is among civilized +peoples that attention is chiefly directed to perfumes, and that under the +conditions of modern life the interest in olfaction and its study has been +revived. + +It is the genuinely stimulant qualities of odorous substances which led to +the widespread use of the more potent among them by ancient physicians, +and has led a few modern physicians to employ them still. Thus, vanilla, +according to Eloy, deserves to be much more frequently used +therapeutically than it is, on account of its excitomotor properties; he +states that its qualities as an excitant of sexual desire have long been +recognized and that Fonssagrives used to prescribe it for sexual +frigidity.[29] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[26] The opinions of psychologists concerning the aesthetic significance of +smell, not on the whole very favorable, are brought together and discussed +by J.V. Volkelt, "Der AEsthetische Wert der niederen Sinne," _Zeitschrift +fuer Psychologie und Physiologie der Sinnesorgane_, 1902, ht. 3. + +[27] T.E. Shields, "The Effect of Odors, etc., upon the Blood-flow," +_Journal of Experimental Medicine_, vol. i, November, 1896. In France, O. +Henry and Tardif have made somewhat similar experiments on respiration and +circulation. See the latter's _Les Odeurs et les Parfums_, Chapter III. + +[28] Fere, _Sensation et Mouvement_, Chapter VI; ib., _Comptes Rendus de +la Societe de Biologie_, November 3, December 15 and 22, 1900. + +[29] Eloy, art. "Vanille," _Dictionnaire Encyclopedique des Sciences +Medicales_. + + + + +III. + +The Specific Body Odors of Various Peoples--The Negro, etc.--The +European--The Ability to Distinguish Individuals by Smell--The Odor of +Sanctity--The Odor of Death--The Odors of Different Parts of the Body--The +Appearance of Specific Odors at Puberty--The Odors of Sexual +Excitement--The Odors of Menstruation--Body Odors as a Secondary Sexual +Character--The Custom of Salutation by Smell--The Kiss--Sexual Selection +by Smell--The Alleged Association between Size of Nose and Sexual +Vigor--The Probably Intimate Relationship between the Olfactory and +Genital Spheres--Reflex Influences from the Nose--Reflex Influences from +the Genital Sphere--Olfactory Hallucinations in Insanity as Related to +Sexual States--The Olfactive Type--The Sense of Smell in Neurasthenic and +Allied States--In Certain Poets and Novelists--Olfactory Fetichism--The +Part Played by Olfaction in Normal Sexual Attraction--In the East, +etc.--In Modern Europe--The Odor of the Armpit and its Variations--As a +Sexual and General Stimulant--Body Odors in Civilization Tend to Cause +Sexual Antipathy unless some Degree of Tumescence is Already Present--The +Question whether Men or Women are more Liable to Feel Olfactory +Influences--Women Usually more Attentive to Odors--The Special Interest in +Odors Felt by Sexual Inverts. + + +In approaching the specifically sexual aspect of odor in the human species +we may start from the fundamental fact--a fact we seek so far as possible +to disguise in our ordinary social relations--that all men and women are +odorous. This is marked among all races. The powerful odor of many, though +not all, negroes is well known; it is by no means due to uncleanly habits, +and Joest remarks that it is even increased by cleanliness, which opens +the pores of the skin; according to Sir H. Johnston, it is most marked in +the armpits and is stronger in men than in women. Pruner Bey describes it +as "ammoniacal and rancid; it is like the odor of the he-goat." The odor +varies not only individually, but according to the tribe; Castellani +states that the negress of the Congo has merely a slight "_gout de +noisette_" which is agreeable rather than otherwise. Monbuttu women, +according to Parke, have a strong Gorgonzola perfume, and Emin told Parke +that he could distinguish the members of different tribes by their +characteristic odor. In the same way the Nicobarese, according to Man, can +distinguish a member of each of the six tribes of the archipelago by +smell. The odor of Australian blacks is less strong than that of negroes +and has been described as of a phosphoric character. The South American +Indians, d'Orbigny stated, have an odor stronger than that of Europeans, +though not as strong as most negroes; it is marked, Latcham states, even +among those who, like the Araucanos, bathe constantly. The Chinese have a +musky odor. The odor of many peoples is described as being of garlic.[30] + +A South Sea Islander, we are told by Charles de Varigny, on coming to +Sydney and seeing the ladies walking about the streets and apparently +doing nothing, expressed much astonishment, adding, with a gesture of +contempt, "and they have no smell!" It is by no means true, however, that +Europeans are odorless. They are, indeed, considerably more odorous than +are many other races,--for instance, the Japanese,--and there is doubtless +some association between the greater hairiness of Europeans and their +marked odor, since the sebaceous glands are part of the hair apparatus. A +Japanese anthropologist, Adachi, has published an interesting study on the +odor of Europeans,[31] which he describes as a strong and pungent +smell,--sometimes sweet, sometimes bitter,--of varying strength in +different individuals, absent in children and the aged, and having its +chief focus in the armpits, which, however carefully they are washed, +immediately become odorous again. Adachi has found that the sweat-glands +are larger in Europeans than in the Japanese, among whom a strong personal +odor is so uncommon that "armpit stink" is a disqualification for the +army. It is certainly true that the white races smell less strongly than +most of the dark races, odor seeming to be correlated to some extent with +intensity of pigmentation, as well as with hairiness; but even the most +scrupulously clean Europeans all smell. This fact may not always be +obvious to human nostrils, apart from intimate contact, but it is well +known to dogs, to whom their masters are recognizable by smell. When Hue +traveled in Tibet in Chinese disguise he was not detected by the natives, +but the dogs recognized him as a foreigner by his smell and barked at him. +Many Chinese can tell by smell when a European has been in a room.[32] +There are, however, some Europeans who can recognize and distinguish their +friends by smell. The case has been recorded of a man who with bandaged +eyes could recognize his acquaintances, at the distance of several paces, +the moment they entered the room. In another case a deaf and blind mute +woman in Massachusetts knew all her acquaintances by smell, and could sort +linen after it came from the wash by the odor alone. Governesses have been +known to be able when blindfolded to recognize the ownership of their +pupil's garments by smell; such a case is known to me. Such odor is +usually described as being agreeable, but not one person in fifty, it is +stated, is able to distinguish it with sufficient precision to use it as a +method of recognition. Among some races, however this aptitude would +appear to be better developed. Dr. C.S. Myers at Sarawak noted that his +Malay boy sorted the clean linen according to the skin-odor of the +wearer.[33] Chinese servants are said to do the same, as well as +Australians and natives of Luzon.[34] + + Although the distinctively individual odor of most persons is not + sufficiently marked to be generally perceptible, there are cases + in which it is more distinct to all nostrils. The most famous + case of this kind is that of Alexander the Great, who, according + to Plutarch, exhaled so sweet an odor that his tunics were soaked + with aromatic perfume (_Convivalium Disputationum_, lib. I, + quest. 6). Malherbe, Cujas, and Haller are said to have diffused + a musky odor. The agreeable odor of Walt Whitman has been + remarked by Kennedy and others. The perfume exhaled by many holy + men and women, so often noted by ancient writers (discussed by + Goerres in the second volume of his _Christliche Mystik_) and + which has entered into current phraseology as a merely + metaphorical "odor of sanctity," was doubtless due, as Hammond + first pointed out, to abnormal nervous conditions, for it is well + known that such conditions affect the odor, and in insanity, for + instance, the presence is noted of bodily odors which have + sometimes even been considered of diagnostic importance. J.B. + Friedreich, _Allgemeine Diagnostik der Psychischen Krankheiten_, + second edition, 1832, pp. 9-10, quotes passages from various + authors on this point, which he accepts; various writers of more + recent date have made similar observations. + + The odor of sanctity was specially noted at death, and was + doubtless confused with the _odor mortis_, which frequently + precedes death and by some is regarded as an almost certain + indication of its approach. In the _British Medical Journal_, for + May and June, 1898, will be found letters from several + correspondents substantiating this point. One of these + correspondents (Dr. Tuckey, of Tywardwreath, Cornwall) mentions + that he has in Cornwall often seen ravens flying over houses in + which persons lay dying, evidently attracted by a characteristic + odor. + +It must be borne in mind, however, that, while every person has, to a +sensitive nose, a distinguishing odor, we must regard that odor either as +but one of the various sensations given off by the body, or else as a +combination of two or more of these emanations. The body in reality gives +off a number of different odors. The most important of these are: (1) the +general skin odor, a faint, but agreeable, fragrance often to be detected +on the skin even immediately after washing; (2) the smell of the hair and +scalp; (3) the odor of the breath; (4) the odor of the armpit; (5) the +odor of the feet; (6) the perineal odor; (7) in men the odor of the +preputial smegma; (8) in women the odor of the mons veneris, that of +vulvar smegma, that of vaginal mucus, and the menstrual odor. All these +are odors which may usually be detected, though sometimes only in a very +faint degree, in healthy and well-washed persons under normal conditions. +It is unnecessary here to take into account the special odors of various +secretions and excretions.[35] + +It is a significant fact, both as regards the ancestral sexual connections +of the body odors and their actual sexual associations to-day, that, as +Hippocrates long ago noted, it is not until puberty that they assume their +adult characteristics. The infant, the adult, the aged person, each has +his own kind of smell, and, as Monin remarks, it might be possible, within +certain limits, to discover the age of a person by his odor. Jorg in 1832 +pointed out that in girls the appearance of a specific smell of the +excreta indicates the establishment of puberty, and Kaan, in his +_Psychopathia Sexualis_, remarked that at puberty "the sweat gives out a +more acrid odor resembling musk." In both sexes puberty, adolescence, +early manhood and womanhood are marked by a gradual development of the +adult odor of skin and excreta, in general harmony with the secondary +sexual development of hair and pigment. Venturi, indeed, has, not without +reason, described the odor of the body as a secondary sexual +character.[36] It may be added that, as is the case with the pigment in +various parts of the body in women, some of these odors tend to become +exaggerated in sympathy with sexual and other emotional states. + + The odor of the infant is said to be of butyric acid; that of old + people to resemble dry leaves. Continent young men have been said + by many ancient writers to smell more strongly than the unchaste, + and some writers have described as "seminal odor"--an odor + resembling that of animals in heat, faintly recalling that of the + he-goat, according to Venturi--the exhalations of the skin at + such times. + + During sexual excitement, as women can testify, a man very + frequently, if not normally, gives out an odor which, as usually + described, proceeds from the skin, the breath, or both. Grimaldi + states that it is as of rancid butter; others say it resembles + chloroform. It is said to be sometimes perceptible for a distance + of several feet and to last for several hours after coitus. + (Various quotations are given by Gould and Pyle, _Anomalies and + Curiosities of Medicine_, section on "Human Odors," pp. 397-403.) + St. Philip Neri is said to have been able to recognize a chaste + man by smell. + + During menstruation girls and young women frequently give off an + odor which is quite distinct from that of the menstrual fluid, + and is specially marked in the breath, which may smell of + chloroform or violets. Pouchet (confirmed by Raciborski, _Traite + de la Menstruation_, 1868, p. 74) stated that about a day before + the onset of menstruation a characteristic smell is exuded. + Menstruating girls are also said sometimes to give off a smell of + leather. Aubert, of Lyons (as quoted by Galopin), describes the + odor of the skin of a woman during menstruation as an agreeable + aromatic or acidulous perfume of chloroform character. By some + this is described as emanating especially from the armpits. + Sandras (quoted by Raciborski) knew a lady who could always tell + by a sensation of faintness and _malaise_--apparently due to a + sensation of smell--when she was in contact with a menstruating + woman. I am acquainted with a man, having strong olfactory + sympathies and antipathies, who detects the presence of + menstruation by smell. It is said that Hortense Bare, who + accompanied her lover, the botanist Commerson, to the Pacific + disguised as a man, was recognized by the natives as a woman by + means of smell. + + Women, like men, frequently give out an odor during coitus or + strong sexual excitement. This odor may be entirely different + from that normally emanating from the woman, of an acid or + hircine character, and sufficiently strong to remain in a room + for a considerable period. Many of the ancient medical writers + (as quoted by Schurigius, _Parthenologia_, p. 286) described the + goaty smell produced by venery, especially in women; they + regarded it as specially marked in harlots and in the newly + married, and sometimes even considered it a certain sign of + defloration. The case has been recorded of a woman who emitted a + rose odor for two days after coitus (McBride, quoted by Kiernan + in an interesting summary, "Odor in Pathology," _Doctor's + Magazine_, December, 1900). There was, it is said (_Journal des + Savans_ 1684, p. 39, quoting from the _Journal d'Angleterre_) a + monk in Prague who could recognize by smell the chastity of the + women who approached him. (This monk, it is added, when he died, + was composing a new science of odors.) + + Gustav Klein (as quoted by Adler, _Die Mangelhafte + Geschlechtsempfindungen des Weibes_, p. 25) argues that the + special function of the glands at the vulvar orifice--the + _glandulae vestibulares majores_--is to give out an odorous + secretion to act as an attraction to the male, this relic of + sexual periodicity no longer, however, playing an important part + in the human species. The vulvar secretion, however, it may be + added, still has a more aromatic odor than the vaginal secretion, + with its simple mucous odor, very clearly perceived during + parturition. + + It may be added that we still know extremely little concerning + the sexual odors of women among primitive peoples. Ploss and + Bartels are only able to bring forward (_Das Weib_, 1901, bd. 1, + p. 218) a statement concerning the women of New Caledonia, who, + according to Moncelon, when young and ardent, give out during + coitus a powerful odor which no ablution will remove. In abnormal + states of sexual excitement such odor may be persistent, and, + according to an ancient observation, a nymphomaniac, whose + periods of sexual excitement lasted all through the spring-time, + at these periods always emitted a goatlike odor. It has been said + (G. Tourdes, art. "Aphrodisie," _Dictionnaire Encyclopedique des + Sciences Medicales_) that the erotic temperament is characterized + by a special odor. + +If the body odors tend to develop at puberty, to be maintained during +sexual life, especially in sympathy with conditions of sexual disturbance, +and to become diminished in old age, being thus a kind of secondary sexual +character, we should expect them to be less marked in those cases in which +the primary sexual characters are less marked. It is possible that this is +actually the case. Hagen, in his _Sexuelle Osphresiologie_, quotes from +Roubaud's _Traite de l'Impuissance_ the statement that the body odor of +the castrated differs from that of normal individuals. Burdach had +previously stated that the odor of the eunuch is less marked than that of +the normal man. + +It is thus possible that defective sexual development tends to be +associated with corresponding olfactory defect. Heschl[37] has reported a +case in which absence of both olfactory nerves coincided with defective +development of the sexual organs. Fere remarks that the impotent show a +repugnance for sexual odors. Dr. Kiernan informs me that in women after +ooephorectomy he has noted a tendency to diminished (and occasionally +increased) sense of smell. These questions, however, await more careful +and extended observation. + +A very significant transition from the phenomena of personal odor to those +of sexual attraction by personal odor is to be found in the fact that +among the peoples inhabiting a large part of the world's surface the +ordinary salutation between friends is by mutual smelling of the person. +In some form or another the method of salutation by applying the nose to +the nose, face, or hand of a friend in greeting is found throughout a +large part of the Pacific, among the Papuans, the Eskimo, the hill tribes +of India, in Africa, and elsewhere.[38] Thus, among a certain hill tribe +in India, according to Lewin, they smell a friend's cheek: "in their +language, they do not say, 'Give me a kiss,' but they say 'Smell me.'" And +on the Gambia, according to F. Moore, "When the men salute the women, +they, instead of shaking their hands, put it up to their noses, and smell +twice to the back of it." Here we have very clearly a recognition of the +emotional value of personal odor widely prevailing throughout the world. +The salutation on an olfactory basis may, indeed, be said to be more +general than the salutation on a tactile basis on which European +handshaking rests, each form involving one of the two most intimate and +emotional senses. The kiss may be said to be a development proceeding both +from the olfactory and the tactile bases, with perhaps some other elements +as well, and is too complex to be regarded as a phenomenon of either +purely tactile or purely olfactory origin.[39] + +As the sole factor in sexual selection olfaction must be rare. It is said +that Asiatic princes have sometimes caused a number of the ladies to race +in the seraglio garden until they were heated; their garments have then +been brought to the prince, who has selected one of them solely by the +odor.[40] There was here a sexual selection mainly by odor. Any exclusive +efficacy of the olfactory sense is rare, not so much because the +impressions of this sense are inoperative, but because agreeable personal +odors are not sufficiently powerful, and the olfactory organ is too +obtuse, to enable smell to take precedence of sight. Nevertheless, in many +people, it is probable that certain odors, especially those that are +correlated with a healthy and sexually desirable person, tend to be +agreeable; they are fortified by their association with the loved person, +sometimes to an irresistible degree; and their potency is doubtless +increased by the fact, to which reference has already been made, that many +odors, including some bodily odors, are nervous stimulants. + +It is possible that the sexual associations of odors have been still +further fortified by a tendency to correlation between a high development +of the olfactory organ and a high development of the sexual apparatus. An +association between a large nose and a large male organ is a very ancient +observation and has been verified occasionally in recent times. There is +normally at puberty a great increase in the septum of the nose, and it is +quite conceivable, in view of the sympathy, which, as we shall see, +certainly exists between the olfactory and sexual region, that the two +regions may develop together under a common influence. + + The Romans firmly believed in the connection between a large nose + and a large penis. "Noscitur e naso quanta sit hasta viro," + stated Ovid. This belief continued to prevail, especially in + Italy, through the middle ages; the physiognomists made much of + it, and licentious women (like Joanna of Naples) were, it + appears, accustomed to bear it in mind, although disappointment + is recorded often to have followed. (See e.g., the quotations and + references given by J.N. Mackenzie, "Physiological and + Pathological Relations between the Nose and the Sexual Apparatus + in Man." _Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin_, No. 82, January, + 1898; also Hagen, _Sexuelle Osphresiologie_, pp. 15-19.) A + similar belief as to the association between the sexual impulse + in women and a long nose was evidently common in England in the + sixteenth century, for in Massinger's _Emperor of the East_ (Act + II, Scene I) we read, + + "Her nose, which by its length assures me + Of storms at midnight if I fail to pay her + The tribute she expects." + + At the present day, a proverb of the Venetian people still + embodies the belief in the connection between a large nose and a + large sexual member. + + The probability that such an association tends in many cases to + prevail is indicated not only by the beliefs of antiquity, when + more careful attention was paid to these matters, but by the + testimony of various modern observers, although it does not + appear that any series of exact observations have yet been made. + + It may be noted that Marro, in his careful anthropological study + of criminals (_I Caratteri dei Delinquenti_), found no class of + criminals with so large a proportion alike of anomalies of the + nose and anomalies of the genital organs as sexual offenders. + +However this may be, it is less doubtful that there is a very intimate +relation both in men and women between the olfactory mucous membrane of +the nose and the whole genital apparatus, that they frequently show a +sympathetic action, that influences acting on the genital sphere will +affect the nose, and occasionally, it is probable, influences acting on +the nose reflexly affect the genital sphere. To discuss these +relationships would here be out of place, since specialists are not +altogether in agreement concerning the matter. A few are inclined to +regard the association as extremely intimate, so that each region is +sensitive even to slight stimuli applied to the other region, while, on +the other hand, many authorities ignore altogether the question of the +relationship. It would appear, however, that there really is, in a +considerable number of people at all events, a reflex connection of this +kind. It has especially been noted that in many cases congestion of the +nose precedes menstruation. + +Bleeding of the nose is specially apt to occur at puberty and during +adolescence, while in women it may take the place of menstruation and is +sometimes more apt to occur at the menstrual periods; disorders of the +nose have also been found to be aggravated at these periods. It has even +been possible to control bleeding of the nose, both in men and women, by +applying ice to the sexual regions. In both men and women, again, cases +have been recorded in which sexual excitement, whether of coitus or +masturbation, has been followed by bleeding of the nose. In numerous cases +it is followed by slight congestive conditions of the nasal passages and +especially by sneezing. Various authors have referred to this phenomenon; +I am acquainted with a lady in whom it is fairly constant.[41] Fere +records the case of a lady, a nervous subject, who began to experience +intense spontaneous sexual excitement shortly after marriage, accompanied +by much secretion from the nose.[42] J.N. Mackenzie is acquainted with a +number of such cases, and he considers that the popular expression +"bride's cold" indicates that this effect of strong sexual excitement is +widely recognized. + + The late Professor Hack, of Freiburg, in 1884, called general + medical attention to the intimate connection between the nose and + states of nervous hyperexcitability in various parts of the body, + although such a connection had been recognized for many centuries + in medical literature. While Hack and his disciples thus gave + prominence to this association, they undoubtedly greatly + exaggerated its importance and significance. (Sir Felix Semon, + _British Medical Journal_, November 9, 1901.) Even many workers + who have more recently further added to our knowledge have also, + as sometimes happens with enthusiasts, unduly strained their own + data. Starting from the fact that in women during menstruation + examination of the nose reveals a degree of congestion not found + during the rest of the month, Fliess (_Die Beziehungen zwischen + Nase und Weiblichen Geschlechtsorganen_, 1897), with the help of + a number of elaborate and prolonged observations, has reached + conclusions which, while they seem to be hazardous at some + points, have certainly contributed to build up our knowledge of + this obscure subject. Schiff (_Wiener klinische Wochenschrift_, + 1900, p. 58, summarized in _British Medical Journal_, February + 16, 1901), starting from a skeptical standpoint, has confirmed + some of Fliess's results, and in a large number of cases + controlled painful menstruation by painting with cocaine the + so-called "genital spots" in the nose, all possibility of + suggestion being avoided. Ries, of Chicago, has been similarly + successful with the method of Fliess (_American Gynaecology_, vol. + iii, No. 4, 1903). Benedikt (_Wiener medicinische Wochenschrift_, + No. 8, 1901, summarized in _Journal of Medical Science_, October, + 1901), while pointing out that the nose is not the only organ in + sympathetic relation with the sexual sphere, suggests that the + mechanism of the relationship is involved in the larger problem + of the harmony in growth and in nutrition of the different parts + of the organism. In this way, probably, we may attach + considerable significance to the existence of a kind of erectile + tissue in the nose. + + An interesting example of a reflex influence from the nose + affecting the genital sphere has been brought forward by Dr. E.S. + Talbot, of Chicago: "A 56-year-old man was operated on + (September 1, 1903) for the removal of the left cartilage of the + septum of the nose owing to a previous traumatic fracture at the + sixteenth year. No pain was experienced until two years ago, when + a continual soreness occurred at the apical end of the fracture + during the winter months. The operation was decided upon fearing + more serious complications. The parts were cocainized. No pain + was experienced in the operation except at one point at the lower + posterior portion near the floor of the nose. A profound shock to + the general system followed. The reflex influence of the pain + upon the genital organs caused semen to flow continually for + three weeks. Treatment of general motor irritability with camphor + monobromate and conium, on consultation with Dr. Kiernan, checked + the flow. The discharge produced spinal neurasthenia. The legs + and feet felt heavy. Erythromelalgia caused uneasiness. The + patient walked with difficulty. The tired feeling in the feet and + limbs was quite noticeable four months after the operation, + although the pain had, to a great extent diminished." (Chicago + Academy of Medicine, January, 1904, and private letter.) + + J.N. Mackenzie has brought together a great many original + observations, together with interesting quotations from old + medical literature, in his two papers: "The Pathological Nasal + Reflex" (_New York Medical Journal_, August 20, 1887) and "The + Physiological and Pathological Relations between the Nose and the + Sexual Apparatus of Man" (_Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin_, + January 1, 1898). A number of cases have also been brought + together from the literature by G. Endriss in his Inaugural + Dissertation, _Die bisherigen Beobachtungen von Physiologischen + und Pathologischen Beziehungen der oberen Luftwege zu den + Sexualorganen_, Teil. II, Wuerzburg, 1892. + +The intimate association between the sexual centers and the olfactory +tract is well illustrated by the fact that this primitive and ancient +association tends to come to the surface in insanity. It is recognized by +many alienists that insanity of a sexual character is specially liable to +be associated with hallucinations of smell. + + Many eminent alienists in various countries are very decidedly of + the opinion that there is a special tendency to the association + of olfactory hallucinations with sexual manifestations, and, + although one or two authorities have expressed doubt on the + matter, the available evidence clearly indicates such an + association. Hallucinations of smell are comparatively rare as + compared to hallucinations of sight and hearing; they are + commoner in women than in men and they not infrequently occur at + periods of sexual disturbance, at adolescence, in puerperal + fever, at the change of life, in women with ovarian troubles, and + in old people troubled with sexual desires or remorse for such + desires. They have often been noted as specially frequent in + cases of excessive masturbation. + + Krafft-Ebing, who found olfactory hallucinations common in + various sexual states, considers that they are directly dependent + on sexual excitement (_Allgemeine Zeitschrift fuer Psychiatrie_, + bd. 34, ht. 4, 1877). Conolly Norman believes in a distinct and + frequent association between olfactory hallucinations and sexual + disturbance (_Journal of Mental Science_, July, 1899, p. 532). + Savage is also impressed by the close association between sexual + disturbance or changes in the reproductive organs and + hallucinations of smell as well as of touch. He has found that + persistent hallucinations of smell disappeared when a diseased + ovary was removed, although the patient remained insane. He + considers that such hallucinations of smell are allied to + reversions. (G.H. Savage, "Smell, Hallucinations of," Tuke's + _Dictionary of Psychological Medicine_; cf. the same author's + manual of _Insanity and Allied Neuroses_.) Matusch, while not + finding olfactory hallucinations common at the climacteric, + states that when they are present they are connected with uterine + trouble and sexual craving. He finds them more common in young + women. (Matusch, "Der Einfluss des Climacterium auf Entstchung + und Form der Geistesstoerung," _Allgemeine Zeitschrift fuer + Psychiatrie_, vol. xlvi, ht. 4). Fere has related a significant + case of a young man in whom hallucinations of smell accompanied + the sexual orgasm; he subsequently developed epilepsy, to which + the hallucination then constituted the aura (_Comptes Rendus de + la Societe de Biologie_, December, 1896). The prevalence of a + sexual element in olfactory hallucinations has been investigated + by Bullen, who examined into 95 cases of hallucinations of smell + among the patients in several asylums. (In a few cases there were + reasons for believing that peripheral conditions existed which + would render these hallucinations more strictly illusions.) Of + these, 64 were women. Sixteen of the women were climacteric + cases, and 3 of them had sexual hallucinations or delusions. + Fourteen other women (chiefly cases of chronic delusional + insanity) had sexual delusions. Altogether, 31 men and women had + sexual delusions. This is a large proportion. Bullen is not, + however, inclined to admit any direct connection between the + reproductive system and the sense of smell. He finds that other + hallucinations are very frequently associated with the olfactory + hallucinations, and considers that the co-existence of olfactory + and sexual troubles simply indicates a very deep and widespread + nervous disturbance. (F. St. John Bullen, "Olfactory + Hallucinations in the Insane," _Journal of Mental Science_, July, + 1899.) In order to elucidate the matter fully we require further + precise inquiries on the lines Bullen has laid down. + + It may be of interest to note, in this connection, that smell and + taste hallucinations appear to be specially frequent in forms of + religious insanity. Thus, Dr. Zurcher, in her inaugural + dissertation on Joan of Arc (_Jeanne d'Arc_, Leipzig, 1895, p. + 72), estimates that on the average in such insanity nearly 50 per + cent, of the hallucinations affect smell and taste; she refers + also to the olfactory hallucinations of great religious leaders, + Francis of Assisi, Katherina Emmerich, Lazzaretti, and the + Anabaptists. + +It may well be, as Zwaardemaker has suggested in his _Physiologie des +Geruchs_, that the nasal congestion at menstruation and similar phenomena +are connected with that association of smell and sexuality which is +observable throughout the whole animal world, and that the congestion +brings about a temporary increase of olfactory sensitiveness during the +stage of sexual excitation.[43] Careful investigation of olfactory +acuteness would reveal the existence of such menstrual heightening of its +acuity. + +In a few exceptional, but still quite healthy people, smell would appear +to possess an emotional predominance which it cannot be said to possess in +the average person. These exceptional people are of what Binet in his +study of sexual fetichism calls olfactive type; such persons form a group +which, though of smaller size and less importance, is fairly comparable to +the well-known groups of visual type, of auditory type, and of psychomotor +type. Such people would be more attentive to odors, more moved by +olfactory sympathies and antipathies, than are ordinary people. For these, +it may well be, the supremacy accorded to olfactory influences in Jaeger's +_Entdeckung der Seele_, though extravagantly incorrect for ordinary +persons, may appear quite reasonable. + +It is certain also that a great many neurasthenic people, and +particularly those who are sexually neurasthenic, are peculiarly +susceptible to olfactory influences. A number of eminent poets and +novelists--especially, it would appear, in France--seem to be in this +case. Baudelaire, of all great poets, has most persistently and most +elaborately emphasized the imaginative and emotional significance of odor; +the _Fleurs du Mal_ and many of the _Petits Poemes en Prose_ are, from +this point of view, of great interest. There can be no doubt that in +Baudelaire's own imaginative and emotional life the sense of smell played +a highly important part; and that, in his own words, odor was to him what +music is to others. Throughout Zola's novels--and perhaps more especially +in _La Faute de l'Abbe Mouret_--there is an extreme insistence on odors of +every kind. Prof. Leopold Bernard wrote an elaborate study of this aspect +of Zola's work[44]; he believed that underlying Zola's interest in odors +there was an abnormally keen olfactory sensibility and large development +of the olfactory region of the brain. Such a supposition is, however, +unnecessary, and, as a matter of fact, a careful examination of Zola's +olfactory sensibility, conducted by M. Passy, showed that it was somewhat +below normal.[45] At the same time it was shown that Zola was really a +person of olfactory psychic type, with a special attention to odors and a +special memory for them; as is frequently the case with perfumers with +less than normal olfactory acuity he possessed a more than normal power of +discriminating odors; it is possible that in early life his olfactory +acuity may also have been above normal. In the same way Nietzsche, in his +writings, shows a marked sensibility, and especially antipathy, as regards +odors, which has by some been regarded as an index to a real physical +sensibility of abnormal keenness; according to Moebius, however, there was +no reason for supposing this to be the case.[46] Huysmans, who throughout +his books reveals a very intense preoccupation with the exact shades of +many kinds of sensory impressions, and an apparently abnormally keen +sensibility to them, has shown a great interest in odors, more especially +in an oft-quoted passage in _A Rebours_. The blind Milton of "Paradise +Lost" (as the late Mr. Grant Allen once remarked to me), dwells much on +scents; in this case it is doubtless to the blindness and not to any +special organic predisposition that we must attribute this direction of +sensory attention.[47] Among our older English poets, also, Herrick +displays a special interest in odors with a definite realization of their +sexual attractiveness.[48] Shelley, who was alive to so many of the +unusual aesthetic aspects of things, often shows an enthusiastic delight in +odors, more especially those of flowers. It may, indeed, be said that most +poets--though to a less degree than those I have mentioned--devote a +special attention to odors, and, since it has been possible to describe +smell as the sense of imagination, this need not surprise us. That +Shakespeare, for instance, ranked this sense very high indeed is shown by +various passages in his works and notably by Sonnet LIV: "O, how much more +doth beauty beauteous seem?"--in which he implicitly places the attraction +of odor on at least as high a level as that of vision.[49] + +A neurasthenic sensitiveness to odors, specially sexual odors, is +frequently accompanied by lack of sexual vigor. In this way we may account +for the numerous cases in which old men in whom sexual desire survives the +loss of virile powers--probably somewhat abnormal persons at the +outset--find satisfaction in sexual odors. Here, also, we have the basis +for olfactory fetichism. In such fetichism the odor of the woman alone, +whoever she may be and however unattractive she may be, suffices to +furnish complete sexual satisfaction. In many, although not all, of those +cases in which articles of women's clothing become the object of +fetichistic attraction, there is certainly an olfactory element due to the +personal odor attaching to the garments.[50] + + Olfactory influences play a certain part in various sexually + abnormal tendencies and practices which do not proceed from an + exclusively olfactory fascination. Thus, _cunnilingus_ and + _fellatio_ derive part of their attraction, more especially in + some individuals, from a predilection for the odors of the sexual + parts. (See, e.g., Moll, _Untersuchungen ueber die Libido + Sexualis_, bd. 1, p. 134.) In many cases smell plays no part in + the attraction; "I enjoy _cunnilingus_, if I like the girl very + much," a correspondent writes, "_in spite_ of the smell." We may + associate this impulse with the prevalence of these practices + among sexual inverts, in whom olfactory attractions are often + specially marked. Those individuals, also, who are sexually + affected by the urinary and alvine excretions ("_renifleurs_," + "_stereoraires_," etc.) are largely, though not necessarily + altogether, moved by olfactory impressions. The attraction was, + however, exclusively olfactory in the case of the young woman + recorded by Moraglia (_Archivio di Psichiatria_, 1892, p. 267), + who was irresistibly excited by the odor of the fermented urine + of men, and possibly also in the case narrated to Moraglia by + Prof. L. Bianchi (ib. p. 568), in which a wife required flatus + from her husband. + + The sexual pleasure derived from partial strangulation (discussed + in the study of "Love and Pain" in a previous volume) may be + associated with heightened olfactory sexual excitation. Dr. + Kiernan, who points this out to me, has investigated a few + neuropathic patients who like to have their necks squeezed, as + they express it, and finds that in the majority the olfactory + sensibility is thus intensified. + +Even in ordinary normal persons, however, there can be no doubt that +personal odor tends to play a not inconsiderable part in sexual +attractions and sexual repulsions. As a sexual excitant, indeed, it comes +far behind the stimuli received through the sense of sight. The +comparative bluntness of the sense of smell in man makes it difficult for +olfactory influence to be felt, as a rule, until the preliminaries of +courtship are already over; so that it is impossible for smell ever to +possess the same significance in sexual attraction in man that it +possesses in the lower animals. With that reservation there can be no +doubt that odor has a certain favorable or unfavorable influence in sexual +relationships in all human races from the lowest to the highest. The +Polynesian spoke with contempt of those women of European race who "have +no smell," and in view of the pronounced personal odor of so many savage +peoples as well as of the careful attention which they so often pay to +odors, we may certainly assume, even in the absence of much definite +evidence, that smell counts for much in their sexual relationships. This +is confirmed by such practices as that found among some primitive +peoples--as, it is stated, in the Philippines--of lovers exchanging their +garments to have the smell of the loved one about them. In the barbaric +stages of society this element becomes self-conscious and is clearly +avowed; personal odors are constantly described with complacency, +sometimes as mingled with the lavish use of artificial perfumes, in much +of the erotic literature produced in the highest stages of barbarism, +especially by Eastern peoples living in hot climates; it is only necessary +to refer to the _Song of Songs_, the _Arabian Nights_, and the Indian +treatises on love. Even in some parts of Europe the same influence is +recognized in the crudest animal form, and Krauss states that among the +Southern Slavs it is sometimes customary to leave the sexual parts +unwashed because a strong odor of these parts is regarded as a sexual +stimulant. Under the usual conditions of life in Europe personal odor has +sunk into the background; this has been so equally under the conditions of +classic, mediaeval, and modern life. Personal odor has been generally +regarded as unaesthetic; it has, for the most part, only been mentioned to +be reprobated, and even those poets and others who during recent centuries +have shown a sensitive delight and interest in odors--Herrick, Shelley, +Baudelaire, Zola, and Huysmans--have seldom ventured to insist that a +purely natural and personal odor can be agreeable. The fact that it may be +so, and that for most people such odors cannot be a matter of indifference +in the most intimate of all relationships, is usually only to be learned +casually and incidentally. There can be no doubt, however, that, as +Kiernan points out, the extent to which olfaction influences the sexual +sphere in civilized man has been much underestimated. We need not, +therefore, be surprised at the greater interest which has recently been +taken in this subject. As usually happens, indeed, there has been in some +writers a tendency to run to the opposite extreme, and we cannot, with +Gustav Jaeger, regard the sexual instinct as mainly or altogether an +olfactory matter. + + Of the Padmini, the perfect woman, the "lotus woman," Hindu + writers say that "her sweat has the odor of musk," while the + vulgar woman, they say, smells of fish (_Kama Sutra of + Vatsyayana_). Ploss and Bartels (_Das Weib_, 1901, p. 218) bring + forward a passage from the Tamil _Kokkogam_, minutely describing + various kinds of sexual odor in women, which they regard as + resting on sound observation. + + Four things in a woman, says the Arab, should be perfumed: the + mouth, the armpits, the pudenda, and the nose. The Persian poets, + in describing the body, delighted to use metaphors involving + odor. Not only the hair and the down on the face, but the chin, + the mouth, the beauty spots, the neck, all suggested odorous + images. The epithets applied to the hair frequently refer to + musk, ambergris, and civet. (_Anis El-Ochchaq_ translated by + Huart, _Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes_, fasc. 25, + 1875.) + + The Hebrew _Song of Songs_ furnishes a typical example of a very + beautiful Eastern love-poem in which the importance of the appeal + to the sense of smell is throughout emphasized. There are in this + short poem as many as twenty-four fairly definite references to + odors,--personal odors, perfumes, and flowers,--while numerous + other references to flowers, etc., seem to point to olfactory + associations. Both the lover and his sweetheart express pleasure + in each other's personal odor. + + "My beloved is unto me," she sings, "as a bag of myrrh + That lieth between my breasts; + My beloved is unto me as a cluster of henna flowers + In the vineyard of En-gedi." + + And again: "His cheeks are as a bed of spices [or balsam], as + banks of sweet herbs." While of her he says: "The smell of thy + breath [or nose] is like apples." + + Greek and Roman antiquity, which has so largely influenced the + traditions of modern Europe, was lavish in the use of perfumes, + but showed no sympathy with personal odors. For the Roman + satirists, like Martial, a personal odor is nearly always an + unpleasant odor, though, there are a few allusions in classic + literature recognizing bodily smell as a sexual attraction. Ovid, + in his _Ars Amandi_ (Book III), says it is scarcely necessary to + remind a lady that she must not keep a goat in her armpits: "_ne + trux caper iret in alas_." "_Mulier tum bene olet ubi nihil + olet_" is an ancient dictum, and in the sixteenth century + Montaigne still repeated the same saying with complete approval. + + A different current of feeling began to appear with the new + emotional movement during the eighteenth century. Rousseau called + attention to the importance of the olfactory sense, and in his + educational work, _Emile_ (Bk. II), he referred to the odor of a + woman's "_cabinet de toilette_" as not so feeble a snare as is + commonly supposed. In the same century Casanova wrote still more + emphatically concerning the same point; in the preface to his + _Memoires_ he states: "I have always found sweet the odor of the + women I have loved"; and elsewhere: "There is something in the + air of the bedroom of the woman one loves, something so intimate, + so balsamic, such voluptuous emanations, that if a lover had to + choose between Heaven and this place of delight his hesitation + would not last for a moment" (_Memoires_, vol. iii). In the + previous century, in England, Sir Kenelm Digby, in his + interesting and remarkable _Private Memoirs_, when describing a + visit to Lady Venetia Stanley, afterward his wife, touches on + personal odor as an element of attraction; he had found her + asleep in bed and on her breasts "did glisten a few drops of + sweatlike diamond sparks, and had a more fragrant odor than the + violets or primroses whose season was newly passed." + + In 1821 Cadet-Devaux published, in the _Revue Encyclopedique_, a + study entitled "De l'atmosphere de la Femme et de sa Puissance," + which attracted a great deal of attention in Germany as well as + in France; he considered that the exhalations of the feminine + body are of the first importance in sexual attraction. + + Prof. A. Galopin in 1886 wrote a semiscientific book, _Le Parfum + de la Femme_, in which the sexual significance of personal odor + is developed to its fullest. He writes with enthusiasm concerning + the sweet and health-giving character of the natural perfume of a + beloved woman, and the mischief done both to health and love by + the use of artificial perfumes. "The purest marriage that can be + contracted between a man and a woman," he asserts (p. 157) "is + that engendered by olfaction and sanctioned by a common + assimilation in the brain of the animated molecules due to the + secretion and evaporation of two bodies in contact and sympathy." + + In a book written during the first half of the nineteenth century + which contains various subtle observations on love we read, with + reference to the sweet odor which poets have found in the breath + of women: "In reality many women have an intoxicatingly agreeable + breath which plays no small part in the love-compelling + atmosphere which they spread around them" (_Eros oder Woerterbuch + ueber die Physiologie_, 1849, Bd. 1, p. 45). + + Most of the writers on the psychology of love at this period, + however, seem to have passed over the olfactory element in sexual + attraction, regarding it probably as too unaesthetic. It receives + no emphasis either in Senancour's _De l'Amour_ or Stendhal's _De + l'Amour_ or Michelet's _L'Amour_. + + The poets within recent times have frequently referred to odors, + personal and other, but the novelists have more rarely done so. + Zola and Huysmans, the two novelists who have most elaborately + and insistently developed the olfactory side of life, have dwelt + more on odors that are repulsive than on those that are + agreeable. It is therefore of interest to note that in a few + remarkable novels of recent times the attractiveness of personal + odor has been emphasized. This is notably so in Tolstoy's _War + and Peace_, in which Count Peter suddenly resolves to marry + Princess Helena after inhaling her odor at a ball. In + d'Annunzio's _Trionfo della Morte_ the seductive and consoling + odor of the beloved woman's skin is described in several + passages; thus, when Giorgio kissed Ippolita's arms and + shoulders, we are told, "he perceived the sharp and yet delicate + perfume of her, the perfume of the skin that in the hour of joy + became intoxicating as that of the tuberose, and a terrible lash + to desire." + +When we are dealing with the sexual significance of personal odors in man +there is at the outset an important difference to be noticed in comparison +with the lower mammals. Not only is the significance of odor altogether +very much less, but the focus of olfactory attractiveness has been +displaced. The centre of olfactory attractiveness is not, as usually among +animals, in the sexual region, but is transferred to the upper part of the +body. In this respect the sexual olfactory allurement in man resembles +what we find in the sphere of vision, for neither the sexual organs of man +nor of woman are usually beautiful in the eyes of the opposite sex, and +their exhibition is not among us regarded as a necessary stage in +courtship. The odor of the body, like its beauty, in so far as it can be +regarded as a possible sexual allurement, has in the course of development +been transferred to the upper parts. The careful concealment of the sexual +region has doubtless favored this transfer. It has thus happened that when +personal odor acts as a sexual allurement it is the armpit, in any case +normally the chief focus of odor in the body, which mainly comes into +play, together with the skin and the hair. + + Aubert, of Lyons, noted that during menstruation the odor of the + armpits may become more powerful, and describes it as being at + this time an aromatic odor of acidulous or chloroform character. + Galopin remarks that, while some women's armpits smell of sheep + in rut, others, when exposed to the air, have a fragrance of + ambergris or violet. Dark persons (according to Gould and Pyle) + are said sometimes to exhale a prussic acid odor, and blondes + more frequently musk; Galopin associates the ambergris odor more + especially with blondes. + + While some European poets have faintly indicated the woman's + armpit as a centre of sexual attraction, it is among Eastern + poets that we may find the idea more directly and naturally + expressed. Thus, in a Chinese drama ("The Transmigration of + Yo-Chow," _Mercure de France_, No. 8, 1901) we find a learned + young doctor addressing the following poem to his betrothed:-- + + "When I have climbed to the bushy summit of Mount Chao, + I have still not reached to the level of your odorous armpit. + I must needs mount to the sky + Before the breeze brings to me + The perfume of that embalsamed nest!" + + This poet seems, however, to have been carried to a pitch of + enthusiasm unusual even in China, for his future mother-in-law, + after expressing her admiration for the poem, remarks: "But who + would have thought one could find so many beautiful things under + my daughter's armpit!" + + The odor of the armpit is the most powerful in the body, + sufficiently powerful to act as a muscular stimulant even in the + absence of any direct sexual association. This is indicated by an + observation made by Fere, who noticed, when living opposite a + laundry, that an old woman who worked near the window would, + toward the close of the day, introduce her right hand under the + sleeve of the other to the armpit and then hold it to her nose; + this she would do about every five minutes. It was evident that + the odor acted as a stimulant to her failing energies. Fere has + been informed by others who have had occasion to frequent + workrooms that this proceeding is by no means uncommon among + persons of both sexes. (Fere, _L'Instinct Sexuel_, second + edition, p. 135.) I have myself noticed the same gesture very + deliberately made in the street by a young English woman of the + working class, under circumstances which suggested that it acted + as an immediate stimulant in fatigue. + + Huysmans--who in his novels has insisted on odors, both those of + a personal kind and perfumes, with great precision--has devoted + one of the sketches, "Le Gousset," in his _Croquis Parisiens_ + (1880) to the varying odors of women's armpits. "I have followed + this fragrance in the country," he remarks, "behind a group of + women gleaners under the bright sun. It was excessive and + terrible; it stung your nostrils like an unstoppered bottle of + alkali; it seized you, irritating your mucous membrane with a + rough odor which had in it something of the relish of wild duck + cooked with olives and the sharp odor of the shallot. On the + whole, it was not a vile or repugnant emanation; it united, as an + anticipated thing, with the formidable odors of the landscape; it + was the pure note, completing with the human animals' cry of heat + the odorous melody of beasts and woods." He goes on to speak of + the perfume of feminine arms in the ball-room. "There the aroma + is of ammoniated valerian, of chlorinated urine, brutally + accentuated sometimes, even with a slight scent of prussic acid + about it, a faint whiff of overripe peaches." These + "spice-boxes," however, Huysmans continues, are more seductive + when their perfume is filtered through the garments. "The appeal + of the balsam of their arms is then less insolent, less cynical, + than at the ball where they are more naked, but it more easily + uncages the animal in man. Various as the color of the hair, the + odor of the armpit is infinitely divisible; its gamut covers the + whole keyboard of odors, reaching the obstinate scents of syringa + and elder, and sometimes recalling the sweet perfume of the + rubbed fingers that have held a cigarette. Audacious and + sometimes fatiguing in the brunette and the black woman, sharp + and fierce in the red woman, the armpit is heady as some sugared + wines in the blondes." It will be noted that this very exact + description corresponds at various points with the remarks of + more scientific observers. + + Sometimes the odor of the armpit may even become a kind of fetich + which is craved for its own sake and in itself suffices to give + pleasure. Fere has recorded such a case, in a friend of his own, + a man of 60, with whom at one time he used to hunt, of robust + health and belonging to a healthy family. On these hunting + expeditions he used to tease the girls and women he met + (sometimes even rather old women) in a surprising manner, when he + came upon them walking in the fields with their short-sleeved + chemises exposed. When he had succeeded in introducing his hand + into the woman's armpit he went away satisfied, and frequently + held the hand to his nose with evident pleasure. After long + hesitation Fere asked for an explanation, which was frankly + given. As a child he had liked the odor, without knowing why. As + a young man women with strong odors had stimulated him to + extraordinary sexual exploits, and now they were the only women + who had any influence on him. He professed to be able to + recognize continence by the odor, as well as the most favorable + moment for approaching a woman. Throughout life a cold in the + head had always been accompanied by persistent general + excitement. (Fere, _L'Instinct Sexuel_, 1902, p. 134.) + +We not only have to recognize that in the course of evolution the specific +odors of the sexual region have sunk into the background as a source of +sexual allurements, we have further to recognize the significant fact that +even those personal odors which are chiefly liable under normal +circumstances to come occasionally within the conscious sexual sphere, and +indeed purely personal odors of all kinds, fail to exert any attraction, +but rather tend to cause antipathy, unless some degree of tumescence has +already been attained. That is to say, our olfactory experiences of the +human body approximate rather to our tactile experiences of it than to our +visual experiences. Sight is our most intellectual sense, and we trust +ourselves to it with comparative boldness without any undue dread that its +messages will hurt us by their personal intimacy; we even court its +experiences, for it is the chief organ of our curiosity, as smell is of a +dog's. But smell with us has ceased to be a leading channel of +intellectual curiosity. Personal odors do not, as vision does, give us +information that is very largely intellectual; they make an appeal that is +mainly of an intimate, emotional, imaginative character. They thus tend, +when we are in our normal condition, to arouse what James calls the +antisexual instinct. + + "I cannot understand how people do not see how the senses are + connected," said Jenny Lind to J.A. Symonds (Horatio Brown, _J.A. + Symonds_, vol. i, p. 207). "What I have suffered from my sense of + smell! My youth was misery from my acuteness of sensibility." + + Mantegazza discusses the strength of olfactory antipathies + (_Fisiologia dell' Odio_, p. 101), and mentions that once when + ill in Paraguay he was nursed by an Indian girl of 16, who was + fresh as a peach and extremely clean, but whose odor--"a mixture + of wild beast's lair and decayed onions"--caused nausea and + almost made him faint. + + Moll (_Untersuchungen ueber die Libido Sexualis_, bd. i, p. 135) + records the case of a neuropathic man who was constantly rendered + impotent by his antipathy to personal body odors. It had very + frequently happened to him to be attracted by the face and + appearance of a girl, but at the last moment potency was + inhibited by the perception of personal odor. + + In the case of a man of distinguished ability known to me, + belonging to a somewhat neuropathic family, there is extreme + sensitiveness to the smell of a woman, which is frequently the + most obvious thing to him about her. He has seldom known a woman + whose natural perfume entirely suits him, and his olfactory + impressions have frequently been the immediate cause of a rupture + of relationships. + + It was formerly discussed whether strong personal odor + constituted adequate ground for divorce. Hagen, who brings + forward references on this point (_Sexuelle Osphresiologie_, pp. + 75-83), considers that the body odors are normally and naturally + repulsive because they are closely associated with the capryl + group of odors, which are those of many of the excretions. + + Olfactory antipathies are, however, often strictly subordinated + to the individual's general emotional attitude toward the object + from which they emanate. This is illustrated in the case, known + to me, of a man who on a hot day entering a steamboat with a + woman to whom he was attached seated himself between her and a + man, a stranger. He soon became conscious of an axillary odor + which he concluded to come from the man and which he felt as + disagreeable. But a little later he realized that it proceeded + from his own companion, and with this discovery the odor at once + lost its disagreeable character. + + In this respect a personal odor resembles a personal touch. Two + intimate touches of the hand, though of precisely similar + physical quality, may in their emotional effects be separated by + an immeasurable interval, in dependence on our attitude toward + the person from whom they proceed. + +Personal odor, in order to make its allurement felt, and not to arouse +antipathy, must, in normal persons, have been preceded by conditions which +have inhibited the play of the antisexual instinct. A certain degree of +tumescence must already have been attained. It is even possible, when we +bear in mind the intimate sympathy between the sexual sphere and the nose, +that the olfactory organ needs to have its sensibility modified in a form +receptive to sexual messages, though such an assumption is by no means +necessary. It is when such a faint preliminary degree of tumescence has +been attained, however it may have been attained,--for the methods of +tumescence, as we know, are innumerable,--that a sympathetic personal odor +is enabled to make its appeal. If we analyze the cases in which olfactory +perceptions have proved potent in love, we shall nearly always find that +they have been experienced under circumstances favorable for the +occurrence of tumescence. When this is not the case we may reasonably +suspect the presence of some degree of perversion. + + In the oft-quoted case of the Austrian peasant who found that he + was aided in seducing young women by dancing with them and then + wiping their faces with a handkerchief he had kept in his armpit, + we may doubtless regard the preliminary excitement of the dance + as an essential factor in the influence produced. + + In the same way, I am acquainted with the ease of a lady not + usually sensitive to simple body odors (though affected by + perfumes and flowers) who on one occasion, when already in a + state of sexual erethism, was highly excited when perceiving the + odor of her lover's axilla. + + The same influence of preliminary excitement may be seen in + another instance known to me, that of a gentlemen who when + traveling abroad fell in with three charming young ladies during + a long railway journey. He was conscious of a pleasurable + excitement caused by the prolonged intimacy of the journey, but + this only became definitely sexual when the youngest of the + ladies, stretching before him to look out of the window and + holding on to the rack above, accidentally brought her axilla + into close proximity with his face, whereupon erection was + caused, although he himself regards personal odors, at all events + when emanating from strangers, as indifferent or repulsive. + + A medical correspondent, referring to the fact that with many men + (indeed women also) sexual excitement occurs after dancing for a + considerable time, remarks that he considers the odor of the + woman's sweat is here a considerable factor. + +The characteristics of olfaction which our investigation has so far +revealed have not, on the whole, been favorable to the influence of +personal odors as a sexual attraction in civilized men. It is a primitive +sense which had its flowering time before men arose; it is a comparatively +unaesthetic sense; it is a somewhat obtuse sense which among Europeans is +usually incapable of perceiving the odor of the "human flower"--to use +Goethe's phrase--except on very close contact, and on this account, and on +account of the fact that it is a predominantly emotional sense, personal +odors in ordinary social intercourse are less likely to arouse the sexual +instinct than the antisexual instinct. If a certain degree of tumescence +is required before a personal odor can exert an attractive influence, a +powerful personal odor, strong enough to be perceived before any degree of +tumescence is attained, will tend to cause repulsion, and in so doing +tend, consciously or unconsciously, to excite prejudice against personal +odor altogether. This is actually the case in civilization, and most +people, it would appear, view with more or less antipathy the personal +odors of those persons to whom they are not sexually attracted, while +their attitude is neutral in this respect toward the individuals to whom +they are sexually attracted.[51] The following statement by a +correspondent seems to me to express the experience of the majority of men +in this respect: "I do not notice that different people have different +smells. Certain women I have known have been in the habit of using +particular scents, but no associations could be aroused if I were to smell +the same scent now, for I should not identify it. As a boy I was very fond +of scent, and I associate this with my marked sexual proclivities. I like +a woman to use a little scent. It rouses my sexual feelings, but not to +any large extent. I dislike the smell of a woman's vagina." While the last +statement seems to express the feeling of many if not most men, it may be +proper to add that there seems no natural reason why the vulvar odor of a +clean and healthy woman should be other than agreeable to a normal man who +is her lover. + +In literature it is the natural odor of women rather than men which +receives attention. We should expect this to be the case since literature +is chiefly produced by men. The question as to whether men or women are +really more apt to be sexually influenced in this way cannot thus be +decided. Among animals, it seems probable, both sexes are alike influenced +by odors, for, while it is usually the male whose sexual regions are +furnished with special scent glands, when such occur, the peculiar odor of +the female during the sexual season is certainly not less efficacious as +an allurement to the male. If we compare the general susceptibility of men +and women to agreeable odors, apart from the question of sexual +allurement, there can be little doubt that it is most marked among women. +As Groos points out, even among children little girls are more interested +in scents than boys, and the investigations of various workers, especially +Garbini, have shown that there is actually a greater power of +discriminating odors among girls than among boys. Marro has gone further, +and in an extended series of observations on girls before and after the +establishment of puberty--which is of considerable interest from the point +of view of the sexual significance of olfaction--he has shown reason to +believe that girls acquire an increased susceptibility to odors when +sexual life begins, although they show no such increased powers as regards +the other senses.[52] On the whole, it would appear that, while women are +not apt to be seriously affected, in the absence of any preliminary +excitation, by crude body odors, they are by no means insusceptible to the +sexual influence of olfactory impressions. It is probable, indeed, that +they are more affected, and more frequently affected, in this way, than +are men. + + Edouard de Goncourt, in his novel _Cherie_--the intimate history + of a young girl, founded, he states, on much personal + observation--describes (Chapter LXXXV) the delight with which + sensuous, but chaste young girls often take in strong perfumes. + "Perfume and love," he remarks, "impart delights which are + closely allied." In an earlier chapter (XLIV) he writes of his + heroine at the age of 15: "The intimately happy emotion which the + young girl experienced in reading _Paul et Virginie_ and other + honestly amorous books she sought to make more complete and + intense and penetrating by soaking the book with scent, and the + love-story reached her senses and imagination through pages moist + with liquid perfume." + + Carbini (_Archivio per l'Antropologia_, 1896, fasc. 3) in a very + thorough investigation of a large number of children, found that + the earliest osmo-gustative sensations occurred in the fourth + week in girls, the fifth week in boys; the first real and + definite olfactory sensations appeared in the fifteenth month in + girls, in the sixteenth in boys; while experiments on several + hundred children between the ages of 3 and 6 years showed the + girls slightly, but distinctly, superior to the boys. It may, of + course, be argued that these results merely show a somewhat + greater precocity of girls. I have summarized the main + investigations into this question in _Man and Woman_, revised and + enlarged edition, 1904, pp. 134-138. On the whole, they seem to + indicate greater olfactory acuteness on the part of women, but + the evidence is by no means altogether concordant in this sense. + Popular and general scientific opinion is also by no means always + in harmony. Thus, Tardif, in his book on odors in relation to the + sexual instinct, throughout assumes, as a matter of course, that + the sense of smell is most keen in men; while, on the other hand, + I note that in a pamphlet by Mr. Martin Perls, a manufacturing + perfumer, it is stated with equal confidence that "it is a + well-known fact that ladies have, even without a practice of long + standing, a keener sense of smell than men," and on this account + he employs a staff of young ladies for testing perfumes by smell + in the laboratory by the glazed paper test. + + It is sometimes said that the use of strong perfumes by women + indicates a dulled olfactory organ. On the other hand, it is said + that the use of tobacco deadens the sensitiveness of the + masculine nose. Both these statements seem to be without + foundation. The use of a large amount of perfume is rather a + question of taste than a question of sensory acuteness (not to + mention that those who live in an atmosphere of perfume are, of + course, only faintly conscious of it), and the chemist perfumer + in his laboratory surrounded by strong odors can distinguish them + all with great delicacy. As regards tobacco, in Spain the + _cigarreras_ are women and girls who live perpetually in an + atmosphere of tobacco, and Senora Pardo Bazan, who knows them + well, remarks in her novel, _La Tribuna_, which deals with life + in a tobacco factory, that "the acuity of the sense of smell of + the _cigarreras_ is notable, and it would seem that instead of + blunting the nasal membrane the tobacco makes the olfactory + nerves keener." + + "It was the same as if I was in a sweet apple garden, from the + sweetness that came to me when the light wind passed over them + and stirred their clothes," a woman is represented as saying + concerning a troop of handsome men in the Irish sagas (_Cuchulain + of Muirthemne_, p. 161). The pleasure and excitement experienced + by a woman in the odor of her lover is usually felt concerning a + vague and mixed odor which may be characteristic, but is not + definitely traceable to any specific bodily sexual odor. The + general odor of the man she loves, one woman states, is highly, + sometimes even overwhelmingly, attractive to her; but the + specific odor of the male sexual organs which she describes as + fishy has no attraction. A man writes that in his relations with + women he has never been able to detect that they were influenced + by the axillary or other specific odors. A woman writes: "To me + any personal odor, as that of perspiration, is very disagreeable, + and the healthy _naked_ human body is very free from any odor. + Fresh perspiration has no disagreeable smell; it is only by + retention in the clothing that it becomes objectionable. The + faint smell of smoke which lingers round men who smoke much is + rather exciting to me, but only when it is _very_ faint. If at + all strong it becomes disagreeable. As most of the men who have + attracted me have been great smokers, there is doubtless a direct + association of ideas. It has only once occurred to me that an + indifferent unpleasant smell became attractive in connection with + some particular person. In this case it was the scent of stale + tobacco, such as comes from the end of a cold cigar or cigarette. + It was, and is now, very disagreeable to me, but, for the time + and in connection with a particular person, it seemed to me more + delightful and exciting than the most delicious perfume. I think, + however, only a very strong attraction could overcome a dislike + of this sort, and I doubt if I could experience such a + twist-round if it had been a personal odor. Stale tobacco, though + nasty, conveys no mentally disagreeable idea. I mean it does not + suggest dirt or unhealthiness." + + It is probably significant of the somewhat considerable part + which, in one way or another, odors and perfumes play in the + emotional life of women, that, of the 4 women whose sexual + histories are recorded in Appendix B of vol. iii of these + _Studies_, all are liable to experience sexual effects from + olfactory stimuli, 3 of them from personal odors (though this + fact is not in every case brought out in the histories as + recorded), while of the 8 men not one has considered his + olfactory experiences in this respect as worthy of mention. + + The very marked sexual fascination which odor, associated with + the men they love, exerts on women has easily passed unperceived, + since women have not felt called upon to proclaim it. In sexual + inversion, however, when the woman takes a more active and + outspoken part than in normal love, it may very clearly be + traced. Here, indeed, it is often exaggerated, in consequence of + the common tendency for neurotic and neurasthenic persons to be + more than normally susceptible to the influence of odors. In the + majority of inverted women, it may safely be said, the odor of + the beloved person plays a very considerable part. Thus, one + inverted woman asks the woman she loves to send her some of her + hair that she may intoxicate herself in solitude with its perfume + (_Archivio di Psicopatie Sessuali_, vol. i, fasc. 3, p. 36). + Again, a young girl with some homosexual tendencies, was apt to + experience sexual emotions when in ordinary contact with + schoolfellows whose body odor was marked (Fere, _L'Instinct + Sexuel_, p. 260). Such examples are fairly typical. + + That the body odor of men may in a large number of cases be + highly agreeable and sexually attractive is shown by the + testimony of male sexual inverts. There is abundant evidence to + this effect. Raffalovich (_L'Uranisme et l'Unisexualite_, p. 126) + insists on the importance of body odors as a sexual attraction to + the male invert, and is inclined to think that the increased odor + of the man's own body during sexual excitement may have an + auto-aphrodisiacal effect which is reflected on the body of the + loved person. The odor of peasants, of men who work in the open + air, is specially apt to be found attractive. Moll mentions the + case of an inverted man who found the "forest, mosslike odor" of + a schoolfellow irresistibly attractive. + + The following passage from a letter written by an Italian marquis + has been sent to me: "Bonifazio stripped one evening, to give me + pleasure. He has the full, rounded flesh and amber coloring which + painters of the Giorgione school gave to their S. Sebastians. + When he began to dress, I took up an old _fascia_, or girdle of + netted silk, which was lying under his breeches, and which still + preserved the warmth of his body. I buried my face in it, and was + half inebriated by its exquisite aroma of young manhood and fresh + hay. He told me he had worn it for two years. No wonder it was + redolent of him. I asked him to let me keep it as a souvenir. He + smiled and said: 'You like it because it has lain so long upon my + _panoia_.' 'Yes, just so,' I replied; 'whenever I kiss it, thus + and thus, it will bring you back to me.' Sometimes I tie it round + my naked waist before I go to bed. The smell of it is enough to + cause a powerful erection, and the contact of its fringes with my + testicles and phallus has once or twice produced an involuntary + emission." + + I may here reproduce a communication which has reached me + concerning the attractiveness of the odor of peasants: "One + predominant attraction of these men is that they are pure and + clean; their bodies in a state of healthy normal function. Then + they possess, if they are temperate, what the Greek poet Straton + called the phydike chrotos (a quality which, according to this + authority, is never found in women). This 'natural fair perfume + of the flesh' is a peculiar attribute of young men who live in + the open air and deal with natural objects. Even their + perspiration has an odor very different from that of girls in + ball-rooms: more refined, ethereal, pervasive, delicate, and + difficult to seize. When they have handled hay--in the time of + hay-harvest, or in winter, when they bring hay down from mountain + huts--the youthful peasants carry about with them the smell of 'a + field the Lord hath blessed.' Their bodies and their clothes + exhale an indefinable fragrance of purity and sex combined. Every + gland of the robust frame seems to have accumulated scent from + herbs and grasses, which slowly exudes from the cool, fresh skin + of the lad. You do not perceive it in a room. You must take the + young man's hands and bury your face in them, or be covered with + him under the same blanket in one bed, to feel this aroma. No + sensual impression on the nerves of smell is more poignantly + impregnated with spiritual poetry--the poetry of adolescence, and + early hours upon the hills, and labor cheerfully accomplished, + and the harvest of God's gifts to man brought home by human + industry. It is worth mentioning that Aristophanes, in his + description of the perfect Athenian Ephebus, dwells upon his + being redolent of natural perfumes." + + In a passage in the second part of _Faust_ Goethe (who appears to + have felt considerable interest in the psychology of smell) makes + three women speak concerning the ambrosiacal odor of young men. + + In this connection, also, I note a passage in a poem ("Appleton + House") by our own English poet Marvell, which it is of interest + to quote:-- + + "And now the careless victors play, + Dancing the triumphs of the hay, + When every mower's wholesome heat + Smells like an Alexander's sweat. + Their females fragrant as the mead + Which they in fairy circles tread, + When at their dance's end they kiss, + Their new-mown hay not sweeter is." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[30] R. Andree, "Voelkergeruch," in _Ethnographische Parallelen_, Neue +Folge, 1889, pp. 213-222, brings together many passages describing the +odors of various peoples. Hagen, _Sexuelle Osphresiologie_, pp. 166 et +seq., has a chapter on the subject; Joest, supplement to _International +Archiv fuer Ethnographie_, 1893, p. 53, has an interesting passage on the +smells of various races, as also Waitz, _Introduction to Anthropology_, p. +103. Cf. Sir H.H. Johnston, _British Central Africa_, p. 395; T.H. Parke, +_Experiences in Equatorial Africa_, p. 409; E.H. Man, _Journal of the +Anthropological Institute_, 1889, p. 391; Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of +Victoria_, vol. i, p. 7; d'Orbigny, _L'Homme Americain_, vol. i, p. 87, +etc. + +[31] B. Adachi "Geruch der Europaer," _Globus_, 1903, No. 1. + +[32] Hagen quotes testimonies on this point, _Sexuelle Osphresiologie_, p. +173. The negro, Castellani states, considers that Europeans have a smell +of death. + +[33] _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition_, vol. ii, p. +181. + +[34] Waitz, _Introduction to Anthropology_, p. 103. + +[35] Monin, _Les Odeurs du Corps Humain_, second edition, Paris, 1886, +discusses briefly but comprehensively the normal and more especially the +pathological odors of the body and of its secretions and excretions. + +[36] Venturi, _Degenerazione Psicho-sessuale_, p. 417. + +[37] Quoted by Fere, _L'Instinct Sexuel_, 1902, p. 133. + +[38] H. Ling Roth, "On Salutations," _Journal of the Anthropological +Institute_, November, 1889. + +[39] See Appendix A: "The Origins of the Kiss." + +[40] See, e.g., passage quoted by I. Bloch, _Beitraege zur AEtiologie der +Psychopathia Sexualis_, Teil II, p. 205. + +[41] It must at the same time be remembered that the more or less degree +of exposure involved by sexual intercourse is itself a cause of nasal +congestion and sneezing. + +[42] Fere, _Pathologie des Emotions_, p. 81 + +[43] J.N. Mackenzie similarly suggests (_Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin_, +No. 82, 1898) that "irritation and congestion of the nasal mucous membrane +precede, or are the excitants of, the olfactory impression that forms the +connecting link between the sense of smell and erethism of the +reproductive organs exhibited in the lower animals." + +[44] _Les Odeurs dans les Romans de Zola_, Montpellier, 1889. + +[45] Toulouse, _Emile Zola_, pp. 163-165, 173-175. + +[46] P.J. Moebius, _Das Pathologische bei Nietzsche_. + +[47] Moll has a passage on the sense of smell in the blind, more +especially in sexual respects, _Untersuchungen ueber die Libido Sexualis_, +bd. 1, pp. 137 et seq. + +[48] See, for instance, his poem, "Love Perfumes all Parts," in which he +declares that "Hands and thighs and legs are all richly aromatical." And +compare the lyrics entitled "A Song to the Maskers," "On Julia's Breath," +"Upon Julia's Unlacing Herself," "Upon Julia's Sweat," and "To Mistress +Anne Soame." + +[49] There are various indications that Goethe was attentive to the +attraction of personal odors; and that he experienced this attraction +himself is shown by the fact that, as he confessed, when he once had to +leave Weimar on an official journey for two days he took a bodice of Frau +von Stein's away in order to carry the scent of her body with him. + +[50] Hagen has brought together from the literature of the subject a +number of typical cases of olfactory fetichism, _Sexuelle Osphresiologie_, +1901, pp. 82 et seq. + +[51] Moll's inquiries among normal persons have also shown that few people +are conscious of odor as a sexual attraction. (_Untersuchungen ueber die +Libido Sexualis_. Bd. I, p. 133.) + +[52] Marro, _La, Puberta_, 1898, Chapter II. Tardif found in boys that +perfumes exerted little or no influence on circulation and respiration +before puberty, though his observations on this point were too few to +carry weight. + + + + +IV. + +The Influence of Perfumes--Their Aboriginal Relationship to Sexual Body +Odors--This True even of the Fragrance of Flowers--The Synthetic +Manufacture of Perfumes--The Sexual Effects of Perfumes--Perfumes perhaps +Originally Used to Heighten the Body Odors--The Special Significance of +the Musk Odor--Its Wide Natural Diffusion in Plants and Animals and +Man--Musk a Powerful Stimulant--Its Widespread Use as a Perfume--Peau +d'Espagne--The Smell of Leather and its Occasional Sexual Effects--The +Sexual Influence of the Odors of Flowers--The Identity of many Plant Odors +with Certain Normal and Abnormal Body Odors--The Smell of Semen in this +Connection. + + +So far we have been mainly concerned with purely personal odors. It is, +however, no longer possible to confine the discussion of the sexual +significance of odor within the purely animal limit. The various +characteristics of personal odor which have been noted--alike those which +tend to make it repulsive and those which tend to make it attractive--have +led to the use of artificial perfumes, to heighten the natural odor when +it is regarded as attractive, to disguise it when it is regarded as +repellent; while at the same time, happily covering both of these +impulses, has developed the pure delight in perfume for its own +agreeableness, the aesthetic side of olfaction. In this way--although in a +much less constant and less elaborate manner--the body became adorned to +the sense of smell just as by clothing and ornament it is adorned to the +sense of sight. + +But--and this is a point of great significance from our present +standpoint--we do not really leave the sexual sphere by introducing +artificial perfumes. The perfumes which we extract from natural products, +or, as is now frequently the case, produce by chemical synthesis, are +themselves either actually animal sexual odors or allied in character or +composition, to the personal odors they are used to heighten or disguise. +Musk is the product of glands of the male _Moschus moschiferus_ which +correspond to preputial sebaceous glands; castoreum is the product of +similar sexual glands in the beaver, and civet likewise from the civet; +ambergris is an intestinal calculus found in the rectum of the +cachelot.[53] Not only, however, are nearly all the perfumes of animal +origin, in use by civilized man, odors which have a specially sexual +object among the animals from which they are derived, but even the +perfumes of flowers may be said to be of sexual character. They are given +out at the reproductive period in the lives of plants, and they clearly +have very largely as their object an appeal to the insects who secure +plant fertilization, such appeal having as its basis the fact that among +insects themselves olfactory sensibility has in many cases been developed +in their own mating.[54] There is, for example, a moth in which both sexes +are similarly and inconspicuously marked, but the males diffuse an +agreeable odor, said to be like pineapple, which attracts the females.[55] +If, therefore, the odors of flowers have developed because they proved +useful to the plant by attracting insects or other living creatures, it is +obvious that the advantage would lie with those plants which could put +forth an animal sexual odor of agreeable character, since such an odor +would prove fascinating to animal creatures. We here have a very simple +explanation of the fundamental identity of odors in the animal and +vegetable worlds. It thus comes about that from a psychological point of +view we are not really entering a new field when we begin to discuss the +influence of perfumes other than those of the animal body. We are merely +concerned with somewhat more complex or somewhat more refined sexual +odors; they are not specifically different from the human odors and they +mingle with them harmoniously. Popular language bears witness to the +truth of this statement, and the normal and abnormal human odors, as we +have already seen, are constantly compared to artificial, animal, and +plant odors, to chloroform, to musk, to violet, to mention only those +similitudes which seem to occur most frequently. + + The methods now employed for obtaining the perfumes universally + used in civilized lands are three: (1) the extraction of + odoriferous compounds from the neutral products in which they + occur; (2) the artificial preparation of naturally occurring + odoriferous compounds by synthetic processes; (3) the manufacture + of materials which yield odors resembling those of pleasant + smelling natural objects. (See, e.g., "Natural and Artificial + Perfumes," _Nature_, December 27, 1900.) The essential principles + of most of our perfumes belong to the complex class of organic + compounds known as terpenes. During recent years a number of the + essential elements of natural perfumes have been studied, in many + cases the methods of preparing them artificially discovered, and + they are largely replacing the use of natural perfumes not only + for soaps, etc., but for scent essences, though it appears to be + very difficult to imitate exactly the delicate fragrance achieved + by Nature. Artificial musk was discovered accidentally by Bauer + when studying the butyltoluenes contained in a resin extractive. + Vanillin, the odoriferous principle of the vanilla bean, is an + aldehyde which was first artificially prepared by Tiemann and + Haarmann in 1874 by oxidizing coniferin, a glucoside contained in + the sap of various coniferae, but it now appears to be usually + manufactured from eugenol, a phenol contained in oil of cloves. + Piperonal, an aldehyde closely allied to vanillin, is used in + perfumery under the name of heliotropin and is prepared from oil + of sassafras and oil of camphor. Cumarine, the material to which + tonka bean, sweet woodruff, and new-mown hay owe their + characteristic odors, was synthetically prepared by W.H. Parkin + in 1868 by heating sodiosalicylic aldehyde with acetic anhydride, + though now more cheaply prepared from an herb growing in Florida. + Irone, which has the perfume of violets, was isolated in 1893 + from a ketone contained in orris-root; and ionone, another ketone + which has a very closely similar odor of fresh violets and was + isolated after some years' further work, is largely used in the + preparation of violet perfume. Irone and ionone are closely + similar in composition to oil of turpentine which when taken into + the body is partly converted into perfume and gives a strong odor + of violets to the urine. "Little has yet been accomplished toward + ascertaining the relation between the odor and the chemical + constitution of substances in general. Hydrocarbons as a class + possess considerable similarity in odor, so also do the organic + sulphides and, to a much smaller extent, the ketones. The + subject waits for some one to correlate its various + physiological, psychological and physical aspects in the same way + that Helmholtz did for sound. It seems, as yet, impossible to + assign any probable reason to the fact that many substances have + a pleasant odor. It may, however, be worth suggesting that + certain compounds, such as the volatile sulphides and the + indoles, have very unpleasant odors because they are normal + constituents of mammalian excreta and of putrefied animal + products; the repulsive odors may be simply necessary results of + evolutionary processes." (_Loc. cit._, _Nature_, December 27, + 1900.) + + Many of the perfumes in use are really combinations of a great + many different odors in varying proportions, such as oil of rose, + lavender oil, ylang-ylang, etc. The most highly appreciated + perfumes are often made up of elements which in stronger + proportion would be regarded as highly unpleasant. + + In the study and manufacture of perfumes Germany and France have + taken the lead in recent times. The industry is one of great + importance. In France alone the trade in perfumes amounts to + L4,000,000. + +It is doubtless largely owing to the essential and fundamental identity of +odors--to the chemical resemblances even of odors from the most widely +remote sources--that we find that perfumes in many cases have the same +sexual effects as are primitively possessed by the body odors. In northern +countries, where the use of perfumes is chiefly cultivated by women, it is +by women that this sexual influence is most liable to be felt. In the +South and in the East it appears to be at least equally often experienced +by men. Thus, in Italy Mantegazza remarks that "many men of strong sexual +temperament cannot visit with impunity a laboratory of essences and +perfumes."[56] In the East we find it stated in the Islamic book entitled +_The Perfumed Garden of Sheik Nefzaoui_ that the use of perfumes by women, +as well as by men, excites to the generative act. It is largely in +reliance on this fact that in many parts of the world, especially among +Eastern peoples and occasionally among ourselves in Europe, women have +been accustomed to perfume the body and especially the vulva.[57] + +It seems highly probable that, as has been especially emphasized by Hagen, +perfumes were primitively used by women, not as is sometimes the case in +civilization, with the idea of disguising any possible natural odor, but +with the object of heightening and fortifying the natural odor.[58] If the +primitive man was inclined to disparage a woman whose odor was slight or +imperceptible,--turning away from her with contempt, as the Polynesian +turned away from the ladies of Sydney: "They have no smell!"--women would +inevitably seek to supplement any natural defects in this respect, and to +accentuate their odorous qualities, in the same way as by corsets and +bustles, even in civilization, they have sought to accentuate the sexual +saliencies of their bodies. In this way we may, as Hagen suggests, explain +the fact that until recent times the odors preferred by women have not +been the most delicate or exquisite, but the strongest, the most animal, +the most sexual: musk, castoreum, civet, and ambergris. + + In that interesting novel--dealing with the adventures of a + Jewish maiden at the Persian court of Xerxes--which under the + title of _Esther_ has found its way into the Old Testament we are + told that it was customary in the royal harem at Shushan to + submit the women to a very prolonged course of perfuming before + they were admitted to the king: "six months with oil of myrrh and + six months with sweet odors." (_Esther_, Chapter II, v. 12.) + + In the _Arabian Nights_ there are many allusions to the use of + perfumes by women with a more or less definitely stated + aphrodisiacal intent. Thus we read in the story of Kamaralzaman: + "With fine incense I will perfume my breasts, my belly, my whole + body, so that my skin may melt more sweetly in thy mouth, O apple + of my eye!" + + Even among savages the perfuming of the body is sometimes + practiced with the object of inducing love in the partner. + Schellong states that the Papuans of Kaiser Wilhelm's Land rub + various fragrant plants into their bodies for this purpose. + (_Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie_, 1899, ht. i, p. 19.) The + significance of this practice is more fully revealed by Haddon + when studying the Papuans of Torres Straits among whom the + initiative in courtship is taken by the women. It was by scenting + himself with a pungent odorous substance that a young man + indicated that he was ready to be sued by the girls. A man would + wear this scent at the back of his neck during a dance in order + to attract the attention of a particular girl; it was believed to + act with magical certainty, after the manner of a charm (_Reports + of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_, + vol. v, pp. 211, 222, and 328). + +The perfume which is of all perfumes the most interesting from the present +point of view is certainly musk. With ambergris, musk is the chief member +of Linnaeus's group of _Odores ambrosiacae_, a group which in sexual +significances, as Zwaardemaker remarks, ranks besides the capryl group of +odors. It is a perfume of ancient origin; its name is Persian[59] +(indicating doubtless the channel whence it reached Europe) and ultimately +derived from the Sanskrit word for testicle in allusion to the fact that +it was contained in a pouch removed from the sexual parts of the male +musk-deer. Musk odors, however, often of considerable strength, are very +widely distributed in Nature, alike among animals and plants. This is +indicated by the frequency with which the word "musk" forms part of the +names of animals and plants which are by no means always nearly related. +We have the musk-ox, the musky mole, several species called musk-rat, the +musk-duct, the musk-beetle; while among plants which have received their +names from a real or supposed musky odor are, besides several that are +called musk-plant, the musk-rose, the musk-hyacinth, the musk-mallow, the +musk-orchid, the musk-melon, the musk-cherry, the musk-pear, the +musk-plum, muskat and muscatels, musk-seed, musk-tree, musk-wood, etc.[60] +But a musky odor is not merely widespread in Nature among plants and the +lower animals, it is peculiarly associated with man. Incidentally we have +already seen how it is regarded as characteristic of some races of man, +especially the Chinese. Moreover, the smell of the negress is said to be +musky in character, and among Europeans a musky odor is said to be +characteristic of blondes. Laycock, in his _Nervous Diseases of Women_, +stated his opinion that "the musk odor is certainly the sexual odor of +man"; and Fere states that the musk odor is that among natural perfumes +most nearly approaching the odor of the sexual secretions. We have seen +that the Chinese poet vaunts the musky odor of his mistress's armpits, +while another Oriental saying concerning the attractive woman is that "her +navel is filled with musk." Persian literature contains many references to +musk as an attractive body odor, and Firdusi speaks of a woman's hair as +"a crown of musk," while the Arabian poet Motannabi says of his mistress +that "her hyacinthine hair smells sweeter than Scythian musk." Galopin +stated that he knew women whose natural odor of musk (and less frequently +of ambergris) was sufficiently strong to impart to a bath in less than an +hour a perfume due entirely to the exhalations of the musky body; it must +be added that Galopin was an enthusiast in this matter. + +The special significance of musk from our present point of view lies not +only in the fact that we here have a perfume, widely scattered throughout +nature and often in an agreeable form, which is at the same time a very +frequent personal odor in man. Musk is the odor which not only in the +animals to which it has given a name, but in many others, is a +specifically sexual odor, chiefly emitted during the sexual season. The +sexual odors, indeed, of most animals seem to be modifications of musk. +The Sphinx moth has a musky odor which is confined to the male and is +doubtless sexual. Some lizards have a musky odor which is heightened at +the sexual season; crocodiles during the pairing season emit from their +submaxillary glands a musky odor which pervades their haunts. In the same +way elephants emit a musky odor from their facial glands during the +rutting season. The odor of the musk-duck is chiefly confined to the +breeding season.[61] The musky odor of the negress is said to be +heightened during sexual excitement. + +The predominance of musk as a sexual odor is associated with the fact that +its actual nervous influence, apart from the presence of sexual +association, is very considerable. Fere found it to be a powerful muscular +stimulant. In former times musk enjoyed a high reputation as a cardiac +stimulant; it fell into disuse, but in recent years its use in asthenic +states has been revived, and excellent results, it has been claimed, have +followed its administration in cases of collapse from Asiatic cholera. For +sexual torpor in women it still has (like vanilla and sandal) a certain +degree of reputation, though it is not often used, and some of the old +Arabian physicians (especially Avicenna) recommended it, with castoreum +and myrrh, for amenorrhoea. Its powerful action is indicated by the +experience of Esquirol, who stated that he had seen cases in which sensory +stimulation by musk in women during lactation had produced mania. It has +always had the reputation, more especially in the Mohammedan East, of +being a sexual stimulant to men; "the noblest of perfumes," it is called +in _El Ktab_, "and that which most provokes to venery." + +It is doubtless a fact significant of the special sexual effects of musk +that, as Laycock remarked, in cases of special idiosyncrasy to odors, musk +appears to be that odor which is most liked or disliked. Thus, the old +English physician Whytt remarked that "several delicate women who could +easily bear the stronger smell of tobacco have been thrown into fits by +musk, ambergris, or a pale rose."[62] It may be remarked that in the +_Perfumed Garden of Sheik Nefzaoui_ it is stated that it is by their +sexual effects that perfumes tend to throw women into a kind of swoon, and +Lucretius remarks that a woman who smells castoreum, another animal sexual +perfume, at the time of her menstrual period may swoon.[63] + +Not only is musk the most cherished perfume of the Islamic world, and the +special favorite of the Prophet himself, who greatly delighted in perfumes +("I love your world," he is reported to have said in old age, "for its +women and its perfumes"),[64] it is the only perfume generally used by the +women of a land in which the refinements of life have been carried so far +as Japan, and they received it from the Chinese.[65] + +Moreover, musk is still the most popular of European perfumes. It is the +perfumes containing musk, Piesse states in his well-known book on the _Art +of Perfumery_, which sell best. It is certainly true that in its simple +form the odor of musk is not nowadays highly considered in Europe. This +fact is connected with the ever-growing refinement in accordance with +which the specific odors of the sexual regions in human beings tend to +lose their primitive attractiveness and bodily odors generally become +mingled with artificial perfumes and so disguised. But, although musk in +its simple form, and under its ancient name, has lost its hold in Europe, +it is an interesting and significant fact that it is still the perfumes +which contain musk that are the most widely popular. + +Peau d'Espagne may be mentioned as a highly complex and luxurious perfume, +often the favorite scent of sensuous persons, which really owes a large +part of its potency to the presence of the crude animal sexual odors of +musk and civet. It consists of wash-leather steeped in ottos of neroli, +rose, santal, lavender, verbena, bergamot, cloves, and cinnamon, +subsequently smeared with civet and musk. It is said by some, probably +with a certain degree of truth, that Peau d'Espagne is of all perfumes +that which most nearly approaches the odor of a woman's skin; whether it +also suggests the odor of leather is not so clear. + +There is, however, no doubt that the smell of leather has a curiously +stimulating sexual influence on many men and women. It is an odor which +seems to occupy an intermediate place between the natural body odors and +the artificial perfumes for which it sometimes serves as a basis; possibly +it is to this fact that its occasional sexual influence is owing, for, as +we have already seen, there is a tendency for sexual allurement to attach +to odors which are not the specific personal body odors but yet are +related to them. Moll considers, no doubt rightly, that shoe fetichism, +perhaps the most frequent of sexual fetichistic perversions, is greatly +favored, if, indeed, it does not owe its origin to, the associated odor of +the feet and of the shoes.[66] He narrates a case of shoe fetichism in a +man in which the perversion began at the age of 6; when for the first time +he wore new shoes, having previously used only the left-off shoes of his +elder brother; he felt and smelt these new shoes with sensations of +unmeasured pleasure; and a few years later began to use shoes as a method +of masturbation.[67] Naecke has also recorded the case of a shoe fetichist +who declared that the sexual attraction of shoes (usually his wife's) lay +largely in the odor of the leather.[68] Krafft-Ebing, again, brings +forward a case of shoe fetichism in which the significant fact is +mentioned that the subject bought a pair of leather cuffs to smell while +masturbating.[69] Restif de la Bretonne, who was somewhat of a shoe +fetichist, appears to have enjoyed smelling shoes. It is not probable that +the odor of leather explains the whole of shoe fetichism,--as we shall see +when, in another "Study," this question comes before us--and in many cases +it cannot be said to enter at all; it is, however, one of the factors. +Such a conclusion is further supported by the fact that by many the odor +of new shoes is sometimes desired as an adjuvant to coitus. It is in the +experience of prostitutes that such a device is not infrequent. Naecke +mentions that a colleague of his was informed by a prostitute that several +of her clients desired the odor of new shoes in the room, and that she was +accustomed to obtain the desired perfume by holding her shoes for a moment +over the flame of a spirit lamp. + +The direct sexual influence of the odor of leather is, however, more +conclusively proved by those instances in which it exists apart from shoes +or other objects having any connection with the human body. I have +elsewhere in these "Studies"[71] recorded the case of a lady, entirely +normal in sexual and other respects, who is conscious of a considerable +degree of pleasurable sexual excitement in the presence of the smell of +leather objects, more especially of leather-bound ledgers and in shops +where leather objects are sold. She thinks this dates from the period +when, as a child of 9, she was sometimes left alone for a time on a high +stool in an office. A possible explanation in this case lies in the +supposition that on one of these early occasions sexual excitement was +produced by the contact with the stool (in a way that is not infrequent in +young girls) and that the accidentally associated odor of leather +permanently affected the nervous system, while the really significant +contact left no permanent impression. Even on such a supposition it might, +however, still be maintained that a real potency of the leather odor is +illustrated by this case, and this is likewise suggested by the fact that +the same subject is also sexually affected by various perfumes and odorous +flowers not recalling leather.[70] + +It has been suggested to me by a lady that the odor of leather suggests +that of the sexual organs. The same suggestion is made by Hagen,[72] and I +find it stated by Gould and Pyle that menstruating girls sometimes smell +of leather. The secret of its influence may thus be not altogether +obscure; in the fact that leather is animal skin, and that it may thus +vaguely stir the olfactory sensibilities which had been ancestrally +affected by the sexual stimulus of the skin odor lies the probable +foundation of the mystery. + +In the absence of all suggestion of personal or animal odors, in its most +exquisite forms in the fragrance of flowers, olfactory sensations are +still very frequently of a voluptuous character. Mantegazza has remarked +that it is a proof of the close connection between the sense of smell and +the sexual organs that the expression of pleasure produced by olfaction +resembles the expression of sexual pleasures.[73] Make the chastest woman +smell the flowers she likes best, he remarks, and she will close her eyes, +breathe deeply, and, if very sensitive, tremble all over, presenting an +intimate picture which otherwise she never shows, except perhaps to her +lover. He mentions a lady who said: "I sometimes feel such pleasure in +smelling flowers that I seem to be committing a sin."[74] It is really the +case that in many persons--usually, if not exclusively, women--the odor of +flowers produces not only a highly pleasurable, but a distinctly and +specifically sexual, effect. I have met with numerous cases in which this +effect was well marked. It is usually white flowers with heavy, +penetrating odors which exert this influence. Thus, one lady (who is +similarly affected by various perfumes, forget-me-nots, ylang-ylang, +etc.) finds that a number of flowers produce on her a definite sexual +effect, with moistening of the pudenda. This effect is especially produced +by white flowers like the gardenia, tuberose, etc. Another lady, who lives +in India, has a similar experience with flowers. She writes: A scent to +cause me sexual excitement must be somewhat heavy and _penetrating_. +Nearly all white flowers so affect me and many Indian flowers with heavy, +almost pungent scents. (All the flower scents are quite unconnected with +me with any individual.) Tuberose, lilies of the valley, and frangipani +flowers have an almost intoxicating effect on me. Violets, roses, +mignonette, and many others, though very delicious, give me no sexual +feeling at all. For this reason the line, 'The lilies and languors of +virtue for the roses and raptures of vice' seems all wrong to me. The lily +seems to me a very sensual flower, while the rose and its scent seem very +good and countrified and virtuous. Shelley's description of the lily of +the valley, 'whom youth makes so fair and _passion_ so pale,' falls in +much more with my ideas. "I can quite understand," she adds, "that +leather, especially of books, might have an exciting effect, as the smell +has this _penetrating_ quality, but I do not think it produces any special +feeling in me." This more sensuous character of white flowers is fairly +obvious to many persons who do not experience from them any specifically +sexual effects. To some people lilies have an odor which they describe as +sexual, although these persons may be quite unaware that Hindu authors +long since described the vulvar secretion of the _Padmini_, or perfect +woman, during coitus, as "perfumed like the lily that has newly +burst."[75] It is noteworthy that it was more especially the white +flowers--lily, tuberose, etc.--which were long ago noted by Cloquet as +liable to cause various unpleasant nervous effects, cardiac oppression and +syncope.[76] + +When we are concerned with the fragrances of flowers it would seem that we +are far removed from the human sexual field, and that their sexual effects +are inexplicable. It is not so. The animal and vegetable odors, as, +indeed, we have already seen, are very closely connected. The recorded +cases are very numerous in which human persons have exhaled from their +skins--sometimes in a very pronounced degree--the odors of plants and +flowers, of violets, of roses, of pineapple, of vanilla. On the other +hand, there are various plant odors which distinctly recall, not merely +the general odor of the human body, but even the specifically sexual +odors. A rare garden weed, the stinking goosefoot, _Chenopodium vulvaria_, +it is well known, possesses a herring brine or putrid fish odor--due, it +appears, to propylamin, which is also found in the flowers of the common +white thorn or mayflower (_Crataegus oxyacantha_) and many others of the +_Rosaceae_--which recalls the odor of the animal and human sexual +regions.[77] The reason is that both plant and animal odors belong +chemically to the same group of capryl odors (Linnaeus's _Odores hircini_), +so called from the goat, the most important group of odors from the sexual +point of view. Caproic and capryl acid are contained not only in the odor +of the goat and in human sweat, and in animal products as many cheeses, +but also in various plants, such as Herb Robert (_Geranium robertianum_), +and the Stinking St. John's worts (_Hypericum hircinum_), as well as the +_Chenopodium_. Zwaardemaker considers it probable that the odor of the +vagina belongs to the same group, as well as the odor of semen (which +Haller called _odor aphrodisiacus_), which last odor is also found, as +Cloquet pointed out, in the flowers of the common berberry (_Berberis +vulgaris_) and in the chestnut. A very remarkable and significant example +of the same odor seems to occur in the case of the flowers of the henna +plant, the white-flowered Lawsonia (_Lawsonia inermis_), so widely used in +some Mohammedan lands for dyeing the nails and other parts of the body. +"These flowers diffuse the sweetest odor," wrote Sonnini in Egypt a +century ago; "the women delight to wear them, to adorn their houses with +them, to carry them to the baths, to hold them in their hands, and to +perfume their bosoms with them. They cannot patiently endure that +Christian and Jewish women shall share the privilege with them. It is very +remarkable that the perfume of the henna flowers, when closely inhaled, is +almost entirely lost in a very decided spermatic odor. If the flowers are +crushed between the fingers this odor prevails, and is, indeed, the only +one perceptible. It is not surprising that so delicious a flower has +furnished Oriental poetry with many charming traits and amorous similes." +Such a simile Sonnini finds in the _Song of Songs_, i. 13-14.[78] + +The odor of semen has not been investigated, but, according to +Zwaardemaker, artificially produced odors (like cadaverin) resemble it. +The odor of the leguminous fenugreek, a botanical friend considers, +closely approaches the odor given off in some cases by the armpit in +women. It is noteworthy that fenugreek contains cumarine, which imparts +its fragrance to new-mown hay and to various flowers of somewhat similar +odor. On some persons these have a sexually exciting effect, and it is of +considerable interest to observe that they recall to many the odor of +semen. "It seems very natural," a lady writes, "that flowers, etc., should +have an exciting effect, as the original and by far the pleasantest way of +love-making was in the open among flowers and fields; but a more purely +physical reason may, I think, be found in the exact resemblance between +the scent of semen and that of the pollen of flowering grasses. The first +time I became aware of this resemblance it came on me with a rush that +here was the explanation of the very exciting effect of a field of +flowering grasses and, perhaps through them, of the scents of other +flowers. If I am right, I suppose flower scents should affect women more +powerfully than men in a sexual way. I do not think anyone would be likely +to notice the odor of semen in this connection unless they had been +greatly struck by the exciting effects of the pollen of grasses. I had +often noticed it and puzzled over it." As pollen is the male sexual +element of flowers, its occasionally stimulating effect in this direction +is perhaps but an accidental result of a unity running through the organic +world, though it may be perhaps more simply explained as a special form of +that nasal irritation which is felt by so many persons in a hay-field. +Another correspondent, this time a man, tells me that he has noted the +resemblance of the odor of semen to that of crushed grasses. A scientific +friend who has done much work in the field of organic chemistry tells me +he associates the odor of semen with that produced by diastasic action on +mixing flour and water, which he regards as sexual in character. This +again brings us to the starchy products of the leguminous plants. It is +evident that, subtle and obscure as many questions in the physiology and +psychology of olfaction still remain, we cannot easily escape from their +sexual associations. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[53] H. Beauregard, _Matiere Medicale Zooelogique: Histoire des Drogues +d'origine Animate_, 1901. + +[54] Professor Plateau, of Ghent, has for many years carried on a series +of experiments which would even tend to show that insects are scarcely +attracted by the colors of flowers at all, but mainly influenced by a +sense which would appear to be smell. His experiments have been recorded +during recent years (from 1887) in the _Bulletins de l'Academie Royale de +Belgique_, and have from time to time been summarized in _Nature_, e.g., +February 5, 1903. + +[55] David Sharp, _Cambridge Natural History: Insects_, Part II, p. 398. + +[56] Mantegazza, _Fisiologia dell' Amore_, 1873, p. 176. + +[57] Mantegazza (_L'Amour dans l'Humanite_, p. 94) refers to various +peoples who practice this last custom. Egypt was a great centre of the +practice more than 3000 years ago. + +[58] Hagen, _Sexuelle Osphresiologie_, 1901, p. 226. It has been suggested +to me by a medical correspondent that one of the primitive objects of the +hair, alike on head, mons veneris, and axilla, was to collect sweat and +heighten its odor to sexual ends. + +[59] The names of all our chief perfumes are Arabic or Persian: civet, +musk, ambergris, attar, camphor, etc. + +[60] Cloquet (_Osphresiologie_, pp. 73-76) has an interesting passage on +the prevalence of the musk odor in animals, plants, and even mineral +substances. + +[61] Laycock brings together various instances of the sexual odors of +animals, insisting on their musky character (_Nervous Diseases of Women_; +section, "Odors"). See also a section in the _Descent of Man_ (Part II, +Chapter XVIII), in which Darwin argues that "the most odoriferous males +are the most successful in winning the females." Distant also has an +interesting paper on this subject, "Biological Suggestions," _Zooelogist_, +May, 1902; he points out the significant fact that musky odors are usually +confined to the male, and argues that animal odors generally are more +often attractive than protective. + +[62] R. Whytt, _Works_, 1768, p. 543. + +[63] Lucretius, VI, 790-5. + +[64] Mohammed, said Ayesha, was very fond of perfumes, especially "men's +scents," musk and ambergris. He used also to burn camphor on odoriferous +wood and enjoy the fragrant smell, while he never refused perfumes when +offered them as a present. The things he cared for most, said Ayesha, were +women, scents, and foods. Muir, _Life of Mahomet_, vol. iii, p. 297. + +[65] H. ten Kate, _International Centralblatt fuer Anthropologie_, Ht. 6, +1902. This author, who made observations on Japanese with Zwaardemaker's +olfactometer, found that, contrary to an opinion sometimes stated, they +have a somewhat defective sense of smell. He remarks that there are no +really native Japanese perfumes. + +[66] Moll: _Die Kontraere Sexualempfindung_, third edition, 1890, p. 306. + +[67] Moll: _Libido Sexualis_, bd. 1, p. 284. + +[68] P. Naecke, "Un Cas de Fetichisme de Souliers," _Bulletin de la Societe +de Medecine Mentale de Belgique_, 1894. + +[69] _Psychopathia Sexualis_, English edition, p. 167. + +[70] Philip Salmuth (_Observationes Medicae_, Centuria II, no. 63) in the +seventeenth century recorded a case in which a young girl of noble birth +(whose sister was fond of eating chalk, cinnamon, and cloves) experienced +extreme pleasure in smelling old books. It would appear, however, that in +this case the fascination lay not so much in the odor of the leather as in +the mouldy odor of worm-eaten books; "_faetore veterum liborum, a blattis +et tineis exesorum, situque prorsus corruptorum_" are Salmuth's words. + +[71] _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, vol. iii, "Appendix B, History +VIII." + +[72] _Sexuelle Osphresiologie_, p. 106. + +[73] Mantegazza, _Fisiologia dell' Amore_, p. 176. + +[74] In this connection I may quote the remark of the writer of a +thoughtful article in the _Journal of Psychological Medicine_, 1851: "The +use of scents, especially those allied to the musky, is one of the +luxuries of women, and in some constitutions cannot be indulged without +some danger to the morals, by the excitement to the ovaria which results. +And although less potent as aphrodisiacs in their action on the sexual +system of women than of men, we have reason to think that they cannot be +used to excess with impunity by most." + +[75] _Kama Sutra_ of Vatsyayana, 1883, p. 5. + +[76] Cloquet, _Osphresiologie_, p. 95. + +[77] In Normandy the _Chenopodium_, it is said, is called "conio," and in +Italy erba connina (con, cunnus), on account of its vulvar odor. The +attraction of dogs to this plant has been noted. In the same way cats are +irresistibly attracted to preparations of valerian because their own urine +contains valerianic acid. + +[78] Sonnini, _Voyage dans la Haute et Basse Egypte_, 1799, vol. i. p. +298. + + + + +V. + +The Evil Effects of Excessive Olfactory Stimulation--The Symptoms of +Vanillism--The Occasional Dangerous Results of the Odors of +Flowers--Effects of Flowers on the Voice. + + +The reality of the olfactory influences with which we have been concerned, +however slight they may sometimes appear, is shown by the fact that odors, +both agreeable and disagreeable, are stimulants, obeying the laws which +hold good for stimulants generally. They whip up the nervous energies +momentarily, but in the end, if the excitation is excessive and prolonged, +they produce fatigue and exhaustion. This is clearly shown by Fere's +elaborate experiments on the influences of odors, as compared with other +sensory stimulants, on the amount of muscular work performed with the +ergograph.[79] Commenting on the remark of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, that +"man uses perfumes to impart energy to his passion," Fere remarks: "But +perfumes cannot keep up the fires which they light." Their prolonged use +involves fatigue, which is not different from that produced by excessive +work, and reproduces all the bodily and psychic accompaniments of +excessive work.[80] It is well known that workers in perfumes are apt to +suffer from the inhalation of the odors amid which they live. Dealers in +musk are said to be specially liable to precocious dementia. The symptoms +generally experienced by the men and women who work in vanilla factories +where the crude fruit is prepared for commerce have often been studied and +are well known. They are due to the inhalation of the scent, which has all +the properties of the aromatic aldehydes, and include skin eruptions,[81] +general excitement, sleeplessness, headache, excessive menstruation, and +irritable bladder. There is nearly always sexual excitement, which may be +very pronounced.[82] + +We are here in the presence, it may be insisted, not of a nervous +influence only, but of a direct effect of odor on the vital processes. The +experiments of Tardif on the influence of perfumes on frogs and rabbits +showed that a poisonous effect was exerted;[83] while Fere, by incubating +fowls' eggs in the presence of musk, found repeatedly that many +abnormalities occurred, and that development was retarded even in the +embryos that remained normal; while he obtained somewhat similar results +by using essences of lavender, cloves, etc.[84] The influence of odors is +thus deeper than is indicated by their nervous effects; they act directly +on nutrition. We are led, as Passy remarks, to regard odors as very +intimately related to the physiological properties of organic substances, +and the sense of smell as a detached fragment of generally sensibility, +reacting to the same stimuli as general sensibility, but highly +specialized in view of its protective function. + + The reality and subtlety of the influence of odors is further + shown, by the cases in which very intense effects are produced + even by the temporary inhalation of flowers or perfumes or other + odors. Such cases of idiosyncrasy in which a person--frequently + of somewhat neurotic temperament--becomes acutely sensitive to + some odor or odors have been recorded in medical literature for + many centuries. In these cases the obnoxious odor produces + congestion of the respiratory passages, sneezing, headache, + fainting, etc., but occasionally, it has been recorded, even + death. (Dr. J.N. Mackenzie, in his interesting and learned paper + on "The Production of the so-called 'Rose Cold,' etc.," _American + Journal of Medical Sciences_, January, 1886, quotes many cases, + and gives a number of references to ancient medical authors; see + also Layet, art. "Odeur," _Dictionnaire Encyclopedique des + Sciences Medicales_.) + + An interesting phenomenon of the group--though it is almost too + common to be described as an idiosyncrasy--is the tendency of the + odor of certain flowers to affect the voice and sometimes even to + produce complete loss of voice. The mechanism of the process is + not fully understood, but it would appear that congestion and + paresis of the larynx is produced and spasm of the bronchial + tube. Botallus in 1565 recorded cases in which the scent of + flowers brought on difficulty of breathing, and the danger of + flowers from this point of view is well recognized by + professional singers. Joal has studied this question in an + elaborate paper (summarized in the _British Medical Journal_, + March 3, 1895), and Dr. Cabanes has brought together (_Figaro_, + January 20, 1894) the experiences of a number of well-known + singers, teachers of singing, and laryngologists. Thus, Madame + Renee Richard, of the Paris Opera, has frequently found that when + her pupils have arrived with a bunch of violets fastened to the + bodice or even with a violet and iris sachet beneath the corset, + the voice has been marked by weakness and, on using the + laryngoscope, she has found the vocal cords congested. Madame + Calve confirmed this opinion, and stated that she was specially + sensitive to tuberose and mimosa, and that on one occasion a + bouquet of white lilac has caused her, for a time, complete loss + of voice. The flowers mentioned are equally dangerous to a number + of other singers; the most injurious flower of all is found to be + the violet. The rose is seldom mentioned, and artificial perfumes + are comparatively harmless, though some singers consider it + desirable to be cautious in using them. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[79] Fere, _Travail et Plaisir_, Chapter XIII. + +[80] _Travail et Plaisir_, p. 175. It is doubtless true of the effects of +odors on the sexual sphere. Fere records the case of a neurasthenic lady +whose sexual coldness toward her husband only disappeared after the +abandonment of a perfume (in which heliotrope was apparently the chief +constituent) she had been accustomed to use in excessive amounts. + +[81] It is perhaps significant that many colors are especially liable to +produce skin disorders, especially urticaria; a number of cases have been +recorded by Joal, _Journal de Medecine_, July 10, 1899. + +[82] Layet, art. "Vanillisme," _Dictionnaire Encyclopedique des Sciences +Medicales_; cf. Audeoud, _Revue Medicale de la Suisse Romande_, October +20, 1899, summarized in the _British Medical Journal_, 1899. + +[83] E. Tardif, _Les Odeurs et Parfums_, Chapter III. + +[84] Fere, _Societe de Biologie_, March 28, 1896. + + + + +VI. + +The Place of Smell in Human Sexual Selections--It has given Place to the +Predominance of Vision largely because in Civilized Man it Fails to Act at +a Distance--It still Plays a Part by Contributing to the Sympathies or the +Antipathies of Intimate Contact. + + +When we survey comprehensively the extensive field we have here rapidly +traversed, it seems not impossible to gain a fairly accurate view of the +special place which olfactory sensations play in human sexual selection. +The special peculiarity of this group of sensations in man, and that which +gives them an importance they would not otherwise possess, is due to the +fact that we here witness the decadence of a sense which in man's remote +ancestors was the very chiefest avenue of sexual allurement. In man, even +the most primitive man,--to some degree even in the apes,--it has declined +in importance to give place to the predominance of vision.[85] Yet, at +that lower threshold of acuity at which it persists in man it still bathes +us in a more or less constant atmosphere of odors, which perpetually move +us to sympathy or to antipathy, and which in their finer manifestations we +do not neglect, but even cultivate with the increase of our civilization. + +It thus comes about that the grosser manifestations of sexual allurement +by smell belong, so far as man is concerned, to a remote animal past which +we have outgrown and which, on account of the diminished acuity of our +olfactory organs, we could not completely recall even if we desired to; +the sense of sight inevitably comes into play long before it is possible +for close contact to bring into action the sense of smell. But the latent +possibilities of sexual allurement by olfaction, which are inevitably +embodied in the nervous structure we have inherited from our animal +ancestors, still remain ready to be called into play. They emerge +prominently from time to time in exceptional and abnormal persons. They +tend to play an unusually larger part in the psychic lives of neurasthenic +persons, with their sensitive and comparatively unbalanced nervous +systems, and this is doubtless the reason why poets and men of letters +have insisted on olfactory impressions so frequently and to so notable a +degree; for the same reason sexual inverts are peculiarly susceptible to +odors. For a different reason, warmer climates, which heighten all odors +and also favor the growth of powerfully odorous plants, lead to a +heightened susceptibility to the sexual and other attractions of smell +even among normal persons; thus we find a general tendency to delight in +odors throughout the East, notably in India, among the ancient Hebrews, +and in Mohammedan lands. + +Among the ordinary civilized population in Europe the sexual influences of +smell play a smaller and yet not altogether negligible part. The +diminished prominence of odors only enables them to come into action, as +sexual influences, on close contact, when, in some persons at all events, +personal odors may have a distinct influence in heightening sympathy or +arousing antipathy. The range of variation among individuals is in this +matter considerable. In a few persons olfactory sympathy or antipathy is +so pronounced that it exerts a decisive influence in their sexual +relationships; such persons are of olfactory type. In other persons smell +has no part in constituting sexual relationships, but it comes into play +in the intimate association of love, and acts as an additional excitant; +when reinforced by association such olfactory impressions may at times +prove irresistible. Other persons, again, are neutral in this respect, and +remain indifferent either to the sympathetic or antipathetic working of +personal odors, unless they happen to be extremely marked. It is probable +that the majority of refined and educated people belong to the middle +group of those persons who are not of predominantly olfactory type, but +are liable from time to time to be influenced in this manner. Women are +probably at least as often affected in this manner as men, probably more +often. + +On the whole, it may be said that in the usual life of man odors play a +not inconsiderable part and raise problems which are not without interest, +but that their demonstrable part in actual sexual selection--whether in +preferential mating or in assortative mating--is comparatively small. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[85] Moll has a passage on this subject, _Untersuchungen ueber die Libido +Sexualis_. Bd. I, pp. 376-381. + + + + +HEARING. + +I. + +The Physiological Basis of Rhythm--Rhythm as a Physiological Stimulus--The +Intimate Relation of Rhythm to Movement--The Physiological Influence of +Music on Muscular Action, Circulation, Respiration, etc.--The Place of +Music in Sexual Selection among the Lower Animals--Its Comparatively Small +Place in Courtship among Mammals--The Larynx and Voice in Man--The +Significance of the Pubertal Changes--Ancient Beliefs Concerning the +Influence of Music in Morals, Education, and Medicine--Its Therapeutic +Uses--Significance of the Romantic Interest in Music at Puberty--Men +Comparatively Insusceptible to the Specifically Sexual Influence of +Music--Rarity of Sexual Perversions on the Basis of the Sense of +Hearing--The Part of Music in Primitive Human Courtship--Women Notably +Susceptible to the Specifically Sexual Influence of Music and the Voice. + + +The sense of rhythm--on which it may be said that the sensory exciting +effects of hearing, including music, finally rest--may probably be +regarded as a fundamental quality of neuro-muscular tissue. Not only are +the chief physiological functions of the body, like the circulation and +the respiration, definitely rhythmical, but our senses insist on imparting +a rhythmic grouping even to an absolutely uniform succession of +sensations. It seems probable, although this view is still liable to be +disputed, that this rhythm is the result of kinaesthetic +sensations,--sensations arising from movement or tension started reflexly +in the muscles by the external stimuli,--impressing themselves on the +sensations that are thus grouped.[86] We may thus say, with Wilks, that +music appears to have had its origin in muscular action.[87] + +Whatever its exact origin may be, rhythm is certainly very deeply +impressed on our organisms. The result is that, whatever lends itself to +the neuro-muscular rhythmical tendency of our organisms, whatever tends +still further to heighten and develop that rhythmical tendency, exerts +upon us a very decidedly stimulating and exciting influence. + +All muscular action being stimulated by rhythm, in its simple form or in +its more developed form as music, rhythm is a stimulant to work. It has +even been argued by Buecher and by Wundt[88] that human song had its chief +or exclusive origin in rhythmical vocal accompaniments to systematized +work. This view cannot, however, be maintained; systematized work can +scarcely be said to exist, even to-day, among most very primitive races; +it is much more probable that rhythmical song arose at a period antecedent +to the origin of systematized work, in the primitive military, religious, +and erotic dances, such as exist in a highly developed degree among the +Australians and other savage races who have not evolved co-ordinated +systematic labor. There can, however, be no doubt that as soon as +systematic work appears the importance of vocal rhythm in stimulating its +energy is at once everywhere recognized. Buecher has brought together +innumerable examples of this association, and in the march music of +soldiers and the heaving and hoisting songs of sailors we have instances +that have universally persisted into civilization, although in +civilization the rhythmical stimulation of work, physiologically sound as +is its basis, tends to die out. Even in the laboratory the influence of +simple rhythm in increasing the output of work may be demonstrated; and +Fere found with the ergograph that a rhythmical grouping of the movements +caused an increase of energy which often more than compensated the loss of +time caused by the rhythm.[89] + +Rhythm is the most primitive element of music, and the most fundamental. +Wallaschek, in his book on _Primitive Music_, and most other writers on +the subject are agreed on this point. "Rhythm," remarks an American +anthropologist,[90] "naturally precedes the development of any fine +perception of differences in pitch, of time-quality, or of tonality. +Almost, if not all, Indian songs," he adds, "are as strictly developed out +of modified repetitions of a motive as are the movements of a Mozart or a +Beethoven symphony." "In all primitive music," asserts Alice C. +Fletcher,[91] "rhythm is strongly developed. The pulsations of the drum +and the sharp crash of the rattles are thrown against each other and +against the voice, so that it would seem that the pleasure derived by the +performers lay not so much in the tonality of the song as in the measured +sounds arrayed in contesting rhythm, and which by their clash start the +nerves and spur the body to action, for the voice which alone carries the +tone is often subordinated and treated as an additional instrument." Groos +points out that a melody gives us the essential impression of a _voice +that dances_;[92] it is a translation of spatial movement into sound, and, +as we shall see, its physiological action on the organism is a reflection +of that which, as we have elsewhere found,[93] dancing itself produces, +and thus resembles that produced by the sight of movement. Dancing, music, +and poetry were primitively so closely allied as to be almost identical; +they were still inseparable among the early Greeks. The refrains in our +English ballads indicate the dancer's part in them. The technical use of +the word "foot" in metrical matters still persists to show that a poem is +fundamentally a dance. + + Aristotle seems to have first suggested that rhythm and melodies + are motions, as actions are motions, and therefore signs of + feeling. "All melodies are motions," says Helmholtz. "Graceful + rapidity, gravel procession, quiet advance, wild leaping, all + these different characters of motion and a thousand others can be + represented by successions of tones. And as music expresses these + motions it gives an expression also to those mental conditions + which naturally evoke similar motions, whether of the body and + the voice, or of the thinking and feeling principle itself." + (Helmholtz, _On the Sensations of Tone_, translated by A. J. + Ellis, 1885, p. 250.) + + From another point of view the motor stimulus of music has been + emphasized by Cyples: "Music connects with the only sense that + can be perfectly manipulated. Its emotional charm has struck men + as a great mystery. There appears to be no doubt whatever that it + gets all the marvelous effects it has beyond the mere pleasing of + the ear, from its random, but multitudinous summonses of the + efferent activity, which at its vague challenges stirs + unceasingly in faintly tumultuous irrelevancy. In this way, music + arouses aimlessly, but splendidly, the sheer, as yet unfulfilled, + potentiality within us." (W. Copies, _The Process of Human + Experience_, p. 743.) + + The fundamental element of transformed motion in music has been + well brought out in a suggestive essay by Goblot ("La Musique + Descriptive," _Revue Philosophique_, July, 1901): "Sung or + played, melody figures to the ear a successive design, a moving + arabesque. We talk of _ascending_ and _descending_ the gamut, of + _high_ notes or _low_ notes; the; higher voice of woman is called + _soprano_, or _above_, the deeper voice of man is called _bass_. + _Grave_ tones were so called by the Greeks because they seemed + heavy and to incline downward. Sounds seem to be subject to the + action of gravity; so that some rise and others fall. Baudelaire, + speaking of the prelude to _Lohengrin_, remarks: 'I felt myself + _delivered from the bonds of weight_.' And when Wagner sought to + represent, in the highest regions of celestial space, the + apparition of the angels bearing the Holy Grail to earth, he uses + very high notes, and a kind of chorus played exclusively by the + violins, divided into eight parts, in the highest notes of their + register. The descent to earth of the celestial choir is rendered + by lower and lower notes, the progressive disappearance of which + represents the reascension to the ethereal regions. + + "Sounds seem to rise and fall; that is a fact. It is difficult to + explain it. Some have seen in it a habit derived from the usual + notation by which the height of the note corresponds to its + height in the score. But the impression is too deep and general + to be explained by so superficial and recent a cause. It has been + suggested also that high notes are generally produced by small + and light bodies, low notes by heavy bodies. But that is not + always true. It has been said, again, that high notes in nature + are usually produced by highly placed objects, while low notes + arise from caves and low placed regions. But the thunder is heard + in the sky, and the murmur of a spring or the song of a cricket + arise from the earth. In the human voice, again, it is said, the + low notes seem to resound in the chest, high notes in the head. + All this is unsatisfactory. We cannot explain by such coarse + analogies an impression which is very precise, and more sensible + (this fact has its importance) for an interval of half a tone + than for an interval of an octave. It is probable that the true + explanation is to be found in the still little understood + connection between the elements of our nervous apparatus. + + "Nearly all our emotions tend to produce movement. But education + renders us economical of our acts. Most of these movements are + repressed, especially in the adult and civilized man, as harmful, + dangerous, or merely useless. Some are not completed, others are + reduced to a faint incitation which externally is scarcely + perceptible. Enough remain to constitute all that is expressive + in our gestures, physiognomy, and attitudes. Melodic intervals + possess in a high degree this property of provoking impulses of + movement, which, even when repressed, leave behind internal + sensations and motor images. It would be possible to study these + facts experimentally if we had at our disposition a human being + who, while retaining his sensations and their motor reactions, + was by special circumstances rendered entirely spontaneous like a + sensitive automaton, whose movements were neither intentionally + produced nor intentionally repressed. In this way, melodic + intervals in a hypnotized subject might be very instructive." + + A number of experiments of the kind desired by Goblot had already + been made by A. de Rochas in a book, copiously illustrated by + very numerous instantaneous photographs, entitled _Les + Sentiments, la Musique et la Geste_, 1900. Chapter III. De Rochas + experimented on a single subject, Lina, formerly a model, who was + placed in a condition of slight hypnosis, when various simple + fragments of music were performed: recitatives, popular airs, and + more especially national dances, often from remote parts of the + world. The subject's gestures were exceedingly marked and varied + in accordance with the character of the music. It was found that + she often imitated with considerable precision the actual + gestures of dances she could never have seen. The same music + always evoked the same gestures, as was shown by instantaneous + photographs. This subject, stated to be a chaste and well-behaved + girl, exhibited no indications of definite sexual emotion under + the influence of any kind of music. Some account is given in the + same volume of other hypnotic experiments with music which were + also negative as regards specific sexual phenomena. + +It must be noted that, as a physiological stimulus, a single musical note +is effective, even apart from rhythm, as is well shown by Fere's +experiments with the dynamometer and the ergograph.[94] It is, however, +the influence of music on muscular work which has been most frequently +investigated, and both on brief efforts with the dynamometer and prolonged +work with the ergograph it has been found to exert a stimulating +influence. Thus, Scripture found that, while his own maximum thumb and +finger grip with the dynamometer is 8 pounds, when the giant's motive from +Wagner's _Rheingold_ is played it rises to 83/4 pounds.[95] With the +ergograph Tarchanoff found that lively music, in nervously sensitive +persons, will temporarily cause the disappearance of fatigue, though slow +music in a minor key had an opposite effect.[96] The varying influence on +work with the ergograph of different musical intervals and different keys +has been carefully studied by Fere with many interesting results. There +was a very considerable degree of constancy in the results. Discords were +depressing; most, but not all, major keys were stimulating; and most, but +not all, minor keys depressing. In states of fatigue, however, the minor +keys were more stimulating than the major, an interesting result in +harmony with that stimulating influence of various painful emotions in +states of organic fatigue which we have elsewhere encountered when +investigating sadism.[97] "Our musical culture," Fere remarks, "only +renders more perceptible to us the unconscious relationships which exist +between musical art and our organisms. Those whom we consider more endowed +in this respect have a deeper penetration of the phenomena accomplished +within them; they feel more profoundly the marvelous reactions between the +organism and the principles of musical art, they experience more strongly +that art is within them."[98] Both the higher and the lower muscular +processes, the voluntary and the involuntary, are stimulated by music. +Darlington and Talbot, in Titchener's laboratory at Cornell University, +found that the estimation of relative weights was aided by music.[99] +Lombard found, when investigating the normal variations in the knee-jerk, +that involuntary reflex processes are always reinforced by music; a +military band playing a lively march caused the knee-jerk to increase at +the loud passages and to diminish at the soft passages, while remaining +always above the normal level.[100] + +With this stimulating influence of rhythm and music on the neuro-muscular +system--which may or may not be direct--there is a concomitant influence +on the circulatory and breathing apparatus. During recent years a great +many experiments have been made on man and animals bearing on the effects +of music on the heart and respiration. Perhaps the earliest of these were +carried out by the Russian physiologist Dogiel in 1880.[101] His methods +were perhaps defective and his results, at all events as regards man, +uncertain, but in animals the force and rapidity of the heart were +markedly increased. Subsequent investigations have shown very clearly the +influence of music on the circulatory and respiratory systems in man as +well as in animals. That music has an apparently direct influence on the +circulation of the brain is shown by the observations of Patrizi on a +youth who had received a severe wound of the head which had removed a +large portion of the skull wall. The stimulus of melody produced an +immediate increase in the afflux of blood to the brain.[102] + +In Germany the question was investigated at about the same time by +Mentz.[103] Observing the pulse with a sphygmograph and Marey tambour he +found distinct evidence of an effect on the heart; when attention was +given to the music the pulse was quickened, in the absence of attention it +was slowed; Mentz also found that pleasurable sensations tended to slow +the pulse and disagreeable ones to quicken it. + +Binet and Courtier made an elaborate series of experiments on the action +of music on the respiration (with the double pneumograph), the heart, and +the capillary circulation (with the plethysmograph of Hallion and Comte) +on a single subject, a man very sensitive to music and himself a cultured +musician. Simple musical sounds with no emotional content accelerated the +respiration without changing its regularity or amplitude. Musical +fragments, mostly sung, usually well known to the subject, and having an +emotional effect on him, produced respiratory irregularity either in +amplitude or rapidity of breathing, in two-thirds of the trials. Exciting +music, such as military marches, accelerated the breathing more than sad +melodies, but the intensity of the excitation had an effect at least as +great as its quality, for intense excitations always produced both +quickened and deeper breathing. The heart was quickened in harmony with +the quickened breathing. Neither breathing nor heart was ever slowed. As +regards the capillary pulsation, an influence was exerted chiefly, if not +exclusively, by gay and exciting melodies, which produced a shrinking. +Throughout the experiments it was found that the most profound +physiological effects were exerted by those pieces which the subject found +to be most emotional in their influence on him.[104] + +Guibaud studied the question on a number of subjects, confirming and +extending the conclusions of Binet and Courtier. He found that the +reactions of different individuals varied, but that for the same +individual reactions were constant. Circulatory reaction was more often +manifest than respiratory reaction. The latter might be either a +simultaneous modification of depth and of rapidity or of either of these. +The circulatory reaction was a peripheral vasoconstriction with diminished +fullness of pulse and slight acceleration of cardiac rhythm; there was +never any distinct slowing of heart under the influence of music. Guibaud +remarks that when people say they feel a shudder at some passage of music, +this sensation of cold finds its explanation in the production of a +peripheral vasoconstriction which may be registered by the +plethysmograph.[105] + +Since music thus directly and powerfully affects the chief vital +processes, it is not surprising that it should indirectly influence +various viscera and functions. As Tarchanoff and others have demonstrated, +it affects the skin, increasing the perspiration; it may produce a +tendency to tears; it sometimes produces desire to urinate, or even actual +urination, as in Scaliger's case of the Gascon gentleman who was always +thus affected on hearing the bagpipes. In dogs it has been shown by +Tarchanoff and Wartanoff that auditory stimulation increases the +consumption of oxygen 20 per cent., and the elimination of carbonic acid +17 per cent. + +In addition to the effects of musical sound already mentioned, it may be +added that, as Epstein, of Berne, has shown,[106] the other senses are +stimulated under the influence of sound, and notably there is an increase +in acuteness of vision which may be experimentally demonstrated. It is +probable that this effect of music in heightening the impressions received +by the other senses is of considerable significance from our present point +of view. + +Why are musical tones in a certain order and rhythm pleasurable? asked +Darwin in _The Descent of Man_, and he concluded that the question was +insoluble. We see that, in reality, whatever the ultimate answer may be, +the immediate reason is quite simple. Pleasure is a condition of slight +and diffused stimulation, in which the heart and breathing are faintly +excited, the neuro-muscular system receives additional tone, the viscera +gently stirred, the skin activity increased; and certain combinations of +musical notes and intervals act as a physiological stimulus in producing +these effects.[107] + +Among animals of all kinds, from insects upward, this physiological action +appears to exist, for among nearly all of them certain sounds are +agreeable and attractive, and other sounds indifferent and disagreeable. +It appears that insects of quite different genera show much appreciation +of the song of the Cicada.[108] Birds show intense interest in the singing +of good performers even of other species. Experiments among a variety of +animals in the Zooelogical Gardens with performances on various instruments +showed that with the exception of seals none were indifferent, and all +felt a discord as offensive. Many animals showed marked likes and +dislikes; thus, a tiger, who was obviously soothed by the violin, was +infuriated by the piccolo; the violin and the flute were preferred by most +animals.[109] + + Most persons have probably had occasion to observe the + susceptibility of dogs to music. It may here suffice to give one + personal observation. A dog (of mixed breed, partly collie), very + well known to me, on hearing a nocturne of Chopin, whined and + howled, especially at the more pathetic passages, once or twice + catching and drawing out the actual note played; he panted, + walked about anxiously, and now and then placed his head on the + player's lap. When the player proceeded to a more cheerful piece + by Grieg, the dog at once became indifferent, sat down, yawned, + and scratched himself; but as soon as the player returned once + more to the nocturne the dog at once repeated his accompaniment. + +There can be no doubt that among a very large number of animals of most +various classes, more especially among insects and birds, the attraction +of music is supported and developed on the basis of sexual attraction, the +musical notes emitted serving as a sexual lure to the other sex. The +evidence on this point was carefully investigated by Darwin on a very wide +basis.[110] It has been questioned, some writers preferring to adopt the +view of Herbert Spencer,[111] that the singing of birds is due to +"overflow of energy," the relation between courtship and singing being +merely "a relation of concomitance." This view is no longer tenable; +whatever the precise origin of the musical notes of animals may be,--and +it is not necessary to suppose that sexual attraction had a large part in +their first rudimentary beginnings,--there can now be little doubt that +musical sounds, and, among birds, singing, play a very large part indeed +in bringing the male and the female together.[112] Usually, it would +appear, it is the performance of the male that attracts the female; it is +only among very simple and primitive musicians, like some insects, that +the female thus attracts the male.[113] The fact that it is nearly always +one sex only that is thus musically gifted should alone have sufficed to +throw suspicion on any but a sexual solution of this problem of animal +song. + +It is, however, an exceedingly remarkable fact that, although among +insects and lower vertebrates the sexual influence of music is so large, +and although among mammals and predominantly in man the emotional and +aesthetic influence of music is so great, yet neither in man nor any of the +higher mammals has music been found to exert a predominant sexual +influence, or even in most cases any influence at all. Darwin, while +calling attention to the fact that the males of most species of mammals +use their vocal powers chiefly, and sometimes exclusively, during the +breeding-season, adds that "it is a surprising fact that we have not as +yet any good evidence that these organs are used by male mammals to charm +the female."[114] From a very different standpoint, Fere, in studying the +pathology of the human sexual instinct in the light of a very full +knowledge of the available evidence, states that he knows of no detailed +observations showing the existence of any morbid sexual perversions based +on the sense of hearing, either in reference to the human voice or to +instrumental music.[115] + +When, however, we consider that not only in the animals most nearly +related to man, but in man himself, the larynx and the voice undergo a +marked sexual differentiation at puberty, it is difficult not to believe +that this change has an influence on sexual selection and sexual +psychology. At puberty there is a slight hyperaemia of the larynx, +accompanied by rapid development alike of the larynx itself and of the +vocal cords, which become larger and thicker, while there is an associated +change in the voice, which deepens. All these changes are very slight in +girls, but very pronounced in boys, whose voices are said to "break" and +then become lower by at least an octave. The feminine larynx at puberty +only increases in the proportion of 5 to 7, but the masculine larynx in +the proportion of 5 to 10. The direct dependence of this change on the +general sexual development is shown not merely by its occurrence at +puberty, but by the fact that in eunuchs in whom the testicles have been +removed before puberty the voice retains its childlike qualities.[116] + +As a matter of fact, I believe that we may attach a considerable degree of +importance to the voice and to music generally as a method of sexual +appeal. On this point I agree with Moll, who remarks that "the sense of +hearing here plays a considerable part, and the stimulation received +through the ears is much larger than is usually believed."[117] I am not, +however, inclined to think that this influence is considerable in its +action on men, although Mantegazza remarks, doubtless with a certain +truth, that "some women's voices cannot be heard with impunity." It is +true that the ancients deprecated the sexual or at all events the +effeminating influence of some kinds of music, but they seem to have +regarded it as sedative rather than stimulating; the kind of music they +approved of as martial and stimulating was the kind most likely to have +sexual effects in predisposed persons. + + The Chinese and the Greeks have more especially insisted on the + ethical qualities of music and on its moralizing and demoralizing + effects. Some three thousand years ago, it is stated, a Chinese + emperor, believing that only they who understood music are + capable of governing, distributed administrative functions in + accordance with this belief. He acted entirely in accordance with + Chinese morality, the texts of Confucianism (see translations in + the "Sacred Books of the East Series") show clearly that music + and ceremony (or social ritual in a wide sense) are regarded as + the two main guiding influences of life--music as the internal + guide, ceremony as the external guide, the former being looked + upon as the more important. + + Among the Greeks Menander said that to many people music is a + powerful stimulant to love. Plato, in the third book of the + _Republic_, discusses what kinds of music should be encouraged in + his ideal state. He does not clearly state that music is ever a + sexual stimulant, but he appears to associate plaintive music + (mixed Lydian and Hypolydian) with drunkenness, effeminacy, and + idleness and considers that such music is "useless even to women + that are to be virtuously given, not to say to men." He only + admits two kinds of music: one violent and suited to war, the + other tranquil and suited to prayer or to persuasion. He sets out + the ethical qualities of music with a thoroughness which almost + approaches the great Chinese philosopher: "On these accounts we + attach such importance to a musical education, because rhythm and + harmony sink most deeply into the recesses of the soul, and take + most powerful hold of it, bringing gracefulness in their train, + and making a man graceful if he be rightly nurtured, ... leading + him to commend beautiful objects, and gladly receive them into + his soul, and feed upon them, and grow to be noble and good." + Plato is, however, by no means so consistent and thorough as the + Chinese moralist, for having thus asserted that it is the + influence of music which molds the soul into virtue, he proceeds + to destroy his position with the statement that "we shall never + become truly musical until we know the essential forms of + temperance and courage and liberality and munificence," thus + moving in a circle. It must be added that the Greek conception of + music was very comprehensive and included poetry. + + Aristotle took a wider view of music than Plato and admitted a + greater variety of uses for it. He was less anxious to exclude + those uses which were not strictly ethical. He disapproved, + indeed, of the Phrygian harmony as the expression of Bacchic + excitement. He accepts, however, the function of music as a + katharsis of emotion, a notion which is said to have originated + with the Pythagoreans. (For a discussion of Aristotle's views on + music, see W.L. Newman, _The Politics of Aristotle_, vol. i, pp. + 359-369.) + + Athenaeus, in his frequent allusions to music, attributes to it + many intellectual and emotional properties (e.g., Book XIV, + Chapter XXV) and in one place refers to "melodies inciting to + lawless indulgence" (Book XIII, Chapter LXXV). + + We may gather from the _Priapeia_ (XXVI) that cymbals and + castanets were the special accompaniment in antiquity of wanton + songs and dances: "_cymbala, cum crotalis, pruriginis arma_." + + The ancient belief in the moralizing influence of music has + survived into modern times mainly in a somewhat more scientific + form as a belief in its therapeutic effects in disordered nervous + and mental conditions. (This also is an ancient belief as + witnessed by the well-known example of David playing to Saul to + dispel his melancholia.) In 1729 an apothecary of Oakham, Richard + Broune, published a work entitled _Medicina Musica_, in which he + argued that music was beneficial in many maladies. In more recent + days there have been various experiments and cases brought + forward showing its efficacy in special conditions. + + An American physician (W.F. Hutchinson) has shown that anaesthesia + may be produced with accurately made tuning forks at certain + rates of vibration (summarized in the _British Medical Journal_, + June 4, 1898). Ferrand in a paper read before the Paris Academy + of Medicine in September, 1895, gives reasons for classing some + kinds of music as powerful antispasmodics with beneficial + therapeutic action. The case was subsequently reported of a child + in whom night-terrors were eased by calming music in a minor key. + The value of music in lunatic asylums is well recognized; see + e.g., Naecke, _Revue de Psychiatrie_, October, 1897. Vaschide and + Vurpas (_Comptes Rendus de la Societe de Biologie_, December 13, + 1902) have recorded the case of a girl of 20, suffering from + mental confusion with excitation and central motor + disequilibrium, whose muscular equilibrium was restored and + movements rendered more co-ordinated and adaptive under the + influence of music. + + While there has been much extravagance in the ancient doctrine + concerning the effects of music, the real effects are still + considerable. Not only is this demonstrated by the experiments + already referred to (p. 118), indicating the efficacy of musical + sounds as physiological stimulants, but also by anatomical + considerations. The roots of the auditory nerves, McKendrick has + pointed out, are probably more widely distributed and have more + extensive connections than those of any other nerve. The + intricate connections of these nerves are still only being + unraveled. This points to an explanation of how music penetrates + to the very roots of our being, influencing by associational + paths reflex mechanisms both cerebral and somatic, so that there + is scarcely a function of the body that may not be affected by + the rhythmical pulsations, melodic progressions, and harmonic + combinations of musical tones. (_Nature_, June 15, 1899, p. 164.) + +Just as we are not entitled from the ancient belief in the influence of +music on morals or the modern beliefs in its therapeutic influence--even +though this has sometimes gone to the length of advocating its use in +impotence[118]--to argue that music has a marked influence in exciting the +specifically sexual instincts, neither are we entitled to find any similar +argument in the fact that music is frequently associated with the +love-feelings of youth. Men are often able to associate many of their +earliest ideas of love in boyhood with women singing or playing; but in +these cases it will always be found that the fascination was romantic and +sentimental, and not specifically erotic.[119] In adult life the music +which often seems to us to be most definitely sexual in its appeal (such +as much of Wagner's _Tristan_) really produces this effect in part from +the association with the story, and in part from the intellectual +realization of the composer's effort to translate passion into aesthetic +terms; the actual effect of the music is not sexual, and it can well be +believed that the results of experiments as regards the sexual influence +of the _Tristan_ music on men under the influence of hypnotism have been, +as reported, negative. Helmholtz goes so far as to state that the +expression of sexual longing in music is identical with that of religious +longing. It is quite true, again, that a soft and gentle voice seems to +every normal man as to Lear "an excellent thing in woman," and that a +harsh or shrill voice may seem to deaden or even destroy altogether the +attraction of a beautiful face. But the voice is not usually in itself an +adequate or powerful method of evoking sexual emotion in a man. Even in +its supreme vocal manifestations the sexual fascination exerted by a great +singer, though certainly considerable, cannot be compared with that +commonly exerted by the actress. Cases have, indeed, been +recorded--chiefly occurring, it is probable, in men of somewhat morbid +nervous disposition--in which sexual attraction was exerted chiefly +through the ear, or in which there was a special sexual sensibility to +particular inflections or accents.[120] Fere mentions the case of a young +man in hospital with acute arthritis who complained of painful erections +whenever he heard through the door the very agreeable voice of the young +woman (invisible to him) who superintended the linen.[121] But these +phenomena do not appear to be common, or, at all events, very pronounced. +So far as my own inquiries go, only a small proportion of men would +appear to experience definite sexual feelings on listening to music. And +the fact that in woman the voice is so slightly differentiated from that +of the child, as well as the very significant fact that among man's +immediate or even remote ancestors the female's voice can seldom have +served to attract the male, sufficiently account for the small part played +by the voice and by music as a sexual allurement working on men.[122] + +It is otherwise with women. It may, indeed, be said at the outset that the +reasons which make it antecedently improbable that men should be sexually +attracted through hearing render it probable that women should be so +attracted. The change in the voice at puberty makes the deeper masculine +voice a characteristic secondary sexual attribute of man, while the fact +that among mammals generally it is the male that is most vocal--and that +chiefly, or even sometimes exclusively, at the rutting season--renders it +antecedently likely that among mammals generally, including the human +species, there is in the female an actual or latent susceptibility to the +sexual significance of the male voice,[123] a susceptibility which, under +the conditions of human civilization, may be transferred to music +generally. It is noteworthy that in novels written by women there is a +very frequent attentiveness to the qualities of the hero's voice and to +its emotional effects on the heroine.[124] We may also note the special +and peculiar personal enthusiasm aroused in women by popular musicians, a +more pronounced enthusiasm than is evoked in them by popular actors. + + As an interesting example of the importance attached by women + novelists to the effects of the male voice I may refer to George + Eliot's _Mill on the Floss_, probably the most intimate and + personal of George Eliot's works. In Book VI of this novel the + influence of Stephen Guest (a somewhat commonplace young man) + over Maggie Tulliver is ascribed almost exclusively to the effect + of his base voice in singing. We are definitely told of Maggie + Tulliver's "sensibility to the supreme excitement of music." + Thus, on one occasion, "all her intentions were lost in the vague + state of emotion produced by the inspiring duet--emotion that + seemed to make her at once strong and weak: strong for all + enjoyment, weak for all resistance. Poor Maggie! She looked very + beautiful when her soul was being played on in this way by the + inexorable power of sound. You might have seen the slightest + perceptible quivering through her whole frame as she leaned a + little forward, clasping her hands as if to steady herself; while + her eyes dilated and brightened into that wideopen, childish + expression of wondering delight, which always came back in her + happiest moments." George Eliot's novels contain many allusions + to the powerful emotional effects of music. + + It is unnecessary to refer to Tolstoy's _Kreutzer Sonata_, in + which music is regarded as the Galeotto to bring lovers + together--"the connecting bond of music, the most refined lust of + the senses." + +In primitive human courtship music very frequently plays a considerable +part, though not usually the sole part, being generally found as the +accompaniment of the song and the dance at erotic festivals.[125] The +Gilas, of New Mexico, among whom courtship consists in a prolonged +serenade day after day with the flute, furnish a somewhat exceptional +case. Savage women are evidently very attentive to music; Backhouse (as +quoted, by Ling Roth[126]) mentions how a woman belonging to the very +primitive and now extinct Tasmanian race, when shown a musical box, +listened "with intensity; her ears moved like those of a dog or horse, to +catch the sound." + +I have found little evidence to show that music, except in occasional +cases, exerts even the slightest specifically sexual effect on men, +whether musical or unmusical. But I have ample evidence that it very +frequently exerts to a slight but definite extent such an influence on +women, even when quite normal. Judging from my own inquiries it would, +indeed, seem likely that the majority of normal educated women are liable +to experience some degree of definite sexual excitement from music; one +states that orchestral music generally tends to produce this effect; +another finds it chiefly from Wagner's music; another from military music, +etc. Others simply state--what, indeed, probably expresses the experience +of most persons of either sex--that it heightens one's mood. One lady +mentions that some of her friends, whose erotic feelings are aroused by +music, are especially affected in this way by the choral singing in Roman +Catholic churches.[127] + +In the typical cases just mentioned, all fairly normal and healthy women, +the sexual effects of music though definite were usually quite slight. In +neuropathic subjects they may occasionally be more pronounced. Thus, a +medical correspondent has communicated to me the case of a married lady +with one child, a refined, very beautiful, but highly neurotic, woman, +married to a man with whom she has nothing in common. Her tastes lie in +the direction of music; she is a splendid pianist, and her highly trained +voice would have made a fortune. She confesses to strong sexual feelings +and does not understand why intercourse never affords what she knows she +wants. But the hearing of beautiful music, or at times the excitement of +her own singing, will sometimes cause intense orgasm. + + Vaschide and Vurpas, who emphasize the sexually stimulating + effects of music, only bring forward one case in any detail, and + it is doubtless significant that this case is a woman. "While + listening to a piece of music X changes expression, her eyes + become bright, the features are accentuated, a smile begins to + form, an expression of pleasure appears, the body becomes more + erect, there is a general muscular hypertonicity. X tells us that + as she listens to the music she experiences sensations very like + those of normal intercourse. The difference chiefly concerns the + local genital apparatus, for there is no flow of vaginal mucus. + On the psychic side the resemblance is marked." (Vaschide and + Vurpas, "Du Coefficient Sexual de l'Impulsion Musicale," + _Archives de Neurologie_, May, 1904.) + + It is sometimes said, or implied, that a woman (or a man) sings + better under the influence of sexual emotion. The writer of an + article already quoted, on "Woman in her Psychological Relations" + (_Journal of Psychological Medicine_, 1851), mentions that "a + young lady remarkable for her musical and poetical talents + naively remarked to a friend who complimented her upon her + singing: 'I never sing half so well as when I've had a + love-fit.'" And George Eliot says. "There is no feeling, perhaps, + except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not make a man + sing or play the better." While, however, it may be admitted that + some degree of general emotional exaltation may exercise a + favorable influence on the singing voice, it is difficult to + believe that definite physical excitement at or immediately + before the exercise of the voice can, as a rule, have anything + but a deleterious effect on its quality. It is recognized that + tenors (whose voices resemble those of women more than basses, + who are not called upon to be so careful in this respect) should + observe rules of sexual hygiene; and menstruation frequently has + a definite influence in impairing the voice (H. Ellis, _Man and + Woman_, fourth edition, p. 290). As the neighborhood of + menstruation is also the period when sexual excitement is most + likely to be felt, we have here a further indication that sexual + emotion is not favorable to singing. I agree with the remarks of + a correspondent, a musical amateur, who writes: "Sexual + excitement and good singing do not appear to be correlated. A + woman's emotional capacity in singing or acting may be remotely + associated with hysterical neuroses, but is better evinced for + art purposes in the absence of disturbing sexual influences. A + woman may, indeed, fancy herself the heroine of a wanton romance + and 'let herself go' a little in singing with improved results. + But a memory of sexual ardors will help no woman to make the best + of her voice in training. Some women can only sing their best + when they think of the other women they are outsinging. One girl + 'lets her soul go out into her voice' thinking of jamroll, + another thinking of her lover (when she has none), and most, no + doubt, when they think of nothing. But no woman is likely to + 'find herself' in an artistic sense because she has lost herself + in another sense--not even if she has done so quite respectably." + +The reality of the association between the sexual impulse and music--and, +indeed, art generally--is shown by the fact that the evolution of puberty +tends to be accompanied by a very marked interest in musical and other +kinds of art. Lancaster, in a study of this question among a large number +of young people (without reference to difference in sex, though they were +largely female), found that from 50 to 75 per cent of young people feel an +impulse to art about the period of puberty, lasting a few months, or at +most a year or two. It appears that 464 young people showed an increased +and passionate love for music, against only 102 who experienced no change +in this respect. The curve culminates at the age of 15 and falls rapidly +after 16. Many of these cases were really quite unmusical.[128] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[86] This view has been more especially developed by J.B. Miner, _Motor, +Visual, and Applied Rhythms_, Psychological Review Monograph Supplements, +vol. v, No. 4, 1903. + +[87] Sir S. Wilks, _Medical Magazine_, January, 1894; cf. Clifford +Allbutt, "Music, Rhythm, and Muscle," _Nature_, February 8, 1894. + +[88] Buecher, _Arbeit und Rhythmus_, third edition, 1902; Wundt, +_Voelkerpsychologie_, 1900, Part I, p. 265. + +[89] Fere deals fully with the question in his book, _Travail et Plaisir_, +1904, Chapter III, "Influence du Rhythme sur le Travail." + +[90] Fillmore, "Primitive Scales and Rhythms," _Proceedings of the +International Congress of Anthropology_, Chicago, 1893. + +[91] "Love Songs among the Omaha Indians," in _Proceedings_ of same +congress. + +[92] Groos, _Spiele der Menschen_, p. 33. + +[93] "Analysis of the Sexual Impulse," _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, +vol. iii. + +[94] Fere, _Sensation et Mouvement_, Chapter V; id., _Travail et Plaisir_, +Chapter XII. + +[95] Scripture, _Thinking, Feeling, Doing_, p. 85. + +[96] Tarchanoff, "Influence de la Musique sur l'Homme et sur les Animaux," +_Atti dell' XI Congresso Medico Internationale_, Rome, 1894, vol. ii, p. +153; also in _Archives Italiennes de Biologie_, 1894. + +[97] "Love and Pain," _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, vol. iii. + +[98] Fere, _Travail et Plaisir_, Chapter XII, "Action Physiologique des +Sens Musicaux." "A practical treatise on harmony," Goblot remarks (_Revue +Philosophique_, July, 1901, p. 61), "ought to tell us in what way such an +interval, or such a succession of intervals, affects us. A theoretical +treatise on harmony ought to tell us the explanation of these impressions. +In a word, musical harmony is a psychological science." He adds that this +science is very far from being constituted yet; we have hardly even +obtained a glimpse of it. + +[99] _American Journal of Psychology_, April, 1898. + +[100] _American Journal of Psychology_, November, 1887. The influence of +rhythm on the involuntary muscular system is indicated by the occasional +effect of music in producing a tendency to contraction of the bladder. + +[101] _Archiv fuer Anatomie und Physiologie_ (Physiologisches Abtheilung), +1880, p. 420. + +[102] M.L. Patrizi, "Primi esperimenti intorno all' influenza della musica +sulla circolozione del sangue nel cervello umano," _International Congress +fuer Psychologie_, Munich, 1897, p. 176. + +[103] _Philosophische Studien_, vol. xi. + +[104] Binet and Courtier, "La Vie Emotionelle," _Annee Psychologique_, +Third Year, 1897, pp. 104-125. + +[105] Guibaud, _Contribution a l'etude experimentale de l'influence de la +musique sur la circulation et la respiration_. These de Bordeaux, 1898, +summarized in _Annee Psychologique_, Fifth Year, 1899, pp. 645-649. + +[106] _International Congress of Physiology_, Berne, 1895. + +[107] The influence of association plays no necessary part in these +pleasurable influences, for Fere's experiments show that an unmusical +subject responds physiologically, with much precision, to musical +intervals he is unable to recognize. R. MacDougall also finds that the +effective quality of rhythmical sequences does not appear to be dependent +on secondary associations (_Psychological Review_, January, 1903). + +[108] R.T. Lewis, in _Nature Notes_, August, 1891. + +[109] Cornish, "Orpheus at the Zoo," in _Life at the Zoo_, pp. 115-138. + +[110] _Descent of Man_, Chapters XIII and XIX. + +[111] "The Origin of Music" (1857), _Essays_, vol. ii. + +[112] Anyone who is in doubt on this point, as regards bird song, may +consult the little book in which the evidence has been well summarized by +Haecker, _Der Gesang der Voegel_, or the discussion in Groos's _Spiele der +Thiere_, pp. 274 et seq. + +[113] Thus, mosquitoes are irresistibly attracted by music, and especially +by those musical tones which resemble the buzzing of the female; the males +alone are thus attracted. (Nuttall and Shipley, and Sir Hiram Maxim, +quoted in _Nature_, October 31, 1901, p. 655, and in _Lancet_, February +22, 1902.) + +[114] _Descent of Man_, second edition, p. 567. Groos, in his discussion +of music, also expresses doubt whether hearing plays a considerable part +in the courtship of mammals, _Spiele der Menschen_, p. 22. + +[115] Fere, _L'Instinct Sexuel_, second edition, p. 137. + +[116] See Bierent, _La Puberte_ Chapter IV; also Havelock Ellis, _Man and +Woman_, fourth edition, pp. 270-272. Endriss (_Die Bisherigen +Beobachtungen von Physiologischen und Pathologischen Beziehungen der +oberen Luftwege zu den Sexualorganen_, Teil III) brings together various +observations on the normal and abnormal relations of the larynx to the +sexual sphere. + +[117] Moll, _Untersuchungen ueber die Libido Sexualis_, bd. 1, p. 133. + +[118] J.L. Roger, _Traite des Effets de la Musique_, 1803, pp. 234 and +342. + +[119] A typical example occurs in the early life of History I in Appendix +B to vol. iii of these _Studies_. + +[120] Vaschide and Vurpas state (_Archives de Neurologie_, May, 1904) that +in their experience music may facilitate sexual approaches in some cases +of satiety, and that in certain pathological cases the sexual act can only +be accomplished under the influence of music. + +[121] Fere, _L'Instinct Sexuel_, p. 137. Bloch (_Beitraege_, etc., vol. ii, +p. 355) quotes some remarks of Kistemaecker's concerning the sound of +women's garments and the way in which savages and sometimes civilized +women cultivate this rustling and clinking. Gutzkow, in his +_Autobiography_, said that the _frou-frou_ of a woman's dress was the +music of the spheres to him. + +[122] The voice is doubtless a factor of the first importance in sexual +attraction among the blind. On this point I have no data. The +expressiveness of the voice to the blind, and the extent to which their +likes and dislikes are founded on vocal qualities, is well shown by an +interesting paper written by an American physician, blind from early +infancy, James Cocke, "The Voice as an Index to the Soul," _Arena_, +January, 1894. + +[123] Long before Darwin had set forth his theory of sexual selection +Laycock had pointed out the influence which the voice of the male, among +man and other animals, exerts on the female (_Nervous Diseases of Women_, +p. 74). And a few years later the writer of a suggestive article on "Woman +in her Psychological Relations" (_Journal of Psychological Medicine_, +1851) remarked: "The sonorous voice of the male man is exactly analogous +in its effect on woman to the neigh and bellow of other animals. This +voice will have its effect on an amorous or susceptible organization much +in the same way as color and the other visual ovarian stimuli." The writer +adds that it exercises a still more important influence when modulated to +music: "in this respect man has something in common with insects as well +as birds." + +[124] Groos refers more than once to the important part played in German +novels written by women by what one of them terms the "bearded male +voice." + +[125] Various instances are quoted in the third volume of these _Studies_ +when discussing the general phenomena of courtship and tumescence, "An +Analysis of the Sexual Impulse." + +[126] _The Tasmanians_, p. 20. + +[127] An early reference to the sexual influence of music on women may +perhaps be found in a playful passage in Swift's _Martinus Scriblerus_ +(possibly due to his medical collaborator, Arbuthnot): "Does not AElian +tell how the Libyan mares were excited to horsing by music? (which ought +to be a caution to modest women against frequenting operas)." _Memoirs of +Martinus Scriblerus_, Book I, Chapter 6. (The reference is to AElian, +_Hist. Animal_, lib. XI, cap. 18, and lib. XII, cap. 44.) + +[128] E. Lancaster, "Psychology of Adolescence," _Pedagogical Seminary_, +July, 1897. + + + + +II. + +Summary--Why the Influence of Music in Human Sexual Selection is +Comparatively Small. + + +We have seen that it is possible to set forth in a brief space the facts +at present available concerning the influence on the pairing impulse of +stimuli acting through the ear. They are fairly simple and uncomplicated; +they suggest few obscure problems which call for analysis; they do not +bring before us any remarkable perversions of feeling. + +At the same time, the stimuli to sexual excitement received through the +sense of hearing, although very seldom of exclusive or preponderant +influence, are yet somewhat more important than is usually believed. +Primarily the voice, and secondarily instrumental music, exert a distinct +effect in this direction, an effect representing a specialization of a +generally stimulating physiological influence which all musical sounds +exercise upon the organism. There is, however, in this respect, a definite +difference between the sexes. It is comparatively rare to find that the +voice or instrumental music, however powerful its generally emotional +influence, has any specifically sexual effect on men. On the other hand, +it seems probable that the majority of women, at all events among the +educated classes, are liable to show some degree of sexual sensibility to +the male voice or to instrumental music. + +It is not surprising to find that music should have some share in arousing +sexual emotion when we bear in mind that in the majority of persons the +development of sexual life is accompanied by a period of special interest +in music. It is not unexpected that the specifically sexual effects of the +voice and music should be chiefly experienced by women when we remember +that not only in the human species is it the male in whom the larynx and +voice are chiefly modified at puberty, but that among mammals generally it +is the male who is chiefly or exclusively vocal at the period of sexual +activity; so that any sexual sensibility to vocal manifestations must be +chiefly or exclusively manifested in female mammals. + +At the best, however, although aesthetic sensibility to sound is highly +developed and emotional sensibility to it profound and widespread, +although women may be thrilled by the masculine voice and men charmed by +the feminine voice, it cannot be claimed that in the human species hearing +is a powerful factor in mating. This sense has here suffered between the +lower senses of touch and smell, on the one hand, with their vague and +massive appeal, and the higher sense, vision, on the other hand, with its +exceedingly specialized appeal. The position of touch as the primary and +fundamental sense is assured. Smell, though in normal persons it has no +decisive influence on sexual attraction, acts by virtue of its emotional +sympathies and antipathies, while, by virtue of the fact that among man's +ancestors it was the fundamental channel of sexual sensibility, it +furnishes a latent reservoir of impressions to which nervously abnormal +persons, and even normal persons under the influence of excitement or of +fatigue, are always liable to become sensitive. Hearing, as a sense for +receiving distant perceptions has a wider field than is in man possessed +by either touch or smell. But here it comes into competition with vision, +and vision is, in man, the supreme and dominant sense.[129] We are always +more affected by what we see than by what we hear. Men and women seldom +hear each other without speedily seeing each other, and then the chief +focus of interest is at once transferred to the visual centre.[130] In +human sexual selection, therefore, hearing plays a part which is nearly +always subordinated to that of vision. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[129] Nietzsche has even suggested that among primitive men delicacy of +hearing and the evolution of music can only have been produced under +conditions which made it difficult for vision to come into play: "The ear, +the organ of fear, could only have developed, as it has, in the night and +in the twilight of dark woods and caves.... In the brightness the ear is +less necessary. Hence the character of music as an art of night and +twilight." (_Morgenroethe_, p. 230.) + +[130] At a concert most people are instinctively anxious to _see_ the +performers, thus distracting the purely musical impression, and the +reasonable suggestion of Goethe that the performers should be invisible is +still seldom carried into practice. + + + + +VISION + +I. + +Primacy of Vision in Man--Beauty as a Sexual Allurement--The Objective +Element in Beauty--Ideals of Feminine Beauty in Various Parts of the +World--Savage Women sometimes Beautiful from European Point of +View--Savages often Admire European Beauty--The Appeal of Beauty to some +Extent Common even to Animals and Man. + + +Vision is the main channel by which man receives his impressions. To a +large extent it has slowly superseded all the other senses. Its range is +practically infinite; it brings before us remote worlds, it enables us to +understand the minute details of our own structure. While apt for the most +abstract or the most intimate uses, its intermediate range is of universal +service. It furnishes the basis on which a number of arts make their +appeal to us, and, while thus the most aesthetic of the senses, it is the +sense on which we chiefly rely in exercising the animal function of +nutrition. It is not surprising, therefore, that from the point of view of +sexual selection vision should be the supreme sense, and that the +love-thoughts of men have always been a perpetual meditation of beauty. + +It would be out of place here to discuss comparatively the origins of our +ideas of beauty. That is a question which belongs to aesthetics, not to +sexual psychology, and it is a question on which aestheticians are not +altogether in agreement. We need not even be concerned to make any +definite assertion on the question whether our ideas of sexual beauty have +developed under the influence of more general and fundamental laws, or +whether sexual ideals themselves underlie our more general conceptions of +beauty. Practically, so far as man and his immediate ancestors are +concerned, the sexual and the extra-sexual factors of beauty have been +interwoven from the first. The sexually beautiful object must have +appealed to fundamental physiological aptitudes of reaction; the +generally beautiful object must have shared in the thrill which the +specifically sexual object imparted. There has been an inevitable action +and reaction throughout. Just as we found that the sexual and the +non-sexual influences of agreeable odors throughout nature are +inextricably mingled, so it is with the motives that make an object +beautiful to our eyes.[131] + + The sexual element in the constitution of beauty is well + recognized even by those writers who concern themselves + exclusively with the aesthetic conception of beauty or with its + relation to culture. It is enough to quote two or three + testimonies on this point. "The whole sentimental side of our + aesthetic sensibility," remarks Santayana, "--without which it + would be perceptive and mathematical rather than aesthetic,--is + due to our sexual organization remotely stirred.... If anyone + were desirous to produce a being with a great susceptibility to + beauty, he could not invent an instrument better designed for + that object than sex. Individuals that need not unite for the + birth and rearing of each generation might retain a savage + independence. For them it would not be necessary that any vision + should fascinate, or that any languor should soften, the prying + cruelty of the eye. But sex endows the individual with a dumb and + powerful instinct, which carries his body and soul continually + toward another; makes it one of the dearest enjoyments of his + life to select and pursue a companion, and joins to possession + the keenest pleasure, to rivalry the fiercest rage, and to + solitude an eternal melancholy. What more could be needed to + suffuse the world with the deepest meaning and beauty? The + attention is fixed upon a well-defined object, and all the + effects it produces in the mind are easily regarded as powers or + qualities of that object.... To a certain extent this kind of + interest will center in the proper object of sexual passion, and + in the special characteristics of the opposite sex[131]; and we + find, accordingly, that woman is the most lovely object to man, + and man, if female modesty would confess it, the most interesting + to woman. But the effects of so fundamental and primitive a + reaction are much more general. Sex is not the only object of + sexual passion. When love lacks its specific object, when it does + not yet understand itself, or has been sacrificed to some other + interest, we see the stifled fire bursting out in various + directions.... Passion then overflows and visibly floods those + neighboring regions which it had always secretly watered. For the + same nervous organization which sex involves, with its + necessarily wide branchings and associations in the brain, must + be partially stimulated by other objects than its specific or + ultimate one; especially in man, who, unlike some of the lower + animals, has not his instincts clearly distinct and intermittent, + but always partially active, and never active in isolation. We + may say, then, that for man all nature is a secondary object of + sexual passion, and that to this fact the beauty of nature is + largely due." (G. Santayana, _The Sense of Beauty_, pp. 59-62.) + + Not only is the general fact of sexual attraction an essential + element of aesthetic contemplation, as Santayana remarks, but we + have to recognize also that specific sexual emotion properly + comes within the aesthetic field. It is quite erroneous, as Groos + well points out, to assert that sexual emotion has no aesthetic + value. On the contrary, it has quite as much value as the emotion + of terror or of pity. Such emotion, must, however, be duly + subordinated to the total aesthetic effect. (K. Groos, _Der + AEsthetische Genuss_, p. 151.) + + "The idea of beauty," Remy de Gourmont says, "is not an unmixed + idea; it is intimately united with the idea of carnal pleasure. + Stendhal obscurely perceived this when he defined beauty as 'a + promise of happiness.' Beauty is a woman, and women themselves + have carried docility to men so far as to accept this aphorism + which they can only understand in extreme sexual perversion.... + Beauty is so sexual that the only uncontested works of art are + those that simply show the human body in its nudity. By its + perseverance in remaining purely sexual Greek statuary has placed + itself forever above all discussion. It is beautiful because it + is a beautiful human body, such a one as every man or every woman + would desire to unite with in the perpetuation of the race.... + That which inclines to love seems beautiful; that which seems + beautiful inclines to love. This intimate union of art and of + love is, indeed, the only explanation of art. Without this + genital echo art would never have been born and never have been + perpetuated. There is nothing useless in these deep human depths; + everything which has endured is necessary. Art is the accomplice + of love. When love is taken away there is no art; when art is + taken away love is nothing but a physiological need." (Remy de + Gourmont, _Culture des Idees_, 1900, p. 103, and _Mercure de + France_, August, 1901, pp. 298 et seq.) + + Beauty as incarnated in the feminine body has to some extent + become the symbol of love even for women. Colin Scott finds that + it is common among women who are not inverted for female beauty + whether on the stage or in art to arouse sexual emotion to a + greater extent than male beauty, and this is confirmed by some of + the histories I have recorded in the Appendix to the third + volume of these _Studies_. Scott considers that female beauty has + come to be regarded as typical of ideal beauty, and thus tends to + produce an emotional effect on both sexes alike. It is certainly + rare to find any aesthetic admiration of men among women, except + in the case of women who have had some training in art. In this + matter it would seem that woman passively accepts the ideals of + man. "Objects which excite a man's desire," Colin Scott remarks, + "are often, if not generally, the same as those affecting woman. + The female body has a sexually stimulating effect upon both + sexes. Statues of female forms are more liable than those of male + form to have a stimulating effect upon women as well as men. The + evidence of numerous literary expressions seems to show that + under the influence of sexual excitement a woman regards her body + as made for man's gratification, and that it is this complex + emotion which forms the initial stage, at least, of her own + pleasure. Her body is the symbol for her partner, and indirectly + for her, through his admiration of it, of their mutual joy and + satisfaction." (Colin Scott, "Sex and Art," _American Journal of + Psychology_, vol. vii, No. 2, p. 206; also private letter.) + + At the same time it must be remembered that beauty and the + conception of beauty have developed on a wider basis than that of + the sexual impulse only, and also that our conceptions of the + beautiful, even as concerns the human form, are to some extent + objective, and may thus be in part reduced to law. Stratz, in his + books on feminine beauty, and notably in _Die Schoenheit des + Weiblichen Koerpers_, insists on the objective element in beauty. + Papillault, again, when discussing the laws of growth and the + beauty of the face, argues that beauty of line in the face is + objective, and not a creation of fancy, since it is associated + with the highest human functions, moral and social. He remarks on + the contrast between the prehistoric man of + Chancelade,--delicately made, with elegant face and high + forehead,--who created the great Magdalenian civilization, and + his seemingly much more powerful, but less beautiful, + predecessor, the man of Spy, with enormous muscles and powerful + jaws. (_Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthropologie_, 1899, p. 220.) + + The largely objective character of beauty is further indicated by + the fact that to a considerable extent beauty is the expression + of health. A well and harmoniously developed body, tense muscles, + an elastic and finely toned skin, bright eyes, grace and + animation of carriage--all these things which are essential to + beauty are the conditions of health. It has not been demonstrated + that there is any correlation between beauty and longevity, and + the proof would not be easy to give, but it is quite probable + that such a correlation may exist, and various indications point + in this direction. One of the most delightful of Opie's pictures + is the portrait of Pleasance Reeve (afterward Lady Smith) at the + age of 17. This singularly beautiful and animated brunette lived + to the age of 104. Most people are probably acquainted with + similar, if less marked, cases of the same tendency. + +The extreme sexual importance of beauty, so far, at all events, as +conscious experience is concerned is well illustrated by the fact that, +although three other senses may and often do play a not inconsiderable +part in the constitution of a person's sexual attractiveness,--the tactile +element being, indeed, fundamental,--yet in nearly all the most elaborate +descriptions of attractive individuals it is the visible elements that are +in most cases chiefly emphasized. Whether among the lowest savages or in +the highest civilization, the poet and story-teller who seeks to describe +an ideally lovely and desirable woman always insists mainly, and often +exclusively, on those characters which appeal to the eye. The richly laden +word _beauty_ is a synthesis of complex impressions obtained through a +single sense, and so simple, comparatively, and vague are the impressions +derived from the other senses that none of them can furnish us with any +corresponding word. + + Before attempting to analyze the conception of beauty, regarded + in its sexual appeal to the human mind, it may be well to bring + together a few fairly typical descriptions of a beautiful woman + as she appears to the men of various nations. + + In an Australian folklore story taken down from the lips of a + native some sixty years ago by W. Dunlop (but evidently not in + the native's exact words) we find this description of an + Australian beauty: "A man took as his wife a beautiful girl who + had long, glossy hair hanging around her face and down her + shoulders, which were plump and round. Her face was adorned with + red clay and her person wrapped in a fine large opossum rug + fastened by a pin formed from the small bone of the kangaroo's + leg, and also by a string attached to a wallet made of rushes + neatly plaited of small strips skinned from their outside after + they had been for some time exposed to the heat of the fire; + which being thrown on her back, the string passing under one arm + and across her breast, held the soft rug in a fanciful position + of considerable elegance; and she knew well how to show to + advantage her queenlike figure when she walked with her polished + yam stick held in one of her small hands and her little feet + appearing below the edge of the rug" (W. Dunlop, "Australian + Folklore Stories," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, + August and November, 1898, p. 27). + + A Malay description of female beauty is furnished by Skeat. "The + brow (of the Malay Helen for whose sake a thousand desperate + battles are fought in Malay romances) is like the one-day-old + moon; her eyebrows resemble 'pictured clouds,' and are 'arched + like the fighting-cock's (artificial) spur'; her cheek resembles + the 'sliced-off cheek of a mango'; her nose, 'an opening jasmine + bud'; her hair, the 'wavy blossom shoots of the areca-palm'; + slender is her neck, 'with a triple row of dimples'; her bosom + ripening, her waist 'lissom as the stalk of a flower,' her head; + 'of a perfect oval' (literally, bird's-egg shaped), her fingers + like the leafy 'spears of lemon-grass' or the 'quills of the + porcupine,' her eyes 'like the splendor of the planet Venus,' and + her lips 'like the fissure of a pomegranate.'" (W.W. Skeat, + _Malay Magic_, 1900, p. 363.) + + In Mitford's _Tales of Old Japan_ (vol. i, p. 215) a "peerlessly + beautiful girl of 16" is thus described: "She was neither too fat + nor too thin, neither too tall nor too short; her face was oval, + like a melon-seed, and her complexion fair and white;; her eyes + were narrow and bright, her teeth small and even; her nose was + aquiline, and her mouth delicately formed, with lovely red lips; + her eyebrows were long and fine; she had a profusion of long + black hair; she spoke modestly, with a soft, sweet voice, and + when she smiled, two lovely dimples appeared in her cheeks; in + all her movements she was gentle and refined." The Japanese belle + of ancient times, Dr. Nagayo Sensai remarks (_Lancet_, February + 15, 1890) had a white face, a long, slender throat and neck, a + narrow chest, small thighs, and small feet and hands. Baelz, also, + has emphasized the ethereal character of the Japanese ideal of + feminine beauty, delicate, pale and slender, almost uncanny; and + Stratz, in his interesting book, _Die Koerperformen in Kunst und + Leben der Japaner_ (second edition, 1904), has dealt fully with + the subject of Japanese beauty. + + The Singalese are great connoisseurs of beauty, and a Kandyan + deeply learned in the matter gave Dr. Davy the following + enumeration of a woman's points of beauty: "Her hair should be + voluminous, like the tail of the peacock, long, reaching to her + knees, and terminating in graceful curls; her eyebrows should + resemble the rainbow, her eyes, the blue sapphire and the petals + of the blue manilla-flower. Her nose should be like the bill of + the hawk; her lips should be bright and red, like coral or the + young leaf of the iron-tree. Her teeth should be small, regular, + and closely set, and like jessamine buds. Her neck should be + large and round, resembling the berrigodea. Her chest should be + capacious; her breasts, firm and conical, like the yellow + cocoa-nut, and her waist small--almost small enough to be clasped + by the hand. Her hips should be wide; her limbs tapering; the + soles of her feet, without any hollow, and the surface of her + body in general soft, delicate, smooth, and rounded, without the + asperities of projecting bones and sinews." (J. Davy, _An + Account of the Interior of Ceylon_, 1821, p. 110.) + + The "Padmini," or lotus-woman, is described by Hindu writers as + the type of most perfect feminine beauty. "She in whom the + following signs and symptoms appear is called a _Padmini_: Her + face is pleasing as the full moon; her body, well clothed with + flesh, is as soft as the Shiras or mustard flower; her skin is + fine, tender, and fair as the yellow lotus, never dark colored. + Her eyes are bright and beautiful as the orbs of the fawn, well + cut, and with reddish corners. Her bosom is hard, full, and high; + she; has a good neck; her nose is straight and lovely; and three + folds or wrinkles cross her middle--about the umbilical region. + Her _yoni_ [vulva] resembles the opening lotus bud, and her + love-seed is perfumed like the lily that has newly burst. She + walks with swanlike [more exactly, flamingolike] gait, and her + voice is low and musical as the note of the Kokila bird [the + Indian cuckoo]; she delights in white raiment, in fine jewels, + and in rich dresses. She eats little, sleeps lightly, and being + as respectful and religious as she is clever and courteous, she + is ever anxious to worship the gods and to enjoy the conversation + of Brahmans. Such, then, is the Padmini, or lotus-woman." (_The + Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana_, 1883, p. 11.) + + The Hebrew ideal of feminine beauty is set forth in various + passages of the _Song of Songs_. The poem is familiar, and it + will suffice to quote one passage:-- + + "How beautiful are thy feet in sandals, O prince's daughter! + Thy rounded thighs are like jewels, + The work of the hands of a cunning workman. + Thy navel is like a rounded goblet + Wherein no mingled wine is wanting; + Thy belly is like a heap of wheat + Set about with lilies. + Thy two breasts are like two fawns + They are twins of a roe. + Thy neck is like the tower of ivory; + Thine eyes as the pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim; + Thy nose is like the tower of Lebanon + That looketh toward Damascus. + Thine head upon thee is like Carmel + And the hair of thine head like purple; + The king is held captive in the tresses thereof. + This thy stature is like to a palm-tree, + And thy breasts to clusters of grapes, + And the smell of thy breath like apples, + And thy mouth like the best wine." + + And the man is thus described in the same poem:-- + + "My beloved is fair and ruddy, + The chiefest among ten thousand. + His head as the most fine gold, + His locks are bushy (or curling), and black as a raven. + His eyes are like doves beside the water-brooks, + Washed with milk and fitly set. + His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as banks of sweet herbs; + His lips are as lilies, dropping liquid myrrh. + His hands are as rings of gold, set with beryl; + His body is as ivory work, overlaid with sapphires. + His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold. + His aspect is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. + His mouth is most sweet; yea, he is altogether lovely." + + "The maiden whose loveliness inspires the most impassioned + expressions in Arabic poetry," Lane states, "is celebrated for + her slender figure: She is like the cane among plants, and is + elegant as a twig of the oriental willow. Her face is like the + full moon, presenting the strongest contrast to the color of her + hair, which is of the deepest hue of night, and falls to the + middle of her back (Arab ladies are extremely fond of full and + long hair). A rosy blush overspreads the center of each cheek; + and a mole is considered an additional charm. The Arabs, indeed, + are particularly extravagant in their admiration of this natural + beauty spot, which, according to its place, is compared to a drop + of ambergris upon a dish of alabaster or upon the surface of a + ruby. The eyes of the Arab beauty are intensely black,[132] + large, and long, of the form of an almond: they are full of + brilliancy; but this is softened by long silken lashes, giving a + tender and languid expression that is full of enchantment and + scarcely to be improved by the adventitious aid of the black + border of kohl; for this the lovely maiden adds rather for the + sake of fashion than necessity, having what the Arabs term + natural kohl. The eyebrows are thin and arched; the forehead is + wide and fair as ivory; the nose straight; the mouth, small; the + lips of a brilliant red; and the teeth, like pearls set in coral. + The forms of the bosom are compared to two pomegranates; the + waist is slender; the hips are wide and large; the feet and + hands, small; the fingers, tapering, and their extremities dyed + with the deep orange tint imparted by the leaves of the henna." + + Lane adds a more minute analysis from an unknown author quoted by + El-Ishakee: "Four things in a woman should be _black_--the hair + of the head, the eyebrows, the eyelashes, and the dark part of + the eyes; four _white_--the complexion of the skin, the white of + the eyes, the teeth, and the legs; four _red_--the tongue, the + lips, the middle of the cheeks, and the gums; four _round_--the + head, the neck, the forearms, and the ankles; four _long_--the + back, the fingers, the arms, and the legs; four _wide_--the + forehead, the eyes, the bosom, and the hips; four _fine_--the + eyebrows, the nose, the lips, and the fingers; four _thick_--the + lower part of the back, the thighs, the calves of the legs, and + the knees; four _small_--the ears, the breasts, the hands, and + the feet." (E.W. Lane, _Arabian Society in the Middle Ages_, + 1883, pp. 214-216.) + + A Persian treatise on the figurative terms relating to beauty + shows that the hair should be black, abundant, and wavy, the + eyebrows dark and arched. The eyelashes also must be dark, and + like arrows from the bow of the eyebrows. There is, however, no + insistence on the blackness of the eyes. We hear of four + varieties of eye: the dark-gray eye (or narcissus eye); the + narrow, elongated eye of Turkish beauties; the languishing, or + love-intoxicated, eye; and the wine-colored eye. Much stress is + laid on the quality of brilliancy. The face is sometimes + described as brown, but more especially as white and rosy. There + are many references to the down on the lips, which is described + as greenish (sometimes bluish) and compared to herbage. This down + and that on the cheeks and the stray hairs near the ears were + regarded as very great beauties. A beauty spot on the chin, + cheek, or elsewhere was also greatly admired, and evoked many + poetic comparisons. The mouth must be very small. In stature a + beautiful woman must be tall and erect, like the cypress or the + maritime pine. While the Arabs admired the rosiness of the legs + and thighs, the Persians insisted on white legs and compared them + to silver and crystal. (_Anis El-Ochchaq_, by Shereef-Eddin Romi, + translated by Huart, _Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes_, + Paris, fasc. 25, 1875.) + + In the story of Kamaralzaman in the _Arabian Nights_ El-Sett + Budur is thus described: "Her hair is so brown that it is blacker + than the separation of friends. And when it is arrayed in three + tresses that reach to her feet I seem to see three nights at + once. + + "Her face is as white as the day on which friends meet again. If + I look on it at the time of the full moon I see two moons at + once. + + "Her cheeks are formed of an anemone divided into two corollas; + they have the purple tinge of wine, and her nose is straighter + and more delicate than the finest sword-blade. + + "Her lips are colored agate and coral; her tongue secretes + eloquence; her saliva is more desirable than the juice of + grapes. + + "But her bosom, blessed be the Creator, is a living seduction. It + bears twin breasts of the purest ivory, rounded, and that may be + held within the five fingers of one hand. + + "Her belly has dimples full of shade and arranged with the + harmony of the Arabic characters on the seal of a Coptic scribe + in Egypt. And the belly gives origin to her finely modeled and + elastic waist. + + "At the thought of her flanks I shudder, for thence depends a + mass so weighty that it obliges its owner to sit down when she + has risen and to rise when she lies. + + "Such are her flanks, and from them descend, like white marble, + her glorious thighs, solid and straight, united above beneath + their crown. Then come the legs and the slender feet, so small + that I am astounded they can bear so great a weight." + + An Egyptian stela in the Louvre sings the praise of a beautiful + woman, a queen who died about 700 B.C., as follows: "The beloved + before all women, the king's daughter who is sweet in love, the + fairest among women, a maid whose like none has seen. Blacker is + her hair than the darkness of night, blacker than the berries of + the blackberry bush (?). Harder are her teeth (?) than the flints + on the sickle. A wreath of flowers is each of her breasts, close + nestling on her arms." Wiedemann, who quotes this, adds: "During + the whole classic period of Egyptian history with few exceptions + (such, for example, as the reign of that great innovator, + Amenophis IV) the ideal alike for the male and the female body + was a slender and but slightly developed form. Under the + Ethiopian rule and during the Ptolemaic period in Egypt itself we + find, for the first time, that the goddesses are represented with + plump and well-developed outlines. Examination of the mummies + shows that the earlier ideal was based upon actual facts, and + that in ancient Egypt slender, sinewy forms distinguished both + men and women. Intermarriage with other races and harem life may + have combined in later times to alter the physical type, and with + it to change also the ideal of beauty." (A. Wiedemann, _Popular + Literature in Ancient Egypt_, p. 7.) + + Commenting on Plato's ideas of beauty in the _Banquet_ + Emeric-David gives references from Greek literature showing that + the typical Greek beautiful woman must be tall, her body supple, + her fingers long, her foot small and light, the eyes clear and + moderately large, the eyebrows slightly arched and almost + meeting, the nose straight and firm, nearly--but not + quite--aquiline, the breath sweet as honey. (Emeric-David, + _Recherches sur l'Art Statuaire_, new edition, 1863, p. 42.) + + At the end of classic antiquity, probably in the fifth century, + Aristaenetus in his first Epistle thus described his mistress + Lais: "Her cheeks are white, but mixed in imitation of the + splendor of the rose; her lips are thin, by a narrow space + separated from the cheeks, but more red; her eyebrows are black + and divided in the middle; the nose straight and proportioned to + the thin lips; the eyes large and bright, with very black pupils, + surrounded by the clearest white, each color more brilliant by + contrast. Her hair is naturally curled, and, as Homer's saying + is, like the hyacinth. The neck is white and proportioned to the + face, and though unadorned more conspicuous by its delicacy; but + a necklace of gems encircles it, on which her name is written in + jewels. She is tall and elegantly dressed in garments fitted to + her body and limbs. When dressed her appearance is beautiful; + when undressed she is all beauty. Her walk is composed and slow; + she looks like a cypress or a palm stirred by the wind. I cannot + describe how the swelling, symmetrical breasts raise the + constraining vest, nor how delicate and supple her limbs are. And + when she speaks, what sweetness in her discourse!" + + Renier has studied the feminine ideal of the Provencal poets, the + troubadours who used the "langue d'oc." "They avoid any + description of the feminine type. The indications refer in great + part to the slender, erect, fresh appearance of the body, and to + the white and rosy coloring. After the person generally, the eyes + receive most praise; they are sweet, amorous, clear, smiling, and + bright. The color is never mentioned. The mouth is laughing, and + vermilion, and, smiling sweetly, it reveals the white teeth and + calls for the delights of the kiss. The face is clear and fresh, + the hand white and the hair constantly blonde. The troubadours + seldom speak of the rest of the body. Peire Vidal is an + exception, and his reference to the well-raised breasts may be + placed beside a reference by Bertran de Born. The general + impression conveyed by the love lyrics of the langue d'oc is one + of great convention. There seemed to be no salvation outside + certain phrases and epithets. The woman of Provence, sung by + hundreds of poets, seems to have been composed all of milk and + roses, a blonde Nuremburg doll." (R. Renier, _Il Tipo Estetico + della Donna nel Medioevo_, 1885, pp. 1-24.) + + The conventional ideal of the troubadours is, again, thus + described: "She is a lady whose skin is white as milk, whiter + than the driven snow, of peculiar purity in whiteness. Her + cheeks, on which vermilion hues alone appear, are like the + rosebud in spring, when it has not yet opened to the full. Her + hair, which is nearly always bedecked and adorned with flowers, + is invariably of the color of flax, as soft as silk, and + shimmering with a sheen of the finest gold." (J.F. Rowbotham, + _The Troubadours and Courts of Love_, p. 228.) + + In the most ancient Spanish romances, Renier remarks, the + definite indications of physical beauty are slight. The hair is + "of pure gold," or simply fair (_rudios_, which is equal to + _blondos_, a word of later introduction), the face white and + rosy, the hand soft, white, and fragrant; in one place we find a + reference to the uncovered breasts, whiter than crystal. But + usually the ancient Castilian romances do not deal with these + details. The poet contents himself with the statement that a lady + is the sweetest woman in the world, "_la mas linda mujer del + mundo_." (R. Renier, _Il Tipo Estetico della Donna nel Medioevo_, + pp. 68 et seq.) + + In a detailed and well-documented thesis, Alwin Schultz describes + the characteristics of the beautiful woman as she appealed to the + German authors of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. She must + be of medium height and slender. Her hair must be fair, like + gold; long, bright, and curly; a man's must only reach to his + shoulders. Dark hair is seldom mentioned and was not admired. The + parting of the hair must be white, but not too broad. The + forehead must be white and bright and rounded, without wrinkles. + The eyebrows must be darker than the hair, arched, and not too + broad, as though drawn with a pencil, the space between them not + too broad. The eyes must be bright, clear, and sparkling, not too + large or too small; nothing definite was said of the color, but + they were evidently usually blue. The nose must be of medium + size, straight, and not curved. The cheeks must be white, tinged + with red; if the red was absent by nature women used rouge. The + mouth must be small; the lips full and red. The teeth must be + small, white, and even. The chin must be white, rounded, lovable, + dimpled; the ears small and beautiful; the neck of medium size, + soft, white, and spotless; the arm small; the hands and fingers + long; the joints small, the nails white and bright and well cared + for. The bosom must be white and large; the breasts high and + rounded, like apples or pears, small and soft. The body generally + must be slender and active. The lower parts of the body are very + seldom mentioned, and many poets are even too modest to mention + the breasts. The buttocks must be rounded, one poet, indeed, + mentions, and the thighs soft and white, the _meinel_ (mons) + brown. The legs must be straight and narrow, the calves full, the + feet small and narrow, with high instep. The color of the skin + generally must be clear and of a tempered rosiness. (A. Schultz, + _Quid de Perfecta Corporis Humani Pulchritudine Germani Soeculi + XII et XIII Senserint_, 1866.) A somewhat similar, but shorter, + account is given by K. Weinhold (_Die Deutschen Frauen im + Mittelalter_, 1882, bd. 1, pp. 219 et seq.). Weinhold considers + that, like the French, the Germans admired the mixed eye, _vair_ + or gray. + + Adam de la Halle, the Artois _trouvere_ of the thirteenth + century, in a piece ("Li Jus Adan ou de la feuillie") in which he + brings himself forward, thus describes his mistress: "Her hair + had the brilliance of gold, and was twisted into rebellious + curls. Her forehead was very regular, white, and smooth; her + eyebrows, delicate and even, were two brown arches, which seemed + traced with a brush. Her eyes, bright and well cut, seemed to me + _vairs_ and full of caresses; they were large beneath, and their + lids like little sickles, adorned by twin folds, veiled or + revealed at her will her loving gaze. Between her eyes descended + the pipe of her nose, straight and beautiful, mobile when she was + gay; on either side were her rounded, white cheeks, on which + laughter impressed two dimples, and which one could see blushing + beneath her veil. Beneath the nose opened a mouth with blossoming + lips; this mouth, fresh and vermilion as a rose, revealed the + white teeth, in regular array; beneath the chin sprang the white + neck, descending full and round to the shoulder. The powerful + nape, white and without any little wandering hairs, protruded a + little over the dress. To her sloping shoulders were attached + long arms, large or slender where they so should be. What shall I + say of her white hands, with their long fingers, and knuckles + without knots, delicately ending in rosy nails attached to the + flesh by a clear and single line? I come to her bosom with its + firm breasts, but short and high pointed, revealing the valley of + love between them, to her round belly, her arched flanks. Her + hips were flat, her legs round, her calf large; she had a slender + ankle, a lean and arched foot. Such she was as I saw her, and + that which her chemise hid was not of less worth." (Houdoy, _La + Beaute des Femmes_, p. 125, who quotes the original of this + passage, considers it the ideal model of the mediaeval woman.) + + In the twelfth century story of _Aucassin et Nicolette_, + "Nicolette had fair hair, delicate and curling; her eyes were + gray (_vairs_) and smiling; her face admirably modeled. Her nose + was high and well placed; her lips small and more vermilion than + the cherry or the rose in summer; her teeth were small and white; + her firm little breasts raised her dress as would two walnuts. + Her figure was so slender that you could inclose it with your two + hands, and the flowers of the marguerite, which her toes broke as + she walked with naked feet, seemed black in comparison with her + feet and legs, so white was she." + + "Her hair was divided into a double tress," says Alain of Lille + in the twelfth century, "which was long enough to kiss the + ground; the parting, white as the lily and obliquely traced, + separated the hair, and this want of symmetry, far from hurting + her face, was one of the elements of her beauty. A golden comb + maintained that abundant hair whose brilliance rivaled it, so + that the fascinated eye could scarce distinguish the gold of the + hair from the gold of the comb. The expanded forehead had the + whiteness of milk, and rivaled the lily; her bright eyebrows + shone like gold, not standing up in a brush, and, without being + too scanty, orderly arranged. The eyes, serene and brilliant in + their friendly light, seemed twin stars, her nostrils embalsamed + with the odor of honey, neither too depressed in shape nor too + prominent, were of distinguished form; the nard of her mouth + offered to the smell a treat of sweet odors, and her half-open + lips invited a kiss. The teeth seemed cut in ivory; her cheeks, + like the carnation of the rose, gently illuminated her face and + were tempered by the transparent whiteness of her veil. Her chin, + more polished than crystal, showed silver reflections, and her + slender neck fitly separated her head from the shoulders. The + firm rotundity of her breasts attested the full expansion of + youth; her charming arms, advancing toward you, seemed to call + for caresses; the regular curve of her flanks, justly + proportioned, completed her beauty. All the visible traits of her + face and form thus sufficiently told what those charms must be + that the bed alone knew." (The Latin text is given by Houdoy, _La + Beaute des Femmes du XIIe au XVIe Siecle_, p. 119. Robert de + Flagy's portrait of Blanchefleur in _Sarin-le-Loherain_, written + in same century, reveals very similar traits.) + + "The young woman appeared with twenty brightly polished daggers + and swords," we read in the Irish _Tain Bo Cuailgne_ of the + Badhbh or Banshee who appeared to Meidhbh, "together with seven + braids for the dead, of bright gold, in her right hand; a + speckled garment of green ground, fastened by a bodkin at the + breast under her fair, ruddy countenance, enveloped her form; her + teeth were so new and bright that they appeared like pearls + artistically set in her gums; like the ripe berry of the mountain + ash were her lips; sweeter was her voice than the notes of the + gentle harp-strings when touched by the most skillful fingers, + and emitting the most enchanting melody; whiter than the snow of + one night was her skin, and beautiful to behold were her + garments, which reached to her well molded, bright-nailed feet; + copious tresses of her tendriled, glossy, golden hair hung + before, while others dangled behind and reached the calf of her + leg." (_Ossianio Transactions_, vol. ii, p. 107.) + + An ancient Irish hero is thus described: "They saw a great hero + approaching them; fairest of the heroes of the world; larger and + taller than any man; bluer than ice his eye; redder than the + fresh rowan berries his lips; whiter than showers of pearl his + teeth; fairer than the snow of one night his skin; a protecting + shield with a golden border was upon him, two battle-lances in + his hands; a sword with knobs of ivory [teeth of the sea-horse], + and ornamented with gold, at his side; he had no other + accoutrements of a hero besides these; he had golden hair on his + head, and had a fair, ruddy countenance." (_The Banquet of Dun na + n-gedh_, translated by O'Donovan, _Irish Archaeological Society_, + 1842.) + + The feminine ideal of the Italian poets closely resembles that of + those north of the Alps. Petrarch's Laura, as described in the + _Canzoniere_, is white as snow; her eyes, indeed, are black, but + the fairness of her hair is constantly emphasized; her lips are + rosy; her teeth white; her cheeks rosy; her breast youthful; her + hands white and slender. Other poets insist on the tall, white, + delicate body; the golden or blonde hair; the bright or starry + eyes (without mention of color), the brown or black arched + eyebrows, the straight nose, the small mouth, the thin vermilion + lips, the small and firm breasts. (Renier, _Il Tipo Estetico_, + pp. 87 et seq.) + + Marie de France, a French mediaeval writer of the twelfth century, + who spent a large part of her life in England, in the _Lai of + Lanval_ thus described a beautiful woman: "Her body was + beautiful, her hips low, the neck whiter than snow, the eyes gray + (_vairs_), the face white, the mouth beautiful, the nose well + placed, the eyebrows brown, the forehead beautiful, the head + curly and blonde; the gleam of gold thread was less bright than + her hair beneath the sun." + + The traits of Boccaccio's ideal of feminine beauty, a voluptuous + ideal as compared with the ascetic mediaeval ideal which had + previously prevailed, together with the characteristics of the + very beautiful and almost classic garments in which he arrayed + women, have been brought together by Hortis (_Studi sulle opere + Latine del Boccaccio_, 1879, pp. 70 et seq.). Boccaccio admired + fair and abundant wavy hair, dark and delicate eyebrows, and + brown or even black eyes. It was not until some centuries later, + as Hortis remarks, that Boccaccio's ideal woman was embodied by + the painter in the canvases of Titian. + + The first precise description of a famous beautiful woman was + written by Niphus in the sixteenth century in his _De Pulchro et + Amore_, which is regarded as the first modern treatise on + aesthetics. The lady described is Joan of Aragon, the greatest + beauty of her time, whose portrait by Raphael (or more probably + Giulio Romano) is in the Louvre. Niphus, who was the philosopher + of the pontifical court and the friend of Leo X, thus describes + this princess, whom, as a physician, he had opportunities of + observing accurately: "She is of medium stature, straight, and + elegant, and possesses the grace which can only be imparted by an + assemblage of characteristics which are individually faultless. + She is neither fat nor bony, but succulent; her complexion is not + pale, but white tinged with rose; her long hair is golden; her + ears are small and in proportion with the size of her mouth. Her + brown eyebrows are semicircular, not too bushy, and the + individual hairs short. Her eyes are blue (_oaesius_), brighter + than stars, radiant with grace and gaiety beneath the dark-brown + eyelashes, which are well spaced and not too long. The nose, + symmetrical and of medium size, descends perpendicularly from + between the eyebrows. The little valley separating the nose from + the upper lip is divinely proportioned. The mouth, inclined to be + rather small, is always stirred by a sweet smile; the rather + thick lips are made of honey and coral. The teeth are small, + polished as ivory, and symmetrically ranged, and the breath has + the odor of the sweetest perfumes. Her voice is that of a + goddess. The chin is divided by a dimple; the whole face + approximates to a virile rotundity. The straight long neck, white + and full, rises gracefully from the shoulders. On the ample + bosom, revealing no indication of the bones, arise the rounded + breasts, of equal and fitting size, and exhaling the perfume of + the peaches they resemble. The rather plump hands, on the back + like snow, on the palm like ivory, are exactly the length of the + face; the full and rounded fingers are long and terminating in + round, curved nails of soft color. The chest as a whole has the + form of a pear, reversed, but a little compressed, and the base + attached to the neck in a delightfully well-proportioned manner. + The belly, the flanks, and the secret parts are worthy of the + chest; the hips are large and rounded; the thighs, the legs, and + the arms are in just proportion. The breadth of the shoulders is + also in the most perfect relation to the dimensions of the other + parts of the body; the feet, of medium length, terminate in + beautifully arranged toes." (Houdoy reproduces this passage in + _La Beaute des Femmes_; cf. also Stratz, _Die Schoenheit des + Weiblichen Koerpers_, Chapter III.) + + Gabriel de Minut, who published in 1587 a treatise of no very + great importance, _De la Beaute_, also wrote under the title of + _La Paulegraphie_ a very elaborate description, covering sixty + pages, of Paule de Viguier, a Gascon lady of good family and + virtuous life living at Toulouse. Minut was her devoted admirer + and addressed an affectionate poem to her just before his death. + She was seventy years of age when he wrote the elaborate account + of her beauty. She had blue eyes and fair hair, though belonging + to one of the darkest parts of France. + + Ploss and Bartels (_Das Weib_, bd. 1, sec. 3) have independently + brought together a number of passages from the writers of many + countries describing their ideals of beauty. On this collection I + have not drawn. + +When we survey broadly the ideals of feminine beauty set down by the +peoples of many lands, it is interesting to note that they all contain +many features which appeal to the aesthetic taste of the modern European, +and many of them, indeed, contain no features which obviously clash with +his canons of taste. It may even be said that the ideals of some savages +affect us more sympathetically than some of the ideals of our own mediaeval +ancestors. As a matter of fact, European travelers in all parts of the +world have met with women who were gracious and pleasant to look on, and +not seldom even in the strict sense beautiful, from the standpoint of +European standards. Such individuals have been found even among those +races with the greatest notoriety for ugliness. + + Even among so primitive and remote a people as the Australians + beauty in the European sense is sometimes found. "I have on two + occasions," Lumholtz states, "seen what might be called beauties + among the women of western Queensland. Their hands were small, + their feet neat and well shaped, with so high an instep that one + asked oneself involuntarily where in the world they had acquired + this aristocratic mark of beauty. Their figure was above + criticism, and their skin, as is usually the case among the young + women, was as soft as velvet. When these black daughters of Eve + smiled and showed their beautiful white teeth, and when their + eyes peeped coquettishly from beneath the curly hair which hung + in quite the modern fashion down their foreheads," Lumholtz + realized that even here women could exert the influence ascribed + by Goethe to women generally. (C. Lumholtz, _Among Cannibals_, p. + 132.) Much has, again, been written about the beauty of the + American Indians. See, e.g., an article by Dr. Shufeldt, "Beauty + from an Indian's Point of View," _Cosmopolitan Magazine_, April, + 1895. Among the Seminole Indians, especially, it is said that + types of handsome and comely women are not uncommon. (_Clay_ + MacCauley, "Seminole Indians of Florida," _Fifth Annual Report of + the Bureau of Ethnology_, 1883-1884, pp. 493 et seq.) + + There is much even in the negress which appeals to the European + as beautiful. "I have met many negresses," remarks Castellani + (_Les Femmes au Congo_, p. 2), "who could say proudly in the + words of the Song of Songs, 'I am black, but comely.' Many of our + peasant women have neither the same grace nor the same delicate + skin as some natives of Cassai or Songha. As to color, I have + seen on the African continent creatures of pale gold or even red + copper whose fine and satiny skin rivals the most delicate white + skins; one may, indeed, find beauties among women of the darkest + ebony." He adds that, on the whole, there is no comparison with + white women, and that the negress soon becomes hideous. + + The very numerous quotations from travelers concerning the women + of all lands quoted by Ploss and Bartels (_Das Weib_, seventh + edition, bd. i, pp. 88-106) amply suffice to show how frequently + some degree of beauty is found even among the lowest human races. + Cf., also, Mantegazza's survey of the women of different races + from this point of view, _Fisiologia della Donna_, Cap. IV. + +The fact that the modern European, whose culture may be supposed to have +made him especially sensitive to aesthetic beauty, is yet able to find +beauty among even the women of savage races serves to illustrate the +statement already made that, whatever modifying influences may have to be +admitted, beauty is to a large extent an objective matter. The existence +of this objective element in beauty is confirmed by the fact that it is +sometimes found that the men of the lower races admire European women more +than women of their own race. There is reason to believe that it is among +the more intelligent men of lower race--that is to say those whose +aesthetic feelings are more developed--that the admiration for white women +is most likely to be found. + + "Mr. Winwood Reade," stated Darwin, "who has had ample + opportunities for observation, not only with the negroes of the + West Coast of Africa, but with those of the interior who have + never associated with Europeans, is convinced that their ideas of + beauty are, _on the whole_, the same as ours; and Dr. Rohlfs + writes to me to the same effect with respect to Bornu and the + countries inhabited by the Pullo tribes. Mr. Reade found that he + agreed with the negroes in their estimation of the beauty of the + native girls; and that their appreciation of the beauty of + European women corresponded with ours.... The Fuegians, as I have + been informed by a missionary who long resided with them, + considered European women as extremely beautiful ... I should add + that a most experienced observer, Captain [Sir R.] Burton, + believes that a woman whom we consider beautiful is admired + throughout the world." (Darwin, _Descent of Man_, Chapter XIX.) + + Mantegazza quotes a conversation between a South American chief + and an Argentine who had asked him which he preferred, the women + of his own people or Christian women; the chief replied that he + admired Christian women most, and when asked the reason said that + they were whiter and taller, had finer hair and smoother skin. + (Mantegazza, _Fisiologia della Donna_, Appendix to Cap. VIII.) + + Nordenskjoeld, as quoted by Ploss and Bartels, states that the + Eskimo regard their own type as more ugly than that produced by + crossing with white persons, and, according to Kropf, the Nosa + Kaffers admire and seek the fairer half-castes in preference to + their own women of pure race (Ploss and Bartels, _Das Weib_, + seventh edition, bd. 1, p. 78). There is a widespread admiration + for fairness, it may be added, among dark peoples. Fair men are + admired by the Papuans at Torres Straits (_Reports of the + Cambridge Anthropological Expedition_, vol. v, p. 327). The + common use of powder among the women of dark-skinned peoples + bears witness to the existence of the same ideal. + + Stratz, in his books _Die Schoenheit des Weiblichen Koerpers_ and + _Die Rassenschoenheit des Weibes_, argues that the ideal of beauty + is fundamentally the same throughout the world, and that the + finest persons among the lower races admire and struggle to + attain the type which is found commonly and in perfection among + the white peoples of Europe. When in Japan he found that among + the numerous photographs of Japanese beauties everywhere to be + seen, his dragoman, a Japanese of low birth, selected as the most + beautiful those which displayed markedly the Japanese type with + narrow-slitted eyes and broad nose. When he sought the opinion of + a Japanese photographer, who called himself an artist and had + some claim to be so considered, the latter selected as most + beautiful three Japanese girls who in Europe also would have been + considered pretty. In Java, also, when selecting from a large + number of Javanese girls a few suitable for photographing, Stratz + was surprised to find that a Javanese doctor pointed out as most + beautiful those which most closely corresponded to the European + type. (Stratz, _Die Rassenschoenheit des Weibes_, fourth edition, + 1903, p. 3; id., _Die Koerperformen der Japaner_, 1904, p. 78.) + + Stratz reproduces (Rassenschoenheit, pp. 36 et seq.) a + representation of Kwan-yin, the Chinese goddess of divine love, + and quotes some remarks of Borel's concerning the wide deviation + of the representations of the goddess, a type of gracious beauty, + from the Chinese racial type. Stratz further reproduces the + figure of a Buddhistic goddess from Java (now in the + Archaeological Museum of Leyden) which represents a type of + loveliness corresponding to the most refined and classic European + ideal. + +Not only is there a fundamentally objective element in beauty throughout +the human species, but it is probably a significant fact that we may find +a similar element throughout the whole animated world. The things that to +man are most beautiful throughout Nature are those that are intimately +associated with, or dependent upon, the sexual process and the sexual +instinct. This is the case in the plant world. It is so throughout most of +the animal world, and, as Professor Poulton, in referring to this often +unexplained and indeed unnoticed fact, remarks, "the song or plume which +excites the mating impulse in the hen is also in a high proportion of +cases most pleasing to man himself. And not only this, but in their past +history, so far as it has been traced (e.g., in the development of the +characteristic markings of the male peacock and argus pheasant), such +features have gradually become more and more pleasing to us as they have +acted as stronger and stronger stimuli to the hen."[133] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[131] "It is likely that all visible parts of the organism, even those +with a definite physiological meaning, appeal to the aesthetic sense of the +opposite sex," Poulton remarks, speaking primarily of insects, in words +that apply still more accurately to the human species. E. Poulton, _The +Colors of Animals_, 1890, p. 304. + +[132] "The Arabs in general," Lane remarks, "entertain a prejudice against +blue eyes--a prejudice said to have arisen from the great number of +blue-eyed persons among certain of their northern enemies." + +[133] _Nature_, April 14, 1898, p. 55. + + + + +II. + +Beauty to Some Extent Consists Primitively in an Exaggeration of the +Sexual Characters--The Sexual Organs--Mutilations, Adornments, and +Garments--Sexual Allurement the Original Object of Such +Devices--The Religious Element--Unaesthetic Character of the Sexual +Organs--Importance of the Secondary Sexual Characters--The Pelvis and +Hips--Steatopygia--Obesity--Gait--The Pregnant Woman as a Mediaeval Type of +Beauty--The Ideals of the Renaissance--The Breasts--The Corset--Its +Object--Its History--Hair--The Beard--The Element of National or Racial +Type in Beauty--The Relative Beauty of Blondes and Brunettes--The General +European Admiration for Blondes--The Individual Factors in the +Constitution of the Idea of Beauty--The Love of the Exotic. + + +In the constitution of our ideals of masculine and feminine beauty it was +inevitable that the sexual characters should from a very early period in +the history of man form an important element. From a primitive point of +view a sexually desirable and attractive person is one whose sexual +characters are either naturally prominent or artificially rendered so. The +beautiful woman is one endowed, as Chaucer expresses it, + + "With buttokes brode and brestes rounde and hye"; + +that is to say, she is the woman obviously best fitted to bear children +and to suckle them. These two physical characters, indeed, since they +represent aptitude for the two essential acts of motherhood, must +necessarily tend to be regarded as beautiful among all peoples and in all +stages of culture, even in high stages of civilization when more refined +and perverse ideals tend to find favor, and at Pompeii as a decoration on +the east side of the Purgatorium of the Temple of Isis we find a +representation of Perseus rescuing Andromeda, who is shown as a woman with +a very small head, small hands and feet, but with a fully developed body, +large breasts, and large projecting nates.[134] + +To a certain extent--and, as we shall see, to a certain extent only--the +primary sexual characters are objects of admiration among primitive +peoples. In the primitive dances of many peoples, often of sexual +significance, the display of the sexual organs on the part of both men and +women is frequently a prominent feature. Even down to mediaeval times in +Europe the garments of men sometimes permitted the sexual organs to be +visible. In some parts of the world, also, the artificial enlargement of +the female sexual organs is practised, and thus enlarged they are +considered an important and attractive feature of beauty. + + Sir Andrew Smith informed Darwin that the elongated nymphae (or + "Hottentot apron") found among the women of some South African + tribes was formerly greatly admired by the men (_Descent of Man_, + Chapter XIX). This formation is probably a natural peculiarity of + the women of these races which is very much exaggerated by + intentional manipulation due to the admiration it arouses. The + missionary Merensky reported the prevalence of the practice of + artificial elongation among the Basuto and other peoples, and the + anatomical evidence is in favor of its partly artificial + character. (The Hottentot apron is fully discussed by Ploss and + Bartels, _Das Weib_, bd. I, sec. vi.) + + In the Jaboo country on the Bight of Benin in West Africa, + Daniell stated, it was considered ornamental to elongate the + labia and the clitoris artificially; small weights were appended + to the clitoris and gradually increased. (W.F. Daniell, + _Topography of Gulf of Guinea_, 1849, pp. 24, 53.) + + Among the Bawenda of the northern Transvaal, the missionary + Wessmann states, it is customary for young girls from the age of + 8 to spend a certain amount of time every day in pulling the + _labia majora_ in order to elongate them; in selecting a wife the + young men attach much importance to this elongation, and the girl + whose labia stand out most is most attractive. (_Zeitschrift fuer + Ethnologie_, 1894, ht. 4, p. 363.) + + It may be added that in various parts of the world mutilations of + the sexual organs of men and women, or operations upon them, are + practiced, for reasons which are imperfectly known, since it + usually happens that the people who practice them are unable to + give the reason for this practice, or they assign a reason which + is manifestly not that which originally prompted the practice. + Thus, the excision of the clitoris, practiced in many parts of + East Africa and frequently supposed to be for the sake of dulling + sexual feeling (J.S. King _Journal of the Anthropological + Society_, Bombay, 1890, p. 2), seems very doubtfully accounted + for thus, for the women have it done of their own accord; "all + Sobo women [Niger coast] have their clitoris cut off; unless they + have this done they are looked down upon, as slave women who do + not get cut; as soon, therefore, as a Sobo woman has collected + enough money, she goes to an operating woman and pays her to do + the cutting." (_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, + August-November, 1898, p. 117.) The Comte de Cardi investigated + this matter in the Niger Delta: "I have questioned both native + men and women," he states, "to try and get the natives' reason + for this rite, but the almost universal answer to my queries was, + 'it is our country's fashion.'" One old man told him it was + practiced because favorable to continence, and several old women + said that once the women of the land used to suffer from a + peculiar kind of madness which this rite reduced. (_Journal of + the Anthropological Institute_, August-November, 1899, p. 59.) In + the same way the subincision of the urethra (mika operation of + Australia) is frequently supposed to be for the purpose of + preventing conception (See, e.g., the description of the + operation by J.G. Garson, _Medical Press_, February 21, 1894), + but this is very doubtful, and E.C. Stirling found that + subincised natives often had large families. (_Intercolonial + Quarterly Journal of Medicine and Surgery_, 1894.) + + A passage in the _Mainz Chronicle_ for 1367 (as quoted by + Schultz, _Das Hoefische Leben_, p. 297) shows that at that time + the tunics of the men were so made that it was always possible + for the sexual organs to be seen in walking or sitting. + +This insistence on the naked sexual organs as objects of attraction is, +however, comparatively rare, and confined to peoples in a low state of +culture. Very much more widespread is the attempt to beautify and call +attention to the sexual organs by tattooing,[135] by adornment and by +striking peculiarities of clothing. The tendency for beauty of clothing to +be accepted as a substitute for beauty of body appears early in the +history of mankind, and, as we know, tends to be absolutely accepted in +civilization.[136] "We exclaim," as Goethe remarks, "'What a beautiful +little foot!' when we have merely seen a pretty shoe; we admire the lovely +waist when nothing has met out eyes but an elegant girdle." Our realities +and our traditional ideals are hopelessly at variance; the Greeks +represented their statues without pubic hair because in real life they had +adopted the oriental custom of removing the hairs; we compel our sculptors +and painters to make similar representations, though they no longer +correspond either to realities or to our own ideas of what is beautiful +and fitting in real life. Our artists are themselves equally ignorant and +confused, and, as Stratz has repeatedly shown, they constantly reproduce +in all innocence the deformations and pathological characters of defective +models. If we were honest, we should say--like the little boy before a +picture of the Judgment of Paris, in answer to his mother's question as to +which of the three goddesses he thought most beautiful--"I can't tell, +because they haven't their clothes on." + +The concealment actually attained was not, however, it would appear, +originally sought. Various authors have brought together evidence to show +that the main primitive purpose of adornment and clothing among savages is +not to conceal the body, but to draw attention to it and to render it more +attractive. Westermarck, especially, brings forward numerous examples of +savage adornments which serve to attract attention to the sexual regions +of man and woman.[137] He further argues that the primitive object of +various savage peoples in practicing circumcision, as other similar +mutilations, is really to secure sexual attractiveness, whatever religious +significance they may sometimes have developed subsequently. A more recent +view represents the magical influence of both adornment and mutilation as +primary, as a method of guarding and insulating dangerous bodily +functions. Frazer, in _The Golden Bough_, is the most able and brilliant +champion of this view, which undoubtedly embodies a large element of +truth, although it must not be accepted to the absolute exclusion of the +influence of sexual attractiveness. The two are largely woven in +together.[138] + +There is, indeed, a general tendency for the sexual functions to take on a +religious character and for the sexual organs to become sacred at a very +early period in culture. Generation, the reproductive force in man, +animals, and plants, was realized by primitive man to be a fact of the +first magnitude, and he symbolized it in the sexual organs of man and +woman, which thus attained to a solemnity which was entirely independent +of purposes of sexual allurement. Phallus worship may almost be said to be +a universal phenomenon; it is found even among races of high culture, +among the Romans of the Empire and the Japanese to-day; it has, indeed, +been thought by some that one of the origins of the cross is to be found +in the phallus. + + "Hardly any other object," remarks Dr. Richard Andree, "has been + with such great unanimity represented by nearly all peoples as + the phallus, the symbol of procreative force in the religions of + the East and an object of veneration at public festivals. In the + Moabitic Baal Peor, in the cult of Dionysos, everywhere, indeed, + except in Persia, we meet with Priapic representations and the + veneration accorded to the generative organ. It is needless to + refer to the great significance of the _Linga puja_, the + procreative organ of the god Siva, in India, a god to whom more + temples were erected than to any other Indian deity. Our museums + amply show how common phallic representations are in Africa, East + Asia, the Pacific, frequently in connection with religious + worship." (R. Andree, "Amerikansche Phallus-Darstellungen," + _Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie_, 1895, ht. 6, p. 678.) + + Women have no external generative organ like the phallus to play + a large part in life as a sacred symbol. There is, however, some + reason to believe that the triangle is to some extent such a + symbol. Lejeune ("La Representation Sexuelle en Religion, Art, et + Pedagogie," _Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthropologie_, Paris, + October 3, 1901) brings forward reasons in favor of the view that + the triangular hair-covered region of the mons veneris has had + considerable significance in this respect, and he presents + various primitive figures in illustration. + +Apart from the religions and magical properties so widely accorded to the +primary sexual characters, there are other reasons why they should not +often have gained or long retained any great importance as objects of +sexual allurement. They are unnecessary and inconvenient for this purpose. +The erect attitude of man gives them here, indeed, an advantage possessed +by very few animals, among whom it happens with extreme rarity that the +primary sexual characters are rendered attractive to the eye of the +opposite sex, though they often are to the sense of smell. The sexual +regions constitute a peculiarly vulnerable spot, and remain so even in +man, and the need for their protection which thus exists conflicts with +the prominent display required for a sexual allurement. This end is far +more effectively attained, with greater advantage and less disadvantage, +by concentrating the chief ensigns of sexual attractiveness on the upper +and more conspicuous parts of the body. This method is well-nigh universal +among animals as well as in man. + +There is another reason why the sexual organs should be discarded as +objects of sexual allurement, a reason which always proves finally +decisive as a people advances in culture. They are not aesthetically +beautiful. It is fundamentally necessary that the intromittent organ of +the male and the receptive canal of the female should retain their +primitive characteristics; they cannot, therefore, be greatly modified by +sexual or natural selection, and the exceedingly primitive character they +are thus compelled to retain, however sexually desirable and attractive +they may become to the opposite sex under the influence of emotion, can +rarely be regarded as beautiful from the point of view of aesthetic +contemplation. Under the influence of art there is a tendency for the +sexual organs to be diminished in size, and in no civilized country has +the artist ever chosen to give an erect organ to his representations of +ideal masculine beauty. It is mainly because the unaesthetic character of a +woman's sexual region is almost imperceptible in any ordinary and normal +position of the nude body that the feminine form is a more aesthetically +beautiful object of contemplation than the masculine. Apart from this +character we are probably bound, from a strictly aesthetic point of view, +to regard the male form as more aesthetically beautiful.[139] The female +form, moreover, usually overpasses very swiftly the period of the climax +of its beauty, often only retaining it during a few weeks. + + The following communication from a correspondent well brings out + the divergences of feeling in this matter: + + "You write that the sex organs, in an excited condition, cannot + be called aesthetic. But I believe that they are a source, not + only of curiosity and wonder to many persons, but also objects of + admiration. I happen to know of one man, extremely intellectual + and refined, who delights in lying between his mistress's thighs + and gazing long at the dilated vagina. Also another man, married, + and not intellectual, who always tenderly gazes at his wife's + organs, in a strong light, before intercourse, and kisses her + there and upon the abdomen. The wife, though amative, confessed + to another woman that she could not understand the attraction. On + the other hand, two married men have told me that the sight of + their wives' genital parts would disgust them, and that they have + never seen them. + + "If the sexual parts cannot be called aesthetic, they have still a + strong charm for many passionate lovers, of both sexes, though + not often, I believe, among the unimaginative and the uneducated, + who are apt to ridicule the organs or to be repelled by them. + Many women confess that they are revolted by the sight of even a + husband's complete nudity, though they have no indifference for + sexual embraces. I think that the stupid bungle of Nature in + making the generative organs serve as means of relieving the + bladder has much to do with this revulsion. But some women of + erotic temperament find pleasure in looking at the penis of a + husband or lover, in handling it, and kissing it. Prostitutes do + this in the way of business; some chaste, passionate wives act + thus voluntarily. This is scarcely morbid, as the mammalia of + most species smell and lick each others' genitals. Probably + primitive man did the same." + + Brantome (_Vie des Dames Galantes_, Discours II) has some remarks + to much the same effect concerning the difference between men, + some of whom take no pleasure in seeing the private parts of + their wives or mistresses, while others admire them and delight + to kiss them. + + I must add that, however natural or legitimate the attraction of + the sexual parts may be to either sex, the question of their + purely aesthetic beauty remains unaffected. + + Remy de Gourmont, in a discussion of the aesthetic element in + sexual beauty, considers that the invisibility of the sexual + organs is the decisive fact in rendering women more beautiful + than men. "Sex, which is sometimes an advantage, is always a + burden and always a flaw; it exists for the race and not for the + individual. In the human male, and precisely because of his erect + attitude, sex is the predominantly striking and visible fact, the + point of attack in a struggle at close quarters, the point aimed + at from a distance, an obstacle for the eye, whether regarded as + a rugosity on the surface or as breaking the middle of a line. + The harmony of the feminine body is thus geometrically much more + perfect, especially when we consider the male and the female at + the moment of desire when they present the most intense and + natural expression of life. Then the woman, whose movements are + all interior, or only visible by the undulation of her curves, + preserves her full aesthetic value, while the man, as it were, all + at once receding toward the primitive state of animality, seems + to throw off all beauty and become reduced to the simple and + naked condition of a genital organism." (Remy de Gourmont, + _Physique de l'Amour_, p. 69.) Remy de Gourmont proceeds, + however, to point out that man has his revenge after a woman has + become pregnant, and that, moreover, the proportions of the + masculine body are more beautiful than those of the feminine + body. + +The primary sexual characters of man and woman have thus never at any time +played a very large part in sexual allurement. With the growth of culture, +indeed, the very methods which had been adopted to call attention to the +sexual organs were by a further development retained for the purpose of +concealing them. From the first the secondary sexual characters have been +a far more widespread method of sexual allurement than the primary sexual +characters, and in the most civilized countries to-day they still +constitute the most attractive of such methods to the majority of the +population. + + The main secondary sexual characters in woman and the type which + they present in beautiful and well-developed persons are + summarized as follows by Stratz, who in his book on the beauty of + the body in woman sets forth the reasons for the characteristics + here given:-- + + Delicate bony structure. + Rounded forms and breasts. + Broad pelvis. + Long and abundant hair. + Low and narrow boundary of pubic hair. + Sparse hair in armpit. + No hair on body. + Delicate skin. + Rounded skull. + Small face. + Large orbits. + High and slender eyebrows. + Low and small lower jaw. + Soft transition from cheek to neck. + Rounded neck. + Slender wrist. + Small hand, with long index finger. + Rounded shoulders. + Straight, small clavicle. + Small and long thorax. + Slender waist. + Hollow sacrum. + Prominent and domed nates. + Sacral dimples. + Rounded and thick thighs. + Low and obtuse pubic arch. + Soft contour of knee. + Rounded calves. + Slender ankle. + Small toes. + Long second and short fifth toe. + Broad middle incisor teeth. + + (Stratz, _Die Schoenheit des Weiblichen Koerpers_, fourteenth + edition, 1903, p. 200. This statement agrees at most points with + my own exposition of the secondary sexual characters: _Man and + Woman_, fourth edition, revised and enlarged, 1904.) + +Thus we find, among most of the peoples of Europe, Asia, and Africa, the +chief continents of the world, that the large hips and buttocks of women +are commonly regarded as an important feature of beauty. This secondary +sexual character represents the most decided structural deviation of the +feminine type from the masculine, a deviation demanded by the reproductive +function of women, and in the admiration it arouses sexual selection is +thus working in a line with natural selection. It cannot be said that, +except in a very moderate degree, it has always been regarded as at the +same time in a line with claims of purely aesthetic beauty. The European +artist frequently seeks to attenuate rather than accentuate the +protuberant lines of the feminine hips, and it is noteworthy that the +Japanese also regard small hips as beautiful. Nearly everywhere else +large hips and buttocks are regarded as a mark of beauty, and the average +man is of this opinion even in the most aesthetic countries. The contrast +of this exuberance with the more closely knit male form, the force of +association, and the unquestionable fact that such development is the +condition needed for healthy motherhood, have served as a basis for an +ideal of sexual attractiveness which appeals to nearly all people more +strongly than a more narrowly aesthetic ideal, which must inevitably be +somewhat hermaphroditic in character. + +Broad hips, which involve a large pelvis, are necessarily a characteristic +of the highest human races, because the races with the largest heads must +be endowed also with the largest pelvis to enable their large heads to +enter the world. The white race, according to Bacarisse, has the broadest +sacrum, the yellow race coming next, the black race last. The white race +is also stated to show the greatest curvature of the sacrum, the yellow +race next, while the black race has the flattest sacrum.[140] The black +race thus possesses the least developed pelvis, the narrowest, and the +flattest. It is certainly not an accidental coincidence that it is +precisely among people of black race that we find a simulation of the +large pelvis of the higher races admired and cultivated in the form of +steatopygia. This is an enormously exaggerated development of the +subcutaneous layer of fat which normally covers the buttocks and upper +parts of the thighs in woman, and in this extreme form constitutes a kind +of natural fatty tumor. Steatopygia cannot be said to exist, according to +Deniker, unless the projection of the buttocks exceeds 4 per cent of the +individual's height; it frequently equals 10 per cent. True steatopygia +only exists among Bushman and Hottentot women, and among the peoples who +are by blood connected with them. An unusual development of the buttocks +is, however, found among the Woloffs and many other African peoples.[141] +There can be no doubt that among the black peoples of Africa generally, +whether true steatopygia exists among them or not, extreme gluteal +development is regarded as a very important, if not the most important, +mark of beauty, and Burton stated that a Somali man was supposed to choose +his wife by ranging women in a row and selecting her who projected +farthest _a tergo_.[142] In Europe, it must be added, clothing enables +this feature of beauty to be simulated. Even by some African peoples the +posterior development has been made to appear still larger by the use of +cushions, and in England in the sixteenth century we find the same +practice well recognized, and the Elizabethan dramatists refer to the +"bum-roll," which in more recent times has become the bustle, devices +which bear witness to what Watts, the painter, called "the persistent +tendency to suggest that the most beautiful half of humanity is furnished +with tails."[143] In reality, as we see, it is simply a tendency, not to +simulate an animal character, but to emphasize the most human and the most +feminine of the secondary sexual characters, and therefore, from the +sexual point of view, a beautiful feature.[144] + +Sometimes admiration for this characteristic is associated with admiration +for marked obesity generally, and it may be noted that a somewhat greater +degree of fatness may also be regarded as a feminine secondary sexual +character. This admiration is specially marked among several of the black +peoples of Africa, and here to become a beauty a woman must, by drinking +enormous quantities of milk, seek to become very fat. Sonnini noted that +to some extent the same thing might be found among the Mohammedan women of +Egypt. After bright eyes and a soft, polished, hairless skin, an Egyptian +woman, he stated, most desired to obtain _embonpoint_; men admired fat +women and women sought to become fat. "The idea of a very fat woman," +Sonnini adds, "is nearly always accompanied in Europe by that of softness +of flesh, effacement of form, and defect of elasticity in the outlines. It +would be a mistake thus to represent the women of Turkey in general, where +all seek to become fat. It is certain that the women of the East, more +favored by Nature, preserve longer than others the firmness of the flesh, +and this precious property, joined to the freshness and whiteness of their +skin, renders them very agreeable. It must be added that in no part of the +world is cleanliness carried so far as by the women of the East."[145] + +The special characteristics of the feminine hips and buttocks become +conspicuous in walking and may be further emphasized by the special method +of walking or carriage. The women of some southern countries are famous +for the beauty of their way of walk; "the goddess is revealed by her +walk," as Virgil said. In Spain, especially, among European countries, the +walk very notably gives expression to the hips and buttocks. The spine is +in Spain very curved, producing what is termed _ensellure_, or +saddle-back--a characteristic which gives great flexibility to the back +and prominence to the gluteal regions, sometimes slightly simulating +steatopygia. The vibratory movement naturally produced by walking and +sometimes artificially heightened thus becomes a trait of sexual beauty. +Outside of Europe such vibration of the flanks and buttocks is more +frankly displayed and cultivated as a sexual allurement. The Papuans are +said to admire this vibratory movement of the buttocks in their women. +Young girls are practiced in it by their mothers for hours at a time as +soon as they have reached the age of 7 or 8, and the Papuan maiden walks +thus whenever she is in the presence of men, subsiding into a simpler gait +when no men are present. In some parts of tropical Africa the women walk +in this fashion. It is also known to the Egyptians, and by the Arabs is +called _ghung_.[146] As Mantegazza remarks, the essentially feminine +character of this gait makes it a method of sexual allurement. It should +be observed that it rests on feminine anatomical characteristics, and that +the natural walk of a femininely developed woman is inevitably different +from that of a man. + + In an elaborate discussion of beauty of movement Stratz + summarizes the special characters of the gait in woman as + follows: "A woman's walk is chiefly distinguished from a man's by + shorter steps, the more marked forward movement of the hips, the + greater length of the phase of rest in relation to the phase of + motion, and by the fact that the compensatory movements of the + upper parts of the body are less powerfully supported by the + action of the arms and more by the revolution of the flanks. A + man's walk has a more pushing and active character, a woman's a + more rolling and passive character; while a man seems to seek to + catch his fleeing equilibrium, a woman seems to seek to preserve + the equilibrium she has reached.... A woman's walk is beautiful + when it shows the definitely feminine and rolling character, with + the greatest predominance of the moment of extension over that of + flexion." (Stratz, _Die Schoenheit des Weiblichen Koerpers_, + fourteenth edition, p. 275.) + +An occasional development of the idea of sexual beauty as associated with +developed hips is found in the tendency to regard the pregnant woman as +the most beautiful type. Stratz observes that a woman artist once remarked +to him that since motherhood is the final aim of woman, and a woman +reaches her full flowering period in pregnancy, she ought to be most +beautiful when pregnant. This is so, Stratz replied, if the period of her +full physical bloom chances to correspond with the early months of +pregnancy, for with the onset of pregnancy metabolism is heightened, the +tissues become active, the tone of the skin softer and brighter, the +breasts firmer, so that the charm of fullest bloom is increased until the +moment when the expansion of the womb begins to destroy the harmony of the +form. At one period of European culture, however,--at a moment and among a +people not very sensitive to the most exquisite aesthetic sensations,--the +ideal of beauty has even involved the character of advanced pregnancy. In +northern Europe during the centuries immediately preceding the Renaissance +the ideal of beauty, as we may see by the pictures of the time, was a +pregnant woman, with protuberant abdomen and body more or less extended +backward. This is notably apparent in the work of the Van Eycks: in the +Eve in the Brussels Gallery; in the wife of Arnolfini in the highly +finished portrait group in the National Gallery; even the virgins in the +great masterpiece of the Van Eycks in the Cathedral at Ghent assume the +type of the pregnant woman. + + "Through all the middle ages down to Duerer and Cranach," quite + truly remarks Laura Marholm (as quoted by I. Bloch, _Beitraege zur + AEtiologie der Psychopathia Sexualis_, Teil I, p. 154), "we find a + very peculiar type which has falsely been regarded as one of + merely ascetic character. It represents quiet, peaceful, and + cheerful faces, full of innocence; tall, slender, young figures; + the shoulders still scanty; the breasts small, with slender legs + beneath their garments; and round the upper part of the body + clothing that is tight almost to the point of constriction. The + waist comes just under the bosom, and from this point the broad + skirts in folds give to the most feminine part of the feminine + body full and absolutely unhampered power of movement and + expansion. The womanly belly even in saints and virgins is very + pronounced in the carriage of the body and clearly protuberant + beneath the clothing. It is the maternal function, in sacred and + profane figures alike, which marks the whole type--indeed, the + whole conception--of woman." For a brief period this fashion + reappeared in the eighteenth century, and women wore pads and + other devices to increase the size of the abdomen. + +With the Renaissance this ideal of beauty disappeared from art. But in +real life we still seem to trace its survival in the fashion for that +class of garments which involved an immense amount of expansion below the +waist and secured such expansion by the use of whalebone hoops and similar +devices. The Elizabethan farthingale was such a garment. This was +originally a Spanish invention, as indicated by the name (from +_verdugardo_, provided with hoops), and reached England through France. We +find the fashion at its most extreme point in the fashionable dress of +Spain in the seventeenth century, such as it has been immortalized by +Velasquez. In England hoops died out during the reign of George III but +were revived for a time, half a century later, in the Victorian +crinoline.[147] + +Only second to the pelvis and its integuments as a secondary sexual +character in woman we must place the breasts.[148] Among barbarous and +civilized peoples the beauty of the breast is usually highly esteemed. +Among Europeans, indeed, the importance of this region is so highly +esteemed that the general rule against the exposure of the body is in its +favor abrogated, and the breasts are the only portion of the body, in the +narrow sense, which a European lady in full dress is allowed more or less +to uncover. Moreover, at various periods and notably in the eighteenth +century, women naturally deficient in this respect have sometimes worn +artificial busts made of wax. Savages, also, sometimes show admiration for +this part of the body, and in the Papuan folk-tales, for instance, the +sole distinguishing mark of a beautiful woman is breasts that stand +up.[149] On the other hand, various savage peoples even appear to regard +the development of the breasts as ugly and adopt devices for flattening +this part of the body.[150] The feeling that prompts this practice is not +unknown in modern Europe, for the Bulgarians are said to regard developed +breasts as ugly; in mediaeval Europe, indeed, the general ideal of feminine +slenderness was opposed to developed breasts, and the garments tended to +compress them. But in a very high degree of civilization this feeling is +unknown, as, indeed, it is unknown to most barbarians, and the beauty of a +woman's breasts, and of any natural or artificial object which suggests +the gracious curves of the bosom, is a universal source of pleasure. + + The casual vision of a girl's breasts may, in the chastest youth, + evoke a strange perturbation. (Cf., e.g., a passage in an early + chapter of Marcelle Tinayre's _La Maison du Peche_.) We need not + regard this feeling as of purely sexual origin; and in addition + even to the aesthetic element it is probably founded to some + extent on a reminiscence of the earliest associations of life. + This element of early association was very well set forth long + ago by Erasmus Darwin:-- + + "When the babe, soon after it is born into this cold world, is + applied to its mother's bosom, its sense of perceiving warmth is + first agreeably affected; next its sense of smell is delighted + with the odor of her milk; then its taste is gratified by the + flavor of it; afterward the appetites of hunger and of thirst + afford pleasure by the possession of their object, and by the + subsequent digestion of the aliment; and, last, the sense of + touch is delighted by the softness and smoothness of the milky + fountain, the source of such variety of happiness. + + "All these various kinds of pleasure at length become associated + with the form of the mother's breast, which the infant embraces + with its hands, presses with its lips, and watches with its eyes; + and thus acquires more accurate ideas of the form of its mother's + bosom than of the odor, flavor, and warmth which it perceives by + its other senses. And hence at our maturer years, when any object + of vision is presented to us which by its wavy or spiral lines + bears any similitude to the form of the female bosom, whether it + be found in a landscape with soft gradations of raising and + descending surface, or in the forms of some antique vases, or in + other works of the pencil or the chisel, we feel a general glow + of delight which seems to influence all our senses; and if the + object be not too large we experience an attraction to embrace it + with our lips as we did in our early infancy the bosom of our + mothers." (E. Darwin, _Zooenomia_, 1800, vol. i, p. 174.) + +The general admiration accorded to developed breasts and a developed +pelvis is evidenced by a practice which, as embodied in the corset, is all +but universal in many European countries, as well as the extra-European +countries inhabited by the white race, and in one form or another is by no +means unknown to peoples of other than the white race. + +The tightening of the waist girth was little known to the Greeks of the +best period, but it was practiced by the Greeks of the decadence and by +them transmitted to the Romans; there are many references in Latin +literature to this practice, and the ancient physician wrote against it in +the same sense as modern doctors. So far as Christian Europe is concerned +it would appear that the corset arose to gratify an ideal of asceticism +rather than of sexual allurement. The bodice in early mediaeval days bound +and compressed the breasts and thus tended to efface the specifically +feminine character of a woman's body. Gradually, however, the bodice was +displaced downward, and its effect, ultimately, was to render the breasts +more prominent instead of effacing them. Not only does the corset render +the breasts more prominent; it has the further effect of displacing the +breathing activity of the lungs in an upward direction, the advantage from +the point of sexual allurement thus gained being that additional attention +is drawn to the bosom from the respiratory movement thus imparted to it. +So marked and so constant is this artificial respiratory effect, under the +influence of the waist compression habitual among civilized women, that +until recent years it was commonly supposed that there is a real and +fundamental difference in breathing between men and women, that women's +breathing is thoracic and men's abdominal. It is now known that under +natural and healthy conditions there is no such difference, but that men +and women breathe in a precisely identical manner. The corset may thus be +regarded as the chief instrument of sexual allurement which the armory of +costume supplies to a woman, for it furnishes her with a method of +heightening at once her two chief sexual secondary characters, the bosom +above, the hips and buttocks below. We cannot be surprised that all the +scientific evidence in the world of the evil of the corset is powerless +not merely to cause its abolition, but even to secure the general adoption +of its comparatively harmless modifications. + + Several books have been written on the history of the corset. + Leoty (_Le Corset a travers les Ages_, 1893) accepts Bouvier's + division of the phases through which the corset has passed: (1) + the bands, or fasciae, of Greek and Roman ladies; (2) period of + transition during greater part of middle ages, classic traditions + still subsisting; (3) end of middle ages and beginning of + Renaissance, when tight bodices were worn; (4) the period of + whalebone bodices, from middle of sixteenth to end of eighteenth + centuries; (5) the period of the modern corset. We hear of + embroidered girdles in Homer. Even in Rome, however, the fasciae + were not in general use, and were chiefly employed either to + support the breasts or to compress their excessive development, + and then called _mamillare_. The _zona_ was a girdle, worn + usually round the hips, especially by young girls. The modern + corset is a combination of the _fascia_ and the _zona_. It was at + the end of the fourteenth century that Isabeau of Bavaria + introduced the custom of showing the breasts uncovered, and the + word "corset" was then used for the first time. + + Stratz, in his _Frauenkleidung_ (pp. 366 et seq.), and in his + _Schoenheit des Weiblichen Koerpers_, Chapters VIII, X, and XVI, + also deals with the corset, and illustrates the results of + compression on the body. For a summary of the evidence concerning + the difference of respiration in man and woman, its causes and + results, see Havelock Ellis, _Man and Woman_, fourth edition, + 1904, pp. 228-244. With reference to the probable influence of + the corset and unsuitable clothing generally during early life in + impeding the development of the mammary glands, causing inability + to suckle properly, and thus increasing infant mortality, see + especially a paper by Professor Bollinger (_Correspondenz-blatt + Deutsch. Gesell. Anthropologie_, October, 1899). + + The compression caused by the corset, it must be added, is not + usually realized or known by those who wear it. Thus, Rushton + Parker and Hugh Smith found, in two independent series of + measurements, that the waist measurement was, on the average, two + inches less over the corset than round the naked waist; "the + great majority seemed quite unaware of the fact." In one case the + difference was as much as five inches. (_British Medical + Journal_, September 15 and 22, 1900.) + +The breasts and the developed hips are characteristics of women and are +indications of functional effectiveness as well as sexual allurement. +Another prominent sexual character which belongs to man, and is not +obviously an index of function, is furnished by the hair on the face. The +beard may be regarded as purely a sexual adornment, and thus comparable to +the somewhat similar growth on the heads of many male animals. From this +point of view its history is interesting, for it illustrates the tendency +with increase of civilization not merely to dispense with sexual +allurement in the primary sexual organs, but even to disregard those +growths which would appear to have been developed solely to act as sexual +allurements. The cultivation of the beard belongs peculiarly to barbarous +races. Among these races it is frequently regarded as the most sacred and +beautiful part of the person, as an object to swear by, an object to which +the slightest insult must be treated as deadly. Holding such a position, +it must doubtless act as a sexual allurement. "Allah has specially created +an angel in Heaven," it is said in the _Arabian Nights_, "who has no other +occupation than to sing the praises of the Creator for giving a beard to +men and long hair to women." The sexual character of the beard and the +other hirsute appendage is significantly indicated by the fact that the +ascetic spirit in Christianity has always sought to minimize or to hide +the hair. Altogether apart, however, from this religious influence, +civilization tends to be opposed to the growth of hair on the masculine +face and especially to the beard. It is part of the well-marked tendency +with civilization to the abolition of sexual differences. We find this +general tendency among the Greeks and Romans, and, on the whole, with +certain variations and fluctuations of fashion, in modern Europe also. +Schopenhauer frequently referred to this disappearance of the beard as a +mark of civilization, "a barometer of culture."[151] The absence of facial +hair heightens aesthetic beauty of form, and is not felt to remove any +substantial sexual attraction. + + That even the Egyptians regarded the beard as a mark of beauty + and an object of veneration is shown by the fact that the priests + wore it long and cut it off in grief (Herodotus, _Euterpe_, + Chapter XXXVI). The respect with which the beard was regarded + among the ancient Hebrews is indicated in the narrative (II + Samuel, Chapter X) which tells how, when David sent his servants + to King Hanun the latter shaved off half their beards; they were + too ashamed to return in this condition, and remained at Jericho + until their beards had grown again. A passage in Ordericus + Vitalis (_Ecclesiastical History_, Book VIII, Chapter X) is + interesting both as regards the fashions of the twelfth century + in England and Normandy and the feeling that prompted Ordericus. + Speaking of the men of his time, he wrote: "The forepart of + their head is bare after the manner of thieves, while at the back + they nourish long hair like harlots. In former times penitents, + captives and pilgrims usually went unshaved and wore long beards, + as an outward mark of their penance or captivity or pilgrimage. + Now almost all the world wear crisped hair and beards, carrying + on their faces the token of their filthy lust like stinking + goats. Their locks are curled with hot irons, and instead of + wearing caps they bind their heads with fillets. A knight seldom + appears in public with his head uncovered, and properly shaved, + according to the apostolic precept (I Corinthians, Chapter XI, + verses 7 and 14)." + +We have seen that there is good reason for assuming a certain fundamental +tendency whereby the most various peoples of the world, at all events in +the person of their most intelligent members, recognize and accept a +common ideal of feminine beauty, so that to a certain extent beauty may be +said to have an objectively aesthetic basis. We have further found that +this aesthetic human ideal is modified, and very variously modified in +different countries and even in the same country at different periods, by +a tendency, prompted by a sexual impulse which is not necessarily in +harmony with aesthetic cannons, to emphasize, or even to repress, one or +other of the prominent secondary sexual characters of the body. We now +come to another tendency which is apt to an even greater extent to limit +the cultivation of the purely aesthetic ideal of beauty: the influences of +national or racial type. + +To the average man of every race the woman who most completely embodies +the type of his race is usually the most beautiful, and even mutilations +and deformities often have their origin, as Humboldt long since pointed +out, in the effort to accentuate the racial type.[152] Eastern women +possess by nature large and conspicuous eyes, and this characteristic +they seek still further to heighten by art. The Ainu are the hairiest of +races, and there is nothing which they consider so beautiful as hair. It +is difficult to be sexually attracted to persons who are fundamentally +unlike ourselves in racial constitution.[153] + +It frequently happens that this admiration for racial characteristics +leads to the idealization of features which are far removed from aesthetic +beauty. The firm and rounded breast is certainly a feature of beauty, but +among many of the black peoples of Africa the breasts fall at a very early +period, and here we sometimes find that the hanging breast is admired as +beautiful. + + The African Baganda, the Rev. J. Roscoe states (_Journal of the + Anthropological Institute_, January-June, 1902, p. 72), admire + hanging breasts to such an extent that their young women tie them + down in order to hasten the arrival of this condition. + + "The most remarkable trait of beauty in the East," wrote Sonnini, + "is to have large black eyes, and nature has made this a + characteristic sign of the women of these countries. But, not + content with this, the women of Egypt wish their eyes to be still + larger and blacker. To attain this Mussulmans, Jewesses, and + Christians, rich and poor, all tint their eyelids with galena. + They also blacken the lashes (as Juvenal tells us the Roman + ladies did) and mark the angles of the eye so that the fissure + appears larger." (Sonnini, _Voyage dans la Haute et Basse + Egypte_, 1799, vol. i, p. 290.) Kohl is thus only used by the + women who have what the Arabs call "natural kohl." As Flinders + Petrie has found, the women of the so-called "New Race," between + the sixth and tenth dynasties of ancient Egypt, used galena and + malachite for painting their faces. Jewish women in the days of + the prophets painted their eyes with kohl, as do some Hindu women + to-day. + + "The Ainu have a great affection for their beards. They regard + them as a sign of manhood and strength and consider them as + especially handsome. They look upon them, indeed, as a great and + highly prized treasure." (J. Batchelor, _The Ainu and their + Folklore_, p. 162.) + + A great many theories have been put forward to explain the + Chinese fashion of compressing and deforming the foot. The + Chinese are great admirers of the feminine foot, and show + extreme sexual sensitiveness in regard to it. Chinese women + naturally possess very small feet, and the main reason for + binding them is probably to be found in the desire to make them + still smaller. (See, e.g., Stratz, _Die Frauenkleidung_, 1904, p. + 101.) + +An interesting question, which in part finds its explanation here and is +of considerable significance from the point of view of sexual selection, +concerns the relative admiration bestowed on blondes and brunettes. The +question is not, indeed, one which is entirely settled by racial +characteristics. There is something to be said on the matter from the +objective standpoint of aesthetic considerations. Stratz, in a chapter on +beauty of coloring in woman, points out that fair hair is more beautiful +because it harmonizes better with the soft outlines of woman, and, one may +add, it is more brilliantly conspicuous; a golden object looks larger than +a black object. The hair of the armpit, also, Stratz considers should be +light. On the other hand, the pubic hair should be dark in order to +emphasize the breadth of the pelvis and the obtusity of the angle between +the mons veneris and the thighs. The eyebrows and eyelashes should also be +dark in order to increase the apparent size of the orbits. Stratz adds +that among many thousand women he has only seen one who, together with an +otherwise perfect form, has also possessed these excellencies in the +highest measure. With an equable and matt complexion she had blonde, very +long, smooth hair, with sparse, blonde, and curly axillary hair; but, +although her eyes were blue, the eyebrows and eyelashes were black, as +also was the not overdeveloped pubic hair.[154] + +We may accept it as fairly certain that, so far as any objective standard +of aesthetic beauty is recognizable, that standard involves the supremacy +of the fair type of woman. Such supremacy in beauty has doubtless been +further supported by the fact that in most European countries the ruling +caste, the aristocratic class, whose superior energy has brought it to the +top, is somewhat blonder than the average population. + +The main cause, however, in determining the relative amount of admiration +accorded in Europe to blondes and to brunettes is the fact that the +population of Europe must be regarded as predominantly fair, and that our +conception of beauty in feminine coloring is influenced by an instinctive +desire to seek this type in its finest forms. In the north of Europe there +can, of course, be no question concerning the predominant fairness of the +population, but in portions of the centre and especially in the south it +may be considered a question. It must, however, be remembered that the +white population occupying all the shores of the Mediterranean have the +black peoples of Africa immediately to the south of them. They have been +liable to come in contact with the black peoples and in contrast with them +they have tended not only to be more impressed with their own whiteness, +but to appraise still more highly its blondest manifestations as +representing a type the farthest removed from the negro. It must be added +that the northerner who comes into the south is apt to overestimate the +darkness of the southerner because of the extreme fairness of his own +people. The differences are, however, less extreme than we are apt to +suppose; there are more dark people in the north than we commonly assume, +and more fair people in the south. Thus, if we take Italy, we find in its +fairest part, Venetia, according to Raseri, that there are 8 per cent. +communes in which fair hair predominates, 81 per cent. in which brown +predominates, and only 11 per cent. in which black predominates; as we go +farther south black hair becomes more prevalent, but there are in most +provinces a few communes in which fair hair is not only frequent, but even +predominant. It is somewhat the same with light eyes, which are also most +abundant in Venetia and decrease to a slighter extent as we go south. It +is possible that in former days the blondes prevailed to a greater degree +than to-day in the south of Europe. Among the Berbers of the Atlas +Mountains, who are probably allied to the South Europeans, there appears +to be a fairly considerable proportion of blondes,[155] while on the other +hand there is some reason to believe that blondes die out under the +influence of civilization as well as of a hot climate. + +However this may be, the European admiration for blondes dates back to +early classic times. Gods and men in Homer would appear to be frequently +described as fair.[156] Venus is nearly always blonde, as was Milton's +Eve. Lucian refers to women who dye their hair. The Greek sculptors gilded +the hair of their statues, and the figurines in many cases show very fair +hair.[157] The Roman custom of dyeing the hair light, as Renier has shown, +was not due to the desire to be like the fair Germans, and when Rome fell +it would appear that the custom of dyeing the hair persisted, and never +died out; it is mentioned by Anselm, who died at the beginning of the +twelfth century.[158] + +In the poetry of the people in Italy brunettes, as we should expect, +receive much commendation, though even here the blondes are preferred. +When we turn to the painters and poets of Italy, and the aesthetic writers +on beauty from the Renaissance onward, the admiration for fair hair is +unqualified, though there is no correspondingly unanimous admiration for +blue eyes. Angelico and most of the pre-Raphaelite artists usually painted +their women with flaxen and light-golden hair, which often became brown +with the artists of the Renaissance period. Firenzuola, in his admirable +dialogue on feminine beauty, says that a woman's hair should be like gold +or honey or the rays of the sun. Luigini also, in his _Libro della bella +Donna_, says that hair must be golden. So also thought Petrarch and +Ariosto. There is, however, no corresponding predilection among these +writers for blue eyes. Firenzuola said that the eyes must be dark, though +not black. Luigini said that they must be bright and black. Niphus had +previously said that the eyes should be "black like those of Venus" and +the skin ivory, even a little brown. He mentions that Avicenna had praised +the mixed, or gray eye. + +In France and other northern countries the admiration for very fair hair +is just as marked as in Italy, and dates back to the earliest ages of +which we have a record. "Even before the thirteenth century," remarks +Houdoy, in his very interesting study of feminine beauty in northern +France during mediaeval times, "and for men as well as for women, fair hair +was an essential condition of beauty; gold is the term of comparison +almost exclusively used."[159] He mentions that in the _Acta Sanctorum_ it +is stated that Saint Godelive of Bruges, though otherwise beautiful, had +black hair and eyebrows and was hence contemptuously called a crow. In the +_Chanson de Roland_ and all the French mediaeval poems the eyes are +invariably _vairs_. This epithet is somewhat vague. It comes from +_varius_, and signifies mixed, which Houdoy regards as showing various +irradiations, the same quality which later gave rise to the term _iris_ to +describe the pupillary membrane.[160] _Vair_ would thus describe not so +much the color of the eye as its brilliant and sparkling quality. While +Houdoy may have been correct, it still seems probable that the eye +described as _vair_ was usually assumed to be "various" in color also, of +the kind we commonly call gray, which is usually applied to blue eyes +encircled with a ring of faintly sprinkled brown pigment. Such eyes are +fairly typical of northern France and frequently beautiful. That this was +the case seems to be clearly indicated by the fact that, as Houdoy himself +points out, a few centuries later the _vair_ eye was regarded as _vert_, +and green eyes were celebrated as the most beautiful.[161] The etymology +was false, but a false etymology will hardly suffice to change an ideal. +At the Renaissance Jehan Lemaire, when describing Venus as the type of +beauty, speaks of her green eyes, and Ronsard, a little later, sang: + + "Noir je veux l'oeil et brun le teint, + Bien que l'oeil verd toute la France adore." + +Early in the sixteenth century Brantome quotes some lines current in +France, Spain, and Italy according to which a woman should have a white +skin, but black eyes and eyebrows, and adds that personally he agrees with +the Spaniard that "a brunette is sometimes equal to a blonde,"[162] but +there is also a marked admiration for green eyes in Spanish literature; +not only in the typical description of a Spanish beauty in the _Celestina_ +(Act. I) are the eyes green, but Cervantes, for example, when referring to +the beautiful eyes of a woman, frequently speaks of them as green. + +It would thus appear that in Continental Europe generally, from south to +north, there is a fair uniformity of opinion as regards the pigmentary +type of feminine beauty. Such variation as exists seemingly involves a +somewhat greater degree of darkness for the southern beauty in harmony +with the greater racial darkness of the southerner, but the variations +fluctuate within a narrow range; the extremely dark type is always +excluded, and so it would seem probable is the extremely fair type, for +blue eyes have not, on the whole, been considered to form part of the +admired type. + +If we turn to England no serious modification of this conclusion is called +for. Beauty is still fair. Indeed, the very word "fair" in England itself +means beautiful. That in the seventeenth century it was generally held +essential that beauty should be blonde is indicated by a passage in the +_Anatomy of Melancholy_, where Burton argues that "golden hair was ever +in great account," and quotes many examples from classic and more modern +literature.[163] That this remains the case is sufficiently evidenced by +the fact that the ballet and chorus on the English stage wear yellow wigs, +and the heroine of the stage is blonde, while the female villain of +melodrama is a brunette. + +While, however, this admiration of fairness as a mark of beauty +unquestionably prevails in England, I do not think it can be said--as it +probably can be said of the neighboring and closely allied country of +France--that the most beautiful women belong to the fairest group of the +community. In most parts of Europe the coarse and unbeautiful plebeian +type tends to be very dark; in England it tends to be very fair. England +is, however, somewhat fairer generally than most parts of Europe; so that, +while it may be said that a very beautiful woman in France or in Spain may +belong to the blondest section of the community, a very beautiful woman in +England, even though of the same degree of blondness as her Continental +sister, will not belong to the extremely blonde section of the English +community. It thus comes about that when we are in northern France we find +that gray eyes, a very fair but yet unfreckled complexion, brown hair, +finely molded features, and highly sensitive facial expression combine to +constitute a type which is more beautiful than any other we meet in +France, and it belongs to the fairest section of the French population. +When we cross over to England, however, unless we go to a so-called +"Celtic" district, it is hopeless to seek among the blondest section of +the community for any such beautiful and refined type. The English +beautiful woman, though she may still be fair, is by no means very fair, +and from the English standpoint she may even sometimes appear somewhat +dark:[164] In determining what I call the index of pigmentation--or degree +of darkness of the eyes and hair--of different groups in the National +Portrait Gallery I found that the "famous beauties" (my own personal +criterion of beauty not being taken into account) was somewhat nearer to +the dark than to the light end of the scale.[165] If we consider, at +random, individual instances of famous English beauties they are not +extremely fair. Lady Venetia Stanley, in the early seventeenth century, +who became the wife of Sir Kenelm Digby, was somewhat dark, with brown +hair and eyebrows. Mrs. Overall, a little later in the same century, a +Lancashire woman, the wife of the Dean of St. Paul's, was, says Aubrey, +"the greatest beauty in her time in England," though very wanton, with +"the loveliest eyes that were ever seen"; if we may trust a ballad given +by Aubrey she was dark with black hair. The Gunnings, the famous beauties +of the eighteenth century, were not extremely fair, and Lady Hamilton, the +most characteristic type of English beauty, had blue, brown-flecked eyes +and dark chestnut hair. Coloration is only one of the elements of beauty, +though an important one. Other things being equal, the most blonde is most +beautiful; but it so happens that among the races of Great Britain the +other things are very frequently not equal, and that, notwithstanding a +conviction ingrained in the language, with us the fairest of women is not +always the "fairest." So magical, however, is the effect of brilliant +coloring that it serves to keep alive in popular opinion an unqualified +belief in the universal European creed of the beauty of blondness. + +We have seen that underlying the conception of beauty, more especially as +it manifests itself in woman to man, are to be found at least three +fundamental elements: First there is the general beauty of the species as +it tends to culminate in the white peoples of European origin; then there +is the beauty due to the full development or even exaggeration of the +sexual and more especially the secondary sexual characters; and last there +is the beauty due to the complete embodiment of the particular racial or +national type. To make the analysis fairly complete must be added at least +one other factor: the influence of individual taste. Every individual, at +all events in civilization, within certain narrow limits, builds up a +feminine ideal of his own, in part on the basis of his own special +organization and its demands, in part on the actual accidental attractions +he has experienced. It is unnecessary to emphasize the existence of this +factor, which has always to be taken into account in every consideration +of sexual selection in civilized man. But its variations are numerous and +in impassioned lovers it may even lead to the idealization of features +which are in reality the reverse of beautiful. It may be said of many a +man, as d'Annunzio says of the hero of his _Trionfo della Morte_ in +relation to the woman he loved, that "he felt himself bound to her by the +real qualities of her body, and not only by those which were most +beautiful, but specially by _those which were least beautiful_" (the +novelist italicizes these words), so that his attention was fixed upon her +defects, and emphasized them, thus arousing within himself an impetuous +state of desire. Without invoking defects, however, there are endless +personal variations which may all be said to come within the limits of +possible beauty or charm. "There are no two women," as Stratz remarks, +"who in exactly the same way stroke back a rebellious lock from their +brows, no two who hold the hand in greeting in exactly the same way, no +two who gather up their skirts as they walk with exactly the same +movement."[166] Among the multitude of minute differences--which yet can +be seen and felt--the beholder is variously attracted or repelled +according to his own individual idiosyncrasy, and the operations of sexual +selection are effected accordingly. + +Another factor in the constitution of the ideal of beauty, but one perhaps +exclusively found under civilized conditions, is the love of the unusual, +the remote, the exotic. It is commonly stated that rarity is admired in +beauty. This is not strictly true, except as regards combinations and +characters which vary only in a very slight degree from the generally +admired type. "_Jucundum nihil est quod non reficit variatas_," according +to the saying of Publilius Syrus. The greater nervous restlessness and +sensibility of civilization heightens this tendency, which is not +infrequently found also among men of artistic genius. One may refer, for +instance, to Baudelaire's profound admiration for the mulatto type of +beauty.[167] In every great centre of civilization the national ideal of +beauty tends to be somewhat modified in exotic directions, and foreign +ideals, as well as foreign fashions, become preferred to those that are +native. It is significant of this tendency that when, a few years since, +an enterprising Parisian journal hung in its _salle_ the portraits of one +hundred and thirty-one actresses, etc., and invited the votes of the +public by ballot as to the most beautiful of them, not one of the three +women who came out at the head of the poll was French. A dancer of Belgian +origin (Cleo de Merode) was by far at the head with over 3000 votes, +followed by an American from San Francisco (Sybil Sanderson), and then a +Polish woman. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[134] Figured in Mau's _Pompeii_, p. 174. + +[135] As a native of Lukunor said to the traveler Mertens, "It has the +same object as your clothes, to please the women." + +[136] "The greatest provocations of lust are from our apparel," as Burton +states (_Anatomy of Melancholy_, Part III, Sec. II, Mem. II, Subs. III), +illustrating this proposition with immense learning. Stanley Hall +(_American Journal of Psychology_, vol. ix, Part III, pp. 365 _et seq._) +has some interesting observations on the various psychic influences of +clothing; cf. Bloch, _Beitraege zur AEtiologie der Psychopathia Sexualis_, +Teil II, pp. 330 et seq. + +[137] _History of Human Marriage_, Chapter IX, especially p, 201. We have +a striking and comparatively modern European example of an article of +clothing designed to draw attention to the sexual sphere in the codpiece +(the French _braguette_), familiar to us through fifteenth and sixteenth +century pictures and numerous allusions in Rabelais and in Elizabethan +literature. This was originally a metal box for the protection of the +sexual organs in war, but subsequently gave place to a leather case only +worn by the lower classes, and became finally an elegant article of +fashionable apparel, often made of silk and adorned with ribbons, even +with gold and jewels. (See, e.g., Bloch, _Beitraege zur AEtiologie der +Psychopathia Sexualis_, Teil I, p. 159.) + +[138] A correspondent in Ceylon has pointed out to me that in the Indian +statues of Buddha, Vishnu, goddesses, etc., the necklace always covers the +nipples, a sexually attractive adornment being thus at the same time the +guardian of the orifices of the body. Crawley (_The Mystic Rose_, p. 135) +regards mutilations as in the nature of permanent amulets or charms. + +[139] Mantegazza, in his discussion of this point, although an ardent +admirer of feminine beauty, decides that woman's form is not, on the +whole, more beautiful than man's. See Appendix to Cap. IV of _Fisiologia +della Donna_. + +[140] For a discussion of the anthropology of the feminine pelvis, see +Ploss and Bartels, _Das Weib_, bd. 1. Sec. VI. + +[141] Ploss and Bartels, loc. cit.; Deniker, _Revue d'Anthropologie_, +January 15, 1889, and _Races of Man_, p. 93. + +[142] Darwin. + +[143] G.F. Watts, "On Taste in Dress," _Nineteenth Century_, 1883. + +[144] From mediaeval times onwards there has been a tendency to treat the +gluteal region with contempt, a tendency well marked in speech and custom +among the lowest classes in Europe to-day, but not easily traceable in +classic times. Duehren (_Das Geschlechtsleben in England_, bd. II, pp. 359 +et seq.) brings forward quotations from aesthetic writers and others +dealing with the beauty of this part of the body. + +[145] Sonnini, _Voyage, etc._, vol. i, p. 308. + +[146] Ploss and Bartels, _Das Weib_, bd. 1, Sec. III; Mantegazza, +_Fisiologia della Donna_, Chapter III. + +[147] Bloch brings together various interesting quotations concerning the +farthingale and the crinoline. (_Beitraege zur AEtiologie der Psychopathia +Sexualis_, Teil I, p. 156.) He states that, like most other feminine +fashions in dress, it was certainly invented by prostitutes. + +[148] The racial variations in the form and character of the breasts are +great, and there are considerable variations even among Europeans. Even as +regards the latter our knowledge is, however, still very vague and +incomplete; there is here a fruitful field for the medical anthropologist. +Ploss and Bartels have brought together the existing data (_Das Weib_, bd. +I, Sec. VIII). Stratz also discusses the subject (_Die Schoenheit das +Weiblichen Koerpers_, Chapter X). + +[149] _Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_, vol. v, p. +28. + +[150] These devices are dealt with and illustrations given by Ploss and +Bartels, _Das Weib_ (loc. cit.). + +[151] See, e.g., _Parerga und Paralipomena_, bd. I, p. 189, and bd. 2, p. +482. Moll has also discussed this point (_Untersuchungen ueber die Libido +Sexualis_, bd. I, pp. 384 et seq.). + +[152] Speaking of some South American tribes, he remarks (_Travels_, +English translations, 1814, vol. iii. p. 236) that they "have as great an +antipathy to the beard as the Eastern nations hold it in reverence. This +antipathy is derived from the same source as the predilection for flat +foreheads, which is seen in so singular a manner in the statues of the +Aztec heroes and divinities. Nations attach the idea of beauty to +everything which particularly characterizes their own physical +conformation, their natural physiognomy." See also Westermarck, _History +of Marriage_, p. 261. Ripley (_Races of Europe_, pp. 49, 202) attaches +much importance to the sexual selection founded on a tendency of this +kind. + +[153] "Differences of race are irreducible," Abel Hermant remarks +(_Confession d'un Enfant d'Hier_, p. 209), "and between two beings who +love each other they cannot fail to produce exceptional and instructive +reactions. In the first superficial ebullition of love, indeed, nothing +notable may be manifested, but in a fairly short time the two lovers, +innately hostile, in striving to approach each other strike against an +invisible partition which separates them. Their sensibilities are +divergent; everything in each shocks the other; even their anatomical +conformation, even the language of their gestures; all is foreign." + +[154] C.H. Stratz, _Die Schoenheit des Weiblichen Koerpers_, fourteenth +edition, Chapter XII. + +[155] See, e.g., Sergi, _The Mediterranean Race_, pp. 59-75. + +[156] Sergi (_The Mediterranean Race_, Chapter 1), by an analysis of +Homer's color epithets, argues that in very few cases do they involve +fairness; but his attempt scarcely seems successful, although most of +these epithets are undoubtedly vague and involve a certain range of +possible color. + +[157] Lechat's study of the numerous realistic colored statues recently +discovered in Greece (summarized in _Zentralblatt fuer Anthropologie_, +1904, ht. 1, p. 22) shows that with few exceptions the hair is fair. + +[158] Renier, _Il Tipo Estetico_, pp. 127 et seq. In another book, _Les +Femmes Blondes selon les Peintres de l'Ecole de Venise_, par deux +Venitiens (one of these "Venetians" being Armand Baschet), is brought +together much information concerning the preference for blondes in +literature, together with a great many of the recipes anciently used for +making the hair fair. + +[159] J. Houdoy, _La Beaute des Femmes dans la Litterature et dans l'Art +du XIIe au XVIe Siecle_, 1876, pp. 32 et seq. + +[160] Houdoy, op. cit., pp. 41 et seq. + +[161] Houdoy, op. cit., p. 83. + +[162] Brantome, _Vie des Dames Galantes_, Discours II. + +[163] _Anatomy of Melancholy_, Part III, Sec. II, Mem. II, Subs. II. + +[164] It is significant that Burton (_Anatomy of Melancholy_, loc. cit.), +while praising golden hair, also argues that "of all eyes black are moist +amiable," quoting many examples to this effect from classic and later +literature. + +[165] "Relative Abilities of the Fair and the Dark," _Monthly Review_, +August, 1901; cf. H. Ellis, _A Study of British Genius_, p. 215. + +[166] Stratz, _Die Schoenheit des Weiblichen Koerpers_, p. 217. + +[167] Bloch (_Beitraege zur AEtiologie der Psychopathia Sexualis_, Teil II, +pp. 261 et seq.) brings together some facts bearing on the admiration for +negresses in Paris and elsewhere. + + + + +III. + +Beauty not the Sole Element in the Sexual Appeal of Vision--Movement--The +Mirror--Narcissism--Pygmalionism--Mixoscopy--The Indifference of Women to +Male Beauty--The Significance of Woman's Admiration of Strength--The +Spectacle of Strength is a Tactile Quality made Visible. + + +Our discussion of the sensory element of vision in human sexual selection +has been mainly an attempt to disentangle the chief elements of beauty in +so far as beauty is a stimulus to the sexual instinct. Beauty by no means +comprehends the whole of the influences which make for sexual allurement +through vision, but it is the point at which all the most powerful and +subtle of these are focussed; it represents a fairly definite complexus, +appealing at once to the sexual and to the aesthetic impulses, to which no +other sense can furnish anything in any degree analogous. It is because +this conception of beauty has arisen upon it that vision properly occupies +the supreme position in man from the point of view which we here occupy. + +Beauty is thus the chief, but it is not the sole, element in the sexual +appeal of vision. In all parts of the world this has always been well +understood, and in courtship, in the effort to arouse tumescence, the +appeals to vision have been multiplied and at the same time aided by +appeals to the other senses. Movement, especially in the form of dancing, +is the most important of the secondary appeals to vision. This is so well +recognized that it is scarcely necessary to insist upon it here; it may +suffice to refer to a single typical example. The most decent of +Polynesian dances, according to William Ellis, was the _hura_, which was +danced by the daughters of chiefs in the presence of young men of rank +with the hope of gaining a future husband. "The daughters of the chiefs, +who were the dancers on these occasions, at times amounted to five or six, +though occasionally only one exhibited her symmetry of figure and +gracefulness of action. Their dress was singular, but elegant. The head +was ornamented with a fine and beautiful braid of human hair, wound round +the head in the form of a turban. A triple wreath of scarlet, white, and +yellow flowers adorned the head-dress. A loose vest of spotted cloth +covered the lower part of the bosom. The tihi, of fine white stiffened +cloth frequently edged with a scarlet border, gathered like a large frill, +passed under the arms and reached below the waist; while a handsome fine +cloth, fastened round the waist with a band or sash, covered the feet. The +breasts were ornamented with rainbow-colored mother-of-pearl shells, and a +covering of curiously wrought network and feathers. The music of the hura +was the large and small drum and occasionally the flute. The movements +were generally slow, but always easy and natural, and no exertion on the +part of the performers was wanting to render them graceful and +attractive."[168] We see here, in this very typical example, how the +extraneous visual aids of movement, color, and brilliancy are invoked in +conjunction with music to make the appeal of beauty more convincing in the +process of sexual selection. + + It may be in place here to mention, in passing, the considerable + place which vision occupies in normal and abnormal methods of + heightening tumescence under circumstances which exclude definite + selection by beauty. The action of mirrors belongs to this group + of phenomena. Mirrors are present in profusion in high-class + brothels--on the walls and also above the beds. Innocent youths + and girls are also often impelled to contemplate themselves in + mirrors and sometimes thus, produce the first traces of sexual + excitement. I have referred to the developed forms of this kind + of self-contemplation in the Study of Auto-erotism, and in this + connection have alluded to the fable of Narcissus, whence Naecke + has since devised the term Narcissism for this group of + phenomena. It is only necessary to mention the enormous + production of photographs, representing normal and abnormal + sexual actions, specially prepared for the purpose of exciting or + of gratifying sexual appetites, and the frequency with which even + normal photographs of the nude appeal to the same lust of the + eyes. + + Pygmalionism, or falling in love with statues, is a rare form of + erotomania founded on the sense of vision and closely related to + the allurement of beauty. (I here use "pygmalionism" as a general + term for the sexual love of statues; it is sometimes restricted + to cases in which a man requires of a prostitute that she shall + assume the part of a statue which gradually comes to life, and + finds sexual gratification in this performance alone; Eulenburg + quotes examples, _Sexuale Neuropathie_, p. 107.) An emotional + interest in statues is by no means uncommon among young men + during adolescence. Heine, in _Florentine Nights_, records the + experiences of a boy who conceived a sentimental love for a + statue, and, as this book appears to be largely autobiographical, + the incident may have been founded on fact. Youths have sometimes + masturbated before statues, and even before the image of the + Virgin; such cases are known to priests and mentioned in manuals + for confessors. Pygmalionism appears to have been not uncommon + among the ancient Greeks, and this has been ascribed to their + aesthetic sense; but the manifestation is due rather to the + absence than to the presence of aesthetic feeling, and we may + observe among ourselves that it is the ignorant and uncultured + who feel the indecency of statues and thus betray their sense of + the sexual appeal of such objects. We have to remember that in + Greece statues played a very prominent part in life, and also + that they were tinted, and thus more lifelike than with us. + Lucian, Athenaeus, AElian, and others refer to cases of men who + fell in love with statues. Tarnowsky (_Sexual Instinct_, English + edition, p. 85) mentions the case of a young man who was arrested + in St. Petersburg for paying moonlight visits to the statue of a + nymph on the terrace of a country house, and Krafft-Ebing quotes + from a French newspaper the case which occurred in Paris during + the spring of 1877 of a gardener who fell in love with a Venus in + one of the parks. (I. Bloch, _Beitraege zur AEtiologie der + Psychopathia Sexualis_, Teil II, pp. 297-305, brings together + various facts bearing on this group of manifestations.) + + Necrophily, or a sexual attraction for corpses, is sometimes + regarded as related to pygmalionism. It is, however, a more + profoundly morbid manifestation, and may perhaps he regarded as a + kind of perverted sadism. + + Founded on the sense of vision also we find a phenomenon, + bordering on the abnormal, which is by Moll termed mixoscopy. + This means the sexual pleasure derived from the spectacle of + other persons engaged in natural or perverse sexual actions. + (Moll, _Kontraere Sexualempfindung_, third edition, p. 308. Moll + considers that in some cases mixoscopy is related to masochism. + There is, however, no necessary connection between the two + phenomena.) Brothels are prepared to accommodate visitors who + merely desire to look on, and for their convenience carefully + contrived peepholes are provided; such visitors are in Paris + termed "_voyeurs_." It is said by Coffignon that persons hide at + night in the bushes in the Champs Elysees in the hope of + witnessing such scenes between servant girls and their lovers. In + England during a country walk I have come across an elderly man + carefully ensconced behind a bush and intently watching through + his field-glass a couple of lovers reclining on a bank, though + the actions of the latter were not apparently marked by any + excess of indecorum. Such impulses are only slightly abnormal, + whatever may be said of them from the point of view of good + taste. They are not very far removed from the legitimate + curiosity of the young woman who, believing herself unobserved, + turns her glass on to a group of young men bathing naked. They + only become truly perverse when the gratification thus derived is + sought in preference to natural sexual gratification. They are + also not normal when they involve, for instance, a man desiring + to witness his wife in the act of coitus with another man. I have + been told of the case of a scientific man who encouraged his wife + to promote the advances of a young friend of his own, in his own + drawing-room, he himself remaining present and apparently taking + no notice; the younger man was astonished, but accepted the + situation. In such a case, when the motives that led up to the + episode are obscure, we must not too hastily assume that + masochism or even mixoscopy is involved. For information on some + of the points mentioned above see, e.g., I. Bloch, _Beitraege zur + AEtiologie der Psychopathia Sexualis_, Teil I, pp. 200 _et seq._; + Teil II, pp. 195 et seq. + +Wide, however, as is the appeal of beauty in sexual selection, it cannot +be said to cover by any means the whole of the visual field in its sexual +relationship. Beauty in the human species is, above all, a feminine +attribute, making its appeal to men. Even for women, as has already been +noted, beauty is still a feminine quality, which they usually admire, and +in cases of inversion worship with an ardor which equals, if it does not +surpass, that experienced by normal men. But the normal woman experiences +no corresponding cult for the beauty of man. The perfection of the body of +man is not behind that of woman in beauty, but the study of it only +appeals to the artist or the aesthetician; it arouses sexual enthusiasm +almost exclusively in the male sexual invert. Whatever may be the case +among animals or even among savages, in civilization the man is most +successful with women is not the most handsome man, and may be the +reverse of handsome.[169] The maiden, according to the old saying, who has +to choose between Adonis and Hercules, will turn to Hercules. + + A correspondent writes: "Men are generally attracted in the first + instance by a woman's beauty, either of face or figure. + Frequently this is the highest form of love they are capable of. + Personally, my own love is always prompted by this. In the case + of my wife there was certainly a leaven of friendship and moral + sympathies but these alone would never have been translated into + love had she not been young and good-looking. Moreover, I have + felt intense passion for other women, in my relations with whom + the elements of moral or mental sympathy have not entered. And + always, as youth and beauty went, I believe I should transfer my + love to some one else. + + "Now, in woman I fancy this element of beauty and youth does not + enter so much. I have questioned a large number of women--some + married, some unmarried, young and old ladies, shopgirls, + servants, prostitutes, women whom I have known only as friends, + others with whom I have had sexual relations--and I cannot + recollect one instance when a woman said she had fallen in love + with a man for his looks. The nearest approach to any sign of + this was in the instance of one, who noticed a handsome man + sitting near us in a hotel, and said to me: 'I should like him to + kiss me.' + + "I have also noticed that women do not like looking at my body, + when naked, as I like looking at theirs. My wife has, on a few + occasions, put her hand over my body, and expressed pleasure at + the feeling of my skin. (I have very fair, soft skin.) But I have + never seen women exhibit the excitement that is caused in me by + the sight of their bodies, which I love to look at, to stroke, to + kiss all over." + + It is interesting to point out, in this connection, that the + admiration of strength is not confined to the human female. It is + by the spectacle of his force that the male among many of the + lower animals sexually affects the female. Darwin duly allows for + this fact, while some evolutionists, and notably Wallace, + consider that it covers the whole field of sexual selection. When + choice exists, Wallace states, "all the facts appear to be + consistent with the choice depending on a variety of male + characteristics, with some of which color is often correlated. + Thus, it is the opinion of some of the best observers that vigor + and liveliness are most attractive, and these are, no doubt, + usually associated with some intensity of color, ... There is + reason to believe that it is his [the male bird's] persistency + and energy rather than his beauty which wins the day." (A.R. + Wallace, _Tropical Nature_, 1898, p. 199.) In his later book, + _Darwinism_ (p. 295), Wallace reaffirms his position that sexual + selection means that in the rivalry of males for the female the + most vigorous secures the advantage; "ornament," he adds, "is the + natural product and direct outcome of superabundant health and + vigor." As regards woman's love of strength, see Westermarck, + _History of Marriage_, p. 255. + +Women admire a man's strength rather than his beauty. This statement is +commonly made, and with truth, but, so far as I am aware, its meaning is +never analyzed. When we look into it, I think, we shall find that it leads +us into a special division of the visual sphere of sexual allurement. The +spectacle of force, while it remains strictly within the field of vision, +really brings to us, although unconsciously, impressions that are +correlated with another sense--that of touch. We instinctively and +unconsciously translate visible energy into energy of pressure. In +admiring strength we are really admiring a tactile quality which has been +made visible. It may therefore be said that, while through vision men are +sexually affected mainly by the more purely visual quality of beauty, +women are more strongly affected by visual impressions which express +qualities belonging to the more fundamentally sexual sense of touch. + +The distinction between the man's view and the woman's view, here pointed +out, is not, it must be added, absolute. Even for a man, beauty, with all +these components which we have already analyzed in it, is not the sole +sexual allurement of vision. A woman is not necessarily sexually +attractive in the ratio of her beauty, and with even a high degree of +beauty may have a low degree of attraction. The addition of vivacity or +the addition of languor may each furnish a sexual allurement, and each of +these is a translated tactile quality which possesses an obscure potency +from vague sexual implications.[170] But while in the man the demand for +these translated pressure qualities in the visible attractiveness of a +woman are not usually quite clearly realized, in a woman the corresponding +craving for the visual expression of pressure energy is much more +pronounced and predominant. It is not difficult to see why this should be +so, even without falling back on the usual explanation that natural +selection implies that the female shall choose the male who will be the +most likely father of strong children and the best protector of his +family. The more energetic part in physical love belongs to the man, the +more passive part to the woman; so that, while energy in a woman is no +index to effectiveness in love, energy in a man furnishes a seeming index +to the existence of the primary quality of sexual energy which a woman +demands of a man in the sexual embrace. It may be a fallacious index, for +muscular strength is not necessarily correlated with sexual vigor, and in +its extreme degrees appears to be more correlated with its absence. But it +furnishes, in Stendhal's phrase, a probability of passion, and in any case +it still remains a symbol which cannot be without its effect. We must not, +of course, suppose that these considerations are always or often present +to the consciousness of the maiden who "blushingly turns from Adonis to +Hercules," but the emotional attitude is rooted in more or less unerring +instincts. In this way it happens that even in the field of visual +attraction sexual selection influences women on the underlying basis of +the more primitive sense of touch, the fundamentally sexual sense. + + Women are very sensitive to the quality of a man's touch, and + appear to seek and enjoy contact and pressure to a greater extent + than do men, although in early adolescence this impulse seems to + be marked in both sexes. "There is something strangely winning to + most women," remarks George Eliot, in _The Mill on the Floss_, + "in that offer of the firm arm; the help is not wanted physically + at that moment, but the sense of help--the presence of strength + that is outside them and yet theirs--meets a continual want of + the imagination." + + Women are often very critical concerning a man's touch and his + method of shaking hands. Stanley Hall (_Adolescence_, vol. ii, p. + 8) quotes a gifted lady as remarking: "I used to say that, + however much I liked a man, I could never marry him if I did not + like the touch of his hand, and I feel so yet." + + Among the elements of sexual attractiveness which make a special + appeal to women, extreme personal cleanliness would appear to + take higher rank than it takes in the eyes of a man, some men, + indeed, seeming to make surprisingly small demands of a woman in + this respect. If this is so we may connect it with the fact that + beauty in a woman's eye is to a much greater extent than in a + man's a picture of energy, in other words, a translation of + pressure contracts, with which the question of physical purity is + necessarily more intimately associated than it is with the + picture of purely visual beauty. It is noteworthy that Ovid (_Ars + Amandi_, lib. I) urges men who desire to please women to leave + the arts of adornment and effeminacy to those whose loves are + homosexual, and to practice a scrupulous attention to extreme + neatness and cleanliness of body and garments in every detail, a + sun-browned skin, and the absence of all odor. Some two thousand + years later Brummell in an age when extravagance and effeminacy + often marked the fashions of men, introduced a new ideal of + unobtrusive simplicity, extreme cleanliness (with avoidance of + perfumes), and exquisite good taste; he abhorred all + eccentricity, and may be said to have constituted a tradition + which Englishmen have ever since sought, more or less + successfully to follow; he was idolized by women. + + It may be added that the attentiveness of women to tactile + contacts is indicated by the frequency with which in them it + takes on morbid forms, as the _delire du contact_, the horror of + contamination, the exaggerated fear of touching dirt. (See, e.g., + Raymond and Janet, _Les Obsessions et la Psychasthenie_.) + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[168] William Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, second edition, 1832, vol. +1, p. 215. + +[169] Stendhal (_De l'Amour_, Chapter XVIII) has some remarks on this +point, and refers to the influence over women possessed by Lekain, the +famous actor, who was singularly ugly. "It is _passion_," he remarks, +"which we demand; beauty only furnishes _probabilities_." + +[170] The charm of a woman's garments to a man is often due in part to +their expressiveness in rendering impressions of energy, vivacity, or +languor. This has often been realized by the poets, and notably by +Herrick, who was singularly sensitive to these qualities in a woman's +garments. + + + + +IV. + +The Alleged Charm of Disparity in Sexual Attraction--The Admiration for +High Stature--The Admiration for Dark Pigmentation--The Charm of +Parity--Conjugal Mating--The Statistical Results of Observation as Regards +General Appearance, Stature, and Pigmentation of Married +Couples--Preferential Mating and Assortative Mating--The Nature of the +Advantage Attained by the Fair in Sexual Selection--The Abhorrence of +Incest and the Theories of its Cause--The Explanation in Reality +Simple--The Abhorrence of Incest in Relation to Sexual Selection--The +Limits to the Charm of Parity in Conjugal Mating--The Charm of Disparity +in Secondary Sexual Characters. + + +When we are dealing with the senses of touch, smell, and hearing it is +impossible at present, and must always remain somewhat difficult, to +investigate precisely the degree and direction of their influence in +sexual selection. We can marshal in order--as has here been attempted--the +main facts and considerations which clearly indicate that there is and +must be such an influence, but we cannot even attempt to estimate its +definite direction and still less to measure it precisely. With regard to +vision, we are in a somewhat better position. It is possible to estimate +the direction of the influence which certain visible characters exert on +sexual selection, and it is even possible to attempt their actual +measurement, although there must frequently be doubt as to the +interpretation of such measurements. + +Two facts render it thus possible to deal more exactly with the influence +of vision on sexual selection than with the influence of the other senses. +In the first place, men and women consciously seek for certain visible +characters in the persons to whom they are attracted; in other words, +their "ideals" of a fitting mate are visual rather than tactile, +olfactory, or auditory. In the second place, whether such "ideals" are +potent in actual mating, or whether they are modified or even inhibited by +more potent psychological or general biological influences, it is in +either case possible to measure and compare the visible characters of +mated persons. + +The two visible characters which are at once most frequently sought in a +mate and most easily measurable are degree of stature and degree of +pigmentation. Every youth or maiden pictures the person he or she would +like for a lover as tall or short, fair or dark, and such characters are +measurable and have on a large scale been measured. It is of interest in +illustration of the problem of sexual selection in man to consider briefly +what results are at present obtainable regarding the influence of these +two characters. + +It has long been a widespread belief that short people are sexually +attracted to tall people, and tall people to short; that in the matter of +stature men and women are affected by what Bain called the "charm of +disparity." It has not always prevailed. Many centuries ago Leonardo da +Vinci, whose insight at so many points anticipated our most modern +discoveries, affirmed clearly and repeatedly the charm of parity. After +remarking that painters tend to delineate the figures that resemble +themselves he adds that men also fall in love with and marry those who +resemble themselves; "_chi s'innamora voluntieri s'innamorano de cose a +loro simiglianti_," he elsewhere puts it.[171] But from that day to this, +it would seem Leonardo's statements have remained unknown or unnoticed. +Bernardin de Saint-Pierre said that "love is the result of contrasts," and +Schopenhauer affirmed the same point very decisively; various scientific +and unscientific writers have repeated this statement.[172] + +So far as stature is concerned, there appears to be very little reason to +suppose that this "charm of disparity" plays any notable part in +constituting the sexual ideals of either men or women. Indeed, it may +probably be affirmed that both men and women seek tallness in the person +to whom they are sexually attracted. Darwin quotes the opinion of Mayhew +that among dogs the females are strongly attracted to males of large +size.[173] I believe this is true, and it is probably merely a particular +instance of a general psychological tendency. + + It is noteworthy as an indication of the direction of the sexual + ideal in this matter that the heroines of male novelists are + rarely short and the heroes of female novelists almost invariably + tall. A reviewer of novels addressing to lady novelists in the + _Speaker_ (July 26, 1890) "A Plea for Shorter Heroes," publishes + statistics on this point. "Heroes," he states, "are longer this + year than ever. Of the 192 of whom I have had my word to say + since October of last year, 27 were merely tall, and 11 were only + slightly above the middle height. No less than 85 stood exactly + six feet in their stocking soles, and the remainder were + considerably over the two yards. I take the average to be six + feet three." + + As a slight test alike of the supposed "charm of disparity" as + well as of the general degree in which tall and short persons are + sought as mates by those of the opposite sex I have examined a + series of entries in the _Round-About_, a publication issued by a + club, of which the president is Mr. W.T. Stead, having for its + object the purpose of promoting correspondence, friendship, and + marriage between its members. There are two classes, of entries, + one inserted with a view to "intellectual friendship," the other + with a view to marriage. I have not thought it necessary to + recognize this distinction here; if a man describes his own + physical characteristics and those of the lady he would like as a + friend, I assume that, from the point of view of the present + inquiry, he is much on the same footing as the man who seeks a + wife. In the series of entries which I have examined 35 men and + women state approximately the height of the man or woman they + seek to know; 30 state in addition their own height. The results + are expressed in the table on the following page. + + Although the cases are few, the results are, in two main + respects, sufficiently clear without multiplication of data. In + the first place, those who seek parity, whether men or women, are + in a majority over those who seek disparity. In the second place, + the existence of any disparity at all is due only to the + universal desire to find a tall person. Not one man or woman sets + down shortness as his or her ideal. The very fact that no man in + these initial announcements ventures to set himself down as short + (although a considerable proportion describe themselves as tall) + indicates a consciousness that shortness is undesirable, as also + does the fact that the women very frequently describe themselves + as tall. + +The same charm of disparity which has been supposed to rule in selective +attraction as regards stature has also been assumed as regards +pigmentation. The fair, it is said, are attracted to the dark, the dark to +the fair. Again, it must be said that this common assumption is not +confirmed either by introspection or by any attempt to put the matter on a +statistical basis.[174] + + WOMEN. MEN. TOTALS. + +Tall women seek tall men.. 8 Tall men seek tall women.. 6 14 +Short women seek short men 0 Short men seek short women 0 0 +Medium-sized women seek Medium-sized men seek + medium-sized men ....... 0 medium-sized women .... 3 3 + + Seek parity........... 8 Seek parity........... 9 17 + +Tall women seek short men. 0 Tall men seek short women. 0 0 +Short women seek tall men. 4 Short men seek tall women. 0 4 +Medium-sized woman seeks Medium-sized men seek tall + tall man................ 1 women .................. 8 9 + + Seek disparity........ 5 Seek disparity........ 8 13 + + Men of unknown height seek + tall women.............. 5 5 + +Most people who will carefully introspect their own feelings and ideals in +this matter will find that they are not attracted to persons of the +opposite sex who are strikingly unlike themselves in pigmentary +characters. Even when the abstract ideal of a sexually desirable person +is endowed with certain pigmentary characters, such as blue eyes or +darkness,--either of which is liable to make a vaguely romantic appeal to +the imagination,--it is usually found, on testing the feeling for +particular persons, that the variation from the personal type of the +subject is usually only agreeable within narrow limits, and that there is +a very common tendency for persons of totally opposed pigmentary types, +even though they may sometimes be considered to possess a certain aesthetic +beauty, to be regarded as sexually unattractive or even repulsive. With +this feeling may perhaps be associated the feeling, certainly very widely +felt, that one would not like to marry a person of foreign, even though +closely allied, race. + + From the same number of the _Round-About_ from which I have + extracted the data on stature, I have obtained corresponding data + on pigmentation, and have embodied them in the following table. + They are likewise very scanty, but they probably furnish as good + a general indication of the drift of ideals in this matter as we + should obtain from more extensive data of the same character. + + WOMEN. MEN. TOTALS. + +Fair women seek fair men. 2 Fair men seek fair women 2 4 +Dark woman seeks dark man 1 Dark men seek dark women 7 8 + + Seek parity.......... 3 Seek parity......... 9 12 + +Fair women seek dark men. 4 Fair men seek dark women 3 7 +Dark woman seeks fair man 1 Dark men seek fair women 4 5 + Medium-colored man seeks + Seek disparity....... 5 dark woman ........... 1 1 + Medium-colored man seeks + fair woman ........... 1 1 + + Seek disparity...... 9 14 + + Men of unknown color seek + dark women ........... 3 3 + + It will be seen that in the case of pigmentation there is not as + in the case of stature a decided charm of parity in the formation + of sexual ideals. The phenomenon, however, remains essentially + analogous. Just as in regard to stature there is without + exception an abstract admiration for tall persons, so here, + though to a less marked extent, there is a general admiration for + dark persons. As many as 6 out of 8 women and 14 out of 21 men + seek a dark partner. This tendency ranges itself with the + considerations already brought forward (p. 182), leading us to + believe that, in England at all events, the admiration of + fairness is not efficacious to promote any sexual selection, and + that if there is actually any such selection it must be put down + to other causes. No doubt, even in England the abstract aesthetic + admiration of fairness is justifiable and may influence the + artist. Probably also it influences the poet, who is affected by + a long-established convention in favor of fairness, and perhaps + also by a general tendency on the part of our poets to be + themselves fair and to yield to the charm of parity,--the + tendency to prefer the women of one's own stock,--which we have + already found to be a real force.[175] But, as a matter of fact, + our famous English beauties are not very fair; probably our + handsomest men are not very fair, and the abstract sexual ideals + of both our men and our women thus go out toward the dark. + +The formation of a sexual ideal, while it furnishes a predisposition to be +attracted in a certain direction, and undoubtedly has a certain weight in +sexual choice, is not by any means the whole of sexual selection. It is +not even the whole of the psychic element in sexual selection. Let us +take, for instance, the question of stature. There would seem to be a +general tendency for both men and women, apart from and before experience, +to desire sexually large persons of the opposite sex. It may even be that +this is part of a wider zooelogical tendency. In the human species it shows +itself also on the spiritual plane, in the desire for the infinite, in the +deep and unreasoning feeling that it is impossible to have too much of a +good thing. But it not infrequently happens that a man in whose youthful +dreams of love the heroine has always been large, has not been able to +calculate what are the special nervous and other characteristics most +likely to be met in large women, nor how far these correlated +characteristics would suit his own instinctive demands. He may, and +sometimes does, find that in these other demands, which prove to be more +important and insistent than the desire for stature, the tall women he +meets are less likely to suit him than the medium or short women.[176] It +may thus happen that a man whose ideal of woman has always been as tall +may yet throughout life never be in intimate relationship with a tall +woman because he finds that practically he has more marked affinities in +the case of shorter women. His abstract ideals are modified or negatived +by more imperative sympathies or antipathies. + +In one field such sympathies have long been recognized, especially by +alienists, as leading to sexual unions of parity, notwithstanding the +belief in the generally superior attraction of disparity. It has often +been pointed out that the neuropathic, the insane and criminal, +"degenerates" of all kinds, show a notable tendency to marry each other. +This tendency has not, however, been investigated with any precision.[177] + +The first attempt on a statistical basis to ascertain what degree of +parity or disparity is actually attained by sexual selection was made by +Alphonse de Candolle.[178] Obtaining his facts from Switzerland, North +Germany, and Belgium, he came to the conclusion that marriages are most +commonly contracted between persons with different eye-colors, except in +the case of brown-eyed women, who (as Schopenhauer stated, and as is seen +in the English data of the sexual ideal I have brought forward) are found +more attractive than others. + +The first series of serious observations tending to confirm the result +reached by the genius of Leonardo da Vinci and to show that sexual +selection results in the pairing of like rather than of unlike persons was +made by Hermann Fol, the embryologist.[179] He set out with the popular +notion that married people end by resembling each other, but when at Nice, +which is visited by many young married couples on their honeymoons, he was +struck by the resemblances already existing immediately after marriage. In +order to test the matter he obtained the photographs of 251 young and old +married couples not personally known to him. The results were as follows: + + RESEMBLANCES NONRESEMBLANCES + COUPLES. (PERCENTAGE). (PERCENTAGE). TOTAL. + +Young.............. 132, about 66,66 66, about 33.33 198 +Old ................ 38, about 71.70 15, about 28.30 53 + +He concluded that in the immense majority of marriages of inclination the +contracting parties are attracted by similarities, and not by +dissimilarities, and that, consequently, the resemblances between aged +married couples are not acquired during conjugal life. Although Fol's +results were not obtained by good methods, and do not cover definite +points like stature and eye-color, they represented the conclusions of a +highly skilled and acute observer and have since been amply confirmed. + +Galton could not find that the average results from a fairly large number +of cases indicated that stature, eye-color, or other personal +characteristics notably influenced sexual selection, as evidenced by a +comparison of married couples.[180] Karl Pearson, however, in part making +use of a large body of data obtained by Galton, referring to stature and +eye-color, has reached the conclusion that sexual selection ultimately +results in a marked degree of parity so far as these characters are +concerned.[181] As regards stature, he is unable to find evidence of what +he terms "preferential mating"; that is to say, it does not appear that +any preconceived ideals concerning the desirability of tallness in sexual +mates leads to any perceptibly greater tallness of the chosen mate; +husbands are not taller than men in general, nor wives than women in +general. In regard to eye-color, however, there appeared to be evidence of +preferential mating. Husbands are very decidedly fairer than men in +general, and though there is no such marked difference in women, wives are +also somewhat fairer than women in general. As regards "assortative +mating" as it is termed by Pearson,--the tendency to parity or to +disparity between husbands and wives,--the result were in both cases +decisive. Tall men marry women who are somewhat above the average in +height; short men marry women who are somewhat below the average, so that +husband and wife resemble each other in stature as closely as uncle and +niece. As regards eye-color there is also a tendency for like to marry +like; the light-eyed men tend to marry light-eyed women more often than +dark-eyed women; the dark-eyed men tend to marry dark-eyed women more +often than light-eyed. There remains, however, a very considerable +difference in the eye-color of husband and wife; in the 774 couples dealt +with by Pearson there are 333 dark-eyed women to only 251 dark-eyed men, +and 523 light-eyed men to only 441 light-eyed women. The women in the +English population are darker-eyed than the men;[182] but the difference +is scarcely so great as this; so that even if wives are not so dark-eyed +as women generally it would appear that the ideal admiration for the +dark-eyed may still to some extent make itself felt in actual mating. + +While we have to recognize that the modification and even total inhibition +of sexual ideals in the process of actual mating is largely due to psychic +causes, such causes do not appear to cover the whole of the phenomena. +Undoubtedly they count for much, and the man or the woman who, from +whatever causes, has constituted a sexual ideal with certain characters +may in the actual contacts of life find that individuals with other and +even opposed characters most adequately respond to his or her psychic +demands. There are, however, other causes in play here which at first +sight may seem to be not of a purely psychic character. One unquestionable +cause of this kind comes into action in regard to pigmentary selection. +Fair people, possibly as a matter of race more than from absence of +pigment, are more energetic than dark people. They possess a sanguine +vigor and impetuosity which, in most, though not in all, fields and +especially in the competition of practical life, tend to give them some +superiority over their darker brethren. The greater fairness of husbands +in comparison with men in general, as found by Karl Pearson, is thus +accounted for; fair men are most likely to obtain wives. Husbands are +fairer than men in general for the same reason that, as I have shown +elsewhere,[183] created peers are fairer than either hereditary peers or +even most groups of intellectual persons; they have possessed in higher +measure the qualities that insure success. It may be added that with the +recognition of this fact we have not really left the field of sexual +psychology, for, as has already been pointed out, that energy which thus +insures success in practical life is itself a sexual allurement to women. +Energy in a woman in courtship is less congenial to her sexual attitude +than to a man's, and is not attractive to men; thus it is not surprising, +even apart from the probably greater beauty of dark women, that the +preponderance of fairness among wives as compared to women generally, +indicated by Karl Pearson's data, is very slight. It may possibly be +accounted for altogether by homogamy--the tendency of like to marry +like--in the fair husbands. + +The energy and vitality of fair people is not, however, it is probable, +merely an indirect cause of the greater tendency of fair men to become +husbands; that is to say, it is not merely the result of the generally +somewhat greater ability of the fair to attain success in temporal +affairs. In addition to this, fair men, if not fair women, would appear to +show a tendency to a greater activity in their specifically sexual +proclivities. This is a point which we shall encounter in a later _Study_ +and it is therefore unnecessary to discuss it here. + +In dealing with the question of sexual selection in man various writers +have been puzzled by the problem presented by that abhorrence of incest +which is usually, though not always so clearly marked among the different +races of mankind.[184] It was once commonly stated, as by Morgan and by +Maine, that this abhorrence was the result of experience; the marriages of +closely related persons were found to be injurious to offspring and were +therefore avoided. This theory, however, is baseless because the marriages +of closely related persons are not injurious to the offspring. +Consanguineous marriages, so closely as they can be investigated on a +large scale,--that is to say, marriages between cousins,--as Huth was the +first to show, develop no tendency to the production of offspring of +impaired quality provided the parents are sound; they are only injurious +in this respect in so far as they may lead to the union of couples who are +both defective in the same direction. According to another theory, that of +Westermarck, who has very fully and ably discussed the whole +question,[185] "there is an innate aversion to sexual intercourse between +persons living very closely together from early youth, and, as such +persons are in most cases related, this feeling displays itself chiefly +as a horror of intercourse between near kin." Westermarck points out very +truly that the prohibition of incest could not be founded on experience +even if (as he is himself inclined to believe) consanguineous marriages +are injurious to the offspring; incest is prevented "neither by laws, nor +by customs, nor by education, but by an _instinct_ which under normal +circumstances makes sexual love between the nearest kin a psychic +impossibility." There is, however, a very radical objection to this +theory. It assumes the existence of a kind of instinct which can with +difficulty be accepted. An instinct is fundamentally a more or less +complicated series of reflexes set in action by a definite stimulus. An +innate tendency at once so specific and so merely negative, involving at +the same time deliberate intellectual processes, can only with a certain +force be introduced into the accepted class of instincts. It is as awkward +and artificial an instinct as would be, let us say, an instinct to avoid +eating the apples that grew in one's own yard.[186] + +The explanation of the abhorrence to incest is really, however, +exceedingly simple. Any reader who has followed the discussion of sexual +selection in the present volume and is also familiar with the "Analysis of +the Sexual Impulse" set forth in the previous volume of these _Studies_ +will quickly perceive that the normal failure of the pairing instinct to +manifest itself in the case of brothers and sisters, or of boys and girls +brought up together from infancy, is a merely negative phenomenon due to +the inevitable absence under those circumstances of the conditions which +evoke the pairing impulse. Courtship is the process by which powerful +sensory stimuli proceeding from a person of the opposite sex gradually +produce the physiological state of tumescence, with its psychic +concomitant of love and desire, more or less necessary for mating to be +effected. But between those who have been brought up together from +childhood all the sensory stimuli of vision, hearing, and touch have been +dulled by use, trained to the calm level of affection, and deprived of +their potency to arouse the erethistic excitement which produces sexual +tumescence.[187] Brothers and sisters in relation to each other have at +puberty already reached that state to which old married couples by the +exhaustion of youthful passion and the slow usage of daily life gradually +approximate. Passion between brother and sister is, indeed, by no means so +rare as is sometimes supposed, and it may be very strong, but it is +usually aroused by the aid of those conditions which are normally required +for the appearance of passion, more especially by the unfamiliarity caused +by a long separation. In reality, therefore, the usual absence of sexual +attraction between brothers and sisters requires no special explanation; +it is merely due to the normal absence under these circumstances of the +conditions that tend to produce sexual tumescence and the play of those +sensory allurements which lead to sexual selection.[188] It is a purely +negative phenomenon and it is quite unnecessary, even if it were +legitimate, to invoke any instinct for its explanation. It is probable +that the same tendency also operates among animals to some extent, tending +to produce a stronger sexual attraction toward those of their species to +whom they have not become habituated.[189] In animals, and in man also +when living under primitive conditions, sexual attraction is not a +constant phenomenon[190]; it is an occasional manifestation only called +out by the powerful stimulation. It is not its absence which we need to +explain; it is its presence which needs explanation, and such an +explanation we find in the analysis of the phenomena of courtship. + +The abhorrence of incest is an interesting and significant phenomenon from +our present point of view, because it instructively points out to us the +limits to that charm of parity which apparently makes itself felt to some +considerable extent in the constitution of the sexual ideal and still more +in the actual homogamy which seems to predominate over heterogamy. This +homogamy is, it will be observed, a _racial_ homogamy; it relates to +anthropological characters which mark stocks. Even in this racial field, +it is unnecessary to remark, the homogamy attained is not, and could not +be, absolute; nor would it appear that such absolute racial homogamy is +even desired. A tall man who seeks a tall woman can seldom wish her to be +as tall as himself; a dark man who seeks a dark woman, certainly will not +be displeased at the inevitably greater or less degree of pigment which he +finds in her eyes as compared to his own. + +But when we go outside the racial field this tendency to homogamy +disappears at once. A man marries a woman who, with slight, but agreeable, +variations, belongs to a like stock to himself. The abhorrence of incest +indicates that even the sexual attraction to people of the same stock has +its limits, for it is not strong enough to overcome the sexual +indifference between persons of near kin. The desire for novelty shown in +this sexual indifference to near kin and to those who have been housemates +from childhood, together with the notable sexual attractiveness often +possessed by a strange youth or maiden who arrives in a small town or +village, indicates that slight differences in stock, if not, indeed, a +positive advantage from this point of view, are certainly not a +disadvantage. When we leave the consideration of racial differences to +consider sexual differences, not only do we no longer find any charm of +parity, but we find that there is an actual charm of disparity. At this +point it is necessary to remember all that has been brought forward in +earlier pages[191] concerning the emphasis of the secondary sexual +characters in the ideal of beauty. All those qualities which the woman +desires to see emphasized in the man are the precise opposite of the +qualities which the man desires to see emphasized in the woman. The man +must be strong, vigorous, energetic, hairy, even rough, to stir the +primitive instincts of the woman's nature; the woman who satisfies this +man must be smooth, rounded, and gentle. It would be hopeless to seek for +any homogamy between the manly man and the virile woman, between the +feminine woman and the effeminate man. It is not impossible that this +tendency to seek disparity in sexual characters may exert some disturbing +influences on the tendency to seek parity in anthropological racial +characters, for the sexual difference to some extent makes itself felt in +racial characters. A somewhat greater darkness of women is a secondary +(or, more precisely, tertiary) sexual character, and on this account +alone, it is possible, somewhat attractive to men[192]. A difference in +size and stature is a very marked secondary sexual character. In the +considerable body of data concerning the stature of married couples +reproduced by Pearson from Galton's tables, although the tall on the +average tend to marry the tall, and the short the short, it is yet +noteworthy that, while the men of 5 ft. 4 ins. have more wives at 5 ft. 2 +ins. than at any other height, men of 6 ft. show, in an exactly similar +manner, more wives at 5 ft. 2 ins. than at any other height, although for +many intermediate heights the most numerous groups of wives are +taller[193]. + +In matters of carriage, habit, and especially clothing the love of sexual +disparity is instinctive, everywhere well marked, and often carried to +very great lengths. To some extent such differences are due to the +opposing demands of more fundamental differences in custom and occupation. +But this cause by no means adequately accounts for them, since it may +sometimes happen that what in one land is the practice of the men is in +another the practice of the women, and yet the practices of the two sexes +are still opposed[194]. Men instinctively desire to avoid doing things in +women's ways, and women instinctively avoid doing things in men's ways, +yet both sexes admire in the other sex those things which in themselves +they avoid. In the matter of clothing this charm of disparity reaches its +highest point, and it has constantly happened that men have even called in +the aid of religion to enforce a distinction which seemed to them so +urgent[195]. One of the greatest of sex allurements would be lost and the +extreme importance of clothes would disappear at once if the two sexes +were to dress alike; such identity of dress has, however, never come about +among any people. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[171] L. da Vinci, _Frammenti_, selected by Solmi, pp. 177-180. + +[172] Westermarck, who accepts the "charm of disparity," gives references, +_History of Human Marriage_, p. 354. + +[173] _Descent of Man_. Part II, Chapter XVIII. + +[174] Bloch (_Beitraege zur AEtiologie der Psychopathia Sexualis_, Teil II, +pp. 260 et seq.) refers to the tendency to admixture of races and to the +sexual attraction occasionally exerted by the negress and sometimes the +negro on white persons as evidence in favor of such charm of disparity. In +part, however, we are here concerned with vague statements concerning +imperfectly known facts, in part with merely individual variations, and +with that love of the exotic under the stimulation of civilized conditions +to which reference has already been made (p. 184). + +[175] In this connection the exceptional case of Tennyson is of interest. +He was born and bred in the very fairest part of England (Lincolnshire), +but he himself and the stock from which he sprang were dark to a very +remarkable degree. In his work, although it reveals traces of the +conventional admiration for the fair, there is a marked and unusual +admiration for distinctly dark women, the women resembling the stock to +which he himself belonged. See Havelock Ellis, "The Color Sense in +Literature," _Contemporary Review_, May, 1896. + +[176] It is noteworthy that in the _Round-About_, already referred to, +although no man expresses a desire to meet a short woman, when he refers +to announcements by women as being such as would be likely to suit him, +the persons thus pointed out are in a notable proportion short. + +[177] It has been discussed by F.J. Debret, _La Selection Naturelle dans +l'espece humaine_ (These de Paris), 1901. Debret regards it as due to +natural selection. + +[178] "Heredite de la Couleur des Yeux dans l'espece humaine," _Archives +des Sciences physiques et naturelles_, ser. iii, vol. xii, 1884, p. 109. + +[179] _Revue Scientifique_, Jan., 1891. + +[180] F. Galton, _Natural Inheritance_, p. 85. It may be remarked that +while Galton's tables on page 206 show a slight excess of disparity as +regards sexual selection in stature, in regard to eye color they +anticipate Karl Pearson's more extensive data and in marriages of +disparity show a decided deficiency of observed over chance results. In +_English Men of Science_ (pp. 28-33), also, Galton found that among the +parents parity decidedly prevailed over disparity (78 to 31) alike as +regards temperament, hair color, and eye color. + +[181] Karl Pearson, _Phil. Trans. Royal Society_, vol. clxxxvii, p. 273, +and vol. cxcv, p. 113; _Proceedings of the Royal Society_, vol. lxvi, p. +28; _Grammar of Science_, second edition, 1900, pp. 425 _et seq._; +_Biometrika_, November, 1903. The last-named periodical also contains a +study on "Assortative Mating in Man," bringing forward evidence to show +that, apart from environmental influence, "length of life is a character +which is subject to selection;" that is to say, the long-lived tend to +marry the long-lived, and the short-lived to marry the short-lived. + +[182] For a summary of the evidence on this point see Havelock Ellis, _Man +and Woman_, fourth edition, 1904, pp. 256-264. + +[183] "The Comparative Abilities of the Fair and the Dark," _Monthly +Review_, August, 1901. + +[184] The fact that even in Europe the abhorrence to incest is not always +strongly felt is brought out by Bloch, _Beitraege zur AEtiologie der +Psychopathia Sexualis_, Teil II, pp. 263 et seq. + +[185] Westermarck, _History of Marriage_, Chapters XIV and XV. + +[186] Crawley (_The Mystic Rose_, p. 446) has pointed out that it is not +legitimate to assume the possibility of an "instinct" of this character; +instinct has "nothing in its character but a response of function to +environment." + +[187] Fromentin, in his largely autobiographic novel _Dominique_, makes +Olivier say: "Julie is my cousin, which is perhaps a reason why she should +please me less than anyone else. I have always known her. We have, as it +were, slept in the same cradle. There may be people who would be attracted +by this almost fraternal relationship. To me the very idea of marrying +someone whom I knew as a baby is as absurd as that of coupling two dolls." + +[188] It may well be, as Crawley argues (_The Mystic Rose_, Chapter XVII), +that sexual taboo plays some part among primitive people in preventing +incestuous union, as, undoubtedly, training and moral ideas do among +civilized peoples. + +[189] The remarks of the Marquis de Brisay, an authority on doves, as +communicated to Giard (_L'Intermediare des Biologistes_, November 20, +1897), are of much interest on this point, since they correspond to what +we find in the human species: "Two birds from the same nest rarely couple. +Birds coming from the same nest behave as though they regarded coupling as +prohibited, or, rather, they know each other too well, and seem to be +ignorant of their difference in sex, remaining unaffected in their +relations by the changes which make them adults." Westermarck (op. cit., +p. 334) has some remarks on a somewhat similar tendency sometimes observed +in dogs and horses. + +[190] See Appendix to vol. lii of these _Studies_, "The Sexual Impulse +among Savages." + +[191] See, especially, _ante_, pp. 163 et seq. + +[192] Kistemaecker, as quoted by Bloch (_Beitraege, etc._, ii. p. 340), +alludes in this connection to the dark clothes of men and to the tendency +of women to wear lighter garments, to emphasize the white underlinen, to +cultivate pallor of the face, to use powder. "I am white and you are +brown; ergo, you must love me"; this affirmation, he states, may be found +in the depths of every woman's heart. + +[193] K. Pearson, _Grammar of Science_, second edition, p. 430. + +[194] In _Man and Woman_ (fourth edition, p. 65) I have referred to a +curious example of this tendency to opposition, which is of almost +worldwide extent. Among some people it is, or has been, the custom for the +women to stand during urination, and in these countries it is usually the +custom for the man to squat; in most countries the practices of the sexes +in this matter are opposed. + +[195] It is sufficient to quote one example. At the end of the sixteenth +century it was a serious objection to the fashionable wife of an English +Brownist pastor in Amsterdam that she had "bodies [a bodice or corset] +tied to the petticoat with points [laces] as men do their doublets and +their hose, contrary to I Thess., v, 22, conferred with Deut. xxii, 5; and +I John ii, 16." + + + + +V. + +Summary of the Conclusions at Present Attainable in Regard to the Nature +of Beauty and its Relation to Sexual Selection. + + +The consideration of vision has led us into a region in which, more +definitely and precisely than is the case with any other sense, we can +observe and even hope to measure the operation of sexual selection in man. +In the conception of feminine beauty we possess an instrument of universal +extension by which it seems possible to measure the nature and extent of +such selection as exercised by men on women. This conception, with which +we set out, is, however, by no means so precise, so easily available for +the attainment of sound conclusions, as at first it may seem to be. + +It is true that beauty is not, as some have supposed, a mere matter of +caprice. It rests in part on (1) an objective basis of aesthetic character +which holds all its variations together and leads to a remarkable +approximation among the ideals of feminine beauty cherished by the most +intelligent men of all races. But beyond this general objective basis we +find that (2) the specific characters of the race or nation tend to cause +divergence in the ideals of beauty, since beauty is often held to consist +in the extreme development of these racial or national anthropological +features; and it would, indeed, appear that the full development of racial +characters indicates at the same time the full development of health and +vigor. We have further to consider that (3) in most countries an important +and usually essential element of beauty lies in the emphasis of the +secondary and tertiary sexual characters: the special characters of the +hair in woman, her breasts, her hips, and innumerable other qualities of +minor saliency, but all apt to be of significance from the point of view +of sexual selection. In addition we have (4) the factor of individual +taste, constituted by the special organization and the peculiar +experiences of the individual and inevitably affecting his ideal of +beauty. Often this individual factor is merged into collective shapes, +and in this way are constituted passing fashions in the matter of beauty, +certain influences which normally affect only the individual having become +potent enough to affect many individuals. Finally, in states of high +civilization and in individuals of that restless and nervous temperament +which is common in civilization, we have (5) a tendency to the appearance +of an exotic element in the ideal of beauty, and in place of admiring that +kind of beauty which most closely approximates to the type of their own +race men begin to be agreeably affected by types which more or less +deviate from that with which they are most familiar. + +While we have these various and to some extent conflicting elements in a +man's ideal of feminine beauty, the question is still further complicated +by the fact that sexual selection in the human species is not merely the +choice of the woman by the man, but also the choice of the man by the +woman. And when we come to consider this we find that the standard is +altogether different, that many of the elements of beauty as it exists in +woman for man have here fallen away altogether, while a new and +preponderant element has to be recognized in the shape of a regard for +strength and vigor. This, as I have pointed out, is not a purely visual +character, but a tactile pressure character translated into visual terms. + +When we have stated the sexual ideal we have not yet, however, by any +means stated the complete problem of human sexual selection. The ideal +that is desired and sought is, in a large measure, not the outcome of +experience; it is not even necessarily the expression of the individual's +temperament and idiosyncrasy. It may be largely the result of fortuitous +circumstances, of slight chance attractions in childhood, of accepted +traditions consecrated by romance. In the actual contacts of life the +individual may find that his sexual impulse is stirred by sensory stimuli +which are other than those of the ideal he had cherished and may even be +the reverse of them. + +Beyond this, also, we have reason for believing that factors of a still +more fundamentally biological character, to some extent deeper even than +all these psychic elements, enter into the problem of sexual selection. +Certain individuals, apart altogether from the question of whether they +are either ideally or practically the most fit mates, display a greater +energy and achieve a greater success than others in securing partners. +These individuals possess a greater constitutional vigor, physical or +mental, which conduces to their success in practical affairs generally, +and probably also heightens their specifically philogamic activities. + +Thus, the problem of human sexual selection is in the highest degree +complicated. When we gather together such scanty data of precise nature as +are at present available, we realize that, while generally according with +the results which the evidence not of a quantitative nature would lead us +to accept, their precise significance is not at present altogether clear. +It would appear on the whole that in choosing a mate we tend to seek +parity of racial and individual characters together with disparity of +secondary sexual characters. But we need a much larger number of groups of +evidence of varying character and obtained under varying conditions. Such +evidence will doubtless accumulate now that its nature is becoming defined +and the need for it recognized. In the meanwhile we are, at all events, in +a position to assert, even with the evidence before us, that now that the +real meaning of sexual selection is becoming clear its efficacy in human +evolution can no longer be questioned. + + + + +APPENDICES + + +APPENDIX A. + +THE ORIGINS OF THE KISS. + + +Manifestations resembling the kiss, whether with the object of expressing +affection or sexual emotion, are found among various animals much lower +than man. The caressing of the antennae practiced by snails and various +insects during sexual intercourse is of the nature of a kiss. Birds use +their bills for a kind of caress. Thus, referring to guillemots and their +practice of nibbling each other's feet, and the interest the mate always +takes in this proceeding, which probably relieves irritation caused by +insects, Edmund Selous remarks: "When they nibble and preen each other +they may, I think, be rightly said to cosset and caress, the expression +and pose of the bird receiving the benefit being often beatific."[196] +Among mammals, such as the dog, we have what closely resembles a kiss, and +the dog who smells, licks, and gently bites his master or a bitch, +combines most of the sensory activities involved in the various forms of +the human kiss. + +As practiced by man, the kiss involves mainly either the sense of touch or +that of smell. Occasionally it involves to some extent both sensory +elements.[197] + +The tactile kiss is certainly very ancient and primitive. It is common +among mammals generally. The human infant exhibits, in a very marked +degree, the impulse to carry everything to the mouth and to lick or +attempt to taste it, possibly, as Compayre suggests,[198] from a memory of +the action of the lips protruded to seize the maternal nipple. The +affectionate child, as Mantegazza remarks,[199] not only applies inanimate +objects to its lips or tongue, but of its own impulse licks the people it +likes. Stanley Hall, in the light of a large amount of information he +obtained on this point, found that "some children insist on licking the +cheeks, necks, and hands of those they wish to caress," or like having +animals lick them.[200] This impulse in children may be associated with +the maternal impulse in animals to lick the young. "The method of licking +the young practiced by the mother," remarks S.S. Buckman, "would cause +licking to be associated with happy feelings. And, further, there is the +allaying of parasitical irritation which is afforded by the rubbing and +hence results in pleasure. It may even be suggested that the desire of the +mother to lick her young was prompted in the first place by a desire to +bestow on her offspring a pleasure she felt herself." The licking impulse +in the child may thus, it is possible, be regarded as the evanescent +manifestation of a more fundamental animal impulse,[201] a manifestation +which is liable to appear in adult life under the stress of strong sexual +emotion. Such an association is of interest if, as there is some reason to +believe, the kiss of sexual love originated as a development of the more +primitive kiss bestowed by the mother on her child, for it is sometimes +found that the maternal kiss is practiced where the sexual kiss is +unknown. + +The impulse to bite is also a part of the tactile element which lies at +the origin of kissing. As Stanley Hall notes, children are fond of biting, +though by no means always as a method of affection. There is, however, in +biting a distinctly sexual origin to invoke, for among many animals the +teeth (and among birds the bill) are used by the male to grasp the female +more firmly during intercourse. This point has been discussed in the +previous volume of these _Studies_ in reference to "Love and Pain," and +it is unnecessary to enter into further details here. The heroine of +Kleist's _Penthesilea_ remarks: "Kissing (Kuesse) rhymes with biting +(Bisse), and one who loves with the whole heart may easily confound the +two." + +The kiss, as known in Europe, has developed on a sensory basis that is +mainly tactile, although an olfactory element may sometimes coexist. The +kiss thus understood is not very widely spread and is not usually found +among rude and uncultured peoples. We can trace it in Aryan and Semitic +antiquity, but in no very pronounced form; Homer scarcely knew it, and the +Greek poets seldom mention it. Today it may be said to be known all over +Europe except in Lapland. Even in Europe it is probably a comparatively +modern discovery; and in all the Celtic tongues, Rhys states, there is no +word for "kiss," the word employed being always borrowed from the Latin +_pax_.[202] At a fairly early historic period, however, the Welsh Cymri, +at all events, acquired a knowledge of the kiss, but it was regarded as a +serious matter and very sparingly used, being by law only permitted on +special occasions, as at a game called rope-playing or a carousal; +otherwise a wife who kissed a man not her husband could be repudiated. +Throughout eastern Asia it is unknown; thus, in Japanese literature kisses +and embraces have no existence. "Kisses, and embraces are simply unknown +in Japan as tokens of affection," Lafcadio Hearn states, "if we except the +solitary fact that Japanese mothers, like mothers all over the world, lip +and hug their little ones betimes. After babyhood there is no more hugging +or kisses; such actions, except in the case of infants, are held to be +immodest. Never do girls kiss one another; never do parents kiss or +embrace their children who have become able to walk." This holds true, and +has always held true, of all classes; hand-clasping is also foreign to +them. On meeting after a long absence, Hearn remarks, they smile, perhaps +cry a little, they may even stroke each other, but that is all. Japanese +affection "is chiefly shown in acts of exquisite courtesy and +kindness."[203] Among nearly all of the black races of Africa lovers never +kiss nor do mothers usually kiss their babies.[204] Among the American +Indians the tactile kiss is, for the most part, unknown, though here and +there, as among the Fuegians, lovers rub their cheeks together.[205] +Kissing is unknown to the Malays. In North Queensland, however, Roth +states, kissing takes place between mothers (not fathers) and infants, +also between husbands and wives; but whether it is an introduced custom +Roth is unable to say; he adds that the Pitta-pitta language possesses a +word for kissing.[206] + +It must be remarked, however, that in many parts of the world where the +tactile kiss, as we understand it, is usually said to be unknown, it still +exists as between a mother and her baby, and this seems to support the +view advocated by Lombroso that the lovers' kiss is developed from the +maternal kiss. Thus, the Angoni Zulus to the north of the Zambesi, Wiese +states, kiss their small children on both cheeks[207] and among the +Fuegians, according to Hyades, mothers kiss their small children. + +Even in Europe the kiss in early mediaeval days was, it seems probable, not +widely known as an expression of sexual love; it would appear to have been +a refinement of love only practiced by the more cultivated classes. In the +old ballad of Glasgerion the lady suspected that her secret visitor was +only a churl, and not the knight he pretended to be, because when he came +in his master's place to spend the night with her he kissed her neither +coming nor going, but simply got her with child. It is only under a +comparatively high stage of civilization that the kiss has been emphasized +and developed in the art of love. Thus the Arabic author of the _Perfumed +Garden_, a work revealing the existence of a high degree of social +refinement, insists on the great importance of the kiss, especially if +applied to the inner part of the mouth, and he quotes a proverb that "A +moist kiss is better than a hasty coitus." Such kisses, as well as on the +face generally, and all over the body, are frequently referred to by +Hindu, Latin, and more modern erotic writers as among the most efficacious +methods of arousing love.[208] + +A reason which may have stood in the way of the development of the kiss in +a sexual direction has probably been the fact that in the near East the +kiss was largely monopolized for sacred uses, so that its erotic +potentialities were not easily perceived. Among the early Arabians the +gods were worshiped by a kiss.[209] This was the usual way of greeting the +house gods on entering or leaving.[210] In Rome the kiss was a sign of +reverence and respect far more than a method of sexual excitation.[211] +Among the early Christians it had an all but sacramental significance. It +retains its ancient and serious meaning in many usages of the Western and +still more the Eastern Churches; the relics of saints, the foot of the +pope, the hands of bishops, are kissed, just as the ancient Greeks kissed +the images of the gods. Among ourselves we still have a legally recognized +example of the sacredness of the kiss in the form of taking an oath by +kissing the Testament.[212] + +So far we have been concerned mainly with the tactile kiss, which is +sometimes supposed to have arisen in remote times to the east of the +Mediterranean--where the vassal kissed his suzerain and where the kiss of +love was known, as we learn from the Songs of Songs, to the Hebrews--and +has now conquered nearly the whole of Europe. But over a much larger part +of the world and even in one corner of Europe (Lapland, as well as among +the Russian Yakuts) a different kind of salutation rules, the olfactory +kiss. This varies in form in different regions and sometimes simulates a +tactile kiss, but, as it exists in a typical form in China, where it has +been carefully studied by d'Enjoy, it may be said to be made up of three +phases: (1) the nose is applied to the cheek of the beloved person; (2) +there is a long nasal inspiration accompanied by lowering of the eyelids; +(3) there is a slight smacking of the lips without the application of the +mouth to the embraced cheek. The whole process, d'Enjoy considers, is +founded on sexual desire and the desire for food, smell being the sense +employed in both fields. In the form described by d'Enjoy, we have the +Mongolian variety of the olfactory kiss. The Chinese regard the European +kiss as odious, suggesting voracious cannibals, and yellow mothers in the +French colonies still frighten children by threatening to give them the +white man's kiss. Their own kiss the Chinese regard as exclusively +voluptuous; it is only befitting as between lovers, and not only do +fathers refrain from kissing their children except when very young, but +even the mothers only give their children a rare and furtive kiss. Among +some of the hill-tribes of south-east India the olfactory kiss is found, +the nose being applied to the cheek during salutation with a strong +inhalation; instead of saying "Kiss me," they here say "Smell me." The +Tamils, I am told by a medical correspondent in Ceylon, do not kiss during +coitus, but rub noses and also lick each other's mouth and tongue. The +olfactory kiss is known in Africa; thus, on the Gambia in inland Africa +when a man salutes a woman he takes her hand and places it to his nose, +twice smelling the back of it. Among the Jekris of the Niger coast mothers +rub their babies with their cheeks or mouths, but they do not kiss them, +nor do lovers kiss, though they squeeze, cuddle, and embrace.[213] Among +the Swahilis a smell kiss exists, and very young boys are taught to raise +their clothes before women visitors, who thereupon playfully smell the +penis; the child who does this is said to "give tobacco."[214] Kissing of +any kind appears to be unknown to the Indians throughout a large part of +America: Im Thurn states that it is unknown to the Indians of Guiana, and +at the other end of South America Hyades and Deniker state that it is +unknown to the Fuegians. In Forth America the olfactory kiss is known to +the Eskimo, and has been noted among some Indian tribes, as the Blackfeet. +It is also known in Polynesia. At Samoa kissing was smelling.[215] In New +Zealand, also, the _hongi_, or nose-pressing, was the kiss of welcome, of +mourning, and of sympathy.[216] In the Malay archipelago, it is said, the +same word is used for "greeting" and "smelling." Among the Dyaks of the +Malay archipelago, however, Vaughan Stevens states that any form of +kissing is unknown.[217] In Borneo, Breitenstein tells us, kissing is a +kind of smelling, the word for smelling being used, but he never himself +saw a man kiss a woman; it is always done in private.[218] + +The olfactory kiss is thus seen to have a much wider extension over the +world than the European (or Mediterranean) tactile kiss. In its most +complete development, however, it is mainly found among the people of +Mongolian race, or those yellow peoples more or less related to them. + +The literature of the kiss is extensive. So far, however, as that +literature is known to me, the following list includes everything that may +be profitably studied: Darwin, _The Expression of the Emotions_; Ling +Roth, "Salutations," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, November, +1889; K. Andree, "Nasengruss," _Ethnographische Parallelen_, second +series, 1889, pp. 223-227; Alfred Kirchhoff, "Vom Ursprung des Kuesses," +_Deutsche Revue_, May, 1895; Lombroso, "L'Origine du Baiser," _Nouvelle +Revue_, 1897, p. 153; Paul d'Enjoy, "Le Baiser en Europe et en Chine," +_Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthropologie_, Paris, 1897, fasc. 2. Professor +Nyrop's book, _The Kiss and its History_ (translated from the Danish by +W.F. Harvey), deals rather with the history of the kiss in civilization +and literature than with its biological origins and psychological +significance. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[196] E. Selous, _Bird Watching_, 1901, p. 191. This author adds: "It +seems probable indeed that the conferring a practical benefit of the kind +indicated may be the origin of the caress throughout nature." + +[197] Tylor terms the kiss "the salute by tasting," and d'Enjoy defines it +as "a bite and a suction"; there seems, however, little evidence to show +that the kiss contains any gustatory element in the strict sense. + +[198] Compayre, _L'Evolution intellectuelle et morale de l'enfant_, p. 9. + +[199] Mantegazza, _Physiognomy and Expression_, p. 144. + +[200] G. Stanley Hall, "The Early Sense of Self," _American Journal of +Psychology_, April, 1898, p. 361. + +[201] In some parts of the world the impulse persists into adult life. Sir +S. Baker (_Ismailia_, p. 472) mentions licking the eyes as a sign of +affection. + +[202] _Book of Common Prayer in Manx Gaelic_, edited by A.W. Moore and J. +Rhys, 1895. + +[203] L. Hearn, _Out of the East_, 1895, p. 103. + +[204] See, e.g., A.B. Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples_, p. 288. Among the +Swahili the kiss is practiced, but exclusively between married people and +with very young children. Velten believes they learned it from the Arabs. + +[205] Hyades and Deniker, _Mission Scientifique du Cap Horn_, vol. vii, p. +245. + +[206] W. Roth, _Ethnological Notes Among the Queensland Aborigines_, p. +184. + +[207] _Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie_, 1900, ht. 5, p. 200. + +[208] E.g., the _Kama Sutra_ of Vatsyayana, Bk. III, Chapter I. + +[209] Hosea, Chapter xiii, v. 2; I Kings, Chapter xix, v. 18. + +[210] Wellhausen, _Reste Arabischen Heidentums_, p. 109. + +[211] The Romans recognized at least three kinds of kiss: the _osculum_, +for friendship, given on the face; the _basium_, for affection, given on +the lips; the _suavium_, given between the lips, reserved for lovers. + +[212] In other parts of the world it would appear that the kiss sometimes +has a sacred or ritual character. Thus, according to Rev. J. Macdonald +(_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, November, 1890, p. 118), it +is part of the initiation ceremony of a girl at her first menstruation +that the women of the village should kiss her on the cheek, and on the +mons veneris and labia. + +[213] _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, August and November, +1898, p. 107. + +[214] Velten, _Sitten und Gebraueche der Suaheli_, p. 142. + +[215] Turner, _Samoa_, p. 45. + +[216] Tregear, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, 1889. + +[217] _Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie_, 1896, ht. 4, p. 272. + +[218] Breitenstein, _21 Jahre in India_, vol. i, p. 224. + + + + +APPENDIX B. + +HISTORIES OF SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. + + +The histories here recorded are similar in character to those given in +Appendix B of the previous volume. + + HISTORY I.--C.D., clergyman, age, 34. Height about 5 ft. 8 in. + Weight, 8st. 8lb. Complexion, fair. Physical infirmities, very + myopic, tendency to consumption. + + "My family is of old lineage on both sides. My parents were + normal and fairly healthy; but I consider that heredity, though + not vitiated, is somewhat overrefined, and there is a neuropathic + tendency, which has appeared in myself and in one or two other + members of the family. As a child, I suffered, though not very + frequently, from nocturnal enuresis. My sexual nature, though + normal, has been keenly alive and sensitive as far back as I can + remember; and as I look back I discern within myself in early + childhood what I now understand to be a decided masochistic or + passively algolagnic tendency. So far as I remember, this + manifested itself in me in two aspects; one psychic or + sentimental and free from carnality, expressing itself in + imaginative visions such as the following: I used, to imagine + myself kneeling before a young and beautiful woman and being + sentenced by her to some punishment, and even threatened with + death. At other times I would picture myself as a wounded soldier + watched over on his sickbed by queenly women. These visions + always included an imagination of something heroic in my own + personality. No doubt they were the same kind of dreamings as are + present in multitudes of imaginative children; they are only of + interest in so far as a sexual element was present; and that was + algolagnic in character. + + "I had a small fund of natural common sense; and my surroundings + were not favorable to sentimental imaginings; consequently I + believe I began to throw them off at an early age, though the + temperament which produced them is still a part of my nature. + + "On the carnal side, the sexual instinct was decidedly + algolagnic. Masturbation is one of my earliest recollections; + indeed, it was not at first, so far as I remember, associated + with any sexual ideas at all; but began as a reflex animal act. I + do not remember its first occurrence. It soon, however, became + associated in my mind with algolagnic excitement, giving rise to + reveries which took the ordinary form of imagining oneself + stripped and whipped, etc., by persons of the opposite sex. The + _dramatis personae_ in my own algolagnic reveries were elderly + women; somewhat strangely, I did not associate physical sexuality + at this period with young and attractive women. If scientific + light on these matters were generally available in the practical + bringing up of children, persons in charge of young children + might refrain from exciting an algolagnic tendency or doing + anything calculated to awake sexual emotions prematurely. In my + own case, I recollect acts performed by older persons in + ignorance and thoughtlessness which undoubtedly tended to foster + and strengthen my algolagnic instinct. + + "Little or nothing was done to prevent, discover, or remedy the + pernicious habit into which I was falling unknowingly. + Circumcision was perhaps little thought of in those days as a + preventive of juvenile masturbation; at any rate, it was not + resorted to in my case. I remember, indeed, that a nurse + discovered that I was practicing masturbation, and I think she + made a few half-hearted attempts to stop it. It was probably + these attempts which gave me a growing feeling that there was + something wrong about masturbation, and that it must be practiced + secretly. But they were unsuccessful in their main object. The + practice continued. + + "I went to school at the age of 10. There I came in contact + almost without warning, with the ordinary lewdness and grossness + of school conversation, and took to it readily. I soon became + conversant with the theory of sexual relations; but never got the + opportunity of sexual intercourse, and probably should have felt + some moral restraint even had such opportunity presented itself, + for coitus, however interesting it might be to talk about, was a + bigger thing to practice than masturbation. I masturbated fairly + frequently, occasionally producing two orgasms in quick + succession. I seldom masturbated with the hand; my method was to + lie face downward. There was probably little or no homosexuality + at my first school. I never heard of it till later, and it was + always repugnant to me, though surrounded with a certain morbid + interest. Masturbation was discountenanced openly at the school, + but was, I believe, extensively practiced, both at that school + and at the two others I afterward attended. The boys often talked + about the hygiene of it; and the general theory was that it was + somehow physically detrimental; but I heard no arguments advanced + sufficiently cogent to make me see the necessity for a real moral + effort against the habit, though, as I neared puberty, I was + indulging more moderately and with greater misgivings. + + "The fact of becoming acquainted with the theory of sexual + intercourse tended to diminish the algolagnia, and to impel my + sexual instinct into an ordinary channel. On one occasion + circumstances brought me into close contact with a woman for + about three or four weeks, I being a mere boy and she very much + my senior. I felt sexually attracted by this woman, and allowed + myself a degree of familiarity with her which I have since + recognized as undue and have deeply regretted. It did not, + however, go to the length of seduction, and I trust may have + passed away without leaving any permanent harm. It should, + indeed, be remarked here that I never knew a woman sexually till + my marriage; and with the one exception mentioned I do not recall + any instance of conduct on my part toward a woman which could be + described as giving her an impulse downhill. + + "On the psychic side my sexual emotions awoke in early childhood; + and though my love affairs as a boy were not frequent and were + kept to myself, they attained a considerable degree of emotional + power. Leaving out of account the precocious movements of the + sexual instinct to which I have already referred as colored by + psychic algolagnia, I may say that somewhat later, from the age + of puberty and onward, I had three or four love affairs, devoid + of any algolagnic tendency, and considerably more developed on + the psychic and emotional, than on the physical, side. In fact, + my experience has been that when deeply in love, when the mind is + full of the love ecstasy, the physical element of sexuality is + kept--doubtless only temporarily--in abeyance. + + "To return now to the subject of masturbation. Here befell the + chief moral struggle of my early life; and no terms that I have + at command will adequately describe the stress of it. + + "A casual remark heard one day as I was arriving at puberty + convinced me that there must be truth in the vague schoolboy + theory that masturbation was _weakening_. It was to the effect + that the evil results of masturbation practiced in boyhood would + manifest themselves in later life. I then realized that I must + relinquish masturbation, and I set myself to fight it; but with + grave misgivings that, owing to the early age at which I had + formed the habit, I had already done myself serious harm. + + "Before many weeks had passed, I had formed a resolution to + abstain, which I kept thereafter without--so far as I + remember--more than one conscious lapse into my former habit. + Here it must be said at once that, so far as touches my own + experience of a struggle of this kind, the religious factor is of + primary importance as strengthening and sustaining the moral + effort which has to be made. I am writing an account of my + sexual, not my spiritual, experiences; but I should not only be + untrue to my convictions, but unable to give an accurate and + penetrating survey of the development of my sex life, unless I + were clearly to state that it was to a large extent on that life + that my strongest and most valuable religious experiences + arose.[219] It is to the endeavor to discipline the sexual + instinct, and to grapple with the difficulties and anxieties of + the sex life, that I owe what I possess of spiritual religion, of + the consciousness that my life has been brought into contact with + Divine love and power. + + "My early habits, after they were broken off, left me none the + less a legacy of sexual neurasthenia and a slight varicocele. My + nocturnal pollutions were overfrequent; and I brooded over them, + being too reticent and too much afraid of exposure at school and + possible expulsion to confide in a doctor. Far better for me had + I done so, for a few years later I received the truest kindness + and sympathy in regard to sexual matters at the hands of more + than one medical man. But while at school I was afraid to speak + of the trouble which so unnerved and depressed me; and as a + consequence my morbid fears grew stronger, being intensified by + generalities which I met with from time to time in my reading on + the subject of the punishment which nature metes out to impurity. + + "On leaving school my sex life continued for some years on the + same lines: a struggle for chastity, morbid fears and regrets + about the past, efforts to cope with the neurasthenia, and a + haunting dread of coming insanity. These troubles were increased + by my sedentary life. However I obtained medical aid, and put as + good a face on matters as possible. + + "But the most trying thing of all has yet to be mentioned--the + discovery that I had not yet got fully clear of the habit of + masturbation. I had, indeed, repudiated it as far as my conscious + waking moments were concerned, even though strongly impelled by + sexual desire; but one night, about a year after I had + relinquished the practice, I found myself again giving way to it + in those moments between sleeping and waking when the will is + only semiconscious. It was as if a race took place for + wakefulness between my physical instinct, on the one side, and my + moral sense and inhibitory nerves on the other; and very + frequently the physical instinct won. This, perhaps, is not an + uncommon experience, but it distressed me greatly; and I never + felt safe from it until marriage. I resorted to various + expedients to combat this tendency, at length having to tie + myself in a certain position every night with a cord round my + legs, so as to render it impossible to turn over upon my face. + + "In my early manhood the strain on my constitution was + considerable from causes other than the sexual neurasthenia, + which, indeed, I am now well aware I exaggerated in importance. + Medical advisers whom I consulted in that period assured me that + this was so; and, though at the time I often thought that they + were concealing the real facts from me out of kindness, my own + reading has since convinced me that they spoke nothing but + scientific truth. + + "The years went on. I went through a university course, and in + spite of my poor health took a good degree. The agony of my + struggle for chastity seemed to come to a climax about four years + later when for a long period, partly owing to overstudy and + partly to the sexual strain, I fell into a condition of severe + nervous exhaustion, one of the most distressing symptoms of which + was insomnia. The dreaded cloud of insanity seemed to come + closer. I had to use alcohol freely at nights; and might by now + have become a drunkard, had I not been casually--or I must say, + Providentially--directed to the common sense plan of measuring my + whisky in a dram glass; so that the alcohol could not steal a + march upon me. + + "This period was one of acute mental suffering. One cause of the + nervous tension was--as I have now no doubt--the need of healthy + sexual intercourse. I proved this eventually. My circumstances, + which had long been adverse to marriage, at length were shaped in + that direction. I renewed acquaintance with a lady whom I had + known well some years before; and our friendship ripened until, + after much perplexity on my side, owing to the uncertainty of my + health and prospects, I decided that it was right to speak. We + were married after a few months; and I realized that I had gained + an excellent wife. We did not come together sexually for some + nights after marriage; but, having once tasted the pleasure of + the marriage bed, I have to admit that, partly owing to ignorance + of the hygiene of marriage, I was for some time rather + unrestrained in conjugal relations, requiring intercourse as + often as eight or nine times a month. This was not unnatural when + one considers that I had now for the first time free access to a + woman, after a long and weary struggle to preserve chastity. + Married life, however, tends naturally--or did so in my case--to + regulate desire; and when I began to understand the ethics and + hygiene of sex, as I did a year or two after marriage, I was + enabled to exercise increasing self-restraint. We are now sparing + in our enjoyment of conjugal pleasure. We have had no children; + and I attribute this chiefly to the remaining sexual weakness in + myself.[220] But I may say that not only my sexual power, but my + nerve-power and general health, were greatly improved by + marriage; and though I have fallen back, the last year or two, + into a poor state of health, the cause of this is probably + overwork rather than anything to do with sex. Not but what it + must be said that, had it not been for the juvenile masturbation + superadded to a neuropathic temperament, my constitution would no + doubt have endured the general strain of life better than it has + done. The algolagnia, being one of the congenital conditions of + my sexual instinct, must be considered fundamental, and certainly + has not been eliminated. If I were to allow myself indulgence in + algolagnic reveries they would even now excite me without + difficulty; but I have systematically discouraged them, so that + they give me little or no practical trouble. My erotic dreams, + which years ago were (to the best of my remembrance) frequently + algolagnic, are now almost invariably normal. + + "My conjugal relations have always been on the lines of strictly + normal sexuality. I have a deep sense of the obligations of + monogamous marriage, besides a sincere affection for my wife; + consequently I repress as far as possible all sexual + inclinations, such as will come involuntarily sometimes, toward + other women. + + "From what I have disclosed, it will be seen that I am but a + frail man; but for many years I have striven honestly and hard to + discipline sexuality within myself, and to regulate it according + to right reason, pure hygiene, and the moral law; and I can but + hope and believe that the Divine Power in which I have endeavored + to trust will in the future, as it has done in the past, working + by natural methods and through the current events of my life, + amend and control my sex life and conduct it to safe and + honorable issues." + + + HISTORY II.--A.B., married, good general health, dark hair, fair + complexion, short-sighted, and below medium height. Parents both + belong to healthy families, but the mother suffered from nerves + during early years of married life, and the father, a very + energetic and ambitious man, was cold, passionless, and + unscrupulous. A.B. is the oldest child; two of the brothers and + sisters are slightly abnormal, nervously. But, so far as is + known, none of the family has ever been sexually abnormal. + + A.B. was a bright, intelligent child, though inclined to be + melancholy (and in later years prone to self-analysis). At + preparatory school was fairly forward in studies, at public + school somewhat backward, at University suddenly took a liking to + intellectual pursuits. Throughout he was slack at games. Has + never been able to learn to swim from nervousness. Can whistle + well. Has always been fond of reading, and would like to have + been an author by profession. He married at 24, and has had two + children, both of whom showed congenital physical abnormalities. + + Before the age of 7 or 8 A.B. can remember various trifling + incidents. "One of the games I used to play with my sister," he + writes, "consisted in pretending we were 'father and mother' and + were relieving ourselves at the w.c. We would squat down in + various parts of the room, prolong the simulated act, and talk. I + do not remember what our conversation was about, nor whether I + had an erection. I used also to make water from a balcony into + the garden, and in other unusual places. + + "The first occasion on which I can recollect experiencing + sensations or emotions similar in character to later and more + developed feelings of desire was at the age of about 7 or 8, when + I was a dayboy at a large school in a country town and absolutely + innocent as to deed, thought, or knowledge. I fell in love with a + boy with whom I was brought in contact in my class, about my own + age. I remember thinking him pretty. He paid me no attention. I + had no distinct desire, except a wish to be near him, to touch + him, and to kiss him. I blushed if I suddenly saw him, and + thought of him when absent and speculated on my chances of seeing + him again. I was put into a state of high ecstasy when he invited + me to join him and some friends one summer evening in a game of + rounders. + + "At the age of 8 I was told by my father's groom where babies + came from and how they were produced. (I already knew the + difference in sexual organs, as my sister and I were bathed in + the same room.) He told me no details about erection, semen, etc. + Nor did he take any liberties with me. I used to notice him + urinating; he used to push back the foreskin and I thought his + penis large. + + "When about 8 years old the nursemaid told me that the boy at her + last place had intercourse with his sister. I thought it + disgusting. About a year later I told the nurse I thought the + story of Adam and Eve was not true and that when Eve gave Adam + the apple he had intercourse with her and she was punished by + having children. I don't know if I had thought this out, or if it + had been suggested to me by others. This nurse used often to talk + about my 'tassel.' + + "A family of several brothers went to the same school with me, + and we used to indulge in dirty stories, chiefly, however, of the + w.c. type rather than sexual. + + "When I was about 10 I learned much from my father's coachman. He + used to talk about the girls he had had intercourse with, and how + he would have liked this with my nursemaid. + + "A year later I went to a large day school. I think most of the + boys, if not nearly all, were very ignorant and innocent in + sexual matters. The only incident in this connection I can + recollect is asking a boy to let me see his penis; he did so. + + "During the summer holidays, at a watering place I attended a + theatrical performance and fell in love with a girl of about 12 + who acted a part. I bought a photograph of her, which I kept and + kissed for several years after. About the same time I thought + rather tenderly of a girl of my own age whose parents knew mine. + I remember feeling that I should like to kiss her. Once I + furtively touched her hair. + + "When I was 12 I was sent to a small preparatory boarding + school, in the country. During the holidays I used to talk about + sexual things with my father's footman. He must have told me a + good deal. I used to have erections. One evening, when I was in + bed and everyone else out (my mother and the children in the + country) he came up to my room and tried to put his hand on my + penis. I had been thinking of sexual matters and had an erection. + I resisted, but he persisted, and when he succeeded in touching + me I gave in. He then proceeded to masturbate me. I sank back, + overcome by the pleasant sensation. He then stopped and I went on + myself. In the meantime he had taken out his penis and + masturbated himself before me until the orgasm occurred. I was + disgusted at the sight of his large organ and the semen. He then + left me. I could hardly sleep from excitement. I felt I had been + initiated into a great and delightful mystery. + + "I at once fell into the habit of masturbation. It was some + months before I could produce the orgasm; at about 13 a slight + froth came; at about 14 a little semen. I do not know how + frequently I did it--perhaps once or twice a week. I used to feel + ashamed of myself afterward. I told the man I was doing it and he + expressed surprise I had not known about it before he told me. He + warned me to stop doing it or it would injure my health. I + pretended later that I had stopped doing it. + + "I practiced solitary masturbation for some months. At first the + semen was small in amount and watery. + + "I had not at this time ever succeeded in drawing the foreskin + below the 'corona.' After masturbation I would sometimes feel + local pain in the penis, sometimes pains in the testicles, and + generally a feeling of shame, but not, I think, any lassitude. + The shame was a vague sense of discomfort at having done what I + knew others would regard as dirty. I also experienced fears that + I was injuring my health. + + "It was not long before I found other boys at the preparatory + school with whom I talked of sexual things and in some cases + proceeded to acts. The boys were between the ages of 9 and 14; + they left at 14 or 15 for the public schools. We slept in + bedrooms--several in one room. + + "There was no general conversation on sexual matters. Few of the + boys knew anything about things--perhaps 7 or 8 out of 40. Before + describing my experiences at the school I may mention that I + cannot remember having at this period any wish to experience + heterosexual intercourse; I knew as yet nothing of homosexual + practices; and I did not have, except in one case, any love or + affection for any of the boys. + + "One night, in my bedroom--there were about six of us--we were + talking till rather late. My recollection commences with being + aware that all the boys were asleep except myself and one other, + P. (the son of a clergyman), who was in a bed at exactly the + opposite end of the room. I suppose we must have been talking + about this sort of thing, for I vividly remember having an + erection, and suddenly--as if by premonition--getting out of my + bed, and, with heart beating, going softly over to P.'s bed. He + exhibited no surprise at my presence; a few whispered words took + place; I placed my hand on his penis, and found he had an + erection. I started masturbating him, but he said he had just + finished. I then suggested, getting into bed with him. (I had + never heard at that time of such a thing being done, the idea + arose spontaneously.) He said it was not safe, and placed his + hand on my penis, I think with the object of satisfying and + getting rid of me. He masturbated me till the orgasm occurred. + + "I had no further relations with him, except on one occasion, + shortly afterward, when one day, in the w.c. he asked me to + masturbate him. I did so. He did not offer to do the same to me. + + "He was a delicate, feeble boy; not good at work; womanish in his + ways; inclined to go in for petty bullying, until a boy showed + fight, when he discovered himself to be an arrant coward. Four or + five years later I met him at the university. His greeting was + cool. My next affair was with a boy who was about my age (13), + strong, full-blooded, coarse, always in 'hot water.' He was the + son of the headmaster of one of the best-known public schools. It + was reported that two brothers had been expelled from this public + school for what we called 'beastliness.' He told me his older + brother used to have intercrural intercourse with him. This was + the first I had heard of this. We used to masturbate mutually. I + had, however, no affection or desire for him. + + "With E., another boy, I had no relations, but I remember him as + the first person of the same sex for whom I experienced love. He + was a small, fair, thin, and little boy, some two years younger + than myself, so my inferior in the social hierarchy of a school. + + "At the end of my last term I had two disappointments. I was + beaten by a younger and clever boy for the first place in the + school, and also beaten by one point in the competition for the + Athletic Cup by a stronger boy who had only come to the school + that very term. However, as a consolation prize, and as I was + leaving, the headmaster gave me a second prize. This soothed my + hurt feelings, and I remember, just after the 'head' had read out + the prizes, on the last day of term, E., coming up to me, putting + his arm on my shoulder, looking at me rather pensively, and in a + voice that thrilled me and made me wish to kiss and hug him, tell + me he was so glad I had got a prize and that it was a shame that + other chap had beaten me for the cup. + + "I was three years (aged 12 to 15) at the preparatory school. I + started in the bottom form and ended second in the school. My + reports were generally good, and I was keen to do well in work. I + was considerably influenced by the 'head.' He was a clergyman, + but a man of wide reading, broad opinion, great scholarship, and + great enthusiasm. We became very friendly. + + "During the holidays I now first practiced intercrural + intercourse with a younger brother. I started touching his penis, + and causing erections, when he was about 5. Afterward I got him + to masturbate me and I masturbated him; I used to get him into + bed with me. On one occasion I spontaneously (never having heard + of such a thing) made him take my penis in his mouth. + + "This went on for several years. When I was about 16 and he about + 10, the old family nurse spoke to me about it. She told me he had + complained of my doing it. I was in great fear that my parents + might hear of it. I went to him; told him I was sorry, but I had + not understood he disliked it, but that I would not do it again. + + "About a year later (having persisted in this promise) I made + overtures to him, but he refused. I then commended his conduct, + and said I knew he was quite right, and begged him to refuse + again if I should ever suggest it. I did not ever suggest it + again. For many years I bitterly reproached myself for having + corrupted him. However, I do not think any harm has been done + him. But my self-reproaches have caused me to feel I owe some + reparation to him. I also have more affection for him than for my + other brothers and sisters. + + "At the age of 15 I went to one of the large public schools. I + was fairly forward for my age, and entered high. But I made small + progress. I had bad reports; I was 'slack in games,' and not + popular among the boys. In fact, I stood still, so that when I + left I was backward in comparison with other boys of even less + natural intelligence. + + "The teaching was certainly bad. Moreover, I had not any friends, + and this made me very sensitive. It was to a great extent my + fault. When I first went there I was taken up by a set above + me--boys who were 'senior' to me in standing. When they left I + found myself alone. + + "My unpopularity was increased by my being considered to put on + 'side'; also because I paid attention to my dress. + + "At the public school I had homosexual relations with various + boys, usually without any passion. With one boy, however, I was + deeply in love for over a year; I thought of him, dreamed of him, + would have been content only to kiss him. But my courtship met + with no success. + + "When carrying on with other boys the desire to reach the crisis + was not always strong, perhaps out of shyness or modesty. + Occasionally I had intercrural connection, which gave me the + first intimation of what intercourse with a woman was like. When + I masturbated in solitude I used to continue till the orgasm. + + "My housemaster one day sent for me and said he had walked + through my cubicle and noticed a stain on the sheet. At this time + I used to have nocturnal emissions. I cannot remember whether on + this occasion the stain was due to one, or to masturbation. But I + imagined that one did not have 'wet dreams' unless one + masturbated. So when he went on to say that this was a proof that + I was immoral I acknowledged I masturbated. He then told me I + would injure my health--possibly 'weaken my heart,' or 'send + myself mad'; he said that he would ask me to promise never to do + it again. + + "I promised. I left humiliated and ashamed of myself; also + generally frightened. He used to send for me every now and then, + and ask me if I had kept my promise. For some months I did. Then + I relapsed, and told him when he asked me. Ultimately he ceased + sending for me--apparently convinced either that I was cured or + that I was incorrigible. + + "A year or so afterward he discovered in my study (for I was now + in the upper school and had a study) a French photograph that a + boy had given me, entitled '_Qui est dans ma chambre?_' It + represented a man going by mistake into the wrong bedroom; inside + the room was a woman, in nightdress, in an attitude that + suggested she had just been relieving herself. My housemaster + told me the picture was terribly indecent, and that, taken with + what he knew of my habits, it showed I was not a safe boy to be + in the school. He added that he did not wish to make trouble at + home, but that he advised me to get my parents to remove me at + the end of that term, instead of the following term, when, in the + ordinary course of things, I should have left. + + "I wrote to my people to say I was miserable at school, and I was + removed at the end of that term. + + "My first case of true heterosexual passion was with a girl + called D., whom I first knew when she was about 16. My family and + hers were friendly. My attraction to her soon became a matter of + common knowledge and joking to members of my family. She was a + dark, passionate-looking child, with large eyes that--to + me--seemed full of an inner knowledge of sexual mysteries. + Precocious, vain, jealous, untruthful--those were qualities in + her that I myself soon recognized. But the very fact that she was + not conventionally 'goody-goody' proved an attraction to me. + + "I never openly made love to her, but I delighted to be near her. + Our ages were sufficiently separated for this to be noticeable. I + dreamed of her, and my highest ideal of blessedness was to kiss + her and tell her I loved her. I heard that she had been + discovered talking indecently in a w.c. to some little boys, sons + of a friend of my family's. The knowledge of this precocity on + her part intensified my fascination for her. + + "When I left home to return to school I kissed her--the only + time. Absence did nothing to diminish my affection. I thought of + her all day long, at work or at play. I wrote her a letter--not + openly passionate, but my real feelings toward her must have been + apparent. I found out afterward that her mother opened the + letter. + + "When I returned home for the holidays her mother asked me not; + to write her any letters and not to pay attentions to her, as I + might 'spoil her.' I promised. I was, of course, greatly + distressed. + + "D. used to come to our house to see my younger sister. She had + clearly been warned by her mother not to allow me to speak to + her. I was too nervous to make any advances; besides, I had + promised. As I grew older, my passion died out. I have hardly + ever seen her since. She married some years ago. I still retain + sentimental feelings toward her. + + "I was now 18; I had stopped growing and was fairly broad and + healthy. Intellectually I was rather precocious, though not + ambitious. But I was no good at games, had no tastes for physical + exercises, and no hobbies. + + "During the holidays, in my last year at school, I had gone to + the Royal Aquarium with a school companion. This was followed by + one or two visits to the Empire Theatre. It was then that I first + discovered that sexual intercourse took place outside the limits + of married life. On one occasion my friend talked to one of the + women who were walking about. This same friend spoke to a + prostitute at Oxford. (At this time I went up to the university.) + Once or twice I met this girl. She used to ask about my friend. + My feelings toward her were a combination of admiration for her + physical beauty, a sense of the 'mystery' of her life, and pity + for her isolated position. + + "On the whole, my first university term produced considerable + improvement in me. I began to be interested in my work and to + read a fair amount of general literature. I learned to bicycle + and to row. I also made one intimate friend. + + "In my first holiday I went to the Empire and made the + acquaintance of a girl there, W.H. She attracted me by her quiet + appearance. I eventually made arrangements to pay her a visit. My + apprehensions consisted of: 1. Fear of catching venereal disease. + This I decided to safeguard by using a 'French letter.' 2. Fear + that she might have a 'bully.' + + "The girl showed no sexual desire; but at that time this did not + attract my attention. + + "I got very much 'gone' on her, paid her several visits, gave her + some presents I could ill afford, and felt very distressed when + she informed me she was to be married and therefore could not see + me any more. + + "My experiences with prostitutes cover a period of twelve years. + During three years of this period I was continually in their + company. I have had intercourse with some two dozen; in some + cases only once; in others on numerous occasions. They have + usually been of the class that frequent Piccadilly, St. James + Restaurant, the Continental Hotel, and the Dancing Clubs. Usual + fee, L2 for the night; in one case, L5. + + "1. Not one of them, as far as I knew, was a drunkard. + + "2. As a rule, they were not mercenary or dishonest. + + "3. In their language and general behavior they compared + favorably with respectable women. + + "4. I never caught venereal disease. + + "5. I twice caught pediculi. + + "6. I did not find them, as a rule, very sensual or fond of + indecent talk. As a rule, they objected to stripping naked; they + did not touch my organs; they did not suggest masturbation, + sodomy, or _fellatio_. They seldom exhibited transports, but the + better among them seemed sentimental and affectionate. + + "7. Their accounts of their first fall were nearly always the + same. They got to know a 'gentleman,' often by his addressing + them in the street; he took them about to dinners and theatres; + they were quite innocent and even ignorant; on one occasion they + drank too much; and before they knew what was happening they were + no longer virgins. They do not, however, apparently round on the + man or expose him or refuse to have anything more to do with him. + + "8. They state--in common with the outwardly 'respectable' women + whom I have had a chance of catechising--that before the first + intercourse they did not feel any conscious desire for + intercourse and hardly devoted any thought to it, that it was + very painful the first time, and that some time elapsed before + they commenced to derive pleasure from it or to experience the + orgasm. + + "E.B. was the second woman I had intercourse with. She was a + prostitute, but very young (about 18) and had only been in London + a few months. I met her first in the St. James Restaurant. I + spoke a few words to her. The next day I saw her in the + Burlington Arcade. I was not much attracted to her; she was + pretty, in a coarse, buxom style; vulgar in manners, voice, and + dress. She asked me to go home with her; I refused. She pressed + me; I said I had no money. She still urged me, just to drive home + with her and talk to her while she dressed for the evening. I + consented. We drove to lodgings in Albany Street. We went in. She + proceeded to kiss me. I remained cold, and told her again I had + no money. She then said: 'That does not matter. You remind me of + a boy I love. I want you to be my fancy boy.' I was flattered by + this. I saw a good deal of her. She was sentimental. I never gave + her any money. When I had some, she refused to take it, but + allowed me to spend a little in buying her a present. On the + night before I left London she wept. She wrote me illiterate, but + affectionate letters. One day she wrote to me that she was to be + kept by a man, but that she had made it a condition with him that + she should be allowed to have me. I had never been in love with + her, because of her vulgarity. I therefore took the earliest + opportunity of letting matters cool, by not writing often, etc. + The next thing I remember was my fascination, a few months later, + for S.H. + + "She was not a regular prostitute. She had taken a very minor + part in light opera. She was American by birth, young, slim, and + spoke like a lady. Her hair was dyed; her breasts padded. She + acted sentiment, but was less affectionate than E.B. I met her + when she was out of a job. I gave her L2 whenever I met her. She + was not mercenary. She was sensual. I became very much in love + with her. I discovered her, however, writing letters to a fellow + whom I had met one day when I was walking with her. He was only + an acquaintance, but the brother of my most intimate friend. What + I objected to was that in this letter to him she protested she + did not care for me, but could not afford to give me up. She had + to plead guilty, but I was so fascinated by her I still kept in + with her, for a time, until she was kept by a man, and I had + found other women to interest me. + + "Owing to the strict regulations made by the university + authorities, prostitutes find it hard to make a living there, and + I never had anything to do with one. My adventures were among the + shopgirl class, and were of a comparatively innocent nature. One + of them, however, M.S., a very undemonstrative shopgirl, was the + only girl not a prostitute with whom I had so far had + intercourse. + + "About this time I made the acquaintance of three other + prostitutes, who, however, were nice, gentle, quiet girls, + neither vulgar nor mercenary. A night passed with them always + meant to me much more than mere intercourse. They + were--especially two of them--of a sentimental nature, and would + go to sleep in my arms. There was, on my part, not any passion, + but a certain sympathy with them, and pity and affection. I + remained faithful to the first, J.H., until she was kept by a + man, and gave up her gentlemen friends. Then came D.V. She got in + the family way and left London. Last, M.P. She was not pretty, + but a good figure, well dressed, a bright conversationalist, and + an intelligent mind. Her regular price for the night was L5, but + when she got to know one she would take one for less and take + one 'on tick.' She was very sensual. On one occasion, between 11 + P.M. and about midday the following day I experienced the orgasm + eleven or twelve times. + + "During term time I was often prevented from having women by want + of money and absence from London. I considered myself lucky if I + could have a woman once or twice a month. My allowance was not + large enough to admit of such luxuries; and I was only able to do + what I did by being economical in my general expenditure and + living, and by running up bills for whatever I could get on + credit. I lived in the hopes of picking up 'amateurs' who would + give me what I wanted for the love of it and without payment. My + efforts were not very successful at present, except in the case + of M.S. I considered myself very lucky in having discovered her, + and I should have stuck to her for longer but for the rival + attraction of another. There was, however, no deep sentiment on + either side. + + "But in order to preserve a continuity in my account of the + women, I have left out two cases of temporary reversion to + homosexual practices. During the periods when I could not get a + woman I had recourse once more to masturbation. At times I had + 'wet dreams' in which boys figured; and my thoughts, in waking + hours, sometimes reverted to memories of my school experiences. I + think, however, that I should have preferred a woman." + + The homosexual reversions were as follows:-- + + "1. I had arranged to meet a shopgirl one evening, outside the + town. She did not turn up. The meeting place was a railway + bridge. Waiting there too, a few feet from me, was a boy of about + 15. He was employed (I afterward found) by a gardener, and was + waiting to meet his brother, who was engaged on the line. I got + into casual conversation with him, and suddenly found myself + wondering whether he ever masturbated. With a feeling, that I can + only describe by calling it an intuition, I moved nearer him, and + asked: 'Do you ever play with yourself?' He did not seem + surprised at the abruptness of my question, and answered 'yes.' I + thereupon touched his penis, and _found he had an erection_! I + suggested retiring to a bench that was near. We sat down. I + masturbated him till he experienced the orgasm; then + intercrurally. I gave him a shilling, and said good night. + + "2. During my last summer at the university I took to gardening. + There was a small piece of garden behind the house in which I had + lodgings. My landlady suggested getting a cousin of hers, + employed by a nurseryman, to supply me with plants, etc. He was a + youth of about 16 or 17, tall, dark, not bad favored in looks. I + forget how many times I saw him--not many, perhaps twice or + thrice; but one day, when he came to see me in my room, about + something connected with the garden, I gave him some old clothes + of mine. He was a great deal taller than myself, and I suggested + his trying on the trousers to see if they would fit. I do not + know whether I made this suggestion with any ulterior motive or + whether I had ever before thought of him in connection with any + sexual relations. I only know that once more, as if guided by + instinct, I felt he would not rebuff me, although certainly no + indecent talk had ever taken place between us. I pretended to + help him to pull up the trousers, and let my hand touch his + penis. He did not resist; and I felt his penis for a few seconds. + I then proposed he should come upstairs to my bedroom. No one was + in the house. We went up. He did not at first have an erection. I + asked why. He said 'because you are strange to me.' He then felt + my penis. Eventually we mutually masturbated one another. I gave + him half a crown. + + "Some short time afterward he came again to the house. On this + occasion I attempted _fellatio_. I don't think I had at that time + ever heard of such a practice. He said, however, he did not like + it. He masturbated intercrurally. He said he had never done this + before, although he had had girls. (The other boy also told me he + had had girls.) + + "3. On another occasion I was out bicycling. A boy, of about 10 + years of age, offered me a bunch of violets for a penny. I told + him I would give him a shilling to pick me a large bunch. I am + not sure if I had any ulterior motive. He proceeded into a wood + on the side of the road; I dismounted from my machine and + followed him. He was a pretty, dark boy. He made water. I went up + to him and asked him to let me feel his penis. He at once jumped + away, and ran off shrieking. I was frightened, mounted my + bicycle, and rode as fast as I could home. + + "There was no sentiment in the above cases. It is also to be + noted that in neither instance did I make any arrangements to see + the person again. As far as I can remember, when once I was + satisfied I felt disgust for my act. In the case of women this + was never so. + + "Two of the women described in the foregoing pages stand out + above the others. Perhaps I have not sufficiently shown that in + the cases of W.H. and S.H. I felt a considerable degree of + _passion_. W.H. was the first woman with whom I had had + intercourse; this invested her in my heart, with a peculiar + sentiment. In neither case can I be accused of fickleness. + Indeed, I may say that up to this time I had had no opportunity + of being fickle. I never saw enough, or had enough, of a woman to + get a surfeit of her. + + "The case I now come to presents the features of the cases of + W.H. and S.H. in a stronger form. I was then 20; I have since + then married; I am a father; my experiences have been many and + varied; but still I must confess that no other woman has ever + stirred my emotions more than--I doubt if as much as--D.C. Up to + date, if there has been any grand passion in my life, it is my + love for her. D.C., when I got to know her--by talking to her in + the street--was a girl of about 20. She was short and plump; dark + hair; dark, mischievous eyes; a fair complexion; small features; + quiet manners, and a sensual _ensemble_. I do not know what her + father was. He was dead, her mother kept a university lodging + house. She spoke and behaved like a lady. She dressed quietly; + was absolutely unmercenary; her intelligence--i.e., her + intellectual calibre--was not great. Her master-passion was one + thing. The first evening I walked out with her she put her hand + down on my penis, before I had even kissed her, and proposed + intercourse. I was surprised, almost embarrassed; she herself led + me to a wall, and standing up made me do it. + + "Next day we went away for the day together. I may say she was + _always_ ready and never satisfied. She was sensual rather than + sentimental. She was ready to shower her favors anywhere and to + anyone. My feelings toward her soon became affectionate and + sentimental, and then passionate. I thought of nothing else all + day long; wrote her long letters daily; simply lived to see her. + + "I found she was engaged to be married. Her _fiance_, a + schoolmaster, himself used to have intercourse with her, but he + had taken a religious turn and thought it was wicked to do it + until they married. I had intercourse with her on every possible + occasion: in private rooms at hotels, in railway carriages, in a + field, against a wall, and--when the holidays came--she stayed a + night with me in London. She had apparently no fear of getting in + the family way, and never used any precaution. Sensual as she + was, she did not show her feelings by outward demonstration. + + "On one occasion she proposed _fellatio_. She said she had done + it to her _fiance_ and liked it. This is the only case I have + known of a woman wishing to do it for the love of it. + + "The emotional tension on my nerves--the continual jealousy I was + in, the knowledge that before long she would marry and we must + part--eventually caused me to get ill. She never told me she + loved me more than any other man; yet, owing to my importunity, + she saw much more of me than anyone else. It came to the ears of + her _fiance_ that she was in my company a great deal; there was a + meeting of the three of us--convened at his wish--at which she + had formally, before him, to say 'good-bye' to me. Yet we still + continued to meet and to have intercourse. + + "Then the date of her marriage drew near. She wrote me saying that + she could not see me any more. I forced myself, however, on her, + and our relations still continued. Her elder sister interviewed + me and said she would inform the authorities unless I gave her + up; a brother, too, came to see me and made a row. + + "I had what I seriously intended to be a last meeting with her. + But after that she came up to London to see me, we went to a + hotel together. We arranged to see one another again, but she did + not write. I had now left the university. I heard she was + married. + + "It was now four years since I had first had intercourse with a + woman. During this time I was almost continually under the + influence, either of a definite love affair or of a general + lasciviousness and desire for intercourse with women. My + character and life were naturally affected by this. My studies + were interfered with; I had become extravagant and had run into + debt. It is worthy of note that I had never up to this time + considered the desirability of marriage. This was perhaps chiefly + because I had no means to marry. But even in the midst of my + affairs I always retained sufficient sense to criticise the moral + and intellectual calibre of the women I loved, and I held strong + views on the advisability of mental and moral sympathies and + congenital tastes existing between people who married. In my + amours I had hitherto found no intellectual equality or + sympathies. My passion for D.C. was prompted by (1) the bond that + sexual intercourse with a woman has nearly always produced in my + feelings, (2) her physical beauty, (3) that she was sensual, (4) + that she was a lady, (5) that she was young, (6) that she was not + mercenary. It was kept alive by the obstacles in the way of my + seeing her enough and by her engagement to another. + + "The D.C. affair left me worn out emotionally. I reviewed my life + of the last four years. It seemed to show much more heartache, + anxiety, and suffering than pleasure. I concluded that this + unsatisfactory result was inseparable from the pursuit of + illegitimate amours. I saw that my work had been interfered with, + and that I was in debt, owing to the same cause. Yet I felt that + I could never do without a woman. In this quandary I found myself + thinking that marriage was the only salvation for me. Then I + should always have a woman by me. I was sufficiently sensible to + know that unless there were congenial tastes and sympathies, a + marriage could not turn out happily, especially as my chief + interests in life (after woman) were literature, history, and + philosophy. But I imagined that if I could find a girl who would + satisfy the condition of being an intellectual companion to me, + all my troubles would be over; my sexual desire would be + satisfied, and I could devote myself to work. + + "In this frame of mind I turned my thoughts more seriously in the + direction of a girl whom I had known for some two years. Her age + was nearly the same as mine. My family and hers were acquainted + with one another. I had established a platonic friendship with + her. Undoubtedly the prime attraction was that she was young and + pretty. But she was also a girl of considerable character. + Without being as well educated as I was, she was above the + average girl in general intelligence. She was fond of reading; + books formed our chief subject of conversation and common + interest. She was, in fact, a girl of more intelligence than I + had yet encountered. On her side, as I afterward discovered, the + interest in me was less purely platonic. Our relations toward one + another were absolutely correct. Yet we were intimate, informal, + and talked on subjects that would be considered forbidden topics + between two young persons by most people. I felt she was a true + friend. She, too, confided to me her troubles. + + "We corresponded with one another frequently. Sometimes it + occurred, to me that it was rather strange she should be so keen + to write to me, to hear from me, and to see me; but I had never + thought of her, consciously, except as a friend; I never for a + moment imagined she thought of me except as an interesting and + intelligent friend. Nor did the idea of illicit love ever suggest + itself to me. She was one of those women whose face and + expression put aside any such thought. I was, indeed, inclined to + regard her as a good influence on me, but as passionless. I + confided to her the affair of D.C., which took place during our + acquaintance. She was distressed, but sympathetic and not + prudish. I did not suspect the cause of her distress; I thought + it was owing to her disappointment in the ideals she had formed + of me. She invited me to join her and her family for a part of + the summer (I had now left the university, having obtained my + degree in low honors) and I decided to join them. At this stage + there began to impress itself on my mind the possibility that she + cared for me; also the desirability, if that were so, of becoming + engaged to her. I found my feelings became warmer. On several + occasions we found ourselves alone. Then, one day, our talk + became more personal, more tender; and I kissed her. I do + recollect distinctly the thought flashing through my mind, as she + allowed me to kiss her, that she was not after all the + passionless and 'straight' girl I had thought. But the idea must + have been a very temporary one; it did not return; she declared + her love for me; and without any express 'proposal' on my part we + walked home that afternoon mutually taking it for granted that we + were engaged. I was happy, and calmly happy; proud and elated. + + "Circumstances now made it necessary for me to make money for + myself and I was forced to enter a profession for which I had + never felt any attraction; indeed, I had never considered the + possibility of it, until I became engaged, and saw I must support + myself if I were ever to marry. I worked hard, and rapidly + improved my position. + + "I think I am correct in stating that from the day I became + engaged my sexual troubles seemed to have ceased. My thoughts and + passions were centred on one woman. We wrote to one another + twice every week, and as far as I was concerned every thought and + feeling I had I told her, and the receipt of her letters was for + me the event of my life for nearly three years. My anxiety in + connection with my work used up a great deal of my energy, and, + although I looked forward to the time when I should have a woman + at my side every night, my sexual desires were in abeyance. Nor + did I feel any desire or temptation for other women. + + "I masturbated, but not frequently. Generally I did it to the + accompaniment of images or scenes associated with my betrothed, + sometimes the act was purely auto-erotic. My leisure time was + devoted to reading. + + "On only one occasion did I have intercourse with a woman during + my engagement (three years); it was with a girl whose + acquaintance I had made at the university and who asked me to + come to see her. + + "I married at the age of 24. Looking back on the early days of my + married life it is now a matter of surprise to me that I was so + far from exhibiting the transports of passion which since then + have accompanied any intercourse with a new woman. Partly I was + frightened of shocking her; partly my three years of comparative + abstinence had chastened me. It was some weeks before I ever saw + my wife entirely naked; I never touched her parts with my hand + for many months; and after the first few weeks I did not have + intercourse with her frequently. + + "Perhaps this was to be expected. The basis of my affection for + her had always been a moral or mental one rather than physical, + although she was a handsome, well-made girl. Besides, money and + other worries kept my thoughts busy, as well as struggles to make + both ends meet. + + "Indeed, I may say my sexual nature seemed to be dying out. When + I had been married less than six months I discovered that sexual + intercourse with my wife no longer meant what sexual intercourse + used to mean--no excitement or exaltation or ecstasy. My wife + perhaps contributed to this by her attitude. She confessed + afterward to me that for the first week or so she positively + dreaded bedtime, so physically painful was intercourse to her; + that it was many weeks, if not months, before she experienced the + orgasm. For the first year and more of marriage she could not + endure touching my penis. This at first disappointed me; then + annoyed and finally almost disgusted me. + + "Later on, she learned to experience the orgasm. But she was very + undemonstrative during the act, and it was seldom that the orgasm + occurred simultaneously; she took a much longer time. + + "I ceased to think about sexual matters. When I had been married + about three years I was aware that, in my case, marriage meant + the loss of all mad ecstasy in the act. I knew that if I had no + work to do, and plenty of money, and temptation came my way, I + should like to have another woman. But there was no particular + woman to enchain my fancy and I did not have time or money or + inclination to hunt for one. + + "At times I masturbated. Sometimes I did this to the + accompaniment of homosexual desires or memories of the past. Then + I got my wife to masturbate me. + + "About four years after marriage I got a woman from Piccadilly + Circus to do _fellatio_. I had never had this done before. She + did not do it genuinely, but used her fingers. + + "As stated above various anxieties, the fact that I could always + satisfy my physical desires, all served to calm me. I was also + interested in my work and had become ambitious to improve my + position and was very energetic. + + "On the whole, notwithstanding money worries, the first four or + five years of my married life were the happiest in my life. + Certainly I was very free from sexual desires; and the general + effect of marriage was to make me economical, energetic, + ambitious, and unselfish. I was certainly overworked. I seldom + got to bed before 1 or 2; my meals were irregular; and I became + worried and nervous. At the beginning of my fifth year of married + life I got run down, and had a severe illness, and at one time my + life was in danger, but I had a fairly rapid convalescence. + + "My illness was critical, in more senses than one. My + convalescence was accompanied by a remarkable recrudescence of my + sexual feelings. I will trace this in detail: 1. As I got + well--but while still in bed--I found myself experiencing, almost + continually, violent erections. These were at first of an + auto-erotic character, and I masturbated myself, thus gaining + relief to my nerves. 2. I also found my thoughts tending toward + sexual images, and I felt a desire toward my nurse. I first + became conscious of this when I noticed that I experienced an + erection during the time that she was washing me. I mentioned the + matter to my doctor, who told me not to worry, and said the + symptoms were usual in the circumstances. 3. When I got up and + about I found myself desiring very keenly to have intercourse + with my wife. I can almost say that I felt more sexually excited + than I had done for four or five years. As soon, however, as I + had had intercourse with my wife a few times I felt my desire + toward her cease. 4. My thoughts now centered on having a woman + to do _fellatio_, and as soon as I was well enough to go out I + got a prostitute to do this. + + "Just before I was ill my wife had a child, which was born with + more than one abnormality. No doubt the shock and worry caused by + this got me into a low state and predisposed me to my illness. + But the consequences were farther reaching still. The child + underwent an operation, and my wife had to take her away into the + country for nearly six weeks, so as to give her better air. I was + left alone in London, for the first time since my marriage. The + worry in connection with the child, and the heavy expense, served + to keep me nervously upset after I had apparently recovered + physically from the illness. Once more I found myself thinking + about women. As an additional factor in the situation I became + friendly with an old college-chum whom I had not seen much of for + many years. He lived the life of a fashionable young bachelor and + was at the time keeping a woman. The only common interest between + us was women. I found myself reverting to the old condition of + rampant lust that had been such a curse to me in my university + days. Some books he lent me had a decided effect. They gave me + erections; and it was on top of the excitement thus engendered + that one day I got a woman to do _fellatio_, as already + mentioned. Moreover, since my illness, I found all my previous + energy and ambition had gone. + + "I have stated that I was in London alone with two servants. The + housemaid was a young girl; nice looking, with beautiful eyes and + a sensual expression. She had been with us for about a year. I + cannot remember when I first thought of her in a sexual way. But + one evening I suddenly felt a desire for her. I talked to her; I + found my voice trembling; I let my hand, as if by accident, touch + hers; she did not withdraw it; and in a second I had kissed her. + She did not resist. I took her on my knee, and tried to take + liberties, which she resisted, and I desisted. + + "Next day I kissed her again, and put my hand inside her breasts. + The same evening I took her to an exhibition. On the way home, in + a hansom cab, I made her masturbate me. This was followed by a + feeling of great relief, elation, and _pride_. + + "Next morning, when she came up to my bedroom to call me, I + kissed and embraced her; she allowed me to take liberties, and, + reassuring her by saying I would use a preventive, I had + intercourse with her. She flinched somewhat. She then told me she + was at her period and that she had never had intercourse with a + man before. + + "During the next few weeks I found her an adept pupil, though + always shy and undemonstrative. I took her to a hotel, and + experienced the intensest pleasure I had ever had in undressing + her. I had lately heard about _cunnilingus_. I now did it to her. + I soon found I experienced very great pleasure in this, as did + she. (I had attempted it with my wife, but found it disgusted + me.) I also had intercourse _per anum_. (This again was an act I + had heard about, but had never been able to regard as + pleasurable. But books I had been reading stated it was most + pleasant both to man and woman.) She resisted at first, finding + it hurt her much; it excited me greatly; and when I had done it + in this way several times she herself seemed to like it, + especially if I kept my hand on her clitoris at the same time. + + "My relations with the housemaid, with whom I cannot pretend that + I was in love, were only put an end to by satiety, and when I + went away for my holidays I was utterly exhausted. This was, + however, only the first of a series of relationships, at least + one of which deeply stirred my emotional nature. These + experiences, however, it is unnecessary to detail. There have + also been occasional homosexual episodes. + + "I think I am now in a much healthier condition than I have been + for some years. (I assume that it is _not_ healthy for all one's + thoughts to be always occupied on sexual subjects.) The + conclusion I come to is that I can live a normal, healthy life, + devoting my thoughts to my work, and finding pleasure in + friendship, in my children, in reading, and in other sources of + amusement, as long as I can have occasional relations with a + young girl--i.e., about once a week. But if this outlet for my + sexual emotions is stopped sexual thoughts obsess my brain; I + become both useless and miserable. + + "I have never regretted my marriage. Not only do I feel that life + without a wife and home and children would be miserable, but I + entertain feelings of great affection toward my wife. We are well + suited to one another; she is a woman of character and + intelligence; she looks after my home well, is a sensible and + devoted mother, and understands me. I have never met a woman I + would have sooner married. We have many tastes and likings in + common, and--what is not possible with most women--I can, as a + rule, speak to her about my feelings and find a listener who + understands. + + "On the other hand, all passion and sentiment have died out. It + seems to me that this is inevitable. Perhaps it is a good thing + this should be so. If men and women remained in the state of + erotic excitement they are in when they marry, the business and + work of the world would go hang. Unfortunately, in my case this + very erotic excitement is the chief thing in life that appeals to + me! + + "The factors that in my case have produced this death of passion + and sentiment are as follows:-- + + "1. Familiarity. When one is continually in the company of a + person all novelty dies out. In the case of husband and wife, the + husband sees his wife every day; at all times and seasons; + dressed, undressed; ill; good tempered, bad tempered. He sees her + wash and perform other functions; he sees her naked whenever he + likes; he can have intercourse with her whenever he feels + inclined. How can love (as I use the expression--i.e., sexual + passion) continue? + + "2. Satiety. I am of a 'hot,' sensual disposition, inclined to + excess, as far as my health and nerves are concerned. The + appetite gets jaded. + + "3. Absence of strong sexual reciprocity on the part of my wife. + I have referred to this above. She likes intercourse, but she is + never outwardly demonstrative. She has naturally a chaste mind. + She never is guilty of those little indecencies which affect some + men a great deal. She does not like talking of these things; and + she tells me that if I died, she would never want to have + intercourse again with anyone. At times, especially recently, she + has even asked me to have intercourse with her, or to masturbate + her; but it is seldom that the orgasm occurs contemporaneously. + In this respect she is different from other women I knew, in whom + the mere fact that the orgasm was occurring in me at once + produced it in them. At the same time I doubt whether even strong + sexual reciprocity would have retained my passion for long. + + "4. During the early years of our married life money worries + caused at times disagreements, reproaches and quarrels. Passion + and sentiment are fragile and cannot stand these things. + + "5. The fact that I had already had other women diminished the + feeling of awe with which many regard the sexual act and the + violation of sexual conventions. + + "6. Loss of beauty. Loss of figure is, I fear, inseparable from + childbearing especially if the woman works hard. We have always + had servants, still my wife has always worked hard, at sewing, + etc. + + "I have stated that I entertain feelings of respect and + admiration for my wife. But I almost _loathe_ the idea of + intercourse with her. I would sooner masturbate, and think of + another woman than have intercourse with her. It causes nausea in + me to touch her private parts. Yet with other women it affords me + mad pleasure to kiss them, every part of their bodies. But my + wife still feels for me the love she had when we first married. + There lies the tragedy." + +The following narrative is a continuation of History XII in the previous +volume:-- + + HISTORY III.--I had become good looking. For a time I knew what + it was to have loving looks from every woman I met, and being + saner and healthier I would seem to be moving in a divine + atmosphere of color and fragrance, pearly teeth and bright eyes. + Even the old women with daughters looked at me amiably--married + women with challenge and maidens with Paradise in their eyes. + + "I was standing one morning at St. Peter's corner, with two young + friends, when a girl went by, coming over from the Roman Catholic + cathedral. When she had passed she looked back, with that + imperious swing that is almost a command, at me, as my friends + distinctly admitted. They advised me to follow her; I did so, and + she turned a pretty, blushing face and pair of dark gray eyes, + with just the kind of eyebrows I liked: brown, very level, rather + thick, but long. Her teeth and mouth were perfect, and she spoke + with a slight Irish brogue. She let me do all the talking while + she took my measure. God knows what she saw in me! I spoke in an + affected manner, I remember, imitating some swell character I had + seen on the stage a night or two before, but I was wise enough + not to talk too much and to behave myself. She promised to meet + me again and made the appointment. She was a school-teacher and + engaged to be married to some one else. She meant to amuse + herself her own way before she married. The second night I met + her she allowed me to kiss her as much as I liked and promised + all her favors for the third night. We took a long walk, and in + the dark she gave herself to me, but I hurt her so much I had to + stop two or three times. She had had connection only once, years + before, when at school herself. She was inclined to be sensual, + but she was young, fresh, and pretty, and her kisses turned my + head. I fell genuinely in love with her and told her so, one + night when she was particularly fascinating, with the tears in my + eyes; and her face met mine with equal love. The first night or + two I had felt no pleasure--whether through years of self-abuse + or not I do not know,--but this night my whole being was excited. + I met her once and sometimes twice a week and was always thinking + of her. My sister saw me looking love-sick one day and I heard + her say 'He's in love,' which rather flattered me, and I looked + more love-sick and idiotic than ever. It was all wrong and + perverted. She continued to meet her _fiance_, and intended to + marry him. We both spoke of 'him' as an adultress speaks of her + husband. That high level of tears and childlike joy in our youth + and love was never reached again. But I realized her _sex_, her + kisses, her presence--after all those years of horror (if she had + only known)--more even than the sexual act itself; while she, as + time went on, commenced to show a curiosity which I thought + desecrating; she liked to examine--to 'let her hand stray,' were + her words. Even her beauty seemed impaired some nights and I + caught a gleam in her eye and a curve of her lip I thought + vulgar. But perhaps the next night I met her she would be as + bright as ever. + + "I introduced her to my friends, who knew our relations, for I + blabbed everything. But she did not mind their knowing and if we + met would give them all a kiss, so that I felt I had been rather + too profuse in my hospitality, though I still would say: 'Have + another one, Bert; I don't mind.' But whatever ass I made of + myself she forgave me anything, and was fonder of me every time + we met, while I, although I did not know it for a long time, was + less fond of her. She knew how to revive my love, however. Some + nights she would not meet me, and I would be like a madman. Other + nights she would meet me, but not let me raise her dress. She + would lie on me, on a moonlit night, and her young face in shadow + like a siren's in its frame of hair, merely to kiss me. But what + kisses! Slow, cold kisses changing to clinging, passionate ones. + She would leave my mouth to look around, as if frightened, and + come back, open-mouthed, with a side-contact of lips that brought + out unexpected felicities. + + "One night her _fiance_ saw us together, and followed me after I + left her, but on turning a corner I ran. I ridiculed him to her + and despised him. I should have found it difficult to say why. + Another night her brother attacked me, and it would have gone + hard with me, but Annie pulled me in and banged the door. We were + in a friend's house, but her father came around soon and laid a + stick about her shoulders, in my presence. I tried to talk big, + and said something idiotic about being as good a man as her + betrothed, as though my intentions were honorable, which for one + brief moment made Anne look at me, paler faced and changed, such + a strange glance. But he beat her home, enjoying my rage, and she + went away, crying in her hands. I was allowed to go unmolested. + + "I soon received a letter from her asking me not to mind and + making an appointment, at which she turned up cheerful and + unconcerned. She went to confession, and would meet me + afterwards; and her faith in that, and the difference of our + religions (if I had any religion) would make her seem strange and + alien to me at times, even banal. At last our meetings became a + mere habit of sensuality, with all charm, and suggestion of + better things eliminated.... + + "I went with my friend George (who shared my room) one afternoon + and called at Annie's school; she kept an infants' school of her + own. She came to the door herself. It was the first time I had + seen her in daylight, and I thought her cheek-bones bigger; she + certainly was not so pretty as on the first evening I met her. + George had told me he would sleep away if I wanted the room, and + when next I met her she promised to come and sleep with me. + Before I had always met her on the grass, under trees. She came, + and the sight of her young limbs and breasts revived something of + my love for her, my better love. But she was insatiable and more + sensual every day. One day she came when I was not well, and + would not go away disappointed. I had met a very pretty girl + about this time, and now resolved to give Annie up, which I did + in the cruelest manner, cutting her dead, and refusing to answer + her letters and touching messages. I heard that she would cry for + hours, but I was harder than adamant.... + + "I thought myself very much in love with the very pretty girl for + whom I had thrown up Annie. She lived with her mother and two + sisters, one older than herself, the other a mere child. The + eldest sister, a handsome, dark girl like a Spaniard, was not + virtuous. She was good natured; too much so, and took her + pleasure with several of us, dying, not long after, of + consumption. I thought her sister, my girl, was virtuous, and I + meant to marry her--some day. At any rate, I saw her mother, who + lived in a well-furnished house and was a superior woman. This + did not prevent my trying to seduce her daughter. I did not + succeed for a long time, though she did not cease meeting me. The + sisters came to see us. I knew, one night, her sister was + upstairs with D. and I guessed what they were at, so I suggested + to her she should creep up on them for fun. She did so, came + back, excited and pale--and gave herself to me. But she was not a + virgin and in time I had a glimpse of her unhappy fate and her + mother's position. Her father was dead or divorced, and her + mother, I believe, was mistress to some wealthy bookmaker. I am + not sure, there was always a mystery hanging over the mother, nor + am I certain that she connived at her daughter's seduction, but + the girl's account was that after some successful Cup day there + had been too much champagne drunk all around, and that a man she + looked on as a friend came into her bedroom that night when she + was _tete montee_ and seduced or violated her--whichever word you + like to choose. Since then his visits had been frequent until she + met me, she said, and if I would be true to her she would be a + true wife to me, and I believed her and still believe she meant + what she said. But I left Melbourne shortly after this, our + letters got few and far between, and ultimately I heard she was + married to a young man who had always been in love with her.... + + "Among the inmates of the boarding house was a 'married' couple + who stayed for some time; he was an insignificant, ugly, little, + crosseyed commercial traveler; she was a pretty, little creature + who looked as innocent and was as merry as a child; we all vied + in paying her attentions and waiting on her like slaves, the + husband always smiling a cryptic smile. After they had left it + was hinted they were not married at all; the oldest hands had + been taken in.... One afternoon I met Dolly, the commercial + traveler's wife, and she stopped and spoke to me. I remembered + what I had heard and ventured on some pleasantry at which she + laughed, and on my proposing that we should go for a walk she + consented. She had left the commercial traveler, it came out in + conversation, and we went on talking and walking, one idea only + in my mind now; could I detain her till dark? Dolly, who was very + pretty indeed, amused herself with me for hours, playing hot and + cold, snubbing me one minute, encouraging me with her eyed + another. Hour after hour went and she found this game so + entertaining that she accompanied me to the park behind the + Botanical Gardens, and it was not until it was too late for me to + catch a train home that she gave herself to me. In fact, we + stayed out the whole of that warm summer night. As the hours went + by she told me of her home in London and how she first went + wrong. She had been a good girl till one day on an excursion she + drank some rum or gin, which seemingly revived some dormant taint + of heritage; when she went home that night she fell flat at her + mother's feet. Her parents, well-to-do shopkeepers, who had + forgiven her several times before, turned her out. She became one + man's mistress and then another's. She began early, and was + scarcely 19 now. She would leave off the drink for a time and try + to be respectable. She loved her father and mother, but she could + not help drinking at times. She spoke cheerfully and laughingly + about it all; she was young, strong, good natured, and careless. + We went to sleep for a little while and then wandered in the + early morning down toward the cemetery, when she tried to tidy + her hair, asking me how I had enjoyed myself and not waiting for + an answer. She was thirsty, she said, and when the public houses + opened we went and had a drink. It was the first time I had seen + her drink alcohol,--at the boarding house she had always been the + picture of health and sweetness,--and I saw a change come over + her at once, so that I understood all that she had told me. The + sleepless night may have made it worse, but the look that came + into her eyes, and the looseness of the fibres not only of her + tell-tale wet mouth, but of every muscle of her face was + startling and piteous to see. She saw my look and laughed, but + her laugh was equally piteous to hear, and when she spoke again + her voice had changed too, and was equally piteous. She asked for + another. 'No, don't,' I begged, for the pretty girl I had + flattered myself I had passed a summer's night with that most + young men would envy, showed signs of changing, like some siren, + into a flabby, blear-eyed boozer. That hurt my vanity. + + "I met her another night and she took, me to her lodgings, and I + slept with her all night. I no longer tried to stop her drinking, + but drank with her. I ceased to treat her with courtesy and + gallantry; she noticed it, but only drank the more, drank till + she became dirty in her ways, till her good looks vanished. I + left her, too drunk to stand, as some friend, a woman, called on + her. + + "She came to see me once more, like her old self, so well dressed + and well behaved, and chatted so cheerfully to my landlady that + the latter afterward congratulated me on having such a friend. + Dolly carried a parcel of underclothing she had made, with a few + toys, for the children of a poor man in the suburbs, and I + accompanied her to the house. There was great excitement among + the ragged children; in fact, the atmosphere became so + dangerously full of love and charity that I commenced to feel + uncomfortable,--the shower of roses again,--and was glad to find + myself in the open air. We went for a walk and had several + drinks, which made the usual change in Dolly. I got tired of her, + determined I would leave her, spoke cruelly, and finally--after + having connection with her on the dry seaweed--rose and left her + brutally, walked away faster and faster, deaf to her + remonstrances, and careless whether or how she reached the + station.... + + "I had gone to lodge with a family whom I had been accustomed to + visit as a friend; there were two daughters; the elder, engaged + to a young German who was away with a survey party, had a rather + plain face, but a strong one and was herself a strong character, + and I came to like her in spite of myself; the second girl had + light golden hair, a fresh complexion, a short nose, and rather + large mouth, which contained beautiful teeth; they were both + good, obedient, innocent church-going daughters. As there was + plenty of amusement there of an evening, singing and dancing, I + did not go out, got into better ways, and gradually gave up + drinking to excess. I was so improved in appearance that an old + acquaintance did not recognize me. My anecdotes and fun amused + Mrs. S., the mother of the girls. She could be very violent on + occasions, I found, and I learned that there had been terrible + scenes at times, and that from time to time it had been necessary + to place her in an asylum. I went for drives with the girls and + to theatres, and ought to have been happy and glad to find myself + in such good quarters. The mother trusted me so entirely that she + left me for hours with the girls, the younger one of whom I would + kiss sometimes. She was engaged to a young fellow whom I spoke to + patronizingly, but whose shoes I was not worthy to fasten. I was + the cause of quarrels between them. They made it up again but I + think he noticed the change that was taking place in Alice. For + from kissing her I had gone on--all larking at first. We formed + the habit of sitting down on the sofa when alone and kissing + steadily for ten minutes or more at a time. She was excited + without knowing what was the matter with her--but I knew. And one + day when our mouths were together I drew her to me and commenced + to stroke her legs gently down. She trembled like a string bow, + and allowed my hand to go farther. And then she was frightened + and ashamed and commenced to laugh and cry together. She had + these hysterical attacks several times and they always frightened + me. It ended in my seducing her. She broke off her engagement, + and then was sorry; but soon she thought only of me.... One day + Alice and I were nearly caught. I had just left her on the sofa + and had commenced drawing at a table with my back to her when + suddenly her mother came in without her shoes, while Alice had + one hand up her clothes arranging her underclothing. The mother + stopped dead and shot me one glance I shall never forget. 'Why, + Alice, you frighten me!' she said. I feigned surprise and asked + 'What is the matter?' Alice, although she was frightened out of + her wits, managed to stammer: 'He couldn't see me--you couldn't + see me, could you?' appealing to me. But I had managed to collect + my senses a bit and although still under that maternal eye I + asked,--at last turning slowly around to Alice: 'See? What do you + mean? See what?' And I looked so mystified that the mother was + deceived, and contented herself with scolding Alice and telling + her to run no risks of that sort. I breathed again. + + "But I was near the end of my tether. Alice and I talked about + everything now. She told me about her life at boarding school and + the strange ideas some of the girls had about men and marriage. + After leaving school she had been sent to a large millinery or + drapery establishment to learn sewing and dressmaking. Here, she + said, the talk was awful at times, and one girl had a book with + pictures of men's organs of generation, which was passed around + and excited their curiosity to the highest pitch. + + "I had days of tenderness and contrition, and even told her I + would get on and marry her. Then the tears would come into her + eyes and she would say: 'I seem to feel as if you were my husband + now.' ... + + "I had to see a man on business and went to his cottage. The door + was opened by his wife, a handsome, dark-eyed young woman, who + looked as if butter would not melt in her mouth. After leaving a + message I went on talking to her on other subjects. She piqued my + vanity in some way, and made me feel curious and restless. I + found myself thinking of her after I left and looking back I saw + she was still looking at me. + + "To make a long story short, she encouraged me. It ended by my + leaving the S. family and going to board with them. T.D., the + husband, was glad of my company and my money. They had a little + boy--whose father T. was not. I soon understood her inviting + looks at me. For she was a general lover, and an old man, in a + good government billet, visited her often when T.D. was away: I + will call him Silenus. There was also a dark, handsome man who + built organs. The latter came one day and sent for some beer. I + was working in my room, and it so happened that before he knocked + she had been going further than usual in her talk with me; in + fact, as good as giving me the word. When her friend was admitted + he had to pass my open door and he gave me a look with his black + eyes and I gave him a look which told each what the other's game + was. It is wonderful what a lot can be learned from a single + glance of the eyes. When I saw the little boy bringing in the + beer I felt that he had bested me. But she brought me in a glass + first, and putting her down on the sofa I scored first. It was + done so suddenly, so brutally, that, accustomed as she must have + been to such scenes she turned red and bit her under lip. But she + sent the other man away in a few minutes. After that she was + insatiable; it was every day and sometimes twice in one day. I + commenced to be gloomy and miserable again. And there was not + even a pretense of love. There was no deception about her; she + even introduced me to Silenus and we made excursions together, + for which he paid, as he had plenty of money. We were always + drinking, until at last I could eat nothing unless I had two or + three whiskies. I became very thin, my horizon seemed black and + all things at an end. (But T.D. enjoyed his meals and was really + fond of his wife and her boy and his work; life was pleasant to + him.) She would go up to town with me and to a certain hotel; + after drinking she would leave me waiting while she retired with + the handsome young landlord for a short time. She told me when + she came back that he was a great favorite with married women. + + "She told me that Silenus visited a woman who practiced + _fellatio_ on him. Mrs. D. thought such practices abominable and + could not imagine how a woman could like doing such a thing. + + "When she was out walking with me one day T.D.'s name came up and + she said in a slightly altered voice: 'He told me he loved me!' + It was a word seldom used by her except in jest. I threw a + startled look at her and caught an inquisitive and apologetic + look in return, such a strange and touching glance that I saw I + had not yet understood her,--there was an enigma somewhere. When, + bit by bit, she told me her life, I understood, or thought I + understood, that strange childlike glance in this young woman + steeped to her eyes in sin. No one had ever made love to her or + spoken to her of love in her life. + + "It had commenced at school. She must have been a particularly + fine and handsome girl, judging from her photographs. She had + seen boys playing with girls' privates under the form and felt + jealous that they did not play with her's. She had no mother to + look after her and she soon found plenty of boys to play with + her, and young men, too, as she grew older. She took it as she + took her meals. She had been really fond of her child's father, + but as he had shown no tenderness for her, nothing but a craving + for sensual gratification, she would rather have died than let + him know. She soon tired of her attachments, she told me. She did + not like T.D. He was not the complacent husband; he was spirited + enough, but he believed everything she told him. One day he came + home unexpectedly when we were together on the bare palliass in + her room. It was a critical moment when his knocks were heard, + and in the hurry and excitement some moisture was left on the + bed. The knocks became louder, but she was calmer than I, and + bade me run down to the closet. I could hear her cheerful and + chaffing voice greeting him. When I walked in back to my own room + she called out: 'Here's T. home!' I learned afterward that he had + been surly and suspicious, and had seen the moisture on the bed, + and asked about it, whereupon she had turned the tables upon him + completely; he ought to be ashamed of himself; she knew what he + meant by his insinuations; if he must know how that moisture come + on the bed, why she put the soap there in a hurry to catch a + flea. He believed her and brought her a present next day in + atonement for his suspicions. + + "During her monthly periods, when I could not touch her, she + would come in and play with me until emissions occurred, and my + feelings had become so perverted that I even preferred this to + coitus. The orgasm would occur twice in her to once in me, and + though her eyes were rather hard and her mouth too, she always + looked well and cheerful, while I was gloomy and depressed. In + her side, however, was a hard lump, which pained her at times, + and which, doubtless, was waiting its time.... + + "One day I felt so low in health that I proposed to T.D. that we + should take a boat and sail out in the bay for a day or two. The + sea, the change, the open air revived me, and I even made + sketches of the black sailor as he steered the boat. One day when + I was left alone in charge of the boat, as I felt the time + hanging on my hands, for the sea, the blue sky, the lovely day + gave me no real pleasure, I remember abusing myself, the old + habit reasserting itself as soon as I was alone and idle. When + T.D. came back he brought Mrs. D. with him, laughing and jolly as + usual. She was surprised when lying next to me under the deck on + our return I did not respond to her advances. It would have + pleased her, with her husband only a few feet away. After that I + spent a night with her, but she was getting tired of me. I did + not care for her, but it hurt my vanity and I made a few attempts + to be impertinent. She looked at me coldly and threatened to + complain to T.... + + "I want to relate an impression I received one night about this + time when with several friends we called at a brothel. I forget + my companion, but I remember two faces. It was winter, and great + depression prevailed in Adelaide. We had been talking to the + mistress as we drank some beer and were pretending to be jolly + fellows, although we were wet, cold, and had not enjoyed + ourselves (at least, I had not), and she was speaking harshly and + jeeringly about two girls she had now who had not earned a penny + for the past week. Just then we heard footsteps and she said in a + lower tone: 'Here they are,' They came in, unattended, having + ascertained which the brothel-keeper snorted and turned her back + to them. The faces of the girls, who were quite young, looked so + miserable that even I pitied them. The look on the face of one of + those girls as she stood by the hearth drawing off her gloves + lives in my memory. Too deep for tears was its sorrow, shame, and + hopelessness.... + + "I had given up drink and was living in the bush. To anyone with + normal nerves it would have been a happy time of quiet, rustic + peace, beauty, and relief from city life. With me it was restless + vanity amounting to madness. In every relation, action, or + possible event in which I figured or might figure in the future, + I always instantaneously called up an imaginary audience. And + then this imaginary audience admired everything I did or might + do, and put the most heroic, gallant, and romantic construction + on my acts, appearance, lineage, and breeding. Suppose I saw a + pretty girl on a bush road. Instead of thinking 'There is a + pretty girl; I should like to know her or kiss her,' as I suppose + a healthy, normal young man would think, I thought after this + fashion: 'There is a pretty girl; now, as I pass her she will + think I am a handsome and aristocratic-looking stranger, and, as + I carry a sketch-book, an artist--"A landscape painter! How + romantic!" she will say, and then she will fall in love with me,' + etc. This preoccupation with what other people might think or + would think so engrossed all my time that I had no means of + enjoying the presence, thought, or favor of the divine creatures + I met, and I must have appeared 'cracked' to them with my + reticence, pride, and silly airs. + + "I met girls as foolish as myself sometimes. Once at a _table + d'hote_ I met a young girl who went for a walk with me and let me + know her carnally although she was little more than a schoolgirl. + She was going down to town soon, she said, and would meet me at a + certain hotel (belonging to relations of hers) in Adelaide on a + certain date, some time ahead; if I took a room there she would + come into it during the night. In the meanwhile I had given way + to drink again and abused myself at intervals. I came down to + town, drunk, in the coach, and kept my appointment with the young + girl at the hotel, expecting a night of pleasure; but she merely + stared at me coldly as if she had never seen me before. I abused + myself twice in my solitary room.... + + "I met a middle-aged schoolteacher (who had once been an officer + in the army) down for his holidays. As he spoke well, and was a + 'gentleman,' I cultivated him. One night he asked me to meet a + girl he had an appointment with and tell her he was not well + enough to meet her. He foolishly told me the purpose of their + intended meeting. I went to the trysting-place, at the back of + the hotel, and met the girl. On delivering my message she smiled, + made some joke about her friend, and looked at me as much as to + say: 'You will do as well.' I had been drinking, and in the most + brutal manner I took her into a closet. By some strange chance or + state of nerves she gave me exquisite pleasure, but the orgasm + came with me before it did with her, and in spite of her + disappointment and protests I stood up and pulled her out of the + place for fear some one should find us there. Still protesting + she followed me, but her foot slipped on the paved court, and she + fell down on her face. When she rose I saw that her front teeth + were broken. I looked at her without pity, with impatience, and + abruptly leaving her I went into the hotel to 'the colonel.' I + commenced to tell him lies, when he asked me with a weak laugh + what had been keeping me. I smiled with low cunning and drunken + vanity, evading the question. Then he accused me directly. I only + laughed; but, drunk as I was, I remember the look of the ageing + bachelor as he saw he had been betrayed by a younger man. He had + known her for years.... + + "I was now living in the home of a woman who was separated from + her husband and kept lodgers. She had a daughter, with whom I + walked out, a pretty girl who drank like a fish, as her mother + also did. There were other lodgers coming and going. I would lie + down all day and keep myself saturated with beer. I commenced to + get fat and bloated, with the ways of a brothel bully. A + broken-down, drunken old woman who visited the house and had been + a beautiful lady in her youth told me I should end my days on the + gallows trap. The same woman when drunk would lift up her dress, + sardonically, exposing herself. Other old women would congregate + in the neglected and dirty bedrooms and tell fortunes with the + cards. One little woman, an onanist, was like a character out of + Dickens, exaggerated, affected, unnatural, with remains of + gentility and society manners. Amidst all this drunkenness and + abandonment May, the landlady's daughter, preserved her + virginity. Young lodgers would take liberties with her, but at a + certain stage would receive a stinger on the face. The girl liked + me and would kiss me, but nothing else. And then--out of this + home of drunkenness and shame--May fell in love with some pretty + boy she met by chance, whom she never asked to her home. She + began to neglect me, even to neglect drink, and to dream, + preoccupied. I felt a restless jealousy, but she would look at + me, without resentment, without recognition, without seeing me, + look me straight in the eyes as I was talking to her, and dream + and dream. This same pretty boy seduced her, I believe. When next + I met her she was 'on the town,' her one dream of spring over.... + + "About this time I had one of those salutary turns that have + marked epochs in my life, and as a result I left that house and + resolutely abstained from drink.... I was now in a small + up-country town. I commenced to play croquet and to ride out. + Sometimes I was invited to dinner by a young man at the bank, + whose house was kept by his sister. She had a small figure, a + pretty but rather narrow face, and well-bred manners; but there + was a look in her asymmetrical eyes, in the shape of her thin + hands, even in the stoop of her shoulders, that seemed + passionate. One day--when her brother, a fine, sweet-blooded + manly young athlete, was absent--I commenced to pull her about. + She gave me one passionate kiss, but said: 'No! Do you know what + keeps me straight? It is the thought of my brother.' I refrained + from molesting her further. I met other girls, some pretty and + arrogant, others plain and hungry-eyed; it was a country town + where there were four or five females to every male. But I could + not speak frankly and candidly to a young woman as the young + banker did.... + + "I remember that one night, when I was living at the Port, I + slept all night with a prostitute who had taken a fancy to me and + who used to cry on my shoulder, much to my impatience and + annoyance. In the same bed with us, lying beside me, was a girl + aged about 12. On my expressing surprise I was told she was used + to it and noticed nothing. But in the morning I turned my head + and looked at her, and even in the dim light of that dirty + bedroom I could see that her eyes had noticed and understood. She + pressed herself against me and smiled; it was not the smile of an + infant. I could record many instances I have observed of the + precocity of children. + + "At one time I made the acquaintance of three young men, two in + the customs, the other in a surveyor's office. At the first + glance you would have said they were ordinary nice young clerks, + but on becoming better acquainted you would notice certain + peculiarities, a looseness of mouth, a restless, nervous + inquietude of manner, an indescribable gleam of the eye. They + were very fond of performing and singing at amateur minstrel + shows and developed a certain comic vein they thought original, + though it reminded me of professional corner-men. However, I + enjoyed their singing and drinking habits and went to their + lodgings several nights to play cards, drink beer, and tell funny + stories. One night they asked me to stay all night and on going + to a room with two beds I was told to have one. Presently one of + the young men came in and commenced to undress. But before going + to his bed he made a remark which, though I had been drinking, + opened my eyes. I told him to shut up and go to bed, speaking + firmly and rather coldly, and he went reluctantly to his own bed. + But another night when they had shifted their lodgings and were + all sleeping in the same room I was drunk and went to bed with + the same fair-haired young man. On waking up in the night I found + my bedmate tampering with me. The old force came over me and I + abused him, but refused to commit the crime he wanted me to. His + penis was small and pointed. I rose early in the morning, + sobered, suffering, and covered with shame, and went hastily + away, refusing to stay for breakfast. I thought I caught an + amazed and evil smile on the faces of the other two. Meeting the + three the same evening in the street, I passed them blushing, and + my bedmate of the previous night blushed also.... + + "I now took cheap lodgings in North Adelaide. Here I had slight + recurrences of the strangeness and fear of going mad which I had + experienced once before. I led such a solitary life and fell into + such a queer state that I turned to religion and attended church + regularly. It was approaching the time for those young men and + women who wished to be confirmed to prepare themselves, and a + struggle now ensued between my pride and my wish to gain rest and + peace of mind in Jesus. I was self-conscious to an incredible + degree, and dreaded exposure or making an exhibition of myself, + but still went to church, hoping the grace of God would descend + on me. I had no other resources. I had no pleasure in life, and + was so shattered and in such misery of dread that I welcomed the + only refuge that seemed open to me. At last, one Sunday, I had + what I thought was a call; I shed a few tears, and although + tingling all down my spine I went up in the cathedral and joined + those who were going to be confirmed. I attended special meetings + and shocked the good bishop very much by telling him I had never + been baptized. I had to be baptized first and went one day to the + cathedral and he baptized me. When the critical awful moment came + the bishop, whose faith even then surprised me somehow, held my + hand in his cold palm, and gave it a pressure, eyeing me, + expectantly, inquisitively, to see any change for the better. + But, it so happened, that morning I was in a horrible temper and + black mood, hard and dry-eyed, and no change came. Still, I tried + to believe there was a change. + + "I was confirmed with others, had a prayer-book given me with + prayers for nearly every hour in the day, and was always kneeling + and praying. I procured a long, white surplice, and assisted at + suburban services, even conducting small ones myself, reading the + sermons out of books. But my mood of rage increased, and one + Sunday I had to walk a long way in a new pair of boots. I shall + never forget that hot Sunday afternoon. My feet commenced to ache + and a murderous humor seized me. I swore and blasphemed one + moment and prayed to God to forgive me the next. When I reached + the chapel where I had to assist the chaplain I was exhausted + with rage, pain, fear, and religious mania. I thought it probable + I had offended the Holy Ghost. When, next Sunday, I went to try + my hand at Sunday-school teaching I wore a pair of boots so old + that the little boys laughed. I was always talking of my + conversion and the spirit of our Saviour. I do not know what the + clergymen I met thought of me. I thought I should like to be a + minister myself, and questioned a Church of England parson as to + the amount of study necessary. He received my question rather + coldly, I thought, which discouraged me. As my dread gradually + diminished, though I still felt strange, I made excuses for not + conducting services, although I continued to read my Bible and + prayer-book, and really believed I had been 'born again.' + + "Surely now, I thought, that I had Christ's aid, I shall be able + to break off my habit of self-abuse that had been the curse of my + youth. What was my horror and dismay to find that, when the mood + came on me next, I went down the same as ever. And after all my + suffering and dread and fear of fits! What could I do? Was I mad, + or what? I was really frightened at my helplessness in the matter + and decided on a course of conduct that ultimately brought me + past this danger to better health and comparative happiness. I + said to myself that there is always a certain amount of + preliminary thought and dalliance before I do this deed; + doubtless this it is that renders me incapable of resisting. I + decided, therefore, never to let my thoughts _commence_ to dwell + on lustful things, but to think of something else on the _first_ + intimation of their appearance in my mind. I rigorously followed + this rule; and it proved successful, and I recommend it to others + in the same predicament as myself. After suffering weeks and + months of dread and illness once more, falling away in flesh and + turning yellow, I gradually mended a little. I had a better color + and tone, and was something like other young men, barring a + strange alternate exaltation and depression. Even this gradually + became less noticeable, and my moods more even and reliable." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[219] My Christian faith is of a somewhat nonemotional, intellectual type, +with a considerable element of agnostic reserve. + +[220] On having connection with my wife I frequently exhibit sufficient +sexual power to produce orgasm in her; but on occasion, especially during +the first year or so of married life, I have been unable to do this, owing +to the too rapid action of the reflexes in myself, and have even, now and +again, had emissions _ante portam_. + + + + +INDEX OF AUTHORS. + +Adachi +Adam, Madame +Adler +AElian +Allbutt, Gifford +Allen, Grant +Allin, A. +Alrutz +Andree +Anselm, St. +Arbuthnot +Ariosto +Aristaenetus +Aristophanes +Aristotle +Athenaeus +Aubert +Audeoud +Avicenna +Ayrton + +Bacarisse +Backhouse +Bain, A. +Baker, Sir S. +Baelz + +Baschet, Armand +Batchelor, J. +Baudelaire +Bazan, Pardo +Beatson +Beauregard +Bendix +Benedikt +Bernard, L. +Bernardin de St. Pierre +Bianchi, L. +Bierent +Binet +Bloch, A.G. +Bloch, I. +Boccaccio +Bollinger +Borel +Botallus +Brantome +Breitenstein +Brisay, Marquis de +Bronson +Broune, R. +Brown, H. +Brunton, Sir Lauder +Buecher +Buckman, S.S. +Bulkley +Bullen, F. St. John +Burckhardt +Burdach +Burton, Sir R. +Burton, R. + +Cabanes +Cabanis +Cadet-Devaux +Candolle, A. de +Cardano +Cardi, Comte di +Casanova +Castellani +Cervantes +Chadwick +Chamfort +Chaucer +Clement of Alexandria +Cloquet +Cocke, J. +Coffignon +Cohn, Jonas +Colegrove +Colenso, W. +Collet +Compayre +Cook, Captain +Cornish +Courtier +Crawley +Cyples, W. + +Daniell, W.F. +D'Annunzio +Dante +Darlington, L. +Darwin, C. +Darwin, E. +Davy, J. +Deniker +D'Enjoy +Digby, Sir K. +Dillon, E. +Distant +Dogiel +Donaldson, H.H. +D'Orbigny +Duffield +Dufour +Duehren, E. +Dunlop, W. + +Edinger +Eliot, George +Ellis, A.B. +Ellis, A.J. +Ellis, Havelock +Ellis, W. +Eloy +Emeric-David +Emin Pasha +Endriss, J. +Engelmann, I.J. +Epstein +Esquirol +Eulenburg + +Fere +Ferrand +Ferrero +Filhes, Margarethe +Fillmore +Firenzuola +Flagy, R. de +Fletcher, A.C. +Fliess +Fol, H. +Foley +Forster, J.B. +Franklin, A. +Frazer, J.G. +Friedlaender +Friedreich, J.B. +Fromentin +Frumerie, G. de + +Galopin +Galton, F. +Garbini +Garson +Giard +Giessler +Gilman +Goblot +Goethe +Goncourt, E. de +Goerres +Gould +Gourmont, Remy de +Griffith, W.D.A. +Griffiths, A.B. +Grimaldi +Groos, K. +Guibaud + +Hack +Haecker +Hagen +Hall, G. Stanley +Halle, A. de la +Haller +Harrison, F. +Hart, D. Berry +Harvey, W.F. +Hawkesworth +Haycraft +Hearn, Lafcadio +Heine +Hellier, J.B. +Helmholtz +Henry, C. +Hermant, Abel +Herodotus +Herrick, C.L. +Herrick, R. +Heschl +Hildebrandt +Hippocrates +Holder, A.B. +Hortis +Houdoy +Houzeau +Huart +Humboldt, W. von +Hutchinson, W.F. +Hutchinson, Woods +Huysmans +Hyades + +Jaeger +James, W. +Janet +Jerome, St. +Joal +Joest +Johnston, Sir H.H. +Jorg +Jouin +Juvenal + +Kaan +Kate, H. ten +Kennedy +Kiernan, J.G. +King, J.S. +Kirchhoff, A. +Kistemaecker +Klein, G. +Kleist +Krafft-Ebing +Krauss +Kubary +Kuelpe + +Lane, E.W. +Lancaster, E. +Latcham +Laycock +Layet +Lechat +Lecky +Lejeune +Lemaire, J. +Leoty +Lewin +Lewis, A.T. +Linnaeus +Lombard +Lombroso, C. +Lombroso, Gina +Lucian +Lucretius +Luigini +Lumholtz + +MacCauley +MacDonald, J. +MacDougall, B. +MacKenzie, J.N. +MacKenzie, S. +Man, E.H. +Mantegazza +Marholm, L. +Marie de France +Marro +Marston, J. +Martial +Martineau, Harriet +Massinger +Matusch +Mau +Maudsley, H. +Maxim, Sir H. +McBride +McDougall, W. +McKendrick +Melle, Van +Menander +Mentz +Merensky +Mertens +Michelet +Milton +Miner, J.B. +Minut, G. de +Mironoff +Mitford +Moebius +Moll +Moncelon +Monin +Moore, A.W. +Moore, F. +Moraglia +Motannabi +Muir, Sir W. +Myers, C.S. + +Naecke +Newman, W.L. +Nietzsche +Niphus +Nordenskjoeld +Norman, Conolly +Nuttall +Nyrop + +O'Donovan +Ordericus Vitalis +Ovid + +Papillault +Parke, T.H. +Parker, Rushton +Passy, J. +Patrick, G.T.W. +Patrizi, M.L. +Paulhan + +Pearson, K. +Penta +Perls +Petrarch +Petrie, Flinders +Pieron +Piesse +Pillon, E. +Plateau +Plato +Ploss +Plutarch +Potwin, E. +Pouchet +Poulton, E.B. +Pruner Bey +Pyle + +Raciborski +Raffalovich +Ramsey, Sir W. +Raseri +Raymond +Reade, Winwood +Remfry +Renier, R. +Restif de la Bretonne +Rhys, J. +Ribbert +Ribot +Ries +Ripley +Robinson, Louis +Rochas, A. de +Roger, J.L. +Rohlfs +Romi, Shereef-Eddin +Ronsard +Roscoe, J. +Rosenbaum +Roth, H. Ling +Roth, W. +Roubaud +Rousseau +Routh, A. +Rowbotham, J.F. +Rudeck +Rutherford + +Salmuth, P. +Sanborn, L. +Santayana, G. +Savage, G. +Savill +Schellong +Schiff +Schopenhauer +Schultz, A. +Schurigius +Scott, Colin +Scripture, E.W. +Seligmann +Selous, E. +Semon, Sir F. +Senancour +Sensai, Nagayo +Sergi +Shakespeare +Sharp, D. +Shelley +Shields, T.E. +Shipley +Shufeldt +Simpson, Sir J.Y. +Skeat, W.W. +Smith, Sir A. +Smith, G. Elliot +Smith, H. +Smyth, Brough +Sonnini +Southerden +Spencer, Herbert +Spinoza +Stanley, Hiram +Stendhal +Stevens, Vaughan +Stirling, E.C. +Stoddart, W.H.B. +Stratz, C.H. +Swift +Symonds, J.A. +Syrus, Publilius + +Talbot, E.B. +Talbot, E.S. +Tarchanoff +Tardif +Tarnowsky +Temesvary +Tennyson +Tinayre, Marcelle +Tolstoy +Toulouse +Tourdes, G. +Tregear +Tuckey +Turner +Tylor, E.B. + +Varigny, O. de +Vaschide +Vatsyayana +Velten +Venturi +Vinci, L. de +Vineberg +Volkelt +Vurpas + +Waits +Wallace, A.E. +Wallaschek +Waller, A. +Walther, P. von +Wartanoff +Watts, G.F. +Weinhold, K. +Wellhausen +Wessmann +Westermarck +Whytt +Wiedemann, A. +Wiese +Wilks, Sir S. +Wright, T. +Wundt + +Yellowlees +Yung, E. + +Zola +Zurcher +Zwaardemaker + + + + +INDEX OF SUBJECTS. + +Acne in relation to sexual development +AEsthetics, + standard modified by love + in region of smell + in relation to the sexual impulse +Ainu +Alexander the Great, + odor of +Ambergris +American Indians + types of beauty + ideas of beauty + seldom acquainted with kiss +Anaesthesia produced by tuning forks +Antisexual instinct +Arabs, + ideal of beauty + kissing among +Armpit, + odor of +Asafoetida +Assortative mating +Australians + ideal of beauty + kissing among + +Bath, + its history in modern Europe + opposed by early Christians + also by Mohammed +Baudelaire's olfactory sensibility +Beard in relation to beauty +Beauty, + as the symbol of love + the chief agent in sexual selection + the sexual element in aesthetic + its largely objective character + ideals of, among various peoples + sometimes found in lowest races + primary sex characters as an element of +Beauty, clothing in relation to + secondary sexual characters as an element of + in relation to pigmentation + the individual element in ideal of + the exotic element + in relation to stature +Bird song, + origin of +Biting in relation to origin of kissing +Blind, + sense of smell in the + sensitiveness to voice +Blondes, + the admiration for +Breasts, + as an element of beauty + as a tactile sexual focus +Breath, + odor of +Brothels, + public baths once synonymous with +Brummell +Brunettes, + the admiration for +Bustle + +Capryl odors +Carbolic acid disliked by savages +Castoreum +Cataglottism +Catholic theologians, + on danger of tactile contacts + opposed bathing +_Chenopodium vulvaria_ +Chinese ideal of beauty + odor of + music among + practice the olfactory kiss +Christianity, + its use of the kiss + opposition to bathing +Civet +Cleanliness and Christianity +Cleanliness in relation to sexual attraction +Clitoris, + deformation of +Clothing, + sexual attraction of +Codpiece +Coitus, + body odor during +Comic sense +Continence, + odor of +Corset +Crinoline +Cumarine +_Cunnilingus_ +Cutaneous excitation, + tonic effects of + +Dancing in sexual selection +Death, + odor of +Degenerates sexually attracted to one another +Disparity, + the sexual charm of +Dogs practice _cunnilingus_ + predominance of smell in mental life of + susceptibility to music +Doves, + sexual attraction among +Dyeing the hair, + origin of + +Egyptian ideal of beauty +Emotional memory +English type of beauty +Erogenous zone +Eskimo +Eunuchs, + odor of +Europeans, + odor of +Exotic element in ideal of beauty +Eyes as a factor of beauty + +Fairness in relation to vigor + the admiration for +Farthingale +_Fellatio_ +Fetichism, + olfactory + urinary + shoe +Flowers, + occasional injurious effect of perfumes of + sexual character of their perfume +French ideal of beauty +Fuegians + +German ideal of beauty +Goethe's olfactory sensibility +Gray eyes, + admiration for +Greeks, + conception of music + ideal of beauty + pygmalionism among +Green eyes, + admiration for +Gunnings, the + +Hair as an element of beauty + sexual development of + suggested function of + odor of +Hallucinations of smell +Hamilton, Lady +Hebrews acquainted with kiss + ideal of beauty +Henna plant, + odor of +Heterogamy +Hindu ideal of beauty +Hips as a feature of beauty +Homogamy +Hottentot apron as a feature of beauty +Hura dance +Hypnosis, + effect of music during +Hysteria and the skin + +Immorality and bathing +Incest, origin of the abhorrence of +Incontinence, + odor of +Indians, American, + ideas of beauty + odor of + types of beauty + seldom acquainted with kiss +Infants, + odor of +Insects and music + smell in their sexual life +Inversion, + influence of odor in sexual +Irish ideal of beauty +Italian ideal of beauty +Itching, + its parallelism to sexual tumescence + +Japanese, + ideal of beauty + odor of + perfumes among + unacquainted with kiss +Javanese +Jewish ideal of beauty +Joan of Aragon as a type of beauty + +Kiss, the +Kwan-yin as a type of beauty + +Lactation, + controlling influences on + in relation to menstruation +Larynx at puberty +Laughter as a form of detumescence +Leather, + odor of +Lily, + odor of +Longevity and beauty + +Malays, + ideals of beauty + the kiss among +Maoris +Married couples, + degree of resemblance between +Massage as a sexual stimulant +Masturbation, + in relation to acne + in relation to bleeding of nose + in relation to hallucinations of smell +Melody, + the nature of +Memories, + olfactory + tactile +Menstruation, + in relation to acne + in relation to lactation + in relation to body odors + in relation to bleeding of nose +Mirror as a method of heightening tumescence +Mixoscopy +Modesty in relation to ticklishness +Mohammed, + his love of perfumes + his opinion of public baths +Mohammedans, + attitude toward bath + preference for musk perfume +Mosquitoes, + attracted by music +Moths, + sexual odors of +Movement, + beauty of +Music, + among Chinese and Greeks + origins of + effects of, during hypnosis + physiological influence of +Music, + why it is pleasurable + its sexual attraction among animals + in man + supposed therapeutic effects +Musk +Mutilations, + among savages for magic purposes + for sake of beauty + +Narcissism +Nasal mucous membrane and genital sphere +Nates as a feature of beauty +Necklace, + significance of +Necrophily +Negress, + beauty of + odor of +Negro ideas of beauty + odor of + mode of kissing +Neopallium +Neurasthenia and olfactory susceptibility + in relation to pruritus +Nicobarese +Nietzsche's supposed olfactory sensibility +Nipple as a sexual focus +Nose and sexual organs, + supposed connection, between + +Obesity, + the oriental admiration for +Odors, + artificial + classification of + as stimulants + as medicines + distinctive of various human races + of sanctity +Odors of death + of the body +Olfaction in relation to sexual selection + (See "Odors" and "Smells.") + the study of +Olfactory area of brain +Ooephorectomy and sense of smell +Orgasm as a skin reflex + founded on tactile sensations + produced by various tactile contacts +Ornament, + its religious significance + sexual significance of +Overall, Mrs. + +_Padmini_ +Papuans +Parity, + the sexual charm of +Peasants, + odor of +Peau d'Espagne +Perfume, + ancient use of + sexual influence of + results of excessive stimulation by +Persian ideal of beauty +Phallus worship +Pigmentation connected with intensity of odor + in relation to beauty + in relation to vigor +Polynesian dancing +Pompeii +Preferential mating +Pregnancy as an ideal of beauty +Primary sex characters as an element of beauty +Provencal ideal of beauty +Pruritus +Puberty, + accompanied by increased interest in art + olfactory sensibility at +Pygmalionism + +Reeve, Pleasance +Renaissance type of beauty +Restif de la Bretonne +Rhinencephalon +Rhythm, + as a stimulant + the sense of + +Saddleback as a feature of beauty +Salutation by smelling +Samoans +Sanctity, odor of +Savages, + important part played by odor in their mental life + sometimes beautiful + their ideals of beauty +Secondary sexual characters in relation to sexual attraction +Semen, + odor of +Sexual differences in admiration of beauty + in olfactory acuteness + in urination +Shoe fetichism +Singalese ideal of beauty +Singing as affected by sexual emotion +Skin, + complexity of its functions +Smell, + antipathies aroused by + its evolution + sexual significance in animals + its significance in man + theory of + special characteristics of + as the sense of the imagination + as distinctive of races and individuals + hallucinations of + in part the foundation of kiss + results of its excessive stimulation +Sneezing and sexual stimulation +Spanish ideal of beauty + saddle-back as an element of +Stanley, Lady Venetia +Statues, sexual love of +Statue in relation to beauty +Steatopygia +Strength, + the admiration of women for +Suckling as a cause of perversion + as a source of sexual emotion +Swahilis + +Tahiti +Tallness, + the admiration of +Taste no part in sexual selection +Tattooing +Tennyson +Thure-Brandt system of massage as a sexual stimulant +Ticklishness + not a simple reflex + explainable by summation-irradiation theory + in relation to the sexual embrace + diminishes with age + also after marriage +Touch, + of kiss +Touch, + in part, foundation of kiss + the most primitive of all senses + the first to prove pleasurable + the most emotional sense + foundation of sexual orgasm +Triangle as a sexual symbol +Tumescence as a necessary preliminary to sexual influence of odors + the chief stimuli of + +Urinary fetichism +Urination, + habits of sexes in +Uterus, + its relations to breast + +_Vair_, significance of term +Valerianic acid +Vanilla +Viguier, Paule de +Violet perfume +Voice as a source of sexual stimulation +Vulvar odor, + alleged function of + +Wagner's music, + emotional effects of +Walk, + beauty of +Whitman, + odor of Walt + +Zola's olfactory sensibility + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX, +VOLUME 4 (OF 6)*** + + +******* This file should be named 13613.txt or 13613.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/6/1/13613 + + + +Updated editions will 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