Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction Part 2

Such, in fact, is the great difficulty of those individuals who have abused their organs and destroyed their sensibility. The erectile tissue whose turgescence is indispensable, no longer admits into its vascular _plexus_ or network, a quant.i.ty of fluid sufficient to give the organ the power of penetrating--_jacet exiguus_--and, although it may be supposed that the seminal glands perform their functions perfectly well, and secrete abundantly the fluid peculiar to them, the copulative organ remains paralyzed. This is the impotence which is brought on by old age, and which Ariosto has so forcibly described in the following lines, wherein he relates the futile attempts made upon Angelica by the hermit:

Egli l'abbraccia, ed a piacer la tocca: Ed ella dorme, e non piu fare ischermo: Or le baccia il bel petto, ora la bocca, Non e, ch'l veggia, in quel loco aspro ed ermo.

Ma nel incontro, it suo destrier trabocca Che al desio non risponde, it corpo infirmo: .........

Tutte le vie, tutti i modi tenta, _Ma quel pigre rozzo non per salta_ Indarno el fren gli scoute e li tormenta E non pu far che tenga la testa alta.[44]

At other times the impotency of the man is independent of the secretion of the fecundating fluid and even of the erection, both of which are regular. In such case it is caused either by the gland not being properly perforated, or by a contraction of the urethral ca.n.a.l, which contraction arrests the seminal fluid at the moment of expulsion, causing it to flow back towards the bladder, or else intercepting the continuous stream and allowing it to run by dribblets only. The former of these imperfections technically called _Hypospsdiaeos_ is a vice of conformation in which the p.e.n.i.s, instead of being perforated at the summit of the gland, presents its opening at a greater or less distance from the gland, at the lower part of the urethra or at the _perinaeum_.

As might be expected, impotency when precocious, influences, in no small degree, the moral character. Cabanis knew three men who, in the vigour of age, had suddenly became impotent, although in other respects they were in good health, much engaged in business, and had but little reason to be affected by the loss of pleasures in which they indulged but very rarely and with great moderation, yet their character became gloomy and irascible, and their mental powers appeared to diminish daily.[45] The celebrated Ribeiro Sanchez, a pupil of Boerhaave, observes in his "_Traite des maladies Veneriennes chroniques_," that these diseases particularly dispose those subject to them to superst.i.tious terrors.

Impotency may, however, equally proceed from moral as from physical causes. In this case it consists in the total privation of the sensibility peculiar to the reproductive organs. This insensibility is by no means infrequent in persons whose mental powers are continually in action, as the following case will shew:--

A celebrated mathematician of a very robust const.i.tution, having married a young and pretty woman, lived several years with her, but had not the happiness of becoming a father. Far from being insensible to the charms of his fair wife, he, on the contrary, felt frequently impelled to gratifying his pa.s.sion, but the conjugal act, complete in every other respect, was never crowned by the emission of the seminal fluid. The interval of time which occurred between the commencement of his labour of love and the end was always sufficiently long to allow his mind, which had been for a moment abstracted by his pleasure, to be brought back to the constant objects of his meditation--that is, to geometrical problems or algebraical formula. At the very moment even of the o.r.g.a.s.m, the intellectual powers resumed their empire and all genital sensation vanished. Peirible, his medical adviser, recommended Madame ---- never to suffer the attentions of her husband until he was _half-seas-over_, this appearing to him the only practicable means of withdrawing her learned spouse from influence of the divine Urania and subjecting him more immediately to that of the seductive G.o.ddess of Paphos. The advice proved judicious. Monsieur ---- became the father of several fine and healthy boys and girls, thus furnis.h.i.+ng another proof of the truth of the maxim, "_Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus_."

But the impotency arising from the predominance of the intellect is the least formidable of all. The one most to be dreaded is that which results from the excessive and premature exercise of the reproductive functions, for, as has been well observed, "the too frequent indulgence of a natural propensity at first increases the concomitant desire and makes its gratification a part of the periodical circle of action; but by degrees the over excitement of the organs, abating their tone and vitality, unfits them for the discharge of their office, the accompanying pleasures are blunted, and give place to satiety and disgust."[46]

Such unfortunate persons as are the victims of this kind of anaphrodisia become old long before their natural time, and have all their generative apparatus blasted with impotency. Their t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es withered and dried up secrete nothing but a serous fluid void of all virtue; the erectile tissue no longer admits into its plexus the quantum of blood necessary for turgescence, the princ.i.p.al organ of the reproductive act remains in a state of flaccidity, insensible to the reiterated and most stimulating solicitations; the muscles destined to favour erection are stricken with paralysis, and the violence of their desires, joined to the want of power to gratify them, drives the unhappy victim to acts of the most revolting lubricity and thence to despair.

An instance of this kind occurred in the case of a young man, the son of an opulent family. He had arrived at p.u.b.erty, but from the early age of ten had been accustomed to indulge in indecent familiarities with young girls, who had gratified him by lascivious manipulations; the consequence was an entire loss of the erectile power. Travelling being recommended, he proceeded to France, where he consulted, but without avail, several celebrated physicians. He then went to the waters of Spa, and there his case was attentively and anxiously considered by Van-Hers.

The sensibility and weakness of the genital member were so great that on the slightest touch, and without any sensation or desire to s.e.xual intercourse the young man emitted a fluid similar to whey. This secretion continued night and day, every time that he made water, or upon the slightest friction of his linen. After various remedies being proposed, without any beneficial results, Van-Hers considered the disease as incurable; but, as the patient would not coincide in his opinion and was very rich, he continued his travels in Italy, France, and Germany, in the hope of recovering his powers of virility. He failed not, as usual, to meet with physicians who, from mercenary motives, held out to him the most illusory prospects of a perfect cure. At length, after six years pa.s.sed in travelling and in vain attempts to regain the generative faculty, he returned to the candid and able physician from whom he had the truth, and whose opinion he was now convinced was but too well founded. As may be supposed, Van-Hers perceived no new circ.u.mstance to justify an alteration in his view of the case, and the unfortunate young man returned home, deeply deploring the advantages of a fortune which had made him the victim of the precocious abuse of pleasures to which he must now bid adieu for ever.[47] Too great warmth of pa.s.sion may not only defeat its own object, but also produce a temporary impotency. A lover, after having, with all the ardour of affections, longed for the enjoyment of his mistress, finds himself at the moment of fruition incapable of consummating his happiness. The only remedy for this misfortune is to allay the over-excitement and to restrain the exuberance of the imagination. It would be madness to persist in endeavouring to obtain a victory which must be certain, as soon as the heat of the animal spirits being abated, a portion of them proceeds to animate the agents of voluptuous pa.s.sion. The following are cases of this description.

"A young man whose wife's relations had promised him a considerable estate as soon as she proved to be pregnant, fatigued himself to no purpose by continued devotions at the shrine of love; his over anxiety defeating the very object he so ardently desired to accomplish. In despair at the failure of his repeated efforts, he was, at length, on the point of believing his wife barren, when, following the advice of a judicious physician, he absented himself from home for a fortnight, and upon his return proved by the success which attended his amorous labours, that absence is sometimes the best doctor."

"A n.o.ble Venetian, aged twenty years, was married to a very handsome lady, with whom he cohabited with a good deal of vigour, but never could emit s.e.m.e.n in the coition, whereas in his dreams he could discharge very freely. This misfortune very much afflicted him and his family; and as no remedy could be found at home, the Venetian amba.s.sadors residing at the different courts of Europe were desired to consult some of the most eminent physicians in the cities where they resided, to account for the causes, and to find a cure for this extraordinary complaint of the difference of the states when in sleep and when actually in coition.

"I was of opinion that it consisted altogether in the urethra being closely shut by the vigour of the erection in coition which found so great a resistance that the powers that throw the seed out of the _vesiculae seminals_ could not overcome it; whereas, in dreams, the pressure on the urethra being much less, an evacuation was affected."

The method of cure was not less successful than obvious from the foregoing account: for gentle evacuations and a slender diet brought about and fully completed their desires.[48]

Cabanis is of opinion that debility of the stomach almost always produces a similar state in the organs of generation. "L'energie ou la debilite de l'estomac produit, presque toujours, un etat a.n.a.logue dans ceux de la generation. J'ai soigne un jeune homme chez qui la paralysie accidentelle de ces derniers avait ete produit par certains vices de la digestion stomachique; et qui reprit la vigueur de son age, aussitot qu'il eut recouvre la puissance de digerer."[49]

Old Montaigne's advice in cases similar to those above cited is worthy of notice. "As to what concerns married people," says he, "having the year before them, they ought never to compel, or so much as offer at the feat, if they do not find themselves very ready. And it is better indecently to fail of handling the nuptial sheets, and of paying the ceremony due to the wedding night, when man perceives himself full of agitation and trembling, expecting another opportunity at a better and more private leisure, when his fancy shall be better composed, than to make himself perpetually miserable for having misbehaved himself, and being baffled at the first result. Till possession be taken, a man that knows himself subject to this infirmity, should leisurely and by degrees make certain little trials and light offers, without attempting at once to force an absolute conquest over his own mutinous and indisposed faculties; such as know their members to be naturally obedient to their desires, need to take no other care but only to counterplot their fancy.

The indocile and rude liberty of this scurvy member, is sufficiently remarkable by its importunate, unruly, and unseasonable tumidity and impatience at such times as we have nothing for it to do, and by its most unseasonable stupidity and disobedience when we stand most in need of its vigour, so imperiously contesting the authority of the will, and with so much obstinacy denying all solicitations of hand and fancy. And yet, though his rebellion is so universally complained of, and that proofs are not wanting to condemn him, if he had, nevertheless, feed me to plead his cause, I should, peradventure, bring the rest of his fellow-members into suspicion of complotting the mischief against him, out of pure envy of the importance and ravis.h.i.+ng pleasure peculiar to his employment, so as to have, by confederacy, armed the whole world against him, by malevolently charging him alone with their common offence."[50]

Too great warmth of clothing round the parts of generation, or too great pressure upon them, may be reckoned as causes of impotency. The custom of wearing breeches was considered by Hippocrates[51] as a predisposing cause of the impotency so common among the ancient Scythians. Mr. Hunter was also of opinion that this article of dress by keeping the parts too warm, affording them a constant support, and allowing the muscles but little freedom of motion, may, at least, relax and cause them to become flaccid, if it do not totally incapacitate them for the due performance of their functions.

Equally disadvantageous, in this respect, is the practice of riding upon horseback, as the organs of generation are, of necessity, frequently compressed either against the saddle or the horse's back. Lalemant, in his Commentaries upon Hippocrates, adduces the case of bakers, upon whom, by their not wearing breeches, the contrary effect is produced.

"We have often heard," says he, "that bakers and others whose parts of generation are not covered by clothing, but hang freely, have large, well-grown t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es."[52]

Another cause of impotency is the allowing the parts of generation to remain too long in a state of inaction. Those parts of the body which are most exercised are always found to be better grown, stronger, and more fitted for the discharge of their natural functions provided the exercise be neither too violent nor too frequent. The parts, on the contrary, which are condemned to rest and inactivity wither and gradually lose their tone, as well as the power of effecting the movements natural to them. Galen observes that the genital organs of the athletae, as well as those of all such whose profession or calling compelled them to remain chaste, were generally shrunken and wrinkled like those of old men, and that the contrary is the case with those who use them to an excess. "All the athletae," says he, "as well as those who for the sake of preserving or improving the voice, are, from their youth, debarred the pleasures of love, have their natural parts shrunken and wrinkled like those of old men, while, in such as have from an early age indulged in those delights to an excess, the vessel of those parts, by the habit of being dilated, cause the blood to flow there in great abundance, and the desire of coition to be proportionately increased, all which is a natural consequence of those general laws which all our faculties obey. Thus it is that the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of women who have never had children remain always small, while those of females who have been mothers, and who suckle their children, acquire a considerable volume, that they continue to give milk as long as they suckle their infants, and that their milk does not fail until they cease to nourish them."[53]

So well, indeed, was this fact known to the ancients, that Aristophanes uses the expression, [Greek: _poosthen mikran_], _penem exiguum_, as an attribute of a youth who has preserved his innocence and [Greek: _kolen megalen_], _penem magnum_, as the sign of a dissolute one.

It will easily be supposed that superst.i.tion when brought to act upon weak and ignorant minds, is capable of producing temporary impotence.

The pretended charm or witchery common in France as late as the close of the 17th century, and known by the name of _nouer l'aiguillette_ (point tying) is a proof of this:

Ami lecteur, vous avez quelquefois Oui conter qu'on _nouait l'aiguillette_, C'est une etrange et terrible recette, Et dont un Saint ne doit jamais user, Que quand d'un autre il ne peut s'aviser.

D'un pauvre amant, le feu se tourne en glance; Vif et perclus, sans rien faire, il se la.s.se; Dans ses efforts etonne de languir, Et consume sur le bord du plaisir.

Telle une fleur des fear du jour sechee, La tete ba.s.se, et la tige penchee, Demande en vain les humides vapeurs Qui lui rendaient la vie et les couleurs.[54]

In olden times, prior to the invention of b.u.t.tons, the femoral habiliments of men, or hose, as they were called, were fastened up by means of tags or points (Gallice) _aiguillettes_. Thus, Falstaff says, "Their points being cut, down fell their hose." From this French word _aiguillette_ was derived the term _nouer aiguillette_ (to tie up the points), equivalent to--b.u.t.ton up the flap, to express the rendering, by enchantment, a husband incapable of performing the conjugal rite. The whole secret of this charm consisted in the impostor choosing for his victim an individual whose youth, inexperience, or superst.i.tion presented him with a fit subject to work upon. The imagination of the party being already predisposed for the trick, a look, a sign, a menace, either of the voice or of the hand, accompanied by some extraordinary gesture, was sufficient to produce the effect, and, as the mere apprehension of an evil frequently occasions its occurrence, it followed that, superst.i.tion having prepared the event, the latter, in his turn, fortified the superst.i.tion, a vicious circle which may justly be considered an opprobrium to a man's intelligence.

That such was the opinion entertained of it by sensible men when it was in vogue, will be seen by the following curious pa.s.sage from an old and quaint French writer:

"Quelques uns tiennent cela pour superst.i.tion, qui quand on dit la Messe des espousees, lorsque l'on p.r.o.nonce ce mot _Sara_, a la benediction nuptiale, si vous estrerignez une esguillette, que le marie ne pourra rien faire a son espousee la nuict suyuante, tant que la dite esguillette demeurera nouee. Ce que j'ay veu experimenter faux infinies fois: car pourveuque l'esguillette du compagnon soit destachee, et qu'il siot bien roide et bien au point il ne faut point douter qu'il n'accoustre bien la besongne, comme il appartient. Aussi donne l'on vn folastre amulette et digne du subject: c'est a scavoir que pour oster le sort, it faut p.i.s.ser au travers d'une bague de laquelle on a este espouse. Veritablement ie le croy: car c'est a dire, en bon Francais que si on degoutte dans cet anneau de Hans Carvel, il n'y a charme qui puisse nuire. Aussi nouer l'esguillette ne signifie autre chose qu'vn couard amant qui aura le mebre aussi peu dispose, que si l'esguillette ne sa brayette estoit nouee."[55]

As to the mode itself of conjuration, Bodin, a writer upon these subjects, a.s.serts that there are not less than fifty different ways of performing it: of all which the most efficacious one is to take a small strip or thong of leather, or silken or worsted thread, or cotton cord, and to make on it three knots successively, each knot, when made, being accompanied by the sign of the cross, the word _Ribald_ being p.r.o.nounced upon making the first knot, _Nabal_ upon making the second one, and _Vanarbi_ upon making the third and last one; all which must be done during the celebration of the marriage ceremony. For the sake of change, one of the verses of the _Miserere mei, Deus!_ may be repeated backwards, the names of the bride and bridegroom being thrice p.r.o.nounced. The first time, the knot must be drawn rather tight; the second time still more so, and the third time quite close. Vulgar operators content themselves with p.r.o.nouncing some cabalistic words during the marriage rite, tracing, at the same time, some mysterious figures or diagrams on the earth with the left foot, and affixing to the dress of the bride or bridegroom small slips of paper having magical characters inscribed upon them. Further details may be found in the works of Sprenger, an inquisitor, Crespet of Sans, Debris, a Jesuit, Bodin, Wier, De Lancre, and other learned demonologists.

This species of enchantment was not unknown to the ancients. Accordingly to Herodotus[56] Amasis was prevented enjoying his wife Ladice by a sorcery of this description, nor was it till after the Queen had vowed a statue to Venus, "_si sec.u.m coiret Amasis_," that the king's wishes and her own were gratified.

Plato warns married persons against such sorceries.[57] Virgil speaks also of impotency effected by ligature.

Terna tibi haec primum, duplici diversa colore Licia circ.u.mdo.[58]

Ovid admits the power of such charms in the following lines:

Carmine laesa, Ceres sterilem vanescit in herbam Deficiunt laesi carmine fontis aquae: Ilicibus glandes, cantataque vitibus uva Decedit, et nulla forma movente, flexunt.

Quid vetat et nervos Et juveni et Cupido, carmine abesse viro.[59]

Of that most detestable of all tyrants, Nero, it is said that, finding he could not enjoy a female whom he pa.s.sionately desired, he complained of having been bewitched.

The fables of Apuleius are full of the enchantments of Pamphilus.[60]

Numantina, the first wife of Plautius Sylva.n.u.s, was accused of having rendered her husband impotent by means of sorcery "injecisse carminibus et veneficiis vecordium marito."[61]

Paulus (Julius) of Tyr states that the law of the Twelve Tables contained an express prohibition against the employment of ligatures; "qui, sacra, impia nocturnave fecerint, ut quem incantarent, obligarent," &c.[62]

Gregory of Tours relates[63] that Eulatius having taken a young woman from a monastery and married her, his concubines, actuated by jealousy, put such a spell upon him, that he could by no means consummate his nuptials. Paulus aemilius, in his life of King Clovis says that Theodoric sent back his wife Hermeberge to her father, the King of Spain, as he had received her, a pure virgin, the force of witchcraft having incapacitated him from taking her maidenhead; which sorcery Aimoinus Monachaus[64] a.s.serts to have been effected by Queen Brunchante.

The practise of point tying was formerly so general that princes and princess made it one of their most amusing pastimes. Louis Sforza having seen the young Princess Isabella, daughter of Alphonso King of Arragon, and who was betrothed to Geleas, duke of Milan, was so enamoured of her beauty that he point-tyed Geleas for several months. Marie de Padille, concubine of Don Pedro King of Castille and Leon, point-tied him so effectually that he could not give the least marks of his fondness to his consort Queen Blanche.

That the church acknowledged the power of these point-tiers is proved by the fact of their having been publicly anathematized by the provincial Councils of Milan and Tours, the Synods of Mont-Ca.s.sin and Ferriare, and by the clergy of France a.s.sembled at Melun in 1579. A great number of rituals specify the means to be employed as counter-charms to the sorceries of the point-tiers; and the Cardinal Cu Perron,[65] a very able and experienced prelate, has inserted in the ritual of Evreux very sage directions for this purpose. Similar precautions may be found in the synodal statues of Lyons, Tours, Sens, Narbonne, Bourges, Troyes, Orleans, and many other celebrated churches. St. Augustine, St. Thomas and Peter Lombard positively recognise the power of point-tying and of disturbing, in this manner, married persons in the enjoyment of their dearest privilege. "_Certum est_," says St. Augustine, "_corporis vires incantationibus vinciri_."

Our James I., who prided himself so much upon his skill in demonology, declares positively that sorcerers and witches possess the power of point-tying, "Or else by staying married folkes, to have naturally adoe with other, _by knitting knottes upon a point at the time of their marriage_."[66]

The old parliament of France have generally admitted the power of these sorcerers. In 1582 the Parliament of Paris condemned one Abel de la Rue to be hung and afterwards burnt for having wickedly and wilfully point-tied Jean Moreau de Contommiers. A singular sentence was p.r.o.nounced in 1597 against M. Chamouillard for having so bewitched a young lady about to be married that her husband could not consummate the marriage. But the most singular instance of the kind upon record is that of R. F. Vidal de la Porte, who was condemned by the judges of Riom to make the _amende honorable_, and afterwards to be hung, and his lady to be burnt until reduced to ashes for having by sorceries and wicked and sacrilegious words point-tied, not only the young men of his town, but also all the dogs, cats and other domestic animals, so that the propagation of these species so useful to man was upon the point of being stopped. In 1718 the Parliament of Bordeaux ordered a famous point-tier to be burnt. This pretended sorcerer had been accused and convicted of having point-tied a n.o.bleman of high family, his wife, and all the men and women servants in his establishment.

It must not be supposed that no counter-charms or amulets existed. The Curate Thiers, who has written at large upon this subject, enumerates twenty-two different ones, the most potent of which were the following:

1. To put salt in the pocket before proceeding to church; pennies marked with the cross and put into the shoes of the bride and bridegroom were equally efficacious.

2. To pa.s.s three times under the crucifix without bowing to it.

3. For the bridegroom to wear upon the wedding day, two s.h.i.+rts, one turned inside out upon the other, and to hold, in the left hand, during the nuptial benediction, a small wooden cross.

4. To lay the new married couple naked upon the ground; to cause the bridegroom to kiss the great toe of the bride's left foot, and the bride the great toe of the bridegroom's right foot: after which they must make the sign of the cross with the left hand and repeat the same with the right or left hand.