Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction Part 3

5. To take the bridegroom's point-hose and pa.s.s it through the wedding ring: knot the said point, holding the fingers in the ring, and afterwards cut the knot saying, "G.o.d loosens what the Devil fastens."

6. When the new-married couple are about to retire for the night to fasten upon the thigh of each a little slip of paper, inscribed with these words, _Domine, quis similis tibi?_

7. To broach a cask of white wine from which none has yet been drawn, and pour the first of the liquor which flows, through the wedding ring.

8. To rub with wolf's grease the door posts through which the married couple pa.s.s on their way to the nuptial bed.

9. To write upon virgin parchment before sunrise, and for nine days successively, the word _Arigazartor_.

10. To p.r.o.nounce the word _Temon_ three times successively at sunrise, provided the day promises to be fine.

But the mode of procedure in which the learned curate Thiers appears to place the greatest confidence is that employed by a priest of his acquaintance. This person's plan was to tie the bride and bridegroom to a pillar and administer to them with his own hand the stimulus with which the pedagogue awakens the genius of idle and sluggish pupils; after this flagellation they are unbound and left together, amply provided with such restorative and stimulants as are proper to maintain the condition so favourable to Venus, in which he had placed them. The result was in the highest degree satisfactory.

Bodin informs us that he knew at Bordeaux, a woman of middle age, but still lively and fresh, who professed to cure radically all enchantments of this description. Nothing could be more natural than her _modus operandi_. She got into bed with her patients, and there by the resources of her amatory powers succeeded so well in arousing their flagged and sluggish desires that their domestic peace was never afterwards disturbed by the reproaches of their disappointed spouses.

Upon her mother's death, the daughter embraced the same interesting profession and in addition to acquiring considerable reputation by her successful practise, realized a handsome fortune.

Ridiculous and contemptible as this quackery now appears, so great at one time was its power, that persons every way qualified for the generative act, have been seen suddenly reduced to a humiliating nullity, in consequence of an impudent charlatan, a village sorcerer or a fortune-teller having threatened them with point-tying. Saint Andre, a French physician, gives an account of a poor weaver, who having disappointed Madame Andre in not bringing home some work was threatened by that lady with being point-tied by her husband the doctor. The poor fellow was so alarmed that the charm had the same effect as a reality, nor was it until the work he had in hand was finished, and the lady had consented to restore him to his natural state, that he could resume the exercises of his conjugal duties.

Venette gives the case of one Pierre Buriel. "This man," to use Venette's own words, "was about thirty-five years of age, a cooper and brandy manufacturer by trade. Being at work one day for my father in one of his country houses, he offended me by some impertinent observations, to punish which I told him the next day that I would point-tie him when he married. It so happened that he had the intention of uniting himself with a servant girl who lived in the neighbourhood, and although I had threatened him merely in a jesting manner, it made so strong an impression upon him that although, when married, he felt the most ardent desire to enjoy his connubial rights, he found himself totally incapacitated for the work of love. Sometimes when he flattered himself with being on the point of accomplis.h.i.+ng his wishes, the idea of the witchcraft obtruded itself, and rendered him for the time completely impotent. This incapacity alienated the affections of his wife, and produced on her part towards him the most repulsive coldness. I need not say what gain I felt on witnessing these effects, how I regretted having, I may truly say, unintentionally caused so unpleasant a state of things, and I did and said everything in my power to disabuse the man, and prove to him the folly of his impressions. But the more I did so, the more he testified his abhorrence of me, and his conviction that I had really bewitched him. At length the curate of Notre Dame, who had married them, interfered, and after some time succeeded, though with considerable difficulty, in freeing him from his imaginary bonds. They lived together for twenty-eight years, and several children, now citizens of Roch.e.l.le, were the issue of their union."

Montaigne gives us a curious story upon this subject, which he introduces thus: "I am not satisfied and make a very great question, whether those pleasant ligatures with which the age of ours is so fettered--and there is almost no other talk--are not mere voluntary impressions of apprehension and fear; for I know by experience, in the case of a particular friend of mine, one for whom I can be as responsible as for myself, and a man that cannot possibly fall under any manner of suspicion of sufficiency, and as little of being enchanted, who having heard a companion of his make a relation of an unusual frigidity that surprised him at a very unseasonable time, being afterwards himself engaged upon the same account, the horror of the former story so strangely possessed his imagination that he ran the same fortune the other had done; he from that time forward (the scurvy remembrance of his disaster running in his mind and tyrannizing over him) was extremely subject to relapse into the same misfortune. He found some remedy, however, for this inconvenience by himself frankly confessing and declaring beforehand to the party with whom he was to have to do, the subjection he lay under, and the infirmity he was subject to; by which means the contention of his soul was, in some sort, appeased; and knowing that now some such misbehaviour was expected from him, the restraint upon those faculties grew less, and he less suffered by it, and afterwards, at such times as he could be in no such apprehension as not being about any such act (his thoughts being then disengaged and free, and his body being in its true and natural state) by causing those parts to be handled and communicated to the knowledge of others, he was at last totally freed from that vexatious infirmity.

After man has once done a woman right, he is never after in danger of misbehaving himself with that person, unless upon the account of a manifest and inexcusable weakness. Neither is this disaster to be feared but in adventures where the soul is over-extended with desire or respect, and especially where we meet with an unexpected opportunity that requires a sudden and quick despatch; and in these cases, there is no possible means for a man always to defend himself from such a surprise as shall put him d.a.m.nably out of countenance. And yet I have known some who have secured themselves for this misfortune by coming half-sated elsewhere, purposely to abate the ardour of their fury, and others who being grown old, find themselves less impotent by being less able; and particularly one who found an advantage by being a.s.sured by a friend of his that had a countercharm against certain enchantments that would defend him from this disgrace. The story itself is not much amiss, and therefore you shall have it.--A count of a very great family, and with whom I had the honour to be familiarly intimate, being married to a very fair lady, who had formerly been pretended to and importunately courted by one who was invited to and present at the wedding. All his friends were in very great fear, but especially an old lady, his kinswoman, who had the ordering of the solemnity, and in whose house it was kept, suspecting his rival would, in revenge, offer foul play, and procure some of these kinds of sorceries to put a trick upon him, which fear she also communicated to me, who, to comfort her, bade her not trouble herself, but rely upon my care to prevent or frustrate any such designs. Now, I had, by chance, about me, a certain flat piece of gold, whereon were graven some celestial figures good to prevent frenzy occasioned by the heat of the sun, or for any pains of the head, being applied to the suture; where, that it might the better remain firm, it was sewed to a ribbon, to be tied under the chin. A foppery cousin-german to this of which I am speaking was Jacques Pelletier who lived in the house, presented to me for a singular rarity and a thing of sovereign virtue. I had a fancy to make some use of this quack, and therefore privately told the count that he might probably run the same fortune other bridegrooms had sometimes done, especially some persons being in the house who, no doubt, would be glad to do him such a courtesy; but let him boldly go to rest, for I would do him the office of a friend, and if need were, would not spare a miracle that it was in my power to do, provided he could engage to me, upon his honour, to keep it to himself, and only when they came to bring him his candle (a custom in France being to bring the bridegroom a candle in the middle of the night, on his wedding night) if matters had not gone well with him, to give such a sign, and leave the rest to me. Now, he had his ears so battered and his mind so prepossessed with the eternal tattle of this business, that when he came to it, he did really find himself tired with the trouble of his imagination, and accordingly, at the time appointed, gave me the sign. Whereupon I whispered him in the ear, that he should rise under pretence of putting us out of the room, and after a jesting manner, pull my night-gown from my shoulders, throw it over his own, and keep it there till he had performed what I appointed him to do, which was that when we were all gone out of the chamber, he should withdraw to make water, should three times repeat such and such words and as often do such and such actions; that at every of the three times be should tie the ribbon I put into his hand about his middle, and be sure to place the medal that was fastened to it (the figures in such a posture) exactly upon his reins; which being done, and having the last of the three times so well girt and fastened the ribbon that it could neither untie nor slip from its place, let him confidently return to his business, and withal not to forget to spread my gown upon the bed so that it might be sure to cover them both. These ridiculous circ.u.mstances are the main of the effect, our fancy being so far seduced as to believe that so strange and uncouth formalities must of necessity proceed from some abstruse science. Their inanity gives them reverence and weight.

However, certain it is that my figures proved themselves more _Veneran_ than _Solar_, and the fair bride had no reason to complain."

Upon a due consideration of this singular superst.i.tion, it must be obvious to any person of sense that these pretended ligatures are, in fact, the consequence of an enfeebled const.i.tution, weak intellects, and sometimes of an ardent imagination, an over-excited desire which carries the vitality to the head, and diverts it from its princ.i.p.al direction.

Do away with these circ.u.mstances and imagine a man in full health, and gifted with a young and vigorous const.i.tution, alike incapable of allowing himself to be acted upon by vain terrors, and of permitting his pa.s.sions an uncontrolable course; and all the charms and incantation of these redoubted point-tiers would immediately cease. Who, for instance, could pretend to point-tie that hero of ancient Greece so famous for his twelve labours, of which by far the most brilliant was the transforming, in the course of one night, fifty young virgins into as many women![67]

The most singular circ.u.mstance, however, connected with impotency is, that for a long time there existed exclusively in France a particular kind of proof called--The Judicial Congress. In the old jurisprudence of that country but little value was attached to moral proofs; all was made to depend upon material ones, which were made by witnesses. The whole enquiry after truth was made to depend upon the establishment of the fact, and, too frequently, the administrators of the law were not over-scrupulous as to the nature of the testimony by which it was to be proved. Provided there were such testimony, no matter of whatever kind, no matter how contradictory to common sense, justice p.r.o.nounced itself satisfied, for, relying upon this testimony it was enabled to p.r.o.nounce its decision, and this was all it required. Hence all those personal examinations of litigants, so often practised formerly, and hence the judge, whatever might be the nature of the suit or complaint, ordered a report to be made by parties chosen to that effect, and who were called _experts_ or examiners. This mode of procedure was employed in cases in which a woman applied for a divorce from her husband on the ground of impotency: hence arose the _Congres_, in which the justice of the application was to be proved in the presence of examiners appointed to give in a report upon the case to the court. "Ce qui est encore plus honteux," says a writer of the 17th century, "c'est qu'un quelques proces, les hommes ont visite la femme, et au contraire, les femmes ont ete admises a visiter l'homme, qui a ete cause d'une grande irrison et moquerie, que telles procedures ont servi de contes joyeux et plaisans discours en beaucoup d'endroits."[68] The whole was a most disgusting procedure, which, although greatly abused, was for a long time encouraged as offering a legal mode of dissolving a marriage which was incompatible with the happiness of both the parties, but which the law declared to be indissoluble. The judges who introduced or maintained the Congress, who, in fact, protected it, only contemplated it, but certainly most erroneously as a proper means of legalizing divorces.

All historians, and other writers who have treated of this disgraceful inst.i.tution, pretty generally agree in giving it an origin not further back than the commencement of the 16th century; it is, however, but the extension of a custom almost as obscene which prevailed in the first ages of Christianity. This was nothing less than the subjecting a young girl, whether nun or otherwise, accused of fornication, to a rigorous personal examination, whence was to result the proof of her innocence or guilt. Siagrius, Bishop of Verona, and who lived towards the close of the fourth century, condemned a nun to undergo this disgusting and insulting examination. St. Ambroise, his metropolitan, disapproved of the Bishop's sentence, declared the examination as indecent, thus attesting its existence. The opinion, however of this prelate, supposed as it was by that of several others, did not prevent the continuance of this custom for a very long time. The ecclesiastical and civil tribunals frequently directed this proof to be made; and Venette[69] cites the proces-verbal of a similar examination made by order of the Mayor of Paris in 1672, in the case of a woman who complained of violence committed on her by a man of dissolute habits.

We prefer giving the following curious description of the manner of conducting the Congress in the original quaint and antiquated French:

"La forme duquel Congrez est, qui le iour et heure prins, et les Expers connenus ou nommez (qui sont ordinairement ceux memes qui ont fait la visitation lesquels partant n'ont garde de se contrarier ny de rapporte que l'homme y a fait l'intromission ayant desia (deja) rapporte sa partie vierge et non corrompue) le juge prend le serment des parties, qu'elles tascheront de bonne foy et sans dissimulation d'accoplir l'uvre de mariage sans y apporter empeschement de part ny d'autre: des Expers qu'ils ferot fidelle rapport de ce qui se pa.s.sera au Congrez; cela fait les parties et les expers se retirent en une chabre pour ce preparee, ou l'homme et la femme sont de rechef visites, l'homme, afin de scavoir s'il a point de mal, s'en estans trouue a aucuns l'ayans gaigne depuis avoir este visite qui n'ont laisse d'estre separes encore, qu'il parust a.s.sez par la qu'ils n'estoient impuissans, la femme pour considerer l'estat de se partie honteuse et, par ce moyen cognoistre la difference de son ouverture et dilatation, auant et apres le Congrez, et si l'intromission y aura este faicte, ou non: sans, toutefois, parler en leur rapport de la virginite ou corruption de la femme, reputee vierge, ayant vne fois este rapportee telle, sans qu'on la visite plus pour cela.

En quelques proces (comme en celuy de Bray, 1578) les parties sont visites nues depuis le sommet de la teste iusques a la plante des pieds, en toutes les parties des leurs corps, _etiam in podice_, pour scavior s'il n y a rien sur elles qui puissent auancer ou empescher le congrez, les parties honteuses de l'homme lavees d'eau tiede (c'est a scavoir a quelle fin) et la femme mise en demy bain, ou elle demeure quelque temps. Cela fait, l'homme et la femme se couchent en plein iour en un lict, Expers presens, qui demeurent en la chambre, ou se retirent (si les parties le requierent on l'vne d'elles, en quelque garde-robe ou gallerie prochaine, l'huis (la porte) entreouvert toutefois, et quand aux matrones se tiennent proche du lict, et les rideaux estant tirez, c'est a l'homme a se mettre en devoir de faire preuve de sa puissance habitant charnellement avec sa partie et faisant intromission: ou souvent aduiennent des altercations honteuses et ridicules, l'homme se plaignant que sa partie ne le veut laisser faire et empesche l'intromission; elle le niant et disant qu'il veut mettre le doigt et la dilater, et ouvrir par ce moyen; de sorte qu'il faudroit qu'un homme fust sans apprehension et pire qu'aucunes bestes, ou que _mentula velut digito uteretur_, s'il ne desbandsit cependant au cas qu'il fust en estat, et si no obstant ces indignitez il pa.s.sait autre iusques a faire intromission; encore ne scauroit il, quelque erection qu'il face (fa.s.se), si la partie veut l'empescher si on ne lui tenoit les mains et les genoux ce qui ne se fait pas. En fin, les parties ayas este quelque teps au lict, comme une heure ou deux, les Espers appellex, ou de leur propre mouvement, quand ils s'ennuyent en ayant de subject, _si sint viri_, s'approchent, et ouvrans les rideaux, s'informent de ce qui s'est pa.s.se entre elles, et visitent la femme derechef, pour scavoir si elle est plus ouverte et dilatee que lorsqu'

elle s'est mise au lict, et si intromission a ete faicte aussi, _an facta sit emission, ubi, quid et quale emissio_.

Ce qui ne se fait pas sans bougie et lunettes a gens qui s'en seruent pour leur vieil age, ni sans des recherches fort sales et odieuses: et font leur proces verbal de ce qui s'est pa.s.se au Congrez (ou pour mieux dire) de ce qu'ils veulent, qu'ils baillent au juge, estant au mesme logis vne salle, ou chambre a part, avec les procureurs et patriciens, en cour d'Eglise, attendant la fin de cet acte lequel rapporte est tousiours (toujours) au desaduantage des hommes a faute d'auoir fait intromission, sans laquelle, l'erection _etiam sufficiens ad coeundem_, ny l'emission n'empeschent la separation, comme il se voit par les proces verbaux des Congrez de De Bray des onziesme et vingt unsiesme d'Apuril, 1578. Auxquels Congrez, princ.i.p.alement au premier, il fit erection rapportee suffisante _ad copulem carnalem, et emisit extra vas, sed non intromisit_, et pour cela fut separe; laquelle intromission ne peust aussi estre faite au Congrez par quelque homme que ce fut, si la femme n'y preste consentement, et empesche, comme il est tout notaire."

The first judicial sentence which ordered a Congress is said to have been caused by the shameless effrontery of a young man who, being accused of impotency, demanded permission to exhibit proof of his powers before witnesses, which demand being complied with, the practice was introduced into the jurisprudence of the country. But, as we have already shown, the custom of the Judicial Congress may be referred to a far earlier period, in fact, to the remotest times of the middle ages, and that it originated with the Church, when the public morals were far from being well ascertained, as is proved by many well-known privileges belonging to the Seigneur or Lord of the Manor. Pope Gregory the Great, who was raised to the Pontificate in 590, appears to have been the first who conferred upon bishops the right of deciding this description of questions. It was, doubtless, from considerations of tender regard for female modesty that the Church took upon itself the painful duty of investigating and deciding upon questions of this nature. Numerous instances prove this, especially the dissolution of the marriage of Alphonso VI. of Portugal and his Consort, p.r.o.nounced in 1688, and mentioned by Bayle.[70] The great antiquity of this custom is proved by the 17th Art. of the Capitulars of Pepin, in the year 752, which bears a direct allusion to it: inasmuch as that article established as a principle that the impotency of a husband should be considered as a lawful cause for divorce, and that the proof of such impotency should be given, and the fact verified at the foot of the Cross--_exeant ad crucem, et si verum fuerit, separantur_.

That the Congress originated with the Church, who considered it as an efficacious means for deciding questions of impotency, is still further proved by the President Boutrier and by other writers, who a.s.sert that the ecclesiastical judges of other times were alone empowered (to the exclusion of all secular ones) to take cognizance of cases of impotency.

It is well attested that during the 16th and 17th centuries all the courts of law in France held the opinion that a marriage be anulled on the demand of a wife who claimed the Congress.

The fatal blow to this disgusting custom was given by a decree of the Parliament of Paris, under the presidency of the celebrated Lamoignon, dated Feb. 18, 1677, which decree forbids the practice by any other court whatsoever, ecclesiastical or civil. It is supposed that the ridicule cast upon it by the following lines of Boileau had no small share in causing its suppression.

"Jamais la b.i.+.c.he en rut, n'a pour fait d'impuissance Traine du fond des bois, un cerf a l'audience; Et jamais juge, entre eux ordonnant le congres, De ce burlesque mot n'a sali ses arrets."[71]

Three causes were alleged for the abolition of the Congress--its obscenity, its inutility, and its inconveniences. Its obscenity; for what could be more infamous, more contrary to public decency and to the reverence due to an oath than the impurity of the proof, both in its preparation and execution? Its inutility; for what could be less certain and more defective? Can it be, for one moment, imagined that a conjunction ordered by judges between two persons embittered by a law-suit, agitated with hate and fury against each other, can operate in them? Experience has shown that, of ten men the most vigorous and powerful, hardly one was found that came out of this shameful combat with success; it is equally certain that he who had unjustly suffered dissolution of his marriage, for not having given a proof of his capacity in the infamous Congress, had given real and authentic evidences of it in a subsequent marriage. This degrading mode of proof, in short, far from discovering the truth, was but the cause and foundation for impotence and falsehood. Its inconveniences; these are--the declared nullity of a legitimate marriage--the dishonour cast upon the husband, and the unjust damages, oftentimes exorbitant, which he is condemned to pay--two marriages contracted upon the dissolution of the first--both of which, according to purity and strictness, are equally unlawful--the error or the malice discovered, _ex post facto_, and, nevertheless, by the authority of the law, became irreparable.

It was in the power of the magistrate, upon a complaint of impotency being alleged by a wife against her husband, to order examiners to make an inspection of the husband's parts of generation, and upon their report to decide whether there was just cause for a divorce; and this without proceeding to order the congress. The following are a few cases of this description, and are extracted from the reports and judgments of the Officialty at Paris in cases of impotency.

Case I. Jean de But, master fringe maker, was, in 1675, charged with impotency by Genevieve Helena Marcault, his wife; he being inspected by Renauolot, a physician, and Le Bel, a surgeon, by order of the official; they declared that, after a due and thorough examination of all the members and parts of the said De But, as well genital, as others which might throw a light upon the case and likewise his condition of body, his age, the just conformation and proportion of his limbs, but especially his p.e.n.i.s, which was found to be of as proper a thickness, length and colour as could be wished: and likewise his t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, which exhibited no perceptible viciousness or malformation, they are of opinion that from all these outward marks, which are the only ones they consider themselves justified in judging from, the said De But is capacitated to perform the matrimonial act. Signed by them at Paris, July 18, 1675, and attested by the Sieur de Combes. And on August 23, 1675, by the sentence of M. Benjamin, official, the said Marcault was non-suited and ordered to return to her husband and cohabit with him.

Case II. Inspection having been ordered by the official of Paris of the body of Joseph Le Page, who is taxed with impotency by Nicola de Loris, his wife, the said inspection was made by Deuxivoi and De Farci, physicians, and Paris and Du Fertre, surgeons; their report is as follows:--

"We have found the exterior of his person to be like that of other men's, the p.e.n.i.s of a good conformation and naturally situated, with the nut or glans bare, its adjoining parts fringed with soft, fine hair, the s.c.r.o.t.u.m of an unexceptional thickness and extent, and in it vessels of good conformation and size, but terminating unequally; on the right side, they end in a small, flabby substance instead of a true t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e; and on the left side we observed a t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e fixed to the extremity of one of the vessels, as usual, invested in its tunicle, which left t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e we do not find to be at all flabby, but of a middling size: upon the whole, we are of opinion that the said Le Page is capable of the conjugal act but in a feeble manner. Signed and dated March 5, 1684. By the sentence of M. Cheron, the official, the said De Loris's pet.i.tion is rejected, and she is enjoined to return to her husband."

Case IV. Peter Damour being accused of impotency by his wife Louisa Tillot an inspection was ordered to be made by Rainset and Afforti, physicians, and Franchet and Colignon, surgeons. They report as follows:--"We have proceeded to inspect Peter Damour, master saddler at Paris, and having attententively examined his parts of generation, we have found them well const.i.tuted and in good condition as to their size, conformation and situation for the conjugal act; according, however to the statement of the said Damour himself, the erection is imperfect, the p.e.n.i.s not being sufficiently rigid for perforating the v.a.g.i.n.a; admitting this, however, to be the case, we are of opinion that the imperfection may be remedied, repaired, and rectified, in time, by proper remedies.

Signed January 16, 1703." In consequence the official, M. Vivant, refused Villot's demand, and ordered her to go home to her husband and cohabit with him as her lawful spouse.

Case V. In the suit of Demoiselle Maris Louise Bucheres accusing of impotence Antoine de Bret, an inspection was ordered and performed by Venage and Lita, physicians, Lombard and Delon, surgeons. They reported as follows: "We find the string of the foreskin shorter than it should be for giving the nut free scope to extend itself when turgid:--that the body of the left t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e is very diminutive and decayed, its tunicle separated, the spermatic vessels very much disordered by crooked swollen veins--that the right t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e is not of a due thickness, though thicker than the other: that it is somewhat withered and the spermatic vessels disordered by crooked swollen veins. On all which accounts we do not think that the natural parts of the said Sieur de Bret have all the disposition requisite for the well performing the functions they were designed for; yet we cannot say that he is impotent until we have inspected the wife. Paris July 11, 1703, Signed." On the 22d of July, 1703, the wife was inspected by the said physicians and surgeons and by two matrons; the result of which was that they observed no visciousness of conformation in her womb: the valvula were circular and the carunclae myrtiformes, placed in the neck of the v.a.g.i.n.a, were soft, supple, flexible, entire, and did not seem to have suffered any violence or displacing, and the cavity of the womb-pipe was free and without any obstacle. Therefore they are of opinion that she is not capable of the conjugal act, and that there has been no intromission, consequently that she is a virgin, and that if the marriage had not been consummated, it is her husband's fault, because of his great debility and defective conformation of his parts of generation. Another inspection of the same parties was ordered Aug. 1, 1703. Bourges and Thuillier being the physicians, and Tranchet and Meri the surgeons, who declared that after due and careful examination they had found no defect which could hinder generation. Their report is dated Paris, Aug. 13, 1703. M. Chapelier ordered, in consequence, both parties,--viz., the Sieur De Bret and the said Bucheres to acknowledge each other for man and wife.

Case VI. On the 2nd April, 1653, the Chevalier Rene de Cordovan, Marquis de Langey, aged 25 years, married Maria de Saint Simon de Courtomer between 13 and 14 years of age. The parties lived very happily for the first four years, that is to say, up to 1657, when the lady accused her husband of impotency. The complaint was heard before the _Lieutenant Civil_ of the _Chatelet_, who appointed a jury to examine the parties.

The examination was made, and the report declared that both parties were duly and fully qualified for performing the conjugal act. In order to invalidate this report the lady affirmed that if she was not a virgin it was in consequence of the brutal efforts of one whose impotency rendered him callous as to the means he employed to satisfy himself. The Chevalier de Langey, much incensed at this imputation, demanded the _Congress_; the judge granted the pet.i.tion, the wife appealed from the sentence, but it was confirmed by the superior courts.

For carrying the sentence into effect, the house of a person named Turpin, who kept baths, was chosen. Four physicians, five surgeons and five matrons were present. It is impossible to enter into the details of this disgusting prequisition; they are given in full detail in the _proces verbal_. Suffice it to say that the event being unfavourable to the chevalier, his marriage was declared void by a decree of the 8th of February, 1659.

By this decree the chevalier was not only condemned to pay back the dowry which he had had with his wife, but was prohibited from contracting another marriage--the lady, on the contrary, was allowed to enter into any other engagement she might think fit, as being considered entirely freed from her former bonds.

The next day after this decree the chevalier made his protest against it before two notaries, declaring that he did not acknowledge himself to be impotent, and that he would, in defiance of the prohibition imposed upon him, enter into wedlock again whenever he pleased.

The lady St. Simon contracted a marriage with Peter de Caumont, Marquis de Boesle, and from this marriage were born three daughters. At the same time the Chevalier de Langley married Diana de Montault de Navaille, and their marriage was followed by the birth of seven children.

In 1670 the Marchioness de Boesle, the ci-devant Countess de Langey, died.

It was in consequence of the ulterior proceedings in the law courts respecting the real paternity of the children of the marchioness that the government availed itself of the opportunity of abolis.h.i.+ng, as we have seen, the useless and obscene ordeal of the congress.

We shall conclude the present Essay by transcribing Dr. Willick's judicious observations upon the s.e.xual intercourse.

_Of the_ s.e.xUAL INTERCOURSE _in particular; its physical consequences with respect to the Const.i.tution of the Individual; under what circ.u.mstances it may be either conducive or detrimental to Health._

A subject of such extensive importance, both to our physical and moral welfare, as the consequences resulting from either a too limited or extravagant intercourse between the s.e.xes deserves the strictest enquiry, and the most serious attention of the philosopher.

The inclination to this intercourse, and the evacuation connected with it, are no less inherent in human nature than other bodily functions. Yet, as the s.e.m.e.n is the most subtle and spirituous part of the human frame, and as it contributes to the support of the nerves, this evacuation is by no means absolutely necessary; and it is besides attended with circ.u.mstances not common to any other. The emission of s.e.m.e.n enfeebles the body more than the loss of twenty times the same quant.i.ty of blood; more than violent cathartics, emetics, &c.; hence excesses of this nature produce a debilitating effect on the whole nervous system, on both body and mind.

It is founded on the observations of the ablest physiologists, that the greatest part of this refined fluid is re-absorbed and mixed with the blood, of which it const.i.tutes the most rarified and volatile part; and that it imparts to the body singular sprightliness, vivacity, and vigour. These beneficial effects cannot be expected if the s.e.m.e.n be wantonly and improvidently wasted. Besides the emission of it is accompanied with a peculiar species of tension and convulsion of the whole frame, which is always succeeded by relaxation. For the same reason, even libidinous thoughts, without any loss of s.e.m.e.n, are debilitating, though in a less degree, by occasioning a propulsion of blood to the genitals.

If this evacuation, however, took place only in a state of superfluity, and within proper bounds, it is not detrimental to health. Nature, indeed, spontaneously effects it in the most healthy individuals during sleep; and as long as we observe no difference in bodily and mental energy after such losses, there is no danger to be apprehended from them.

It is well established and attested by the experience of eminent physicians, that certain indispositions, especially those of hypochondriasis and complete melancholy and incurable by any other means, have been happily removed in persons of both s.e.xes, by exchanging a single state for wedlock.

There are a variety of circ.u.mstances by which the physical propriety of the s.e.xual intercourse is in general to be determined. It is conductive to the well being of the individual, if the laws of nature and society (not an extravagant or disordered imagination) induce man to satisfy this inclination, especially under the following conditions:

1. In young persons, that is, adults, or those of a middle age; as from the flexibility of their vessels, the strength of their muscles, and the abundance of their vital spirits, they can more easily sustain the loss thence occasioned.

2. In robust persons, who lose no more than is speedily replaced.

3. In sprightly individuals, and such as are particularly addicted to pleasure; for the stronger the natural and legal desire, the less hurtful is its gratification.