Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction Part 7

"Et quae frugifero seritur vicina Priapo Excitet ut veneri tardos eruca maritos."[149]

"Th' eruca, Priapus, near thee we sow To rouse to duty husbands who are slow."

Virgil attributes to it the same quality, designing it as--

"... Et venerem revocans eruca morantem."[150]

"Th'eruca, plant which gives to jaded appet.i.te the spur."

Lobel[151] gives an amusing account of the effects of this plant upon certain monks in the garden of whose monastery it was sown, an infusion of it being daily doled out to them under the impression that its cheering and exhilarating qualities would rouse them from the state of inactivity and sluggishness so common to the inmates of such establishments. But, alas! the continual use of it produced an effect far more powerful than had been contemplated by the worthy itinerant monk who had recommended it, for the poor cen.o.bites were so stimulated by its aphrodisiacal virtues that, transgressing alike their monastic wall and vows, they sought relief for their amorous desires in the fond embraces of the women residing in the neighbourhood.

Salt, mala Bacchica[152] Cubebs, Surag,[153] and radix Chinae (bark), were also regarded by ancient physicians as powerful aphrodisiacs.

Gomez[154] a.s.serts of the first of these substances, that women who much indulge in it are thereby rendered more salacious, and that, for this reason, Venus is said to have arisen from the sea; whence the epigram:

"Unde tot in Veneta scortorum millia cur sunt?

In promptu causa est. Venus orta mari."

"In Venice why so many punks abound?

The reason sure is easy to be found: Because, as learned sages all agree, Fair Venus' birth-place was the _salt, salt sea_."

To the last of the above-mentioned plants, Baptista Porta ascribes the most wonderful powers, his words being: Planta quae non solum edentibus, sed et genitale languentibus tantum valet, ut coire summe desiderant, quoties fere velint, possint; alios _duodecies_ profecisse, alios ad _s.e.xaginta vices_ pervenisse, refert.[155]

Certain condiments are also aphrodisiacal, acting as they undoubtedly do, as powerful stimulants. Thus Tourtelle and Peyrible a.s.sure us that pepper is a provocative to venereal pleasures, while Gesner and Chappel cured an atony of the virile member of three or four years' duration, by repeated immersions of that organ in a strong infusion of mustard seed.

The princ.i.p.al ingredient of the _Bang_ so much used by the Indians, as well as of the _Maslac_ of the Turks is a species of the hemp plant. The Indians, says Acosta,[156] masticate the seeds and leaves of several species of that plant, in order to increase their vigour in the venereal congress, and very frequently combine with it, ambergris, musk, and sugar, preparing it in the form of an electuary. It has been remarked, moreover, that even in our own climate, the caged birds that are fed with hemp seed are the most amorously inclined.

According to Browne[157] whole fields are in Africa sown with _has.h.i.+sh_, the _bang_ of the East Indies, for the purpose of being used as a stimulant to amorous dalliance. It is used in a variety of forms, but in none, it is supposed, more effectually than what in Arabic, is called Maijun, a kind of electuary, in which both men and women indulge to excess.

It is said that the Chinese, domesticated at Batavia, avail themselves of a certain electuary for the purpose of stimulating their appet.i.te for s.e.xual intercourse. This preparation, called by them Affion, is chiefly composed of opium, and it is a.s.serted that its effect is so violent that a brutal pa.s.sion supervenes and continues throughout the night, the female being obliged to flee from the too energetic embraces of her lover.[158]

Narcotics, in general, and especially, opium, have been considered as direct aphrodisiacs, an opinion which, if well founded, would enable us to account more easily far those agreeable sensations by which the use of these substances is followed.

But it is very probable that narcotics act upon the genital organs in no other way than they do upon the other ones, that is to say, they certainly do simulate them, but only proportionately to the increase of force in the circulation of the blood and to the power or tone of the muscular fibre. It is also very probable that the voluptuous impressions superinduced by them depend upon the circ.u.mstances under which those persons are, who habitually indulge in them, and that they are connected with other impressions or with particular ideas which awaken them. If, for instance, in a Sultan reclining upon his sofa, the intoxication of opium is accompanied by images of the most ravis.h.i.+ng delight, and if it occasions in him that sweet and lively emotion which the antic.i.p.ation of those delights awakens throughout the whole nervous system, the same inebriation is a.s.sociated in the mind of a Janizary or a Spahi with ideas of blood and carnage, with paroxysms, the brutal fury of which has certainly, nothing in common with the tender emotions of love. It is in vain to allege in proof of the aphrodisiacal qualities of opium the state of erection in which the genital members of Turks are found when lying dead on a field of battle,[159] for this state depends upon, or is caused by, the violent spasm or universal convulsive movements with which the body is seized in the moment of death: the same phenomenon frequently appears in persons who suffer hanging. In warm countries, it is the concomitant of death from convulsive diseases, and in our own climate, it has been observed in persons who have died from apoplectic attacks.

The power which certain odours possess of exciting venereal desires admits not the slightest doubt, at least as far as the inferior animals are concerned. Nearly all the mammifera exhale or emit, in the rutting season, peculiar emanations serving to announce from afar to the male the presence of the female and to excite in him the s.e.xual desire. Facts have been observed with respect to insects even, which cannot be otherwise accounted for than by odorous effluvia. If, for instance, the female of the bombyx b.u.t.terfly, be placed in a box accurately closed, it will not be long before several males will be seen flying around the prison, and which could not possibly have known, by means of their visual organs, the presence of their captive Dulcinea. Now the question is, does anything a.n.a.logous take place in our own species? Many authors a.s.sert that there does, and among them Virey, who, speaking of such exhalations, says: "L'extreme proprete des hommes et des femmes, l'habitude de se baigner et de changer souvent de linge _font disparatre_ les odeurs genitales.[160] ... On doit aussi remarquer que la haire des Cen.o.bites, la robe des Capucins, le froc des moines, les vetements rudes et mal-propres de diverses corporations religieuses exposent ceux qui les portent a de fortes tentations, a cause de la qualite stimulante et de la sueur fetide dont etaient bientot empreintes toutes ces sortes d'habillements."[161] "Odours," observes Cabanis[162]

"act powerfully upon the nervous system, they prepare it for all the pleasurable sensations; they communicate to it that slight disturbance or commotion which appears as if inseperable from emotions of delight, all which may be accounted for by their exercising a special action upon those organs whence originate the most rapturous pleasure of which our nature is susceptible. In infancy its influence is almost nothing, in old age it is weak, its true epoch being that of youth, that of love."

It is certain that among most nations, and from the remotest antiquity, voluptuous women strengthened their amorous propensities by the use of various perfumes, but particularly of musk, to which has been attributed the power of exciting nocturnal emissions. The great Henry IV., of France, no novice in love affairs, was opposed to the use of odours, maintaining that the parts of generation should be allowed to retain their natural scent, which, in his opinion, was more effectual than all the perfumes ever manufactured by art.

Another aphrodisiacal remedy, which for a long time enjoyed a great reputation was the p.e.n.i.s of the stag, which was supposed to possess the virtue of furnis.h.i.+ng a man with an abundance of seminal fluid. Perhaps the reason why the ancients attributed this property to the genital member of that animal was from the supposition that it was the receptacle of the bile; that the abundance and acrid quality of this fluid caused lasciviousness, and that the stag being transported by an erotic furor during the rutting season, he was the most salacious of animals, and consequently that the genital organ of this quadruped would, when applied to man's generative apparatus, impart thereto considerable heat and irritation. A somewhat similar opinion respecting the horse appears to have obtained among the Tartars, if we may judge from the following account given by Foucher d'Obsonville:[163] "Les palefreniers amenent un cheval de sept a huit ans, mais nerveux, bien nourri et en bon etat. On lui presente une jument comme pour la saillir, et cependant on le retient de facon a bien irriter ses idees. Enfin, dans le moment ou il semble qu'il va lui etre libre de s'elancer dessus, l'on fait adroitment pa.s.ser la verge dans un cordon dont le nud coulant est rapproche au ventre, ensuite, saisissant a l'instant ou l'animal parait dans sa plus forte erection, deux hommes qui tiennent les extremites du cordon le tirent avec force et, sur le champ, le membre est separe du corps au dessus le nud coulant. Par ce moyen, les esprits sont retenus et fixes dane cette partie laquelle rests gonflee; aussitot on la lave et la fait cuire avec divers aromatiques et epiceries aphrodisiaques."

The means of procuring the vigour necessary for s.e.xual delights has also been sought for in certain preparations celebrated by the alchymists.

Struck by the splendour of gold, its incorruptibility, and other rare qualities, some physicians imagined that this metal might introduce into the animal economy an inexhaustible source of strength and vitality; while empirics, abusing the credulity of the wealthy and the voluptuous made them pay exorbitantly for aphrodisiacal preparations in which they a.s.sured their dupes that gold, under different forms, was an ingredient.

Among innumerable other instances, is that of a French lady who, to procure herself an heir, strove to reanimate an exhausted const.i.tution by taking daily in soup what she was made to believe was potable gold, to the value of 50 francs, a fraud to expose which it suffices to say that the largest dose of perchloride of gold that can be safely administered is 1/6th of a grain. The tincture of gold known by the name of _Mademoiselle Grimaldi's potable gold_ enjoyed a wonderful reputation towards the close of the 18th century as an efficacious restorative and stimulant; and numerous instances of its all but miraculous powers were confidently adduced. Dr. Samuel Johnson, indeed, in a note upon a well-known pa.s.sage in Shakespeare,[164] denies the possibility of making gold potable: "There has long," he observes, "prevailed an opinion that a solution of gold has great medicinal virtues, and that the incorruptibility of gold might be communicated to the body impregnated with it. Some have pretended to make gold _potable_ among other frauds practised upon credulity." So far back, however, as the 17th century the Abbe Guence shewed that it was feasible, and even described the process minutely; and it is now known to every chemist that gold is susceptible of entering into immediate combination with chlorine by the agency of heat, that it may even be dissolved in water charged with chlorine, and that various methods exist of obtaining chlorate of gold, a combination which is often successfully employed in the treatment of syphilitic cases. Ether, naptha, and essential oils take gold from its solvent, and form liquors which have been called _potable_ gold.

Even the Christian Church itself possessed, in its early times, aphrodisiacs peculiarly its own. "On trouve," says Voltaire,[165] "dans la lettre a Maitre Acacius Lampirius (Literae virorum obscurorum) une raillerie a.s.sez forte sur la conjuration qu'on employait pair se faire aimer des filles. Le secret consistoit a prendre un cheveu be la fille, on le placoit d'abord dans son haut-de-chausses; on faisoit une confession generale et on fesoit dire trois messes, pendant les quelles on mettoit le cheveu autour de son col; on allumait un cierge beni au dernier Evangile en on p.r.o.noncait cette formule. 'O Vierge! je te conjure par la vertu du Dieu tout-puissant, par des neuf churs des anges, par la vertu gosdrienne, amene moi icelle fille, en chair et en os, afin que _je la saboule_ a mon plaisir.'"

Bourchard, Bishop of Worms, has transmitted to us[166] an account of certain aphrodisiacal charms practised by women of his time, the disgusting obscenity of which is such that we cannot venture upon translating the pa.s.sage:

"Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent? Tollunt menstruum suum sanguinem et immisc.u.n.t cibo vel potui et dant viris suis ad manducandum vel ad bibendum ut plus diligantur ab eis. Si fecisti, quinque annos per legitimas ferias pniteas.

"Gustasti de semine viri tui ut propter tua diabolica facta plus in amorem exardisceret? Si fecisti, septem annos per legitimas ferias pnitere debeas.

"Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent? Prosternunt se in faciem et discoopertis natibus, jubent ut supra nudas nates conficirtur panis, ut eo decocto tradunt maritis suis ad comedendum. Hoc ideo faciunt ut plus exardescant in amorem suum. Si fecisti, duos annos per legitimas ferias pniteas.

"Fecisti quad quaedam mulieres facere solent? Tollunt piscem vivum et mittunt eum in puerperium suum, et tamdiu ibi tenent, donec mortuus fuerit, et decocto pisce vel a.s.sato, maritis suis ad comedendum tradunt. Ideo faciunt ut plus in amorem suum exardescant. Si fecisti, duos annos per legitimas ferias pniteas."

Remedies taken internally are not the only ones which stimulate man to s.e.xual intercourse. External applications materially contribute to that end, and liniments have been composed wherewith to anoint the parts of generation. These washes are made of honey, liquid storax, oil and fresh b.u.t.ter, or the fat of the wild goose, together with a small quant.i.ty of spurge, pyrethrum, ginger or pepper to insure the remedy's penetrating: a few grains of ambergris, musk, or cinnamon are to be added by way of perfume.

Remedies for the same purpose may also be applied to men's t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es especially; as according to the opinion of Galen, those parts are the second source of heat, which they communicate to the whole of the body; for, besides the power of engendering, they also elaborate a spirituous humour or fluid which renders man robust, hardy, and courageous. The best application of this kind is that composed of cinnamon powder, gilliflower, ginger and rose water, together with theriac, the crumb of bread, and red wine.

In addition to the means already mentioned for restoring vigour to the generative organs, two others may be reckoned which have been successfully resorted to for bracing them in such persons whose reproductive faculties lie dormant rather than extinct: these two methods are known as _flagellation_ and _urtication_.[167]

Flagellation was recommended by several of the ancient physicians as an effectual remedy in many disorders, and this upon the physiological axiom of Hippocrates--_ubi stimulus, ibi affluxus_. Seneca considers it as able to remove the quartan ague. Jerome Mercurialis speaks of it as employed by many physicians in order to impart embonpoint to thin, meagre persons; and Galen informs us that slave merchants used it as a means of clearing the complexion of their slaves and plumping them up.

Alaedeus of Padua, recommends flagellation with green nettles, that is, urtication, to be performed on the limbs of young children for the purpose of hastening the eruption of the small pox. Thomas Campanella[168] attributes to flagellation the virtue of curing intestinal obstructions, and adduces in proof to his a.s.sertion, the case of the Prince of Venosa, one of the best musicians of his time, who could not go to stool, without being previously flogged by a valet kept expressly for that purpose.

Even at a later period the same opinion obtained as to the efficacy of flagellation, it being supposed by many physicians to reanimate the torpid circulation of the capillary and cutaneous vessels, to increase muscular energy, to promote absorption, and to favour the necessary secretions of our nature.[169] As an erotic stimulant, more particularly it may be observed that, considering the many intimate and sympathetic relations existing between the nervous branches of the extremity of the spinal marrow, it is impossible to doubt that flagellation exercised upon the b.u.t.tocks and the adjacent parts, has a powerful effect upon the organs of generation.

Meibomius,[170] the great advocate for the use of this remedy, remarks, that stripes inflicted upon the back and loins are of great utility in exciting the venereal appet.i.te, because they create warmth in those parts whose office it is to elaborate the s.e.m.e.n and to convey it to the generative organs. He, therefore, considered it by no means wonderful that the miserable victims of debauchery and lasciviousness, as well as those whose powers have been exhausted by age or excess, should have recourse to flagellation as a remedy. He observes that its effect is very likely to be that of renewing warmth in the now frigid parts, and of furnis.h.i.+ng heat to the s.e.m.e.n, an effect in producing which the pain itself materially contributes by the blood and heat which is thereby drawn down to the part until they are communicated to the reproductive organs, the erotic pa.s.sion being thus raised, even in spite of nature herself, beyond her powers. A similar view is taken by a modern writer, whose opinion is "that the effect of flagellation may be easily referred to the powerful sympathy which exists between the nerves of the lower part of the spinal marrow and other organs. Artificial excitement appears in some degree natural; it is observed in several animals, especially in the feline race. Even snails plunge into each other a bony, p.r.i.c.kly spur, that arises from their throats, and which, like the sting of the wasp, frequently breaks off, and is left in the wound."[171]

After the appearance of the Abbe Boileau's _Histoire de la Flagellation_, the Jesuits condemned several propositions found either in that work or in others approved by him. The following is one:

"Necesse est c.u.m musculi lumbares virgis aut flagellis diverberantur, spiritus vitales revelli, adeoque salaces motus ob vicinam partium genitalium et testium excitari, qui venereis ac illecebris cerebrum mentemque fascinant ac virtutem cast.i.tatis ad extremas augustias redigunt."

From out of almost innumerable instances of the efficacy of flagellation as an aphrodisiac, the following are selected.

Cornelius Gallus, the friend of Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, and Catullus, and who, according to Pliny, died the most delightful of deaths by expiring in the embraces of the fondest object of his affections,[172]

was solely indebted for the delicious transports he enjoyed with her to the scourge with which her severe father chastised her for the faults that originated in too warm a temperament, a punishment which, instead of counteracting, furthered the wishes of the voluptuous Roman.

Jean Pic de Mirandole relates[173] the case of a person known to him who, being a great libertine, could not consummate the act of love without being flagellated until the blood came, and that, therefore, providing himself for the occasion with a whip steeped in vinegar, he presented it to his _inamorata_, begging her not to spare him, for "plus on le fouettait, plus il y trouvait des delices, la douleur et la volupte marchant, dans cet homme, d'un pas egal."

Meibomius mentions the case of a citizen of Lubeck who, being accused and convicted of adultery, was sentenced to be banished. A woman of pleasure with whom this man had been for a long time intimate, appeared before the judges as a witness on his behalf. This woman swore that the man was never able to consummate the act of love with her unless he had been previously flogged,--an operation which it was also necessary to repeat before each successive indulgence.

That this was a means employed by Abelard in his commerce with Heloisa, appears from the following pa.s.sages in two of his letters to her;

"Verbera quandoque dabat amor non furor, gratia non ira quae omnium unguentorum suavitatem transcenderent."[174]

"Stripes which, whenever inflicted by love, not by fury but affection, transcended, in sweetness, every unguent."

"Nosti quantis turpitudinibus immoderata mea libido corpora nostra addixerat et nulla honestatis vel Dei reverentia in ipsis diebus Dominicae pa.s.sionis vel quantarumque solemnitatem ut hujus luti volutabro me revocavit. Sed et te nolentem aut dissuadentem quae natura infirmior eras, ut saepius minis ac flagellis ad consensum trahebam.[175]"

"Thou knowest to what shameful excesses my unbridled l.u.s.t had delivered up our bodies, so that no sense of decency, no reverence for G.o.d, could, even in the season of our Lord's pa.s.sion, or during any other holy festival, drag me forth from out that cesspool of filthy mire; but that even with threats and scourges I often compelled thee who wast, by nature, the weaker vessel, to comply, notwithstanding thy unwillingness and remonstrances."

The renowned Tamerlane, the mighty conqueror of Asia, required a like stimulus,[176] the more so perhaps from the circ.u.mstance of his being a monorchis.[177]

The Abbe Boileau, in his well known and entertaining "Histoire des Flagellants," partly attributes the gross licentiousness of that period to the strange practice then in vogue of doing penance by being scourged in public; and his brother the celebrated poet and critic, defending the Abbe against the animadversions of the Jesuits, remarks very forcibly:

"Non, le livre des Flagellans N'a jamais cond.a.m.ne, lisez le bien, mes peres, Ces rigidites salutaires Qui, pour ravir le Ciel, saintement violens, Exercent sur leurs corps, tant de Chretiens austeres; Il blame seulement ces abus odieux D'etaler et d'offrir aux yeux Ce que leur doit toujours cacher la bienveillance, Et combat vivement la fausse piete, _Qui sous couleur d'eteindre en nous la volupte Par l'austerite meme, et par la penitence Sait allumer le feu de la lubricite_.[178]"