Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction Part 8

Flagellation, indeed, as well as the custom of wearing the hair-s.h.i.+rt, so common with the monks, and even with religious lay catholics, was, by the stimulus it imparted to the skin, and hence to the internal viscera, much more likely to increase the energy of the physiological functions, and _thus excite the commission of the very acts they are intended to suppress_.

The Abbe Chuppe d'Auteroche, member of the Academie des Sciences, and who died in California a few days after the observation of the Transit of Venus in 1760, remarks that the stripes given to persons frequenting the vapour baths in Russia impart activity to the fluids and elasticity to the organs and gives additional stimulus to the venereal appet.i.te.[179]

M. Serrurier records the following curious case. "One of my schoolfellows, who found an indescribable pleasure in being flogged, purposely and wilfully neglected his duty in order to draw upon himself the correction, which never failed to produce an emission of s.e.m.e.n. As may easily be imagined he soon began the practice of masturbation, in which he indulged to so frightful an extent that rapid consumption ensued, and he died, a most horrible and disgusting object, affording a melancholy example of that fatal vice."[180]

The case of Jean Jacques Rousseau is well known. When a child he was by no means displeased with the corrections administered to him by a lady considerably his elder, he even frequently sought for a whipping at her hands, especially after he perceived that the flagellation developed in him the manifest token of virility. But he must be allowed to give his own account of it. "a.s.sez long temps," says he, "Madame Lambercier s'entint a la menace, et cette menace d'un chatiment tout nouveau pour moi me semblait tres effrayante, mais apres l'execution, je la trouvai moins terrible a l'epreuve que l'attente ne l'avait ete, et ce qu'il y a de plus bizarre est qui ce chatiment m'affectionna davantage d'elle qui me l'avoit impose. Il fallait meme toute la verite de cette affection et toute ma douceur naturelle pour m'empecher de chercher le retour du meme traitement en le meritant, car j'avais trouve dans la douleur, dans la honte meme, un melange de sensualite qui m'avait laisse plus de desir que de crainte de l'eprouver derechef, par la meme main.

Il est vrai que comme il se melait, sans doute, a cela quelque instinct precoce du s.e.xe, le meme chatiment recu de son frere, ne m'eut point du tout, parut plaisant."[181]

As flagellation is practised by striking the skin with a rod formed of twigs, until the heat and redness become more intense, so if the twigs be replaced by fresh nettles, the operation will become,--_urtication_.

The employment of urtication is of great antiquity, for Celsus as well as Aretaeus mentions the use of it, it being in those times, a popular remedy. That the Romans had frequent recourse to it in order to arouse the s.e.xual appet.i.te, is proved by the following pa.s.sage from Petronius Arbiter, which for obvious reasons, we shall content ourselves with giving in the original only. "Oenothea semiebria ad me respiciens;--Perficienda sunt, inquit, mysteria _ut rec.i.p.as nervos_.

"Simulque profert scorteum fascinum quod, ut olio et minuto pipere, atque _urticae_ trito circ.u.mdedit semine, paulatim cpit inserere ano meo.

Hoc crudelissima a.n.u.s spargit subinde femina mea Nasturcii[182] succ.u.m c.u.m abrotono miscet, perfusis que inguinibus meis, viridis urticae fascem comprehendit omnes que infra umbilic.u.m cpit lenta manu caedere."[183]

Menghus Faventinus a.s.sures us that nettles have "une propriete merveilleuse pour allonger, tendre, grossir et eriger le membre viril, qui, par une parsimonie de la nature, feroit craindre la sterilite."[184]

Urtication appears to have been well known in France during the time of Rabelais, who alluding to this mode of procuring the vigour necessary for the amorous conflict, says, "se frotter le cul au panicaut (a species of thistle) vrai moyen d'avoir au cul pa.s.sion."

Une femme en melancholie Pour faute d'occupation, Frottez moi le cul d'ortie Elle aura au cul pa.s.sion.[185]

The irritation caused by nettles produces effects a.n.a.logous to those which are observed in persons afflicted with the itch, the ring-worm and leprosy. The lubricity of those unfortunates is sometimes uncontrolable; they suffer violent priapisms, which are followed by e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n, whenever a severe itching forces them to scratch themselves with a kind of furor or madness.

"In a medical point of view," observes Dr. Milligen, "urtication, or stinging with nettles, is a practice not sufficiently appreciated. In many instances, especially in cases of paralysis it is more efficacious than blistering or stimulating frictions. Its effects, though perhaps less permanent, are general and diffused over the limb. This process has been found effectual in restoring _heat to the lower extremities_, and a case of obstinate lethargy was cured by Corvisart by a repeated urtication of the whole body. During the action of the stimulus, the patient, who was a young man, would open his eyes and laugh, but then sink again into a profound sleep. In three weeks, however, his perfect cure was effected."[186]

In 1783, Dr. James Graham, an humble imitator of the celebrated Cagliostro, commenced giving his sanatary lectures, which he ill.u.s.trated by the dazzling presence of his G.o.ddess of Health, a character which, for a short time, was sustained by Emma Harte, afterwards the celebrated Lady Hamilton, wife of Sir William Hamilton, English Amba.s.sador at the Court of Naples, and the _chere amie_ of the immortal Nelson.

After describing various aphrodisiacal remedies, the lecturer thus proceeds: "But, gentlemen, if all the above means and methods, which I have thus faithfully, ingenuously, and with the frankest and most unreserved liberality, recommended, fail, suffer me, with great cordiality, and a.s.surance of success, to recommend my celestial, or medico, magnetico, musico, electrical bed, which I have, with so much study and at so vast an expense, constructed, not alone to insure the removal of barrenness, when conception is at all in the nature of things possible, but likewise to improve, exalt, and invigorate the bodily, and through them, the mental faculties of the human species. This bed, whose seemingly _magical_ influences are now celebrated from pole to pole and from the rising to the setting sun! is indeed an _unique_ in science!

and unquestionably the first and the only one that ever was mentioned, erected, or even, perhaps, thought of, in the world; and I will now conclude the lecture with giving you a slight descriptive sketch of the structure of the bed, and the nature of those influences with which it glows--which it breathes forth, and with which it animates, regenerates, and transports those happy, happy persons who have the honour and the paradisiacal blessedness of reposing on it.

"The Grand Celestial State Bed! then, gentlemen, which is twelve feet long by nine wide, is supported by forty pillars of brilliant gla.s.s, of great strength and of the most exquisite workmans.h.i.+p, in regard to shape, cutting, and engravings; sweetly delicate and richly variegated colours, and the most brilliant polis.h.!.+ They are, moreover, invisibly incrusted with a certain transparent varnish in order to render the insulation still more complete; and that otherwise, properly a.s.sisted, we may have, in even the most unfavourable weather, abundance of the electrical fire.

"The sublime, the magnificent, and, I may say, the super-celestial dome of the bed, which contains the odoriferous, balmy, and ethereal spices, odours, and essences, and which is the grand magazine or reservoir of those vivifying and invigorating influences which are exhaled and dispersed by the breathing of the music, and by the attenuating, repelling, and accelerating force of the electrical fire,--is very curiously inlaid or wholly covered on the under side with brilliant plates of looking-gla.s.s, so disposed as to reflect the various attractive charms of the happy rec.u.mbent couple, in the most flattering, most agreeable and most enchanting style.

"On the top or summit of the dome, are placed, in the most loving att.i.tudes, two exquisite figures, representing the marriage of Cupid and Psyche, with a fine figure of Hymen behind, and over them, with his torch flaming with electrical fire in one hand and, with the other, supporting a celestial crown, sparkling, likewise, with the effulgent fire over a pair of real living turtle-doves, who, on a little bed of roses, coo and bill under the super-animating impulses of the genial fire! The other elegant groups of figures which sport on the top of the dome--the Cupids, the Loves, and the Graces!--besides festoons of the freshest and most beautiful flowers, have each of them musical instruments in their hands, which by the exquisite and most expensive mechanism, are made to breathe forth sounds corresponding with the appearance of the several instruments,--flutes, guitars, violins, clarionets, trumpets, horns, oboes, kettle-drums, &c. On the posts or pillars, too, which support the grand dome are groups of figures, musical instruments, organ-pipes, &c., which, in sweet concert with the other instruments, at the commencement of the tender dalliance of the happy pair, breathe forth celestial sounds! lulling them in visions of elysian joys! opening new sources of pleasure, and "untwisting all the chains which tie the hidden soul of harmony!" At the head of the bed, in the full centre front, appears, sparkling with electrical fire, through a glory of burnished and effulgent gold, the great, first, ever-operating commandment, BE FRUITFUL, MULTIPLY, AND REPLENISH THE EARTH! under this is a most elegant and sweet-toned organ, in the front of which is a fine landscape of moving figures on the earth, birds flying, swans, &c., gliding on the waters, a fine procession, too, is seen, village nymphs strewing flowers before priests, brides, bridegrooms, and their attendants, who, all entering into the temple of Hymen, disappear from the delightful eye. The painting and embellishment of this front are most masterly, and reflect the highest honour on the artists by whom they were executed; and the whole view is terminated with fountains, waterfalls, shepherds, shepherdesses, and other peasants, as pastoral sports and rural employment, and by a little church, the dial of which points out truly and distinctly the hour.

"In the celestial bed no feather bed is employed; sometimes mattresses filled with sweet new wheat or cut straw, with the grain in the ears, and mingled with balm, rose leaves, lavender flowers, and oriental spices, and, at other times, springy hair mattresses are used. Neither will you find upon the celestial bed linen sheets; our sheets are of the richest and softest silk or satin; of various colours suited to the complexion of the lady who is to repose on them. Pale green, for example, rose colour, sky blue, black, white, purple, azure, mazarin blue, &c., and they are sweetly perfumed in the oriental manner, with otto and odour of roses, jessamine, tuberose, rich gums, fragrant balsams, oriental spices, &c.; in short, everything is done to a.s.sist the ethereal, magnetic, musical and electric influences, and to make the lady look as lovely as possible in the eyes of her husband and he, in hers. But to return, in order that I might have for the important purposes, the strongest and most springy hair, I procured, at a vast expense, the tails of English stallions, which when twisted, baked and then untwisted and properly prepared, is elastic to the highest degree.

"But the chief elastic principle of my celestial bed is produced by artificial loadstones. About fifteen hundred pounds' weight of artificial and compound magnets are so disposed and arranged as to be continually pouring forth in an ever-flowing circle inconceivable and irrestibly powerful tides of the magnetic effluxion, which is well known to have a very strong affinity with the electric fire.

"Such is a slight and inadequate sketch of the grand celestial bed, which, being thus completely insulated,--highly saturated with the most genial floods or electrical fire!--fully impregnated moreover, with the balmy vivifying effluvia of restorative balsamic medicines and of soft, fragrant, oriental gums, balsams and quintescence, and pervaded at the same times with full springing tides of the invigorating influences of music and magnets both real and artificial, gives such elastic vigour to the nerves, on the one hand, of the male, and on the other, such retentive firmness to the female; and, moreover, all the faculties of the soul being so fully expanded, and so highly illuminated, that it is impossible, in the nature of things, but that strong, beautiful, brilliant, nay, double-distilled children, if I may use the expression, must infallibly be begotten."

A digression may, perhaps, be here pardonable, in order to give some notice of the latter and last days of the beautiful, highly accomplished and fascinating woman mentioned above.

She had been presented to Nelson by her husband, who had previously told her that he was about to introduce her to a little _thread-paper_ of a man, who could not boast of being very handsome, but who would become, some day, one of the greatest men that England ever produced. After the battle of the Nile he again visited Naples, and was now little better than a perfect wreck. At Calvi, in 1794, he had lost an eye. At Teneriffe his right arm was shattered and amputated close to the shoulder. At the battle of the Nile he was severely wounded in the head.

Incessant anxiety and watchfulness for his country's honour and welfare had blanched his brow, and shattered the "little thread-paper of a man"

at the outset, till, on his return in triumph to his mistress, he seemed to be on the verge of an early grave.

Yet she proved herself a true woman, if an erring one, in her reception of the man she loved, and unhesitatingly and unequivocally forsook her all, to attend upon and wors.h.i.+p him.

Not far from Merton turnpike stood the house of Nelson and his mistress.

It was left with all its liabilities to Lady Hamilton, but she was obliged to take a hasty departure, and, hara.s.sed by creditors, in sickness of heart and without funds, the unhappy woman escaped to Calais.

Now for the sad, sad finale. From the portal of a house, as cheerless and dreary as can be imagined, in the month of January, with a black silk petticoat stretched on a white curtain thrown over her coffin for a pall, and an half-day Irish dragoon to act as chaplain over the grave, which was in a timber-yard, were the remains of Nelson's much-adored friend removed to their final resting place, under the escort of a _sergent de ville_.

She died without the common necessaries of life, and was buried at the expense of the town, notwithstanding Nelson's last words, "_Blackwood, take care of my poor Lady Hamilton!_"

"Whatever the errors of Lady Hamilton may have been," says Doran, "let us not forget that without her aid, as Nelson said, the battle of the Nile would never have been fought, and that in spite of her sacrifices and services, England left her to starve, because the government was too virtuous to acknowledge the benefits rendered to her country by a lady with too loose a zone."

The remarks of honest old Burton[187] upon Aphrodisiacs, though quaint, are so judicious and pertinent, that we cannot better conclude this part of our essay than by quoting them:--

"The last battering engines," says he, "are philters, amulets, charms, images, and such unlawful meanes: if they cannot prevail of themselves by the help of bawds, panders, and their adherents, they will fly for succour to the devil himself. I know there be those that denye the devil can do any such thing, and that there is no other fascination than that which comes by the eyes. It was given out, of old, that a Thessalian wench had bewitched King Philip to dote on her, and by philters enforced his love, but when Olympia, his queen, saw the maid of an excellent beauty well brought up and qualified: these, quoth she, were the philters which enveagled King Philip, these the true charms as Henry to Rosamond."[188]

"One accent from thy lips the blood more warmes Than all their philters, exorcismes, and charms."

With that alone Lucretia brags, in Aretine, she could do more than all philosophers, astrologers, alychmists, necromancers, witches, and the rest of the crew. As for herbs and philters I could never skill of them.

_The sole philter I ever used was kissing and embracing, by which alone I made men rave like beasts, stupefied and compelled them to wors.h.i.+p me like an idol._[189]

ANTI-APHRODISIACS.

The means best calculated to produce effects contrary to those just treated of are of several kinds, but such as are derived from hygiene are ent.i.tled to be considered as the most powerful. Previously, however, to describing the medicinal substances that may be efficaciously employed in moderating, or rather checking, too violent a propensity to venery, some notice must be taken of the diet adapted to insure such a result.

The use of milk, vegetables, such as lettuce, water-purslain, cuc.u.mbers, &c., and especially of fruit in which the acid principle predominates, slackens the movement of the heart and of the sanguineous system; it diminishes the animal heat, the chief source of which is in the activity of the circulation; it produces a feeling of tranquillity and of coolness; the respiration being more slow, occasions the absorption of a less quant.i.ty of oxygen, add to which, as a less quant.i.ty of reparative materials is contained in this description of aliments, there result a less active nutrition, the loss of embonpoint and the complete prostration of every principle of irritability; in short, it is of all diets the one least capable of furnis.h.i.+ng fuel to the pa.s.sions. For common drink mere water, and, if the impulse of pa.s.sion should increase, a small quantify of nitre, vinegar, or vitrolic acid, may, occasionally be added to the water to make it more cooling.

Other means conducive to the same end are a laborious life, much bodily exercise, little sleep, and a spare diet, so that the fluids may be more easily conducted to other parts, and that there may not be produced a greater quant.i.ty than is requisite for the support of the body. Equally valuable

"When there's a young and sweating devil That commonly rebels,"

will be found what Shakespeare recommends--

"A sequester from liberty, fasting and prayer, Much castigation, exercise devout."[190]

Should the desire of committing excesses rise to any height, immediate recourse must be had to some serious and mind-absorbing occupation, less nutritious food and drink should be taken, all dishes peculiarly stimulating to the palate avoided, as well as the use of wine and other spirituous liquors.

A cool regimen in every respect was particularly insisted upon by the ancients: hence Plato and Aristotle recommended the custom of going barefoot as a means of checking the stimulus to carnal desire, a suggestion which appears to have been acted upon by some of the monkish orders. The cold bath was considered equally efficacious, while some, among whom may be reckoned Pliny and Galen, advised thin sheets of lead to be worn on the calves of the legs and near the kidneys.

The first and most important of the hygienic means consists in shunning every species of excitement and in having little or no communication with the s.e.x, and the earlier such restraint is imposed, the better. "He that is chaste and continent, not to impair his strength, or terrified by contagion, will hardly be heroically virtuous. Adjourn not that virtue until those years when Cato could lend out his wife, and impotent satyrs write satires against l.u.s.t--but be chaste in thy flaming days, when Alexander dared not trust his eyes upon the fair sisters of Darius, and when so many men think that there is no other way than that of Origen."[191][192]

The next means is that of carefully abstaining from the perusal of all publications calculated to inflame the pa.s.sions, by which publications are meant, not obscene books only. With respect to these, indeed, a great error obtains, for the persons most anxious to peruse them are, for the most part, old, worn-out debauchees, men whose generative powers are, comparatively, feeble, if not altogether destroyed, and who, unfortunately for themselves, require this unnatural and detestable kind of stimulus, while, on the contrary, young men and those in middle life, who had not drawn too largely upon their const.i.tution, and for whom the allurements of nature are themselves a sufficient provocative, regard such publications with horror and disgust. It is not, therefore, we repeat, works of this description which we allude to, but those the perusal of which is more dangerous during the period of the pa.s.sions--novels, more especially such as, under the pretext of describing the working of the human heart, draw the most seducing and inflammatory pictures of illicit love, and throw the veil of sentimental philosophy over the orgies of debauchery and licentiousness. Nothing is more perilous to youth, especially of the female s.e.x, than this description of books. Their style is chaste, not one word is found that can offend the ear, while the mind of the unsuspecting reader is often tainted and corrupted by the most impure ideas and descriptions clothed in the most elegant phraseology. How admirably does Voltaire stigmatise this attention to a mere superficial (if the epitaph be allowed) purity!

"Plus," says he "les murs sont depraves, plus les expressions deviennent mesurees: on croit de gagner en langage ce qu'on a perdu en vertu. La pudeur s'est enfuite des curs et s'est refugiee sur les levres."

There are two kinds of study particularly adapted to preserve the mind and the affections from the a.s.saults of vice and libidinousness. The first of these is the _Mathematics_, whose efficacy in this respect has been proved by frequent experience. The Venetian lady mentioned by Rousseau in his "Confessions" was not ignorant of this their power, when, seeing the singular effect which her charms had produced upon the, as yet, youthful philosopher, said to him, "_Gianetto, lascia le donne e studia la matimatica_." "James, give up the ladies, and apply yourself to mathematics." It will, indeed, be found that, in all ages, mathematicians have been but little disposed or addicted to love, and the most celebrated among them, Sir Isaac Newton, is reputed to have lived without ever having had s.e.xual intercourse. The intense mental application required by philosophical abstraction forcibly determines the nervous fluid towards the intellectual organs, and hinders it from being directed towards those of reproduction.

After the study of the Mathematics comes that of _Natural History_, which will be found to be almost equally beneficial, requiring as it does, the unremitting attention of the student, his perambulation of the open country, and the personal observation of all animated objects.