Studies in the Psychology of Sex Volume V Part 11

In man the whole process of detumescence, when it has once really begun, only occupies a few moments. It is so likewise in many animals; in the genera Bos, Ovis, etc., it is very short, almost instantaneous, and rather short also in the Equidae (in a vigorous stallion, according to Colin, ten to twelve seconds). As Disselhorst has pointed out, this is dependent on the fact that these animals, like man, possess a vas deferens which broadens into an ampulla serving as a receptacle which holds the s.e.m.e.n ready for instant emission when required. On the other hand, in the dog, cat, boar, and the Canidae, Felidae, and Suidae generally, there is no receptacle of this kind, and coitus is slow, since a longer time is required for the peristaltic action of the vas to bring the s.e.m.e.n to the urogenital sinus. (R. Disselhorst, Die Accessorischen Geschlechtsdrusen der Wirbelthiere, 1897, p. 212.)

In man there can be little doubt that detumescence is more rapidly accomplished in the European than in the East, in India, among the yellow races, or in Polynesia. This is probably in part due to a deliberate attempt to prolong the act in the East, and in part to a greater nervous erethism among Westerns.

In the woman the specifically s.e.xual muscular process is less visible, more obscure, more complex, and uncertain. Before detumescence actually begins there are at intervals involuntary rhythmic contractions of the walls of the v.a.g.i.n.a, seeming to have the object of at once stimulating and harmonizing with those that are about to begin in the male organ. It would appear that these rhythmic contractions are the exaggeration of a phenomenon which is normal, just as slight contraction is normal and constant in the bladder. Jastreboff has shown, in the rabbit, that the v.a.g.i.n.a is in constant spontaneous rhythmic contraction from above downward, not peristaltic, but in segments, the intensity of the contractions increasing with age and especially with s.e.xual development. This v.a.g.i.n.al contraction which in women only becomes well marked just before detumescence, and is due mainly to the action of the sphincter cunni (a.n.a.logous to the bulbo-cavernosus in the male), is only a part of the localized muscular process. At first there would appear to be a reflex peristaltic movement of the Fallopian tubes and uterus. Dembo observed that in animals stimulation of the upper anterior wall of the v.a.g.i.n.a caused gradual contraction of the uterus, which is erected by powerful contraction of its muscular fiber and round ligaments while at the same time it descends toward the v.a.g.i.n.a, its cavity becoming more and more diminished and mucus being forced out. In relaxing, Aristotle long ago remarked, it aspirates the seminal fluid.

Although the active partic.i.p.ation of the s.e.xual organs in woman, to the end of directing the s.e.m.e.n into the womb at the moment of detumescence, is thus a very ancient belief, and harmonizes with the Greek view of the womb as an animal in the body endowed with a considerable amount of activity,[117] precise observation in modern times has offered but little confirmation of the reality of this partic.i.p.ation. Such observations as have been made have usually been the accidental result of s.e.xual excitement and o.r.g.a.s.m occurring during a gynaecological examination. As, however, such a result is liable to occur in erotic subjects, a certain number of precise observations have acc.u.mulated during the past century. So far as the evidence goes, it would seem that in women, as in mares, b.i.t.c.hes, and other animals, the uterus becomes shorter, broader, and softer during the o.r.g.a.s.m, at the same time descending lower into the pelvis, with its mouth open intermittently, so that, as one writer remarks, spontaneously recurring to the simile which commended itself to the Greeks, "the uterus might be likened to an animal gasping for breath."[118] This sensitive, responsive mobility of the uterus is, indeed, not confined to the moment of detumescence, but may occur at other times under the influence of s.e.xual emotion.

It would seem probable that in this erection, contraction, and descent of the uterus, and its simultaneous expulsion of mucus, we have the decisive moment in the completion of detumescence in woman, and it is probable that the thick mucus, unlike the earlier more limpid secretion, which women are sometimes aware of after o.r.g.a.s.m, is emitted from the womb at this time. This is, however, not absolutely certain. Some authorities regard detumescence in women as accomplished in the pouring out of secretions, others in the rhythmic genital contractions; the s.e.xual parts may, however, be copiously bathed in mucus for an indefinitely long period before the final stage of detumescence is achieved, and the rhythmic contractions are also taking place at a somewhat early period; in neither respect is there any obvious increase at the final moment of o.r.g.a.s.m. In women this would seem to be more conspicuously a nervous manifestation than in men. On the subjective side it is very p.r.o.nounced, with its feeling of relieved tension and agreeable repose-a moment when, as one woman expresses it, together with intense pleasure, there is, as it were, a floating up into a higher sphere, like the beginning of chloroform narcosis-but on the objective side this culminating moment is less easy to define.

Various observations and remarks made during the past two or three centuries by Bond, Valisneri, Dionis, Haller, Gunther, and Bischoff, tending to show a sucking action of the uterus in both women and other female animals, have been brought together by Litzmann in R. Wagner's Handworterbuch der Physiologie (1846, vol. iii, p. 53). Litzmann added an experience of his own: "I had an opportunity lately, while examining a young and very erethic woman, to observe how suddenly the uterus a.s.sumed a more erect position, and descended deeper in the pelvis; the lips of the womb became equal in length, the cervix rounded, softer, and more easily reached by the finger, and at the same time a high state of s.e.xual excitement was revealed by the respiration and voice."

The general belief still remained, however, that the woman's part in conjugation is pa.s.sive, and that it is entirely by the energy of the male organ and of the male s.e.xual elements, the spermatozoa, that conjunction with the germ cell is attained. According to this theory, it was believed that the spermatozoa were, as Wilkinson expresses it, in a history of opinion on this question, "endowed with some sort of intuition or instinct; that they would turn in the direction of the os uteri, wading through the acid mucus of the v.a.g.i.n.a; travel patiently upward and around the v.a.g.i.n.al portion of the uterus; enter the uterus and proceed onward in search of the waiting ovum." (A. D. Wilkinson, "Sterility in the Female," Transactions of the Lincoln Medical Society, Nebraska, 1896.)

About the year 1859 Fichstedt seems to have done something to overthrow this theory by declaring his belief that the uterus was not, as commonly supposed, a pa.s.sive organ in coitus, but was capable of sucking in the s.e.m.e.n during the brief period of detumescence. Various authorities then began to bring forward arguments and observations in the same sense. Wernich, especially, directed attention to this point in 1872 in a paper on the erectile properties of the lower segment of the uterus ("Die Erectionsfahigkeit des untern Uterus-Abschnitts," Beitrage zur Geburtshulfe und Gynakologie, vol. i, p. 296). He made precise observations and came to the conclusion that owing to erectile properties in the neck of the uterus, this part of the womb elongates during congress and reaches down into the pelvis with an aspiratory movement, as if to meet the glans of the male. A little later, in a case of partial prolapse, Beck, in ignorance of Wernich's theory, was enabled to make a very precise observation of the action of the uterus during excitement. In this case the woman was s.e.xually very excitable even under ordinary examination, and Beck carefully noted the phenomena that took place during the o.r.g.a.s.m. "The os and cervix uteri," he states, "had been about as firm as usual, moderately hard and, generally speaking, in a natural and normal condition, with the external os closed to such an extent as to admit of the uterine probe with difficulty; but the instant that the height of excitement was at hand, the os opened itself to the extent of fully an inch, as nearly as my eye can judge, made five or six successive gasps as if it were drawing the external os into the cervix, each time powerfully, and, it seemed to me, with a regular rhythmical action, at the same time losing its former density and hardness and becoming quite soft to the touch. Upon the cessation of the action, as related, the os suddenly closed, the cervix again hardened itself, and the intense congestion was dissipated." (J. R. Beck, "How do the Spermatozoa Enter the Uterus?" American Journal of Obstetrics, 1874.) It would appear that in the early part of this final process of detumescence the action of the uterus is mainly one of contraction and e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of any mucus that may be contained; Dr. Paul Munde has described "the gus.h.i.+ng, almost in jets," of this mucus which he has observed in an erotic woman under a rather long digital and specular examination. (American Journal of Obstetrics, 1893.) It is during the latter part of detumescence, it would seem, and perhaps for a short time after the o.r.g.a.s.m is over, that the action of the uterus is mainly aspiratory.

While the active part played by the womb in detumescence can no longer be questioned, it need not too hastily be a.s.sumed that the belief in the active movements of the spermatozoa must therefore be denied. The vigorous motility of the tadpole-like organisms is obvious to anyone who has ever seen fresh s.e.m.e.n under the microscope; and if it is correct, as Clifton Edgar states, that the spermatozoa may retain their full activity in the female organs for at least seventeen days, they have ample time to exert their energies. The fact that impregnation sometimes occurs without rupture of the hymen is not decisive evidence that there has been no penetration, as the hymen may dilate without rupturing; but there seems no reason to doubt that conception has sometimes taken place when e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n has occurred without penetration; this is indicated in a fairly objective manner when, as has been occasionally observed, conception has occurred in women whose v.a.g.i.n.as were so narrow as scarcely to admit the entrance of a goose-quill; such was the condition in the case of a pregnant woman brought forward by Roubaud. The stories, repeated in various books, of women who have conceived after h.o.m.os.e.xual relations with partners who had just left their husbands' beds are not therefore inherently impossible.[119] Janke quotes numerous cases in which there has been impregnation in virgins who have merely allowed the p.e.n.i.s to be placed in contact with the v.u.l.v.a, the hymen remaining unruptured until delivery.[120]

It must be added, however, that even if the s.e.m.e.n is effused merely at the mouth of the v.a.g.i.n.a, without actual penetration, the spermatozoa are still not entirely without any resource save their own motility in the task of reaching the ovum. As we have seen, it is not only the uterus which takes an active part in detumescence; the v.a.g.i.n.a also is in active movement, and it seems highly probable that, at all events in some women and under some circ.u.mstances, such movement favoring aspiration toward the womb may be communicated to the external mouth of the v.a.g.i.n.a.

Riolan (Anthropographia, 1626, p. 294) referred to the constriction and dilation of the v.u.l.v.a under the influence of s.e.xual excitement. It is said that in Abyssinia women can, when adopting the straddling posture of coitus, by the movements of their own v.a.g.i.n.al muscles alone, grasp the male organ and cause e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n, although the man remains pa.s.sive. According to Lorion the Annamites, adopting the normal posture of coitus, introduce the p.e.n.i.s when flaccid or only half erect, the contraction of the v.a.g.i.n.al walls completing the process; the p.e.n.i.s is very small in this people. It is recognized by gynaecologists that the condition of vaginismus, in which there is spasmodic contraction of the v.a.g.i.n.a, making intercourse painful or impossible, is but a morbid exaggeration of the normal contraction which occurs in s.e.xual excitement. Even in the absence of s.e.xual excitement there is a vague affection, occurring in both married and unmarried women, and not, it would seem, necessarily hysterical, characterized by quivering or twitching of the v.u.l.v.a; I am told that this is popularly termed "flackering of the shape" in Yorks.h.i.+re and "taittering of the lips" in Ireland. It may be added that quivering of the gluteal muscles also takes place during detumescence, and that in Indian medicine this is likewise regarded as a sign of s.e.xual desire in women, apart from coitus.

A non-medical correspondent in Australia, W. J. Chidley, from whom I have received many communications on this subject, is strongly of opinion from his own observations that not only does the uterus take an active part in coitus, but that under natural conditions the v.a.g.i.n.a also plays an active part in the process. He was led to suspect such an action many years ago, as well by an experience of his own, as also by hearing from a young woman who met her lover after a long absence that by the excitement thus aroused a tape attached to the underclothes had been drawn into the v.a.g.i.n.a. Since then the confidences of various friends, together with observations of animals, have confirmed him in the view that the general belief that coitus must be effected by forcible entry of the male organ into a pa.s.sive v.a.g.i.n.a is incorrect. He considers that under normal circ.u.mstances coitus should take place but rarely, and then only under the most favorable circ.u.mstances, perhaps exclusively in spring, and, most especially, only when the woman is ready for it. Then, when in the arms of the man she loves, the v.a.g.i.n.a, in sympathy with the active movements of the womb, becomes distended at the touch of the turgescent, but not fully erect, p.e.n.i.s, "flashes open and draws in the male organ." "All animals," he adds, "have s.e.xual intercourse by the male organ being drawn, not forced, into the female. I have been borne out in this by friends who have seen horses, camels, mules and other large animals in the coupling season. What is more absurd, for instance, than to say that an entire penetrates the mare? His p.e.n.i.s is a sensitive, beautiful piece of mechanism, which brings its light head here and there till it touches the right spot, when the mare, if ready, takes it in. An entire's p.e.n.i.s could not penetrate anything; it is a curve, a beautiful curve which would easily bend. A bull's, again, is turned down at the end and, more palpably still, would fold on itself if pressed with force. The womb and v.a.g.i.n.a of a beautiful and healthy woman const.i.tute a living, vital, moving organ, sensitive to a look, a word, a thought, a hand on the waist."

A well-known American author thus writes in confirmation of the foregoing view: "In nature the woman wooes. When impa.s.sioned her v.a.g.i.n.a becomes erect and dilated, and so lubricated with abundant mucus to the lips that entrance is easy. This dilatation and erectile expansion of v.a.g.i.n.a withdraws the hymen so close to the walls that penetration need not tear it or cause pain. The more muscular, primitive and healthy the woman the tougher and less sensitive the hymen, and the less likely to break or bleed. I think one great function of the foreskin also is to moisten the glans, so that it can be lubricated for entrance, and then to retract, moist side out, to make entrance still easier. I think that in nature the glans penetrates within the l.a.b.i.a, is withstood a moment, vibrating, and then all resistance is withdrawn by a sudden 'flas.h.i.+ng open' of the gates, permitting easy entrance, and that the sudden giving up of resistance, and subst.i.tution of welcome, with its instantaneous deep entrance, causes an almost immediate male o.r.g.a.s.m (the thrill being irresistibly exciting). Certainly this is the process as observed in horses, cattle, goats, etc., and it seems likely something a.n.a.logous is natural in man."

While it is easily possible to carry to excess a view which would make the woman rather than the man the active agent in coitus (and it may be recalled that in the Cebidae the p.e.n.i.s, as also the c.l.i.toris, is furnished with a bone), there is probably an element of truth in the belief that the v.a.g.i.n.a shares in the active part which, there can now be little doubt, is played by the uterus in detumescence. Such a view certainly enables us to understand how it is that s.e.m.e.n effused on the exterior s.e.xual organs can be conveyed to the uterus.

It was indeed the failure to understand the vital activity of the s.e.m.e.n and the feminine genital ca.n.a.l, co-operating together towards the junction of sperm cell and germ cell, which for so long stood in the way of the proper understanding of conception. Even the genius of Harvey, which had grappled successfully with the problem of the circulation, failed in the attempt to comprehend the problem of generation. Mainly on account of this difficulty, he was unable to see how the male element could possibly enter the uterus, although he devoted much observation and study to the question. Writing of the uterus of the doe after copulation, he says: "I began to doubt, to ask myself whether the s.e.m.e.n of the male could by any possibility make its way by attraction or injection to the seat of conception, and repeated examination led me to the conclusion that none of the s.e.m.e.n reached this seat." (De-Generatione Animalium, Exercise lxvii.) "The woman," he finally concluded, "after contact with the spermatic fluid in coitu, seems to receive an influence and become fecundated without the co-operation of any sensible corporeal agent, in the same way as iron touched by the magnet is endowed with its powers."

Although the specifically s.e.xual muscular process of detumescence in women-as distinguished from the general muscular phenomena of s.e.xual excitement which may be fairly obvious-is thus seen to be somewhat complex and obscure, in women as well as in men detumescence is a convulsion which discharges a slowly acc.u.mulated store of nervous force. In women also, as in men, the motor discharge is directed to a specific end-the intromission of the s.e.m.e.n in the one s.e.x, its reception in the other. In both s.e.xes the s.e.xual o.r.g.a.s.m and the pleasure and satisfaction a.s.sociated with it, involve, as their most essential element, the motor activity of the s.e.xual sphere.[121]

The active co-operation of the female organs in detumescence is probably indicated by the difficulty which is experienced in achieving conception by the artificial injection of s.e.m.e.n. Marion Sims stated in 1866, in Clinical Notes on Uterine Surgery, that in 55 injections in six women he had only once been successful; he believed that that was the only case at that time on record. Jacobi had, however, practiced artificial fecundation in animals (in 1700) and John Hunter in man. See Gould and Pyle, Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, p. 43; also Janke (Die Willkurliche Hervorbringen des Geschlechts, pp. 230 et seq.) who discusses the question of artificial fecundation and brings together a ma.s.s of data.

The facial expression when tumescence is completed is marked by a high degree of energy in men and of loveliness in women. At this moment, when the culminating act of life is about to be accomplished, the individual thus reaches his supreme state of radiant beauty. The color is heightened, the eyes are larger and brighter, the facial muscles are more tense, so that in mature individuals any wrinkles disappear and youthfulness returns.

At the beginning of detumescence the features are frequently more discomposed. There is a general expression of eager receptivity to sensory impressions. The dilatation of the pupils, the expansion of the nostrils, the tendency to salivation and to movements of the tongue, all go to make up a picture which indicates an approaching gratification of sensory desires; it is significant that in some animals there is at this moment erection of the ears.[122] There is sometimes a tendency to utter broken and meaningless words, and it is noted that sometimes women have called out on their mothers.[123] The dilatation of the pupils produces photophobia, and in the course of detumescence the eyes are frequently closed from this cause. At the beginning of s.e.xual excitement, Vaschide and Vurpas have observed, tonicity of the eye-muscles seems to increase; the elevators of the upper lids contract, so that the eyes look larger and their mobility and brightness are heightened; with the increase of muscular tonicity strabismus occurs, owing to the greater strength of the muscles that carry the eyes inward.[124]

The facial expression which marks the culmination of tumescence, and the approach of detumescence is that which is generally expressive of joy. In an interesting psycho-physical study of the emotion of joy, Dearborn thus summarizes its characteristics: "The eyes are brighter and the upper eyelid elevated, as also are the brows, the skin over the glabella, the upper lip and the corners of the mouth, while the skin at the outer canthi of the eye is puckered. The nostrils are moderately dilated, the tongue slightly extended and the cheeks somewhat expanded, while in persons with largely developed pinnal muscles the ears tend somewhat to incline forwards. The whole arterial system is dilated, with consequent blus.h.i.+ng from this effect on the dermal capillaries of the face, neck, scalp and hands, and sometimes more extensively even; from the same cause the eyes slightly bulge. The whole glandular system likewise is stimulated, causing the secretions,-gastric, salivary, lachrymal, sudoral, mammary, genital, etc.-to be increased, with the resulting rise of temperature and increase in the katobolism generally. Volubility is almost regularly increased, and is, indeed, one of the most sensitive and constant of the correlations in emotional delight.... Pleasantness is correlated in living organisms by vascular, muscular and glandular extension or expansion, both literal and figurative." (G. Dearborn, "The Emotion of Joy," Psychological Review Monograph Supplements, vol. ii, No. 5, p. 62.) All these signs of joy appear to occur at some stage of the process of s.e.xual excitement.

In some monkeys it would seem that the muscular movement which in man has become the smile is the characteristic facial expression of s.e.xual tumescence or courts.h.i.+p. Discussing the facial expression of pleasure in children, S. S. Buckman has the following remarks: "There is one point in such expression which has not received due consideration, namely, the raising of lumps of flesh each side of the nose as an indication of pleasure. Accompanying this may be seen small furrows, both in children and adults, running from the eyes somewhat obliquely towards the nose. What these characters indicate may be learned from the male mandril, whose face, particularly in the breeding season, shows colored fleshy prominences each side of the nose, with conspicuous furrows and ridges. In the male mandril these characters have been developed because, being an unmistakable sign of s.e.xual ardor, they gave the female particular evidence of s.e.xual feelings. Thus such characters would come to be recognized as habitually symptomatic of pleasurable feelings. Finding similar features in human beings, and particularly in children, though not developed in the same degree, we may a.s.sume that in our monkey-like ancestors facial characters similar to those of the mandril were developed, though to a less extent, and that they were symptomatic of pleasure, because connected with the period of courts.h.i.+p. Then they became conventionalized as pleasurable symptoms." (S. S. Buckmann, "Human Babies: What They Teach," Nature, July 5, 1900.) If this view is accepted, it may be said that the smile, having in man become a generalized sign of amiability, has no longer any special s.e.xual significance. It is true that a faint and involuntary smile is often a.s.sociated with the later stages of tumescence, but this is usually lost during detumescence, and may even give place to an expression of ferocity.

When we have realized how profound is the organic convulsion involved by the process of detumescence, and how great the general motor excitement involved, we can understand how it is that very serious effects may follow coitus. Even in animals this is sometimes the case. Young bulls and stallions have fallen in a faint after the first congress; boars may be seriously affected in a similar way; mares have been known even to fall dead.[125] In the human species, and especially in men-probably, as Bryan Robinson remarks, because women are protected by the greater slowness with which detumescence occurs in them-not only death itself, but innumerable disorders and accidents have been known to follow immediately after coitus, these results being mainly due to the vascular and muscular excitement involved by the processes of detumescence. Fainting, vomiting, urination, defaecation have been noted as occurring in young men after a first coitus. Epilepsy has been not infrequently recorded. Lesions of various organs, even rupture of the spleen, have sometimes taken place. In men of mature age the arteries have at times been unable to resist the high blood-pressure, and cerebral haemorrhage with paralysis has occurred. In elderly men the excitement of intercourse with strange women has sometimes caused death, and various cases are known of eminent persons who have thus died in the arms of young wives or of prost.i.tutes.[126]

These morbid results, are, however, very exceptional. They usually occur in persons who are abnormally sensitive, or who have imprudently transgressed the obvious rules of s.e.xual hygiene. Detumescence is so profoundly natural a process; it is so deeply and intimately a function of the organism, that it is frequently harmless even when the bodily condition is far from absolutely sound. Its usual results, under favorable circ.u.mstances, are entirely beneficial. In men there normally supervenes, together with the relief from the prolonged tension of tumescence, with the muscular repose and falling blood-pressure,[127] a sense of profound satisfaction, a glow of diffused well-being,[128] perhaps an agreeable la.s.situde, occasionally also a sense of mental liberation from an overmastering obsession. Under reasonably happy circ.u.mstances there is no pain, or exhaustion, or sadness, or emotional revulsion. The happy lover's att.i.tude toward his partner is not expressed by the well-known Sonnet (CXXIX) of Shakespeare:-

"Past reason hunted, and no sooner had Past reason hated."

He feels rather with Boccaccio that the kissed mouth loses not its charm,

"Bocca baciata non perde ventura."

In women the results of detumescence are the same, except that the tendency to la.s.situde is not marked unless the act has been several times repeated; there is a sensation of repose and self-a.s.surance, and often an accession of free and joyous energy. After completely satisfactory detumescence she may experience a feeling as of intoxication, lasting for several hours, an intoxication that is followed by no evil reaction.

Such, so far as our present vague and imperfect knowledge extends, are the main features in the process of detumescence. In the future, without doubt, we shall learn to know more precisely a process which has been so supremely important in the life of man and of his ancestors.

[98]

The elements furnished by the sense of touch in s.e.xual selection have been discussed in the first section of the previous volume of these Studies.

[99]

See Appendix A. "The Origins of the Kiss," in the previous volume.

[100]

See, e.g., Art. "Erection," by Retterer, in Richet's Dictionnaire de Physiologie, vol. v.

[101]

Guibaut, Traite Clinique des Maladies des Femmes, p. 242. Adler discusses the s.e.xual secretions in women and their significance, Die Mangelhafte Geschlechtsempfindung des Weibes, pp. 19-26.

[102]

In some parts of the world this is further aided by artificial means. Thus it is stated by Riedel (as quoted by Ploss and Bartels) that in the Gorong Archipelago the bridegroom, before the first coitus, anoints the bride's pudenda with an ointment containing opium, musk, etc. I have been told of an English bride who was instructed by her mother to use a candle for the same purpose.

[103]

Parthenologia, pp. 302, et seq.

[104]

The connection of this mucous flow with s.e.xual emotion was discussed early in the eighteenth century by Schurig in his Gynaecologia, pp. 8-11; it is frequently pa.s.sed over by more modern writers.

[105]

The drawing is reproduced by Ploss and Bartels, Das Weib, vol. i, Chapter XVII; many facts bearing on the ethnography of coitus are brought together in this chapter.

[106]

Onanoff (Paris Societe de Biologie, May 3, 1890) proposed the name of bulbo-cavernous reflex for the smart contraction of the ischio-and bulbo-cavernosus muscles (erector p.e.n.i.s and accelerator urinae) produced by mechanical excitation of the glans. This reflex is clinically elicited by placing the index-finger of the left hand on the region of the bulb while the right hand rapidly rubs the dorsal surface of the glands with the edge of a piece of paper or lightly pinches the mucous membrane; a twitching of the region of the bulb is then perceived. This reflex is always present in healthy adult subjects and indicates the integrity of the physical mechanism of detumescence. It has been described by Hughes. (C. H. Hughes, "The Virile or Bulbo-cavernous Reflex," Alienist and Neurologist, January, 1898.)

[107]

Roubaud, Traite de l'Impuissance, 1855, p. 39.

[108]

Das Weib, seventh edition, vol. i, p. 510.

[109]

The influence of impeded respiration in exciting more or less perverted forms of s.e.xual gratification has been discussed in a section of "Love and Pain" in the third volume of these Studies.

[110]

See, e.g., the experiments of Obici on this point, Revista Sperimentale di Freniatria, 1903, pp. 689, et seq.

[111]

Summarized in Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle, March, 1903, p. 188. The tendency to closure of the eyes noted by Roubaud, to avoid contact of the light, indicates dilatation of the pupils, for which we need not seek other explanation than the general tendency of all peripheral stimulation, according to Schiff's law, to produce such dilatation.

[112]

Vaschide and Vurpas, "Du Coefficient s.e.xuel de l'Impulsion Musicale," Archives de Neurologie, May, 1904.