In Scandinavia, according to Vedeler, the s.e.xual emotions are at least as strong in women as in men (Vedeler, "De Impotentia Feminarum," Norsk Magazin for Laegevidenskaben, March, 1894). In Sweden, Dr. Eklund, of Stockholm, remarking that from 25 to 33 per cent. of the births are illegitimate, adds: "We hardly ever hear anyone talk of a woman having been seduced, simply because the l.u.s.t is at the worst in the woman, who, as a rule, is the seducing party." (Eklund, Transactions of the American a.s.sociation of Obstetricians, Philadelphia, 1892, p. 307.)
On the opposite side of the Baltic, in the Konigsberg district, the same observation has been made. Intercourse before marriage is the rule in most villages of this agricultural district, among the working cla.s.ses, with or without intention of subsequent marriage; "the girls are often the seducing parties, or at least very willing; they seek to bind their lovers to them and compel them to marriage." In the Koslin district of Pomerania, where intercourse between the girls and youths is common, the girls come to the youths" rooms even more frequently than the youths to the girls". In some of the Dantzig districts the girls give themselves to the youths, and even seduce them, sometimes, but not always, with a view of marriage. (Wittenberg, Die geschlechtsittlichen Verhalten der Landbewohner im Deutschen Reiche, 1895, Bd. i, pp. 47, 61, 83.)
Mantegazza devoted great attention to this point in several of the works he published during fifty years, and was decidedly of the opinion that the s.e.xual emotions are much stronger in women than in men, and that women have much more enjoyment in s.e.xual intercourse. In his Fisiologia del Piacere he supports this view, and refers to the greater complexity of the genital apparatus in women (as well as its larger surface and more protected position), to what he considers to be the keener sensibility of women generally, to the pa.s.sivity of women, etc.; and he considers that s.e.xual pleasure is rendered more seductive to women by the mystery in which it is veiled for them by modesty and our social habits. In a more recent work (Fisiologia della Donna, cap. viii) Mantegazza returns to this subject, and remarks that long experience, while confirming his early opinion, has modified it to the extent that he now believes that, as compared with men, the s.e.xual emotions of women vary within far wider limits. Among men few are quite insensitive to the physical pleasures of love, while, on the other hand, few are thrown by the violence of its emotional manifestations into a state of syncope or convulsions. Among women, while some are absolutely insensitive, others (as in cases with which he was acquainted) are so violently excited by the paradise of physical love that, after the s.e.xual embrace, they faint or fall into a cataleptic condition for several hours.
"Physical s.e.x is a larger factor in the life of the woman.... If this be true of the physical element, it is equally true of the mental element." (Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, The Human Element in s.e.x, fifth edition, 1894, p. 47.)
"In the female s.e.x," remarks Clouston, "reproduction is a more dominant function of the organism than in the male, and has far larger, if not more intense, relationships to feeling, judgment, and volition." (Clouston, Neuroses of Development, 1891.)
"It may be said," Marro states, "that in woman the visceral system reacts, if not with greater intensity, certainly in a more general manner, to all the impressions, having a s.e.xual basis, which dominate the life of woman, if not as s.e.xual emotions properly so called, as related emotions closely dependent on the reproductive instinct." (A. Marro, La p.u.b.erta, 1898, p. 233.)
Forel also believed (Die s.e.xuelle Frage, p. 274) that women are more erotic than men.
The gynecologist Kisch states his belief that "The s.e.xual impulse is so powerful in women that at certain periods of life its primitive force dominates her whole nature, and there can be no room left for reason to argue concerning reproduction; on the contrary, union is desired even in the presence of the fear of reproduction or when there can be no question of it." He regards absence of s.e.xual feeling in women as pathological. (Kisch, Sterilitat des Weibes, second edition, pp. 205-206.) In his later work (The s.e.xual Life of Woman) Kisch again a.s.serts that s.e.xual impulse always exists in mature women (in the absence of organic s.e.xual defect and cerebral disease), though it varies in strength and may be repressed. In adolescent girls, however, it is weaker than in youths of the same age. After she has had s.e.xual experiences, Kisch maintains, a woman"s s.e.xual emotions are just as powerful as a man"s, though she has more motives than a man for controlling them.
Eulenburg is of the same opinion as Kisch, and sharply criticises the loose a.s.sertion of some authorities who have expressed themselves in an opposite sense. (A. Eulenburg, s.e.xuale Neuropathie, pp. 88-90; the same author has dealt with the point in the Zukunft, December 2, 1893.)
Kossmann states that the opinion as to the widespread existence of frigidity among women is a fable. (Kossmann, Allgemeine Gynaecologie, 1903, p. 362.)
Bloch concludes that "in most cases the s.e.xual coldness of women is in fact only apparent, either due to the concealment of glowing s.e.xuality beneath the veil of outward reticence prescribed by conventional morality, or else to the husband who has not succeeded in arousing erotic sensations which are complicated and with difficulty awakened.... The s.e.xual sensibility of women is certainly different from that of men, but in strength it is at least as great." (Iwan Bloch, Das s.e.xualleben unserer Zeit 1907, ch. v.)
Nystrom, also, after devoting a chapter to the discussion of the causes of s.e.xual coldness in women, concludes: "My conviction, founded on experience, is, that only a small number of women would be without s.e.xual feeling if sound views and teaching prevailed in respect to the s.e.xual life, if due weight were given to inner devotion and tender caresses as the preliminaries of love in marriage, and if couples who wish to avoid pregnancy would adopt sensible preventive methods instead of coitus interruptus." (A. Nystrom, Das Geschlichtsleben und seine Gesetze, eighth edition, 1907, p. 177.)
We thus find two opinions widely current: one, of world-wide existence and almost universally accepted in those ages and centers in which life is lived most nakedly, according to which the s.e.xual impulse is stronger in women than in men; another, now widely prevalent in many countries, according to which the s.e.xual instinct is distinctly weaker in women, if, indeed, it may not be regarded as normally absent altogether. A third view is possible: it may be held that there is no difference at all. This view, formerly not very widely held, is that of the French physiologist, Beaunis, as it is of Winckel; while Rohleder, who formerly held that s.e.xual feeling tends to be defective in women, now believes that men and women are equal in s.e.xual impulse.
At an earlier period, however, Donatus (De Medica Historia Mirabili, 1613, lib. iv, cap. xvii) held the same view, and remarked that sometimes men and sometimes women are the more salacious, varying with the individual. Roubaud (De l"Impuissance, 1855, p. 38) stated that the question is so difficult as to be insoluble.
In dealing with the characteristics of the s.e.xual impulse in women, it will be seen, we have to consider the prevalence in them of what is commonly termed (in its slightest forms) frigidity or hyphedonia, and (in more complete form) s.e.xual anesthesia or anaphrodism, or erotic blindness, or anhedonia.[157]
Many modern writers have referred to the prevalence of frigidity among women. Shufeldt believes (Pacific Medical Journal, Nov., 1907) that 75 per cent, of married women in New York are afflicted with s.e.xual frigidity, and that it is on the increase; it is rare, however, he adds, among Jewish women. Hegar gives 50 per cent, as the proportion of s.e.xually anesthetic women; Furbringer says the majority of women are so. Effertz (quoted by Lowenfeld, s.e.xualleben und Nervenleiden, p. 11, apparently with approval) regards 10 per cent, among women generally as s.e.xually anesthetic, but only 1 per cent, men. Moll states (Eulenburg"s Encyclopadie, fourth edition, art. "Geschlechtstrieb") that the prevalence of s.e.xual anesthesia among German women varies, according to different authorities, from 10 to 66 per cent. Elsewhere Moll (Kontrare s.e.xualempfindung, third edition, 1890, p. 510) emphasizes the statement that "s.e.xual anesthesia in women is much more frequent than is generally supposed." He explains that he is referring to the physical element of pleasure and satisfaction in intercourse, and of desire for intercourse. He adds that the psychic side of love is often more conspicuous in women than in men. He cannot agree with Sollier that this kind of s.e.xual frigidity is a symptom of hysteria. Fere (L"Instinct s.e.xuel, second edition, p. 112), in referring to the greater frequency of s.e.xual anesthesia in women, remarks that it is often a.s.sociated with neuropathic states, as well as with anomalies of the genital organs, or general troubles of nutrition, and is usually acquired. Some authors attribute great importance to amenorrhea in this connection; one investigator has found that in 4 out of 14 cases of absolute amenorrhea s.e.xual feeling was absent. Lowenfeld, again (s.e.xualleben und Nervenleiden), referring to the common misconception that nervous disorder is a.s.sociated with increased s.e.xual desire, points out that nervously degenerate women far more often display frigidity than increased s.e.xual desire. Elsewhere (Ueber die s.e.xuelle Konst.i.tution) Lowenfeld says it is only among the upper cla.s.ses that s.e.xual anesthesia is common. Campbell Clark, also, showed some years ago that, in young women with a tendency to chlorosis and a predisposition to insanity, defects of pelvic and mammary development are very prevalent. (Journal of Mental Science, October, 1888.)
As regards the older medical authors, Schurig (Spermatologia, 1720, p. 243, and Gynaecologia, 1730, p. 81) brought together from the literature and from his own knowledge cases of women who felt no pleasure in coitus, as well as of some men who had erections without pleasure.
There is, however, much uncertainty as to what precisely is meant by s.e.xual frigidity or anesthesia. All the old medical authors carefully distinguish between the heat of s.e.xual desire and the actual presence of pleasure in coitus; many modern writers also properly separate libido from voluptas, since it is quite possible to experience s.e.xual desires and not to be able to obtain their gratification during s.e.xual intercourse, and it is possible to hold, with Mantegazza, that women naturally have stronger s.e.xual impulses than men, but are more liable than men to experience s.e.xual anesthesia. But it is very much more difficult than most people seem to suppose, to obtain quite precise and definite data concerning the absence of either voluptas or libido in a woman. Even if we accept the statement of the woman who a.s.serts that she has either or both, the statement of their absence is by no means equally conclusive and final. As even Adler-who discusses this question fully and has very p.r.o.nounced opinions about it-admits, there are women who stoutly deny the existence of any s.e.xual feelings until such feelings are actually discovered.[158] Some of the most marked characteristics of the s.e.xual impulse in women, moreover,-its a.s.sociation with modesty, its comparatively late development, its seeming pa.s.sivity, its need of stimulation,-all combine to render difficult the final p.r.o.nouncement that a woman is s.e.xually frigid. Most significant of all in this connection is the complexity of the s.e.xual apparatus in women and the corresponding psychic difficulty-based on the fundamental principle of s.e.xual selection-of finding a fitting mate. The fact that a woman is cold with one man or even with a succession of men by no means shows that she is not apt to experience s.e.xual emotions; it merely shows that these men have not been able to arouse them. "I recall two very striking cases," a distinguished gynecologist, the late Dr. Engelmann, of Boston, wrote to me, "of very attractive young married women-one having had a child, the other a miscarriage-who were both absolutely cold to their husbands, as told me by both husband and wife. They could not understand desire or pa.s.sion, and would not even believe that it existed. Yet, both these women with other men developed ardent pa.s.sion, all the stronger perhaps because it had been so long latent." In such cases it is scarcely necessary to invoke Adler"s theory of a morbid inhibition, or "foreign body in consciousness," which has to be overcome. We are simply in the presence of the natural fact that the female throughout nature not only requires much loving, but is usually fastidious in the choice of a lover. In the human species this natural fact is often disguised and perverted. Women are not always free to choose the man whom they would prefer as a lover, nor even free to find out whether the man they prefer s.e.xually fits them; they are, moreover, very often extremely ignorant of the whole question of s.e.x, and the victims of the prejudice and false conventions they have been taught. On the one hand, they are driven into an unnatural primness and austerity; on the other hand, they rebound to an equally unnatural facility or even promiscuity. Thus it happens that the men who find that a large number of women are not so facile as they themselves are, and as they have found a large number of women to be, rush to the conclusion that women tend to be "s.e.xually anesthetic." If we wish to be accurate, it is very doubtful whether we can a.s.sert that a woman is ever absolutely without the apt.i.tude for s.e.xual satisfaction.[159] She may unquestionably be without any conscious desire for actual coitus. But if we realize to how large an extent woman is a s.e.xual organism, and how diffused and even unconscious the s.e.xual impulses may be, it becomes very difficult to a.s.sert that she has never shown any manifestation of the s.e.xual impulse. All we can a.s.sert with some degree of positiveness in some cases is that she has not manifested s.e.xual gratification, more particularly as shown by the occurrence of the o.r.g.a.s.m, but that is very far indeed from warranting us to a.s.sert that she never will experience such gratification or still less that she is organically incapable of experiencing it.[160] It is therefore quite impossible to follow Adler when he asks us to accept the existence of a condition which he solemnly terms anaesthesia s.e.xualis completa idiopathica, in which there is no mechanical difficulty in the way or psychic inhibition, but an "absolute" lack of s.e.xual sensibility and a complete absence of s.e.xual inclination.[161]
It is instructive to observe that Adler himself knows no "pure" case of this condition. To find such a case he has to go back nearly two centuries to Madame de Warens, to whom he devotes a whole chapter. He has, moreover, had the courage in writing this chapter to rely entirely on Rousseau"s Confessions, which were written nearly half a century later than the episodes they narrated, and are therefore full of inaccuracies, besides being founded on an imperfect and false knowledge of Madame de Warens"s earlier life, and written by a man who was, there can be no doubt, not able to arouse women"s pa.s.sions. Adler shows himself completely ignorant of the historical investigations of De Montet, Mugnier, Ritter, and others which, during recent years, have thrown a flood of light on the life and character of Madame de Warens, and not even acquainted with the highly significant fact that she was hysterical.[162] This is the basis of "fact" on which we are asked to accept anaesthesia s.e.xualis completa idiopathica![163]
"In dealing with the alleged absence of the s.e.xual impulse," a well-informed medical correspondent writes from America, "much caution has to be used in accepting statements as to its absence, from the fact that most women fear by the admission to place themselves in an impure category. I am also satisfied that influx of women into universities, etc., is often due to the s.e.xual impulse causing restlessness, and that this factor finds expression in the prurient prudishness so often presenting itself in such women, which interferes with coeducation. This is becoming especially noticeable at the University of Chicago, where prudishness interferes with cla.s.sical, biological, sociological, and physiological discussion in the cla.s.sroom. There have been complaints by such women that a given professor has not left out embryological facts not in themselves in any way implying indelicacy. I have even been informed that the opinion is often expressed in college dormitories that embryological facts and discussions should be left out of a course intended for both s.e.xes." Such prudishness, it is scarcely necessary to remark, whether found in women or men, indicates a mind that has become morbidly sensitive to s.e.xual impressions. For the healthy mind embryological and allied facts have no emotionally s.e.xual significance, and there is, therefore, no need to shun them.
Kolischer, of Chicago ("s.e.xual Frigidity in Women," American Journal of Obstetrics, Sept., 1905), points out that it is often the failure of the husband to produce s.e.xual excitement in the wife which leads to voluntary repression of s.e.xual sensation on her part, or an acquired s.e.xual anesthesia. "s.e.xual excitement," he remarks, "not brought to its natural climax, the reaction leaves the woman in a very disagreeable condition, and repeated occurrences of this kind may even lead to general nervous disturbances. Some of these unfortunate women learn to suppress their s.e.xual sensation so as to avoid all these disagreeable sequelae. Such a state of affairs is not only unfortunate, because it deprives the female partner of her natural rights, but it is also to be deplored because it practically brings down such a married woman to the level of the prost.i.tute."
In ill.u.s.tration of the prevalence of inhibitions of various kinds, from without and from within, in suppressing or disguising s.e.xual feeling in women, I may quote the following observations by an American lady concerning a series of women of her acquaintance:-
"Mrs. A. This woman is handsome and healthy. She has never had children, much to the grief of herself and her husband. The man is also handsome and attractive. Mrs. A. once asked me if love-making between me and my husband ever originated with me. I replied it was as often so as not, and she said that in that event she could not see how pa.s.sion between husband and wife could be regulated. When I seemed not to be ashamed of the matter, but rather to be positive in my views that it should be so, she at once tried to impress me with the fact that she did not wish me to think she "could not be aroused." This woman several times hinted that she had learned a great amount that was not edifying at boarding school, and I always felt that, with proper encouragement, she would have retailed suggestive stories.
"Mrs. B. This woman lives to please her husband, who is a spoiled man. She gave birth to a child soon after marriage, but was left an invalid for some years. She told me coition always hurt her, and she said it made her sick to see her husband nude. I was therefore surprised, years afterward, to hear her say, in reply to a remark of another person, "Yes; women are not only as pa.s.sionate as men, I am sure they are more so." I therefore questioned the lack of pa.s.sion she had on former occasions avowed, or else felt convinced her improvement in health had made intercourse pleasant.
"Miss C. A teacher. She is emotional and easily becomes hysterical. Her life has been one of self-sacrifice and her rearing most Puritanical. She told me she thought women did not crave s.e.xual satisfaction unless it had been aroused in them. I consider her one who physically is injured by not having it.
"Mrs. D. After being married a few years this person told me she thought intercourse "horrid." Some years after this, however, she fell in love with a man not her husband, which caused their separation. She always fancied men in love with her, and she told me that she and her husband tried to live without intercourse, fearing more children, but they could not do it; she also told of trying to refrain, for the same purpose, until safe parts of the menstrual month, but that "was just the time she cared least for it." These remarks made me doubt the sincerity of the first.
"Mrs. E. said she enjoyed intercourse as well as her husband, and she "didn"t see why she should not say so." This same woman, whether using a current phrase or not, afterward said her husband "did not bother her very often."
"Mrs. F., the mother of several children, was married to a man she neither loved nor respected, but she said that when a strange man touched her it made her tremble all over.
"Mrs. G., the mother of many children, divorced on account of the dissipation, drinking and otherwise, of her husband. She is of the creole type, but large and almost repulsive. She is a brilliant talker and she supports herself by writing. She has fallen in love with a number of young men, "wildly, madly, pa.s.sionately," as one of them told me, and I am sure she suffers greatly from the lack of satisfaction. She would no doubt procure it if it were possible.
"I believe," the writer concludes, "women are as pa.s.sionate as men, but the enforced restraint of years possibly smothers it. The fear of having children and the methods to prevent conception are, I am sure, potent factors in the injury to the emotions of married women. Perhaps the lack of intercourse acts less disastrously upon a woman because of the renewed feeling which comes after each menstrual period."
As bearing on the causes which have led to the disguise and misinterpretation of the s.e.xual impulse in women I may quote the following communication from another lady:-
"I do think the coldness of women has been greatly exaggerated. Men"s theoretically ideal woman (though they don"t care so much about it in practice) is pa.s.sionless, and women are afraid to admit that they have any desire for s.e.xual pleasure. Rousseau, who was not very straight-laced, excuses the conduct of Madame de Warens on the ground that it was not the result of pa.s.sion: an aggravation rather than a palliation of the offense, if society viewed it from the point of view of any other fault. Even in the modern novels written by the "new woman" the longing for maternity, always an honorable sentiment, is dragged in to veil the so-called "lower" desire. That some women, at any rate, have very strong pa.s.sions and that great suffering is entailed by their repression is not, I am sure, sufficiently recognized, even by women themselves.
"Besides the "pa.s.sionless ideal" which checks their sincerity, there are many causes which serve to disguise a woman"s feelings to herself and make her seem to herself colder than she really is. Briefly these are:-
"1. Unrecognized disease of the reproductive organs, especially after the birth of children. A friend of mine lamented to me her inability to feel pleasure, though she had done so before the birth of her child, then 3 years old. With considerable difficulty I persuaded her to see a doctor, who told her all the reproductive organs were seriously congested; so that for three years she had lived in ignorance and regret for her husband"s sake and her own.
"2. The dread of recommencing, once having suffered them, all the pains and discomforts of child-bearing.
"3. Even when precautions are taken, much bother and anxiety is involved, which has a very dampening effect on excitement.
"4. The fact that men will never take any trouble to find out what specially excites a woman. A woman, as a rule, is at some pains to find out the little things which particularly affect the man she loves,-it may be a trick of speech, a rose in her hair, or what not,-and she makes use of her knowledge. But do you know one man who will take the same trouble? (It is difficult to specify, as what pleases one person may not another. I find that the things that affect me personally are the following: [a] Admiration for a man"s mental capacity will translate itself sometimes into direct physical excitement. [b] Scents of white flowers, like tuberose or syringa. [c] The sight of fireflies. [d] The idea or the reality of suspension. [e] Occasionally absolute pa.s.sivity.)
"5. The fact that many women satisfy their husbands when themselves disinclined. This is like eating jam when one does not fancy it, and has a similar effect. It is a great mistake, in my opinion, to do so, except very rarely. A man, though perhaps cross at the time, prefers, I believe, to gratify himself a few times, when the woman also enjoys it, to many times when she does not.
"6. The m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.tic tendency of women, or their desire for subjection to the man they love. I believe no point in the whole question is more misunderstood than this. Nearly every man imagines that to secure a woman"s love and respect he must give her her own way in small things, and compel her obedience in great ones. Every man who desires success with a woman should exactly reverse that theory."
When we are faced by these various and often conflicting statements of opinion it seems necessary to obtain, if possible, a definite basis of objective fact. It would be fairly obvious in any case, and it becomes unquestionable in view of the statements I have brought together, that the best-informed and most sagacious clinical observers, when giving an opinion on a very difficult and elusive subject which they have not studied with any attention and method, are liable to make unguarded a.s.sertions; sometimes, also, they become the victims of ethical or pseudoethical prejudices, so as to be most easily influenced by that cla.s.s of cases which happens to fit in best with their prepossessions.[164] In order to reach any conclusions on a reasonable basis it is necessary to take a series of unselected individuals and to ascertain carefully the condition of the s.e.xual impulse in each.
At present, however, this is extremely difficult to do at all satisfactorily, and quite impossible, indeed, to do in a manner likely to yield absolutely unimpeachable results. Nevertheless, a few series of observations have been made. Thus, Dr. Harry Campbell[165] records the result of an investigation, carried on in his hospital practice, of 52 married women of the poorer cla.s.s; they were not patients, but ordinary, healthy working-cla.s.s women, and the inquiry was not made directly, but of the husbands, who were patients. s.e.xual instinct was said to be present in 12 cases before marriage, and absent in 40; in 13 of the 40 it never appeared at all; so that it altogether appeared in 39, or in the ratio of something over 75 per cent. Among the 12 in whom it existed before marriage it was said to have appeared in most with p.u.b.erty; in 3, however, a few years before p.u.b.erty, and in 2 a few years later. In 2 of those in whom it appeared before p.u.b.erty, menstruation began late; in the third it rose almost to nymphomania on the day preceding the first menstruation. In nearly all the cases desire was said to be stronger in the husband than in the wife; when it was stronger in the wife, the husband was exceptionally indifferent. Of the 13 in whom desire was absent after marriage, 5 had been married for a period under two years, and Campbell remarks that it would be wrong to conclude that it would never develop in these cases, for in this group of cases the appearance of s.e.xual instinct was sometimes a matter of days, sometimes of years, after the date of marriage. In two-thirds of the cases there was a diminution of desire, usually gradual, at the climacteric; in the remaining third there was either no change or exaltation of desire. The most important general result, Campbell concludes, is that "the s.e.xual instinct is very much less intense in woman than in man," and to this he elsewhere adds a corollary that "the s.e.xual instinct in the civilized woman is, I believe, tending to atrophy."
An eminent gynecologist, the late Dr. Matthews Duncan, has (in his work on Sterility in Women) presented a table which, although foreign to this subject, has a certain bearing on the matter. Matthews Duncan, believing that the absence of s.e.xual desire and of s.e.xual pleasure in coitus are powerful influences working for sterility, noted their presence or absence in a number of cases, and found that, among 191 sterile women between the ages of 15 and 45, 152, or 79 per cent., acknowledged the presence of s.e.xual desire; and among 196 sterile women (mostly the same cases), 134, or 68 per cent., acknowledged the presence of s.e.xual pleasure in coitus. Omitting the cases over 35 years of age, which were comparatively few, the largest proportion of affirmative answers, both as regards s.e.xual pleasure and s.e.xual desire, was from between 30 and 34 years of age. Matthews Duncan a.s.sumes that the absence of s.e.xual desire and s.e.xual pleasure in women is thoroughly abnormal.[166]
An English non-medical author, in the course of a thoughtful discussion of s.e.xual phenomena, revealing considerable knowledge and observation,[167] has devoted a chapter to this subject in another of its aspects. Without attempting to ascertain the normal strength of the s.e.xual instinct in women, he briefly describes 11 cases of "s.e.xual anesthesia" in Women (in 2 or 3 of which there appears, however, to be an element of latent h.o.m.os.e.xuality) from among the circle of his own friends. This author concludes that s.e.xual coldness is very common among English women, and that it involves questions of great social and ethical importance.
I have not met with any series of observations made among seemingly healthy and normal women in other countries; there are, however, various series of somewhat abnormal cases in which the point was noted, and the results are not uninstructive. Thus, in Vienna at Krafft-Ebing"s psychiatric clinic, Gattel (Ueber die s.e.xuellen Ursachen der Neurasthenie und Angstneurose, 1898) carefully investigated the cases of 42 women, mostly at the height of s.e.xual life,-i.e., between 20 and 35,-who were suffering from slight nervous disorders, especially neurasthenia and mild hysteria, but none of them from grave nervous or other disease. Of these 42, at least 17 had m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.ed, at one time or another, either before or after marriage, in order to obtain relief of s.e.xual feelings. In the case of 4 it is stated that they do not obtain s.e.xual satisfaction in marriage, but in these cases only coitus interruptus is practised, and the fact that the absence of s.e.xual satisfaction was complained of seems to indicate an apt.i.tude for experiencing it. These 4 cases can therefore scarcely be regarded as exceptions. In all the other cases s.e.xual desire, s.e.xual excitement, or s.e.xual satisfaction is always clearly indicated, and in a considerable proportion of cases it is noted that the s.e.xual impulse is very strongly developed. This series is valuable, since the facts of the s.e.xual life are, as far as possible, recorded with much precision. The significance of the facts varies, however, according to the view taken as to the causation of neurasthenia and allied conditions of slight nervous disorder. Gattel argues that s.e.xual irregularities are a peculiarly fruitful, if not invariable, source of such disorders; according to the more commonly accepted view this is not so. If we accept the more usual view, these women fairly correspond to average women of lower cla.s.s; if, however, we accept Gattel"s view, they may possess the s.e.xual instinct in a more marked degree than average women.
In a series of 116 German women in whom the operation of removing the ovaries was performed, Pfister usually noted briefly in what way the s.e.xual impulse was affected by the operation ("Die Wirkung der Castration auf den Weiblichen Organismus," Archiv fur Gynakologie, 1898, p. 583). In 13 cases (all but 3 unmarried) the presence of s.e.xual desire at any time was denied, and 2 of these expressed disgust of s.e.xual matters. In 12 cases the point is left doubtful. In all the other cases s.e.xual desire had once been present, and in 2 or 3 cases it was acknowledged to be so strong as to approach nymphomania. In about 30 of these (not including any in which it was previously very strong) it was extinguished by castration, in a few others it was diminished, and in the rest unaffected. Thus, when we exclude the 12 cases in which the point was not apparently investigated, and the 10 unmarried women, in whom it may have been latent or unavowed, we find that, of 94 married women, 91 women acknowledged the existence of s.e.xual desire and only 3 denied it.
Schroter, again in Germany, has investigated the manifestations of the s.e.xual impulse among 402 insane women in the asylum at Eichberg in Rheingau. ("Wird bei jungen Unverheiratheten zur Zeit der Menstruation starkere s.e.xuelle Erregheit beobaehtet?" Allgemeine Zeitschrift fur Psychiatrie, vol. lvi, 1899, pp. 321-333.) There is no reason to suppose that the insane represent a cla.s.s of the community specially liable to s.e.xual emotion, although its manifestations may become unrestrained and conspicuous under the influence of insanity; and at the same time, while the appearance of such manifestations is evidence of the apt.i.tude for s.e.xual emotions, their absence may be only due to disease, seclusion, or to an intact power of self-control.
Of the 402 women, 166 were married and 236 unmarried. Schroter divided them into four groups: (1) those below 20; (2) those between 20 and 30; (3) those between 30 and 40; (4) those from 40 to the menopause. The patients included persons from the lowest cla.s.s of the population, and only about a quarter of them could fairly be regarded as curable. Thus the manifestations of s.e.xuality were diminished, for with advance of mental disease s.e.xual manifestations cease to appear. Schroter only counted those cases in which the s.e.xual manifestations were decided and fairly constant at the menstrual epoch; if not visibly manifested, s.e.xual feeling was not taken into account. s.e.xual phenomena accompanied the entry of the menstrual epoch in 141 cases: i.e., in 20 (or in the proportion of 72 per cent.) of the first group, consisting entirely of unmarried women; in 33 (or 28 per cent.) of the second group; in 55 (or 35 per cent.) of the third group; and in 33 (or 33 per cent.) of the fourth group. It was found that 181 patients showed no s.e.xual phenomena at any time, while 80 showed s.e.xual phenomena frequently between the menstrual epochs, but only in a slight degree, and not at all during the period. At all ages s.e.xual manifestations were more prevalent among the unmarried than among the married, though this difference became regularly and progressively less with increase in age.
Schroter inclines to think that s.e.xual excitement is commoner among insane women belonging to the lower social cla.s.ses than in those belonging to the better cla.s.ses. Among 184 women in a private asylum, only 13 (6.13 per cent.) showed very marked and constant excitement at menstrual periods. He points out, however, that this may be due to a greater ability to restrain the manifestations of feeling.
There is some interest in Schroter"s results, though they cannot be put on a line with inquiries made among the sane; they only represent the prevalence of the grossest and strongest s.e.xual manifestations when freed from the restraints of sanity.
As a slight contribution toward the question, I have selected a series of 12 cases of women of whose s.e.xual development I possess precise information, with the following results: In 2 cases distinct s.e.xual feeling was experienced spontaneously at the age of 7 and 8, but the complete o.r.g.a.s.m only occurred some years after p.u.b.erty; in 5 cases s.e.xual feeling appeared spontaneously for a few months to a year after the appearance of menstruation, which began between 12 and 14 years of age, usually at 13; in another case s.e.xual feeling first appeared shortly after menstruation began, but not spontaneously, being called out by a lover"s advances; in the remaining 4 cases s.e.xual emotion never became definite and conscious until adult life (the ages being 26, 27, 34, 35), in 2 cases through being made love to, and in 2 cases through self-manipulation out of accident or curiosity. It is noteworthy that the s.e.xual feelings first developed in adult life were usually as strong as those arising at p.u.b.erty. It may be added that, of these 12 women, 9 had at some time or another m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.ed (4 shortly after p.u.b.erty, 5 in adult life), but, except in 1 case, rarely and at intervals. All belong to the middle cla.s.s, 2 or 3 leading easy, though not idle, lives, while all the others are engaged in professional or other avocations often involving severe labor. They differ widely in character and mental ability; but, while 2 or 3 might be regarded as slightly abnormal, they are all fairly healthy.