The sexual question _ A scientific_ psychological_ hygienic and sociological study Auguste Forel 1363 downloads.pdf

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The sexual question
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will
have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using
this eBook.

Title: The sexual question
A scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study

Author: Auguste Forel

Translator: C. F. Marshall

Release date: September 4, 2009 [eBook #29903]
Most recently updated: January 5, 2021

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29903

Credits: Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jeannie Howse and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEXUAL
QUESTION ***

Transcriber's Note:

Inconsistent hyphenation in the original
document has been preserved.
Obvious typographical errors have been
corrected. For a complete list, please see the
end of this document.
Click on the images to see a larger version.

THE
SEXUAL QUESTION
A SCIENTIFIC, PSYCHOLOGICAL, HYGIENIC
AND SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY

BY
AUGUST FOREL, M.D., PH.D., LL.D.
Formerly Professor of Psychiatry at and Director of the
Insane Asylum in Zurich (Switzerland)

ENGLISH ADAPTATION FROM THE SECOND GERMAN
EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED

BY
C.F. MARSHALL, M.D., F.R.C.S.
Late Assistant Surgeon to the Hospital for
Diseases of the Skin, London

ILLUSTRATED
REVISED EDITION

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS BOOK COMPANY
HENRY AND PACIFIC STREETS
1931

Copyright, 1906
Copyright, 1922

owned by
Physicians and Surgeons Book Co.

PRINTED IN U.S.A.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

This book is the fruit of long experience and reflection. It has two
fundamental ideas—the study of nature, and the study of the psychology of
man in health and in disease.
To harmonize the aspirations of human nature and the data of the
sociology of the different human races and the different epochs of history,
with the results of natural science and the laws of mental and sexual
evolution which these have revealed to us, is a task which has become more
and more necessary at the present day. It is our duty to our descendants to
contribute as far as is in our power to its accomplishment. In recognition of
the immense progress of education which we owe to the sweat, the blood,
and often to the martyrdom of our predecessors, it behoves us to prepare for
our children a life more happy than ours.
I am well aware of the disproportion which exists between the magnitude
of my task and the imperfections of my work. I have not been able to study
as much as should be done the innumerable works which treat of the same
subject. Others, better versed than myself in the literature of the subject,
will be able later on to fill this regrettable lacuna. I have endeavored, above
all things, to study the question from all points of view, in order to avoid the
errors which result from any study which is made from one point of view
only. This is a thing which has generally been neglected.
I must express my thanks to my friend, Professor Mahaim, and especially
to my publisher and cousin, S. Steinheil, for the help and excellent advice
which they have given me in the revision of my work; also to Professor
Boveri, who has been kind enough to revise the figures, 1 to 17.
Dr. A. Forel.
Chigny près Morges (Suisse).

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

The text of the first edition has been revised and corrected, but, apart
from some points of detail, the subject matter has not been changed. The
examples at the end of Chapter V (First Edition) no longer form a special
appendix; they have been included in the parts of the book which specially
concern them; some of them have been omitted as being superfluous.
In the domain with which we are concerned the French public are too
much afraid, I think, of crudities and of calling things by their proper name.
By veiled words and by indirect locution one may say anything, but I have
decided not to employ such subterfuges in treating of such a vital social
question with the seriousness that it requires. It seems that there is a fear of
young people hearing the sexual question spoken of freely and openly; but
it is not taken into account that in hiding these things under half-understood
words one only excites their curiosity, and, owing to their being
blindfolded, they are delivered into the snares and surprises of debauchery.
I cannot better illustrate the error that I have just pointed out than by
quoting, among several others of the same kind, a letter which I have
received from a young girl, aged 21 years, intelligent, virtuous, educated,
and well brought up, but without restraint.
Having read my book she put several questions to me to which I replied.
On my part I requested her to tell me frankly:
(1). If, in her opinion, I had been mistaken in my judgment of the sexual
psychology of the normal young girl; (2). If my book had done her the least
harm, moral or otherwise.

I begged her to criticise me without pity, for I wished above all things to
be clear on the effect produced by my book. This is her letter:
"I must thank you for the deep and unalterable impression which
your book has produced on me. I am a young girl of 21 years, and
you know how difficult it is for us to see clearly into those natural
things which so closely concern us. I cannot, therefore, thank you
too much for the calm enlightenment which has been produced in
me, and for the just and humane words which you devote to the
education of our sex. I hope one day to have the good fortune to
apply to my children the ideas on education with which you have
inspired me.
"You ask me for the impression which your book has made on
me. It is true that I am still very young, but I have read much. My
mother has brought me up very freely, so that I can count myself
among the young girls who are free from prejudice. In spite of this,
a sort of internal anxiety or false shame has hindered me from
speaking of all the things of which you treat. All that I knew I had
read in books or derived by instinct. Although I knew very well that
my mother would always answer my questions I never asked any.
"I declare that latterly my mind had been in a state of veritable
chaos. I was obsessed and tormented by a fear of everything of
which I was ignorant and some day ought to learn. This is why I
was anxious to read your book which a friend showed me. I will
now express myself more clearly.
"The first chapters were difficult for me, not because I could not
understand them, but owing to the strange and novel experience
which the truth made in me when plainly and scientifically
expounded. Wishing to read everything I applied myself to the book
laboriously. My first impression was that of disgust for all human
beings and mistrust of everything. But I was soon glad to find that I
was a very normal young girl, so that this impression soon passed
away. I was no longer excited over conversations which I heard, but
took a real interest in them, and I was happy to have become
acquainted with some one who understood us young girls.

"I am, therefore, a young girl whose sensations are neither cold
nor perverse, and I am always rejoiced, in reading your book, to see
with what truth you describe our sexual impressions. Those who
maintain that we feel in this way the same as men make me smile.
In your book ("Hygiene of Marriage," p. 479) you say that the idea
of marriage awakens in a normal young girl a kind of anguish and
disgust, and that this feeling disappears as soon as she has found
some one whom she loves. This is extremely true and well
observed. I am in complete agreement with a friend with whom I
have often discussed your book; we young girls are very little
attracted by the purely sexual side of marriage, and we should prefer
to see children come into the world by some other way than that
ordained by Nature. This will, perhaps, make you laugh. However, I
think you will understand my feelings.
"When I had finished reading your book I became absolutely
tranquil, and my ideas were enlightened. It goes without saying that
it is no longer possible for me to be ingenuous, but I should like to
know what one gains by such naivety. It is very easy to be innocent
when one knows nothing, and this is of no account. I never thought
for a moment to find your book immoral, and that is why I do not
think you have done me any harm. Excuse me for having written at
such length, but I could not abbreviate when dealing with such a
serious question."
The author of this letter has, at my request, authorized me to publish it
anonymously. I think that the candor, the loyalty and the maturity of
judgment of the sentiments expressed by this young girl are of much more
value and are much more healthy than all the prudishness and false shame
of our conventional morality.
Dr. A. Forel.
Chigny près Morges (Suisse).

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE

The reproduction of living beings—History of
the germ—Cell-division—Parthenogenesis
—Conjugation—Mneme—Embryonic
6
development—Difference of sexes—
Castration—Hermaphrodism— Heredity—
Blastophthoria
CHAPTER II
The evolution or descent of living beings 39
CHAPTER III
Natural conditions of mechanism of human
coitus—Pregnancy— Correlative sexual 49
characters
CHAPTER IV
The sexual appetite in man and woman—
72
Flirtation
CHAPTER V
Love and other irradiations of the sexual 104
appetite in the human mind—Psychic
irradiations of love in man: Procreative
instinct, jealousy, sexual braggardism,
pornographic spirit, sexual hypocrisy,
prudery and modesty, old bachelors—
Psychic irradiations of love in woman: Old
maids, passiveness and desire, abandon and
exaltation, desire for domination, petticoat

government, desire of maternity and
maternal love, routine and infatuation,
jealousy, dissimulation, coquetry, prudery
and modesty—Fetichism and anti-
fetichism— Psychological relations of love
to religion
CHAPTER VI
Ethnology and history of the sexual life of man
and of marriage—Origin of marriage—
Antiquity of matrimonial institutions—
Criticism of the doctrine of promiscuity—
Marriage and celibacy—Sexual advances
and demands of marriage—Methods of
attraction—Liberty of choice—Sexual
selection—Law of resemblance—Hybrids 144
—Prohibition of consanguineous marriages
—Role of sentiment and calculation in
sexual selection—Marriage by purchase—
Decadence of marriage by purchase—
Dowry—Nuptial ceremonies—Forms of
marriage—Duration of marriage—History
of extra-nuptial sexual intercourse
CHAPTER VII
Sexual evolution—Phylogeny and ontogeny of
192
sexual life
CHAPTER VIII
208
Sexual pathology—Pathology of the sexual
organs—Venereal disease—Sexual
psychology—Reflex anomalies—Psychic
impotence—Sexual paradoxy—Sexual
anæsthesia—Sexual hyperæsthesia—
Masturbation and onanism—Perversions of
the sexual appetite: Sadism, masochism,
fetichism, exhibitionism, homosexual love,

sexual inversion, pederosis, sodomy—
Sexual anomalies in the insane and
psychopathic— Effects of alcohol on the
sexual appetite—Sexual anomalies by
suggestion and auto-suggestion—Sexual
perversions due to habit
CHAPTER IX
The role of suggestion in sexual life—Amorous
277
intoxication
CHAPTER X
The relations of the sexual question to money
and property— Prostitution, proxenetism 293
and venal concubinage
CHAPTER XI
The influence of environment on sexual life—
Influence of climate—Town and country
life—Vagabondage—Americanism—
326
Saloons and alcohol—Riches and poverty
—Rank and social position—Individual
life—Boarding schools.
CHAPTER XII
Religion and sexual life 340
CHAPTER XIII
Rights in sexual life—Civil law—Penal law—A
358
medico-legal case
CHAPTER XIV
418
Medicine and sexual life—Prostitution—Sexual
hygiene— Extra-nuptial intercourse—
Medical advice—Means of regulating or
preventing conception—Hygiene of
marriage— Hygiene of pregnancy—

Medical advice as to marriage—Medical
secrecy—Artificial abortion—Treatment of
sexual disorders
CHAPTER XV
Sexual morality 445
CHAPTER XVI
The sexual question in politics and in political
461
economy
CHAPTER XVII
The sexual question in pedagogy 470
CHAPTER XVIII
The sexual question in art 489
CHAPTER XIX
Conclusions—Utopian ideas on the ideal
marriage of the future—Bibliographical 499
remarks
INDEX

THE SEXUAL QUESTION

THE SEXUAL QUESTION

INTRODUCTION

My object is to study the sexual question under all its aspects: scientific,
ethnological, pathological and social, and to seek the best solution of the
numerous problems connected with it. Unfortunately, in publications
dealing with this subject, eroticism usually plays a considerable part, and it
is difficult for an author to abstract himself from this, for it is reflected
unconsciously in his thoughts. As all sentiment, more or less, warps
judgment, it is the duty of scientific criticism to eliminate eroticism in order
to be exact and impartial. We shall, therefore, do all that is possible to free
ourselves from it in the course of the present study.
The sexual question is of fundamental importance for humanity, whose
happiness and well-being depend largely on the best solution of this
important problem. In dealing with such a delicate subject I shall endeavor
to avoid narrow-mindedness and prejudice; I shall avoid tiresome
quotations, and shall only employ technical terms when necessary, as they
rather interfere with the comprehension of the subject. I shall take care to
explain all those which appear to me indispensable.
My opinions on the sexual question are based, on the one hand, on my
scientific study of the human brain, and on the other hand on the long
personal experience of an alienist who has devoted himself almost as much
to normal mentality and questions of social hygiene as to pathological
mentality. I have, however, been obliged to rely on the fundamental work of
Westermark with regard to ethnology, this subject being strange to me.
Concerning sexual psycho-pathology I have followed the classification of
Krafft-Ebing.

The sexual question is extraordinarily complex, and we cannot expect to
find a simple solution for it as we can for the questions of alcoholism,
slavery, torture, etc. The latter are solved in one word—suppression.
Suppression of slavery and torture; suppression of the usage of alcoholic
drinks. We are concerned here with ulcers artificially produced and
preserved in human society; ulcers which must be simply extirpated. Their
suppression is nothing but beneficial, since, far from being connected with
the normal conditions of human existence, they place it in peril. Sexual
instinct and sentiment, on the contrary, have their roots in life itself; they
are intimately bound up with humanity, and therefore require quite a
different treatment. But human society has guided them into false and
pernicious ways. It is important to turn them from these in order to
tranquilize and regulate their course by damming them up and canalizing
them.
The fundamental axiom of the sexual question is as follows:
With man, as with all living beings, the constant object of all sexual
function, and consequently of sexual love, is the reproduction of the species.
It is therefore necessary to treat the question from the point of view of the
natural sciences, physiology, psychology and sociology. This has already
been done more than once, but usually in erudite treatises which only look
upon one side of the question; or, on the other hand, in a superficial and
often frivolous manner.
To ensure happiness, humanity should desire to reproduce itself in a
manner which elevates progressively all the physical and mental faculties of
man, with regard to health and bodily strength, as much as to sentiment,
intelligence, will, creative imagination, love of work, joy of living, and the
sentiment of social solidarity. Every attempt made to solve the sexual
question should, therefore, be directed toward the future and toward the
happiness of our descendants.
It requires much disinterestedness to attempt seriously any sexual reform.
But, as the human subject is by nature extremely weak, as his views are
limited, especially in the matter which concerns us, it is absolutely
necessary, if we would avoid Utopia, to adapt the fundamental aim of
sexual union to happiness and joy, even to the natural weakness of man.

The fundamental difficulty of the problem lies in the necessity for such
an adaptation, and this difficulty requires us to make a clean sweep of
prejudices, traditions and prudery. It is this which we wish to attempt.
Considered from an exalted point of view, sexual life is beautiful as well
as good. What there is in it which is shameful and infamous is the obscenity
and ignominy caused by the coarse passions of egoism and folly, allied with
ignorance, erotic curiosity and mystic superstition, often combined with
social narcotic intoxication and cerebral anomalies.
We shall divide our subject into nineteen chapters. Chapters I to VII deal
with the natural history and psychology of sexual life; Chapter VIII with its
pathology, and Chapters IX to XVIII with its social role, that is to say, its
connection with the different domains of human social life.

CHAPTER IToC

THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS

History of the Germ:—Cell-division—Parthenogenesis
—Conjugation—Mneme—Embryological
Development— Difference of the Sexes—Castration
—Hermaphrodism— Heredity—Blastophthoria.

A general law of organic life decrees that every living individual is
gradually transformed in the course of a cycle which is called individual
life, and which terminates with death, that is by the destruction of the
greater part of the organism. It then becomes inert matter, and the
germinative cells alone of all its parts continue its life under certain
conditions.

The Cells: Protoplasm. The Nucleus.—Since the time of Schwann
(1830) it is agreed that the cell is the most simple morphological element
which is capable of living. Among the lower organisms this element
constitutes the entire individual. There is no doubt that the cell is already a
thing of high organization. It is formed of infinitely small elements of very
different value and chemical constitution, which form what is called
protoplasm or the cell-substance. But these infinitely small elements are so
far absolutely unknown. It is in them that must be sought the change from
inanimate matter, that is the chemical molecule, to living matter, a change
which was formerly believed to lie in the protoplasm itself, before its
complicated structure was known. We need not concern ourselves here with
this question which remains an open one.
Life being established, the cell remains its only known constant element.
The cell is composed of protoplasm which contains a rounded nucleus
formed of nucleo-plasma. The nucleus is the most important part of the cell,
and governs its life.
Cell-division.—The lowest unicellular organisms, as each cell of a
multicellular organism, reproduce themselves by division or fission. Each
cell originates from another cell in the following manner: the cell divides in
the center as well as its nucleus, and in this way forms two cells which
grow by absorbing by endosmosis (filtration) the nutritive juices which
surround them. Death or destruction of the cell is therefore death of the
entire organism when this is unicellular. But it has been previously
reproduced.
We find here already the special and fundamental act of conjugation, that
is the fusion of two cells into one, which serves to strengthen reproduction.
This act, common to all living things including man, shows us that
continuation of life is only possible when from time to time different
elements, that is elements which have been exposed to different influences,
combine together. If this conjugation is prevented and life is allowed to
continue indefinitely by means of fission or by budding (vide infra), there
results a progressive weakening and degeneration which leads to the
disappearance of the whole group thus reproduced.
It is necessary to explain here the results of recent scientific work on the
intimate phenomena of cell-division, for they are closely allied to those of

fecundation.
The nucleus of an ordinary cell presents itself in the form of a nearly
spherical vesicle. Delicate methods of staining have shown that the nucleus
encloses several round nucleolar corpuscles, and also a reticulum which is
attached to its membrane and spreads through its whole substance. The
liquid part of the nucleus fills the meshes of this reticular tissue, which
stains easily and for this reason is named chromatin. The phenomena of cell
division in well-developed cells with nuclei is termed mitosis. Certain lower
forms of cells exist in which the nucleus is not well differentiated. Mitosis
begins in the nucleus (Plate I). Figure 1 represents the cell before division
has commenced. In the protoplasm, by the side of the nucleus, is formed a
small corpuscle (c) which is called the centrosome. The nucleus itself is
marked b. When the cell commences to divide, the meshes of the network
of chromatin contract and the centrosome divides into two parts (Fig. 2).
Shortly afterward the particles of chromatin concentrate in the form of
convoluted rods called chromosomes (Figs. 3 and 4). The number of these
varies according to the species of organism, but remains constant for each
animal or vegetable species. At the same time the two centrosomes separate
from each other on each side of the nucleus. The chromosomes then
become shorter and thicker while the nucleus is completely dissolved in the
protoplasm of the cell, and its membrane disappears (Fig. 4).
Directly afterwards the chromosomes arrange themselves regularly in
line, like soldiers at drill, following one of the larger diameters of the cell,
and forming a barrier between the two centrosomes (Fig. 5). Each of the
chromosomes then divides into two parallel halves of equal thickness (Fig.
6).
Figures 3 and 4 show that, while these changes are being produced, each
of the two centrosomes is surrounded by stellate rays. Some of these rays
extending in the direction of the chromosomes, become attached to one of
their extremities and draw it toward the corresponding centrosome (Fig. 7).
Thus around each centrosome are grouped as many chromosomes as the
mother cell possessed itself (Fig. 8). Simultaneously, the cell enlarges and
its protoplasm commences to become indented at each end of the diameter
previously formed by the chromosomes. From this moment the nuclear
liquid concentrates itself around each of the groups of chromosomes, the
rays disappear and the cell divides into two halves, each containing a group

of chromosomes (Fig. 9); the indentation increases so as to form a partition
across the protoplasm. The chromosomes then form a new meshwork of
nuclear chromatin, and we have then two cells each with a nucleus and a
centrosome like the mother cell (Fig. 10).
This is what takes place in the reproduction of all cells of the animal and
vegetable kingdoms. In the simplest unicellular organisms which are known
fission constitutes the only means of reproduction. In the complicated
organisms of the higher plants and animals each cell divides in the manner
indicated above, both in the embryonic period and later on during the
development of each of the organs which forms the organism. This fact
shows more than any other the intimate relationship which connects all
living organisms. The most remarkable thing, perhaps, is the almost
mathematical division of the chromosomes into two halves, a division
which results in the equal distribution of their substance through the whole
organism. We shall return to this point later on.
Reproduction by Budding. Parthenogenesis. In the animal and
vegetable kingdoms the higher organisms become more and more
complicated. They are no longer composed of a single cell, but of an
increasing number of these cells combined in a whole, of which each part,
adapted for a special purpose, is itself formed of cells, differentiated as
much by their organic form as by their chemical and physical constitution.
In this way, in plants, are formed the leaves, flowers, buds, branches, trunk,
bark, etc.; and in animals the skin, intestine, glands, blood, muscles, nerves,
brain, sense organs, etc. In spite of the great complication of the divers
living multicellular organisms, one often finds among them the power of
reproduction by fission or by budding. In certain animals and plants, groups
of cells vegetate in buds which separate from the body later on and form a
new individual; this occurs among the polypi and plants with bulbs, etc.
One can even form a tree by means of a cutting. Ants and bees, which have
not been fecundated, are capable of laying eggs which develop by
parthenogenesis (virgin parturition) and become complete individuals. But
these degenerate and disappear if reproduction by parthenogenesis or
budding is continued during several generations.
Among the higher animals, the vertebrates and man, there is no
reproduction without conjugation; no parthenogenesis or budding. So far as
we have studied the question we see in the animal and vegetable kingdoms

sexual reproduction, or conjugation, as a sine qua non for the indefinite
continuation of life.
The Sexual Glands. The Embryo. However complicated the organism,
it always possesses a special organ, the cells of which, all of the same form,
are reserved for the reproduction of the species and especially for
conjugation. The cells of these organs, called sexual glands, have the power
of reproducing themselves so that they reconstruct the whole individual (the
type of the species) from which they arose, in an almost identical form, by
conjugation (sometimes also, for a certain time, by parthenogenesis) under
certain fixed conditions as soon as they leave its body. We can thus say with
Weismann, speaking philosophically, that these germinal cells continue the
life of their parents, so that in reality death only destroys part of the
individual, namely, that which has been specially adapted for certain
exclusively individual ends. Each individual, therefore, continues to live in
his descendants.
The germinal cell divides into a number of cells called embryonic, which
become differentiated into layers or groups which later on form the
different organs of the body. The embryonic period is the name given to the
period between the exit of the germinal cell from the maternal body and the
final complete development which it acquires in becoming the adult
individual. During this period the organism undergoes the most singular
metamorphoses. In certain cases it forms a free embryo which appears to be
complete, having a special form and mode of life, but which finally
becomes transformed into an entirely different sexual individual. Thus from
the egg of a butterfly there first emerges a caterpillar, which lives and grows
for some time, then changes to a chrysalis and finally to a butterfly. The
caterpillar and the chrysalis belong to the embryonic period. During this
period every animal reproduces in an abbreviated manner certain forms
which resemble more or less those through which its ancestors have passed.
The caterpillar, for example, resembles the worm which is the ancestor of
the insects. Haeckel calls this the fundamental biogenetic law. We are not
concerned here with embryology, and will content ourselves with some of
the main points.
Germinal Cells. Hermaphrodites. We now come to conjugation. In
order to avoid complications we will leave aside plants and speak only of
animals. Among multicellular animals, sometimes in the same individual,

sometimes in different individuals, occur two kinds of sexual glands, each
containing one kind of cells—the male cells and the female cells. When
both kinds of sexual glands occur in the same individual, the animal is said
to be hermaphrodite. When they develop in two different individuals the
animals are of distinct sexes. Snails, for example, are hermaphrodite. There
also exist lower multicellular animals which reproduce by budding, but
among which conjugation takes place from time to time. We shall not
consider these animals any further, as they are too remote to interest us
here.
Spermatozoa and Ova.—In all the higher animals, including the
hermaphrodites, the male germinal cells, or spermatozoa are characterized
by their mobility. Their protoplasm is contractile and their form varies
according to the species. In man and vertebrate animals they resemble
infinitely small tadpoles, and their tails are equally mobile. The female
germinative cell, on the contrary, is immobile and much larger than the
male cell. Conjugation consists in the movement of the male cell, by means
of variable mechanism, toward the female cell, or egg, into the protoplasm
of which it enters. At this moment it produces on the surface of the egg a
coagulation, which prevents the entrance of a second spermatozoid.
The egg and the spermatozoid both consist of protoplasm containing a
nucleus. But, while the spermatozoid has only a small nucleus and very
little protoplasm, the egg has a large nucleus and a large quantity of
protoplasm. In certain species the protoplasm of the egg grows in the
maternal organism in a regular manner to form the vitellus (yolk of egg)
which serves as nourishment for the embryo for a long period of its
existence. This occurs in birds and reptiles.
Conjugation.—The phenomena of conjugation were made clear by van
Beneden and Hertwig. These phenomena, as we have seen, commence
among unicellular organisms. In these they do not constitute reproduction,
but the vital reënforcement of certain individuals. Conjugation takes place
in a different manner in different cases.
For example, a unicellular animal applies itself against one of its fellows.
The nucleus of each cell divides into two. Then the protoplasm of the two
cells fuses over the whole surface of contact, and half the nucleus of the
first cell penetrates the second cell, while half the nucleus of the latter

enters the first cell. After this exchange the cells separate from each other
and each exchanged half of the nucleus fuses with the primitive half of the
nucleus remaining in the cell.
From this moment each cell continues to reproduce itself by fission, as
we have seen above. In another form, two cells meet and fuse completely.
Their nuclei become applied against each other and each exchanges half its
substance with the other as in the preceding case, so that the final result is
the same. In both cases the two conjugated cells are identical, and one
cannot call them male and female.
Penetration of the Spermatozoid into the Egg.—In all the higher
animals in which the germinal cells are of two kinds, male and female,
conjugation takes place in rather a different manner. Here, the female cell or
egg only reproduces itself exceptionally by parthenogenesis. It usually
contains no chromosomes and often too little chromatin, so that it perishes
when conjugation does not occur.
The spermatozoid swims by means of its tail to meet the egg. As soon as
it touches it it penetrates it and the coagulation which we have mentioned is
produced. This coagulation forms the vitelline membrane, which prevents
the entry of other spermatozoids. If, from pathological causes the entry of
several spermatozoids takes place, there results, according to Fol, a double
or triple monster.
In Fig. 11 on Plate II, we see the egg with its vitelline membrane and
nucleus, the chromatin network of which is marked in blue: b shows the
protoplasm of the egg or vitellus; a the vitelline membrane; d the
spermatozoid which has just entered, and the nucleus of which, composed
chiefly of chromatin, is colored red, while its tail has performed its task and
is about to disappear. The letters e, f, and g, show a spermatozoid which has
arrived too late.
Before the head of the spermatozoid which has entered, appears a
centrosome (Fig. 12) which it brings to the egg with its small amount of
protoplasm, and around this centrosome rays form, as in the case of cellular
fission. At the same time a nuclear liquid arising from the protoplasm of the
egg becomes concentrated around the chromatin of the spermatozoid, while
the nucleus of the egg remains in place and does not change. The nucleus of
the spermatozoid, on the contrary, begins to grow rapidly. It forms half the

number of chromosomes corresponding to the cell of the species to which it
belongs, and grows at the expense of the vitellus of the egg. During this
time the centrosome divides into two halves, which progress slowly on each
side toward the periphery of the egg, as in the case of fission (see Plate I),
while the chromatin of the chromosomes of the spermatozoid is dissolved in
the network. The nucleus thus formed by the spermatozoid enlarges more
and more (Figs. 13 and 14) till it attains the size and shape of that of the egg
(Fig. 15). The male and female chromatin are colored red and blue
respectively.
Then only commences activity of the nucleus of the egg, at the same time
as fresh activity on the part of the nucleus of the spermatozoid. Before this,
however, the nucleus of the egg has thrown off a part of its chromatin called
a polar body, and it now possesses only half as much chromatin as the other
cells of the body of the individual. The nucleus of the egg and that of the
spermatozoid then begin at the same time to concentrate their chromatin in
the form of chromosomes (Fig. 16) which arrange themselves regularly in
the middle line exactly as shown in Plate I, and divide longitudinally into
two halves which are then attracted in opposite directions by the rays of
each of the centrosomes (Fig. 17). Figure 17, of Plate II, thus corresponds
exactly to Fig. 6, of Plate I.
In fact, the growth of the nucleus of the spermatozoid has given to its
substance the same power of development as to that of the nucleus of the
egg. Both enter into conjugation in equal parts, which symbolizes the social
equality and the rights of the two sexes!
The signification of these facts is as follows: as soon as, in the course of
development, the conjugated nuclei divide again into two cells, as in Figs. 7
to 10, of Plate I, each of these two cells contains almost the same quantity
of paternal as maternal chromatin. We do not say exactly as much, for the
paternal and maternal influences are not divided equally in the descendants.
This phenomenon may be explained by what Semon calls alternating
ecphoria in mnemic dichotomy. (Vide infra.) As cell division continues in
the same way during embryonic life, it follows that each cell, or at least
each nucleus of the future organism, will contain on the average half its
substance and energy from the paternal and half from the maternal side.

Heredity. The Mneme.—The secret of heredity lies in the phenomena
which have been just described. Hereditary influence preserves all its
primary power and original qualities in the chromosomes, which enlarge
and divide, while the vitelline substance, absorbed by the chromosomes and
transformed by the vital chemical processes into the specific substance of
the chromosomes, loses its specific and plastic vital energy, as completely
as the food which we swallow loses its energy in forming the structure of
our living organs. We do not acquire any of the characters of the ox by
eating beefsteaks; and the spermatozoid, after eating much vitelline
protoplasm, preserves its own hereditary energies, increased and fortified,
but without change in their qualities.
In this way the nuclear chromatin of our germinal cells becomes the
carrier of all the hereditary qualities of the species (hereditary mneme), and
more especially those of our direct ancestors. The uniformity of the
intracellular phenomena in cell division and conjugation proves, however,
that, without being capable of reproducing the individual, the other non-
germinal cells of the body may also possess these hereditary energies, and
that there exists, hidden behind all these facts, an unknown law of life, the
explanation of which is reserved for the future.
However, a recent work based on an idea of the physiologist, E. Hering,
which looks upon instinct as a kind of memory of the species, opens up a
new horizon. I refer to the book of Richard Semon: "The mneme considered
as the conservative principle in the transmutations of organic life." (Die
Mneme als erhaltendes Prinzip im Wechsel des organischen Geschehens,
Leipzig, 1904.)
Conception of Irritation.[1]—By the aid of the fundamental facts of
morphological science, biological and psychological, Semon proves that
Hering's idea is more than an analogy, and that there is a fundamental
identity in the mechanism of organic life. In order to avoid the terminology
of psychology which tends to be equivocal, Semon employs some new
terms to designate his new ideas, based on the fundamental conception of
irritation in its physiological sense.
Semon defines irritation as an energetic action on the organism which
determines a series of complicated changes in the irritable substance of the
living organism. The condition of the organism thus modified, which lasts

as long as the irritation, is called by Semon the state of irritation. Before the
action of irritation, the organism is in a condition which Semon calls the
primary state of indifference, and after its action, in the secondary state of
indifference.
Engram. Ecphoria.—If, when an irritation has entirely ceased, the
irritable substance of the living organism becomes modified permanently
during its secondary state of indifference, Semon calls the action engraphic.
To the modification itself he gives the word engram. The sum of the
hereditary and individual engrams thus produced in a living organism is
designated by the term mneme. Semon gives the name ecphoria to the
revival of the engram by the repetition of part only of the original irritation,
or by the entire but weakened reproduction of the whole state of irritation of
the organism, which was originally produced in a synchronous manner with
the primary irritation.
Thus, an engram may be ecphoriated (that is to say, reproduced or
revived) by the return of one part of the complex of primary irritations
which produced it. A young dog, for example, is attacked by urchins who
throw stones at it. It experiences two kinds of irritation: (1) the urchins
stooping down and throwing stones (optic irritation); (2) the pain caused by
the stones (tactile irritation).
In its brain are produced two associated series of corresponding engrams.
Previously, this dog did not react when it saw people stoop down. From this
moment it will run away and howl at the sight, without any stone being
thrown at it. Thus the tactile engram will be ecphoriated by the repetition of
the original associated irritation. In the same way, the image of a tree in a
known landscape will ecphoriate the entire landscape.
Moreover, an engram may be revived by the enfeebled return of the
primary irritating agent which produced it, or by an analogous enfeebled
irritation. Thus, the sight of a photograph will revive the image of a known
person. A certain kind of maize imported for a long time into Norway and
influenced in that country during many generations by the sun of the long
summer days, finally accelerated its time of maturation. When imported
again to the south of Europe it first preserved its faculty of accelerated
maturation in spite of the shortness of the days (Schübeler). Semon gives a
series of analogous examples which show how engrams repeated during

several generations accumulate and end by becoming ecphoriated when
they have acquired enough power.
Engrams may be associated simultaneously in space, such as those of
sight. But they may also be associated in succession, such as those of
hearing and of ontogeny. Simultaneous engrams are associated in every
direction with the same intensity. Successive engrams, on the contrary, are
associated more strongly forwards than backwards, and have only two
poles. In the succession a b, a acts more strongly on b than b on a. In the
successions of engrams it often happens that two or more analogous
engrams are associated in a manner more or less equivalent to a preceding
engram. Semon calls this phenomenon dichotomy, trichotomy, etc. But in
the successions, two engrams cannot be ecphoriated simultaneously. Hence
the phenomenon which Semon names alternating ecphoria; that is
sometimes one, sometimes the other of the constituent engrams, for
example, of a dichotomy, which arrives at ecphoria. Similarly, the engram
of the ecphoriated dichotomy is most often that which has been previously
most often repeated.
In the laws of ontogeny and heredity alternating ecphoria plays an
important part. The branch less often repeated remains latent and the other
only is ecphoriated. But certain combinations which reënforce the latent
branch or paralyze the other may induce ecphoria of the first to the second
generation.
Semon also shows that the phenomena of regeneration in the embryo, as
well as those of the adult, obey the law of the mneme.
Homophony.—The terms engram and ecphoria correspond to the well-
known introspective phenomena in psychology of memory and the
association of ideas. Engrams are thus ecphoriated. At the time of such
phenomena every mnemic irritation of the engrams vibrates simultaneously
with the state of synchronous irritation produced by a new irritation. This
simultaneous irritation is named by Semon homophony. When a partial
discord is produced between the new irritation and the mnemic irritation,
the organism always tends to reëstablish homophony (harmony). This is
seen in psychological introspection by activity of attention; in embryology
by the phenomenon of regeneration; and in phylogeny by that of adaptation.

Relying on these convincing facts, Semon shows that irritative actions are
only localized at first in their zone of entry (primary zone); but that
afterward they irradiate or vibrate, gradually becoming weaker in the whole
organism (not only in the nervous system, for they also act on plants). By
this means, engraphia, although infinitely enfeebled, may finally reach the
germinal cells. Semon then shows how the most feeble engraphias may
gradually arrive at ecphoria, as the result of numerous repetitions (in
phylogeny after innumerable generations). This is how the mnemic
principle allows us to conceive the possibility of an infinitely slow heredity
of characters acquired by individuals, a heredity resulting from prolonged
repetition.
The facts invoked by Weismann against the heredity of acquired
characters lose nothing of their weight by this, for the influence of crossing
(conjugation) and selection transforms the material organic forms in an
infinitely more rapid and intense manner than individual mnemic
engraphias. The latter, on the other hand, furnish the explanation of the
mutations of de Vries, which appear to be only sudden ecphoria of
accumulated long engraphic actions.
The way in which Semon studies and discusses the laws of the mneme in
morphology, physiology and psychology, is truly magisterial, and the
perspective which opens out from these new ideas is extensive. The mneme,
with the aid of the energetic action of the external world, acts on organisms
by preserving them and combining them by engraphia, while selection
eliminates all that is ill-adapted, and homophony reëstablishes the
equilibrium. The irritations of the external world, therefore, furnish the
material for the construction of organisms. I confess to having been
converted by Semon to this way of conceiving the heredity of acquired
characters. Instead of several nebulous hypotheses, we have only one—the
nature of mnemic engraphia. It is for the future to discover its origin in
physical and chemical laws.
I must refer my readers to Semon's book, for this volume of 343 pages,
filled with facts and proofs, cannot be condensed into a few paragraphs.

Each Cell bears in itself Ancestral Energy. As we have already seen,
the germinal, cells are not the only ones which possess the energies of all

the characters of the species. On the contrary it becomes more and more
certain, from further investigation, that each cell of the body bears in itself,
so to speak, all the energies of the species, as is distinctly seen in plants. But
in all the cells which are not capable of germinating, these energies remain
incapable of development. It results that such energies, remaining virtual,
have no practical importance.
In an analogous sense we may say that all the cells of the body are
hermaphrodite, as all germinal cells, for each possesses in itself the
undifferentiated energies of each sex. Each spermatozoid contains all the
energies of the paternal and maternal ancestry of man, and each egg those
of the paternal and maternal ancestry of woman. The male and the female
are only the bearers of each kind of germinal cells necessary for
conjugation, and each of these bearers only differs from the others by its
sexual cells and by what is called correlative sexual differences. But we
must not forget that the germinal cells themselves are only differentiated at
a certain period in the development of the embryo; they are thus
hermaphrodite originally and only become male and female later.
New experiments made on the eggs of sea urchins and other organisms
have shown that conjugation may be replaced by an external irritating
agent; for example, the action of certain chemical substances is sufficient to
make eggs develop by parthenogenesis which would have died without this
action. An entire being has been successfully produced from an egg divided
into two by means of a hair. And even from the protoplasm of the egg
without its nucleus, with the aid of a spermatozoid. We must not, however,
base premature hypotheses on these facts.
When a female cell, or egg, develops without fecundation
(parthenogenesis) its nucleus enlarges and divides in the same manner as
conjugated nuclei (mitosis).
A point of general interest is what is called the specific polyembryony of
certain parasitic insects (hymenoptera of the genus Encyrtus). According to
Marchal, their eggs grow and divide into a considerable number of
secondary eggs, each of which gives rise to an embryo and later on a perfect
insect. By shaking the eggs of certain marine animals they have been
caused to divide into several eggs and thus to produce several embryos. All

the individuals arising from the division of the same egg of Encyrtus are of
the same sex.

PLATE I
CELL DIVISION

PLATE II
FERTILIZATION OF THE OVUM BY THE SPERMATOZOID
DIAGRAM OF OVUM AND SPERMATOZOID

Embryology.—It is not necessary to describe here in detail the different
changes which the two conjugated cells pass through to become an adult
man. This is the object of the science of embryology. We shall return to this
in Chapter III. A few words are necessary, however, to explain the general
principles.
Ovulation. The corpus luteum.—The ovaries of woman (Fig. 18)
contain a considerable number of cells or ovules, although infinitely less
than the number of spermatozoids contained in the testicles. From time to
time some of these ovules enlarge and are surrounded by a vesicle with
liquid contents, which is called the Graafian follicle. At the time of the
monthly periods an egg (sometimes two) is discharged from its Graafian
follicle, from one or other ovary. This phenomenon is called ovulation. The
empty follicle becomes cicatrized in the ovary and is called the corpus
luteum (yellow body).
The egg after its discharge arrives at the abdominal orifice of the
Fallopian tube, which communicates directly with the abdominal cavity.

Some authors state that the end of the tube becomes applied against the
ovary by the aid of muscular movement and, so to speak, sucks in the
discharged ovule, while others hold that the movements of the vibratile
cilia, with which the epithelium of the tubes is furnished, suffice to draw the
ovule into its cavity. Figure 18 explains this phenomenon.
Having arrived in the tube, the ovule moves very slowly in the almost
capillary tube by means of the vibratile cilia and arrives in the cavity of the
womb. Fecundation probably takes place most often at the entrance to the
tube or in its canal; sometimes possibly in the womb. On some occasions a
squad of spermatozoids advances to meet the descending egg, and
numerous spermatozoids are often found in the tubes, even as far as the
abdominal cavity.
Fixation of the egg. Formation of the Decidua.—After fecundation, the
egg becomes attached to the mucous membrane of the cavity of the womb.
This mucous membrane proliferates and becomes gradually detached from
the womb to form the membrana decidua which envelops the egg or ovule.
An egg fecundated and fixed in this way may keep its position and grow
during the first weeks of pregnancy, by the aid of villosities covering its
envelope which penetrate the wall of the womb.

Fig. 18. Diagrammatic section in median plane of the female
genital organs. It shows the position of an ovule which
has just been discharged lying in the opening of the right
tube, and that of another ovary fecundated and
surrounded by the decidual membrane. In reality this
could hardly coexist with the other ovule freely
discharged. In the right ovary are seen ovules in various
degrees of maturity in their Graafian follicles: also a
corpus luteum—an empty Graafian follicle after
expulsion of the ovule. The figure also shows the end of
the penis in the vagina at the moment of ejaculation of
semen, and the position of a preventive to avoid
fecundation.

Fig. 19. The mouth of the tube applied to the ovary at the moment of
expulsion of the ovule.

The womb. The placenta. The womb or uterus is the size of a small egg
flattened in one direction. It terminates below in the neck or cervix, which is
prolonged into the vagina as a projection, called the vaginal portion of the
uterus. The cavity of the womb is continued into the neck and opens below
in the vagina by an aperture which is round in virgins and is called the
external os uteri. The walls of the womb consist of a thick layer of
unstriped muscle. When childbirth takes place it causes tearing which
makes the external os uteri irregular and fissured. During copulation the
aperture of the penis or male organ is placed nearly opposite the os uteri,

which facilitates the entrance of spermatozoa into the uterus. (For the
illustration of these points see Fig. 18.)
The vitellus and the membrane of the egg enlarge with the embryo and
absorb by endosmosis the nutritive matter necessary for the latter, contained
in the maternal blood. The womb itself enlarges at the same time as the
embryo.

Fig. 20. Human egg of the second
week: magnified eight times. Fig. 21. Embryo of four
(After Kölliker.) weeks (After Kölliker).
Chor. Chorion or envelope of the 1. Auditory vesicle.
egg. 2. Ocular vesicle.
Vill. Villi of the chorion. 3. Olfactory fossa.
Emb. Embryo (near the head are 4. Bud forming upper
seen the branchial arches). maxilla.
Umb. Umbilical vesicle. 5. Bud of lower maxilla.
Am. Amnion. 6. Right ear.
7. Liver.
8. Upper limb.
9. Lower limb.
10. Caudal extremity.

The fasciculus attached to the embryo is the allantois which becomes the
umbilical cord. The vertebræ are already easy to recognize in this embryo.
The embryo is formed from a portion of blastoderm, that is to say, from the
cellular layer applied to the membranes of the egg and arising from the
successive divisions of the two primary conjugated cells and their daughter

cells. The embryo has the form of a spatula with the head at one end and the
tail at the other. From its walls is detached a surrounding vesicle (Fig. 20)
called the amnion, while another vesicle, the umbilical vesicle, grows from
its ventral surface and serves, in birds, for the vitelline circulation of the egg
which is detached from the mother's body.
In man, the umbilical vesicle is unimportant. In its place the circulation
of the blood takes place by the aid of another vesicle, called the allantois,
which arises from the intestine of the embryo, and which becomes attached
to the walls of the womb in the form of a thick disk called the placenta.
The placenta is formed of dilated blood vessels which meet the maternal
blood vessels, also dilated, in the uterine wall, allantois later on becomes
the umbilical cord.
In the placenta the embryonic and maternal vessels without actually
communicating, are placed in intimate contact, which allows nutritive
matter and oxygen to pass by endosmosis from the maternal vessels to those
of the embryo. Figure 21 shows a human embryo at the beginning of the
fifth week of pregnancy.

Fig. 22. Sagittal section of a primipara in the last month of pregnancy.

Duration of pregnancy. Birth. Pregnancy lasts from conjugation, which
is synonymous with conception, till birth, that is about nine months (ten
lunar months of four weeks). The embryo is then ready to separate from the
maternal body (Fig. 22). By the act of birth it is expelled violently, bringing
with it the umbilical cord and the placenta (Fig. 23). Immediately afterward
the empty womb contracts strongly and gradually recovers its former size.
The sudden interruption of its communications with the maternal circulation
deprives the embryo, which has suddenly become a child, of its nutritive
matter and oxygen.

Fig. 23. Sagittal section of frozen body of a woman in
labor: the head of the child is engaged in the neck of the
womb; the orifice of the neck of the womb (os uteri) is
already fully dilated and the bag of waters commences
to project from the vulva: it is formed by the former
membranes of the egg and the decidua.

In order to avoid suffocation it is obliged to breathe atmospheric air
immediately, for its blood becomes dark by saturation with carbonic acid,

which irritates the respiratory nerve centers. The first independent act of the
new-born child is, therefore, a nervous reflex determined by asphyxia, and
is performed with the first cry. Soon afterward the infant begins to suck, so
as not to die of hunger, while the umbilical cord, having become useless,
shrivels up, and the placenta is destroyed (some animals eat it). The new-
born infant is only distinguished from the embryo soon after birth by its
breathing and crying.
We may, therefore, say that infancy, especially early infancy, is only a
continuation of embryonic life. The transformations which the infant
undergoes from birth to adult age are known to all. They take place more
and more slowly, except at the relatively short period of puberty.
Formation of the sexual glands.—We must remember that at a very
early embryonic period certain groups of cells are reserved to form later on
the sexual glands. These cells are at first neither male nor female, but are
undifferentiated; later on they become differentiated to form in certain
individuals, called males, the testicles with their spermatozoa, and in others,
called females, the ovaries with their eggs. On this differentiation depends
the sex of the individual, and, according as it takes place in one way or the
other, all the rest of the body develops with the correlative sexual characters
of the corresponding sex (at first the external genital organs peculiar to each
sex, then the beard in man, the breasts in woman, etc).
Castration. Correlative sexual characters.—Castration is the term
applied to the extirpation of the sexual glands. When it takes place in
infancy it causes a considerable change in the whole subsequent
development of the body, especially in man, but also in woman. Man
becomes more slender, preserves a high and infantile voice, and his sexual
correlative characters develop incompletely or not at all. Eunuchs are men
castrated, usually in infancy. To ensure more safety in their harems the
Orientals not only remove the testicles but also the penis. Bullocks and
horses are bulls and stallions castrated at an early age, and can be
distinguished at first sight from normal males. Females who have
undergone castration become fat and sometimes take on certain masculine
characters. Male human eunuchs have a high-pitched voice, a narrow chest;
they remain beardless or nearly so, and have an effeminate character, often
intriguing. In both sexes there is a tendency to neurosis and degeneration. It
is a mistake to qualify the peculiarities of the male eunuch in the terms of

female peculiarities; there is only a relative tendency. The eunuch is no
more a woman than a bullock is a cow.
The characters of castrated individuals are due only to ablation of the
sexual glands themselves—the testicles in man and the ovary in woman;
mutilation of other sexual organs, internal or external, such as the penis,
womb, etc., produces no result of this kind. It would even appear to result
from recent experiments that reimplantation of a sexual gland in any part of
the body is sufficient to arrest the production of the special peculiarities of
the eunuch.
All these facts, almost inexplicable hitherto, become comprehensible by
the aid of the engraphia of the mnemic energies. (Vide above; Semon). The
sexual glands, being of undifferentiated origin, contain the energies of both
sexes. The ecphoria of one of them provokes that of its correlative
characters and excludes that of the characters of the other. If ecphoria of the
sexual glands is arrested by castration before it is finished, this paralyzes
the predominance of that of its corresponding correlative characters and
reëstablishes a kind of intermediate or undifferentiated equilibrium between
the ecphorias of the correlative hereditary sexual characters of the two
sexes.
On the other hand, if the sexual glands of an adult are removed, his body
is not sensibly modified. The sexual functions do not cease completely,
although they cannot lead to fecundation. Men castrated in adult age may
cohabit with their wives; but the liquid ejaculated is not semen but only
secretion from the accessory prostatic gland. Adult women after castration
preserve their sexual appetite, and sometimes even their menstruation, for a
certain time. They generally become fat and often suffer from nervous
troubles and change in character. The ecphoria of the correlative sexual
characters being complete in the adult, suppression of the sexual glands can
only act on their direct functions.
In different species of animals, the correlative sexual characters of which
we have spoken vary enormously; sometimes the differences are
insignificant, at other times they are considerable; while we can hardly
distinguish a male swallow from a female, the cock and hen, the peacock
and peahen, the stag and hind are very different from each other. In man,
the correlative sexual characters are very distinct, even externally. These

characters may extend to all parts of the body, even to the brain and mental
faculties.
In some of the lower animals, for example the ants, the sexes differ
remarkably from each other and appear to belong to different zoölogical
families. The eyes, the form of the head, the color, and the whole body
differ so much that, when a case of pathological lateral hermaphrodism is
produced (that is, when the sexual glands are male on the one side and
female on the other), we can exactly determine the male or female character
on each portion of the body. We thus see hermaphrodite ants with one half
of the body male and the other half female—black on one side and red on
the other, a large eye on one side and a small eye on the other, thirteen
joints in one antenna and twelve in the other, and so on. In this case the
mental faculties are sometimes female, sometimes male, according as the
ecphoria of the brain is influenced by the hereditary mneme of the male or
female part of the hermaphrodite sexual organs, which results in a male or
female brain. I have seen hermaphrodite ants in which two parts of the
thorax formed a crossed hermaphrodism; in front, male on the right and
female on the left, behind female on the right and male on the left. Further;
among ants which live in societies, the progressive transformation of the
species, or phylogeny, has produced a third sex derived from the female sex
—the worker; sometimes there is even a fourth—the warrior. In these two
forms the wings are absent, but the head and brain are much larger; the
sexual organs remain female, but are very small. While the large brain
(pedunculated bodies of the supra-esophageal ganglion) is almost
rudimentary in the male, it is well developed in the female and very large in
the worker and the warrior. Among these singular animals exist pathological
hermaphrodites, not only between males and females, but between males
and workers, and not only lateral but mixed and crossed in all possible
ways. I have seen a hermaphrodite, whose abdomen and sexual organs were
almost entirely male, accomplish all the complex instinctive actions of a
worker of his species (expeditions, attacks on a hostile ant heap, abduction
of chrysalids), thanks to its head and brain which were of the worker type.
The female itself is incapable of such complex actions. I cite these facts
here as material for study, for we are only too prone in this domain to
generalize prematurely and to draw too hasty conclusions. In reality, there is
still a wide field for study of the greatest interest.

There are animals which are normally and physiologically
hermaphrodite, for they possess in the normal state male and female sexual
glands and fecundate themselves, such as the solitary worms, or in pairs
such as the snails. In the latter case there is copulation, during which each
animal plays the parts of both male and female.
In man and other vertebrates, hermaphrodism is always abnormal. In man
it is extremely rare and nearly always very incomplete, being usually
limited to the external or correlative characters.
Heredity.—It results from what we have said that every living being
reproduces, more or less identically, in its specific characters, the whole life
of its parents and less remote ancestors, and constitutes the continuation of
life from a minute part of their bodies.
Each individual life thus repeats an entire cycle of development called
ontogeny, which is peculiar to all individuals of the species. Here we must
mention three fundamental points:
(1). In its principal characters, each individual is the copy of its parents or
direct ancestors, with correlative sexual peculiarities which we have
mentioned, and with individual variations due to the combinations of
varieties by conjugation, and the alternating or unequal ecphorias of
hereditary characters; that is to say paternal or maternal hereditary engrams.
(2). No individual is absolutely identical with another.
(3). On the average, each individual resembles more especially its direct
ancestry and its parents, and differs more markedly from its parentage the
more this is remote.
We shall see later on that the ancestral relationship of the different
groups, species and varieties of animals has been fairly well fixed, and we
may say that the third of the laws stated above is equally true in a wider
sense. In fact the species and varieties of animals which are near related
resemble each other, while the genera, families and classes are more
dissimilar as their relationship is more remote. We employ here the terms
resemblance, homology and difference in their profound and general sense.
Certain purely external resemblances, due to phenomena of convergence,
must not be considered as homologies in the sense of hereditary
relationship. Thus, in the language of natural history we do not say that a

bat resembles a bird, nor that a whale resembles a fish, for here the
resemblances are due simply to aërial or aquatic life which produces the
effects of convergence, while the internal structure shows them to be quite
dissimilar organisms. Although it swims in the sea the whale is a mammal;
its fins at first sight resemble those of a fish, but they are really the
homologues of the four limbs of other mammals and contain the
corresponding bones.
In man, we see that brothers and sisters resemble each other in a general
way, but that each one is dissimilar in some respects from the others. If we
compare different families with many children we find that brothers and
sisters resemble each other the more their parents are alike and come from a
uniform ancestry which has undergone little crossing, while the crossing of
different races and human varieties results in the production of individuals
which differ from each other considerably, even when they come from the
same couple.
If we examine things more closely, we find that the characters of each of
the offspring of the same couple present neither simple repetition nor an
equal mixture of the peculiarities of the parents, but very diverse
combinations of the characters of several ancestors. For instance, children
may bear a striking resemblance to a paternal grandfather, a maternal grand-
aunt, or a maternal great-grandmother, etc. This is called atavism. Some
children resemble their father, others their mother, and others a kind of
mixture of father and mother.
A closer examination reveals further very curious facts. An infant which,
in its early years, strongly resembles its father, may later on resemble its
mother, or inversely. Certain peculiarities of a certain ancestor appear
suddenly, often at an advanced age. It is needless to say that peculiarities
concerning the beard cannot appear till this has grown, and this simple fact
is so characteristic that it has been called hereditary disposition. Everything
may be transmitted by heredity, even to the finest shades of sentiment,
intelligence and will, even to the most insignificant details of the nails, the
form of the bones, etc. But the combinations of ancestral qualities vary so
infinitely that it is extremely difficult to recognize them. Hereditary
dispositions arise from the energy of two conjugated germs during the
whole of life and till death. Old people sometimes develop peculiarities

hitherto unknown in them, owing to the fact that one or more of their
ancestors also presented the same phenomena at an advanced age.
Semon has clearly proved that, although forming an infinite number of
combinations the engrams or hereditary energies never blend in the proper
sense of the term, and in the light of his exposition the above facts are more
clearly explained than they had been hitherto. The experiments of Mendel
have shown in plants a certain alteration in the hereditary ecphorias of the
products of dissimilar parents.
Certain parental characters, according as they are added or subtracted,
may disappear during one or two generations, to reappear all the more
strongly in the following generations. In short, there are a number of
phenomena, the laws of which may be more clearly explained to us in the
future.
To sum up, each individual inherits on the average as much from his
paternal as from his maternal side, although the minute nucleus of the
spermatozoid is the only agent concerned on the paternal side, while the
mother provides not only the egg which is much larger, but also nutrition
during the nine months of embryonic life. We can only conclude that in the
egg also it is only from the part of the nucleus which conjugates with the
male nucleus that arise all the inherited maternal peculiarities; that all the
rest is only utilized as food; and that the nutritive blood of the mother in no
way influences the inherited energies of the offspring.
This shows the capital importance of conjugation and of the substance of
the conjugated nuclei, especially of their chromatin. The fact that, in certain
of the lower animals, the protoplasm of the egg without nuclei may
occasionally produce some phenomena of cell division, thanks to its
inherited mnemic engrams, in no way alters the fundamental principle
which alone occurs in man, for this vicarious action, which is moreover
rudimentary, only happens when the protoplasm of the egg is not consumed
by the conjugated nuclei.
Parthenogenesis is also a very interesting phenomenon in the history of
our animal ancestors, but for the same reasons it has no direct interest for
humanity.

If we take into consideration all the observations of which we have just
spoken, which are as simple as they are irrefutably demonstrated, it is
hardly possible to interpret them in any other way than by the following
hypothesis:
In each sexual gland, male or female, the germinal cells which are
produced by division of the cells of the embryo, reserved primarily for
reproduction, differ considerably from each other in quality and contain in
their infinitely small atoms very diverse and irregularly distributed energies,
inherited from their different ancestors. Some contain more paternal and
others more maternal energy, and among the former there are some contain,
for example, more paternal grandfather and others more maternal
grandmother, and so on to infinity, till it is impossible to discover the
ancestral origin of the fully grown individual we are examining. The same
holds good for the energies of the maternal cells.
At the time of conjugation, the qualities of the child which will result
from it depend therefore on conditions of the ancestral qualities of the
conjugated egg and spermatozoön. Moreover, although of the same size, the
nuclei which become conjugated are evidently of unequal strength; the
energies of one or the other predominate later on in the embryo, and still
later in man. According to circumstances the latter will resemble more or
less his paternal or maternal progenitors.
Moreover, the different organs of the body may receive their energies
from different parts of the conjugated nuclei in different degrees. A person
may have his father's nose and his mother's eyes, the paternal grandmother's
humor and the maternal grandfather's intelligence, and all this with infinite
degrees and variations, for it is only a matter of more or less accentuated
averages. In my own face the two halves are distinctly different, one
resembling my maternal ancestry and the other, in a lesser degree, my
paternal ancestry, these points being seen distinctly in photographs taken in
profile.
Each germinal cell contains the hereditary mneme of its ancestors,
paternal and maternal, and the two cells united by conjugation (Fig. 17) that
of the ancestors of each of them. We have spoken above of ecphorias
produced according to Mendel's law and reproducing characters which have
been latent during one or two generations. Darwin was the first to study this

interesting fact, which shows how atavism often results from the crossing of
varieties. There are several varieties of fowls which do not brood; if two of
these varieties, b and c, are crossed excellent brooders are obtained. Semon
assumes that in each of the non-brooding varieties the ancestral energy, a,
of the primary species, is weaker than that of varieties b and c; we have
then a > b, and a < c. But if b is coupled with a the product represents the
value b + c + a + a. Then b and c are in equilibrium; and a being doubled
becomes stronger than each of them and arrives at ecphoria in their place,
which restores the faculty of brooding to the product of crossing.
De Vries has shown, in the crossing of varieties with their primary
species, more or less analogous phenomena which he calls "Vicino-
variations." Conjugation leads to infinite combinations and variations which
the law of heredity traverses like a guiding line.
The celebrated zoölogist, Weismann, considers that the chromatin of each
germinal cell contains a considerable quantity of particles each of which is
capable of forming an entire organism similar to the parents; these he calls
"ides." According to Weismann, each ide is subdivided into "determinants"
from which each part of the body is derived, being potentially
predetermined in them. According to the action of a yet unknown irritation
male or female determinants develop in each individual of the animal
species with separate sexes. But if the determinants are disordered, either by
abnormal variations or by pathological causes, hermaphrodites or
monstrosities may be produced. In animals which are normally
hermaphrodite (snails, etc.), there is only one kind of sexual determinant,
while in polymorphous animals (ants, etc.), there are as many as the
polymorphous forms. The conception of "ides" and "determinants" is only a
hypothesis to which we must not attach much value. The mnemic laws
established by Semon give a much better explanation of the facts.
It has often been maintained that the qualities of higher forms of man are
exhausted in a few generations, while the mass of mediocrities continually
produce new genius. The fact that the descendants of distinguished men are
often mediocre and that remarkable men suddenly arise from the common
people, appears at first sight to support this superficial assertion. It is
forgotten, however, that in a people whose average mass consists of
thousands or millions of individuals, while men of higher powers are only
counted by units or dozens, all this arithmetic is reduced to absurdity by the

inequality of numbers, as soon as the law of heredity is understood. To
make a more exact calculation, it would be necessary to compare the
number of superior men who have arisen from some hundreds of the most
distinguished families of a country with that of distinguished men who have
arisen from some millions of the rest of the people, and then calculate the
percentage. It is also necessary to take into account the means employed in
the education of the individuals. If education is obligatory and gratuitous in
a country, this factor will have less importance.
Another error which is committed in such cases is to neglect the
influence of the maternal lineage. A common woman will lower the level of
the offspring of a distinguished husband, and inversely. In his "History of
Science and Scientists" Alphonse de Candolle has given irrefutable proof
that the posterity of high-class men furnishes a great number proportionally
of men high class in their turn, compared with that of the average
population. This shows the value of the usual twaddle concerning this
question. It is inconceivable that the laws of heredity should make an
exception of the mental qualities of man. Moreover, the most deceptive
point is the contrast of a man of genius with his children, who do not rise to
his standard because they represent a combination of his ancestral energies
with those of their mother. This contrast makes the children appear
unfavorably, while the public has a general tendency to exaggerate the value
of a great man.
The theory of the mneme throws light on this subject, by introducing a
new factor in the question, that of ecphoria of the cerebral engrams of the
ancestors, accumulated in the hereditary mneme.
Heredity of Acquired Characters.—While Darwin and Haeckel
affirmed the possibility of the heredity of characters acquired during life by
different tissues, for instance the brain, Weismann limits the possibility to
everything that can modify the nucleoplasm of the germinal cells. We must
first eliminate the question of the phenomena of blastophthoria, which we
shall consider next, and which Weismann was, I think, the first to
comprehend, without giving them the name.
On one hand we see the singular effects of castration, which we have
already considered; on the other hand, an extraordinary constancy in the
hereditary characters of the species. For more than three thousand six

hundred years, which corresponds to about eight hundred generations, the
Jews have been circumcised. Nevertheless, if a Jew ceases to circumcise his
offspring the prepuce of his children grows as it did three thousand six
hundred years ago, although, during the eight hundred generations in
question, its absence from birth has prevented it reacting on the germinal
cells of the individuals. If the engraphia of the external world could sensibly
modify in a few generations the hereditary mneme of the species, it appears
evident that the Jewish infants of the present day would be born without
prepuce, or at least with an atrophied one.
It is on such facts, which are innumerable in natural history, that
Weismann relies to repudiate absolutely the heredity of characters acquired
by non-germinal organs and to attribute the development of organisms to
blends and combinations due to conjugation, or crossing, as well as to
natural selection, which he regards as all-powerful. Darwin well recognized
the difficulty in question, and being unable to explain the facts, had
recourse to the hypothesis of pangenesis, that is of small particles detached
from all parts of the body and transported by the blood to the germinal cells,
to transmit to them, for example, the qualities acquired by the brain during
life. This hypothesis was so improbable that Darwin himself was forced to
recognize it. Let us examine the facts.
On the one hand a newly born Chinese transported and brought up in
France will learn French, and will show no inclination to learn or
understand Chinese. This well-established fact seems in favor of Weismann
and against the heredity of acquired characters. But, on the other hand, we
cannot understand how the evolution of the brain and its functions takes
place, without admitting that in one way or another the characters acquired
by habits repeated during many generations gradually accumulate in the
form of hereditary dispositions in the germinal protoplasm. It is certain that
our brain has progressed since the time when our ancestors were similar to
the gorilla, or even the cave man at the beginning of the quaternary age.
How can this cerebral progression be explained only by selection which can
only eliminate, and by crossings which by themselves can hardly raise the
average? It is here that the intervention of an unknown power is necessary,
something unexplained, the action of which has been lately recorded in the
phenomena of mutations of de Vries.

De Vries proves that certain variations appear suddenly and without any
known cause, and have a much greater tendency to be preserved than the
variations obtained by crossing and selection. In my opinion the phenomena
of the mneme revealed by Hering and Semon explain the apparent
contradictions which have hitherto impaired the theories of heredity.
Mnemic engraphy explains, by its infinitesimal and repeated action through
numerous generations, how the external world may little by little transmit to
the germinal cells the characters which it impresses on organisms. The eight
hundred generations during which the prepuce of the Jews has been cut off
have not yet sufficed for the ecphoria of the corresponding negative
mnemic engraphia; while conjugation and selection modify rapidly and
strongly in a few generations; a fact which is more striking and allows of
direct experiment. Moreover, a positive engraphia must necessarily act
more powerfully, and it seems to me that mutations must be the ecphoria of
accumulated former latent engraphias.
Merrifield and Standfuss, by exposing caterpillars and chrysalids for
varying periods to considerable degrees of cold and heat, have determined
permanent changes in the specific characters of the butterflies which have
emerged from them.
Standfuss and Fischer have also shown that, after several generations, by
continuing the action of cold on the caterpillars, the variations thus
produced can be preserved even after the cold has ceased to act. No doubt
the cold acts on the germinal cells as on the rest of the body, but the
heredity of an acquired character is thus demonstrated.
The experiments of Miss de Chauvin on salamanders (Axolotl) are still
more conclusive, for we are dealing here with characters acquired through
aquatic or aërial media, which can hardly act on the sexual glands. We
cannot continue this subject any further and we return to the work of
Semon. It is needless to say that the nature of mnemic engraphia remains
itself an unknown quantity. As long as we are unable to transform inert
matter into a living organism we shall remain in ignorance. But, when it is
accepted with the laws of the phenomena which it produces, this unknown
quantity, as Semon has shown, alone suffices to explain all the rest, and is
already a great step toward the comprehension of the laws which govern
life.

Blastophthoria.—By blastophthoria, or deterioration of the germ, I
mean what might also be called false heredity, that is to say, the results of
all direct pathogenic or disturbing action, especially that of certain
intoxications, on the germinal cells, whose hereditary determinants are thus
changed. Blastophthoria thus acts on germs not yet conjugated, through the
medium of their bearers, and creates at their origin hereditary stigmata of
all kinds, while true heredity only combines and reproduces the ancestral
energies.
Blastophthoria deranges the mneme or hereditary engrams, and
consequently a more or less considerable part of their ecphorias during the
life of the individuals which arise from them. It is not a question here of the
reproduction of the hereditary ancestral energies in the descendants (in
different combinations) as is the case in the heredity which we have just
studied, but, on the contrary, a question of their perturbation. However, the
store of cells reserved as germinal cells in the embryo, the germ of which
has been damaged by blastophthoric action, being usually also affected by
the disturbing cause, it follows that the pathological change introduced by
blastophthoria in the hereditary mneme is transmitted to the descendants by
ordinary heredity. In this way blastophthoria deposits the first germ of most
pathological degenerations by causing immediate deviation of all the
determinants of the germ in the same direction.
The most typical and the commonest example of blastophthoria is that of
alcoholic intoxication. The spermatozoa of alcoholics suffer like the other
tissues from the toxic action of alcohol on the protoplasm. The result of this
intoxication of the germs may be that the children resulting from their
conjugation become idiots, epileptics, dwarfs or feeble minded. Thus it is
not alcoholism or the craving for drink which is inherited. No doubt the
peculiarity of badly supporting alcohol is inherited by ordinary heredity as a
hereditary disposition, but it is not this which produces the alcoholic
degenerations of the race. These are the result of the single blastophthoria.
When, on the other hand, a man is found to be imbecile or epileptic as the
result of the insobriety of his father, he preserves the tendency to transmit
his mental weakness or his epilepsy to his descendants, even when he
abstains completely from alcoholic drinks. In fact, the chromosomes of the
spermatozoid, from which about a half of his organism has issued, have
preserved the pathological derangement produced by the parental

alcoholism in their hereditary mneme, and have transmitted it to the store of
germinal cells of the feeble minded or the epileptic, who in his turn
transmits it to his descendants. From Weismann's point of view his
hereditary determinants remain pathologically deviated. All intoxications
which alter the protoplasm of the germinal cells may produce
blastophthoric degenerations, which continue to menace several successive
generations in the form of hereditary taints.
Other deviations in the development of the germs may act in an
analogous manner to blastophthoria. We have mentioned above the
experiments of Merrifield and Standfuss on the caterpillars of certain
butterflies. Without being really of a pathological nature, these actions of a
physical agent on the hereditary energies resemble blastophthoria.
Mechanical action on the embryo may also give rise to pathological
products or even mutilation. Thus, Weismann demonstrated the production
of degenerate individuals in ants when certain coleoptera were introduced
in their nest, the ants being fond of the secretion of the large glandular hairs
of the coleoptera. The exact cause of the degeneration has not yet been
found, but the fact is certain. In man, certain constitutional affections and
congenital anomalies are the result of certain diseases in the procreators,
which have affected the germinal cells or the embryo (for instance syphilis).
As soon as the blastophthoric actions cease in the procreators, those of their
descendants who live under a normal regimen have evidently a tendency to
eliminate the blastophthoric organs at the end of several generations and to
regenerate themselves little by little. Thanks to the power of the ancestral
mneme which tends to reëstablish homophony. However, the data on this
subject are insufficient. In this case homophony is represented by the
normal equilibrium of the different typical or normal characters of the
species.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] I insert here some passages intended for more advanced readers, but this does
not imply that they are of less importance. On the contrary I strongly advise all
my readers to try and understand the theories of Hering and Semon, which
appear to me to throw a new light on the question of transformation and heredity.

CHAPTER IIToC

EVOLUTION OR DESCENT OF LIVING ORGANISMS

The theory of evolution is intimately associated with the name of
Darwin, for it was he who established it in the scientific world. In reality,
the idea of the transformation of organisms was put forward by Lamarck
more than a century ago, but he did not sufficiently support it. The theory of
evolution states that the different animal and vegetable species are not each
of them specially created as such from the first, but that they are connected
with each other by a real and profound relationship, and derived
progressively one from another; generally from more simple forms, by
engraphia and selection. Man himself is no exception to this rule, for he is
closely related to the higher apes.
It is no longer possible to-day to deny the fundamental fact which we
have just stated. Since Darwin, and as the result of the powerful impulse
which this man of genius gave to natural science, innumerable observations
and experiments have confirmed the truth of the progressive evolution of
living beings. Comparative anatomy, comparative geography of plants and
animals, comparative embryology, and the study of the morphology and
biology of a number of recently discovered plants and animals, have built
up more and more the genealogical tree, or phylogeny, of living beings, that
is to say their ancestral lineage. The number of varieties and races or sub-
species increases indefinitely, the more closely they are examined.

Researches on the fossil remains of species of animals and plants which
have been extinct for thousands and millions of years (palæontology) have
also contributed to determine the trunk of the great tree of former life. The
numerous gaps which still exist between these fragmentary documents of
former ages are nevertheless too considerable for continuous connections to
be established in the past by the aid of fossils.
We not only know that the different forms of living beings are connected
to each other by a real relationship, but we can fathom more and more
deeply the degrees of this relationship, and can often prove from which
group of animals a given group is descended. In many cases we can
determine at which period the fauna and flora of two continents have been
separated from each other, and in what manner they have been transformed,
each in its own way, while still preserving the general characters which
were common before their separation. The specialist can soon discover
what species belong to the old geographically differentiated fauna and flora
of the country, and what have been ulteriorily imported.
I record these facts for the benefit of those persons who have not yet
understood that it is absolutely useless at the present day to dispute the
evolution of living beings. Deceived by the divergent opinions of scientists
concerning hypotheses which endeavor to explain the details of evolution,
these persons confound the details with the fundamental facts of evolution.
Ontogeny. Phylogeny.—In the light of the facts of evolution, heredity
takes quite a new aspect when removed from the old biblical idea of the
independent creation of species. Haeckel launched into the scientific world,
under the name of "fundamental biogenetic law," a theory which, without
having the right to the title of an immutable dogma, explains the facts in a
general way, and gives us a guiding line along the phylogenetic history of
living beings. "Ontogeny," that is the history of the embryological
development of each individual, always consists in a summary and
fragmentary repetition of phylogeny, or the history of the ancestors of the
species to which the individual belongs. This signifies that, as embryos, we
repeat in an abridged form the series of types or morphological stages
through which has passed the series of our animal ancestors, from the
primitive cell to man. In reality this is only true in a relative way, for a
considerable part of the ancestral engraphias of the embryo has disappeared
without leaving any trace; also many embryos, especially those which have

special conditions of existence outside the body of their mother, have
acquired special complex organs and corresponding functions. Thus, the
caterpillars of butterflies with their specific and generic peculiarities, hairs,
horns, etc., furnish many examples of secondary acquired characters which
have nothing in common with the worm, which is the ancestral type of the
butterfly represented by the embryonic period when it is a caterpillar.
However, many undoubted vestiges of the ancestral history are found in the
embryos at different periods of their development. It is certain that insects
descended from worms, and there is no doubt that the larvæ of insects,
which are almost worms, represent the ontogenetic repetition of the
phylogeny of insects.
It is also certain that whales, although they have whalebone instead of
teeth, have descended from cetacea provided with teeth, which in their turn
descended from terrestrial mammals. But we find in the embryo whale a
complete denture which is of no use to it, and which disappears in the
course of the embryonic period. This denture is nothing else than a
phylogenetic incident in the ontogeny of the whale.
In the fins of cetacea, as in the four limbs of other mammals, we find the
same bones, which are derived from the bones of the wings and legs of their
bird ancestors. In birds, the same bones are the phylogenetic derivatives of
the limbs of reptiles.
All these facts demonstrate with certainty the descent of animal forms, a
descent which we can follow in all its details. In certain ants whose bodies
show their close relationship with a slave-keeping group, but which have
become the parasitic hosts of other ants, we find not only the arched
mandibles, shaped for rape, but the undoubted rudiments of the slave
instinct, although this instinct has, perhaps, not been exercised by them for
thousands of years.
These examples suffice to show that the form and functions of a living
organism, as well as its mental faculties, are derived not only from the most
recent direct ancestors of this organism, but that they partly mount much
higher in the genealogical tree.
Our coccyx is a vestige of the tail of animals. It is from them also that we
have inherited anger and jealousy, sexual appetites, fear, cunning, etc. As
long as they remain in use, the oldest inherited characters normally remain

the most tenacious and are preserved the longest. When they cease to be
utilized, or become useless, they still remain for a long time as rudiments
before finally disappearing; for instance the vermiform appendix of the
intestine and the pineal gland of the brain. These rudiments often persist for
still a longer time in the embryo, as we have seen in the case of the
ancestral teeth of the embryo whales. We also meet with the stumps of
wings in the chrysalis of certain ants (Anergates), the males of which have
lost their wings.
Natural Selection.—The artificial selection practiced by gardeners and
cattle breeders led Darwin to his hypothesis of natural selection by the
struggle for existence. Confirmed in his idea by the observation of tropical
nature, Darwin thought he could explain the origin of living beings by
natural selection. It is this hypothesis which is properly called Darwinism.
But the name Darwinism has also been given to evolution as a whole,
which has been the cause of endless confusion. All the mystic and narrow-
minded, full of biblical prejudice, naturally profit by this confusion to attack
the facts of evolution and science itself.
The Struggle for Existence.—The struggle for existence and natural
selection are absolutely positive facts, which can be constantly verified by
the observation of living nature as it is presented to us. All living beings eat
one another or at any rate struggle against each other, plants as well as
animals; and, apart from air and water, animals are almost entirely
nourished by plants and other animals. It is obvious that in this perpetual
struggle the less adapted and the less armed—and by arms we include the
powers of reproduction, resistance to diseases and to cold, etc.—disappear,
while the better adapted and the better armed persist. I confess I cannot
understand the detractors of Darwin who are blind in face of these facts and
hypnotized by certain conventional suggestions.
On the other hand, what always has been and still remains hypothetical is
the explanation of the descent of all plants and animals by natural selection
alone. We have already spoken of the mutations of de Vries, and the theory
of the mneme elaborated by Semon, and need not repeat them here. Thanks
to the idea of Hering, worked out by Semon, the facts are now explained in
a satisfactory manner. Engraphia, produced in the organisms by the
irritating agents of the external world, prepares and builds up little by little
their increasing complications, while selection, by continually eliminating

the unfit, directs the elaborating work of the mneme and adapts it to the
surrounding local circumstances.
De Vries has objected that the variations produced by artificial and
natural selections are mutable, while sudden mutations have a much more
stable character. But we have just seen that these mutations themselves are
evidently only the delayed ecphoria of a long ancestral engraphia
accumulated.
On the other hand, the variations obtained by selection are themselves
only due to more rapid ecphorias, derived from repeated conjugations in a
certain direction. Plate and others have shown that they may become more
and more fixed, if they are well adapted, and thus become more tenacious.
There is, therefore, no contradiction between the fundamental facts, and all
is simply and naturally explained by the combination of hereditary mnemic
engraphia with selection.
Recent study on the transformations of living beings have shown that
they do not take place in a regularly progressive manner, as Darwin at first
believed, but that periods of relatively rapid transformation alternate with
periods of relative arrest, both in a general way and for each particular
species. We see certain species remaining almost stationary for an immense
time and tending rather to disappear, while others vary enormously,
showing actual transformation. The transplantation of one species to a new
environment, for instance to a new continent, provokes, as has been proved,
a relatively rapid transformation. It is evident that mnemic engraphia
transforms organisms the more rapidly as it changes in nature itself, which
is the case in the migrations we have just mentioned, and which also
changes the factors of selection.
Other facts show clearly that the fauna and flora of the present world find
themselves in a period of recoil with regard to their modification. In the
tertiary period the fauna and flora of the world were richer than to-day;
many more older species have disappeared than new ones have arisen. This
fundamental fact seems due to the extremely slow cooling of the earth, and
appears to be indicated by the powerful growth in tropical climates, the
fauna and flora of which resemble those of the tertiary period, and, on the
other hand by the relative poverty and slowness of growth in cold countries.

Conclusions.—What are the principal conclusions to which we are led
by this short study of the ancestral history or phylogeny of man?
(1). The transformation or evolution of living beings is a demonstrated
fact.
(2). The factors in evolution appear at first sight to be very diverse:
selection, mutation, climatological, physical and chemical factors, etc.
We have seen that they may all be connected with the fundamental
principle of mnemic engraphia, aided by natural selection. No doubt the
nature of the mnemic engraphia of external agents in the living substance is
still unknown. When we are able to connect the laws of life with the laws of
inert nature, we shall only have before us a single great metaphysical
mystery, that of the tendency of mundane energy to the differentiation of
details and the production of complicated forms. What is important here is
to know that engraphia and selection are capable of considerably modifying
species in a positive or negative manner, for good or evil, improving them
by good influence and good conjugations, or deteriorating them by bad
selection or by blastophthoria, which causes them to degenerate. The
combination of a bad selection with blastophthoric influences constitutes
the great danger for humanity, and it is here that a rational sexual life should
intervene.
(3). The mental faculties of animal species, as well as their physical
characters, depend on their ancestral hereditary mneme. They simply
represent the internal or introspective side of central activity, and the brain
obeys the natural laws of the mneme in the same way as the other organs.
(4). It follows from all this that phylogeny and selection, the same as
heredity properly understood, have the right to a fundamental place in the
sexual question, for the germs which, after each conception, reproduce an
individual are, on the one hand, bearers of the inherited energy of our
ancestors, and on the other hand, that of future generations. According to
the care or neglect of civilized humanity they may be transformed for good
or evil, progress or recede. Unfortunately, owing to religious and other
prejudices, the question of evolution is not discussed in schools. Hence, the
majority of men only hear of these things by hearsay in a rough and inexact
manner; so that a series of phenomena familiar to naturalists and medical

men, are still dead letters for the rest of the public. This obliges me to speak
further on some points of detail.
The so-called historical times, that is the times of the Chinese, Egyptians
and Assyrians, which appear to us extremely remote, are from the point of
view of evolution very near to us. These ancient peoples, at any rate those
who were our direct ancestors, or who were closely related to them, are
thus, in the language of evolution, which takes no count of time or of the
number of generations, our very near relations. The generations which
separate them from us and the few hundred generations between them and
those of their direct ancestors, who were at the same time ours, represent a
limited period from the point of view of the ethnological history of
mankind.
On the other hand, if we examine the savage peoples of America, Asia,
Africa and Australia, which have been specially studied since the discovery
of America and some of which are actually living, and compare them with
ourselves and with our ancestors of four thousand years ago, we find that
they differ infinitely more from us than we differ from our ancestors, as
their ethnographical and historical remains are sufficient to prove.
Among the savage peoples we find races such as the pigmies of Stanley
(Akkaas), the Weddas of Ceylon, even Australians and negroes, whose
whole bodily structure differs profoundly from our European race and its
varieties. The profoundness and constancy of these differences clearly show
that the relationship of such races to ours must be very remote. We are
concerned here with veritable races or sub-species, or at least with very
constant and accentuated varieties. It is true that it is difficult to unravel the
almost inextricable confusion of human races; but we may be certain that
the savage races and varieties remote from ours, and even certain less-
remote races such as the Mongols and Malays, are, phylogenetically
speaking, infinitely less related to us than the ancient Assyrians. This
indicates that the ancestors which were common to us and these races must
probably be looked for several thousands of generations back, even when
their descendants are still living on other continents at the present day.
It is easy to explain that human races so different could develop
separately in continents and under climates with a very different mode of
life and conditions of development, if we reflect that at these remote periods

men only had very limited modes of transport and lived in a fashion very
little different from that of the anthropoid apes, so that the ethnological
forms were preserved separated from each other by small distances. This
fact can still be observed among the small hostile Indian or Malay tribes,
who live in tropical regions and often occupy only a few square leagues.
The higher civilizations of former times could not develop beyond a
comparatively limited circle, as their means of transport did not allow them
to venture too far. The conquest of the whole earth by modern civilization
by means of the mariner's compass, firearms, steam and electricity is thus
an absolutely contemporaneous event, unique in the history of the world,
the origin of which hardly goes back more than four hundred years. This
event has completely upset the natural internal evolution of human races, by
the fact that all the lower races attacked by civilized races armed with guns
and alcohol, are destined to rapid and complete destruction.
Geology has discovered in the caves of the quaternary period, human
remains which are much lower in the scale of evolution and much nearer
the anthropoid apes than the lowest races still living. Their brain, as shown
by the cranial cavity, was still smaller. Lastly, Dubois has discovered in
Java the cranium of Pithecanthropus erectus which is intermediate between
that of the orang-utan and man. If more such remains are discovered the
chain of transition between the apes and man will be almost complete.
Hybridity. Consanguinity.—Before concluding this chapter we must
study the question of hybrids. It is important to know to what point
fecundity and descent are influenced by the degree of relationship between
the two procreators. Conjugation probably arises from the general necessity
of organisms to reënforce their race by variety. Consanguinity perpetuated
is harmful to the species, in the same way as parthenogenesis, or indefinite
reproduction by fission or budding. It produces enfeeblement and
degeneration of the race, and leads to extinction by causing sterility.
By consanguinity is meant continued sexual union between near
relatives. It is easy to understand that the conjugation of two germs derived
from brothers and sisters or from a father and his daughter approaches
parthenogenesis from the point of view of the mixing of hereditary energies.
We shall see later on that nearly all peoples have a certain repugnance to
consanguineous marriages. Among animals, natural selection eliminates too
consanguineous products.

On the other hand, sexual union between different species, however little
removed, gives no products. Near species may produce hybrids between
themselves, but these hybrids are as a rule sterile or nearly so, and are
incapable of perpetuating their type, which reverts rapidly to one of the
primitive species.
It has been recently demonstrated that the incapacity of two species of
animals to produce hybrids is intimately connected with the reciprocal
toxicity of their blood. When the blood of one species is injected into the
veins of another the production of hybrids is possible between them, at least
as far as has been observed. It is curious to note that the blood of the
anthropoid apes is not toxic for man, although these animals are very
different from us, and hybrids have not yet been produced. This fact helps
us to understand how it is that the differences which exist between the
different human races do not prevent the production of hybrids between any
two of them. In spite of this we may state, without risk of error, that the
most dissimilar human races give a bad quality of hybrids, which have little
chance of forming a viable mongrel race. We have not sufficient
information on this point concerning the lowest human races, such as the
pigmies and Weddas. On the other hand, mulattoes (hybrids between
negroes and whites) constitute a race of very bad quality and hardly viable,
while the hybrids between Indians and whites are much more resistant and
of relatively better quality.
In this question, the middle course appears without any doubt the true
one. Unions between near races and varieties, or at least between
individuals of the same race or variety whose relationship is old, are
certainly the best. We readily grant that the homogeneity of a race has the
advantage of fixing its peculiarities in a more durable and characteristic
fashion; but many inconveniences counterbalance this advantage. If we one
day, by wise selection and by eliminating all sources of blastophthoria
obtain a superior quality of human germs, it is possible that in the remote
future, consanguinity, provided it is not exaggerated may lose its dangers.

CHAPTER IIIToC

NATURAL CONDITIONS AND MECHANISM OF HUMAN COITUS
—PREGNANCY—CORRELATIVE SEXUAL CHARACTERS

It is impossible to comprehend the deep meaning and lofty aim of an act
like that of sexual union without knowing the details of conjugation and the
origin of man as we have explained them in the preceding chapters.
Conjugation requires the bringing together of two cells, and consequently
the movement of at least one of them. This cellular movement suffices for
the lower forms of union and is usually limited to the male cell. Owing to
its movement it plays the active role, while the passive role is reserved for
the female cell. Hence we see in the higher plants the male cells, or pollen,
transported to the pistil by the wind or by insects, and thence reach the egg
by mechanical endosmotic attraction which brings about conjugation.
This takes place in an analogous manner in lower animals, but the male
cell is generally endowed with special movement. As soon as we deal with
complicated animals, mobile in themselves and composed of cells
differentiated to form complex organs, we see a second phenomena of
reproductive movements appear in the animal phylogeny, namely the
movement of the whole individual bearing male cells toward the individual
bearing female cells. This simple fact gives rise to the formation of
correlative sexual differences between the individuals bearing each kind of
germinal cells. As the result of the evolution of these two phylogenetic
systems of motor phenomena tending to establish conjugation, we obtain
for each sex two categories of sexual formations:
(1). The germinal cells themselves, the female form of which becomes
larger, more rich in protoplasm, and remains immobile, while the male
form, or spermatozoid becomes extremely small and is provided with motor
apparatus (Fig. 11).
(2). The individuals with their correlative sexual differences proper to the
male and female, disposed in a way to give the male the active role and the
female the passive role.
Normal hermaphrodism, complete or reciprocal (snails, etc.) constitutes
an intermediate stage. Here each individual bears two kinds of germinal
cells and possesses also male and female copulative organs, so that there
only exists one form of individuals which copulate reciprocally; the male
organ of one penetrating the female organ of the other and vice versa. It is

obvious that this excludes the formation of correlative individual sexual
characters.
In the second category, the male always differs from the female, at least
in the sexual organs, and usually in other physical and mental characters.
The difference in the sexual functions leads to the formation of differences
in other parts of the body, and in instincts and sentiments, which find their
material expression in the different development of the brain.
Certain specific functions in society may, in social animals like the ants,
lead to the formation or differentiation of a third or fourth kind of
individuals. This is what is called polymorphism. Here it is not the sexual
function causes the correlative differences of the individuals, but division of
social labor. The ecphoria of the hereditary mneme which produces the
polymorphous, and more or less asexual individual forms (workers,
warriors,) still proceeds through the energies of the reproducing germs.
Here the action of selection is necessary to explain the phenomena.
In man, sexual differentiation has led to the formation of two kinds of
individuals, differing little in their correlative attributes, but each bearing
one kind of germinal cells. In sexual union man plays the active part,
woman, the passive. When sexual activity, in the animal kingdom, is no
longer limited to the movement of one of the cells but requires the
displacement of the whole individual, we can quite understand that the
organization of these individuals must become much more complex, and
that it requires a central nervous system as a directing apparatus. Sexual
individuality thus involves collaboration of the other organs of the body,
and especially that of the central organs for reflex movements, the instincts
and the higher mental faculties of man, in the accomplishment of the
fecundating act those which are the consequences of it.
From this simple animal origin is evolved the complex sexual love of
man. The duty of the active or male individual is to bring the spermatozoa
to a point where they can easily reach the female cells or ovules. When this
is done the duty of the male is accomplished. In the passive or female
individual of the higher animals, pairing and conjugation are only the
commencement of reproductive activity. However, this is not the case in the
whole animal kingdom. For instance, fish have distinct sexes, but in them
the female deposits her non-fecundated eggs in the water and is not

concerned with them any further. The male then arrives and discharges his
sperm on the eggs. In this case fecundation takes place without copulation.
With such a system sexual love and maternal love lose their raison d'être,
for the young fish are capable of providing for themselves as soon as they
are born. There are, however, a few exceptions, one of the most curious
being that of certain fish of the Dead Sea, in which the male incubates the
eggs by taking them into his buccal cavity.
Reproduction in Vertebrates.—We should never finish if we were to
describe even the chief varieties of sexual union among the vertebrates. As
a rule, the male possesses a copulating organ which projects externally,
while the female presents an invaginated cavity, more or less cylindrical,
into which the male organ can penetrate. A certain amount of sperm is
deposited by the male in the neighborhood of the mature ovules (Fig. 18)
discharged from the female germinal gland or ovary, which renders
conjugation possible. By means of their mobile tails, the spermatozoa (Fig.
11) are able to reach the ovules and fecundate them. The manner in which
the egg when fecundated, either in the mother's body or after being laid,
continues its development, varies enormously in different species. The eggs
are often deposited by the female and the embryo develops outside the
mother's body. This occurs in insects, mollusks, fish, amphibia, reptiles,
birds and the lowest mammals or monotremes (ornithorhynchus and
echidna).
In the lower mammals is developed an organ called the womb which
allows the embryo to remain longer in the maternal body. This organ is very
incomplete in them, and a pocket or fold in the skin of the belly allows the
mother to carry her young, which are extremely embryonic at birth, till they
have developed sufficiently to live alone. This occurs in marsupials
(kangaroos and opossums), in which the vagina and uterus are double.
In the higher mammals the womb becomes more and more developed,
opening into a single vagina in the middle line of the abdomen, between the
two ovaries, and constituting a highly specialized organ which allows the
mother to preserve the young for a long time in her belly. In most mammals
the uterus has two elongated diverticula, each of which may contain a
successive series of embryos. In man it forms a single cavity and normally
contains a single embryo, occasionally two or more. These facts show that
the role of the female mammal in reproduction is more important than that

of the male. But this is not all. Whether it still lays eggs, or whether it gives
birth to young which are more or less developed its sexual role is far from
ended. The higher oviparous vertebrates, especially the birds, take care of
their progeniture for some time after laying. The young are still fed by the
mother, either by milk from the teats, as in mammals, or by nourishment
obtained from outside, as in birds, or by both methods combined or
succeeding each other, as in cats.
In many animals the male contributes to the raising of the young; a point
to which we shall return. Here, we indicate these complicated details simply
to show that sexual union only contributes one link in the long chain of
reproduction. Let us study its mechanism in man.
The Copulatory Organ of Man. The Testicles. The Seminal Vesicles.
—Nature is often very sparing even in the highest organizations. It has thus
combined in the male the urethra with the copulatory organ, and the sexual
germinal glands, or testicles, with an accessory gland, the epididymis.
Hundreds of thousands of spermatozoa are contained in the glandular tubes
of these organs, which, when they are mature can always produce new ones
by cell division. The spermatozoa accumulate at the extremity of the duct of
the gland in a reservoir called the seminal vesicle, where they float in the
mucus, thus constituting the seminal fluid or sperm. This liquid has a
special odor. The two seminal vesicles are situated in the abdominal cavity
underneath the urinary bladder, each having a duct which meets that of the
other side and opens by the side of it in the deep part of the urethra. Here
the secretion of several other glands, especially of the prostate, is added to
the sperm and mixes with it. The point where the two seminal ducts open
into the urethra forms a small elevation, the verumontanum. From this point
the male urethra emerges from the abdominal cavity and is continued along
the special prolongation which forms the penis, or virile member of
copulation. In the ordinary way the penis only serves for the emission of
urine. It hangs flaccid and terminates in a rounded swelling called the glans,
at the end of which opens the urethra (Fig. 18). This opening serves also for
the emission of the sperm.
Erection. The Corpus Cavernosum.—The most curious part of this
apparatus is the mechanism of erection, or the power possessed by the penis
of swelling under the influence of certain nervous irritations, increasing in
length and diameter as well as becoming rigid. This phenomenon is

produced by three organs called the cavernous bodies which form the
principal bulk of the penis. One of them, situated in the middle and
underneath and formed by two bodies united into one, surrounds the urethra
and terminates in front in a dilatation which constitutes the glans already
mentioned. The two others are situated symmetrically on the dorsal part of
the penis. All three consist of caverns or diverticula formed by blood-
vessels, which are empty when the penis is flaccid. By a complex nervous
mechanism based on vascular paralysis due to nervous phenomena called
inhibition and dynamogeny, the nervous irritations cause an accumulation
of blood in the spaces of the cavernous bodies which become so gorged
with blood as to form stiff and hard rods. The size of the penis is thereby
increased considerably and its stiffness allows it to penetrate the vagina of
the female. At the same time and by the same mechanism the
verumontanum swells so as to close the ureter from the bladder, while the
seminal ducts open toward the urethral orifice. In this way the copulatory
organ is ready for its function.
Repeated irritations are however necessary to provoke the ejaculation of
semen. This is finally produced by excitation of a special muscle which
compresses the seminal vesicles in a spasmodic manner and ejaculates the
semen by the urethra. After ejaculation, the accumulation of blood in the
cavernous bodies gradually diminishes and the penis again becomes flaccid.
This apparatus is thus very complicated and is put in action by several
nervous irritations which may be disturbed in many ways in affections of
the nervous system. We may observe here that the nervous centers of
erection and ejaculation may be put in action directly by the brain, or
indirectly by peripheral irritation of the glans.
Those peripheral nerves which provoke sexual excitation are especially
the nerves of the glans. This possesses a skin or mucous membrane which is
extremely delicate and is protected against external irritation by a fold of
skin called the prepuce, or foreskin. The prepuce is often too narrow so that
it cannot be withdrawn behind the glans. It then forms a pocket in which
sebaceous matter, semen, urine, etc., accumulate and decompose. This
anomaly, called phimosis, does not exist among the Jews owing to
circumcision, or the removal of the prepuce in the newly born, which forms
part of their religious rites. Hygienic considerations sometimes oblige us to
perform this operation in others. The bad habit of masturbation, so common

in boys, is often provoked by phimosis, and shows that simple mechanical
irritation of the glans, due here to secretions contained in the prepuce, may
lead to ejaculation of semen as well as to erection.
We have seen above that the male and female germinal glands arise from
the same primitive organ in the embryo. If the embryo becomes male, this
organ is transformed into the two testicles which descend gradually in the
canal of the groin and become placed in the scrotum. If it becomes female,
the two sexual glands remain in the abdominal cavity and are transformed
into ovaries.
The Genital Organs of Woman.—The organs described in Chapter II
(Figs. 18 and 19), constitute the internal and more important part of the
female sexual apparatus. In women, the urethra opens externally on its own
account. It is much shorter and wider than in men. At its external extremity
is a small cavernous body called the clitoris, which corresponds
embryologically to the penis in man, and chiefly to the glans. Like the latter
it is specialized for sexual irritation and possesses very sensitive nerves.
The opening of the female urethra is situated in front of the vulva directly
under the pubic bone, at the same place as the root of the male penis. From
this point, on each side of the middle line, extend two longitudinal folds,
one external covered with skin and called the larger lip of the vulva (Fig.
18, labia majora), the other internal, hidden under the first, called the lesser
lip of the vulva (labia minora), and covered with thin mucous membrane.
Between the two lesser lips is the sexual aperture, which, with the labia
majora and minora is called the vulva. This opening is distinct from that of
the urethra, and leads to the internal cavity or vagina (Fig. 18). The vagina
is about ten to twelve centimeters long (2 to 2-½ inches) and terminates in a
cul-de-sac which surrounds the vaginal portion of the womb, of which we
have spoken above.
In virgins the entrance to the vagina is more or less closed by a delicate
transverse membrane called the hymen, which is only perforated by a
narrow opening. At the first coitus the hymen is torn, causing a certain
amount of pain and bleeding. The walls of the vagina are thrown into
transverse folds, which render them somewhat rough. The remains of the
hymen torn by the first coitus afterward form behind the vulva small
excrescences named carunculæ myrtiformes.

In the first chapter we have spoken of the changes undergone by the
fecundated ovule till it becomes the embryo and then the infant. It remains
to speak of the mechanism of expulsion of the ovule and of its fecundation,
as well as the changes in the womb which result from these phenomena.
Menstruation.—About every four weeks, one or two ovules (rarely
more) mature and are discharged into the Fallopian tubes, down which they
pass by the movement of the vibratile cilia of the mucous membrane, to the
uterus, to the walls of which they become attached if they have been
fecundated on the way (Fig. 18). Fecundation or conjugation takes place
most often in the Fallopian tube, sometimes in the uterus. The maturation
and expulsion of the ovule are generally accompanied in women by a
nervous phenomenon closely related to erection in man. The mucous
membrane of the cavity of the uterus is very rich in blood vessels which
become dilated and gorged with blood under the inhibitory influence of
certain nerve centers. As the mucous membrane is very thin, the result is
otherwise than in man; the blood transudes through the mucous membrane
and flows away. This is called menstruation ("courses" or monthly periods).
The object of this is, no doubt, to prepare the mucous membrane of the
womb for the fixation of the fecundated egg which will become grafted on
its surface. The courses in women generally last three or four days, but are
often very irregular. It is necessary to point out that they do not depend on
ovulation (expulsion of the egg). The two phenomena may take place
independently of each other, for menstruation in itself depends only on
nervous irritation, which may be provoked or averted by hypnotic
suggestion, for example.
Moreover, there are women who never menstruate and who, in spite of
this, not only regularly discharge ovules but may be fecundated and become
pregnant. Usually, however, the two phenomena are associated by nervous
reflexes, so that menstruation takes place first and then the ovule
commences its migration.
The Mechanism of Coitus.—Copulation, or coitus, takes place as
follows: After a certain degree of excitation, both mental and sensory, the
male introduces the erect and stiffened penis into the vagina. In the case of
advanced pregnancy he should place himself behind, so as to avoid injuring
the unborn child. Rhythmic movements of the two individuals, especially of
the man, gradually increase the excitation of the mucous membrane or skin

of the genital organs of each party, till voluptuous sensations, arising chiefly
in the glans penis and clitoris, spread to the whole nervous system and the
entire body, constituting what is called the venereal orgasm, and
terminating in the man by the ejaculation of semen.
The localizations of irritability in woman are multiple, and to the clitoris
must be added the nipples, the vulva, and even, it is said, the neck of the
womb. In man the parts round the anus may also, besides the glans penis,
form an excitable region. At the acme of erection the glans is turgid, and is
applied directly against the neck of the womb (Fig. 18). In this way the
sperm is ejaculated directly against the neck of the womb.
In the woman an analogous phenomenon takes place; the clitoris
becomes turgid and the mild and repeated friction of the mucous
membranes, together with contact on other sensitive parts, produces a
voluptuous sensation as in the man. Through nervous association, the
repeated excitation determines secretion from certain glands of the vagina
which lubricate the vulva (glands of Bartholin). At the maximum point of
voluptuous feeling the woman experiences something analogous to the
venereal orgasm of the man. There is thus manifested in the two sexes an
intense and reciprocal desire of penetration one by the other, a desire which
powerfully favors fecundation. In the woman as in the man the end of the
orgasm is followed by an agreeable relaxation which invites sleep.
The hereditary or instinctive nervous actions produce after coitus a
profound effect of contrast. When the sexual appetite commences, the
odors, especially those of the sexual organs, the contacts, the movements,
and the sight of the individual of the opposite sex, all increase desire,
producing a voluptuous excitation stronger than all contrary feeling. Hardly
is the sexual act consummated than all vanishes like a dream. What was a
moment before the object of the most violent desire becomes indifferent,
and sometimes even excites a slight feeling of disgust, at least as regards
certain odors, sometimes even regarding touch and sight. The name sexual
appetite (libido sexualis) is given to the passionate and purely sexual desire
of the two sexes for each other. It varies greatly in different individuals.
According to Ferdy and other authors, the neck of the womb, during the
venereal orgasm of the woman, executes movements of suction in the glans
penis. I do not know if this is a fact, but it is certain that the female orgasm

is useless for conception. Absolutely cold women, incapable of the least
voluptuous sensation are as fruitful as those who have pronounced venereal
orgasms. It proves that the spermatozoa arrive at their goal even when the
womb is entirely passive. The great variation of sexual desire in different
individuals renders mutual adaptation often very difficult. The venereal
orgasm is sometimes more rapid in man, sometimes in woman (more rarely
in the latter). This inequality is rather to the detriment of the woman, for the
man can still satisfy himself when the orgasm of the woman has terminated,
while the contrary is not possible without artificial manipulation. Moreover,
the frequence and intensity of the sexual appetite are often much greater in
one than in the other, which is detrimental to both. Here again it is the
woman who suffers the most, for the man can always satisfy himself
without the woman having voluptuous sensations. What is commonly called
good manners generally prevents the conjoints from speaking of their
sexual desires before marriage. This very often results in grave deceptions,
dissensions, and often even divorce. I shall return to this subject in Chapter
XIV.
Voluptuous sensations only represent the means employed by nature to
bring together the sexes with the object of reproducing the species. A
woman can be fecundated and give birth to a child by the aid of semen
injected into the uterus by a syringe. Moreover, it is rather exceptional for
the venereal orgasm to occur in the two sexes at the same moment. It is
essential for fecundation that the semen should enter the womb. When the
spermatozoa have reached the neighborhood of the neck of the womb they
swim by their own movements, not only along the whole uterine cavity, but
also along the Fallopian tubes and even in the abdominal cavity, so that the
force of ejaculation is of little importance.
Pregnancy.—The womb enlarges considerably during pregnancy. It
exceeds the size of an adult head, and the muscles of its walls are greatly
increased, so as to be capable of expelling the child later on.
The phenomena of pregnancy, birth and suckling are known to all, so that
I shall be brief. The almost sudden activity of the breasts after childbirth is a
very interesting correlative phenomenon. It suffices to glance at one who
has just become a mother and to observe the complications which
profoundly influence all her organism with regard to the life of the infant, to
comprehend to what extent the role of sexual life is more important, more

profound, even more vital, in woman than in man. The latter no doubt
requires a more violent appetite to urge him to copulation because he plays
the active part, short though it be. But fecundating coitus having been
effected, his contribution to the reproduction of the species is ended.
While the activity of man is terminated at conception, that of woman
only begins at this moment. In the first chapter we have indicated in a few
words the transformations of the human embryo up to its birth. During nine
months it grows from the size of a pin's head (the ovule) to that of the new-
born child. Although a woman seldom bears more than one embryo at the
same time, twins being rare on the whole, she has nevertheless more pain
and fatigue to bear than any female animal. This is due not only to the fact
that our artificial and alcoholized civilization, with its specialized labor
which disturbs vital equilibrium, has made women indolent and degenerate,
but also to the enormous development of the human brain. The head of the
human embryo is disproportionately large because the brain, as I showed
with Schiller in 1889, already contains at birth all the nerve elements which
it will possess during the rest of its life (Comptes rendus de l'Académie des
Sciences). No doubt these elements are small and embryonic but the nerve
fibers are ready to be covered with myelin and to enter upon their functions,
and all this requires a cranium of considerable size. But it is not everything
for the mother to nourish with her blood the brain and the cranium of the
child; it is also necessary for this relatively large head to pass through the
pelvis at the time of childbirth, and we know that this moment is the most
dangerous for the life of the pregnant woman. As boys have on the average
a larger brain and cranium than those of girls, their birth is usually more
difficult.
Accouchement.—The sexual organs of woman undergo great changes in
order to render childbirth possible. These organs become larger and more
vascular, especially the womb, the growth of which is astonishing.
Originally the size of a small egg (a guinea fowl's) it exceeds the size of a
human head, and there is an enormous increase of muscular tissue in its
walls. Large blood vessels develop in the uterine wall, especially in the
placenta (Figs. 22 and 23), where they enter into endosmotic relations with
the circulation of the embryo.
From the abdomen of the embryo arises an organ, the allantois, which is
destined to carry the blood-vessels of the embryo to the placenta, and at the

same time to give rise to the formation of the latter. In the placenta the
blood-vessels of the embryo are separated from those of the mother by
walls so thin that the nutritive juices of the maternal blood transude into the
venous blood of the embryo, as well as combined oxygen in the blood
necessary for its respiration. Up to this point the vitellus of the egg,
nourished by endosmosis through its membranes, had sufficed for the
nutrition of the still very small embryo. While these phenomena are taking
place, and while the substance of the two conjugated germs divides into an
ever increasing number of cells, which become differentiated in layers to
form the future organs (Fig. 21), while certain groups of cells are prepared
some to form the intestinal canal, others the muscles and blood vessels,
others the skin and organs of sense, others arising from the last to form the
brain, the spinal cord and the nerves, the mother can still live her ordinary
life. She suffers, however, from different disorders connected with what is
passing on in her body.
It is a curious fact that these disorders are more accentuated at the
commencement of pregnancy, when the womb is hardly enlarged, than at
the end. They consist chiefly of nervous troubles—slight derangement of
the cerebral functions and sensations, etc. Obstinate vomiting, peculiar
desires, and changes of temper are some of the most frequent troubles of
pregnant women, and probably arise more from local nervous irritation than
from general transformations of the nutrition of the body. The mother's
body is becoming adapted to the development of the infant in the womb.
However embarrassed a woman may be in the last months of pregnancy by
the great swelling of the belly (Fig. 22) the disorders are less accentuated
than at the beginning of pregnancy.
During pregnancy menstruation ceases. The sexual appetite is very
variable; in many pregnant women it is diminished, in others there is no
change, and it is seldom increased. There are other troubles which are more
or less frequent, such as varicose veins in the legs caused by pressure of the
uterus on the veins.
But all the sufferings of pregnancy and childbirth are compensated for by
the ardent desire of the normal woman to have a child, and by the happiness
of hearing its first cry. Proud and happy to give life to a new human being,
which she hopes soon to suckle and carry in her arms, she cheerfully bears
all the inconveniences and pains of pregnancy and childbirth. The latter is

actually painful, for in spite of all that nature does to relax the pelvis and
render it elastic, to dilate the neck of the womb, the vagina and the vulva,
the passage of the enormous head of a human infant through all these
relatively narrow apertures is extremely difficult (Figs. 22 and 23). The
passage is forced by the powerful contractions of the muscles of the womb.
However, they do not always succeed by themselves, and in this case the
accoucheur is obliged to apply the forceps to extract the head of the child.
Very often the neck of the womb, the vagina or the perineum (the part
situated between the anus and the vulva) become torn during labor, and this
may lead later on to disorders such as prolapse of the womb, etc.; disorders
which may last through life.
When the child is born, the umbilical cord (that is the transformed
allantois, Fig. 23) cut, and the placenta extracted, the connecting nutrition
and respiration between the child and its mother are suddenly interrupted.
Nourished hitherto by its mother's blood through the placenta and the
vessels of the umbilical cord which supplied the necessary oxygen, the
infant is suddenly obliged to breathe and feed for itself. Its lungs, hitherto
inactive, expand instantaneously under the nervous influence produced by
the blood saturated with carbonic acid, and the first cry is produced. Thus
commences individual respiration. Several hours later the cessation of
maternal nutrition causes hunger, and this the reflex movements of suction,
and the child takes the breast. During this time the empty womb contracts
strongly and retracts enormously in a few days. The increase of blood
produced by the maternal organism, by its adaptation to the nutrition of the
embryo, is then employed in the production of milk in the breasts or
lactiferous glands, which were already well developed during pregnancy.
Suckling. Maternity.—The mother is instinctively disposed to suckle
her child as the infant is to suck. At the end of four to six weeks, the womb
has almost completely regained its former size.
In savage races suckling at the breast lasts for two years or more. It is
useless to mention here to what point the capacity for suckling and the
production of milk have diminished among the modern women of civilized
countries. This sad sign of degeneration is due to a large extent, as Bunge
has shown by careful statistics, to the habit of taking alcoholic drinks, and is
combined with other blastophthoric degenerations due to hereditary
alcoholism. The future will show whether the artificial feeding of infants

with cows' milk will benefit humanity. In any case it allows infants to
survive who would die without it. On the other hand the development of a
degeneration can hardly be an advantage for the species and we should
hope for a return to the natural rule by abstinence from all alcoholic drinks.
The false modesty of women concerning their pregnancy and everything
that concerns childbirth, the pleasantries often made with regard to pregnant
women are a sad sign of the degeneration and even corruption of our
refined civilization. Pregnant women ought not to hide themselves, or to be
ashamed to carry a child in their womb; on the contrary they should be
proud. Such pride would certainly be much more justified than that of the
fine officers parading in their uniforms. The external signs of the formation
of humanity are more honorable to their bearers than the symbols of
destruction, and woman should become imbued more and more with this
truth! They will then cease to hide their pregnancy and to be ashamed of it.
Conscious of the grandeur of their sexual and social duty they will raise
aloft the standard of our descent, which is that of the true future life of man,
at the same time striving for the emancipation of their sex. Viewed in this
way, the sexual role of woman becomes elevated and solemn. Man should
less and less maintain his indifference towards the social miseries to which
the slavery of woman has led, which has lasted thousands of years and
which has dishonored the highest functions of her sex, by abuses without
number.
The hygiene of pregnancy, labor and its sequels, is of the highest
importance. It certainly should not consist in exaggerated care and
precaution, for in spoiling and softening women by inaction more harm
than good is done. On the other hand, the social cruelty which neglects poor
women of the people in confinement, often even without giving them
sufficient nourishment, is revolting, and it is here especially that the reform
of social hygiene becomes an elementary necessity for humanity.
All that we have just spoken of binds the woman for months or years to
each of her children, and we can understand that her whole soul is adapted
in consequence to maternity. Even when birth has detached the child from
the maternal body, it remains attached to its mother by a hundred bonds, not
only during the period of suckling, but long afterward when the conventions
do not violate natural laws. Little children are deeply attached to their
mother, and while the father is impatient with their cries and the

embarrassment which they cause, the mother takes a natural delight in
them. When pregnancies succeed each other at reasonable intervals of one
or two years, the normal woman lives with her children for many years in
intimacy which never entirely ceases in a family animated by human and
social sentiments.
In normal circumstances the special bonds which unite the mother to her
children last for life, while the father, if all goes well, becomes simply the
best friend of his growing children. It is time that fathers began to recognize
these natural laws, instead of clinging so tenaciously to the historic and
artificial prestige of a worm-eaten and unnatural patriarchal authority. No
doubt there are many pathological and degenerate mothers, but such an
anomaly only proves the rule that we have just laid down.
Correlative Sexual Characters.—The correlative sexual characters,
which we have previously spoken of in animals, are well known in man.
Man is in the average larger, broader in the shoulders and more robust; his
skeleton is more solid but his pelvis narrower. At the age of puberty, from
16 to 20 years, the beard grows on the face, while in the pubic region hair
develops in both sexes. At the same time the testicles and external genital
organs enlarge. The sexual glands as well as the external genital organs
have remained so far in an embryonic state although the mechanism of
erection is already established in young boys. But this mechanism, in the
normal boy, is not associated with any voluptuous sensation or any
glandular secretion.
Man possesses the rudiments of the correlative sexual characters of
woman, such as nipples without lactiferous glands, etc. In a general way
each part of the external genital organs of one sex has its corresponding
embryonic homologue in the other, which is explained by the different
transformations which were originally the same in the embryo. The clitoris
of woman corresponds to the penis of man, the labia majora to the scrotum,
etc. In certain individuals these rudiments are more strongly developed, and
may by exaggeration and transition lead to pathological hermaphrodism
(Chapter I); such are bearded women, and those possessing a large clitoris,
or beardless men with effeminate bodies and small sexual organs. Such
cases are not examples of hermaphrodism, but of incomplete embryological
differentiation. They consist in certain correlative sexual characters which

show a tendency toward the other sex, a tendency which we find, from the
mental point of view, in homosexuals.
There is also to be noticed the "breaking" of the voice which occurs in
man at the age of puberty, and is connected with the nervous system.
In women the body is smaller and more delicate, the bones weaker, the
pelvis wider and the chest narrower. The normal woman has no beard while
the pubic hairs are the same as in man. The pubis, covered with a layer of
fat, is slightly prominent in women and is called the mons Veneris. There is
more fat under the skin in a woman's body, and the voice does not break.
After puberty breasts develop with their lactiferous glands and nipples for
suction. Puberty takes place a little earlier in women than in men, and
corresponds to the growth of the internal and external sexual organs, at the
same time that the ovules commence to mature and menstruation is
established.
The mental correlative sexual characters are much more important than
those of the body. The psychology of man is different from that of woman.
Many books have been written on this subject, usually with more
sentimentality than exactitude. Mysogynists, like the philosopher
Schopenhauer, disparage woman from all points of view, while the friends
of the female sex often exalt her in an exaggerated manner. In contemporary
literature we see women authors judging man in quite different ways
according as they are affected with "misandery" or "philandery"—that is
enemies or friends of men. Quite recently Moebius has published a
mysogynistic work on the "Physiological Imbecility of Woman." (Der
physiologische Schwachsinn des Weibes). One must be a misogynist of very
high degree to introduce the pathological notion of imbecility into the
evolution of the normal mentality of woman. In reality, the individual
differences are much greater in man and woman from the psychological
than from the physical point of view, so that they render a definition of the
average extremely difficult.
We are acquainted with bearded women, athletic women, as well as
beardless men and puny men. From the mental point of view, there are also
viragos and men with feminine instincts. Imbeciles are not wanting in both
sexes, but no reasonable person will deny that an intelligent woman is
superior to a narrow-minded man even from the purely intellectual point of

view. In spite of these difficulties, I shall attempt to bring forward the
principal points which distinguish, in a general way, the masculine mind
from the feminine, relying on my own observations and especially on the
mental phenomena of both sexes.
The Weight of the Brain.—According to statistics, the weight of the
brain in men of our race is on the average 1350 grammes, while that of
women averages 1200 grammes. The absolute weight is, however, not of
much importance, because part of the cerebral substance in the larger
animals is only for the supply of a greater number of cellular elements of
the rest of the body, which necessitates a greater number of nervous
elements.
To make the matter clear, it is necessary to separate the weight of the
cerebral hemispheres from the other nervous centers, such as the
cerebellum, corpora striata, the optic thalami, the mid-brain, the pons
Varolii, the medulla oblongata and the spinal cord, for these centers
constitute parts which are phylogenetically older, that is to say, inherited
from lower animal ancestors. Compared with the cerebral hemispheres,
these nerve centers are relatively more important in other vertebrates than in
man, and are in more constant proportion to the size of the body, the
muscular, glandular and sensory elements of which they supply. When the
intelligence is about the same, they are, therefore, compared with the
cerebral hemispheres, much more developed in the larger than in the
smaller animals. For example, they are very large in the ox, but small in
mice. I have weighed a considerable number of human brains separated in
this way with the following results:
OTHER
CEREBRAL
CEREBRAL
HEMISPHERES
CENTERS
Man 1060 290 grammes,
grammes, 78.5% 21.5%
Woman 955 270 grammes,
grammes, 77.9% 22.1%
Thus the cerebellum and basal ganglia are a little smaller in men than in
women, compared with the cerebral hemispheres.

These figures appear to show that the cerebral hemispheres in woman are
on the average a little smaller than in man, even proportionately to the
stature; for, according to a general law in the animal kingdom, woman
being smaller, her cerebral hemispheres should be, with equal mentality,
proportionately a little larger. There are, however, female brains larger than
many male brains, and the absolute and relative size of the cerebral
hemispheres does not give a complete measure of the productive faculties.
Remarkable men have been known to possess rather small brains and
imbeciles heavy ones. We must not forget the great importance of the
hereditary or engraphic predispositions of the nerve element or neurone, to
certain activities and especially to work in general, that is to say, their
aptitude to produce energy, or if one prefers it, their disposition to "will."
It is also interesting to consider the relationship of the frontal lobe to the
rest of the cerebral hemispheres, the frontal lobe being without doubt the
principal seat of intellectual activity. According to Meynert, the weight of
the frontal lobe in man exceeds that of woman, not only absolutely, but
relatively to the rest of the brain. In his résumé of the statistical data
collected on this subject and from the results of my own material (autopsies
at the asylum of Burgholzli in Zurich), Mercier has confirmed the opinion
of Meynert. The average weight of the hemispheres separated from the rest
of the brain is 1019 grammes in man (frontal lobe 428, the rest 591), and
930 in woman (frontal lobe 384, rest 546). Here, atrophied brains (except
general paralytics) have been weighed with others, which lowers the
average total weight without altering the proportion. Thus, the rest of the
cerebral hemispheres exceeds the frontal lobe by 163 grammes in man and
162 grammes in woman, which means that in man the frontal lobe
constitutes 42 per cent. of the cerebral hemispheres and in woman 41.3 per
cent. The difference is not great, but it is definite, for it is based on a large
number of observations.
Mental Capacity of the Two Sexes.—The fundamental difference
between the psychology of woman and that of man is constituted by the
irradiations of the sexual sphere in the cerebral hemispheres, which
constitute what may be called sexual mentality. We shall discuss this in the
following chapters, for it constitutes the foundation of our subject. We are
only concerned here with the correlative differences.

Adhering in a general way to the main definitions of psychology, we
assert that from the purely intellectual point of view, man considerably
excels woman in his creative imagination, his faculty for combination and
discovery, and by his critical mind. For a long time this was said to be
explained by the statement that women had not the opportunity of
measuring their intelligence against that of men; but, thanks to the modern
movement of the emancipation of women, this assertion becomes more and
more untenable. It is so with regard to artistic creations, for women have at
all times taken part in works of art. When certain people maintain that a few
generations of activity suffice to elevate the intellectual development of
women, they confound the results of education with those of heredity and
phylogeny (vide Chapter II). Education is a purely individual matter and
only requires one generation to produce its results. But neither mnemic
engraphia, nor even selection can modify hereditary energies in two or three
generations. Tied down hitherto partly by servitude, the mental faculties of
woman will doubtless rise and flourish in all their natural power as soon as
they are absolutely free to develop in society equally with those of men, by
the aid of equal rights. But what does not exist in the hereditary mneme,
that is to say in the energies of germs, inherited through thousands or
millions of years, cannot be created in a few generations. The specific
characters and consequently the sexual characters have quite another
constancy than is believed by the superficial prattlers, who deafen us with
their jargon on a question of which they only grasp the surface. There is no
excuse, at the present day, for confounding hereditary correlative sexual
characters with the individual results of education. The latter are acquired
by habit and can only be inherited as such by an infinitesimal engraphia,
possibly after hundreds of generations.
On the other hand woman possesses, from the intellectual point of view,
a faculty of reception and comprehension as well as a facility of
reproduction which are almost equal to those of man. In higher education at
the universities the women I have had the opportunity of observing at
Zurich for many years, show a more equal level than that of the men. The
most intelligent men reproduce best and the most stupid men reproduce
worse than the corresponding female extremes. I do not think one can say
much more concerning the purely intellectual domain.

Artistic production confirms this opinion. Woman is here on the average
much inferior as regards creation or production, properly so called, and
even her best results are wanting in originality and do not open up new
paths. On the contrary, as virtuosos, women compare well with men in
simply reproductive art. There are, however, exceptional women whose
productions are original, creative and independent. The philosopher Stuart
Mill points out the intuitive gift of woman who, led by her individual
observations, rapidly and clearly discovers a general truth, and applies it in
particular cases, without troubling with abstract theories. This may be called
the intuitive or subconscious judgment of woman.
In the domain of sentiment the two sexes differ very much from each
other, but we cannot say that one surpasses the other. Both are passionate,
but in different ways. The passions of man are coarser and less durable, and
are only more elevated when associated with more original and more
complex intellectual aims. In woman sentiment is more delicate and more
finely shaded esthetically and morally; it is also more durable, at least on
the average, although its objects are often of a mean and banal nature.
When man compares himself with woman he usually identifies himself,
more or less unconsciously, with the highest male intellects, with the men
of genius in art and science, and complaisantly ignores the crowd of idiots
of his own sex! In the life of sentiment the two sexes may complement each
other admirably; while man raises the height of the ideal and of objects to
be attained, woman has the necessary tact to soften and refine the tones, and
to adapt their shades to each special situation, by the aid of her natural
intuition, where man risks spoiling everything by the violence of his
passions and his efforts. This reciprocal influence should conduce to the
best and highest harmony of sentiments in a happy sexual combination.
As regards will power, woman is, in my opinion, on the average superior
to man. It is in this psychological domain more than in any other, that she
will always triumph. This is generally misunderstood, because men have so
far apparently held the scepter of an unlimited omnipotence; because by the
abuse of brute force, aided by superiority of inventive genius, humanity has
been hitherto led by strong masculine wills, and because the strongest
feminine wills have been dominated by the law of the right of the stronger.
But the unprejudiced observer is soon obliged to recognize that the directive
will of the family is only, in general, represented externally by the master.

Man parades his authority much more often than he puts it into practice; he
lacks the perseverance, tenacity and elasticity which constitute the true
power of will, and which are peculiar to woman. It is needless to say that I
am only speaking of the average and that there are many women whose will
power is feeble. But these easily become the prey of prostitution, which
causes their disappearance. This is perhaps one of the causes which have
strengthened by selection the will power in women. Man is impulsive and
violent as regards his will power, but often inconstant and irresolute,
yielding as soon as he has to strive persistently for a certain object. From
these facts it naturally results that, on the average, it is the man in the family
who provides the ideas and impulses, but the woman who, with the finesse
of her tact and perseverance, instinctively makes the distinction between the
useful and the harmful, utilizing the former and constantly combating the
latter; not because she is fundamentally superior, but because she is more
capable of dominating herself, which proves the superiority of her will
power.
Nothing is more unjust than to disparage one sex relatively to the other.
The parthenogenesis of the lower animals having ceased in the vertebrates,
each sex is indispensable, not only to the preservation of species, but also to
each conception or reproduction of the individual. Both are thus equivalent
and belong to each other as the two halves of a whole, one being incapable
of resisting without the other. Everything which benefits one of the halves
benefits the other. If by the magic wand of a fairy, the male half or the
female half of our humanity, such as it is to-day, was rendered capable and
obliged to reproduce alone, men would soon degenerate owing to the
weakness of their will combined with their sensual passions, and women
from their incapacity to raise their intellectual level by means of creative
ideas.
We need not dwell here on the numerous psychological peculiarities of
woman, inherent in her capacity as mother, nor on those of man adapted to
his muscular strength and to his capacity as protector of the family. These
are derived from sexual differences which are mentioned in Chapter V. Nor
need we describe correlative differences of less importance which are well
known and which arise from those of which we have spoken or from direct
sexual differences. They can be observed, on the one hand, in purely male
reunions in saloons, smoking rooms and other similar places; on the other

hand, in feminine circles of all classes, among the common people, among
the fashionable, or even in philanthropic associations. On the average,
woman is more artful and more modest; man coarser and more cynical, etc.
After much personal experience, gained in societies in which the two sexes
possess the same rights and are admitted to the same titles, I am obliged to
declare that I have never found any confirmation (at least in the German-
Swiss country) of the popular saying that gossip and intrigue are the special
appanage of woman. I have found these two vices quite as often in man.

CHAPTER IVToC

THE SEXUAL APPETITE

If we sum up the three preceding chapters we arrive at the philosophical
conclusion that reproduction depends on the general natural tendency of all
living beings to multiply indefinitely. Fission and sexual reproduction arise
from the simple fact that the growth of each individual is necessarily
limited in space as well as time. Reproduction is thus destined to assure the
continuation of life; the individual dies but is perpetuated in his progeny.
We do not know why the crossing of individuals is rendered necessary by
the phenomenon of conjugation. On this subject we can only build
hypotheses, but the study of nature shows us that where conjugation ceases
reproduction is etiolated and finally disappears, even when it is still
possible for a certain time.
From the commencement of life there is thus a powerful law of attraction
with the object of reproduction. At first there are unicellular organisms, in
which one cell penetrates the other in the act of conjugation. Their

substances combine intimately, while the molecules of each nucleus
become so arranged as to give the new individual a more fresh and
powerful energy of growth.
In the lower multicellular plants and animals which bud, fresh buds live
at the expense of the old trunk to give life to new branches, and the male
cells or pollen fecundate the female cells so as to disperse the germs
capable of growth and of thus reproducing the species. It is also the same in
the madrepores and other agglomerated animals (such as the solitary
worms), composed of parameres or metameres, so long as a single central
nervous system does not coordinate the metameres, or primary agglutinated
animals, into a single organism.
In the higher animals, the complex polycellular individuals formed by the
agglomeration of several primitive animals, are transformed into a higher
and mobile unity by the aid of the great vital apparatus called the nervous
system, which becomes the mental director of the living organism and
invests it with its individual character. However, this higher unity of life,
which always becomes more psychic, that is to say, at the same time
intellectual, sentimental and voluntary, by its complication and its numerous
relations with other individuals, this unity called the central nervous system
cannot do without the necessity for reproduction. In animal phylogeny, as
soon as hermaphrodism has ceased and each individual has become the sole
bearer of one of the two kinds of sexual cells, the species will eventually
disappear if the male cells cannot reach the female cells by the active
movement of the whole individual. Thus is produced the marvelous
phenomenon of the desire of increase and reproduction, originally peculiar
to the male cell, penetrating the nervous system, that is to say life and soul
in its entirety, the life of the higher unity of the individual. An ardent desire,
a powerful impulse thus arises in the nervous system at the time of puberty
and attracts the individual toward the opposite sex. The care and the
pleasure of self preservation, which had hitherto fully occupied his
attention, become effaced by this new impulse. The desire to procreate
dominates everything. A single pleasure, a single desire, a single passion
lays hold of the organism and urges it toward the individual of the opposite
sex, and to become united with it in intimate contact and penetration. It is as
if the nervous system or the whole organism felt as if it had for the moment
become a germinal cell, so powerful is the desire to unite with the other sex.

In some beautiful verses the German poet-philosopher Goethe (West-
Oestlicher Divan, book VIII, "Suleika") describes the desire to procreate (p.
63):

Und mit eiligem Bestreben
Sucht sich, was sich angehört,
Und zu ungemessnem Leben
Ist Gefühl und Blick gekehrt.
Sei's ergreifen, sei es raffen,
Wenn es nur sich fasst und hält!
Allah braucht nicht mehr zu schaffen,
Wir erschaffen seine Welt!

If we look at nature we see everywhere the same desire and the same
attraction of the sexes for each other; the bird which warbles, the mammal
which ruts, the insect which hums while pursuing the female with
implacable tenacity, at the risk of their own life, employing sometimes
cunning, sometimes dexterity, and sometimes force to attain their object.
The ardor of the female is not always much less, but she uses coquetry,
pretending to resist, and simulates repulsion. The more eager the male, the
more coquettish is the female. If we observe the amorous sport of butterflies
and birds, we see what efforts it costs the male to attain his object. On the
other hand when the male is clumsy and slow the female often comes
toward him or at any rate does not resist him, for instance in certain ants the
males of which are wingless while the females have wings. The final act
always consists in intimate union at the moment of copulation.
In some animals Nature is prodigal in the means she employs to pursue
her great object, reproduction, by aid of the sexual appetite. The apiary
raises hundreds of male bees. As soon as the single queen-bee takes wing
for its nuptial flight all the males follow, but a single male only, the
strongest and most nimble, succeeds in reaching her. In the intoxication of
copulation he abandons all his genital organs to the body of the queen and
dies. The other males, now useless, are all massacred in autumn by the
working bees.
Sexual connection among butterflies of the Bombyx family is no less
marvelous. They live for months as caterpillars and sometimes for two

years as chrysalids, hibernating in a cocoon in some corner of the earth or in
the bark of trees. Finally the butterfly, brilliantly colored, emerges from the
cocoon and spreads its wings. It only possesses, however, a rudimentary
intestinal canal for the short life which remains, for it does not require much
nourishment and is only devoted to sexual connection. The female remains
quiet and waits. The male, furnished with large antennæ which perceive the
odor of the female at a distance of several kilometers, commences an
infatuated flight through the woods and fields, as soon as his wings are
sufficiently strong. His sole object is to reach the female. Here again there
are numerous competitors. The one who arrives first possesses the female,
but expires shortly afterward. His competitors die also, exhausted by their
long flight and by starvation, but without having attained their object. After
copulation, the female searches for the green plants which will ensure a
long caterpillar life for her offspring. There she deposits her fecundated
eggs in considerable numbers and then expires in her turn, like a faded
flower which has fulfilled the object of its existence and falls after leaving
the fruit in its place.
The French naturalist Fabre has described these phenomena, relying on
conclusive experiments, and my own observations and those of other
naturalists confirm them fully. Among the ants, all the males die also, soon
after an aërial nuptial flight, in which copulation is generally polyandrous,
one male hardly waiting for the preceding one to discharge his semen
before taking his place. Here the female possesses a receptacle for semen
which often contains the sperm of many males, and which allows it to
fecundate the eggs one after another for several years as she lays them, and
thus to act as the mother of an ant's nest during a period which may extend
to eleven or twelve years, or even more.
In the lower organisms, love consists only in sexual instinct or appetite.
As soon as the function is accomplished love disappears. It is only in the
higher animals that we see a more or less durable sympathy develop
between the two sexes. However, here also and even in man the sexual
passion intoxicates for the moment all the senses. In his sexual rut even
man is dominated as by a magic influence, and for the time he sees the
world only under the aspect inspired by this influence. The object loved
appears to him under celestial colors, which veil all the defects and miseries
of reality. Each moment of his amorous feeling inspires sentiments which it

seems to him should last eternally. He swears impossible things and
believes in immortal happiness. A reciprocal illusion transforms life
momentarily into mirages of paradise. The most common things, and even
certain things which usually disgust him, are then the object of the most
violent desire. But, as soon as the orgasm is ended and the appetite satisfied
the feeling of satiety appears. A curtain falls on the scene, and, at least for
the moment, repose and reality reappear.
Such are, in a few words, the general phenomena of the normal sexual
appetite among sexual organisms in the whole of living nature. I am not
speaking here of degenerations, such as onanism and prostitution. Let us
now analyze this appetite further.
The natural appetites are inherited instincts the roots of which lie far back
in the phylogenetic history of our ancestors. Hunger forms the basis for the
preservation of the individual, the sexual appetite that for the preservation
of the species, as soon as reproduction takes place by separate sexes. All
appetite belongs to the motor side of nervous activity; there is something
internal which urges us to an act, but, on the other hand, one or more
sensations may exist at the base of this something to put it in action. I have
proved, for example, that the egg-laying instinct in the corpse fly (Lucilia
cæsar) is only produced by the odor of putrefaction. As soon as the
antennæ, which contain the organ of smell, are removed from these flies
they cease to lay, while other more severe operations, or removal of one
antenna only does not produce this result.
The mechanism of appetites is thus a lower mechanism and has its seat in
the primitive nervous centers. As Yersin has proved, a cricket deprived of its
brain may copulate so long as the sensory irritations can reach the sexual
nervous centers.
We can thus say that the mechanism of appetites belongs to automatic
actions deeply inherited by phylogeny. Although complicated and
composed of coördinated reflex movements which follow one another in
regular succession, it has no actual power of modifying the so-called
voluntary acts, which depend entirely on the cerebral hemispheres, and of
which we men only have a conscious feeling. The appetites are not capable
of adapting themselves to new circumstances and cease to be produced
when the chain is interrupted. We are obliged to admit that the instincts or

appetites are accompanied by a sub-conscious introspection which, as such,
can hardly enter into direct relation with our higher consciousness, that is,
with our ordinary consciousness in the waking state.
In spite of this, when their intensity increases, the appetites overcoming
the central nervous resistances, reach the cerebral hemispheres, and
consequently our introspection or higher consciousness, under a synthetic
or unified appearance, and influence in a high degree the cerebral activities,
which are reflected in association with all the elements of what we call our
mind in the proper sense of the term, that is to say, our intellect, sentiments
and will. It is from this point of view that sexual appetite must be
considered in order to make it comprehensible. Love, with all that
appertains to it, belongs as such to our mind, that is, to the activity of our
cerebral hemispheres, but it is produced there by a secondary irradiation
from the sexual appetite, which alone concerns us at present. We may also
remark that sexual ideas when once awakened in the cerebral hemispheres
by sexual appetite, are worked up there by the attention, that is to say by
concentrated cerebral activity, then associated with other ideas, which on
their side react strongly on the sexual appetite, developing or paralyzing it,
attracting or repelling it, or finally transforming its attributes and objects.
By sexual desire (libido sexualis) we mean the manner in which the
sexual appetite manifests itself in man. Each term may be employed for the
other.
The Sexual Appetite in Man.—Man represents the active element in
sexual union, and in him the sexual appetite, or desire for coitus, is at first
the stronger. This desire develops spontaneously, and the role of fecundator
represents the principal male activity. This appetite powerfully affects the
male mind, although sexual life plays a less important part in him than in
the female.
In boys, the sexual appetite is often prematurely awakened, excited in
unnatural ways by bad example. Moreover, it varies enormously in different
individuals, a point to which we shall return when dealing with pathology.
Leaving aside unnatural appetites and abnormal forms of sexual instinct we
shall describe here its most spontaneous and normal form.
Puberty. Awakening of the Sexual Instinct in Boys.—Sooner or later in
different individuals, the boy pays attention to his erections, which are at

first produced in a reflex and involuntary manner. Mental development and
reflection, so precocious in man, are causes which draw attention to the
differences of the sexes before the sexual appetite is developed. It is,
however, the first signs of this appetite which concentrate the attention on
these differences, for in their absence, the boy is more indifferent to them
than to the straight or crooked form of a nose. Man has the habit of passing
by without notice anything which does not interest him, and this is why we
find, in individuals whose sexual appetite is developed late or feebly, an
indifference and ignorance in these matters which appear almost incredible
to those whose sexual appetite is precocious and violent; while, on the
contrary, the lively interest which the latter show in everything concerning
the sexes appears foolish and absurd to the sexually indifferent.
The pairing of animals, even of insects, awakens a curious interest in
those whose sexual dispositions are strong and precocious; they
comprehend very quickly the reason and are led to draw analogies with
their own sensations in the same domain. The aspect of the female sex has,
however, a much stronger action still on the normal man. But here is
produced a peculiar phenomenon. What especially excites the boy in the
aspect of the female sex is anything unusual; the sight of certain parts of the
skin which are normally covered, the clothes or ornaments, particular odors,
women whom the boy is not accustomed to see, etc. It is for this reason that
brothers and sisters do not excite, or excite very little, their reciprocal
sexual appetite, at least if there are no anomalies or exceptional exhibitions.
The sexual appetites of boys among savage peoples who live naked is
hardly at all excited by naked girls; on the other hand, it is strongly excited
by those who are clothed or ornamented in a peculiar manner. The sexual
appetite of a Mahometan is strongly excited by the nudity of the feminine
face, that of the European by that of a woman's legs, because women are
accustomed to veil their faces in the first case and their legs in the second.
These are naturally only relative differences. When the sexual appetite of
man is violent and unsatisfied woman excites it in a general way, if she is
not too old or repulsive.
A second important character of the normal sexual appetite is the special
attraction that appearances of health and strength in woman produce in
man. Healthy forms, normal odors, a normal voice, a skin healthy in
appearance and to the touch, constitute attractions which charm and excite

man, while all that is unhealthy or faded, every pathological odor, produce a
repulsive effect and hinders or diminishes sexual desire.
Everything connected with the sexual organs, their appearance, touch and
odor, tend to excite the sexual appetite, all the more when they are usually
covered; it is the same with the breasts.
The first sexual sensations are of a quite indeterminate nature; something
unconscious and obscure inclines the boy toward the female sex and makes
it appear desirable. A boy may thus become enamored of the portrait of a
woman with a swelling bosom and alluring eyes and be seized with desire,
either at their sight or only on remembrance. This desire is not concentrated
especially on the sexual act, as with an adult who is already experienced in
these matters; it is more generalized and vague, although sensual.
For a long time, these repeated aspirations, impulses and desires, remain
unsatisfied. In different individuals the imagination associates the most
diverse images with such manifestations of the sexual appetite. The objects
of the latter appear in dreams and provoke nocturnal erections. The boy
soon remarks a sensory localization of his appetites in his sexual organs,
especially in the glans penis, but also in the surrounding parts, and the
known or only vaguely defined image of the female sexual organs, which is
hardly present at the first appearance of his desires, begin to excite him
more and more.
In natural or savage man, as well as in animals, the boy then makes
attempts at coitus and soon attains his object, for, in the state of nature, man
marries as soon as puberty is attained.
Nocturnal Emissions.—In civilized man such difficulties are opposed to
marriage, that he replaces it by prostitution, or by more or less unnatural
means, as soon as his sexual appetite becomes strong. In those who abstain,
the images produced by sexual excitation, combined with erections, act
more strongly during sleep than waking and produce ejaculations of semen
called nocturnal emissions or pollutions. These generally occur during
erotic dreams, and as the dreams produce the illusion of real perception, in
quality as well as in intensity, it is not surprising that they are followed by
an orgasm and ejaculation of semen.

Masturbation.—In the waking state the unsatisfied sexual appetite may
produce such excitation that the boy applies friction to the glans penis,
which cause voluptuous sensations. As soon as he has made this discovery
he repeats the act and provokes ejaculation of semen artificially. Thus arises
the bad habit of masturbation or onanism, a habit which is both depressing
and exhausting, which takes an increasing hold on those who practice it.
Although from the purely mechanical point of view masturbation causes a
more normal ejaculation than nocturnal emissions, which are often
interrupted by awakening and the vanishing of the dream which produced
them, it has a much more harmful effect, by its frequency and especially by
its depressing action on sentiment and will. We shall return to this subject in
Chapter VIII.
The accumulation of semen in the seminal vesicles strongly excites the
sexual appetite of man, and he is momentarily satisfied by their evacuation.
But we shall soon see that this purely organic or mechanical excitation,
which seems at first to be only adapted for natural wants, does not in man
play the principal role. We can easily understand that it cannot be the
principal moving power of the sexual act. In fact, for any of the animals in
which copulation occurs, the possibility of accomplishing this is not
connected solely with the accumulation of semen, for it depends on
obtaining a female. It is necessary, therefore, for the accumulated semen to
wait, and for the perception of the female by the aid of the senses to excite
the male to coitus.
External Signs of the Sexual Appetite.—Like every other desire the
sexual appetite betrays itself by the physionomy. This consists in the play of
cerebral activity, that is the thoughts, sentiments and resolutions, on the
muscles by means of motor nerves and nerve centers. It is not limited to the
face but extends to the whole body. The abdomen, the hands and even the
feet have their physionomy; that of the muscles of the face and eyes is,
however, the most active and most expressive. Sexual desire betrays itself
in looks, by the expression of the face and by certain movements in the
presence of the female sex. Men differ greatly in the way in which they
betray or hide their sentiments and thoughts by the play of their muscles, so
that the inner self is not always reflected without. Moreover, the expression
of sexual desire by the play of the physionomy may be confounded with

that of other sentiments, so that one who appears libidinous is not always so
in reality, and inversely.
Continence in Man.—Abstinence or sexual continence is by no means
impracticable for a normal young man of average constitution, assiduous in
intellectual and physical work, abstaining from all artificial excitations,
especially from all narcotics and alcohol in particular, for these substances
paralyze the judgment and will. When sexual maturity is complete, that is
after about twenty years, continence is usually facilitated by nocturnal
emissions accompanied by corresponding dreams. The health does not
suffer from these in any way. However, in the long run this state cannot be
considered as normal, especially when there is no hope of it coming to an
end in a reasonable time. What is much more abnormal are the numerous
artificial sexual excitations that civilization brings with it.
Sexual Power.—The individual variations in the sexual instinct are
enormous, and may be said to vary from zero to an intense and perpetual
excitation called Satyriasis. By sexual power is understood the faculty of
accomplishing coitus. This power in the first place requires strong and
complete erections, as well as the faculty of following them by frequent
seminal ejaculations, without being precipitate. Impotence or incapacity for
coitus belongs to pathology and consists usually in the absence or
defectiveness of erections. Sexual power and appetite generally go together,
but not always, for it is possible to be powerful with feeble sexual appetite,
and intense appetite sometimes goes with impotence; the latter condition, it
is true, is pathological. Sexual power also varies so much in individuals that
it is hardly possible to fix a limit between the normal and the pathological.
The sexual power and appetite in man are strongest on the average
between 20 and 40 years, especially between 25 and 35. But, while young
men of 18 to 20 years or more may be still tranquil, without having had
seminal ejaculations, one often finds, among races who mature earlier, boys
of 12 or 16 who are fully developed both in sexual power and appetite. In
our Aryan races, however, when this occurs before the age of 14, it is a case
of pathological precocity. The late appearance of sexual power and appetite
is rather a sign of strength and health.
After the age of 40, the sexual power slowly diminishes, and after the
seventieth year, or even before this, becomes extinct. Exceptionally one

finds old men of 80 who are still capable. Normally the sexual appetite
diminishes with age; often, however, especially when it is artificially
excited, it lasts longer than sexual power.
As regards sexual power we must distinguish between that of copulation
and that of fecundation. The power may exist without the latter, when the
testicles have ceased to functionate, while the other glands, in particular the
prostate, second the venereal orgasm by their secretion, when the power of
erection is still preserved. Inversely, the testicles may contain healthy
spermatozoa in the impotent. In this case artificial fecundation by the
syringe is practicable.
Individual Variations in Sexual Power.—The fact that there are men
who for several years can copulate several times a day proves to what
extent sexual power varies in man. Sexual excitation and desire may
sometimes attain such a degree that they are repeated a few minutes after
ejaculation. It is not rare for a man to perform coitus ten or fifteen times in a
single night, in brothels and elsewhere, although such excess borders on the
domain of pathology. I know a case in which coitus was performed thirty
times. I was once consulted by an old woman of 65 who complained of the
insatiable sexual appetite of her husband, aged 73! He awakened her every
morning at three o'clock to have connection, before going to work. Not
content with this, he repeated the performance every evening and often also
after the mid-day meal. Inversely, I have seen healthy looking husbands, at
the age of greatest sexual power, accuse themselves of excess for having
cohabited with their wives once a month or less. The reformer, Luther, who
was a practical man, laid down the average rule of two or three connections
a week in marriage, at the time of highest sexual power. I may say that my
numerous observations as a physician have generally confirmed this rule,
which seems to me to conform very well to the normal state to which man
has become gradually adapted during thousands of years.
Husbands who would consider this average as an imprescriptible right
would, however, make wrong pretensions, for it is quite possible for a
normal man to contain himself much longer, and it is his duty to do so, not
only when his wife is ill, but also during menstruation and pregnancy.
The question of sexual relations during pregnancy is more difficult, on
account of its long duration. In this case caution is necessary, but total

abstinence from sexual connection is, in my opinion, superfluous.
The Desire of Change in Man.—A peculiarity of the sexual appetite in
man, which is fatal for society, is his desire for change. This desire is not
only one of the principal causes of polygamy, but also of prostitution and
other analogous organizations. It arises from the want of sexual attraction in
what one is accustomed to and from the stronger excitation produced by all
that is new; a phenomenon of which we have spoken above. On the
average, woman has a hereditary disposition which is much more
monogamous than man. The sexual appetite thus loses its intensity from the
prolonged habit of connection with the same woman, but, becomes much
more intense with other women, if not in all men at any rate in most. Such
desires may generally be overcome by the aid of a true and noble love, and
by sentiments of duty and fidelity toward the family and toward a respected
wife. We cannot, however, deny that they exist, nor that they are the cause
of the worst excesses, and the most violent scenes, often with a tragic result.
We shall return to this subject later.
Excitation and Cooling of the Sexual Appetite.—Without touching the
domain of pathology, I must again dwell on the great individual diversity of
the objects of the male sexual appetite. It is usually young but mature
female forms of healthy appearance, and especially the sight of the nudity
of certain parts of the body which are usually covered, particularly the
breasts and sexual organs, which most strongly excite the sexual appetite in
man. It is the same with the corresponding odors. The voice, the
physionomy, the clothing and many other details may also provoke his
desires. There are, however, men who are more excited by thin and pale
women.
Certain attributes excite one and not another; for instance, the hair,
certain odors, certain forms of face, a certain fashion of clothing, the form
of the breasts, etc. The peculiarities, which are absent in women with whom
a man has been on familiar terms in his youth are generally those which
attract the most. In sexual matters contrasts tend to mutual attraction. Thin
people often become enamored of fat, short ones of long ones, and
inversely. One cannot, however, fix any rules. One often sees young men
excited at the sight of women of older age, and old men enamored of very
young women, even of children. All these discrepancies constitute the more
important points of origin of sexual pathology. In spite of all, there still

exist a great number of tranquil men with monogamous instincts and not
fond of change. Lastly, we must not forget that super-abundant feeding and
idleness exalt the sexual appetite and tend to polygamy, while hard work,
especially physical, and frugal diet diminish it.
It is needless to say that the mental qualities react powerfully on the
sexual appetite. A quarrelsome temper, coldness and repulsion on the part of
a woman cool the desires of the man, while an ardent sexual desire on the
part of the woman, her love and tenderness, tend to increase and maintain
them. We are dealing here with purely animal sexual instinct, and we may
state that the sexual appetite of woman generally excites strongly that of
man, and considerably increases his pleasure during coitus. There are,
however, exceptions in the inverse sense, in which coldness and disgust on
the part of the woman excite the passion of certain men, who have,
however, no taste for libidinous women. All degrees are found in this
domain.
Active in the sexual act the man desires corresponding sentiments in the
woman. But, on the other hand, all want of natural reserve, and delicate
sentiment, and all cynical sexual provocation on the part of a woman,
produce in the normal man a repulsive effect. The normal woman possesses
an admirable instinct in these matters and knows how to betray her feelings
in a sufficiently fine and delicate manner, so as not to hurt those of the man.
A phenomenon, which we shall meet with in Chapter VIII, under the
name of psychic impotence, shows the powerful and disturbing interference
of thoughts on the automatic action of instinctive sexual activity. A
momentary psychic impotence is not necessarily pathological. While
voluptuous sensations alternate during coitus with desire and corresponding
erotic representations, a sudden idea of the ridiculousness of the situation,
signs of pain or of bad temper in the woman, the idea of impotence or of the
real object of coitus; finally, anything which acts as a contrast to the
sensations and impulses of coitus, may interrupt it, so that the voluptuous
sensations and sexual appetite disappear and erection subsides. Voluntary
efforts are often incapable of putting things right again. The charm is
broken, and only new images and new sentiments associated instinctively
with the sexual appetite can be reëstablished, by making the subconscious
state preponderate over the reasoning consciousness.

Influence of Modern Civilization. Pornography.—Human sexuality
has been unfortunately perverted and in part grossly altered by civilization,
which has even developed it artificially in a pathological sense. The point
has been reached of considering as normal, relations which are in reality
absolutely abnormal. For example, it is maintained that prostitution
produces normal coitus in man. How can this term be seriously employed in
speaking of connection with a prostitute who is absolutely indifferent to it,
and who seeks only to excite her clients artificially and to get their money,
without mentioning venereal diseases which she so often presents them
with! Forgetful of the natural aim of the sexual appetite, civilization has
transformed it into artificial enjoyment, and has invented all possible means
to increase and diversify it.
As far back as the history of civilization goes we see this state of affairs,
and in this sense we are neither better nor worse than our ancestors. But we
possess more diverse and more refined measures than barbarian peoples,
and than our direct ancestors, to satisfy our unwholesome desires. Modern
art in particular often serves to excite eroticism, and we must frankly admit
that it often descends to the level of pornography. Hypocritical indignation
against those who dare to say this often serves only to cover in the name of
art the most indecent excitants of eroticism.
Photography and all the perfected methods of reproduction of pictures,
the increasing means of travel which facilitate clandestine sexual relations,
the industrial art which ornaments our apartments, the increasing luxury and
comfort of dwellings, beds, etc., are, at the present day, so many factors in
the science of erotic voluptuousness. Prostitution itself has become adapted
to all the pathological excrescences of vice. In a word, the artificial culture
of the human sexual appetite has given rise to a veritable high school of
debauchery. The artistic and realistic representations of erotic sexual scenes,
so widespread at the present day, are much more capable of exciting the
sexual appetite than the crude and unnatural pictures of former days, when,
however, erotic objects of art generally belonged to a few rich persons or to
museums.
Influence of Repeated Sexual Excitations.—The artificial and varied
repetition of sexual excitation, by means of objects which provoke it,
increases the sexual appetite. This cannot be doubted, for the law of
exercise is a general truth in the physiology of the nervous system. This

law, which is also called the law of training, shows that every kind of
nervous activity is increased by exercise. A man becomes a glutton by
accustoming himself to eat too much, a good walker by exercising his legs.
The habit of wearing fine clothes or of washing in cold water causes these
things to become a necessity. By continually occupying ourselves with a
certain thing, we take a liking for it and often become virtuosos. By always
thinking of a disease we are led to imagine that we suffer from it. A melody
too often repeated often becomes automatic and we whistle or hum it
unconsciously.
Inversely, inactivity weakens the effect of irritations which correspond to
it. By neglecting certain activities or the provocation of certain sensations,
these diminish in intensity, and we cease more and more to be affected by
them. We become idle when we are inactive, for the cerebral resistance
accumulates, and idleness renders the renewal of the corresponding activity
more difficult. It is not surprising, therefore, to find this law in the
phenomena of the sexual appetite, which diminishes with abstinence and
increases with repeated excitation and satisfaction. However, another force,
that of the accumulation of semen in the seminal vesicles, associated with
an old natural inherited instinct, often counteracts the law of exercise of the
nervous system, as the empty stomach excites the instinct of nutrition. But,
however imperious the hunger, and however indispensable its satisfaction
for the maintenance of life, this does not impair the truth of the old saying,
"Appetite comes by eating."
The exaggerated desire for sleep experienced by idle people is an
analogous phenomenon. Although sufficient sleep is a necessity for healthy
and productive cerebral activity, an exaggerated desire for sleep may be
artificially developed.
These phenomena are of fundamental importance in the question of the
sexual appetite. Here, the well-known axiom of moderation which says,
"Abuse does not exclude use" finds its application. An English
commentator on Cicero erroneously attributes to him the following: "True
moderation consists in the absolute domination of the passions and
appetites, as well as all wrong desires, by reason. It exacts total abstinence
from all things which are not good and which are not of an absolutely
innocent character." This definition is excellent, although it is not Cicero's.
It excludes, for example, the use of a toxic substance such as alcohol, which

is not a natural food, but not the moderate satisfaction of the sexual appetite
which is normally intended for the preservation of the species, for this
satisfaction may be good or bad, normal or vicious, innocent or criminal,
according to circumstances. In this connection, the application of the right
measure, and choice of the appropriate object raise delicate and complicated
questions. So-called moral sermons lead to nothing in this domain.
After numerous personal observations made on very diverse individuals
who have consulted me with regard to sexual questions, I think I can affirm
that when a man wishes to be loyal to himself he is generally able to
distinguish between natural desire and artificial excitation of the sexual
appetite. To be pursued and tormented by sexual images and desires, even
when striving against them, and when the legitimate and normal occasion to
satisfy them is absent, is not the same thing as to pass the time in inventing
means of artificial excitement to pleasure and orgy while leading an idle
and egoistic life. I speak here of the normal man and not of certain
pathological states in which the sexual appetite takes the character of a
perpetual obsession, even against the will of the patient. By serious and
persevering work and by avoiding all means of excitation, the sexual
appetite can usually be kept within the bounds of moderation.
We have mentioned above pornographic art as one of the means which
artificially excite the sexual appetite. Along with the interested exploitation
of the habit of taking alcoholic drinks, exploitation of the sexual appetite
constitutes one of the largest fields of what may be called social
brigandage. Besides pornographic pictures, the principal means employed
to artificially excite the sexual weaknesses of man are the following:
Pornographic novels in which sexual desire is excited by all the artifice
of the novelist, and in which the illustrations often rival those we have just
spoken of to seduce the purchaser.
Alcohol which, by paralyzing the judgment and will as well as moral
inhibitory sentiments, excites the sexual appetite and renders it grossly
impulsive. Its first fumes make man enterprising, and he falls an easy prey
to proxenetism and prostitution, although it soon weakens the sexual power.
But it is the modern arsenal of prostitution which plays the principal role.
The proxenets (pimps) exploit both the sexual appetites of men and the
weakness and venality of women. Their chief source of gain consisting in

the artificial excitation of the male sexual appetite by all possible means,
their art consists in dressing their merchandise, the prostitutes, with
attractive refinement, especially when dealing with rich clients who pay
well. It is on this soil that are cultivated the most disgusting artifices,
intended to excite even the most pathological appetites.
Other causes are added to lucre, or are the consequences of it. A boy led
to masturbation by pornographic pictures, or by the seduction of a corrupted
individual, becomes in his turn the seducer of his comrades. Certain
libidinous and unscrupulous women have often persuaded adolescents and
schoolboys to sleep with them, thus awakening precocious and unhealthy
sexual appetites.
Such habits which excite the sexual appetite and cause it to degenerate
artificially, develop in their turn a mode of sexual boasting in men, the
effects of which are deplorable. To appear manly, the boy thinks he ought to
have a cigar in his mouth, even if it makes him sick. In the same way the
spirit of imitation leads youth to prostitution. The fear of not doing as the
others and especially the terror of ridicule constitute a powerful lever which
is abused and exploited. Fearing mockery, a youth is the more easily
seduced by bad example the less he is put on guard by parents or true
friends. Instead of explaining to him in time, seriously and affectionately,
the nature of sexual connection, its effects and dangers, he is abandoned to
the chance of the worst seductions.
In this way the sexual appetite is not only artificially increased and often
directed into unnatural channels, but also leads to the poisoning and ruin of
youth by venereal diseases, to say nothing of alcoholism.
We have referred especially to educated youth, but the youth of the lower
classes are perhaps in a still worse condition, owing to the promiscuity of
their life in miserable dwellings. They often witness coitus between their
parents, or are themselves trained in evil ways for purposes of exploitation.
It is astonishing that the results of such abominable deviation of the
sexual appetite are not worse. No doubt excesses disturb the ties of
marriage and of the family, and often provoke impotence and other
disorders of the sexual functions. It must, however, be admitted that their
satellites, the venereal diseases, and their most common companion,
alcoholism, are in reality the greatest destroyers of health, and make much

more considerable ravages in society than the artificial increase and
abnormal deviations of the sexual appetite itself. However, the latter by
themselves very often poison the mind and social morality, as we shall have
occasion to see.
Immoderate sexual desire, provoked in men by the artificial excitations
of prostitution, etc., is a bad acquisition. It renders difficult the
accustomance to marriage, fidelity and ideal and life-long love for the same
woman. It is true, that many old roués and habitués of brothels later on
become faithful husbands and fathers, especially when they have had the
luck to escape venereal disease.
But whoever looks behind the scenes may soon convince himself that the
happiness of most unions of this kind is very relative. The degradation of
the sexual sentiment of a man who has long been accustomed to live with
prostitutes is never entirely effaced, and generally leaves indelible traces in
the human brain.
I readily admit that a man with good hereditary dispositions, who has
only yielded for a short time to seductive influences, may be reformed by a
true and profound love. But even in him, excesses leave traces which later
on may easily lead him astray when he becomes tired of the monotony of
conjugal relations with the same woman. On the other hand, we must also
recognize that sexual relations in themselves, even in marriage, create a
habit which often urges a married man to extra-nuptial coitus, even when he
had remained continent before marriage.
The tricks which are played on a man by his sexual appetite, especially
by his polygamous instincts, must not, however, be confounded with the
systematic, artificial and abnormal training of the same appetite. The
physical and psychic attractions of a woman are capable of completely
diverting the sexual desires of a man from their primary object, and of
directing them on the siren who captivates his senses. The elements of the
sexual appetite here form an inextricable mixture with those of love, and
constitute the inexhaustible theme of novels and most true and sensational
love stories.
Hereditary pathological dispositions play a considerable role in many
cases of this kind. Also, marriages of sudden and passionate love (we are
not dealing here with love marriages concluded after sufficient reflection

and deep mutual acquaintanceship) are not more stable than the so-called
"mariages de convenance," for passionate natures, usually more or less
pathological, are apt to fall from one extreme to the other. The power
exercised by sexual passion in such cases is terrible. It produces conditions
that may lead to suicide or assassination. In men whose power of reason is
neither strong nor independent, opinions and conceptions are frequently
changed; love may change to hatred and hatred to love, the sentiment of
justice may lead to injustice, the loyal man may become a liar, etc. In fact
the sexual appetite is let loose like a hurricane in the brain and becomes the
despot of the whole mind. The sexual passion has often been compared to
drunkenness or to mental disease. Even in its mildest forms it often renders
the husband incapable of sexual connection with his wife.
For example, a man may cherish, respect and even adore his wife, and
yet her presence and touch may not appeal to his senses, nor excite his
appetite or erection; while some low-minded woman will produce in him an
irresistible sensual attraction, even when he experiences neither esteem nor
love for her. In such cases sexual appetite is in more or less radical
opposition to love. Such extreme phenomena are not rare, but hardly
common. Although excited to coitus with the woman in question, the
husband would not in any case have her for wife, nor even have children by
her, for after the slightest reflection he despises and fears her. Here, the
sexual appetite represents the old atavistic animal instinct, attracted by
libidinous looks, exuberant charms, in a word by the sensual aspect of
woman.
On the contrary, in a higher domain of the human mind, the sentiments of
sympathy of true love, deeply associated with fidelity, and with intellectual
and moral intimacy, unite against the elementary power of the animal
instinct. Here we see dwelling in the same breast (or, to speak more
correctly, in the same central nervous system) two souls, which struggle
with each other.
We are not dealing here with cases in which a new passion arrives to turn
the man from his old affection. No doubt the extreme cases of which we
have spoken are not usual, but we see in most men more or less
considerable mixtures of analogous sentiments in all possible degrees,
especially when the woman loved loses her physical attractions from age or
other causes.

The Procreative Instinct.—The sexual appetite of man does not consist
exclusively in the desire for coitus. In many cases it is combined, more or
less strongly and more or less consciously, with the desire to procreate
children. Unfortunately, this desire is far from being always associated with
higher sentiments and with love of children or the paternal instinct. In fact,
conscious reasoning plays a smaller part than the animal instinct of self-
expansion. We shall see later on that the procreative instinct often plays an
important role in our present civilization.
The Sexual Appetite in Woman.—In the sexual act the role of the
woman differs from that of the man not only by being passive, but also by
the absence of seminal ejaculations. In spite of this the analogies are
considerable. The erection of the clitoris and its voluptuous sensations, the
secretion from the glands of Bartholin which resembles ejaculation in the
male, the venereal orgasm itself which often exceeds in intensity that of
man, are phenomena which establish harmony in sexual connection.
Although the organic phenomenon of the accumulation of semen in the
seminal vesicles is absent in woman, there is produced in the nerve centers,
after prolonged abstinence, an accumulation of sexual desire corresponding
to that of man. A married woman confessed to me, when I reproached her
for being unfaithful to her husband, that she desired coitus at least once a
fortnight, and that when her husband was not there, she took the first comer.
No doubt the sentiments of this woman were hardly feminine, but her
sexual appetite was relatively normal.
Frequency of the Sexual Appetite in Woman.—As regards pure sexual
appetite, extremes are much more common and more considerable in
woman than in man. In her this appetite is developed much less often
spontaneously than in him, and where it is so, it is generally later.
Voluptuous sensations are usually only awakened by coitus.
In a considerable number of women the sexual appetite is completely
absent. For these, coitus is a disagreeable, often disgusting, or at any rate an
indifferent act. What is more singular, at least for masculine
comprehension, and what gives rise to the most frequent "quid pro quos," is
the fact that such women, absolutely cold as regards sexual sensations, are
often great coquettes, over-exciting the sexual appetites of man, and have
often a great desire for love and caresses. This is more easy to understand if

we reflect that the unsatiated desires of the normal woman are less inclined
toward coitus than toward the assemblage of consequences of this act,
which are so important for her whole life. When the sight of a certain man
awakes in a young girl sympathetic desires and transports, she aspires to
procreate children with this man only, to give herself to him as a slave, to
receive his caresses, to be loved by him only, that he may become both the
support and master of her whole life. It is a question of general sentiments
of indefinite nature, of a powerful desire to become a mother and enjoy
domestic comfort, to realize a poetic and chivalrous ideal in man, to gratify
a general sensual need distributed over the whole body and in no way
concentrated in the sexual organs or in the desire for coitus.
Nature of the Sexual Appetite in Woman.—The zone of sexual
excitation is less specially limited to the sexual organs in woman than in
man. The nipples constitute in her an entire zone and their friction excites
voluptuousness. If we consider the importance in the life of woman, of
pregnancy, suckling, and all the maternal functions, we can understand why
the mixture of her sentiments and sensations is so different from that of
man. Her smaller stature and strength, together with her passive role in
coitus, explain why she aspires to a strong male support. This is simply a
question of natural phylogenetic adaptation. This is why a young girl sighs
for a courageous, strong and enterprising man, who is superior to her,
whom she is obliged to respect, and in whose arms she feels secure.
Strength and skill in man are the ideal of the young savage and uncultured
girl, his intellectual and moral superiority that of the young cultivated girl.
As a rule women are much more the slaves of their instincts and habits
than men. In primitive peoples, hardiness and boldness in men were
qualities which made for success. This explains why, even at the present
day, the boldest and most audacious Don Juans excite most strongly the
sexual desires of women, and succeed in turning the heads of most young
girls, in spite of their worst faults in other respects. Nothing is more
repugnant to the feminine instinct than timidity and awkwardness in man.
In our time women become more and more enthusiastic over the intellectual
superiority of man, which excites their desire. Without being indifferent to
it, simple bodily beauty in man excites the appetite of women to a less
extent. It is astonishing to see to what point women often become enamored
of old, ugly or deformed men. We shall see later on that the normal woman

is much more particular than man in giving her love. While the normal man
is generally attracted to coitus by nearly every more-or-less young and
healthy woman, this is by no means the case in the normal woman with
regard to man. She is also much more constant than man from the sexual
point of view. It is rarely possible for her to experience sexual desire for
several men at once; her senses are nearly always attracted to one lover
only.
The instinct of procreation is much stronger in woman than in man, and
is combined with the desire to give herself passively, to play the part of one
who devotes herself, who is conquered, mastered and subjugated. These
negative aspirations form part of the normal sexual appetite of woman.
A peculiarity of the sexual sentiments of woman is an ill-defined
pathological phenomenon with normal sensations, a phenomenon which in
man, on the contrary, forms a very marked contrast with the latter; I refer to
the homosexual appetite, in which the object is an individual of the same
sex. Normally, the adult man produces on another man an absolutely
repulsive effect from the sexual point of view; it is only pathological
subjects, or those excited by sexual privation who are affected with sensual
desires for other men. But in woman a certain sensual desire for caresses,
connected more or less with unconscious and ill-defined sexual sensations,
is not limited to the male sex but extends to other women, to children, and
even to animals, apart from pathologically inverted sexual appetites. Young
normal girls often like to sleep together in the same bed, to caress and kiss
each other, which is not the case with normal young men. In the male sex
such sensual caresses are nearly always accompanied and provoked by
sexual appetite, which is not the case in women. As we have already seen,
man may separate true love from the sexual appetite to such an extent that
two minds, each feeling in a different way, may inhabit the same brain. A
man may be a loving and devoted husband and at the same time satisfy his
animal appetites with prostitutes. In woman, such sexual dualism is much
more rare and always unnatural, the normal woman being much less
capable than man of separating love from sexual appetite.
These facts explain the singular caprices of the sexual appetite and
orgasm in the normal woman, in whom these phenomena are not easily
produced without love.

The same woman who loves one man and not another is susceptible to
sexual appetite and voluptuous sensations when she cohabits with the first,
while she is often absolutely cold and insensible to the most passionate
embraces of the second. This fact explains the possibility of prostitution as
it exists among women. The worst prostitutes, who have connection with
innumerable paying clients without feeling the least pleasure, generally
have a "protector" with whom they are enamored and to whom they devote
all their love and sincere orgasms, all the time allowing themselves to be
plundered and exploited by him.
What the normal woman requires from man is love, tenderness, a firm
support for life, a certain chivalrous nature, and children. She can renounce
the voluptuous sensations of coitus infinitely more easily than the
exigencies I have just indicated, which are for her the principal things.
Nothing makes a woman more indignant than the indifference of her
husband, when, for instance, he treats her simply as a housekeeper. Some
have maintained that the average woman is more sensual than man, others
that she is less so. Both these statements are false: she is sensual in another
manner.
All the peculiarities of the sexual appetite in woman are thus the
combined product of: (1) the profound influence of the sexual functions on
her whole existence; (2) her passive sexual role; (3) her special mental
faculties. By these, and more especially by her passive sexual role, are
explained her instinctive coquettishness, her love of fiery and personal
adornment, in a word her desire to please men by her external appearance,
by her looks, movements and grace. These phenomena betray the instinctive
sexual desires of the young girl, which as we have just seen, do not
normally correspond to a direct desire for coitus.
While a virgin experiences in her youth the sensations we have just
described, things change after marriage, and as a general rule after repeated
sexual connections. If these do not provoke voluptuous sensations in some
women, they do in the majority, and this is no doubt the normal state of
affairs. Habit, then, produces an increasing desire for coitus and its
sensations, and it is not rare, in the course of a long life in common, for the
roles to be reversed and the woman become more libidinous than the man.
This partly explains why so many widows are anxious to remarry. They

easily attain their object, as men quickly succumb to the sexual desire of
woman when it is expressed in an unequivocal manner.
In widows, two strong sentiments struggle against each other, with
variable results in different individuals; on the one hand, feminine
constancy in love, and the memory of the deceased; on the other hand, the
acquired habit of sexual connection and its voluptuous sensations, which
leaves a void and appeals for compensation. The sexual appetite being
equal, the first sentiment prevails generally in religious women or those of a
deeply moral or sentimental character, while the second prevails in women
of more material or less-refined nature, or in those simply guided by their
reason. In these internal struggles, the more delicate sentiments and the
stronger will of the woman result from the fact that when she wishes she
can overcome her appetites much better than man. But, in spite of this, the
power of the sexual appetite plays an important part in the inward struggle
we have just mentioned. When this appetite is absent there is no struggle,
and the widow's conduct is dictated either by her own convenience, or by
the instinct which naturally leads a woman to yield to the amorous advances
of a man.
At the critical age, that is the time when menstruation ceases, neither the
sexual appetite nor voluptuous sensations disappear, although desire
diminishes normally as age advances. In this respect it is curious to note
that old women possess no sexual attraction for men, while they often feel
libidinous desires almost as strongly as young women. This is a kind of
natural anomaly.
As we have already stated, individual differences in the sexual appetite
are much greater in woman than in man. Some women are extremely
excitable, and from their first youth experience violent sexual desire,
causing them to masturbate or to throw themselves onto men. Such women
are usually polyandrous by nature, although the sexual appetite in woman is
normally much more monogamous than that of man. Such excesses in
woman take on a more pathological character than in man, and go under the
name of nymphomania. The insatiability of these females, who may be met
with in all classes of society, may become fabulous. Night and day, with
short interruptions for sleeping and eating, they are, in extreme cases,
anxious for coitus. They become less exhausted than men, because their
orgasm is not accompanied by loss of semen.

Although in the normal state woman is naturally full of delicacy and
sentiments of modesty, nothing is easier than to make these disappear
completely by training her systematically to sexual immodesty or to
prostitution. Here we observe the effects of the routine and suggestible
character of feminine psychology, of the tendency of woman to become the
slave of habit and custom, as well as of her perseverance when her
determined will pursues a definite end. Prostitution gives us sad proofs of
this fact.
The psychology of prostitutes is very peculiar. Attempts to restore them
to a moral life nearly always fail hopelessly; it is rare to see them
permanently successful. Most of these women have a heredity of bad
quality and are of weak character, idle and libidinous. They find it much
easier to gain their living by prostitution, and forget their work, if they have
ever learned any. The poverty, drunkenness and shame which follow
seduction and illegitimate birth have no doubt driven more than one
prostitute to her sad trade, but the naturally evil dispositions of these
women constitute without any doubt the principal cause. Alcohol, venereal
diseases and bad habits, combined with continually repeated sexual
degradation, afterwards determine progressive decadence.
Some of these women, however, of better quality, only surrender
themselves to prostitution by compulsion; they suffer from this existence
and strive to escape from it. The grisettes and lorettes[2] form a group
intermediate between prostitution and natural love; they are women who
hire themselves for a time to one man in particular, and are maintained and
paid by him in return for satisfying his sexual appetites. Here again, sexual
desire only exceptionally plays the chief role. The conduct of these women
results from their loose character and pecuniary interest.
If, therefore, we admit on the one hand that the sexual excesses of the
female sex are especially grafted on hereditary disposition of character, or
are primarily due to strong appetites, we are obliged on the other hand to
recognize that the great role played by sexuality in the brain of woman
renders it more difficult for her than for man to return to better ways when
she has once prostituted herself, or when she has surrendered in any way to
sexual licentiousness, even when her original quality was not bad.

In man the sexual appetite is much more easily separated than in woman
from other instincts, sentiments and intellectual life in general, and
possesses in him, however powerful it may be, a much more transient
character, which prevents it dominating the whole mental life.
I have dwelt so much on this point because it is essential to know the
differences which exist between man and woman in this respect, and to take
them into account if we wish to give a just and healthy judgment on the
sexual question from the social point of view. The more it is our duty to
give the same rights to both sexes, the more absurd it is to disregard the
profoundness of their differences and to imagine that these can ever be
effaced.
Flirtation.—If we look in an English dictionary for the meaning of the
word flirt, we find it equivalent to coquetry. But this English term has
become fixed and modernized in another sense which has become
international, to express the old idea of a series of well-known phenomena
which must be clearly distinguished from coquetry.
Coquetry, an especially feminine attribute, is not in itself dependent on
the sexual appetite; it is an indirect irradiation, purely psychical, and we
shall speak of it later on. Flirtation, as we now understand the term, is
directly connected with the sexual appetite, and constitutes its external
impression in all the wealth of its forms, as much in man as in woman. In a
word, flirtation is a polymorphous language which clearly expresses the
sexual desires of an individual to the one who awakens these desires, actual
coitus alone excepted.
Flirtation may be practiced in a more or less unconscious manner. It is by
itself neither a psychic attribute nor sexual appetite, for a human being may
so hide and overcome his appetites that no one remarks them; and on the
contrary, he may simulate sexual appetite without feeling it, or at any rate
behave in such a way as to excite it in his partner. Flirtation thus consists in
an activity calculated to disclose the eroticism of the subject as well as to
excite that of others. It is needless to say that the nature of coquetry
disposes to flirtation.
Flirtation comprises all the sport of love, kisses, caresses and all kinds of
sexual excitation even to orgasm, without reaching the consummation of
coitus. All degrees may be noted; and, according to temperament, flirtation

may be limited to slight excitation of the sexual appetite or may extend to
violent and rapidly increasing emissions. The considerable individual
differences which exist in sexual sensibility result in the same perception or
the same act having little effect on one individual, while it excites another
to a high degree. In the latter case, especially in man, flirtation may even
lead to venereal orgasm without coitus, and even without any manipulations
which resemble it. A woman of exuberant form, assuming sensual and
voluptuous attitudes, may thus provoke an ejaculation by the slight and
repeated friction of her dress against the penis of an excitable dancer.
The same thing often occurs when a passionate couple caress and
embrace each other without the genital organs being touched or even
exposed. In this respect the woman is better protected than the man, but
when she is very excitable an orgasm may be produced in her during the
caresses of a passionate flirtation by the pressure or friction of her legs
against each other (a variety of masturbation in woman).
As a rule, however, things do not go so far as this in flirtation. The sight
and touch are used alternately. The eyes play an important part, for they
may express much and consequently act powerfully. A pressure of the
hands, an apparently chance movement, touching the dress and the skin,
etc., are the usual means of flirtation. In situations where people are close
together or pressed against each other, as in railway carriages, or at table,
the legs play a well-known part, by pressure of the knees and feet.
This dumb conversation of the sexual appetite begins at first in a prudent
and apparently innocent manner, so that the acting party does not risk being
taxed with impropriety; but as soon as he who began the flirtation perceives
that his slight invitations are welcome he grows bolder, a tacit mutual
agreement is established, and the game continues without a single word
betraying the reciprocal sensations. Many who practice flirtation, both men
and women, avoid betraying themselves by words, and they take pleasure in
this mutual excitation of their genital sensibility, however incomplete it may
be.
Flirtation may assume very different forms according to education and
temperament. The action of alcohol on the brain develops the coarsest
forms of flirtation. Every one knows the clumsy embraces of semi-
intoxicated persons which can often be seen at night or on Sundays and

holidays, in the street or in railway carriages, etc. I designate these by the
term "alcoholic flirtation." Even in the best and most refined society
flirtation loses its delicacy even under the effect of the slightest degree of
alcoholic intoxication.
Flirtation assumes a more delicate and more complicated character,
rendering it gracious and full of charm, in persons of higher education,
especially when they are highly intellectual or artistic.
We must also mention the intellectual variety of flirtation which is not
expressed by sight or touch, but only by language. Delicate allusions to
sexual matters and somewhat lascivious conversation excite eroticism as
much as looks and touch. According to the education of the persons
concerned, this talk may be coarse and vulgar, or on the contrary refined
and full of wit, managed with more or less skill, or clumsily. Here the
natural finesse of woman plays a considerable part. Men wanting in tact are
clumsy and offensive in their attempts at flirtation, and thus extinguish
instead of exciting the woman's eroticism. The manner in which alcoholic
flirtation manifests itself in cynical, dull, obtrusive and stupid conversation,
corresponds to its other forms of expression. Woman desires flirtation; but
does not wish it to assume an unbecoming form.
One can say anything to a woman; all depends on the way in which it is
said. I have seen lady doctors with whom one could discuss the most
ticklish subjects, profoundly shocked by the misplaced pleasantries of a
tactless professor. In themselves these pleasantries were quite innocent for
medical ears, as my lady colleagues were finally obliged to admit, when I
pointed out to them the specially feminine character of their psychic
reaction, proving to them that they listened without a frown to things ten
times worse, when the lecturer gave them a moral tone.
Men also generally feel disgusted with the dull, cynical or clumsy form
of female eroticism, although they are not usually over-refined themselves
in this respect.
This last phenomenon leads us to distinguish between flirtation in man
and in woman. For woman it constitutes the only permissible way of
expressing erotic sentiments, and even then much restraint is imposed on
her. Circumstances develop in her the art of flirtation and give it remarkable
finesse. Unless she exposes herself to great danger, woman can only leave

her sensuality to be guessed. Every audacious and tactless provocation fails
in its object; it drives away the men and destroys a young girl's reputation.
Even when possessed by the most violent erotic desire woman cannot
ostensibly depart from her passive role without compromising herself.
Nevertheless, she succeeds on the whole very easily in exciting the passions
of man, by the aid of a few artifices. No doubt she does not entirely
dominate him by this means. She must be very delicate and adroit, at any
rate at first, in the provocative art of flirtation. These frivolities are greatly
facilitated by her whole nature and by the character of her habitual
eroticism. Man, on the other hand, may be more audacious in the expression
of his passion. This brings us back to what has been said concerning the
sexual differences.
A whole volume could be written on the forms of flirtation, which is the
indispensable expression of all sexual desire. Among engaged couples it
assumes a legal character and even a conventional form. The way in which
barmaids flirt with their customers is also somewhat conventional, although
in quite a different way. In society, flirtation is generally seasoned with
more Attic salt, whether it is not allowed to exceed certain limits, or
whether it leads to free liaisons after the manner of the Greek hetaira. In the
country, among peasant girls and boys it takes a grosser form, if not more
sensual, than among the cultivated classes; in the latter, language takes the
principal part. Among rich idlers in watering places, large hotels, and even
in some sanatoriums, flirtation takes a dominant place and constitutes, in all
its degrees, the chief occupation of a great number of the visitors. It grows
like a weed wherever man has a monotonous occupation or suffers from the
ennui of idleness.
In certain individuals, flirtation takes the place of coitus from the sensual,
and love from the sentimental point of view. There are modern crazy
natures who spend their existence in all kinds of artificial excitation of the
senses, creatures of both sexes incapable of a useful action.
As a momentary and transient expression of all the necessities of love,
flirtation has a right to existence; but, when cultivated on its own account
and always remaining as flirtation, it becomes a symptom of degeneration
or sexual depravity, among idle, crazy and vicious persons of all kinds.

FOOTNOTES:

[2] The terms grisette and lorette are now obsolete, and the names given to this
class of women constantly varies. I shall, nevertheless, employ them in the
course of this work because they clearly define certain special varieties of
remunerated concubinage.

CHAPTER VToC

LOVE AND OTHER IRRADIATIONS OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE
IN THE HUMAN MIND

Generalities. Jealousy.—We have seen that the mechanism of the
appetites consists in instincts inherited from our animal ancestors by
mnemic engraphia and selection, and that it is situated in the primordial or
lower cerebral centers (basal ganglia, spinal cord, etc.). In some of the
lower animals we already find other instinctive nervous reactions which
constitute the indirect effects or derivatives of the sexual appetite. The most
evident of these is jealousy, or the feeling of grief and anger produced in an
individual when the object of his sexual appetite is disputed by another
individual of the same sex. Jealousy may also arise from other instincts,
such as those of nutrition, ambition, etc.; but it forms one of the most
typical complements of the sexual appetite, and leads, as we know, to
furious combats, especially between males, sometimes also between
females.

Owing to its profoundly hereditary origin, this passion has a very
instinctive character, and might quite as well have been mentioned in the
preceding chapter. I deal with it here because it is naturally associated with
other irradiations of the sexual appetite, and because it has a peculiarly
mental character.
Relation Between Love and Sexual Appetite. Sympathy.—Having
entered the higher brain, or organ of mind, and become modified,
complicated, and combined with the different branches of psychic activity,
the sexual appetite takes the name of love, properly so-called. In order to
better understand the relations of love to the sexual appetite we must refer
to Chapter II. Let us begin with a short exposition of the phylogeny of the
sentiments of sympathy, or the altruistic and social sentiments.
In the lower animals with no separate sexes egoism reigns absolutely.
Each individual eats as much as it wants, then divides, buds or conjugates,
thus fulfilling the sole object of its existence. The same principle holds in
the lower stages of reproduction by separate sexes. Spiders give us a good
example. In these, copulation is a dangerous act for the male, for if he is not
extremely careful he is devoured by the female, sometimes even before
having attained his object, often soon afterward, in order that nothing may
be lost. However, the female shows a certain consideration for her eggs, and
sometimes even for the young after they are hatched.
In higher stages of the animal kingdom sentiments of sympathy may be
observed, derived from the sexual union of individuals. These are
sentiments of attachment of the male for the female, and especially of the
female (sometimes the male also) for their progeny.
Such sentiments become developed and may be transformed into intense
love between the sexes, of long duration. Birds, for instance, often remain
faithful for many years, and even for life. From these simple facts is
evolved the intimate relationship which exists between sexual love and
other sentiments of sympathy, that is to say affection, or love in the more
vague and more extended sense of the term.
To every sentiment of sympathy between two individuals (sympathy
forms part of the sentiments of pleasure) there is a corresponding contrary
correlative sentiment of grief, when the object of sympathy dies, becomes
sick, takes flight or is carried off. This sentiment often takes the form of

simple sadness, but it may attain a degree of incurable melancholy. Among
certain monkeys and parrots, we often see the death of one of the conjoints
lead to the refusal of all food and finally to death of the survivor, after
increasing sadness and depression. Removal of the young produces a
profound sadness in the female ape. But when an animal discovers the
cause of the grief, when, for instance, a stranger attempts to take away his
mate or his young, a mixed reaction of sentiment is produced, that is to say
anger or even fury against the perpetrator of the deed.
Jealousy is only a special form of this anger. The sentiment of anger and
its violent and hostile expression constitute the natural reaction against one
who disturbs a sentiment of pleasure, a reaction which tends to reëstablish
the latter. The power of the sentiment of anger increases with the offensive
and defensive faculties, while, in weak and peaceful beings, terror and
sadness to a great extent take their place. On the other hand, the sight of
defenseless prey suffices to provoke, in the rapacious who are strong and
well armed, by simple reflex association, a cruel sentiment of voluptuous
anger, which is also observed in man.
Sentiment of Duty.—Another derivative of the sentiment of sympathy is
that of duty, that is the moral sense. All sentiment of love or sympathy urges
the one who loves to certain acts destined to increase the welfare of the
object loved. This is why the mother nourishes her young and plucks
feathers and hairs to make them a soft bed; and why the father brings food
to his wife and young, and defends them against their enemies. All these
acts, which are not to the advantage of the individual but to the object or
objects of his sympathy, exact more or less laborious efforts, courage in the
face of danger, etc. They thus provoke an internal struggle between the
sentiment of sympathy and egoism, or the unpleasantness of undertaking
things which are troublesome and disagreeable for the individual himself.
From this struggle between two opposed series of sentiments is derived a
third group of complex or mixed sentiments, that of duty, or moral
conscience. When the sentiment of sympathy prevails, when the animal
does his duty toward his young and his conjoint, he feels a sentiment of
pleasure, of duty accomplished. If, on the contrary, he has been negligent,
the egoistic instincts having for the moment prevailed, the remorse of
conscience results, that is the painful uneasiness which follows all
disobedience to the instinctive sentiments of sympathy. This uneasiness

accumulates in the brain in the form of self-discontent, and may lead to an
accentuated sentiment of repentance.
These phenomena exist both in the male and in the female, and if it was
not so, the accomplishment of duty would be impossible; the cat would run
away instead of defending her young; would eat her prey instead of giving
it to them, etc. We thus see the elements of human social sentiment already
very marked in many animals. Remorse and repentance can only be formed
on the basis of preëxisting sentiments of sympathy.
Sentiment of Kinship.—A higher degree of the sentiments of sympathy
is developed when these do not remain limited to a temporary union, but
when the union of the sexes is transformed into durable or even life-long
marriage, as we see in monkeys and in most birds. In another manner the
sentiments of sympathy are developed by extension of the family
community to a greater number of individuals, who are grouped together
for the common defense, as we see in swallows, crows, and to a higher
degree, in the large organized communities of social animals, as the
beavers, bees, ants, etc. In the latter, the sentiment of sympathy and duty
nearly always affects all the individuals of the community, while anger and
jealousy are extended toward every being which does not form part of it.
We must be blinded by prejudice not to comprehend that these same
general facts, revealed by the study of biology and animal psychology, are
repeated in the human mind. Some animals are even superior to the
majority of men in the intensity of their sentiments of sympathy and duty,
as well as in love and conjugal fidelity—monkeys and parrots, for example.
In the social insects, such as the ants and bees, with their communities so
solidly organized and so finely coördinated on the basis of instinct, the
sentiment of social duty has almost entirely replaced the individual
sentiments of sympathy. An ant or a bee only loves, so to speak, the whole
assemblage of his companions. It does not sacrifice itself for any one of
them in particular, but only for the community. In these animals the
individual is only regarded as a number in the community whose motto is—
one for all, but never all for one.
In bees especially, the degree of sympathy extended to a member or a
class of the hive is exactly proportional to the utility of this member to the
community. The working bees will kill themselves or die of hunger in order

to nourish their queen, while in the autumn they ruthlessly massacre all the
males or drones which have become useless.
Sentiments of Patriotism and Humanity.—The human brain, so
powerful and so complicated, contains a little of all these things, with
enormous individual variations. In man, the sentiments of sympathy and
duty relate especially to the family, that is to say, they are to a great extent
limited to individuals interested in a sexual community, viz., the conjoints
and children, as occurs generally in mammals. It follows that sentiments of
sympathy connected with larger communities such as remote relatives, the
clan, the community, the country, those who speak the same language, etc.,
are relatively much weaker, and result from education and custom rather
than from instinct. The weakest sentiment is certainly that of humanity,
which regards each man as a brother and companion, and from which is
evolved the general sentiment of solidarity or social duty. How can it be
otherwise in a species which has lived for thousands or perhaps millions of
years as small hostile tribes, separated from each other? Primitive men were
so destitute of all humanitarian sentiment that they not only killed one
another and practiced mutual slavery, but also martyred, tortured and even
devoured one another.
In spite of all this, and as the result of custom and life in common, the
individual sentiments of sympathy in man are easily extended to members
of other races, especially as regards different sexes, so much so that
enemies conquered and taken prisoners often became later on, owing to life
in common, the friends or mates of their conquerors.
Antipathy.—Inversely, individual antipathies and enmity often occur not
only between members of the same tribe but even between those of the
same family. The latter may lead to parricide, fratricide, infanticide, or
assassination of a conjoint.
Phylogeny of Love.—The social life of ants offers us some instructive
analogies. In spite of the intense hostility of different colonies of ants
among themselves, there may be obtained by habitude, often after many
desperate combats, alliances between colonies which were hitherto
enemies, even between colonies of different species. These alliances
henceforth become permanent. This is very curious to observe at the time
when the alliance begins to be formed. We then see certain individual

hatreds persist, to a varying extent, for several days. Certain individuals of
the weaker party are maltreated by other individuals of the conquering
party. They cut off their limbs and antennæ and often martyrize them to
death with a rabidness that sadly resembles human sentiments! Hatred and
dispute between individuals of the same colony of ants are, on the other
hand, extremely rare. I can guarantee the correctness of all these
observations, having often repeated them myself and having recorded them
in my works on the habits of ants. Moreover, they have since been
confirmed by other writers.
After what we have just said, and especially if we take into consideration
the numerous observations which have been made in biology, we can hardly
doubt that the sentiment of sexual attraction, or the sexual appetite, has
been the primary source of nearly all, if not all, the sentiments of sympathy
and duty which have been developed in animals and especially in man.
Many of these sentiments are no doubt little by little completely
differentiated and rendered entirely independent of sexual sentiment,
forming a series of corresponding conceptions adapted to divers social
objects in the form of sentiments of amity. The latter in their turn have often
become the generators of social formations and of a more generalized
altruism. Many others, however, have remained more or less consciously
associated with the sexual appetite, as is certainly the case in man.
This short sketch which we have given of the phylogenetic history of
love and its derivatives is sufficient to show the immense influence which
sexual life has exercised on the whole development of the human mind.
On the other hand, we must avoid exaggerating the actual importance of
this influence. Young children, who possess neither sexual appetite nor
corresponding sensations, already give evidence not only of intense
sentiments of sympathy and antipathy, anger and jealousy, but also of
commiseration, when they see those whom they love suffer; they may even
show that they already possess the sentiment of duty or disinterested
devotion. All these phylogenetic derivatives of the sentiments of sexual
attraction are thus developed in the individual long before the sexual
instinct itself, from which they have become absolutely independent. This
does not prevent them being powerfully influenced by the sexual instinct
when this awakes, or from being associated with its direct derivatives when
the sexual appetite, properly so-called, is absent. Thus we see absolutely

cold women become loving and devoted wives and mothers, and possessing
a highly developed sense of kinship. Maternal love is a sentiment of
sympathy derived from the sexual sentiment, adapted directly to children,
who are the products of sexual life.
Constellations.—From all this results the immense complication of the
peculiarities of the human mind which are connected with love. Individual
variations of the disposition to sexual appetite are combined with individual
dispositions to the higher qualities of mind—general sentiments,
intelligence and will—to form the most diverse individual combinations,
which we may call constellations. Moreover, inherited individual
dispositions are combined in man with a great number of experiences and
remembrances, acquired in all domains in the course of his life,
accumulating them in his brain by what is called education or adaptation to
environment. From the immense complexity of energies resulting from
hereditary dispositions combined with acquired factors, the resolutions and
acts of man are derived, without his being able to account for the infinite
multiplicity of causes which determine them.
It is thus that a man may be a model of conduct or morality, simply from
the fact that his sexual appetite is almost nil. Another, on the contrary,
suffers from an exaggerated sexual appetite, but is devoted, conscientious,
and even scrupulous; this results in violent internal struggles, from which
he does not always emerge victorious. A third is moderate in his appetites; if
his sentiment of duty is strong and he possesses a strong will, he will resist
his desires, while if his will is weak or his moral sense defective, he will
succumb to the first temptation.
Love and sexual appetite may be intimately connected or completely
separated in the same individual. In the same way that a cold woman may
be a good mother, a very sensual woman may be a bad one, but the inverse
may also be met with.
Love.—I speak here of the true love of a higher nature of one sex for the
other, or sexual love, which is not simple friendship, but is combined with
sexual appetite. To write on love is almost to pour water into the ocean, for
literature is three parts composed of dissertations on love. There can be no
doubt that the normal man feels a great desire for love. The irradiations of
love in the mind constitute one of the fundamental conditions of human

happiness and one of the principal objects of life. Unfortunately, the
question is too often treated with exaggerated sentiment, or on the other
hand, with sensual cynicism; it is examined from one side only, or else it is
misunderstood.
First of all, love appears to be usually kindled by the sexual appetite. This
is the celebrated story of Cupid's arrow. One falls in love with a face, a
look, a smile, a white breast, a sweet and melodious voice, etc. However,
the relations between love and sexual appetite are extremely delicate and
complex. In man, the second may exist without the first and love may often
persist without appetite, while in woman the two things are difficult to
separate, and in any case, in her, the original appetite without love is much
more rare. The two things are thus not identical; even the most materialistic
and libidinous egoist will agree to this, if he is not too narrow-minded.
It may also happen that love precedes appetite, and this often leads to the
most happy unions. Two characters may have extreme mutual sympathy,
and this purely intellectual and sentimental sympathy may at first develop
without a shadow of sensuality. This is nearly always the case when it exists
from infancy. In modern society an enormous number of sexual unions, or
marriages, are consummated without a trace of love, and are based on pure
speculation, conventionality or fortune. Here it is tacitly assumed that the
normal sexual appetite combined with custom will cement the marriage and
render it durable. As the normal man has not, as a rule, extreme sentiments,
such prevision is usually realized on the whole, the conjoints becoming
gradually adapted to one another, more or less successfully according to the
discoveries which are made after marriage.
Even when they are relatively true, love stories generally deal with
exceptional cases, often even pathological; for the average marriage does
not appear to the novelist sufficiently piquant or interesting to captivate his
readers. We are not concerned here with extremes, or with the tragic
situations met with in novels, but with normal and ordinary love, as it most
often occurs in reality.
After what we have just said, it is clear that love is derived from two
factors: (1) momentary sexual passion; (2) the hereditary and instinctive
sentiments of sympathy which are derived from the primordial sexual
appetite of our animal ancestors, but which have become completely

independent of this appetite. Between these two terms are placed the
sentiments of sympathy experienced by the individual in his former life,
which have most often been provoked by sexual desire for an individual of
the opposite sex, and which may be evoked by the aid of remembrance,
kindled afresh, and contribute strongly to maintain constancy of love. These
different sentiments pass into each other in all possible shades, and
continually react on each other. Sexual appetite, for example, awakens
sympathy, and is awakened by the latter in its turn; on the contrary, it is
cooled or extinguished under the influence of bad conduct on the part of the
person loved.
Let us here recall a law of the sentiments of sympathy, a law which is
well known, but generally forgotten in human calculations. Man loves best
those to whom he devotes himself, and not those from whom he receives
benefits.[3] It is easy to be convinced of the reality of this fact in the
relations of parents to their children, as well as in marriage. When one of
the conjoints in marriage adulates the other, the latter may easily find this
adulation quite natural, and may love the other conjoint much less than a
spoilt child, to which is devoted all the transports of an unreasonable
affection. The spoilt child, the object of such blind affection, more often
responds to it by indifference, or even by ingratitude, disdain and
impertinence. We find everywhere this play of sentiments, which
considerably impedes mutuality in love. It may even concern inanimate
objects. We like a garden, a house or a book over which we have taken
much pains, and we remain indifferent to the most beautiful and precious
gifts which come by themselves without our making any effort to obtain
them. In the same way, the child becomes attached to some toy which he
has made himself, and disdains the costly presents given by his parents. As
a poet has said: "Man only enjoys for long and without remorse the goods
dearly paid for by his efforts." (Sully-Prudhomme: "Le Bonheur.")
There is, therefore, a profound psychology in the old and wise saying that
true love expresses itself as often by refusal as by compliance, and should
always associate itself with reason. No doubt this is not primitive love; it is
a love elevated and purified by its combination with the elements of
intelligence.
In marriage, more than one husband thinks he ought to be separated from
his wife and children so as not to spoil them. There is no need of a long

explanation to show the fallacy of this idea. To be complete, love should be
reciprocal, and to remain mutual it requires mutual education in marriage.
Every husband should above all be separated from himself, and not from his
wife. If each one did all in his power to promote the happiness of the other,
this altruistic effort would strengthen his own sentiments of sympathy. This
requires a constant and loyal effort on each side, but it avoids the illusion of
a false love, provoked by the senses, vanishing like smoke or becoming
changed to hatred. Without being blind to the weaknesses of his partner he
must learn to like them as forming part of the person to whom he has
devoted his heart, and employ all his skill in correcting them by affection,
instead of increasing his own weakness by leaning on them. It is necessary,
therefore, neither to admire nor to dislike the defects of the loved one, but
to try and attenuate them by aid of integral love.
Love has been defined as "dual egoism." The reciprocal adulation of two
human beings easily degenerates into egoistic enmity toward the rest of the
human race, and this often reacts harmfully on the quality of love. Human
solidarity is too great, especially at the present day, for such exclusivism in
love not to suffer.
I would define ideal love as follows: After mature consideration, a man
and a woman are led by sexual attraction, combined with harmony of
character, to form a union in which they stimulate each other to social
work, commencing this work with their mutual education and that of their
children.
Such a conception of love refines this sentiment and purifies it to such an
extent that it loses all its pettiness, and it is pettiness which so often causes
it to degenerate, even in its most loyal forms. The social work in common
of a man and woman united by true affection, full of tenderness and
devotion for one another, mutually encouraging each other to perseverance
and to action, will easily triumph over petty jealousies and all other
instinctive reactions of the phylogenetic exclusiveness of natural love. The
sentiments of love will thus become ever more ideal, and will no longer
provide egoism with the soil of idleness and comfort on which it grows like
a weed.
Inconvenience of Abstinence from Sexual Connection Between
Married Couples by Medical Orders.—It is a matter of common

observation that in marriage, at least during mature life, sexual connection
strengthens and maintains love, even when it only constitutes part of that
which cements tenderness and affection. In many cases I have observed that
medical orders, given no doubt with good intentions, and forbidding sexual
connection, on account of certain morbid conditions, have had the effect of
cooling the sentiments of love and sympathy and producing indifference
which soon becomes incurable. Physicians should always bear this in mind
in their prescriptions, of which they too often see the immediate object only.
The medical prohibition of sexual connection in marriage should be
reserved for cases of absolute necessity. For example: A virtuous and
capable man marries for love an intelligent but somewhat ill-developed girl.
The marriage is happy and they have several children. But after a time
certain local disorders in the woman induce the medical man to forbid
sexual connection with her husband. They begin to sleep in separate rooms,
and little by little intimate love becomes so far cooled that the renewal of
sexual relations later on becomes impossible. The husband's sentiments are
so much affected as to render him unfaithful to his moral principles, and to
lead him occasionally to visit prostitutes. Although they have become
essentially strangers to each other, the husband and wife continue to live
together an apparently happy life; but this is far from always the case.
Durable Love.—It may be stated as a principle that true and elevated
love is durable, and that the sudden passion which lets loose the sexual
appetite toward an individual of the opposite sex, hitherto a stranger, in no
way represents the measure of true love. Passion warps the judgment,
conceals the most evident faults, colors everything in celestial purple,
renders the lovers blind, and veils the true character of each from the other.
We are only speaking here of cases where each is loyal and where the
sexual appetite is not associated with the cold calculations of egoism.
Reason only returns when the first tempest of a passion which seemed
insatiable has subsided, when the honeymoon of marriage, or of a free
union, has passed. Then only is it possible to see if what remains is true
love, indifference, hatred or a mixture of these three sentiments, capable or
not of becoming more or less adaptable and tolerable. This is why sudden
amours are always dangerous, and why only long and profound mutual
acquaintance before marriage can lead to a happy and lasting union.

Even in this case the unforseen is not absent, for it is very rarely that one
knows a man and his ancestry; moreover, acquired diseases or mental
anomalies may cause his character to degenerate later on.
Let us now examine some psychic phenomena more or less connected
with love. For reasons which we have mentioned the irradiations of sexual
love are on the whole less developed in man than in woman.

PSYCHIC IRRADIATIONS OF LOVE IN MAN

Masculine Audacity.—In the normal male the sentiment of sexual power
favors self-exaltation, while the contrary sentiment of impotence, or even
that of mediocre sexual power, depresses this sentiment of exaltation. Yet,
in reality, the sexual power of man has not the capital importance for a
normal and virgin woman that men imagine, influenced as they are by self-
exaltation; what imposes on women is especially masculine audacity, and in
sexual matters this increases with experience and practice. The company of
prostitutes often renders men incapable of understanding feminine
psychology, for prostitutes are hardly more than automata trained for the
use of male sensuality. When men look among these for the sexual
psychology of woman they only find their own mirror.
Man's flirtation, and his art of paying court to women are naturally
combined with his audacity, as we have already observed in birds and
mammals, and some of the lower animals. The male seeks to please the
female to gain her favors. The brilliant colors of butterflies and birds, song,
skill and proof of strength, often come to the aid of the male sexual instinct.
Even in certain animals supplicant and plaintive sounds assist the male after
his repeated refusal, apparently or in reality, by the female. We shall see in
Chapter VI that savage men have a much greater tendency to tattoo and
adorn themselves than have the women.
The art which man employs to seduce and conquer woman has been
described to satiety in romances and novels, as well as in ethnographic
works; so that we shall not dwell on it here. On the contrary, we shall show
that in higher civilizations man is in general more sought after than woman,
so that the latter has surpassed him in the art of flirtation or sexual conquest.
It is also important to remark to what extent the increase of man's mental
complexity transforms his sexual tactics. The simple, natural, and at the
same time bashful, modest manner, in which a naïve young man seeks to
conquer a heart, usually produces no effect on the fashionable young lady,
experienced in all refined pleasures and saturated with unhealthy novels.
These young women are much more easily seduced by the art of Don Juan

and the old roués, who are more adequate to deal with them because they
have studied practically the psychology of the modern woman.
Instinct of Procreation.—Another irradiation of the male sexual
instinct, connected with the preceding, is the instinct of procreation. If there
were no other difficulties or consequences, man would without the least
doubt be instinctively inclined to copulate with as many women as he
could, and procreate as many children as possible. The more he is capable
of satisfying his procreative instinct, the more he becomes self-exalted, as
he thus sees himself multiplied and feels his power extended by the
possession of a great number of wives and children. This is one of the
principal causes which urge rich men and polygamous peoples to possess
many women.
Coitus without object, like that of prostitution, can only assuage the
sexual appetite and does not satisfy any of its higher irradiations. It is well
known that a happy betrothal, reposing on true love, and not on pecuniary
interests, often transforms a young man from pessimism to optimism, from
misogyny to philogyny. Skeptics smile at this transformation and regard it
as only the transient intoxication of love. This may be true in some cases,
but, as we have seen above, when love is ennobled by deep understanding
and mutual education, when each knows and respects the other, the
transformation remains definite, and is strengthened so much that the
honeymoon of the silver wedding is often happier and more exalted than
that which followed marriage. We can then say that the optimism created by
sexual union cemented by true love rests on the normal accomplishment of
the object of life. I cannot too often repeat that work in common, especially
social work, on the part of the conjoints, is necessary for their happiness to
be complete, and to survive in the one who remains after the decease of the
other.
Jealousy.—The worst irradiation, or rather the worst reaction of contrast
of love, which we have inherited from our animal ancestors, and that which
is the most deeply rooted, is jealousy. Jealousy is a heritage of animals and
barbarism; that is what I would say to all those who, in the name of
offended honor, would grant it rights and even place it on a pedestal. It is
ten times better for a woman to marry an unfaithful than a jealous husband.
From the phylogenetic point of view, jealousy originates in the struggle for
the possession of woman, at a period when right depended only on brute

force. Cunning and violence contended with each other, and when the
conqueror was in possession of a female, he had to guard her jealously to
prevent her being abducted. Furious combats ensued. As soon as an
unaccustomed approach, a look or anything else awakened the least
suspicion of the presence of a rival, the male was tormented with a
continual and instinctive feeling of defiance and distrust, often increased by
the remembrance of the sadness of former defeats and the impotent rage
which followed.
The results of male jealousy in the history of marriage are truly
incredible. I may mention the iron girdles with locks—the so-called girdles
of chastity—which we still see in certain museums, which the knights of the
Middle Ages put on their wives when they set off to the wars, in order to
appease their jealousy. Many savage peoples do not content themselves
with severely punishing adultery in woman, even by death, but even simple
conversations with a strange man. Jealousy transforms marriage into a hell.
It is often exalted in man to the point of a mania for persecution, to which it
is analogous. It is also a very common symptom of alcoholism. Then the
life of the unfortunate woman who is the object of it becomes a continual
martyrdom. Perpetual suspicion accompanied by insults, threats and violent
words, and even homicide may be the result of this atrocious passion.
Even in its more moderate and normal form, jealousy is a torment, for
distrust and suspicion poison love. We often hear of justified jealousy; I
maintain, on the contrary, that jealousy is never justified, and that it is only
the brutal stupidity of an atavistic heritage, or a pathological symptom. A
reasonable man who has doubts as to the fidelity of his wife has certainly
the right to assure himself of their correctness. But of what use is it to be
jealous? If he finds his suspicions false he has, by his manner, made his
wife unnecessarily unhappy and destroyed conjugal confidence and
happiness. If, on the contrary, his suspicions are well founded he has only to
choose between one of two ways. If it is a case of amorous intoxication
suggested by another man to his wife, who is often very unhappy about it,
she may then be restored to her husband and pardoned, for in this case
affection only can cure her, never jealousy. If, however, love for her
husband is entirely extinguished in her, or if she is only a false intriguer
without character, jealousy is even more absurd, for the game is not worth
the candle, and immediate divorce is necessary.

Unfortunately, man only possesses very little control over his feelings
when these are violent. The jealous person by nature, that is by heredity, is
generally incurable and poisons his own existence at the same time as that
of his wife. Such individuals should never marry.
In lunatic asylums, in law, and in novels jealousy plays an important part,
for it is one of the most fruitful sources of tragedies and human
unhappiness. The combined and persevering efforts of education and
selection are necessary to gradually eliminate it from the human brain. We
often hear it said of man and woman that they are not jealous enough,
because they are too indulgent toward the extra-nuptial inclinations of their
conjoint. When such indulgence rests on cynical indifference or on
pecuniary interests, it is not the want of jealousy but the want of moral
sense which is to blame. If it arises from real and reasoned love, it should
on the contrary be highly respected and praised. I would wish all heroes of
offended honor and all defenders of jealousy to reflect on the following
case:
A man of high position, and the father of five children, lived in the most
happy union. One day he made the acquaintance of a friend of his wife, a
very intelligent and well-educated lady. Frequent visits and long
conversations led to intimacy which developed into violent reciprocal love.
However, the lady refused to abandon herself entirely. The husband
confessed everything to his wife, even to the smallest details, and the lady
did the same. Instead of becoming jealous, the wife had the good sense and
the courage to treat the two lovers not only with indulgence, but a true and
profound affection. The loyalty of each of the parties interested greatly
facilitated the gradual dénouement of a difficult situation, without the
family affections suffering. But the dénouement would have been quite as
peaceful if the lady had yielded to sexual connection with the husband. In
fact, the wife herself considered this question very seriously and calmly, in
case the fire could not be otherwise extinguished.
I ask in all sincerity, if such mild and humane treatment of an unfortunate
love affair, in which the three interested parties each strove to avoid all
scandal and everything which could damage their mutual reputation, I ask if
this good and loyal treatment is not, from the moral standpoint, far superior
to scenes of jealousy, duels, divorces and all their consequences, things
which are all sanctioned and even sanctified by custom?

I also know many cases where the husbands of women who have fallen
in love with other men have conducted themselves in an equally noble and
reasonable manner, even when their wives had been completely unfaithful,
and the results have always been good. It is needless to say that I do not
wish to maintain that a husband should tolerate indefinitely the bad conduct
of his wife, nor a woman that of her husband; but this is another thing.
Sexual Braggardism.—Let us pass on to another irradiation of the male
sexual appetite—sexual braggardism. This arises from self-exaltation
evolved from the sexual power of man. Like jealousy, this sentiment is no
doubt inherited from our animal ancestors, and it finds its analogy, or rather
its caricature, in the cock, the peacock, the turkey, and in general among the
richly adorned males of polygamous species. Although on the whole more
innocent, the results of this atavistic instinct are no more elevated than those
of jealousy. The sentiment of sexual power induces men, especially those of
lower mental caliber, to boast of their sexual conquests and exaggerate
them. It is needless to say that success does not go to the unskillful boaster,
but to the one who relates his audacious exploits in a casual way. The Don
Juan experienced in the art of seduction approaches women with audacity
and aplomb, and usually imposes on them considerably, whatever his
ignorance of other things. He has instinctively learnt one thing: viz., the
weakness of woman in the face of the male form, theatrical effect,
uniforms, an audacious act, a fierce mustache, etc. He has learnt that these
fireworks hypnotize her and silence her reason, and that she is then capable
of enthusiasm for the most doubtful cavalier and delivers herself to him
bound hand and foot, provided his self-assurance does not desert him.
I may say here that it is most often men of low intellect, weak in
judgment and principles, who think themselves most superior to the
feminine sex, and who behave as tyrants to their wives.
Sexual braggardism has, moreover, grave consequences for the man
himself, for it urges him to excesses which far exceed his appetites and
especially his natural wants. In spite of other advantages, he wishes to shine
by these excesses among his fellows and even among the grisettes whose
minds are full of sexual matters.
Male sexual braggardism contributes with sexual appetite to entice
reserved and high-minded young men toward prostitutes, against their

better instincts, their reason and their moral sense. Alcohol especially
facilitates the degeneration of sexual life.
The Pornographic Spirit.—The term eroticism is given to the state of
excitation of the sexual appetite. When a person cultivates it artificially and
abandons himself to purely animal sensuality, without combining it with
higher intellectual or moral aspirations, there develop in the mind
irradiations which may be designated by the term pornographic spirit. The
entire circle of ideas of such individuals is so impregnated with eroticism
that all their thoughts and sentiments are colored by it. They see
everywhere, even in the most innocent objects, the most lewd allusions.
Woman is only regarded by them as an object of sexual enjoyment, and her
mind only appears to such satyrs as an ignoble erotic caricature, which is
disgusting to every man capable of lofty sentiments.
Owing to its usually sensual and gross nature, male eroticism has
succeeded in modeling a whole class of women in whom ideal character in
their desires is wanting. Instead of recognizing his own work and the vile
image of his own person in these unnatural women, the libertine, as we
have already seen, imagines them as the normal type of woman. From the
height of his presumption, he then despises woman and does not perceive
that it is himself whom he despises; for on the whole, from the sexual point
of view, the dependent woman of to-day conforms herself to man and
becomes what he makes her. The number of coitus, their details, the size
and form of the sexual organs, the pleasure of having cut out other men, and
especially the pathological perversions of the sexual appetite, form the chief
object of the thoughts and conversations of pornographic minds. Each tries
to outdo the others in sexual enormities, and the virtuosity of these
gentlemen in this domain is only surpassed by their ignorance and
incapacity in all others.
Prostitution and all the modern sexual degeneration which marches under
the hypocritical flag of Christianity, civilization and monogamy, have so far
developed the pornographic spirit that men living in centers of debauchery,
centers which are unfortunately extending more and more from town to
country, lose all conception of the noble qualities natural to the feminine
sentiment and to true love, or only preserve a few shreds of it which they
treat with ridicule. Many men have admitted this to me, after being much
astonished when I was obliged to give them quite another conception of

love and woman, without introducing the least trace of religion. No doubt
certain better individuals, fallen by chance into debauchery, speak
respectfully of a mother or a sister, for whom they profess an almost
religious worship. They regard these as beings apart, as species of a lost
race of demigods, and they do not perceive that they discredit them and
drag them in the mud by their contempt and pornographic conception of
woman in general, a conception which is moreover often altered to
profound pessimism.
In the relatively moral circles of society, our description would no doubt
be taxed with exaggeration, because natures a little more refined have the
habit of acting like the ostrich who hides his head in the sand, that is to say
of turning their eyes away from the pornographic swamp with disgust so as
not to see it, and thus avoid it instinctively. But this maneuver serves no
purpose: the facts remain as they are.
Eroticism is no more a vice than sexual anæsthesia is a virtue. Even when
they are chaste, men of libidinous nature require a strong will to resist all
the artificial seductions which excite their sensuality. This is why the bog of
debauchery engulfs so many men of a naturally good nature. In this sense,
cold natures are better off; they can cover themselves with the glory of a
"virtue" the resplendent rays of which become lost in a penumbra of defects
and weaknesses from which these natures suffer in other domains.
Sexual Hypocrisy.—Hypocrisy is a peculiarity deeply rooted in the
human mind. We can affirm that whoever pretends never to have been a
hypocrite lies, quite as much as one who swears he has never lied. But
nowhere, save perhaps in the domain of religion, does hypocrisy play a
greater part than in the sexual domain. Nowhere is there so much falsehood,
and men who are most honest on other points make no scruple of deceiving
their wives in this respect. I do not speak here of the simulation of
sentiments of love, for it is too banal, and there is no need to be too
exacting over this point, for there are strong attenuating circumstances.
First of all, erotic feelings are capable of blinding man for the moment, as
far as persuading him of the eternal duration of love and fidelity which he
promises the object of his appetites, as well as of the reality of the celestial
qualities under which this object appears to him, or with which it pleases
him to adorn it. Two persons mutually excited by sexual passion are

fascinated by the illusions of a mirage, which often vanishes soon
afterward, so that it is not rare to see them on the following day hurling the
most violent abuse at each other.
Those who have not been witnesses of such events may hardly believe
them. It is sufficient, however, to be a magistrate or to read the reports of
lawsuits between debased persons as the result of love quarrels, broken
engagements or marriages, seductions, etc., to study the letters that the two
parties have written before and after their quarrel, in order to be convinced
of the correctness of what we have said above. In the first letters the lovers
adulate each other and adorn each other with the most hyperbolic epithets,
swearing eternal love and fidelity, and deluding each other in the most
absurd manner. In letters written sometimes only a few days later we are
astonished to see the same individuals grossly insulting each other and
mutually covering themselves with ignoble calumnies. This is how passion
without reason passes through the furnaces of love and hatred, dragging
after it all the artificial scaffolding of what man imagines to be his right
based on logic, but which is in reality only a tissue of ridiculous
contradictions, the automatic and inept product of his emotional state. Such
contrasts are so frequent that we can easily recognize the expression of a
psychological law, due to the mirages of the amorous passions on the one
hand and the inverse reaction on the other.
Nevertheless hypocrisy has its good side. It has been said not without
reason that "hypocrisy is a concession which vice makes to virtue." In their
nakedness human thoughts are often so sadly vulgar and so offensive that a
little varnish improves them. In this sense, and when it comes from a
feeling of shame or good-will, hypocrisy deserves a good deal of the eulogy
which Mark Twain has heaped on it in his charming satire, "The Decadence
of the Art of Lying."
In the sexual question hypocrisy is directly provoked by the tyranny and
barbarism of what are called good manners, often even by the law. In this
sense it constitutes a response of human nature to the forms and customs
derived from the right of the stronger or from religious superstitions, as well
as from the dogmas resulting from them.
By the term sexual hypocrisy I do not mean the repugnant forms of
hypocrisy pure and simple, in which man only exploits love indirectly for

an interested end, for instance when he simulates love to obtain a rich wife.
I only speak of the forms of hypocrisy which are directly evolved from the
sexual appetite or from love.
It is from this point of view that we must judge sexual hypocrisy, and if I
have laid special stress on its good points, it is in view of marriage, where it
assists the education of noble and elevated sentiments even in the hypocrite.
By praising the virtues of his helpmate with a little exaggeration, these are
made to appear more noble. If the time is spent in saying disagreeable
truths, love is soon stifled and killed. On the contrary, if each conjoint
attributes to the other as fine qualities as possible, each is finally persuaded
that the other really possesses them, and then realizes them himself, at any
rate in part.
The worst of hypocrisies is that which is the product of base pecuniary
interests, or of a gross sexual appetite without love, or lastly by the pressure
of conventional or religious customs. Good hypocrisy consists in the
repression of all that is base in the sentiments, inclinations and passions; in
the fact that one strives to hide it from others, even from one's self, and to
suggest in its place as many amiable qualities as possible, so as to
strengthen in a disinterested manner the object of one's love in noble
sentiments. This kind of hypocrisy is in reality an indirect product of
altruistic sentiments. One perceives with pain on reflecting, either the
absence of spontaneous sentiments of sympathy, or the presence of disgust
and bad temper, and one strives to hide the thing by sympathetic
expressions for which one seeks an object, and to which one would wish to
give a durable character. Loyal efforts made in this direction often succeed
in correcting the egoistic humor with which one is affected, and in giving
rise to the sentiments one desires to experience. One must not, however, by
only looking at one side of the question, allow such efforts to degenerate
into maladroit blindness, which will only have the effect of spoiling the
person one loves.
Egoistic Love.—It is obvious that the psychic irradiations of the sexual
sense are strongly influenced by the individuality of the one who loves. The
egoist loves in a manner naively egoistic. He is not wanting in fine words,
but in his opinion all sentiment and respect is due to his person, while he
reduces to a minimum his duties toward the object of his love. He exacts
much from the other and gives little. The good man with altruistic

sentiments feels things in an inverse way; he exacts little from others, and
much from himself.
Love differs in different natures, according as they are calm or lively,
imbecile or intelligent, well educated or otherwise: the will plays a great
part here. Weakness and impulsiveness are found in love, as well as energy
and perseverance. In the last point woman is superior, owing to the greater
constancy of her love. There is thus no domain of the mind which is not
influenced by love, and which does not react on love in its turn.
Intellectual occupations are facilitated by a happy love, while they are
usually hindered by the sorrows of love. Even men of science, so proud of
their calmness, are often more influenced than one would think in their
scientific opinions by their emotional sentiments. Without a man being
aware of it, his sentiments insinuate themselves into the opinions which he
believes to be of a purely intellectual nature, and direct them unconsciously
with much more power than he generally imagines. Such influences act
chiefly on individuals disposed to sentimentality. In love, these individuals
resemble two-edged swords; the intensity of their emotional reactions and
sentiments drives them from one extreme to another, from foolish happiness
to despair or fury. The situation becomes still more grave when such storms
burst among impulsive persons of weak will and limited intelligence. Under
such circumstances ill-assorted alliances are formed which lead to violent
quarrels, and sometimes even to crime. When jealousy comes on the scene
the man often kills the woman and commits suicide.
It would seem that such crime can only arise from egoism; this is often
the case, but not always. Despair may often lead to such acts, without any
motive of vengeance, or even of jealousy. The storm of passion drives
weak-minded persons to impulsive actions, the motives of which are very
difficult to analyze. After these tragedies of murder preceding suicide, when
the murderer survives, he often expresses himself as follows: "I was in such
a state of despair and excitement that I saw no other issue than death for
both of us."
Prudery. Modesty.—The sentiment of modesty originates in the fear of
everything which is novel and unusual, and is complicated by natural
timidity. This sentiment is especially strong in children. The sentiment of
sexual modesty in man thus rests on timidity and on the fear of not doing as

others do. It betrays itself toward women by awkwardness and bashfulness
behind which eroticism is often ill concealed. The timid and bashful man
carefully endeavors to hide his sexual feelings from others. The object of
modesty is in itself immaterial to the psychology of this sentiment, and
shame is sometimes inspired not only by very different things but even by
opposite things. One youth is ashamed of appearing erotic, another of
appearing too little erotic, according to the opinion of his neighbors.
Modesty depends on the custom of covering or exposing certain parts of
the body, and people who live in a state of nature are as much ashamed of
clothes as we are ashamed of nudity. Moreover, man soon becomes
accustomed to fashion, and the same English girl who blushes at the sight
of a few inches of bare skin in her own country, finds it quite natural to see
naked negroes in the tropics.
The artificial and systematic cultivation of an exaggerated sentiment of
modesty produces prudery, the bad results of which are, however, less than
those of pornography. There are young people so modest that the simple
thought of sexual matters overexcites them terribly. By associating their
own erotic feelings, of which they feel ashamed, with sexual ideas, they
invest these with terrifying attributes, and become quite unhappy; in this
way they are often led to masturbation. They are, however, excessively
frightened at this also and imagine its effects so terrible that they think
themselves lost. Their exaggerated feelings of modesty often prevent them
confiding in some charitable person. However, they rarely find reasonable
consolers; some ridicule them, while others regard them as iniquitous,
which only increases their terror and drives them to extremes.
The sexual sentiment of modesty very often becomes unhealthy, and is
then easily combined with pathological sexual conditions.
Prudery is, so to speak, sexual modesty codified and dogmatized. It is
indeterminate, because the object of modesty is purely conventional, and
man has no valid reason to regard any part of his body as shameful. Normal
man ought only to be ashamed of bad thoughts and actions, contrary to his
moral conscience. The latter should be based on natural human altruism
only, and not artificially misled by dogma.
The Old Bachelor.—The importance of the psychic irradiations of love
is shown perhaps more clearly from the results of their presence in old

bachelors than from any other consideration. In our time, no doubt, the state
of the old bachelor rarely means the renunciation of the satisfaction of
sexual appetite, although it generally entails the renunciation of love. There
are, no doubt, two kinds of old bachelors, those who are chaste and those
who are not. The old bachelor no doubt leads a less empty existence than
the old maid, but the void exists none the less. Man also needs
compensation for the absence of love and family, but his brain is more
capable than that of woman of finding this compensation in hard intellectual
work or in some other employment.
The old bachelor is generally pessimistic and morose. He easily becomes
the slave of his fads and hobbies, and the peculiarities of his character are
proverbial. His egoism knows no bounds, and his altruistic impulses usually
find too few objects or echoes.
The chastity of some old bachelors conceals sexual anomalies. But even
apart from this, the old celibate easily becomes shy, affected, misanthropic
or misogynistic, at least if some energetic friend does not induce him to
utilize his power of work in some useful sphere. At other times he lavishes
exaggerated admiration on women and worships them in a pompous
manner.
In a separate category come those old bachelors who are chaste and
celibate for high moral reasons, and whose life is spent in social work,
although they are only men and cannot for this reason free themselves from
all the peculiarities we have mentioned. In a word, the object of life is
partly wanting in the best of old bachelors, and this void not only affects his
sentiments but his whole mental being. His general tendency to pessimism
and egoism would be sufficient alone to provoke an energetic protest
against the abandonment of social power to celibates.
The old bachelor who is not chaste generally descends to pornography,
only becoming acquainted with the worst side of woman. He becomes a
misogynist because he wrongly attributes to all women the character of
those only with whom he has intimate relations. We have already pointed
out this phenomenon in speaking of male eroticism. The philosopher,
Schopenhauer, was an example of this kind.

PSYCHIC IRRADIATIONS OF LOVE IN WOMEN

In speaking of love in man we have already touched on many points
which differentiate it from that of woman. In the latter, the most prominent
peculiarity is the dominant role which it plays in the brain. Without love
woman abjures her nature and ceases to be normal.
The Old Maid.—What we have said of old bachelors applies in a still
more marked degree, to old maids. Still more than men they have need of
compensation for sexual love, to avoid losing their natural qualities and
becoming dried-up beings or useless egoists. But, if the void left by love is
greater in her, woman possesses such natural energy and perseverance,
combined with such great power of devotion, that on the whole she is more
capable than man of accomplishing the work which the void in her
existence requires. Unfortunately, many women do not understand this. On
the other hand, those who devote themselves to social philanthropic works,
to art or literature, to nursing the sick or to other useful occupations, instead
of amusing themselves with futile things, may greatly distinguish
themselves in such social pursuits, and thus obtain real compensation for
the loss of love.
In this respect woman was formerly misunderstood. The modern
movement of her emancipation shows more and more what she is capable
of and promises much more in the future.
As to the old maid who lives alone with her egoism, her whims and
fancies generally exceed those of the old bachelor. She has not the faculty
of creating anything original by her own intellect, so that, having lost love,
all her mental power shrinks up. Her cat, her little dog, and the daily care of
her person and small household occupy her whole mind. It is not surprising
that such persons generally create a pitiable and ridiculous impression.
Between these two extremes there exists a category of unmarried women
whose sexual love finds compensation in the love they bear for a parent or a
friend (male or female), which although not sexual is none the less ardent.
Such occupation for their sentiments improves their state of mind and
partially fills the void; however, it is not sufficient as a rule and only
constitutes a last resource. This kind of devotion, by its exclusiveness, often
produces bad results, for its horizon is too limited. If the object of love,

which is generally too pampered, dies or abandons her, she loses her head;
grief, bitterness and pessimism never leave her, unless she finds consolation
in religious exaltation, which is often observed in other women deprived of
love. This last peculiarity is met with, moreover, in all classes of women,
even among the married.
Passiveness of Woman. Sexual Appetite.—Ideal love should never be
dual egoism. What happens when two persons live exclusively for each
other, if one of them dies? The survivor sinks into inconsolable despair, all
that his heart was attached to is dead, because his love did not extend to
other human beings, nor to social works. Widows then become as pitiable
as old maids, although in another way, when they have lost the object of
their exclusive love. This is why we recommend social work, not only for
celibates, but also for loving couples.
I again emphasize the fact that in normal women, especially young girls,
the sexual appetite is subordinate to love. In the young girl love is a mixture
of exalted admiration for masculine courage and grandeur, and an ardent
desire for affection and maternity. She wishes to be outwardly dominated by
a man, but to dominate him by her heart. This sentimentalism of the young
girl, joined to the passive role of her sex, produces in her a state of
exaltation which often borders on ecstasy and then overcomes all the
resistance of will and reason. The woman surrenders herself to the man of
whom she is enamored, or who has conquered or hypnotized her. She is
vanquished by his embraces and follows him submissively, and in such a
state of mind she is capable of any folly.
Although more violent and impetuous in his love, man loses his sang-
froid on the whole much less than woman. We can therefore say that the
relative power of sentiment is on the average greater in woman, in spite of
her passive role.
I cannot protest too strongly against the way in which men of the day
disparage women and misunderstand them. In the way in which a young
girl abandons herself to their sexual appetites, in caresses, and in the ecstasy
of her love, they think they see the proof of a purely sensual eroticism,
identical to their libidinous desire for coitus, while in reality she usually
does not think of it, at any rate at first. The first coitus is usually painful to
woman, often repugnant. Many are the cases where young girls, even when

they knew the terrible social and individual dangers of their weakness, even
when they have perhaps once already experienced the consequences, let the
man abuse them without a word of complaint, without a trace of sexual
pleasure or venereal orgasm, simply to please the one who desires them,
because he is so good and amiable, and because refusal would give him so
much pain. In his violent passion and in his egoism, man is generally
incapable of understanding the power of this stoicism of a mind which
surrenders itself in spite of all dangers and all its interests. He confounds his
own appetites with the sentiments of the woman, and finds in this false
interpretation of feminine psychology the excuses for the cowardice of
which he gives proof when he yields to his passions. The psychology of the
young girl who surrenders herself has been admirably depicted by Goethe
in Gretchen ("Faust"), as well as by de Maupassant on several occasions.
It is necessary to know all these facts in order to estimate at its true value
the ignominy of our social institutions and their bearing on woman's life. If
men did not so misunderstand women, and especially if they were aware of
the deep injustice of our customs and laws with regard to them, the better
ones, at least, would think twice before seducing young girls, to abandon
them afterward with their children. I am only speaking now of true love and
not of the extortion so often practiced by women of low character, or those
already educated in vice.
I shall say no more concerning eroticism, which really exists in many
women, especially in those who are already experienced in sexual matters.
On the other hand there are women who deceive their husbands and allow
themselves to be seduced by any Don Juan, even when they have never had
the least sexual appetite, or felt a single venereal orgasm. They allow
themselves to be dragged in the mud and lose their reputation, their fortune
and their family; they even let their seducer trample them under foot; they
become defamed and treated as women without character, without honor
and without any notion of duty. They are simply poor feeble creatures
incapable of resisting masculine proposals. With good psychological
training they would often become better women, active, devoted and full of
life. It seems hardly credible, but it is true, that one sometimes finds in this
category women who are highly gifted. It is then said that they are wanting
in moral sense, but this is not always correct. In other respects they may be
faithful to their duty, devoted, sometimes even energetic and heroic; but

they submit to masculine influence to such a degree that they cannot
conceive how to resist it. They find it quite natural to give way to it and
their mind does not understand that the complete abandonment of their
body to the man they love should not necessarily follow immediately after
the abandonment of their heart, or even after the first kiss. It is impossible
for them to make distinctions or to trace limits.
Idealism in Woman.—The cases I have just described are extreme,
although very common; they give the note of a general phenomenon of
feminine love in its exaltation. It is needless to say that reasonable women
of high character behave themselves in quite another manner, however
profound their love. Nevertheless the trait which we have just described is
nearly always found at the bottom of all true love in woman, however much
it may be veiled, dissimulated or conquered.
It is not always audacity or heroic deeds like those of the bold cavaliers
of former days which excite love in woman. The external qualities of man,
such as beauty and elegance, etc., also play a part, although their effect may
be less decisive than that of the bodily charms of woman in exciting love in
man. Intellectual superiority, high moral actions, and mental qualities in
general, easily affect the heart of woman, which becomes exalted under
their influence. But every man who becomes famous either for good or evil,
the fashionable actor, the celebrated tenor, etc., has the power of exciting
love in women. Women without education or those of inferior mental
quality are naturally more easily affected by the bodily strength of man, and
by his external appearance in general. Many women are especially liable to
succumb under the influence of all that is mystic. These become infatuated
by preachers, and religious enthusiasts, to say nothing of hypocrites.
Nothing is sadder than the contrast between the exalted love of a virtuous
and chaste young girl, and the debauched life, with its traits of cynical
pornography, of the majority of young men. Guy de Maupassant has
described this contrast in a most striking manner in his romance entitled
"Une Vie." I know a number of cases in which the complete ignorance of
young married women with regard to sexual relations, combined with the
cynical lewdness of their husbands, has transformed the exalted love of a
young girl into profound disgust, and has sometimes even caused mental
disorders. Although not very common, the psychoses resulting from the
deception and shock of the nuptial night are not very rare. But what is much

worse than this douche of cold water which suddenly substitutes the reality
of coitus for the ideal exaltation of sentiment, are the subsequent
discoveries made by the young wife, when the cynical mind of her husband
on the subject of sexual connection and love is unveiled to her in all its
grossness, resulting from his previous life of debauchery. Torn and sullied
in its deepest fibers, the feminine mind then becomes the seat of a desperate
struggle between reality full of deceptions and the illusions of a dream of
happiness.
If it is only a question of bad habits, or want of tact in the husband,
behind which there exists perhaps true love, the wounds in the woman's
sentiment may heal and intimacy may develop; but when the cynicism is
too marked, when the habits of sexual debauchery are too inveterate, the
love of a virtuous woman is soon stifled, and is changed to resignation and
disgust, often to martyrdom or hatred.
In other cases the woman is weak and ill-developed and allows herself to
sink to the level of her husband's sentiments. Sometimes, the crisis is
accentuated and leads to divorce. In de Maupassant's "Une Vie," he
describes with profound insight the continuous deceptions of a young
innocent and sentimental girl who marries an egoistic roué, and whose life
is transformed into martyrdom and completely ruined. De Maupassant's
romances contain such true psychology of sexual life and love in all their
forms, often even in their exceptional aberrations, that they furnish an
admirable illustration to the present chapter.
Petticoat Government.—A series of most important irradiations of love
in woman results from the need she feels of being, if not dominated, at least
protected by her husband. To be happy, a woman must be able to respect her
husband and even regard him with more or less veneration; she must see in
him the realization of an ideal, either of bodily strength, courage,
unselfishness or superior intellect. If this is not the case, the husband easily
falls under the petticoat government, or indifference and antipathy may
develop in the wife, at least if misfortune or illness in the husband does not
excite her pity and transform her into a resigned nurse.
Petticoat government can hardly make a household truly happy, for here
the positions are reversed and the wife rules because the husband is weak.
But the normal instinct of woman is to rule over the heart of man, not over

his intelligence or on his will. Ruling in these last domains may flatter a
woman's vanity and render it dominating, but it never satisfies her heart,
and this is why the woman who rules is so often unfaithful to her husband,
if not in deed, at least in thought.
In such a union she has not found the true love which she sought, and for
this reason, if her moral principles are weak, she looks for compensation in
some Don Juan. If the woman in question has a strong character, or if she is
sexually cold, she may easily become sour and bitter. These women, who
are not rare, are to be dreaded; their plighted love is transformed into
hatred, bad temper or jealousy, and only finds satisfaction in the torment of
others.
The psychology of this kind of woman is interesting. They are not
usually conscious of their malice. The chronic bitterness resulting from an
unfortunate hereditary disposition in their character, as much as from their
outraged feelings, makes them take a dislike to the world and renders them
incapable of seeing anything but the worst side of people. They become
accustomed to disparage everything automatically, to take offense at
everything and to speak ill of everything on every occasion. They are
unhappy, but they find a diabolical joy in all misfortune where they see the
confirmation of their somber prophecies, the only satisfaction which is
capable of exalting them.
We have just said that a certain constitutional disposition is necessary for
such a deplorable change in feminine sentiments to be produced; but this
disposition is often only developed under the influence of circumstances
which we have indicated or analogous ones.
It is impossible for the life in common of two conjoints not to reveal their
reciprocal failings. But true love generally suffices to definitely cement a
union, provided that the wife finds a support in the steadfast nature of her
husband, which then serves as her ideal. It is also necessary that the
husband, finding sentiments of devoted love in his wife, should reciprocate
them. These conditions are sufficient, if both devote their efforts to the
maintenance of their family and the social welfare.
Maternal Love.—The most profound and most natural irradiation of the
sexual appetite in woman is maternal love. A mother who does not love her
children is an unnatural being, and a man who does not understand the

desires of maternity in his wife, and does not respect them, is not worthy of
her love. Sometimes egoism renders a man jealous of the love which his
wife bears to his children. At other times, the father may show more love
for the children than their mother; such exceptions only prove the rule.
The most beautiful and most natural of the irradiations of love is the joy
of parents at the birth of their children, a joy which is one of the strongest
bonds of conjugal affection, and which helps the couple in triumphing over
the conflicting elements in their characters, and in raising the moral level of
their reciprocal sentiments, for it realizes the natural object of sexual union.
A true woman rejoices at the progress of her pregnancy. The last pains of
childbirth have hardly ceased before she laughs with joy, and pride, at
hearing the first cries of the newly born. The instinctive outburst of
maternal love toward the new-born child corresponds to a natural
imprescriptible right of the child, for it needs the continual care of its
mother. Nothing is so beautiful in the world as the radiant joy of a young
mother nursing her child, and no sign of degeneration is more painful than
that of mothers who abandon their children without absolute necessity, to
strange hands.
On the other hand reason must intervene. The instructive transports of
maternal love soon require a counterpoise. It is important to prevent them
from degenerating into unreasonable spoiling, by scientific and medical
education of the infants. Modern medical art has made great progress in this
direction, but unfortunately, egoism, negligence, routine, the desire of
enjoyment, or often the poverty of many mothers prevent them from
benefiting from this progress and applying it as they should. Instead of
looking after their children they leave them to nurses. The latter may be
necessary to help and instruct young wives during their first childbirth; but
a natural mother will profit by these instructions and will herself become an
excellent nurse, because she will feel her natural ties and will consecrate
herself to them with the devotion of a maternal love heightened and refined
by reason and knowledge. Among the lower classes the poverty and
ignorance of mothers, often also their thoughtlessness and indolence, are an
obstacle to the rational education of infants.
"Monkey's Love."—Maternal love thus constitutes the most important
irradiation of the sexual instincts in woman. It very easily degenerates into

weakness, that is to say into unreasonable passion and blind compliance
with all the faults of the child, which the mother excuses and transforms
into virtues. The foibles of maternal love do much harm to the child and are
often the origin of bitter deceptions. Hereditary weakness of character here
plays a great, or even the principal part. Nevertheless, maternal foibles have
other causes—riches, absence of culture, idleness, too few children, etc.
The best antidote for this unreasonable maternal love, which the Germans
call "monkey's love" consists in active occupations for the mother,
combined with a healthy education of her character. Work alone is not
sufficient, if the mother has limited ideas, and if she is not freed from
routine, ignorance, superstition and weakness of will.
Sentiments and Perseverance.—The power of love in woman does not
rest alone on the varied harmony of her sentiments of sympathy for her
husband and children, and on the extraordinary finesse and natural tact
which she adds to it; such qualities make her, no doubt, the ray of sunshine
in the family life, but more powerful still are the tenacity and perseverance
of her love.
In general, it is by will-power that woman is superior to man, and it is in
the domain of love that this superiority shines in all its glory. As a general
rule it is the wife who sustains the family. Among the common people, it is
she who economizes, she who watches carefully over all and corrects the
failings, the passionate and impulsive acts, the discouragements, so frequent
with the husband. How often do we see the father abandon the children,
waste his earnings and leave his situation under some futile pretext, while
his courageous wife, although suffering from hunger and destitution, holds
firm and manages to save the debris which has escaped the excesses and
egoism of the husband.
The husband of a feeble or alcoholic wife sometimes becomes the sole
support of the family, but such exceptions only prove the rule, that where
the normal love and courage of woman are wanting, the family becomes
broken up, for man very rarely possesses the necessary faculties for its
preservation.
It follows from these facts that the modern tendency of women to
become pleasure-seekers, and to take a dislike to maternity, leads to
complete degeneration of society. This is a grave social evil, which rapidly

changes the qualities and power of expansion of a race, and which must be
cured in time, or the race affected by it will be supplanted by others.
If the feminine mind is generally wanting in intellectual imagination and
power of combination, it is all the more powerful in the practical intuition
of its judgment and in sentimental imagination. The finesse of its moral and
æsthetic sentiments, its natural tact, its instructive desire to put some
element of poetry into all the details of life, contribute to form true family
happiness, a happiness which the husband and children too often enjoy
without fully realizing the devoted labor, the love and the pains which the
mother has given to create it.
Routine.—The reverse of the irradiations of love in woman is constituted
by her failings, which we have already partly indicated. We may add that
her intelligence is usually superficial, that she attributes an exaggerated
importance to trifles, that she often does not understand the object of ideal
conceptions, and remains attached by routine to all her hobbies. This
routine represents in feminine psychology the excess of a tenacious will
applied only to the repetition of what has been taught. In the family, woman
constitutes the conservative element because sentiment in her much more
than in man, combined with persevering tenacity, predominates over
intelligence; but sentiments represent everywhere and always the
conservative element in the human mind.
This is why woman is the strongest supporter of dogmas, customs,
fashions, prejudices and mysticism. It is not that she herself is more
disposed than man to mystic beliefs, but these when once dogmatized
dazzle the eyes of the suffering with visions of compensation in a better
world. In this way a number of unhappy or disappointed women are
affected with religious exaltation and thus cling to the hope of happiness
after death which they believe will compensate them for the vicissitudes of
their existence.
The other reverses of the feminine character, such as want of logic,
obstinacy, love of trinkets, etc., result from the fundamental weakness of the
feminine mind which we have just analyzed. Moreover, the social
dependence in which man has placed woman, both from the legal and
educational points of view, tend to increase her failings. Many people fear
that women's suffrage would hinder progress, for the reasons we have just

indicated, but they forget that the actual suffrage of men is to a great extent
exercised by their wives, indirectly and unconsciously. This fact alone
shows that the education, and legal emancipation of women can only be
beneficial to progress, especially as they would contribute to the education
of men, too prone to degenerate on account of their presumptuous and
tyrannical autocracy.
Woman has an instinctive admiration for men of high intellect and lofty
sentiments, and strives to imitate those who provoke her admiration, and
carry out their ideas. Let us therefore give women their proper rights, equal
to ours, at the same time giving them a higher education and the same free
instruction as ourselves; we shall then see them abandon the obscure paths
of mysticism, to devote themselves to social progress.
Jealousy in Woman.—Other irradiations of love in woman are similar to
those of man. Jealousy is perhaps not much less developed in woman than
in man. It is less brutal and violent but more instinctive and persevering; it
manifests itself by quarrels, needle pricks, chicanery, petty tyrannies and all
kinds of tricks which poison existence as much as man's jealousy, and are
quite as inefficient against infidelity. In the highest degree of passion the
jealous man uses violence or resorts to firearms, while the woman
scratches, poisons or stabs. Among savages, jealous women bite off their
rivals' noses; in civilized countries they throw sulphuric acid in the face.
The object is the same in both cases—to disfigure.
Amorous illusions produced in woman by the sexual appetite are
analogous to those of man, but are modified by feminine attributes. It is the
same with hypocrisy. The passive role of woman in sexual life obliges her
only to betray her feelings to the object of her desires in a reserved and
prudent manner. She cannot make advances toward man without
contravening the conventions and risking her reputation. She therefore has
to be more skillful in the art of dissimulation. This gives us no right to
accuse her of falseness, for this art is natural, instinctive and imposed by
custom. Her desire for love and maternity unconsciously urges her to make
herself as desirable as possible to man by her grace and allurements. Her
stolen glances and sighs, and the play of her expression serve to betray her
ardor as through a veil. Behind this furtive play, especially calculated to
excite the passions of man, are hidden, in the natural and good woman, a
world of delicate feelings, ideal aspirations, energy and perseverance, which

are much more loyal and honest than the motives revealed by the more
brusque and daring manner in which man expresses his desires. The fine
phrases by which man's love is expressed generally cover sentiments which
are much less pure and calculations much more egoistic than the relatively
innocent play of the young girl. No doubt there are false women whose
amorous wiles are only a spider's web, but we are speaking here of the
average, and not of exceptions.
Coquetry.—The sexual braggardism of man is only found in some
prostitutes; it is replaced in woman by coquetry and the desire to please.
Vain women profit by the natural grace and beauty of their sex and person,
not only to attract and please men, but also to shine among their fellows, to
make other women pale before their brilliance and their elegance. Coquettes
take infinite pains in this art. All their efforts and all their thoughts are
directed only to increase their charm by the brilliancy of their toilette, the
refinement of their attire, the arrangement of their hair, their perfumes, paint
and powder, etc. It is here that the narrowness of the mind of woman is
revealed in all its meanness.
To describe feminine coquetry would oblige me to descend to banality. If
we go to a ball or a fashionable soirée, if we observe women at the theater,
their toilettes, their looks and expressions, or if we read a novel by Guy de
Maupassant, "Fort Comme la Mort," or "Nôtre Cœur," for example, we can
study all the degrees and all the degeneration of this part of the sexual
psychology of women. Many of them have such bad taste that they
transform themselves into caricatures; dye their hair, paint their eyebrows
and lips to give themselves the appearance of what they are not, or to make
themselves appear young and beautiful.
These artifices of civilized countries resemble the tattooing, nose-rings,
etc., with which savage women adorn themselves. The latter are represented
by earrings, bracelets and necklaces. All these customs constitute
irradiations of the sexual appetite or the desire to please men. Male sexual
inverts (vide Chap. VIII) also practice them, and often also certain dandies
with otherwise normal sexual instincts.
The Pornographic Spirit in Woman.—This is absolutely contrary to
the normal feminine nature, which cannot be said of eroticism. Among
prostitutes, as we have seen, the pornographic spirit is only the echo of their

male companions, and in spite of this, we still find a vestige of modesty
even in them. No doubt, in very erotic women, sexual excitations may lead
to indecent acts and expressions, but these are rare exceptions and of a
pathological nature.
Natural feminine eroticism, not artificially perverted, only shows itself
openly in complete intimacy, and even here modesty and the æsthetic sense
of woman correct and attenuate it. Normally, all obscenity and cynicism
disgusts women and only inspires them with contempt for the male sex. On
the other hand, they are easily stimulated to eroticism by pictures or novels,
if they are sufficiently æsthetic, or even moral. This is a great danger for
both sexes, especially for woman—eroticism dissimulated under
hypocritical forms, and intended to idealize dishonest intentions (vide de
Maupassant: "Ce Cochon de Morin").
Modesty and Prudery in Woman.—In woman the sentiments of
modesty and prudery have a peculiar character, which results from her
natural disgust for pornography on the one hand, and also from her
attachment to fashion and prejudice. Many women have a perfect terror of
exposing certain parts of their body, even to a medical man. This fact
depends on convention, and sometimes on the absence or perversion of
sexual feelings. Brought up to prudery, sometimes to an absurd extent as in
England, these women lose their natural feeling and often suffer from the
excitation, indignation, and perpetual fright, which result from it. The
exaggerations of prudery, moreover, easily lead to opposite excesses, or else
degenerate into hypocrisy. The prude is ashamed of the most natural things,
and undergoes continual torment.
Prudery can be created or cured by education in childhood. It may be
created by isolation, by covering all parts of the body, and especially by
making children regard nudity as shameful. On the other hand, it may be
cured by mixed bathing, by accustoming the child to consider the human
body, in all its parts and functions, as something natural of which one need
not be ashamed, lastly by giving instruction on the relations of the sexes, in
due time and in a serious manner, instead of replying to ingenuous
questions by pious falsehoods, by equivocation, or by an air of mystery.
The chapter on love is infinite, and its relations to the sexual appetite
make it still more complex. We shall confine ourselves to indicating two

more of its irradiations, peculiar to each sex, but having for each a
physionomy corresponding to its own mentality.

FETICHISM AND ANTI-FETICHISM

"We understand by fetiches, objects, portions of objects, or even simply
the qualities of objects which, from their association with a certain person
or with the idea of this person, produce a kind of charm or at least a
profound impression, which in no way corresponds to the nature of the
object itself."—(Krafft-Ebing.) The fetich thus symbolizes a person in
whom we have such a profound interest that everything connected with her
disturbs our feelings. It is we ourselves who place in the fetich the charm
arising from the person whom it symbolizes for us.
In many religions fetichism plays an important part, so much so that
fetiches such as amulets or relics produce ecstasy in the faithful.
Binet, Krafft-Ebing and others give the name erotic fetichism to the
charm which certain objects or certain parts of the body exercise in a
similar way on the sexual desires or even on love, in the sense that their
simple representation is powerfully associated with the erotic image of a
person of the other sex, or with a particular variety of sexual excitation. In
both man and woman certain portions of the clothes or the body, the hair,
the foot and hand, or certain odors of the person desired, may take the
character of fetiches. It is the same with certain intellectual peculiarities and
certain expressions of the features. In man, the woman's hair, her hands or
feet, her handkerchief, perfumes, etc., often play the part of erotic fetiches.
We may call anti-fetiches certain objects or certain qualities which, on
the contrary, destroy eroticism. Certain odors, the tone of a voice, an ugly
nose, a garment in bad taste, an awkward manner, often suffice to destroy
eroticism by causing disgust for a person, and their simple representation is
enough to make her unbearable. Symbolizing disgust, the anti-fetich
paralyzes the sexual appetite and love.
In normal love, it is especially by association of ideas in calling to mind
the image of the person loved that the fetich plays the part of an exciting
agent. It often, however, becomes itself the more special object of the

sexual appetite, while the anti-fetich produces the opposite effect. But, in
degenerates (vide Chap. VIII) it is sometimes exclusively to the fetich itself
that an irresistible sexual appetite is addressed, the irradiation of which
becomes a ridiculous caricature of love.
We thus see that normal love is based on an extremely complex
synthesis, on a symphony of harmonious sensations, sentiments and
conceptions, combined in all kinds of tones and shades. The pathological
aberrations of which we shall speak, demonstrate this by forcing one tone or
another to the more or less marked exclusion of the rest.

PSYCHOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF LOVE TO RELIGION

Love and eroticism play a great part in religion, and many derivatives of
religious sentiment are intimately associated with the sexual appetite. As
Krafft-Ebing says, religious ecstasy is closely related to amorous ecstasy,
and very often appears in the guise of consolation and compensation for an
unhappy or disappointed love, or even in the absence of sexual love. In the
insane, religion and eroticism are combined in a very characteristic manner.
Among a number of peoples certain cruel religious customs are the result of
transformed erotic conceptions.
As in religion, there is something mystical in love; the ineffable dream of
eternal ecstasy. This is why the two kinds of mystic and erotic exaltation
become blended in religions.
Krafft-Ebing attributes the cruelty found in many religions to sadism
(sexual lust excited by the sufferings of others). (Vide Chap. VIII.)
"The relationship so often established between religion, lust and cruelty
can be reduced almost to the following formula: at the acme of their
development, the religious and sexual passions show a concordance in
quality and in quantity of excitation, and may consequently replace each
other, under certain circumstances. Under special pathological influences,
both may be transformed into cruelty."—(Krafft-Ebing.)
We shall return to this subject in Chapters VIII and XII.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] This tendency of man has been analyzed with a very refined psychology by
Labiche, in one of his most celebrated comedies: "Le voyage de M. Perichon."

CHAPTER VIToC

ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF SEXUAL LIFE IN MAN AND IN
MARRIAGE

In the study of the sexual question it is absolutely necessary to guard
against subjectiveness and all preconceived theory, and to avoid
sentimentalism as well as eroticism. These two dangers play a considerable
part in the study of human sexual life. Presented in a conscientious and
scientific way the history of marriage furnishes us the most trustworthy
material for the study of the sexual relations of man in social life. It is from
this material that we can learn the relative importance of the different
psychological and psycho-pathological factors in social evolution. But, to
furnish valid material, history must not only be based on trustworthy and
veracious sources; it must also give a comparative study of the sexual
relations which exist in most, if not all, of the peoples actually existing. The
present savage tribes no doubt resemble more closely the primitive peoples
than our hybrid agglomeration of the civilized world. Moreover, the modern
study of ethnology gives us more certain information than the uncertain,
incomplete and often fabulous statements of ancient documents. I am

speaking here of primitive history, and not of the Greek and Roman
civilizations. Unfortunately the correctness of ethnological observations,
and especially their interpretation, still leave much to be desired.
Edward Westermark, professor at Helsingfors, in his "History of Human
Marriage," has given us a monumental work, which is remarkable, not only
for the richness and exactness of its material, but also for the clearness and
good sense of its criticism. I shall give a résumé of Westermark's results, as
the subject is beyond the domain of my special studies. The author has
collected a great number of observations in order to avoid erroneous
conclusions. He warns the reader against a hasty generalization, which
attributes without proof certain customs of living savage tribes to our
primitive ancestors.

ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE

In the previous chapter we have considered the phylogeny of love in
general. We have seen that some of the lower animals, such as the ants and
bees, give evidence of an instinctive social altruism much greater than that
of man, while other animals, such as birds, are superior to us as regards
monogamous conjugal fidelity. But it is a question here of analogies due to
phenomena of convergence, and these animals are of interest to us only as
remote objects of comparison.
As regards marriage in primitive man, we can only compare ourselves
with the living animals most closely allied to us, viz. the anthropoid apes.
In most mammals, marriage (if we may give this name to their sexual
union) is only of very short duration, depending on the time necessary for
the procreation of a single brood of young. After copulation the male
generally pays little attention to the female, beyond protecting her for a
certain time. In the anthropoid apes (orang-utan, chimpanzee, gorilla and
gibbon) however, we find monogamous marriage and the institution of
family life. The male protects the female and the young, and the latter are
often of different ages, showing the existence of conjugal fidelity extending
beyond one birth. While the female and the young remain in their nest,

perched on a tree, the male takes his place at the foot of the tree and
watches over the safety of the family.
According to Westermark this was probably the same in primitive man.
Formed by the father, the mother and the children, the family was in
primitive man a general institution, based on monogamy, polygamy or
polyandry. The wife looked after the children, and the husband protected
the family. No doubt, the husband was not particularly anxious for the
welfare of his wife and children, but concerned himself chiefly in the
satisfaction of his sexual appetite and his pride. He was useful, however, in
building the nest, or hut, in procuring the necessary food, and in defending
his family.
Most legends relate that primitive man lived in promiscuity with women,
without marriage, and that marriage was instituted by some god or by some
law. But this opinion, which is still held by most modern authors, is quite
erroneous, as Westermark has demonstrated in a masterly manner, by the
aid of documents which are absolutely conclusive.
The duty of the husband to provide food for the family is a general law
among savage peoples. A confirmation of this law is found in the fact that
most often in polygamous races the man has only the right to as many
wives as he can support. Every man must give proof that he is capable of
feeding his family. Even after divorce the husband's duties continue, and
may even be transmitted to his heirs. For example, among certain peoples,
his brother is obliged to marry his widow. The husband's duties appear to be
inherited from the higher apes, among whom conjugal fidelity lasts longer
than the sexual appetite. This fidelity has therefore deep phylogenetic roots
in our nature, and we shall see later on that we cannot neglect it without
compromising our social state (Chap. XIII).
The following is the definition of marriage as given by Westermark:
Marriage is a sexual union of variable duration between men and women, a
union which is continued after copulation, at least till the birth of the child.
According to this definition, there may be monogamous, polygamous and
polyandrous marriages, as well as marriage in groups and limited marriage.
It is evident that permanent monogamous unions, such as occur in birds and
the higher apes, are, according to this definition, true marriages, of better
quality even than those of many men.

Among animals which have a definite rutting period, marriage cannot
depend solely on the sexual appetite, or egoistic eroticism, without ceasing
with the rut. It follows from this that natural selection and the mneme
(engraphia) have derived from the sexual appetite certain social or altruistic
instincts, with the object of preserving the species by protection of the
young. Although not the only means of preserving the species, such
instincts are certainly important.
The family is thus the root of marriage. This explains the custom, among
certain races, of marriage only becoming valid after the birth of a child. In
many forms of marriage by purchase, the wife is even bound to return to her
husband the sum paid for her if she remains sterile, and among many
savages the marriage is only celebrated after the birth of the first child. In
Borneo, relations between the sexes are free till pregnancy occurs, and it is
this which determines the duties of marriage. In this respect, these savages
are more just and wiser than us.
In man, a special reason in favor of marriage is the fact that he has no
rutting period. In animals the rutting period is generally regulated so that
the young are born exactly at the time of year when they will find food most
abundant. For example, the muscardin copulates in July and brings forth
young in August, at the time when nuts are ripe, while elephants, whales
and certain monkeys, who find food at all seasons, do not copulate at any
definite period.
The anthropoid apes, however, have a rutting period, and something
analogous is found among certain human races (Californians, Hindus and
certain Australians) in the spring, when sexual orgies are indulged in. In
man there is no particular correlation between eroticism and the possibility
of easily obtaining food for the children at the time of birth. Nevertheless, a
recrudescence of the sexual appetite is generally observed in the spring and
beginning of summer, with a corresponding increase in the number of
conceptions. This is probably explained by the fact that infants born in the
autumn or winter are more robust. Moreover, natural selection has almost
entirely ceased in civilized peoples, owing to the artificial means used to
rear children, and to the diminution which results from their mortality.
We thus see that the institution of marriage in man does not depend on
the excitation of the sexual appetite, for this is, on the whole, continuous.

ANTIQUITY OF MATRIMONIAL INSTITUTIONS

The fact that the anthropoid apes produce feeble and dependent young,
whose infancy is long, has probably been the origin of marriage. Kautsky
says that in primitive man the child belongs to the clan; but this is an error.
Originally, human societies were composed of families, or rather
associations of families. In primitive man, these families play the
fundamental role and constitute the nucleus of society. In the anthropoid
ape we already find the family, but not the clan. This must also have been
the case with the pithecanthropoids and other extinct transitory forms. In
fact, the lowest savages still live as isolated families like the carnivorous
mammals, rather than in clans or tribes. This is the case, for example, with
the Weddas of Ceylon, the indigenes of Terra del Fuego, the aboriginal
Australians, the Esquimaux and certain Indians of Brazil. In this way they
have better conditions for subsistence.
In primitive times therefore, man lived in families, on the produce of the
chase. Later on, the spirit of discovery, the more abundant food obtained by
traps and by the cultivation of plants allowed men to live in tribes. Thus,
intellectual development was the first cause of social life in man, and
Lubbock is certainly wrong in considering that the establishment of clans
dates further back than the first beginning of civilization. Westermark's
conclusions are as follows:
(1). At no period of human existence has family life been replaced by clan
life.
(2). Conjugal life is a heritage from ancestors who lived in a similar way
to the anthropoid apes of the present day.
(3). Although less intimately and less constantly bound to the children
than to the mother, the father has always been in man the protector of the
family.

CRITICISM OF THE DOCTRINE OF PROMISCUITY

Most sociologists believe with Lubbock, Bachofen, MacLennan, Bastian,
Giraud-Teulon, Wilkens, and others that primitive man lived in sexual
promiscuity. If we agree with Westermark that the term marriage includes
polygamy, polyandry and limited marriage, the opinion of these authors is
wrong. What they have considered as promiscuity can always be included
in one of these forms of marriage, even among the indigenes of Hayti,
whose life is the most debauched. The author who has most confused the
question is Fison, with his dogmatic theories concerning the Australians.
Obliged to admit that promiscuity does not exist among these people, he
still maintains that it existed formerly. Curr, who was better acquainted than
Fison with the Australians, has proved that they are normally monogamous.
Similar statements of Bastian, Wilkens and others concerning the
Kustchins, the natives of Terra del Fuego, are also incorrect. In none of the
African tribes is there communion of women, the men, on the other hand,
are extremely jealous. Promiscuity is not observed among savage and
primitive races, but among people already civilized, such as the Buddhist
Butias, in whom man knows neither honor nor jealousy. The savage Weddas
are monogamous, and one of their proverbs says: "Death alone can separate
woman from man."
There is in reality only one true form of promiscuity—the prostitution of
modern civilized races, who have introduced it among savages, subjecting
them to gratify their own lust. Among many savage races there exists, on
the contrary, a very severe monogamy, and they punish with death every
seducer and illegitimate child, as well as the mother. Among others,
however, considerable sexual freedom is allowed before or after marriage.
It is impossible to lay down definite rules, but one thing may be regarded as
universal, viz., that the sexual depravity of savage races most often arises
from the influence of civilized people who immigrate among them and
systematically introduce immorality and debauchery. It is the white
colonists who appropriate the women of savage races and train them in the
worst forms of prostitution. It is the white colonists who introduce alcoholic
drink which disorganizes the most virtuous and loyal habits, and ends with
ruin.
Certain Arab clans exploit European habits of prostitution by sending
their young girls to brothels for purposes of gain. When they have

accumulated a sufficient fortune they return home and marry one of their
fellow countrymen. Similar customs are observed among other races.
In this connection Westermark points out that the more advanced is
civilization, the greater is the number of illegitimate births, and the more
widespread is prostitution. In Europe, the proportion of natural children and
of prostitutes is nearly double in the towns what it is in the country. This
shows the absurdity of regarding promiscuity as a primitive state; on the
contrary, it is a rotten fruit of civilization, and especially of semi-
civilization. Primitive customs are generally chaste, and it is civilization
which corrupts them. In Europe, prostitution is increasing, while marriage is
becoming less frequent; it is the latter which constitutes the primitive and
normal state.
Westermark admits, as we have mentioned above, that sexual liberty
before or after marriage exists among certain tribes; but in spite of this the
custom of careful choice always exists among these people, and this renders
their unions comparatively lasting. He cites as an example the Tounghtas of
India, who practice sexual connection before marriage, but among whom
these connections nearly always lead to marriage; this race considers
prostitution as dishonorable.
We must, however, make one objection to Westermark. Promiscuity in
itself is not necessarily prostitution, for the latter signifies especially the
sale of the body, which is not the case in promiscuity. The fundamental fact
which prevents us admitting the existence of primitive promiscuity among
savage races is the following: As soon as the two sexes are free, the
monogamous instinct of the woman and jealousy of both sexes combine to
reëstablish marriage. True promiscuity can only exist by means of a sort of
legal obligation, such as exists in the colony of Oneidas in New York. In
this colony the members formally agree to mutual and free sexual
intercourse. We must not forget that prostitution is only kept up in women
by the thirst for lucre, and ceases immediately this element disappears.
Before the Reformation there existed in Scotland a singular custom
called "hand-fasting," by which young men had the right to choose a
companion for a year, at the end of which time they could either separate or
become married according to their inclination.

On the other hand, Lubbock mentions certain customs in Greece and
India, the worship of phallus, for example, which obliged young girls to
give themselves to all men. But these customs were not among primitive
races but resulted from the eroticism of highly civilized nations. Thus,
Lubbock's argument concerning the existence of primitive promiscuity falls
to the ground.
Certain savage nations offer their daughters or their servants, rarely their
wives, to their guests. A jus primæ nocti (right to the first night) has also
existed and will sometimes exist in some tribes, but this right is reserved for
the chiefs, kings or priests, and allows them to have sexual intercourse
before the husband with every newly married woman during the first night
of the nuptials. This is a barbarous custom based on the right of the
stronger, and analogous to the privileges claimed by the European nobles
from their serfs or peasants. But such abuses do not constitute promiscuity,
as Lubbock maintains.
In many countries the courtesans and concubines were held in high
esteem, and are so even at the present day, more than is supposed; but this
again is not a question of promiscuity.
Morgan has deduced his theories of promiscuity from terms employed in
certain savage dialects to designate relationship. These conclusions are false
and Morgan, like others, has been led into error by the obscurity of the
language of these people. The simple fact that paternal parentage is
recognised among them proves the absurdity of Morgan's reasoning, for
promiscuity cannot recognize paternal parentage.
In 1860 Bachofen drew attention to the ancient custom of naming the
children after the maternal side, and it is now certain that this custom has
existed among many primitive races, while in others children were named
after the paternal side. The term matriarchy is given to denomination after
the maternal side. MacLennan maintains the existence of matriarchy in
promiscuity, but this is inadmissible. Maternity is self-evident, while
paternity can only be proved indirectly by the aid of reasoning. No doubt all
nations appear to have recognized the real part which the father takes in
every conception, and from this results the singular custom among certain
tribes, in which the husband retires to his couch and fasts during the
accouchement of his wife.

Westermark explains matriarchy in a simpler and more natural way, by
the intimate relations of the child to the mother. Children, especially when
they are still young, follow the mother when she separates from the father.
Matriarchy is quite natural in marriages of short duration, with change of
wives, and in polygamy; while, in monogamous nations, it is patriarchy, or
denomination after the paternal line, which dominates.
Among nations where the denomination of uncles exists, and where the
married woman lives with her family till she has a child, matriarchy results
quite naturally from this fact. In Japanese families who have only
daughters, the husband of the eldest takes his wife's family name. Among
savages in general, the name has a great importance. When rank and
property are only inherited in the female line, the children are always
named after this line. We are thus concerned here with very complex
questions which have nothing to do with promiscuity.
Maine has proved that prostitution and promiscuity lead to sterility and
decadence. Among the few tribes in which polyandry is the rule, especially
in Thibet, several brothers generally have the same wife. But they usually
alternate, and never dwell together. In the fifteenth century, in the Canary
Islands, every woman had three husbands, each of whom lived with her for
a month, and the one who was to possess her during the following month
had to work both for her and for the other two husbands. Polyandry has
always originated in scarcity of women.
The jealousy of men, which has never ceased to exist, gives the clearest
proof of the impossibility of promiscuity. Polyandry is only possible among
a few feeble and degenerate races who ignore jealousy. These tribes are
diminishing and tend to disappear. The jealousy of savages is generally so
terrible that among them a woman who commits adultery is usually put to
death along with her seducer. Sometimes they are content with cutting off
her nose or inflicting other chastisement. It is from jealousy that results the
obligation of chastity in the woman.
Religious ideas on the future of man after death are often combined with
these ideas; this is why chastity, death, or even all kinds of torture are, in
certain countries, imposed on the woman after death of the husband.
It must not be forgotten that among most savages the wife is regarded as
the property of her husband. If the latter lends his wife to a guest, he offers

her as part of a feast. This is not, however, promiscuity, and we must
understand that these people have quite different sentiments to ours. In
clans or tribes the most powerful men have always had the youngest and
most beautiful wives.
To sum up, there is not the shadow of proof in support of the doctrine of
primitive promiscuity, a doctrine which is based on purely hypothetical
grounds.

MARRIAGE AND CELIBACY

Among animals the voluntary celibate exists only among the females of
certain birds which have become widowed, and even then the case is rare.
In savage man, nearly every individual marries, and the women look upon
celibacy or widowhood almost in the same way as death. The savage
despises celibates as thieves or sorcerers. In his opinion a man without a
wife is not a man. He therefore marries at a much earlier age than civilized
man, sometimes even (in Greenland) before fecundation is possible. Among
certain Indians men sometimes marry at the age of nine or ten years,
generally between fourteen and eighteen; the girls between nine and twelve.
In some comparatively civilized nations the celibate is so much despised
that they go as far as marrying the spirits of departed children! Among the
Greeks, celibates were punished, and among the Romans they were taxed
heavily. Celibacy becomes more rare the further we go back in the history
of the human race; celibacy increases with the corruption of morals. It is
civilization which does most harm to marriage, especially in the large
towns, and the age at which people marry becomes more and more
advanced, although in Europe there are more women than men. Want of
money and insufficient salaries diminish more and more the number of
marriages in the large centers, while among savages, and also among our
peasants, the women and children are one of the principal sources of
wealth, because they work and have few needs. Among the middle classes,
on the contrary, the wife is a source of expense, as well as the education of
the children. For men, the length of intellectual and professional education
(and military service in many countries) cause marriage to be postponed
and celibacy is obligatory at the time when the sexual appetite is most

powerful. Thus, the more civilization advances, the longer is marriage
postponed. The refinement and the multiplicity of pleasures also diminish
the attractions of marriage.
Lastly, intellectual culture exalts the desire for the ideal, so that men and
women well suited to each other meet less frequently, as their mutual
adaptation becomes more complicated.
Nevertheless, I must repeat here what I have already said concerning the
way in which novelists present us with the extreme passions of ill-balanced
people and describe them as types, the normal man being too prosaic to
attract their readers. Rotten as it is with neurotic degenerates, our modern
society is certainly not wanting in pathological models for the novelists, but
it is nevertheless false to always put these into prominence. The cultured
man of well-balanced mind, adapts himself to marriage on the whole very
well, and is not always so difficult to please. However, it must be
recognized that marriage becomes less easy if a too high ideal is expected
from it. With characteristic prudence, Westermark does not answer the
question whether marriage will progressively diminish in the future.
The Cult of Virgins. Sanctity of the Celibate.—Among many savages
the singular idea obtains that there is something impure in sexual
intercourse. The celibacy ordained by several religions originates from
ideas of this kind.
Many nations have worshiped virgins, for instance the vestal virgins of
the Romans. The mother of Buddha was declared to be holy and pure,
Buddha having been conceived supernaturally, according to the legend. A
Buddhist monk is forbidden to have sexual intercourse, even with animals!
Celibacy among certain priests exists also in China.
Among the Hebrews, the idea of the impurity of marriage had got a
footing, and this no doubt powerfully influenced Christianity. St. Paul thus
places celibacy higher than marriage, and this is how the idea became
established among the fathers of the Church that the repression of all
sensuality was a cardinal virtue, and that God had contemplated in paradise
an asexual reproduction of the human species, which was annulled by the
fall of Adam. Men who remained pure were to be immortal. "The earth is
filled with marriage and the heavens with virginity," says Jeremiah. Such
are the ideas which have given rise to the obligation of celibacy for priests.

Westermark thinks that the idea of impurity attached to sexual intercourse
is possibly derived from the instinctive repugnance experienced by
members of the same family to have sexual intercourse between
themselves. Banished from the family circle this intercourse was tainted
with a stigma which offended modesty, and by the association of ideas so
common in man, this stigma was extended to legal marriage outside the
family. Moreover, religious celibacy is complicated by ascetic conceptions,
and the idea of the impurity of sexual intercourse is by no means general.
For my part, I think rather that the jealousy natural to both sexes has
gradually compelled them to limit their sexual intercourse to intimacy and
to conceal it. But man is ashamed of everything which he conceals, and we
shall soon see that the sentiment of modesty concerns all parts of the body
which are concealed. This simple fact is sufficient to give rise to the idea
that coitus is impure, and I do not think it necessary to seek any further
explanation.

ADVANCES MADE BY ONE SEX TO THE OTHER—DEMANDS IN
MARRIAGE

A natural law compels the male germinal cell to move toward the egg;
exceptions to this law are rare, the female germinal cells being larger and
produced in less number. It follows that in copulation, or the union of
individual sexual entities, man included, it is the male which is the active
party and makes the advances. Among certain tribes (Paraguayans, Garos,
Moquis), however, it is the female who makes the advances. Everyone
knows the combats for the female which takes place between the male of
animals, cocks and stags for example. Among certain Indians similar
struggles are also observed, after which the vanquished has to surrender his
wife to the conqueror. The same custom obtained among the ancient
Greeks, as we see in the suitors for Penelope. In Ireland similar customs
prevailed up to the last few centuries.
On the other hand, we often see among savages and among birds the
favors of the female obtained by assiduous courtship rather than by combat.
In some savage tribes struggles take place between the females for

possession of the male. However, it is usually coquetry in all its degrees
which furnishes woman with the basis for her advances. In many nations, if
not in most, women have the right to refuse a demand for marriage.

METHODS OF ATTRACTION

Adornment in the Two Sexes.—Vanity is older than man, for it is found
in many animals. The lowest and most savage peoples adorn themselves.
Tattooing, staining the skin, rings on the arms and feet, in the lips, nose and
ears serve to attract one sex toward the other. A Santal woman may carry as
much as fifteen kilogrammes of ornaments on her body. Vanity leads to
incredible eccentricities, certain tribes, for example, pull out their teeth to
increase their attractions. Absurdities of this kind are often associated with
religious ideas, although the latter generally play a secondary part. The true
origin of these customs lies in vanity, combined with the sexual desire to
captivate. In hot climates, at any rate, the savages only commenced to cover
their bodies with clothes with the object of pleasing by personal adornment.
The religious observances attached to the custom of adornment are not
primitive. The latter is derived from the sexual appetite and from vanity,
and has only been incorporated in the dogmas of religious mysticism after
being first established in the habits of the people.
Among savages the men are more inclined to personal adornment and to
coquetry than the women. This is not due to the inferior social position of
the women, for those who enjoy the greatest liberty are often less
extensively tattooed than those who are reduced to slavery. The true reason
is that the man risks much more than the woman by remaining celibate, and
this obliges him to take more pains than the women to make himself
fascinating. As a rule the wives of savages attach less importance to their
personal appearance than to that of their husbands, and the vanity of the
latter is guided chiefly by the taste of their wives. The objects with which
savages adorn themselves are generally trophies.
Among civilized people, on the contrary, the men have a much wider
choice and many women remain celibate. This is one of the reasons which
compel women to study their personal appearance and the art of flirtation.

In Europe, earrings represent the last vestige of the savage methods of
adornment.
Sentiment of Shame of the Genital Organs. Nudity.—What is the
origin of the fact that man is ashamed of his genital organs? Nothing of the
kind occurs in animals. The psychologist, Wundt, maintains that man has
always had a sexual sentiment of modesty. This is not correct, for many
races present no trace of it, and sometimes cover all parts of their body
except the genital organs. In some, the men, and in others the women go
absolutely naked. Originally, clothes were only worn for adornment or for
protection against the cold. The Massais would be ashamed to hide their
penis, and it is their custom to exhibit it. Other savages cover the glans
penis only with a small cap; they retire to pass water, but regard themselves
as fully dressed so long as the glans penis is covered. The girdles and other
garments of savage women are intended for ornament, and as a means of
attraction; they have nothing to do with modesty. In a society where every
one goes naked, nudity seems quite natural, and provokes neither shame nor
eroticism. The custom of adorning the sexual organs then serves as a means
of attraction, both in men and women. The short transparent skirts of a
ballet dancer are in reality much more immodest than the nudity of the
female savages. A great naturalist has said that veiled forms provoke the
sexual appetite more than nudity. Snow remarks that association with naked
savages excites much less sensuality than the society of fashionably dressed
women in our salons. Read also remarks "Nothing is more moral or less
calculated to excite the passions than nudity." It is needless to say that this
statement is only correct when nudity is a matter of custom, for in sexual
matters it is always novelty which attracts. Pious persons have tried to make
savages modest by clothing them, but have only produced the contrary
effect. Savage women regard it as shameful to cover their sexual organs.
The naturalist, Wallace, found in one tribe a young girl who possessed a
dress, but who was quite as much ashamed of clothing herself with it as one
of our ladies would be of undressing before strangers.
It is only owing to the custom of wearing clothes that nudity provokes the
sexual appetite. This custom develops artificially a sentiment of modesty
with regard to nudity, which increases progressively in intensity and is
especially marked in aged women. It is not so much habit, as to the feeling
of progressive deterioration of their charms, which leads the latter to cover

themselves as they grow older, and is part of the instinctive æsthetic
sentiment of woman.
At the orgies and fêtes held among savages the women cover their sexual
organs with certain objects, as a means to excite the men. Complete nudity
is found more often in savage women than in the men.
Later on when it became the custom to wear clothes, nudity became
attractive and was considered shameful. This is why the Chinese feel shame
at exposing their feet, the Mahometans their faces, and some savages even
the ends of their fingers.
Certain customs, like circumcision among the Jews, Polynesians and
Australians; the artificial elongation of the lips of the vulva in Hottentots,
Malays, and North American Indians, originated, according to Westermark,
in the intention of exciting the sexual appetite, or of introducing variety into
its satisfaction. Later on routine, which sanctions everything, transferred
these customs into religious cult. It is possible, however, that among the
Jews, who are a practical race, the hygienic advantage of circumcision took
a part in its transformation into a rite.
To resume, everything derogatory to established custom excites the
sentiment of shame or modesty, not only in sexual matters but in others.
Most children are ashamed of not behaving exactly as their comrades or
their brothers and sisters, and are very uncomfortable if they are obliged to
behave otherwise. All sentiments of morality and modesty rest on
conventionalities. The savage women burst into laughter when the naked
companions of Livingstone turned their backs from modesty. The sentiment
of modesty or shame thus depends only on exceptional violation of an old
custom. This is why unconventional ways in one of the sexes (especially in
woman) tend to offend the sentiments of modesty, and usually excite the
sexual appetite of the other sex.

LIBERTY OF CHOICE IN MARRIAGE—PATRIARCHISM

Among savages, the women sometimes have the right of giving their
hand in marriage, sometimes not. The latter case is not surprising in
countries where women are considered as merchandise. Among the

Esquimaux every girl is betrothed from birth. Among the Boschimans,
Ashantis, etc., the unborn girl is even betrothed while she is in her mother's
womb! These betrothals are generally arranged by the maternal parents
together with the mother.
Very often, however, the consent of the woman is required; or, the
marriage may be only valid after the birth of the first child on condition of
the woman's consent.
Among the American Indians, if the woman is not a consenting party she
elopes with her lover and thus escapes the would-be-husband. In this way
elopement has gradually become a recognized institution among certain
races. I was told by a Bulgarian that the peasants in his country buy their
wives from the father, generally for two or three hundred francs, but if the
father demands too much, the women are raped. After this marriage
becomes indispensable and the father receives nothing, for, in Bulgaria,
which is not yet spoiled by civilization, unions apart from marriage are
considered as a terrible disgrace.
In certain races, the woman has a free choice among several men and her
wish becomes law, so that the parents have no voice in the matter; this
occurs among the natives of the Celebes. The bridegroom is nevertheless
obliged to pay the dowry demanded. Similar customs prevail among other
races.
Westermark comes to the conclusion that in the primitive state of
humanity the women had a much freer choice than afterward. Marriage by
purchase developed later and constituted an intermediate stage. When the
first civilizations became more complicated and recognized the value of
woman's labor, the fathers began to sell their daughters, as we now see
savage tribes abandon their women to prostitution with the white man. But
in primitive times, when there was neither civilization, money, nor labor,
properly so-called, each individual fought for his life and the father had no
more possibility of selling his daughter as a slave than a gorilla or an orang-
utan would have to-day.
Marriage by rape, which occurred after wars when the women were
abducted and married against their will, must not be confounded with
marriage by elopement which takes place with the woman's consent, and of
which the latest fashion is elopement by automobile.

Among savages, the boys are also most often the property of the father,
who has the right to sell them and even to put them to death. But they
become free at the age of puberty and then have the right to marry
according to their inclination without being forced by their parents.
There existed and still exist many patriarchal races (certain Indians and
Asiatics, for example) among whom the father possesses unlimited power.
The older he is the more he is honored, and the more his power is
uncontested. All the children and grandchildren, with their wives and
children, eat at his table; none of his descendants can marry without his
consent, etc. The effects of patriarchism are deplorable and very immoral.
The patriarch abuses his power—gives his old wives to his children and
takes the young ones, for example. The purest and most virtuous Japanese
girl is obliged to go to a brothel if her father orders it. The patriarch has the
power of life and death over both sexes, and from this is derived the cult of
ancestors. At the present day we see immorality of this kind in the Russian
patriarchism among the peasants; the fathers have the custom of misusing
their sons' wives. Patriarchism thus degenerates into atrocious tyranny on
the part of the chief of the family, who becomes looked upon as a god.
A law which is common in the Latin races, which forbids marriage before
the age of thirty, without the consent of the father, is a vestige of
patriarchism.
We see, therefore, that quite primitive savage races approached our most
modern ideas in liberty of choice in marriage. Between these two periods
humanity was under the yoke of a barbarous error—the intermediate stage
of marriage by purchase and patriarchal autocracy. There has existed and
still exists more than one aberration of this kind in the intermediate stages
of civilization; for instance, torture, slavery and the use of narcotic
substances, such as alcohol.

SEXUAL SELECTION

By sexual selection we mean union by choice among males and females.
In the vertebrates, the female chooses much more commonly than the male,
the latter being more disposed to pair with all the females than the females

with all the males. We may certainly admit that this was also the case in
primitive man, especially when there existed a rutting period, for then the
sexual appetite was more violent. Moreover, even at the present day,
women are on the average more difficult to please and more strict in their
choice than men.
In the case of hybrids it is generally the male which violates the law of
instinct. Female slaves often flee from their free husbands, but we never see
male slaves abandon their free wives. Among savage races the woman is
always more difficult to please than the man. Among half-breeds, it is
nearly always the father who belongs to a higher race. The inverse rarely
occurs; it is exceptional for a white woman to marry a negro. The same
thing is reproduced among ourselves; we often see a cultured man marry an
uneducated woman, but a cultured woman seldom marries a laborer.
It is especially among savages that the woman prefers the man who is
strongest, most skillful, most ardent, and most audacious. Heroes always
haunt the minds of women, who love to throw themselves at the head of
conquerors. The ideal of certain women in Borneo is a husband who has
killed many enemies and possesses their heads (head-hunters of Borneo).
This psychological trait responds to natural selection, for the women obtain
by this custom better protectors and stronger children.
On the other hand, man looks instinctively for a young, healthy and well-
developed woman. It is on this basis that Greek art formed Eros and
Aphrodite, designating the latter as goddess of both love and beauty.
Conception of Beauty.—The conception of beauty is very relative. The
Australians laugh at our long noses and the natives of Cochin-China at our
white teeth and red cheeks. Certain savage women bind their legs below the
knees to make them swell, this effect being part of their idea of beauty. The
Chinese admire the deformed feet of their women and their prominent
cheek bones. In each nation the conception of beauty generally corresponds
to the ideal type of the race, for both sexes. As a general rule muscle is
admired in man and fullness of figure in woman. The Hottentots like
women's breasts to be so pendulous that they can throw them over shoulder,
and suckle the infants carried on their backs; they also admire the elongated
lips of the vulva.

There are, therefore, few general typical characters of sexual preference;
these are especially the ideal type of the race and the health of both sexes,
voluptuous forms and grace in women, muscular strength and dexterity in
men. Everything else is relative and variable, and depends on the local point
of view, customs, race, individual taste, etc.
Thus, according to the conception of æsthetics, tattooing, the
arrangement of the hair and beard, deformations of the nose, cranium, or
feet, are admired by different peoples. Each race extols its own
peculiarities; the European compares a woman's breasts to snow, the Malay
to gold, etc. The natives of Coromandel paint their gods black and their
devils white, while in Europe it is the reverse.
The association of love with beauty is not based on æsthetic sentiments,
for the latter are disinterested, while the original instinct of love is
interested. The association of the two things depends on the instinctive
necessity of health, combined with the sexual appetite, although custom has
produced numerous aberrations. Everything which differs markedly from
the type of the race is more or less pathological. This is why instinct,
determined by natural selection, repels it.
Fashion also rules among savages, but is less changeable among them
than with us, and their taste for adornment only varies in the narrow circle
of their customs.
Climate has a powerful action on the types of races, the latter being
generally adapted to the climate in which they live. Thus, the European
becomes darker in the tropics while negroes and Indians become paler in
the north.

LAWS OF RESEMBLANCE—HYBRIDS

Every animal species has an instinctive repugnance to pair with another.
Even where they are possible, natural hybrids are rare, and only become a
little more frequent in domestic animals and plants. The fecundity of
hybrids diminishes when they have connection among themselves, and this
explains why the instinct for such connections tends to gradually disappear.

In his book on "The Mneme," Semon explains the infecundity of hybrids
in a very plausible manner, by the disorder that a too large quantity of
dissimilar hereditary engrams causes in the hereditary mneme of two
conjugated cells. When the parents differ from each other only in a
moderate degree homophony may still be reëstablished, and then the
divergencies have a very favorable effect on the product, by the new
combinations which they furnish in the course of its development.
Moral ideas follow the course of instincts, and this explains why sexual
connection with animals is regarded as a horrible crime. This is especially
produced by pathological aberration, or when one sex is completely isolated
from the other. There is also a certain degree of aversion to copulation
between different races, in animals as well as man; for example, between
sheep and horses of different races, and between white men, negroes and
Indians. There are, however, many hybrids or half-breeds in South America,
and in Mexico they even constitute two-thirds of the population.
Broca maintained that human hybrids produced by the crossing of remote
races, for example, between English and negroes or Australians, were
usually sterile. Westermark disputes this, but agrees that these hybrids
become enfeebled in a few generations. It has also been established that
mixed marriage between Jews and Aryans are generally less fecund; but this
fact is not yet sufficiently explained. Mulattoes, or hybrids between negroes
and whites, constitute a degenerate race and hardly viable, at any rate if
their descendants do not return entirely to one of the original races. Half-
breeds between whites and American Indians, also called Ladinos, seem on
the contrary to form a viable race, but one of little valor.

PROHIBITION OF CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES

Sexual union between near relations nearly always causes a feeling of
repugnance in man, and has been stigmatized by the term incest. Coitus
between mother and son especially excites disgust. Sexual connection
between parents and children, as well as between brothers and sisters is,
however, common among certain tribes. Many other races allow marriage
between brothers and sisters, but this is elsewhere generally condemned.

Among the Weddas, marriage between an elder brother and his younger
sister is considered normal, while that between a younger brother and his
elder sister, or between a nephew and his aunt, is regarded as unnatural. The
latter simply shows that unions between young men and old women are not
natural. Unions between brothers and sisters, and especially between half-
brothers and half-sisters were licit among the Persians, Egyptians, Syrians,
Athenians and ancient Jews. Those between uncles and nieces (more rarely
between aunts and nephews) are sometimes permitted, sometimes
prohibited. With the exception of Spain and Russia marriages between first
cousins are allowed in Europe.
Exogamy and Endogamy.—Among many savages the prohibition of
consanguineous marriage may be extended to relationship of the third
degree. Marriage may even be prohibited among all members of the same
tribe or clan, even when they are not related. This is called exogamous
marriage, and reaches its extreme development among the Australians, who
are only allowed to marry into remote clans.
We thus see that the great majority of savages extend their idea of incest
much further than we do. The reason of this has been much discussed. It
was formerly said that consanguineous marriage was contrary to the
commandments of God; that it offended the natural sentiment of modesty;
that it obscures relationship, etc. Nowadays, it is said to be injurious to
posterity. Ethnography teaches us, however, that these statements are of
little value.
Along with the exogamy of many tribes there is among other savages a
system of endogamy, described by MacLennan; this is the prohibition of
marriage between different clans. Spencer and MacLennan have different
explanations of this custom which seem hardly natural. Westermark appears
to be nearer the truth in remarking as follows: The sexual appetite,
especially in man, is excited by new impressions and cooled by habit. It is
not the fact of a man and woman being related, but intimate companionship
since youth, which produces in them a repugnance to sexual union. We find
the same repugnance between adopted brothers and sisters and between
friends who have been intimate since childhood. When, on the contrary,
brothers and sisters or near relatives have been separated from each other
since an early age, they often fall in love with each other when they meet
later on. There is, therefore, no innate or instinctive repugnance to incest in

itself, but only against sexual union between individuals who have lived
together since childhood. As it is parents and their children who are usually
in this situation, everything is explained simply and clearly.
The causes of exogamy are explained in the same way, by the fact that
members of the same clan often live together in close intimacy. It is the
small clans, formed of thirty or fifty individuals of a few families living
together, which have the most severe laws against incest or endogamy.
Where the families live in separate homes, such prohibitions do not exist.
The Maoris, who are endogamous, inhabit villages which are widely
separated, and marriage between relations is allowed. Endogamy generally
exists where the clan life is little developed, and where relatives know and
see little of each other. The aversion to marriage between persons living
together has thus created prohibition of marriage between relations as well
as that of marriage between members of the same clan. It is the same reason
which has led to the prohibition of marriage between brothers-and sisters-
in-law, between brothers and adopted sisters, etc. In people living in small
communities, endogamy does not appear to have ever existed.
Incest between relatives living together appears to have everywhere the
same natural cause—the scarcity of women in isolated families living in
remote districts. There is also a psycho-pathological form of incest
associated with morbid appetites in the families of degenerates. In animals
living alone and whose families break up very rapidly (cats for example)
incestuous unions, between parents and young, for instance, are quite
common.
Let us now consider the scientific side of the question. We see
everywhere that sexual union between quite distinct animal species gives no
result. At the most, certain closely allied species, such as the ass and the
horse, the rabbit and the hare, give progeny which are themselves sterile
(mules, etc.). The feebleness and sterility of hybrids derived from widely
separated races or nearly allied different species proves the deficiency in
vital force of the offspring of fundamentally dissimilar procreators. But, on
the other hand, the dangers of continuous consanguineous reproduction are
no less evident. Perpetual unions between brothers and sisters for several
generations, lead to degeneration of the race. For example, the still-births
will be 25 per cent. instead of 8 per cent., which is the figure in ordinary

crossings. The prejudice against consanguineous unions may, however,
depend on the accumulation of certain pathological defects.
Westermark admits that it is difficult to show clearly that consanguineous
marriages are prejudicial in man. The consanguinity which causes evil
effects in animals concerns long-continued unions between parents and
children or brothers and sisters. But this never occurs in man. Animals and
plants may be perpetuated for many years in the closest consanguinity
without degeneration resulting. Among the Persians and Egyptians, intimate
unions have existed for a long time without producing degeneration.
On the other hand, breeders of animals tell us that a single drop of new
blood (or rather sperm) is enough to counteract all the evil effects of
consanguinity. In man the most frequent incests are always interrupted by
some other union. The Ptolemies, who nearly always married their sisters,
nieces or cousins, lived long and were far from being sterile. In Ceylon, the
Weddas perpetuate their consanguineous unions; insanity is rare among
them, but they are small, unfruitful and tend to become extinct.
In Europe, the question of marriages between first cousins has been much
discussed, and it has been constantly attempted to prove that they are
injurious. Nevertheless, when we examine the question impartially, we
always find that the prejudices against them do not arrive from
consanguinity, but from certain pathological defects, such as insanity,
hemophilia, etc., which are naturally perpetuated by consanguineous unions
when they are accumulated in one family, as well as when two insane
persons of different families marry. Therefore it is not consanguineous
unions in themselves (which are always accidental in man and interrupted
by others) but the hereditary reproduction of pathological defects, often of
blastophthoric origin, which are the real cause of the evil. Statistics have
clearly proved that marriage between first cousins plays no part in the
causes of insanity.
Influenced, no doubt, by general opinion, Westermark tries to believe in
some instinctive repulsion of man for consanguineous unions. If in modern
society such unions, perpetuated between parents and children, brothers and
sisters, were still produced as in animals I should agree that they might be
injurious to the species; but, considering how cosmopolitan and mixed is
our modern society, I cannot make the concession. On the contrary, I

maintain that the isolated unions which still take place between relatives in
civilized countries are so exceptional that they do not present the least
danger, excepting among the families of degenerates. It is therefore only a
question of superstition. What we have to guard against are unions between
pathological individuals and blastophthoric influences. We must not forget
that many degenerates and idiots have a great pathological tendency to
incest, and this is no doubt why the effect has been confounded with the
cause.
Westermark himself gives us a striking example. Since the most remote
times the inhabitants of the Commune of Bats, composed of 3,300 persons,
have intermarried; yet this population is very healthy and vigorous and
shows no sign of degeneration. On the other hand, we have seen that
contrasts produce a mutual attraction in the domain of love, while strong
resemblances rather repel. Bernardin de St. Pierre has said that love is
created by contrasts; the greater the contrast the greater the love.
Schopenhauer remarks as follows: "Every individual seeks in the opposite
sex peculiarities which contrast with his own; the most masculine man
seeks the most feminine woman, while small and feeble men love large and
strong women; people with short noses prefer long ones, tall and thin men
prefer short and stout women. All this increases fecundity." Thus instinct is
sufficient to protect humanity against consanguinity, each sex instinctively
seeking the contrasts which consanguinity diminishes.

SENTIMENT AND CALCULATION IN SEXUAL SELECTION

Youth, beauty, health, finery and flirtation excite the sexual appetite.
Many other sentiments are accessory, such as admiration, the pleasure of
possession, respect, pity, etc. Inclination is an important element, but in no
way necessary to sexual union.
In the lower stages of human development, tenderness toward children is
much stronger than sexual love. Among many savage races the love of a
man for his wife is completely wanting, as well as that of the wife for her
husband. In this case marriage depends on reciprocal convenience, on the
desire to have children, and profits by personal comfort and the satisfaction

of a purely animal sexual appetite. However, among these people the
parents have a tender regard for their children. The husband has the right to
beat his wife, but the wife is considered as unnatural or even criminal if she
beats her children. Among the North American Indians, for example,
conjugal love is, so to speak, unknown. On the other hand, in other savage
races, such as the Touaregs, the Niam-Niams, the New Caledonians, the
Tonganese and Australians, the conjoints have a deep affection for each
other, and the husband often commits suicide on the death of his wife. On
the whole, the sentiments of affection of the conjoints are the result of a
long sexual life in common, and they are especially strengthened by the
love of the parents for their children.
As a rule, the mutual attachment of conjoints for each other among
cultivated races is developed along with altruism. The tenderness and
refinement of love as they exist at the present day among highly civilized
races were unknown to most savages and to the older civilizations. In China
it is considered good manners to beat the wife, and when a poor Chinaman
treats his wife with consideration, it is to avoid having to buy another. What
the Arab understands by love is only sexual appetite, and among the ancient
Greeks it was nearly the same.
In civilized Europe mental culture progresses in the direction of equality
of rights between the two sexes, so that a man regards his wife more as a
companion who is his equal and no longer a slave. Community of interests,
opinions, sentiments and culture constitute a primary condition for
sentiments of mutual sympathy and favors affection. No doubt, excitation of
the sexual appetite by contrasts acts here as an antagonistic force. Contrast
should not be so great as to exclude sympathy.
Too great difference in age is dangerous for attachment, for it causes too
great a divergence in the aims and interests of life. Education and social
equality also favors love, and this tends to preserve class distinction. It is
rare for a well-educated man to fall in love with a peasant, or a laboring
man with an educated woman, except in a sensual way. Men generally
avoid marriage with individuals of another race, or of another religion.
Endogamy and exogamy do not form such an absolute contrast as at first
sight might appear. Even among exogamous races, there is a limit which
must not be passed. These races often prohibit marriage with individuals of

another race. Among the Arabs, for example, the instinct of ethnical
separation is so strong, that the same Bedouin wife who will prostitute
herself for money with Turks or Europeans, would think it dishonorable to
marry one of them. In this way custom produces endogamy of caste and
class among the same people. The same with the nobility; in ancient Rome
it was forbidden for a patrician to marry a plebeian. Sometimes an
endogamy of religious origin is met with, among the Jews for example.
Children are treasures for the man of low culture, while they become a
burden to the cultivated man. In spite of this the natural man ardently
desires children. In Switzerland, two-fifths of the divorces occur in sterile
unions, although the latter only form one-fifth of all marriages.
Calculation often smothers sentiment when it becomes the basis of
marriage. We live to-day under the sway of Mammon, with the result that
the influence of love, strength, beauty, capacity for work, intelligence, skill,
character and even health, count for little compared with money in the
question of marriage. This sad sign is really a new form of marriage by
purchase, hypocritically disguised.

MARRIAGE BY RAPE AND MARRIAGE BY PURCHASE

The rape of women is an established custom in some regions. Certain
marriage ceremonies prove that rape was formerly much more common
than at the present day. Among certain Indian tribes the simulation of rape
and abduction of the woman form part of the marriage ceremonies; custom
requiring that the woman must feign to resist.
According to Spencer, marriage by rape originated in the prudery of
woman, while MacLennan attributes it to the predominance of exogamy;
but, in reality, marriage by rape exists in races which are absolutely
endogamous. Westermark believes it arose from the repugnance to unions
contracted in a narrow circle. The savage has difficulty in procuring a wife
without giving the father compensation; besides, his own repugnance to the
companions of his childhood and the prejudices against unions between
relations, as well as the enmity of other clans, all increase the difficulties to
be overcome. This is why he often decides on rape. Marriage by rape has

not, however, been the rule at any period, and on the whole, unions
concluded by mutual agreement have always predominated.
Marriage by purchase has followed marriage by rape, and forms a
slightly higher stage of civilization, developed by exchange of money or
other symbols. It first appears, in Australia, for example, as marriage by
exchange (exchange of a woman for a sister or a daughter). Afterward
young men gain their wives by working as servants for the father. In
marriage by purchase the price is based on the beauty, health and social
position of the woman. A young girl is generally worth more than a widow
or a rejected woman. Skill in female manual labor also increases the price.
Among the Indians of British Columbia a wife will cost from twenty to
forty pounds sterling, while in Oregon they are exchanged for bisons' skins
or blankets. Among the Kaffirs from three to ten cows is a low price, twenty
to thirty a high price for a wife. When a wife was given gratis, her parents
had a right to the children. Marriage by purchase and by exchange still
exists among the lower races as it formerly ruled among civilized peoples.
We still possess the rudiments.
Marriage by rape or by purchase has, however, never been in general
usage. Certain races in India and Africa considered it a disgrace to pay a
price for a wife.
From the historical point of view it is interesting to note that, in the
ceremonies of marriage by purchase, a simulated and symbolical rape of the
betrothed still recalls the old form of marriage by rape; also, in races where
a higher form has replaced marriage by purchase, traces of the latter are still
preserved in certain nuptial symbols.

DECADENCE OF MARRIAGE BY PURCHASE—THE DOT

The position of woman has undergone steady improvement in higher
civilization by the progress of altruism. This is why culture, in India, China,
Greece, Rome and Germany, etc., has gradually discredited marriage by
purchase. This was at first replaced by the custom of giving wedding
presents to the bride; afterward the opposite custom was introduced of the
bride bringing her dot to the bridegroom.
A singular transition between these two systems is constituted by
simulated purchase, in which the bridegroom offers presents to the bride's
parents, which are afterward returned to him. Among certain savages the
bride's parents return the purchase money of their daughter to the
bridegroom in another form. Such restitution was often the origin of the dot.
Among the Romans the dot became the property of the husband, and
from this is derived the modern custom which usually gives the husband the
right to administer his wife's dot, which remains the property of the wife
and her family.
Among the Mexicans, where divorce for conjugal discord is frequent,
and among certain Mahometans, division of property exists in marriage,
and the wife's property is returned to her when she is separated or divorced.
In Europe at the present time, especially under the influence of French
customs, there is established a kind of marriage by inverse purchase (which
already existed among the Greeks), in the sense that the parents of young
girls obtain husbands for them by means of a large dot. Westermark
concludes this subject with the following words: "If she does not possess
special personal attractions, a young girl without a dot, at the present day,
runs a great chance of not getting married. This state of things is quite
naturally developed in a society where monogamy is legally enforced;
where women are more numerous than men; where many men never marry,
and where married women too often lead a life of idleness." If we add to
this: "in a society where Mammon rules as absolute master," the picture will
not be wanting in accuracy.

NUPTIAL CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES

In primitive races where the wife is simply bought like merchandise,
often after mutual agreement, nuptial ceremonies do not exist. They
generally originate later from the symbols of a form of marriage since
abandoned. The ceremony being concluded and the marriage recognized as
legal, it is followed by feasting. Certain religious ceremonies are generally
combined with marriage. The customs of our modern marriages arise from
the same source. At the time of early Christianity there were no religious
ceremonies and even up till the year 1563, the date of the end of the
Council of Trent, religious benediction of marriage was not obligatory.
Luther held that marriage should be purely civil, but legal civil marriage
was only introduced among us by the French Revolution, while it had
existed in remote times among the Peruvians, Nicaraguans and others.
Among certain races, marriages concluded without dot, without ceremony,
or without purchase, and even those between different castes, are often
regarded as concubinage.

FORMS OF MARRIAGE

Leaving aside hermaphrodites, such as the snails, in which each
individual has both kinds of sexual organs and plays the part of both male
and female, there are among animals with separate sexes five forms of
conjugal union:
(1). Temporary or perpetual monogamy, or marriage between one
individual of one sex and one of the other sex. This is the case with most
birds and mammals and many races of man.
(2). Polygymy or polygamy, or the marriage of one male with several
females. This occurs in ruminants, stags, fowls, and other animals, as well
as in some human beings; for example, the Islamites, negroes, American
Indians, Mormons, etc.
(3). Polyandry, or the marriage of one female with several males. This is
met with chiefly in the ants, in which each female is generally fecundated
successively by several males. In most of the higher animals, the jealousy

of the males renders polyandry impossible. In man it is rare but exists
among certain races.
(4). Marriage in groups, or marriage between several males and several
females. This singular custom is rare but exists in the Togas, a tribe of
savages. I am not aware of its existence among animals.
(5). Promiscuity, or free sexual intercourse between males and females.
This occurs in many animals, especially in the lower animals in which the
sexual instinct of the male is not associated with any regard for the female
or the progeny. Promiscuity is still more natural when the female does not
look after her young after she has laid her eggs. Nevertheless, in most
animals the female limits herself to sexual intercourse before each brood, so
that real promiscuity is not so frequent as would at first appear. In man, on
the contrary, it attains its apogee in prostitution, which is the only
absolutely complete form of promiscuity. But the result of prostitution as
regards the preservation of the species, which is the proper object of all
sexual union, is absolutely destructive.
Polygamy or polygymy were licit among most ancient races, and is so
still among most savages and among many civilized nations; but it has
several varieties.
In Mexico, Peru, Japan and China a man only possesses one legitimate
wife, but has several concubines whose children are considered as
legitimate as those of his wife. Polygamy existed legally among the Jews up
to the Middle Ages. King Solomon possessed seven hundred wives and
three hundred concubines. In Islamite countries the Jews are still
polygamous. The Koran allows them four wives and as many concubines as
they please. The latter do not enjoy the protection of their father, but apart
from this they have the same rights as the legitimate wives. The Hindus and
Persians are polygamous. The Romans were strictly monogamous, but they
also had concubines.
In Christian Europe, polygamy has occasionally been allowed or
tolerated: St. Augustus did not condemn it. Luther allowed Philip of Hesse
to marry two wives; and after the treaty of Westphalia bigamy was allowed
because of the depopulation of Germany. The mistresses of the present
princes are a relic of polygamy. Jesus having said nothing concerning
polygamy, Luther did not prohibit it.

The Mormons have introduced it into their religion. The negro king of
Loango shows us what degree polygamy may reach among princes and
chiefs, for he possesses seven thousand wives, while the chiefs of the Fiji
Islands are content with twenty to one hundred.
Among savage races we find monogamy in the natives of the Andaman
islands, among the Touaregs, the Weddas, the Iroquois, the Wyandottes, and
even in some Australian tribes. With others, polygamy is only permitted to
the chiefs. But most of the population are monogamous even among
polygamous races, and there are very few peoples in which all the men
possess several wives. In India, 95 per cent. of the Islamites are
monogamous, and in Persia even 98 per cent. Polygamy is nearly
everywhere a privilege of princes, chiefs, and rich men.
The two following facts also show a tendency to monogamy among
polygamous races:
(1). One of the wives, generally the first, has prerogatives over the others.
(2). In reality, the polygamous man nearly always gives sexual preference
to one only, or to a few of his wives. There are, however, some polygamous
races in which the husband has sexual intercourse with each of his wives
according to a regular programme, taking each of them in turn for several
days, weeks or months. With others, on the contrary, a number of married
women remain in reality virgins, because the husband does not desire them,
and they are nothing more than domestics. Among these people the husband
as a rule only takes a second wife when the first has grown old, so that
bigamy becomes the ordinary form of marriage.
The Cingalese were polyandrous before the English conquest, and so
many as seven men had one wife in common. Polyandry is especially the
custom in Thibet. Among polyandrous peoples the husbands are not all on
the same footing of equality, some hold an inferior position, corresponding
nearly to that of concubines, another sign of the tendency to monogamy.
Among the Togas marriage in groups is constituted as follows: All the
brothers are husbands of the wife of the elder brother, and all the sisters of
this wife are at the same time wives of their brothers-in-law. If we except
prostitution, this is the only case in man which approaches promiscuity.
Marriage in groups, however, is extremely restricted promiscuity.

To resume, monogamy is by far the most widespread form of marriage.
This is explained by the relative number of men to women. It has often been
stated that the number of individuals of the two sexes is nearly the same,
and this has been used as an argument in favor of monogamy. But this
statement is incorrect; sometimes it is the men, but more often the women,
who predominate. Among the natives of Oregon there are seven hundred
men to eleven hundred and eighty-five women. Among the Punkas and
other races the number of women is two or three times greater than that of
the men. In Kotcha-Hamba there is only one man to five women. Among
other races there are, on the contrary, more men than women, especially in
Australia, Tasmania, and Hayti. In the latter island there is only one woman
to five men. In Cashmere there are three men to one woman. Among the
negroes, on the contrary, the women predominate, sometimes in the
proportion of three to one, but more generally as three to two.
In Europe, more boys than girls are born on the average, but from the age
of fifteen to twenty the numbers become equal, and after twenty the women
predominate. This is due to the greater mortality among men, owing to war,
the greater danger of masculine occupations, and also to alcoholism. In the
fifteen largest towns in Switzerland alcoholism is the direct or indirect
cause of death in 10.5 per cent. of men above the age of twenty.
Among savages the women often take part in war, for instance the
Amazons of Dahomey. Drinking habits are also the same or absent in both
sexes, which equalizes matters. When the men predominate in these people,
this is often due to infanticide committed on young girls, and also to
overwork of the women. With the Cingalese the natality of boys is greater
than that of girls, while in Asia Minor two girls, in Arabia even four girls,
are born to one boy. The Arab says, "Allah has given us more women than
men; it is, therefore, clear that polygamy is a divine commandment."
Production of Sexes at Will.—I will say a few words on the question of
the causes of production of the sexes. There is no want of hypotheses,
assertions, nor even of experiments on this subject; but, we are obliged to
admit that up to the present we know nothing certain. No one has yet
succeeded in producing experimentally in animals males or females at will.
According to one theory, which has created much impression, overfeeding
produces females and underfeeding males. Although this appears to be true

in certain cases among some animals, it is in no way proved in a positive
manner.
It has also been suggested that selection produces the sex which is
deficient in numbers; but here again proofs are wanting. It has been
maintained that crossing tends to breed females, while consanguineous
marriages produce males; in other words, that mongrel races show an
excess of female births, while races in which marriages are very
consanguineous, and polyandrous tribes show an excess of males. It is
much better to leave this question alone till science has furnished us with
conclusive proofs. Certain results obtained with the lower animals give
hope that the future may shed some light on this point.
Again, marriage customs are not always in relation to the excess of one
of the sexes. Races in which men predominate are not always polyandrous,
and those in which women are in excess are not always polygamous;
sometimes even the contrary exists. Polygamy is thus not always due to a
surplus of female births, or to the death of many men, but often to religious
prescripts, as among the Islamites and Mormons. In polyandry, poverty
often plays a greater part than consanguineous marriages or surplus of male
births. Religious prescription of the husband's continence during his wife's
menstrual periods, pregnancy, and even the period of nursing, a period
which often lasts from two to four years in savages, is an important cause of
polyandry. At Sierra Leone, coitus of the husband with his wife before the
last-born child can walk is regarded as a crime.
Although very advantageous to the wife's health this custom is entirely
based on religious ideas and superstitions. Many savages consider that
every woman is impure and bewitched during her monthly periods, during
pregnancy and suckling. If we add to this the fact that, being usually treated
as beasts, the women soon grow old, we can easily understand that the men
are inclined to polygamy. It is remarkable with what rapidity the savage
woman grows old. She is only fresh from thirteen to twenty years; after
twenty-five she is old and sterile, and a little later she has the aspect of an
old sorceress. This premature senility is not so much due to early sexual
intercourse as to the terribly hard work they undergo, and also to the
prolonged period of suckling.

Another cause of polygamy is man's natural desire for change. The
negroes of Angola exchange wives. The instinct of procreation, love of
glory and riches coöperate with the sterility of many women in propagating
polygamy. Certain races only tolerate it when the woman is sterile, or has
only daughters, which clearly proves that it is based on the fear of
remaining without male descendants.
On the whole, savage women are less fecund than civilized, owing to
their long continence during the two or four years nursing of each child. If
we add to this the high infant mortality, we can understand how polygamy
becomes among these people a means of reproduction in the struggle for
existence, and even in African races a natural law. A native of Central
Africa may have a hundred wives, who also act as servants and retainers. In
this case polygamy is the expression of pomp and wealth. It is especially
developed in agricultural peoples owing to the value of the woman's labor.
On the other hand it is impossible among nomadic tribes. In Dahomey the
king had thousands of wives, the nobility hundreds, the simple citizen a
dozen and the soldier none at all.
Jealousy and rivalry among the wives is not always the rule in
polygamous families. In equatorial Africa the wives themselves incline to
polygamy and regard a rich man who restricts the number of his wives as
miserly. Livingstone relates that the women of Makololo declared they
would not live in monogamous England, for any respectable man should
prove his wealth by the number of his wives. We must not forget that
among most savages the moral conception of good and evil are confounded
with that of riches and poverty. In reality, the supernumerary wives bought
by a polygamist are simply slaves. His power and authority do not easily
allow jealousy among them; nevertheless suicide sometimes occurs among
the old wives who have been passed over in favor of younger ones.
Sometimes they kill their children at the same time. Among the Indians of
Terra del Fuego a hut containing three or four women often resembles a
battlefield. We have already pointed out the way in which jealous Fiji
women cut off the noses of their rivals. Among the Islamites and Hindus
intrigue and jealousy are common with the women; the same in Abyssinia,
among the Hovas of Madagascar and the Zulus. The Hova term for
polygamy is rafy, which signifies adversary. To prevent the jealousy of his

wives the polygamous man often places them in separate houses; this is
common among the South American Indians.
In Colombia I made the acquaintance of a French explorer, Le Comte de
Brettes, who has studied closely the Goajires Indians by becoming himself
a member of the tribe. The country of the Goajires is a peninsula of
Colombia bordering on Venezuela. Polygamy among these people is very
interesting. When a young Goajire wishes to marry he has to pay the bride's
parents a number of cattle, but the consent of the bride is necessary. Besides
this the husband has to clear a certain area of forest, plant vegetables and
build a hut. He must then make a present of all this to his wife and add to it
the necessary cattle. The wife thus becomes the legal proprietor of the
house and land, and it is she who rules over the domain. The husband only
has authority over the male children; but the wife is strictly enforced to be
faithful. If he wishes to marry a second wife, he is obliged to buy her also
and present her with similar property as the first, in another district. The
two wives can never dwell together in the same house nor in the same
district; each of them is thus a proprietor on her own account. In this
manner the different wives of a Goajire are not only independent, but
separated from each other and have no communication; this excludes all
jealousy, especially as these women have a deep respect for the laws of their
country. Under such conditions polygamy can hardly extend to more than
two women without exhausting the forces a man requires to cultivate each
of the domains. We thus see that certain forms of polygamy, combined with
matriarchism, are compatible with high social position of the wife, for
among the Goajires and other Indian tribes the man passes from one wife to
the other, while it is the wife who is mistress of the house, the children and
the domain.
However, we may say that on the whole monogamy reigns where there is
more altruism, respect for women and sentiment for family life; for
instance, in Nicaragua, among the Dyaks, the Andamanese, etc., in whom
the wife is highly esteemed and possesses political influence. The wife is
also proprietor of the house among the Santalese and Mounda-Kols.
In the question we are considering the nature of the amorous passions
also plays a great part. When they are purely sensual they do not last long as
a rule; but when love arises from mental affinities it may be prolonged till
old age. Bain remarks that other passions, such as maternal love, hatred, the

desire of domination may be extended to many objects, while love has a
tendency to concentrate itself on a single one which then takes preëminence
over the others and tends to monogamy. We have seen that birds and
monkeys generally love only one female. With some conjugal love is so
strong that one of the conjoints cannot survive the other; this fact has been
observed with certainty, even when the survivor was provided with another
mate. Thus, the male of a certain species of monkey (Hapale jacchus) after
the death of his mate, covers his eyes with his hands, ceases to eat and
remains in the same position till he dies. Suicide for love is not rare among
certain savage races; a point to which we shall return later.
Westermark is certainly right in considering this tendency of love to
concentrate itself on a single object as one of the most powerful factors in
monogamy. Jealousy is no doubt the reverse of such sentiment, but is the
profound despair at seeing the sole object of love desert or become
unfaithful. On the other hand, this concentration of love, which may be
excellent for isolated families living alone after the manner of wild beasts,
is in no way adapted to a society of which all the members are responsible.
This is a point we must insist upon. There is certainly a real antinomy
which is difficult to reconcile between this dual egoism of exclusive and
concentrated love and social solidarity or human altruism. The problem is
not insoluble, but we must admit that the solution is not easy.
To resume, we first of all observe an evolution from monogamy toward
polygamy. The higher apes and the most primitive men are monogamous;
among these there are no differences of rank, nor class distinctions, and
they live in very small groups. Wealth, civilization, larger communities,
agriculture and the domination of castes have gradually given rise to
polygamy. Thus, the ancient Hindus were at first monogamous and later on
became polygamous. The prerogative of the first wife over the others is
only a vestige of monogamy in polygamy.
A higher degree of culture then diminishes warfare, shortens the period
of nursing, does away with the prejudices against coitus during pregnancy,
and improves the social position of women. Ageing less quickly, and adding
to her bodily charms those of her mental development woman restores man
to monogamy. As the same time wives and children gradually cease to
constitute riches, and this diminishes the instinct of procreation. Finally,

machinery replaces the female labor of former times. In this way, with a
higher degree of human culture, all the factors tend to restore monogamy.
The instinctive desires of woman are monogamous. The progress of
civilization is continually extending her rights, and the more refined
sentiments of sympathy among civilized people are less and less compatible
with polygamy. As regards polyandry, Westermark shows that it has always
been an exception and that it has only been established among phlegmatic
races, having a certain degree of civilization and being unacquainted with
jealousy.
Spencer believes that monogamy will prevail in the future, while
Lubbock inclines to polygamy. Westermark thinks that if the progress of
civilization continues as hitherto to become more altruistic, and that if love
tends to become more refined, the conjoints having more and more regard
for each other, monogamy will always become more strict.
For my part, I think it idle to prophesy. If mental culture ever succeeds in
overcoming brutality and barbarism, and if it continues to make real
progress, I do not think that any of the old systems of marriage will persist
in their primary form. Primitive monogamy adapted to an unsocial savage
condition, is incompatible with the social requirements which become more
and more imposed upon humanity. Marriage by purchase and Islamite
polygamy, which regard woman as merchandise and place her entirely
under the dependence of man, are barbarous customs of semi-civilized
people, which have already fallen into disuse. Polyandry is contrary to
human nature and to the requirements of reproduction, and its implantation
is everywhere a sign of decadence. Our present religious monogamy,
completed by the shameful promiscuity of prostitution, is both hypocritical
and unhealthy. Till the contrary is proved, I consider the most advantageous
form of marriage for the future a kind of free monogamy (eventually
polygamy), accompanied by obligations relative to the procreation of
children and to the children procreated. Polyandry should only have an
accessory right to existence in certain pathological or exceptional cases. We
shall return to this point later.

DURATION OF MARRIAGE

Among birds, marriage is generally concluded for life; among mammals
rarely for more than a year, with the exception of the anthropoid apes and
man.
The duration of marriage varies enormously in man. Among the
Andamanese, the Weddas, certain Papous, marriage can only cease with
death. Among the North American Indians, on the contrary, it is only
concluded for a limited period. Among the Wyandottes the custom exists of
trial marriages for several days. In Greenland, divorce often takes place at
the end of six months. Among the Creeks marriage does not last more than
a year. In this way is constituted a kind of polygamy by succession or
limited monogamy, which results in the father not knowing his children.
Among the Botocudos, marriage is performed without ceremonies and
only lasts a short time; it can be broken off on the slightest pretext, for the
pleasure of changing; divorce then becomes as frequent as marriage. This is
also the case in Queensland, Tasmania and the Samoan islands. Among the
Dyaks and Cingalese, quite young men and women have already had
several wives or husbands; a man often marries and deserts the same
woman several times, to take others during the intervals. Among the
Mantras there are men who have been married forty or fifty times.
In Persia a woman may marry for periods varying from one hour to
ninety-nine years. In Egypt similar customs are met with; a monthly change
is allowed, so that a man may marry twenty or thirty times in two years.
Among the Maues of Sahara the women consider it fashionable to marry as
often as possible, and a long married life is considered by them as vulgar.
The Abyssinians, negroes, etc., marry on trial or for limited periods. Among
the Greeks, Romans and ancient Germans, divorce was very frequent.
In nearly all savage tribes, and in a number of civilized people the man
possesses an unlimited right of rejection. The Hovas compare marriage to a
loosely tied knot. Among the ancient Jews, Romans, Greeks and Germans,
discontent of the husband was a sufficient reason for rejection. On the
contrary, among a number of savage races (Westermark mentions about
twenty-five) rejection and divorce are extremely rare and marriage lasts for
life.
It is especially where there are children that divorce is rare. With most
races, sterility of the wife and adultery constitute the principal causes of

legal divorce.
Among civilized races marriage for life is much more common than with
savages. This was the case with the Aztecs, etc. Among the Chinese there
exist seven reasons for divorce: sterility, unchastity, negligence toward
parents-in-law, talkativeness, desertion, ill-temper and chronic disease. In
Japan the laws are similar, but in spite of this divorce is rare in China and
Japan.
In Christian countries divorce was formerly permitted and was only
prohibited by the Council of Trent. The modern Catholic says: "Man must
not separate what God has united." Among many savages, on the contrary,
divorce is left to the free will of the married couple. Elsewhere it is
sometimes the man, sometimes both husband and wife who have the right
to exact divorce for divers reasons, such as drunkenness, adultery,
prodigality, etc. In Europe, as elsewhere, it is the desire for change which is
the most common cause of divorce.
Children constitute the surest cement against conjugal separations. With
most savages the rejected wife regains not only her dot, but also part of the
common property, or even the whole of it. On the contrary, the purchase
value of the wife is only as a rule returned to the husband when sterility,
adultery or other grave reasons are the causes of divorce. It results from this
that divorce is always very rare among peoples where the women are very
dear.
The right of the children after divorce varies a good deal in different
races; sometimes they are adjudged to the husband, sometimes to the wife.
Divorced women often become prostitutes, for example, among the Chinese
and Arabs. As a rule, marriages for love are more lasting than others,
especially when the couple were acquainted before marriage.
It is extremely probable that in primitive man marriage only lasted till the
birth of a child, or at the most a few years. With civilization the duration of
marriage has been prolonged, higher motives having become added to
bodily charms, sexual appetite and the instinct of procreation, and tending
toward more lasting unions.
Moral reasons have given rise to laws of protection in marriage, but the
mania which man possesses of dogmatizing on everything has often caused

these laws to degenerate into abuse or religious absurdities. In this way the
modern form of our Christian monogamy has been imposed by a tyrannical
dogma of the Roman Church; a dogma which no doubt started from an ideal
point of view, but fell into disuse in practice, owing to the fact that it did not
take sufficient account of the natural conditions and sexual requirements of
the race. This explains the present tendency to greater legal liberty, even
when the moral causes which tend to render monogamous unions durable
multiply with the progress of civilization.

HISTORY OF EXTRA-CONJUGAL SEXUAL INTERCOURSE

As monogamous marriage exists among the anthropoid apes, we have
every reason to believe that it existed with primitive man. In neither case
has it been the result of artificial laws, but the result of brute force and
congenital instincts inherited by natural evolution. It often happened that
one male vanquished another and took possession of the female, or wife, of
the vanquished. Others abducted the female by surprise. Later on, marriage
by exchange or by purchase, derived from marriage by rape, probably
constituted the first stage toward a legal monogamous or polygamous
union, as an element in the most primitive human conventional
organizations. In this way we can imagine the main points of the prehistoric
evolution of marriage.
When the conception of marriage took on a legal character, either that of
possession by the male, or that of a more or less equitable contract between
the two sexes, we can easily imagine that sexual intercourse apart from
marriage resulted as an inevitable complement. Every artificial barrier
which the human mind opposes to natural instincts immediately gives rise
to a movement of opposition on the part of the latter. The matrimonial laws
of primitive or semi-civilized races punished adultery in the most barbarous
manner by torture and death, but were unable to prevent the sexual passions
pursuing their course in one way or another.
Certain abuses or exceptions had, therefore, to be tolerated, or certain
complementary institutions had to be organized. However, these laws
generally branded all forms of sexual intercourse apart from marriage, with

the stigma of inferiority, or contempt, if not of crime. The woman, being the
weaker, was naturally the one to suffer most from this stigma and its
consequences.
The great diversity in the customs of different human tribes, makes it
necessary, in order to avoid errors, to guard against generalizing without
strong reasons. We cannot, however, here enter into details which would
lead us too far. We can, however, affirm that among the lower or primitive
races brute force played the principal role and was the fundamental support
of marriage, while in higher civilizations legal regulation took the upper
hand, however absurd or even immoral it might be.
Illegal or extra-conjugal forms of sexual intercourse have always formed
two principal groups: prostitution and concubinage. No doubt, these two
varieties are insensibly connected by numerous shades of transition, but as
their development depends on different principles we must distinguish these
two forms.
Prostitution is a trade in which a human being sells her body for money,
while concubinage consists in more or less free sexual intercourse apart
from marriage, the motive of which is simply the sexual appetite,
convenience or love, although sometimes violence plays a part in it. We
therefore find in extra-marital sexual intercourse the same motives as in
legal unions; legal or religious sanction only is wanting.
It is needless to say that the motives which lead to concubinage may be
more or less tainted by interested calculation. In all civilizations
concubinage and prostitution constitute the complement of legal marriage.
Their regulation has ever produced the singular results of surrounding them
with a moral nimbus.
In Babylon, every woman once in her life, had to prostitute herself for
money to any stranger at the temple of Venus. Solon founded houses of
prostitution for the people and furnished them with slaves, "in order to
protect the sanctity of marriage against the passions of youth."
The Romans had also their houses of prostitution or lupanari, public or
private, as well as free prostitutes. In the Middle Ages, prostitution
developed especially after the Crusades. It is related that the Council of

Constance attracted fifteen hundred prostitutes to this town. Prostitutes
followed the armies everywhere.
In India, young girls give themselves to the priests, who are the
representatives of God and enjoy great honors. Under the name of Temple
girls, the girls of the flower boats of China are really prostitutes. It is the
same with the puzes of Java, the girls in the Japanese tea-houses, etc. In
some civilized states, certain refined and intelligent prostitutes have always
obtained great honors and high favors, only charging high prices, and
ending by substituting for prostitution the pecuniary exploitation of rich
men whom they have seduced.
Concubinage may be more or less free. The concubines were formerly
often slaves, possessed by men in high positions, in addition to their wives.
At the present day the omnipotence of money produces almost analogous
results. Free concubinage, in which sexual intercourse between the two
contracting parties is absolutely free and more or less independent of
pecuniary questions, is very different and of a higher moral character. It has
also existed in antiquity in various forms. The Greek hetairas were
concubines of high position, no doubt prostitutes of a kind and giving
themselves for money; but they became the friends or companions of great
men. Living in luxury, especially at the time of Pericles and later, several of
them became celebrated; statues were raised to them and they became the
concubines of kings. Phryne served as the model for the statue of Venus,
and offered to restore the halls of the Thebeans at her own expense. Thais
was the mistress of Alexander and gave heirs to the throne. The neglected
education of the Greek wives caused the intellectual accomplishments of
the hetairas to shine by contrast.
The whole question regarding the Greek customs is summed up in a few
words by Demosthenes: "We marry wives in order to have legitimate
children and a faithful guardian for our household; we have concubines for
our daily service, and hetairas for the enjoyment of love."
In some countries, such as Japan, the children of concubines are
considered by the husbands as legitimate, and have the same rights as those
of his wife; this gives concubinage the character of marriage of the second
rank.

In modern times hetairas are not wanting. Under the title of courtesans
and mistresses, we find them everywhere as the favorites of kings and
nobles, as mistresses of men in high positions, and often playing the part of
vampires in all classes of society.
On the other hand, women of high position or wealth have also their
favorites, whom we may call male hetairas. Certain female members of
royal families have at all times furnished examples of this kind.
At all periods in the history of civilized races, pathology has also led to
extra-conjugal sexual intercourse. Here, homosexual love in general, and
love of boys or pediastry, has always played the principal part. We shall
speak of this in Chapter VIII. Among the Hebrews, Persians, Etruscans, and
especially the Greeks, it was held in high esteem. The Greek philosophers
regarded it as based on an ideal homosexual love, and not as a vile form of
prostitution. Solon, Aristides, Sophocles, Phidias, and Socrates were
strongly suspected of homosexual practices, and they regarded this form of
love as superior to the normal love of woman. Lesbian love, and other
sexual aberrations, such as sadism, have also played a historical role, as we
shall see.

CONCLUSIONS

Primitive human marriage was probably of short duration; when man
later on became carnivorous, and had to obtain food for his children by
hunting, sexual unions assumed a more constant character. It is not the class
or the tribe, but the family which constituted the primitive social condition
of man, a condition in which marriage was a heritage from
"pithecomorphous" ancestors, i.e., related to monkeys.
Free sexual intercourse before marriage and frequent changes in the latter
were then no doubt very common, but true promiscuity has never been the
rule in primitive man.
Patriarchism with its disastrous consequences has been the result of the
preponderance of male power. In a higher degree of civilization this
preponderance has produced marriage by purchase and polygamy. The
barbarous form of the latter is now decreasing.

A true higher culture leads gradually to durable love based on altruism
and ethics, i.e., a relative and free monogamy.
The development of marriage in civilization has gradually increased the
rights of woman, and marriage contracts tend more and more in their
modern forms to stipulate for complete equality of rights for both sexes. As
Westermark says: "The history of human marriage is the history of a union
in which women have gradually triumphed over the passions, prejudices
and egoism of men." The term reëmancipation of women is historically
more correct than the simple term emancipation, for before the institution of
marriage, woman was free. Invented by the stronger male when he began to
reason, marriage was at first only the servitude of woman. To give her
complete liberty, it must be transformed afresh from top to bottom.

APPENDIX

Influence of the Race on Sexual Life.—If I were an ethnographer I
should attempt to establish whether, and in what way, racial differences
affect the sexual life of man; but the question is so delicate that it would
require a skilled specialist to settle it. With the exception of the pages
dealing with the history of extra-conjugal intercourse, the statements in this
chapter are based on the work of Westermark. The chief difficulty consists
in separating, in the customs of each race, that which arises from habit and
historical tradition from that which depends on more or less specific
hereditary peculiarities. It is here very easy to fall into error in formulating
false conclusions.
A good deal has been said concerning the hot blood of warm climates,
and on the whole it appears true that people who inhabit these climates have
a more violent and more precocious sexual temperament than those who
live in cold regions. But this is not a racial character. The Jews, who have
preserved their race unaltered in all climates and under all possible
conditions of existence, furnish an object lesson which is particularly
appropriate to decide the question. The traits of their character are reflected
in their sexual life. Their sexual appetites are generally strong and their love
is distinguished by great family attachment. Their sexual life is also

influenced by their mercantile spirit, and we find them everywhere
connected with the traffic of women and prostitution. They are not very
jealous and are much addicted to concubinage, at the same time remaining
affectionate to their wife and family.
The Mongols also lead a very intense sexual life. Among the polyandrous
people of Thibet jealousy appears to be completely absent: this may be the
result of custom or may be due to phylogenetic instinct. The Mormons, who
are descended from monogamous races, confirm the idea that polygamy is
not a specific racial character. It would be interesting to study the mixed
races of North America from this point of view. At first sight, it seems that
the Americanization of customs in the mixture of races of the United States
is also extended to sexual life, and that we cannot discover the fundamental
differences between the Irish, Scandinavians, French, Germans and Italians
who constitute this mixture. But it is possible that this is only a superficial
impression, and that a deeper study of the details would lead to another
result. One thing appears to be unquestionable in the negro race; that is the
violence of its sexual passion combined with its mental inferiority.
A striking trait is furnished by the French race which has remained pure
in the eastern provinces of Canada, whose sexual customs are very different
from those of the present population of France. The French Canadian is
extremely pure and chaste, leads a regular life and has a numerous family.
Families of fifteen or twenty are not rare among French Canadians. We can
here, therefore, observe the effect of climate and custom on a single race.
For reasons mentioned above, I shall content myself with a few remarks,
but I am certain that a profound study of the question would discover, in the
character of the individuals, specific peculiarities of their race which are
only marked externally by customs. It is obvious that such characters will
be all the more distinct, the more the race differs from its congeners, and the
purer its ethnical separation. As among animals, it is necessary to
distinguish between slight variations, and races or sub-species which are
more constant and more divergent. Hereditary or phylogenetic individual
differences must also be distinguished from those of races or varieties.
Weight of the Brain in Different Races and Sexes.—Bebel has stated
that among savages the difference between the brain of the men and women
is less than among civilized people. This statement is quite wrong. Prof.
Rudolph Martin, of Zurich, has given me statistics of the cranial capacity of

the two sexes in different races, drawn from reliable sources. According to
Martin the weight of the brain represents about 87 per cent. of the cranial
capacity. His table of statistics is given on the opposite page.
These figures show that the difference between the two sexes is always
about the same, while the average absolute weight of the brain in the two
sexes is lower in the lower races. Reckoning it 87 per cent. of the cranial
capacity, it is in the Weddas 1111 grammes for males and 991 grammes for
females, which corresponds to the weight of the brains of idiots or general
paralytics with us. Martin assures me that in the Malay peninsula he has
found as much difference between the men and women as in Europeans.
According to Martin, men living at the present day may be divided into
three classes according to their cranial capacity:
MEN. WOMEN.
Aristencephalous (large over 1450 over 1300
brains) gr. gr.
Euencephalous (medium 1300 to 1150 to
brains) 1450. 1300.
Oligencephalous (small under
under 1150.
brains) 1300.

AVERAGE CRANIAL CAPACITY IN DIFFERENT RACES

Men Women Difference
Civilized 48
Craniums
m.
Badois 1513 1330 183
26
Craniums
f.
Bavarian 100 1503 1335 168 (11.2
Craniums %)
m.

100
Craniums
f.
26
Craniums
m.
Malay 1414 1223 191
2
Craniums
Semi- f.
Civilized 87
Craniums
m.
Aino 1462 1308 154
64
Craniums
f.
22
Craniums
Lowest Race m. 138
1277 1139
Weddas 10 (10.8%)
Craniums
m.

CHAPTER VIIToC

SEXUAL EVOLUTION

The evolution of every living being is twofold. We must distinguish: (1)
its ontogeny, or the entire cycle of development of the individual from its

conception till natural death at an advanced age; (2) its phylogeny, or the
series of organic forms through which its ancestors passed, by successive
transformations, from the primitive cells of the oldest and most obscure
geological periods, up to its present organization.
In its chief outlines ontogeny is determined by phylogeny by means of
the laws of heredity, even when it is only an abridged recapitulation.
Regarded from this point of view the sexual life of man is also based on
phylogenetic conditions, determined by his ancestral lineage. Moreover, it
presents an individual or ontogenetic evolution during the life of each
person, which in its principal traits is predetermined in the germ, by the
phylogenetic or hereditary energies of the species. The phenomena of the
hereditary mneme show clearly how ontogeny is the result of engraphia
combined with selection, in the series of ancestors. We have already
mentioned these points on several occasions, but must now review the
whole question.

PHYLOGENY OF SEXUAL LIFE

In Chapter II we have briefly described phylogeny in general or
metamorphosis, and in the first part of Chapter IV we have specially
considered the phylogeny of the sexual appetite in the phenomenon of cell
division and conjugation of nuclei in unicellular organisms, which we have
described in Chapter I. In order for animals to reproduce themselves
without degenerating, crossing, or the combination of different germs, is
necessary, and such combinations are only possible by the mutual attraction
of two kinds of germinal cells. But, when the individual becomes
multicellular and bears only one kind of germinal cells, the attractive energy
which was originally limited to these cells is transmitted to the whole
organism, and this necessitates the existence of sensory and motor nerve
centers.
The attraction of one kind of germinal cell and its bearer for the other
must also be more or less mutual. As a rule the bearer of one of the
germinal cells becomes active and penetrating; that of the other passive and
receptive. However, the latter, who after copulation (when this occurs)

becomes the sole bearer of the future individual, is obliged to desire union
with the active bearer of the other germinal cell, so that reproduction may
become harmonious. This is the basis on which is founded sexual
reproduction, and with it the sexual appetite, in plants (as regards cellular
conjugation only) as well as in animals, but especially in the latter, in whom
the germinal cells are carried by mobile and independent individuals. On
the same basis is developed the difference between the sexual appetite in
man and woman, as well as that between love and the other irradiations of
this appetite in the mental life of both sexes. (Vide Chapters IV and V.)
The immense complication of human sexual life makes us regard animals
with a certain degree of contempt, and flatter our vanity in qualifying the
baser part of our sexual appetite by the term animal instinct. But we are
really very unjust toward animals. This injustice is partly due to the fact that
vocal and written language gives us a means of penetrating into the
psychology of our fellow creatures. By the aid of the common symbolism
of our thoughts it is easy for us to compare them. Language thus enables us
to construct a general human psychology. The absence of language, even in
the higher animals, renders it difficult for us to penetrate their mind. Our
inductive reasoning in this matter is very uncertain, for we can only judge
the mental power of animals by their acts. The brain, and consequently the
mind, of the higher mammals being less highly organized than that of man,
their sexual psychology is also more primitive, and differs from ours in
proportion to the cerebral development of the species. Comparative
anatomy confirms this fact in the whole series of organisms which possess a
central nervous system. The psychology of the higher apes is thus nearer
our own than that of the dog; the psychology of the dog resembles ours
more than that of the rabbit, etc.
On the other hand, the highly developed cerebral organization of man,
although it has complicated the mental irradiations of his sexual appetite,
has not always ennobled them; on the contrary, it has often directed them
into pernicious paths. We have seen in Chapter VI numerous and striking
proofs of the degeneration, brutality and cruelty of the manifestations of the
human sexual appetite, and we shall study them further in Chapter VIII.
Comparative biology shows us that the sexual appetite is transformed into
love in very different ways. In order to avoid the immensity of detail of
comparative biology I shall only give a few examples.

While the female spider often kills and eats the male, monkeys, and
parrots give proof of such a great mutual attachment that when one of the
conjoints dies the other sinks into complete despair, ceases to eat, and
perishes in its turn.
In this domain we find singular adaptations to special conditions of
existence. Among the bees and ants, a third class of individuals, or neuters,
formed by differentiation of females, do not copulate, and lay at the most a
few eggs which are not fecundated and which occasionally develop by
parthenogenesis.
Among the termites, another species of social ants, a similar state of
things exists, but the neuters, or workers, are derived from the male sex as
well as the female and their sexual organs are quite rudimentary. The third
sex, or worker, not only has a cerebral development superior to the sexual
individuals, but also inherits the social sympathetic irradiations of the
sexual appetite, which results in his devotion to a brood which is not his
own. Among the social insects the males are little more than flying sexual
organs, which after copulation are incapable of leading an independent
existence and die of hunger and exhaustion in the case of ants or termites,
or are massacred by the workers in the case of bees.
The fecundated females, on their part, become breeding machines whose
activity is incessant. Among the ants, however, the females are at first
capable of nourishing a few larvæ by the aid of a portion of their eggs and
their secretions, till the workers are hatched, who henceforth undertake all
the work including the maternal care of the brood.
Whoever has observed the fidelity of a pair of swallows and the way in
which the male and female nourish and rear their young, must be struck by
the analogy to the conjugal and family love of the faithful type of human
beings. This is especially remarkable when the same couple return every
year to the old nest. This family life of the swallows does not prevent a
certain social life, which manifests itself in organized attacks on birds of
prey, and in combined emigration in the autumn and spring.
On the other hand, we are instinctively indignant at the want of fidelity in
other animals, between conjoints, parents and offspring (dogs and rabbits,
for instance), because we involuntarily expect to find in them our own
moral sense, which is not at all just.

From the phylogenetic point of view we can only compare ourselves to
the higher apes, by their analogies with primitive man. (Vide Chapter VI.)
The question which concerns us here is as follows: If we consider the
peculiarities of our sexual customs with those of our direct ancestors, what
are those which are derived from ancient and profound phylogenetic
instincts, those which are derived from less profound ancestral energies
(i.e., relatively more recent) and lastly those which depend simply on old
customs fixed by tradition, prejudice and habit? If we are careful we shall
immediately recognize that it is not only the sexual appetite itself, but also a
large part of its correlatives and irradiations, in which the phylogenetic
roots are deep. Jealousy, coquetry, instinctive maternal love, fidelity and
conjugal love, which are more or less developed in primitive man, are also
present in monkeys and birds. We have even seen that the conjugal fidelity
of these often exceeds our own. It is, therefore, not true that our animal
ancestors are only allied to us by sexual appetite; on the contrary, we must
admit that they have much more noble sentiments and instincts, derived it is
true from this appetite, but belonging to the domain of a higher social
morality. All that we can say in a general way concerning the complex
entanglement of our sentiments and instincts is that, the most deeply rooted
characters in human nature are at the same time, phylogenetically speaking,
the most ancient.
Among the most profound instincts of sexual life, we find moral and
intellectual incongruities. Along with excitement of the sexual appetite in
the male by the odor of the female genital organs, or by the sight of erotic
pictures, we find the most touching conjugal love, and life-long devotion of
one conjoint for the other and for the children. Prostitution, marriage by
purchase, religious marriage, disgrace attached to illegitimate births,
conjugal and family rights of one or the other sex, etc., are, on the contrary,
things which do not depend on recent phylogeny, but only on the customs
and traditions of certain races. They are partly outgrowths from egoism, the
spirit of domination, mysticism and hypocrisy, and partly the shifts of an
overheated social life which is becoming more and more complicated.
Westermark's studies are very instructive in this respect. All the
absurdities and contradictions, brought to light by the historical and
ethnographical study of the customs and matrimonial abuses in man, allow
us to clearly distinguish that which is due to fashion or custom, from that

which is deeply rooted in our heredity. To avoid repetition I refer my
readers to Chapter VI, to examine the differences between heredity and
custom.
Between these two extremes there is, however, one important domain,
viz., that of recent phylogeny, or in other words variation. The fixed
appetites and instincts of the species which are proper to every normal man,
and are as we have seen fundamentally connected with many animal forms,
belong to ancient and profound phylogeny. But there is another group of
very variable peculiarities, strongly developed in some men and little in
others, sometimes completely absent, which do not depend on custom but
on what is called individual hereditary disposition, or individual character.
While some men have monogamous instincts others are polygamous. Some
men are by instinct and heredity very egoistic, others more altruistic. This
peculiarity is reflected in their sexual life and changes the character of their
love (but not that of their sexual instinct). The egoist may love his wife, but
this love is interested and very different from that of the altruist. Between
the two extremes there is an infinite number of gradations according to the
nature of the instincts and dispositions. The same man may be a good and
generous father, and a social exploiter with neither shame nor pity. Another
will pose as a social benefactor, while at home he is an egoist and a tyrant.
The individual dispositions of recent phylogeny are combined in every way
with education, customs, habit and social position to produce results which
are often paradoxical, and the factors of which are ambition, vanity, temper,
etc. Recent phylogeny is reflected also in many of the irradiations of the
sexual appetite of which we have spoken in Chapter V. Audacity, jealousy,
sexual braggardism, hypocrisy, prudery, pornography, coquetry, exaltation,
etc., depend in each particular case, according to their degree of
development, on a combination of individual sexual hereditary dispositions
with individual dispositions in the other domains of sentiment, intelligence
and will. In this way, the sexual individuality of one man is constituted in a
very complex and very different way to that of other men, owing to the high
development of the human brain, as well as to the infinite variability and
adaptability of his aptitudes. It is impossible to give even an incomplete
explanation of all the symphonic gradations (often cacophonic) which
represent an individuality, or to fix clearly what distinguishes it from others.
However, when the principle is understood, it is not difficult to estimate the
sexual individuality of each person more or less correctly.

Strong hereditary dispositions of character may be recognized in early
infancy. When the ancestry of a man is well known the roots of his recent
phylogeny may be traced to his ancestors. Here we observe the effect of
crossing between varieties or different races, or on the contrary that of
consanguinity. This effect is observed in character and in sexual disposition,
as much as in the shape of the nose, or the color of the skin and hair, etc. It
is important that men should learn to know themselves, and also study each
other from this point of view before marrying. On the whole, we may say
that the average civilized man of our race possesses as his "phylogenetic
baggage" a strong sexual appetite, very variable sentiments of love,
generally somewhat mediocre, (we have seen that conjugal love is more
strongly developed in most monkeys than in man), lastly altruistic or social
sentiments which are still deplorably weak. The latter, no doubt, form no
part of the sexual life, but they must be taken into consideration for they are
its most important derivatives, and it is indispensable for our modern social
life to develop them in harmony with family and conjugal love.
Hereditary instincts can easily be observed in children. When one of
them is good, it gives evidence at an early age of the sentiments of
sympathy or altruism, such as pity and affection, as well as an instinctive
sentiment of duty, the object of which is not yet social. All these sentiments
are at first only applied to human individuals known to the child, domestic
animals, or even inanimate objects. On the other hand, the ant, from the
beginning of its existence, shows an inherited instinct or sentiment of
complete social duty. In man, social sentiments properly so-called, have to
be acquired by education, but they require for their expansion a
considerable degree of inherited sentiments of sympathy and duty. A person
without morals can easily acquire social phraseology but not social
sentiment. A few more points require to be considered.
Monogamy is no doubt an old and well-established phylogenetic
heritage, while polygamy is on the whole rather an aberration produced by
individual power and wealth. But phylogenetic monogamy is by no means
identical with the religious or other formality of our present legal
monogamy. It assumes first of all an early marriage immediately after
puberty, while our civilization has placed between this and marriage, which
it only allows later as a rule, the unhealthy swamp of prostitution, which so
often sows in the individual the destructive seed for his future legal union,

before this has taken place. Again, phylogenetic monogamy imposes no
legal constraint; on the contrary, it assumes a free, natural and instinctive
inclination in each of the conjoints, when it is not the result of the brute
force of the male. Lastly, it by no means excludes a change after a certain
time. We are speaking only of man, and not of birds and monkeys, who are
more monogamous than ourselves.
Monogamy without children has little reason for its existence and must
be considered simply as a means to satisfy the sexual appetite or as a union
for convenience. It is the same with certain marriages between individuals
of very different ages, especially the marriage of a young man with a
woman already old and sterile.
As far as we can ascertain, the majority of sexual perversions, of which
we shall speak in Chapter VIII, are a sad pathological acquisition of the
human race. We observe, however, especially in the higher mammals, acts
of pederasty between males when the female is wanting.
The sexual repulsion which normally exists between animals of different
species rests on a selective basis, the hereditary mneme of their reciprocal
germs being unable to place itself in homophony, and their blood also
having a mutual toxic action. In speaking of sodomy we shall see that this
instinctive repulsion may disappear in pathological cases, both in man and
in animals, owing to bad habits or unsatisfied sexual appetite. We cannot
absolutely demonstrate the phylogenetic existence of an instinctive disgust
for consanguineous sexual intercourse.
The sexual advances made by women in civilized countries, show how
easily we may be deceived in attributing to a phylogenetic or hereditary
origin, certain details which are only due to external circumstances. In man,
the bearer of the active germ, the instinct of sexual advance has deep
phylogenetic roots. It is quite natural to him and is evident among savage
races, where the man risks more by remaining single than the woman.
Violent combats between rivals to obtain the woman, who remains passive
like most animals, are evidence of this.
Civilization has changed all this, and has developed two castes of
women, the old maids and the prostitutes. The latter satisfy the appetites of
men in an artificial and unhealthy manner, while marriage and family cares
only bring them labor and burdens instead of riches. Owing to the

promiscuous polyandry of prostitution, man can always obtain enough
women, while woman can with difficulty obtain a suitable husband. These
circumstances have more and more developed the art of flirtation, coquetry
and advances on the part of girls, and we can now see, especially in the
United States, that advances come more and more from the female side, if
not in principle, at any rate in fact. This is not a question of a phylogenetic
or hereditary transformation of the sexes among civilized peoples, but an
unhealthy effect resulting from abnormal circumstances, that is the non-
satisfaction of the sexual desires of woman, together with the satiety of
those of men. Woman makes advances from the fear of remaining celibate;
she will cease to do so when the unnatural causes which have produced this
state of things have been done away with.
As a rule, a normal and adaptable man will conduct himself in sexual
matters as in others according to the prevailing fashion. He will most often
succeed in accommodating his sentiments to those of his conjoint. On the
other hand, this average representative of normal mediocrity easily becomes
the slave of routine and incapable of new ideas. However normal he may
be, he has less faculty of adaptation or mental plasticity and less liberty,
than a man of higher nature independent of prejudices.

ONTOGENY OF SEXUAL LIFE

The first striking fact in the ontogeny of sexual life is the following: All
the sexual organs, both external and internal, remain in an embryonic and
non-functional state, not only in the embryo but for a long time in the child.
The organs and their elements exist, but they are still small, imperfectly
developed, and in a state of rest. At the time of puberty, which varies in
different individuals, the sexual glands and the other copulatory apparatus
enlarge and begin to functionate. In the European races puberty occurs
between the age of twelve and seventeen years in girls, and between
fourteen and nineteen in boys; it is generally earlier in the South and later in
the North. It is curious to note that the correlative irradiations of the sexual
appetite in the human mind develop much earlier than the organs, or even
the sexual appetite. Again, the sexual appetite often appears before the
normal development of the genital organs. In other rare cases the sexual

appetite is absent in the adult, even when the corresponding organs are
well-developed. (Vide Chapter VIII.) Such irregularities of the sexual
appetite belong to the domain of pathology.
On the other hand, it is quite normal for young girls and boys to show
early signs of mental differences corresponding to those we have described
in Chapter V. In young girls we observe coquetry and jealousy and the
desire for finery. Their love of dolls and the care they take of them, is very
characteristic of the precocious instinct of their sex. This is an early sign of
instinctive maternal love, before the development of any sexual sensation or
function. Among boys we observe a tendency to brag and to boast of their
strength before girls, to show their contempt for dolls and the coquetry of
little girls, and also to pose as protectors, etc.
Sexual jealousy already exists in young children. We see little boys,
seeking for the favors of little girls, show violent jealousy when another is
preferred to them. All these phenomena depend either on subconscious
instincts, or on vague sexual presentiments which play a large part in the
infantile exaltation of sentiment. Portraits of pretty women, the sight of
certain parts of the body or feminine clothing often provoke exalted
sentiments in boys; girls rather admire boldness, an imposing presence and
often beauty, in the other sex.
Puberty is produced by certain phenomena which occur in the sexual
organs. In the boy erections occur at an early age when the penis is still very
small. It is curious to note that certain pathological conditions and friction
of the glans penis, especially in the case of phimosis and as a result of bad
example, are often sufficient to produce sexual sensations and appetites in
very young boys. The same thing is produced in little girls by excitation of
the clitoris. All these phenomena lead to onanism or masturbation, of which
we shall speak later on. As the testicles of young boys do not secrete semen,
masturbation only provokes secretion from the accessory glands, but this is
accompanied by orgasm.
More singular still are cases of coitus between little boys and girls whose
sexual glands are still undeveloped and produce no germinal cells. Although
they are pathological, these phenomena are characteristic, because they
clearly show that the brain has acquired by phylogeny a sexual appetite
relatively independent of the development of the sexual glands. No doubt

the sexual appetite does not develop, or disappears, in eunuchs when they
are castrated quite young; but it is preserved together with the secretions
and functions of the external genitals when castration is performed after
puberty is established.
The important conclusion which results from these facts is that the
existence of a sexual excitation or appetite of this nature is not sufficient to
prove that they are normal. In Chapter VIII we shall prove that not only the
anomalies of the hereditary sexual disposition, but artificial excitations and
bad habits may also produce all kinds of misconduct and excesses which
should be energetically combated.
We have described in Chapter IV the great individual variations of the
sexual appetite in the two sexes, as well as that of the sexual power in man.
The sexual power and appetite in man are strongest between the years of
twenty and forty. We may even consider this period as the most
advantageous for the procreation of strong and healthy offspring and that
the procreator is at his best before the age of thirty.
The ontogenetic development of the sexual appetite and love generally
produces in man a peculiar phenomenon. While habitual gratification and
education of the sexual appetite tends to make it more and more calculating
and cynical, love, on the contrary, becomes more elevated and refined with
age and less egoistical than in youth. Owing to general mental development,
the education of sentiments progresses and becomes refined, while the
sexual appetite diminishes in intensity and becomes more imperious and
more coarse. We are only speaking here of normal cases.
In youth, the intoxication of love combined with intense sexual appetite
triumphs; when the appetite is once satisfied the unbridled and egoistic
passions of this age come to the surface and are often antagonistic to love.
At a more advanced age, on the contrary, love becomes more constant and
more tranquil. The mistake that is so often made is the confusion of love
with sexual appetite. The novelists who speculate on the eroticism of the
public are no doubt more interested in describing sexual passion and
amorous intoxication, with all the catastrophes and conflicts which arise
from them, than the tranquil and regular love of a couple more advanced in
age, the greatest happiness of which consists in harmony of sentiment and

thought, as well as the mutual regard and devotion of the couple for each
other.
Sexual appetite and sexual power in man become extinguished between
the ages of sixty and eighty; old men of eighty are sometimes still capable,
but they are no longer fecund. As a rule sexual power diminishes before
sexual appetite, and this sometimes leads old men to use artificial means to
revive their power, or to satisfy their sexual desires. This explains why the
egoists who have never known true love often become so base in their
sexual manifestations when they grow old. Their experience of sexual life
makes them experts in the art of seduction. If this fact appears to be
antagonistic to the law that true love is refined with advancing age, we must
bear in mind that the ontogenetic development of the sexual appetite is not
the same as that of love; that in some respects it develops in a contrary
direction; and that the result may consequently become inverted according
as one or other predominates. It is needless to say that there are a number of
intermediate gradations, and that inverse phenomena may be produced
concurrently in the same individual.
According to Westermark elderly men generally fall more easily in love
with middle-aged women than with young girls. No doubt this is often the
case when reason and love predominate, but it is necessary to avoid
generalization, and it is curious to observe how often very old men become
enamored of quite young girls, as the latter may fall in love with old men. It
is common knowledge that young girls do not marry old graybeards solely
for their money or their name. No doubt this is not uncommon, but I have
often seen girls of eighteen or twenty fall in love with old roués, when
money, name and position were theirs and not the man's. However, in such
cases it is most often the old man who is amorous. Westermark maintains
that this condition is not normal, and we shall see that very often it is a case
of commencing senile dementia, a pathological cerebral condition in which
the sexual appetite becomes suddenly revived.
The love of a young girl for an old man may be explained by the
intellectual superiority of the old man or by the absence of another object
for love. It is often also due to hysteria and consequently pathological.
In old age, when the sexual life of two conjoints is extinguished, there
remains a purified love which colors the evening of their life with autumn

tints. The modern detractors of marriage too often forget this phenomenon.
No doubt the evening of conjugal life is often troubled with discord and
sorrow, but then it is usually a question of "mariage de convenance,"
marriage for money or position, mutual misunderstanding, or irreflective
amorous intoxication. Quarrels may also arise when pathological conditions
become introduced into marriage.
In woman, sexual ontogeny is not the same as in man. She matures
earlier and more rapidly. In our race, a woman at eighteen is sexually
mature; between eighteen and twenty-five she is in the best condition for
sexual life; toward fifty the menopause occurs, and with it cessation of
fecundity. Hence the period during which a woman is fecund is much
shorter than in man and terminates much earlier.
Owing to this, the development of the intellectual and sentimental
irradiations of the sexual appetite in woman is more rapid than in man. A
young girl is much more mature and full grown as regards her reproductive
power than a young man. These phenomena extend to the whole mental life
of woman, who is less capable of an ulterior development in old age than
man, because she generally becomes settled and automatic much more
rapidly than the latter. No doubt these phenomena are partly due to the
defective mental education of women, but this explanation is insufficient.
Here again we must distinguish the phylogenetic disposition of woman
from the effects of education during her ontogenetic development.
The sexual appetite of woman manifests itself at first in vague desires, in
a want of love, and does not as a rule develop locally till after coitus. It
often follows that in ontogenetic evolution the sexual appetite of women
increases at a more advanced age (between thirty and forty). At this age
women often become enamored with young boys, whom they seduce easily.
Widows are especially disposed to form unions with men younger than
themselves; these unions are rarely happy, for the woman who is older than
her husband easily becomes jealous, and the husband soon becomes tired of
a woman whose charms have faded. We can therefore affirm that, as a rule,
in order to be both normal and lasting, a monogamous union requires that
the husband should be from six to twelve years older than his wife, and that
the latter should marry as young as possible.

In the sexual ontogeny of normal woman, pregnancies, childbirth, the
nursing and education of children play an infinitely greater role than the
sexual appetite. These important events in woman's life, together with
affection for her husband occupy a great part of the cerebral activity of
every woman, and are at the same time the conditions for her true
happiness.
We should expect the sexual appetite in woman to diminish or cease at
the menopause; but this is not usually the case, and elderly women are
sometimes tormented by the sexual appetite, which is all the more painful
because men are not attracted by them. Such hyperæsthesia cannot,
however, be considered as normal; most often the sexual appetite
diminishes with age and is replaced, as in man, by the tranquil love of old
age, of which we have spoken.
Old women are often spoken of with contempt. No doubt, unsatisfied
passions and wounded feelings of all kinds, want of intellectual culture and
high ideals, and especially a pathological condition of the brain, make many
old women anything but amiable. I am, however, convinced that the
elevation of woman's social position, and greater care in her education, will
considerably facilitate the development of her faculties. Education should
not develop mundane qualities in women, but depth of sentiment. There are
many aged women who can be cited as examples of activity and
perseverance, for their sound and clear judgment, as well as for their
affability and simplicity of manners. Although their intellectual
productiveness ceases earlier than that of man, this in no way excludes an
excellent and persevering activity of mind, combined with much judgment
and sentimental qualities. A woman who is growing old and has lost the
members of her family, especially her husband, requires some object to
replace them in her affection. To devote herself to social activity will be the
best antidote against the peevish, querulous or sorrowful moods which so
easily take possession of the aged woman. It appears that love, which is a
phylogenetic derivative of the sexual appetite, and which in middle life is
intimately associated with this appetite, becomes afterwards more and more
independent of it and then requires more compensation. There is here a
great adaptation of love to life, an adaptation which it is necessary to bear in
mind.

In infancy the individual is naturally egoistic; his appetites all tend to
self-preservation. There are even then, however, great individual
differences, and we meet with children who are endowed with a remarkable
sentiment of duty and a great sensibility to the troubles of others. After
puberty man's sexual desire leads him to love, toward dual egoism, and this
desire becomes the principal factor in the reproduction of the species. In old
age the individual has no reproductive aims to fulfill; his life is only a
burden on society, if it is not directed with a view to benefit others and
society in general. By expansion and purification love, at first sexual, is
gradually transformed into purely humanitarian love, i.e., altruistic or
social. At least this is what it should be, and then the fundamental
biogenetic law of Haeckel (ontogeny is an abridged repetition of
phylogeny) will receive an ultimate confirmation. Our primitive unicellular
animal ancestor lived for itself alone; later on sexual reproduction without
love was established; then conjugal and family love appeared (birds,
monkeys, mammals, etc.), finally social love or altruism was produced, i.e.,
the sense of social solidarity based on the sentiment of duty.
The last is still very weak in man, while some animal species, such as the
bees and ants, have developed it in a more complete manner, on the basis of
instinct. According to this natural law, all social organization naturally
develops altruism or the sentiment of duty. The history of humanity proves
that our social union is only developed slowly and laboriously through
innumerable contests, and that it is derived, directly or indirectly, from the
family union of individuals. Extension of communication on the surface of
the earth causes the artificial development of social organization to advance
much more rapidly than the natural phylogenetic development by evolution
of the sentiments or social instincts. The latter are, however, forced to
follow the movement, resting first on the deep roots of family and friendly
altruism, as well as on that of caste or clan (patriotism); i.e., on sentiments
of sympathy and duty toward certain individuals who are more closely
connected with us, sentiments which are hereditary in man. A vague general
humanitarian sentiment, a hothouse flower which is still feeble, has already
commenced to grow on this natural basis. Let us hope that it will live.
It would be a fundamental error to try and found social solidarity solely
on our phylogenetic sentiments of sympathy, or on our ideal faculty of
devotion and self-sacrifice; but to try and take egoism as a basis for this

solidarity is a still greater error. We must not make an antinomy of egoism
and altruism, but regard them as two elements inseparable from all human
society, as well as the individuals who compose it. We cannot deny that the
altruist, endowed with strong sentiments of sympathy and duty, is an
excellent social worker, while the pure egoist constitutes an element of
decomposition for society. It is, therefore, a social duty to proceed by the
sexual route to a selection which will cause the first to multiply and
eliminate the second as far as possible by sterilizing his germs.

CHAPTER VIIIToC

SEXUAL PATHOLOGY

On this subject we refer the reader to the well-known work of Krafft-
Ebing, "Psychopathia Sexualis,"[4] in which will be found a number of
observations, the details of which we cannot enter into here. We may first of
all say that with the exception of venereal diseases the genital organs by
themselves only play a very small part in sexual pathology. The brain is the
true domain of nearly all sexual anomalies.
In the second place, we may remark that the disorders of sexual life only
rarely belong to acute affections which the physician can treat with
pharmaceutical or other common remedies. They almost exclusively
originate in the mental constitution, i.e., in the hereditary dispositions of the
brain of the individual. But the pathology of mental or cerebral conditions
offers an extremely vast field, capable of so much extension that no definite
limit can be fixed between the normal state and morbid states, which are
themselves connected by numerous transitions. A great number of acts due

to mental conditions which the public and even learned theologians, jurists
and physicians not initiated in psychiatry, consider as criminal, sinful, or
infamous, are only the product of pathological aberrations due to hereditary
dispositions. I was recently consulted by a patient of this kind, otherwise
possessed of noble sentiments, who told me that a physician in Germany to
whom he related his troubles, turned on him furiously and said, "These
things are filthy; you are a pig; hold your tongue and get away from here!"
As a matter of fact this unfortunate patient was sustaining a heroic struggle
against his perverted pathological sexual appetites. Knowing little or
nothing of these matters human society, with few exceptions, is of the same
opinion as the ignorant doctor mentioned above. For this reason I think it
necessary at least to give an outline of phenomena which, although very
repulsive in themselves, throw much light on the sexual question.

PATHOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL ORGANS

Every deformity, disease or operation which destroys the sexual glands in
the child, or prevents them from developing, gives rise to the phenomena
which we have described when speaking of castration. This is the case, for
instance, with cryptorchidism in which the testicles remain in the inguinal
canal and become atrophied, instead of descending into the scrotum. The
following case is an example, and is interesting in other respects:
A young man was affected with imbecility and congenital
cryptorchidism with atrophy of the testicles. A eunuch from birth, he
developed no sexual appetite and no correlative masculine character.
To make a man of him, his too eager aunts married him to a strong
girl, who was anything but innocent. She attempted by all kinds of
manipulations to cure the sexual blindness of her husband; but this
was a waste of labor, as the unhappy wretch only regarded the
performance as disgusting and filthy. He was violently excited and
became somnambulistic.
Soon afterwards the wife consoled herself with a lover of normal
sexual power, and they both overwhelmed the poor eunuch with
raillery. The latter, becoming furious, offered his wife a cake

poisoned with arsenic on her birthday, but she saw through the
stratagem. The poor wretch was sent for trial and condemned to a
long term of imprisonment for attempted poisoning. I consider this
judgment as a legal crime. In spite of my protests, imbecility was
not admitted, and the somnambulism was looked upon as simulated.
On the other hand, the same lesions when they occur in the adult neither
destroy the correlative sexual characters, nor the power of coitus, nor the
voluptuous sensation of the orgasm.
In man, aspermia sometimes occurs; the testicles appear to be well
formed, but the semen contains no spermatozoa. In spite of this the
aspermatic individual generally has erections, a certain amount of sexual
power and orgasm, and is capable of amorous feelings, although his sexual
functions are generally feeble. But he is incapable of fecundating a woman.
Some women who have never menstruated possess normal ovaries and
may become pregnant.
Tuberculosis, tumors and inflammations of the testicles and ovaries may
cause sterility.
The erection of the penis is often rendered impossible by certain
deformities, such as hypospadias and epispadias, in which the urethral
canal opens respectively below or above the penis.
Involuntary emissions of semen without erection, with or without
voluptuous sensation, is called spermatorrhea. This is often a result of
onanism, nervousness or constipation. Too much importance has been
attached to it. In hypochondriacs spermatorrhea becomes a bugbear, which
often makes them the dupes of charlatans. The less attention is paid to it the
quicker it disappears; especially when it is of purely nervous origin, as is
usually the case.
Phimosis, or narrowness of the opening of the prepuce is nearly always
of embryonic origin. It prevents the glans penis from becoming exposed, at
least during erection. It is a very common condition and very disagreeable.
If the prepuce is forcibly drawn back behind the glans penis before erection,
as is often the case in masturbation, the penis is gripped by the prepuce so
that it cannot sometimes be drawn forward and inflammation with oedema
results; this condition is called paraphimosis, and may become dangerous.

Secretions, urine and semen accumulate and decompose in a phimosed
prepuce, cause irritation and lead to masturbation. All cases of phimosis
should be operated upon in infancy, by complete or partial circumcision.
In women, the number of diseases which prevent conception is much
greater than in man. The ovary may undergo cystic degeneration or become
the seat of a tumor; but affections of the uterus and vagina cause more
sterility than ovarian affections. This results chiefly from catarrh and
inflammation which destroy the spermatozoa before they can reach the egg
during its descent. Disorders of menstruation have much less influence on
fecundity. The womb sometimes remains in an infantile state, which may
also cause sterility. Other diseases of the female sexual organs have a more
general pathological character and hardly influence sexual intercourse.
A method of rendering women sterile without castration (removal of the
ovaries) consists in interrupting the communication between the ovaries and
the womb by dislocation of the Fallopian tubes: this avoids all the evil
effects of castration.
Certain inflammations and displacements of the uterus and ovaries are
often the origin of pains, indispositions and nervous disorders in women.
Irregularity and pain in menstruation are a frequent cause of neuroticism.
The hymen is seldom so strongly developed as to offer a serious obstacle
to coitus; but when this occurs it may be removed by a slight operation.
Young women often suffer from vaginismus, or painful spasms occurring
when an object, such as the finger or penis, is introduced into the vagina.
Hermaphrodism in man is always pathological, extremely rare, and when
it exists nearly always incomplete. These cases are generally incomplete
mixtures concerning principally the correlative characters. A double
function only exists in legends. I have myself seen a celebrated
hermaphrodite named Catherine Hohmann who had a well-formed testicle
on the left side enclosed in a fold of skin which resembled the larger lip of
the vulva, while the penis was very short and resembled a clitoris. This
individual, who was baptized as a woman, was certainly male on one side;
on the other hand, the feminine nature was more than problematical.
Menstruation was alleged to have occurred but was not established with
certainty, any more than an ovary or uterus.

Much more frequent are inverted correlative sexual characters, such as
bearded women, men with breasts; also mental sexual inversions, of which
we shall speak later.

VENEREAL DISEASES[5]

We cannot give here a complete description of the venereal diseases,
which constitute a terrible evil for humanity, by bringing a great deal of
misfortunes and decadence into family and social life. Let us first point out
the common error which attributes to sexual excess the evil effects which
are really due to venereal disease. Although it may be uncommon, one may
be infected by these diseases after an innocent kiss, a cut finger, by sitting
on a privy contaminated by a person suffering from venereal disease, by the
use of contaminated linen, etc., etc. A pachydermatous Don Juan, on the
contrary, may abandon himself to the wildest sexual excess without being
infected, if he is prudent and has good luck. On the other hand, young men
may be infected after having been with a prostitute only once in their lives,
and thus ruin their whole existence.
There are three kinds of venereal disease, which we will describe in a
few words. To these may be added certain parasites, such as crab-lice and
the itch, which are easily communicated by sexual intercourse with infected
persons, but also in other ways.
Gonorrhea or Clap.—This disease consists in a purulent inflammation
of the urethra caused by a microbe called the gonococcus. When treated
properly it may be cured in a few weeks, but very often the inflammation
becomes chronic and attacks the neighboring organs. Chronic clap, or
"morning-drop," may lead in the male to permanent stricture of the urethra,
which in turn may produce retention of urine, catarrh of the bladder and
disease of the kidneys, which may be fatal. One attack of gonorrhea in no
way protects against a second infection, but rather predisposes to it, and
when this disease becomes chronic exacerbations or relapses of the acute
stage often occur without fresh infection.
In women the results of gonorrhea are, if possible, still worse than in
men, because it is more difficult to cure. A prostitute affected with

gonorrhea may infect an enormous number of men, and in this case medical
inspection of brothels is no guarantee. The gonococci are concealed in all
the corners and folds of the internal genital organs of woman, where they
set up inflammation of the womb, the Fallopian tubes and even the ovaries,
which may lead to adhesions between the abdominal organs. Women
affected with chronic gonorrhea generally become sterile. When the womb
and the ovaries are affected there is much suffering and the woman may be
confined to bed for some years. Stricture of the urethra and inflammation of
the bladder are more rare in women than in men, as the result of gonorrhea.
But gonorrhea is not confined to the adults of both sexes. The innocent
child, who at birth has to pass through its mother's vulva, when this is
affected with gonorrhea, undergoes a baptism of gonococci which attack the
conjunctiva of the eyes and set up a severe purulent inflammation, called
ophthalmia of the newly born (ophthalmia neonatorum). This is one of the
chief causes of total blindness, and if the child is not entirely blind, there
are often large white patches left on the cornea which considerably interfere
with sight. Gonorrheal ophthalmia may also occur in adults by conveying
pus from the urethra to the eyes by the fingers.
Syphilis.—This disease is still more formidable than gonorrhea. It is
caused by a microbe which has been recently discovered (Spirochæta
pallida). Syphilis is much more chronic than gonorrhea and commences
with a small sore indurated at its base and called the hard chancre. This is
situated on the genital organs or elsewhere; in the mouth, for instance, when
this has been in contact with the buccal or genital organs of a person
infected with syphilis. The syphilitic poison spreads through the body by
means of the blood and lymph. At the end of a few weeks eruptions appear
on the body and face, and then commences a series of disasters the cause of
which may be suspended over the victim for his whole life, like the sword
of Damocles, even when he believes himself cured; for the cure of syphilis
is often uncertain. This disease may remain latent for months and years, to
reappear later on in different organs and cause fresh lesions.
Syphilis causes ulcers of the skin and mucous membranes; it sometimes
causes decay of the bones; it may cause disease of the internal organs, such
as the liver and lungs; it affects the walls of the blood vessels, causing them
to become hard and brittle (atheroma); it causes disease of the eyes,

especially of the iris and retina, tumors (or gummata) in the brain, paralysis
etc. In fact, it spares none of the organs of the body.
Among the most terrible results of syphilis we must mention locomotor
ataxy (sclerosis of the posterior columns of the spinal cord), with its
lightning pains and paralysis of the legs and arms; also general paralysis of
the insane, which by causing gradual atrophy of the brain, destroys one
after the other, sensations, movements and all the mental faculties. These
two diseases, which are so common at the present day, only occur in old
syphilitics, five to twenty years, or more often ten to fifteen years after
infection, and as a rule in persons who think they have been completely
cured. Both these diseases are fatal. Before causing death, locomotor ataxy
causes intolerable pain for several years. General paralysis first gives rise to
grandiose ideas, and after disintegrating the human personality bit by bit,
ends by transforming the individual into a being much inferior to animals,
and of an aspect as miserable as it is repulsive. A general paralytic in his
last stage is little more than a vegetating ruin, in whom the nervous
activities are decomposed little by little, after the gradual disappearance of
all the mental faculties. This is the result of slow atrophy of the brain and
gradual destruction of its microscopic elements, or neurones.
The early stages of syphilis may easily pass unnoticed owing to their
partly latent and completely painless character. Small eruptions may be
mistaken for other affections, and mercurial treatment generally disperses
the symptoms of primary and secondary syphilis. But syphilitics who are
apparently cured are never safe from being attacked, after perhaps many
years, with locomotor ataxy, general paralysis or the tertiary or quaternary
manifestations of syphilis, such as disease of the bones, internal organs,
eyes, brain, etc. The sores of the first two or three years of syphilis are
contagious but painless, and hence do not prevent coitus when they occur in
the genitals. After three years syphilis becomes less contagious, but there is
no definite time limit and cases have been recorded in which contagious
lesions occurred ten or fifteen years after the onset of the disease.
A syphilitic man may transmit the disease to his children without
infecting his wife, and these children may die before birth or may be born
with congenital syphilis. This is due to the spermatozoa being infected with
syphilis. However, this is fortunately not always the case, for many cured
syphilitics have healthy children. A child affected with congenital syphilis

(from the father) may infect the mother during pregnancy; this is called
"syphilis by conception." Congenital syphilis may also cause locomotor
ataxy and general paralysis.
It is difficult to enumerate all the infirmities which syphilis in the parents
may transmit to the children. Syphilis often renders marriage sterile. It is
more frequent in men than in women, because the number of prostitutes is
small compared with the number of men who go with them; a single
prostitute may contaminate a whole regiment. On their part, the clients of
prostitutes convey gonorrhea and syphilis to their wives, thus spreading in
society this abominable plague and all the evils resulting from it.
Soft Chancre.—The third kind of venereal disease is the soft chancre,
thus called in distinction to hard chancre, which is the primary sore of
syphilis. Soft chancre is the least dangerous and the least common of the
three diseases. It consists of an ulcer which remains localized to the genital
organs (unless it is complicated with syphilis, which is frequent). The
ulcerated parts are destroyed, but the sore heals generally without trouble.
Venereal diseases constitute one of the worst satellites of the sexual
appetite. If men were not so ignorant and careless, it would be on the whole
easy to avoid them and cause their gradual disappearance. One of the most
absurd and infamous organizations which can be imagined is that of the
State regulation of prostitution which, under the pretext of hygiene,
compels prostitutes to be registered by the police or to live in brothels. They
then undergo regular medical examination, the object of which is to prevent
those who are diseased from practicing their trade, and compel them to be
treated in hospital. We shall see later on that this system absolutely fails in
its object, for the simple reason that the treatment of venereal diseases is by
no means the panacea which many people imagine.
The first attack of gonorrhea in man is very often spontaneously cured,
while unskillful treatment often aggravates it. The relapses of this disease,
on the other hand, especially in their chronic form, often resist all kinds of
treatment and sometimes become incurable. The gonococci become hidden
in the folds of the deep parts of the mucous membrane, both in men and
women, and cannot all be destroyed. With regard to syphilis, mercurial
treatment, although remarkable in its immediate effect, requires prolonged
administration. And it is by such means that it is proposed to make

prostitutes clean! There is only one radical cure for venereal diseases; that is
not to contract them! However, this does not prevent us from
recommending all those who are affected with them to seek immediate
treatment by a skilled specialist.
It is sad to see ladies of high position defending such barbarous
institutions as proxenetism (the business of keeping brothels) and the
regulation of prostitution, imagining that they thereby protect their
daughters against seduction. Such aberration can only be explained by
suggestive influence on the part of men. Among men, and especially among
many physicians, the belief in the efficacy of regulation depends on a
mixture of blind routine, faith in authority and want of judgment, combined
perhaps with more or less unconscious eroticism. We shall consider this
point in detail later on.
One of the most tragic effects of venereal disease is the contamination of
an innocent wife, whose whole life, hitherto chaste and pure, becomes
brutally deprived of its fruits, and whose dreams of the ideal and hopes of
happiness become swamped in the mire with which prostitution has
contaminated her. Is it surprising that love in such cases becomes replaced
by bitterness and despair? Some modern authors, such as Brieux (Les
Avariés) and André Couvreur (La Graine), have pictured in their dramas
and novels the tragic effects of venereal disease and heredity in the family,
as well as their social consequences. What is deplorable, is the enormous
proportion of persons who are infected with venereal diseases.

SEXUAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

With the exception of what is called sexual inversion and pathological
love of the insane, sexual psychopathology (i.e., sexual pathology of mind)
is chiefly limited to the domain of the sexual appetite, and originates mainly
in fetichism (see Chapter V), to which it is closely allied. Let us first
examine certain anomalies which partly concern the lower nervous
functions.
First of all a general question presents itself. Hereditary or congenital
sexual anomalies have been distinguished from those which are said to

result from vicious habits. Krafft-Ebing, in his celebrated book which we
have already quoted, makes a capital difference between these two causes,
and stigmatizes the acquired vices with great indignation. I do not deny that
there is reason for the distinction, but we must take exception to two
fundamental errors in the manner in which the facts are presented.
In the first place, the difference between hereditary and acquired sexual
anomalies is only relative and gradual, so that it is necessary to avoid
opposing one against the other. When an anomaly arrives spontaneously in
the first sexual glimmer of the child's mind during its development, it is
obvious that it is the expression of a profound hereditary taint, the result of
blastophthoria or of unfortunate combinations of ancestral energies which
have been associated by the conjugation of the two procreative germs. In
such a case it is comparatively easy to prove that this is a pathological
symptom independent of the will of the individual. But a continuous series
of degrees in the intensity of a hereditary predisposition to a certain sexual
anomaly, or to other anomalies or peculiarities apt to provoke this anomaly,
insensibly connects the purely hereditary pathological appetite with that
which is simply the effect of acquired vicious habits. In this way a strong
hereditary predisposition may exaggerate a moderate normal sexual
appetite, or may give it a pathological direction under influences which
would have had no effect in a less predisposed individual. Again, a slightly
marked tendency to homosexuality in a man may increase under the
seductive influence of a passionate invert, when the same individual would
have lost this tendency if he had fallen seriously in love with a woman. On
the other hand, the invert would have no influence on an individual who
was not predisposed.
If the hereditary disposition is very strong, it is developed spontaneously
or under the influence of very slight circumstances. If it is mediocre, it may
remain latent and even become extinct when favorable circumstances do
not awaken it. When it is entirely absent the most powerful seduction and
the most evil influence cannot give rise to the corresponding anomaly.
These facts are sufficient to show what abuse is made of the term acquired
vice. Under this heading are designated a number of peculiarities the roots
of which are to a great extent contained in the germ of heredity.
The power of words on the human mind produces antinomies which do
not really exist; such is the case with the terms vice and disease. Vices

depend on a hereditary mnemic disposition, of varying strength and more or
less pathological, or at any rate unilateral (i.e., developed in one direction
only, or connected with a single group of objects); according to the good or
evil influence of the environment they may develop, become limited or
even fail to appear. Inversely, we may say that many diseases, especially of
the brain, are the source of vices.
In the second place, it follows from this fundamental principle, that the
vicious and apparently acquired conduct of certain individuals should not
be considered as the product of perverted free will, but rather as the
unfortunate and destructive result of a bad hereditary disposition developed
under the influence of the bad habits of a corrupt environment. This
environment being itself composed of men, there is a vicious circle of cause
and effect which will not escape the mind of the thoughtful reader. Bad
habits are made by hereditary forces, and bad habits develop in their turn by
custom, and may even create, by blastophthoria, vicious hereditary
dispositions. The indignation of the moralists who condemn vicious persons
are very like the temper of a child who strikes the fire which burnt him.

REFLEX ANOMALIES

We have already mentioned vaginismus, which is often produced in
women by the first coitus. Priapism in man is somewhat analogous to
vaginismus. It is produced by an exaggerated reflex irritability of the nerve
centers for erection, and results in continual and painful erections, which
sometimes end in ejaculation without sensation. Another anomaly, more or
less reflex and very frequent, produces voluptuous sensations and
premature ejaculation after short and incomplete erections. In some nervous
women also, the venereal orgasm occurs very rapidly and briefly. These
anomalies belong to the domain of medicine and are of little importance for
our subject.

PSYCHIC IMPOTENCE

Psychic impotence is a symptom which occurs accidentally in the normal
state and very frequently in psychopathological conditions.
A representation or idea of any kind, may suddenly paralyze by
suggestive action the normal reflex mechanism of the center for erection.
The blood ceases to accumulate in the corpora cavernosa and erection is
either arrested or not produced at all. For example, a very excited lover,
who has had strong erections at the moment when he prepared to copulate,
may be suddenly overcome with the idea that he will fail, or by some other
thought which paralyzes erection and renders coitus impossible. The
remembrance of such a failure and the distress and shame attached to it,
even efforts to produce erection indirectly for another attempt, constitute
further causes of inhibition of the cerebro-spinal activity; they temporarily
extinguish the sexual appetite, and prevent by their interference the
automatic mechanism of erection which they strive to produce. The greater
the fear of failure, the more the psychic impotence increases. This
phenomenon may be limited to a certain woman, but it is more often
general. Sometimes an incomplete erection is produced, which is
insufficient.
This condition, which depends on auto-suggestion, is best treated by
hypnotic suggestion. The sentiment of impotence powerfully depresses a
man, and the depression increases his impotence. This condition often,
however, disappears by itself.
A special variety of psychic impotence is that in which erection takes
place, but the idea of ejaculation predominates so much that it paralyzes the
voluptuous sensations, and causes ejaculation to occur without pleasure, or
even erection to cease.
Impotence may occur at the first coitus, or may come on gradually. It is
often produced suddenly at the time of marriage in persons who have
hitherto been very capable, even in Don Juans. Men may have normal
erections and pollutions, but these may be stopped by counter-suggestions
at each attempt at coitus. Habitual masturbation may in some cases
contribute to produce impotence, but we must not generalize from such
cases, nor construct a dogma from them, for continence may also be a cause
of impotence.

All these details, which are combined in all kinds of ways with other
sexual troubles, but which are also produced alone in men who are
otherwise normal, throw much light on the relation of the momentary
mental state of man to his sexual appetite and the accomplishment of coitus.
I do not know under what heading the following case should be placed:
A young man of steady habits, and normal sexual appetite, had
always abstained from sexual connection and masturbation. He only
had emissions during sleep. The latter were accompanied by erotic
dreams, but never produced an orgasm, while disagreeable
sensations occurred on waking. He married for love a woman in
whom the hymen was resistant, and vaginismus occurred on each
attempt at coitus. These attempts failed constantly in spite of the
most intense love and the most ardent desire for children on both
sides. The husband's erections were incomplete, and he never had an
ejaculation except when asleep. By the aid of hypnotism I
succeeded in strengthening his erections, and an operation on the
hymen cured his wife's vaginismus. The first attempts at coitus were
not immediately successful, but suggestion acted after a time;
finally the attempts were crowned with success, and followed by a
first and second pregnancy. The children were healthy.
In this case, the impotence, which had lasted about eighteen
months, did not affect the mutual love and respect of the couple,
because the husband's affection combined with his sexual appetite
had sufficed for the happiness of a woman who was on the whole
normal.
This case is very instructive in several ways, for it gives a good example
of the nature of the sexual instinct in woman; it also shows how the auto-
suggestion of emissions occurring only during sleep may hinder copulation
in the waking state. But such phenomena are extremely rare.
It is hardly necessary to say that there is no true impotence in woman; but
the same mental paralysis may occur as in man, preventing orgasm and
often causing disgust.

SEXUAL PARADOXY

By this term is understood the appearance of the sexual appetite, or even
of love, at an abnormal age. Infantile paradoxy is, however, very different
to senile paradoxy.
Infantile paradoxy must not be confounded with certain forms of
masturbation, to which we shall return. Some races, especially in the
tropics, have a much earlier sexual development than others; depending
more on race than climate. In some, sexual maturity occurs in boys between
the age of twelve and fourteen, and in girls between nine and ten years,
while in others the former are hardly mature at twenty and the latter before
seventeen or eighteen. Again, individual variations may be very great in the
same race. But, owing to hereditary satyriasis or nymphomania, we
sometimes in our own country see sexual appetite appear in children of
eight, seven, or even three or four years of age, in a spontaneous manner
without any external excitation. Lombroso mentions the case of a girl three
years old who had an irresistible tendency to onanism. I have myself
observed the two following cases:
(1). A boy of seven years, the son of a brothel keeper, and a kind
of satyr who committed great excesses, began spontaneously to
attack little girls of his own age or even younger. He was so artful
that all means failed in curing him of this habit, and he was sent to
an asylum of which I was superintendent. He then tried to renew his
exploits with a boy older than himself. He was also idle and
disposed to all kinds of folly. He did not, however, attempt to
copulate with adult women or men. His sexual organs were
absolutely infantile, without any abnormal development. His
paradoxy was thus of cerebral origin.
(2). A girl of nine years was brought to my office addicted to self-
abuse. Upon examination, I found this child highly neurotic, the
major part of her life had been under unhygienic atmosphere, case
history, father psychopathic, had been in an insane asylum, mother
ænemic. The child was sent to a state institution for girls and
improved remarkably.

In this case I was told that there was no hereditary taint, but such
statements prove nothing. Individuals of this kind generally become
criminals, or else give themselves up to masturbation or prostitution.
Occasionally, the sexual appetite may be preserved for a long time in old
men, or reappear for a time, with or without sexual power, but as a rule, the
paradoxy of old men is the initial symptom of senile dementia. As this
disorder is only commencing when sexual excitation occurs, it is not
noticed, and the patient is regarded as an immoral, vicious or criminal
individual. I have seen a patient of this kind masturbate openly in an
asylum, so great was his sexual excitation.
In most old men affected with senile sexual paradoxy, the sexual appetite
is directed toward very young girls or even children, which aggravates their
case from the legal point of view. Very often this appetite is perverted and
assumes one of the forms we shall speak of later. Some of these old men are
still capable, but others are not, and then their excitation only manifests
itself in manipulations of the genital organs, etc. Such cases play a
considerable part in law scandals. The patient (for so he must be called)
often becomes the victim of blackmail on the part of vicious girls or
children, incited by unnatural parents. One often sees also, at the onset of
senile dementia, an old man become enamored of some prostitute or
adventuress who makes him marry her and thus takes possession of his
fortune. The law generally makes the matter valid, under the pretext that
individual liberty must be respected. Such sanction consists in reality in
sacrificing a patient for the profit of a female swindler.

SEXUAL ANÆSTHESIA OR CONGENITAL ABSENCE OF THE
SEXUAL SENSE AND APPETITE

Sexual sensations are so intimately connected with the sexual appetite
that it is difficult to separate them. No doubt in the adult a certain degree of
sexual appetite may exist without any voluptuous sensation, but this is a
secondary phenomenon.
Complete sexual anæsthesia is very rare in man; it is not a special form
of anomaly, but the reduction to zero of a normal sensation and the appetite

which corresponds to it. The characteristic feature of these cases is that,
contrary to what occurs in eunuchs and cryptorchids, not only the testicles,
but all the correlative sexual attributes (the beard, voice, character, etc.) are
normally developed, and are in no way inverted as in homosexual
individuals. Sexual anæsthesia causes no more suffering than color-
blindness, but like the latter it occasions individual troubles resulting from
misunderstanding. The sexual anæsthetic, having a more or less false idea
of marriage, often marries in complete ignorance, and the results are then
disastrous, thanks to our laws and customs.
In women, sexual anæsthesia is very common. Krafft-Ebing is wrong in
maintaining that in all such cases the women are always neurotic. A number
of absolutely normal and intelligent women remain all their life completely
cold from the sexual point of view, apart from the normally passive
character of the female sex in coitus. It is rather the very libidinous woman
who is pathological.
We have seen that the normal sexual sentiment of woman is developed
rather in the direction of love, and desire for children. Erotic men often
complain of the sexual coldness of their wives, which is disagreeable to
them; for pleasure in one sex excites and completes that of the other. Cold
women submit to coitus as a duty, or at any rate only mentally enjoy their
husband's caresses.
Sexual anæsthesia occurs normally in old age. It may occur at an earlier
age, owing to destruction or atrophy of the sexual glands, great excesses, or
on the contrary, extreme continence. Certain diseases and psychoses may
also cause it.
The following are a few examples of sexual anæsthesia:
(1). A normally built man, of high culture and moral sense, was
affected with complete sexual anæsthesia since birth. He
occasionally had nocturnal emissions, and also matutinal erections,
but no erotic images. When he arrived at mature age he had no idea
of sexual intercourse, and was completely indifferent to everything
concerning sexuality. He did not even comprehend anything relating
to sexual affairs, and his replies reminded me of conversations with
color-blind persons on the distinction between red and green!

According to his ideas, marriage was an intellectual and sentimental
union in which children came by themselves!
He eventually married a young girl, well educated but extremely
prudish. One can imagine the revelations which followed! The wife,
who had a strong desire for children, soon perceived the sexual
blindness of her husband. She became very unhappy and bitterly
reproached him. The husband then became aware that there should
be something in marriage which he had not taken into account; but
the explanations of coitus by the medical man were useless, and
hypnotic suggestion was incapable of producing the least sexual
sensation.
In spite of all this, the husband was full of respect and affection
for his wife, but was incapable of simulating the least sexual
appetite. As regards the wife, what she required was not coitus,
which was simply a means to an end, but children. However, her
prudery made her prefer this state of things to a divorce, which
would create scandal. We may notice that in such cases erections are
only produced mechanically during sleep, which renders coitus
impossible.
(2). A timid but vain young man of retiring habits, sexually cold,
had occasional nocturnal emissions sometimes accompanied by
slightly erotic dreams. Although better informed than the preceding
case on sexual relations, his sexual appetite was almost entirely
absent, and he regarded marriage as a purely intellectual alliance.
He married an intelligent and passionate young girl whose sexual
appetite was strongly developed, and at once began to treat her with
great coldness, as a kind of domestic servant.
The wife's family were in favor of divorce, but having pity on the
husband, sent him to me for advice. I explained the matter to him,
made him understand that the fault was entirely on his side, and that
his first duty was to show affection for his wife, or if not, to accept
divorce. The effect was purely psychical, and from this moment he
became amiable and affectionate toward his wife. This was
sufficient to cause the wife to give up the idea of divorce. I then told
her that, on account of her husband's timidity and anomaly, the only

thing to do was to reverse their roles, and for her to make the sexual
advances. I have not heard anything more from this singular couple.
(3). A young man who had never had sexual connection before
marriage, in spite of a strong sexual appetite, made the acquaintance
of an intelligent young girl of excellent character. Marriage
followed, and the wife was loyal to her husband, but remained
sexually cold. She was insensible to coitus and only regarded it as a
disagreeable complement of love. In spite of this she was fond of
caresses, devoted to her husband, and had several children.
(4). An intelligent and cultured man, normal from the sexual point
of view, who had frequented prostitutes in his youth, but not
excessively, married a rather nervous but apparently very amorous
young woman. The marriage night produced on her the effect of a
cold douche, and coitus offended and horrified her. The husband in
his discomfiture took patience; but his love, which was never very
strong, became shattered. To avoid all scandal each of the conjoints
practiced dissimulation and adapted themselves more or less to each
other. The wife allowed coitus, the husband tolerated her coldness.
Several children were born, but the family was unhappy, and after a
few years divorce put an end to it.

SEXUAL HYPERÆSTHESIA, OR EXAGGERATION OF THE
SEXUAL APPETITE

This anomaly may be congenital, for example, in the sexual paradoxy of
children. Every one knows the Don Juans and Messalinas with their
insatiable appetites. These types of sexual hyperæsthesia are certainly less
frequent and more abnormal in women than in men, but the intensity is as
great or greater.
Sexual hyperæsthesia manifests itself by desires excited by every
sensorial perception relating to the opposite sex, or simply by objects which
recall it to the imagination; so that fetichism plays a great part in this
condition. The feeling of satiety is hardly experienced at all, or only for a
short time after each orgasm. Nymphomaniacs and satyrs are possessed by

an insatiable sexual desire, often associated with certain sensations of
anguish. This hyperæsthesia, even when it is not hereditary, may be
developed up to a certain point by continued or repeated artificial
excitations.
In women it is during or after menstruation that the sexual appetite and
consequently sexual hyperæsthesia are generally strongest, but there are
many individual variations in this respect, and sometimes the opposite
occurs.
The effect of sexual hyperæsthesia is to direct the appetite toward any
object capable of satisfying it. When the other sex is wanting, masturbation
is generally resorted to. All mucous membranes (anus, mouth, etc.) and
even inanimate objects may serve to satisfy the pathologically exalted
appetite of such individuals. Men most distinguished in other respects may
abandon themselves to the most foolish or abominable practices.
Animals are often used to satisfy the hyperæsthetic sexual appetite in
both sexes. The healthy woman is not prone to such desires, unless of
psychopathic taint. Men visit prostitutes, and become excited at the sight of
every woman who is neither too old nor too repulsive. Some individuals of
this kind are pursued night and day by erotic images, which may even
become an obsession and a veritable torment.
A further degree of sexual hyperæsthesia is called Satyriasis in man, and
nymphomania in woman. I have observed in women two very different
varieties of sexual hyperæsthesia. In one, true nymphomania, the subjects
are attracted toward man bodily and mentally with an elementary force; in
these the whole brain follows the appetite in quite a feminine manner. Other
women, on the contrary, are driven to masturbation by a purely peripheral
excitation; they have erotic dreams with venereal orgasms which torment
rather than please them; but they do not fall in love easily, and may have
difficulty in the choice of a husband. Their mind alone remains feminine,
full of tact and delicacy in its sentiments, while their lower nerve centers
react in a more masculine and at the same time more pathological manner.
There are many transitional forms between these two extremes.
Sexual hyperæsthetics are often unhappy, and consult the physician for
relief from the perpetual excitation which torments them. They attempt to
master themselves and check their appetite in all ways, and are sometimes

affected with nervous or mental depression. It is important, however, to
recognize the fact, that many sexual hyperæsthetics remain quite fresh and
active, and attain an advanced age, provided they escape alcohol and
venereal disease.
When sexual hyperæsthesia results chiefly from artificially acquired
habits it may often be cured by hypnotic suggestion, and establishing self-
control; but when it is hereditary and very intense, and especially when it is
connected with infantile paradoxy or other anomalies, castration may be the
only efficient remedy. When it is chiefly acquired, any strong diversion
which turns the mind from sexual preoccupation to other subjects may have
an excellent curative effect. The most intense hereditary cases may
constitute a plague for the individual and for society, and it is then that
castration may become a blessing by calming the obsessed patient, by
giving him the opportunity for useful occupation, and by preventing him
from abusing his fellows and procreating beings similar to himself.
Nymphomaniacs often have polyandrous instincts, and they then become
more insatiable than men. Several cases of this kind have been published in
the press, and examples of such women are not rare in history. When a
woman is possessed by passion she often loses all sense of shame, all moral
sense and all discretion, as regards the object of her desires. She pays no
attention to anything which is opposed to her passion, but may be full of
reserve, tact and good-feeling in all other respects. Cases of this kind,
however, have always a more or less marked pathological character.
In man, satyriasis is very frequent. It often happens that a husband
continually forces his wife to coitus, even during menstruation. We have
mentioned already the case of an old peasant of seventy who thus abused
his poor old wife. In such cases conjugal infidelity very commonly occurs.
The cynicism of such individuals may go so far that they have intercourse
with prostitutes or servants in the presence of their wives, or even abuse
their own children. The wife behaves in these cases in different ways
according to her character. Many tolerate everything and do not complain,
for the sake of their children; others leave the husband or divorce him; some
commit suicide.
It would seem quite natural for nymphomaniacs to marry satyrs, but we
must bear in mind the evil results for posterity from such an accumulation

of the sexual appetite.

MASTURBATION OR ONANISM

The term onanism is derived from the name of Onan, son of Juda and
Suah and grandson of Israel. According to the Old Testament, Onan's father
wished him to marry his brother's widow and have children by her; but this
did not please Onan, and he provoked ejaculation of semen by friction, in
order to avoid having children by his sister-in-law. "This offended God who
slew him."
We have already shown that in the child the sexual appetite manifests
itself in a kind of obscure presentiment and vague sensations in the genital
organs. If a young man cannot satisfy his sexual appetite naturally, the latter
when it increases in strength provokes erotic dreams and nocturnal
emissions; or artificial excitation of the penis may be practiced to produce
orgasms: the latter phenomenon is called masturbation.
Masturbation in man is performed by friction of the penis with the hand
or against some soft body. In the latter case especially erotic images of
naked women or female sexual organs is associated with onanism. This
kind of masturbation may be called compensatory, because it does not
depend on an anomaly of the sexual appetite, but serves to satisfy a natural
want by compensation. There are a whole series of manipulations employed
for the same object, which constitute the psychic equivalent of
compensating masturbation. In remote garrisons and in boys' schools the
more libidinous individuals, usually those mentally tainted, often practice
mutual masturbation or sodomy. This is the sex complex of the degenerate
individual and in an effort to exterminate these pathological manifestations,
they are being penalized by law, throughout the civilized world. It is
unnecessary to prolong this enumeration. Those we have mentioned are the
most common and it is agreed that men who are addicted to these practices
are decidedly psychopathic, whether it may be caused by faulty heredity or
anomaly in the psychology of the individual, this still remains to be proven.
In reality they are often normal in other respects, but simply affected with
sexual hyperæsthesia. Sometimes they are feeble-minded individuals who
have recourse to such practices because they are derided by women. Others
are cynics, more or less vicious in other respects.

Compensatory masturbation is extremely widespread, but it is as a rule
neither recognized nor admitted because it is easy to conceal. Although
depressing for those whose will power is overcome by an excitation which
they cannot conquer, it is relatively the least dangerous form of onanism. At
the most it leads to a certain amount of nervous and mental exhaustion by
abuse of the facility of thus procuring a venereal orgasm. The loss of
substance from frequent seminal ejaculations is also more or less
weakening, although the secretion from the prostate plays a much greater
part than the semen. But what especially affects the nervous system, is the
repeated loss of the will, and the failure of resolutions made many times to
overcome the desire for orgasm.
Here, as elsewhere, effect is too often confounded with cause. Because
men of feeble will power are addicted to onanism, it is imagined that the
latter is the cause of the weakness of will. In itself, a seminal ejaculation
provoked by masturbation is no more dangerous than a nocturnal emission;
both are often accompanied by nervous sensations which are more
disagreeable and exhausting than normal coitus. I must, however, point out
that the effects of moderate masturbation in the adult have been greatly
exaggerated, either by confounding the effect with its cause, or for
mercenary objects, by driving timid persons to charlatans or to prostitutes.
The active sexual appetite of man, increased by the accumulation of
semen, is absent in woman. She does not have nocturnal emissions
accompanied by voluptuous sensations which spontaneously awaken sexual
desire. For this reason a pathological sexual excitability is necessary to
spontaneously provoke in woman voluptuous dreams or masturbation. For
the same reason we cannot speak of compensatory masturbation in woman.
Onanism, however, is not uncommon among women, although less frequent
than in men. It results either from artificial and local excitations, from bad
example, or from pathological hyperæsthesia. When once the habit is
acquired, repetition is produced by the difficulty of resisting voluptuous
desires.
Women perform masturbation by friction of the clitoris with the finger, or
by introducing various hard and rounded objects into the vagina and
imitating the movements of coitus; often also by rubbing the crossed thighs
against each other. In the insane, masturbation is sometimes practiced to an