STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX, VOLUME III

Analysis of the Sexual Impulse
Love and Pain
The Sexual Impulse in Women


by

HAVELOCK ELLIS

1927







PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.


This volume has been thoroughly revised for the present edition and
considerably enlarged throughout, in order to render it more accurate and
more illustrative, while bringing it fairly up to date with reference to
scientific investigation. Numerous histories have also been added to the
Appendix.

It has not been found necessary to modify the main doctrines set forth ten
years ago. At the same time, however, it may be mentioned, as regards the
first study in the volume, that our knowledge of the physiological
mechanism of the sexual instinct has been revolutionized during recent
years. This is due to the investigations that have been made, and the
deductions that have been built up, concerning the part played by
hormones, or internal secretions of the ductless glands, in the physical
production of the sexual instinct and the secondary sexual characters. The
conception of the psychology of the sexual impulse here set forth, while
correlated to terms of a physical process of tumescence and detumescence,
may be said to be independent of the ultimate physiological origins of
that process. But we cannot fail to realize the bearing of physiological
chemistry in this field; and the doctrine of internal secretions, since it
may throw light on many complex problems presented by the sexual instinct,
is full of interest for us.

HAVELOCK ELLIS.

June, 1913.




PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.


The present volume of _Studies_ deals with some of the most essential
problems of sexual psychology. The _Analysis of the Sexual Impulse_ is
fundamental. Unless we comprehend the exact process which is being worked
out beneath the shifting and multifold phenomena presented to us we can
never hope to grasp in their true relations any of the normal or abnormal
manifestations of this instinct. I do not claim that the conception of the
process here stated is novel or original. Indeed, even since I began to
work it out some years ago, various investigators in these fields,
especially in Germany, have deprived it of any novelty it might otherwise
have possessed, while at the same time aiding me in reaching a more
precise statement. This is to me a cause of satisfaction. On so
fundamental a matter I should have been sorry to find myself tending to a
peculiar and individual standpoint. It is a source of gratification to me
that the positions I have reached are those toward which current
intelligent and scientific opinions are tending. Any originality in my
study of this problem can only lie in the bringing together of elements
from somewhat diverse fields. I shall be content if it is found that I
have attained a fairly balanced, general, and judicial statement of these
main factors in the sexual instinct.

In the study of _Love and Pain_ I have discussed the sources of those
aberrations which are commonly called, not altogether happily, "sadism"
and "masochism." Here we are brought before the most extreme and perhaps
the most widely known group of sexual perversions. I have considered them
from the medico-legal standpoint, because that has already been done by
other writers whose works are accessible. I have preferred to show how
these aberrations may be explained; how they may be linked on to normal
and fundamental aspects of the sexual impulse; and, indeed, in their
elementary forms, may themselves be regarded as normal. In some degree
they are present, in every case, at some point of sexual development;
their threads are subtly woven in and out of the whole psychological
process of sex. I have made no attempt to reduce their complexity to a
simplicity that would be fallacious. I hope that my attempt to unravel
these long and tangled threads will be found to make them fairly clear.

In the third study, on _The Sexual Impulse in Women_, we approach a
practical question of applied sexual psychology, and a question of the
first importance. No doubt the sex impulse in men is of great moment from
the social point of view. It is, however, fairly obvious and well
understood. The impulse in women is not only of at least equal moment, but
it is far more obscure. The natural difficulties of the subject have been
increased by the assumption of most writers who have touched it--casually
and hurriedly, for the most part--that the only differences to be sought
in the sexual impulse in man and in woman are quantitative differences. I
have pointed out that we may more profitably seek for qualitative
differences, and have endeavored to indicate such of these differences as
seem to be of significance.

In an Appendix will be found a selection of histories of more or less
normal sexual development. Histories of gross sexual perversion have often
been presented in books devoted to the sexual instinct; it has not
hitherto been usual to inquire into the facts of normal sexual
development. Yet it is concerning normal sexual development that our
ignorance is greatest, and the innovation can scarcely need justification.
I have inserted these histories not only because many of them are highly
instructive in themselves, but also because they exhibit the nature of the
material on which my work is mainly founded.

I am indebted to many correspondents, medical and other, in various parts
of the world, for much valuable assistance. When they have permitted me
to do so I have usually mentioned their names in the text. This has not
been possible in the case of many women friends and correspondents, to
whom, however, my debt is very great. Nature has put upon women the
greater part of the burden of sexual reproduction; they have consequently
become the supreme authorities on all matters in which the sexual emotions
come into question. Many circumstances, however, that are fairly obvious,
conspire to make it difficult for women to assert publicly the wisdom and
knowledge which, in matters of love, the experiences of life have brought
to them. The ladies who, in all earnestness and sincerity, write books on
these questions are often the last people to whom we should go as the
representatives of their sex; those who know most have written least. I
can therefore but express again, as in previous volumes I have expressed
before, my deep gratitude to these anonymous collaborators who have aided
me in throwing light on a field of human life which is of such primary
social importance and is yet so dimly visible.

HAVELOCK ELLIS.

Carbis Water,

Lelant, Cornwall, England.




CONTENTS.


ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE.

Definition of Instinct--The Sexual Impulse a Factor of the Sexual
Instinct--Theory of the Sexual Impulse as an Impulse of Evacuation--The
Evidence in Support of this Theory Inadequate--The Sexual Impulse to Some
Extent Independent of the Sexual Glands--The Sexual Impulse in Castrated
Animals and Men--The Sexual Impulse in Castrated Women, After the
Menopause, and in the Congenital Absence of the Sexual Glands--The
Internal Secretions--Analogy between the Sexual Relationship and that of
the Suckling Mother and her Child--The Theory of the Sexual Impulse as a
Reproductive Impulse--This Theory Untenable--Moll's Definition--The
Impulse of Detumescence--The Impulse of Contrectation--Modification of
this Theory Proposed--Its Relation to Darwin's Sexual Selection--The
Essential Element in Darwin's Conception--Summary of the History of the
Doctrine of Sexual Selection. Its Psychological Aspect--Sexual Selection a
Part of Natural Selection--The Fundamental Importance of
Tumescence--Illustrated by the Phenomena of Courtship in Animals and in
Man--The Object of Courtship is to Produce Sexual Tumescence--The
Primitive Significance of Dancing in Animals and Man--Dancing is a Potent
Agent for Producing Tumescence--The Element of Truth in the Comparison of
the Sexual Impulse with an Evacuation, Especially of the Bladder--Both
Essentially Involve Nervous Explosions--Their Intimate and Sometimes
Vicarious Relationships--Analogy between Coitus and Epilepsy--Analogy of
the Sexual Impulse to Hunger--Final Object of the Impulses of Tumescence
and Detumescence.


LOVE AND PAIN.

I.

The Chief Key to the Relationship between Love and Pain to be Found in
Animal Courtship--Courtship a Source of Combativity and of Cruelty--Human
Play in the Light of Animal Courtship--The Frequency of Crimes Against the
Person in Adolescence--Marriage by Capture and its Psychological
Basis--Man's Pleasure in Exerting Force and Woman's Pleasure in
Experiencing it--Resemblance of Love to Pain even in Outward
Expression--The Love-bite--In What Sense Pain May be Pleasurable--The
Natural Contradiction in the Emotional Attitude of Women Toward
Men--Relative Insensibility to Pain of the Organic Sexual Sphere in
Women--The Significance of the Use of the Ampallang and Similar Appliances
in Coitus--The Sexual Subjection of Women to Men in Part Explainable as
the Necessary Condition for Sexual Pleasure.

II.

The Definition of Sadism--De Sade--Masochism to some Extent
Normal--Sacher-Masoch--No Real Line of Demarcation between Sadism and
Masochism--Algolagnia Includes Both Groups of Manifestations--The
Love-bite as a Bridge from Normal Phenomena to Algolagnia--The Fascination
of Blood--The Most Extreme Perversions are Linked on to Normal Phenomena.

III.

Flagellation as a Typical Illustration of Algolagnia--Causes of Connection
between Sexual Emotion and Whipping--Physical Causes--Psychic Causes
Probably More Important--The Varied Emotional Associations of
Whipping--Its Wide Prevalence.

IV.

The Impulse to Strangle the Object of Sexual Desire--The Wish to be
Strangled. Respiratory Disturbance the Essential Element in this Group of
Phenomena--The Part Played by Respiratory Excitement in the Process of
Courtship--Swinging and Suspension--The Attraction Exerted by the Idea of
being Chained and Fettered.

V.

Pain, and not Cruelty, the Essential Element in Sadism and Masochism--Pain
Felt as Pleasure--Does the Sadist Identify Himself with the Feelings of
his Victim?--The Sadist Often a Masochist in Disguise--The Spectacle of
Pain or Struggle as a Sexual Stimulant.

VI.

Why is Pain a Sexual Stimulant?--It is the Most Effective Method of
Arousing Emotion--Anger and Fear the Most Powerful Emotions--Their
Biological Significance in Courtship--Their General and Special Effects in
Stimulating the Organism--Grief as a Sexual Stimulant--The Physiological
Mechanism of Fatigue Renders Pain Pleasurable.

VII.

Summary of Results Reached--The Joy of Emotional Expansion--The
Satisfaction of the Craving for Power--The Influence of Neurasthenic and
Neuropathic Conditions--The Problem of Pain in Love Largely Constitutes a
Special Case of Erotic Symbolism.


THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN.

Introduction.

I.

The Primitive View of Women--As a Supernatural Element in Life--As
Peculiarly Embodying the Sexual Instinct--The Modern Tendency to
Underestimate the Sexual Impulse in Women--This Tendency Confined to
Recent Times--Sexual Anæsthesia--Its Prevalence--Difficulties in
Investigating the Subject--Some Attempts to Investigate it--Sexual
Anæsthesia Must be Regarded as Abnormal--The Tendency to Spontaneous
Manifestations of the Sexual Impulse in Young Girls at Puberty.

II.

Special Characters of the Sexual Impulse in Women--The More Passive Part
Played by Women in Courtship--This Passivity Only Apparent--The Physical
Mechanism of the Sexual Process in Women More Complex--The Slower
Development of Orgasm in Women--The Sexual Impulse in Women More
Frequently Needs to be Actively Aroused--The Climax of Sexual Energy Falls
Later in Women's Lives than in Men's--Sexual Ardor in Women increased
After the Establishment of Sexual Relationships--Women Bear Sexual
Excesses Better than Men--The Sexual Sphere Larger and More Diffused in
Women--The Sexual Impulse in Women Shows a Greater Tendency to Periodicity
and a Wider Range of Variation.

III.

Summary of Conclusions.


APPENDIX A.

The Sexual Instinct in Savages.


APPENDIX B.

The Development of the Sexual Instinct.


INDEX OF AUTHORS.


INDEX OF SUBJECTS.




ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE.

Definition of Instinct--The Sexual Impulse a Factor of the Sexual
Instinct--Theory of the Sexual Impulse as an Impulse of Evacuation--The
Evidence in Support of this Theory Inadequate--The Sexual Impulse to Some
Extent Independent of the Sexual Glands--The Sexual Impulse in Castrated
Animals and Men--The Sexual Impulse in Castrated Women, after the
Menopause, and in the Congenital Absence of the Sexual Glands--The
Internal Secretions--Analogy between the Sexual Relationship and that of
the Suckling Mother and her Child--The Theory of the Sexual Impulse as a
Reproductive Impulse--This Theory Untenable--Moll's Definition--The
Impulse of Detumescence--The Impulse of Contrectation--Modification of
this Theory Proposed--Its Relation to Darwin's Sexual Selection--The
Essential Element in Darwin's Conception--Summary of the History of the
Doctrine of Sexual Selection--Its Psychological Aspect--Sexual Selection a
Part of Natural Selection--The Fundamental Importance of
Tumescence--Illustrated by the Phenomena of Courtship in Animals and in
Man--The Object of Courtship is to Produce Sexual Tumescence--The
Primitive Significance of Dancing in Animals and Man--Dancing is a Potent
Agent for Producing Tumescence--The Element of Truth in the Comparison of
the Sexual Impulse with an Evacuation, Especially of the Bladder--Both
Essentially Involve Nervous Explosions--Their Intimate and Sometimes
Vicarious Relationships--Analogy between Coitus and Epilepsy--Analogy of
the Sexual Impulse to Hunger--Final Object of the Impulses of Tumescence
and Detumescence.


The term "sexual instinct" may be said to cover the whole of the
neuropsychic phenomena of reproduction which man shares with the lower
animals. It is true that much discussion has taken place concerning the
proper use of the term "instinct," and some definitions of instinctive
action would appear to exclude the essential mechanism of the process
whereby sexual reproduction is assured. Such definitions scarcely seem
legitimate, and are certainly unfortunate. Herbert Spencer's definition of
instinct as "compound reflex action" is sufficiently clear and definite
for ordinary use.

A fairly satisfactory definition of instinct is that supplied by
Dr. and Mrs. Peckham in the course of their study _On the
Instincts and Habits of Solitary Wasps_. "Under the term
'instinct,'" they say, "we place all complex acts which are
performed previous to experience and in a similar manner by all
members of the same sex and race, leaving out as non-essential,
at this time, the question of whether they are or are not
accompanied by consciousness." This definition is quoted with
approval by Lloyd Morgan, who modifies and further elaborates it
(_Animal Behavior_, 1900, p. 21). "The distinction between
instinctive and reflex behavior," he remarks, "turns in large
degree on their relative complexity," and instinctive behavior,
he concludes, may be said to comprise "those complex groups of
co-ordinated acts which are, on their first occurrence,
independent of experience; which tend to the well-being of the
individual and the preservation of the race; which are due to the
co-operation of external and internal stimuli; which are
similarly performed by all the members of the same more or less
restricted group of animals; but which are subject to variation,
and to subsequent modification under the guidance of experience."
Such a definition clearly justifies us in speaking of a "sexual
instinct." It may be added that the various questions involved in
the definition of the sexual instinct have been fully discussed
by Moll in the early sections of his _Untersuchungen über die
Libido Sexualis_.

Of recent years there has been a tendency to avoid the use of the
term "instinct," or, at all events, to refrain from attaching any
serious scientific sense to it. Loeb's influence has especially
given force to this tendency. Thus, while Piéron, in an
interesting discussion of the question ("Les Problèmes Actuels de
l'Instinct," _Revue Philosophique_, Oct., 1908), thinks it would
still be convenient to retain the term, giving it a philosophical
meaning, Georges Bohn, who devotes a chapter to the notion of
instinct (_La Naissance de l'Intelligence_, 1909), is strongly in
favor of eliminating the word, as being merely a legacy of
medieval theologians and metaphysicians, serving to conceal our
ignorance or our lack of exact analysis.

It may be said that the whole of the task undertaken in these _Studies_ is
really an attempt to analyze what is commonly called the sexual instinct.
In order to grasp it we have to break it up into its component parts.
Lloyd Morgan has pointed out that the components of an instinct may be
regarded as four: first, the internal messages giving rise to the impulse;
secondly, the external stimuli which co-operate with the impulse to affect
the nervous centers; thirdly, the active response due to the co-ordinate
outgoing discharges; and, fourthly, the message from the organs concerned
in the behavior by which the central nervous system is further
affected.[1]

In dealing with the sexual instinct the first two factors are those which
we have most fully to discuss. With the external stimuli we shall be
concerned in a future volume (IV). We may here confine ourselves mainly to
the first factor: the nature of the internal messages which prompt the
sexual act. We may, in other words, attempt to analyze the _sexual
impulse_.

The first definition of the sexual impulse we meet with is that which
regards it as an impulse of evacuation. The psychological element is thus
reduced to a minimum. It is true that, especially in early life, the
emotions caused by forced repression of the excretions are frequently
massive or acute in the highest degree, and the joy of relief
correspondingly great. But in adult life, on most occasions, these desires
can be largely pushed into the background of consciousness, partly by
training, partly by the fact that involuntary muscular activity is less
imperative in adult life; so that the ideal element in connection with the
ordinary excretions is almost a negligible quantity. The evacuation theory
of the sexual instinct is, however, that which has most popular vogue, and
the cynic delights to express it in crude language. It is the view that
appeals to the criminal mind, and in the slang of French criminals the
brothel is _le cloaque_. It was also the view implicitly accepted by
medieval ascetic writers, who regarded woman as "a temple built over a
sewer," and from a very different standpoint it was concisely set forth by
Montaigne, who has doubtless contributed greatly to support this view of
the matter: "I find," he said, "that Venus, after all, is nothing more
than the pleasure of discharging our vessels, just as nature renders
pleasurable the discharges from other parts."[2] Luther, again, always
compared the sexual to the excretory impulse, and said that marriage was
just as necessary as the emission of urine. Sir Thomas More, also, in the
second book of _Utopia_, referring to the pleasure of evacuation, speaks
of that felt "when we do our natural easement, or when we be doing the act
of generation." This view would, however, scarcely deserve serious
consideration if various distinguished investigators, among whom Féré may
be specially mentioned, had not accepted it as the best and most accurate
definition of the sexual impulse. "The genesic need may be considered,"
writes Féré, "as a need of evacuation; the choice is determined by the
excitations which render the evacuation more agreeable."[3] Certain facts
observed in the lower animals tend to support this view; it is, therefore,
necessary, in the first place, to set forth the main results of
observation on this matter. Spallanzani had shown how the male frog during
coitus will undergo the most horrible mutilations, even decapitation, and
yet resolutely continue the act of intercourse, which lasts from four to
ten days, sitting on the back of the female and firmly clasping her with
his forelegs. Goltz confirmed Spallanzani's observations and threw new
light on the mechanism of the sexual instinct and the sexual act in the
frog. By removing various parts of the female frog Goltz found that every
part of the female was attractive to the male at pairing time, and that he
was not imposed on when parts of a male were substituted. By removing
various of the sense-organs of the male Goltz[4] further found that it was
not by any special organ, but by the whole of his sensitive system, that
this activity was set in action. If, however, the skin of the arms and of
the breast between was removed, no embrace took place; so that the sexual
sensations seemed to be exerted through this apparatus. When the
testicles were removed the embrace still took place. It could scarcely be
said that these observations demonstrated, or in any way indicated, that
the sexual impulse is dependent on the need of evacuation. Professor
Tarchanoff, of St. Petersburg, however, made an experiment which seemed to
be crucial. He took several hundred frogs (_Rana temporaria_), nearly all
in the act of coitus, and in the first place repeated Goltz's experiments.
He removed the heart; but this led to no direct or indirect stoppage of
coitus, nor did removal of the lungs, parts of the liver, the spleen, the
intestines, the stomach, or the kidneys. In the same way even careful
removal of both testicles had no result. But on removing the seminal
receptacles coitus was immediately or very shortly stopped, and not
renewed. Thus, Tarchanoff concluded that in frogs, and possibly therefore
in mammals, the seminal receptacles are the starting-point of the
centripetal impulse which by reflex action sets in motion the complicated
apparatus of sexual activity.[5] A few years later the question was again
taken up by Steinach, of Prague. Granting that Tarchanoff's experiments
are reliable as regards the frog, Steinach points out that we may still
ask whether in mammals the integrity of the seminal receptacles is bound
up with the preservation of sexual excitability. This cannot be taken for
granted, nor can we assume that the seminal receptacles of the frog are
homologous with the seminal vesicles of mammals. In order to test the
question, Steinach chose the white rat, as possessing large seminal
vesicles and a very developed sexual impulse. He found that removal of the
seminal sacs led to no decrease in the intensity of the sexual impulse;
the sexual act was still repeated with the same frequency and the same
vigor. But these receptacles, Steinach proceeded to argue, do not really
contain semen, but a special secretion of their own; they are anatomically
quite unlike the seminal receptacles of the frog; so that no doubt is thus
thrown on Tarchanoff's observations. Steinach remarked, however, that
one's faith is rather shaken by the fact that in the _Esculenta_, which
in sexual life closely resembles _Rana temporaria_, there are no seminal
receptacles. He therefore repeated Tarchanoff's experiments, and found
that the seminal receptacles were empty before coitus, only becoming
gradually filled during coitus; it could not, therefore, be argued that
the sexual impulse started from the receptacles. He then extirpated the
seminal receptacles, avoiding hemorrhage as far as possible, and found
that, in the majority of cases so operated on, coitus still continued for
from five to seven days, and in the minority for a longer time. He
therefore concluded, with Goltz, that it is from the swollen testicles,
not from the seminal receptacles, that the impulse first starts. Goltz
himself pointed out that the fact that the removal of the testicles did
not stop coitus by no means proves that it did not begin it, for, when the
central nervous mechanism is once set in action, it can continue even when
the exciting stimulus is removed. By extirpating the testicles some months
before the sexual season he found that no coitus occurred. At the same
time, even in these frogs, a certain degree of sexual inclination and a
certain excitability of the embracing center still persisted, disappearing
when the sexual epoch was over.

According to most recent writers, the seminal vesicles of mammals are
receptacles for their own albuminous secretion, the function of which is
unknown. Steinach could find no spermatozoa in these "seminal" sacs, and
therefore he proposed to use Owen's name of _glandulæ vesiculares_. After
extirpation of these vesicular glands in the white rat typical coitus
occurred. But the capacity for _procreation_ was diminished, and
extirpation of both _glandulæ vesiculares_ and _glandulæ prostaticæ_ led
to disappearance of the capacity for procreation. Steinach came to the
conclusion that this is because the secretions of these glands impart
increased vitality to the spermatozoa, and he points out that great
fertility and high development of the accessory sexual glands go together.

Steinach found that, when sexually mature white rats were castrated,
though at first they remained as potent as ever, their potency gradually
declined; sexual excitement, however, and sexual inclination always
persisted. He then proceeded to castrate rats before puberty and
discovered the highly significant fact that in these also a quite
considerable degree of sexual inclination appeared. They followed,
sniffed, and licked the females like ordinary males; and that this was not
a mere indication of curiosity was shown by the fact that they made
attempts at coitus which only differed from those of normal males by the
failure of erection and ejaculation, though, occasionally, there was
imperfect erection. This lasted for a year, and then their sexual
inclinations began to decline, and they showed signs of premature age.
These manifestations of sexual sense Steinach compares to those noted in
the human species during childhood.[6]

The genesic tendencies are thus, to a certain degree, independent of the
generative glands, although the development of these glands serves to
increase the genesic ability and to furnish the impulsion necessary to
assure procreation, as well as to insure the development of the secondary
sexual characters, probably by the influence of secretions elaborated and
thrown into the system from the primary sexual glands.[7]

Halban ("Die Entstehung der Geschlechtscharaktere," _Archiv für
Gynäkologie_, 1903, pp. 205-308) argues that the primary sex
glands do not necessarily produce the secondary sex characters,
nor inhibit the development of those characteristic of the
opposite sex. It is indeed the rule, but it is not the inevitable
result. Sexual differences exist from the first. Nussbaum made
experiments on frogs (_Rana fusca_), which go through a yearly
cycle of secondary sexual changes at the period of heat. These
changes cease on castration, but, if the testes of other frogs
are introduced beneath the skin of the castrated frogs, Nussbaum
found that they acted as if the frog had not been castrated. It
is the secretion of the testes which produces the secondary
sexual changes. But Nussbaum found that the testicular secretion
does not work if the nerves of the secondary sexual region are
cut, and that the secretion has no direct action on the organism.
Pflüger, discussing these experiments (_Archiv für die Gesammte
Physiologie_, 1907, vol. cxvi, parts 5 and 6), disputes this
conclusion, and argues that the secretion is not dependent on the
action of the nervous system, and that therefore the secondary
sexual characters are independent of the nervous system.

Steinach has also in later experiments ("Geschlechtstrieb und
echt Sekundäre Geschlechtsmerkmale als Folge der
innerskretorischen Funktion der Keimdrusen," _Zentralblatt für
Physiologie_, Bd. xxiv, Nu. 13, 1910) argued against any local
nervous influence. He found in _Rana fusca_ and _esculenta_ that
after castration in autumn the impulse to grasp the female
persisted in some degrees and then disappeared, reappearing in a
slight degree, however, every winter at the normal period of
sexual activity. But when the testicular substance of actively
sexual frogs was injected into the castrated frogs it exerted an
elective action on the sexual reflex, sometimes in a few hours,
but the action is, Steinach concludes, first central. The
testicular secretion of frogs that were not sexually active had
no stimulating action, but if the frogs were sexually active the
injection of their central nervous substance was as effective as
their testicular substance. In either case, Steinach concludes,
there is the removal of an inhibition which is in operation at
sexually quiescent periods.

Speaking generally, Steinach considers that there is a process of
"erotisation" (Erotisieurung) of the nervous center under the
influence of the internal testicular secretions, and that this
persists even when the primary physical stimulus has been
removed.

The experience of veterinary surgeons also shows that the sexual impulse
tends to persist in animals after castration. Thus the ox and the gelding
make frequent efforts to copulate with females in heat. In some cases, at
all events in the case of the horse, castrated animals remain potent, and
are even abnormally ardent, although impregnation cannot, of course,
result.[8]

The results obtained by scientific experiment and veterinary experience on
the lower animals are confirmed by observation of various groups of
phenomena in the human species. There can be no doubt that castrated men
may still possess sexual impulses. This has been noted by observers in
various countries in which eunuchs are made and employed.[9]

It is important to remember that there are different degrees of
castration, for in current language these are seldom
distinguished. The Romans recognized four different degrees: 1.
True _castrati_, from whom both the testicles and the penis had
been removed. 2. _Spadones_, from whom the testicles only had
been removed; this was the most common practice. 3. _Thlibiæ_, in
whom the testicles had not been removed, but destroyed by
crushing; this practice is referred to by Hippocrates. 4.
_Thlasiæ_, in whom the spermatic cord had simply been cut.
Millant, from whose Paris thesis (_Castration Criminelle et
Maniaque_, 1902) I take these definitions, points out that it was
recognized that _spadones_ remained apt for coitus if the
operation was performed after puberty, a fact appreciated by many
Roman ladies, _ad seouras libidinationes_, as St. Jerome
remarked, while Martial (lib. iv) said of a Roman lady who sought
eunuchs: "Vult futui Gallia, non parere." (See also Millant, _Les
Eunuques à Travers les Ages_, 1909, and articles by Lipa Bey and
Zambaco, _Sexual-Probleme_, Oct. and Dec., 1911.)

In China, Matignon, formerly physician to the French legation in Pekin,
tells us that eunuchs are by no means without sexual feeling, that they
seek the company of women and, he believes, gratify their sexual desires
by such methods as are left open to them, for the sexual organs are
entirely removed. It would seem probable that, the earlier the age at
which the operation is performed, the less marked are the sexual desires,
for Matignon mentions that boys castrated before the age of 10 are
regarded by the Chinese as peculiarly virginal and pure.[10] At
Constantinople, where the eunuchs are of negro race, castration is usually
complete and performed before puberty, in order to abolish sexual potency
and desire as far as possible. Even when castration is effected in
infancy, sexual desire is not necessarily rendered impossible. Thus Marie
has recorded the case of an insane Egyptian eunuch whose penis and scrotum
were removed in infancy; yet, he had frequent and intense sexual desire
with ejaculation of mucus and believed that an invisible princess touched
him and aroused voluptuous sensations. Although the body had a feminine
appearance, the prostate was normal and the vesiculæ seminales not
atrophied.[11] It may be added that Lancaster[12] quotes the following
remark, made by a resident for many years in the land, concerning Nubian
eunuchs: "As far as I can judge, sex feeling exists unmodified by absence
of the sexual organs. The eunuch differs from the man not in the absence
of sexual passion, but only in the fact that he cannot fully gratify it.
As far as he can approach a gratification of it he does so." In this
connection it may be noted that (as quoted by Moll) Jäger attributes the
preference of some women--noted in ancient Rome and in the East--for
castrated men as due not only to the freedom from risk of impregnation in
such intercourse, but also to the longer duration of erection in the
castrated.

When castration is performed without removal of the penis it is said that
potency remains for at least ten years afterward, and Disselhorst, who in
his _Die accessorischen Geschlechtsdrüsen der Wirbelthiere_ takes the same
view as has been here adopted, mentions that, according to Pelikan (_Das
Skopzentum in Rüssland_), those castrated at puberty are fit for coitus
long afterward. When castration is performed for surgical reasons at a
later age it is still less likely to affect potency or to change the
sexual feelings.[13] Guinard concludes that the sexual impulse after
castration is relatively more persistent in man than in the lower animals,
and is sometimes even heightened, being probably more dependent on
external stimuli.[14]

Except in the East, castration is more often performed on women than on
men, and then the evidence as to the influence of the removal of the
ovaries on the sexual emotions shows varying results. It has been found
that after castration sexual desire and sexual pleasure in coitus may
either remain the same, be diminished or extinguished, or be increased. By
some the diminution has been attributed to autosuggestion, the woman being
convinced that she can no longer be like other women; the augmentation of
desire and pleasure has been supposed to be due to the removal of the
dread of impregnation. We have, of course, to take into account individual
peculiarities, method of life, and the state of the health.

In France Jayle ("Effets physiologiques de la Castration chez la
Femme," _Revue de Gynécologie_, 1897, pp. 403-57) found that,
among 33 patients in whom ovariotomy had been performed, in 18
sexual desire remained the same, in 3 it was diminished, in 8
abolished, in 3 increased; while pleasure in coitus remained the
same in 17, was diminished in 1, abolished in 4, and increased in
5, in 6 cases sexual intercourse was very painful. In two other
groups of cases--one in which both ovaries and uterus were
removed and another in which the uterus alone was removed--the
results were not notably different.

In Germany Gläveke (_Archiv für Gynäkologie_, Bd. xxxv, 1889)
found that desire remained in 6 cases, was diminished in 10, and
disappeared in 11, while pleasure in intercourse remained in 8,
was diminished in 10, and was lost in 8. Pfister, again (_Archiv
für Gynäkologie_, Bd. lvi, 1898), examined this point in 99
castrated women; he remarks that sexual desire and sexual
pleasure in intercourse were usually associated, and found the
former unchanged in 19 cases, decreased in 24, lost in 35, never
present in 21, while the latter was unchanged in 18 cases and
diminished or lost in 60. Keppler (International Medical
Congress, Berlin, 1890) found that among 46 castrated women
sexual feeling was in no case abolished. Adler also, who
discusses this question (_Die Mangelhafte Geschlechtsempfindung
des Weibes_, 1904, p. 75 et seq.), criticises Gläveke's
statements and concludes that there is no strict relation between
the sexual organs and the sexual feelings. Kisch, who has known
several cases in which the feelings remained the same as before
the operation, brings together (_The Sexual Life of Women_)
varying opinions of numerous authors regarding the effects of
removal of the ovaries on the sexual appetite.

In America Bloom (as quoted in _Medical Standard_, 1896, p. 121)
found that in none of the cases of women investigated, in which
oöphorectomy had been performed before the age of 33, was the
sexual appetite entirely lost; in most of them it had not
materially diminished and in a few it was intensified. There
was, however, a general consensus of opinion that the normal
vaginal secretion during coitus was greatly lessened. In the
cases of women over 33, including also hysterectomies, a gradual
lessening of sexual feeling and desire was found to occur most
generally. Dr. Isabel Davenport records 2 cases (reported in
_Medical Standard_, 1895, p. 346) of women between 30 and 35
years of age whose erotic tendencies were extreme; the ovaries
and tubes were removed, in one case for disease, in the other
with a view of removing the sexual tendencies; in neither case
was there any change. Lapthorn Smith (_Medical Record_, vol.
xlviii) has reported the case of an unmarried woman of 24 whose
ovaries and tubes had been removed seven years previously for
pain and enlargement, and the periods had disappeared for six
years; she had had experience of sexual intercourse, and declared
that she had never felt such extreme sexual excitement and
pleasure as during coitus at the end of this time.

In England Lawson Tait and Bantock (_British Medical Journal_,
October 14, 1899, p. 975) have noted that sexual passion seems
sometimes to be increased even after the removal of ovaries,
tubes, and uterus. Lawson Tait also stated (_British
Gynæcological Journal_, Feb., 1887, p. 534) that after systematic
and extensive inquiry he had not found a single instance in
which, provided that sexual appetite existed before the removal
of the appendages, it was abolished by that operation. A Medical
Inquiry Committee appointed by the Liverpool Medical Institute
(ibid., p. 617) had previously reported that a considerable