Note 396 — Chapter XVI

Havelock Ellis, “The Sexual Impulse and the Sense of Shame.”

[397] Fürbringer’s article, “Masturbation,” in Eulenburg’s Real-Enzykldopädie der gesamten Heilkunde, vol. xvii., p. 523, third edition (Vienna and Leipzig, 1898).

[398] Metchnikoff, “The Nature of Man,” pp. 95-99.

[399] A French erotic work describes how an impotent man, in the hope of obtaining an erection, allowed a cockchafer to crawl about his penis.

[400] Probably the following case of an onanist, sixty-four years of age, is unique. It is reported by A. Wild (“A Contribution to the Refinements of Masturbation,” published in the Münchener Medizinische Wochenschrift, No. 11, 1906). He introduced a twig of a pine-tree into the urethra, and in such a way that when the attempt was made to draw it out, the pine-needles acted as barbs; consequently the twig broke off short, and it was necessary for the medical man to remove it with the aid of dressing forceps!

[401] Cf. the complete historical and literary account of godemichés, given in my “Sexual Life in England,” vol. ii., pp. 284-292 (Berlin, 1903).

[402] Cf. the explanation of this passage by Iwan Bloch, “Were the Ancients aware of the Contagious Character of Venereal Diseases?” published in the Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift, No. 5, 1899.

[403] S. Freud, “Three Papers on the Sexual Theory,” pp. 37, 42 (Leipzig and Vienna, 1905).

[404] R. Kossmann, “Is the Medical Man Justified in Recommending Extra-Conjugal Sexual Intercourse?” published in the Journal for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases, 1905, vol. iii., p. 126.

[405] Cf. R. Thomalla, “Masturbation in the School: its Consequences and its Suppression,” published in the Journal for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases, 1906, vol. v., pp. 63-68.

[406] H. Ellis, “The Sexual Impulse and the Sense of Shame.”

[407] Gustav Aschaffenburg, “The Relations of the Sexual Life to the Origin of Nervous and Mental Disorders,” published in the Münchener Medizinische Wochenschrift, 1906, No. 37, p. 1794.

[408] Metchnikoff, “The Nature of Man” (English edition), p. 96.

[409] A. Eulenburg, “Sexual Neuropathy,” p. 80 (Leipzig, 1895).

[410] Otto Adler, “Deficient Sexual Sensibility in Woman,” p. 112 (Berlin, 1904). Mendel observed excessive masturbation in hypochondriacal women (Deutsche Medizinal-Zeitung, 1889, No. 15, p. 180).

[411] L. Löwenfeld, “The Sexual Life and Nervous Disorders,” fourth edition, p. 114 (Wiesbaden, 1906).

[412] Eduard Reich, “Immorality and Immoderation,” p. 122 (Neuwied and Leipzig, 1866).

[413] Felix Roubaud, “Treatise on Impotence and Sterility in Man and Woman,” third edition, p. 7 (Paris, 1876).

[414] W. A. Hammond, “Sexual Impotence in the Male and Female Sexes.”

[415] A. von Schrenck-Notzing, “Therapeutic Suggestion in Cases of Morbid Manifestations of the Sexual Sensibility,” pp. 66, 67 (Stuttgart, 1892).

[416] Cf. Havelock Ellis, “The Sexual Impulse and the Sense of Shame,” pp. 184-186.

[417] Iwan Bloch, “Contributions to the Etiology of Psychopathia Sexualis,” vol. ii., pp. 107, 108 (Dresden, 1903).

[418] On p. 18 of his treatise he goes so far as to say: “There is no disease of the body or the mind which cannot be referred to masturbation.”

[419] Eulenburg refers also to “Persönliche Schutz,” by Laurentius; the “Jugendspiegel,” by Bernhard; the “Johannistrieb,” by B. Mohrmann; the “Krankheit der Welt,” by A. Damm.

[420] According to A. Jacobi (“The History of Pædiatry, and its Relation to Other Arts and Sciences,” p. 66 (Berlin, 1905)), this is not true of quite young children, at ages of from one to ten years, in whom masturbation does less harm than in half-grown or adult individuals.

[421] Cf. H. Rohleder, “Die Masturbation,” pp. 185-192 (Berlin, 1899).

[422] Cf. L. Löwenfeld, op. cit., p. 137.

[423] A. Tardieu, “Étude Médico-Légale sur les Attentats aux Moeurs,” p. 114 (Paris, 1878).

[424] Cf. my “Contributions to the Etiology of Psychopathia Sexualis,” vol. i., p. 135.

[425] Von Schrenk-Notzing, op. cit., p. 9.

[426] Cf. A. Weill, “The Laws and Mysteries of Love,” p. 101 (Berlin, 1895).

[427] Havelock Ellis, op. cit., p. 266.

[428] G. M. Beard, “Sexual Neurasthenia,” second edition (Leipzig and Vienna, 1890).

[429] A. Eulenburg, “Sexual Neurasthenia,” published in Deutsche Klinik, 1902, vol. vi., pp. 163-206.

[430] L. Löwenfeld, op. cit., pp. 273, 274.

[431] Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, “Leaves from a Diary.”

[432] “During my life I have had under observation many a lecherous man and many a wanton woman, and I have always found that, without exception, voluptuous persons clothe themselves very warmly, and sleep under very warm bed-clothes. In earlier years I have reported several cases observed by me of warm clothing of the genital organs on the part of women who distinguished themselves by lasciviousness, and I could increase the number of examples of this kind by several dozen” (E. Reich, “Immorality and Intemperance,” pp. 43, 44).

[433] O. Effertz, “Neurasthenia Sexualis,” p. 46 (New York, 1894).

[434] Effertz estimates the frequency of frigidity in women at about 10 per cent. The truth probably lies midway between the views of Effertz and those of Guttzeit.

[435] By vaginismus we understand involuntary convulsive contraction of the vaginal muscles, associated with abnormal sensibility of the vaginal inlet, dependent on masturbation, or induced by the above-mentioned painful sensations and injuries which occur in maladroit and brutal coitus (this is by far the commonest cause of vaginismus), especially when the penis is very large and the vaginal inlet very small, or when the female genital organs are further forward than usual. Vaginismus generally arises from small injuries and lacerations, produced in this manner; with the physical sense of pain is associated also psychical anxiety with regard to renewed attempts at intercourse; and in this way the reflex spasm is produced. Sometimes the vaginal spasm does not begin until after the penis has been introduced, so that this organ is retained (penis captivus). A few years ago a remarkable case of this kind occurred in Bremen. One of the dock labourers was having sexual intercourse in an out-of-the-way corner of the docks, when the woman became affected with this involuntary spasm, and the man was unable to free himself from his imprisonment. A great crowd assembled, from the midst of which the unfortunate couple were removed in a closed carriage, and taken to the hospital, and not until chloroform had been administered to the girl did the spasm pass off and free the man!

[436] A very clever study of the conditions here described will be found in a recent English novel, “Mr. and Mrs. Villiers,” by Hubert Wales (Heinemann, London, 1907).—Translator.

[437] Rozier describes two typical examples of feminine erotomania (“The Secret Aberrations of the Female Sex,” pp. 123-128; Leipzig, 1831).

[438] Pollutions.—This term has not perhaps as yet acquired a right of residence in the English tongue, but I use it because it is needed. There is no other word which can be employed as a general term (1) to include all involuntary emissions of semen, whether nocturnal or diurnal; and (2) to include involuntary sexual orgasm in the female as well as in the male. In the female the term “seminal emission” is inapplicable; but the term “pollution” can be applied in English (as it is in German) to either sex. By American writers the term “pollution” is now generally used (see, for instance, Allen, “Disorders of the Male Sexual Organs,” Twentieth Century Practice, vol. vii., p. 612 et seq.).—Translator.

[439] L. Löwenfeld, op. cit., pp. 206, 207.

[440] Swediaur relates: “I have, although much more rarely, seen the aforesaid diseases also in the other sex” (he speaks of diurnal pollutions). “At the present time I have under treatment a woman, twenty-eight years of age, who for a year and a half, since the time when she had a miscarriage, suffers from very frequent involuntary nocturnal pollutions, which are induced by very voluptuous dreams, and are accompanied by all the symptoms of wasting of the spinal cord, which Hippocrates describes as a disease peculiar to the male sex.” Quoted by L. Deslandes, “Masturbation and other Aberrations of Sexual Intercourse,” p. 204 (Leipzig, 1835).

[441] Paul Bernhardt, “Processes Resembling Pollutions Occurring in Women, without Sexual Ideas or Lustful Feelings,” published in Die ärztliche Praxis, 1903, No. 17, pp. 193-197.

[442] The best recent work on impotence is Fürbringer’s “The Disturbances of the Sexual Function in Man,” second edition (Vienna, 1901). See also Frenzel, “On Incapacity for Procreation” (Wittenberg, 1800); F. Roubaud, “Traité de l’Impuissance et de la Stérilité chez l’Homme et chez la Femme” (Paris, 1878); V. von Gyurkovechky, “Pathology and Therapeutics of Impotence in the Male” (Vienna and Leipzig, 1897); J. Steinbacher, “Impotence in the Male,” fifth edition (Berlin, 1892); W. A. Hammond, “Sexual Impotence in the Male and Female Sexes” (Berlin, 1891); A. Eulenburg, “Sexual Neurasthenia” (pp. 177-183); Leopold Casper, “Impotentia et Sterilitas Virilis” (Munich, 1890).

[443] W. Schallmayer, “Infection as a Wedding Gift,” published in the Journal for the Suppression of Venereal Diseases, 1903, vol. iv., pp. 389-419.

[444] G. Hirth, “Ways to Love,” pp. 461, 463.

[445] Jacquemart reports a striking case of impotentia coeundi, which he saw in an engineer who received an appointment in a State tobacco factory. After he had resigned his appointment, the patient fully recovered his sexual powers (cf. Loebisch, article “Tobacco,” in Eulenburg’s Real-Enzyklopädie, 1900, vol. xxiv., p. 19).

[446] S. Réti, “Sexuelle Gebrechen,” second edition, p. 15 (Halle, 1904).

[447] J. S. T. Frenzel, “Impotence,” Part I., p. 164 (Wittenberg, 1800).

[448] In some cases it is said to have given rise to permanent impotence.

[449] Frenzel, op. cit., pp. 155, 156.

[450] J. J. Virey, “Woman,” p. 367 (Leipzig, 1827).

[451] Von Schrenck-Notzing, “Studies in Crimino-Psychology and Psycho-Pathology,” p. 176 (Leipzig, 1902).

[452] The Englishman Thomas Parr, who attained the age of one hundred and fifty-two years, remarried at the age of a hundred and twenty years, and his wife is said “to have noticed no defects in him on account of his age” (cf. William Ebstein, “The Art of Prolonging Human Life,” p. 70 (Wiesbaden, 1891)).

[453] In the drug trade we find two brands, known respectively as “Yohimbin Spiegel” and “Yohimbin Riedel”; both preparations are of equal value. [In a letter to the translator under date January 8, 1908, Dr. Bloch writes that “Yohimbin Riedel” is preferable to “Yohimbin Spiegel.”]

[454] Cf. Alexander Peyer, “Affections of the Stomach Associated with Disorders of the Male Genital Organs” (Leipzig, 1890).

[455] Cf. Koblanck, “Some Clinical Observations on Disturbances of the Physiological Functions of the Female Reproductive Organs,” published in the Zeitschrift für Geburtshilfe und Gynäkologie, vol. xliii., No. 3. Moriz Porosz (“Sexual Truths,” pp. 213-218; Leipzig, 1907) devotes with good reason a special chapter to the neurasthenia of young married women. The change from the virgin state into married life often gives rise to such transient neurasthenic conditions in the young wife, especially when there exists any sort of disharmony in respect of marital intercourse.