SEXUAL TRUTHS VERSUS SEXUAL LIES, MISCONCEPTIONS AND EXAGGERATIONS EDITED BY WILLIAM J. ROBINSON, M.D. 1919 THE CRITIC AND GUIDE CO. 12 MT. MORRIS PARK WEST NEW YORK by the same author A Practical Treatise on the Causes, Symptoms and Treatment of Sexual Impotence and Other Sexual Dis- orders in Men and Women $4.00 Treatment of Gonorrhea and its Complication in Men and Women . 3.00 Sexual Problems of To-day 2.00 Sex Knowledge for Men 2.00 Sex Knowledge for Women 1.00 Woman: Her Sex and Love Life 3.00 Never Told Tales 1.00 Stories of Love and Life 1.50 Birth Control or Limitation of Off- spring by the Prevention of Con- ception 1.50 Sex Morality-Past, Present and Future 1.50 Eugenics and Marriage 1.00 Sexual Truths 3.00 Prescription Incompatibilities 3.00 The Critic and Guide Monthly: $2.00 a year; Single Copies, 25c. The American Journal of Urology and Sexology Monthly: $5.00 a year; Single Copies, 50c. The Sexual^Prisis. Meisel-Hess $3.00 Population and Birth Control: A Symposium 3.00 Small or Large Families. Drysdale and Havelock Ellis 1.00 Pathfinders in Medicine. Dr. Victor Robinson 2.50 Copyright, 1919, By The Critic and Guide Co. CONTENTS PAGE Our Sexual Misery. By William J. Robinson, M.D. 1 The Sexual Misery of Woman. By Dr. Max Hirsch. 33 The Frigid Woman. By Otto Adler, M.D., Berlin . 49 Misalliances and Unhappy Marriages-an Im- portant but Never Referred to Cause. By William J. Robinson, M.D 65 Sexual Abstinence and Nervousness. By Samuel A. Tannenbaum, M.D., New York 75 Instructing the Young in Sexual Matters. By Dr. Fritz Wittels 133 Sexual Abstinence and Masturbation. By Dr. Fritz Wittels 141 Sexual Causes of Divorce. By Geh. Justizrat Dr. Horch 153 The Law Against Abortion-the Greatest Crime on the Statute Books. By Dr. Fritz Wittels . . 165 Coitus Interruptus as a Cause of Nervous Disease. By Dr. L. Lowenfeld 185 Sexual Abstinence in Men and Women. By Pro- fessor Johannes Duck 197 Sexual Hypochondria and Morbid Scrupulous- ness. By Magnus Hirschfeld, M.D., Berlin . . 207 The Double Standard of Morality. By Prof. Christian von Ehrenfels 227 Idiogamy. By Professor Paul Mantegazza, M.D., Florence 237 Continence in the Two Sexes. By R. W. Shufeldt, M.D., Washington, D. C 245 Crime and Law, with Special Reference to Crimi- nal Abortion. By Prof. J. Kocks, Bonn, Germany 253 Is it Really Impossible to Make Prostitution Harmless as Far as Infection is Concerned? By Prof. A. Neisser, Breslau, Germany 261 A Problem in Sexual Ethics. By Prof. Christian von Ehrenfels 281 PAGE Prof. Ehrenfels' Problem in Sexual Ethics. By William J. Robinson, M.D 285 Eugenics, Sexual Sin, Ignorance and Supersti- tion. By W. C. Gates, M.D 289 Is Platonic Love a Normal Relation? By E. R. Nash, M.D 301 The Female Sex Instinct in its Relation to Our Morality. By Leo M. Gartman, M.D 313 The Regulation of Offspring and Sexual Moral- ity. By H. Potthoff 335 Coitus and Nightmares. By William J. Robinson, M.D 349 A Case of Rape on a Young Girl. By Dr. F. R. Bronson 353 Sexual Abstinence and its Influence on Health. By Professor Anton Nystrom, M.D., Stockholm . . 361 Distinctions Between the Male and Female Sex Instinct. By Dr. Ludwig Reisinger . . . .371 Miscellaneous Brief Articles by the Editor: Death During Sexual Intercourse 377 Worry and Libido 379 False Accusation of Rape 381 Normal vs. Abnormal Sexuality 382 The Task of Sexology 383 Sexology vs. Obscenity 384 Strikes Against Marriage in Ancient Times . 386 A Remarkable Experiment in Venereal Pro- phylaxis 387 Unconsidered Evils of the Masturbation Bogie . 388 Appendix A The Effects of Masturbation-a Genuine Hu- man Document 391 Morals by Poison 396 Appendix B Why Old Women are Preferable to Young for Illicit Relations. A Remarkable Letter by Benjamin Franklin 397 CONTENTS SEXUAL TRUTHS OUR SEXUAL MISERY* By William J. Robinson, M.D., New York The subject which we are going to touch upon to- night is so immense that to discuss it in detail would make a voluminous book. I can hope to uncover only a small corner of it. It would not be difficult to have you agree to the proposition that there is an enormous lot of misery in this world. The most callous, the most stupid, the most indifferent can be made to admit it. Even the most egotistic, who live only for themselves, and to whom Fortune has been supremely kind, may be made to acknowledge that there is a terrible lot of unhappiness in every sphere, in every stratum of so- ciety. It is only necessary to read the contents of a single daily newspaper, to take a walk in the slums, to get a peep at some of our shops and factories, to consider the amount of disease, crime, poverty, to spend a day in our day courts or night courts, to pay a visit to some of our hospitals, asylums or prisons, * A lecture delivered before The Williamsburg Medical Society, February 13, 1917. 7 8 SEXUAL TRUTHS to be ready to subscribe to the proposition that the world is full of misery. Yes, everybody, conserva- tive and radical, rich and poor, agree more or less on this point, on the point of the existence of wretched misery. But as soon as the question of the causes of the misery comes up, then we find disagreement and dissension. And the dissension becomes still more pronounced, more bitter and more irreconcilable when we begin to discuss the remedies for the va- rious evils that afflict mankind. And the object of my remarks to-night is to give you my idea of the etiology of a good deal of our misery. I do not suppose many of you will agree with me, not at first, at any rate. If all of you agreed, there would be no need for my lecture. If there is anything I detest, anything that is abhorrent to my whole being, it is to repeat platitudes, to an- nounce, with a show of courage and self-sacrifice, ideas which have become common property, which nobody contests, and which nobody cares for any- way, whether they are right or not. I will ask you to transfer yourselves for a few moments some forty or fifty thousand years back, and cast a mental glance at our ancestors. How did man spend his time, what were his occupations, what were his interests? He was busy with but two things-to hunt for food so that he might fill his belly, and to find a mate. At the time we speak of, the second was easier than the first. While the find- SEXUAL TRUTHS 9 ing of food in sufficient quantity to satisfy his hunger at all seasons presented, particularly in some climates, considerable difficulties, sexual satisfac- tion presented none. There were no laws at that time against promiscuous sexual satisfaction, the Ten Commandments had not yet been handed down, and monogamy was even undreamed of. Any fe- male the male met and wanted, he took. There were no restrictions in this respect, and if the female ever offered resistance, he simply knocked her on the head and dragged her into his cave. But I do not imagine that there were many such cases of re- sistance and that in those primeval times the male was frequently under the necessity of using force on the female. Those were the two primal instincts of our dear and respected forefathers: hunger and sex. And they still remain the two primal instincts of man, as of every other animal, to-day. Civilized man has developed a thousand other needs. I need not enumerate them, but if you analyze them, you will find that they are all developments of and are predi- cated on the instincts of hunger and sex. They are all merely the embellishments, the embroidery, of our life, but essentially we are ruled by the same instincts as were our ancestors one hundred thousand or a million years ago, and as are all other animals now. But in one respect there is an enormous difference between our ancestors of long ago and their 10 SEXUAL TRUTHS descendants of to-day. At that time, as stated, the food question was the principal one, the most diffi- cult one-the sex question was the easy one and presented no problems and no difficulties. Now things are just the other way. The food problem or the economic problem is the much simpler of the two. We have harnessed the forces of Nature, we do not depend upon climate or season, there is plenty of food for everybody. But the satisfaction of the sexual necessity has been surrounded with so many obstacles, has been made so difficult or im- possible as to lead to an enormous amount of physi- cal illness, nervous disease, and wretchedness and misery in general. These difficulties, these obstacles, which are in many cases insuperable, have been put in the way of the proper satisfaction of the sexual instincts because of the peculiar notion that illicit sexual relations, that is sexual relations outside of lawful wedlock, are sinful and criminal. Of course if you believe this, if you maintain the idea that all extra-matrimonial relations are crimi- nal, you are welcome to your belief, and I have no quarrel whatever with you. It is a belief still main- tained in theory, though often broken in practice, by millions and millions of people. But you will permit me to speak from my point of view, the point of view of a freethinker and an advanced sexologist. In our opinion the proper satisfaction of the sexual instinct is no more sinful, no more criminal, than the satisfaction of the instinct of hunger, thirst, or sleep. SEXUAL TRUTHS 11 We maintain that the relations between two adult persons are the concern of those two adults only and of nobody else. No third person and certainly no State has any right whatever to interfere in the sex relations of two adult persons. It is only where minors are concerned, or where force is used or where children are the result that the State has a right to step in. Both those who are sincerely religious and those who are hypocritically pious-the former I respect, the latter I despise-maintain that illicit sex rela- tions are sinful and criminal, and in order to main- tain this thesis, which attempts to imprison, to per- vert and to degenerate one of the most powerful of our natural instincts, an enormous literature has grown up, full of misinformation, exaggeration and deliberate lies, all calculated to persuade the young men of the country that there is no such thing as a sexual instinct, or that its non-satisfaction is an easy matter, that it is given us for the purpose of procrea- tion only, that complete and absolute chastity is not only non-injurious but even beneficial and conducive to good health, and that all illicit relations are sure to lead to physical, moral and mental disaster. In former years all those indulging in illicit rela- tions were threatened with hell fire. But now as hell fire is going out of fashion and is losing its ter- rors for some of us, theology is calling to its aid science, to prop up its tottering sway over the hu- 12 SEXUAL TRUTHS man mind. Of course it isn't real science that is coming to the support of theology, it is pseudo- science masquerading in the garb of true science that is willing to prostitute itself for the sake of a totter- ing theology and a moribund morality. To pay at- tention to what our esteemed reverends say in sup- port of a medieval morality would be a waste of time, but let me give you some examples of what some physicians, who are supposed to be scientists, but which alas they very seldom are, say on the subject. We will first take a statement made by Dr. W. S. Hall, who is Professor of Physiology in the North- western University of Illinois, and who is considered one of our great educators and authorities on sex matters. That Professor of Physiology, whom we certainly have a right to expect to be capable of honest and logical thinking, makes the following statement in one of his books. "Nature," he says, "has devised a retribution for illicit intercourse in the form of venereal disease " These are exactly his words. Their significance may not be apparent to you at first glance, but they will become so if you consider the matter for a moment. So solicitous is Nature about man's sexual morality that in order to keep him strictly within the confines of monogamic relations, she has created the gonococcus, the spirocheta pallida, and the bacillus of Ducrey: and she stands ready to punish him with gonorrhea, syphilis or chancroid if he dares to commit the crime SEXUAL TRUTHS 13 of indulging in extra-matrimonial relations. I asked Professor Hall over a year ago to tell me if Nature created the gonococcus, the spirocheta pallida and the bacillus of Ducrey as a punishment for illicit relations, what was her purpose in creating the bacillus of tuberculosis, of diphtheria, of smallpox, of scarlet fever, of tetanus, of anthrax, of dysentery, etc., etc.? If venereal disease was a retribution for illicit relations, what was Bright's disease, heart disease, liver disease, measles, poliomyelitis, etc., etc. a retribution for? But the clear and honest thinker, Professor Hall, has not answered my ques- tion yet. No, venereal disease is not a retribution. It is simply an accident, a very unfortunate and very de- plorable accident, an accident that is responsible for more misery than any other disease which the human race is subject to, but an accident nevertheless. And to speak of it as retribution is false, stupid and dis- honest. The gonococcus and the spirocheta pallida were "created" for no greater and no lesser purpose and have no greater and no lesser reason for exist- ence than have the streptococcus, the staphylococ- cus, the pneumococcus and the thousand and one other varieties of microscopic life. Here is a statement from another scientist and so-called leader of the medical profession, who is supposed to be a specialist in venereal diseases and sexual disorders. I refer to Dr. E. L. Keyes. In a pamphlet sent out broadcast by the Social Hygiene 14 SEXUAL TRUTHS Society, Dr. Keyes combats, of course, the idea that continence is in any way injurious. He says that our whole trouble results from "the idea that sexual exercise is, on the whole, salutary to the male, if not essential to the best performance of his other general physical functions, and neces- sary for the preservation of his sexual potency." "From a medical source," he says, "should come some authoritative utterance in contraversion of this fallacy," and he proceeds to contravert it. How? In the same wretched way-by comparing the testicle, which performs the most important function in the human body, to the tear gland which performs a function of no importance whatever. He indulges in some theoretical, disconnected rambling, but he has reserved his knockout argument for the end. He de- cides, "to leave theory and opinion, and come down to a matter of hard fact capable of physical demon- stration." What is the hard fact capable of physi- cal demonstration? Here it is. "It may be safely and surely affirmed that no amount of continence ever caused atrophy of the testicle. Now, if con- tinence, too long continued, can produce impotence, that fact should be evidenced by a wasting of the testicle." (Italics mine). How a specialist in venereal and sexual disorders can be guilty of such ignorance is beyond under- standing. No sexologist has ever claimed that con- tinence necessarily or even frequently results in atrophy of the testicle. And it shows the deepest SEXUAL TRUTHS 15 ignorance to claim that impotence must be evidenced by a wasting of the testes. Every tyro in sexology knows that when we speak of impotence we speak of impotence to perform the act. When we say that long continued continence frequently results in im- potence, we refer to impotentia coeundi, and not to impotentia generandi. Impotence resulting from long continence does not show itself in a wasting of the testicle, in an abolition of the spermatogenetic function, but in weak or absent erections and in premature ejaculations. * The two functions may be entirely independent of one another. Just as a man who is completely sterile, like after a double epi- didymitis, may still be sexually very potent, so a man who is not sterile and whose spermatogenetic function is perfect, may be completely impotent as far as the performance of the act is concerned. And for a specialist who has been specially asked to discuss the sexual necessity from the medical point of view, not to differentiate between impo- tentia coeundi and impotentia generandi is an un- pardonable blunder. It is a scientific crime. But such is the puritanical food on which our young men are fed, and so is Science perverted for ulterior ends. * There are cases in which on account of excessive pollutions and spermatorrhea atrophy of the testicles may take place, but such extreme cases are rare, and they are not at all necessary to support our thesis of the great injuriousness of long continued sexual abstinence. SEXUAL TRUTHS 16 Every statement concerning the sex instinct, the injuriousness or non-injuriousness of continence, the extent, curability, or non-curability of venereal disease, every statement regarding prostitution, is honeycombed with falsehood. Some of the false- hoods are due to ignorance, well-meaning ignorance, but ignorance nevertheless, while some of the false- hoods or misstatements I cannot help regarding otherwise than deliberate. One does not know whether to weep or to laugh. In one breath the lec- turer or writer will make the statement that the American youth differs from the European young man, that he has higher ideals, that his thoughts are not fixed on sex, that he is pure and noble, that sex plays but a very subordinate role in his life, and that it isn't at all difficult for him to remain strictly chaste until the day of his wedding bells, no matter whether they ring on his thirtieth or fortieth birth- day. And in the very next breath he will say that at least 90 per cent, of our men have suffered at one time or another from venereal disease ! In a booklet just out and received by me only this morning, which bears the ambitious title 4 ' Sex Prob- lems of Men in Health and Disease" by Dr. Moses Scholtz, the following statement occurs (page 65) -I give the statement verbatim-"A conservative estimate of the spread of venereal disease, in the writer's opinion, would be that from every 100 men at least 90 have had at one time or another a venereal infection." Mind you, this is a conservative esti- SEXUAL TRUTHS 17 mate, and the author says at least 90 out of every 100! "We have a right to assume that at a liberal esti- mate and leaving out the words "at least," about 200 or say 150 out of every 100 (sic!) men have had venereal disease at one time or another! To us, unbiased investigators, the thing is so ab- surd that its very absurdity defeats it. But if a layman reads it, and it is for laymen that the book is intended, he takes it for pure coin, and either be- comes panicky, or if he happens to have escaped venereal disease he is apt to pat himself on the back for his great good fortune or great virtue which put him in the class of the less than 10 per cent, that are free from venereal diseases. The idiots who make the statements of at least 90 per cent, of all males being afflicted with venereal disease, do not take into consideration the thought that if this were so there would be absolutely nothing to worry about. For if with 90 per cent, of humanity afflicted with venereal diseases the human race is nevertheless growing, progressing, and increasing dn numbers, widening its knowledge, making new inventions, etc., etc., in short making progress in every line of hu- man activity, what is there to worry about ? No, these statements about the extent of venereal diseases are just as stupid as they are false. They are just as stupid and false as are the statements about the incurability of venereal disease, which are also made by well-meaning fools who believe that fear of venereal disease, which fear is made more 18 SEXUAL TRUTHS terrifying by the knowledge of its incurability, will act as a deterrent to illicit sexual relations. To expose all the falsehoods that have been made in reference to one phase of our sex life, namely prostitution, would alone occupy a volume. Besides the subject is so dangerous that even I, with my well-attested courage, am afraid to touch it. But if I were not afraid, this is what I would say. I would say that everything that has been told you about the physical, mental and moral condition of the prosti- tute is false. Stupidly, pitifully false. You have been told that the average life of the prostitute is between three and four years. It used to be three years. Then they gave her four, then they gave her five and now, I believe, they are giving her an aver- age of six or seven. This is rot. The average life of the prostitute is just as long, if not longer, as the average of the community, and many of them are in splendid health and of good appearance after fifteen, twenty or twenty-five years of plying their trade. A few of them, those who become addicted to alco- hol and drugs, have a short life. But there are many people who are not prostitutes and who are addicted to alcohol and drugs. The better class take very good care of themselves, live better hygienic lives than their sisters in the same strata of society from which they come, and therefore are in better health. A recent investigation, for instance, in the City of Cleveland, an abstract of which appeared in "The SEXUAL TRUTHS 19 Survey," shows that they are remarkably free from tuberculosis, and that even some of them entering upon the life of prostitution with incipient tubercu- losis, have recovered from it while leading a life of prostitution. So much for their general health. We have also been told that every or practically every prostitute is afflicted with venereal disease. In that same booklet from which I quoted before, the following statement occurs: " It is well established that every prostitute is affected with gonorrhea or syphilis, and mostly with both, and that they practi- cally at all times carry this disease in active or latent form." Another lie. The prostitute of to-day knows that her livelihood depends upon her being sexually healthy, she knows how to take care of herself and she does take care of herself. Before and after each relation she uses a strongly antiseptic douche which makes venereal infection practically impossible. And many of my male patients tell me that they are always subjected to a very painstaking examina- tion, and at the very least suspicious discharge or moisture from the meatus the women refuse to have anything to do with them except with the use of a condom. There are many women who have been prostitutes for five or ten or more years without ever contracting disease. I trust that the evil-minded will not take this state- ment of mine as an excuse for plunging carelessly into orgies with prostitutes. For if one becomes in- fected it is little consolation to him to know that 20 SEXUAL TRUTHS nine of his friends escaped it. Care and venereal prophylaxis are just as important no matter whether ten or fifty per cent, of prostitutes are venereally infected. But I do not believe in perverting the truth for any cause, especially for such a vicious cause as frightening the people away from satisfying their natural instincts. Then you have been told that all prostitutes, or at least a large percentage of them, are mentally defective. This is also rot. Those who have made the investigations investigated only those failures that were arrested, that is, those who were not clever enough to keep out of the clutches of the detestable agents of a detestable law. The fact is that the pros- titute is mentally at least equal, if not superior, to her sister of the same stratum from which she comes. In comparing people we must of course always com- pare people of the same stratum, with the same hereditary and environmental advantages and disad- vantages. As to the prostitute's morality, to the conventional it seems a funny thing to discuss. But leaving out that one element of chastity, which may and may not be an element of morality, the prostitute is very often a very moral creature. That she is kind- hearted, generous, charitable, often self-sacrificing and will frequently go to great lengths to help or save a friend, everybody will confirm who has had opportunity of coming in contact with her and knows some of the intimate details of her life. SEXUAL TRUTHS 21 And further, if it was not a dangerous thing to do, I would tell you that I consider the practice or trade of prostitution a perfectly legitimate occupa- tion. I would tell you that in my opinion the pros- titute should be left alone to practice her trade free- ly and unmolested, and that she should be interfered with only when she becomes a public nuisance or when she is venereally diseased. I would tell you that I consider our treatment of the prostitute out- rageous and criminal, and I believe that future gen- erations will agree with my opinion. I would tell you that I consider the policeman or plain clothes man who traps the streetwalker and arrests her [and occasionally even the judge who sentences herl, morally inferior to her. I would tell you these and many other things if I were not afraid to shock you. But as I am afraid, I will not touch upon the subject further and will proceed with my lecture. What is the result of this attempt at chaining or imprisoning the sex instinct? What is the result of the numerous obstacles which have been put in the way of the normal satisfaction of the sex urge ? What is the result of the terror which we try to implant in the mind of every young man to keep him away from illicit relations? What is the result of the fear of venereal disease, of the humiliation, of the social ostracism, which the young man must fight and over- come if he wishes to satisfy his imperious, irresisti- ble sexual desire? 22 SEXUAL TRUTHS The result is that we are becoming a nation of impotents. And this is the particular theme of my discourse this evening. We have been told that 90 per cent, of all men have at one time or another suf- fered with gonorrhea and that 25 to 50 per cent, of men are infected with syphilis. These are wildly exaggerated statements. But what I am going to tell you is true. The most widespread of all dis- orders of men in any Anglo-Saxon community, is sexual impotence, or to be more specific, premature ejaculations. This has become the universal disease among the male portion of our urban population. And while this disease or disorder is prevalent in every stratum of society, it is particularly prevalent among the educated and professional classes. I make this statement without further qualification- that in any audience of professional men, be they lawyers, clergymen, writers, bankers, or physicians, at least 75 per cent, will be found to suffer from sexual weakness in some form or another, prema- ture ejaculation being the most prevalent form. In giving the figures as 75 per cent. I am conservative. For I will tell you frankly that I do not believe that in any audience of 1,000, or 10,000, or 100,000 adult males you will find 25 per cent, fully virile, normally potent. If you doubt this statement, ask your friends whose confidence you enjoy, but particularly ask their wives. I well know the objection that may be raised. The statement may justly be made that I have a wrong SEXUAL TRUTHS 23 perspective, that I have the narrow view of the spe- cialist, that a man who treats a certain form of disease is bound to begin to believe that all the world is suffering from that disease. That is a danger which many specialists have been unable to escape. But I believe that I can truly say that I am free from the specialist's narrow viewpoint. At least I have always been fighting against the specialistic bias and I believe that I have succeeded. Though a venereal specialist, I have never for a moment accepted the ridiculous figures of the extent of venereal disease of my professional brethren. I never believed in the 90 or 80 per cent, of gonorrhea, and in the 50 or 25 per cent, of syphilis. My figures have always been about 15 or 20 per cent, of gonorrhea and about 2 per cent, of syphilis. And those are liberal figures. But I am sure that I am rather understating than overstating the truth when I claim that at least 75 per cent, of all male adults are more or less sexually impotent. Mind you, not sterile, but impotent. Do not confuse impotentia coeundi with impotentia generandi. The man who is sexually perfectly, VIGOROUSLY POTENT, POSSESSING ALL THE FOUR ELE- MENTS OF A SATISFACTORY SEXUAL RELATION, NAMELY, A STRONG LIBIDO, STRONG ERECTION, PROPER EJACULATION TIME AND PROPER ORGASTIC FEELING IS BECOMING A rarity. And the cause of it is our wretchedly false teaching, our wretchedly false code of sexual morality. The code that teaches that illicit relations 24 SEXUAL TRUTHS are sinful and criminal, and that puts every possible physical, legal, moral, mental and social obstacle in the way of satisfying an instinct which is the most important of all our instincts. I said the most im- portant, and I repeat it. While the hunger instinct is the basic fundamental instinct, it is the egotistic instinct. It is the instinct which concerns the individual alone, while the sex instinct is the social or altruistic instinct. It is the instinct which not only makes the perpetuation of the race possible, but which is the foundation of all our family and social life. While the hunger in- stinct is responsible for the various scientific and technical inventions, the sex instinct is responsible for everything that is beautiful in the world, is re- sponsible for the arts, for painting, sculpture, litera- ture, beautiful clothes and every sort of ornamenta- tion, in short for everything that makes life pleasant and pleasurable. There are some people who be- lieve only in the usefulness of the useful, but I be- lieve with the Bishop in Hugo's "Les Miserables" that the beautiful is as useful as the useful if not more so. The Bishop said that in comparing the relative importance of a rose and a piece of bread. The piece of bread is more useful and more neces- sary than the rose, but man cannot live by bread alone, and after we have the piece of bread the long- ing for the rose is just as imperious, just as urgent as the longing for the piece of bread when we are SEXUAL TRUTHS 25 hungry. And the hungry heart can give as severe pangs as a hungry stomach-some say more severe. A few words about the causative relationship be- tween our sexual code and sexual impotence. In many cases the impotence is due directly to pro- longed abstinence. When a strong, normal young man has frequent libidinous desires which for one reason or another, either religious bringing-up, moral scruples, fear of venereal infection, fear of social ostracism on being found out, lack of opportunity or lack of money, he is unable to satisfy, he develops a congestion in the posterior urethra and in the prostrate which may lead to prostatitis or prostatic atony, which in their turn lead to imperfect erections and to premature ejaculations. Another way which leads to impotence is indirect- ly through masturbation. Only very, very few nor- mal males who are unable to live a normal sex life can abstain from masturbation. And while occa- sional masturbation is harmless, the trouble is that people with weak will-power, of a neurotic consti- tution or born with a psychopathic taint may become slaves to the habit, and that excessive masturbation may in many cases lead to impotence there can be no question. But I would like to stop here for a moment and emphasize the point that the evil results of masturbation have been shamefully and stupidly exaggerated, and that in the vast majority of cases masturbation leads to no disastrous results and it is 26 SEXUAL TRUTHS better for a man who cannot satisfy his sex instinct naturally to indulge in occasional masturbation than to fight day and night with his thoughts, and use up his strength and his energy in mastering his desires. Another way in which our sexual code with its resulting abstinence may lead to impotence is through pollutions. This is a very common road. A good many more people become impotent through excessive pollutions than through masturbation. I cannot refrain from stopping here for a few mo- ments to refer to the hypocrisy and ignorance of our theologic sexologists, as exemplified in their treat- ment of these two phenomena of our sex life, mas- turbation and pollutions. Masturbation being some- thing that depends more or less upon the individual's will, is pictured in the most lurid colors as the source of all possible evils, physical, moral, and mental. Pollutions being something for which the individual cannot even by the severest theologians be held re- sponsible, is pictured as a harmless phenomenon to which no attention need be paid. In fact by many of our sex writers it is considered a wonderful pro- vision of Nature. "Nature," says one of these sexol- ogists, "has certainly provided man with a won- derful self-regulating appliance, which fact explodes the popular belief about danger to health in over- accumulation of the seminal secretions in the body. Whenever such accumulation of the seminal fluid takes place in a healthy man, and he begins to feel a certain nervous tension and blood-flushes, Nature SEXUAL TRUTHS 27 opens her safety-valve and the over-distended semi- nal vesicles by pressure bring in motion the nervous muscular apparatus of the sexual organs, and this accumulated surplus comes out at night in sleep as a "wet dream," night emission, medically called "pollution." The best proof that this phenomenon is normal, natural and purposeful can be seen in the fact that the morning after it the man loses all the disturbing sensations of nervous tension and at once regains his freshness and vigor. A man may have these emissions once or twice a month, even once a week, and he does not have to worry about it in the least, provided that after each night emission he feels fresher and more vigorous than before it." Yes, provided that after each night emission he feels fresher and more vigorous than before it. But how about it if he feels less fresh and less vigorous than before ? How about it if he feels the next morn- ing like a wet rag, with pain in his neck and in the small of his back, unable to concentrate his mind on anything, with rings around his eyes, and so forth? What then? This our hypocritical sexologist leaves untouched. Another sexologist in a recently published book tries to make us believe that every case of pollutions can be cured by potassium bromide and an instilla- tion of nitrate of silver. This again is prostituting science to ulterior ends. There are many cases of pollutions in which an instillation of silver nitrate, no matter how weak, will intensify the pollutions 28 SEXUAL TRUTHS and so will potassium bromide. In short, there are cases of pollutions which cannot be cured by any other means except by normal sexual intercourse. But this our sexo-theologians will not admit. Another relatively small percentage of sexual im- potence is caused by sexual excesses, that is, I mean by excessive normal sexual intercourse. And this I also consider a direct result of our vicious sexual morality. The man who is in good economic cir- cumstances and knows that he is secure with his three meals a day, does not overeat. He partakes moderately at each meal of as much as his system needs. But the poor man, who is one-half or two- thirds of the time hungry, is apt to overeat when he gets a chance, is apt to gorge himself until he ruins his stomach. Many of the poor derelicts become sick after the Christmas dinner which is spread for them by our well-meaning, kind-hearted Salvation Army lassies. And so it is with our sex relations. The normal satisfaction of the sex instinct being sur- rounded by so many obstacles of every kind and description, the man who gets a chance of satisfying his instinct is very apt to overdo it, because he does not know how soon he may get another chance. He is apt to indulge in incredible excesses, until the re- sult is impotence, which fortunately in this case is usually temporary. These are the various avenues through which thousands and thousands of our men arrive at the sad goal of sexual impotence. But sexual impotence SEXUAL TRUTHS 29 is not the only result. We have the vast and con- stantly growing amount of sexual neurasthenia, which is quite different from sexual impotence, though unfortunately often confused by our superfi- cial sex writers. Sexual impotence may coexist with sexual neurasthenia, but on the other hand a person may be sexually impotent without a trace of neu- rasthenia, and a person may be sexually neuras- thenic and be very potent sexually. Then we have the numerous perversions and the many cases of inversions, which are the direct result of our sexual repression. I cannot go into greater details on this point, for the subject is large enough to take up an evening in itself. And then last but not least we have the enormous number of neuroses and a smaller number of psychoses, which are directly traceable to sexual repressions. Whatever you may think of the Freudians and their philosophy, whatever you may think of some of the undoubted exaggerations and extravagances of the psychoanalytic school, nobody who has given the subject unbiased study can deny that Freud has proved beyond doubt the connection between sexual repression and nervous- ness and neuroses, and for that alone if for nothing else he has made himself immortal. What shall we as physicians do in the matter? We cannot change the moral code or the religious ideas of a people, not at once at any rate. But it is our duty to tell the truth as we see it, uninfluenced by any outside considerations. It is our duty to 30 SEXUAL TRUTHS teach that sexual abstinence beyond a certain period is injurious and capable of producing some very disastrous results. It is our duty to teach that the sex instinct is not only a natural, normal instinct, but that its satisfaction is necessary to the physical and mental welfare of the individual. It is our duty to teach that the sex instinct has another purpose beside that of propagation of the race, that as a matter of fact the propagation of the race is but a small part of the sex instinct. And particularly is it our duty to fight those who don the garb of science for the purpose of giving greater weight to their false and pernicious teachings. A society like our Society of Social Hygiene, which is an outgrowth of the Society for Moral and Sani- tary Prophylaxis, is in some respects doing more harm than good. It is doing some good, but the harm it does perhaps outweighs the good. Its hypocrisy begins with its very name-"Social Hy- giene" means nothing. Keeping the rivers pure, examining the milk, preventing the spread of ty- phoid fever, is also social hygiene. Its name, if anything, ought to be "The Sexual Hygiene So- ciety," or "Venereal Hygiene Society." The Ger- man Society, which is older than our Society, has the plain title "Society for Combating Venereal Disease." And while it preaches that abstinence up to a certain point is a good thing, it also very definitely and very decidedly advises the use of venereal prophylactics. But this, the most important SEXUAL TRUTHS 31 point in limiting the extent of venereal disease, our Society does not want to touch. It still has only one remedy for escaping venereal disease, namely complete abstinence, a remedy which has been preached to us for the last 2000 years without any results. The preaching of abstinence up to the date of marriage, no matter how late in life that may take place, is bound to increase the sum total of our sexual misery. It is bound to make us a nation impotent, neurasthenic, neurotic and perverted. If we want to escape the sexual misery, if we want to diminish its amount, we must remove the obstacles from the normal satisfaction of the sexual instinct. The shackles which have been put upon the most im- portant instinct in our life should be broken. Sex relations should be made easier and not harder. Every young man should be fully instructed in the use of the most efficient venereal prophylactics, as well as in the use of the most harmless and the most efficient measures for the prevention of conception. And the moderate, normal satisfaction of the sexual instinct should be considered not a reprehensible, but a commendable and desirable thing. Only then can we hope to avoid a great deal of the sexual misery that is now overwhelming mankind, only then can we hope to develop a sane, healthy, normal, vig- orous and virile race. THE SEXUAL MISERY OF WOMAN Dr. Max Hirsch There have been in the last few years numberless additions to the literature dealing with man's sexual life. Well informed specialists and alas, misin- formed amateurs, too, have had their say on the subject. Valuable books and trashy books have appeared, some clearing the air, some muddling up things. Certain people deplored quite recently the fact that the market was so badly glutted with such books; that complaint was unjust. This oversupply is un- doubtedly called forth by a positive demand for that sort of books. The human soul is astir. We behold one of the needs of the present day. The man living in blissful smugness who has never faced misery embodied in unmarried mothers, illegitimate children, families torn asunder, men and women who pine away in the bonds of unhappy unions, is apt to shut his ears to the call of the dread- ful truth when the call comes from his neighbor's house, and until that truth finally knocks at his own door. "Why make so much ado about it?" he will ask. The dreadful truth must break into the peace of 33 34 SEXUAL TRUTHS his narrow circle. And then he has to admit that it is not without good reasons that man's sexual life has become a subject for research and meditation, and that it is not a waste of time for men and women gripped by the misery of mankind to devote to a study of that subject their heart and their energy. To the confirmed standpatter I will now reveal a bit of that truth; just a slice of life as it offers itself to me, a physician, in my daily practice. Physical symptoms and psychic excitation; men that fight one another and fights that rage within one man. Tragedies in miniature; and when the tragic knot is tied the catastrophe often precipitates itself with terrible fury. Or the strings are so snarled up that they cannot be unraveled. In one case as in the other I will endeavor to fathom the causes and thus to throw a window open upon the panorama of life. An almost bare room and a woman crushed by grief at the bedside of her child who is desperately sick. The doctor's diagnosis, inflammation of the brain, has shattered all her hopes of possible recov- ery. She comes from a good family. She has re- ceived an average education, has a pleasant appear- ance and good manners. Her parents cast her out because, trusting foolishly her lover's promises, she had given herself to him. Three years she has sup- ported herself and the child in the strange city by doing work to which she had never been accustomed. She has only lived and struggled for the child. And after a short sickness it is dying. Her life is empty. SEXUAL TRUTHS 35 She ignores her family's offer to take her back as a cruel insult. What is left to her? Unless some golden oppor- tunity presents itself,-poverty or prostitution. A girl no longer in her first youth, of serious dis- position, and anything but sensuous, yields to the entreaties of her fiance, a staid man of forty. She becomes pregnant. Her father is an official in the forest administration, her mother the daughter of an army officer; her brothers, sisters and relatives occupy high positions. In her fourth month of pregnancy she is staying with her parents and a sister who is her only con- fidante, at a watering place in Bohemia. It will soon be impossible to conceal her condition. The sisters spend days and nights seeking a solution. It isn't so much the shame they fear as the blow it would deal to their old father whom they worship. The advertisement of a Berlin procuress points to them a way out. Under some pretext they leave the watering place. And in an environment which contrasts strikingly with her condition I find the poor girl is bed shaken by chills. The sister tells me the facts frankly. A severe and painful operation obviates the immediate danger. Four months the sick woman remained in bed; to her physical sufferings added itself serious mental disturbances due to remorse and to the fear of ex- posure ; for in the mean time the procuress had been 36 SEXUAL TRUTHS arrested. . . . The parents never found out. Her plan had succeeded. Only she had become barren. After many years of married life with the man whose child bad been killed in her womb, she now waits in vain, heartsick, for the blessing of another motherhood. One day I receive a hurry call. A shapely girl of 21 lies in a pool of blood, breathing her last. What the French call a "wise woman" has opened to her the door to the great Beyond. The scorn of her fellow beings which she was so eager to avoid can no longer touch her. She could not foresee that the bungler who helped her out of trouble would kill her body together with the fruit thereof. Such is the calvary which present day society compels the unmarried mother to ascend. We need badly to sweep out a good many habits and cus- toms whose only excuse for existing is that they were once a part of our great grandfathers' patrimony. The soil on which our own concepts of morals and ethics are growing, must be plowed anew, lies and hypocrisy, the weeds that overrun it, must be up- rooted and the ground must be sown with the seed of modern physiological and biological knowledge. We may think anything we please of unmarried women who indulge in sexual intercourse. A prospec- tive mother, however, be she married or single, is entitled to the protection of society. We will have to devise new measures to vouchsafe her that pro- SEXUAL TRUTHS 37 tection. Legislators will have to devote some atten- tion to the position of the illegitimate child. Un- married mothers and illegitimate children must demand, and will, I hope, secure effective protection through an extension by statute of the father's re- sponsibility. Here is a young woman, a teacher, 25 years old. A fortnight ago I performed on her the third operation following a miscarriage. The woman has a strong physique, a good mind and a warm heart. A senseless statute forbids her, under penalty of losing the position to which she has become attached and her means of livelihood, to marry the man who has won her love. But they are not willing to forego the joys of love. Inexperienced in the use of preventives, she has no choice except to have the fruit of her love removed. One of her fellow teachers whom I know, an older woman, has thought and acted differently. Thin, slightly stooping, with a strong, spiritualized but also embittered cast of features, she unites in her physical appearances all the characteristics which are popularly attributed to the old maid. She may once upon a time have been comely. And love, won- derful love may also have once stirred her. Her soul may also have once clamored for a child. But she decided to be an ascete. And she has remained chaste . . . and lonely. And why? Both of them are victims of the law that forbids teachers to marry. Not only does that 38 SEXUAL TRUTHS statute rob individuals of the pleasures of life but, by preventing the cleverest elements of society from reproducing themselves, it allows great economic resources to go to waste. A beautiful young woman marries at the age of 18. She is the oldest of four children. She has been forced into that marriage because her parents feel the pinch of need. He is apparently a desirable party. He has money and a profitable business. This means one child less to take care of. Four months later she is pregnant and suffering from syphilis. The young husband assures the physician that she hasn't been infected by him. His noble attitude kills at a blow the harmony that reigned between him and his wife. A child is born and dies. Year after year the wife has to bear her husband's wedding present. Lack of money and economic dependence prevent her from breaking the bonds of that shameful union. Years later, at last, she throws herself in the arms of a man she loves and she parts with great relief from the man to whom she had never been really wedded. The only way to prevent such catastrophes is to uplift the current conception of marriage and of its significance, to awaken a sense of responsibility in all those who are concerned with the union of two human beings, and finally to grant woman her physi- cal and economic independence. Marrying for money must in the future be con- sidered as a loathsome practice. Wherein does it SEXUAL TRUTHS 39 differ from the chattel sale of yore when a woman was purchased from her tribe and became her hus- band's property? Nowadays, however, the roles are reversed. Women buy a husband who brings them in exchange a title or a social position. And the husband exercises less brutally his proprietary rights. The number of marriages contracted for "practi- cal" reasons is legion. Now and then the interested parties investigate not only the financial standing of their intended, but his or her condition of health and that of his or her family, his or her disposition, mode of life and expectations; but this is not a frequent occurrence. And not a few of those matches over which not Cupid but Mammon presided, fall very short of the ideal which Herman Bang in his story, The Priest, has depicted in such alluring colors. A skeleton of a woman, who looks fifty but is only thirty, comes to consult me. She has been for 18 years the wife of a hard working man who is very superior to her as far as physique goes. She has borne seven children, six of whom are living, and she has had four miscarriages. Every new child has found the mother weaker and the family poorer. Dissatisfaction has crept into the family and now discord. . . . What has broken up this family? The lack of an intelligent system of birth regulation proportioning SEXUAL TRUTHS 40 the number of children to the wife's health and to the family's means. Even when a family is comfortably situated mar- ried happiness is jeopardized as soon as too frequent motherhood endangers the mother's health. The wife becomes prematurely old and dull. The more she tries to avoid her husband's embraces, either be- cause she finds no pleasure in them or because she fears pregnancy, the quicker she will drive him out of the house and into the arms of prostitutes. Many are the families in which the number of chil- dren must be kept down either because confinements were laborious or because the mother is a wage earner. Ignorance of preventives, in this case, is responsible for the breaking up of the home. This ignorance however is not the only factor. Indolence, selfishness and sensuality often lead the man to neglect means which kind advisers have pointed out to him. I have known more than one woman to em- ploy, without letting her husband discover it, pre- ventives which unfortunately failed many times to serve her purpose. I really believe that the great majority of mis- carriages that come under our notice are the result of criminal operations; but the number of those tak- ing place secretly between the four walls of private homes is even larger. The police and the penal code find themselves in a ridiculous position, sneered at by everybody. What if now and then some one gets SEXUAL TRUTHS 41 caught and is made to pay? Those who get caught are generally poor sinners without experience. At twenty-six, a good wife and mother finds her- self pregnant for the fifth time. She already has four children, all young and helpless. Her husband's wage is so small that she must take in home work to help buy food and clothing. What has to-morrow to hold out to the new life she bears in her and to the other four children? She makes up her mind and has the necessary done. Everything passes off well but a malicious neighbor gives information to the police. A 14-month jail sentence separates the mother from the children, the wife from the hus- band. The children are neglected, the husband fre- quents prostitutes. How many more cases like this are there? They prove clearly that the paragraph of the penal code relative to crimes against the unborn should not stand in the statute books in its present wording. If it is to serve a purpose it must be directed against professional abortionists only; and on such it should impose even more severe penalties. I knew a childless couple who ten years ago were married with considerable display and seemed at the time perfectly happy. The husband, a man of unusually polygamous proclivities and incapable of controlling his instincts;, indulged in extramatri- monial gratification. His wife found it out and for- gave him. He infected her; she lost her health but forgave him. Finally he took a mistress with whom 42 SEXUAL TRUTHS lie spends much more time and money than with his wife. And this is the life they will live till death parts them. Of course the wife has a slave soul. She might, however, be less accommodating if she could be financially independent. The community of goods which has not been en- tirely stricken out of the new civil code and gives to the husband the management and usufruct of his wife's property places the wife in a condition of physical servitude and economic dependence. We must obviate this evil by giving women a radically different sort of an education, granting them free access to public careers and giving them all possible opportunities to develop their personality according to their inclinations and their capacities. The law must insure woman's economic independence by giv- ing her absolute control of her property. Many a woman, economically independent or en- dowed with a strong will power, would gladly part from a husband whose heart belongs to another woman. And the husband, too, would welcome de- liverance from the bonds of an unbearable married life. But the law will not permit it. It contains two stipulations which are pernicious and inhuman: the guilty parties must be branded as such and then the faithless husband is forbidden to marry the woman he loves. These stipulations must be abrogated and the separation of incompatible mates thus made less difficult. Indifference to the question of health when the SEXUAL TRUTHS 43 marriage arrangements are made is conducive to immeasurable harm. So many young women in flourishing health and full of sweet expectations have been infected with gonorrhea in the bridal bed by the husband they adored. This means long suffering if not some grave trouble. And the saddest part of it is that their hopes of motherhood are blighted forever. From this point of view gonorrhea is even more terrible than syphilis. The evils that follow in the wake of the latter are just as numerous: years of illness, miscarriages and stillbirths. But to the mother remains at least the hope of bringing children into the world. Weak and sick as those children may be in many cases, they can still, if given the proper care, grow into healthy and useful men. Tuberculosis transmitted by the husband can also work great havoc, whether he is himself tuberculous or comes from a family tainted with it. I know sev- eral families in which as many as five or six children died before reaching their seventh year. They all succumbed to tuberculosis of the bones, of the lungs, of the intestine or of the meninges. Only recently I have seen a mother lose her two daughters who were between 20 and 30 and apparent- ly healthy, carried away by consumption. Why this misery? The social position of the fiances, their financial condition, their income are the subject of careful investigation. But nobody would think of investigating properly the physical health 44 SEXUAL TRUTHS of the two contractants and of the families from which they come. Here is where a national department of hygiene must intervene and demand, besides the usual docu- ments that must be produced before marriage can be contracted, a certificate of health. Thus we will prevent worthless human types from marrying and procreating children, a problem which is not im- possible to solve. The alcoholic and insane should also be kept from procreating children; their offspring fills asylums and jails. It isn't only for the children but for the wife that the man's alcoholic habits is an inexhaustible source of misery. Alcohol claims a part of the daily wage. A man's capacity for work, his desire for work and his endurance are decreased by indulgence in alco- hol. Besides drink arouses sexual instincts. In his insatiable lust the drunkard brutalizes his weakened wife; he ruins her health and procreates children who inherit his vice or suffer from epilepsy or insanity or become criminals. The wife is helpless. The law affords her no protection. Hygiene must offer assistance by directing a ruthless war against alco- holism; and so must the legislators, by broadening the statutes which thus far only apply to drunkards rendered by their condition dangerous for the public. Many unions which began very happily and which seemed to fulfill all the conditions which insure dur- able bliss, have been blighted by certain peculiarities SEXUAL TRUTHS 45 of the act of sexual intercourse, which in an ideal marriage should be the holiest of relations. In- difference to the sexual act which is more frequent in women than is commonly supposed, and which some- times becomes an absolute repugnance, is traceable not always to a lack of affection for the man but rather to the very nature of feminine love which is dominated by the idea of procreation and in which the sexual act does not play as important a part as it does in man's love. That indifference is usually the first cause of estrangement, for the man is in- clined to attribute it to his wife's lack of love for him. When such a union remains barren, husband and wife gradually drift apart from each other. The man either frequents prostitutes or takes a mistress. Some women, intelligent enough to foresee the pos- sible results of their indifference, do not let the man suspect their incapacity to enjoy the sexual act. I know a woman who has been simulating that way for the past 12 years; but her married life is a happy one. Unequal desire for sexual gratification on the part of the man and his wife is a continual cause of irrita- tion. I will not say anything about abnormal cases or perversions. Small differences of degree are enough to cause unpleasantness. Sometimes the man is un- able to control his desire or too thoughtless to do so. Many women have lost their health and their happiness because their husbands would not spare 46 SEXUAL TRUTHS them at times when they should have been spared, during menstruation, confinement or in sickness. I remember a young woman who after being de- livered of her first child developed puerperal fever. The source of the infection was a mystery. The woman hadn't been examined for a long while before parturition took place. It came out that her hus- band, grudging the continence which the confinement would impose upon him, had satisfied his desire a few hours before she had been delivered and when the labor had already begun. Difficulties encountered in the performance of the sexual act and due either to the man's impotence or to obstacles presented by the woman's organs exert a very disturbing influence upon conjugal peace. For three years a young couple had vainly tried to have sexual intercourse. Finally the man assumed that he was too weak and resigned himself to his fate. But their life was not as happy as it was before. Finally the wife gathered all her courage and con- sulted a physician. The examination revealed a coarse, resistant hymen which an insignificant op- eration removed. After that the sexual act was performed successfully. Love and happiness re- turned. In all these cases in which the wife is the victim, success can only be attained by training people to live lives more conforming to the dictates of hygiene and by insuring obedience to medical advice. I will leave to specialists the task of describing SEXUAL TRUTHS 47 the misery of prostitution. The fight against prosti- tution however cannot be waged directly with any measure of success. There is no doubt that prostitu- tion will either disappear or decrease considerably as soon as the various problems we are considering have been solved in a satisfactory fashion. Some uninformed readers may think that I have presented in this article cases of a very exceptional character. Exceptional facts are generally revealed to the public by the daily press. The cases I have mentioned are of daily occurrence, the human types I have introduced are ones which the seeker after absolute truth encounters at every step. Those people are not all absolutely alike. Countless nuances due to differences in disposition or to cir- cumstances give every one of them an individual stamp. And just because that misery is rampant in the palaces of the rich, in the barracklike tenements of our large cities and in the modest dwelling of the tiller of the soil, it behooves us to expose it to the full light of day. With eyes full of hunger and sorrow, that misery will stare at the happy ones when they pass by and teach them that beyond the walls of their happy homes there is a world the existence of which they had never suspected. It will take the whole arsenal of biology, all the resources of political and social economy and, last but not least, the help of psychology, the best edu- 48 SEXUAL TRUTHS cator of mankind, to relieve woman's sexual misery. But we must prepare the ground. Mankind must feel an irresistible desire to learn the lessons those various sciences can teach. THE FRIGID WOMAN [Deficiency in Woman's Sexual Sensibility] Otto Adler, M.D., Berlin. Before speaking of the frigid woman (cold, in- different woman, femme de glace, femme de marbre, natura frigida, etc.) I would like to forewarn the reader against a misinterpretation of my meaning. I once wrote a monograph on the subject, entitled "Deficiencies in Woman's Sexual Sensibility" (anesthesia sexualis feminarum, anaphrodisia, dys- pareunia). On the strength of that title alone I have been asked many a time: "Do you mean to say that women are deficient in sexual sensibility?" I will answer this at once. I say that a normal healthy woman possesses a normal healthy sexual instinct whose activity, how- ever, is repressed by cultural ideas thousands of years old. The "passivity" of woman which is often corrected by the "activity" of the man is a con- sequence of the "repression" which is exerted more strongly on woman's than on man's sexual life. It was after mature consideration that I placed the key word "deficiency" right at the beginning of my title. It may be that the expression "faulty sexual sensibility" would have been better and more com- 49 50 SEXUAL TRUTHS prehensive. Only I did not wish to include in my work a study of extreme perversions, that is of homosexuality. Deficiency in sexual sensibility must be studied in its variations in so far as it affects the normal sexual relations between man and woman. The number of those variations is great, terribly great. We should not confuse matters by crowding this picture of abnormality with a list of homosexual perversions. Well qualified writers have made ade- quate studies of this phase of the question. My observations show that frigidity, that is a deficiency in woman's sexual sensibility exists in be- tween 25 per cent to 50 per cent of women. Other practitioners have confirmed this estimate. For obvious reasons it is not easy to collect sta- tistics ; in order to deal with round numbers and to take an average figure let us say that 33 per cent or one third of all women are frigid. Just think of one third of all women being frigid, cold, indifferent! Who would not shake his head and call this the deceptive fancy of a blind theoretician ? I have spoken with a bachelor, a man about town, who knows women. "Impossible," he answered, "I never had such unpleasant experiences." If he had tried he might perhaps have recalled one isolated case. I have spoken to married men. They had more cases of frigidity to report. Several of them re- SEXUAL TRUTHS 51 vealed to me that their wives had little inclination for sexual intercourse. This simple detail indicates under what condi- tions statistical inquiries of the most intimate nature must he undertaken. Why is it that the man about town knows of no frigid woman? Because that type of woman does not come his way. His hunting ground is the world of passionate women. These only offer themselves to him, it is these he can conquer and with whom his virility triumphs. The frigid ones turn away from him, he soon feels himself on unpromising ground where it would not be worth while for him to waste his efforts. In certain cases the man about town allows him- self to be fooled. Purchasable sensuality seldom feels the burning passion it displays. But even the man about town could mention one frigid woman among his acquaintances, if we only would refresh his memory and help him a little. In the tragedy of adultery, on the other hand, the most frequent psychological factor is the hus- band's frigidity which contrasts with the lover's ardor and passion. In order to throw light upon the complicated mechanism and psychology of the highest sexual feeling it is necessary to draw a distinction between instinct, pleasure, desire, (libido) on one hand and the culmination of the urge, gratification, voluptuous feeling, orgasm, on the other hand. 52 SEXUAL TRUTHS Let us take the latter first. There is a form of frigidity affecting the final gratification and which in spite of all the possible desire, in spite of the keenest libido precludes any ejaculation, any orgasm. This is the most common form of frigidity. Some women may, so to speak, be very warm and yet never reach the boiling point. This is one of the varieties of deficient sexual sensibility. Frigidity, however, has become a household word and must be used in this case, not without good reasons. Where is the woman who would not become actually "frigid" if after fulfilling her conjugal duty for many years of married life, she had always been cheated of the orgasm, the final gratification? In- stead of the passionate ecstasy she expected from the sexual act she must resign herself to a cloying mechanical process. Defilement and impregnation, this is all she derives from it. A woman's libido must be very strong not to be gradually weakened and finally deadened under such circumstances. Her libido transforms itself into frigidity. Will that condition endure all her life long? As long as she has intercourse with the same man, yes. But what would happen if she should meet another man? Who would dare to answer this question in the negative ? What are the reasons for that lack of climax or orgasm which finally leads to chronic frigidity? Some are purely mechanical, some, the majority of them, are of a psychological nature. The psychologi- SEXUAL TRUTHS 53 cal factors are many and varied. To trace them all is the most arduous task for a thoughtful prac- titioner. There are of course purely mechanical causes such as a maladjustment of the male and female organs. But in such cases a medical intervention can correct matters as far as the woman is concerned. Not infrequently, however, the fault for this lack of adjustment lies with the husband. As long as his inexperience only is to blame, the physician can proffer advice which generally bears fruit. One form of maladjustment which is harder to correct is a faulty timing of the climax. The most widely known form of faulty timing is premature ejaculation of the man, a condition whereby the man's climax (ejaculation or orgasm) occurs too soon, before the woman has had time to experience any pleasurable feeling. The tension of her libido then is not relieved. In this case the man may adapt himself to the circumstances and an artist in matters of love can easily cope with the situation. When the man is incapable of such self control, and when his climax is reached with morbid haste, medical treatment is imperative. Here is an im- portant class of cases in which the husband must be treated for deficient sexual sensibility ... of the wife. Another cause of deficient sexual sensibility in the 54 SEXUAL TRUTHS woman is, curious as it may sound, previous over- indulgence in self gratification (onanism, mastur- bation). One would think that such previous habits would prepare and facilitate the performance of bisexual coitus. On the contrary. The irony of nature causes in woman a true anesthesia sexualis masturbatoria. I have known cases in which the libido was so violent that masturbation had been practiced from a very early age, and in which the imagination of the pseudo-virgins was constantly obsessed by the desire of possession. And yet when those women were able to indulge in normal intercourse they never could obtain an orgasm, which manual caresses gave them in overwhelming measure. This paradoxical situation can be explained by the fact that those women had adopted when mas- turbating a certain speed and rhythm, and exerted a certain pressure on a certain part of their genitals. The seat of voluptuous sensations in woman is not localized in one single spot. The clitoris is un- doubtedly to be considered as the main organ but the labia minora are used much more generally for such purposes. The labia majora, the vaginal wall, the urethra and the cervix uteri are also the seat of sensations. The nipples too are among the so called "erogenous zones." It is easy to understand that when a woman has acquired certain habits her locus praedilectionis may not be reached or at least stimulated to a sufficient SEXUAL TRUTHS 55 degree during normal bisexual coitus, ff, besides, the man is too inexperienced or too weak to perform the act with the same strength and speed to which the woman had accustomed herself while mastur- bating, this form of frigidity resolves itself into its component elements. Frigidity due to previous masturbation is ex- tremely frequent. The majority of women affected by it seek relief by masturbating after coitus. Others give up the practice altogether and after a few years the last sparks of libido smoldering under the ashes are altogether extinguished; the sexual act becomes for those women a cold, dead, mechani- cal thing. Frigidity due to masturbation may also have psychological causes. We may point out that in the act of self gratification the woman's imagination may have lingered on images which do not cor- respond to the reality. The woman may have thought while masturbating of a tall, blond man, whereas it is now a short, dark man who is trying to produce in her the illusory bliss she used to enjoy, and thus her acquired associations of ideas are entirely upset. This leads us to ask ourselves why men do not suffer from the same kind of frigidity since they masturbate at least as much as women? Here we find a striking illustration of what activity and passivity mean as far as the sexual enjoyment of man and woman is concerned. Whatever form of masturbation the man may have resorted to, he 56 SEXUAL TRUTHS is always able, owing to the active part he plays, to reproduce in the sexual act the rhythm, speed, and strength he used in masturbating. The man con- ducts the sexual act and proceeds undisturbed on the road to gratification which he has learnt to follow; if he is unable to adapt his ways in order to satisfy the woman he finally lapses into a per- haps unconscious thoughtlessness which causes him to seek only one goal, his own orgasm. "My hus- band only thinks of himself" is the ashamed and resigned plaint of so many "frigid" women. A form of frigidity similar to that induced in woman by masturbation may also be observed in man. It occurs in rather infrequent cases when the woman abandoning her passive role assumes the active role in love. We come now to the psychic causes of a lack of orgasm. The most important of all is the fear of pregnancy. Consciously or unconsciously that fear dominates all the sexual thoughts of woman. Most women harbor the idea that their own orgasm when it coincides with the man's ejaculation must result in pregnancy. This theory has been scientifically exploded; we have cases on record when pregnancy was provoked during ether anesthesia, or from sperm being introduced by mechanical means. Pregnancy following rape or occurring during the first days after marriage when the woman experi- enced no gratification and only felt pain and dis- comfort proves that such a theory is untenable. SEXUAL TRUTHS 57 And yet there is a particle of truth in it. For practitioners have observed that impregnation is made easier when the woman has an orgasm. The* proportion of pregnancies preceded by "feelings" however, is only a trifle higher than that of preg- nancies preceded by no "feelings." When a married woman having had two or three children and who believes in the "feelings" theory wishes to put an end to her functions of reproduc- tion, she resorts naturally to what she considers as the first means at hand, that is self-restraint. Habits can be formed in this way and new associations of ideas may provoke such a distortion of feelings that no orgasm takes place in normal intercourse. A psychic inhibition establishes itself and the orgasm is absolutely suppressed; or under the pressure of the libido a new complex of ideas forms itself and leads with possibly the cooperation of the man to new forms of gratification that are not fraught with danger, coitus without immissio, cunnilingus, etc. Inhibition may have many other psychic factors. This is easily understood when we keep in mind the weaker and more passive sexual sensibility of woman. The sense of smell which, in woman, is apparently more developed, plays here an important part. The senses of sight and touch, in a word, all the sensory organs, play a part and the slightest trace of aver- sion on the part of the woman may produce a very strong inhibition. Repulsion for any physical or 58 SEXUAL TRUTHS mental characteristic of her husband precludes not only the orgasm but every attempt at bringing it about and any beginning of libido. Vaginism deserves special mention. This is a form of disease which, before medical science had begun to undertake intimate sexual observations, was the first manifestation of feminine pathology known to physicians on account of its obvious out- ward symptoms. It is a spasmodic condition of the genital parts, of the crural region and of the entire body during normal intercourse. A natural connec- tion (immissio) is then impossible or can only take place with the use of a certain violence. All the pleasure of the act is replaced by struggles, moans, discomfort and pain. The climax or orgasm is naturally impossible. Some of those cases are of a purely mechanical nature. They can be remedied by applying a dilator or the knife; these purely mechanical forms were the only ones the old school designated by the name of vaginism. The more advanced psychology of sexual research recognizes that only a small part of such disorders are due to mechanical causes and that it is rather psychic factors connected with all the sexual feelings and the sexual mentality of woman, and also with cultural and social concepts, which are at the basis of the trouble. It is a tragedy for a woman suffering from psychic vaginism to consult a physician who doesn't under- SEXUAL TRUTHS 59 stand the psychic origin of the disease and places all his faith in the knife. New terrors are struck not only into the body but into the soul of the poor obsessed and hunted woman. Her mental balance may be destroyed permanently and the treatment may make of her a chronic invalid, an eternally dis- contented being who will remain frigid the rest of her life, a prey to the tortures of neurosis and hys- teria and to whom the conjugal bed will offer no attraction, joy or gratification. Psychic vaginism is so intimately connected with the woman's sexual mentality that we must now come to our second point: woman's peculiar sexual urge, woman's libido. It has been denied many times that sexual desires, instinct, urge, libido and all the preliminary states of excitation which culminate in the final orgasm were innate in woman and appeared automatically. Feminine libido, many said, was rather an artificial phenomenon which must be first awakened by the man together with all the manifestations that fol- low it. The modern sexual movement, on the* contrary, has loudly claimed, on the testimony of women themselves, that a desire for sexual gratification is a natural phenomenon with women and that conse- quently women are entitled to that gratification. Where is the truth? Probably as usual in a happy medium. Women do not care to let physicians de- 60 SEXUAL TRUTHS cide the question, not because they are physicians but because physicians are generally men. Granting the truth of what precedes, there are many questions based upon the observation of actual facts which demand insistently to be an- swered. If the woman's libido was totally inexistent, how would this uneven distribution harmonize with all the other sensory feelings which nature has given to man and woman approximately in the same measure ? Could one sex be endowed with the stormiest sensuality and the other sex have as its share a cold indifferent frigidity? This is in direct contradiction of the spirit and the facts of natural history. We have, however, the veiled, pent up and im- mured libido, a libido in chains, which like a child that was always repressed, does not know that there is such a thing as individuality and freedom. The question, a question of a psychological nature, is: Can one remove that veil and break those chains? The solution of that question will require a little thoughtfulness on the part of the man, provided, however, he is able to place himself in the woman's position. What would become of the male's libido if every time a man indulged in intercourse he ran the risk of jeopardizing his social standing, his position, his livelihood, his health; if a high official had to resign his position, abandon his home and his family, be scorned or at least ostracized and perhaps cast out 61 SEXUAL TRUTHS on the street with the child that called him father? The answer is not far to find. Do not many young husbands lack strength in their first married night because they have to face something new, to which in their purity they were not accustomed? What is this well-known psychic impotence but a form of momentarily pent up and inhibited libido? And who is the man about town who has not felt impotent at the psychological moment because he was frightened by some symptom that forced into his mind the devilish specter of venereal infection? Woman's inhibition is a thousand times greater, it is infinite. Sometimes it may be due to natural reasons, such as pain, or pregnancy, and sometimes to the dictates of civilization, to a feeling of shame, but what of it? It is a real fact, it has existed in every land and every part of the world with insig- nificant variations. Nor should we assume that so-called primitive peoples are better situated in that respect. Even among them there is a certain code of behavior which inhibits the feminine libido, a code established by the stronger sex, and even among them there are, if we credit the reports, frigid individuals, whose libido is repressed, and who "have little proclivity towards physical love." Johanna Elberskirchen considers every case of deficient libido among women as a sign of cultural degeneracy and as the result of an inferior evolution and deficient life conditions. 62 SEXUAL TRUTHS If only that degeneracy was not distributed so evenly all over the universe. No. Certain inhibitions are a natural component of feminine love, ennoble the woman's beauty, increase and deepen the man's adoration for her. The loved woman, reserved but capable of voluptuous joy, is the most desirable queen on the throne of sensual happiness. She wears the halo of the saints. It is only when the cultural inhibitions become too powerful that tragedy begins. But the voice of the times is being heard very distinctly and the modern movement for sexual reform is in a good way to dissipate and destroy for ever sexual hy- pocrisy, sexual ignorance and uncertainty, secret fears and terrors. Between knowing it all and knowing nothing there is a wide bridge. There is no need of remaining at either end of that bridge. We will have the best view from the middle of it. Repulsion, caution, ignorance, anxiety and fear are very bad torches with which to light the bridal chamber. Woe to the woman, when it is a brutal or an ignorant or even a coarse husband who ap- proaches the nuptial bed! A false education plus one unpleasant bridal night may make a thousand frigid wives. Finally there is a form of feminine libido which laughs secretly at all the social conventionalities and at all the inhibitions. Secretly, I say, for extra- matrimonial pregnancy is and will always be feared, SEXUAL TRUTHS 63 as it means civil death for the trespasser. This libido is responsible for the type which the French aptly designate as demi-vierges (half-virgins), the women who grant to their lover everything but that which might create a new life. Some one may ask what that type has to do with an article on frigidity. Such a type should, on the contrary, be well adapted to the purely sexual side of married life. Quite the contrary. I have cited in my monograph a case of vaginism due to the prematrimonial experiences of a half-virgin. Over- indulgence in the preliminaries of bi-sexual love, that is all the possible varieties of gratification with the exception of normal intercourse, developed after marriage a frigidity due to vaginism. Nature creates all kinds of curious sports, espe- cially in sexual life which is full of the most remark- able perversions. Are sexual studies of any practical use? Can frigidity be cured? Frigidity due to mechanical causes can in many cases; so can frigidity due to psychic causes. But the task is an arduous one, which taxes heavily the powers of the practitioner and demands a great deal of psychologi- cal prospecting before the hidden inhibitions can be located and destroyed. A few cases seem incurable. Are they really so? Science has its limitations, but, in that field, miracles are still possible. MISALLIANCES AND UNHAPPY MAR- RIAGES: AN IMPORTANT BUT NEVER REFERRED TO CAUSE William J. Robinson, M.D. The very quiet, very gentle, very obedient and very well brought up son of a highly esteemed leader of ethical culture and professor of ethics, himself a college student in his senior year, one night failed to come home; he did not show up the following day, nor the following, nor for several following days. To avoid publicity the parents refrained from noti- fying the police; but they engaged a private detec- tive, who after a week's search informed them that he had traced their son with a young woman to a hotel, where they had registered as man and wife. The father wanted to rush at once to the hotel, but the mother thought that Bertrand would mind it less if she went to see him. But when she came to the hotel she was informed that the young couple for whom she inquired had left the previous night. For two weeks they heard nothing, and then they received a letter in which Bertrand informed them that he was married to the sweetest girl in the world; he got acquainted with her some three months ago, and as he felt that she was essential to his happiness, 65 66 SEXUAL TRUTHS to his very life, that he simply could not live with- out her, and as he feared that the parents, the father particularly, would interpose objections and at- tempt to put obstacles in their way, he decided to burn his bridges behind him and get married. They have been married nearly three weeks and he felt very happy. If the parents were willing to welcome him and his wife to their home, he would be glad to return, and to finish his studies. If not, he would be looking around for some work to support himself and his wife, as the little money he had, from his several years' savings, was coming to an end. As to who his wife was, who her parents were, on these points he vouchsafed no information. The father was opposed to receiving the couple under his roof, but the mother, made of less stem ethical stuff, prevailed upon him to forgive his son his misstep, "if a misstep it is."-"For after all how can one know? Maybe she will make him a fine wife. He is young; but some boys make out much better by marrying young." But when the young wife came, the mother knew. She received a stab in the heart when she saw her; she knew that her boy was doomed to misery for many years to come; perhaps forever. She was pretty, there was no doubt about that. But she was common, she was ignorant, she was vulgar-there was no doubt about that, either. And strange to say, Bertrand did not seem very happy; his love seemed in the brief period between his letter and his SEXUAL TRUTHS 67 arrival to have suffered some sort of shock. One could plainly see that something weighed upon his mind, depressed him, crushed him. The mother begged him to give her his confidence; he would be as dear to her as ever he was, and if there was help for him she would do everything in the world to help him. There wasn't much to tell. He had met her-Sadie was her name-in the "College Barber Shop," where she was employed as a manicurist. After she had manicured his hands two or three times he felt he could not live without her. He began to frequent the shop daily, having his hands manicured more fre- quently than is the custom, or than his finances per- mitted him, and when his attentions began to cause cynical smiles on the face of the boss and the em- ployees, he asked her to meet him in the evening, to which she, after some hesitation, agreed. A flame was burning within him, a consuming flame which he felt nothing could quench or allay except a close sex intimacy with her. He did not want to look too closely into her antecedents or her character, for he feared to learn anything unfavorable about her. He did not want to know the truth, if the truth was apt to keep him away from her. Whether or not she would have permitted a close intimacy, with- out a marriage certificate, he could not say, but of course he would never have thought of subjecting any pure girl to such an insult; his bringing up, his 68 SEXUAL TRUTHS fine ethical conceptions would not permit such a step. And as with each day, nay, each hour, life with- out her became more and more impossible, prevent- ing him from doing anything in the daytime, and making each night an interminable torture, he de- cided to take the step which he felt was the only step for him to take. Any attempt at dissuasion would have proved useless, or would have accelerated his step. Within a week after their marriage, tiny gossamer clouds of doubt as to the wisdom of his step began to arise in his mind, but the flame of sex passion quickly consumed them. But with each day that passed the clouds became thicker and more resistant, and the flame less consuming. And when she found out that he was not the rich and inde- pendent son she imagined him to be, she was quite ugly about it. He didn't say it, but she divined his thought, and her answer was that love was all right, but nowadays girls didn't marry for love alone; they wanted pretty clothes and lots of them, and every decent man had at least one automobile. And she certainly did not intend to stay with him in his parents' house. She was entitled to an apartment of her own. She felt bored in his house, and she did not care for his father and mother. They gave her the shivers. She told him frankly that she did not intend to stay in the house from morning till night, that she was a young girl and she needed some amusement. SEXUAL TRUTHS 69 If he was too busy or too fastidious (too stuck-up, she said) to go with her to the movies or to vaude- ville, she would have to go alone or with some of her old friends. Her absences became gradually more frequent and more prolonged, and not very rarely it was one or two o'clock in the morning when she came home. Rumors began to float about her being seen in ques- tionable cabarets with some college students, un- doubtedly friends of hers from her manicure days. Bertrand suffered, but suffered in silence. One day he received an anonymous letter, in which the writer who signed himself Friend, told him that he was a boob for having married Sadie Smith, and that he was a double boob for continuing to live with her; that there were very few students who had not been intimate with her for years, that the loose- ness of her morals was known to everybody, and that she has resumed relations with several of her former friends. The letter was a severe slap in his face, but the postscript added insult to injury, or rather injury to insult. In the postscript, he was warned to take good care of himself, as it would not be at all surprising if he became infected with some loathsome disease. By this time Bertrand had deep contempt for "the finest girl in the world," but she still held some sway over him with her sex appeal. For she looked even prettier than before. But when he read the letter, he decided at once to discontinue all rela- 70 SEXUAL TRUTHS tions with her, for he had a terrible fear of venereal disease. His moral bringing up included a whole- some, or rather unwholesome because greatly ex- aggerated, fear of the venereal scourge. Alas, it was too late. Two days later the symptoms of a well-known disease made their appearance. He dis- closed all his misery to his mother. He would have forgiven his wife everything, but he could not for- give her careless, and brutal wantonness in infecting him, and unable to restrain his anger he took her by the shoulders and put her out of the house. He fears a public scandal and he is supporting her with his modest means, but as soon as he is through with college he is going to sue for divorce. Bertrand, though a young man, is a broken old man. And the pity, mixed with some sneering derision, with which some students look at him, is almost more than he can bear. Now what made Bertrand transform a common, vulgar, ignorant and immoral creature into the sweetest, finest girl in the world, into an angel from heaven? We will answer the question later, after we have referred briefly to several other cases which came to our notice. Here is A. B., a shy youth of twenty-two, from a good family, who went off and married a coarse and ignorant woman fifteen years his senior. In this case there was even no infatuation; he was not altogether blind to her defects, but there was an irresistible physical desire. They live the life of a SEXUAL TRUTHS 71 cat and dog, but she will not free him, and as there are two children as a result of the union, he can- not break away from her. And a life full of promise has been irretrievably ruined. Professor B. C., a famous stylist and writer, author of many books, a man of international repu- tation, becomes entangled with his stenographer, and to avoid a scandal and a suit for breach of promise, is obliged to marry her. Now there is nothing wrong with a stenographer per se; some people have mar- ried stenographers and have lived happily ever after. But this one showed herself a very devil as soon as the marriage ceremony was performed. He was of a shy retiring disposition, devoted to his books and writings, while she wanted to be out all the time and "enjoy" herself. She spent ex- travagantly on clothes, and made bills which were beyond his means to meet. He labored harder and harder, longer and longer hours, began to do hack work and send out pot-boilers, but he could not keep up with her cynical and heartless extravagance. He was being sued, he gave notes which he could not meet, he noticed a decided deterioration in the qual- ity of his work, and rather than go on, he settled all accounts by blowing his brains out. And C. D. was a jolly fellow, full of life and vim and whims; he could keep a company laughing for hours at a time, full of stories and jokes, and al- ways ready-not only ready but anxious-to render a service to a friend or a stranger. He was uni- 72 SEXUAL TRUTHS versally liked; now he is universally pitied. His wife has made him gradually break with his former friends, hardly anybody visits their house, his mood is that of a chronic gloom, and he has forgotten how to laugh. He has lost all ambition, and leads a practically vegetative existence. Maritally, he and his wife have been strangers for several years. Now, what has made C. D. marry his present wife, whom everybody knew to be a quarrelsome, un- truthful shrew, and whom he himself disliked the first time he met her? To answer this question is to answer the cor- responding questions in the cases of A. B., B. C., and Bertrand X. and thousands of similar cases of mis- alliances and unhappy marriages. In each case, the life of complete sexual abstinence which the man lived resulted in a pent-up libido, or to use a physico-chemical term, a supersaturation of the system with libidinogen, which muddled his brain and blurred his vision, made him idealize cunning into cleverness, vulgarity into independence, made him see a romantic Juliette in a prosaic and illiterate cook, and an angel from heaven in a coarse, selfish, immoral stenographer. If doubts ever arose in those people's minds as to the wisdom of their step, they were quickly beaten down and consumed by the fire of the libido sexualis. Had those people lived a sexually normal life, they would not have made those foolish and in many instances fatal steps. We are not suggesting any remedies for mis- SEXUAL TRUTHS 73 alliances of this character. It is possible that the universal indulgence in illicit relations before mar- riage would result in greater evils than is caused by abstinence. We are merely stating facts as we know them, and there is no question that complete sexual abstinence, with its pent-up libido and lack of emotional outlet of any sort, is responsible for many, very many misalliances and unhappy mar- riages and ruined careers and suicides. As soon as the accumulated libido has been discharged, as soon as the cobwebs from their brain have been cleared and the scales from their eyes removed, they per- ceive what a terrible blunder they have made, but it is then, under our stupid divorce laws, difficult or im- possible to correct the blunder. What we have said here about men applies with equal force to women. Here is a refined and cul- tured girl who ran away and got married to a chauffeur. Here a fine well-to-do college graduate marries a worthless ignorant cad, whom she begins to despise and with whom she refuses to live after they have been married a week. There a girl of twenty-four marries a man of fifty, and not for the sake of a good home, either-which is deplorable but comprehensible-who tyrannizes over her in a most shameful manner. And here a girl of twenty-five runs away with her music teacher, who is forty-five years old, and who has a wife and three children; she expects him to get a divorce and to marry him, and it is only the poltroonery of the man after a life 74 SEXUAL TRUTHS together for three days that reveals him to her in his true colors and makes her run back home. There are thousands of such tragic examples. And in each case the cause is pent-up libido and lack of emotional outlet. The first cause is physical, which under our present moral and social code, cannot in the case of women be helped. The second is psychic, which ought to be helped, and which in the case of women is helped even more readily than in the case of men. Women or rather girls can get along with- out the physical manifestations of sex much more readily than men; but some outlet for their pent-up emotions, some platonic friendships, they must have. If they have not, disaster is sure to follow, in the vast majority of instances. SEXUAL ABSTINENCE AND NERVOUSNESS By Samuel A. Tannenbaum, M.D., New York In opening up for discussion in an association of general practitioners of medicine so old and time- worn a subject as this of the relationship between sexual abstinence and the functional neuroses, I am actuated by three considerations: (1) the study of the sexual life is still omitted from the curricula of our medical schools, and, consequently, physicians are as ignorant of the sexual functions as laymen are; (2) there is still no approach to unanimity of opinion, even among specialists, on any phase of the many questions suggested by and emanating from the subject; (3) the facts obtained by the studies and investigations of Freud and his disciples throw so much light on the vita sexualis and are so sugges- tive and significant that they are bound to be of the greatest interest to physicians, sociologists, moralists, pedagogues, and others having the wel- fare of humanity at heart. It is no exaggeration to say that without the guidance of Freud's teach- ings and the application of his method of psycho- analysis it is impossible to get at the truth concern- ing the sexual life of modern civilized human beings. Almost all persons, even invalids, consider their 75 76 SEXUAL TRUTHS sexual life to be so personal and private a matter that they do not speak of it even to their medical adviser; physicians share the conventional reti- cence of their patients and, in addition, lack the tact and ability to elicit the facts; and women, even when questioned, almost always refuse to give up the truth about their sexual life. Besides, very few physicians, and still fewer laymen, associate their nervous and many other ailments with disturbances or abnormalities in the sexual functions. "Nervousness" and Sexual Restraints.-And, as a matter of fact, Freud was the first one to main- tain and champion the existence of a relationship between the tremendous increase of "nervousness" that characterizes modern civilization and the sexual practices resulting from our moral standard. Care- ful consideration of the clinical data proves that the influences conventionally assigned as the causes of nervousness, such as the excessive use of tobacco, coffee, or tea, alcoholism, overwork, the strain and stress of modern civilization, etc., are wholly inade- quate to account for the great increase in the num- ber of neurotics, or to throw light on the great variety of symptoms manifested by different pa- tients. "Nervousness" occurs very frequently even among total abstainers from the chronic intoxicants, in those who "take life easy" and in those who are not overburdened with culture. Very early in his investigations Freud became convinced that the in- crease in the neuroses is the direct result of the SEXUAL TRUTHS 77 checks and restrictions which invest the sexual life of the more highly civilized communities and that only in this sense can modern culture be held ac- countable for the vast and ever-increasing number of neurotics. All later experiences only go to con- firm his dictum that no matter what other factors may be at work, without some departure from the normal sexuality of the individual there can be no neurosis. The essence of all these abnormalities is, as I shall show, the non-obtainment of sexual grati- fication,-the non-gratification of the libido. Infantile Sexuality.-For the proper understand- ing of our theme, it is of the utmost importance to say first something about the sexuality of infancy and childhood. Contrary to general belief and the statements even of experts, the sexual instinct does not spring into life suddenly about the age of puberty. The sexual instinct accompanies man on his living journey from the moment of his birth to the moment of his dissolution, all the while under- going a definite course of evolution and having definite characteristics for each period of the in- dividual's life. In the earliest period of his child- hood a human being is almost wholly auto-erotic, i. e., he obtains sexual gratification chiefly from his own body; but inasmuch as the genital glands are undeveloped and have no sexual function, the genitals proper play only a small part, but a by no means insignificant part, in the child's sexual activi- ties. All truth-telling parents have observed the 78 SEXUAL TRUTHS little darlings rubbing, pulling, or otherwise playing with their genitals-masturbating. Infants, how- ever, obtain their sexual pleasures chiefly from por- tions of the body known as erogenous zones. By an erogenous zone is meant any organ or a portion of skin or mucous membrane the suitable stimulation of which produces a pleasurable sensation of a sexual nature. The lips are a very important source of sexual gratification for infants, as may be judged from the frequency and pleasure with which children pass their time in sucking various parts of their body, e. g., the toe, the thumb, the tip of the tongue, or other object. Another important source of sexual gratification in infancy is the anal zone. The pleasure derived from the passage of hardened faeces is such that the child holds back the evacua- tion of his bowels as long as possible and this lays the foundation for obstinate constipation and other intestinal disturbances. Rubbing of the anal zone with the fingers is not at all rare in children. The urethral zone also has tremendous sexual signifi- cance for infants; and this accounts for the frequency and obstinacy of bed-wetting by night or day and some other bladder disturbances. Clinical experi- ence shows that when wetting of the bed does not replace an epileptic attack, it means a pollution. The skin is the erogenous zone par excellence and is the seat of the pleasure derived from being tickled, stroked or spanked, from scratching, taking a warm bath, etc. SEXUAL TRUTHS 79 Besides the auto-erotic pleasures emanating from the stimulation of these and other erogenous zones (secondary sexual organs) young children also de- rive sexual gratification from activities relating to other persons than themselves. Chief among these are the pleasures obtained from exhibiting their genitals to their comrades and elders (Exhibition- ism), looking at the genitals of others (Voyeurism), watching other persons attending to their excretory functions, and inflicting suffering upon others (Sadism) or delighting in pain (Masochism). This by no means exhausts the sources of sexual pleasure in infancy, but it is sufficient to show the justice of Freud's dictum that as regards their sexuality in- fants are polymorph-perverse, i. e., by nature pre- disposed to all sorts of sexual perversions and to inversion. In connection with this it is important to bear in mind that just as the normal individual is to a certain degree anatomically hermaphroditic so is he normally functionally bisexual, and that in the course of his evolution the homosexual tendency is stunted, dwarfed, repressed, and the heterosexual developed. That the child's sexual curiosity and sexual activities are accompanied with fantasies in- volving his parents or other immediate relatives goes almost without saying. The Sexual Latency Period.-The period of in- fantile sexuality is followed by the period of latent sexuality (6th to 13th or 14th year) which is char- acterized by the cessation of masturbation, the 80 SEXUAL TRUTHS repression of the sense of sexual gratification emanating from the erogenous zones and from the partial impulses, the further development of the genital organs, the evolution of those psychic forces (disgust, shame, moral and aesthetic ideas) which serve to inhibit and restrict the sexual life, and the deviation of sexual energies from sexual aims to new and higher aims, viz.: in the interests of edu- cation and culture. The extent to which the in- dividual's sexuality can be sublimated or refined into energies of other sorts (Sublimation) varies with different individuals' just as does the intensity of the sexual instinct; but in only very rare instances is it possible to transmute all of one's sexual energies into energies and activities of other sorts. In a very large number of children there is a breaking through, a curtailment or suspension of the latency period as a result of a spontaneous sexual prema- turity, and there ensues a period of all sorts of perverse sexual activities. When this happens, the subsequent psychic control of the sexual impulse becomes a very difficult matter and there results either the fixation of a perverse tendency or the development of a neurosis. Puberty and Adolescence.-With the advent of puberty very important anatomical, physiological, and psychological changes take place in the human economy, most of which are too well-known to be enumerated here. Less well known and little under- stood, but of very great importance, are the changes SEXUAL TRUTHS 81 that take place at this time in the internal secretions of the thymus gland, the hypophysis cerebri, the pineal gland, the thyroid gland, the adrenal bodies, the testes, ovaries and, perhaps, other glandular structures. With these changes there go along very important and complex functional changes in the sexual sphere. The sexual impulse loses its auto- erotic character, becomes hetero-erotic and acquires a new aim, the discharge of the sexual products; the partial sexual impulses cooperate in the production of the new and extremely pleasurable sexual aim and the erogenous zones are subordinated to the primacy of the genitals. Obviously all these changes are brought about in the interests of the impulses of self-preservation and the propagation of the species. The sexual apparatus of the adult is aroused to activity by various stimuli emanating from three sources, viz. (1) from the outer world through the erogenous zones (eyes, ears, etc.); (2) from the presence within the body of various hormones and sexual substance, and (3) from the psychic sphere. Very little reflection will show that modern society is very rich in stimuli to the sexual impulses. We need mention only the costumes of women (reveal- ing what they are intended to conceal), cosmetics and perfumes, erotic dances, romantic novels, sug- gestive jokes, sentimental pictures, pornographic "literature," the sexual drama and sensuous music. The housing conditions of the poor are particularly calculated to arouse the sexual passions of our boys 82 SEXUAL TRUTHS and girls before and after puberty. The mental con- centration demanded of children in schools and col- leges, the strain and worry associated with passing examinations, the exhilaration accompanying va- rious kinds of muscular activity and mechanical ex- citation of the body, the stirring up of the affective processes by theatrical displays, etc., all tend pow- erfully to excite the sexual impulses. In addition to all these forces, very few boys and girls escape seduction into evil practices bv comrades and older associates. As a result of all these and other stimuli there is brought about a state of sexual excitation which manifests itself in numerous physical signs as well as in a peculiar, unpleasant state of psychic tension which craves for urgent relief. This coveted pleasure and relief can normally be brought about only in one way: by the discharge of the accumulated sexual substance during normal coitus. Normal Coitus.-That normal coitus should ac- complish its object of freeing the sexual tension and temporarily quenching the sexual desires it is not sufficient for two people of opposite sexes to perform the sexual act. Normal coitus requires not only the discharge of sexual substance but the gratification of many of the accessory sexual components before the attainment of the "end pleasure" (the dis- charge). Before there can be a complete and ade- quate discharge of the accumulated libido, there must be a-complete self-surrender to the task in hand. SEXUAL TRUTHS 83 an absence of all restraining influences (fear, shame, disgust, etc.), and an augmentation of the sexual ten- sion by the stimulation of certain of the erogenous zones and partial impulses (kissing, hugging, tickling, touching, etc.). In other words, there must be that over-valuation of the sexual partner and of every part of him or her that constitutes love. Un- less these conditions are complied with, there ensues only a partial liberation of sexual tension, and in a short time a chronic sexual toxemia results. Our Moral Standard.-The conventional, i. e., theoretical, morals of the most highly civilized com- munities do not permit adolescents and adults to indulge in normal coitus before marriage, and if they do not marry, they are assumed to remain chaste until death. Widows and widowers must also re- frain from sexual intercourse until they remarry. In other words, sexual indulgence is restricted to those who have entered into monogamous marriage, and the form of indulgence is limited to the union of the genitals in normal coitus. Homosexual and perverse practices are considered very serious offenses against morality and punishable by im- prisonment and ostracism. Indulgence in sexual gratification by the unmarried is not considered criminal but sinful and immoral. Owing to the prob- able consequences women particularly are enforced to chastity. And when one takes modern social and economic conditions into consideration and the con- sequent practical inability of young men and women 84 SEXUAL TRUTHS entering into marriage until they have established financial independence from their parents, it follows that they are required to refrain from sexual in- dulgence until they are anywhere from 25 to 35 years of age. Certain Peculiarities of the Sexual Instinct.-One of the best established results of modem psycho- analytic research is the fact that the sexuality of different individuals varies (1) quantitatively, (2) qualitatively, (3) as to capacity for sublimation, and (4) as to imperiousness. Just as persons vary as to the quantity of food, sleep, drink or rest that their constitutions require, so do they vary as to the quantity of sexual indulgence requisite to gratify their libido. Some are content with coitus once a week, or once a fortnight; others require it daily or even several times daily. Even more important than this are the qualitative differences among indi- viduals. As a result of congenital predisposition and acquired tendencies resulting from infantile experi- ences, the normal evolution of the sexual impulse from the infantile bisexuality to the adult hetero- sexuality is interfered with in various ways and there result all sorts and degrees of inversions and per- versions. By inversion we mean that form of sexual aberration which consists in the sexual attraction of one individual for another individual of his own sex. Individuals possessing this trait may be di- vided according to Freud into three classes: those who are absolutely inverted, amphigenously in- SEXUAL TRUTHS 85 verted, and occasionally inverted. The absolutely inverted are characterized by a total indifference or repugnance for persons of the opposite sex and therefore are incapable of normal coitus or derive no pleasure in its performance. The amphigenously inverted, or psycho-sexual hermaphrodites, enjoy sexual relations with either sex. The occasionally inverted are normal heterosexual persons who, be- cause of external conditions, may find sexual grati- fication in a person of the same sex. As to the sexual aim of inverts it must be borne in mind that they are by no means all guilty of such acts as pederasty (intercourse per anum), fellatorism (intercourse per os), etc. In fact masturbation is probably just as frequently the sole sexual aim as all the others combined, and a purely ideal love (i. e., without any sexual act) is extremely frequent in inverts. Then too one must not forget that there are many perfect- ly normal (i. e., sane) individuals who choose for the sexual object children, and others, notably in the country, who are attracted by animals (zoophilia). By a pervert we mean a heterosexual individual whose sexual aim is not normal coitus but some other form of sexual activity. Freud divides the perver- sions into (a) anatomical transgressions of the por- tions of the body destined for the sexual union and (b) lingering at the preliminary excitants to the sexual aim to such an extent as to take the place of the normal aim. A study of a large number of per- verts has shown that almost any portion of the body 86 SEXUAL TRUTHS may be utilized as genitals, e. g., the mouth zone, the anal zone, the breasts, the axillae, etc., giving rise to the perversions known as fellatorism, pederasty, sapphism, etc. When the usual (i. e., normal) preliminaries to normal coitus are pro- longed to such an extent as to form them into new sexual aims and to do away with the desire for the normal sexual act, we have such perversions as ex- hibitionism, voyeurism, mutual masturbation, sadism, masochism, etc. Under perversions, too, we must include the large number of fetichists, i. e., persons who substitute for the normal sexual object (a person of the opposite sex) some object which is in some way related to it but which is totally unfit for the normal sexual aim (coitus). In addition to these we must men- tion those aberrations which may properly be de- scribed as morbid perversions, i. e., cases in which the normal impulse is supplanted by cravings in- compatible with the normal resistances of shame, disgust and fear. Among these we include urolagnia, coprophilia, etc. The proportion of the individual's sexual energies that lends itself to sublimation or conversion varies greatly; some may sublimate a very large part, others only very little, and in no case is it possible to sublimate all of it, i. e., to do away with the sexual craving altogether. The sexual in- stinct cannot be crushed: it may be abused, mal- treated, etc., but, like murder, it will out. The in- stinct is so imperative in its demands that it is nor- SEXUAL TRUTHS 87 mally only very poorly controlled (inhibited) by the higher psychic activities. This instinct is stronger, more insistent and more imperative than the voice of conscience or religion or the fear of disease. Nature cannot be thwarted in its designs. The con- tinuous production of sexual substance, the constant production of the hormones, and the pressure on the sexual reservoirs, produce and maintain a state of sexual tension and a craving for relief which is heightened by the manifold stimulation of the erogenous zones to such an extent as to make the performance of the sexual act almost imperative. In this way nature assures the propagation of the species. Sexual Abstinence Defined.-The failure to take the preceding facts into consideration has resulted in a failure hitherto to reach a satisfactory definition of the term "sexual abstinence." Every writer on the subject gave a different definition. Most writers heretofore have considered him abstinent who re- frains from coitus with a person of the opposite sex. Obviously such a definition leaves out of considera- tion the large number of inverts and perverts and masturbators who derive sexual gratification in other ways than in normal coitus, and yet these are cer- tainly not abstinent. And on the other hand a per- vert or invert may indulge in normal sexual inter- course without obtaining the least gratification from the act; on the contrary he or she may be repelled by a person of the opposite sex and be disgusted with 88 SEXUAL TRUTHS the act. In such a case there is absolutely no dis- charge of the libido, no liberation of sexual tension, no relief from psychic discomfort, but on the con- trary a damming up of the libido, a further intoxi- cation, an increase of psychic discomfort, and such, a person is really abstinent though he indulges in coitus daily. Perverts and inverts are sexually abstinent if they refrain for a long time from the particular form of sexual indulgence which gives them sexual gratification. A person who refrains from sexual intercourse with a person of the oppo- site sex but derives sexual gratification in other ways (e. g., masturbation, fetichism, etc.), is only ap- parently sexually abstinent; whereas a person who refrains from that particular form of activity which gives him sexual gratification, although he have oc- casional or frequent discharges of sexual substance, is really sexually abstinent. We thus reach V. Muller's definition of sexual abstinence as 'ab- stinence [for a long time] from physical gratifica- tion of the type of sexuality characteristic of the person concerned.' (Sexual-Probleme, 1909, p. 309) or refraining from the specific act called for by the individual's libido. It goes without saying that in the discussion of this topic we assume the existence of a sexual appetite and the presence of normal genitals. A person born without a sexual instinct or with deformed organs cannot be included in the study of the normal. A word of warning must also be sounded against confounding "sexual abstinence" SEXUAL TRUTHS 89 with "chastity" or "sexual purity"; the two con- ceptions have nothing to do with each other. Causes of Abstinence.-Considering the imperious nature of the sexual instinct and the consequences resulting from the failure to gratify it, we must consider the causes that lead to sexual abstinence. For our purpose we may divide sexual abstinence into two classes: voluntary abstinence and involun- tary abstinence. Involuntary abstinence, to take the latter first, results from causes beyond the indi- vidual's control and often without his knowledge; e. g., (1) indulgence in a form of sexual activity which is not calculated to gratify the libido peculiar to the individual concerned. Chronic masturbators, inverts, perverts, persons dominated by an incest complex, women who do not 'love their husbands, etc., who indulge in coitus without obtaining grati- fication, are involuntarily abstinent. In general it may be said that involuntary abstinence results from an arrest of development at some infantile stage of sexuality (fixation); or a regression-to some infantile stage. The reasons for voluntary abstinence are numerous, but only the chief of them can be enumerated here briefly: (1) the inability, owing to pecuniary considerations, of the man to hire the services of a puella publica; (2) the impracticability, owing to economic considerations, of the adult male and female to enter into marriage and assume the responsibilities of parenthood; (3) the fear of preg^ nancy; (4) religious, moral and ethical considera- 90 SEXUAL TRUTHS tions; (5) the fear of venereal infection from coitus with a puella publica; (6) separation from the law- ful sexual mate because of business and other con- siderations; (7) the fear of injury to bodily health in persons suffering from diseases of the heart, arteries, lungs, etc.; (8) marital disharmony and in- compatibility; (9) vanity and social duties (in women); (10) the fear of injuring the fetus in the latter months of pregnancy; (11) mechanical inter- ferences to the act, e. g., obesity, late months of preg- nancy, etc.; (12) the desire to limit the number of offspring; (13) the fear of the law for infringing on restrictions against homosexuality and perver- sions; (14) fear of social ostracism; (15) fear of injury to health or to mind from masturbation; (16) turning away from persons of the opposite sex be- cause of unhappy experiences with them, etc. Con- genital absence of libido and deformity of sexual organs are obviously not considered here. Abstinence in the Married.-Paradoxical as it may sound, a very large percentage of married people are abstinent. Marriage, we may add, is a civic institu- tion having for its purposes mutual sexual gratifi- cation and the preservation of health. After the age of puberty young men and women are urged to re- main absolutely abstinent and to husband their energies in anticipation of marriage. As a result of the high cost of living, starvation wages, the desire to live up to the ever-changing fashions, to enjoy the benefits of modern inventions and work-saving SEXUAL TRUTHS 91 devices, to frequent the theatres, to discharge one's social duties, and, above all, the desire to shirk the difficulties and responsibilities of begetting and edu- cating children, almost all married people resort sooner or later to some method of preventing concep- tion. Various alleged preventives are soon found to be unreliable as protective measures. Then resort is had to coitus condomatus, coitus reservatus, etc., although these methods do not gratify the libido. If the husband refuses to adopt these methods of inter- course, quarrels ensue, and sooner or later the mar- ried couple abandon sexual relations altogether or resort to masturbation. Psychic causes, e. g., frigidity, psychic impotence, etc., also frequently lead to abstinence. Organic diseases, e. g., chronic urethritis, chronic congestion of the prostate, etc., resulting in ejaculatio precox, also cause abstinence. If as a result of sexual irregularities, tampering with nature, the husband or wife becomes sick, the irregu- lar coitus ceases and it is not long before the husband or wife or both look for gratification elsewhere. So also if sexual relations cease because of the already too large family. Other important and frequent causes for abstinence in the married are the too com- mon dullness and apathy and indifference which characterize modern marriage; most married women become tawdry and careless housekeepers and their husbands mere wage-earners. Of real sympathy be- tween husband and wife, our marriage system knows only exceptional instances. Quarreling and bicker- 92 SEXUAL TRUTHS ing are only too common. If there weren't so many obstacles to divorce it would be the rule. It is a sad truth that in modern society marriage means the death of love, and with it sexual gratification is even more impossible than it was before marriage. With- out sexual love, spiritual love between man and wife is impossible. Thus marriage, modern marriage, is a chief cause of sexual abstinence, of serious psychic conflicts, and of functional and organic diseases. And from this point of view, even if from no other, mod- ern marriage is a failure. Abstinence in the Climacterium.-The general be- lief entertained even by physicians that the climac- terium in women and the senium in men are char- acterized by the extinction of the libido is utterly untrue. As a matter of fact, the occurrence of these periods coincides in almost all individuals with a sudden and intense augmentation of somatic sexual excitement. Why this should be so is not known, but it seems to be dependent upon a disturbance in the chemistry of the hormones. In elderly men we may frequently find a diminished potency with a great increase in somatic sexual excitement, and as a result of this disproportion there is a failure on the part of the psyche to consume the sexual excitement and thus again there results sexual abstinence. In women the involution of the reproductive organs is usually accompanied with such an immense increase in the libido that they are disgusted at it, and in conse- quence they refrain from sexual indulgence or are SEXUAL TRUTHS 93 incapable of psychically consuming the augmented excitement. In this way it becomes a comparatively simple matter to account for many "nervous" dis- turbances occurring in elderly people. Manifestations of Abstinence.-Many persons, medically trained and otherwise, actuated by re- ligious and moral motives, assert that sexual ab- stinence is not injurious to health. But religion and morals have no place in a scientific discussion of a medical problem. In their discussions the advocates of abstinence point out cases in which abstinence- by which they mean refraining from sexual inter- course with a person of the opposite sex-was not followed by disease. But this argument proves nothing, no more than the fact that not every one who has the Klebs-Loeffler bacilli in his throat develops diphtheria proves that this germ is not the true cause of diphtheria. Others emphatically assert that they never saw evil results follow abstinence. But this only shows that their observations were very limited, or that their powers of observation are limited, or that they mean something else by absti- nence than we do, or that they willfully close their eyes to the truth. Similarly the argument that some persons have been abstinent without developing or- ganic disease or neuroses does not prove that ab- stinence is not injurious to most persons. It all depends upon the individual's psychosexual consti- tution, the quantity and quality of one's libido, etc. Besides, many persons never tell the truth about 94 SEXUAL TRUTHS their sexual transgressions and others are guilty of sexual activities without being aware that they are so. It may be of some interest to enumerate the great variety of opinions entertained on this sub- ject by modern writers. (1) There are those who claim that abstinence is harmless (Cramer, Finkler, Gaertner, Gruber, Gruetzner, Hoche, Kraepelin, Lassar, Orbow, Schottelius, Seifert, Selenew, Tuczek, etc.); (2) that it is harmful in some cases (Gruber, Juergensen, Hensen, etc.); (3) that though it is harmless, normal intercourse is preferable (Strum- pell) ; (4) that it leads to masturbation but is prefer- able to venereal disease (Hoffmann); (5) that it prevents venereal disease (Strumpell, Hoffmann); (6) that it is harmless up to the age of 30, but that after that it tends to produce psychic anomalies (Rumpf, Leyden); (7) that it leads to masturbation and hysteria in some cases (Heim); (8) that it is incompatible with health (Ellis); (9) that it leads to unnatural practices (Nescheda); (10) that it im- proves the will-power (Weber); (11) that it is good up to the age of 25 (Tarnowsky, Tschick); (12) that it is harmless up to 25 (Orbow); (13) that it is beneficial at all ages and conserves the individual's energies (Popow); (14) that it is neither normal nor beneficial and as a rule leads to masturbation (Blumenau); (15) that it is harmful after 20 and may cause serious disturbances besides impairing one's capacity for work (Erb), etc. This great variety of opinion shows only that the SEXUAL TRUTHS 95 methods of observation hitherto employed were un- suited to the study of the problem. A careful read- ing of the writings of former sexologists, neurolo- gists, etc., shows that the respective writers knew so little of the sexual instincts in comparison with what we know to-day that their conclusions a_re utterly worthless. Without a thorough knowledge of the Freudian technique and the psychoanalytic study of "nervous" patients no one can ascertain the truth about the vita sexualis of modern cultured human beings. Such a study of neurotic patients of all sorts has convinced Freud and his school that "the overcoming through sublimation, i. e., deflection of the sexual energies from sexual aims to higher cul- tural aims, succeeds only in the minority and even in them only temporarily, and least easily in the period of fiery youth. Most of the others become neurotic or come to grief in other ways" (Freud, Sammlung, II, p. 186). Freud has come to the conclusion that the subduing of so powerful an instinct as the sexual requires so much of an individual's energies that beyond the age of 20 it is no longer unobjectionable and leads to neuroses besides other ills. Nature punishes every attempt to thwart the sex instinct. Health is impossible without love. All clinical experience goes to show that the vast majority of civilized human beings are so constituted that if they live sexually abstinent for a considerable period of time, which period varies with different individuals according to their psychosexual constitu- 96 SEXUAL TRUTHS tion, predisposition to neuroses, physical constitu- tion, environment, infantile and later experiences, education, morals, etc.,-they inevitably and neces- sarily suffer from a large variety of symptoms. Among these are an impaired capacity for work, depression; lassitude; a falling away from friends; a feeling of indifference about one's clothes, appear- ance, work, food, and social duties; a lack of joy in life; sleeplessness; weakness of will; loss of ambi- tion; dreaminess and listlessness; distressing dreams; obstinate constipation; attacks of palpita- tion; frequent headaches, etc. Students are con- scious of an impairment of memory, an inability to concentrate their attention upon their studies; they fall behind in their work and fear that they are doomed to failure in life and to prove a disappoint- ment to their relatives. And thus many do indeed waste the best years of their youth. The suppressed sexual energies strive to be let loose, to find a vent. Erotic thoughts and fantasies permeate almost all of the abstinents' activities and disturb their sleep at night and interfere with their work by day. The occurrence of pains in the testicles and in the cord, a feeling of weight and heaviness in the prostate, an occasional "wet dream," or a slight seminal flow from the urethra during defecation, etc., cause them a great deal of worry which at times leads to a state almost identical with melancholia. Not infrequently there occur all sorts of indefinite pains in the back, in the limbs, in the head, etc. Many suffer from SEXUAL TRUTHS 97 sparks before their eyes, trembling of the hands, stammering, a slowness in recollecting customary and familiar phrases, an inability to speak con- nectedly, and so forth. The married and those who have once been married are especially unable to endure abstinence. Once the sexual appetite has been gratified, it craves for more and so insistently that it requires all one's energies to resist it. The general opinion that girls and women can endure abstinence better than men is entirely un- founded in fact. On the contrary owing to numer- ous causes,-the occurrence of the menses and con- sequent congestion of the sexual organs, their sentimentality, their suggestibility, modern styles of dressing, the perusal of romantic literature, par- ticipation in public dances, etc.,-women are less able to endure abstinence. Women live essentially for love, and love is sexuality. In mild cases girls are moody, flighty, sentimental, and inclined to mysticism. Later there occur irritability, exagger- ated emotionalism, blushing on the slightest provo- cation, flushing up when addressed by a man, con- fusion, timidity, stammering and a feeling of weakness when spoken to by a man, a fear of blushing, etc. Erotic fantasies color all their activ- ities and give rise to a feeling of guiltiness and unworthiness. Suicidal ideas and impulses, as also the fear of insanity, are not at all uncommon. The familiar portrayal of the "old maid" as pale, haggard, surly, moody, capricious, irritable, excit- 98 SEXUAL TRUTHS able, unsatisfied, discontented, and "cranky," is too frequently not an exaggeration of the truth. That these manifestations and many, many more are due to abstinence is proved by the change that comes over her when she is happily married. The woman whose libido is gratified is bright, lively and happy; her eyes are animated, her step elastic, her voice sweet, her disposition amiable and cheerful; she has no aches and no pains; love dwells in her bosom and she radiates happiness on all who come under her influence. Her sister who does not obtain sexual gratification is anything from a confirmed invalid to a veritable Xanthippe. Organic Disorders Resulting from Abstinence.- It has been very often denied that organic disorders may be dependent upon sexual abstinence; but there is absolutely no reason for rejecting the assertion of careful clinicians that a large number of ailments result directly from abstinence. Chief among these we may mention congestion of the testes, the so- called "painful testicle," testicular neuralgia, pros- tatic congestion, congestion of the seminal vesicles, orchitis, epididymitis, and even atrophy of the testes. In women we may safely attribute to sexual absti- nence the occurrence of the following conditions: anemia, loss of flesh, congestion of the ovaries, ovarian neuralgia, leucorrhoea, dysmenorrhoea, amenorrhoea, menorrhagia, metrorrhagia, endo- metritis, perimetritis, and a condition of thyroidism. SEXUAL TRUTHS 99 The discussion of the pathogeny of these conditions is outside the scope of this essay. Benefits Resulting from Voluntary Total Absti- nence in Adolescents.-Inasmuch as moralists and educators are so persistently advocating total ab- stinence in unmarried adolescents in the face of the constantly accumulating evidence of the injuri- ousness of such abstinence it is not alien to our purpose to at least enumerate the benefits accruing to the individual from a purposive refraining from sexual activities of every kind. All observers are agreed that up to a certain age, say, about 20 years, the exertion of the will in subduing erotic desires tends to steel the individual's character and to strengthen his will-power; it teaches one to forbear and renounce the gratification of the senses, it im- presses one with the conviction that life has nobler purposes and more exquisite pleasures than the gra- tification of the flesh; it directs the individual's energies into other, more useful and acceptable, channels, e. g., education, religion, athletics, etc.; it teaches the value of perseverance; it keeps its votaries single till they are fit to enter upon mar- riage; it secures to the individual that happiness which emanates from self-approbation, and-most important of all-it prevents venereal infection. In the propaganda of modern reformers chief stress is laid upon the dangers of contracting gonorrhea, chancroid and syphilis, and of becoming afflicted with all their possible complications and sequelae. 100 SEXUAL TRUTHS In other words, the attempt is made to frighten young men and women into a life of abstinence. But the propagandists close their eyes to the following facts: abstinence is not chastity; that notwithstand- ing all their best efforts, some persons cannot be abstinent; the ill-effects of spending a large part or almost all of one's energies in the struggle against the sexual appetite outweigh the benefits; that fright is extremely liable to precipitate the individual into neurosis; that the individual and society suffer more from abstinence than they gain; that venereal in- fection does not necessarily result from non-marital sexual indulgence; that the venereal diseases can be stamped out and are going to be robbed of their terrors by specific remedies, and furthermore, that it is far more preferable to take one's chances with venereal infection than with total abstinence. The ill-effects of abstinence are far greater than those following venereal disease. And, if the truth must be told bluntly, not one individual in a hundred is wholly abstinent for any considerable time after puberty. The sequelae of sexual abstinence as we have defined it are so numerous that it is impossible to do more than sketch them in the most meager out- lines in these few pages, notwithstanding their tre- mendous importance to the individual, to society and to civilization. The most important pathological and psychological conditions predisposed to and result- ing directly or indirectly from sexual abstinence are SEXUAL TRUTHS 101 the following: masturbation, pollutions, sperma- torrhoea, impotence, frigidity, homosexuality, per- versions, true neurasthenia, apprehension neurosis, conversion hysteria, apprehension hysteria, phobias, compulsions, hypochondria, criminality, kleptomania, pyromania, melancholia, paranoia, dementia precox, etc. Onanism.-The most frequent, the most serious, and the almost inevitable result of the attempt to live sexually abstinent after puberty is Onanism. By this we mean any form of sexual activity other than normal coitus between two persons of opposite sexes; but in a more restricted sense onanism means the obtainment of sexual gratification by the manipu- lation of one's genitals. In consequence of the sex- ual hyperesthesia resulting from sexual abstinence there occur frequent erections, congestion and titilla- tion of the genitals which indirectly lead the indi- vidual to touch his genitals or to squeeze them be- tween his thighs; from this to masturbation is an easy step. Coitus interruptus, coitus condomatus, etc., perversions, homosexual practices, prolongation of the forepleasures, etc., are in most instances only forms of onanism. Some form of sexual activity other than normal coitus is so universally practiced at certain periods that it may almost be said that onanism is a normal physiologic process. There is probably not one normal individual in a hundred who has not masturbated at some time of his life, especially in infancy, childhood and early adoles- 102 SEXUAL TRUTHS cence; but onanism is not at all rare at any period of life, in the single and in the married. Because of physical and psychological reasons masturbation is more easily and more commonly practiced among females than among males. In infancy onanism is physiological and is the expression of the normal autoerotism; in the sexual latency period masturba- tion is not as frequent and is indulged in probably as a result of instruction, seduction or a congenitally excessive sexual appetite and a diminished capacity for sublimation. After puberty it is the natural substitute for normal gratification in persons who for various reasons cannot obtain the latter; in the married it results from the failure of coitus to gratify the libido. "Whenever the individual fails to find in his environment the means of gratifying the libido, the libido is introverted and the individual resorts to that means of sexual gratification which was char- acteristic of him in his infancy; for the time being he reverts to the infantile autoerotism. But masturbation is only a poor and inadequate substitute for normal coitus. As a compromise be- tween the normal, healthy gratification of the hetero- sexual love instinct and the desire to.comply with the dictates of our morality and religious teachings, it is dangerous and unsatisfactory. Owing to the absence of the requisite forepleasure and the satis- faction of the human craving for love, masturbation really gratifies only one of the partial sex-com- ponents and there is no adequate discharge of the SEXUAL TBUTHS 103 libido or accumulated sexual tension. As a result of this the individual suffers from a chronic toxemia which demands a frequent repetition of the mas- turbatory activities. The secrecy, the feeling of humiliation, and the guiltiness with which these acts are carried out seriously impair the onanist's psyche and his character. His health suffers because of the excessive drain on his nervous energies. But the greatest danger of prolonged masturbation lies in the great probability of the fixation of the fantasies, conscious or unconscious, usually of an incestuous nature, which accompany the auto-erotic acts. In this way there may result a fixation of the infantile sexual aims or a persistence of psychic infantilism which constitute the chief predisposing factors for the subsequent development of a grave neurosis. The habitual masturbator is always conscious of wrong-doing, fears detection, is aware of the in- jurious after-effects (depression, headache, lassi- tude, loss of appetite, etc.) of his "sinful" acts, and apprehends permanent injury to his nervous system. He becomes seclusive, reserved, shy, timid, sus- picious, distrustful,-in other words, asocial. Bad cases resemble mild cases of paranoia. But it is also true that if the individual can react sufficiently, he may develop traits of a very admirable character, and be distinguished for veracity, frankness, sin- cerity, honesty, modesty, ambition, idealism, moder- ation, etc. Pollutions.-Nocturnal seminal emissions are such 104 SEXUAL TRUTHS frequent occurrences in persons living in sexual ab- stinence for any considerable period, and in those whose libido is not properly gratified, that many regard them as nature's method of relieving the tension in the genital glands, preventing auto-intox- ication and diverting the mind from the sexual. If this were entirely true, nocturnal pollutions might be regarded as a sort of safety valve for the individual's sexuality. But, as a matter of fact, pollutions are no more a desirable or normal physiological vent for sexual substance than nocturnal enuresis is a nor- mal relief for distention of the bladder. And, in truth, a pollution is not a manifestation of chastity or sexual purity, for it is invariably only the orgasm of a sexual experience in a dream (even though the dream be only latently sexual). Pollutions are of great pathogenic significance in the production of functional neuroses because of the organic after- effects (headache, depression, fatigue, etc.), the hu- miliation at the sexual nature of the dreams, the shame of leaving traces on the bedding and under- wear, the turning of the mind to sexual themes, the fear of the loss of one's "manhood," and, if fre- quently repeated, the exhaustion of the nervous energies. Pollutions do not gratify the individual, either male or female, and involve him in psychic conflicts akin to those with which the masturbator has to contend. But if the pollutions are not too frequently repeated and the victims' minds are re- SEXUAL TRUTHS 105 lieved from worry concerning them, they are robbed of their terrors and prove quite harmless. Enuresis Nocturna.-From what we have learned from patients suffering from nervousness and also from healthy persons who have subjected themselves to a psychoanalysis, we can confidently assert that in every instance where no organic disease of the urinary apparatus exists, bed-wetting, beyond the age of three years, in males as in females, is the physiologic and psychologic equivalent of a pollu- tion. The enuresis represents the orgasm of a sexual dream and occurs chiefly, if not exclusively, in the sexually abstinent. The individual, failing to obtain adequate sexual gratification from his environment, finds a substitute by unconscious regression to a form of infantile auto-erotism. As may readily be inferred, its frequent repetition, especially in child- hood and adolescence, and the dreams accompanying it may easily involve the sufferer in conflicts pre- disposing him to and involving him in a psycho- neurosis. Diurnal enuresis and frequent urination, in the absence of organic lesions, have the same auto-erotic significance as nocturnal enuresis. The attempt to cure a so-called "weak bladder" by advising the sufferer to pass his urine in driblets, as advocated by many, will invariably convert the patient into a masturbator and not infrequently into a urethral erotist. Spermatorrhea.-The diurnal emission of semen 106 SEXUAL TRUTHS upon the slightest provocation, e. g., riding in a train, looking at representations of the nude, read- ing suggestive literature, handling garments or ar- ticles belonging to a person of the opposite sex (or the same sex, in homosexuals), passing through an art gallery, sitting at stool, urinating, riding horse- back, speaking to, seeing or kissing a person of the opposite sex, etc., are not at all uncommon manifesta- tions of the sexual hyperesthesia resulting from the attempt to be sexually abstinent, to comply with the approved morality of society as at present organized. The frequent recurrence of such involuntary emis- sions causes the victims a great deal of worry con- cerning their health and future sexual vigor, besides worrying them about their chastity. The depression resulting from nocturnal and diurnal pollutions can be appreciated only by a psychoanalyst or sexologist. Satyriasis and Nymphomania.-Prolonged ab- stinence in a person endowed by nature with a high degree of sexuality not rarely results in a condition resembling a true satyriac mania. Every act and thought is colored by erotic fantasies. The patient is so hypersensitive sexually that every slightest thing or occurrence that stands in direct or indirect (symbolic) relationship to the sexual gives rise to erections with or without emissions, or to pleasur- able sensations in the genital organs. Speaking to a person of the opposite sex (or of the same sex, in homosexuals) excites the individual to such an extent that his heart palpitates, he trembles, blushes, SEXUAL TRUTHS 107 gets dizzy, is confused, feels hot and cold in turns, and so forth. In the analysis of these cases, the masochistic and perverse instincts will be found to play very prominent roles. Day-dreaming.-The indulgence in day-dreams is a prominent characteristic of those who do not obtain sexual gratification in the world of reality. The fantasies, which may be unconscious, represent the abstainer's refuge from his discontent into the world of dreams where he may fulfill his secret wishes to his heart's content, without molestation or fear. These wishes are invariably of an erotic or ambitious kind, and even behind the latter the erotic can easily be recognized. In all such day-fantasies the sadistic, masochistic, incestuous and perverse sex-components can easily be discovered. In reality, every day- dream is a kind of psychic masturbation and brings the individual nearer to a psychoneurosis. Homosexuality.-As a result of the natural bi- sexual constitution of man, we are all homosexual to a certain extent, though in the course of the in- dividual's evolution to maturity the homosexual component is repressed and sublimated. But if after puberty, the danger period for the normal evolution of the sexual instinct in our adolescent boys and girls, the heterosexual love instinct is not or cannot be gratified and must be suppressed, the main stream of the libido is blocked and dammed back into the homosexual tributary. Passionate friendships be- tween persons of the same sex are really manifesta- 108 SEXUAL TRUTHS tions of homosexuality. As a compromise between the homo- and hetero-sexual impulses within the psyche, the abstainer resorts to masturbation, and inasmuch as this is really a return to a form of infantile erotism, the earliest form of sexual grati- fication, there is great danger of the reawakening and revivification of the repressed incest complex. How readily and frequently and naturally homo- sexuality is practiced where normal coitus is inter- fered with for any reason (inaccessibility of the hetero-sexual love object, lack of love between hus- band and wife, the dangers of hetero-sexual inter- course, etc.) is manifest from what we know con- cerning the doings among soldiers in barracks, sailors on board ship on long cruises, prisoners in jail, boys and girls in boarding schools, etc. The sexual aim in these cases is mutual masturbation, intercourse per anum, or a mere effusion of love. Under favorable conditions most of these fortunate- ly return to normal hetero-sexuality. But if for any reason this reawakened homo-sexuality lasts for a considerable length of time, there is great danger of the psychic fixation of the inversion and subse- quent hetero-sexual impotence as well as a predis- position to a psychoneurosis, alcoholism, criminality and paranoia. Perversions.-Psychoanalytic investigations have proved that all human beings are by nature poly- morph-perverse, i. e., they have within them the capacity and the inclination to obtain sexual grati- SEXUAL TRUTHS 109 fication by perverse practices, e. g., narcism, sadism, masochism, exhibitionism, voyeurism, pederasty, fel- latorism, etc. It is true that in the course of evolu- tion from the pansexualism of infancy to the so- called normal hetero-sexuality of adults these per- verse elements or components of the sex-instinct are repressed; but this repression is not complete, for rudiments or traces of these perversions are constituents of the normal sexual aim, i. e., are manifested during the preceding coitus, e. g., kissing, looking, hugging, touching, stroking, biting, pinch- ing, etc. In general these actions are not regarded as sexual acts. Now, if a person (be he single or married) endowed with a strong sexual instinct, or (and) one whose sexuality did not undergo a normal evolution because of infantile and childhood psycho- sexual traumata, cannot gratify the cravings of his sexual instinct after reaching maturity, the further normal development of his sexuality is interfered with, the primacy of the genital zone is prevented from being established, the libido is withdrawn from the outer world (i. e., is introverted) and driven back into any one of the subsidiary branches of the libidinous stream. In this way any one of the sexual instincts or partial impulses may assume dominance. The repressed energy then finds expression either as a perversion or in the symptoms of a psychoneurosis. The frequency of perverse practices among abstain- ers is notorious, but it is not so generally known that in a large number of cases a boasted abstinence is 110 SEXUAL TRUTHS only a mask to conceal a perversion. The dangers of a fixation of a perversion ought to be obvious. Bestiality,etc.-Without going into details, we may say that the not infrequent resort of human beings to sexual relations with animals is no more a sign of degeneracy or insanity than perverse or homosexual practices, and that the cause of this degrading vice is to be found in infantile sexual traumata and the difficulties that our modern marriage system inter- poses between the individual and the gratification of the normal instinct. So, too, if the normal sexual ob- ject is inaccessible or the realization of the normal sexual aim is for any reason deferred too long, fetichism-the substitution for the normal sexual ob- ject (a person of the opposite sex) of some other ob- ject (a part of the body or an article of clothing, etc.) related to it but totally unsuited for normal coitus- may result and become permanently fixed in the in- dividual's psyche. Assaults on children, as is well known, are frequently perpetrated by teachers and domestics, and are due solely to sexual abstinence. Incestuous practices between parents and children are almost invariably due to marital unhappiness or to psychic or other hindrances to the adult's gratifi- cation of his or her sexual aim. Criminality.-As we have seen, owing to the numerous and often insurmountable obstacles to the gratification of the overpowering sexual impulses in adolescents and adults, especially in the former, the individual is put to the extremely difficult task SEXUAL TRUTHS 111 of sublimating his wishes and instincts or of sup- pressing and repressing them. In the unconscious the repressed incest complex, inversion and per- version complexes, become charged, as it were, with the newly repressed energies. In consequence of this, the individual feels himself dimly impelled to gratify perverse longings, to do something that so- ciety and morality condemn as being criminal, i. e., against the best interests of the species. This im- pulsion to "do wrong" or "go wrong" cannot re- main repressed forever and expresses itself either in some criminal act or in the symptoms of a psycho- neurosis. That environmental conditions and educa- tion, etc., also have their share of responsibility in the formation of a "criminal" is not denied. But from our point of view, criminality is very frequently the expression of a neurosis, of an impulsive obses- sion to wrong-doing. As Wulffen puts it: "crimi- nality is repressed sexuality and an equivalent there- of." This is best illustrated in pyromaniacs and kleptomaniacs. It has for some time been known that kleptomania (shop-lifting) occurs chiefly in strongly libidinous women whose sexual hunger is not satis- fied and who haven't the courage or opportunity for sexual gratification. In all cases the theft is the symbolic performance of the coveted forbidden act; they have substituted one wrong, the lesser, for an- other,-in other words, the affect was transferred from the sexual to the criminal. It is interesting in this connection to note that the objects stolen stand 112 SEXUAL TRUTHS in symbolic relationship to the sexual, e. g., purses and bags, parasols, umbrellas, silk handkerchiefs, etc., and are not stolen for their intrinsic value. Pyromania occurs chiefly in adolescent males, and occasionally the offender admits having had an orgasm at the sight of the mounting flames and the excitement. The symbolic significance of fire (^passion) in the minds of most human beings fur- nishes the explanation for the obsessive impulse in the abstinent. What share the toxemia of sexual abstinence and the various partial impulses play in the awakening of the latent tendency to criminality inherent in all humanity cannot be discussed here. Alcoholism.-While the psychology of chronic al- coholism (or dipsomania) is not yet fully understood, psychoanalytic researches warrant the conclusion that notwithstanding the victim's placing of the re- sponsibility for the habit on social usages, family squabbles, business troubles, etc., the true causes lie in the unconscious. In other words, the alcoholic habit, like criminality, is a neurosis resulting from the partial failure of the repression and sublimation of certain asocial trends or desires. Chief among these is the homo-sexual component, as is evident from the alcoholic's dreams and delirious fantasies, from the habit of drinkers of the same sex to con- gregate, from the vulgarity or smutty jokes indulged in at such meetings, from the drinkers' passionate protestations of love and friendship to each other, from the tendency to homosexual practices among SEXUAL TRUTHS 113 them, from their not infrequent delusions of perse- cution, and, by the mechanism of projection, from their characteristic jealousy of their marital partner. In most of these cases the individual's repressed homopsychic component was reawakened and re- charged with energy as a result of the impossibility of gratifying the libido by normal hetero-sexual object-love. As other important factors in the yield- ing to the craving for spirituous liquors, we may mention the unconscious desire to gratify the sadis- tic and masochistic instincts, the desire to relieve the psychic tension by temporarily blotting out the knowledge of his affairs, and, finally, the gratifica- tion of the autoerotic impulse. The significance of auto-erotism in the psychology of alcoholism was very interestingly pointed out by Juliusburger. Akin to the satisfaction derived by the alcoholic from the erogenous function of the mouth zone is the pleasure of the inveterate smoker, chewer and candy-eater. Impotence.-The most frequent and most danger- ous sequel of prolonged continence is some form of partial or complete sexual impotence. The pro- longed suppression of the most powerful "animal" instinct necessarily results in a partial atrophy of the genital glands by reason of their non-use and the absence of that summation of sexual stimuli which is essential to sexual vigor. Long-continued voluntary abstinence develops in the individual an asceticism bordering on masochism and an ever-increasing aversion for the female and everything suggestive 114 SEXUAL TRUTHS of sexuality or "bestiality," as he now terms it, and thus there is brought about a gradual and progres- sive weakening of the libido which may go on to the point of total extinction or psychic castration. And thus our so-called morality and a religion not adapted to the natural constitution of man result in a quenching of the sexual desire, in other words, in a fixation of abstinence. Such persons have lost the capacity for love. Even those who have not gone as far as this, worry so much about the manifest diminution of sexual power and the pollutions and spermatorrhea complicating their abstinence, that there is a further impairment of the libido and sex- ual vigor. The fear of impotence resulting from abstinence, pollutions, masturbations, etc., is not in- frequently the cause of partial impotence and other symptoms of a neurosis. In many the longing for love and the capacity for its enjoyment are almost wholly destroyed by the fear of the consequences of heterosexual coitus, etc., venereal disease, progeny, etc. But the greatest peril of sexual abstinence is the certainty of the abstainer resorting to masturba- tion with conscious or unconscious incestuous fan- tasies. This form of auto-erotism is so convenient, so pleasurable, and so free from certain dangers characteristic of a normal vita sexualis that the habit becomes so fixed in the psyche that the masturbator loses his ability to transfer his love upon a person of the opposite sex and finds normal coitus only a poor and unsatisfactory substitute for masturbation. The SEXUAL TRUTHS 115 premature emission (ejaculatio precox) which is so characteristic of the former masturbator expresses his discontent with his partner, his disappointment in the so-called normal heterosexual love as com- pared with the delights of auto-erotism. Thus the chastity of adolescents advocated by masochistic and impotent propagandists is the worst possible preparation for marriage, and if a disciple of such teachings marries, the union is bound to be an un- satisfactory and unhappy one. Sooner or later at- tempts at coitus are given up altogether and there- with the prop of marriage is gone. The descensus Averni need not be pursued further. Frigidity.-Much of what we have said in the for- mer paragraph about the mechanism and psychology of impotence in the male applies literally also to frigidity in the female (dyspareunia). But in women the results of the concealment from them and sup- pression in them of everything pertaining to the sexual and the prolonged abstinence imposed upon them are much more damaging and lasting than in the male. Our hypocritical morality does not wink at illicit and purchased pre-marital coitus in the case of women. A girl is theoretically brought up so as not even to know the existence of the sexual impulse. The forces of disgust, shame and morality are so over-developed in them that everything per- taining to the sexual is regarded by them as animal, bestial, vile, disgusting. Thus it frequently happens that a normal, healthy, affectionate girl past the 116 SEXUAL TRUTHS age of puberty finds herself involved in a serious conflict between her awakened and imperious libido, on the one hand, and the various inhibiting forces on the other. She wages a conflict that is too much for her as long as she can and then-failure. If she does not fall-and "when a woman falls she falls on her back"-she resorts to masturbation, develops a neurosis or a psychosis, or commits suicide. As a result of the prolonged auto-erotic gratification with conscious or unconscious incestuous fantasies -a manifestation of the regression of the libido- there ensues an inability to transfer her love upon a strange male and she is partially or wholly frigid. She has so long been accustomed to obtaining grati- fication from the titillation of the clitoris or labia minora (which play almost no part in coitus) that the titillation of the vaginal mucosa by the penis is ineffective to bring about the discharge of the libido. And so it oftens happens that a woman has to mas- turbate immediately after coitus to relieve her ex- cited tension. In consequence, many of these women worry about their inability to gratify their husbands, about being sterile, about not loving their husbands, about their disappointment in married life, about their wickedness and sinfulness, etc. Without sex- ual gratification for both husband and wife, domes- tic happiness and harmony and indulgence in each other's shortcomings are impossible. Marital hap- piness is frustrated by the long preparation for it. And thus the woman's fixation in abstinence or in SEXUAL TRUTHS 117 auto-erotism is of the greatest consequence to the individual and to society. In some women the idea of sexual pleasure is so intimately associated with the idea of a forbidden act that they cannot obtain gratification from approved and proper marital coitus,-to enjoy the act they must do something forbidden. Thus our false education of girls pre- disposes to adultery. In another set of cases the fear of pregnancy and of venereal diseases brings about a temporary psychic impotence. In others the husband comes so short of the ideal, usually the father or brother, to whom the woman's love is un- consciously anchored, that she cannot identify him with the object of her unconscious incest fantasy and consequently cannot transfer her love upon him and is frigid. Psychic perversion and inversion, i. e., fixation in some stage of psychic infantilism, also unfit a woman for normal heterosexual love. Partial or total impotence in the husband is a very frequent cause for a woman's frigidity, but much more fre- quently the wife of such a man finds herself in a terrible conflict between propriety and unsatisfied longings; the outcome is either infidelity or neurosis. True N eur asthenia.-Inasmuch as I have dwelt at length upon True Neurasthenia, from the Freudian point of view, elsewhere (Critic and Guide, July, 1912), I shall only say here that this disease follows invariably in the wake of excessive masturbation and too frequent pollutions. The relationship of sexual abstinence to masturbation and pollutions is 118 SEXUAL TRUTHS evident from what has preceded. The classical symptoms of this neurosis are pressure on top of the head, sleeplessness, spinal irritation, diminished power of attention, diminished capacity for work, impairment of the memory, increased susceptibility to fatigue, emotional irritability, dyspepsia, flatu- lence, constipation, paresthesias, depression and diminished sexual potency. The pathogenesis of the disease depends upon four factors: a chronic toxemia from the incomplete elimination and metabolism of certain hormones (thyroid, prostatic, testicular, ovarian, etc.); the psychic conflict between sexual desire, on the one hand, and the feelings of guilt, shame and remorse which accompany the masturba- tory activities, on the other; the excessive output of psychic energy demanded by masturbation as com- pared with coitus, and, finally, the inadequate re- lief of sexual tension furnished by substitutes for normal coitus. True Neurasthenia is frequently as- sociated with Apprehension Neurosis and consti- tutes an excellent soil for the development of a Hysteria. Apprehension Neurosis.-This condition, too, I have described elsewhere (Critic and Guide, Dec. 1911; American Medicine, Dec. 1911) and shall there- fore not go into details at this time. It is one of the fundamental doctrines of the Freudian school that without some disturbance in the vita sexualis there can be no neurosis. Every such disturbance, however, implies the insufficient and inadequate SEXUAL TRUTHS 119 elimination of the accumulated libido, no matter how this is brought about,-in other words, non-gratifi- cation of the sexual instinct (sexual abstinence) is at the bottom of every neurosis. In apprehension neurosis the physical causes of inadequate grati- fication predominate, notably the abrupt introduc- tion of innocent girls and newly married young wom- en to gross sexual experiences, coitus interruptus, coitus reservatus, coitus condomatus, ejaculatio pre- cox, the ardent futile embraces of engaged couples, widowhood, a disproportion between desire and po- tency (in the climacterium of women and senium of men), and voluntary sexual abstinence (especially after a long career of masturbation). Mental fac- tors also play a part in these cases, but we reserve their consideration for the section on the Psycho- neuroses where they play the leading role. In con- sequence of these various conditions the psycho- physiological sexual excitation is not eliminated either somatically or psychically but is stowed up or accumulated; being diverted from the normal aim the sexual excitations manifest themselves psychi- cally as morbid apprehensions and physically as somatic symptoms. The morbid apprehension which is the main feature of the disease is a derivative of the repressed sexuality as well as a reaction against it. Apprehension neu- rosis may thus be said to be the result of and a substitute for unsatisfied love. The part played in the pathogenesis of the disease by the dis- 120 SEXUAL TRUTHS turbance in the chemistry of the libidogenous sub- stance and hormones is a matter for future investi- gation. So, too, the exact role of psychic conflicts, introversion of the libido, and reanimation of old infantile conflicts, have not been definitely estab- lished. The symptoms are so numerous and occur in such various combinations, continuously or in at- tacks, and involve so many different parts of the body, that it is impracticable even to enumerate them in this place. Among the circulatory and respiratory disturbances we have tachycardia, brachycardia, phrenocardia, dyspnoea, sobbing, thoracic oppres- sion, and asthmatic attacks; in the vasomotor sphere we have sudden congestions, redness or pallor, chills, goose skin, etc.; in the secretory and excretory spheres we have dryness of the mouth, diminution of the gastric juices, outbreaks of perspiration, pol- yuria, pollakiuria, diarrhea, polydipsia, etc.; in the sphere of the involuntary muscles, globus, strangury, pollutions, constipation, colicky pains, etc.; in the gastric sphere, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, voracious hunger, pyrosis, etc.; in the motor sphere, great restlessness, purposeless moving about, trem- bling, twitchings, etc.; in the sphere of the sensory nerves, paresthesias of all sorts, neuralgic pains, excessive sensitiveness to light, hyperacousis, etc. Among many other symptoms we shall mention only a marked general irritability, distressing insomnia, moodiness, crankiness, worrisomeness, abnormal apprehensiveness, locomotor vertigo, localized SEXUAL TRUTHS 121 edemas, dermographia, urticaria, occupation neu- roses, nightmares, distressing dreams, dizziness, fainting spells, certain phobias, a diminution of sex- ual desire, etc., etc. The Psychoneuroses.-Under this term we include Conversion Hysteria, Apprehension Hysteria (Phobias), Obsessive or Impulsive Ideas or Acts, certain forms of Epilepsy, etc. We may state it as a result of psychoanalytic investigations that in the evolution of every psychoneurosis there are three stages: (1) that of infantile fixation or disturbance in the evolution of the libido; (2) that of repression and (3) that of symptom formation. As a result of certain experiences in the infancy of persons of a peculiar psychosexual constitution there occurs an interference with the normal evolution of the libido, or, in other words, a fixation of some particular phase of the individual's sexuality. During the lives of all of us there occur all sorts of experiences and wishes of a sexual nature the recollection of which -for reasons of shame, disgust, conscience, etc.-is disagreeable to us, and which we strive to forget (to repress). As a result of the dynamic nature of these repressed processes there results a conflict between these two antagonistic forces; the censured wish that is seeking to realize itself consciously and the forces that strive to keep all knowledge of these wishes out of consciousness. Subsequently, as a result of the various physical causes of inadequate sexual grati- fication that we have enumerated in the preceding 122 SEXUAL TRUTHS section and the accompanying psychic conflicts, the libido is withdrawn from the disappointing world of reality and introverted, and the repressed in- fantile desires are recharged with energy. The psychic factors, e. g., repressed infantile sex- ual components (fixation of the libido on one or other parent, masturbation, etc.), a homosexual ten- dency, a perverse tendency, etc., play the most im- portant role in the individual's inability to gratify his libido. For physical and (or) psychic reasons the individual cannot consume the accumulated libido and morbid apprehension necessarily results. The attempt at repression does not succeed and there follows a compromise between the repressing force and the repressed desire. This compromise con- stitutes the symptoms of the neurosis. We may say, then, that the symptoms of a psychoneurosis are the disguised fulfillment of unconscious desires; in other words, the symptoms are the equivalents of and substitutes for the patient's sexual activities. In all these cases the free-floating fear which represents the unconsumed libido attaches itself to any one or more of the pathogenic complexes that exist in abundance in all of us and so give rise to all sorts of phobias. The role played by the erogenous zones and the mechanism of the production of the great variety of puzzling symptoms cannot be entered upon here. Nor can we now take up the discussion of the influence of psychic conflicts and an unsatisfactory sexual life upon the chemistry of the internal secre- SEXUAL TRUTHS 123 tions and the relationship of this to the process of symptom-formation. The influence of heredity is also not to be overlooked in this connection, any more than the banal factors (shock, worry, illness, etc.) to which most writers-erroneously-attach prime importance. The Psychoses.-Most observers are agreed that the development of certain psychoses is favored by sexual abstinence by virtue of the depression re- sulting from suppression of the libido and the ex- haustion of mental energies in the effort to overcome the sexual cravings, etc. That there is a great deal of truth in this belief is evident from the frequency with which dementia precox (paraphrenia) and other psychoses break out in the period of adolescence which, as we know, is a particularly dangerous pe- riod for all individuals who by constitution and heredity are predisposed to a neurosis. Of the mech- anism of the evolution of the psychoses, with the exception of paranoia, we know as yet very little. Freud and Ferenczi have shown that very often, per- haps always, paranoia develops as a defensive re- action against the irruption of the repressed homo- sexuality in individuals in whom certain injurious banal factors acting upon a fixed infantile "nar- cism" have undermined or destroyed the sublima- tion of the homosexual impulse. To any one who has thought at all about the sexual life of the cultured races it must be evident that our treatment of the subject is anything but complete. 124 SEXUAL TRUTHS We have said and suggested very little about the deleterious influence of sexual irregularities on the character of the individual, the injury to society re- sulting from the diminished working capacity of persons struggling with their sexual desires, the great economic loss resulting from the steady in- crease of neurotics (which keeps pace-step for step -with the heightening of sexual restraints), the greatly diminished joy of life and general discon- tent and apprehensiveness, the injurious influence of parental disharmony and neuroses on the develop- ment of the children, and the prevalence of prosti- tution and venereal diseases. We are paying too high a price for our theoretical morals,-morals for which we are not fitted by constitution. And it is this conflict between our natures and our hypocriti- cal morality that makes of us-especially Americans -a nervous, unhappy, pessimistic, money-grubbing, and loveless people. How is this melancholy state of affairs to be reme- died? Because of the medical and sociological sig- nificance of the many difficult problems touched upon in the preceding pages we shall outline, though briefly, such measures as seem likely to remedy and prevent the conditions enumerated as well as to as- sist the race in its cultural progress. As to the treat- ment of the various organic and functional diseases, the actual neuroses and the psychoneuroses, by gen- eral medical measures and by some form of psycho- therapy, preferably psychoanalysis, we shall say SEXUAL TRUTHS 125 nothing at this time. Prevention is better than cure -and cheaper and more certain. 1. Infancy and Childhood.-The psychosexual traumata, real and imagined, that occur during the first six years of life determine the occurrence of a psychoneurosis later in life. Anything that occurs later in life acts only as exciting cause and supplies the energy that reanimates and activates the re- pressed infantile complexes and desires. If, then, the increase of the neuroses is to be arrested, all our attention must be directed to the period of infancy. Parents and others entrusted with the rearing of in- fants must be instructed along the following lines: not to stimulate and excite the children sexually by rocking them, kissing them often, kissing their genital or gluteal regions; irritating the genital and anal zones when cleaning, bathing or dressing the babies; pacifiers, nipples and milk bottles should not be left in their mouths for a long time; they should not be permitted to sleep with their parents or where they can overhear sexual embraces; every- thing suggestive of the coarse sexual should be carefully kept from their eyes and ears; they should not be left lying in soiled or wet diapers for any length of time; the functions of the bladder and rec- tum should be looked after simply and in a business- like way, without any ceremonial or excessive fuss- ing; rivalries and jealousies between children should be guarded against in every way possible, the pa- rents must refrain from quarreling, so as not to elicit 126 SEXUAL TRUTHS the sympathies of their children on behalf of the one or the other parent and so teach them too early to love and hate; the child's sexuality must not be pre- maturely awakened by expending too much love upon it; undue severity with a child is as dangerous as excessive fondling and pampering; young children should not be permitted to see their parents naked or in the performance of their excretory functions, etc.; but in all these things the parents must avoid giving the child the impression that they are con- cealing anything from it or that there is something to conceal. That the children must be carefully guarded against being sexually abused or enlight- ened by companions, domestics and tutors, goes without saying. Exciting tales of adventure, cruelty, cunning and ghosts, must be strictly tabooed. In- fantile masturbation in moderation should be wholly ignored, as it is harmless and universal; if prac- ticed to excess it shows that the child is already suf- fering from a neurosis and in need of skilful medi- cal attention. In trying to break a child of the mas- turbatory habit it is of the utmost importance not to threaten or frighten it. The games of little boys and girls should be supervised by their elders. Corporal punishment, especially spanking the gluteal region, in sport or in earnest, should be refrained from. Above all it should be borne in mind that young chil- dren are very suggestible; humiliating comparisons with other children should be shunned like wildfire; favoritism should not be permitted to occur and the SEXUAL TRUTHS 127 weakness of children should not be brought home to them. Other precautionary measures along these lines will readily suggest themselves to intelligent parents and learned physicians. 2. Sexual Education.-Without going into details I shall only say that a child's curiosity as to sexual matters, the distinction of the sexes, the source of children, etc., is to be satisfied exactly in the same manner and spirit as its curiosity regarding any- thing else that vexes its infant mind. This must be done privately, by either parent, simply, tactfully, truthfully, beautifully-and wisely, without fuss or ceremony, and in accordance with the child's under- standing. The parent of the future must be edu- cated to this and how to do it. The classroom is no place for such instruction. 3 Schooldays.-During the schooldays the child must be guarded against the reawakening of the re- pressed sexuality by perverse playfellows. This applies particularly to the years preceding puberty, the most dangerous period for the developing boy or girl. Erotic "literature" of every description, de- cent and indecent, especially the latter, is devoured with avidity at this time and works incalculable dam- age. The sexual education of the child ought to keep pace with his or her development. Sports and pastimes that are capable of arousing sexual feel- ings and desires, e. g., wrestling, swinging, carousel riding, certain dances, etc., should be discouraged. Nothing is so likely to plunge a maturing boy or girl 128 SEXUAL TRUTHS into some form of masturbation as sitting over long and difficult lessons after school hours; the tasks as- signed to children for homework should be light and should require only very little time. In the class- room children should be given plenty of time in which to perform the work assigned them; hurrying a child or standing over it excites it so that it is very apt to masturbate. For the same reason the strain of preparing for and passing examinations should be abolished: every competent teacher knows what pupils are fitted for advancement. 4. Adolescence.-Much of what has preceded ap- plies literally to the period following puberty. With the occurrence of sexual maturity sexual desire is awakened and, in healthy individuals, cannot be re- pressed without danger. Nature takes no cognizance of artificial economic or sociologic barriers to the gratification of the libido. The sexual instinct may be maltreated and fretted but it cannot be played upon. A large portion of the libido may be sub- limated into work, athletics, literature, art, ethics, religion, etc., but it is impossible wholly to divert it from its natural ends (pleasure and procreation). Modern civilized life is so full of sexual excitants that no normal human being can avoid coming under their influence, and even if he could, nature would not permit it. To frighten adolescent boys and girls into abstinence by exaggerated portrayals of the consequences of gonorrhoea, chancroids and syphilis, is as immoral as it is futile, and extremely apt to SEXUAL TRUTHS 129 beget a large number of venerophobes. To teach girls that the sexual is vile, degrading, or bestial, is to make them incapable of love and to become re- sponsible for their marital frigidity, misery and in- fidelity. Masturbation should be discouraged be- cause of the great temptation to its frequent repeti- tion; but if it is practiced in moderation, when the sexual furor cannot be appeased in any other way, and without the simultaneous indulgence in fan- tasies, it is harmless. Fortunately we physicians will rarely be called upon to teach any one how to masturbate. Nature has attended to that for us. But in case of need, we should not hesitate to per- form our plain duty. In our present sociological regime masturbation for boys and girls of a certain age, endowed with a certain amount of sexuality, is an absolute necessity and may save them from a grave neurosis or a career of crime. 5. Prostitution^-That the sexual cannot be wholly suppressed is tacitly admitted by modern morality's sanction of the double standard. But if prostitution is prohibited for women, it should also be prohibited for men. That prostitution is a poor, inadequate, and dangerous substitute for a normal sexual life is clear from what has preceded. If, however, it is to be permitted to continue, it should be licensed, segregated, properly supervised, and there should be no calumny attaching to one resort- ing to it. 130 SEXUAL TRUTHS 6. Early and Terminable Marriage.-A fairer, more equitable, more salutary, and more proper way out of the dilemma, however, is to so modify our mar- riage system as to make it possible wholly to do away with prostitution, prolonged abstinence, etc., and to enable adolescent and adult men and women to lead a normal sexual life. As soon after or about the age of twenty-the "romantic age"-as men and women find a vita sexualis necessary for their health they should be encouraged to marry without regard to their financial status. If the newly married cou- ple cannot or do not wish to go into housekeeping, they should continue to abide with their parents or with the parents of either of the contracting parties until they decide to live together by themselves. Un- happily married couples should be permitted to sever their relationship more easily than at present, somewhat along the lines outlined by Ellen Key in her book, "Love and Marriage." Incurable ejacu- latio precox, impotence, venereal disease, frigidity, incompatibility, adultery, insanity, desertion, non- support, inversion, perversion, etc., should be suffi- cient grounds for divorce. Love, and love alone, should be the basis for marriage,-if the psychic health of the race is to be saved. Prevention of Conception.-The greatest obsta- cle to early marriage is, without exception, the great probability of parenthood and the expense, respon- sibility and sacrifice, associated with the rearing of SEXUAL TRUTHS 131 children. So, too, in the married the desire to avoid a numerous progeny is the cause for refraining from coitus or resorting to various tricks to frustrate the procreative instinct. How these procedures favor the development of the psychoneuroses, prostitu- tion, the gradual estrangement between husband and wife, adultery, etc., is obvious to one who has fol- lowed our thesis. To prevent all this, our laws must be so modified as to permit physicians to instruct men and women in the art of preventing conception. No physician who has seen the benefits of such instruc- tion in restoring marital happiness and in doing away with distressing symptoms can have any doubts as to the wisdom of the policy herein ad- vocated. 8. Licensed Abortion.-Until the medical profes- sion has perfected a method of preventing concep- tion in a non-castrated female it should not be illegal for a duly licensed physician to induce a miscarriage at any time during the first three or four months of gestation. 9. Psychoanalysis.-Finally, as one of the most valuable prophylactics against the occurrence of the actual and psychoneuroses, of psychic impotence, of alcoholism, of criminality, of masturbation, etc., the psychoanalysis of every maturing boy or girl that shows the slightest signs of "nervousness" is to be highly recommended. For this purpose a board of trained psychoanalysts ought to be connected with 132 SEXUAL TRUTHS every public school, orphan asylum and reformatory. Along these lines must our efforts be directed if we are to insure the physical, mental and moral health of the race. INSTRUCTING THE YOUNG IN SEXUAL MATTERS De. Fritz Wittels What distinguishes us from the animals is (1) our spoken language, (2) our erect gait and (3) the fact that our young need sexual instruction. It seems the human race would die out unless mothers, steeped in sociological lore, dry-as-dust pedagogs and doctors reeking of carbolic acid took the poor little thing in hand, explained to him the role of pollen in plant life, revealed to him that in the tapeworm both sexes are found in a single individual while in higher ani- mal forms the sexes are always separated and that the milt and roe of fishes are not only foodstuffs but serve for purposes of reproduction. "And you see," those wiseacres add, "we, too, must reproduce ourselves and it is too bad that the process should be so repulsive. We must go through it much against our wishes but unfortunately there is no other method available. ' ' After this wonderful preparation, the child en- counters a physician who, with awe-inspiring words of warning, draws for him a disgusting picture of sexual relations; this at the very time when mother nature is about to lay on the blooming young creature 133 134 SEXUAL TRUTHS the royal mantle of puberty. It may be that owing to peculiar circumstances our children cannot grow free and fragrant like the flowers of the fields; but why pester them with hygiene, pedagogy, natural history and Christianity until that royal mantle looks like the frayed and tattered cloak of a beggar? We grant that the wild sex urge must be controlled on account of the social and pathological dangers that follow in its wake; we shouldn't on the other hand set traps in which it gets crushed. We should only restrain it with the flower wreaths of the worship- ful respect it deserves and which in the happy pre- Christian times was not denied to it. ' ' But this is precisely what we are striving to do, ' ' sweet ladies and gentlemen will remark. "What is holier than the laws of reproduction? What could impart to children whose sexuality is still dormant a loftier idea of love than to show them how it rules the whole living universe ? ' ' Isn't it surprising that great poets should have omitted all that information when they were singing hymns to love? Romeo, Werther and Tristan got along splendidly without tapeworms, herrings, mono- and bi-sexual plants, and Plato's Banquet delves deeper into the essence of love than Wilhelm Boelsche's writings which describe the love life of Nature in miserable Berlin style. The visible symptoms of the sex urge may tend, as far as animals are concerned, to insure the re- production of the individual; in man the sex urge SEXUAL TRUTHS 135 has quite a different meaning; in the shape of eroti- cism it assumes the importance of a mental condi- tion, observable only in man; it is no longer a phe- nomenon of the lower abdominal regions, as special- ists in sexual diseases seem to assume.* This fact together with its real significance is kept from the child. The child will never understand why a man could kill himself for a woman's love; for this is a mystery which cannot be learnt but must be actually felt. All the finest details of reproduc- tion in animals can be learnt. A child, however, will never realize the connection between the fertilizing action of pollen and the sexual life of man, which is an entirely different thing; worse yet he will de- velop his ideals in the wrong direction which is char- acteristic of this age of Christian biology. The love ideal of our ancestors has become a breeder's ideal. Thus spoke Zarathustra: "By mar- riage I mean the will to have, to create one who is more than those who created it." And Zarathustra is taken by Ellen Key and her ilk for a cattle breeder and enrolled in her group of followers. Impressionable girls who are fond of memorizing this quotation from Zarathustra should ascertain whether they are not sinning against the Goddess of love who rules over the universe and who will never become the handmaid of Ceres, Goddess of fecundity. Much holier than the law of reproduction is the law of love; the most glorious love is that of an * Not all specialists. The really modern sexologists know. 136 SEXUAL TRUTHS immature child who knows nothing of reproduction. Isolde dies at the side of her dead Tristan; her love dies with him; Lohengrin leaves behind him hopes of fatherhood and therefore Elsa can well let him go; her love lives and waits. When we enlighten an entirely inexperienced creature about what seems to be the sole aim of love, before that creature has felt the slightest longing for a creature of the opposite sex, it is theoretically impossible for that creature to ever experience a great, genuine passion. It is oppressed by a false sense of morality, I might say by the metaphysics of sexual love. Fortunately the resources of our soul are so inexhaustible that we will forsake not only our father and mother but even natural history to follow our beloved. The myth of the stork is harmless; no intelligent child believes it any more. The reproduction myth is not even a half truth and therefore worse than a lie out of whole cloth. To allow natural history to settle all the facts concerning our sex life is simply criminal. If we must give to early youth some artificial explanations, why not do it through the study of history? The most ennobling feature of history is the fact that it shows constantly the absolute power of love. The teaching of history, however, should be very dif- ferent from what it is nowadays. We must not call Mark Antony a weakling because he lost a world for a woman's sake; we must call him a great Roman who SEXUAL TRUTHS 137 knelt before a woman's greatness because he was a real man. We must not conceal so carefully from our children the role woman has played in the life of our great men; we must tell them that no har- moniously balanced character has developed without the influence of youthful kisses, and that nothing of real value has ever come into being except through the influence of some woman. We should through a truthful representation of history instill into school boys a deep respect for woman, and into our girls, a glorious pride in their sex. I should think that a deep study of history would prepare one better for the realities of sexual life and the control of the awakening urge than a study of the tapeworm's anatomy. ... A child taught according to this method would regard with an entirely different eye the relations between his parents; fathers and mothers would feel more free to reveal to their children "the brutal facts" when- ever that became necessary. When children bring from the school room to their home the morality of the world's history, instead of a hypocritical morality, we will no longer need to apologize to them for loving. The brutality with which children learn sex facts from their playmates is often preferable to the so- ciological rant of a mother who shows to her child a stamen when the child on the brink of puberty expects great wonders. Mothers of that type should be burnt alive like witches. If they had not hope-. SEXUAL TRUTHS 138 lessly forgotten their own childhood, there would still smolder under the ashes a spark that would make honey flow from their lips, not boresome theory. If they were pious Christians who nursed an ascetic ideal in their hearts, we might respect them for the sake of their ideal. It is nauseating, however, to hear them, whenever they speak of sexual facts, break forth into a whine about parturition; you know that type of talk: "How I have suffered to bring you into the world." They only sow in the mind of the child thoughts of suffering and sorrow, as though this were the only significance of the gift which makes the gods envy the mortals. Shall we make the child bear the consequences of the fact that he was born? Some day a smart child will turn and ask: "Why didn't they give you chloroform?" Couldn't we bring up a generation of mothers who would, when the time came to enlighten their chil- dren, describe frankly the joys of love and their own love experiences? Wouldn't children with their sunny hearts understand that joy which the future holds in store for them, more readily than the hys- terical recollections of suffering which a healthy woman soon forgets? Women are plastic material. But where are we to find the proper teachers of history? The tendency, nowadays, is to speak less of battles, and more of legislation, of treaties, of discoveries. Not a word has been said, however, about laying more stress on the role played by women in history. Of course SEXUAL TRUTHS 139 much depends on who would start such a movement. Unfortunately our history teachers, with a few ex- ceptions, should refrain from expressing themselves on the subject of women. They are as a rule good Christians and they just know that love is a sin and that sin has been brought into this world by woman. It is extraordinary that while the Greek language and the history of Greek culture are taught in our schools, teachers never lay any stress on the Greeks' love for women and their love for boys (which was only a sort of offshoot of the love for woman, being simply love for the feminine in the boy). Philologists mourn the fact that the study of the Greek language in school is on the decline; they have no one to blame for it but themselves. They have failed to preserve the source of all culture; they have let mankind awaken from its most glorious dream. Not a word about Phryne or Lais; but a liberal distribution of bad marks for those who can- not memorize grammatical forms. Not only the sex- ual regeneration of mankind but its mental and physical regeneration as well will only come to pass through a renaissance of Hellenism. But it seems as though Pan would have to be killed for good be- fore he could be resuscitated. And what should I say of physicians who graft onto a discourse upon sexual diseases a sermon in favor of sexual abstinence? Woman must have changed greatly since the days when nymphs roamed the woodlands; for certain 140 SEXUAL TRUTHS physicians tell us that sexual maturity is only reached in the twenty-fifth year and that the rich food of the well-to-do, late morning sleep in soft beds and alluring show-windows are responsible for all the riot of sex. Those physicians have undoubt- edly fathomed the depths of animal nature. SEXUAL ABSTINENCE AND MASTURBATION Dr. Fritz Wittels Abstinence before marriage is maintained either with the aid of masturbation, or without it. The former eventuality is never mentioned, for it might hurt the propaganda for continence. As in the over- whelming majority of cases continence is accom- panied by masturbation (which makes the venero- phobiacs of to-day and the anchorites of the Arabian desert kin) the case for continence is not accurately stated when we neglect to mention masturbation. A limit is set for normal sexual gratification by cer- tain physical conditions. The possibility of over- indulging and the habit of overindulging, however, are what makes masturbation dangerous. Whether it is excess or mere indulgence in that practice which brings forth the various disorders consequent upon masturbation, such as apathy, head- aches, stomach troubles, neurasthenia and melan- cholia is a purely medical question. Self gratifi- cation, however, has a deep sociological import. Other voluptuaries give something of themselves; the masturbator is a sexual egoist; he reverses the Biblical saying and proclaims that it is good for man to be alone. This, however, would only be a slim 141 142 SEXUAL TRUTHS charge to bring against the onanist. Nature cares little about a few drops being spilled out of her melting pot and she straightens out deviations from the norm without giving a thought to ethical prin- ciples. It seems, however, as though onanism and misanthropy were two inseparable things. Who- soever can enjoy sexual pleasures without the parti- cipation of another human being withdraws into his shell like a clam. Even Jupiter came down from his throne when he went lovemaking. He was a kind god. Masturbation destroys kindness as surely as love brings it out. The worst of tyrants is the mas- turbator who cannot even be mollified by a woman's influence. He is the super-miser. What it behooves us to fight is not so much onanism itself which is a personal matter and no- body else's business, but the point of view of the onanist, his abstinence from woman. At the first awakening of the sexual urge all men masturbate. Women are hard to secure and young men are bash- ful. Then some of them secure mates as they con- quer the worlds and the weak ones are left out in the cold. Burning with envy and hatred these call morality to their help. They for one thing expect to be rewarded in an after life for their purity; and then they escape venereal disease. But syphilis is not the most terrible of life's dangers; it is only the most obvious. For love has made men suffer more than syphilis has. Whoever loves a woman will suf- fer through her. SEXUAL TRUTHS 143 There is a vital difference, however, between the man who for fear of venereal infection gives up love's pleasures and the mere masturbator who, too weak for the trials of love, abstains from sexual intercourse. For what help could one expect from such a man in the fight against diseases which can- not infect him, which he may even consider sneer- ingly as meet retribution for normal indulgence ? We shall not cavil about the question as to whether there are, besides young children and old men, con- tinent people who do not masturbate. The mas- turbator, however, is also mentally abstinent. The natural ardor which finds no outlet in masturbation must be deflected into some other channels and when it reaches its climax it becomes fanaticism. And then there arises, according to the man's tempera- ment or power, either a harmless stamp collector or a Torquemada. Partisans of prematrimonial continence recom- mend the practice of sports as a derivative. This may hold good in bourgeois circles, but what of the thousands who are being treated in free clinics for venereal diseases, although in factories or mines they work themselves to death? Sports may be helpful to those who wear out the carpets in the reception rooms of physicians, for bureaucrats and for idlers. An athlete dead-tired after a period of training, a cavalry officer who has exhausted ten mounts, fall into bed and do not think of woman. In fact they think of nothing whatsoever, they become 144 SEXUAL TRUTHS stupid animals and nobody will eulogize football champions as the ornament of the human race. People with a regular occupation can only indulge moderately in physical exercise, taking a trip on Sundays, playing tennis or skating after hours; those diversions simply serve to cheer up men and women who keep their eyes open and enjoy each other's company. In fact sports in which men and women take part are the nicest little matchmakers. [Wittels says: panderers.] On the other hand, ath- letic clubs returning to their home town, or soldiers on a furlough do not shine by their continence. The anchorites leading solitary lives in the desert never even thought of seeking in physical exercise a pro- tection against sinful desires. They found in fast- ing, waking and flagellation better means of lower- ing their vitality and consequently their sexuality. Those who are to-day warring on syphilis can hard- ly recommend such practices; they seek not to lower people's vitality, but to hold the sex urge within bonds. The problem is complex. Real men must have love. Youth can do just as little without love as without food and drink. And Venus smiles upon sport, for physical exercise makes men strong. Sport does not foster continence; it is too healthful for that. Besides, the chastity movement is likely to work a great hardship upon the women, for if the men go in for continence, the women have no hope of ever escaping the slavery of sex. The women have SEXUAL TRUTHS 145 now and then demanded that men remain chaste until marriage, but that demand was never very- loud, nor did it find much echo. It is to the women's interest that the men live their life normally: for the chaste man is unable to understand woman; he either idealizes her or reviles her, because he does not know her. In women continence brings forth many evils. It drives them to seek masculine occupations, makes terrorists out of them and hysterics. This is their first revenge. To be shot by a hysterical woman is not so bad; to be slowly plagued to death by her is worse. And, now, behold the fear of syphilis calling into being a masculine form of hysteria! Abstinence cranks will not do away with syphilis; but thanks to them specialists in nervous diseases and psy- chiatrists will have their hands full. And then women coveted of no man avenge themselves-re- venge number second-by growing ugly. [Which Witties says should not worry us overmuch, but which does worry the Editor a good deal. It is a pity to see nice girls turning into sour, angular old maids.] Very fortunately Nature bothers very little about ethics and eugenics; one spring day will kill off more ethical principles than all the wiseacres could manufacture in a whole year. The chaste are and will ever be a dwindling minority. One of the dan- gers of the chastity movement, however, is that it may find a fertile soil in ground already tilled by the 146 SEXUAL TRUTHS pious. Then we will have official continence and secret lovemaking; and secret diseases will become more secret than ever and the official world will have no sympathy for the unlucky ones. The chastity movement will have only one result: to increase our hypocrisy, and the spread of venereal diseases. If we could only admit openly and frankly that we all go lovemaking before and after marriage, if it was really shameful not to have a mistress, so- ciety would care for the victims of love and honor them as we honor the warrior wounded on the battle field. [Phew!] If love before marriage is shameful, venereal diseases are also shameful and the infected ones are despicable. How illogical those are who in their desire to kill off syphilis demand the regis- tration of every case and yet preach continence! The patients would fear the physician likely to re- port them more than they would syphilis; they would allow themselves to be eaten up by the disease rather than to brave the public shame that would make life impossible for them in bourgeois circles. Without registration of cases and compulsory treatment we will never stamp out syphilis; before we can intro- duce such necessary measures, however, we must conduct a campaign of education. Instead of preach- ing continence we must teach the powerful influence of love, the value of caresses and the dangers of asceticism. Then a syphilis bill providing for regis- tration of cases could be introduced. Under the present conditions, however, to treat syphilis as an SEXUAL TRUTHS 147 ordinary epidemic disease would present many dan- gers. Society catches the diseases it deserves and cannot be cured by statutes. The sexual urge is not merely what the preachers of continence represent it, a phenomenon of the lower abdominal regions. The physician who prescribes abstinence as a preventive of venereal disease just as he would prescribe boiled water as a preventive of cholera, puts the sexual instinct on a par with alcohol and tobacco, abstinence from which is not detrimental but rather beneficial to body and mind. That spirit has created some of the worst horrors of our times, the terrible situation the girl mother, the illegitimate child and the prostitute find them- selves in. The penal code takes no notice of extra- matrimonial relations and, therefore, the self- righteous welcome pregnancy and infection as ad- juncts to the penal code. But he who escapes both is simply like the thief who has not been caught. As far as prostitution is concerned it is only the idiot who will insult the prostitute. Love is woman's currency. She repays with love whatever is offered her, be it cash money or her upkeep for life in the form of marriage. As long as marriage exists the prostitute will be despised because she is too cheap. Women hate prostitutes because they underbid them and the men scorn them because the supply of them is too large and their price too low. In our society built upon marriage there is nothing to be done to help the prostitute. She is the female proletarian. 148 SEXUAL TRUTHS We can measure the humane feelings of our modern society from the fact that it puts the prostitute on the same level with the born criminal. And why? Probably because she lives from the continuous breakdown of the continence theory. The only way to reclaim the prostitute is to erect anew the altar of Venus and to declare it honorable to worship her in any form whatsoever. Then woman will have a personality of her own and no longer be something lower than an animal. For it would be better to be a dog than a human being which another human being embraces with disgust. We reach then the conclusion that abstinence pro- duces a disgruntled self-centered type of fanatic and crank. It increases neurasthenia and robs youth of the only means to forget the emptiness of life. It militates against woman gaining her sexual freedom, damns the girl mother and her child and lowers the prostitute below the level of human dignity. It de- velops unhealthy instincts in woman, and drives her into the masculine professions. The woman's beauty and personality which thrive on man's desire are thwarted by it. Considering the force of the sexual urge, continence can only be fostered in a small measure. Therefore the puritanical spirit only in- creases hypocrisy,impedes the fight on sexual disease and promotes the spread of syphilis and gonorrhea. I hear the continence cranks howling: ' ' How can any one say that we minimize the importance of love when we bespeak love unto death for the first and SEXUAL TRUTHS 149 only bride?" They advise people to marry young. It has been proved, however, that marriage does not constitute a safe protection against venereal dis- eases. Out of a hundred cases of infection treated in free clinics 20 patients had been infected after marriage and many specialists contend that the proportion of venereal cases is still higher among the well to do. Continence cranks may well retort that marriage with side escapades is not what they preach but this type of marriage is what we must reckon with in real life. The traveling man is unfaithful out of want, the sedentary man out of surfeit. As long as the proportion of disease does not reach 50 percent marriage can be considered a protection, although not an absolute one, against venereal in- fection. And then why wax so enthusiastic over a protection which is only relative? Why not rather point out to young people the misery of poor families in which a child is born every year? A father is merely a provider. Character building, pursuit of a career come after that. That does not chime in with the popular adage: Early marriage, long happiness. As far as love itself is concerned, let's cast a re- trospective glance upon the nations where the family was held most highly, the ancient Romans, Germans and Jews. They married young and adultery was almost unknown. But we also are told that the mates didn't even know each other before marriage. We may then assume that the matchmaker plays a great 150 SEXUAL TRUTHS role when people marry young. Love comes later. This is spoken in all earnestness. A healthy young fellow who has never loved will love any woman that comes his way: provided, some may say, that she is not unattractive; but at that age every woman is attractive. Let every man remember who his first love was and in almost every case it will turn out to have been a rather poor specimen of humanity. The matchmaker should not be dismissed contempt- uously for he can at least forestall the worst. We must estimate rightly the actual value of that first love. We assume that a young human being, ignorant of the world and shifting with every wind will settle rightly such an important question and turn into the right direction as infallibly as a mag- net turns to iron even when it is concealed under non-metallic matter. Mates that found each other at an early age love each other and never repent for having married young, but this is not love at its highest. The first love is not love: it is an infantile disease one has to go through. To judge the in- tensity of a love one should ask not how long it has lasted, but how many times the man had loved before. There is no doubt but Goethe had for Frau von Stein an affection which was, if not warmer, at least more conscient and more valuable than for the Gretchen he tells us about in Wahrheit und Dichtung. On his last love for Ulrica von Levetzow we shall not pass any judgment. Old age and adolescence are alike; anything that is young attracts them. SEXUAL TRUTHS 151 The position taken by the continence cranks is indefensible even on sentimental grounds. It is life and love which build up personality in both sexes ; men are molded a little more by life, women a little more by love. The tender chick that has only taken one step in life, to pass from her parents' house into her husband's amounts to very little; she hasn't lived. Troubadours didn't marry young and when they married they never celebrated their own wife in their poems. Hearth and heart do not always get along so very well. Passion vanishes and what is left of it cannot soar high, at least not over the bore- dom of everyday life. Adipose comfort, ignoble con- tentment, bourgeois smugness, these are the pillars of society; but why mention love in the same breath? With our point of view syphilis leads us around a vicious circle. Warnings to the young will do little besides creating a generation of neurasthenics worrying themselves to death. And then it is easy to give warnings, but we will not find it so easy to tell children that their sexual impulses are nothing to be ashamed of and should not be repressed. Are we to explain to our girls how they can ascertain whether a man has a purulent discharge ? This mere suggestion makes us indignant. Our girls are decent girls. In decency they must go through pregnancy and be milchcows, in decency they must bear their inflammation of the vagina, in decency they must rot alive. A day will come when we will consider it more important to impart that sort of information to the 152 SEXUAL TRUTHS young than to teach them the history of literature. And if some one asks me now what suggestion I have for saving mankind from infection and un- desired conception, I shall say that as far as con- ception goes a stroke of the pen would remove that peril. As far as infection is concerned, it looks as though men had never wanted to get rid of it. The measures adopted in times of epidemics, if applied to the whole world for several years, with the cooperation of every physician and of every government would stamp out syphilis forever. Before we can accomplish such a feat we must first become pagans. The hatred of venereal diseases will only become strong enough when the absolute necessity of caresses is recognized and the sacred- ness of love in any form has been embodied in a sort of religion. There is nothing unethical about loving a woman of the street. The only trouble is that nowadays her lover must be either a god or a pimp. Syphilis is so completely bound up with what we call morality that we will never get rid of it until we get rid of our so-called morality. And then to some people their chastity ideal is more important than the fight against syphilis. We must then pin our faith to the Medical Profession. With the help of a vaccine they could save the moral concepts of to-day. But they would get little money for their research work. Who would dare to confess that he had himself vaccinated to escape the diseases con- sequent upon our present morality? SEXUAL CAUSES OF DIVORCE By Geh. Justizrat Dr. Horch, Mainz The following remarks have as a basis my ex- perience in some hundreds of divorce cases extend- ing over thirty years practice as an attorney. Only from the standpoint of sexual science can we hope to understand the general laws back of all these special cases. It is true that most judges and attor- neys do not regard this science with favor, in fact they speak of it with contempt and at best regard any discussion of it as bad taste. As a young attor- ney I was once defending a dangerous criminal and I tried to show that he presented the criteria of a defective in the sense of the then young Lombroso school and was not wholly responsible. The old judge warned the jury against letting themselves be influenced by the teachings of this firebrained Lam- berini of whose work he was evidently completely ignorant. Things are but little better to-day. There are not lacking many judges who reply to the testi- mony of the psychiatrist. ' ' This man talks sensibly, how then can he be insane?" Similarly in sexology most jurists divide the most powerful of human im- pulses into merely "allowed or not allowed." But human fate really lies between these limits and only 153 154 SEXUAL TRUTHS by a careful study can we hope to arrive at an under- standing. However personal and subjective my re- marks may seem, I offer them in the hope that they may add something to the understanding of this very difficult subject. That sexuality is the prime factor in divorce needs no demonstration here. Though marriages are often contracted for other reasons, social or finan- cial, sex is still the fundamental relation which de- termines the outcome for better or worse, and that regardless of age or physical characteristics. A young man may marry an old woman and while the sexual activity may be indeed limited it is never absent. And the same is true of those numerous unions of beautiful and ugly, handsome and de- formed. Ideas of beauty are indeed various but the male impulse being the more active and compelling will fulfill itself even under the most unfavorable conditions. We meet daily pregnant women of such exceeding ugliness that a normal man cannot under- stand how it could happen. Yet so irresistible is the male desire that it does so act. The woman's role being the more passive an unsympathetic relation is the more readily tolerated. One clever writer has said that if the same physiological preliminaries were needed by woman that are required for the man, most marriages would never be consummated. Since no such preliminaries are needed by her, woman's sexual activity seems to be unlimited even toward the most disgusting of men. Even where SEXUAL TRUTHS 155 the marriage to such a man shows all the ear marks of legalized prostitution she seems to have no great difficulty in fulfilling her function in this regard. But these particular phenomena fade into insignifi- cance in comparison with the effect of sexuality upon the quarrels which lead to the breaking down of the marriage relation. If this cause is not at first sight apparent it is because divorce cases are han- dled in a routine procedure. Our laws allow as grounds for divorce: adultery, incest, unnatural practices, attempted murder, desertion and insanity with certain limitations, and "if the defendant has so injured the marriage obligations, or has by such immoral or dishonorable conduct destroyed the rela- tion that the plaintiff can not be encouraged to con- tinue in it." This it usually expresses as extreme cruelty and inhuman treatment. Certain limitations of a further paragraph of the law greatly restrict the action of this clause. It is urgently to be de- sired that the old Prussian right to divorce for in- compatibility and the civil right on grounds of mu- tual consent be again legalized. An unprejudiced observer will admit that unhappy marriage not only injures the parents, but has even a greater evil effect upon the bringing up of the children. This becomes the more evident where the children be- come divided in their allegiance and take sides in the constant family quarrels. I have frequently observed that where a divorce was secured the chil- dren fared immensely better. 156 SEXUAL TRUTHS As long as the grounds for divorce remain so purely formal we cannot hope for much enlighten- ment in the matter of the real causes. At present all that is required is a few witnesses who can testify that an adultery was committed, or that gross bru- tality be shown and the wheels go round and one party is adjudged to be to blame. The evidence which might show the real cause and the real blame is never before the court. In most cases both parties are to blame. Frequently a study of the real facts would show that the party who secured the divorce was really at fault. For a complete elucidation of the blame the judge has not the evidence and I believe that a conscien- tious attorney to whom the plaintiff opens her heart would be better able to pass upon the question of re- sponsibility. But most attorneys regard these cases as merely formal procedure and are content if enough evidence is available to secure a judgment. This attitude works injustice. A careful observer will soon be forced to the conclusion that an in- equality of libido is the primary cause of practically all divorces. It is frequently asserted that the first estrangement occurred on the wedding night and is due to the brutality of the man, that his conduct could only be described as legalized rape. But this is only true of certain cases of men wholly lacking in refinement and sympathy. The same charge is raised however, in many cases where the man was both refined and considerate. In most cases of SEXUAL TRUTHS 157 course, any incongruity of impulse is finally adjusted, but where this does not happen divorce is the usual result. There may be other causes asserted but back of them all lies this lack of equality of impulse. The credible assertions of many clients leave no doubt in my mind that many women are sexually in- different and remain so throughout marriage. They may fulfill their conjugal duties, but too often it is only a duty and where they develop a certain amount of excitement they yet never experience a need in the sense that a man does. Women who be- fore marriage have developed a strong tendency to self-gratification respond with difficulty to the de- mands of their husbands and the husbands complain that the women continue this practice in marriage and even give it precedence over the normal rela- tion. When such a woman marries a man sexually vigorous differences are sure to arise which pene- trate into all parts of the home life. The man re- proaches his wife with coldness and she him with undue insistence upon his desires which wounds her self-respect. In such cases the everlasting nagging set up makes a reconciliation difficult. Even worse is the case where the woman is of the higher potency. In one case of mine the bride boxed the groom's ears on the wedding night because he did not gratify her as often as she felt entitled to. The commonest cause of divorce-adultery-has as its origin this inequality of the impulse. The un- satisfied party seeks relief elsewhere for that which 158 SEXUAL TRUTHS marriage has not brought. Usually the man's ap- petite for variety has been well developed before marriage and his opportunities are naturally greater and the risk of detection less. Without defending him in the least it is at least more easily understood why he so frequently goes astray. The civil code does not recognize the husband's adultery as ground for divorce unless it is consummated in the actual residence of the wife. Those who do not view life from the standpoint of a dogmatic morality have no doubt that the formal treatment of divorce cases according to our laws frequently lead to results which are far from edifying. Occasional missteps by the husband are not always sufficient to secure a divorce, yet in other cases a single adultery brings divorce and the penalizing of the husband even where the judge knows that the marriage had long since ceased to be genuine or whatever mitigating circum- stances were present. Not infrequently those ad- judged guilty are excellent husbands and fathers and cannot at all understand why they should be singled out to bear the whole blame, when the real cause was the mismating. When Schopenhauer said that adultery on the husband's part was natural, because he could exercise his natural function at any time, while the woman could bear a child only once in nine months, he stated merely the superficial side of the question. Much more significant are the inner circumstances. One can safely say that misconduct on the wife's part strikes deeper into the relation SEXUAL TRUTHS 159 than that of the husband and a return to the former condition of her home life is for her practically im- possible. We must not forget that in law adultery requires an actual union of the genitals. Such a fact is diffi- cult to establish so that in practice most complaints are brought under that paragraph which refers to anything which can be summed up as indecencies. As long as this actual union of genitals can not be shown the law does not admit adultery no matter how great perversions may have been shown. In fact divorce cannot be obtained for perversities on the husband's part, in comparison with which adultery would be respectable. One of the commonest causes of adultery and di- vorce is the practice of coitus interruptus. The de- sire to limit the number of children to the economic means or social convenience leads to this method of contraception which has the advantage that it re- quires no previous preparation or expense. In this connection we must regard the attempt to limit the sale of those articles which have this contraceptive function as not only abortive since such sale is neg- ligible in comparison with the practice of coitus in- terruptus, but also as foolish and dangerous in so far as the same means are necessary for combatting venereal disease. In talking with many women I have been struck by the fact that the married troubles first began after the birth of one or two children. Careful 160 SEXUAL TRUTHS questioning soon brought out the 'fact that this was the time when coitus interruptus was first es- tablished as a regular habit. The effect of this practice on the nervous system of one or both of the partners is unmistakable. The watchfulness re- quired to interrupt at the right time puts into play a large number of emotions which make impossible that feeling of complete detumescence which is neces- sary. More distressing is the case of the wife, who is usually left unsatisfied and who very probably then begins to seek in masturbation the complete gratification which was denied her. The physical irritation as well as the nervous distress forms a background for the whole of the married life and results in constantly increasing irritability which ultimately lands the unfortunates in the divorce court. At times, I have been able to restore the happiness of a threatened family by a suitable regu- lation of their sex life. In this same connection a recent court decision is of importance. It was ad- judged that the refusal of the wife to allow coitus without the use of contraceptive measures should be held as grounds for granting a divorce. As a matter of fact the use of such measures to prevent divorce would seem of more importance than the encouragement of coitus interruptus. With great frequency the sexuality expresses it- self in perverse forms which give rise to the com- plaint. Such perversions as long as they are of a heterosexual kind are as common in marriage as SEXUAL TRUTHS 161 coitus interruptus. Sooner or later every one of them is met with in practice. While such facts are communicated to the attorney [and the physician] they are seldom presented in court because they are not actionable in law. It is impossible to ob- tain witnesses to such misconduct and therefore such facts cannot be successfully put in evidence. Never- theless they are common enough that marriage among other things may be regarded as the breeding ground of this kind of perversity. Most frequent of all are cunnilingus and fellatio. These practices are very common in the less worthy marriages. Even if a good deal of hypocrisy is present at times in the wife's complaint and she is herself frequently quite as perverted as her husband, nevertheless one can but feel sorry for the physically delicate and refined woman who is forced to such loss of self-respect when the law does not allow her any relief whatever. Twenty-five years ago cunnilingus was described as a perversion imported from France which had not then attacked the, healthy body of our people. To-day it is widely practiced in all classes of so- ciety from the lowest to the highest. In one of my cases a young farmer's wife complained that her husband used this method exclusively, even stop- ping her in the midst of her daily work in order to gratify his lust. In another case the husband com- plained that his wife would allow no other form of gratification. Sadism and masochism are also exceedingly com- 162 SEXUAL TRUTHS mon. Biting and scratching are the most usual forms, and in one of my cases the physicians dis- covered numberless tooth marks on the thighs of the wife where the husband had expressed his sadistic tendencies. Another sadist used to shave his wife's pubic hair and then have intercourse when the friction of the new growth caused her ex- ceeding pain. I have also met many masochistic cases. One woman induced her husband to have relations with one of her friends in her presence which raised her to a pitch of highest excitement. In another case a spiritually eminent but wholly per- verted man used to place his wife in situations where she had to receive advances from other men which proceedings he watched through a special peep hole in the door, afterwards gratifying him- self. I believe the woman's assertion that the hus- band often tried to induce her to let other men use her while he looked on, but that she declined. I have not met any case of bestiality in my own practice, but one is recorded in the Archiv fur Kriminalanthropolgie where a man forced his wife to submit to this horrible perversion. Less frequent than the heterosexual perversions are the homosexual variety, at least as factors in divorce. When a homosexual marries, the perver- sion remains and if it never becomes a public scandal it merely means that it remains buried in the bosom of the family. I cannot agree with those writers who assert that a homosexual marriage with a normal SEXUAL TRUTHS 163 woman can be happy. I recall one such case where ultimately the husband committed suicide but his wife assured me that their life was very unhappy. Still less frequently the homosexuality of the wife leads to divorce. Bisexuality in women is more easily overcome than in the case of men while her passivity in the sexual act makes it less a matter for complaint. I had one case where the wife sub- mitted to her husband but obtained her own pleasure from cunnilingus which she practiced upon a woman friend. In what has gone before I have tried to show some of the relations between sexuality and divorce. With one exception all of these cases are from my own practice though I have naturally picked out the more striking illustrations of the vagaries of this impulse. But if in one man's practice so many cases occur, how widely diffused must be the causes in question! Schiller spoke of that gigantic fate which if it raises a man up also destroys him, and shall not we say of love that it destroys man if it does not elevate him? We should not forget the great number of normal happy marriages where slight incongruities are adjusted with time to some kind of harmony. But for the rest, one part drifts into the divorce court, another is held together by social or financial reasons. With these we can hope for im- provement only from a better training in discipline, more knowledge and increased culture. Even then the incongruities cannot be wholly avoided, nor can 164 SEXUAL TRUTHS the perversions and degradations, but many cases of lifelong unhappiness could be avoided by a better understanding of the nature and possibilities of the sexual impulse. We should not forget that the re- cent unparalleled prosperity of our nation has bred luxuriousness and laziness. May the present great crisis clear the air and refresh us with those primi- tive virtues: self denial and self control. THE LAW AGAINST ABORTION - THE GREATEST CRIME ON THE STATUTE BOOKS* Dr. Fritz Wittels In every field of research from penology to elec- trical science we notice a wonderful advance. Re- formers and savants are bent on making the world perfect. There is a shame, however, which cries to heaven and which they could suppress with a stroke of the pen if they only wished to; but nothing is farther away from their minds. They hear the wail of tortured flesh, the wail that rises high above the silly conclusions of dry logic. But we know that they have ears and yet they hear not. People generally divide pregnancy into two pe- riods, the second of which begins when the mother first becomes aware of the child's motions. That symptom appears the more momentous to simple souls, as it usually coincides by a caprice of nature with the exact middle of the pregnancy period. The church believes that from that day on the fetus * The Editor would say that the greatest crime, the greatest piece of asininity in our statute books is not the law against abor- tion, but the law against the prevention of conception. And to think, that both are considered crimes of exactly the same char- acter, with exactly the same punishment for both! 165 166 SEXUAL TRUTHS possesses life and a soul. But the church errs in both directions. For us, life is wherever there is protoplasm; and as far as a soul, that is, mental consciousness, is concerned, the fetus is totally lack- ing in it, not only until the hour of birth, but for quite some time afterwards. If these pages were merely intended as a criti- cism of the statute against abortion, I could very well stop right now. What is life? What is soul? Is the protoplasm devoid of consciousness and per- ception? All this is purely speculative and therefore unreliable. Neither can we rest satisfied with Aristotle's precept: "Abortion is licit or illicit ac- cording to whether the fetus has or has not life and perception. ' ' The problem cannot be solved on the basis of life and perception for we kill all kinds of animals en- dowed with those two attributes. The question is whether the fetus is or isn't a human being. The fetus is of course a potential man and while its re- moval cannot be likened to the murder of a human being, at the same time, considering the possibili- ties the fetus holds, abortion can be construed as a crime. That crime would assume more gravity with every added month of pregnancy and become a very serious thing when the fetus is on the point of ac- quiring an individual life. But even spermatozoa and ova are potential hu- man beings and from that point of view we would be justified in forbidding the sale of mechanical pre- SEXUAL TRUTHS 167 ventives or the practice of coitus interruptus. And in fact ancient statutes punished masturbation, coitus interruptus and the like with death. There was consistency in that attempt to protect both actual and potential life. But this type of logic leads to absurd conclusions. It is obvious affecta- tion to protect so carefully the spermatozoon and ovum. Of the thousands of germs sent forth by one ejaculation no more than one can fertilize the ovum and if that one fails there are millions of others in reserve. The same can be said of the ova of which an ovary contains some 70,000. Basing our conclusions upon these figures some one might say that the protection of the embryo goes against the natural law of over- production. The progress of civilization suffices to insure overpopulation through infant care, hygiene and pacifism; it is unequal, however, to the task of feeding that surplus population. Rabbits breed much more rapidly than men, but severe winters, hunters, foxes, and hawks correct readily nature's excessive production. While I would not go so far as to call unnatural the protection accorded to the weak, I would apply that adjective to the protection lavished upon the fetus. For after all, what is the embryo? It is at first an animal form of the lowest order; then through a series of transformations it assumes a pisciform shape with a fish's gills; at the end of the third month it looks like a grotesque caricature of a man some 9 centimeters long. Thus 168 SEXUAL TRUTHS it follows, protean-like, the great evolution which in the course of millions of years has progressed from the unicellular form to the vertebrates and man. While the embryo progresses from day to day it remains until the hour of its birth and long after- wards inferior in development to any intelligent adult mammal. We need not recall the old story of the naturalist who said he would never again shoot another chimpanzee because he couldn't for- get the look in the dying primate's eyes; just com- pare the expression in your dog's eyes with the look in the eyes of a new born baby, of that waxlike, in- significant imitation of an unborn soul. As long as all the hereditary mental attributes contained in the embryo are not awakened by personal experience, they are as non-existent as fire in a furnace filled with wood and coal but to which no match has been applied. The motions of the embryo are not evi- dence of its mental life; neither is its birth; the transition from quab to man is so gradual that ex- perimental psychology cannot state where the one begins and where the other ends. Legislators insist on rigorous time limits and select them arbitrarily; there is an age limit for majority, for criminal re- sponsibility, there is a school age, etc. Law differen- tiates the status of the born and the unborn child; the born child has rights of its own; the unborn child is only "portio vel pars viscerum mulieris" (a part of the woman's viscera). If the unborn is not a human being it is entitled to SEXUAL TRUTHS 169 no legal protection, and if it receives that protection it must receive it for very special reasons. The child may be considered the legal possession of its parents. But here again nothing is more likely to fluctuate than the valuation of such a possession. A long- wished-for rich heir is something quite different from a poor devil's twelfth child. It will never do to characterize all the people who, for social, hy- gienic or other reasons, do not desire offspring as unnatural parents; neither should we call women unwilling to go through the pregnancy period "de- natured mothers"; for they are not mothers. The child in its mother's womb cannot be an object of affection. The mother doesn't even know how it looks; if she did she could never feel any tenderness for an embryo with baggy, protruding eyes, gills and an allantoid; she imagines of course a little blue eyed angel in a white cap. The mere presence of the embryo encased in the womb may have a reflex action and inspire in some mystical way a feeling of mother love. But mysticism has nothing to do with the determination of a legal status. The characters of the embryo entitle it to no pro- tection until it is able to live independently from its mother's organism. This is what legislators have overlooked. The courts had to pronounce on a case of abortion in the eighth month which should rather have been called an artificial attempt to induce premature parturition; for the child survived. Therefore the court only imposed a light sentence 170 SEXUAL TRUTHS for attempted abortion. And yet it is evident that such a process would prove highly injurious to the physical and mental development of the child and that it is much worse to bring into the world a rachitic child than to destroy through successful abortion a potential man which is after all a mere aggregation of cells. A poet has said: "A man's destiny is so much, a man's life is so little." A potential life is even less. . . . The statute against abortion aims at protecting the pregnant woman. It is true that there are no safe means of bringing about an abortion through internal medication; for all the substances available for that purpose are poisonous. Experienced prac- titioners, however, never have recourse to internal medication but rely upon surgical intervention. Such an intervention practiced nowadays by an experi- enced man during the first period of pregnancy is much less fraught with danger than parturition at the end of the normal pregnancy. In the hands of a bungler the operation may have fatal conse- quences; therefore any one familiar with the code of penal procedure knows that the statute is useless to protect mothers; the statute relative to physical injury as it now stands, or perhaps made more stringent, affords them all the protection they need. But the problem must be considered rather in the light of its social importance. SEXUAL TRUTHS 171 II In the beginning there was murder; newborn chil- dren were put to death when not wanted. Lycurgus's laws not only legalized infanticide but made it a duty to the Spartans; for exposure on Mount Tay- getos was infanticide in disguise. That disguise, however, revealed a certain repugnance to commit the deed. That repugnance is apparent in many savage tribes. Only few choose the Jesuitic make- shift of exposure; they prefer to resort to abortion. In Borneo it has been observed that abortion has re- placed infanticide. How could primitive tribes without commerce, industry or agriculture allow their numbers to grow beyond measure? Could they be expected to take a loftier stand than Aristotle, who said: "The num- ber of children must be determined by statutes, and when certain groups increase unduly abortion must be practiced"? Of course the antiquity didn't know what we call family life. The State brought up, educated and fed the children and could therefore decide how many it cared to provide for. No State can say at present: Abortion must be practiced. It might at most say: Abortion may be practiced. In reality the State says that abortion cannot be practiced. But the enforcement of the statute is far from general. In wild tribes there is no State to limit or select the offspring. Each tribe simply does away with its 172 SEXUAL TRUTHS supernumerary children. When a social conscience develops which sees in infanticide a great injustice abortion is welcomed as a much needed relief. The next step is an exaggerated use of this relief. Among the Guyakooroos of Paraguay all women abort themselves until they reach their thirtieth year after which they begin to bear children. This system leads us to the 2-children families of the Malthusians, whereby the human stock neither in- creases nor decreases. But the abuse of abortion soon causes a diminution of the racial group and defeats its own purpose, for not only well regu- lated States but tribes or hordes at once take meas- ures to limit the number of abortions. Abortion becomes henceforth a matter of the state, or at least a tribal matter. It happened unfortunately that at the very time when the Roman stoics were ready to reconsider their time-established theory of indifference in the matter of abortion, Christianity forced the theory of "anima rationalis" into the pagan mentality. While the church is not interested in saving the nation from depopulation or even in saving the life of the em- bryo, she is interested in baptizing souls and in sav- ing them from damnation. But this is mere theological metaphysics which should not influence legislators. From the point of view of society's rights there are two questions to consider: Is abortion likely to prevent an increase of the population? And if so* SEXUAL TRUTHS 173 is the increase in the population due to the opera- tion of abortion laws of any value to the community? The first question may sound paradoxical. If any- thing seems to curtail the increase of the population it is precisely abortion, the extent of which statistics do not reveal for it may be practiced a hundred or a thousand times without coming to the notice of the authorities. We may risk the statement that in civilized nations abortion is in inverse ratio to infant mortality. Ages ago people killed their chil- dren, later on they resorted to abortion, and now that abortion is forbidden by law, infanticide is again on the lurk. For nothing is easier than to do away with a child; leave it naked near a window on a cold day and you soon have a fine case of inflammation of the lungs. Or children are boarded out at 3 florins a month; if their poor little stomachs can't stand po- tatoes and cabbage, who can compel the woman who takes care of them to buy milk for them out of the 3 florins she receives and which also covers care and shelter? Or there is scarlet fever in a village. Well children are brought to the infected houses and put in bed with the sick ones. . . . Many are the forms of infanticide in disguise; it is not necessary to hit the child with a hammer, or poison it or burn it to death. The criminal midwife may be detected but the meshes of the law's net will never be fine enough to catch those guilty of the practices I just men- tioned. 174 SEXUAL TRUTHS We must realize that it is not only a few hardened criminals who are capable of harming a suckling infant or an uncomprehending child. A servant girl with child, who does not dare to have herself aborted, may be driven to desperation; when she strangles her baby she simply acts in self- defense against society which prevented her from getting rid of the child in a harmless way. The little official blessed with too many children and crushed down by that blessing who resorts to certain measures in order to avoid further blessings is simply trying to protect his miserable existence. All the factors that curtail an increase of the population, such as infant mortality, emigration, ob- stacles to marriage, abortion, can all be traced to one common cause: Poverty. If society wishes to see the population increase it must declare war on poverty. To forbid abortion is as foolish as forbidding the children to die. It creates criminals; not only child murderers; for it opens up a terrible possibility: certain people forced by society to murder their children may become so depraved by that awful necessity that they may learn to disregard as com- pletely the lives of adults. In other words, abortion does not curtail the in- crease of the population as much as is commonly believed; the children that are not wTanted will be in some way or other allowed to die. And if they only could die. In many cases, however, it isn't death that awaits them but poverty and want, rickets, SEXUAL TRUTHS 175 tuberculosis, anemia, suffering in a thousand forms, sorrow and misery. We would recommend to the legislators a round of the hospitals, especially chil- dren's hospitals. In its fight against abortion Society has two pow- erful allies: capitalism and the church. The church at least is honest about it. Children must be born or else they cannot be baptized. Capitalism is more hypocritical. The capitalists themselves have as few children as they wish; else many a physician would lose his valuable practice. But the wives of the poor, of the disinherited must bear children until children are as numerous as the sands of the sea, they must bear hundreds of thousands of slaves who will make the wheels turn in capitalism's factories, increase pauperism and depreciate the value of labor and of human material. The church needs Christians, militarism needs recruits, capitalism needs slaves, the three of them need defenceless masses. We see now that the increase of the population guaranteed by the statute against abortion is not such a desirable thing after all for a democratic and enlightened society. Not only the abortion law should be removed from the statute books but the following paragraph should be substituted for it. "No woman shall be forced to bear to term against her will the fruits of her body." Those who, scorned to-day by the world, demand such a change in the statutes are the prophets of to-morrow. 176 SEXUAL TRUTHS Ill Besides the purely illegal operations, there are many cases in which abortion is a medical necessity. Not so long ago there were only one or two diseases in which abortion was indicated, besides, of course, the cases in which pregnancy and parturition were made dangerous by material obstacles. We know to-day that a large number of chronic diseases are unfavorably influenced by pregnancy, parturition and confinement. Not only the mother's life but her health as well is of more value than the life of the embryo. Even for a healthy and powerful woman parturition is not without danger. Too little atten- tion has been paid to the added risk it entails for a weak or ailing woman. When a human being dies he is relieved of all ob- ligations ; a dead man or woman cannot be compelled to pay taxes or bear children. The transition from life to death, however, proceeds by infinitesimal stages; it really amounts to a slow death that goes by a hundred names, consumption, cancer, atrophy of the kidneys, etc. From people who are thus slowly drifting towards death, society cannot expect much. In cases of in- curable tuberculosis physicians generally refuse to bring about abortion in the hope of saving at least one life, the child's, since the mother is doomed to die. If consumptives knew how near death they are they would laugh at the abortion law. What are five SEXUAL TRUTHS 177 or ten years in jail to one who has not five months to live? And if the pregnant consumptive knew what harm parturition and confinement will bring on her she could justly curse her physician. How can a woman in whose body life and death are wrestling be compelled to help the race survive, unless she herself so wishes, a thing which frequently happens ? If we lived in Greece or any other country anxious to breed a good race, consumptives would probably not be permitted to bear children;, while consumption is not hereditary, a weak constitution, a tuberculous tendency can be transmitted to the off- spring and for most people the final results are pretty much the same. It is impossible to draw a line between curable and incurable consumption. Under favorable circum- stances mild cases are curable; severe cases are fatal; medium cases terminate either in cure or death, as it pleases God. But the law is the law: in- curable consumptives must bear children. In cases of curable consumption no abortion is practiced in the second half of the pregnancy period, for at that stage operative intervention would be as trying to the patient as parturition. Observations are taken during the first half of the pregnancy pe- riod to determine whether the disease is intensified by pregnancy (loss of weight, etc.) and if such is the case the operation is performed. But that expectant attitude is fraught with danger, as a curable case may be thus transformed into an incurable one. 178 SEXUAL TRUTHS But the main danger for consumptives arises dur- ing the confinement period. Strangely enough, while we protect consumptives against all noxious influences, prevent them from working, keeping late hours or indulging in any excess, we will not relieve them from the duty of increasing the population. Abortion should be indicated in every case of tuber- culosis, even if the patient should express the wish to bear a child; for it has been observed that many a healthy woman contracts tuberculosis during the pregnancy or the confinement period. No hard and fast rule can be formulated, however, and physicians should be allowed to use their judgment as individual cases require. Pregnancy affects women suffering from cardiac troubles as severely as it does consumptives. A pa- tient with a sick heart is capable of very little exer- tion ; there is no exhausting fever, however, resulting from the disease and while complete recovery is doubtful the patient has a good chance to survive. If we divide up cardiac cases into mild, medium and severe ones we may say that severe cases simply can- not bear the natural termination of the pregnancy period, as the patient's heart is not equal to the overexertion it implies. Consequently abortion is absolutely indicated in such cases. Mild cases can bear the physical strain of preg- nancy, travail and confinement but not without undergoing more or less injurious after-effects which may or may not be permanent. Medium cases SEXUAL TRUTHS 179 are rendered very critical by the strain of labor a'nd the sudden change in the blood pressure consequent upon parturition. The last months of the pregnancy period may also bring about certain disturbances which usually compel the pregnant woman to spend that time in bed. The official rule in this case is to wait and only interfere when fatal disturbances are feared. This might do very well when the patient, fully acquainted with the danger she runs, insists on bear- ing the child, but such a rule is absurd when the cardiac patient does not want any more children either because she is unmarried or because she has several children already. Besides pointing out that the dangers of child- birth can never be estimated in advance and that sudden death is always possible in cardiac cases, we must repeat what we said in speaking of tubercu- lous patients: we deprive the woman suffering from cardiac trouble from many pleasures; she must not work, she must not walk upstairs, very often she isn't allowed any sexual intercourse; yet we demand from her that she brave death for the sake of a little cluster of cells. In this connection the mentally diseased are per- haps worse off than all the other sick people. Preg- nant or recently delivered women constitute perhaps one-tenth of the female insane. About one half of them finally recover. It is hard to say, however, which is the more terrible, a curable or incurable 180 SEXUAL TRUTHS psychosis. The fear of insanity which we find in the mind of every cured insane person is probably the most heartrending thing on earth; it is prob- ably worse than insanity itself, for the insane are not aware of their condition. Consider on the one hand the melancholia which often accompanies pregnancy and which leads the patient to make repeated attempts at taking her own life (one of which is bound to succeed), and on the other hand remember the current theory according to which the life of the mother is more valuable than that of the embryo; wouldn't you think that in such cases abortion should be performed at once? But for the sake of the little Christian to be born, of the slave to be, the pregnant mother will be kept in her mental darkness and watched by a horde of guar- dians until one day she plays a trick on them and hangs herself from the window bolt. In certain cases psychiatrists do not dare to intervene to save the mental health of the patient because they are not positively sure that a psychosis will declare itself. Of course no one can be posi- tively sure of such a thing but a psychosis can be foreseen in many cases; for instance when a woman has suffered mental disturbances in previous preg- nancies or when she shows visible symptoms of in- cipient mania which may overwhelm her while she will be nursing. But hygiene of the soul does not yet exist as a science. An awful fear runs through all minds, the fear of SEXUAL TRUTHS 181 conception. Many marriages are simply poisoned by that phobia; our much vaunted family life is transformed by it into a grim illusion. The young people who, restrained by the fear of venereal dis- ease, have led ascetic lives and pinned their hope on matrimony have their illusions shattered ruth- lessly by the fear of conception. The various means employed to prevent conception ruin our nerves, bring about neuroses of every description, cause anxiety and depression.* We must either bring into the world more children than we can take care of, or resort to abominable subterfuges which are hard- ly less unpleasant than castration. It is only in intercourse with prostitutes that a man forgets his anxiety about conception; and that it is why prostitution represents to many men the highest means of gratification. Is this the result legislators meant to obtain? We are always speaking of the hunger urge; we never speak of the sex urge; and yet the sexual urge is not by any means less insistent than hunger. Many a man who for fear of begetting children foregoes the gratification of his sexual desires goes and gets drunk. Here we touch upon one of the main causes of alcoholism. Of course the same man will, when drunk and incapable of weighing the conse- quences, beget children; this is one of nature's grim * On this point the editor begs to differ with the author. Only coitus interruptus can be blamed for the above enumerated troubles. -W. J. R. 182 SEXUAL TRUTHS jokes, a well contrived vicious circle. The fact re- mains that the dammed up current of sexual desire goes to swell the stream of alcoholism. And sana- toria for alcoholics are not the proper solution of the question. While the number of cases in which physicians are legally allowed to practice abortion is steadily growing, it is by far too restricted. But physicians who do not care for the law can invoke many excuses whenever they wish to induce an abortion. They may pretend that hemorrhages had set in; nobody is in a position to disprove the fact afterward; not even the woman on whom the operation was per- formed; or there was a catarrh of the apices which is now completely cured; or the patient had pro- duced a bottle of urine containing a heavy propor- tion of albumin pointing to a terrific inflammation of the kidneys; and the doctor was not supposed to know that the urine had been passed by some one else; or there was stubborn nausea. The abortion law is a pliant toy in the hands of a physician. Do not try to tell us that few physicians are con- scienceless enough to resort to such stratagems and that the abortion law at least prevents the majority of physicians from indulging in such malpractice. For when a woman has been refused treatment at the hands of a conscientious physician she goes to a midwife or some other even less experienced prac- titioner or she tries to relieve herself with the help of poisonous substances, or she drives a penholder SEXUAL TRUTHS 183 or a knitting needle or even a knife into her genital canal and either kills herself or maims herself for life. Society cannot prevent abortion; it can only drive the poor women (for the wealthy ones needn't worry, they needn't hunt the side streets in search of dirty midwives) into the hands of scoundrels who injure them for life. But the real scoundrel in THE CASE, THE ARCH-SCOUNDREL, IS SOCIETY. The hypocrisy of it all! The physician who, op- erating in a private sanatorium, has just cheated the country of one citizen makes it up in his free clinic: here is a woman in labor; her pelvis is too narrow; the child could only be taken out by piecemeal. A cesarean operation could save the child's life, but her permission must be obtained first; and it is generally refused. Why should a woman, unmar- ried perhaps, risk her life for the sake of a child she never wanted? The clinicians know better. They can wait. And they let her writhe in agony for hours or for days; until she loses her nerve and finally consents; in fact, she begs them to operate . . . and the child's life is saved. Words fail us when we are confronted with such a horror. IV Here are then the conclusions we have reached'. The characteristics of the embryo do not justify the legal protection it receives. 184 SEXUAL TRUTHS The increase in population due to the existence of the abortion law is not as considerable as it would appear at first glance; nor is such an increase de- sirable for society. The abortion law fosters child murder. The medico-legal exceptions to the abortion law are too few. Pregnant women are driven by this law into the hands of conscienceless bunglers. The fear of conception poisons much of the enjoy- ment of life and fosters the spread of alcoholism. We hear much twaddle about '1 the century of the child" and the protection of infants. The best pro- tection for the new-born would be a liberal abortion law.* All the other measures, charity, free milk, orphan asylums, children's hospitals are only palliatives of doubtful value. They are like the wind that can blow out a small fire but fans a big one into a huge conflagration. * Here again I would say: A liberal prevention of conception law.-W. J. R. COITUS INTERRUPTUS AS A CAUSE OF NERVOUS DISEASE Dr. L. Lowenfeld The use of anti-conceptive measures constitutes at the present day one of the most regrettable condi- tions of sexual life. I call this condition regrettable because everything which interferes with the normal performance of the sexual act is bound to have bad consequences; in fact the mere feeling that one can- not gratify one's sexual instinct without taking pre- cautions against possible consequences introduces a baleful psychic element into one's sexual life. Sexual abstinence cannot be relied upon for the limitation of offspring, for sexual abstinence is not easily maintained in married life, requires a great amount of will power or of religious faith, and reacts unfavorably on one's health. The use of anti-conceptive means has not the same consequences for both sexes. While it often saves the woman from many dangers to her life and health, it does not in any way benefit the man's health. In order to estimate correctly the influence which anti-conceptive means exert on the health of the individual, we must not confine ourselves to a study of cases in which they were resorted to upon the 185 186 SEXUAL TRUTHS physician's advice on account of some sexual dis- order. We must inquire about the frequency of in- tercourse, the age of the mates and the kind of pre- ventives used. Bearing in mind all those details one comes to the conclusion that, generally speaking, preventives sel- dom cause any serious physical or mental distur- bances and that such disturbances when observed are to be traced to some special means of prevention. Man only has at his disposition the condom and coitus interruptus. It is an exaggeration to say that the condom is a cobweb against disease and an armor against pleasure. Robust men do not mind its use, but weaker men are put to a good deal of extra effort by the fact that it blunts in a measure the sensitiveness of the penis. Besides, as far as the prevention of conception is concerned the condom is a source of frequent disappointment. I cannot say, however, that I have ever observed any ill ef- fects from its use. The practice of coitus interruptus has more serious consequences. Some men can prac- tice it for ten, twelve or fifteen years without bad results; some men show after one year or even sooner nervous disturbances. The woman has a larger choice of preventives at her disposal, and new ones are being devised con- tinually by chemists. Chemical preventives destined to kill the sperma- tozoa and introduced into the vagina in the form of suppositories, tablets or powder have not to my SEXUAL TRUTHS 187 knowledge produced bad effects. The same can be said of mechanical preventives such as, for instance, sponges. On the other hand I have no doubt but the continued use of a pessary may bring about local inflammation and a leucorrheal discharge. The use of condoms by the man is in no way detrimental to the woman's health.* Neither is the practice of coitus interruptus. If the man is able to continue the act long enough to allow the woman to have an orgasm she is not affected by the with- drawal of the man's organ. If the man's powers, however, are insufficient to assure the woman's grati- fication, then coitus interruptus is bound to become for her a source of nervous troubles. The time at which the coitus is interrupted plays an important part. If the interruption occurs when the woman is highly aroused and is on the point of having an orgasm and if the sexual act is performed frequently without affording her any gratification serious trou- ble may result, for the congestion of the uterus sub- sides very slowly when no orgasm takes place. In such cases coitus interruptus is fraught with worse results for the woman than for the man. Even if the normal act is interrupted, ejaculation finally relieves the man's nervous tension; that re- lief, however, is denied to the woman and in conse- quence her health is affected unfavorably. The re- * The editor begs to disagree with this statemerit. See the Chap- ter Coitus Condomatus, in his Treatment of Sexual Impotence and Other Sexual Disorders in Men and Women. 188 SEXUAL TRUTHS suits are not as serious when the interruption is due to the weakness of the man or takes place at an earlier phase of the act, especially if the woman is not very ardent or is affected with sexual anesthesia. In this connection I must remark that certain women whose health has been evidently affected by the practice of coitus interruptus pretend that their desires are fully gratified by that form of inter- course. There are many women, however, who are loath to confess that their desires are not satisfied; and then again some women who are left ungratified by coitus interruptus pretend that they do not care for sexual intercourse. If we take into account all the circumstances, the sexual and nervous constitution of the mates, the frequency of intercourse and the many harmful in- fluences which may be at work, it becomes very diffi- cult to decide what nervous disturbances can be traced to coitus interruptus. In certain individuals the practice of coitus interruptus either is aban- doned for other preventives or ceases altogether when the woman is impregnated and the normal form of intercourse is resumed; in some cases inter- ruptus is supplemented by masturbation, etc. If we study a large number of cases, however, we cannot help finding a direct connection between cer- tain diseases and the use of that form of preventive. Fifty cases which I have observed myself point to such a conclusion. The disturbances we observe in the majority of SEXUAL TRUTHS 189 cases are anxiety neuroses, whose symptoms are very often deceptive. They are generally temporary neu- roses without any special import, occurring in fits, sometimes of a certain duration, and affecting the form of phobias, agoraphobia, monophobia, anthro- pophobia, etc. Those neuroses vary in degree from the mildest to the severest form. At times, too, we observe larval or incomplete anxiety neuroses. To explain the latter I have devised the following dia- gram: A. Anxiety neurosis (feeling of anxiety with a modification of the mental processes). B. Physical effects or concomitant symp- toms (disturbances of the respiratory, circu- latory, secretory and motor organs). c. Increase of the anxi- ety neurosis. In the larval anxiety neuroses, "A" is generally overlooked owing to the fact that the anxiety neu- rosis either is not developed enough or is mistaken for an emotional condition of a similar nature such as ill humor, irritability, accompanied by some bodily ailment. And thus it is that many patients only complain of dizziness, asthma, palpitations, tremor, etc., whereas the real trouble is an anxiety neurosis in which those physical symptoms are very marked. More frequent than the larval anxiety neuroses are the incomplete anxiety neuroses (anxiety equiva- lents) whose manifestations are confined to "B," that is to the physical symptoms of the neurosis. These symptoms which are extremely varied are in 190 SEXUAL TRUTHS general disturbances of the heart's action, of the respiratory organs, pseudoasthma, psychic asthma, asthma sexuale, fits of dizziness, congestion, diarrhea, tremor, profuse perspiration, pharyngo- spasm, malaise, bulimia, sleeplessness, etc. Among the anxiety equivalents, cardiac symptoms are the most frequent in both sexes, but especially in women. A misunderstanding of the patient's con- dition may lead one to consider certain forms of nervous cardiac disorders as mere physical diseases. We may mention, for instance, the cardiac neurosis described by Hertz of Vienna as Phrenocardia. Whether we should consider the varied phenomena of anxiety as Freud and his disciples do, *that is, as the symptoms of a neurosis or when they are accom- panied by a marked neurasthenia attribute them sim- ply to neurasthenia and refuse to admit a combina- tion of neurasthenia and anxiety neurosis is a ques- tion of nosology which we cannot discuss here. While anxiety manifestations are very frequent, nervous disturbances of the sexual region are very rare. We may observe in men a lack of sexual power due to premature ejaculation and insufficient erection coupled with irritation of the bladder or of the prostate (increased micturition, feeling of heavi- ness and pressure in the perineal region, hyperesthe- sia of the urethra especially at its prostatic end). Those symptoms may also be accompanied by myelasthenic symptoms, rachialgia, fatigue and paresthesia of the legs; but they generally occur SEXUAL TRUTHS 191 isolated or in combination with cerebrasthenic symp- toms. Among the former we may mention, as the most frequent, besides the symptoms of anxiety, a greatly increased excitability; compulsion ideas are less frequent and are mostly in the nature of hypo- chondriac compulsion phobias. Fits of depression of variable duration may also be observed. The patients now and then complain of headaches, heavi- ness, strange sensations in the head, nervous head- aches. Their capacity for work and their memory are impaired. Individual cases differ greatly for it is not only the combinations of the various neurotic symptoms which differ widely, but their intensity and their duration as well. Many patients are affected by phobias on the street or in crowded rooms. Others have nervous cardiac troubles or asthma, others complain of headaches or stubborn sleeplessness. I observed this last symptom especially among women who for years had failed to derive any grati- fication from coitus interruptus. Men complain mainly of myelasthenic symptoms, paresthesia of the legs, stubborn rachialgia or sacro- lumbar pains, the symptoms of an inflamed pros- tate. Sometimes people whose health has been affected by the practice of coitus interruptus realize clearly the connection between that practice and their ail- ments; they do not, however, give up that practice but they indulge less frequently in sexual inter- 192 SEXUAL TRUTHS course. In other cases ill effects either are not ob- servable or are of a purely transitory character and nervous disorders only appear long afterwards and possibly in connection with other troubles (in- fectious diseases, especially influenza, accidents, protracted excitement or exertions, etc.). In such cases physicians and patient may attribute the ail- ment to the more obvious cause and overlook en- tirely the coitus interruptus as a source of trouble. The consequences of the use of anti-conceptive means are almost the same for both sexes; there is, however, one small difference; anxiety symptoms are more frequent in women than in men. In fact we always observe anxiety symptoms in women whose nervous system is affected by the practice of coitus interruptus. Women present no symptoms which correspond to the disturbances of the man's sexual powers. On the other hand we find in them symptoms of bladder inflammation and painful feelings in the genital zone. Rachialgia and sacro-lumbar pains are more frequent in women than in men. In a number of cases we also observe in women hysterical symp- toms, fits of laughing and tears. One should not, however, attribute all those symp- toms to the use of preventive measures for some of the women affected in that way presented hysteri- cal symptoms even before their husbands began to practice the coitus interruptus. Hysterical symp- toms in those cases were the result of psychic dis- SEXUAL TRUTHS 193 turbances traceable to the lack of sexual gratifica- tion. We see from the foregoing that the disorders gen- erally brought on by coitus interruptus are neuras- thenia, neuroses, and less frequently hysteria. I have also observed a few cases in which psychoses (melancholia or paranoia) and physical disorders such as spinal disease developed. But as far as spinal trouble and paranoia were concerned the use of preventive means should not be considered as the only cause but only as one of the various causes of disease. It would seem as though after the patient gives up coitus interruptus and resumes the normal form of intercourse or adopts some less harmful form of prevention one would at once observe an improve- ment in his condition if not absolute cure. Such is not always the case. Certain symptoms will per- sist sometimes for several years. The reason for this is that the coitus interruptus is replaced by another harmful practice, relative abstinence. Patients may think that by indulging more spar- ingly in sexual intercourse they can better their con- dition but the result is quite the opposite. The vari- ous neurasthenic conditions and anxiety neuroses brought on by the practice of coitus interruptus finally become independent from what provoked their appearance and remain after their original cause has disappeared. Phobias in particular will persist for years after coitus interruptus has been 194 SEXUAL TRUTHS given up. A sort of psychoreflex mechanism estab- lishes itself which like all reflexes always reacts in the same way upon certain stimuli regardless of the original factor which caused that condition to ap- pear. Physicians do not exaggerate as grossly nowadays as they used to several years ago the supposed con- sequences of coitus interruptus. Some absurd no- tions on the subject, however, are still finding ac- ceptance. For instance the belief that coitus in- terruptus can cause chronic prostatitis. Personally I have never observed such a case and Frisch in his monograph on the diseases of the prostate does not even mention coitus interruptus among the possi- ble causes of chronic prostatitis.* The same applies to the various disorders of the female genitalia which certain gynecologists would attribute to coitus interruptus. Dr. Theilhaber, the famous gynecologist, told me that women who in coitus interruptus fail to have an orgasm very often suffer from lumbar pains lasting one or two days; they may also develop nervous ailments; some may have a discharge due to hypersecretion of the uterine mucosa, and nervous vesical troubles. No anatomi- cal changes have been observed by Dr. Theilhaber * I beg very decidedly to differ both from the author and Dr. Frisch. I have seen several cases of prostatitis, in which the sole causative factor was coitus interruptus. Both the history and the result of the treatment gave unmistakable evidence.-W. J. R. SEXUAL TRUTHS 195 who states, however, that coitus interruptus predis- poses to myomas. I had at a time the impression that the number of cases of neurasthenia due to coitus interruptus was on the increase; in the last years on the con- trary I have felt that those cases have been less fre- quent. This is probably due to the fact that not only physicians but laymen are becoming better acquainted with the harmful effects of coitus in- terruptus. A knowledge of those effects should be spread among the public through all possible agen- cies. We must recognize that owing to the unre- liable character of the various chemical and me- chanical anti-conceptive means, people are rather loath to give up coitus interruptus. Industry and medicine have a great task ahead of them: the im- provement of anti-conception methods. For even the poorest people * should be enabled to limit the number of their offspring without endangering their health or being put to exorbitant expense. * Even the poorest people. That even is delicious. Why, it is just the poorest people who are most in need of the knowledge of contraceptive methods. W. J. B. SEXUAL ABSTINENCE IN MEN AND WOMEN Professor Johannes Duck Suggestion plays in the life of the individual as it does in the life of the masses a tremendous part, but mass suggestion is perhaps the more powerful of the two. This holds good, naturally, in sexual life, that is in one of man's most essential activities. Sexual life has been considered from two radi- cally different points of view. Some writers con- sider sexuality as something wicked and unclean; others see in it the highest form of gratification, the thing that makes life worth living. We seldom meet people who strike a happy medium and see in the sexual life something perfectly natural which should be neither overrated nor underrated, which is entitled to a small place under the sun, but should be accorded that place. This minority is little in- fluenced by suggestion for it consists almost ex- clusively of highly intellectual people with critical minds. The masses of mankind, however, are divided up into two camps and will presumably always be. Each flock follows its leader whether that leader be a man of flesh and blood or a mere stock phrase. This is strikingly illustrated in the case of sexual 197 198 SEXUAL TRUTHS abstinence. Sexual life and the sexual urge are not supposed to exist outside of marriage; in every divorce case, on the other hand, the sexual element is so overemphasized that, in comparison with it, moral factors appear practically insignificant; and thus the door is thrown wide open to misrepresenta- tion. The individual seldom dares to set himself up against views either forced upon him by mass suggestion or legalized by the statutes; neither does he dare to draw for himself the inevitable conclu- sions. In this matter, however, the plain truth is more important than in any other matter! This is well shown by data I have collected and which represent the individual attitude to sexual abstinence. From the 122 men whom I asked how they felt in regard to abstinence I received the following an- swers : 18 of them or 14.7 % stood it easily. 54 or 44.3% bore it only with difficulty. 31 or 25.4% stated that they didn't abstain. 19 or 15.6% failed to answer or gave eva- sive answers. 122 100% I may mention that among those who bore ab- stinence easily there were three Catholic theological students between the ages of 19 and 23; their opin- SEXUAL TRUTHS 199 ion does not really count. One other man is a path- ological case; we find then 12 men or 9.8% to whom abstinence does not constitute a hardship. From the 54 men who consider it a hardship four are decided psychopathic cases; this leaves then 50 men or 41%. If we only take into account the 62 men who an- swered the question directly and whose testimony has any value, we arrive at a proportion of 12 men indifferent to the sexual urge to 50 who felt it strongly. Literal quotations from the various answers I have received will show that the mode of life, in particular abstinence from alcohol, a vegetarian diet, sports and other forms of physical exercise, care to avoid excitement and finally the influence of mass suggestion play an important part in in- creasing or decreasing the sexual need. Answers from male correspondents: -I consider total abstinence as a crazy idea. All the continent people I know suffer from frightful nervousness. I have tried it out myself; continence for several undoubtedly leads to an increase of physical strength; the intellectual functions are not disturbed; but after a while, the body seems to be laden with sperm and pollutions become insufficient as a means of relief. All continent people and ona- nists suffer from anxiety neuroses.1 They also suffer more or less from profuse per- spiration. The more continent a man is the more he 1In this case cause and effect should be investigated. 200 SEXUAL TRUTHS worries for he suppresses one of his most natural activities. On the other hand, I have never known any one having regular sexual intercourse who was anxious or nervous. Continent students even when they are well prepared take their examinations with a good deal of fear and trepidation. Students who have normal sexual intercourse are in good condi- tion and even the most stupid of them show in the course of the examinations an amazing degree of confidence. This type of man succeeds, the under- sexed and those who indulge in self-abuse fail. . . . I have never observed any bad results from it, at least I haven't paid any attention to that. . . . -Abstinence affects me as badly as a disease. It makes me nervous, moody and unbearable, and I consider a woman as clever from the sexual point of view when she forestalls that condition by lend- ing herself to coitus pleasantly and without insist- ence. . . . -Yes for weeks at a time 1 abstinence agrees very well with me. It isn't a hardship for me, I may even be in close contact with my affinity and still abstain from sexual intercourse. Yet I am not lack- ing in temperament nor do I use any remedies to re- main continent. . . . -Well I follow a semi-vegetarian diet and only take mild condiments. . . . -When I am continent for a long while I am ter- *But we are only considering those who abstain permanently. SEXUAL TRUTHS 201 ribly irritable and moody. When I have no normal relations, I masturbate. . . . -I am married and when my wife is sick or away for any length of time I masturbate as I prefer that for many reasons to any adventures. I could remain continent for three or four months at a time, but sometimes only for a few days. The way one lives can help one much in the matter; don't eat too much, don't loaf, take much exercise and be so tired at night that you fall asleep at once. An evening spent in the theater or in the company of women breaks up almost surely a period of absti- nence. Desk work is also very bad, for it means enforced inactivity which allows the imagination to run riot. The best protection against the sexual urge is to repel such thoughts and desires at once and with the utmost energy, just as an ascetic would. -I live about six months of the year in abstinence and stand it well; means: sports, abstinence from alcohol and repression of my imagination. -I have once a month normal intercourse with one and the same woman, but cannot stand absti- nence longer than eight days, after which I mastur- bate; otherwise I couldn't fall asleep. -Abstinence is altogether impossible for me. I am married. -I live in abstinence but stand it very badly and I resort to all sorts of palliatives to avoid commerce with prostitutes. -Yes; means: activity, long tramps, music, rectal 202 SEXUAL TRUTHS injections which provoke ejaculation. (The man is one of the theological students.) -I don't believe there can be abstinence without masturbation (and this would be the only real kind of abstinence) except in the rarest phychopathic cases. -I consider that abstinence is impossible for any man or woman who has had sexual intercourse. The right person only has to be there at the right time. A man cannot live in abstinence under any circum- stances or else he masturbates secretly. Among my women correspondents, five who had already had sexual intercourse and three who had never had any said that they bore abstinence easily. Abstinence easy 8 19% Abstinence difficult 21 50% No abstinence 3 7.2% Evasive answer or none 10 23.3% 42 100% After deducting virgins and psychopathic cases we find: Five women unaffected and nineteen affected by the sexual urge. I quote from some of the most interesting answers sent in by my female correspondents: -As I have never had sexual intercourse, I stand abstinence very well, especially when my nerves are in good condition. SEXUAL TRUTHS 203 -I seldom masturbate; my days are so taken up with work that I never have time for any other thoughts and always feel dead tired at night; this is to my mind the best means to remain continent. -I have frequently observed that continent men have little mental elasticity. -I do stand abstinence very badly; I masturbate and need work badly in order to remain continent, but not only for that. It is only overwork that will repress my sexual desires. . . . -I could never remain abstinent. -I would like to introduce you to my sister in law (a teacher). She is my age (over 30) and as she is not married presents the characteristics of the so- called old maid. She realizes the change in her and knows the cause of it. She feels it dreadfully, as she confessed to me once, when she was very de- pressed and all in tears. I feel a certain embarrass- ment about letting you look into that tortured wom- an's heart, but I say to myself: How many un- married girls are there on earth who have to go through the same thing! It is well that some one speaks of it some time. Those girls are generally made fun of on account of their shyness, and no- body thinks that the world creates such types by decreeing that unmarried women must observe sex- ual abstinence. There are so many reforms intro- duced into the world; why doesn't some one take up this question for the welfare of mankind and especially of the "old maids?" My sister-in-law 204 SEXUAL TRUTHS asked me among other questions the following: "Isn't one woman as good as another? Why is it that only married women are allowed to satisfy all their sexual feelings? Have not single women the sex instinct as strongly implanted in them as the married ones?" That every woman cannot marry is not such a misfortune, but the law which says that single women may not enjoy the same sexual gratification as young men do is a horror which, besides, has very bad results. For instance, it causes many unhappy marriages, for I know that many girls marry, not only to be taken care of but to be able, as married women, to satisfy their sexual desires. If girls were allowed to have sexual intercourse before marriage they could select a man more calmly on account of his mental and other qualities, which would con- stitute a better guarantee for a happy union. When woman demands the ballot the question may be put off with a smile, but when an unmarried woman de- mands the same recognition of her sexual life which a young man receives, this is a demand which should not be refused, for she alone is responsible for the consequences of that act. Forgive this lengthy let- ter, my dear Professor, but as you approach so kindly the subject of feminine psychology, you should know how we feel and what we think, and I am not speaking for myself alone. . . . -Sexual activity makes one more peaceful and satisfied, one thing I have observed in myself and SEXUAL TRUTHS 205 others; that sexual abstinence should be conducive to unpleasant moods and ill humor is easily under- stood. Sexual activity has a direct bearing upon one's capacity for work. I once had a maid who never worked as hard as when she expected to be with her lover the following Sunday. The anticipa- tion of sexual gratification made her feel more joy in her work. -Every time I take alcoholic drinks I feel ex- cited and I long to satisfy my sexual desires. -I have so little sexual gratification that I con- sider my life as one of abstinence. I try to make my condition more bearable through hard work, both of intellectual and physical character, but I know that in the long run I will not be able to stand it. I would have left my husband long ago if I hadn't loved him. I will probably fall some day into the habit of onanism or slowly become insane. -I am only continent from necessity, that is when there is no man handy. -When I have neither sorrow nor worry I miss a lover terribly and I can't help masturbating now and then. ... This investigation only confirms the statement made in very strong terms by Max Marcuse, that sexual abstinence is an important etiologic factor of disease. SEXUAL hypochondria and morbid SCRUPULOUSNESS By Magnus Hirschfeld, M.D., Berlin Among the sexual neuroses, sexual hypochondria and morbid scrupulousness form a very distinct group. Every physician who has a large practice has seen in his office patients who abandon them- selves without the slightest reason to the greatest worries over their sexual life. In certain cases the physician confines himself to allaying the fears ex- pressed to him, assuming that he has to do with a normal man who solicits from a professional an opinion which as a layman he wouldn't dare to formulate himself. In other cases, however, the physician realizes that he is in the presence of a hypochondriac, but believes, nevertheless, not with- out good reasons, that the case is not to be taken any more seriously than any case of hypochondria affecting any other organ. But sexual hypochondria is very much like sexual neurasthenia; while the latter is like any other form of neurasthenia a sign of weakness of the nervous system, at the same time, its sexual etiology and symptomatology place it in a class all by itself. So here also it is the sexual factor which puts upon the disease its peculiar 207 208 SEXUAL TRUTHS stamp. It is therefore well to devote a special chap- ter to sexual hypochondria both as a form of hypo- chondria and as a form of sexual disturbance. A large number of hypochondriac sexual troubles present themselves to us under the form of sexual phobias. The best known of them, though not by any means the most frequent, is syphilophobia. Every venereal specialist knows the syphilophobiac, the worried and in the long run the wearisome type who sees in the slightest redness of his glans a pri- mary lesion and in the slightest pharyngeal catarrh a syphilitic chancre; the self-torturing type of man who while scrutinizing his own body from head to foot finally stumbles upon some blotch or pustule which has a distant likeness with the luetic erup- tions he has found described in medical atlases, lexi- cons and encyclopedias. In their ignorance of anatomy, such people are often puzzled by perfectly normal parts of their body which they had never observed before and which they suspect of being pathological growths. When they feel in the depth of the tissues a tiny lymphatic ganglion, they im- agine that it is a luetic bubo. If after a sexual con- tact they notice that the lips of the meatus are a trifle swollen, they believe themselves infected. It is the sulcus coronarius glandis, so rich in veins and glands, which they investigate with special pre- dilection and suspicion. Those people often waste half an hour a day or more inspecting every inch of skin or mucous membrane which happens to be SEXUAL TRUTHS 209 within their range of vision, with sometimes the as- sistance of a hand or wall mirror. Those worries are sometimes justified as these people may have had syphilis in the past. The ma- jority of them, however, never had syphilis nor did they indulge recently in intercourse that might be considered as a possible source of infection. Some of them may have read that there are cases of in- direct infection, for instance through toilet seats, on which the typical sexual hypochondriac only sits with hesitancy after covering them up carefully with paper. I treated several years ago a patient who used to bring to my office every month a girl whom he wished me to examine before he had any contact with her. In spite of the assurance I gave him that the woman was perfectly healthy he would come back to me after coitus (although he never per- formed the act without a preservative) and show me all kinds of suspicious spots, mostly innocent acne pustules. Those people keep themselves well posted about the latest scientific discoveries. Ever since reports of Wassermann's experiments have been published, they like to have their blood tested. Even if the test is negative they are not by any means convinced that they do not have syphilis. Gonorrhea hypochondria is quite as frequent as syphilophobia. The slightest clouding of the urine is suspected of containing gonorrheal filaments even 210 SEXUAL TRUTHS when the patient never had gonorrhea before. You may explain a thousand times to those people that the secretion they squeeze out of their urethra comes from their prostate or from their Cowper's glands; they will not feel satisfied until they find a quack, one of those whose advertisements offer advice and help in secret diseases, and who tells them that they have gonorrhea, although it may only be due, as they add mysteriously, to over-stimulation. A large contingent of the sexual hypochondriacs constitute the masturbation hypochondriacs who in constant fear of the consequences of their bad habits cannot enjoy any of life's pleasures. Besides, they reproach themselves severely for yielding to "the sin of the flesh," to their "secret vice" to "curse of self-pollution, " as they are wont to designate masturbation. Just as the syphilophobiac finds satisfaction in listening to the quack, the masturbation hypochon- driac feeds his worries upon )the mountebankish pamphlets which in order to advertise a cure or a method of treatment depict in the darkest colors the consequences of youthful indiscretions or youth- ful errors, and are responsible for the suicide of many a young man. Many of those hypochondriacs imagine that the ejaculation they provoke artificially comes directly from their spine or from their brain which is likely to dry up on account of their practices; they fear a spinal lesion or loss of memory. This is, by the SEXUAL TRUTHS 211 way, a very old medical superstition: we read in the Talmud: "if any one indulges in self-defilement his brain will dry up so that it will be heard rattling in the skull." I have met men of a certain age who were still afraid of developing spinal lesions be- cause they had masturbated twenty years or more before. One thing which worries particularly masturba- tion hypochondriacs is the fear that people may rec- ognize from their appearance that they have been indulging. They examine their faces carefully be- fore their mirror and are terribly downcast when they notice under their eyes dark rings which in reality have nothing to do with the masturbation. A young man whom I treated years ago imagined that owing to his self-indulgence his hair had be- come thin; he didn't dare to go into a theater, a concert or a lecture hall for fear people might notice it. This man had masturbated with unusual fre- quency, 3 or 4 times a day for ten years, but he was very robust in spite of it. While masturbation is almost as common among women as among men, sexual hypochondria in gen- eral and masturbation hypochondria in particular are less frequent among the former. I have ob- served, however, a number of married and unmar- ried women who suffered from severe anxiety neu- roses due to their indulgence in masturbation. One woman had acquired the habit of masturbating after coitus. Her husband suffered from ejaculatio 212 SEXUAL TRUTHS praecox, a frequent cause of masturbation in mar- ried women, as it arouses them but affords them no relief from the resultant nervous tension. Later she began to masturbate without any previous coitus. She came to consult me thinking that her self-indulgence had brought on a sexual disease. She condemned herself very severely and I had all I could to convince her that her secretion was merely a harmless leucorrhea. Related to the masturbation hypochondriacs are the pollution hypochondriacs who cannot free them- selves from the idea that every involuntary emission of semen is a serious pathologic symptom to which must correspond a notable weakening of their body. As a matter of fact we don't know definitely whether pollutions are pathological or merely phys- iological phenomena.* We shall not mention the dangers and the harm which are attributed to them by the type of sexual hypochondriac who for in- stance keeps a record of every one of them, just as certain masturbation hypochondriacs keep marked calendars and diaries. Those people derive very little comfort from consulting a physician who in- stead of stopping their pollutions simply tells them that for a man living in continence three or four pol- lutions a month do not mean anything whatever. * They may be both. While there is no direct line of demarca- tion between the two, still no experienced physician will have much difficulty in determining whether a given patient's pollutions are normal or have crossed the boundary line of the abnormal or patho- logical.--Editor. 213 SEXUAL TRUTHS There are people who believe that not only mastur- bation and pollutions but even coitus, lawful or ex- tramatrimonial, is detrimental to their health. These coitus hypochondriacs worry their phy- sicians but they worry themselves even more. They often set a definite limit to their sexual activity, three or four intercourses a month and they are greatly exercised when, as happens almost unavoid- ably, they overstep that limit. Immediately after the consummation of the act they begin to grum- ble, to curse their weakness and berate not only themselves but their partner with the utmost se- verity. They make their wife swear or at least promise that she will not let herself be tempted again; I have known of divorce cases in which some sexual cowards would, after every coitus, abuse and brutalize the woman whom they had just covered with caresses. Such an attitude cannot be explained satisfac- torily by the reaction which follows upon coitus, before a feeling of balance and repose has again pervaded the nervous system, that phenomenon which is expressed through the famous adage "omne animate post coitum triste"; moral factors play in this respect a less important part than the hypo- chondriac obsession that coitus as such is detrimen- tal to mental and physical health. Much more important than the foregoing forms of sexual hypochondria is the impotence hypo- chondria. In this case as well as in the others we 214 SEXUAL TRUTHS notice that the patient is in normal health, that is to say, his impotence is not due to any objective cause. The sexual urge is normally directed toward woman. We find neither fetichism nor antifetichism, neither sadism nor masochism, neither homosex- uality nor any other perversion or inversion affect- ing the sexual powers. Organically everything is normal. But we do observe signs of general irri- tability and nervous weakness, together with an in- crease of the reflexes (especially of the cremasteric reflex) and of the vasomotor excitability. In con- nection with this we observe erythrophobia, the fear of blushing, which even when it appears isolated, always seems to have a psychosexual origin. The only thing that ails the impotence hypochondriac is lack of self-confidence. Many of those people were unable to perform the sexual act the first time they consorted with a prostitute; neuropathic as they are, they do not dare to make any more attempts for fear of the humiliation failure would occasion them. While they know very well that honor and erection are not synonymous, they nevertheless con- sider their lack of erection as a curse and a stain on their honor. The worst about those cases is that impotence hypochondria as well as imaginary impotence may result in actual impotence. The fear of possible weakness causes an inward trepidation which is any- thing but favorable to an erection. The expectation of failure acts almost as a suggestion. I have seen SEXUAL TRUTHS 215 men already near forty who did not dare to ap- proach a woman much as they desired her. Now and then they would summon all their courage; but the nearer the goal they were, the more bashful and awkward they became and when one word would have sufficed to achieve success, they fled to their homes to seek the miserable substitute for inter- course, solitary gratification. A year ago I treated a chemist who has since been killed in the war. He was a distinguished, highly intelligent type of a man. He was then 36. At 23 he was engaged to a girl with whom he was deeply in love, and who a month before the date set for the wedding lost her mind and was committed to an insane asylum where she still is at present. He suffered terribly when the engagement had to be broken. Later he went to America and sought con- solation and oblivion in extremely active work in which he was successful. At 30 he decided to visit a brothel and met with failure. After that he was absolutely convinced of his impotence. Just be- fore he consulted me he had made another attempt with as little success as the first time. Psychother- apy, especially persuasion and hypnosis restored to him his self-confidence to such a degree that about a month later he made overtures to a young woman and became her lover. They were very happy to^ gether, traveled in Switzerland, from where he was called back by the outbreak of the war. It is a little known fact that there are in Berlin 216 SEXUAL TRUTHS and other large cities "women specialists," belong- ing mainly to the better class of prostitutes who earn a livelihood by "treating" the impotent. They take great pains and often obtain very good results. In cases of conjugal impotence it is advisable to enlist the help of the patient's wife. By using the tact which is the prime requisite of a sex specialist, much can be accomplished. For there are cases of impotence in which the patient's wife can bring about a speedy cure simply by seconding properly her husband's efforts. I make it more and more a rule in cases of hypo- chondria due to conjugal impotence to see to it that the husband gives me a chance to talk things over with his wife. This has proved so helpful that I have come to consider the treating of the husband alone without calling in the wife's aid a practical error. In many cases impotence hypochondria assumes rather the character of sexual overscrupulousness. The difference is this. The hypochondriac is con- vinced that he is simply unable to have sexual in- tercourse, the man suffering from sexual scrupulous- ness thinks his impotence is due to this or that rea- son. Both are the victims of autosuggestion. Very often the man worries over the woman's sexual or- gans, less frequently but not very seldom over the conformation of his own organs. It is especially during the engagement period that men begin to doubt their sexual powers. Many a bridegroom I SEXUAL TRUTHS 217 have had to drive, so to speak, into the bridal cham- ber. Some think that they could not perform the act because of their lack of knowledge of the female organs; whenever they consort with prostitutes, the chief difficulties are surmounted with the woman's assistance. The eager study of anatomical charts gives them little enlightenment. There is also a type of man who might be desig- nated as defloration hypochondriac. The cleaving of the hymen appears to him a task to which he is not equal. One of my patients had been married eight years but had never been able to make up his mind to deflower his wife; he thought he did not have the necessary physical strength and besides could not help considering the act as a sort of physical vio- lence. I performed the operation surgically and the man has since then become a father. Some men are obsessed by the idea that their wife is 11 built too narrow," an idea, by the way, which is held by many laymen. When mere suasion does not produce results the physician must in such cases resort to more realistic methods. I once of- fered to the husband to widen his wife's vagina by means of specula of increasing size. I intro- duced several glass specula into her vagina and he went away quite comforted when I showed him that the last speculum I used was sensibly larger than his penis. I have found it harder to allay the patients' wor- ries over their own sexual organs. Those worries 218 SEXUAL TRUTHS assume to a certain degree the character of com- pulsion neuroses according to Westphal's interpre- tation of the word, or of what Magnan calls obses- sions. There are men with fully developed organs who imagine that their member is too small, and that, in consequence, they cannot get married, for any woman would laugh at them. Others torture themselves with the idea that their penis is too large; they are afraid of hurting the woman. Some imagine that it has been deformed by excessive mas- turbation or that it should, while in erection, point upward instead of downward. Some stand before a mirror and discover that their right testicle hangs lower than the left one; they think their doctor is only trying to comfort them when he tells them that most people are built that way and that it makes no difference. Some worry over the small size, some over the large size of their testicles. I had occasion to observe with Dr. Burchard a curious case of obsession. A man of 50 thought that his scrotum (which was perfectly normal in size) was much too small. He wished to know whether there wasn't some means by which it could be made to hang as low as the middle of the thigh. He wished us to do it through injections of paraffin. It is hard to imagine how much that man worried over that grotesque idea; he wept like a child when we re- fused to give him satisfaction. We were his last hope, he told us. I have known of many men who imagined that they were hermaphrodites. When ex- SEXUAL TRUTHS 219 amined they would show the prolongation of the scrotal raphe at the perineum which they imagined to be a rudimentary or blind vaginal opening. While it is all very well for those contemplating marriage to think things over, there are cases in which hesitancy and overconcern assume a decidedly morbid character. I treated recently a young man of 28 who had engaged himself to a young girl of 20. The day after the engagement took place, he brought his fiancee a ring and then noticed that her fingers were "repulsively thick and red." Above all things he thought the girl received him too coldly. He felt clearly that she was only taking him for the sake of his money, as he was very well to do. This impression became deeper and deeper and the fol- lowing Sunday when the two families met to cele- brate the occasion he broke the engagement. His conscience began immediately to trouble him. Day and night he plagued himself with the thought of the injustice he had done to the girl. He begged for forgiveness and wrote asking once more for her hand. As soon as she took him back his doubts re- turned. A week later the engagement was broken once more. Twice again he went through the same performance. After his fourth engagement he came to me with his father, in a condition of despair, haunted by ideas of suicide; he no longer knew what to do. We decided that the engagement should be broken definitely; but it took him a long time to re- gain his former equilibrium, 220 SEXUAL TRUTHS While such exaggerated cases are comparatively rare, cases of less gravity are very common. I have gradually come to the conclusion that the hesitancy due to sexual hypochondria and morbid scrupulous- ness is, with sexual perversions, one of the most frequent causes of celibacy. Such cases are less frequent among women. Yet I had to treat once a telephone girl who had been brought to me by her fiance. In this case too the engagement had to be finally broken after the date of the wedding had been set as many as six times, and postponed every time at her request a few days before the wedding. Jealousy often is the origin of certain obsessions. A patient of mine was obsessed by the idea that his wife had not been a virgin when he courted her. That suspicion had crept into his mind before the wedding and had been strengthened by the fact that the first connection had been rela- tively easy. He had never revealed to his wife the actual reasons for his moodishness; but he couldn't go on that way and insisted on knowing the truth. Many neurotics suffer intensely from a jealous obsession based upon the relations which they im- agine their wife or bride once had with some other man. Sometimes those ideas repose on no founda- tion whatever; sometimes a neurotic plies the un- fortunate victim of his love with so many pressing questions that she finally confesses to having cared for somebody many years before. A colleague of mine who had consulted many other physicians be- SEXUAL TRUTHS 221 sides me, felt inexpressibly jealous of a man who had been dead many years. After pestering his bride with questions he had finally made her con- fess that the man had once tried to have intercourse with her. He wanted to know whether under the circumstances he could marry the girl. In the past few years I have frequently observed among married people the delusion that either wife or husband is homosexual.* After the Moltke-Har- den scandal such delusions cropped up like mush- rooms. A workingwoman asked me recently to talk her husband out of the idea, which caused him to plague her constantly, that she had homosexual ten- dencies. When I asked the man to come and see me he related that a young woman on meeting his wife had moved the tip of her tongue between her lips; this had confirmed the suspicion he had had for some time. The absolute confidence which the vic- tims of such delusions show fairly remind one of paranoia. This feature is especially striking in one variety of sexual sufferers with which I will now deal briefly. They are men and women, the majority though not all of whom have abnormal sexual feelings and in whom an actual persecution neurosis has de- veloped. One of my patients imagined that people * This is not the case in this country. Only an insignificant fraction of the people know that there is such a thing as homo- sexuality.-Editor. 222 SEXUAL TRUTHS suspected him of homosexual practices because he wore no wedding ring. He would not listen to the very obvious advice I offered, that is to wear a ring, so as to free himself from that worry. Many people who for years have indulged in ab- normal practices are terrified by every ring of the door bell. "I am found out" is the first idea that shoots through their head; "the secret police is at the door prepared to arrest me." In every tele- phone call they suspect an attempt at blackmail. On the street they imagine they are shadowed by detectives. "I wish I could find an apartment into which people couldn't peer," said a patient who for 12 years had been depicting to me the persecution to which he had been submitted by neighbors, jani- tors, tradesmen and other people. Such fits came over him periodically. The last time I saw him he hadn't dared to go home for five days. A man whom he thought to be a detective had been walk- ing up and down in front of his house, undoubtedly to find out who came in and went out. It was very difficult to appease this patient. He finally returned to his apartment accompanied by an attorney friend of his, but it took him some time before he could believe that the innocent cordiality with which the other tenants greeted him was not pure hypocrisy. He expected to be arrested, although there was no reason to fear that the sexual practice in which he had indulged could have become known to any third party. SEXUAL TRUTHS 223 "At the hotel," those unfortunates say, "the waiters stare at me," "the guests at the next table make remarks about my shape," "everybody in the place knows about it, people whisper and when I come in they all stop talking." "At the office they receive me with freezing silence, or ironical glances or repressed giggles." If at the coat room they are given a check numbered 175 [the number of the paragraph in the penal code relative to homosexual practices] they think they have been found out; if the name of a famous sexologist is mentioned in their presence they construe the remark as an allusion to their abnormality. They do not dare to show too much affection to a child for fear their attitude might be ascribed to sexual motives; the papers mention so often people whose friendliness was dan- gerous to children. They feel terribly upset when a person of their sex innocently walks with them arm in arm. They know that if any one should see them then, they would be absolutely compromised. Very often they select as companions people they simply cannot bear. A homosexual lawyer used to show himself everywhere with a beautiful woman whom he designated as his "proof of alibi." Those people open with trembling hands envel- opes directed in an unfamiliar handwriting and which might contain threats of exposure. A com- munication bearing an official stamp throws them into the most absurd fits of terror. Even when they consult people whom they know 224 SEXUAL TRUTHS to be bound by professional secrecy, physicians or lawyers, they introduce themselves under assumed names. I treated for some time a student who told me his name was "Samter" [derived from the Ger- man word which means velvet]. I never suspected that this was not his real name until in the course of a conversation he revealed to me his fetichist in- clination for velvet and similar fabrics. "That is why you selected the name Samter," I remarked to him, and he blushingly confessed. Persecution neuroses are sometimes accompanied by sensory delusions. The patients assert that people make obscene remarks to them, to show that they consider them as abnormal persons. I have two patients suffering from that form of aberration. Both are spinsters of about forty-five. They are not homosexual but they imagine they are taken for such by all kinds of people. One of them would never remain alone in a room with another woman on that account. It is especially during the male and female cli- macteric that one can observe that condition which only differs from paranoia in one respect: the prog- nosis is much more favorable. In many cases, how- ever, those unfortunates do not wait for an improve- ment of their condition and they, in order to escape their imaginary tormentors, put an end to their miserable existence. I will now say a few words about the prognosis and therapy of sexual hypochondria and morbid SEXUAL TRUTHS 225 scrupulosity. As I have already remarked, the out- look is not unfavorable in a large number of cases, although the treatment taxes sorely the patience of both patient and physician. In certain cases, for instance, in impotence hypochondria and in mas- turbation or pollution hypochondria the prognosis is generally good. It is not so good in fixed obses- sions or in jealousy neurosis and it is decidedly bad in the paranoid forms. Combined psychotherapy: persuasion, suggestion and hypnotism, is the first therapeutic method to be applied. If the sexual worries are due only to sexual ignorance a serious process of enlightenment may relieve the mental tension and bring about a cure. Physicians skilled in psychoanalysis will obtain good results from it, for there is no doubt that from an etiological point of view, sexual repression, and childhood influences and discipline have a good deal to do in these cases. The physician must also en- deavor with the help of all the medicinal, dietetic and physical methods of treatment to increase the patient's force of resistance and to allay his nervous agitation. Much depends upon the personality of the physician in whom the patient must have un- bounded confidence; else he will break away and fall into the hands of quacks. The existence of sexual hypochondria alone would justify the introduction of sexual teaching into medi- cal courses in order that practicing physicians may be able to give the unfortunate sufferers competent 226 SEXUAL TRUTHS advice and assistance. Sexual anxiety neurosis is a typical disease of modern times. It is hardly be- lievable that there could have been as many genital hypochondriacs among the old Greeks or the an- cient Germans. We lack the hedonism of old, the naive, genuine sexual enjoyment which shunned ex- cesses, without, however, falling from one extreme into another extreme which is worse yet. Sexual science free from all prejudices must re- pair the damage done to mankind by sexual super- stition prompted by the religious idea of sin. THE DOUBLE STANDARD OF MORALITY Prof. Christian von Ehrenfels The existence of a double standard implies two things: a potent factor of a great step forward and a fatal misunderstanding. By the double standard we generally understand the hypocritical morality of Western nations according to which men, be they officials, teachers, fathers or husbands, pose as the determined defenders of a monogamous single standard and then indulge secretly in every form of immorality. Deplorable as that state of affairs may appear it would be a grievous mistake to use it as an excuse for establishing a single standard for both sexes. A single standard of morality would make upon both sexes uniform demands in the very domain wherein they differ most, the domain of procreation with all its relevant urges and instincts. We face here a serious biological peril. For it is only when the specific activities of both sexes and with them the moral code governing those activities are clearly differentiated that the race can thrive and remain healthy. As soon as the atti- tude of both sexes, especially toward the questions 227 228 SEXUAL TRUTHS of wooing and of sexual gratification, becomes too much alike racial soundness is in jeopardy. Selection serves in the entire organic world as a factor in the survival and development of its species, varieties or races;, selection eliminates the indi- viduals who are not fitted for the life struggle and prevents them from reproducing themselves; of all the forms of selection, virile selection, that is the male's fight for the female is the most important. Virile selection cannot take place, however, unless the attitude of both sexes is clearly differentiated at the time of wooing and pairing. Virile selection demands the elimination of a large proportion of males capable of reproducing themselves, but sex- ually inferior; and consequently the male sex is ex- pected to display a great deal of activity and to woo many females while the female is expected to assume a passive attitude. Among animals, at mating time, any female is attractive for any male; women, on the other hand, attract men for special esthetic reasons; if all women were ready to consort with any men, all the men would satisfy their desire with a minority of the most beautiful and sexually attractive women and the birthrate would fall below the necessary average. It has then become necessary for woman to only consort with one man, at least while the children are being brought up so as to insure them the father's care and protection. From this we can judge how detrimental a single SEXUAL TRUTHS 229 sexual standard would be to the race. This, how- ever, is only evidence by deduction. Some one may ask: Is there historical evidence that any race has deteriorated or died out through adherence to a single standard? I might answer that question by asking one my- self : Is there historical evidence that any race ever adhered to a single standard? Who could answer this question in the affirmative ? There is only one ethnical group on earth whose system of reproduction has been so dominated by the single standard of morality that we could draw from its present condition of health any conclusions for or against that standard; it is the group to which we belong, the Western nations dominated by the Christian ideal. But who could say that the single standard of morality obtains among us? Our double standard, however, only affects the gratification of sexual instincts; it does not affect the process of reproduction and has therefore noth- ing to do with selection. Our system of reproduction is more and more dominated by the single standard of morality which makes the same demands on both sexes and there- fore does away with the virile selection. We can leave illegitimate children out of the discussion. For one thing the majority of those children are the fruit of monogamous unions which were not legalized; when this isn't the case, they find them- 230 SEXUAL TRUTHS selves in conflict with the current morality and are brought up by morally inferior individuals; finally the deplorable conditions in which they are brought up are bound to cause them to deteriorate mentally and physically regardless of the strong constitution they may have inherited. If a single standard of morality is detrimental to the race, the Western nations must have degen- erated under the influence of their monogamic sys- tem of reproduction. We cannot very well prove this by comparing ourselves with our ancestors of a thousand years ago. We know too little about the health of the Carolingians to draw such parallels. We must seek evidence elsewhere. Is there any- where in the world an ethnical group which has pre- served not only for purposes of gratification but for purposes of reproduction as well, its original, healthy, differentiated sexual morality, an ethnical group living like ourselves under civilized condi- tions, so that we could draw comparisons between its health and ours? In comparison with that ethni- cal group our own race should show a distinct in- feriority in physical strength and endurance. This hypothesis is confirmed by actual facts in a manner which is most humiliating for us. The various ethnical groups making up the Chi- nese nation and which for more than a hundred gen- erations have lived in peaceful union, a unique fact in history, have preserved even with the advance of civilization the natural, healthy, differentiated sys- SEXUAL TRUTHS 231 tem of morality which not only is in accord with virile selection but to a certain extent makes it pos- sible. In that ethnical group polygamy or rather con- cubinage assures to the man who is successful in the social competition a greater opportunity to re- produce himself. The results of that system re- spond entirely to the demands of biology. Ethnolo- gists are aware of the fact that as far as physical strength, endurance and resistance to disease goes, in a word as far as what we call health is concerned, the average Chinaman is vastly superior to the aver- age man of the West. One of the results of this is that in the labor mar- ket the Western man is unable to compete with the Chinaman. The United States of America has only been able to cope with this condition by passing exclusion laws against Chinese workingmen. Monogamy is not, however, the only single stand- ard system of morality. There are many other sys- tems imposing the same duties or granting the same privileges to both sexes. Monogamy is simply the most severe of all systems. It simply restricts the man's freedom to the measure of freedom it can ac- cord to the woman. But many other varieties of single standard morality are possible from this ex- treme system to the other extreme which extends the wife's privileges until they include all of the husband's. Nobody with any degree of insight will 232 SEXUAL TRUTHS imagine that such systems could be better for the health of the race than strict monogamy. Those systems are simply various forms of im- morality tending more and more towards mere promiscuity and sexual anarchy. They not only preclude virile selection but make women unwilling to bear children and cause the birthrate to fall be- low the necessary minimum. History tells us that whenever loose forms of sin- gle standards prevailed, as for instance in the Ro- man plutocracy at the time of the Empire, the classes of the population thus affected very soon deterio- rated biologically and died out. Monogamy is of all the forms of single standard moralities the one which is best adapted to the con- servation of the racial health, the one at least under which racial deterioration proceeds most slowly. But the facts I presented above prove abundantly that races which reproduce themselves through monogamistic unions cannot preserve for ever their physical robustness. And this is enough to make us reject the single sexual standard if we wish as a race to come up to the demands of the future, if we are loath to see ourselves counted among the dead. Is it worth while to enumerate the other harmful effects that could result for civilization from the adoption of a single moral standard? After the reasons I have mentioned before any other reasons may appear very trifling indeed. SEXUAL TRUTHS 233 The majority of our sex reformers preconize as the best weapon in the fight against the deplorable consequences of the double standard the adoption of a single standard for both sexes. That single standard has proved to be very pernicious from the point of view of race hygiene and is therefore unsuitable for a race desirous to survive. A single standard morality or, at least, its out- ward procreative manifestation, permanent mo- nogamous marriage, does not by any means obviate the abuses resulting from a double standard mo- rality; on the contrary, it encourages them and is always accompanied by them. Man's polygamous instincts cannot be suppressed by statute. The moral demands made by the per- manent monogamous marriage are too burdensome for the majority of men. One cannot expect the great majority of men of any race to enter the bonds of permanent monogamous marriage without having ever found out personally what sexual inter- course was like. Neither can we expect from the few men who only find that out after marriage that they will be all their life satisfied with that one experience. Whenever official morality makes such exaggerated and unnatural demands men will resort to surrepti- tious intercourse in order to gratify their sexual instincts and they will drag to ruin some of the loveliest women. The whole thing only means: lies, hypocrisy, brutal overpowering of the weak who are 234 SEXUAL TRUTHS then called whores, unmarried mothers and illegiti- mate children. . . . There is only one way of breaking that chain of disgraceful evils, that is to recognize frankly and honestly that there must be a different standard of natural healthy morality for each sex. This morality and the sexual and family life based upon it would not make the hetaira superfluous in our social system. On the contrary if a large pro- portion of individuals sexually inferior were ex- cluded from participating in the process of repro- duction, many more hetairas would be needed. If we recognize officially a double standard of mor- ality men would no longer need to conceal the grati- fication they found with hetairas. Polygamous family life would develop in both sexes the highest and noblest form of procreative instinct, the conscious desire to bring into the world a large number of superior children. The development of that instinct would do away with the debasing attraction the prostitute has for men and with the secret desire women, those at least living in large cities, may have to lead the life of a prostitute. It would also put an end to the brutal treatment meted out to the prostitute. After recog- nizing a double standard of morality, society could accept the hetaira as one of its members and accord her the position to which she is entitled, a position not as high as that accorded to the wife and mother SEXUAL TRUTHS 235 but compatible nevertheless with a measure of self- respect. Oriental prostitution which, in many ways, esthet- ically and morally, in a word humanely, is so much nobler than ours owes its status to the public recog- nition of a double standard of morality, the hygienic advantages of which are very obvious. Guilds of oriental prostitutes enforce the medical examination of the house's patrons under the guise of a bath given by a feminine attendant before in- tercourse takes place. It is not until like customs are adopted in our Western countries that we will be able to wage an effective fight upon venereal dis- ease. There is a point, however, on which we cannot and should not imitate the example of the Asiatics. The form of marriage current in Asia and based upon the double standard of morality is polygamy. This was the usual form of marriage among our ancestors when they were still in a condition of savagery. When that form of marriage does not de- generate, as it does in the harems of some pluto- crats, it keeps the race mentally and physically sound. But it places the woman and her children at the absolute mercy of the man and in a condition of dependence and slavery. There is no doubt but that it was the adoption of monogamy by the Western nations and the conse- quent uplift of woman that enabled our civilization to rise so rapidly above that of the oriental races. 236 SEXUAL TRUTHS We must not lose the ground we have won thereby. We cannot return to the oriental form of marriage, to primitive, barbarous polygamy. We could not do it even if we had to obviate at any cost the approach- ing danger of degeneration. For civilization must not be allowed to regress. We should, however, establish a sexual modus vivendi based upon the recognition of a double standard and which would reconcile the welfare of the race with the lofty position civilization accords woman. This will require a good deal of effort, of creative work of a social nature, the adoption of an entirely new conception of life. Haphazard marriages and the various experi- ments proposed by our sex reformers will never ac- complish that. Such an undertaking will encounter many ob- stacles. Nothing, however, is more worthy of en- listing the cooperation of the noblest men. For it will be left to our children's children to prove the truth of the following thesis: The adoption of a sexual morality and of a sexual system in keeping with our present state of civiliza- tion is a question of life or death for the Western nations. IDIOGAMY By Professor Paul Mantegazza, M.D., Florence To the many known varieties of masculine im- potence I think I can add one more which, on the advice of my well known colleague, Professor Com- paretti, I shall tentatively designate as Idiogamy. When a man can only have relations with one cer- tain woman or one certain type of women, and is partly or completely impotent in the presence of other types, he can be said to be suffering from idiogamy. Animals themselves have their sexual sympathies and antipathies. Darwin observed that sort of feel- ings but he overrated their importance in order to support his theory of sexual selection. We might generally state that when a male at rutting time meets a female who finds herself in a state of sexual excitement, the male is attracted by an irresistible overwhelming power towards the female and tries to fecundate her. When a young and robust man, of any race, finds himself in a condition of plethora spermatica, he can have relations with any woman, be she comely or ugly, young or old, and he is able to possess her 237 238 SEXUAL TRUTHS even if he doesn't feel the slightest attraction toward her. In studying the relations between man and woman, however, we must take into consideration many psychical factors, in particular some factors of an esthetic nature, which may interfere with the per- formance of the sexual act or even prevent it en- tirely. The best and I may add the healthiest form of coitus is that which is the most automatic and animal, which resembles so to speak an outburst, the one during which the lovers in their sensual feast forget all their hesitancy, silence their remorse and all the inner voices, in a word, when both forget all the buts and ifs. By performing the act in any other way men and women may be more human and less animal, but they are so mainly at the expense of their love and of their offspring. The attraction beauty exerts on certain men is such that even the strongest promptings of their sexual need depend upon it and are conditioned by it. Those aristocrats of love are impotent in the presence of homely women; they can only have con- nections with beautiful women, some only with the most beautiful women, for these only enable them to satisfy their esthetic cravings. The ideal of perfect love would then consist in selecting among hundreds and thousands of beau- tiful women the one who more than any other grati- fies our esthetic taste, to possess her and never to SEXUAL TRUTHS 239 desire to touch any other. This ideal is not impos- sible of realization and in fact it is realized more frequently than we think in every day life. But we do not always find such exacting esthetic and ethical demands in the hearts of those who try to express them in their life; the truth is rather that they cannot have anything to do with women who differ too much from their ideal. Idiogamy is due more frequently to esthetic pref- erences, less frequently to moral preferences. Some esthetic idiogamists for instance can only have rela- tions with fat women, others, less numerous, with thin ones, some only desire blond women, some only dark ones. We may call idiogamists, in the broadest sense of the word, men who can only have intercourse with women of their own race. And many of us would prove to be idiogamists if we had to enter a union with a Hottentot woman or an Australasian negress. The clinical symptom of pure idiogamy is then the fact that in spite of the male's strong desire and of the female's alluring caresses a coitus is made im- possible by esthetic and ethical factors. Among the ethical idiogamists we may count those who on account of esthetic considerations and con- victions are incapable of performing the act of coitus. A common result of that form of idiogamy is that one may be absolutely impotent with a prosti- tute while well capable of satisfying other women. The variety of idiogamy which prevents many 240 SEXUAL TRUTHS from having intercourse with venal women does not always proceed from a lofty moral conscience, that is from the revulsion of feelings which one must conquer in order to exchange embraces and kisses with those miserable creatures. It is often due to the fear of infection, of the dangerous and repulsive diseases that lurk in the genital parts of the pros- titute. And in this respect idiogamy is no longer distinguishable from sexual hypochondria which is simply a form of idiogamy. The word could be well used to designate the embarrassment and the feeling of shame which the beginner experiences when he visits houses of prostitution. A man's desire may be very strong, the woman may fully satisfy his esthetic taste, yet one of the difficulties I have mentioned arises, the man finds himself in the wrong mood and incapacitated. The memory of the first failure contains the germ of the second; the second prepares the third and so an ad infinitum. I could cite hundreds of such cases and of such failures in love; I will confine myself to mentioning a few which I have observed in the course of my long practice. A young and vigorous man falls in love with a woman who holds his affection for several months without granting him more than a few caresses. His lovemaking becomes more ardent and his desire increases and finally the woman declares herself won and accepts to meet her lover and to give her- self to him. No danger threatens the lovers, noth- SEXUAL TRUTHS 241 ing lacks for the consummation of their happiness except . . . erection on his part. She waits. Her kisses, her caresses, her sighs are useless. Jacet exiguus . . . complete failure. The young man leaves her in despair, cursing himself and his bad luck. To find out whether he has become impotent he visits a prostitute and in the company of this cheap mistress he regains his strength and his man- hood. Another man, middle aged, married, and who had until then remained faithful to his wife, meets one day a very ardent woman who falls in love with him and who desires him with a sudden and undisguised passion. She tells him that she will come to his room the following night if he leaves his door open. The door is left unlocked, he holds the overjoyed woman in his arms, they spend the whole night to- gether but he can not satisfy her nor himself. The following night, spent in the conjugal bed, proves to him that he is not impotent. In many cases idiogamy assumes the characters of an actual psychosis, of a mental trouble, accom- panied by moral or esthetic disturbances which con- tradict the most elementary laws and principles of biology. I knew a man who could only have connections with very old women or with women who had been disfigured by sickness or presented horrible defor- mities, and he never liked them so well as when they 242 SEXUAL TRUTHS were coated with dirt and dressed in beggar's rags. Young and comely women left him absolutely in- different and he was impotent in their company. This case borders on pathologic love and it would require too much space to relate the many similar cases, less pronounced than this one, however, which I have mentioned in my books on love. Whatever the cause of idiogamy may be, the fact remains that it is a source of much suffering and depression, which in certain cases leads to despair and suicide. This is where the physician must in- tervene and he will frequently succeed in restoring to the poor idiogamist his peace of mind and his re- pose. The first thing to do in such a case is to institute a psychic treatment and to spare no efforts in order to break down the tyrannic influence which prevents the natural excitement from being felt and which interferes with the erection. One must follow the mode of treatment I have recommended in cases of sexual hypochondria, which is only a form of idiogamy. Gymnastic exercises, gradually increased, hydropathic treatment, and mild aphrodisiacs help to allay the patient's trepida- tion at the time of his first attempt and with the help of medical stimulants positive progress can be made. The first victory is not easily won, but the second will be easier than the first and after that a com- plete cure will be in sight. Regarding the stimulants which are needed to SEXUAL TRUTHS 243 overcome the first obstacles and give the patient confidence in his strength, I have found that caffein administered in small doses one day before the in- tended connection takes place gave the best results. [The author's medicinal treatment and his faith in caffein seem to the Editor rather too simple. The treatment of sexual disorders is not quite so simple as that. But perseverance will usually bring its re- ward in the largest percentage of cases of sexual abnormalities of whatever origin.-W. J. R.] CONTINENCE IN THE TWO SEXES By R. W. Shufeldt, M.D., Washington, D. C. If the sexual impulse is so imperative in any man or woman, that either health or sound men- tality is injured through continence, then it ceases to be a matter of morals to seek and attain satisfac- tion, quite as much so as though any other system of the economy was being starved through neglect, or depriving the organs involved of the necessary requirements for their functioning. Morals have nothing whatever to do with it. The question is one for mankind as a whole to consider, and it is not restricted to any particular race or people. It is only our peculiar marital relations and arrange- ments that bring up in our minds any immorality with respect to carrying out, in a natural way, the physiological functions of any parts of our bodies. We have switched far, far off from nature, our people have,-we never hear of the question of con- tinence brought up among savage and other races who lead a natural existence in such particulars. They would, and do, laugh at us and our insane no- tions in such matters. As I was born exactly in the middle of last cen- tury, I feel that I have had, in my more than check- 245 246 SEXUAL TRUTHS ered career, ample experience upon which to base an opinion in this widely discussed question. Some aspects of it have already been discussed by me in the press at different times and in different places. It is a subject that I have carefully observed and upon which I have read a good deal, and, being a physician, have talked freely about both with men and women. The sexual impulse differs in its demands in the sexes, and in different races in various quarters of the world, and at various periods of the life of the individual. Both with respect to men and women, it may be very intense in some individuals; luke- warm in others; and entirely absent in by no means a few. It is powerfully affected, when present, by social conditions, environment, habits, tastes, meth- ods of living, various excitants, and so on. Taking the white race, of the Anglo-Saxon stock, in this country as an example, I am of the opinion, that among normal people -the sexual impulse, or the libido sexualis, is manifested in boys several years prior to the time it appears in girls. I should say in boys from 8-14 and in girls from 14-20, de- pending very largely upon a great many circum- stances. The instinct is much more easily aroused in boys than it is in girls, again depending upon the tem- perament and individuality; but once aroused in either boy or girl, normally sexed, the desire is never SEXUAL TRUTHS 247 forgotten again, until either disease, old age, or death does away with it. It is not unusual to meet with women in whom no sexual desire appeared until after twenty, and, in not a few cases, until after thirty. There are many exceptions to this rule. Then many girls are autoerotic at twelve, and many indulge in sexual relations at this early age. After the function is established in the male sex and a few copulatory acts have been experienced, in the vast majority of men the physiological im- pulse is distinctly imperative and should be gratified as often as the nature of the man, in whom it has manifested itself, demands. If not properly and regularly attended to, in the vast majority of nor- mally sexed men, the results are almost invariably disastrous and often destroy the individual. It may bring on a number of distressing nervous dis- eases ; it frequently is the cause of impotency, send- ing its victim to a suicide's grave or the ward of an insane asylum; it is responsible for no end of alco- holic abuse among men, who drink to kill the burn- ing and unsatisfied desire that has manifested itself in them. Very many men in the community, who periodically drink to excess, are either prematurely impotent, or stand in constant dread of it, or are the mates of frigid, sexless wives, who know noth- ing of even ordinary affection and who insist, that their husbands abandon all sexual relations with them. 248 SEXUAL TRUTHS A large number of our women are entirely de- void of any sexual passion whatever. There may exist in them both psychological as well as anatomi- cal reasons for this,-reasons that any intelligent physician is more or less familiar with. A smaller percentage have the libido sexualis fairly well de- veloped in them, psychologically the desire is more or less strong, they are anatomically normally con- stituted, emotional, affectionate, and, if they have been educated properly in sexual congress with the opposite sex, they welcome the opportunities to gratify the desire. Such women, however, can often abandon all sexual gratification and not suffer there- by in the least. Finally, there is a very much smaller percentage of women, perhaps one in a hundred, who are nor- mal in all particulars, and endowed by nature with every essential factor to revel in sexual intercourse whenever and wherever the chance presents itself. In these women, after the impulse is fully estab- lished, the satisfaction of it is absolutely demanded, is entirely uncontrollable, and I have met with cases in whom the act was so imperative, that it was not only performed a number of times in each twenty- four hours, but they would run any risk, face any danger, endure any hardship or inconvenience in order to gratify the burning desire within them. [These are nymphomaniacs, pathologic specimens, and with them we have nothing to do in this dis- SEXUAL TRUTHS 249 cussion. The question is only of the sexual instinct in normal individuals of both sexes. Editor.] A small percentage of men are also frigid types, being entirely lacking in the sexual impulse, and in our form of marriage they should be very careful with respect to the mate they select as a life com- panion, for of all the diabolical hells on earth, it is where an icicle and a furnace endeavor to fulfill the requirements of the marital bond and live to- gether. If the man be the icicle and the woman the furnace, the case is bad enough, but if the reverse obtains, then there is no torture known to mankind that can compare with it, in so far as the man is concerned, and generally no better examples are to be found in the matter of dense ignorance of re- sults, utter indifference as to consequences, and sublime unreasonableness at all times, than is ex- emplified in all such women. And the remarkable part of it is, that they are of the very kind who create the greatest amount of disturbance if they become acquainted with the fact, that the husband has a mistress or behaves like a normal man with women elsewhere. Kitchener remarks on this point "that there are innumerable women of this class, who drive their husbands to seek for other females with whom they can cohabit without check or hindrance; and yet these very women, if they knew that their husbands had a connection of that kind, would be the loudest in their invectives against immorality and incon- 250 SEXUAL TRUTHS tinence." In some respects the Abyssinians have better sense than ourselves in such matters, for, ac- cording to Madame Sillery, if a husband is con- victed of adultery, his wife is severely punished or expelled from her home, for they argue, had she fully satisfied him sexually, as she should, he would not have been confronted with the necessity of seek- ing other women, therefore, she, the wife, was to blame. The Abyssinian judges would have their hands full, were they called upon to mete out justice to such dames in this country. In normal women the regular satisfaction of the sexual desire "is a natural craving," while Napheys points out that "there are wives who pride them- selves on repugnance or distaste for their conjugal obligation. ' ' They speak of their coldness and calm- ness of their senses as though they were not defects. Yet the sour, shallow, sexless shrew is, as Jordan says, "an impostor as a wife, and her marriage is a fraud. ' ' Absolute continence in normal men is followed by the most distressing results, and this is likewise true of normal, passionate women; but the latter have one advantage. For as you truly remark, "one of the most dreaded possibilities which stand spec- ter-like before middle-aged continent men, namely, sexual impotence, leaves women entirely undis- turbed. ' ' I am satisfied, that at least half of the male sui- cides in this country, where the cause remains un- SEXUAL TRUTHS 251 known, are those of continent married men in mid- dle life. Psychological impotency in men, especially in some kind of men, is easily induced by an igno- rant, sexually anesthetic wife, who habitually repels her husband's advances, and this form of impo- tency can soon become permanent. Have you ever observed how common masturba- tion is among a certain class of insane patients? how they break out in lewd remarks? They are middle aged men, who have attempted to lead abso- lutely continent lives, often with a wife completely sexually anaesthetic on one side, and the dread of venereal disease, on the other. The time comes when the mind must give way and some one of the psychoses rapidly develops. Anything is better than this for a race or a peo- ple,-even polygamy. CRIME AND LAW WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CRIMINAL ABORTION Prof. J. Kocks, Bonn, Germany I am printing a translation of Prof. Kocks ' article not because I fully agree with the author, but be- cause it is a sign of the times and because it shows what extreme freedom of expression some German professors permit themselves. I dare say if a pro- fessor in any of our universities came out publicly with such views he would be at once ostracized, so- cially and professionally, and his resignation would be politely but firmly requested. No, I do not agree with Prof. Kocks that all restrictions against abor- tion should be abolished, and that the woman should have the unrestricted right to have an abortion pro- duced on herself, irrespective of the month of gesta- tion. Abortion is a nasty business, ethically, esthetically and physically, though not infrequently it is fully justifiable as the lesser of two evils. Pre- vention of conception is a much simpler, a much more ethical and a healthier way. And one of the reasons, we, the advocates of neo-malthusianism or a rational and hygienic prophylaxis of conception, are so earnest in our propaganda is because we 253 254 SEXUAL TRUTHS know of the terribly widespread evil of abortion, with its dangers to the psyche, to health and to life. "Better to prevent than to destroy." But Dr. Kocks' contribution deserves reading.-W. J. R. The gynecologic literature of late years has dealt considerably with the subject of criminal abortion, and quite recently some minds again clashed on this question. Thus in the Zentralblatt f. Gynakologie, No. 30, of the current year, Max Hirsch, opposing von Win- kel and Brunn, refers to his own works, to Flesch, von Liszt, Fritsch and others. What Hirsch says is so clear, that for the un- prejudiced no further discussion is needed. Social currents cannot be stemmed by laws and police. But the law itself produces crime by causing viola- tions of it. If it is directed only against pretended and imaginary crimes, then it is an evil. If there were no laws against induced abortion, there would be no crimes of that kind and poor humanity would be spared much of its misery. In Holland there is * no §175 against homosex- uality of adults and thus there are no crimes of that kind. In this respect the Roman Law shines as brightly as the sun for our present day law makers. The Romans as well as the Greeks did not let * Should be ' ' there was, ' ' for the present clerical-governmental clique introduced it again.-Ed. SEXUAL TRUTHS 255 loose their laws agains unavoidable habits of the people, even when these habits appeared to them as vices. On a Roman potsherd, found in the neigh- borhood of Remagen, we read: "He who keeps on treating himself with boys and girls takes poor ac- count of his purse." The criticism of the potter, who scratched the Latin saying-probably a mutilated distich-on the bottom of the vase, does not go farther. Why should not modern nations possess such an equanimity? In the Middle Ages capital punishment was im- posed for smoking tobacco! Now our popes and archbishops themselves smoke. Smoking certainly is a great evil. The wholesome air is poisoned for the non-smokers! But the pipes are in the majority! Well, the majority makes the law, and the minority has to keep quiet. Surely, our whole parliamenta- rism is founded on this basis. But those laws should be abolished which create crimes where none exist. People smoked in spite of the prohibition, per- ceived the disadvantage of the law, repealed it again, and nowadays every one smokes. Some don't, for their health is dear to them, or they have a disgust for tobacco. So is it with Kynddie. To a great many people it is as hoggish as the smoking of a stinking pipe, of a cigar, or a ciga- rette saturated with saliva. But let him who wishes smoke, provided he does not spoil the air for others (i. e. in the open air and in smoking rooms, where tobacco saturated smokers mutually puff at each 256 SEXUAL TRUTHS other). If according to the old Fritz everybody should be permitted to become sanctified after his own fashion, why should not everybody be happy on this earthshell after his own fashion, so long as he does not annoy his neighbors by it! What is true of smoking, homosexuality, of Les- bian and Kynadian love, is true of induced abor- tion. The Romans even issued a law, which pro- nounced the right of the women to the fruit of their womb before birth. It reads: "Infans pars visce- rum matris!" The fetus is a part of the mother's viscera.-This settles the matter. As the mother is permitted to remove her ovary, her uterus, so she was also permitted to remove the fetus, accord- ing to the Roman Law.-And wise were the Romans in this law. They avoided making laws, which arti- ficially create crimes out of human rights! Modern Lycurguses, learn from them! All tobacco prohibitions, all prohibitions against homosexuality were of no use; in spite of threat- ened capital punishment people smoked and prac- ticed Lesbian and Kynadian "love." This word is very characteristic of the hypocrisy of the world. The word "love" is applied to the legitimate and illegitimate relief of the organism from its oppres- sing secretions! People inveigh against the prac- tical and at the same time poetical Romans, who de- fied this natural necessity in Eros, in Amor. Why? Did not Catholicism also make a Sacrament out of it, at the same time cunningly introducing celibacy SEXUAL TRUTHS 257 for its soldiers! So stop your storms of indigna- tion on account of the old Gods of Love! First of all abolish the Sacrament of the marriage tie! Now we come to the fight against induced abor- tion, a fight which is absolutely in vain. As the pro- hibited tobacco remained in spite of the laws, as the prohibited homosexuality remained in spite of the laws, so remains induced abortion in spite of the laws! Leave to the woman the right of her body and its contents! The world would not die out on this ac- count. Germany does not go to ruin on this ac- count. Bullying goes for nothing, we knew that already when we used to play as boys. The State has no right to attack personal freedom unneces- sarily. The Englishmen maintain, that even alcohol, which causes much more harm than criminal abor- tion, should not be prohibited, that the prohibition of alcohol is an encroachment on personal liberty! Max Hirsch sees a remedy against criminal abor- tion in the betterment of the economic conditions! I do not share this view. France, the rich, has its two-children system, we have introduced now (since we became richer) the three-children system, while the Russians have still retained their four [and eight] children system. But don't get uneasy! Leave men and women in their private life alone! Here laws are not heeded anyhow, and they create artificial crimes, where none exist. 258 SEXUAL TRUTHS Those who are aware, as we gynecologists are, of the great misfortune, which is caused by an unde- sired pregnancy, know, what a blessing the Roman Law would be. "Infans pars viscerum matris." And those who, as we physicians, being tied by the law, must permit this misery to exist, will compre- hend the Romans! I saw the despair of a respected colleague over his young unmarried, but pregnant sister; the despair of a pregnant unmarried daughter of an esteemed evangelical minister, of the unhappy niece of an- other highly respected colleague, of a young girl impregnated by her own young brother,-and a great number of other misfortunes, which I had to permit to continue unrelieved, because there exists the mischievous paragraph forbidding under severe punishment medical aid in such a calamity. Gor- dian Knots must be cut! Away with the laws which achieve nothing and only bring misery to man- kind! Away with them! And if it were imposed upon physicians as a duty to bring about abortions upon the request of the pregnant woman, how little dangerous they would be then, if we proceeded according to the remark- able suggestions made by Fritsch. So, away with the bad laws which produce arti- ficial crimes instead of preventing evil, because they are directed against artificially created pretended evils! Away with §175, away with the sections of the penal law against artificial abortion! SEXUAL TRUTHS 259 Back to the Roman Law "Infans pars viscerum matris!" The fetus is a part of the mother's vis- cera! Therefore she alone has the right to decide about it. IS IT REALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE PROS- TITUTION HARMLESS AS FAR AS INFECTION IS CONCERNED? By Prof. A. Neisser, Breslau, Germany Not only my opponents but even my friends will reprimand me as a hopeless optimist when I reply to the above question that I regard it as wholly possible, even though we may not absolutely make all prostitutes free from danger, at least to diminish their infectiveness to such an extent that the infec- tion of men will be much reduced; this in turn will naturally have a favorable reaction on the spread of venereal disease among women. I shall maintain this optimistic outlook until the error of my ways is shown me by seriously under- taken investigations-and such have not been made as yet. And I shall not cease to raise my voice for the reform of the supervision of prostitution, feel- Editorial Note-Prof. Neisser is not a lightheaded reformer or an overzealous radical and whatever the discoverer of the gonococcus has to say is worth listening to. We are certainly pleased to see that among other things he advises instructing the prostitutes in the use of venereal prophylactics, as a measure of great importance in the battle against venereal disease. This is a measure which we have been advocating for years, and this advocacy drew upon our head the anathemas of the clerical and of the ultra good members of our own profession.-W. J. R. 261 262 SEXUAL TRUTHS ing as I do that not only is the widest kind of super- vision justified but that such supervision should be subjected to drastic reform. I shall not here enter into a discussion of the many moot points in connection with the control of vene- real disease but shall take up the subject from the point of view that in addition to the necessity of carrying the warfare against the men concerned in the problem we must direct our energies against prostitution in the very widest sense of the word. Now what shall we understand by "prostitution in the very widest sense"? By this term we must understand not only the relatively small number of prostitutes whom the police now register and control by virtue of the pres- ent administrative regulations but also the infinitely larger number of young girls and women who do not follow the trade of prostitution as a profession and the only obvious means of livelihood, but who through their absolutely unselected, constantly changing and frequent sexual intercourse are much more dangerous than real professional prostitutes. As has been mentioned in the case of this host of "private" prostitutes-and most "loose relations" involve this class-sexual relations do not form the only source of income; they are carried as a sort of side line. These women indulge for pleasure and for "love," circumstances which, however, from the hygienic point of view, in no wise change the. dangerous character of these women. For the sani- SEXUAL TRUTHS 263 tary mischief depends entirely on the frequency of promiscuous intercourse to which these women are parties, and not on the price. In the face of such complications can one hope for the sanitation of this gigantic type of prostitution fed by shop girls, saleswomen, maids, etc? I believe it possible to effect an improvement in the present status if an earnest attempt were made to bring as many as possible of the girls belonging to these classes under medical observation and treatment, and if this were accomplished through education and per- suasion rather than by force. Especially should this compulsory treatment and supervision be free from the feature of registration and its associated aspects which tend to degrade and deprave the girls, un- less in individual cases, after thorough investiga- tion such measures should prove absolutely neces- sary. Unfortunately it is hard for the police to control these women. The law allows them to proceed against "persons who practice professional prosti- tution." But since these "private" women who constitute the greatest danger for the spread of venereal diseases cannot easily be proven to come under the legal head of practicing prostitution, the police must stand by powerless. And yet when one really wishes to arrive at some- thing, compulsion cannot be done away with. For any one who has had to deal with these people in the capacity of physician, official, police assistant, 264 SEXUAL TRUTHS or probation officer, knows that without far-reach- ing compulsion only an exceptional case will reform, or what concerns us more nearly, undergo a real thorough course of treatment. In most cases treat- ment will be avoided by these women because of stupidity, ignorance, frivolity, indifference, conven- ience, etc. An important factor which deters many of these girls from being treated even when they are aware that they are diseased, is the fear of a forcible in- ternship in a hospital. Accordingly, we must strive to eliminate hospital treatment as much as possi- ble and to carry out the treatment just as far as it is at all conceivable on the ambulatory plan. I am familiar with all the objections that can be raised against ambulatory treatment, and I admit without reserve that if it were possible to treat all patients in hospitals the hygienic result would be infinitely better than that obtained from ambulatory treatment. There is, however, no reason to suppose that since at present only a small number of the dis- eased girls can be subjected to such a hospital treat- ment, a much better general average of cures can be obtained if we were to try to increase the total number of those who can be subjected to treatment in general. I therefore make the following suggestions: 1. One or more dispensaries, clinics, or relief stations-I prefer the latter name-depending on the size of the city, should be established "for girls SEXUAL TRUTHS 265 and women suffering from female or venereal dis- eases." I would not recommend the wording "for venereal diseases" alone. 2. As physicians, only trained specialists-men and women-should be engaged. They should be assisted by as many trained nurses as may be re- quired. These physicians should be paid so well that they should be able to give up several hours in the morning as well as in the afternoon, and what is more important during the evening. They should be willing when necessary to give up their private practice in order to help and treat the women en- trusted to them. The evening hours are important in order that the patients may come for consulta- tion without interfering with their work. 3. In addition to those who come for treatment of their own free will, there should also be accepted individuals who have come under police notice but who have not yet been registered; individuals, therefore, who for the present should be subject to compulsory treatment only. 4. I also wish to have control over the registered women according to a scheme of treatment in relief stations which I shall speak of later. But I wish to reserve the polyclinics spoken of heretofore for those who seek treatment voluntarily and for those who are not yet registered. 5. The clinics ought to keep records of cases in which the names and diagnoses may be entered co- ordinately so that in case the patient wished to 266 SEXUAL TRUTHS change her doctor-there should be regulations against a too frequent change-provision would be made for a uniform method of observation and treat- ment. Naturally hospital treatment should remain in vogue wherever it is required for medical or per- sonal reasons. On the other hand, whenever possi- ble it should be replaced or supplemented by ambula- tory treatment. 6. The female police and relief station nurses should cooperate both to support the physicians in their efforts to institute regular treatment by look- ing up the absentees among the patients, and also to aid the women in a social way with their advice and services. I expect that the salvation army will be of real service in the effort to warn the more thoughtless girls, ignorant of the trend of their ways, and to save them from sinking into vagabondage and pros- titution. The efforts of this institution should be supported by public means much more freely than has been the case in the past. I would not, how- ever, leave out the '' morals police ' ' entirely; I would merely limit its activity and keep it as a last re- source. In the future as heretofore the new female mor- als police should accost the girls who walk the streets with the sole object of enticing men, should attempt to get their names, should warn them, and finally, if necessary in exceptional cases, should arrest them. Indeed this should be done much more often SEXUAL TRUTHS 267 than heretofore. And it all can be done, since, as explained above, the new procedure will avoid those features which have formerly hurt the social stand- ing of the poor creatures who so often follow their thoughtless inclinations. Especially would I regard it as a great step in advance if these persons would not be arrested and detained until the next day in the police courts. Following the example of the American night police courts, could not these girls appear at night before a high police official who would hear them, warn them, and find them some asylum so that only the really wicked and repeated offenders would remain in the hands of the police? I do not belong to those who look to official regu- lation as the entire solution of the problem. To be sure the authority of the police must be regulated by fundamental laws. However, as far as the prac- tical treatment of given individuals engaged in pros- titution is concerned, the police must be given free play in order to be able to individualize. Naturally high-handed procedures on the part of officials may arise, but preventive measures can be easily devised to overcome these. I am still, as I have been, a supporter of "pre- ventive control," only this control should have more of a medical character, and be combined with medi- cal treatment and should omit as much as possible the feature of registration with the resultant injury to the social standing of the person affected. Must 268 SEXUAL TRUTHS it always be brought up against a girl that she was at one time "registered," even if she lives hence- forth a perfectly unobjectionable and orderly life 1 In addition to these coercive measures there must be a much more extensive plan of instruction and explanation for these young women who are hence- forth put on their own feet and have to shape their course and make their living for the most part with- out parental influence or other protection. The great majority of these persons have naturally no idea of the injurious results of sexual intercourse, no notion of the threatening misery of prostitution, at most an indefinite fear of pregnancy. In my opin- ion the lodges and trade-unions could offer good assistance in this connection by organizing their women members through talks and written articles. Obviously, I desire to have the entire system as mild and free as is at all possible. Coercion should be directed only through the form of physicians' orders and police supervision should be limited only to those who, despite all instruction, warning, and advice persist in the practice of prostitution. But even the latter group should be separated into those who promptly and willingly follow medical advice and those who resist it. Furthermore, it is of im- portance to separate from this group of out and out prostitutes, by means of sanitarium treatment or in some similar fashion, the following groups: 1. Those very young girls who are following prostitution as a recent venture and who offer hope SEXUAL TRUTHS 269 of being brought up to be orderly citizens. Here I again repeat that their sojourn in the asylums or similar institutions should not be made to appear to them as penal servitude, as is at present generally the case. Especially does it seem that a too strict "church" or "holy" atmosphere is out of place. All these institutions should be conducted in a more cheerful tone and should be linked with educational and vocational departments. If for any reason an asylum cannot be provided for these young girls, or when there is a long interval between the hos- pital treatment and the institution of further edu- cational or vocational care, some special provision must be made for these recruits from prostitution. I regard it as wrong to omit supervision with con- trol of these minors, as is now the case. These young people, when they become prostitutes, are the most dangerous of all. It is among their num- ber that the contagious forms of the venereal dis- eases are most widespread, and as the prettiest and youngest of the prostitute class they are most sought after by the men. 2. Those who are mentally defective or actually mentally diseased, and those who because of their psychic constitution constitute the so-called a- or anti-social elements, are entitled to permanent pro- tection. In fact all women, who despite every warn- ing, persist in practicing prostitution should be sub- jected to thorough psychiatric observation and treat- ment. 270 SEXUAL TRUTHS In what way then can the venereal danger arising from all these prostitutes be overcome by ambula- tory treatment? 1. As far as chancroids (ulcera mollia) are con- cerned, almost all such cases can be discovered by careful examination. If the examination of all reg- istered persons was to take place twice a week hardly a single chancroid, the incubation period of which lasts three days on an average, could escape detection. Every soft chancre, as soon as discovered, should be carefully wiped with pure carbolic acid and dressed with a small cotton pledget covered with 10% protargol-petrolatum. Iodoform, though a val- uable specific, cannot be used because its odor is not readily disguised. Twenty-four hours later another examination should be made when the physician must decide from the results of the cauterization whether ambulatory treatment will suffice or whether hospital care must be instituted. If the latter step is unnecessary, daily inspection and treat- ment should be carried out with a repetition of the carbolic acid treatment if necessary. In addition the patient is instructed always to smear the vaginal introitus freely with'pure petrolatum. Naturally I count on the probability of the girl's carrying on sexual intercourse, and believe that this procedure will not only protect the man who visits her from infection but will also prevent the transportation of the ulcers in the neighborhood of the original lesion SEXUAL TRUTHS 271 as far as the woman herself is concerned. Ofttimes the pain due to the ulcers or beginning bubos will lead the girls to refrain from intercourse volun- tarily or to seek hospital treatment of their own accord. 2. As regards gonorrhea, I believe definitely that free smearing of the introitus with petrolatum and similar treatment of the urethral aperture must needs offer definite protection against infection. At any rate prevention of fornical and uterine gonorrhea will be possible by means of a vaginal tampon, soaked in fat or smeared with petrolatum placed in front of the cervix. The latter will also protect the men from infection out of the uterus. There is also the theoretical possibility of discharging such pros- titutes earlier from the hospital-cases which would otherwise have to remain for months on account of a cervical or uterine gonorrhea-without having them do damage to the community. The question can even be brought up as to whether all those affected with urethral gonorrhea needs must be subjected to hospital treatment or at least whether they could not be discharged much sooner than is the case at present. All reasonably sensible persons who take daily injections and who present themselves for daily treatment can be made practically harmless. This is important because one can never feel certain that they will restrain from sexual intercourse. The treatment I suggest consists in the introduction of a 272 SEXUAL TRUTHS urethral suppository containing 10 to 20% protar- gol and composed as follows: I? Protargol .........1........10-20% Amyli ..,.. .1. 30.0 Tragacanthae 4.0 Pulv. acaciae 20.0* Such suppositories to be introduced once or bet- ter twice daily. The parts are then covered with cotton so that the melting mass may remain in the urethra as long as possible. Many girls can learn to introduce the suppositories by themselves. There can be no doubt as to the therapeutic effi- ciency of suppository treatment. To be sure one can not always succeed in killing all the gonococci quick- ly or at once. As far as the prostitutes in ques- tion are concerned, however, the end is achieved that the degree of contagion is diminished, often as well as completely eliminated. Moreover by con- tinuous treatment over a long period complete cure is possible. Now if the prostitutes were to carry out this simple and painless suppository treatment daily-their own mistresses can do it for them- they can certainly do without hospital treatment, and what is more important for our purposes, they can be made much less infectious or absolutely non- * It is not of course to be assumed that those quantities are for one suppository. Those are the proportions for forming the sup- pository mass; and of this mass suppositories are to be formed weighing 0.5 to 0.8 (8 to 12 grains).-W. J. R, SEXUAL TRUTHS 273 infectious. Irritation of the mucosa, or other mani- festations which might interfere with their voca- tion are not accompaniments of these procedures. As a result, whether through education or per- suasion, or even through force, the girls will be- come accustomed to this new form of " control. " As soon as they observe that by this means they are sent less often to the hospital and that their stay when in the hospital is shorter, they will quick- ly fall in with this plan of treatment. The simplest measures are those directed against the danger of syphilitic infection from the prosti- tutes. As far as protecting the woman herself from infection is concerned, it is sufficient to smear the mucosa and vaginal region with petrolatum. Al- though I believe that the protection is due to the mechanical nature of the fatty layer, it is quite pos- sible that a disinfecting influence may be exercised by chemicals added to or present in the salve. As is well known Metchnikoff employed a 33% calomel salve for this purpose. I believe, however, that the salve brought out by Siebert after extensive prophy- laxis experiments and containing an aqueous bi- chloride solution, is more powerful.* However, no one familiar with prostitution will rely on the con- * The Siebert-Neisser ointment has the following composition: Mercuric chloride 0.3, sodium chloride 1.0, tragacanth 2.0, starch 4.0, gelatin 0.7, alcohol 25.0, glycerin 17.0, water to make 100.0. I find it difficult or impossible to prepare this salve extemporaneously of a satisfactory consistency.-W. J. R. 274 SEXUAL TRUTHS tinned use of these preventive measures by indi- viduals. One will always have to reckon with new syphilitic infections or with infectious recidives. On the other hand, as I have often claimed in this con- nection, I believe that this danger can be abso- lutely overcome by the prophylactic use of salvarsan or arsenophenylglycin treatment. Even though we know that latent syphilitics, i. e. those free from manifest symptoms, are not abso- lutely free from danger and that infections may also arise from them, it follows nevertheless that they are incomparably less dangerous than those with manifest symptoms. Moreover it is just as obvious that by means of appropriate treatment with ar- senicals they can be rapidly made symptom-free and kept so for a long time. I believe, however, that it is not only those prosti- tutes whose syphilis is established who should be so treated, but that all those who follow the trade of prostitution and indiscriminate sexual inter- course should be subjected to such treatment. By this means such persons will have a new infection nipped in the bud and any existing but overlooked syphilis will be rendered harmless or even entirely cured. If one does not wish to go as far as this, at least measures should be taken to have a Wassermann re- action performed once or twice a year on every prostitute whose syphilis is not definitely established and suggest treatment to her. This treatment should SEXUAL TRUTHS 275 consist of three courses a year, each course consist- ing of four to five injections. If salvarsan is chosen, the intravenous method is the only one to be con- sidered for it is the only procedure to which the prostitutes will submit. Unless they are very skill- fully carried out both the aqueous salvarsan injec- tions as well as the "Joha" (Schindler) method often cause pain, and as is well known, at times even marked infiltrations and severe necroses. However, intravenous injections are not always easy to make. As soon as some of the solution misses the vein very troublesome indurations occur. Now and then, also, some blood escapes from the vein and striking and persistent discolorations oc- cur which frighten the prostitutes and which they regard as damaging to their trade, so that for this reason they will not undergo treatment voluntarily. Instead of salvarsan, however, one can choose Ehr- lich's arsenophenylglycin (418). This also has a wonderful specific action on the spirochetes of syphilis and has also a preventive and abortive in- fluence. It has the following advantages over sal- varsan in this connection: Aqueous solutions, especially with the addition of 1% novocain, when injected intragluteally, are absolutely painless and do not cause the slightest infiltrations. In a series of more than one thou- sand injections I have not seen a local disturbance in a single instance. When properly employed, the preparation is splendidly borne. 276 SEXUAL TRUTHS A course of treatment generally consists of five injections. For the first injection 0.2 to 0.3 gm. is given according to the patient's constitution, for subsequent treatments 0.4 to 0.5 at each dose. The injections are given once weekly, intragluteally. The yellow powder, which is put up in air-tight ampoules (like neo-salvarsan) is dissolved so that 0.1 gm. corresponds to 1 cc. of 1% novocain solu- tion. It is of importance, as with neo-salvarsan, that the solution be prepared at once after the am- poule is opened and that no time be lost in its in- jection. Long exposure to the air must be absolutely avoided as very poisonous arsenic compounds may result from oxidation. I shall not enter here into the question of the dan- ger of salvarsan or arsenophenylglycin treatment. I believe that it is settled once for all for the great majority of all physicians that a well conducted course of salvarsan treatment in the hands of an experienced person is no more dangerous than treat- ment with any other really active medicament. This feature of safety must be brought out here so much the more forcibly since I ask that prostitutes whose disease is not yet or no longer definitely established, should be taken for treatment. I could assume the brutal standpoint that where we are striving for the increased welfare of thousands, it should not stand in our way that an individual may be harmed. However, I am so convinced that the danger from a good course of salvarsan or arsenophenylglycin is SEXUAL TRUTHS 277 so negligible that I unhesitatingly recommend it for the hygienic regulations I have in mind. Much more difficult, it seems to me, is it to decide the medico-legal question: ought a prostitute, par- ticularly when the syphilitic infection is not yet estab- lished, be treated by force? I shall not, here, discuss this question; indeed I am unable to answer it. I am however of the firm conviction that in the case of the majority of the individuals in question, compulsion will not be necessary as soon as it will be seen-in the course of a few months-that by means of this ambulatory treatment they will be much less re- stricted in their freedom and much less frequently interned in the hospital, than was heretofore the case. Here, in Breslau, we have already had the op- portunity to make such observations. Through the friendly persuasion of the station-physicians many public prostitutes have presented themselves from time to time voluntarily in order to go through a mercury cure. How much brighter is the outlook for such voluntary submission to treatment when the latter consists of an infinitely more convenient, less painful and less frequently administered salvarsan or arsenophenylglycin treatment! There is in my opinion no financial burden con- nected with the execution of my project as far as the city or state is concerned. I have not the slightest doubt that as a result of this ambulatory and pre- ventive treatment so much money 'will be saved to the community, the lodges, and the accident societies 278 SEXUAL TRUTHS from the treatment of the sick girls and the men in- fected by them, that the appropriation which I sug- gest for prophylaxis will be very much less than that which is now necessary to make good the damage already inflicted. An important development of my suggestions would be to have each girl coming for treatment given a card. Unlike the case with previous similar suggestions this card should not be an evidence of good health but should merely indicate that the girl is under regular medical supervision. Even if, as may be gathered from the above discussion, every such person, despite the fact that she is under medi- cal treatment, may not be entirely well, nevertheless the chance of a man's finding a relatively non-infec- tious woman in this group are infinitely greater than would be the case if he picked up a girl who was not under medical supervision and who could not show a properly filled out card of identification. The chief advantage of the adoption of my sug- gestions would lie in the fact that a much larger circle of the female population would be subjected to medical observation and treatment. Furthermore, despite all the coercive measures which I should like to have introduced for the carrying out of medical treatment there will be a much smaller number of real prostitutes who will have to be selected out of the total number of women engaged in free sexual intercourse, for the purpose of 11 registration." The complete adoption of my suggestions will not SEXUAL TRUTHS 279 come about quickly. However in any opinion the "relief stations" could be established soon, ambula- tory treatment might also be instituted, and identi- fication cards might be distributed to the registered women at an early date. A permit from the minister of the interior and an understanding with the mu- nicipal authorities of the cities where the plan would be started would be the only requisites. A PROBLEM IN SEXUAL ETHICS Prof. Christian v. Ehrenfels. A medical student, twenty-four years old, physi- cally and psychically thoroughly sound and robust, has his last examinations before him. He expects after practicing for a few years to earn an income which will permit him to get married and support a family. Until now, by the exercise of considerable self-control, he has refrained from all sexual rela- tions. He has observed that this abstinence, gained now and then only with difficulty and hardship, has on the whole increased his vigor and psychic tension and working power, but for some time disquieting symptoms have been making their appearance. Sex- ually libidinous fancies pursue him with a power and persistence to which the strongest exertion of will- power is no longer equal. After semi-sleepless nights he gets up in the morning with a tired languid feeling. He cannot get rid of a dull heavy sensation of pressure in the forehead and temples. Only with the greatest effort can he force his attention to his studies, every unwatched moment it flutters away in the one direction. The studies which he still has to accomplish, merely a fragment of what he has al- ready learned practically without any effort, appear 281 282 SEXUAL TRUTHS to him suddenly threatening, overpowering, uncon- querable and there arises in him a hitherto unknown anxiety that he is not equal to the task, that he will succumb to it. There is no doubt those are the symp- toms of beginning nervousness. A medical colleague to whom the sufferer relates his condition answers offhand: ' ' My friend, the mat- ter is very simple. Your nature categorically de- mands a woman, of which you deprived her until now and which you must give her now if you do not want to become a neurasthenic. You are otherwise not a fool or an imbecile, you are a splendid fellow besides, in whom all kinds of women would take pleasure. The woman is the crown of all creation and the high- est pleasure in life. Do not think any longer-go ahead." In all this there is really nothing new for our stu- dent. He has told it to himsjelf a dozen times and more, and whenever he said it to himself it nodded to him and it beckoned to him from all sides as if in a flower-garden. But as the watchman in the garden there stand the moral scruples. "To seduce an un- suspecting innocent girl, to force or flatter away from her her maidenhood, her best possession and guarantee for a future happy marriage? ... or to have to consider himself bound to her, to her, the workingman's daughter, with uncultured speech and the lack of understanding for the finer things of life . . . how rapidly such a little flower withers! She is also practically of my age, under no circumstances SEXUAL TRUTHS 283 would it be a happy marriage and an unhappy mar- riage cannot be a moral duty. ' ' "But perhaps it would be better-the wife of an- other? There is a good opportunity for it. Yes, he has not failed to notice it-so foolish he is not. It would be beautiful, an unimaginable pleasure, such a woman! But the theft of somebody else's posses- sion? True, there are moralists who affirm that marriage without love is wrong, not any better than prostitution. And«does she love him, can she love him, when she is so ready to come over to me? But nevertheless a chain of lies, masking, deception and meanness of the lowest kind would become attached to it. To have to look into the eyes of the deceived man and the children-never! ' ' "But if not this, then there remains the so-called sewer of prostitution. True, in honesty I must con- fess it, the thing does not seem to me so sewer-like. Yes, I even think it is quite splendid. I see all colors before my eyes at the idea of spending an hour alone with one of those charming women, but-the danger of infection . . . should misfortune want it-then I am ruined ... all my living seed, the best inheri- tance of my father, for all eternity. True, there are remedies to protect oneself, but-how disgusting! When the blood rushes like a torrent and the senses are drunk with pleasure, to have to think of that! And then none of these remedies are without excep- tion absolutely sure. And even if they were, the moral dirt . . . and the thought of her, the prosti- 284 SEXUAL TRUTHS tute, that I can no longer get rid of ... to have re- ceived the first blissful thrill that can be given by a woman from the absolutely lost one ... in the bridal bed to have to think of her, who has by then sunk down to a procuress or at the best has become an attendant in the public toilet rooms-ugh! So this also not." "But what then? I must liberate myself, I also have duties towards myself. I have no right to make myself sick from moral hyper-sensitiveness, any more than others from frivolity and dissipation. True there are physicians who affirm that sexual ab- stinence can never act injuriously on one's health. How correct this is I can judge now for myself: it is surely not so bad as syphilis or pulmonary tuberculo- sis, but still bad enough to run down one in time. In some books one reads that self-abuse is not at all so injurious as is generally believed, even harmless if it is not practiced to excess. But still the matter must be at least serious-otherwise the way out of the difficulty would be too simple . . . but then . . . oh, the name alone ... a masturbator! ... do you want to sink to that? So that is also out of the ques- tion. So finally, after all, there is nothing left but the old, long-practiced abstinence, its tortures, and in addition to have to look on how it slowly but surely is making me ill. ' ' PROF. EHRENFELS' PROBLEM IN SEXUAL ETHICS William J. Robinson, M.D. I have translated the above from Prof. Christian von Ehrenfels' introduction to his most excellent, thoughtful and philosophical monograph, Sexual- etluk, which I regret to say I have come across only to-day. Dr. Ehrenfels, who is Professor of Philoso- phy at the University of Prague, well presents the moral scruples which assail every high-minded con- scientious young man, and the struggles which he has to go through. But Prof. Ehrenfels has left out one contingency, one possible issue. The problem is not quite a cul-de-sac; there is a way out of it. Whether he left out that solution of the problem because then the problem would no longer be a problem, or because that solution of the problem is impossible or at least not feasible in Prague and in smaller towns, I do not know. But that such a solution of the problem does exist in large cities, and is utilized by an ever in- creasing number of men cannot be subject to any doubt. As I said many times before, sexual prob- lems should either not be discussed at all, or when they are discussed they should be discussed in abso- 285 286 SEXUAL TRUTHS lute frankness without any reserve and without any evasion. There is one other possibility which could have presented itself to the young student's mind. It is doing no violence to our imagination or to the law of probabilities, to believe that there is a thoroughly respectable young woman of about the same age or older, or perhaps a widow, who is harassed by the same disagreeable sensations that annoy the young man. She may be even suffering worse than he does. She may have become anemic, chlorotic, dyspeptic and acquired a dingy and pimply complexion, or her nights may be sleepless and restless, and she may have become listless, despondent and incapable of any work. And assuming that that young lady is a radical young lady and has imbibed the ideas of Prof. Ehrenfels himself, that there is nothing sinful in extra-matrimonial intercourse per se, why should not that young man and that young woman come to- gether and live in temporary union, this temporary union being dissolved at the desire of either party or being perpetuated into a permanent union when they have acquired the longed for competence and are able to keep up a home and support a family? Here there is no moral degradation on either side, no danger of venereal infection, no disgrace, no scandal, no possible tragedy. The only danger is that of pregnancy and that can be easily prevented. Such a union presents in itself nothing injurious to either the individual or the race, but on the contrary SEXUAL TRUTHS 287 contribute materially to the physical and spiritual welfare of two individuals. And if one is permitted to go as far as Prof. Ehrenfels does in believing that extra-matrimonial intercourse may be permitted when it is for the benefit of the individual, then why should not those two individuals be permitted to live together and why should such a union be looked down upon instead of being accepted as perfectly proper, rational and healthful? I do not know. What do you think of the matter ? EUGENICS, SEXUAL SIN, IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION W. C. Gates, M.D. The prevalence of prostitution, venereal disease, abortion, divorce and other evils proves that modern civilization has not solved the problem of the proper relation of the sexes. Birth control clinics and sporadic, so-called "Eu- genic Marriages" show that some of our people are learning the letter "A" in the alphabet of sexology. Before expressing certain ideas which have oc- curred to me, it may be wise to re-state certain self- evident truths: First, the primary fundamental passion actuating everything that has life, is the sustenance of life. Second, and practically equalling it in intensity, is the reproduction of life. Stated in different terms, the life of the individual depends upon a digestive system; the life of the race or species depends upon a sexual system. Nature has wisely decreed that the act of taking nourishment and the act of reproduction shall bring pleasure to the individual. From a strictly biologic standpoint, as soon as the male has impregnated the female, his responsibility to nature ceases and he is at liberty to seek out and 289 SEXUAL TRUTHS 290 impregnate other females. Where his responsibility ceases, that of the female begins, for it is her duty to bear, protect and rear the young. Up to this point sexual attraction has been the only force operative between the two sexes, but from this point on, sexual antagonisms arise. The responsi- bility of each sex to nature is so radically different that it cannot but result in sharp conflicts. A care- ful study of anthropology or the reading of Heape's "Sex Antagonisms" will convince any careful stu- dent. Man's natural tendency is to look for others whom he may impregnate. The woman has found that if she can bind the male to her and her interests, she and her offspring stand a much better chance of survival. To the woman's constant effort to improve her condition is largely due all the progress our race has ever known. The type of man who has most readily yielded to her influence has been rewarded by the increased survival of his offspring. This is one of nature's eugenic methods. There is no question that the monogamous marriage is the ideal, but in spite of all our pretensions, no race of people the world lias ever seen practices it. Different races of people have established different sexual customs, following the lines of least resistance and merely drifted into the methods now practiced. No careful scientific study, backed up by experi- ments on any appreciable scale, has yet been made. SEXUAL TRUTHS 291 To support his physical life, man has tried to eat almost every substance in the known world, and in his sexual life, his efforts have been almost as varied. The experience of the savage individual is very limited and his natural tendency is to abuse or ridi- cule those whose customs are strange to him. I know several people who fairly rave at the idea of eating oysters, calling them vile and filthy; I know others who enjoy eating oysters above any- thing else, but rave at those who eat snails, while nearly all whom I have ever met expressed disgust at the idea of eating grasshoppers, although it has been a common food of many tribes of people around the Mediterranean for centuries past, so much so that the Bible speaks of them as the diet of John the Baptist. For many ages we have concentrated all our ef- forts to train the race as to the different foods and food supplies. Nothing pertaining to food and its preparation has ever been concealed or kept secret. This being the case and such violent prejudices exist- ing among our people over simple articles of diet, how much more violent, unjust and unreasonable are those prejudices when aroused over a strange sex relationship among a race so densely ignorant of the subject as our own. It would be so absolutely impossible to compel all races or all people of one race to adopt a single uni- form standard of living, that the idea is ridiculous. It is just as much an impossibility to get people to 292 SEXUAL TRUTHS conform to a single sexual standard under our pres- ent civilization. Here is the next great problem that our civilization must master: the race has drifted along, bound down by traditions, ignorance and superstition until condi- tions are becoming intolerable and it is time for care- ful scientific study. Forel bitterly attacks the church and its influence. There is no question but what the influence of the church has seriously retarded the solving of this problem, just as it has retarded civilization in other times and on greater questions. For instance, when scientists first began to teach that the world was round, the church taught that it was flat and burned those who differed with it at the stake. But the church has changed; not only on that, but on other great questions. It is probably the greatest social machine in the world today and could be the greatest instrument of good in solving this sexual problem if it would study it from a scientific standpoint. Bloch, in "The Sexual Life of Our Time," con- demns the institution of marriage. Just the men- tion of this fact makes the average man rave just as hard as though he had been offered grasshoppers for dinner; but Bloch's arguments are worthy of very careful consideration. Statistics prove that less than fifty per cent of marriages are satisfactory and a still smaller num- ber lead to happiness of both parties. Our papers are full of divorce suits; prostitutes SEXUAL TRUTHS 293 are on every corner and venereal diseases are very common. Every year sees an increased number of physicians claiming that practically all diseases of a nervous nature are due to sexual starvation or aberration; our insane asylums are filled with patients who are suffering from a psychic trauma of a sexual nature. All this suffering is of such a coarse nature that it is recognized by every eye, but there are hundreds of cases of most exquisite torture which are not seen or recognized by the public. One of my patients, a maiden lady of forty-five, a nervous and physical wreck, tells me that she has had ardent sexual longing since the age of eight years. The one desire of her life has been children and repeatedly I have seen her weep in a perfect aban- donment of grief because she had no children. While the desire for children has been the greatest, the desire for actual sex relations has been very strong. Of a deeply religious nature, brought up in a strict church association, taught to regard all these desires as sinful, as a girl she shunned the companionship of young people because her desires were so great that she was afraid she might be tempted and yield. She has never found a mate. She has exerted all her energy in fighting a perfectly natural desire. Her nervous trouble both she and I believe to be entirely due to this cause. She is now unable to earn her own living and will soon become a public charge. Her pastor tells her that she has obeyed the divine com- 294 SEXUAL TRUTHS mand and lived a life of righteousness. I cannot see it that way. She has disobeyed a law of nature and nature has inflicted the penalty. She has broken God's law and kept only weak, egotistical man's translation and misinterpretation thereof. All admit that the libertine and prostitute are sinners; they break the laws of God and man by going to excess and are justly punished. The man who overeats breaks the laws of God, but not of man. He also is punished with gout, Bright's dis- ease, etc. Those who go to the other extreme are just as much sinners. The individual who denies himself sufficient nourishment, suffers from weak- ness, degenerations and bodily ailments. He has disobeyed a law of God and suffers the penalty. So, in my opinion, this lady, by denying her sexual nature, is just as much a sinner as the prostitute and has suffered just as severe a penalty. She has broken God's law instead of obeying it. This is but one of hundreds of cases which may be seen in any psychopathic clinic to-day. There is something wrong with a society which produces so many unfortunate results. Some years ago a young lady of twenty-two, from our better classes, came into my office. She told me that she had no reason to believe but what she was a normal, healthy woman in every respect and with healthy desires and impulses. She stated that at times her sexual desire was keen, that she enjoyed going out with young people; that in their gathering SEXUAL TRUTHS 295 certain young men were very attractive to her, that she was becoming afraid to be out in their company for fear that desire and opportunity might come together and cause her to yield, and that they were not a class of men with whom she would care to have a relationship. She stated very frankly that she wanted to make the most out of her life; that she had no suitable chance for a mate at that time; that it took so much of her energy to fight her inclinations that it was hardly worth the struggle; she had recently become acquainted with a man whom she respected; whom she thought would honor and protect her in every way; she wanted to be positive that he had no venereal diseases and she wanted information on birth control, stating that she much preferred to establish a relationship with a man of that character than to take chances of yielding in a gust of passion to a man whom she could not respect. I admire and respect this girl because she faced her problem squarely, thought it out carefully and decided for herself what she would do with her life. She is holding a high salaried position and doing most excellent work. Besides these two cases, I see many girls who follow the line of least resistance. Some die; some have abortions produced and others live with ille- gitimate offspring. There is no use in condemning and fighting the ignorance and superstition in the church, assailing 296 SEXUAL TRUTHS marriage or raving against the views of this, that and the other individual. Fighting over mere opinions will not get us any- thing but heartaches. The one thing to do is to know the truth. I would like to see a chair of sexology established in every university in this great land of ours; I would like to make it a criminal offense for any man to stand in the pulpit or attempt to teach or instruct others on sexual questions until he had at least read the works of men who have devoted their lives to the scientific study of these subjects. I would like to make it a capital offense for any judge or lawyer to try a case, in which there was a sexual element, without first having studied these works. Every little while our newspapers expose some colony of sexual perverts; a group of people who, under the cloak of some kind of religion, live together and practice all sorts of sexual orgies; the Hanish Cult in Chicago is an example. When these things are exposed by the papers, most of our people take them as a joke, but if one should establish a colony for the scientific study of sexual relations and eugenics, I suppose the majority of them would be out with a club; still, I believe it would be well worth trying. Suppose some of our extremists should start such a colony? Volunteers are easy to obtain for almost any kind of a proposition; the sure-death parties in the Eusso-Japanese War never lacked volunteers. For a project of this kind, out of the volunteers offer- SEXUAL TRUTHS 297 ing, one could call those most fitted, those free from all diseases, especially of a venereal nature, and get a good stock with which to begin. Suppose one of the most radical of our sexologists should try a colony on this plan; all property to be owned by the state; every individual taught birth control from childhood up; the sex relationship to be free and as much attention paid to pleasure in that as our race now pays to the pleasure in eating. When a woman desired a child, she should register that fact before an officer of the association and either choose who should be the father of the child or ask advice of judges appointed for that purpose. After such registration, she should associate with no other man and there would be no question as to the paternity. As soon as pregnancy was estab- lished, the state should give her title to a home; after the birth of each child, she should receive a small pension from the state, as well as a percentage of the earnings of the father. The franchise should rest with women who had borne children and men who had attained to a certain degree of production or ac- complished some great good for the colony. It is claimed that our present ideas of virtue and sexual morality have arisen only where man has accumulated an amount of individual property which he wished to transmit to his children and that they do not exist among tribes where the property is owned exclusively by the females. It is also claimed that a plan of this kind would 298 SEXUAL TRUTHS do away with the evils now existing. Whether other evils would arise to take their place, it is hard to say. Sexual excess would probably not be as common as at present and it would be just as promptly pun- ished by the infallible laws of nature. It is also claimed that children would develop much better than at present if permitted to imitate their elders and the physicians would not see the many cases of faulty development, infantile uterus, inability to lactate and sexual frigidity which exist in our pres- ent society. Although this is an extreme suggestion, the estab- lishment of such a colony would be an interesting experiment and nowhere near as revolting to our present standards and ideas of sex morality as those of the Hanish Colony and those of numerous other colonies of religio-sexual perverts which exist in dif- ferent parts of our country. If some of our great philanthropists would estab- lish a well endowed foundation for the study of hu- man sexuality and scientific eugenics, I believe our race and civilization would greatly profit thereby. Cattle breeders, extending their experiments over many generations, develop a breed of cattle, whose milk is exceedingly rich in butter fat; other breeds whose milk contains very little butter fats, but is very rich in caseine; still others that give very little milk, but run entirely to beef. They do not get these results from single and scattered matings. It would be an easy matter, breeding through a sufficient num- SEXUAL TRUTHS 299 ber of generations, to establish a race of people nine feet high and of corresponding proportions, or a race of people less than four feet in height. I think it would be an easy matter to produce a race of peo- ple all sentiment and emotion, or a race of people in whom there was little or no sentiment and governed by pure reason. The question for the foundation for scientific eugenics to determine would be the selection and breeding of a race of people which would be best adapted for existence on this earth; a happier race than the present one, free from prostitution, venereal diseases, divorce, etc.; a race in which the pleasure to be obtained in the sexual relation will receive as much care, thought and study as our race now ex- pends on the pleasures of eating. The pleasure at- tending the one function is no more sinful than that attending the other. Our present treatment of this particular phase of the subject is both inconsistent and ridiculous. The present attempts at eugenic matings are as amusing and interesting as a child's attempts at learning its first letters although just as necessary. I hope that our race will learn this alphabet as rap- idly as the child learns the other. IS PLATONIC LOVE A NORMAL RELATION? E. R. Nash, M.D. Plato depicted a kind of social relation between men and women in which there was passionate affec- tion and attachment without sensual feeling. This conception of Platonic love does not admit of the existence of sexual desires between the lovers. If such desires exist, whether expressed or not, they destroy the character of the sentiment which Plato describes as the only true love. In view of Plato's celibacy and his advocacy of a community of wives and goods in place of domestic life and private prop- erty, we may assume that the sentiment he described as love, represented his own sentiment, to ward the opposite sex. There is one fundamental difficulty in discussing matters in which love plays a part; the impossibility of harmonizing the many conceptions of the complex emotions included under the generic term, love. To the discriminating mind and to the one who studies the nuances in expressions and what they mean, the word itself covers many different sentiments. There are vastly different sentiments involved in the love of God, the love of a sweetheart, the love of a friend, the love of a parent or child, the love of children 301 302 SEXUAL TRUTHS in general, the love of a horse, the love of war, the love of life, the love of nature, of a bungalow in the woods, of green apples, of abstract qualities, etc. As we have no words or expressions which will inter- pret each of these sentiments, in using the generic term we may make it apply to any one of the senti- ments included in the term. In only one of these forms or kinds of love is there any association in thought of sensual feeling; namely, the love of a sweetheart. "When such thought association arises in regard to a friend of the opposite sex, that friend becomes for the moment, in the mind of the lover, a sweetheart. The friend may not recognize or accept such relation, it exists nevertheless in the lover's mind, while the thought association lasts. Once ac- cepted by the friend, the new relation takes the place of the other, tho there never be the consummation of the desire or a reciprocal thought association. In love there is a longing for the individual, thing or quality, which may be absent in mere liking, and which is the essential feature of the emotion. In the love of a sweetheart there is a longing, not only for the companionship, but also for the closest mental, physical and spiritual association with the other. The closest physical association is in the sexual em- brace. In Platonic love there is a complete absence of desire for the physical association and therefore there cannot be in this love the same sentiment that exists between lovers and sweethearts. In this kind of love the sentiment is such as exists between SEXUAL TRUTHS 303 friends of the same sex, the strength and depth of the sentiment depending upon the temperament and the closeness of association between the two. In two normal, healthy, virile individuals of opposite sex, a close mental and spiritual association may exist for a time in the true Platonic sense, but if they are normal, healthy and virile and there is no mental or physical obstacle to sexual relations, their close association will spur the desire for physical associa- tion which they have subconsciously suppressed, until it is beyond their control. The sex urge is a natural, instinctive phenomenon which cannot be suppressed at will, the physical demand and its men- tal interpretation in desire come unbidden, and while lovers may suppress the expression of such desire they cannot suppress the desire itself. We are speaking here of normal, healthy, virile individuals, not of frigid women and impotent men who lack both potentia and libido, or of those abnormal indi- viduals whose sexual energies have been diverted into abnormal channels, or of those equally abnormal persons who have schooled themselves into a fear or disgust of the sexual act. Such abnormal persons can maintain social relations such as are depicted by Plato, indefinitely, and to such, Platonic love can exist as a normal social relation. But Platonic love does not contemplate or presuppose such relations between abnormal persons. It can exist between perfectly normal individuals for a time as has been explained, and more or less permanently under ex- 304 SEXUAL TRUTHS ceptional circumstances. In the vast majority of cases where such relations are said to exist it is not a pure Platonic love, devoid of sexual feeling, but a love in which the expression of desire is suppressed, or where obstacles to its consummation exist. A few examples showing exceptional circum- stances under which Platonic love between normal persons has been maintained, will be given. (1) A man of 30, whose wife has been in the lunatic asylum for the past five years, has as his housekeeper the younger sister of his wife. The man and his sister- in-law have become close associates and lovers, but he declares he has never had any desire for physical association with her, tho he does not deny that he has had such association with other women. (2) A couple have been living together for several years as brother and sister. Tho living in closest intimacy together, his sexual desires are gratified by another woman for whom he has only a physical affection, which is reciprocated in kind by her. This woman is married, adores her husband, but for her sexual gratification she prefers her paramour. (3) A music teacher, finding his wife unfaithful, left her and became a misogynist. He found delight in the progress made by an exceptionally bright pupil and with the sole thought that he would develop her into a great musician he adopted her as his ward. In their constant association he gradually lost his hatred for women, developed an intense desire for her companionship and a passionate love, devoid, SEXUAL TRUTHS 305 however, of sensual feeling. She has reciprocated that love in kind, and altho she calls him daddy, their relations are those of lovers. I cannot give the ages of these two, as it might reveal their identity. Both are well known in musical circles. (4) A machinist lost his leg through the careless- ness of a young woman, a fellow employee. After he recovered she married him, but on the wedding night developed an uncontrollable repugnance to sexual congress with a maimed person. He has never in- sisted upon sexual relations and they live as happily as two lovers can live, without such relations. (5) In a somewhat similar case the man has a physical defect which makes him an unacceptable mate. In this case husband and wife relations are maintained without the formality of a legal cere- mony. The woman is masculine in type and man- ners and the two are like intimate chums of the same sex. The first case presents the nearest approach to true Platonic love. Here the natural affection exist- ing between relatives who are interested in the wel- fare of each other, has been strengthened through close association, a gradual sense of dependence upon each other, and finally a longing for each other's company. In the woman there is probably an inhi- bition of sexual desire for the man, caused by a moral regard for her sister's marital rights. He declares that he considers himself released from his conjugal obligations, but he is not attracted to his sister-in- 306 SEXUAL TRUTHS law physically, has never kissed her or held her in his arms, yet he feels keenly her. absence, and is un- happy when she is not around him. In the second case the woman is probably frigid and unemotional, as she does not object to her lover's sexual associa- tion with the other woman. She does not understand the sex urge, but believes that there exists on the part of the man a sex-need which must be relieved, and the gratification of the sexual desire can be ac- complished without the sacrifice of his love for her. He says he has no regard for the other woman, visits her only under sexual stress, and when this is past he rarely thinks of her. In this case the underlying causes for the inhibition of sexual desires are prob- ably her frigidity and his knowledge of this condi- tion. In the third case, misogyny and the complete suppression of sexual desires following his experi- ence with his unfaithful wife, will account for the absence of such desires on his part. His mate is abnormal in her sexual life. Her desires were for- merly aroused and automatically gratified when reading erotic books. Now the same result is pro- duced when playing or hearing certain musical com- positions. At such times she experiences the turges- cence, orgasm and reaction of normal intercourse, and this can be repeated several times if the same or similar compositions are played. She likes to be kissed and embraced but she cannot conceive of grat- ification of sexual desire through physical contact. She says she does have such desires, but these are re- SEXUAL TRUTHS 307 lieved by playing the compositions which, she knows from experience, will cause gratification. In the re- action there is a sense of satisfaction and a feeling of lassitude. Some compositions quieten her desire, but she will not play these when in an erotic mood unless she is tired or wants to avoid the fatigue fol- lowing gratification. This case illustrates the diver- sion of sexual energies into abnormal channels. There are many such cases among so-called intel- lectuals. Some experience an orgasm when alone, engaged in certain mental work; others only when in the presence of the opposite sex. Occasionally the individual is so engrossed in the work that the or- gasm passes unnoticed until the satisfaction and las- situde of the reaction is experienced or emission has occurred. Such barely conscious or unconscious or- gasms may also occur when the mind is not wholly engrossed in work, even when at rest. They are then similar to nocturnal emissions. The desire for the close association with a single individual having similar tastes, is much stronger among highly intellectual persons than among oth- ers. When such association occurs between persons of opposite sex intimate companionships are formed upon the basis of like tastes, ideals and purposes, and these may result in an intense attachment without sexual desires directed to each other. Such desires may exist in these cases as in any other, but their gratification does not require the association with any particular person, and it may be accomplished 308 SEXUAL TRUTHS unconsciously, or subconsciously, through the merest touch, as of the fingers, ordinary conversation, or the presence alone of the associate, or of some other per- son. In these cases there is no thought of sexual congress, no desire for bodily contact, no sex need for any particular person. It is in such cases that true Platonic love is possible, and when it does occur it becomes a normal social relation. These persons are, however, abnormal in their sex life. Normal sex life demands normal sexual relations, tho love is not a necessary concomitant of such relations. Normal love between persons of opposite sex, not merely af- fection or friendship, but love, such as exists between lover and sweetheart, includes the physical as well as the mental and spiritual longing for each other. It is possible to conceive of an attachment between friends of opposite sex, so strong that there exists a longing for each other as urgent as for food or drink. And if they possess normal sexuality, the physical longing for each other will sooner or later arise, in spite of their efforts or subconscious determination to suppress it. This has been the experience of many so-called in- tellectuals in whom the sex urge has been diverted or perverted. Some of these persons never experi- enced a longing for physical contact with a particular person of the opposite sex, not even a desire for nor- mal sexual congress, until some incident occurred which instantly changed their sexual life. A woman writer who had maintained intimate Platonic rela- SEXUAL TRUTHS 309 tions with a journalist for years, in a moment of erot- ic ecstasy, threw her arms around him in a passion- ate embrace. She said she was unconscious of her act and might have done the same with any one who would have been at her side at the moment, or even with any inanimate object. The man returned the embrace and developed a sudden longing for her physical association. The man had become accus- tomed to barely conscious orgasms without emission by day and nocturnal emissions without lascivious dreams at night and had not experienced a normal libido in many years. Her act aroused the libido and a longing for physical association with her. She de- clares that she had not the slightest sexual desire but submitted to him as she felt that she was responsible for his new longing. After this experience their pla- tonic relations ceased and they maintain marital re- lations altho both say they rarely indulge in sex- ual congress as the orgasms occur in the course of their work as often as before. The libido is aroused by physical contact as a kiss, embrace or handshake, but it does not occur without contact. Most of the cases of Platonic love between healthy, virile individuals are really pseudo-Platonic, the physical longing being deliberately suppressed, or by tacit understanding, every expression of that longing, in word and action, being avoided. The term is also misapplied to cases in which every ele- ment of love, such as exists between lover and sweet- heart, is present, but the gratification of desire is 310 SEXUAL TRUTHS thwarted by circumstances. In true Platonic love the element of sexual desire is compatible with friend- ship but not with love. The distinction between the two relations, friendship and love, is clear. In friendship there is absent the yearning and longing for the object of his affections. In love the mere presence of the loved one produces a sense of con- tentment and happiness far different from the asso- ciation derived from the association of a friend. Friendship may indeed be so strong that the friend will make every sacrifice that the lover would make, but the spiritual yearning is not there. Such friend- ships between persons of opposite sexes-called Platonic friendships-are not rare. It frequently happens that there is Platonic friendship on the one side and true love or pseudo-Platonic love on the other. This relation passes for Platonic love, altho there is absent the essential element of love on the one side, and there is present the physical longing which deprives it of the character of Platonic love, on the other. Moreover, in Platonic love there must be a mutual attachment, a condition which need not prevail in the ordinary conception of love. If we restrict the term Platonic love to cases in which there is complete absence of sexual desire, then such relations can exist normally only in ab- normal persons; a frigid woman and an impotent man in whom both potentia and libido are lacking. If we include cases in which the desire exists but its gratification is diverted or perverted, the individuals SEXUAL TRUTHS 311 in these cases are likewise abnormal. Platonic love may exist as a normal relation between normal per- sons under exceptional circumstances, as when in- hibiting influence prevents the normal gratification of sexual desires with each other, when the desires are directed toward some other person more accept- able sexually, or when there are strong intellectual and spiritual attachments but weak sexual desires. In most cases Platonic love, if it existed at all, soon loses its Platonic character for the sex need will rise at times in every healthy, normal, virile individual, and it will be naturally directed toward the person for whom there exists an intellectual and spiritual attachment, provided, of course, that person is ac- ceptable sexually. The conclusion that can be drawn from this paper is, that Platonic love can be a normal social relation among abnormal persons or under ab- normal circumstances; it can not be a normal social relation among normal persons under normal cir- cumstances. THE FEMALE SEX INSTINCT IN ITS RELA- TION TO OUR MORALITY. Leo M. Gartman, M.D. When a man begins to choose a bride he looks, as a rule, for an angel, and selects the one whom he con- siders in all respects qualified to be an angel. The attributes of an angel are the following: an- gelic beauty, of course; a quiet, amiable, submissive character (the man considers himself so much above the woman that even the angels are to be submissive to his will); she does not eat, she nibbles at her an- gelic food like a birdie; she does not walk, she flits along with invisible steps; but above all, angels are absolutely devoid of a sex instinct; not only does the man expect his angel to be entirely free from a sex instinct, but he presupposes no knowledge, not the slightest idea of what the relations of the sexes con- sist in. She is supposed to be in love with him, but this love should be of a pure (1) sexless character- a love which does not exist. Any knowledge of the sex relation would remove from her the halo of holi- ness, regardless of the real human qualities she may possess. The gentleman himself has received his thorough instruction on the subject from some other charitable female; he had indulged already in the 313 314 SEXUAL TRUTHS strong drink of sexual passion, lie paid for all possi- ble forcible excitation of his sexual passion; he pre- fers the "peach" Blanche, the "Devil" of an Italian Kosa, to the pale-faced Lillian; in fact he prefers the bright red rose to the white rose. But his wife to be must be a colorless pale blossom, that never attracted a bee. Once married, a profound change takes place, and this change demonstrates the difference between our ideals and reality. If the man finds his wife a real angel, really without a sex instinct, he becomes highly indignant, indeed furious; what pleasure is there to have a piece of ice for a mate. He sends her to a physician and if no speedy improvement results he returns to his old friend the "Italian Rosa," who for pay will exhibit plenty of fire. If, on the contrary, he discovers that she has a sex instinct, and that her instinct is stronger than his, and that she demands from him more than he is able to supply, then, of course, he is disagreeably shocked; how dare a wife put forth demands, which He, the Man, the ornament and strength of all living, cannot supply and must acknowledge himself beaten. Why? This is immorality! sensuality! etc. The man thinks that he only has a sex instinct, and expects his wife, without a sex instinct, to be suffi- ciently pliable to satisfy his requirements completely, no less and, above all, no more; just made to order like a tailor-made garment. SEXUAL TRUTHS 315 And still you cannot blame the man at all for his ignorance, it is the ignorance of the whole civilized human race. I said the ignorance of civilized human- ity, because among the lower races of humanity this ignorance does not exist. Among the ignorant, un- cultured peoples, the question of the relation of the sexes is not a secret, and boys and girls alike, at the age of puberty, in their small curriculum of instruc- tion, receive a complete course of instruction in sex- ology, and midwifery. In fact, next to the secrets of war, and obtaining of nourishment, the relations of the sexes form the most important subject of in- struction. For these people there are no secrets, no false ideals, and no disappointments. On the contrary in civilized countries the igno- rance of sex matters is absolute. Not only does the young man think of his wife-to-be as an angel, but her parents who passed already through the same stages of disappointment before him, also claim and think that their daughter is an angel. She herself, though knowing well that she is not inclined to be an angel, will play her part, the part of an angel, so skilfully that all around her will be deceived; there- fore every now and then you will find scientific ob- servers who claim that a great part of the female race are angels. A childish delusion! We will take up the study of the female sex in- stinct not only among the civilized races, but we will examine the female sex instinct in the whole human race, civilized, uncivilized, Christian and heathen. 316 SEXUAL TBUTHS Fundamentally there is no difference between the male and female sex instinct; if unsatisfied, the fe- male pays the same penalties as the male and often more than the male. All living beings are ruled by two fundamental in- stincts : the instinct of self-preservation and the in- stinct of self-perpetuation. These two instincts op- erate alike on both sexes. Both sexes eat; and the punishment for not being able to comply with that requirement is death. Both sexes have the instinct of self-perpetuation, and disobedience is punished by the absence of off- spring. The suffering from food hunger and from sex hunger are alike, except in their quality. Alike for both sexes. It seems to me that the punishment meted out by absence of offspring is more severe, be- cause more lasting. The absence of offspring is in itself a severe punishment, because it is in the char- acter of all living creatures to desire offspring, but especially so in the female. Every one who has wit- nessed the sufferings of the childless female, will have noticed that they are willing to undergo priva- tion, or a painful and even serious operation to be able to have a child. Frequently when a woman finds out that her husband is at fault, she will submit once or a few times to have intercourse with another man, just to have a child of her own; and I have seen hus- bands who induced the women to do so. The sex instinct itself, regardless of offspring, must also be satisfied; and therefore it is a mis- SEXUAL TRUTHS 317 taken conception that a woman can more easily remain a celibate than a man. If the female cannot satisfy her sex hunger in a normal way, she will, like the male, satisfy her craving in an artificial way; the different forms of masturbation are just as prevalent among females as among males. The females try to prevent rupture of the hymen, and necessity makes them invent different forms of sat- isfying their sexual hunger. Neither do they have to be instructed by others, but they invent these different forms of satisfaction, like many boys do. The nervous sufferings of females from not sat- isfying their sexual hunger properly are by far the most distressing. One could write extensively on this subject, notwithstanding the difficulties one en- counters in its investigation. Frequently patients call to consult a physician on the subject, and the patients themselves have to be led by questions until one can reach to the real causes of their troubles. One who does not know it, will frequently miss the whole question. And I can say that sexual hunger is responsible for a great variety of nervous diseases of supposed obscure character; seemingly causeless irritability, restlessness, unkindness and even cruel- ty. Many of these troubles disappear after complete satisfaction, and a state of health follows, but in many other instances the damage to the nervous system is so profound that complete recovery can- not be expected. The female sex instinct, like the male instinct, 318 SEXUAL TRUTHS may be classified as strong, moderate, absent and inverted. All these varieties may be found in the fe- males of one or another race, but still there are races where the females as a whole are sexually weak, and in others they are strong. The sexually weakest female I consider the Lithuanian and North Ger- man, and among them are found many frigid women. The females of Southern Europe are sexually stronger and among them are found only a few frigid females. The Jewish woman possesses a still stronger reproductive instinct, but still I meet among them every now and then frigid women. The negro woman is still stronger sexually, and so far I have not met yet a frigid negro female. The Chinese and Japanese females are still of a higher type. The Hindoo woman is still more sexed, and to such an extent that there does not exist (I think), a white male able to satisfy her. The highest sexual development is reached in the Egyptian woman, so much so that even the Egyptian male, who belongs to the sexually strongest males on the globe, finds difficulty in satisfying her. From the point of view of our morality they are the most immoral, the most abandoned women on earth, but it seems that natural instincts do not jibe well with our morality. The difference in the sex instincts of the male and female is a matter of function and is related to the ends each has in view, however blindly. The func- tion of the male is to impregnate and he is pushed SEXUAL TRUTHS 319 to the performance of this act by a strong blind force. Periodicity is absent. The course of his desire is well nigh uniform. On the other hand the female has to be impregnated, carry and later nurse the child. The future of the race depends upon the success of this whole process. Though pas- sive (apparently) in the act of copulation, the wo- man becomes active from the time of conception until the child is able to take solid nourishment. Her activity, even later, expresses itself in her love for the offspring. Let us take a look at the differences of the repro- ductive instincts of the male and female. The nor- mal human sex instinct manifests itself in three separate phases: the introduction to the copulative act, kissing and embracing; the reproductive act it- self ; and the desire for offspring. In men the first phase is not always very pronounced. Many men go to their wives without any love making. In the great majority of cases the thought of children plays no part in the copulative act of men. The male is driven to the sex act because he cannot control the force that urges him. Whether his sex instinct is weak or strong makes little difference. The ques- tion of children only occurs to him at the time when he is free from sexual excitement. It is only in repose, not in the act of coition, that this mood comes to him. To the male therefore, the ordinary pros- titute may serve and often does serve as a means of complete sexual gratification. 320 SEXUAD TRUTHS With the female sex it is quite different. In most cases the female demands and feels all three phases of the sex instinct. She desires to be embraced and kissed, and very often without this the sex act is not satisfactory to her. She thinks, she cannot help thinking, of the time when she will have offspring, and of course the reproductive act itself plays the prominent part. Of course there are exceptions in which the female is characterized by an absence of any one of these phases, but not frequently. There are women who are afraid to become mothers, some who do not care for kisses, and still others who abhor the act of copulation, but all these are excep- tional cases. I have heard women say: "I love my children, because I love my husband and it is his love that takes precedence. Without it, I do not think I could love our children so well. Of course the act of copulation is the most important part, but without the preliminaries, the close embracing and love- making, I do not think I would enjoy it so much." Thus speaks an honest woman, healthy in body and mind, a mother of a large progeny. She is candid, she has no reason to deceive any one. The difference in regard to sex functions depends on menstruation, pregnancy, and lactation. Men- struation increases the sex feeling in all females, not only among humans but among all females where its equivalent exists. During two days prior to men- struation and during menstruation the female sex SEXUAL TRUTHS 321 instinct increases in strength. During pregnancy the sex instinct of the sexually weak woman dimin- ishes or disappears; in the sexually strong woman it persists during the whole nine months. But I cannot see that it has any significance, and it may be only due to the freedom people permit themselves during pregnancy. Before the woman became preg- nant measures were taken to prevent conception, and both husband and wife were half-starved. It is when pregnancy is an established fact that measures are no longer taken to prevent conception. This feeling of safety causes all taboos to disappear and the pair forget the days of starvation. During lactation the sex feeling in the female is diminished, or, more correctly speaking, assumes a new character. I have often heard women say that the first time the infant takes the breast in its mouth all previous sufferings are forgotten. Questioning the women what kind of a sensation this produces in them, I found some willing to explain it; and the the consensus of their statement is that nursing the child is akin to strong sexual relations, and indeed satisfies their sexual desires more than the real act could satisfy them. Acting on these statements, I followed up this question and have found it more or less universal. For instance among many nations when a woman gives birth to a child she leaves her husband's hut and retires to her own. The husband in the meantime buys another wife. The mother nurses the infant for two, three and even four years 322 SEXUAL TRUTHS and during all this time she is forbidden to cohabit with her husband. I have followed the literature on this subject to see if I could find many cases of women during this time having illegal relations with other men. The cases were found to be rare and exceptional. Even the missionaries, who are ever ready to condemn every non-Christian institution, rarely find fault in this case. This, in the absence of moral prohibition, strengthens my idea that lacta- tion and nursing is to the female the equivalent of normal sexual relations. But it is of great import. Another pregnancy would deprive the child of its mother's milk. And as this could not be replaced, especially in countries where infant foods are un- known, by constant lactation for two or three years, the female thus insures the life of her child. As I have said already, the sex instinct of the female may be classified as strong, moderate, absent and inverted. A male without a sex instinct, or with a very weak one, seldom takes a wife, unless he does so for purely social or political reasons. A female without a sex instinct often does marry, because though not having any sexual desire, she may still have a strong love for offspring. In this case it is a purely feminine reason and cannot and does not act in the case of man. Once her desire for children has been satisfied she has little or no use for her husband, and the act of coition becomes still more repugnant to her. One case I know of reveals a SEXUAL TRUTHS 323 condition which resulted in the woman answering her husband: "Here is a dollar, and go!" The woman did this in face of the fact that her moral code was being violated, and her children were sadly in need of the money to give them added nourish- ment. In another family where the dollar had little or no value, the wife said to her husband: "Do with yourself as you wish, but do not make a fool of your- self or create a scandal." In still another case the wife gave her husband perfect liberty and he enjoyed her confidence to such an extent that he related to her all his love affairs and experiences. She would grieve with him in his failures and share with him the joys of his successes. This class of woman sel- dom have any desire to satisfy themselves artifi- cially, and therefore it is among this class that the real celibates and advocates of female celibacy are found. The females with a moderate sex instinct, even in countries where they are given considerable freedom, are usually satisfied with one husband, unless he is sexually weak. If not married they quickly find artificial means to gratify themselves. If success- fully mated and well matched sexually they as a rule produce a goodly number of children and make excel- lent wives and mothers. If not married they con- tribute quite a large number to the ranks of pros- titutes. The sexually strong women among some nations are given considerable latitude and freedom of ac- 324 SEXUAL TRUTHS tion. But our morality cheats her and condemns her as a criminal and outcast. Our moral code gives her no right to satisfy her sex cravings and because of this she must suffer a life of chronic sexual hunger. It was decided long ago by sexually weak men that these females should lead a life not according to their desires but according to the sexually weak man's moral code. It makes no difference what is good for her or what is not, she must abide by the code. In view of this nothing is left open to this class of women but to suffer or to be social cheats, sexual hypocrites. She may, if she is strong enough to come out into the open, live the life of a free woman. This, however, requires greater courage than that of clandestinely breaking the sexual code. Very often their sex instincts are aroused before they really become conversant with our sexual code. These cases very often succumb when very young and then never make any effort to harmonize their sex life with the morality of the age. Out of this class of women most of our prostitutes are recruited. Many of this class of women engage in a deadly and tragic battle with their sex cravings in an effort to control them by the moral code, but it is usually without success; and if the woman is intelligent enough and is able to appreciate the real value of our moral code, she begins to lead the life of a free woman. Some others meet sexually strong hus- bands and when this happens they make excellent wives and mothers. SEXUAL TRUTHS 325 Another peculiarity about the female with a strong sex instinct is that she has a strong love for off- spring. After the birth of each child her sexual appetite increases, and after the birth of two or three children her reproductive appetite reaches higher and higher. When her craving for children has been satisfied, she is then urged by an ever stronger and blind force to procreate more and more. The first is always the child that is desired, the second less so, the third, fourth and so on are merely accidental, because her sex instinct is too strong to be controlled. There is one point of difference between the sex instinct of the male and female which is of consider- able interest. And that is the disproportion that exists almost exclusively among so styled civilized white races between the duration of the sex act of the male and female. There is not the slightest doubt that among the Africans, Asiatics and Aus- tralasians the sexual act lasts considerably longer than among the white races. In Africans from 15 to 30 minutes and frequently longer. Among white men five minutes is considered the longest time, three minutes about normal, and among many men not even that long; and this does not satisfy the white female. But there are may men who have entirely premature ejaculations, and this is one of the most distressing conditions that a white female meets in her married life. There are mainly two causes that contribute to premature emission, one is urethritis (posterior) 326 SEXUAL TRUTHS which is often amenable to treatment. But the most frequent is the psychic variety, and it is so important that I will try to show its origin. Our ideas are to- tally against early marriages. Among other nations youths marry between 14 and 20 years of age. In our midst such marriages would be considered ridic- ulous. But the sex instinct appears at the age of 12 or 13 years, therefore we condemn our young boys and girls to masturbation and to prostitutes. Mas- turbation has a considerably harmful influence on the nervous system, but this is not so very great. The relationship of a youth to the prostitute has, out- side of diseases and the moral atmosphere of a bawdy house, a very deleterious influence on the nerve centers of reproduction. The first few times that a man has intercourse with a female is the determining factor in the case, and its influence is frequently life-long. If the youth does not wait until his sexual passion has reached its highest pitch, and has intercourse undisturbed by fear and high excitement, he will perform the act satisfactorily to both persons. But if he is over- scrupulous and bashful he will wait until his sexual passion is at its highest point; then timidly approach the female and retreat. He will, for instance, ap- proach a bawdy house and at the door become fright- ened by the utter strangeness of what he is about to experience, or perhaps he calls it the enormity of the crime, and therefore he will hastily run away. But this does neither satisfy nor quiet his sexual SEXUAL TRUTHS 327 passion. He will be compelled to repeat the same maneuver. He will repeat it several times until he gathers courage for this act. But his sexual centers have been so excited that when he comes to perform the act a premature emission takes place. The same will occur over and over again until the young man establishes a habit from which even when he is mar- ried he will be unable to escape. When a young man of this type marries he commits nothing short of a crime. If statistics on the subject could be collected, it would be shown that this cause alone produces more misery and hell in the binding marriage con- tract than any other cause. The sex desire of the man and woman has been brought by mutual love to the highest pitch of excitement, the normal repro- ductive act is about to take place, but the man's pre- mature ejaculation brings it to an end-a highly disappointed female, and a degraded, insulted man- hood, are the results of the whole performance. While writing these lines a married couple of this character consulted me. The man looks and acts like a pauper in spirits, he is depressed, apathetic; and the woman is nearly ready to enter a lunatic asylum. Her nerves are so shattered that every- thing brings her into a fury. Somebody will have to tell them that they must separate. It is not rare in my practice and in the experience of other prac- titioners to see a woman bringing her husband to the physician and stating the cause of trouble. She states plainly that her husband only irritates her 328 SEXUAL TRUTHS sex instinct, but never satisfies her. One woman tells me:4 4 My husband never satisfied me, but . . . " and she smiled like one who would say, "there are other men." There may arise the question: Which sex instinct is stronger, that of the male or the female? The answer depends on the point of view one is taking. Taking in consideration that there is far more polygamy than monogamy or polyandry, one is led to suppose that the male sex instinct is stronger. But there is another side to this picture. The male reproductive instinct is simple in character in comparison with the female instinct. Let us com- pare them on this basis. The man's function is only impregnation; the woman's functions are menstru- ation, pregnancy, lactation, and all these functions are more or less connected with sexual satisfaction. Comparing the time a male spends on his sexual activity with the time a female spends on her sexual activity, there cannot be the slightest doubt that the female is far more sexually active than the male. How then did our ideas originate that the female must be an angel? It is this that I am going to re- late briefly. We are able to trace the origin of our sex morality to three, in all probability, independent centers, and in all these cases we find only one force acting, one underlying cause. The oldest center is Greece, with Plato at the SEXUAL TRUTHS 329 head. We are here not concerned with Plato's phi- losophy in general, but only as to his influence on our morality. Here are some of his ideas: "But the Love who is the son of the common Aphrodite is essentially common, and has no dis- crimination, being such as the meaner sort of men feel, and is apt to be of woman as well as of youths, and is of the body rather than of the soul-the most foolish beings are the objects of this love." . . . "But the son of the heavenly Aphrodite is sprung from a mother in whose birth the female has no part, but she is from the male only, and the goddess being older has nothing of wantonness. Those who are inspired by this love turn to the male." In those days people of this character were styled women haters. The second center is Jerusalem. About 150 years before the beginning of our era the Judaic sect, the Essenes, became prominent. This sect abhorred marriage and therefore women were not admitted into their communities. Pliny, Josephus and Philo describe them as people who held a very low opinion of women; and Philo says they were "women haters." According to their teaching the heavens are inhabited by sexless angels, women are not ad- mitted to heaven, and marriage never takes place there. Love for a female is low, a crime, a disgrace, but brotherly love is holy and heavenly. The third center is Alexandria with Philo as a leader (about the beginning of our era). Philo in his 330 SEXUAL TRUTHS philosophy is a follower of Plato and was a natural ' ' woman-hater. ' ' The philosophy of these different sects spread all over the Mediterranean basin, and was accepted by many normal human beings. For instance St. Paul was an adept of the Philonic philosophy, and his writings represent a fac-simile of the philosophy of Philo. James of Jerusalem was under the influence of the teachings of the Essenes. The compiler of "St. John" was a follower of Plato. The history of the development of our sex morality lies com- pletely within the domain of the history of religion, which has no room in a medical work, but I will deal here shortly with the influence it exerted on our sex morality. Its influence was in two different ways. Women were not admitted to heaven; later a modification took place, that women may be ad- mitted to heaven, but they must be as pure and sexless as an angel; and in this way was established a standard that only women that are as sexless as angels are of the highest type, hence our angelic morality. But not all women can be angels: what of the bulk of womankind? The original idea of the "woman haters" that a female is an unholy, unclean being predominated. One writer claims that a woman is the invention of the devil to lure men from heaven. With ideas of that character, is there a wonder that men looked at the female as something far below him? SEXUAL TRUTHS 331 Under the influence of these ideas the female was deprived of all her civil and property rights, a con- dition which exists yet to-day. James Bryce writes as follows ("Marriage and Divorce," p. 35): "Mar- riage carried with it an absorption of the person- ality of the English wife into that of the husband whereby all her property passed to him and she became subject to his authority and control." This condition became prevalent in the whole of Europe. One more point. According to the philosophy of the woman-haters the normal relation of the sexes is an abomination. They, indeed, have a forcible, uncontrollable aversion not only to the female but also to normal reproduction, in fact an aversion to everything that directly or even remotely has any reference to normal relations of the sexes, and it is this aversion of the woman-hater that lies at the foundation of our present sex morality. The abnor- mal became the moral-brotherly love. The normal became the immoral-sisterly love. Comparing the sex instinct of the male and female we are forced to the conclusion that though each is made up of a reproductive mechanism entirely un- like, they, nevertheless, when brought together form a complete harmony; there is between them an al- most complete coordination and the outcome is re- production, safety of the offspring and little or no suffering to the parents. When our morality steps in, a morality founded on the ridiculous idea that since there are sexless 332 SEXUAL TRUTHS angels in heaven it should be our privilege as hu- man beings and sons of God to imitate their habits and abandon the sex instinct as abominable, the trouble begins. Instead of harmony and coordina- tion and usefulness we get discord and pain out of the performance of our natural functions. This is the most crying shame of our civilization, for every- where instead of happiness we get only pain. Our strife after the heaven of the future results in noth- ing more than hell here. Our state of society, or what we call civilization, centers about one point and that is sexlessness. Too much cannot be said against the theological dogma that gives rise to this state of mind. We have taken our opinion on these things from a little obscure, ignorant cult which influenced the mind of the Medit- erranean world, and hold it up before the whole human race as the perfection of morality. We want to imitate angels, because the Christian fathers in- sisted on this ideal. We are told by them that the sex instinct is shameful and criminal, productive only of low ideals. But this instinct refuses to be banished from society; though if one looked on us as a newcomer from Mars one might believe that there is no Such thing as a sex feeling, so low has it sunk under the iron weight of saintliness. The mere mention of the word i'sex" is regarded with suspicion and in some quarters must not even be hinted at. Our whole civilization is built up to cover the sex feeling with shame. Our houses are SEXUAL TRUTHS 333 made for "privacy," our clothing is to cover all traces of the reproductive mechanism; our literature is shamefully devoid of the healthy expressions of the most powerful impulse to art. The same thing is true of our art, philosophy and morality. Even many of our sciences avoid mention of this most fun- damental force in life and for a long time, indeed, suffered because of the ban on even the scientific treatment of the subject. Is it not time that we had rid ourselves of this incubus? While its claws are sunk deep into our throats how can we expect to do more or achieve finer things than we have already done? Our day will come, and it is not far distant. THE REGULATION OF OFFSPRING AND SEXUAL MORALITY H. Potthoff Anxiety over a decrease in the birthrate has led us to discuss and probe publicly some of the most important social facts which had thus far been kept carefully concealed as being of a mysterious or di- vine nature or indecent; this is to be welcomed as a significant step in advance. It is quite difficult to understand why our "scien- tific" age had allowed all the facts of scientific re- search to stop at the very point where they assumed their greatest importance, that is as soon as man was concerned; why this rational age had entrusted to the blind instincts of the individual the most im- portant of all things, the very foundation of state and society; why this age so fond of regulation and legislation had allowed the unintelligence and the selfishness of the individual to decide the most capital questions and also left to the individual the care of and the responsibility for the next genera- tion; why this age of "political economy" had re- fused so long to apply to the creation and breeding of men the main principle of all technical and eco- nomic work: to obtain the greatest results with the 335 336 SEXUAL TRUTHS, smallest expenditure, so that our so called "national economy" might include not only the production and marketing of goods but also the production of men. The agitation centering about the decrease of the birthrate will open many people's eyes to the impor- tance and the necessity of "human economy" which would apply to every individual and to every com- munity of individuals the basic principles of syste- matic management. The tone of the discussion rag- ing about the decrease of the birthrate, however, shows us how far the day still is when such a sys- tem of human economy will be adopted. Most people consider the problem as a moral problem and talk about the decrease of the birthrate as though it were something immoral. The first legislative attempts on the part of the Bundesrath and the Reichstag to cope with the situ- ation were inspired by a desire to wage a fight, so to speak, on immoral phenomena. The framers of that legislation overlook the fact that immorality is only one of many factors and that besides moral factors there are tremendous economic factors. In fact I consider economic factors as the most im- portant in this connection and a few commercial regulations will not counterbalance the economic facts owing to which the cost of living is rising, cities are overcrowded and farms deserted. It is only some agrarians gone mad who would suggest a further increase of the cost of living as a corrective measure for the decrease of the birthrate. SEXUAL TRUTHS 337 The worst part of it is that the problem is not approached properly. We are always talking of the number of births as though that was the impor- tant thing. In fact the number of births is quite unimportant. What counts is the number of chil- dren who survive. How many workingmen's wives were there and are there even now who would give birth to twelve children out of whom no more than five would reach their twentieth year? If those women only bore eight children out of whom six would live there would be a decrease of the birthrate but at the same time an increase of the population. This is exactly what we observe in the movement of Germany's population in the last fifty years. While the birthrate has fallen from 40 per 1,000 to 28 per 1,000, the natural increase of the population due to births is as large now as it was in 1870. And be- sides owing to a decrease of the deathrate and of emigration, the population of Germany is growing faster now than it was growing until 1890. The change we observe in the movement of the population is not an end in itself but only a means to an end. That change is rather pleasant to con- sider. A decrease of the birthrate is being compen- sated by a corresponding decrease of the deathrate, especially among children. The former decrease is probably due to the latter/ if we believe the much mooted statement of Rudolph Goldscheid, the Vi- ennese sociologist, that human fertility is not con- 338 SEXUAL TRUTHS stant but varies according to the losses it must make up for. We need not discuss the consequences which Gold- scheid draws from the fact that a decrease of fer- tility is made possible by the conservation of life (for instance when he says that mass production is only trash)1, but it is absolutely certain that the methods employed nowadays to conserve the popu- lation and increase it are more economical and there- fore more civilized than the methods prevailing in the past. While nature squanders life extravagantly and lets thousands of seeds go to waste in the hope that a few of them may grow, civilization goes about in a systematic manner and only sows a few seeds where they will have a fair chance to grow and it does its best to conserve all life produced in that way. Labor protection is conserving health, fatherhood and motherhood, social insurance and popular hy- giene are saving life from destruction, especially the lives of the newborn who would perish by the thousand. This relieves our economists of heavy financial problems, saves families from much sor- row, women from the useless wear and tear of body and mind, which the bearing and burying of 100,000 children entails. In spite of all, one-fourth of all the human beings born die in childhood. If the death rate was as 'See Goldseheid's "Higher development and human economy." Leipzig, 1911. SEXUAL TRUTHS 339 low in Germany as it is in England or in Sweden the birthrate could fall off another ten per cent with- out decreasing the number of children. Such data of human economy show that most of the moral objections to the regulation of the process of procreation are absolutely groundless. Any at- tempt at increasing the population in an economical way with the smallest possible expenditure, is as moral as the use of lightning conductors or dykes to protect men from harmful natural forces. Therefore it is unfortunate that Malthus' name should be in any way connected with this recent movement. This movement starts from quite a dif- ferent viewpoint and has an entirely different aim. Malthus was a pessimist. His "philosophy of mis- ery" was based upon the supposed disproportion between human fertility and the increase of food- stuffs. We, on the other hand, are optimists and we have an unlimited confidence in the development of applied science. Malthus only had one aim: to de- crease the extent of poverty; we believe in the pos- sibility of increasing endlessly human happiness. Our aim is to produce as many men as possible who will be as efficient as possible and as happy as pos- sible. Therefore we do not seek like Malthus to decrease the number of human beings but to in- crease it. Not by increasing the number of births but by regulating it, a regulation which would in many cases result in a direct increase. Our great "moralists" who fear the regulation 340 SEXUAL TRUTHS of offspring kill off thousands of children with their moral prejudices, thousands of children who lack nothing but a legitimate father. Every legal and economic improvement of the condition of illegiti- mate children always fosters an increase of the birth- rate. So does every measure limiting the working hours of women and children, developing social in- surance and affording protection to mothers. And if we are going to make divorce any easier the desire of one of the mates to have children should be deemed sufficient to break up a childless union. While this "moral" opposition to the regulation of offspring cannot have very important results, we must realize that regulation will exert a powerful influence on our moral conceptions. Our sexual morality is tottering. For it is based upon the assumption that the birth of a child is simply a dispensation of destiny, a gift from heaven. That basis will be destroyed when we take the child from nature and turn it over to civilization, when its birth is made to depend upon the conscious will of its parents. There will be then married peo- ple and lovers who will not desire a child as the fruit of their love relations; there are many to-day. Not one-tenth of those who yield to love have any desire for a child. But our official morality does not ap- prove of that. It considers that love for its own sake is a crime and that procreation only makes sexual relations sacred. SEXUAL TRUTHS 341 Official morality does not object to conjugal inter- course because it results in procreation. The more people there are who do not subscribe to this mo- rality as far as they themselves are concerned, the more hypocrisy there is, for state, church and so- ciety pretend to uphold that morality. Let's only recall the teachings of the Christian church which see in the pleasures of the flesh the most damnable of sins; remember Wagner's Parsifal in which Kun- dry's only crime is her sensuality while Parsifal's only merit is that he escapes her lure. Even Emile Zola, who in spite of his naturalistic novels was a very bourgeois moralist, was not far from sharing that viewpoint. In Doctor Pasqual, the Doctor's niece, an interesting woman, who lives with her uncle in illicit intercourse, declares quite positively that 4'unless it has the creation of a child as its aim, love is a useless indecency." Pasqual's niece happens to be perfectly honest about it. But in the majority of cases such a view of morality is mere hypocrisy. And this hypocrisy will be impossible when conception is no longer a mere matter of hazard but an act of will on the part of the mates, when married people will have a per- fectright to say: "We don't want children or we don't want any more children" (the reasons for such a decision and its moral value remaining open ques- tions). We will have then to take a frank and hon- est attitude towards sexual relations independent from conception, we will have to make up our mind 342 SEXUAL TRUTHS as to who is right, the poets of love whose words voice the feelings of the majority of healthy people or Christianity which sees in love the greatest of sins and Zola who sees in sterile love a useless in- decency. The increasing honesty we note nowadays towards eroticism is a sign of moral progress; but it is only the first steps towards a complete revaluation of all sexual values. For what is the basis of our modern compulsory monogamy except society's desire to protect the child? This is the most plausible reason why so- ciety compels people who do not love each other, who even abhor each other, to live within conjugal bonds, and prevents them from living with some other person whom they would love. As soon as society admits of consciously childless sexual inter- course, the reason for compulsory monogamy dis- appears. I say emphatically that this would not do away with monogamy for I do not wish to be misunderstood. But one would have to seek new reasons for monogamy, to find a new basis for it, and there comes the rub. For all the other difficul- ties have been smoothed out by the development of science and economy and all the moral and cultural significance of permanent love intercourse with the same person is set at naught as soon as love is re- placed by dislike or hatred, when the union is recog- nized as an error by both parties. Faithfulness, especially conjugal faithfulness, is SEXUAL TRUTHS 343 demanded solely for the child's sake. Among races which did not understand the relation between in- tercourse and pregnancy there was, as far as I know, no faithfulness. Will faithfulness disappear when the relation between intercourse and pregnancy be- ing too well understood will be eliminated by a con- scious will? Our mind refuses to believe it. Why? Is not the double standard which allows to man almost everything which seems reprehensible in woman, evidence that in final analysis it is the thought of conception which makes faithfulness im- perative ? I do not believe that it is man's selfishness which is responsible for this difference in the treatment of both sexes. The position of the illegitimate child is a result of "brutal sexual selfishness." But it is only the result of the difference between father and mother. This difference gives to the double stand- ard its logical meaning. When the double standard is removed will a single standard make conjugal faithfulness compulsory for both sexes? I wish to state here very clearly that I am not opposed to the idea of faithfulness; I believe, how- ever, that that idea will have to be placed on an entirely new moral basis, when the universal regu- lation of offspring robs it of the main excuse it has at present. And should we not find new reasons for the moral repulsion felt towards prostitution if that feeling of repulsion is to be kept alive? I do not speak 344 SEXUAL TRUTHS here only of the hypocrisy with which numberless "moral forces" manage to make despicable the things they cannot avoid; nor of the misery and vulgarity which go with prostitution because al- most all the people who enjoy it are themselves vul- gar; I only speak of the genuine feeling some people have towards "paid" love and which is a mixture of sadness and fear. What is the origin of that feeling except the possibility of conception? Pros- titution is the most dangerous enemy of compulsory monogamy and of conjugal faithfulness. People feel (unconsciously) that it constitutes a dangerous, dis- turbing factor as far as marriage or in other words the bringing up of children is concerned. It is not easy to imagine the change in feelings which would take place if we changed entirely the basis of our morality. But we must free ourselves logically from the idea that sexual relations and conception are unavoidably linked. Violent efforts are made to preserve this connection between the two for the sake of our public morality; that is why the regulation of offspring is considered as immoral and sinful from two points of view: it fosters sen- suality and constitutes a direct interference with God's management of things. When by admitting a rational regulation of off- spring we grant recognition to the "pleasures of the flesh," when besides the love that wishes to pro- create we recognize another form of love which aims at pure gratification, what will then distinguish this SEXUAL TRUTHS 345 gratification from any other form of gratification which man may derive from the physical or mental beauty of other human beings? And why shouldn't in this age of specialization where gold is master that form of human gratifica- tion form the aim of some one's existence? We consider it perfectly proper nowadays for singers, dancers and poets to earn a living by giv- ing other people pleasure with their voice, their legs or their heart confessions. Every one sells for money what others may enjoy. Why should one special form of barter be despised when it is not (perhaps unconsciously) linked with the thought of conception and procreation? Another of our notions would be radically changed by the regulation of offspring, our notion of "nat- ural sexual intercourse. ' ' Nowadays the worst form of immorality is unnatural or abnormal sexual in- tercourse. Our penal code inflicts upon certain forms of it severe punishment as "crimes against morality." The idea of natural sexual intercourse, however, can only endure if we assume that con- ception is the natural consequence of intercourse. As soon as the connection between the two is broken, as soon as it is no longer nature but the human will which makes the decision in such cases (and regulation of offspring means that nature at least on the negative side is to be replaced by civiliza- tion, chance by prevision), sexual intercourse of the 346 SEXUAL TRUTHS future will not be any more natural than our pres- ent mode of nutrition. Our nutrition also was originally something "nat- ural," that is, something necessary for the main- tenance of the individual. But after the advent of civilization eating and drinking have wandered away from their natural purposes and become means of pure gratification. Does anybody believe that caviar, champagne, brandy and condiments are being consumed simply for the sake of nourishing the body ? Or is seltzer more ' ' natural ' ' than coffee ? Therefore any embrace which does not serve the original "natural" purpose of reproducing the spe- cies, a purpose which official morality considers as necessary, oversteps the bounds of what is called "natural." There are many kinds of erotic pleas- ures which all differ one from the other and can be judged by all sorts of criteria; but the former dis- tinction between what is natural and what is un- natural cannot be applied to them, for one is just as unnatural as the other. To prevent readers with a prejudiced or super- ficial mind from misinterpreting me wilfully or un- consciously I will say this: I do not pretend that changes will be or should be introduced in our method of dealing with those things; I do not pre- tend that there will be or should be a change in our moral estimation of things and actions, I only wish to state that a regeneration of our sexual SEXUAL TRUTHS 347 life will cause all the principles of conventional morality to collapse. It is an instinctive feeling of the far-reaching changes which would take place in our sexual mo- rality which makes the champions of our modern hypocritical morality oppose with all their strength the regulation of offspring which they call a terrible sin. And as every new system of morals appears at first immoral we can understand why German legislators have met the great social problem of human economy with a little police measure meant to combat "immorality." COITUS AND NIGHTMARES William J. Robinsox, M.D. The following type of case is of interest, not be- cause it is rare, but because it is quite common. And though quite common, it has not, to my knowl- edge, been reported anywhere in medical literature. Mr. is a hard intellectual worker, 44 years old. He is moderate in his habits; doesn't drink at all, and smokes only two or three cigars a day. He was married at the age of 24, and is the father of three children; his sexual life since marriage has been rather active, but it cannot be said that he in- dulged to excess. Four or five times a week was his average during the first half of his married life, and this number has been gradually reduced to twice and once a week up to two years ago. During the past five years he noticed that intercourse did not agree with him. The first two or three days after intercourse he felt depressed mentally and physi- cally. His appetite, his digestion and his sleep were unmistakably affected, and in an injurious way. The appetite was greatly increased, but the diges- tion was spoiled, and the sleep was decidedly inter- fered with. He would toss about, wake half a dozen times during the night, and get up feeling anything 349 350 SEXUAL TRUTHS but refreshed. He gradually reduced the frequency of his sexual relations, but this did not improve matters: when he would abstain from intercourse, he had nothing to complain of; but as soon as he in- dulged, even if it was only once a month, all the symptoms, particularly the disturbed sleep, would make their appearance. During the past eighteen months or so, the matter became more serious. The first and second nights following coitus, particular- ly the first, became a torture to him. His sleep would be disturbed by horrible nightmares, and he would wake with severe palpitation of the heart, and all "atremble." All day he would be good for noth- ing, and at night he would have a repetition of the previous night, though in a milder form. The third and the following nights he would usually sleep normally-until the next coitus. He gradually began to increase the intervals be- tween his relations: from once a week to once in two weeks, then to once a month, then to once in three months. But it made little or no difference. No mat- ter how rarely he would have coitus, it would be followed by nights of terror and nightmares. There seemed to be an emptiness in his brain, and he said that he felt just as if his brain substance was oozing out with each seminal ejaculation. This brought to my mind the ancient notion of the nature of a seminal ejaculation. As is well known, the ancients believed that an emission of semen was the actual passage of brain substance down the spi- SEXUAL TRUTHS 351 nal cord. They called it stillicidium cerebri-an ooz- ing of the brain. Hippocrates says: " The humours enter into a sort of fermentation, which separates what is most precious and most balsamic, and this part thus separated from the rest is carried by the spinal marrow to the generative organs." My pa- tient had never heard of this idea of the ancients, but it expressed his feeling exactly: as if his brain was oozing out. It should be added that his ejaculatory ducts were evidently atonic, for after he was through with the act, the semen would keep on oozing slug- gishly for a long time. Unless he would go down and bathe his parts thoroughly in cold water, the oozing might keep up all night. As I had had sev- eral such cases in which treatment proved of little avail, I told him that in my opinion treatment would be useless in his case-and that there was only one thing for him to do: to give up sex relations alto- gether or at least for a year or two, and then make another attempt. He said that as far as he was con- cerned he would have given up all sex relations long ago-but his wife objected strenuously to any curtail- ment of her wifely privileges. She had been quite frigid during the first years of married life, very moderate during the next ten years, and only during the last five years has she become very passionate and exacting. We have here to deal with one of the great, and also all too frequent tragedies of life, with one of the most annoying disharmonies of nature. It is too 352 SEXUAL TRUTHS common an occurrence in the practice of the sexolo- gist to see this disharmony; just when the husband's sex powers are on the decline, just when he would like nothing better than to be left alone, then the wife's libido, which may have been peacefully dor- mant or lukewarm, awakens in its full force, and de- mands more than her husband, with the best of will, is able to give. And the result is an open tragedy, or repressed and concealed unhappiness. But this is a digression. The object of this ar- ticle is to emphasize the intimate relationship be- tween man's brain and his sex glands. In woman the sex act is never accompanied by such mentally exhausting effects, by such brain-shock. Men, and particularly men engaged in creative and intellectual pursuits, should, therefore, be prudent, and not waste their sex capital like reckless spendthrifts. A time of reckoning will come, and unless you belong to the small minority of men, with an apparently inexhaust- ible sex capital, you will have to pay, pay, pay. Your creditor will be relentless, and you will not be able to put him off with a note. He will demand imme- diate cash payment-both capital and interest. A CASE OF RAPE ON A YOUNG GIRL Dr. F. R. Bronson Mr. and Mrs. X. went to the theater. Their little daughter Irene, thirteen years old, reluctantly fin- ished her lessons, took a hot bath as she was ex- pected to, and went to bed. She was an only child, petted and wilful, and spent all her leisure time reading. Her parents often remonstrated with her for reading so much, and such cheap novels at that, but she was obdurate. She had wanted also to go to the theater, but the parents did not think she was quite old enough for the modern play. She was alone in the flat, with the exception of an old cook who slept in a room beyond the kitchen. When Mr. and Mrs. X. came home, a little past mid- night, they found Irene greatly agitated and sob- bing as if her heart would break. When they asked her what the trouble was she refused to give any answer. They urged her and begged her to say what was ailing her, or what had happened to her, but to no avail. When the father took her in his arms and began to pet her and stroke her hair and face, her sobs increased in intensity. The parents became worried and decided to send for a physician. No, she did not want a physician, she would not let 353 354 SEXUAL TRUTHS him look at her, and her sobs became more loud, more hysterical, her body shaking like an aspen leaf. Fi- nally, the father told her rather sternly that she would have to tell what was the matter or he would immediately phone for Dr. R., a physician of whom she stood since childhood in considerable awe. He knew how to handle her, and he did not hesitate to rebuke her wilfulness and scold her for her selfish- ness. Also, more than once when she claimed she felt sick, he said that she was a little humbug and that she was not sick at all. She seemed to get frightened when the father said he would send for the doctor, and she then hesitatingly and sobbingly came out with the following story. After she went to bed, she read for a while, then fell asleep. About ten o'clock, it must have been, the bell rang, and as cook was asleep and did not answer, she went down and opened the door. A man came in, asked for Mr. and Mrs. X., and when he found out that there was nobody in the house, he told her to go to bed and that he would wait. After she got into bed and began to doze, the man also got into the bed, and then he hurt her "something awful." She couldn't say just exactly what he did to her. Later, however, when urged by the mother, she gave such details of the act of rape, including a descrip- tion of the male organ, the pain following the rup- ture of the hymen, the ejaculation of the spermatic fluid, that no doubt was left as to the truthfulness of her story. SEXUAL TRUTHS 355 When asked why she did not scream, so that the cook could hear, she said that when she tried to, the man put his hand over her mouth, and then he stuffed it with a handkerchief. After she told the story she ceased to sob and calmed down. When asked if she knew who the man was, if she had ever seen him be- fore, she answered in the negative. But it could be seen that she was hiding something; that she knew, but did not want to tell. Urged persistently by the mother, she finally told that it was Mr. N. who had a room with the family in the apartment above theirs. The mother wanted to rush at once upstairs, and strangle her daughter's assailant. But the father succeeded in calming her, and persuaded her to wait until morning. Early in the morning he telephoned up to Mr. N. but was told by a member of the family that Mr. N. had not slept home, that as far as they knew he was out of town. He had said the day be- fore that he was going out of town for a day or two. This was to the mother an additional proof of the man's villainy, and she was for running at once to the police or the court or somewhere to get out a war- rant for the man's arrest. This the father would not permit. He would permit no scandal or publicity of any sort until he had a private interview with Mr. N. Though he knew him but slightly, he did not seem to him the sort of man capable of committing such a deed on a young girl. He left a note for Mr. N. that he wanted to see him on an important mat- 356 SEXUAL TRUTHS ter, he should please come down as soon as he came back. Mr. N. came rather late the same evening. He seemed surprised at the note, but he was still more astonished at the reception he received. The mother looked daggers, little Irene ran away and began to sob, while the father looked cold and noncommittal. In as few words as possible the father told him what the trouble was, what he was charged with. Mr. N. 's face was flaming with indignation. ' ' What is this, a blackmailing scheme, or a badger game? But you have struck the wrong party." Mr. N. must be a consummate actor-or he is innocent, thought the father. Irene was called in, confronted with N., and asked to repeat her story. She told substantially the same story as she told the previous night to the par- ents. By that time Mr. N. had calmed down and while Irene was telling her story, he was watching her in an amused way. ' ' What time do you say was it when I came down here? " "It was just ten o'clock, because I looked at the clock and heard it strike ten. ' ' "At that time, Mr. X., I was in Philadelphia, cele- brating my sister's tenth wedding anniversary. I went there with my mother who lives in New York. We left at four P. M." And he showed Mr. X. an in- vitation to the wedding anniversary which he took from his pocket. "Perhaps you wish to communi- cate with my mother and my sister. Their addresses and phone numbers are ..." By that time the father was convinced, if the SEXUAL TRUTHS 357 mother was not, that at least as far as Mr. N. was concerned, little Irene was simply lying. The mother asked if she was sure that it was Mr. N. At first she said yes. But after she looked up at the faces of Mr. N. and her father, she began to stammer, and said no, it was not Mr. N., it was another man whom she did not know. When asked why she said it was Mr. N., she said she didn't know, she thought it was, the other man looked like Mr. N. Mr. N. had a long private talk with the father, pointed out to him what terrible consequences such an accusation might have for a man who could not prove an alibi, who could hire no lawyer, and who perhaps was unfortunate enough to be known as rather loose in his sexual life. And finally, before going away, he threw out a remark, that he would not be at all surprised to learn that the whole story was an invention from beginning to end. This seemed to the parents insultingly absurd, because firstly, Irene was never known deliberately to lie, to fabricate stories; she might be mistaken, she might exaggerate things, but she was not a liar; and secondly, how could such a pure innocent child know the details of the sexual act, the appearance of the erect male organ, the process of defloration and penetration, etc.? The mother was furious at Mr. N. for having dared to make such an insinuation. But Mr. N. just smiled, bowed and took his depar- ture. While fully believing in Irene's innocence, ignor- 358 SEXUAL TRUTHS ance and veracity, the father decided to have expert opinion on his little daughter's condition. Besides, he feared that if she was really raped she might be- come pregnant. He therefore decided not to delay, took a taxi and took Irene-the mother of course went along-to Dr. R. Dr. R. examined her, said that the hymen was absolutely intact,-the attempt to insert the little finger caused her to cry out with pain-that there was not the slightest sign of any violence, and when told of Irene's story unhesi- tatingly pronounced it a fabrication. When they got back home, the father, always an easy-going man, was furious, and for the first time in his life he gave Irene a severe whipping. She took it as a matter of course, as a well-merited pun- ishment, and hardly cried. The father presented to her the enormity of the crime of such a lie, and showed her that a man could be sent away for it to prison for many years. She was sorry, she won't do it again, but she did not know that people were sent to prison for such a thing. "There, Mabel. . . . "What about Mabel? Which Mabel?" But here neither the father nor the mother could induce her to say another word. When urged her to explain what made her tell such a story, what put it in her head, she said she dreamed it and thought she would tell it as if it were real. And there the explanation remained for a while. When this detail was told to Dr. R. he said that while it was possible that she had some sort of dream, the SEXUAL TRUTHS 359 explanation was not a satisfactory one. For how could she dream of an erect phallus, ruptured hy- men, seminal ejaculation, etc., if she had no idea of those things in her waking hours? But that was all the explanation Irene would vouchsafe. She dreamed all the story that she told, and that was all there was to it. The parents had to be satisfied. About a month later a letter came for Irene while she was out. The parents considered themselves morally justified in opening the letter. It was signed "Mabel" and was of an extremely obscene character. The girl described the delight of coitus, what fun she had with her fellow, and it also con- tained crude drawings of the male and female geni- talia. It contained an open and tempting invitation to come to her home on Saturday, when her mother would be out, and they would all together have a lot of fun. When the parents instituted investigations they found that Mabel was a girl of sixteen, whose father had been dead for some years, and whose mother was a saleslady in a big department store. She was a good deal alone, and was out a good deal with fellows. And the same kind of letter she wrote to Irene she wrote to lots of other girls. Irene was forced to confess that the whole story of the rape was told her by Mabel. She had been recently initiated by a young fellow but while it was with her consent, she preferred to make believe that it was done against her will. She did not complain against the 360 SEXUAL TRUTHS fellow, but continued to have frequent relations with him. One day she described her experience to Irene as she did to several other girls, and Irene by some peculiar perversity of mind transferred that experi- ence that very evening to her own self. And it was a lucky thing for Mr. N. that he could establish his absolute innocence in the matter on the spot. Other- wise he might have had to undergo some unpleasant and injurious publicity. The most complete exoner- ation does not wipe off the stain entirely. First, because a good many people who read or hear of the accusation do not read or hear of the exonera- tion ; and second, people in general are always more ready to believe evil than good. And even when a man is exonerated they are apt to believe that the accused merely had a good lawyer, or the charge could not be legally proven, but that in reality he was guilty. The mob dearly loves the stupid adage: where there is smoke there must be some fire. It may be true of smoke; it is not true of slander. SEXUAL ABSTINENCE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON HEALTH By Professor Anton Nystrom, M.D., Stockholm After discussing for twenty years the question as to whether sexual abstinence is injurious to one's health moralists, educators, and physicians have managed to reach the most contradictory conclu- sions. Why is it that opinions on this subject differ so radically? While other biological subjects are being investi- gated in a perfectly scientific manner, ethical consid- erations intrude themselves into the study of the sex- ual functions. Theology also has made its influence felt in this connection and has introduced into the discussion many erroneous notions as to the meaning of morality and the possibility of repressing the sex- ual instinct by the exercise of will-power. The majority of the men who defend sexual absti- nence confine themselves to reprinting what other partisans of it have written on the subject. They call their opponents irreligious or unscientific or disingenuous. They do not even read their works in order to criticize them intelligently. On the con- trary the physicians who doubt the possibility of liv- 361 362 SEXUAL TRUTHS ing in abstinence without harming one's health base their conclusions upon cases they have observed in their own practice. This is the only way in which a scientific man should collect evidence. There are many physicians, however, who refuse to listen to what their parents have to say, who tell them that sexual abstinence cannot harm them and prescribe cold baths, bro- mides and more abstinence, besides of course advis- ing them to seek the help of religion and to rely on their moral fortitude. One of the reasons why physicans seldom mention abstinence as a cause of disease is that very few peo- ple abstain until their thirtieth or thirty-fifth year; and besides certain physicians seem unable to ob- serve the obvious. Ten physicians may come and tell you that they have never noticed any bad effects from abstinence; what does that mean? It may simply mean that they have not been able to observe those effects or to examine their patients properly. But if one reliable physician who enjoys the con- fidence of his patients has noticed bad effects from abstinence his word should prevail against the word of the other ten. Dr. L. Lbwenfeld is frequently mentioned as an authority on the question of abstinence. While he pretends that abstinence never has any bad effects many of the cases he cites contradict flatly his state- ment. There is especially the case of a young man, a lay member of a religious order who was constant- SEXUAL TRUTHS 363 ly tormented by sexual obsessions, .could not see a woman without being thrown into violent excitation and was kept awake night after night by voluptuous visions, all this in spite of the hard outdoor work he was doing and of the meager fare of the monas- tery. Lbwenfeld himself advised him to give up the religious life and to get married. And yet Lbwen- feld tells us that it was not abstinence that was al- most driving him into insanity . . . "He must have inherited a weak nervous system, ' ' this is all Lbwen- feld gives us in the way of an explanation. Elsewhere he tells us that "the harm caused by abstinence is not direct but indirect, as it is due main- ly to the mental efforts made to control one's sensu- ality ... It causes intellectual exhaustion rather than spinal disease." Lbwenfeld does not "deny that even for healthy individuals in no way burdened with a bad heredity, abstinence is hard to maintain. ' ' "But," he adds (there is always a but in his state- ments), "the disorders it may cause are only of a transitory nature." Dr. Joseph Mayer also contends that sexual absti- nence cannot have any ill effects upon one's health and adds that sexual neurasthenia is due to an un- bridled imagination; he will not excuse illicit coitus on any grounds, for "illicit coitus does not in any respect differ from masturbation; it has only one ob- ject, to produce voluptuous sensations and therefore is like masturbation, immoral and unnatural." "Complete abstinence," Dr. Mayer says in conclu- 364 SEXUAL TRUTHS sion, "not only from any illicit intercourse but from any obscene thoughts can only be beneficial to one's health and should be encouraged by everybody." In a lecture delivered at a commencement exer- cise by Dr. Alfred Sternthal and which is being used as a tract by the German Society for Combating Ve- nereal Disease, we read things like these: "History gives many examples of people who by remaining absolutely continent retained their mental and physi- cal health until an advanced age " . . . " when young men complain of depression, headache, fatigue, etc., following pollutions, it is simply because they have read or heard that those symptoms follow pollutions. They are generally young men who have indulged in the vice of self-defiling, in masturbation ... It is absurd and unscientific to state that coitus is healthy or abstinence unhealthy . . . Far from being bene- ficial to the mind, coitus is a danger for it, for it makes one weak, dull and lazy . . . Any one can re- main chaste without indulging in masturbation." It all sounds very good and should be a source of great comfort to anxious mothers, young graduates and friends of youth; but it is all untrue. History tells us of people who remained chaste and were very healthy . . . What books of history did our author consult? And who are those people? Dr. Sternthal unfortunately fails to mention names. We find in the history of the Church mention, of course, of the names of many men who were conti- nent ; but what do we know about their health? And SEXUAL TRUTHS 365 those people had rather cold natures and were given to philosophical and religious meditation. Besides, we know that many saints were tortured by evil spirits, and had to struggle against sinful tempta- tions. The fact that Catholic priests live in celibacy is often offered as evidence that the sexual urge can be repressed. But it has been said that some Catholic priests seek the gratification of desires which they are unable to repress. On the other hand, certain authors, for instance Hegar, say that such transgres- sions are very rare. Others like Lallemand and Moll remark that only people with weak sexual instincts enter the priesthood or that educational influences succeed in repressing completely the sexual urge in those who choose a religious life at an early age. The majority of men, however, have either strong or average impulses and are not submitted to any educational influences. They live in the world and have no leaning towards religious meditations; they seek the company of young women, have erotic feel- ings and desire persons of the opposite sex. And then the sexual urge varies greatly with indi- viduals; some have a weak, some have a strong sex- ual instinct; but in the majority of people that in- stinct is irrepressible, and religious or moral princi- ples often fail to keep it in bondage. Many physicians who minimize the dangers of masturbation make very bad advisers for young men. Gyurkovechki tells in his book on "Male Impotence" 366 SEXUAL TRUTHS that one of his favorite teachers said once before a small group of students: "Masturbation indulged in with moderation has many advantages, especially for students; it enables them to save time and money, to shun bad associations and to avoid venereal in- fection." Dr. Nacke, defending the possibility of abstinence, states that the libido can be satisfied by pollutions or masturbation when it becomes too strong. A dan- gerous doctrine to preach. In normal coitus the two components of the sexual instinct, the detumescence instinct and the contrecta- tion instinct are fully satisfied when the ejaculation takes place. When ejaculation is brought about with- out the help of a woman's body, the second instinct, which is the strongest expression of love's craving, is left ungratified; this is why habitual onanists fail to have an erection when they attempt to perform the normal act of coitus. There are two questions we must always consider when discussing the problem of abstinence: Is ab- stinence accompanied by masturbation ? Does a man really abstain when his abstinence drives him to masturbation? Abstinence accompanied by masturbation is not abstinence and it is perfectly ridiculous to ask whether abstinence is harmful in cases when self gratification takes the place of the forbidden coitus. Propagandists of abstinence go on repeating that pollutions have no bad effects and are not in any way SEXUAL TRUTHS 367 a morbid symptom. I would not go as far as to pretend that pollutions always are pathological in their nature; the majority of physicians and phys- iologists believe that certain pollutions are mere physiological manifestations; this is true of pollu- tions taking place say once or twice a month and fol- lowed by a feeling of exhilaration and a desire for activity. But when they recur every week or even several times in one night and bring in their wake depres- sion, headache, fatigue and other nervous symptoms, they must be considered as pathological. I cannot see how physicians can declare that such symptoms are not dangerous; I say most emphatically that we should not confine ourselves to treating them by hydrotherapy, sports and other palliatives. Pollutions can be diminished; they can even be made to stop entirely; but that does not mean that the health of the patient is not affected; sexual ex- citability can be so decreased that it ceases alto- gether and then we face impotence. The fact that pollutions cease may mean that the patient is suffer- ing during the waking state from seminal losses un- accompanied by any pleasurable feeling and due to a relaxation of the sphincters of the seminal vesi- cles. When the seminal sphincters become weakened the patient may feel comfortable for a while, as sperm no longer accumulates in the vesicles and flows through the seminal ducts; but this is soon followed 368 SEXUAL TRUTHS by morbid symptoms, weariness, incapacity to work, melancholy and later on, impotence. All erotic thoughts vanish and with them the capacity to love; a man suffering from spermatorrhea and impotence cannot love any woman. What has become of the strength and the conjugal joys which abstinence propagandists had held out to the "pure" young man? The only cure for pollutions and other ill effects of sexual abstinence is regular sexual intercourse. Nature demands it and physicians should prescribe it when all other means have failed. This is the attitude assumed by men like Dr. Max Marcuse, Dr. V. von Gyurkovecki and Dr. M. Porosz, all of whom have gone deeply into the question. Physicians should, of course, when they advise pa- tients to resort to intercourse, inform them of all the available means for the prevention of venereal dis- eases and of conception, some of which are practi- cally infallible. Unfortunately many physicians are themselves perfect children in that matter; I know men who have specialized in obstetrics and yet have never seen a pessarium occlusivum; they would not know how to apply it, nor how to advise women as to its use. Father Karl Jentsch, a Catholic priest, published in 1900 a remarkable book entitled "Sexual Ethics, Sexual Justice and Sexual Police" in which he takes a very firm stand against the Swedish physician SEXUAL TRUTHS 369 Ribbing, the leader of the sexual rigorists of to-day. "Sexual functions," Father Jentsch writes, "have just as little to do with morality as the functions of nutrition. Consequently the gratification connected with them, or the desire for that gratification or the idea of it cannot be sinful. I do not call chastity the mere disuse of sex functions, but their use according to what the ancients called castitas, that is their reg- ulation according to duty and reason. . . . Moderate gratification is not only harmless but necessary. Physicians are not agreed as to whether abstinence is directly harmful; but under normal conditions it is indirectly harmful for a normal man. It is not true as Ribbing asserts that in periods of abstinence nature supplies the proper relief. Many men (per- haps the majority of men) who wish to avoid 'sin- ning' pay for their continence with their night's rest, weeks at a time. . . . What fathers, public opinion, the government and the church should say to young men is this: "Try as hard as you can to be abstinent before marriage. If you fail, do not consider yourself as an evil man or a confirmed sinner. Provided you do not become a wanton, you may accord yourself just enough gratification to re- gain your peace of mind and the composure and exhilaration necessary to carry on your work; but be sure to take all the measures of precaution rec- ommended to you by physicians or experienced friends." In this article I have always spoken of abstinence 370 SEXUAL TRUTHS with reference to men. But in the case of women ab- stinence is also apt to bring on serious trouble. Gen- erally speaking, abstinence is more common among women than among men and more easily borne by women, for many more of them have what we call a "frigid nature." I have indeed observed cases of perfect health in women who seemed to live in abstinence, but we should not draw absolute conclusions from such cases for many single women and widows, apparently ab- stinent, indulge secretly in sexual intercourse. We must not forget either that a woman's or- ganism may not reveal any disorders directly due to lack of sexual gratification but that other disor- ders may after careful examination be traced back to sexual abstinence. The conclusion to which I have arrived from my numerous observations is that sexual abstinence may cause serious and dangerous diseases and may in some cases have actually fatal effects. DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN THE MALE AND FEMALE SEX INSTINCT Dr. Ludwig Reisinger. It is a conspicuous fact that in none of the numer- ous sexological works is the etiology of the specific differences between male and female libido dis- cussed, and this in spite of the consensus of opinion regarding this question. Excepting a few authors, all noted investigators are of the opinion that the sexual instinct of woman is not aroused previous to her having sexual intercourse, while in man this imperious power manifests itself spontaneously. Max Marcuse discusses a work of Fraenkel, who maintains that a sexually inexperienced woman does not suffer as keenly under abstinence as man does, and that woman's potential sexual instinct has to be incited by coition. In his extensive work The Sexual Life of Women, Kisch declares that "from the mo- ment in which woman has got sexual enlightenment and experience, she is in possession of sexual stim- ulations the contrectation and cohabitation impetus of which is as powerful and impulsive as that of man." In his comprehensive work The Sexual Life of our Time, Bloch expresses himself in a similar vein. The conception which sees in the prevailing 371 372 SEXUAL TRUTHS social conditions the cause of woman's imposing upon herself restraints, may not be quite correct, because these conditions spring necessarily from the biological nature of woman. This opinion is shared by Kisch who points to the difference between the male and female sex instinct when he writes that 1 ' in woman the sex instinct is more susceptible to the impulses of the will than in man, and the ardor of woman's sexual passion is more easily placed under control than that of man. ..." Consequently, woman's reserve is not a product of social conditions but the natural result of her disposition by virtue of which the will has the power to check the impulse. Moreover, Kisch declares that "in the female or- ganism there is a wider field for the satisfaction of the sexual instinct than in the male organism. ' ' By a kiss, or even by the mere consciousness of being admired, a woman may feel herself compensated for the deprivation of the sexual act. The same is main- tained by Forel who says that flirtation is for many persons a substitute for love and sexual intercourse. By pointing to the fact that suppression of the libido is less harmful to the organism of woman than that of man, Kisch has advanced a striking argument which shows that modesty and reserve have their origin in nature and are not products of civilization. For if woman's psychic attitude were not rooted in her physical disposition, abstinence would be as harmful to her as it is to man. The biological cause of man's aggressiveness and woman's passiveness is SEXUAL TRUTHS 373 undoubtedly to be found in the biological difference of the sexual organs, to which fact physicians and physiologists have paid too little attention. The phe- nomenon that already during puberty man has vo- luptuous feelings, is due to two factors, namely, pol- lutions and erections. While to the normal virgin pollutions are unknown, they appear in man at the age from fourteen to sixteen and draw his attention to the ordinary mode of detumescence. The erec- tions produce an annoying feeling of tension in the genitals and force the young man to seek means by which the detumescence impulse may be appeased, which is often accomplished by resorting to mastur- bation. For this very reason it becomes quite evident that those authors are wrong who claim that both sexes are equally addicted to masturbation. For as woman is free from the organic incentive of aggressiveness, she is not so much disposed to practice self-abuse. Fraenkel may be right when he states that once in her life about every third woman (35 per cent) per- formed masturbatory manipulations. The objection might be raised that the menses produce an hyper- emia of the female genitals which corresponds to the erections in man, and that therefore libido is not foreign to the virgin woman. This is to be refuted by pointing out the fact that because of the loss of blood menstruation is more likely to be followed by exhaustion, and that the imperfect erection of the clitoris cannot be compared with the hyperemia of 374 SEXUAL TRUTHS the powerful corpora cavernosa of the penis. It is by these physiological differences that the psychic distinction in the libido of the two sexes becomes evi- dent, and which vindicates the opinion of those who claim that it is only after sexual intercourse with man that woman becomes familiar with the feeling of voluptuousness. To be sure, the reflections which are connected with the painful experiences made during defloration, will exercise an inhibitory influence, and at first, effect a resistant attitude. Intensive erec- tions and the accumulation of sperm cells evoke in man impetuous urgings towards detumescence, while in the absence of these masculine peculiarities even a sexually experienced woman is able to curb her passion and to bring her libido under the control of the will. MISCELLANEOUS BRIEF ARTICLES by the Editor DEATH DURING SEXUAL INTERCOURSE He was fifty-two years old. But nobody took him to be older than forty. His abundant black hair, which showed just the slightest tinge of gray at the temples, and his ruddy complexion gave him a youthful appearance. But if a man is as old as his arteries, he was at least sixty years old. His doctor told him once: You look forty, chronologically you are fifty, but in reality or arterially you are sixty. His arteries were hard, and his blood pressure over 180. And he had brought on this condition by his excesses. He ate and drank enormously, smoked in- cessantly, and worst of all, he indulged daily or nightly in sexual excesses. They were not ordinary, moderate sexual relations, but real excesses, into a description of which it is not necessary to enter. He was warned by his physician a number of times. He was told that unless he changed radically his entire mode of living, he was likely to go off suddenly any time. He did not like the idea of dying suddenly; life tasted sweet to him; he was enjoying it too much. So he gave up smoking entirely, ate moderately, and drank but little and only occasionally; but one thing he refused to do, and that was to diminish the fre- quency of his pilgrimages to the shrine of Venus. 377 378 SEXUAL TRUTHS He was told that in his case that was the most im- portant thing to do; the possibility, nay, the proba- bility of his dying during the sexual act was pre- sented to him. But he would not take the warning. And to-day's papers have the announcement of his death. He died early yesterday morning. He died of "heart disease." And only three or four people know exactly how his death was brought about. His lady friend who knew his doctor sent for him imme- diately, but when he came he found that there was nothing for him to do. The man was dead beyond resuscitation. New York still remembers the sensation that was created by the sudden death of one of our million- aires in a cheap hotel here. Cases of sudden death during the sexual act-what the French call "the sweet death"-are not at all infrequent; certainly much more frequent than the public has an inkling of. And these cases of sudden death, while occurring in the lawful marriage bed, are particularly frequent during illicit relations. The reasons for it are self- evident. People with high blood pressure, with hard ar- teries or any cardiac trouble should therefore ear- nestly be cautioned against any sexual excesses; but they should be doubly warned against indulgence in illicit relations.-W. J. R. SEXUAL TRUTHS 379 WORRY AND LIBIDO Physical exhaustion and disease may depress the libido in men and women, and it may not. We know that consumptives in the last stages may be strongly libidinous; we know several typhoid fever patients who a week or two after recovery, during convalescence, when they were still hardly strong enough to walk, exhibited a strong libido and in- dulged excessively in sexual relations. But there is one factor, that will surely, quickly, almost in- variably depress or entirely abolish the sexual de- sire, and that is worry. Worry and fear are the greatest, most efficient, almost infallible anaphro- disiacs. A rather interesting case of a young couple re- cently came to my notice. Married about three years, both enjoying exuberant health, possessing all the world's goods, without a care in the world, and still genuinely in love with each other, their vita sexualis was very active and very satisfactory. But the second draft came around, and they began to worry. They4 1 worried themselves sick. ' ' She cried often and could not sleep nights. He did not cry, and he still could sleep, but he worried greatly- more than he cared to admit. He hated to leave his beautiful young girl-wife, as well as the comforts of home, and while he was not at all a physical coward, what he read about the "cooties" and the rats, did 380 SEXUAL TRUTHS not make him very eager to exchange his comfortable apartment for a trench. Before they took any ac- count of the matter, three weeks passed without their indulging even once. And prior to that, dur- ing the three years of their married life, not one week had gone by, without their indulging, once, twice or three times. And now when he did make an attempt, the result was highly unsatisfactory, both to him and to her. Another attempt two weeks later resulted similarly. In the meantime the husband whose sight in one eye was poor, consulted an ophthalmologist, who as- sured him, that he had nothing to fear, that he would never be sent to France, that in the worst case he would be given limited service here. Then the out- look for peace became more favorable, and he became convinced that there was not much chance of his being taken away from his wife and his home. He ceased to worry. And with the cessation of the worry, his libido came back in its former-for a while in increased-strength. And the same thing happened to his wife. In our practice we have had many striking examples of the effect of worry on the libido sexualis in both sexes. Yes, worry is a great anaphrodisiac. And it shows more unequivo- cally than anything else does that in modern civilized man the libido is influenced by psychic as much as by physical factors; perhaps even more by the former than by the latter.-W. J. R. SEXUAL TRUTHS 381 FALSE ACCUSATION OF RAPE T trust that the reader will read the article "A Case of 'Rape' on a Young Girl," published else- where in this volume, with more than the usual at- tention. Not because the case is especially extraor- dinary-similar and stranger cases have been re- ported in literature-but because it serves to remind us of the great danger that men are often in from false accusations by female children and women. It was nearly a century ago that the famous Sir Astley Cooper cautioned his students to be extremely careful when dealing with accusations of rape by young girls. The words of Sir Astley Cooper are worth repeating: . From time to time it happens that an im- pressionable mother becomes alarmed at the discov- ery of some discharge and suspects that her child has been mishandled. She seeks a physician, who unfortunately does not know this disease, and de- clares that the child has a venereal discharge. . . . What happens in such a case ? The mother asks the child: 'Who has been playing with you?' The child answers in all innocence: ' Nobody, mamma, I assure you. ' To which the mother replies: ' Oh, don't tell me any such lies; I'll spank you if you do. ' And then the child is led to confess what never happened in order to escape punishment. The child finally says: ' Such and such a person took me on his knees.' The indi- 382 SEXUAL TRUTHS vidual is questioned and denies emphatically. But the child, fearing the threats of her mother, persists in her story. The man is taken to court; a physi- cian who does not know the nature of the discharge gives his testimony, and the man is punished for a crime that he has never committed." Sir Astley concludes by saying: "I have seen such cases more than thirty times in the course of my life, and I can assure you that a number of men have been hung in consequence of a similar error." And though these words were uttered nearly a century ago, and though those who have had experi- ence with rape cases are aware of the fact that not in one out of ten cases are the charges of rape found to be true, men are still subjected to the disgrace of publicity, to imprisonment, to blackmail, to money settlements, etc. on the unsupported testimony of girls. Mothers are particularly apt to believe the statements of their little daughters, and sometimes by the aid of leading questions they guide them to the invention of the accusation.-W. J. R. NORMAL VS. ABNORMAL SEXUALITY I am much more interested in the fearful heart- aches, in the unquenchable longings of normal men and women of all ages than I am in the sufferings of perverts and degenerates. Not that I pity the latter less, but I pity the former more. For we must bear in mind that taken all in all, the perverts, including SEXUAL TRUTHS 383 in this term the homosexuals, sadists, masochists, nymphomaniacs, etc., do not constitute more than five per cent, of the population. The sexually nor- mal constitute ninety-five per cent. And we cer- tainly should devote most of our attention to those who constitute the vast majority than to those who constitute an insignificant and almost negligible minority. We must further bear in mind, that racially the perverts constitute a very undesirable element and it would be best if they could be pre- vented from procreating. And then again try as we may we cannot work up any genuine sympathy towards a cruel sadist or one who is addicted to bes- tiality. The best thing for such people would be to take a dose of HCN. That's what I did advise one to do, quite frankly. I therefore confess that the normal healthy man and woman, who suffer agonies and whose life blood drips slowly away because their physical and spir- itual longings find no outlet and no satisfaction, touch me and interest me much more deeply than do the perverts.-W. J. R. THE TASK OF SEXOLOGY In my opinion the task of Sexology for many years to come will consist in a searching study of the elements of the normal manifestations of sex, both physical and spiritual-the latter being the more important, in an analysis of that feeling which has 384 SEXUAL TRUTHS so far defied all analysis, the feeling which is as much of a mystery now as it was three thousand years ago, nay is much more of a mystery, because with the growing complexity of human spirituality and human culture, the feeling becomes much finer, much more delicate, much more complex, the feel- ing which for the lack of a better word we call- Love. The abnormal manifestations of sex must not be neglected-but they must be given a subor- dinate place. SEXOLOGY VS. OBSCENITY A physician sent an article to the American Jour- nal of Urology and Sexology, which I promptly re- turned. I told him that the postal authorities would not stand for such stuff, but even if they did I would not think of publishing it, because I considered it vulgar, filthy, and what is most important, because I considered it as having no raison d 'etre. Ue wrote back saying that he was surprised and pained to discover that with all my broad-mindedness and radicalism I was a narrow-minded puritan. I did not reply, but I will take this occasion to say that if aversion to coarse vulgarity and purposeless ob- scenity constitutes puritanism, then I am a puritan. Sexology is not synonymous with scatology. There is nothing that I consider sacred, taboo, beyond the pale of discussion, but there must be a purpose be- hind it; you must show me that the purpose is the SEXUAL TRUTHS 385 improvement of human conditions, the increase of the sum-total of human happiness. The motto that I adopted years ago: no book- and no article-has a right to exist that has not for its purpose the betterment of mankind, by affording either useful instruction or healthful recreation, is still my motto to-day. And I want everybody to know it. In twenty years of writing I have not been guilty of one smutty or obscene expression. One can write and speak with the utmost freedom, using unvarnished expressions, without being obscene. And the writer who aspires to the title of sexologist is in great error if he thinks that sexology consists exclusively in reporting cases (many half a century old and most of them apocryphal) of bestiality, tribadism, coprolagnia, nymphomania and sadistic murders. This is the nauseating fringe of sexology, but it is not sexology. And in conclusion one more word: The deepest- going sexologist may be and often is a man of pure thoughts and pure actions (using the word pure both in its conventional and its sublime sense); the man who likes to wallow in filth is not a sexologist. He is a victim of the foolish vice of pornography. The editor flatters himself that he belongs to the former group. 386 SEXUAL TRUTHS STRIKES AGAINST MARRIAGE IN ANCIENT TIMES There is nothing new under the sun. ' ' The Strike of a Sex" is neither new nor original. That strikes against marriage occurred in olden times is reported by Lellius and Schottelius. The young women of Milet, an ancient commercial town, formed a peculiar association. The latter was based on the idea that the marriage state is one of misery in which the woman was subject to the man and which brought her nothing but pain and trouble and deprived her of her liberty. For this reason the women swore never to marry and if force was used in bringing them to wedlock they were pledged to prefer death by hanging. Marriages were almost suspended and suicide among the young women reached shocking proportions. The authorities hit upon the following plan to overcome the evil. Counting upon the sense of shame of the women, they decreed that after her death every suicide should be publicly dishonored by being dragged through the city streets, naked, with the same rope that caused her death, and her body left exposed to the insults of the populace. Only one such example sufficed to break up the or- ganization and force the young women into the bonds of wedlock. SEXUAL TRUTHS 387 A REMARKABLE EXPERIMENT IN VENE- REAL PROPHYLAXIS What sacrifice some people will bring, what risks they will take for the sake of Science! To test the efficacy of mecurial ointment as a prophylactic against syphilis and gonorrhea, a young man agreed to have unlimited promiscuous intercourse with a number of prostitutes, some of them known to be diseased. In a period of four weeks he had intercourse forty times with eighteen differ- ent prostitutes. Two of the prostitutes were known to be suffering with acute gonorrhea, while one was in the acute stage of syphilis. He used the mecurial prophylactic and neither the gonococcus nor the spirocheta could gain admittance into the body of that young man. In spite of his sexual debauch he went scot free. (This is not a fanciful story, but a real experiment reported by Dr. Ed. Richter in Der- mat. Centralblatt.) If sexual transgressions de- serve a punishment, that young man certainly de- served one, and still . . . Verily, great are the sacrifices that men-young men especially-will bring for the sake of Science. If time and space permitted we should feel in- clined to discuss the morality or immorality of in- ducing a man to indulge in promiscuous sexual orgies for the sake of Science, but, as it is, we will have to leave the question for some future occasion, 388 SEXUAL TRUTHS UNCONSIDERED EVILS OF THE MASTURBA- TION BOGIE It is now agreed by all sexologists that the evils of masturbation are, in most cases, nil or very trifling, the real damage being done by the fear of the in- juriousness of the habit. This is not the point that I wish to discuss here, for I have discussed it a number of times, in various articles and books. But I wish to call attention to a new, hitherto unccnsidered, phase of the subject. I wish to call attention to the fact that many boys not infrequently conceal from their parents certain diseases which have absolutely nothing to do with masturbation, but which they are afraid are due to their occasional indulgence in the "solitary vice." The evils of masturbation are pictured in such frightful colors and are claimed to be so multitudi- nous, that whenever a poor boy who indulges, how- ever rarely, in the habit, gets some trouble, he is apt to think that he brought it on himself by his sin- fulness, and shame and fear often keep him from disclosing his ailment to his parents. Here are two cases which will elucidate the point I wish to make. The parents of a boy of twelve-- an only son-noticed that he was ill. He looked bad and was getting thin. But to all inquiries he replied that he was feeling well, that there was noth- ing the matter with him. Finally the parents SEXUAL TRUTHS 389 noticed that he was going to the toilet frequently, and that each time he came out looking ghastly. But he denied that there was anything wrong with him. This kept up for some time, and at last the parents decided to take him to a physician. The physician when left alone with the boy asked him in a kindly manner if he masturbated. The boy, after slight hesitation, answered in the affirmative, "once in a while, not often," but said frankly that he had not done it once in three months. And his trouble was only about four weeks old. The physician asked the boy to urinate-and everything cleared up at once. The boy seemed to have agonizing pain while urinating, and the urine when examined was found highly concentrated, full of gravel and calcium oxa- late crystals. When asked by the doctor why he didn't tell his parents at once, he answered that he was afraid, that he thought his painful and frequent urination was due to his occasional indulgence in the bad habit. On further examination an acute nephritis was found, and it took quite some time to bring the boy to a normal condition. Another case, reported to me by a friend in Wash- ington, is that of a boy who developed a scrotal hernia, which he did not dare mention to his folks until it required surgical intervention. And he did not dare mention it because he thought it was the result of his bad habit. He had read one of those vicious and pernicious books in which every possible 390 SEXUAL TRUTHS ailment and accident was claimed to be a possible result of masturbation. We wonder how many thousands of boys and girls conceal their ailments, suffering in silence and thus permitting the disease to progress and gain head- way, because they are afraid that their troubles are due to their "sin"? Who can calculate the damage which the vicious quack books of the Sylvanus Stall type are responsible for ?-W. J. R. APPENDIX A THE EFFECTS OF MASTURBATION-A GENUINE HUMAN DOCUMENT Dr. William J. Robinson, New York City, Dear Doctor :-I have just had the great pleasure of reading your article "Masturbation in Children" and the sane, well balanced view of the matter which you take and advocate prompts this letter. I am thirty-four years of age, married, holding a responsible position in the service of a large and discriminating corporation, at a salary of $5,000 per annum. I was accepted by the Equitable Life As- surance Society for insurance two years ago, four years ago by the Meridan Life of Indianapolis. Prior to acceptance in both instances rigid exami- nations were made. I am in perfect health save as to some slight trouble with piles, mingle in good society and have the respect and confidence of my fellows. Am an Elk and a member of various clubs. I recite these facts that you may conclude as to whether idiocy, partial or complete has been my por- tion. At about thirteen years of age, as nearly as I can remember, I first masturbated, being taught the 391 392 SEXUAL TRUTHS practice by a boyhood friend. In fact, all of us kids in the neighborhood, or nearly all, indulged in this practice, and we thought nothing of it. In swimming in the river we used frequently to handle each other under the water where bystanders could not see, and I have been myself masturbated and performed it on other boys in this manner a great deal in those days. Later, as a boy will, I heard dreadful stories of the results that would come. As they did not come I kept it up. It is my recollection that during those days I masturbated sometimes during the day every day. As the years rolled on, and I reached something like sixteen, a school teacher taught me or rather gave me, my first experience in actual intercourse. She was my sole associate in intercourse for a year or two, and then came others. She warned me of disease and the others, and though she never knew I masturbated, and I did not during the time we were together daily after school, when she left the city I continued to practice, fear of dis- ease inspiring it as much perhaps as anything else. Then, of course, I grew bold, and had the usual ex- periences of a young man-promiscuous intercourse. Contracted gonorrhea, was cured after a painful and embarrassing treatment-and returned to the old and safe practice of masturbation. I then went to South America for a few years, and the brown women of that country not appealing to me, I mas- turbated during that period, probably not less than six or seven times a week. A sweetheart, upon my SEXUAL TRUTHS 393 return to the U. S., of whom I was too fond to take advantage as to intercourse, and who was herself in deadly fear of the pain of it, grew into the habit of masturbating me, and I her-and for some years this went on. We never had sexual relations with each other. I had gone to school and graduated; upon my re- turn I entered college, and graduated there with high honors. All the time I had been a more or less constant masturbator, and during college years used to put myself to sleep this way, finding that when due to excitement or other cause I was sleepless, masturbation would induce sleep and rest. I again became promiscuous in intercourse, and again con- tracted gonorrhea. Cured, I resolved ''Safety First"-and until my marriage, mechanical massage was my intercourse. Unfortunately I married a girl who was not, if the expression is a proper one, strongly sexed-she was, in other words, indifferent to the sexual relation, except at long intervals. I therefore continued, when the instinct prompted, after marriage, masturbation. I have, in fact, con- tinued it until the present, though at longer and longer intervals-now rarely more often than twice or thrice a week-depending upon responses of my wife to the sexual instinct. I am splendidly muscled, an athlete as to tennis, golf and hunting; perfectly normal in health-have always been a man's man-not a "Sissie" or an ef- feminate boy. It seems, in my case, that masturba- 394 SEXUAL TRUTHS tion, and I don't believe any one ever indulged in it more consistently, has not been injurious. Of course it is true that in later years I may pay a price-probably will, but at 34 I feel like a million dollars! The foregoing for your information, Doctor-the statement is an absolutely truthful one. My boy- hood chum, in company with whom I have mastur- bated hundreds and hundreds of times during our boyhood days, is now the Vice-President and Cashier of one of the largest banks in the Southwest, a mag- nificent man, mentally and physically. Others of those days, who then had the habit but of whose lives I know no intimate details in recent years, have made successes in various lines of endeavor. Your idea that the inherent defective would fall from this habit is the correct one-the naturally strong and able body will not-this I believe. I also believe that it would be much better if boys coultl be taught to look out for disease and get their sexual satisfaction in a natural way-but with disease as rampant as it is, I believe that is a safer proposition for a lad to masturbate than to indulge in promiscu- ous intercourse. Of the two dangers-disease ver- sus mental decay-I think the former is the most to be feared, and the latter not at all a certain result of masturbation. I salute you, Sir-and remain, M. C. E. [We ask our readers to send us similar personal SEXUAL TRUTHS 395 letters, describing their vita sexualis, and the results if any of various habits and perversions. It is time that hearsay, rumors and groundless fears give place to personal experiences.-Editor.] 396 SEXUAL TRUTHS MORALS BY POISON Is there no limit to the stupidity and audacity of the virtuous? It is almost universally the custom that wherever our boys are herded together, as at encampments and especially in preparatory schools, to drug the food with potash salts or other libido depressing drugs in order to keep them quiet. Whether this is partly to blame for the notable in- feriority of prep school boys at college one cannot say. But at a time when the secretion of the tes- ticular hormones is most important it seems odd to dope these youths over a period of years with these depressing drugs. Especially is this true when we couple with it the further drain of long hours of enforced study. No distinctions are made, all re- ceive the same dose regardless of their development. The fact that some teachers share the dope proves nothing as to its harmlessness to the adolescent. But even were there no injury to health, if our morality can be sustained only by poisoning our young men, for God's sake, let's go back to bar- barism!-E. S. S. APPENDIX B WHY OLD WOMEN ARE PREFERABLE TO YOUNG FOR ILLICIT RELATIONS: A Remarkable Letter by Benjamin Franklin An authentic letter by Benjamin Franklin (born Jan. 17, 1706; died Apr. 17, 1790), found in the Franklin Institute Collection of letters, purchased by the United States Government at a cost of $30,000, now in possession of the Department of State at Washington, D. C. June 25,1766. My dear Friend:- I know of no medicine fit to diminish the violent inclinations you mention, and if I did, I think I could not communicate it to you. Marriage is the proper remedy. It is the most natural state of man and therefore the state in which you are most likely to find real happiness. Your reasons against enter- ing into it at present are not well founded. The circumstantial advantages you have in postponing it are not only uncertain hut they are small in com- parison with the thing itself, namely: The being married and settled. It is the man and the woman 397 398 SEXUAL TRUTHS united that make the complete human being. Sep- arate she wants his force of body and strength of reason; he, her softness and acute discernment. To- gether they are more likely to succeed in the world. A single man has not nearly the value he would have in that state of union. He is an incomplete animal; he resembles the odd half of a pair of scissors. If you get a prudent healthy wife your industry in your profession with her good economy will be for- tune sufficient. But if you will not take this counsel and persist in thinking a commerce with the fair sex inevitable, then I repeat my former advice,-in all your amours you should prefer old women to young ones. You call this a paradox and demand my reasons. They are these:- Because they have more knowledge of the world, their minds are better stored with conversation, their conversation is more improved and more last- ingly agreeable. Because when women cease to be handsome they study to be good. To maintain their influence over man they supply the diminution of beauty by an augmentation of utility. They learn to do a thou- sand services, small and great, and are the most tender and careful of all friends when one is sick. Thus they continue amiable and hence there is hardly such a thing to be found as an old woman who is not a good woman. Because there is no hazard of children, which ir- SEXUAL TRUTHS 399 regularly produced may be attended with much in- convenience. Because thru' more experience they are more pru- dent and discreet in conducting an intrigue to pre- vent suspicion. The commerce with them is there- fore safe with regard to your reputation and with regard to this, that if the affair should happen to be known considerate people might be inclined to ex- cuse an old woman who would kindly take care of a young man, from his manners, by her good counsels and prevent his ruining his health and fortune among mercenary prostitutes. Because in every animal that walks upright the deficiency of the fluid that fills the muscles appears but in the highest part. The face first grows lank and wrinkled, then the neck, then the breast and arms, the lower parts continuing to the last as plump as ever, so that, covering all above with a basket, and regarding that only which is below the girdle, it is impossible to know of two women an old from a younger. And as in the dark all cats are gray, the pleasure of corporeal enjoyment with an old woman is at least equal and frequently superior, every knack being by practice capable of improve- ment. Because the sin is less. The debauching of a vir- gin may be her ruin and make her life unhappy. Because the compunction is less. The having made a young girl miserable may give you frequent bitter reflections, none of which can attend the mak- 400 SEXUAL TRUTHS ing of an old woman happy. And lastly, they are so happy and grateful.' This much for my paradox. But still I advise you to marry directly. Your affectionate friend, Benj. Feanklin. The following pages contain announce- ments of some of The Critic and Guide Co.'s publications BIRTH CONTROL ================================ OR The Limitation of Offspring by the Prevention of Conception BY WILLIAM J. ROBINSON, M.D. With an Introduction by A. JACOBI, M.D., LL.D. six-President of The American Medical Association All the arguments for and against the voluntary limitation of offspring or birth control concentrated in one book of 250 pages. The Limitation of Offspring is now the burning question of the day. It has been made so by Dr. William J. Robinson, who was a pioneer in this country to demand that people be permitted to obtain the knowledge how to limit the number of their children, how to prevent con- ception when necessary. For many years he fought practically alone; his propaganda has made hundreds of thousands of converts-now the ground is prepared and the people are ready to listen. Written in plain popular language. A book which everybody interested in his own welfare and the welfare of the race should read. PRICE $1.50 THE CRITIC AND GUIDE CO. 12 MT. MORRIS PARK W., NEW YORK. SEXUAL PROBLEMS OF TODAY By WILLIAM J. ROBINSON, M.D. ■■■■■■■■■MM^MMI^-11^--BMIIIBMl Dr. Robinson's work deals with many phases cf the sex question, both in their individual and social as- pects. , In this book the scientific knowledge of a physician, eminent as a specialist in everything per- taining to the physiological and medical side of these topics, is combined with the vigorous social views of a thinker who has radical ideas and is not afraid to give them outspoken expression. A few of the subjects which the author discusses in trenchant fashion are: The Relations Between the Sexes and Man's Inhumanity to Woman. - The Influence of Abstinence on Man's Sexual Health and Sexual Power. - The Double Standard of Morality and the Effect of Continence on Each Sex.- The Limitation of Offspring: the Most Important Immediate Step for the Better- ment of the Human Race, from an Economic and Eugenic Standpoint. - What To Do With the Prostitute and How To Abolish Venereal Disease.-The Question of Abortion Considered In Its Ethical and Social Aspects. - Torturing the Wife When the Husband Is At Fault. - Influence of the Prostate on Man's Mental Condition.-The Most Efficient Venereal Prophylactics, etc. etc. "SEXUAL PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY" will give most of its readers information they never possessed before and ideas they never had before - or if they had, never heard them publicly expressed before. Cloth-bound, 320 Pages, $2 Postpaid THE CRITIC AND GUIDE CO. 12 MT. MORRIS PARK W. NEW YORK WOMAN: HER SEX AND LOVE LIFE FOR MEN AND WOMEN By WILLIAM J. ROBINSON, M.D. Illustrated This is one of the most important, most useful books that we have ever brought out. It is not de- voted to abstruse discussions or doubtful theories: it is full of practical information of vital importance to every woman and through her to every man, to every wife and through her to every husband. The simple practical points contained in its pages would render millions of homes happier abodes than they are now; they would prevent the disruption of many a family; they show how to hold the love of a man, how to preserve sexual attraction, how to re- main young beyond the usually allotted age. This book destroys many injurious errors and superstitions and teaches truths that have never been presented in any other book before. In short, this book not only imparts interesting facts; it gives practical points which will make thousands of women, and thousands of men happier, healthier, and more satisfied with life. Certain single chapters or even paragraphs are alone worth the price of the book. You may safely order the book without delay. But if you wish, a complete synopsis of contents will be sent vou. Cloth bound. Price $3.00 THE CRITIC AND GUIDE CO. 12 MT. MORRIS PARK W., NEW YORK I consider myself extremely fortunate in having been instru- mental in making this remarkable book accessible to the English reading public. It is a great book well worth a careful perusal. From Dr.\William J. Robinson's Introduction. The Sexual Crisis A CRITIQUE OF OUR SEX LIFE A Psychologic and Sociologic Study By GRETE MEISEL-HESS v v v AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION BY EDEN AND CEDAR PAUL EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION By WILLIAM J. ROBINSON, M. D. One of the greatest of all books on the sex question that have appeared in the Twentieth Century. It is a book that no educated man or woman, lay or professional, interested in sexual ethics, in our marriage system, in free motherhood, in trial marriages, in the question of sexual abstinence, etc., etc., can afford to leave unread. Nobody who discusses, writes or lectures on any phases of the sex question, has a right to overlook this remarkable volume. Written with a wonderfully keen analysis of the conditions which are bringing about a sexual crisis, the book abounds in gems of thought and in pearls of style on every page. It must be read to be appreciated. A Complete Synopsis of Contents Will Be Sent on Request 350 PAGES. PRICE $3.00 THE CRITIC AND GUIDE CO. 12 MT. MORRIS PARK, WEST :: :: NEW YORK CITY EUGENICS, MARRIAGE AND BIRTH CONTROL [Practical Eugenics] By WILLIAM J. ROBINSON, M.D. One of the best practical books for the general reader. It does not deal with chromosomes, unit characters, determiners-simplex, duplex or nulliplex-heterozygotes, homozygotes, etc. Nor does it have a word to say about Mendel's sweet peas. Interesting and important as these things are, they have but little relation to human heredity and to the questions: How can we im- prove the human stock, and who should and should not marry? These practical questions this book tries to answer. Hence the subtitle: Practical Eugenics. 208 pages, cloth bound. Price $1.00 UNCONTROLLED BREEDING OR FECUNDITY vs. CIVILIZATION A contribution to the study of over-population as the cause of War and the chief obstacle to the Emancipation of Women By ADELYNE MORE With an Introduction by Arnold Bennett and Preface and Notes by William J. Robinson, M.D. Cloth Bound, $1.00. Paper, 60c. THE CRITIC AND GUIDE CO. 12 MT. MORRIS PARK W. NEW YORK AN EPOCH-MAKING BOOK Never-Told Tales GRAPHIC STORIES OF THE DISASTROUS RESULTS OF SEXUAL IGNORANCE By WILLIAM J. ROBINSON, M.D. Editor of the American Journal of Urology and of The Critic and Guide Every doctor, every young man and woman, every newly-married touple, every parent who has grown-up children, should read this book. Every one of the tales teaches a distinct lesson, a lesson of vital importance to the human race. , We knew that we were getting out a useful, a NECESSARY book, jmd we expected it would meet with a favorable reception, but we never expected the reception would be so extravagantly and so unanimously enthusiastic. There seems to have been a long-felt but dormant want for just such a book. One reader, who has a fortune running into the millions, writes: "I would have given a good part of my fortune if the knowledge I obtained from one of_your stories to-day had been imparted to me ten years ago." Another one writes: "I agree with you that your plain, unvarnished tales from real life should have been told long ago. But better late than never. Your name will be among the benefactors of the human race for I laving brought out so forcibly those important, life-saving truths. I know that I personally have already been benefited by them." Fine Cloth Binding One Dollar per Copy THE CRITIC AND GUIDE CO. 12 MT. MORRIS PARK W. NEW YORK A New Boek by Dr. Robinson Sex Knowledge for Men. By WILLIAM J. ROBINSON, M. D. ILLUSTRATED. An honest, unbiased, truthful, strictly scientific and up-to-date book, dealing with the anatomy and physi- ology of the male sex organs, with the venereal diseases and their prevention, and the manifestations of the sex instinct in boys and men. Absolutely free from any cant, hypocrisy, falsehood, exaggeration, compromise, or any attempt to conc'/iate the stupid and ignorant. An elementary book written in plain, understandable language, which should be in the possession of every adolescent boy and every parent. Price, cloth bound, $2.00. Sex Knowledge What Every Woman and Girl Should Know A Companion Volume to SEX KNOWLEDGE FOR MEN Price, cloth bound, $1.00. ADDRESS: THE CRITIC AND GUIDE CO. 12 MT. MORRIS PARK W. NEW YORK CITY A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE CAUSES, SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT OF SEXUAL IMPOTENCE And Other Sexual Disorders in Men and Women BY WILLIAM J. ROBINSON, M.D. Chief of the Department of Genito-Urinary Diseases and Dermatology, Bronx Hospital and Dispensary; Editor The American Journal of Urology, Venereal and Sexual Diseases; Editor and Founder of The Critic and Guide; Author of Sexual Problems of Today; Never Told Tales; Practical Eugenics, etc. BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS. Part I-Masturbation. Its Prevalence, Causes, Varieties, Symptoms, Results, Prophylaxis and Treatment. Coitus Interruptus and its Effects. Part II-Varieties, Causes and Treatment of Pollutions, Spermator- rhea, Prostatorrhea and Urethrorrhea. Part III-Sexual Impotence in the Male. Every phase of its widely varying causes and treatment, with illuminating case reports. Part IV-Sexual Neurasthenia. Causes, Treatment, case reports, and its relation to Impotence. Part V-Sterility, Male and Female. Its Causes and Treatment. Part VI-Sexual Disorders in Woman, Including Frigidity, Vaginis- mus, Adherent Clitoris, and Injuries to the Female in Coitus. Part VII-Priapism. Etiology, Case Reports and Treatment. Part VIII-Miscellaneous Topics. Including: Is Masturbation a Vice?-Two Kinds of Premature Ejaculation.-'The Frequency of Coitus.-"Useless" Sexual Excitement.--The Relation Between Mental and Sexual Activity.-Big Families and Sexual Vigor.-Sexual Per- versions. Part IX-Prescriptions and Minor Points. Third edition revised and enlarged. Cloth bound, 422 pages. Postpaid, $4.00. THE CRITIC AND GUIDE COMPANY 12 MT. MORRIS PARK W. NEW YORK CITY THE DISORDERS OE THE SEXUAL SYSTEM "He who throws light on the dark and intricate problems of sex, helping to unravel the mysteries of and to cure the complex sexual disorders, does indeed a signal service to humanity." We believe that in bringing out our latest work, Sexual Impotence and Other Sexual Disorders in Men and Women, we have given the profession one of the most useful, one of the most valuable books that have ever been published. A gratifyingly large num- ber of physicians have told us that the book not only helped them to treat successfully sexual weakness and other disorders in their patients or in themselves, but that it opened their eyes to the significance of many things which they did not understand before. Those who have read the book know its value and importance; those who have not may be interested to read what the medical journals have to say about it. Here are a few extracts: No American authority has given more serious thought to the subject of sexual diseases than the author of this volume; he has given to us in it the best that in him lies. No physician who has had to combat this distressing condi- tion, and those conditions dependent upon it, has any doubt of its serious importance. And we all recognize the weak- ness of the literature on the subject. Dr. Robinson takes SEXUAL IMPOTENCE a sensible view of things which have not been sensibly con- sidered; nowhere has he shown this to better advantage than in this volume on a difficult subject. -Medical Fortnightly. Dr. Robinson discusses the numerous phases of this sub- ject, in both sexes, clearly and in detail. He tells no lies to conform to moral, social and religious ideals, and con- sequently those who differ with him in beliefs or in pre- tensions may censure him as immoral. In some of these points there is opportunity for difference of opinion, but on the whole we think that Dr. Robinson has expressed what the majority of physicians believe, tho not necessarily the opinion most frequently published. Pretty nearly every conceivable sexual abnormality, physical or psychic is at least alluded to. If we were to select any one feature of this work for special mention, it would be the uniform common sense of the author.-Buffalo Medical Journal. This book is not by any means a rehash of some other book or a resume of several. This treatise is interesting and valuable, and the author is absolutely honest and fear- less in his opinions. A unique and helpful feature is the case reports which illustrate every phase of sexual dis- order.-Indianapolis Medical Journal. Dr. Robinson deals with the subject in a dignified, scien- tific way, that will be helpful to the physician who ha* judgment enough to realize that he is as responsible for functions around which a modem, sham, conventional modesty has thrown a hiatus of folly as he is for the ap- petite, eliminative powers or nutritive functions of the same persons. And the science of eugenics can never be worthy of medical consideration until the people are taught that it is as much the duty and ousiness of physicians to in- quire about the sexual habits of patients as of their habits of eating and drinking. This book will do much good, and that good will be as extensive as its reading. -Texas State Journal of Medicine. SEXUAL IMPOTENCE In this book we have a complete treatise on sexual dis- orders and their treatment, with descriptions of actual individual ca°es, giving the individual symptomatology and individual treatment. When given in this manner the de- scription becomes indelibly impressed on the memory and enables a physician when he gets a case to understand and classify it without a great amount of difficulty. -Charlotte Medical Journal. The name of the author is ample assurance that this treatise is not a rehash nor lacking in honest opinions fear- lessly expressed. The style of the writer is notably per- sonal, clear, straightforward and conversational. The ex- haustion of the first edition in less than two months from the day of publication shows unmistakably the need of a book of this character. It also shows that the profession is at last becoming alive to its shortcomings in the matter of sexual disorders and is beginning to be willing to learn. -Southern California Practitioner. Perhaps no subject pertaining to human ills has been so neglected by medical teachers or medical text-books as the subject discussed in this volume. While legitimate medical literature was indiscreetly silent on sex teachings, the quack literature was teeming with misinformation, which, as the author intimates, did more real harm than did sexual ignorance or sex abuse. The doctor will find this work instructive.-Illinois Medical Journal. As is to be expected Robinson goes into the subject thoroly, and calls a spade a spade, with the result that he has evolved a volume full of meat and of great value to the physician, whose ingenuity is often taxed to the ut- most to discover the whys and wherefores at the bottom of impotence. The racy Robinsonesque style adds interest to the text matter of the volume.-Medical Times. At last we have a clear, plain, concise book on the treat- ment of Gonorrhea and its various complications, written expressly for the general practitioner. No Physician who has occasion to treat Gonorrhea can do justice to his Patient without a study of this latest and clearest volume on the subject. THE TREATMENT OF GONORRHEA And Its Complications in Men and Women. For the General Practitioner. By WILLIAM J. ROBINSON, M.D. An idea of the scope of this work may be gained from the Chapter Headings} r. Extent and Seriousness of Gonorrhea. 2. Classification of Urethra* Inflammations. 3. Gonorrheal Urethritis in the Male. 4. The Germ and the Diagnosis of Gonorrhea. 5. Course and Symptomatology of Acute Gonorrhea. 6. Treatment of Acute Gonorrhea. 7. Case Reports. 8. Common Bacterial Ure- thritis. 9. Chancroidal Urethritis. 10. Syphilitic Urethritis. 11. Chemical Urethritis. 12. Prophylactic Urethritis. 13. Traumatic Urethritis. 14. Toxic Urethritis. 15. Urethritis from Excess and Masturbation. 16. The Widely Vary- ing Conditions Known as Chronic Gonorrhea. 17. Treatment of Chronic Gonor- rhea. 18. Length of Time Required to Cure Chronic Gonorrheal Conditions. 19. Instruments Used in Treatment. 20. Abortive Treatment. 21. Prevention of Gonorrhea. 22. Minor Complications of Gonorrhea (Phimosis, Paraphimosis, Balanitis, Adenitis, Painful Erections and Chordee, Retention of Urine). 23. Acute Prostatitis. 24. Chronic Prostatitis. 25. Epididymitis. 26. Seminal Vesiculitis. 27. Gonorrhea of the Rectum. 28. Gonorrhea of the Mouth. 29. Stricture. 30. Gonorrheal Rheumatism. 31. Gonorrhea vs. Tobacco, Alcohol and Sexual Intercourse. 32. Gonorrhea in Women. 33. Vulvovaginitis in Little Girls. 34. Gonorrheal Ophthalmia. 35. Minor Points. Part II.-Materia Medica of Gonor- rheal and Non-Gonorrheal Urethritis and Their Complications. 36. Silver Salta -Inorvanic and Organic. 37. Miscellaneous Antiseptics and Astringents. 38. Vegetable Astringents. 39. Local Anesthetics. 40. Anti-Gonorrheal Remedies for Internal Use. 41. Urinary Antiseptics. 42. Lubricants. 43. Formulary. 315 pages, cloth, $3.00 postpaid • ■ , ADDRESS CRITIC AND GUIDE CO. 12 MT. MORRIS PARK W NEW YORK CITY Population and Birth Control A SYMPOSIUM EDITED BY EDEN and CEDAR PAUL One of the greatest books on Birth-Control in the English or any other language. By writers of international reputation. CONTENTS Introduction, by William J. Robinson; Malthus, a Biographical and Critical Study, by Achille Loria; Birth-Control and the Wage Earners, by Charles V. Drysdale; Race Suicide in the United States, by Ludwig Quessel; Eugenics, Birth-Control, and Social- ism, by Eden Paul; Economics of the Birth Strike, by Ludwig Quessel; Decline in the Birth-Rate, Nationality, and Civilisation, by Edward Bernstein; Philosophy of the Birth Strike, by Ludwig Quessel; Over-Population as a Cause of War, by B. Dunlop; The Decline in the Birth-Rate, by R. Manschke; Dysgenic Tendencies of Birth-Control and of the Feminist Movement, by S. H. Halford; Women and Birth-Control, by F. W. Stella Browne; Editorial Sum- mary and Conclusion. Price $3.00 SMALL OR LARGE FAMILIES BIRTH-CONTROL FROM THE MORAL, RACIAL AND EUGENIC STANDPOINT BY Dr. C. V. DRYSDALE DR. HAVELOCK ELLIS DR. WILLIAM J. ROBINSON PROFESSOR A. GROTJAHN Price $1.00 - ADDRESS " - THE CRITIC AND GUIDE CO. 12 MT. MORRIS PARK W. NEW YORK CITY SEX MORALITY '■MWBaoBnBm smR«KMnsaERSBaEEKOB»H PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE Will monogamy or variety prevail in the future ? Is continence injurious ? Are extra-marital relations ever justifiable ? Should there be one moral stand- ard for men and women ? Will our present moral code persist? These and similar questions are here discussed by original and unbiased thinkers as well as by orthodox conservatives. No matter what your opinion on the subject may be, no matter whether your ideas on the relations of the sexes are those of the 1 5 th, 20th or 25 th century, you should read this book. Nobody who is earnestly inter- ested in the sex question has a right to have any opinion on it without having read this volume, the price of which, in cloth, is $ 1, including postage. THE CRITIC AND GUIDE CO. 12 MT. MORRIS PARK W. NEW YORK CITY THE AMERICAN JOURNAL - - - OF - ■ UROLOGY AND SEXOLOGY WILLIAM J. ROBINSON, M.D., Editor The only journal in the English lan- guage devoted to Sexology. Discusses Human Sexuality in all its phases: sexual ethics, sexual psychology, the anatomy, physiology and pathology of the sex organs, venereal prophylaxis, limitation of offspring, positive and negative eugenics, etc. Publishes the best work from the pens of the foremost American and European sexologists. Nobody earnestly interested in the new Science of Sex can afford to be without this journal. Published Monthly Price $5.00 per annum; single copies, 50 cents. ■ - ADDRESS - THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SEXOLOGY 12 MT. MORRIS PARK W. NEW YORK CITY A UNIQUE JOURNAL THE CRITIC AND GUIDE Dr. Robinson s Famous Little Monthly It is the most original journal in the country. It is the only one of its kind, and is interesting from cover to cover. There is no routine, dead matter in it. It is one of the very few journals that is opened with anticipation just as soon as it is received and of which every line is read with real interest. Not only are the special problems of the medical profession itself dealt with in a vigorous and progressive spirit, but the larger, social aspects of medicine and physiology are discussed in a fearless and radical manner. Many problems untouched by other publications, such as the sex question in all its varied phases, the economic causes of disease and other problems in medical sociology, are treated boldly and freely from the standpoint of modern science. In discussing questions which are considered taboo by the hyper-conservative, the editor says what he wants to say very plainly without regard for Mrs. Grundy. The Critic and Guide was a pioneer in the propaganda for birth control, venereal prophylaxis, sex education of the young, and free discussion of sexual problems in general. It contains more interesting and outspoken matter on these subjects than any other journal. While of great value to the practitioner for therapeutic sugges- tions of a practical, up-to-date and definite character, its editorials and special articles are what make The Critic and Guide unique among journals, read eagerly alike by the medical profession and the intelligent laity. PUBLISHED MONTHLY TWO DOLLARS A YEAR CRITIC AND GUIDE CO. 12 MT. MORRIS PARK W. NEW YORK CITY A LIST OF OUR PUBLICATIONS Treatment of Sexual Impo- tence $4.00 Treatment of Gonorrhea... 3.00 Woman: Her Sex and Love Life 3.00 Sexual Problems of To-day 2.00 Sex Knowledge for Men and Boys 2.00 The Limitation of Off- spring by the Prevention of Conception 1.50 Small or Large Families. By Drysdale and Have- lock Ellis 1.00 Never Told Tales 1.00 Stories of Love and Life... 1.50 Eugenics and Marriage. .. 1.00 Sex Knowledge for Wom- en and Girls 1.00 Sexual Truths 3.00 Prescription Incompatibili- ties 3.00 Sex Morality-Past, Pres- ent and Future 1.50 The Sexual Crisis. Meisel- Hess 3.00 Population and Birth Control. A symposium . 3.00 The Critic and Guide, Monthly, single copies 25 cts.;ayear 2.00 The American Journal of Urology and Sexology, Monthly, single copies 50 cts.jayear 5.00 Dr. Jacobi's Collected Works, 8 vols $15.00 Uncontrolled Breeding, or Fecundity vs. Civiliza- tion. Adeline More... 1.00 The Prevention of Sexual Diseases, by Victor G. Vecki, M.D 1.50 Sex Morality and Ner- vousness, by Prof. Freud 25 The Venereal Peril, by Wm. L. Holt, M.D 25 The Social Evil, by Wm. L. Holt, M.D 10 The Ten Greatest Hu- manitarians, A sympo- sium conducted by Dr. Victor Robinson 25 The Hunter, by Olive Schreiner, with an in- troduction by Dr. Rob- inson, entitled, A Page from My Life, paper 25c. .50 Scientific Medicine vs. Quackery 10 Pathfinders in Medicine. Dr. Victor Robinson... 2.50 Constipation in Adults and Children. H. Illoway, M. D. (reduced from $5.00) 3.00 Books not otherwise marked are by Dr. •. Wm. J. Robinson THE CRITIC AND GUIDE CO. 12 MT. MORRIS PARK W. NEW YORK CITY