Studies in the Psychology of Sex Volume V Part 9

Freud believes that in very young girls the c.l.i.toris is the exclusive seat of s.e.xual sensation, masturbation at this age being directed to the c.l.i.toris alone, and spontaneous s.e.xual excitement being confined to twitchings and erection of this organ, so that young girls are able, from their own experience, to recognize without instruction the signs of s.e.xual excitement in boys. At a later age s.e.xual excitability spreads from the c.l.i.toris to other regions-just as the easy inflammability of wood sets light to coal-though in the male the p.e.n.i.s remains from first to last normally the almost exclusive seat of specific excitability. (S. Freud, Drei Abhandlungen zur s.e.xualtheorie, p. 62.)

The a.n.u.s would, however, seem to be sometimes an erogenous zone even at an early age. t.i.tillation of the a.n.u.s appears to be frequently pleasurable in women; and this is not surprising considering the high degree of erotic sensitivity which is easily developed at the body orifices where skin meets mucous membrane. (Thus the meatus of the urethra is a highly erogenous zone, as is sufficiently shown by the frequency with which hair-pins and other articles used in masturbation find their way into the bladder.) It is in this germinal sensitivity, undoubtedly, that we find a chief key to the practice of pedicatio. Freud attaches great importance to the a.n.u.s as a s.e.xually erogenous zone at a very early age, and considers that it very frequently makes its influence felt in this respect. He believes that intestinal catarrhs in very early life and haemorrhoids later tend to develop sensibility in the a.n.u.s. He finds an indication that the a.n.u.s has become a s.e.xually erogenous zone when children wish to allow the contents of the r.e.c.t.u.m to acc.u.mulate so that defecation may by its increased difficulty involve voluptuous sensations, and adds that masturbatory excitation of the a.n.u.s with the fingers is by no means rare in older children. (S. Freud, Op. cit., pp. 40-42.) A medical correspondent in India tells me of a European lady who derived, she said, "quite as much, indeed more," pleasure from digitally t.i.tillating her r.e.c.t.u.m as from vulvo-v.a.g.i.n.al t.i.tillation; she had several times submitted to pedicatio and enjoyed it, though it was painful during penetration. The a.n.u.s may retain this erogenous irritability even in old age, and Routh mentions the case of a lady of over 70, the reverse of l.u.s.tful, who was so excited by the act of defecation that she was invariably compelled to m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.e, although this state of things was a source of great mental misery to her. (C. H. F. Routh, British Gynaecological Journal, February, 1887, p. 48.)

Bolsche has sought the explanation of the erogenous nature of the a.n.u.s, and the key to pedicatio, in an atavistic return to the very remote amphibian days when the a.n.u.s was combined with the s.e.xual parts in a common cloaca. But it is unnecessary to invoke any vestigial inheritance from a vastly remote past when we bear in mind that the innervation of these two adjoining regions is inevitably very closely related. The presence of a body exit with its marked and special sensitivity at a point where it can scarcely fail to receive the nervous overflow from an immensely active center of nervous energy quite adequately accounts for the phenomenon in question.

The inner lips, the nymphae or l.a.b.i.a minora, running parallel with the greater lips which enclose them, embrace the c.l.i.toris anteriorly and extend backward, enclosing the urethral exit between them as well as the v.a.g.i.n.al entrance. They form little wings whence their old Latin name, alae, and from their resemblance to the c.o.c.k's comb were by Spigelius termed crista galli. The red and (especially in brunettes) dark appearance of the nymphae suggests that they are mucous membrane and not integumentary; it is, however, now considered that even on the inner surface they are covered by skin and separated from the mucous membrane by a line.[90] In structure, as described by Waldeyer, they consist of fine connective tissue rich in elastic fibers as well as some muscular tissue, and full of large veins, so that they are capable of a considerable degree of turgescence resembling erection during s.e.xual excitement, while Ballantyne finds that the nymphae are supplied to a notable extent with nervous end-organs.

More than any other part of the s.e.xual apparatus in either s.e.x, the lesser lips, on account of their shape, their position, and their structure, are capable of acquired modifications, more especially hypertrophy and elongation. By stretching, it is stated, a labium can be doubled in its dimensions. The "Hottentot ap.r.o.n," or elongated nymphae, commonly found among some peoples in South Africa, has long been a familiar phenomenon. In such cases a length or transverse diameter of 3 to 5 centimeters is commonly found. But such elongated nymphae are by no means confined to one part of the world or to one race; they are quite common among women of European race, and reach a size equal to most of the more reliably recorded Hottentot cases. d.i.c.kinson, who has very carefully studied this question in New York, finds that in 1000 consecutive gynaecological cases the l.a.b.i.a showed some form of hypertrophy in 36 per cent., or more than 1 in 3; while among 150 of these cases who were neurasthenic, the proportion reached 56 per cent., even when minor or doubtful enlargements were disregarded. Bergh, in about 16 per cent. cases, found very enlarged nymphae, the height reached in about 5 per cent. of the cases of enlargement being nearly six centimeters. Ploss and Bartels, in a full discussion: of the "Hottentot ap.r.o.n," come to the conclusion that this condition is perhaps in most cases artificially produced. It is known that among the Basutos it is the custom for the elder girls to manipulate the nymphae of younger children, when alone with them, almost from birth, and on account of the elastic nature of these structures such manipulation quite adequately accounts for the elongation. It is not necessary to suppose that the custom is practiced for the sake of producing s.e.xual stimulation-though this may frequently occur-since there are numerous similar primitive customs involving deformation of the s.e.xual organs without the production of s.e.xual excitement. d.i.c.kinson has come to a similar conclusion as regards the corresponding elongation of the nymphae in civilized European women. In 361 out of 1000 women of good social cla.s.s he found elongation or thickening, often with a notable degree of wrinkling and pigmentation, and believes that this is always the result of frequently repeated masturbation practiced with the separation of the nymphae; in 30 per cent. of the cases admission of masturbation was made.[91] While this conclusion is probably correct in the main, it requires some qualification. To a.s.sert that whenever in women who have not been pregnant the marked protrusion of the inner lips beyond the outer lips means that at some period manipulation has been practiced with or without the production of s.e.xual excitement is to make too absolute a statement. It is highly probable that the nymphae, like the c.l.i.toris, are congenitally more prominent in some of the lower human races, as they are also in the apes; among the Fuegians, for instance, according to Hyades and Deniker, the l.a.b.i.a minora descend lower than in Europeans, although there is not the slightest reason to suppose that these women practice any manipulations. Among European women, again, the nymphae sometimes protrude very prominently beyond the l.a.b.i.a majora in women who are organically of somewhat infantile type; this occurs in cases in which we may be convinced that no manipulations have ever been practiced.[92]

It is difficult to speak very decisively as to the function of the l.a.b.i.a minora. They doubtless exert some amount of protective influence over the entrance to the v.a.g.i.n.a, and in this way correspond to the lips of the mouth after which they are called. They fulfill, however, one very definite though not obviously important function which is indicated by the mythologic name they have received. There is, indeed, some obscurity in the origin of this term, nymphae, which has not, I believe, been satisfactorily cleared up. It has been stated that the Greek name ??f? has been transferred from the c.l.i.toris to the l.a.b.i.a minora. Any such transfer could only have taken place when the meaning of the word had been forgotten, and ??f? had become the totally different word nymphae, the G.o.ddesses who presided over streams. The old anatomists were much exercised in their minds as to the meaning of the name, but on the whole were inclined to believe that it referred to the action of the l.a.b.i.a minora in directing the urinary stream. The term nymphae was first applied in the modern sense, according to Bergh, in 1599, by Pinaeus, mainly from the influence of these structures on the urinary stream, and he dilated in his De Virginitate on the suitability of the term to designate so poetic a spot.[93] In more modern times Luschka and Sir Charles Bell considered that it is one of the uses of the nymphae to direct the stream of urine, and Lamb from his own observation thinks the same conclusion probable. In reality there cannot be the slightest doubt about the function of the nymphae, as, in Hyrtl's phrase, "the naiads of the urinary source," and it can be demonstrated by the simplest experiment.[94]

The nymphae form the intermediate portal of the v.a.g.i.n.a, as the ca.n.a.l which conducts to the womb was in anatomy first termed (according to Hyrtl) by De Graaf.[95] It is a secreting, erectile, more or less sensitive ca.n.a.l lined by what is usually considered mucous membrane, though some have regarded it as integument of the same character as that of the external genitals; it certainly resembles such integument more than, for instance, the mucous membrane of the r.e.c.t.u.m. In the woman who has never had s.e.xual intercourse and has been subjected to no manipulations or accidents affecting this region, the v.a.g.i.n.a is closed by a last and final gate of delicate membrane-scarcely admitting more than a slender finger-called the hymen.

The poets called the hymen "fios virginitatis," the flower of virginity, whence the medico-legal term defloratio. Notwithstanding the great significance which has long been attached to the phenomena connected with it, the hymen was not accurately known until Vesalius, Fallopius, and Spigelius described and named it. It was, however, recognized by the Arab authors, Avicenna and Averroes. The early literature concerning it is summarized by Schurig, Muliebria, 1729, Section II, cap. V. The same author's Parthenologia is devoted to the various ancient problems connected with the question of virginity.

To say that this delicate piece of membrane is from the non-physical point of view a more important structure than any other part of the body is to convey but a feeble idea of the immense importance of the hymen in the eyes of the men of many past ages and even of our own times and among our own people.[96] For the uses of the feminine body, or for its beauty, there is no part which is more absolutely insignificant. But in human estimation it has acquired a spiritual value which has made it far more than a part of the body. It has taken the place of the soul, that whose presence gives all her worth and dignity, even her name, to the unmarried woman, her purity, her s.e.xual desirability, her market value. Without it-though in all physical and mental respects she might remain the same person-she has sometimes been a mark for contempt, a worthless outcast.[97]

So fragile a membrane scarcely possesses the reliability which should be possessed by a structure whose presence or absence has often meant so much. Its absence by no means necessarily signifies that a woman has had intercourse with a man. Its presence by no means signifies that she has never had such intercourse.

There are many ways in which the hymen may be destroyed apart from coitus. Among the Chinese (and also, it would appear, in India and some other parts of the East) the female parts are from infancy kept so scrupulously clean by daily washing, the finger being introduced into the v.a.g.i.n.a, that the hymen rapidly disappears, and its existence is unknown even to Chinese doctors. Among some Brazilian Indians a similar practice exists among mothers as regards their young children, less, however, for the sake of cleanliness than in order to facilitate s.e.xual intercourse in future years. (Ploss and Bartels, Das Weib, vol. i, Chapter VI.) The manipulations of v.a.g.i.n.al masturbation will, of course, similarly destroy the hymen. It is also quite possible for the hymen to be ruptured by falls and other accidents. (See, e.g., a lengthy study by Nina-Rodrigues, "Des Ruptures de l'Hymen dans les Chutes," Annales d'Hygiene Publique, September, 1903.)

On the other hand, integrity of the hymen is no proof of virginity, apart from the obvious fact that there may be intercourse without penetration. (The case has even been recorded of a prost.i.tute with syphilitic condylomata, a somewhat masculine type of pubic arch, and v.u.l.v.a rather posteriorly placed, whose hymen had never been penetrated.) The hymen may be of a yielding or folding type, so that complete penetration may take place and yet the hymen be afterwards found unruptured. It occasionally happens that the hymen is found intact at the end of pregnancy. In some, though not all, of these cases there has been conception without intromission of the p.e.n.i.s. This has occurred even when the entrance was very minute. The possibility of such conception has long been recognized, and Schurig (Syllepsilogia, 1731, Section I, cap. VIII, p. 2) quotes ancient authors who have recorded cases. For some typical modern cases see Guerard (Centralblatt fur Gynakologie, No. 15, 1895), in one of whose cases the hymen of the pregnant woman scarcely admitted a hair; also Braun (ib., No. 23, 1895).

The hymen has played a very definite and p.r.o.nounced part in the social and moral life of humanity. Until recently it has been more difficult to decide what precise biological function it has exercised to ensure its development and preservation. s.e.xual selection, no doubt, has worked in its favor, but that influence has been very limited and comparatively very recent. Virginity is not usually of any value among peoples who are entirely primitive. Indeed, even in the cla.s.sic civilization which we inherit, it is easy to show that the virgin and the admiration for virginity are of late growth; the virgin G.o.ddesses were not originally virgins in our modern sense. Diana was the many-breasted patroness of childbirth before she became the chaste and solitary huntress, for the earliest distinction would appear to have been simply between the woman who was attached to a man and the woman who followed an earlier rule of freedom and independence; it was a later notion to suppose that the latter woman was debarred from s.e.xual intercourse. We certainly must not seek the origin of the hymen in s.e.xual selection; we must find it in natural selection. And here it might seem at first sight that we come upon a contradiction in Nature, for Nature is always devising contrivances to secure the maximum amount of fertilization. "Increase and multiply" is so obviously the command of Nature that the Hebrews, with their usual insight, unhesitatingly dared to place it in the mouth of Jehovah. But the hymen is a barrier to fertilization. It has, however, always to be remembered that as we rise in the zoological scale, and as the period of gestation lengthens and the possible number of offspring is fewer, it becomes constantly more essential that fertilization shall be effective rather than easy; the fewer the progeny the more necessary it is that they shall be vigorous enough to survive. There can be little doubt that, as one or two writers have already suggested, the hymen owes its development to the fact that its influence is on the side of effective fertilization. It is an obstacle to the impregnation of the young female by immature, aged, or feeble males. The hymen is thus an anatomical expression of that admiration of force which marks the female in her choice of a mate. So regarded, it is an interesting example of the intimate manner in which s.e.xual selection is really based on natural selection. s.e.xual selection is but the translation into psychic terms of a process which has already found expression in the physical texture of the body.

It may be added that this interpretation of the biological function of the hymen is supported by the facts of its evolution. It is unknown among the lower mammals, with whom fertilization is easy, gestation short and offspring numerous. It only begins to appear among the higher mammals in whom reproduction is already beginning to take on the characters which become fully developed in man. Various authors have found traces of a rudimentary hymen, not only in apes, but in elephants, horses, donkeys, b.i.t.c.hes, bears, pigs, hyenas, and giraffes. (Hyrtl, Op. cit., vol. ii, p. 189; G. Gellhoen, "Anatomy and Development of the Hymen," American Journal Obstetrics, August, 1904.) It is in the human species that the tendency to limitation of offspring is most marked, combined at the same time with a greater apt.i.tude for impregnation than exists among any lower mammals. It is here, therefore, that a physical check is of most value, and accordingly we find that in woman alone, of all animals, is the hymen fully developed.

[72]

"a.n.a.lysis of the s.e.xual Impulse," in vol. iii of these Studies.

[73]

"The accomplishment of no other function," Hyrtl remarks, "is so intimately connected with the mind and yet so independent of it."

[74]

The process is still, however, but imperfectly understood; see Art. "Fecondation," by Ed. Retterer, in Richet's Dictionnaire de Physiologie, vol. vi, 1905.

[75]

Thus a male ftus showing reptilian characters in s.e.xual ducts was exhibited by Shattock at the Pathological Society of London, February 19, 1895.

[76]

J. Kohlbrugge, "Die Umgestaltung des Uterus der Affen nach den Geburt," Zeitschrift fur Morphologie, bd. iv, p. 1, 1901.

[77]

There are, however, no special nerve endings (Krause corpuscles), as was formerly supposed. The nerve endings in the genital region are the same as elsewhere. The difference lies in the abundance of superposed arboreal ramifications. See, e.g., Ed. Retterer, Art. "e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n," Richet's Dictionnaire de Physiologie, vol. v.

[78]

Hyrtl, Op. cit., vol. ii, p. 39.

[79]

Sensations of pleasure without those of touch appear to be normal at the tip of the p.e.n.i.s, as pointed out by Scripture, quoted in Alienist and Neurologist, January, 1898.

[80]

See the previous volume of these Studies, "s.e.xual Selection in Man," p. 161.

[81]

See, e.g., Ploss and Bartels, Das Weib, vol. i, beginning of chapter VI.

[82]

Hyrtl states that the name l.a.b.i.a was first used by Haller in the middle of the eighteenth century in his Elements of Physiology, being adopted by him from the Greek poet Erotion, who gave these structures the very obvious name ?e??ea, lips. But this seems to be a mistake, for the seventeenth century anatomists certainly used the name "l.a.b.i.a" for these parts.

[83]

Bergh tentatively suggests, as regards the pubic hair, that its appearance may be due to the upright walk in man and the human position during coitus, the hair preventing irritation of the genitals from the sweat pouring down from the body and protecting the skin from direct friction in coitus. (In both these suggestions he was, however, long previously antic.i.p.ated by Fabricius ab Aquapendente.) The fanciful suggestion of Louis Robinson that the pubic hair has developed in order to enable the human infant to cling securely to his mother is very poorly supported by facts, and has not met with acceptance. It may be mentioned that (as stated by Ploss and Bartels) the women of the Bismarck Archipelago, whose pubic hair is very abundant, use it as a kind of handkerchief on which to clean their hands.

[84]

Routh and Heywood Smith have noted that the pubic hair tends to lose its curliness and become straight in women who m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.e. (British Gynaecological Journal, February, 1887, p. 505.)

[85]

Schurig, Muliebria, p. 75. Plazzon in 1621 said that in Italian it had a popular name, il besneegio.

[86]

Schurig brought together in his Gynaecologia (pp. 2-4) various early opinions concerning the c.l.i.toris as the seat of voluptuous feeling.

[87]

Hyrtl, Op. cit., vol. ii, p. 193.

[88]

Adler, Die Mangelhafte Geschlechtsempfindung des Weibes, 1904, pp. 117-119.

[89]

The voluptuous sensations caused by s.e.xual contacts producing movements of the womb are probably normal and usual. They may even occur under circ.u.mstances unconnected with s.e.xual emotion, and Munde (International Journal of Surgery, March, 1893) mentions incidentally that in one case while t.i.tillating the cervix with a sound the woman very plainly showed voluptuous manifestations.

[90]

Henle stated that fine hairs are frequently visible on the nymphae; Stieda (Zeitschrift fur Morphologie, 1902, p. 458) remarks that he has never been able to see them with the naked eye.

[91]

R. L. d.i.c.kinson, "Hypertrophies of the l.a.b.i.a Minora and Their Significance," American Gynaecologist, September, 1902. It is perhaps noteworthy that Bergh found that in 302 cases in which the nymphae were of unequal length, in all but 24 the left was longer.

[92]

It may be remarked that Bergh believes that the nymphae, and indeed the external genitals generally, are congenitally more strongly developed in libidinous persons, and at the same time in brunettes, while in public prost.i.tutes this is not usually the case, which confirms the belief that exalted s.e.xual sensibility does not usually lead to prost.i.tution. He adds that prost.i.tution, unless carried on for many years, has little effect on the shape of the external genitals.

[93]

Schurig (Muliebria, 1729, Section II, cap. II) gives numerous quotations on this point; thus De Graaf wrote in his book on the s.e.xual organs of women: "Tales protuberantiae nymphae appellantur ea propter quod aquis e vesica prosilientibus proxime adstare reperiantur, quandoquidem inter illas, tanquam duos parietes, urina magno impetu c.u.m sibilo saepe et absque labiorum irrigatione erumpit, vel quod sint cast.i.tatis praesides, aut sponsam primo intromittant."

[94]

Havelock Ellis, "The Bladder as a Dynamometer," American Journal of Dermatology, May, 1902. If a woman who has never been pregnant, standing in the erect position before commencing the act of urination presses apart the l.a.b.i.a minora with index and middle fingers the stream will be projected forward so as to fall usually at a considerable distance in front of a vertical line from the meatus; if when the act is half completed the fingers are removed, the l.a.b.i.a close together and the stream, though maintained at a constant pressure, at once changes its character and direction.

[95]

In poetry this term was employed by Plautus, Pseudolus, Act IV, Sc. 7. The Greek a?d???? sometimes meant v.a.g.i.n.a and sometimes the external s.e.xual parts; ???p?? was used for the v.a.g.i.n.a alone.