Studies in the Psychology of Sex Volume I Part 13

[163]

Mania comes to a crisis in spring, said the old physician, Aretaeus (Bk. 1, Ch. V).

[164]

This is, at all events, the case in France, Prussia, and Italy. See, for instance, Durkheim's discussion of the cosmic factors of suicide, Le Suicide, 1897, Chapter III. In Spain, as Bernaldo de Quiros shows (Criminologia, p. 69), there is a slight irregular rise in December, but otherwise the curve is perfectly regular, with maximum in June, and minimum in January.

[165]

This holds good of a south European country, taken separately. A chart of the annual incidence of suicide by hanging, in Roumania, presented by Minovici (Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle, 1905, p. 587), shows climaxes of equal height in May and September.

[166]

Morselli, Suicide, pp. 55-72.

[167]

Ogle himself was inclined to think that these breaks were accidental, being unaware of the allied phenomena with which they may be brought into line. It is true that (as Gaedeken objects to me) the autumnal break is very slight, but it is probably real when we are dealing with so large a ma.s.s of data.

[168]

Pedagogical Seminary, June, 1891, p. 298. For a very full summary and bibliography of investigations regarding growth, see F. Burk, "Growth of Children in Height and Weight," American Journal of Psychology, April, 1898.

[169]

L'Annee Psychologique, 1898.

[170]

Lancet, June 6, 1891. Edward Smith had pointed out many years earlier that scarlet fever is most fatal in periods of increasing vitality.

[171]

Havelock Ellis, "The Bladder as a Dynamometer," American Journal of Dermatology, May, 1902.

[172]

See, e.g., summary in Internationales Centrablatt fur Anthropologie, 1902, Heft 4, p. 207.

[173]

Summarized in Zeitschrift fur Psychologie der Sinnesorgane, 1903, p. 135.

[174]

Camerer found that from September to November is the period of greatest metabolic activity.

[175]

Haig, Uric Acid, 6th edition, 1903, p. 33.

AUTO-EROTISM: A STUDY OF THE SPONTANEOUS MANIFESTATIONS OF THE s.e.xUAL IMPULSE.

I.

Definition of Auto-erotism-Masturbation only Covers a Small Portion of the Auto-erotic Field-The Importance of this Study, especially To-day-Auto-erotic Phenomena in Animals-Among Savage and Barbaric Races-The j.a.panese rin-no-tama and other Special Instruments for Obtaining Auto-erotic Gratification-Abuse of the Ordinary Implements and Objects of Daily Life-The Frequency of Hair-pin in the Bladder-The Influence of Horse-exercise and Railway Traveling-The Sewing-machine and the Bicycle-Spontaneous Pa.s.sive s.e.xual Excitement-Delectatio Morosa-Day-dreaming-Pollutio-s.e.xual Excitement During Sleep-Erotic Dreams-The a.n.a.logy of Nocturnal Enuresis-Differences in the Erotic Dreams of Men and Women-The Auto-erotic Phenomena of Sleep in the Hysterical-Their Frequently Painful Character.

By "auto-erotism" I mean the phenomena of spontaneous s.e.xual emotion generated in the absence of an external stimulus proceeding, directly or indirectly, from another person. In a wide sense, which cannot be wholly ignored here, auto-erotism may be said to include those transformations of repressed s.e.xual activity which are a factor of some morbid conditions as well as of the normal manifestation of art and poetry, and, indeed, more or less color the whole of life.

Such a definition excludes the normal s.e.xual excitement aroused by the presence of a beloved person of the opposite s.e.x; it also excludes the perverted s.e.xuality a.s.sociated with an attraction to a person of the same s.e.x; it further excludes the manifold forms of erotic fetichism, in which the normal focus of s.e.xual attraction is displaced, and voluptuous emotions are only aroused by some object-hair, shoes, garments, etc.-which, to the ordinary lover, are of subordinate-though still, indeed, considerable-importance.[176] The auto-erotic field remains extensive; it ranges from occasional voluptuous day-dreams, in which the subject is entirely pa.s.sive, to the perpetual unashamed efforts at s.e.xual self-manipulation witnessed among the insane. It also includes, though chiefly as curiosities, those cases in which individuals fall in love with themselves. Among auto-erotic phenomena, or on the borderland, we must further include those religious s.e.xual manifestations for an ideal object, of which we may find evidence in the lives of saints and ecstatics.[177] The typical form of auto-erotism is the occurrence of the s.e.xual o.r.g.a.s.m during sleep.

I do not know that any apology is needful for the invention of the term "auto-erotism."[178] There is no existing word in current use to indicate the whole range of phenomena I am here concerned with. We are familiar with "masturbation," but that, strictly speaking, only covers a special and arbitrary subdivision of the field, although, it is true, the subdivision with which physicians and alienists have chiefly occupied themselves. "Self-abuse" is somewhat wider, but by no means covers the whole ground, while for various reasons it is an unsatisfactory term. "Onanism" is largely used, especially in France, and some writers even include all forms of h.o.m.os.e.xual connection under this name; it may be convenient to do so from a physiological point of view, but it is a confusing and antiquated mode of procedure, and from the psychological standpoint altogether illegitimate; "onanism" ought never to be used in this connection, if only on the ground that Onan's device was not auto-erotic, but was an early example of withdrawal before emission, or coitus interruptus.

While the name that I have chosen may possibly not be the best, there should be no question as to the importance of grouping all these phenomena together. It seems to me that this field has rarely been viewed in a scientifically sound and morally sane light, simply because it has not been viewed as a whole. We have made it difficult so to view it by directing our attention on the special group of auto-erotic facts-that group included under masturbation-which was most easy to observe and which in an extreme form came plainly under medical observation in insanity and allied conditions, and we have wilfully torn this group of facts away from the larger group to which it naturally belongs. The questions which have been so widely, so diversely, and-it must unfortunately be added-often so mischievously discussed, concerning the nature and evils of masturbation are not seen in their true light and proportions until we realize that masturbation is but a specialized form of a tendency which in some form or in some degree normally affects not only man, but all the higher animals. From a medical point of view it is often convenient to regard masturbation as an isolated fact; but in order to understand it we must bear in mind its relationships. In this study of auto-erotism I shall frequently have occasion to refer to the old ent.i.ty of "masturbation," because it has been more carefully studied than any other part of the auto-erotic field; but I hope it will always be borne in mind that the psychological significance and even the medical diagnostic value of masturbation cannot be appreciated unless we realize that it is an artificial subdivision of a great group of natural facts.

The study of auto-erotism is far from being an unimportant or merely curious study. Yet psychologists, medical and non-medical, almost without exception, treat its manifestations-when they refer to them at all-in a dogmatic and off-hand manner which is far from scientific. It is not surprising, therefore, that the most widely divergent opinions are expressed. Nor is it surprising that ignorant and chaotic notions among the general population should lead to results that would be ludicrous if they were not pathetic. To mention one instance known to me: a married lady who is a leader in social-purity movements and an enthusiast for s.e.xual chast.i.ty, discovered, through reading some pamphlet against solitary vice, that she had herself been practicing masturbation for years without knowing it. The profound anguish and hopeless despair of this woman in face of what she believed to be the moral ruin of her whole life cannot well be described. It would be easy to give further examples, though scarcely a more striking one, to show the utter confusion into which we are thrown by leaving this matter in the hands of blind leaders of the blind. Moreover, the conditions of modern civilization render auto-erotism a matter of increasing social significance. As our marriage-rate declines, and as illicit s.e.xual relationships continue to be openly discouraged, it is absolutely inevitable that auto-erotic phenomena of one kind or another, not only among women but also among men, should increase among us both in amount and intensity. It becomes, therefore, a matter of some importance, both to the moralist and the physician, to investigate the psychological nature of these phenomena and to decide precisely what their att.i.tude should be toward them.

I do not purpose to enter into a thorough discussion of all the aspects of auto-erotism. That would involve a very extensive study indeed. I wish to consider briefly certain salient points concerning auto-erotic phenomena, especially their prevalence, their nature, and their moral, physical, and other effects. I base my study partly on the facts and opinions which during the last thirty years have been scattered through the periodical and other medical literature of Europe and America, and partly on the experience of individuals, especially of fairly normal individuals.

Among animals in isolation, and sometimes in freedom-though this can less often be observed-it is well known that various forms of spontaneous solitary s.e.xual excitement occur. Horses when leading a lazy life may be observed flapping the p.e.n.i.s until some degree of emission takes place. Welsh ponies, I learn from a man who has had much experience with these animals, habitually produce erections and emissions in their stalls; they do not bring their hind quarters up during this process, and they close their eyes, which does not take place when they have congress with mares. The same informant observed that bulls and goats produce emissions by using their forelegs as a stimulus, bringing up their hind quarters, and mares rub themselves against objects. I am informed by a gentleman who is a recognized authority on goats, that they sometimes take the p.e.n.i.s into the mouth and produce actual o.r.g.a.s.m, thus practicing auto-f.e.l.l.a.t.i.o. As regards ferrets, the Rev. H. Northcote states: "I am informed by a gentleman who has had considerable experience of ferrets, that if the b.i.t.c.h, when in heat, cannot obtain a dog she pines and becomes ill. If a smooth pebble is introduced into the hutch, she will m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.e upon it, thus preserving her normal health for one season. But if this artificial subst.i.tute is given to her a second season, she will not, as formerly, be content with it."[179]

Stags in the rutting season, when they have no partners, rub themselves against trees to produce e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n. Sheep m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.e; as also do camels, pressing themselves down against convenient objects; and elephants compress the p.e.n.i.s between the hind legs to obtain emissions.[180] Blumenbach observed a bear act somewhat similarly on seeing other bears coupling, and hyenas, according to Ploss and Bartels, have been seen practicing mutual masturbation by licking each other's genitals. Mammary masturbation, remarks Fere, is found in certain female and even male animals, like the dog and the cat.[181] Apes are much given to masturbation, even in freedom, according to the evidence of good observers; for while no female apes are celibates, many of the males are obliged to lead a life of celibacy.[182] Male monkeys use the hand in masturbation, to rub and shake the p.e.n.i.s.[183]

In the human species these phenomena are by no means found in civilization alone. To whatever extent masturbation may have been developed by the conditions of European life, which carry to the utmost extreme the concomitant stimulation, and repression of the s.e.xual emotions, it is far from being, as Mantegazza has declared it to be, one of the moral characteristics of Europeans.[184] It is found among the people of nearly every race of which we have any intimate knowledge, however natural the conditions under which men and women may live.[185] Thus, among the Nama Hottentots, among the young women at all events, Gustav Fritsch found that masturbation is so common that it is regarded as a custom of the country; no secret is made of it, and in the stories and legends of the race it is treated as one of the most ordinary facts of life. It is so also among the Basutos, and the Kaffirs are addicted to the same habit.[186] The Fuegians have a word for masturbation, and a special word for masturbation by women.[187] When the Spaniards first arrived at Vizcaya, in the Philippines, they found that masturbation was universal, and that it was customary for the women to use an artificial p.e.n.i.s and other abnormal methods of s.e.xual gratification. Among the Balinese, according to Jacobs (as quoted by Ploss and Bartels), masturbation is general; in the boudoir of many a Bali beauty, he adds, and certainly in every harem, may be found a wax p.e.n.i.s to which many hours of solitude are devoted. Throughout the East, as Eram, speaking from a long medical experience, has declared, masturbation is very prevalent, especially among young girls. In Egypt, according to Sonnini, it is prevalent in harems. In India, a medical correspondent tells me, he once treated the widow of a wealthy Mohammedan, who informed him that she began masturbation at an early age, "just like all other women." The same informant tells me that on the facade of a large temple in Orissa are bas-reliefs, representing both men and women, alone, masturbating, and also women masturbating men. Among the Tamils of Ceylon masturbation is said to be common. In Cochin China, Lorion remarks, it is practiced by both s.e.xes, but especially by the married women.[188] j.a.panese women have probably carried the mechanical arts of auto-erotism to the highest degree of perfection. They use two hollow b.a.l.l.s about the size of a pigeon's egg (sometimes one alone is used), which, as described by Joest, Christian, and others,[189] are made of very thin leaf of bra.s.s; one is empty, the other (called the little man) contains a small heavy metal ball, or else some quicksilver, and sometimes metal tongues which vibrate when set in movement; so that if the b.a.l.l.s are held in the hand side by side there is a continuous movement. The empty one is first introduced into the v.a.g.i.n.a in contact with the uterus, then the other; the slightest movement of the pelvis or thighs, or even spontaneous movement of the organs, causes the metal ball (or the quicksilver) to roll, and the resulting vibration produces a prolonged voluptuous t.i.tillation, a gentle shock as from a weak electric inductive apparatus; the b.a.l.l.s are called rin-no-tama, and are held in the v.a.g.i.n.a by a paper tampon. The women who use these b.a.l.l.s delight to swing themselves in a hammock or rocking-chair, the delicate vibration of the b.a.l.l.s slowly producing the highest degree of s.e.xual excitement. Joest mentions that this apparatus, though well known by name to ordinary girls, is chiefly used by the more fashionable geishas, as well as by prost.i.tutes. Its use has now spread to China, Annam, and India. j.a.panese women also, it is said, frequently use an artificial p.e.n.i.s of paper or clay, called engi. Among the Atjeh, again, according to Jacobs (as quoted by Ploss), the young of both s.e.xes m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.e and the elder girls use an artificial p.e.n.i.s of wax. In China, also, the artificial p.e.n.i.s-made of rosin, supple and (like the cla.s.sical instrument described by Herondas) rose-colored-is publicly sold and widely used by women.[190]

It may be noticed that among non-European races it is among women, and especially among those who are subjected to the excitement of a life professionally devoted to some form of pleasure, that the use of the artificial instruments of auto-erotism is chiefly practiced. The same is markedly true in Europe. The use of an artificial p.e.n.i.s in solitary s.e.xual gratification may be traced down from cla.s.sic times, and doubtless prevailed in the very earliest human civilization, for such an instrument is said to be represented in old Babylonian sculptures, and it is referred to by Ezekiel (Ch. XVI. v. 17). The Lesbian women are said to have used such instruments, made of ivory or gold with silken stuffs and linen. Aristophanes (Lysistrata, v. 109) speaks of the manufacture by the Milesian women of a leather artificial p.e.n.i.s, or olisbos. In the British Museum is a vase representing a hetaira holding such instruments, which, as found at Pompeii, may be seen in the museum at Naples. One of the best of Herondas's mimes, "The Private Conversation," presents a dialogue between two ladies concerning a certain olisbos (or ???), which one of them vaunts as a dream of delight. Through the Middle Ages (when from time to time the clergy reprobated the use of such instruments[191]) they continued to be known, and after the fifteenth century the references to them became more precise. Thus Fortini, the Siennese novelist of the sixteenth century, refers in his Novelle dei Novizi (7th Day, Novella x.x.xIX) to "the gla.s.s object filled with warm water which nuns use to calm the sting of the flesh and to satisfy themselves as well as they can"; he adds that widows and other women anxious to avoid pregnancy availed themselves of it. In Elizabethan England, at the same time, it appears to have been of similar character and Marston in his satires tells how Lucea prefers "a gla.s.sy instrument" to "her husband's lukewarm bed." In sixteenth century France, also, such instruments were sometimes made of gla.s.s, and Brantome refers to the G.o.demiche; in eighteenth century Germany they were called Samthanse, and their use, according to Heinse, as quoted by Duhren, was common among aristocratic women. In England by that time the d.i.l.d.o appears to have become common. Archemholtz states that while in Paris they are only sold secretly, in London a certain Mrs. Philips sold them openly on a large scale in her shop in Leicester Square. John Bee in 1835, stating that the name was originally dil-dol, remarks that their use was formerly commoner than it was in his day. In France, Madame Gourdan, the most notorious brothel-keeper of the eighteenth century, carried on a wholesale trade in consolateurs, as they were called, and "at her death numberless letters from abbesses and simple nuns were found among her papers, asking for a 'consolateur' to be sent."[192] The modern French instrument is described by Gamier as of hardened red rubber, exactly imitating the p.e.n.i.s and capable of holding warm milk or other fluid for injection at the moment of o.r.g.a.s.m; the compressible s.c.r.o.t.u.m is said to have been first added in the eighteenth century.[193]

In Islam the artificial p.e.n.i.s has reached nearly as high a development as in Christendom. Turkish women use it and it is said to be openly sold in Smyrna. In the harems of Zanzibar, according to Baumann, it is of considerable size, carved out of ebony or ivory, and commonly bored through so that warm water may be injected. It is here regarded as an Arab invention.[194]

Somewhat similar appliances may be traced in all centres of civilization. But throughout they appear to be frequently confined to the world of prost.i.tutes and to those women who live on the fashionable or semi-artistic verge of that world. Ignorance and delicacy combine with a less versatile and perverted concentration on the s.e.xual impulse to prevent any general recourse to such highly specialized methods of solitary gratification.

On the other hand, the use, or rather abuse, of the ordinary objects and implements of daily life in obtaining auto-erotic gratification, among the ordinary population in civilized modern lands, has reached an extraordinary degree of extent and variety we can only feebly estimate by the occasional resulting mischances which come under the surgeon's hands, because only a certain proportion of such instruments are dangerous. Thus the banana seems to be widely used for masturbation by women, and appears to be marked out for the purpose by its size and shape[195]; it is, however, innocuous, and never comes under the surgeon's notice; the same may probably be said of the cuc.u.mbers and other vegetables more especially used by country and factory girls in masturbation; a lady living near Vichy told Pouillet that she had often heard (and had herself been able to verify the fact) that the young peasant women commonly used turnips, carrots, and beet-roots. In the eighteenth century Mirabeau, in his Erotikca Biblion gave a list of the various objects used in convents (which he describes as "vast theatres" of such practices) to obtain solitary s.e.xual excitement. In more recent years the following are a few of the objects found in the v.a.g.i.n.a or bladder whence they could only be removed by surgical interference[196]: Pencils, sticks of sealing-wax, cotton-reels, hair-pins (and in Italy very commonly the bone-pins used in the hair), bodkins, knitting-needles, crochet-needles, needle-cases, compa.s.ses, gla.s.s stoppers, candles, corks, tumblers, forks, tooth-picks, toothbrushes, pomade-pots (in a case recorded by Schroeder with a c.o.c.kchafer inside, a makeshift subst.i.tute for the j.a.panese rin-no-tama), while in one recent English case a full-sized hen's egg was removed from the v.a.g.i.n.a of a middle-aged married woman. More than nine-tenths of the foreign bodies found in the female bladder or urethra are due to masturbation. The age of the individuals in whom such objects have been found is usually from 17 to 30, but in a few cases they have been found in girls below 14, infrequently in women between 40 and 50; the large objects, naturally, are found chiefly in the v.a.g.i.n.a, and in married women.[197]

Hair-pins have, above all, been found in the female bladder with special frequency; this point is worth some consideration as an ill.u.s.tration of the enormous frequency of this form of auto-erotism. The female urethra is undoubtedly a normal centre of s.e.xual feeling, as Pouillet pointed out many years ago; a woman medical correspondent, also, writes that in some women the maximum of voluptuous sensation is at the vesical sphincter or orifice, though not always so limited. E. H. Smith, indeed, considers that "the urethra is the part in which the o.r.g.a.s.m occurs," and remarks that in s.e.xual excitement mucus always flows largely from the urethra.[198] It should be added that when once introduced the physiological mechanism of the bladder apparently causes the organ to tend to "swallow" the foreign object. Yet for every case in which the hair-pin disappears and is lost in the bladder, from carelessness or the oblivion of the s.e.xual spasm, there must be a vast number of cases in which the instrument is used without any such unfortunate result. There is thus great significance in the frequency with which cases of hair-pin in the bladder are strewn through the medical literature of all countries.

In 1862, a German surgeon found the accident so common that he invented a special instrument for extracting hair-pins from the female bladder, as, indeed, Italian and French surgeons have also done. In France, Denuce, of Bordeaux, came to the conclusion that hair-pin in the bladder is the commonest result of masturbation as known to the surgeon. In England cases are constantly being recorded. Lawson Tait, stating that most cases of stone in the bladder in women are due to the introduction of a foreign body, very often a hair-pin, adds: "I have removed hair-pins encrusted with phosphates from ten different female bladders, and not one of the owners of these bladders would give any account of the incident."[199] Stokes, again, records that during four years he had four cases of hair-pin in the female urethra.[200] In New York one physician met with four cases in a short experience.[201] In Switzerland Professor Reverdin had a precisely similar experience.[202]

There is, however, another cla.s.s of material objects, widely employed for producing physical auto-erotism, which in the nature of things never reaches the surgeon. I refer to the effects that, naturally or unnaturally, may be produced by many of the objects and implements of daily life that do not normally come in direct contact with the s.e.xual organs. Children sometimes, even when scarcely more than infants, produce s.e.xual excitement by friction against the corner of a chair or other piece of furniture, and women sometimes do the same.[203] Guttceit, in Russia, knew women who made a large knot in their chemises to rub against, and mentions a woman who would sit on her naked heel and rub it against her. Girls in France, I am informed, are fond of riding on the chevaux-de-bois, or hobby-horses, because of the s.e.xual excitement thus aroused; and that the s.e.xual emotions play a part in the fascination exerted by this form of amus.e.m.e.nt everywhere is indicated by the ecstatic faces of its devotees.[204] At the temples in some parts of Central India, I am told, swings are hung up in pairs, men and women swinging in these until s.e.xually excited; during the months when the men in these districts have to be away from home the girls put up swings to console themselves for the loss of their husbands.

It is interesting to observe the very wide prevalence of swinging, often of a religious or magic character, and the evident s.e.xual significance underlying it, although this is not always clearly brought out. Groos, discussing the frequency of swinging (Die Spiele der Menschen, p. 114) refers, for instance, to the custom of the Gilbert Islanders for a young man to swing a girl from a coco palm, and then to cling on and swing with her. In ancient Greece, women and grown-up girls were fond of see-saws and swings. The Athenians had, indeed, a swinging festival (Athenaeus, Bk. XIV, Ch. X). Songs of a voluptuous character, we gather from Athenaeus, were sung by the women at this festival. J. G. Frazer (The Golden Bough, vol. ii, note A, "Swinging as a Magical Rite") discusses the question, and brings forward instances in which men, or, especially, women swing. "The notion seems to be," he states, "that the ceremony promotes fertility, whether in the vegetable or in the animal kingdom; though why it should be supposed to do so, I confess myself unable to explain" (loc. cit., p. 450). The explanation seems, however, not far to seek, in view of the facts quoted above, and Frazer himself refers to the voluptuous character of the songs sometimes sung.

Even apart from actual swinging of the whole body, a swinging movement may suffice to arouse s.e.xual excitement, and may,-at all events, in women,-const.i.tute an essential part of methods of attaining solitary s.e.xual gratification. Kiernan thus describes the habitual auto-erotic procedure of a young American woman: "The patient knelt before a chair, let her elbows drop on its seat, grasping the arms with a firm grip, then commenced a swinging, writhing motion, seeming to fix her pelvis, and moving her trunk and limbs. The muscles were rigid, the face took on a pa.s.sionate expression; the features were contorted, the eyes rolled, the teeth were set, and the lips compressed, while the cheeks were purple. The condition bore a striking resemblance to the pa.s.sional stage of grand hysteria. The reveling took only a moment to commence, but lasted a long time. Swaying induced a pleasurable sensation, accompanied with a feeling of suction upon the c.l.i.toris. Almost immediately after, a sensation of bursting, caused by discharge from the vulvo-v.a.g.i.n.al glands, occurs, followed by a rapture prolonged for an indefinite time." The accompanying s.e.xual imagery is so vivid as almost to become hallucinatory. (J. G. Kiernan, "s.e.x Transformation and Psychic Impotence," American Journal of Dermatology, vol. ix, No. 2.)

Somewhat similarly sensations of s.e.xual character are sometimes experienced by boys when climbing up a pole. It is not even necessary that there should be direct external contact with the s.e.xual organs, and Howe states that gymnastic swinging poles around which boys swing while supporting the whole weight on the hands, may suffice to produce s.e.xual excitement.

Several writers have pointed out that riding, especially in women, may produce s.e.xual excitement and o.r.g.a.s.m.[205] It is well-known, also, that both in men and women the vibratory motion of a railway-train frequently produces a certain degree of s.e.xual excitement, especially when sitting forward. Such excitement may remain latent and not become specifically s.e.xual.[206] I am not aware that this quality of railway traveling has ever been fostered as a s.e.xual perversion, but the sewing-machine has attracted considerable attention on account of its influence in exciting auto-erotic manifestations. The early type of sewing-machine, especially, was of very heavy character and involved much up and down movement of the legs; Langdon Down pointed out many years ago that this frequently produced great s.e.xual erethism which led to masturbation.[207] According to one French authority, it is a well-recognized fact that to work a sewing-machine with the body in a certain position produces s.e.xual excitement leading to the o.r.g.a.s.m. The occurrence of the o.r.g.a.s.m is indicated to the observer by the machine being worked for a few seconds with uncontrollable rapidity. This sound is said to be frequently heard in large French workrooms, and it is part of the duty of the superintendents of the rooms to make the girls sit properly.[208]

"During a visit which I once paid to a manufactory of military clothing," Pouillet writes, "I witnessed the following scene. In the midst of the uniform sound produced by some thirty sewing-machines, I suddenly heard one of the machines working with much more velocity than the others. I looked at the person who was working it, a brunette of 18 or 20. While she was automatically occupied with the trousers she was making on the machine, her face became animated, her mouth opened slightly, her nostrils dilated, her feet moved the pedals with constantly increasing rapidity. Soon I saw a convulsive look in her eyes, her eyelids were lowered, her face turned pale and was thrown backward; hands and legs stopped and became extended; a suffocated cry, followed by a long sigh, was lost in the noise of the workroom. The girl remained motionless a few seconds, drew out her handkerchief to wipe away the pearls of sweat from her forehead, and, after casting a timid and ashamed glance at her companions, resumed her work. The forewoman, who acted as my guide, having observed the direction of my gaze, took me up to the girl, who blushed, lowered her face, and murmured some incoherent words before the forewoman had opened her mouth, to advise her to sit fully on the chair, and not on its edge.

"As I was leaving, I heard another machine at another part of the room in accelerated movement. The forewoman smiled at me, and remarked that that was so frequent that it attracted no notice. It was specially observed, she told me, in the case of young work-girls, apprentices, and those who sat on the edge of their seats, thus much facilitating friction of the l.a.b.i.a."

In cases where the sewing-machine does not lead to direct self-excitement it has been held, as by Fothergill,[209] to predispose to frequency of involuntary s.e.xual o.r.g.a.s.m during sleep, from the irritation set up by the movement of the feet in the sitting posture during the day. The essential movement in working the sewing-machine is the flexion and extension of the ankle, but the muscles of the thighs are used to maintain the feet firmly on the treadle, the thighs are held together, and there is a considerable degree of flexion or extension of the thighs on the trunk; by a special adjustment of the body, and sometimes perhaps merely in the presence of s.e.xual hyperaesthesia, it is thus possible to act upon the s.e.xual organs; but this is by no means a necessary result of using the sewing-machine, and inquiry of various women, with well-developed s.e.xual feelings, who are accustomed to work the treadle, has not shown the presence of any tendency in this direction.

s.e.xual irritation may also be produced by the bicycle in women. Thus, Moll[210] remarks that he knows many married women, and some unmarried, who experience s.e.xual excitement when cycling; in several cases he has ascertained that the excitement is carried as far as complete o.r.g.a.s.m. This result cannot, however, easily happen unless the seat is too high, the peak in contact with the organs, and a rolling movement is adopted; in the absence of marked hyperaesthesia these results are only effected by a bad seat or an improper att.i.tude, the body during cycling resting under proper conditions on the b.u.t.tocks, and the work being mainly done by the muscles of the thighs and legs which control the ankles, flexion of the thigh on the pelvis being very small. Most medical authorities on cycling are of opinion that when cycling leads to s.e.xual excitement the fault lies more with the woman than with the machine. This conclusion does not appear to me to be absolutely correct. I find on inquiry that with the old-fashioned saddle, with an elevated peak rising toward the p.u.b.es, a certain degree of s.e.xual excitement, not usually producing the o.r.g.a.s.m (but, as one lady expressed it, making one feel quite ready for it), is fairly common among women. Lydston finds that irritation of the genital organs may unquestionably be produced in both males and females by cycling. The aggravation of haemorrhoids sometimes produced by cycling indicates also the tendency to local congestion. With the improved flat saddles, however, constructed with more definite adjustment to the anatomical formation of the parts, this general tendency is reduced to a negligible minimum.

Reference may be made at this point to the influence of tight-lacing. This has been recognized by gynaecologists as a factor of s.e.xual excitement and a method of masturbation.[211] Women who have never worn corsets sometimes find that, on first putting them on, s.e.xual feeling is so intensified that it is necessary to abandon their use.[212] The reason of this (as Siebert points out in his Buch fur Eltern) seems to be that the corset both favors pelvic congestion and at the same time exerts a pressure on the abdominal muscles which brings them into the state produced during coitus. It is doubtless for the same reason that, as some women have found, more distension of the bladder is possible without corsets than with them.

In a further cla.s.s of cases no external object whatever is used to procure the s.e.xual o.r.g.a.s.m, but the more or less voluntary pressure of the thighs alone is brought to bear upon the s.e.xual regions. It is done either when sitting or standing, the thighs being placed together and firmly crossed, and the pelvis rocked so that the s.e.xual organs are pressed against the inner and posterior parts of the thighs.[213] This is sometimes done by men, and is fairly common among women, especially, according to Martineau,[214] among those who sit much, such as dressmakers and milliners, those who use the sewing-machine, and those who ride. Vedeler remarks that in his experience in Scandinavia, thigh-friction is the commonest form of masturbation in women. The practice is widespread, and a medical correspondent in India tells me of a Brahmin widow who confessed to this form of masturbation. I am told that in London Board Schools, at the present time, thigh-rubbing is not infrequent among the girl scholars; the proportion mentioned in one school was about ten per cent, of the girls over eleven; the thigh-rubbing is done more or less openly and is interpreted by the uninitiated as due merely to a desire to relieve the bladder. It is found in female infants. Thus, Townsend records the case of an infant, 8 months old, who would cross her right thigh over the left, close her eyes and clench her fists; after a minute or two there would be complete relaxation, with sweating and redness of face; this would occur about once a week or oftener; the child was quite healthy, with no abnormal condition of the genital organs.[215] The frequency of thigh-friction among women as a form of masturbation is due to the fact that it is usually acquired innocently and it involves no indecorum. Thus Soutzo reports the case of a girl of 12 who at school, when having to wait her turn at the water-closet, for fear of wetting herself would put her clothes between her legs and press her thighs together, moving them backwards and forwards in the effort to control the bladder; she discovered that a pleasurable sensation was thus produced and acquired the habit of practicing the manuvre for its own sake; at the age of 17 she began to vary it in different ways; thus she would hang from a tree with her legs swinging and her chemise pressed between her thighs which she would rub together.[216] Thigh-friction in some of its forms is so comparatively decorous a form of masturbation that it may even be performed in public places; thus, a few years ago, while waiting for a train at a station on the outskirts of a provincial town, I became aware of the presence of a young woman, sitting alone on a seat at a little distance, whom I could observe unnoticed. She was leaning back with legs crossed, swinging the crossed foot vigorously and continuously; this continued without interruption for some ten minutes after I first observed her; then the swinging movement reached a climax; she leant still further back, thus bringing the s.e.xual region still more closely in contact with the edge of the bench and straightened and stiffened her body and legs in what appeared to be a momentary spasm; there could be little doubt as to what had taken place. A few moments later she slowly walked from her solitary seat into the waiting-room and sat down among the other waiting pa.s.sengers, quite still now and with uncrossed legs, a pale quiet young woman, possibly a farmer's daughter, serenely unconscious that her manuvre had been detected, and very possibly herself ignorant of its true nature.

There are many other forms in which the impulse of auto-erotism presents itself. Dancing is often a powerful method of s.e.xual excitement, not only among civilized but among savage peoples, and Zache describes the erotic dances of Swaheli women as having a masturbatory object.[217] Stimulation of the nates is a potent adjuvant to the production of self-excitement, and self-flagellation with rods, etc., is practiced by some individuals, especially young women.[218] Urtication is another form of this stimulation; Reverdin knew a young woman who obtained s.e.xual gratification by flogging herself with chestnut burrs, and it is stated that in some parts of France (departments of the Ain and Cote d'Or) it is not uncommon for young girls to m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.e by rubbing the leaves of the Linaria cymbalaria (here called "pinton" or "timbarde") on to the s.e.xual parts, thus producing a burning sensation.[219] Stimulation of the mamma, normally an erogenous centre in women, may occasionally serve as a method for obtaining auto-erotic satisfaction, including the o.r.g.a.s.m, in both s.e.xes. I have been told of a case in a man, and a medical correspondent in India informs me that he knows a Eurasian woman, addicted to masturbation, who can only obtain the o.r.g.a.s.m by rubbing the genitals with one hand while with the other she rubs and finally squeezes her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. The tactile stimulation even of regions of the body which are not normally erogenous zones in either s.e.x may sometimes lead on to s.e.xual excitement; Hirschsprung, as well as Freud, believes that this is often the case as regards finger-sucking and toe-sucking in infancy. Even stroking the chin, remarks Debreyne, may produce a pollution.[220] Taylor refers to the case of a young woman of 22, who was liable to attacks of ch.o.r.eic movements of the hands which would terminate in alternately pressing the middle finger on the tip of the nose and the tragus of the ear, when a "far-away, pleased expression" would appear on her face; she thus produced s.e.xual excitement and satisfaction. She had no idea of wrong-doing and was surprised and ashamed when she realized the nature of her act.[221]