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summarized in the _British Medical Journal_, October 31, 1896. As regards
the more normal influence of the ovaries over the uterus, see e.g.
Carmichael and F.H.A. Marshall, "Correlation of the Ovarian and Uterine
Functions," _Proceedings Royal Society_, vol. 79, Series B, 1907.
[99] Beuttner, _Centralblatt für Gynäkologie_, No. 49, 1893; summarized in
_British Medical Journal_, December, 1893. Many cases show that pregnancy
may occur in the absence of menstruation. See, e.g., _Nouvelles Archives
d'Obstétrique et de Gynécologie_, 25 Janvier, 1894, supplement, p. 9.
[100] It is still possible, and even probable, that the primordial cause
of both phenomena is the same. Heape (_Transactions Obstetrical Society of
London_, 1898, vol. xl, p. 161) argues that both menstruation and
ovulation are closely connected with and influenced by congestion, and
that in the primitive condition they are largely due to the same cause.
This primary cause he is inclined to regard as a ferment, due to a change
in the constitution of the blood brought about by climatic influences and
food, which he proposes to call gonadin. (W. Heape, _Proceedings of Royal
Society_, 1905, vol. B. 76, p. 266.) Marshall, who has found that in the
ferret and other animals, ovulation may be dependent upon copulation, also
considers that ovulation and menstruation, though connected and able to
react on each other, may both be dependent upon a common cause; he finds
that in bitches and rats heat can be produced by injection of extract from
ovaries in the oestrous state (F.H.A. Marshall, _Philosophical
Transactions_, 1903, vol. B. 196; also Marshall and Jolly, id., 1905, B.
198). Cf. C.J. Bond, "An Inquiry Into Some Points in Uterine and Ovarian
Physiology and Pathology in Rabbits," _British Medical Journal_, July 21,
1906.
[101] Pouchet, _Théorie de l'Ovulation Spontanée_, 1847. As Blair Bell and
Pontland Hick remark ("Menstruation," _British Medical Journal_, March 6,
1909), the repeated oestrus of unimpregnated animals (once a fortnight in
rabbits) is surely comparable to menstruation.
[102] Tait, _Provincial Medical Journal_, May, 1891; J. Beard, _The Span
of Gestation_, 1897, p. 69. Lawson Tait is reduced to the assertion that
ovulation and menstruation are identical.
[103] As Moll points out, even the secondary sexual characters have
undergone a somewhat similar change. The beard was once an important
sexual attraction, but men can now afford to dispense with it without fear
of loss in attractiveness. (_Libido Sexualis_, Band I, p. 387.) These
points are discussed at greater length in the fourth volume of these
_Studies_, "Sexual Selection in Man."
[104] It is not absolutely established that in menstruating animals the
period of menstruation is always a period of sexual congress; probably
not, the influence of menstruation being diminished by the more
fundamental influence of breeding seasons, which affect the male also;
monkeys have a breeding season, though they menstruate regularly all the
year round.
[105] See Appendix A.
[106] Bland Sutton, loc. cit., p. 896.
[107] See H. Ellis, _Man and Woman_, Chapter XI.
[108] This is by no means true of European women only. Thus, we read in an
Arabic book, _The Perfumed Garden_, that women have an aversion to coitus
during menstruation. On the other hand, the old Hindoo physician, Susruta,
appears to have stated that a tendency to run after men is one of the
signs of menstruation.
[109] The actual period of the menstrual flow corresponds, in Heape's
terminology, to the congestive stage, or _pro-oestrum_, in female animals;
the _oestrus_, or period of sexual desire, immediately follows the
_pro-oestrum_, and is the direct result of it. See Heape, "The 'Sexual
Season' of Mammals," _Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science_, 1900,
vol. xliv, Part I.
[110] It may be noted that (as Barnes, Oliver, and others have pointed
out) there is heightened blood-pressure during menstruation. Haig remarks
that he has found a tendency for high pressure to be accompanied by
increased sexual appetite (_Uric Acid_, 6th edition, p. 155).
[111] Sir W.F. Wade, however, remarked, some years ago, in his Ingleby
Lectures (_Lancet_, June 5, 1886): "It is far from exceptional to find
that there is an extreme enhancement of concupiscence in the immediate
precatamenial period," and adds, "I am satisfied that evidence is
obtainable that in some instances, ardor is at its maximum during the
actual period, and suspect that cases occur in which it is almost, if not
entirely, limited to that time." Long ago, however, the genius of Haller
had noted the same fact. More recently, Icard (_La Femme_, Chapter VI and
elsewhere, e.g., p. 125) has brought forward much evidence in confirmation
of this view. It may be added that there is considerable significance in
the fact that the erotic hallucinations, which are not infrequently
experienced by women under the influence of nitrous oxide gas, are more
likely to appear at the monthly period than at any other time. (D.W.
Buxton, _Anesthetics_, 1892, p. 61.)
[112] Gehrung considers that in healthy young girls amorous sensations are
normal during menstruation, and in some women persist, during this period,
throughout life. More usually, however, as menstrual period after
menstrual period recurs, without the natural interruption of pregnancy,
the feeling abates, and gives place to sensations of discomfort or pain.
He ascribes this to the vital tissues being sapped of more blood than can
be replaced in the intervals. "The vital powers, being thus kept in
abeyance, the amative sensations are either not developed, or destroyed.
This, superadded by the usual moral and religious teachings, is amply
sufficient, by degrees, to extinguish or prevent such feelings with the
great majority. The sequestration as 'unclean,' of women during their
catamenial period, as practiced in olden times, had the same tendency."
(E.C. Gehrung, "The Status of Menstruation," _Transactions American
Gynecology Society_, 1901, p. 48.)
[113] It is possible there may be an element of truth in this belief.
Diday, of Lyons, found that chronic urethorrhoea is an occasional result
of intercourse during menstruation. Raciborski (_Traité de la
Menstruation_, 1868, p. 12), who also paid attention to this point, while
confirming Diday, came to the conclusion that some special conditions must
be present on one or both sides.
[114] See, e.g., Ballantyne, "Teratogenesis," _Transactions of the
Edinburgh Obstetrical Society_, 1896, vol. xxi, pp. 324-25.
[115] As quoted by Icard, _La Femme_, etc., p. 194. I have not been able
to see Négrier's work.
[116] I deal with the question of sexual anæsthesia in women in the third
volume of these _Studies_: "The Sexual Impulse in Women."
II.
The Question of a Monthly Sexual Cycle in Men--The Earliest Suggestions of
a General Physiological Cycle in Men--Periodicity in Disease--Insanity, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]