Part 30

Sexual desire in women, the sexual impulse, outlasts the proper sexual life, and manifests itself even after the cessation of menstruation, when the possibility of conception has passed away; it appears, therefore, to have no necessary connection with the function of ovulation.

This is indicated by the always respectable number of women who enter upon marriage even after the climacteric age. Thus the percentage of brides who were more than 45 years of age was: In Prussia, 2.58 per cent.; in England, 1.38 per cent.; in Sweden, 1.53 per cent.; in Ireland, 0.31 per cent. Of quite peculiar interest are the figures relating to elderly women who marry men considerably younger than themselves. Thus we learn from the tables of Routh that in the space of 10 years in Ireland:

Women between the ages of 46 and 55 years married Men below the age of 17 in 1 instance. Men between the ages of 17 and 25 in 35 instances. Men between the ages of 26 and 35 in 145 instances. Men between the ages of 36 and 45 in 227 instances.

And women of ages greater than 55 years married Men below the age of 17 in 1 instance. Men between the ages of 17 and 25 in 3 instances. Men between the ages of 26 and 35 in 12 instances. Men between the ages of 36 and 45 in 15 instances. Men between the ages of 46 and 55 in 52 instances.

In England during the year 1855 the age of the bride exceeded the climacteric age in 778 instances. The brides were:

From 46 to 50 years of age in 135 instances. From 51 to 55 years of age in 219 instances. From 56 to 60 years of age in 89 instances. From 61 to 65 years of age in 22 instances. From 66 to 70 years of age in 7 instances. From 71 to 75 years of age in 3 instances. From 76 to 80 years of age in 3 instances.

In Bohemia in the year 1872 the oldest bride numbered no less than—86 years.

Börner reports cases in which the sexual impulse remained in full activity after the change of life, and in some cases was greatly increased in intensity—these latter individuals being in a condition of real torment, which induced them to masturbate to obtain relief.

The sexual impulse may be present in cases in which the ovaries are entirely wanting. Thus, Hauff reports the case of a young girl who had no ovaries, but was nevertheless excessively addicted to masturbation. Gläveke speaks of a puella publica in whom the uterus and the ovaries were entirely absent, but who asserted that she experienced during coitus active sexual sensation. Both Kussmaul and Puech report similar experiences in cases of absence or arrested development of the uterus.

As regards the effect on the sexual impulse of the operation of oöphorectomy, most authors state that no change occurs; still, there remain many who express the opposite opinion. From the collective summary of cases bearing on this question made by Gläveke, it appears that after extirpation of the ovaries the sexual impulse remains unchanged in the great majority of cases, or at most is but slightly diminished in intensity. Hegar states that he has often witnessed a diminution of the sexual impulse after oöphorectomy, but that this decline is by no means constant, indeed he states that one of his patients assured him that in her case no decline in the intensity of the sexual impulse had followed the operation. Similarly variable reports were the experience of Schmalfuss. In one case he found there was but little sexual inclination; in one case, disinclination; in one case disinclination at first, followed by a return of inclination. Bruntzel reports that in four patients subjected to oöphorectomy, in two cases the sexual impulse persisted, but in the remaining two it was extinguished. Köberle is of opinion that sexual inclination diminishes as a result of this operation. Peaslee, on the contrary, asserts that the patients remain striking examples of womanhood, in whom all the qualities peculiar to their sex are preserved. Péan observed as a rule no difference in the sexual impulse to result from this operation, but he considers that the patients are apt to describe in exaggerated terms the amount of sexual feeling that remains to them. In one case, Spencer Wells observed after oöphorectomy an increase in sexual excitability; Tissier had the same experience, and this author believes that in these cases the sexual impulse is generally preserved. On the other hand, Bailly observed a case, in which both ovaries were removed on account of new growths, where the sexual impulse at first became excessive, and then completely disappeared. Anger and Goodell speak in the same sense.

I am myself acquainted with a woman twenty-six years of age who in girlhood underwent oöphorectomy on account of extremely severe nervous troubles associated with menstruation; she had not experienced in consequence any loss of the sexual impulse; she married a man belonging to the upper strata of society, and consulted me four years later to learn if she could by any means be rendered capable of bearing a child. Two other cases have come within my personal experience in which young women married after extirpation of the ovaries, and in whom sexual desire and sexual sensation were all that could be wished.

In twenty-seven women who had undergone the operation of oöphorectomy, Gläveke made inquiries regarding the three following points: First, whether the sexual impulse had been affected by the operation; secondly, whether during intercourse sexual pleasure was experienced to the same degree as formerly; and thirdly, whether during intercourse any kind of difference was observed as compared with pre-operative experience. He obtained the following results:

Sexual inclination was Unaffected in 6 cases 22 per cent. Diminished in 10 cases 37 per cent. Extinguished in 11 cases 41 per cent. Sexual pleasure during coitus was Unaffected in 8 cases 31 per cent. Diminished in 10 cases 38 per cent. Extinguished in 8 cases 31 per cent.

In a considerable number of cases the sexual impulse was thus found by Gläveke, not indeed to be entirely extinguished, but still notably diminished. In another set of cases, the sexual impulse was entirely extinguished, but only in one case was there actual aversion to coitus. The women readily permitted intercourse when their husbands desired it, but remained themselves quite indifferent. The greater number of these women stated that the specific sensation of pleasure during coitus was markedly weakened, but not entirely lost; in a small proportion, this sensation was completely extinguished. In the case of seven women who complained that coitus was very painful, Gläveke found that the calibre of the vagina was much diminished. In these cases, the sensation of pleasure during coitus was either greatly diminished or completely extinguished. The women permitted intercourse very unwillingly, their unwillingness arising, not from any actual aversion, but because they dreaded the pain which coitus produced. An extremely hysterical woman, affected with severe prolapse of the uterus, stated that every attempt at intercourse was frustrated by violent hysterical convulsions. The sexual impulse appears always to suffer first and most severely, and only after this is the sensation of pleasure during coitus affected. In a few women only, according to the experience of this author, was the sexual impulse quite unaffected by the removal of the ovaries.

Amputation of the clitoris appears notably to diminish both the sexual impulse and the sensation of sexual pleasure, but the results of clitoridectomy for the cure of masturbation are by no means always favorable. In the women of the Russian sect of the Skopstki, the clitoris, the nymphæ, and a part of the labia majora are removed, in order to destroy sexual desire. According to von Krafft-Ebing it is probable that in the virgin the clitoris is the only erotogenic zone, that is to say, that only by the stimulation of the clitoris can erection, the orgasm, and the sensation of ejaculation be induced. It is probable that the vagina becomes erotogenic only as a result of coitus; thenceforward, however, the erotogenic significance of the clitoris is notably lessened, and in multiparæ may entirely disappear.

NYMPHOMANIA, ANÆSTHESIA AND PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS.

The sexual impulse in women is subject to morbid changes, both in the way of increase and of diminution, exhibiting abnormal violent increase (nymphomania), or declining to the state of complete frigidity and sexual indifference, or, finally, manifesting itself in some perverse manner (psychopathia sexualis).

Psychopathically increased sexual impulse in woman is known as nymphomania or uteromania. In such women there is a dominant state of psychical hyperæthesia, principally in the genital sphere. The most indifferent perceptions give rise to erotic sensations and to lascivious impulses. All sensory perceptions obtain a sexual content, and induce stimulation of the cerebral cortex. All sensation and all activity in such unhappy beings ultimately concentrates itself in the act of copulation, or in some other form of sexual gratification, the greatest perversities of sexual practice frequently arising, masturbation, tribadism, and, for the most part, prostitution, even in the case of married women.

The nymphomaniacal woman, says von Krafft-Ebing, endeavors to allure men by means of exposure of the genital organs or indecent gestures; the sight of man produces intense sexual excitement, which is gratified by masturbation or by stimulatory movements of the pelvis. According to this author, nymphomania is not very infrequent at the climacteric period; it may even occur in old age. Abstinence in association with simultaneous excitement of the sexual sphere by mental or by peripheral stimuli (pruritus pudendi, oxyuris, etc.), may induce these states, probably, however, only in those hereditarily predisposed.

The history of antiquity contains records of the corrupt practices of nymphomaniacal empresses. Thus, Messalina furnishes a well-known historical example of the abnormal violence of a pathologically intensified sexual impulse in woman. She was given the agnomen of invicta, having received the embraces of fourteen athletes. Pliny says of her, die ac nocte superavit quinto et vicessimo concubitu; and Juvenal writes of her the verses,

... tamen ultima cellam Clausit, adhuc ardens rigidæ tintigine vulvæ Et resupina jacens multorum absorbuit ictus Et lassata viris, necdum satiata, recessit.

In corrupt Rome, Messalina was not the only woman necdum satiata, ever insatiable; we need only refer to the orgies of an Aggripina, a Livia, a Mallonia, or a Poppæa; and Seneca hurls against the women of his day the reproach, adeo perversum commentæ genus impudicitiæ viros ineunt. And of Cleopatra, the beautiful Egyptian queen, Marcus Antonius writes in a letter to his physician, Soranus, that she had such violent sexual desire as to lead to her having connection in a brothel with 106 men.

Through the report of Herodotus it is well known that the pyramid of Cheops was built by the numerous lovers of the daughter of this king, who raised this enormous monument in recognition of the innumerable times she had yielded herself to their desires. On record also are the sexual excesses of the Roman ladies at the festival of Saturn, the festival of the Bona Dea, and the festival of Priapus; indeed, many of these women allowed themselves to be debauched in the temples (Ploss and Bartels).

But returning to the present day, both gynecologists and alienists record numerous cases of great pathological increase in the intensity of the sexual impulse in women. According to Lombroso, such continued ardency of sexual desire occurs chiefly in women with an inherited tendency to crime and to prostitution, whose natures exhibit a commingling of lasciviousness with barbarism. He gives examples of such women, one of whom surrendered herself to her husband’s laborers; another had as her lovers all the desperadoes of Texas; a third had intercourse with all the herdsmen of her village; a fourth, though her husband occupied a good social position, led the life of a prostitute; a fifth, a cultured and intelligent woman, entertained a common bricklayer, and wrote to him letters full of shameless declarations of her sexual passion; further he writes of a series of criminals, in whom, indeed, increased sexual desire is a common phenomenon; one of these, a thief, experienced sexual excitement at a mere glance at a good-looking man; a murderess, in whom lascivious feeling induced masturbation whenever she saw a man, and who made experiments in sexual intercourse with dogs; another, who often took to bed with her, in addition to her son, three or four men selected at random from the streets; and many others. Jolly reports the case of a widow, a celebrated lionne of the demi-monde, who kept in her desk, side by side with devotional literature, a number of lascivious books and preparations of cantharides, and entertained quite a number of powerfully-built lovers drawn from the lowest canaille.

In hysterical women the sexual impulse is frequently excessive, and may increase to such a degree as to produce hallucinations of coitus; sometimes, on the other hand, the impulse is extinguished, or psychopathically metamorphosed, passing in a most paradoxical manner from sexual frigidity to lascivious reflections and continuous occupation with sexual affairs; not uncommon in such women are false accusations of indecent assaults of which they assert themselves the victims.

Lombroso gives several examples of the increase of the sexual impulse in hysterical women: “A hysterical girl visited a physician, and said to him: ‘I am still a virgin, take me;’ she submitted him to the utmost extremity of provocation, and asserted afterward that she had been violated. Another hysterical subject, a rich young lady, met a workman in the street, offered herself to him, was accepted, and when she returned home related the affair with laughter. A third sought men from the street in order to find one suffering from syphilis, her object being to infect her own husband with the disease.”

According to the observations of Schüle, young married, hysterical women not infrequently run away with a waiter during the honeymoon journey. This author also points out that in women moral insanity is especially apt to manifest itself during the first years of married life. Many advocate a far-reaching libertinism, and threaten to enter a brothel. In these forms we observe, in addition to ill-temper and malignity, especially obscenity and tribadism.

Such a case, observed by Giraud and quoted by von Krafft-Ebing, is the following: Marianne L., of Bordeaux, during the night, while her master was sleeping soundly under the influence of narcotics she had administered, was in the habit of giving up her master’s children to her lover for his sexual gratification, and made them witnesses of the most immoral scenes. It appeared that L. was hysterical, suffering from hemianæsthesia and convulsive seizures, and that before her illness she had been a sensible and trustworthy individual. After the illness, however, she prostituted herself in the most shameless manner and completely lost her moral sense.