Normalis atque naturalis mulieri positura est resupina, viro inter femora mulieris extensa et abducta jacente.
“Qua facie praesignis erit resupino jaceto,” sings Ovid in his Ars Amandi. In this position the vagina et virile mentulatum easdem directiones habent, et frictiones inter glandes clitoridis penisque, which are the most sensitive organs for inducing libido, are facilitated. The supine position is hence mechanically the most favorable for the frictions of the most sensitive parts.
The position a posteriori (more pecudum) is not so favorable for the frictions of the clitoris. The female orgasm will hence, at best, be retarded. The prone position is, therefore, not the hygienic ideal, at least so far as the female is concerned. The popular belief that this position is more exciting for male and female is based upon the assumption that the intensity of the libido is proportional to the depth insertionis in vaginam fascini. This belief is erroneous. The radix of the penis, as well as the fornices of the vagina, are, as a rule, the points of the least value for inducing orgasm, and these are the very points most affected by the frictions in the prone position. The portio vaginalis and the os externum which are sexually very excitable are, in the prone position, not easier reached by a normal fascinum than in the supine position. In normal cases,[CO] therefore, the prone position of the female is anti-hygienic.
In women with orgasmus retardus of moderate degree, positura viri infra may be of some benefit. This position damps somewhat the male ardor, et impeditæ sunt motiones, dum mulier moveat cito aut lente so as to produce the best effects upon her own orgasm.[CP]
Frequentatio concubitus.—Congressus frequentatio varies with different individuals, but with the majority, under thirty years of age, three times a week should be considered sufficiently frequent, between thirty and forty twice a week, and less frequently as age advances.[CQ] When concarnatio is followed by a sense of relief and comfort it is beneficial, and to be thus guided is the most rational practice. The criterion of marital hygiene, as far as frequency is concerned, is hence the state of the feelings of the couple. The day post initum both mates must feel refreshed in body and spirit, otherwise the act was unhygienic.
If one of the mates has greater sexual desires than the other is able[CR] or willing to gratify, he or she has to suppress the erotic excitement by the exertion of will-power or by cold sponging, cold baths and when necessary even by bromides. For while chastity does very little harm to the individual, excesses in venere destroy in time both body and mind.[CS]
The frequent exercise actionis conjungendi leads directly to anaemia, malnutrition, asthenia of the muscles and nerves, and mental exhaustion. Immoderate persons are pale and have long, flabby and sometimes tense features. They are melancholic and not fit for any difficult and continued bodily or mental work. They possess very little power of resistance. The patients suffer from aboulia or inability to concentrate their minds upon any subject. There is a certain dysaesthesia or hyperaesthesia of the senses, especially against noise and light. Insomnia is very frequently complained of. Cephalalgia and vertigo is a frequent occurrence. The patients have a feeling of anxiety in stomach and in heart-regions. Anorexia, or loss of appetite, is often met with. Besides, the patient suffers from nervous dyspepsia and constipation which not seldom alternates with diarrhoea. There is often found tachycardia and an arythmic or intermittent pulse. Sometimes asthma and coughing are complained of. The patients feel fatigued at the least exertion. The most annoying symptom is pollakiuria and cystic tenesmus. In men pains in the back are radiating to the legs and to the inguinal and spermatic-cord regions; in women coccygodynia is often encountered. These effects frequentis commixtionis are often seen in men and women after a certain period of married life has elapsed.
Apart from the bad effects upon the general health of the man and woman, excesses in venere cause various local disturbances. Too frequent sexual excitement retards the orgasm or makes it impossible. The detumescence that normally occurs after ejaculation does not take place. The genital organs remain thus in a certain state of congestion which causes chronic inflammations, such as prostatitis, vesiculitis, orchitis or urethritis in men, and vulvitis, vaginitis, endometritis, metritis, salpingitis, ovaritis or peri- and parametritis in women. The habitual congestion of the uterus causes the tissues to become succulent, and the vessels enlarged. It shows, then, all the symptoms of subinvolution, such as menorrhagia, exhaustion and sexual apathy.
Sexual excess, as everything else abused, produces satiety and finally indifference. Emptiness in life is then the individual’s lot, and it falls into a state of moral apathy which is characterized by the suspension or complete loss of every sentiment.[CT]
Young and healthy people are able to induce orgasm several times daily. With them orgasm is possible after many excesses. But even in youth frequent practice congressus ruins the individual’s health. The frequent inducement of the orgasm weakens the nerves of the sexual sphere. At the time of the orgasm peristaltic movements of the vas deferens in its entire length and of the ejaculatory ducts in men and of the tubes and uterus in women take place. If these delicate movements are too frequently repeated they cause diseases of the genital nervous system. The frequent irritation of the frictions furthermore causes a complete transformation of the covering of the glans penis and of the vulva and of the vaginal mucous membrane. It becomes a veritable skin, a shriveled parchment, which the sebaceous secretions no longer soften. This transformation affects profoundly the genital sensibilities, and if it does not completely destroy the amatory pleasure it at least weakens it considerably.