4. The sexual life has a shorter duration in the women of the laboring classes and belonging to the lower strata of social life, as compared with upper class and well-to-do women. Bodily hardships, grief, and anxiety also hasten the onset of sexual death.

5. Women who are weakly and always ailing have a shorter sexual life than women who are powerfully built and always in good health. When irregularities and disorders have appeared in the various sexual phases, the decline of sexual activity occurs earlier than in women whose functions have in this respect been normal. Certain constitutional conditions, such as extreme obesity, certain acute diseases, such as typhoid fever, malaria, and cholera, and certain diseases of the uterus and its annexa, chronic inflammatory conditions for instance, bring about a notable shortening of the duration of the sexual life.

In 500 cases that have come under my own observation, the women concerned belonging to very various nationalities, the duration of the sexual life, as witnessed by the continuance of menstruation, was as follows:

Menstruation continued for:

6 years in1 woman.
7 years in1 woman.
9 years in2 women.
11 years in4 women.
15 years in6 women.
16 years in8 women.
17 years in12 women.
18 years in15 women.
19 years in9 women.
20 years in6 women.
21 years in18 women.
22 years in20 women.
23 years in24 women.
24 years in18 women.
25 years in16 women.
26 years in25 women.
27 years in26 women.
28 years in29 women.
29 years in36 women.
30 years in22 women.
31 years in32 women.
32 years in49 women.
33 years in31 women.
34 years in26 women.
35 years in12 women.
36 years in12 women.
37 years in10 women.
38 years in8 women.
39 years in6 women.
40 years in2 women.
43 years in2 women.
45 years in1 woman.
46 years in1 woman.

Thus we see that the duration of the sexual life varies from 6 to 46 years. The most frequent duration is one of 32 years, next to this one of 29, next again, 31, 33, and 37 years, respectively. In 6 women only did the duration of the sexual life exceed 40 years, and in 4 only was it less than 11 years. In half of all my cases the duration of the sexual life was between 27 and 34 years, and from these figures we obtain an average duration of about 30 years.

For North Germany, Krieger gives data from which it appears that in this region the average duration of the sexual life is 30.49 years. In more than half of the 722 cases recorded by this writer the duration was between 31 and 37 years. In isolated cases the duration was very short, not exceeding 8, 9, or 10 years, or, on the other hand, as long as 47 years; whilst the number of cases increased fairly regularly up to the duration of 34 years, and thereafter again diminished.

As regards Austria, Szukits has collected information in the case of 269 women, and found, in these, that the duration of the sexual life varied from 12 to 45 years. The average duration was 29.16 years; in more than half of the women, the period of sexual activity lasted from 21 to 30 years; the shortest period observed was 12 years, the longest 45 years.

The period of sexual activity lasted:

12 years in2 women.
14 years in1 woman.
15 years in2 women.
17 years in3 women.
19 years in3 women.
20 years in17 women.
21 years in10 women.
22 years in7 women.
23 years in5 women.
24 years in17 women.
25 years in7 women.
26 years in13 women.
27 years in5 women.
28 years in26 women.
29 years in18 women.
30 years in17 women.
31 years in8 women.
32 years in8 women.
33 years in13 women.
34 years in8 women.
35 years in18 women.
36 years in19 women.
37 years in14 women.
38 years in9 women.
39 years in8 women.
40 years in1 woman.
42 years in1 woman.
43 years in1 woman.
44 years in2 women.
45 years in2 women.