This statement has been questioned. It should, however, be fairly evident that the sexual organs in either sex, when closely examined, can scarcely be regarded as beautiful except in the eyes of a person of the opposite sex who is in a condition of sexual excitement, and they are not always attractive even then. Moreover, it must be remembered that the snake-like aptitude of the penis to enter into a state of erection apart from the control of the will puts it in a different category from any other organ of the body, and could not fail to attract the attention of primitive peoples so easily alarmed by unusual manifestations. We find even in the early ages of Christianity that St. Augustine attached immense importance to this alarming aptitude of the penis as a sign of man's sinful and degenerate state.
Lubbock, Origin of Civilization, fifth edition, pp. 69, 73; Westermarck, History of Marriage, p. 357; Grosse, Anfänge der Kunst, p. 236; Herbert Spencer, "Origin of Music," Mind, Oct., 1890.
Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 99; cf. Finck, Primitive Love and Love-stories, p. 89 et seq.
"The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity." The subject has also been more recently discussed by Walter Heape, "The 'Sexual Season' of Mammals," Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, vol. xliv, 1900. See also F. H. A. Marshall, The Physiology of Reproduction, 1910.