Kobelt, in his celebrated work on the human organs of sexual pleasure (Freiburg, 1884, p. 55 et seq.), gave a similar description of copulation. In the majority of descriptions of coitus but little attention is usually paid to the demeanour of the woman. Magendie long ago drew attention to the fact that there was much obscurity about this matter, and insisted that, in comparison with the male, the female exhibited extremely marked differences, in respect to her active participation in copulation and to the intensity of her voluptuous sensations.
“Very many women,” says this distinguished physiologist, “experience a sexual orgasm accompanied by very intense voluptuous sensations; others, on the contrary, appear entirely devoid of sensation; and some, again, have only a disagreeable and painful sensation. Many women excrete, at this moment of most intense sexual pleasure, a large quantity of mucus, but the majority do not exhibit this phenomenon. In reference to all these phenomena, there are perhaps no two women who are precisely similar.”
The demeanour of the woman in coitu has been especially studied by gynæcologists, such as Busch, Theopold, and recently Otto Adler. Little known are the observations of Dr. Theopold, based upon his own experience, and published in 1873. He energetically denies the view that the woman is always passive in coitus, and also that the female reproductive organs are inactive during intercourse. During erotic excitement in woman the heart beats more frequently, the arteries of the labia pulsate powerfully, the genital organs are turgid and are hotter to the touch. As the most intense libido approaches, the uterus undergoes erection; its base touches the anterior abdominal wall; the Fallopian tubes can be distinctly felt through the abdominal wall, when these are thin, as hard, curved strings. The vagina, especially the upper part of the passage, undergoes rhythmical contraction and dilation, and complete gratification terminates the act.
As long as the muscle guarding the vaginal outlet (constrictor cunni—bulbo-cavernosus muscle) is intact, the woman is able, by tightly grasping the root of the penis, to expedite the ejaculation of semen, or to increase the stimulation of the male until ejaculation occurs.
These powerful contractions of the vagina, alternating rhythmically with the dilatations occurring during the orgasm, grip the glans penis tightly, and induce a coaptation of the male urethral orifice with the os uteri externum, and the enlargement of the latter orifice facilitates the entrance of the semen. According to O. Adler, sexual excitement of the woman during sexual intercourse begins with very powerful congestion of the entire reproductive apparatus, including even the fimbriæ surrounding the abdominal orifice of the Fallopian tubes; this congestion gives rise to an erection of these parts, and especially of the clitoris, the labia minora, and the vaginal wall. At the same time, the glands of the vaginal mucous membrane and of the vaginal inlet begin to secrete, as is manifest by the moistness of the external genital organs. There now begin gentle rhythmical contractions of the vagina and of the pelvic muscles, and during the orgasm these increase, to become spasmodic contractions, whereby an increased secretion is extruded, and more especially is there an evacuation of uterine mucus.
It is very important to note the various physiological accompaniments of coitus, since they assist us to understand the mode of origin and the biological root of many sexual perversions. Already in normal sexual intercourse sadistic and masochistic phenomena may be observed. The biting and crying out mentioned by Roubaud as occurring in the voluptuous ecstasy are, indeed, of very frequent occurrence. Rudolf Bergh, the celebrated Danish dermatologist and physician, of the Copenhagen Hospital for Women suffering from Venereal Diseases, alludes regularly in his annual reports to the consequences of “erotic bites.” Amongst the Southern Slavs, the custom of “biting one another” is very general (Krauss). The intense dark red coloration of the face and of the reproductive organs and their environment is also a physiological accompaniment of sexual excitement, and this coloration is more marked in consequence of the associated turgescence of the male and female genital organs; it leads, moreover, to associations of feeling in which the blood plays a dominant part. Hence we deduce the biological and ethnological significance of the colour red in the sphere of sexuality. The nature of the sadist “to see red” during sexual intercourse is, therefore, firmly founded upon a physiological basis, and merely exhibits an increase of a normal phenomenon.[17] The crying and cursing in which many individuals find sexual gratification has also a physiological representative in the inarticulate noises and cries frequently expressed in normal intercourse. It is remarkable that an Indian writer on erotics—Vātsyāyana—deduces this verbal sadism from the various noises which are commonly made in normal intercourse. Similarly, in both parties to the sexual act the presence of masochistic elements can be detected: witness the patience with which pain is borne when it has a voluptuous tinge.[18]
Passing to the consideration of the posture adopted during intercourse, we find in civilized man, who in this respect is far removed from animals, the normal position during coitus is front to front, the woman lying on her back with her lower extremities widely separated, and the knee and hip joints semiflexed; the man lies on her, with his thighs between hers, supporting himself on hands or elbows—or often the two unite their lips in a kiss.
Of all other numerous positions during coitus, or figuræ Veneris, some of which, according to Sheikh Nefzawi, are possible only “in words and thoughts,” the postures that demand consideration on hygienic grounds are, lateral decubitus of the woman, dorsal decubitus of the man, and coitus a posteriori (for example, when man and woman are extremely obese); but this subject belongs rather to the chapter on sexual hygiene.
Ploss-Bartels has proved that the position described above as normal was usual already in ancient times and amongst the most diverse peoples. The adoption of this position in coitus undoubtedly ensued in the human race upon the evolution of the upright posture. It is the natural, instinctive position of civilized man, who in this respect also manifests an advance on the lower animals.