Beside the immediate effect mentioned, a warm and analeptic diet by giving the body an increase of excitement and force, may render amorous desires more frequent and vivid. Thus the habitual free use of meats, game, pork, ragouts, spices, heavy wines, liquors, coffee, &c., must be considered as an indirect cause of venereal excesses, particularly if the persons who live on this regimen do not counteract its effects by active exercise. The use of vegetables, especially those which are not very nutritious, have contrary effects. This remark must not be considered too obsolete. A debilitating diet and excessive salacity sometimes coexist: The Landes of Gironde are a striking instance of this; their diet is very miserable; they live on vegetable soups made with rancid lard; broths of meal, of coarse bread, and water, pure or acidulated at most with vinegar, &c. Hence they are extremely thin, are dark and sallow, and have an appearance of unhealthiness: this however does not prevent their indulgence in love, to which they are extremely addicted.
Different articles of food have been mentioned as contributing more than any others to excite the genital powers. Among them are found fishes. It would seem that this quality has long been attributed to them; this opinion however has not been received by moderns with much credit until it was admitted doubtingly by Montesquieu. (Del l’esprit des lois, Book xxiii. ch. 15.) Many authors have admitted this to be fact on the authority of this great man, and then instead of investigating whether it was true or not have attempted to assign the reasons for it. Thus the prolifick virtue of fish has been said to depend on the aromatics and other condiments with which they are prepared; on their seasoning: on the phosphorus contained in their flesh and more particularly in their milt: and by this fact, that populations on the sea-coast live almost exclusively on fish. This has been carried still farther: the parts of fishes which furnish the most of the seminal material have been determined: and this property has been ascribed to the milt, either because the semen is here secreted, or on account of the phosphorus which Fourcroy and Vauquelin have discovered in it. Some fishes however are thought to induce venereal passions more than others.
We have attempted to find the origin of this opinion in regard to fish but without success. In fact it has not the support of popular notoriety which arises insensibly from daily observation. Thus Benoislon has proved directly by statistical facts that fecundity is not greater among the inhabitants of maritime coasts than among those who live in other places. (Bulletin de Férussac, Jan., 1827.) Villermé has noticed that in Greenland and among the Esquimaux, who live principally on fish, on sea-calves, that is, aliments, containing these oily parts, which are regarded as so prolific, women have rarely more than two or three children during their life. Besides if fish has the property ascribed to it, why is it that during Lent, that period of the year when this form of food is most used, the procreative power should be most inactive; a fact which is proved from documents collected in almost every country by the laborious investigations of Villermé. (Annales d’hygiene publ., Jan. 1831.) Hence it is extremely improbable that fish possesses this property, which it is important to establish in order not to discard from the regimen of youth, an article of diet which being both nutritious and slightly stimulating, is well adapted to prevent genital excitement or to subdue it.
Many other articles of food beside fish have been regarded as aphrodisiac. Many insect eating reptiles, a bird called torcol and numerous insects of which it is useless to speak. Eggs have also been regarded as having the same property, and also truffles, mushrooms, artichokes, celery, cocoa and all its preparations, onions and condiments as ginger, pepper, and vanilla, and finally certain fruits as strawberries, apricots, peaches, pineapples, &c.
Among the articles which we have named there are certainly some which being heating and exciting, may cause desire although containing nothing more specific than a great many substances which are esteemed as antiaphrodisiac, because being cooling and soothing they may produce the opposite effect. Among these latter, we find milk, which, according to Ste. Marie, generally contributes less to form the semen than most other articles of food. Among these also we may mention fresh vegetables and particularly the sorrel, purslain, lettuce, endive, cucumber, mushroom, melons, &c. To these may be added the flesh of young animals, chicken, lamb, veal, &c., and also cooling drinks, as orgeat, lemonade, &c. The regimen best adapted for appeasing all carnal desires consists as we have seen in an antiphlogistic diet which is composed of those fluids or solids which when introduced into the stomach are digested and assimilated with the slightest possible degree of excitement and heat. This regimen is that which should be prescribed to those patients who possess a certain degree of vigor and wish to protect themselves against urgent and dangerous desires.
Different medicines have also been prescribed for the same purpose: many of them act in the same manner as the articles of food we have mentioned: of this character are tisans of marshmallows, violets, barley, emulsions, water distilled from lettuce, purslain, &c.: of a similar character are iced drinks, ice given internally, and even prepared ices. To calm the excitement of the genital organs drugs having a positive influence on the nervous system are also administered. Thus camphor given alone or in combination with nitre has often been prescribed for this purpose. The special action of this article on the urinary passages, leads to the belief that in some cases it may be useful. Primrose and St. Basil have boasted of the internal use of cicuta for moderating too ardent desires. Opium and its preparations have been prescribed for the same purpose. The use of this article by the Orientals and its effects upon them render us rather suspicious of it; there may be cases however in which it is useful. Belladonna deserves more confidence. Dr. Powell, in the London medical magazine for April, 1824, relates the case of a young girl 27 years old, who for more than three years experienced twice a month and even more frequently violent attacks of a libidinous hysteria: her cure was attributed to a potion composed in part of the tincture of belladonna, which was used to such an extent as to produce dilatation of the pupils. The results obtained by Chaussier, and by many others, from applying belladonna to the neck of the uterus either to combat rigidity in labor or to alleviate puerperal convulsions, lead us to think that medicine may prove efficacious in satyriasis and nymphomania. Thridace also may be tried in these cases, and Angelot has related a case of spermatorrhœa supervening in consequence of excesses at the table which was cured by this remedy. Distilled cherry-tree water also might be added which Louyer Villermay indicates as useful in nymphomania.
Boracic acid, formerly termed the sedative salts of Homberg, has also been recommended to subdue amorous passions. This is true likewise of nitre, which, under this name, or that of Sal Prunelle and mineral crystal, has been much esteemed as an antiaphrodisiac. The use of this remedy according to Baldassar cured the man, who demanded so earnestly the removal of his testes, and whose case has already been mentioned: this salt was used because Prevatius, a physician at Pavia, having administered it to a man for an affection of the bladder rendered him impotent. The hemp and the willow have also been recommended: Etmuller believes particularly in the action of this latter; and recommends the extract of its leaves, and the sap obtained from its young branches in spring. (Trait du bon choix des medicamens, 1710. Lyons.)
But among all drugs, those which are the longest known, and which were most esteemed, are the agnus castus or vitex, and the nenuphar. Human credulity is severely taxed, to believe what has been said as to the virtues of these articles. The Greek women, according to Dioscorides, slept during the festivals of Ceres, on the leaves of the agnus castus to preserve their chastity. Arnaud de Villeneuve states that an infallible mode of preserving the breast from all men’s attempts, is to carry a knife, the handle of which is made of this wood. Even now its leaves and seeds are used both externally and internally in monasteries to support more easily the rigors of celibacy. At present, however, no one believes in its virtues. The same is true of the nenuphar. Its reputation, as soothing the genital organs, belongs to the early periods of sciences. It is mentioned in Dioscorides and Galen, and its history is as fabulous as that of the agnus-castus. The list of antiaphrodisiacs would terminate here, if Montegre had not mentioned a tree called mairkonsia, which grew in the East Indies, and which was used by some fakirs to render themselves impotent. Every day those children, who are designed to be fakirs, swallow a small roll of its leaves: the dose is gradually increased, and at the age of twenty-five, the effect is irrevocably produced. This tree is yet to be known by scientific men. (Dict. des Se. Med., Art. Continence.)
Besides those articles which act as stimulants on the genital organs specially, these latter are excited by whatever tends to increase the sensibility in general. A great degree of susceptibility, and a moderate development of the venereal sense, may co-exist, and are often found combined: but this only proves that the genital apparatus may escape certain influences, and not respond to the excitements which are impressed on it. Thus, whatever tends to develop, or to diminish the sensibility of a subject, must be considered not as necessarily modifying that of the genital organs, but as having the power to modify it, and as exercising this power in many cases.
Now if we consider that the abuses of the genital organs arise most generally, because the sensibility of these organs has been excited too soon, or too vividly, we can imagine that a very great degree of susceptibility may predispose to these abuses, and, that consequently, to prevent and repress them, we must attend to every thing which favors the development of the genital organs. The power of sensation, like that of thought and action, is in many respects just what it is formed. The education, that is, the cultivation of these three faculties, may then give the senses a precocious language, and become indirectly a principle of excess. It may also, when properly directed, be a powerful means of preventing any excess. Let us see then how education acts, and how it is directed.