We have seen in the preceding chapter that the influence of these organs is much greater the more vivid their excitement is: that, for instance, this influence has more intensity during the state of excitement than during that of repose: finally that its greatest degree is felt in the act of venery. The natural consequence of these facts is that the greater the excitement of the genital organs during this act, the stronger must be the impression caused by it. We may then say that its power of doing injury, other things being equal, is in direct ratio with the force and duration of the excitement which attends it. And further this result is proved by observation.
Compare the two sexes together: the female presents instances of venereal excess, much less frequently than the male. Whence is this difference? Is it not because the genital sense in females is much less susceptible of excitement than in males, and therefore the act of venery causes them much less fatigue? I know that this fact has been disputed: and it is asserted that the female is fully as sensual as the male; and that if females show their feelings less, it is because they are controlled by custom. I know also that the reluctance of females to submit to the approach of the male is ascribed to a kind of tender coquetry which tends to increase the ardor of the former. Finally, the redness of the genital organs of females during the period of heat, has been mentioned as proving the intensity of their sensations. (Marc, Dict. des Sc. med., art. Celib. etc.) But these arguments cannot be maintained in opposition to that which daily experience proves to be true, viz., that as a general fact, females are much less addicted to the pleasures of love than males, and experience less fatigue during sexual intercourse.
The inferiority or perhaps the advantage which females have over males in this respect, depends on the passiveness which they naturally exercise in the act of generation: and hence their desires are less strong. The state of manners justifies their reserve in this respect, and points out a physiological fact, or rather they are the consequence of it. As to the pretended coquetry of animals, I do not believe in it strongly; and in regard to that of females I believe that it has caused more to err than their desires. If the venereal passion be equally developed in the two sexes, why is onanism more common in males than in females, notwithstanding certain conditions ought to produce a contrary state of things? And farther do not many wives yield themselves to the caresses of their husbands, without desire and without enjoyment? and yet this indifference does not prevent conception, for the sensation of love is not with them, as with the male, an indispensable condition of the work of generation. Finally would there be any prostitutes, if coition caused in females the same exhaustion as in the male? Females then are indisputably less sensual than males; and when this fact is taken in connexion with the circumstance that women are less frequently victims of venereal excess, does not this tend to prove, that, other things being equal, the act of venery is, as before stated, less injurious, in proportion, as the sensations attending it are less vivid? Perhaps this explains why females generally live longer by two or three years, than males, notwithstanding the pains and dangers of pregnancy, parturition and lactation: and this fact may be deduced according to Sir John Sinclair, from the registers of mortality of different countries, and from the rent tables which have been kept in Holland for a hundred and twenty-five years. Farther, it is well ascertained that every thing which contributes to give more force and duration to the sensations attending the act of venery, also increases the fatigue and disorder which follow it. Coition taken in its simplest sense, and considered only as an excretion of semen, undoubtedly causes much less injury than if it occurs with other sensations. Thus intercourse with public women and generally with those who do not excite strong sensations is generally attended with less derangement, as Hunter has remarked, than if accompanied with violent passion. Some authors however as Sanctorius and Tissot have advanced a contrary opinion; but they have evidently confounded the state of the mind with that of the body. When the soul is possessed of a violent passion, the ardors of love continue a longer time, are not so soon satisfied: but does it follow from this that the body presents more resistance. Certainly not, but only that the pernicious effects are felt less at the time; although at a later period they will be perceived.
One reason why masturbation is more pernicious than coition arises from the state of mind during the two acts. The onanist, and here we allude only to those who have some ideas of sexual intercourse and love, having no material object which is the beginning and the end of its pleasures, the imagination must supply and invent it. This mental labor renders the sensations stronger and the body more disposed to feel them. Added to these, the onanist is desirous of prolonging his feeling, and having under his control certain circumstances which in sexual intercourse hasten the denouement, he retards it. Thus with fatal skill he gives to this destructive vice all the power it can possess, and experiences all the evil which this vice can cause.
§ 2. CIRCUMSTANCES INDEPENDENT OF THE ACT OF VENERY, WHICH RENDER IT MORE OR LESS INJURIOUS.
The economy is not equally affected by venereal excesses in all individuals at all periods of life. There are some circumstances which make it necessary for masturbation or coition to be more or less frequently repeated in order to be injurious. Hence if we wish to know the real influence of these acts, these circumstances must be considered. These are numerous but they are not all known. Two individuals indulge in onanism: one becomes ill in a few weeks: but the other resists the pernicious habit longer. These two individuals were certainly in different states, as the event proves. This fact however was indicated previously by no circumstance: their age, constitution and manner of living before this were similar: in fact the reason why they were affected so differently cannot be told. The difference here presented by two individuals may be observed in the same person, when considered at different epochs and periods of life. He will resist the excess of masturbation and coition to a greater degree at some times than at others, although the circumstances on which these differences depend are not known. There are then unknown circumstances which have an effect on the consequences arising from onanism. These remarks are highly important and seem to be well understood; and it is clear that there is no possible security for the onanist: in vain does he look for encouragement by comparing himself to others, or by remarking of a comrade: “if he had been as healthy as I am, his health would still be good, he would not have died:” or by saying “why should I fear what I have indulged in so long with impunity.” This mode of reasoning is out of the question when the truth of the preceding remark is admitted, and it is then impossible for a person to deceive himself; and the reason that so many abuse themselves is because they think themselves stronger than others.
Besides these circumstances, there are some which are well known and which contribute more or less to render the act of venery more detrimental. These circumstances consist first, in the general state of the functions at different ages and in the peculiar state of some of them at different periods of life; second, in a coincidence of action between the act of venery, and other causes of disease; third, in the alterations which the constitution may have already suffered, and in the disposition existing to contract certain diseases; fourth, finally in the state of the diseases with which the patient is afflicted, when he indulges in the act of venery.
§ 3. INFLUENCE WHICH THE GENERAL STATE OF THE FUNCTIONS HAS AT DIFFERENT AGES, AND WHICH THE PECULIAR STATE OF SOME OF THEM AT DIFFERENT PERIODS OF LIFE MAY HAVE ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE ACT OF VENERY.
Life is composed of three very distinct periods. In the first, the body is developed and formed: it is a period of progress: while it continues, the organs gain in force and substance: it terminates when they have arrived at their greatest degree of perfection: and this generally takes place about the twenty-fifth year. During the second period man uses the organs as they are formed and constituted. The only process which takes place in them is one of reparation, of renewal: this is the period of maturity: it generally terminates about the fiftieth year. The third period is the opposite of the first: it is the period of decline. There is, during this latter period, a progressive deterioration of the strength and of the tissues. It terminates with life. Thus a state of development, that of maturity, and that of decline are the three aspects under which life presents itself. Let us trace the effect of venereal excesses in these different phases of action.
First period. No animal, and particularly no one of the vertebrated animals can procreate on entering the world. The genital organs doubtless exist at that time, but their form is rudimentary, which proves that they are incapable of doing much. These organs do not acquire the power of fulfilling their special functions, until a more advanced period of life, which period varies in different species of animals, but is nearly the same in all individuals of the same species. Until this time there is no secretion of prolific semen in the male, nor creation of ovales in the female: the procreative power does not exist.