The practice of Karezza, or the husband’s reserving his own erotic acme, has an interesting sidelight thrown upon it by the experiments of Steinach in cutting the vas deferens. The effect of this is to stop the external secretions of the interstitial gland. “The result is that the seminal vesicle (either one of the two reservoirs for the semen) and the interstitial gland are completely cut off from one another; and this in turn gives rise to a multiplication of the interstitial cells, and to an increase of the hormone produced by them.
“Professor Steinach has performed the operation on men on several occasions. In some instances these men were fairly young but physically weak; in others the subjects were senile men. The appearance of the subjects became youngish, fresh; their bodily strength increased, the tremor of their hand disappeared, memory and will power returned, and the sexual power was restored.”[21]
It seems quite likely that Karezza may produce the same results. It has too the advantage of being removable at will. That is, the husband, in perfect control of his erotism, can thus reduce the external secretions of his interstitial gland himself, without an operation, and reduce it to as low a degree as he finds consonant with the buoyancy of his health, and at the same time not only perfectly satisfy his wife but give her a type and a degree of satisfaction wholly incommensurate with the effort on his own part necessary to accomplish the result. If for any reason whatever it seems at any time again desirable to produce the external secretions he can do so. But it appears quite reasonable to suppose that the arousal of the wife’s full erotism will under such circumstances have the total favourable hygienic effect upon her, and his fears about himself—namely, that by excessive external excretions of the interstitial gland he may be weakening himself—groundless though they may well be, will be quite removed.
§ 106
There is much discussion among physicians as to the harm that may be done to the husband’s constitution by the practice of Karezza. But while the physicians and scientists are weighing the possibilities of physical harm to the constitution of the husband by this method of accomplishing psychically what surgeons do with the knife, there can be no doubt of the extraordinary psychic advantage of the procedure, an advantage which, considering the well known but little used influence of the mind over the body, may easily exceed any physical disadvantage.
The physical side of it is discussed by Dr. Robie, who thinks that undesirable effects are produced by it, if it is continued long enough to cause any of the disadvantages he mentions. The practice can be stopped or interrupted at any time. The husband can control it perfectly so as to have exactly as much external secretion as he finds he needs for his greatest health.
And no matter how old he may become in years, up to the threescore and ten, at any rate, he will have no need to give up for any fancied advantage to himself his love episodes with his wife.
Karezza then while possibly unnecessary, or moderately undesirable for young and vigorous men, may be a most salutary procedure for middle-aged and older men, whereby they may preserve in themselves the functioning of the interstitial gland, continuing its valuable internal secretions that are stopped by complete abstinence.
Describing Karezza as the husband’s reserving his own erotic acme is not psychologically accurate. As has been before stated the acme nevertheless takes place, not physically through the sudden ejaculation of the external secretions, but psychically through the indescribable emotional exaltation on his part following the demonstration of his control, a control which evokes an altogether unprecedented response from his wife.