The Sexual Question Part 6

All that we have just spoken of binds the woman for months or years to each of her children, and we can understand that her whole soul is adapted in consequence to maternity. Even when birth has detached the child from the maternal body, it remains attached to its mother by a hundred bonds, not only during the period of suckling, but long afterward when the conventions do not violate natural laws. Little children are deeply attached to their mother, and while the father is impatient with their cries and the embarra.s.sment which they cause, the mother takes a natural delight in them. When pregnancies succeed each other at reasonable intervals of one or two years, the normal woman lives with her children for many years in intimacy which never entirely ceases in a family animated by human and social sentiments.

In normal circ.u.mstances the special bonds which unite the mother to her children last for life, while the father, if all goes well, becomes simply the best friend of his growing children. It is time that fathers began to recognize these natural laws, instead of clinging so tenaciously to the historic and artificial prestige of a worm-eaten and unnatural patriarchal authority. No doubt there are many pathological and degenerate mothers, but such an anomaly only proves the rule that we have just laid down.

=Correlative s.e.xual Characters.=--The correlative s.e.xual characters, which we have previously spoken of in animals, are well known in man.

Man is in the average larger, broader in the shoulders and more robust; his skeleton is more solid but his pelvis narrower. At the age of p.u.b.erty, from 16 to 20 years, the beard grows on the face, while in the pubic region hair develops in both s.e.xes. At the same time the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es and external genital organs enlarge. The s.e.xual glands as well as the external genital organs have remained so far in an embryonic state although the mechanism of erection is already established in young boys. But this mechanism, in the normal boy, is not a.s.sociated with any voluptuous sensation or any glandular secretion.

Man possesses the rudiments of the correlative s.e.xual characters of woman, such as nipples without lactiferous glands, etc. In a general way each part of the external genital organs of one s.e.x has its corresponding embryonic h.o.m.ologue in the other, which is explained by the different transformations which were originally the same in the embryo. The c.l.i.toris of woman corresponds to the p.e.n.i.s of man, the l.a.b.i.a majora to the s.c.r.o.t.u.m, etc. In certain individuals these rudiments are more strongly developed, and may by exaggeration and transition lead to pathological hermaphrodism (Chapter I); such are bearded women, and those possessing a large c.l.i.toris, or beardless men with effeminate bodies and small s.e.xual organs. Such cases are not examples of hermaphrodism, but of incomplete embryological differentiation. They consist in certain correlative s.e.xual characters which show a tendency toward the other s.e.x, a tendency which we find, from the mental point of view, in h.o.m.os.e.xuals.

There is also to be noticed the "breaking" of the voice which occurs in man at the age of p.u.b.erty, and is connected with the nervous system.

In women the body is smaller and more delicate, the bones weaker, the pelvis wider and the chest narrower. The normal woman has no beard while the pubic hairs are the same as in man. The pubis, covered with a layer of fat, is slightly prominent in women and is called the _mons Veneris_. There is more fat under the skin in a woman's body, and the voice does not break. After p.u.b.erty b.r.e.a.s.t.s develop with their lactiferous glands and nipples for suction. p.u.b.erty takes place a little earlier in women than in men, and corresponds to the growth of the internal and external s.e.xual organs, at the same time that the ovules commence to mature and menstruation is established.

The mental correlative s.e.xual characters are much more important than those of the body. The psychology of man is different from that of woman. Many books have been written on this subject, usually with more sentimentality than exact.i.tude. Mysogynists, like the philosopher _Schopenhauer_, disparage woman from all points of view, while the friends of the female s.e.x often exalt her in an exaggerated manner. In contemporary literature we see women authors judging man in quite different ways according as they are affected with "misandery" or "philandery"--that is enemies or friends of men. Quite recently _Moebius_ has published a mysogynistic work on the "Physiological Imbecility of Woman." (_Der physiologische Schwachsinn des Weibes_).

One must be a misogynist of very high degree to introduce the pathological notion of imbecility into the evolution of the normal mentality of woman. In reality, the individual differences are much greater in man and woman from the psychological than from the physical point of view, so that they render a definition of the average extremely difficult.

We are acquainted with bearded women, athletic women, as well as beardless men and puny men. From the mental point of view, there are also viragos and men with feminine instincts. Imbeciles are not wanting in both s.e.xes, but no reasonable person will deny that an intelligent woman is superior to a narrow-minded man even from the purely intellectual point of view. In spite of these difficulties, I shall attempt to bring forward the princ.i.p.al points which distinguish, in a general way, the masculine mind from the feminine, relying on my own observations and especially on the mental phenomena of both s.e.xes.

=The Weight of the Brain.=--According to statistics, the weight of the brain in men of our race is on the average 1350 grammes, while that of women averages 1200 grammes. The absolute weight is, however, not of much importance, because part of the cerebral substance in the larger animals is only for the supply of a greater number of cellular elements of the rest of the body, which necessitates a greater number of nervous elements.

To make the matter clear, it is necessary to separate the weight of the cerebral hemispheres from the other nervous centers, such as the cerebellum, corpora striata, the optic thalami, the mid-brain, the pons Varolii, the medulla oblongata and the spinal cord, for these centers const.i.tute parts which are phylogenetically older, that is to say, inherited from lower animal ancestors. Compared with the cerebral hemispheres, these nerve centers are relatively more important in other vertebrates than in man, and are in more constant proportion to the size of the body, the muscular, glandular and sensory elements of which they supply. When the intelligence is about the same, they are, therefore, compared with the cerebral hemispheres, much more developed in the larger than in the smaller animals. For example, they are very large in the ox, but small in mice. I have weighed a considerable number of human brains separated in this way with the following results:

CEREBRAL HEMISPHERES OTHER CEREBRAL CENTERS Man 1060 grammes, 78.5% 290 grammes, 21.5% Woman 955 grammes, 77.9% 270 grammes, 22.1%

Thus the cerebellum and basal ganglia are a little smaller in men than in women, compared with the cerebral hemispheres.

These figures appear to show that the cerebral hemispheres in woman are on the average a little smaller than in man, even proportionately to the stature; for, according to a general law in the animal kingdom, woman being smaller, her cerebral hemispheres should be, with equal mentality, proportionately a little larger. There are, however, female brains larger than many male brains, and the absolute and relative size of the cerebral hemispheres does not give a complete measure of the productive faculties. Remarkable men have been known to possess rather small brains and imbeciles heavy ones. We must not forget the great importance of the hereditary or engraphic predispositions of the nerve element or _neurone_, to certain activities and especially to work in general, that is to say, their apt.i.tude to produce energy, or if one prefers it, their disposition to "will."

It is also interesting to consider the relations.h.i.+p of the frontal lobe to the rest of the cerebral hemispheres, the frontal lobe being without doubt the princ.i.p.al seat of intellectual activity. According to _Meynert_, the weight of the frontal lobe in man exceeds that of woman, not only absolutely, but relatively to the rest of the brain.

In his _resume_ of the statistical data collected on this subject and from the results of my own material (autopsies at the asylum of Burgholzli in Zurich), _Mercier_ has confirmed the opinion of _Meynert_. The average weight of the hemispheres separated from the rest of the brain is 1019 grammes in man (frontal lobe 428, the rest 591), and 930 in woman (frontal lobe 384, rest 546). Here, atrophied brains (except general paralytics) have been weighed with others, which lowers the average total weight without altering the proportion.

Thus, the rest of the cerebral hemispheres exceeds the frontal lobe by 163 grammes in man and 162 grammes in woman, which means that in man the frontal lobe const.i.tutes 42 per cent. of the cerebral hemispheres and in woman 41.3 per cent. The difference is not great, but it is definite, for it is based on a large number of observations.

=Mental Capacity of the Two s.e.xes.=--The fundamental difference between the psychology of woman and that of man is const.i.tuted by the irradiations of the s.e.xual sphere in the cerebral hemispheres, which const.i.tute what may be called _s.e.xual mentality_. We shall discuss this in the following chapters, for it const.i.tutes the foundation of our subject. We are only concerned here with the correlative differences.

Adhering in a general way to the main definitions of psychology, we a.s.sert that from the purely intellectual point of view, man considerably excels woman in his creative imagination, his faculty for combination and discovery, and by his critical mind. For a long time this was said to be explained by the statement that women had not the opportunity of measuring their intelligence against that of men; but, thanks to the modern movement of the emanc.i.p.ation of women, this a.s.sertion becomes more and more untenable. It is so with regard to artistic creations, for women have at all times taken part in works of art. When certain people maintain that a few generations of activity suffice to elevate the intellectual development of women, they confound the results of education with those of heredity and phylogeny (vide Chapter II). Education is a purely individual matter and only requires one generation to produce its results. But neither mnemic engraphia, nor even selection can modify hereditary energies in two or three generations. Tied down hitherto partly by servitude, the mental faculties of woman will doubtless rise and flourish in all their natural power as soon as they are absolutely free to develop in society equally with those of men, by the aid of equal rights. But what does not exist in the hereditary mneme, that is to say in the energies of germs, inherited through thousands or millions of years, cannot be created in a few generations. The specific characters and consequently the s.e.xual characters have quite another constancy than is believed by the superficial prattlers, who deafen us with their jargon on a question of which they only grasp the surface. There is no excuse, at the present day, for confounding hereditary correlative s.e.xual characters with the individual results of education. The latter are acquired by habit and can only be inherited as such by an infinitesimal engraphia, possibly after hundreds of generations.

On the other hand woman possesses, from the intellectual point of view, a faculty of reception and comprehension as well as a facility of reproduction which are almost equal to those of man. In higher education at the universities the women I have had the opportunity of observing at Zurich for many years, show a more equal level than that of the men. The most intelligent men reproduce best and the most stupid men reproduce worse than the corresponding female extremes. I do not think one can say much more concerning the purely intellectual domain.

Artistic production confirms this opinion. Woman is here on the average much inferior as regards creation or production, properly so called, and even her best results are wanting in originality and do not open up new paths. On the contrary, as virtuosos, women compare well with men in simply reproductive art. There are, however, exceptional women whose productions are original, creative and independent. The philosopher _Stuart Mill_ points out the intuitive gift of woman who, led by her individual observations, rapidly and clearly discovers a general truth, and applies it in particular cases, without troubling with abstract theories. This may be called the intuitive or subconscious judgment of woman.

In the domain of sentiment the two s.e.xes differ very much from each other, but we cannot say that one surpa.s.ses the other. Both are pa.s.sionate, but in different ways. The pa.s.sions of man are coa.r.s.er and less durable, and are only more elevated when a.s.sociated with more original and more complex intellectual aims. In woman sentiment is more delicate and more finely shaded esthetically and morally; it is also more durable, at least on the average, although its objects are often of a mean and ba.n.a.l nature.

When man compares himself with woman he usually identifies himself, more or less unconsciously, with the highest male intellects, with the men of genius in art and science, and complaisantly ignores the crowd of idiots of his own s.e.x! In the life of sentiment the two s.e.xes may complement each other admirably; while man raises the height of the ideal and of objects to be attained, woman has the necessary tact to soften and refine the tones, and to adapt their shades to each special situation, by the aid of her natural intuition, where man risks spoiling everything by the violence of his pa.s.sions and his efforts.

This reciprocal influence should conduce to the best and highest harmony of sentiments in a happy s.e.xual combination.

As regards will power, woman is, in my opinion, on the average superior to man. It is in this psychological domain more than in any other, that she will always triumph. This is generally misunderstood, because men have so far apparently held the scepter of an unlimited omnipotence; because by the abuse of brute force, aided by superiority of inventive genius, humanity has been hitherto led by strong masculine wills, and because the strongest feminine wills have been dominated by the law of the right of the stronger. But the unprejudiced observer is soon obliged to recognize that the directive will of the family is only, in general, represented externally by the master. Man parades his authority much more often than he puts it into practice; he lacks the perseverance, tenacity and elasticity which const.i.tute the true power of will, and which are peculiar to woman. It is needless to say that I am only speaking of the average and that there are many women whose will power is feeble. But these easily become the prey of prost.i.tution, which causes their disappearance.

This is perhaps one of the causes which have strengthened by selection the will power in women. Man is impulsive and violent as regards his will power, but often inconstant and irresolute, yielding as soon as he has to strive persistently for a certain object. From these facts it naturally results that, on the average, it is the man in the family who provides the ideas and impulses, but the woman who, with the finesse of her tact and perseverance, instinctively makes the distinction between the useful and the harmful, utilizing the former and constantly combating the latter; not because she is fundamentally superior, but because she is more capable of dominating herself, which proves the superiority of her will power.

Nothing is more unjust than to disparage one s.e.x relatively to the other. The parthenogenesis of the lower animals having ceased in the vertebrates, each s.e.x is indispensable, not only to the preservation of species, but also to each conception or reproduction of the individual. Both are thus equivalent and belong to each other as the two halves of a whole, one being incapable of resisting without the other. Everything which benefits one of the halves benefits the other.

If by the magic wand of a fairy, the male half or the female half of our humanity, such as it is to-day, was rendered capable and obliged to reproduce alone, men would soon degenerate owing to the weakness of their will combined with their sensual pa.s.sions, and women from their incapacity to raise their intellectual level by means of creative ideas.

We need not dwell here on the numerous psychological peculiarities of woman, inherent in her capacity as mother, nor on those of man adapted to his muscular strength and to his capacity as protector of the family. These are derived from s.e.xual differences which are mentioned in Chapter V. Nor need we describe correlative differences of less importance which are well known and which arise from those of which we have spoken or from direct s.e.xual differences. They can be observed, on the one hand, in purely male reunions in saloons, smoking rooms and other similar places; on the other hand, in feminine circles of all cla.s.ses, among the common people, among the fas.h.i.+onable, or even in philanthropic a.s.sociations. On the average, woman is more artful and more modest; man coa.r.s.er and more cynical, etc. After much personal experience, gained in societies in which the two s.e.xes possess the same rights and are admitted to the same t.i.tles, I am obliged to declare that I have never found any confirmation (at least in the German-Swiss country) of the popular saying that gossip and intrigue are the special appanage of woman. I have found these two vices quite as often in man.

CHAPTER IV

THE s.e.xUAL APPEt.i.tE

If we sum up the three preceding chapters we arrive at the philosophical conclusion that reproduction depends on the general natural tendency of all living beings to multiply indefinitely.

Fission and s.e.xual reproduction arise from the simple fact that the growth of each individual is necessarily limited in s.p.a.ce as well as time. Reproduction is thus destined to a.s.sure the continuation of life; the individual dies but is perpetuated in his progeny. We do not know why the crossing of individuals is rendered necessary by the phenomenon of conjugation. On this subject we can only build hypotheses, but the study of nature shows us that where conjugation ceases reproduction is etiolated and finally disappears, even when it is still possible for a certain time.

From the commencement of life there is thus a powerful law of attraction with the object of reproduction. At first there are unicellular organisms, in which one cell penetrates the other in the act of conjugation. Their substances combine intimately, while the molecules of each nucleus become so arranged as to give the new individual a more fresh and powerful energy of growth.

In the lower multicellular plants and animals which bud, fresh buds live at the expense of the old trunk to give life to new branches, and the male cells or pollen fecundate the female cells so as to disperse the germs capable of growth and of thus reproducing the species. It is also the same in the madrepores and other agglomerated animals (such as the solitary worms), composed of parameres or metameres, so long as a single central nervous system does not coordinate the metameres, or primary agglutinated animals, into a single organism.

In the higher animals, the complex polycellular individuals formed by the agglomeration of several primitive animals, are transformed into a higher and mobile unity by the aid of the great vital apparatus called the nervous system, which becomes the mental director of the living organism and invests it with its individual character. However, this higher unity of life, which always becomes more psychic, that is to say, at the same time intellectual, sentimental and voluntary, by its complication and its numerous relations with other individuals, this unity called the _central nervous system_ cannot do without the necessity for reproduction. In animal phylogeny, as soon as hermaphrodism has ceased and each individual has become the sole bearer of one of the two kinds of s.e.xual cells, the species will eventually disappear if the male cells cannot reach the female cells by the active movement of the whole individual. Thus is produced the marvelous phenomenon of the desire of increase and reproduction, originally peculiar to the male cell, penetrating the nervous system, that is to say life and soul in its entirety, the life of the higher unity of the individual. An ardent desire, a powerful impulse thus arises in the nervous system at the time of p.u.b.erty and attracts the individual toward the opposite s.e.x. The care and the pleasure of self preservation, which had hitherto fully occupied his attention, become effaced by this new impulse. The desire to procreate dominates everything. A single pleasure, a single desire, a single pa.s.sion lays hold of the organism and urges it toward the individual of the opposite s.e.x, and to become united with it in intimate contact and penetration. It is as if the nervous system or the whole organism felt as if it had for the moment become a germinal cell, so powerful is the desire to unite with the other s.e.x.

In some beautiful verses the German poet-philosopher _Goethe_ (West-Oestlicher Divan, book VIII, "Suleika") describes the desire to procreate (p. 63):

Und mit eiligem Bestreben Sucht sich, was sich angehort, Und zu ungemessnem Leben Ist Gefuhl und Blick gekehrt.

Sei's ergreifen, sei es raffen, Wenn es nur sich fa.s.st und halt!

Allah braucht nicht mehr zu schaffen, Wir erschaffen seine Welt!

If we look at nature we see everywhere the same desire and the same attraction of the s.e.xes for each other; the bird which warbles, the mammal which ruts, the insect which hums while pursuing the female with implacable tenacity, at the risk of their own life, employing sometimes cunning, sometimes dexterity, and sometimes force to attain their object. The ardor of the female is not always much less, but she uses coquetry, pretending to resist, and simulates repulsion. The more eager the male, the more coquettish is the female. If we observe the amorous sport of b.u.t.terflies and birds, we see what efforts it costs the male to attain his object. On the other hand when the male is clumsy and slow the female often comes toward him or at any rate does not resist him, for instance in certain ants the males of which are wingless while the females have wings. The final act always consists in intimate union at the moment of copulation.

In some animals Nature is prodigal in the means she employs to pursue her great object, reproduction, by aid of the s.e.xual appet.i.te. The apiary raises hundreds of male bees. As soon as the single queen-bee takes wing for its nuptial flight all the males follow, but a single male only, the strongest and most nimble, succeeds in reaching her. In the intoxication of copulation he abandons all his genital organs to the body of the queen and dies. The other males, now useless, are all ma.s.sacred in autumn by the working bees.

s.e.xual connection among b.u.t.terflies of the Bombyx family is no less marvelous. They live for months as caterpillars and sometimes for two years as chrysalids, hibernating in a coc.o.o.n in some corner of the earth or in the bark of trees. Finally the b.u.t.terfly, brilliantly colored, emerges from the coc.o.o.n and spreads its wings. It only possesses, however, a rudimentary intestinal ca.n.a.l for the short life which remains, for it does not require much nourishment and is only devoted to s.e.xual connection. The female remains quiet and waits. The male, furnished with large antennae which perceive the odor of the female at a distance of several kilometers, commences an infatuated flight through the woods and fields, as soon as his wings are sufficiently strong. His sole object is to reach the female. Here again there are numerous compet.i.tors. The one who arrives first possesses the female, but expires shortly afterward. His compet.i.tors die also, exhausted by their long flight and by starvation, but without having attained their object. After copulation, the female searches for the green plants which will ensure a long caterpillar life for her offspring. There she deposits her fecundated eggs in considerable numbers and then expires in her turn, like a faded flower which has fulfilled the object of its existence and falls after leaving the fruit in its place.

The French naturalist _Fabre_ has described these phenomena, relying on conclusive experiments, and my own observations and those of other naturalists confirm them fully. Among the ants, all the males die also, soon after an aerial nuptial flight, in which copulation is generally polyandrous, one male hardly waiting for the preceding one to discharge his s.e.m.e.n before taking his place. Here the female possesses a receptacle for s.e.m.e.n which often contains the sperm of many males, and which allows it to fecundate the eggs one after another for several years as she lays them, and thus to act as the mother of an ant's nest during a period which may extend to eleven or twelve years, or even more.

In the lower organisms, love consists only in s.e.xual instinct or appet.i.te. As soon as the function is accomplished love disappears. It is only in the higher animals that we see a more or less durable sympathy develop between the two s.e.xes. However, here also and even in man the s.e.xual pa.s.sion intoxicates for the moment all the senses. In his s.e.xual rut even man is dominated as by a magic influence, and for the time he sees the world only under the aspect inspired by this influence. The object loved appears to him under celestial colors, which veil all the defects and miseries of reality. Each moment of his amorous feeling inspires sentiments which it seems to him should last eternally. He swears impossible things and believes in immortal happiness. A reciprocal illusion transforms life momentarily into mirages of paradise. The most common things, and even certain things which usually disgust him, are then the object of the most violent desire. But, as soon as the o.r.g.a.s.m is ended and the appet.i.te satisfied the feeling of satiety appears. A curtain falls on the scene, and, at least for the moment, repose and reality reappear.

Such are, in a few words, the general phenomena of the normal s.e.xual appet.i.te among s.e.xual organisms in the whole of living nature. I am not speaking here of degenerations, such as onanism and prost.i.tution.

Let us now a.n.a.lyze this appet.i.te further.

The natural appet.i.tes are inherited instincts the roots of which lie far back in the phylogenetic history of our ancestors. Hunger forms the basis for the preservation of the individual, the s.e.xual appet.i.te that for the preservation of the species, as soon as reproduction takes place by separate s.e.xes. All appet.i.te belongs to the motor side of nervous activity; there is something internal which urges us to an act, but, on the other hand, one or more sensations may exist at the base of this something to put it in action. I have proved, for example, that the egg-laying instinct in the corpse fly (_Lucilia caesar_) is only produced by the odor of putrefaction. As soon as the antennae, which contain the organ of smell, are removed from these flies they cease to lay, while other more severe operations, or removal of one antenna only does not produce this result.

The mechanism of appet.i.tes is thus a lower mechanism and has its seat in the primitive nervous centers. As _Yersin_ has proved, a cricket deprived of its brain may copulate so long as the sensory irritations can reach the s.e.xual nervous centers.

We can thus say that the mechanism of appet.i.tes belongs to automatic actions deeply inherited by phylogeny. Although complicated and composed of coordinated reflex movements which follow one another in regular succession, it has no actual power of modifying the so-called voluntary acts, which depend entirely on the cerebral hemispheres, and of which we men only have a conscious feeling. The appet.i.tes are not capable of adapting themselves to new circ.u.mstances and cease to be produced when the chain is interrupted. We are obliged to admit that the instincts or appet.i.tes are accompanied by a sub-conscious introspection which, as such, can hardly enter into direct relation with our higher consciousness, that is, with our ordinary consciousness in the waking state.

In spite of this, when their intensity increases, the appet.i.tes overcoming the central nervous resistances, reach the cerebral hemispheres, and consequently our introspection or higher consciousness, under a _synthetic or unified appearance_, and influence in a high degree the cerebral activities, which are reflected in a.s.sociation with all the elements of what we call our mind in the proper sense of the term, that is to say, our intellect, sentiments and will. It is from this point of view that s.e.xual appet.i.te must be considered in order to make it comprehensible. Love, with all that appertains to it, belongs as such to our mind, that is, to the activity of our cerebral hemispheres, but it is produced there by a secondary irradiation from the s.e.xual appet.i.te, which alone concerns us at present. We may also remark that s.e.xual ideas when once awakened in the cerebral hemispheres by s.e.xual appet.i.te, are worked up there by the attention, that is to say by concentrated cerebral activity, then a.s.sociated with other ideas, which on their side react strongly on the s.e.xual appet.i.te, developing or paralyzing it, attracting or repelling it, or finally transforming its attributes and objects.

By s.e.xual desire (libido s.e.xualis) we mean the manner in which the s.e.xual appet.i.te manifests itself in man. Each term may be employed for the other.