Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3: Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in WomenEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3: Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in Women
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
It may seem that such impulses and such devices to gratify them
are altogether unnatural. This is not so. They have a zoölogical
basis and in many animals are embodied in the anatomical
structure. Many rodents, ruminants, and some of the carnivora
show natural developments of the penis closely resembling some of
those artificially adopted by man. Thus the guinea-pigs possess
two horny styles attached to the penis, while the glans of the
penis is covered with sharp spines. Some of the Caviidæ also have
two sharp, horny saws at the side of the penis. The cat, the
rhinoceros, the tapir, and other animals possess projecting
structures on the penis, and some species of ruminants, such as
the sheep, the giraffe, and many antelopes, have, attached to the
penis, long filiform processes through which the urethra passes.
(F.H.A. Marshall, _The Physiology of Reproduction_, pp. 246-248.)
We find, even in creatures so delicate and ethereal as the
butterflies, a whole armory of keen weapons for use in coitus.
These were described in detail in an elaborate and fully
illustrated memoir by P.H. Gosse ("On the Clasping Organs
Ancillary to Generation in Certain Groups of the Lepidoptera,"
_Transactions of the Linnæan Society_, second series, vol. ii,
Zoölogy, 1882). These organs, which Gosse terms _harpes_ (or
grappling irons), are found in the Papilionidæ and are very
beautiful and varied, taking the forms of projecting claws,
hooks, pikes, swords, knobs, and strange combinations of these,
commonly brought to a keen edge and then cut into sharp teeth.
It is probable that all these structures serve to excite the
sexual apparatus of the female and to promote tumescence.
To the careless observer there may seem to be something vicious
or perverted in such manifestations in man. That opinion becomes
very doubtful when we consider how these tendencies occur in
people living under natural conditions in widely separated parts
of the world. It becomes still further untenable if we are
justified in believing that the ancestors of men possessed
projecting epithelial appendages attached to the penis, and if we
accept the discovery by Friedenthal of the rudiment of these
appendages on the penis of the human fetus at an early stage
(Friedenthal, "Sonderformen der menschlichen Leibesbildung,"
_Sexual-Probleme_, Feb., 1912, p. 129). In this case human
ingenuity would merely be seeking to supply an organ which nature
has ceased to furnish, although it is still in some cases needed,
especially among peoples whose aptitude for erethism has remained
at, or fallen to, a subhuman level.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account