Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5: Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in PregnancyEllis, Havelock
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Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5: Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in Pregnancy
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
Some say, Schurig tells us, that the voice, which in the virgin
is shrill, becomes rougher and deeper after the first coitus. He
quotes Riolan's statement that it is certain that the voice of
those who indulge in venery is changed. On that account the
ancients bound down the penis of their singers, and Martial said
that those who wish to preserve their voices should avoid coitus.
Democritus who one day had greeted a girl as "maiden" on the
following day addressed her as "woman," while in the same way it
is said that Albertus Magnus, observing from his study a girl
going for wine for her master, knew that she had had sexual
intercourse by the way because on her return her voice had become
deeper. Here, again, the ancient belief has a solid basis, for
the voice and the larynx are really affected by sexual
conditions. (_Parthenologia_, p. 286; Marro, _La Puberté_, p.
303; Havelock Ellis, op. cit., pp. 271, 289.)
Others, again, Schurig proceeds, have judged that the goaty smell
given out in the armpits during the venereal act is also no
uncertain sign of defloration, such odor being perceptible in
those who use much venery, and not seldom in harlots and the
newly married, while, as Hippocrates said, it is not perceived in
boys and girls. (_Parthenologia_, p. 286; cf. the previous volume
of these _Studies_, "Sexual Selection in Man," p. 64.)
In virgins, Schurig remarks, the pubic hair is said to be long
and not twisted, while in women accustomed to coitus it is
crisper. But it is only after long and repeated coitus, some
authors add, that the pubic hairs become crisp. Some recent
observers, it may be remarked, have noted a connection between
sexual excitation and the condition of the pubic hair in women.
(Cf. the present volume, _ante_ p. 127.)
A sign to which the old authors often attached much importance
was furnished by the urinary stream. In the _De Secretis
Mulierum_, wrongly attributed to Albertus Magnus, it is laid down
that "the virgin urinates higher than the woman." Riolan, in his
_Anthropographia_, discussing the ability of virgins to ejaculate
urine to a height, states that Scaliger had observed women who
were virgins emit urine in a high jet against a wall, but that
married women could seldom do this. Bouaciolus also stated that
the urine of virgins is emitted in a small stream to a distance
with an acute hissing sound. (_Parthenologia_, p. 281.) A
folk-lore belief in the reality of this influence is evidenced by
the Picardy _conte_ referred to already (_ante_, p. 53), "La
Princesse qui pisse au dessus les Meules." There is no doubt a
tendency for the various stresses of sexual life to produce an
influence in this direction, though they act far too slowly and
uncertainly to be a reliable index to the presence or the absence
of virginity.
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