[14] ITCHING, TICKLING, AND SEXUAL SENSIBILITY.--On September 2, 1890, Dr. Bronson, Professor of Dermatology in the New York Polyclinic, read before the American Dermatological Association a paper on “The Sensation of Itching” (printed in the _New York Medical Record_ of October 18, 1890, and republished by the New Sydenham Society in 1893 in a volume entitled “Selected Monographs on Dermatology”). In this paper the author deals at some length with the relations between itching and the voluptuous, or, as he calls it, the “aphrodisiac,” sense. He also denies the specific character of sexual sensations, and states that the aphrodisiac sense “is but a higher development of the primitive sense of contact. It has a special organ or instrument--the penis in the male, the clitoris in the female. Moreover, it is distributed over the entire cutaneous surface” (New Sydenham Society, _op. cit._, p. 314). In this connexion, and more particularly apropos of Dr. Bloch’s statement on the previous page that “the function of the clitoris is expressed by its name” (German, _Kitzler_), it is interesting to note that in German the word _Kitzel_ variously denotes--(1) _tickling_, (2) _itching_, (3) _sexual desire_, (4) _sexual gratification_. The more commonly employed German term for itching, _Jucken_, does not possess any secondary sexual signification; but, as Dr. Bronson points out (_op. cit._, p. 312), “both the English words _itch_ and _itching_, and the Latin _prurio_ and _pruritus_, in their secondary significations, convey the idea of a longing, teasing desire, while _pruritus_ was commonly used by the Latins as a synonym for lasciviousness.” The same idea is, of course, conveyed by the English derivations, _pruriency_ and _prurient_. Thus, we see that the familiar terminology of these three tongues (and doubtless of many others) refuses to countenance Hirschfeld’s view regarding the specific character of sexual sensibility.--TRANSLATOR. [15] In his profound essay, containing a number of new points of view, “Concerning the Emotions” (_Monatsschrift für Psychiatrie und Neurologie_, 1906, vol. xix., Heft 3 and 4), Dr. Edmund Forster has ably discussed these primitive relations between voluptuous sensation and pain. According to him, the sexual tension, which commences at the time of puberty, is an increased stimulus of the sensory nerves of the genital organs. The positive sensation-tone of libido accompanying ejaculation represents the relief of the painful, disturbing sensation of sexual tension, and for this reason it has a pleasurable tone. [16] Carpenter perceives in this “sense of contact” the essence of all sexual love. [17] For this reason many ingenious prostitutes wear a red chemise.--_Cf._ P. Näcke, “Un Cas de Fetichisme de Souliers,” etc. (“A Case of Shoe Fetichism”), in _Bulletin de la Société de Médecine Mentale de Belgique_, 1894.