Albert Moll

“ When a stallion kicks its genital organs again and again with its hind-foot, and repeats the action until ejaculation ensues, we are hardly justified in assuming that the animal has the idea of a mare before its mind. We must rather suppose that we have to do with a local physical stimulus, to which the stallion reacts in the manner above described. The other component, also, of the sexual impulse, the contrectation-impulse, manifests itself, occasionally, at any rate, in isolation. ”

“ Certain boys, long before the appearance of any signs of the puberal development, are impelled towards physical contact with members of the other sex, to kiss them, to think of them, although these boys may exhibit no tendency whatever to masturbate, or to manipulate their genital organs. It often happens, indeed, that such a boy is himself greatly astonished to find, some day, that these ideas are reflected to the genital organs, giving rise to erection; or, when he is embracing a girl, to experience erection and ejaculation. ”

“ The sexual impulse, and indeed either of its components, may be excited either by bodily or by mental stimuli; but we must always bear in mind the fact that in normal adults, both male and female, the two components are so intimately associated that they can as a rule be separated only by artificial analysis. The nature and mode of operation of the stimuli need not be further discussed, since enough has been said about the matter in our description of erection. ”

“ There is an additional difference between man and woman. In woman very often voluptuous pleasure is entirely lacking; certainly such absence is far commoner in women than in men--a condition of affairs which must on no account be confused with absence of the sexual impulse. Even when the sexual impulse is perfectly normal, the entire voluptuous curve with its acme may be wanting. In such cases, the after-sense of complete satisfaction, which occurs more especially when ejaculation has been associated with an extremity of voluptuous pleasure, is commonly also lacking. ”

“ During coitus, in woman, as in man, a process of ejaculation normally occurs, taking the form of rhythmical muscular contractions, affecting not only the perineal muscles, but also the muscular investment of the vagina, and occasionally, perhaps, the uterus itself. These muscular contractions also favour the expulsion of a secretion, but this secretion does not contain the reproductive cells of the female, and consists merely of a mixture of in different secretions--the secretion of Bartholin's glands, that of the uterine mucous membrane, and that of the mucous glands of the vagina and vulva. ”

“ In the child, the testicles are considerably smaller; smaller also are the penis and the other genital organs. In the adult, the root of the penis is surrounded by the pubic hair; this hair is absent in the child. The most important distinctive characteristic, however, lies in the fact that in the child the morphological elements upon which the capacity for procreation depends, namely, the spermatozoa, are not yet present in the testicles. The spermatozoa first make their appearance during that year of life which is usually regarded as the year of the puberal development. ”

“ The detumescence-impulse is sometimes the sole manifestation of the sexual impulse. Certain idiots practise masturbation as a physical act, because sensations proceeding from the genital impel them to do so, precisely as itching of an area of the skin impels us to scratch. They masturbate without thinking of another person, and they feel no impulsion whatever towards sexual contact with another person. ”

“ In normal conditions, however, much more powerful stimuli are needed to cause ejaculation than those which are competent to give rise to erection. For this reason, erections often occur without leading to ejaculation, whereas in normal conditions ejaculation hardly ever occurs without erection. In fact, ejaculation in the absence of erection is almost peculiar to pathological states, and may occur, for instance, in many forms of impotence, in which the ejaculation centre still remains susceptible to stimulation, whilst the erection centre is exhausted. ”

“ In the child, the uterus is longer in proportion to its thickness; in childhood, too, the comparative length of the cervix in relation to that of the body of the organ is much greater than in the adult woman. ”

“ We need only allude in passing to the fact that later in life marked changes occur in the uterus as a result of pregnancy and parturition. The hypertaemia and the bleeding that take place periodically during menstruation lead to certain changes in the mucous surface of the uterus. Ovulation, which in the sexually mature woman recurs at four-weekly intervals, also gives rise to certain permanent changes in the ovaries. ”

“ In the woman, also, the detumescence-impulse is occasionally met with in isolation--for example, in many female idiots. In the animal world, too, we encounter it as an isolated phenomenon. Certain mares, when rutting, rub their hind quarters against some object in their stalls. ”

“ In the walls of the seminiferous tubules the spermatozoa are formed. The seminiferous tubules unite to form the efferent ducts (vasa efferentia) , about a dozen in number for each testicle; immediately passing out of the testicle, these efferent ducts make up the epididymis, situated at the upper and back part of the testicle. After numerous convolutions, these unite at length on each side to form a single canal, which leaves the epididymis under the name of the vas deferens; this is the excretory duct of the testicle, conveying the secretion of that organ to the exterior. ”

“ In the sexually mature normal man, the detumescence-impulse and the contrectation-impulse act in unison, and hence he is impelled towards intimate contact with the woman, and is ultimately driven to effect detumescence by the practice of coitus. ”

“ In the woman also, even at the outset of the sexual act, a secretion from the local glands takes place, whereby the genital region is moistened prior to the actual orgasm. We have as yet no precise knowledge as to which glands are concerned in the production of this phenomenon, which is homologous to the urethrorrhoea ex libidine of the male. In woman, as in man, the curve of voluptuousness exhibits four phases: an ascending limb, the equable voluptuous sensation, the acme, and the rapid decline. ”

“ The uterus undergoes remarkable changes. In the foetus, during the latter part of intra-uterine life, this organ grows very rapidly; but immediately after birth its growth is arrested, so that in a girl of nine it is little larger than in the new-born infant. During the period of puberal development, however, the growth of the organ is once more extremely rapid. ”

“ I shall, however, take this opportunity of stating that, as careful investigations have shown, the periodic processes in question are not limited to the uterus and the ovaries, but affect also the external genital organs, which become congested simultaneously with menstruation; and further that the entire feminine organism is affected by an undulatory rhythm of nutrition, the rise and fall of which correspond to menstruation and to the intermenstrual interval, respectively. ”

“ From birth onwards the ovaries gradually increase in size, but the growth is disproportionate in different diameters. Thus, for instance, during the eighth year of life, growth is chiefly in thickness, so that the ratio between the length and the thickness becomes less than before. The structure of the ovaries also varies at different ages. In a girl of three years, the primitive ovarian follicles number about 400,000 ”

“ These tubes pass outwards in a somewhat sinuous course towards the ovaries, the reproductive glands of the female, homologous with the testicles in the male, and situated on either side of the upper extremity of the uterus. The shape of the ovaries is somewhat ovoid. They contain a large number of vesicular structures, the ovarian follicles, the largest, ripe follicles being known as Graafian follicles, whilst the smaller, partially developed follicles are termed primitive ovarian follicles, or primitive Graafian follicles. In the interior of each follicle is an ovum. ”

“ Certainly the majority of the primitive follicles come to nothing. True Graafian follicles, of which an account has already been given, are not usually formed prior to the beginning of the puberal development; occasionally however, they are formed in the ovaries of immature girls. ”

“ This voluptuous sensation localised in the genital organs must, of course, be distinguished from the general sense of pleasure produced in a man by the idea of, or by contact with, a woman in whom he is sexually interested. ”

“ Under the influence of such stimuli, the venus plexuses making up the vaginal bulbs also become distended with blood. In fact, speaking generally, sexual excitement is characterised by a vigorous flow of blood to the genital organs. ”