The Sexual Question

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The Sexual Question
by August Forel, translated by C. F. Marshall
Introduction
412564The Sexual Question — IntroductionC. F. MarshallAugust Forel

THE

SEXUAL QUESTION

A SCIENTIFIC, PSYCHOLOGICAL, HYGIENIC AND
SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY FOR THE
CULTURED CLASSES


BY

AUGUST FOREL, M.D., PH.D., LL.D.

Formerly Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the
Insane Asylum in Zurich (Switzerland)


ENGLISH ADAPTION


BY

C. F. MARSHALL, M.D., F.R.C.S.

Late Assistant Surgeon to the Hospital for
Disieases of the Skin, London


ILLUSTRATED



LONDON

REBMAN LIMITED

129 SHAFTESBURY AVE., W. C.

Copyright, 1908, by

REBMAN COMPANY

New York


Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England, 1908


All rights reserved


Printed in America

CONTENTS


CHAPTER I
The reproduction of living beings—History of the germ—Cell-division—Parthenogenesis—Conjugation—Embryonic development—Difference of sexes—Castration—Hermaphrodism—Heredity—Blastophthoria 6
CHAPTER II
The evolution or descent of living beings 39
CHAPTER III
Natural conditions of mechanism of human coitus—Pregnancy—Correlative sexual characters 49
CHAPTER IV
The sexual appetite in man and woman—Flirtation 72
CHAPTER V
Love and other irradiations of the sexual appetite in the human mind—Psychic irradiations of love in man: Procreative instinct, jealousy, sexual braggardism, pornographic spirit, sexual hypocrisy, prudery and modesty, old bachelors—Psychic irradiations of love in woman: Old maids, passiveness and desire, abandon and exaltation, desire for domination, petticoat government, desire of maternity and maternal love, routine and infatuation, jealousy, dissimulation, coquetry, prudery and modesty—Fetichism and anti-fetichism—Psychological relations of love to religion 104
CHAPTER VI
Ethnology and history of the sexual life of man and of marriage—Origin of marriage—Antiquity of matrimonial institutions—Criticism of the doctrine of promiscuity—Marriage and celibacy—Sexual advances and demands of marriage—Methods of attraction—Liberty of choice—Sexual selection—Law of resemblance—Hybrids—Prohibition of consanguineous marriages—Role of sentiment and calculation in sexual selection—Marriage by purchase—Decadence of marriage by purchase—Dowry—Nuptial ceremonies—Forms of marriage—Duration of marriage—History of extra-nuptial sexual intercourse 144
CHAPTER VII
Sexual evolution—Phylogeny and ontogeny of sexual life 192
CHAPTER VIII
Sexual pathology—Pathology of the sexual organs—Venereal disease—Sexual psychology—Reflex anomalies—Psychic impotence—Sexual paradoxy—Sexual anæsthesia—Sexual hyperæsthesia—Masturbation and onanism—Perversions of the sexual appetite: Sadism, masochism, fetichism, exhibitionism, homosexual love, sexual inversion, pederosis, sodomy—Sexual anomalies in the insane and psychopathic—Effects of alcohol on the sexual appetite—Sexual anomalies by suggestion and auto-suggestion—Sexual perversions due to habit 208
CHAPTER IX
The role of suggestion in sexual life—Amorous intoxication 277
CHAPTER X
The relations of the sexual question to money and property—Prostitution, proxenetism and venal concubinage 293
CHAPTER XI
The influence of environment on sexual life—Influence of climate—Town and country life—Vagabondage—Americanism—Saloons and alcohol—Riches and poverty—Rank and social position—Individual life—Boarding schools 326
CHAPTER XII
Religion and sexual life 340
CHAPTER XIII
Rights in sexual life—Civil law—Penal law—A medico-legal case 358
CHAPTER XIV
Medicine and sexual life—Prostitution—Sexual hygiene—Extra-nuptial intercourse—Medical advice—Means of regulating or preventing conception—Hygiene of marriage—Hygiene of pregnancy—Medical advice as to marriage—Medical secrecy—Artificial abortion—Treatment of sexual disorders 418
CHAPTER XV
Sexual morality 445
CHAPTER XVI
The sexual question in politics and in political economy 461
CHAPTER XVII
The sexual question in pedagogy 470
CHAPTER XVIII
The sexual question in art 489
CHAPTER XIX
Conclusions—Utopian ideas on the ideal marriage of the future—Bibliographical remarks 499