No More Learning

We may recall the mythical per- sonification of bisexuality in the Hermaphroditos, the narrative of Aristophanes in the Platonic dialogue, or in later times the suggestion of a Gnostic sect (Theophites) that primitive man was a " man-woman. "
? CHAPTER II
MALE AND FEMALE PLASMAS
The first thing expected of a book like this, the avowed object of which is a complete revision of facts hitherto accepted, is that it should expound a new and satisfactory account of the anatomical and physiological characters of thesexualtypes. Quiteapartfromtheabstractquestionas to whether the complete survey of a subject so enormous isnotbeyondthepowersofoneindividual,I mustatonce disclaim any intention of making the attempt. I do not pretend to have made sufficient independent investigations in a field so wide, nor do I think such a review necessary for the purpose of this book. Nor is it necessary to give a
compilation of the results set out by other authors, for Havelock Ellis has already done this very well. Were I to attempt to reach the sexual types by means of the probable inferences drawn from his collected results, my work would be a mere hypothesis and science might have been spared a new book. The arguments in this chapter, therefore, will be of a rather formal and general nature ; they will relate to biological principles, but to a certain extent will lay stress on the need for a closer investigation of certain definite points, work which must be left to the future, but which may be rendered more easy by my indications.
Those who know little of Biology may scan this section hastily, and yet run little risk of failing to understand what follows.
The doctrine of the existence of different degrees of masculinity and femininity may be treated, in the first place, on purely anatomical lines. Not only the anatomical form,
? 12 SEX AND CHARACTER
but the anatomical position of male and female characters mustbediscussed. Theexamplesalreadygivenofirxual differences in other parts of the body showed that sexuality isnotlimitedtothegenitalorgansandglands. Butwhere are the limits to be placed ? Do they not reach beyond the primary and secondary sexual characters ? In other words, where does sex display itself, and where is it without influence ?
Many points came to light in the last decade, which bring fresh support to a theory first put forward in 1840, but which at the time found little support since it appeared to be in direct opposition to facts held as established alike by the author of the theory and by his opponents. The theory in question, first suggested by the zoologist Steenstrup, of Copenhagen,^^but since supported by many others, is that sexual characters are present in every part of the body. )
Ellis has collected the results of investigations on almost every tissue of the body, which serve to show the universal presence of sexual differences. It is plain that there is a striking difference in the coloration of the typical male and female. This fact establishes the existence of sexual differences in the skin (cutis) and in the blood-vessels, and also in the bulk of the colouring-matter in the blood and in the number of red corpuscles to the cubic centimetre of the blood fluid. Bischoff and Rudinger have proved the exist- ence of sexual differences in brain weight, and more recently Justus and Alice Gaule have obtained a similar result with regard to such vegetative organs as the liver, lungs and spleen. In fact, all parts of a woman, although in different degrees in different zones, have a sexual stimulus for the male organism, and similarly all parts of the male have their effect on the female.
The direct logical inference may be drawn, and is sup- ported by abundant facts, that every cell in the body is sexually characteristic and has its definite sexual signifi- cance. I may now add to the principle already laid down in this book, of the universal presence of sexually intermediate
J. J.
S.
? MALE AND FEMALE PLASMAS
conditions, that these conditions may present different degrees of development. Such a conception of the exist- ence of different degrees of development in sexuality makes it easy to understand cases of false hermaphroditism or even of the true hermaphroditism, which, since the time of Steenstrup, has been established for so many plants and animals, although not certainly in the case of man. Steen- strup wrote : " If the sex of an animal has its seat only in the genital organs, then one might think it possible for an animal really to be bisexual, if it had at the same time two sets of sexual organs. But sex is not limited to one region, it manifests itself not merely by the presence of certain organs ; it pervades the whole being and shows itself in every point. In a male body, everything down to the smallest part is male, however much it may resemble the correspondmg lemale part, and so also in the female the smallest part is female. The presence of male and female sexual organs in the same body would make the body bisexual only if both sexes ruled the whole body and made themselves manifest in every point, and such a condition, as the manifestations of the sexes are opposing forces, would result simply in the negation of sex in the body in question. " If, however, the principle of the existence of innumerable sexually transitional conditions be extended to all the cells of the body, and empirical knowledge supports such a view, Steenstrup's difficulty is resolved, and hermaphroditism no longer appears to be unnatural. There may be conceived for every cell all conditions, from complete masculinity through all stages of diminishing masculinity to its com- plete absence and the consequent presence of complete femininity. Whether we are to think of these gradations in the scale of sexual differentiation as depending on two real substances united in different proportions, or as a single kind of protoplasm modified in different ways (as, for instance, by different spatial dispositions of its molecules), it were wiser not to guess. The first conception is difficult to apply physiologically ; it is extremely difficult to imagine that two sets of conditions should be able to produce the
13
? SEX AND CHARACTER
essential physiological similarities of two bodies, one with a male and the other a female diathesis. The second view recalls too vividly certain unfortunate speculations on heredity. Perhaps both views are equally far from the truth. At present empirical knowledge does not enable us to say wherein the masculinity or the femininity of a cell really lies, or to define the histological, molecular or chemical differences which distinguish every cell of a male from every cell of a female. Without anticipating any dis- covery of the future (it is plain already, however, that the specific phenomena of living matter are not going to be referred to chemistry and physics), it may be taken for granted that individual cells possess sexuality in different degrees quite apart from the sexuality of the whole body. Womanish men usually have the skin softer, and in them the cells of the male organs have a lessened power of division upon which depends directly the poorer develop- ment of the male macroscopic characters.
The distribution of sexual characters affords an important proof of the appearance of sexuality in different degrees. Such characters (at least in the animal kingdom) may be arranged according to the strength of their exciting influ- ence on the opposite sex. To avoid confusion, I shall make use of John Hunter's terms for classifying sexual characters. The primordial sexual characters are the male and female genital glands (testes and epididymis, ovaries and epoophoron) ; the primary sexual characters are the internal appendages of the sexual glands (vasa deferential vesiculae seminales, oviducts and uterus), which may have sexual characters quite distinct from those of the glands and the external sexual organs, according to which alone the sex of human beings is reckoned at birth (sometimes quite erroneously, as I shall show) and their consequent fate in life decided. After the primary, come all those sexual characters not directly necessary to reproduction. Such secondary sexual characters are best defined as those which begin to appear at puberty, and which cannot be developed except under the influence on the system of the internal
14
? i
MALE AND FEMALE PLASMAS
secretions of the genital glands. Examples of these are the beards in men, the luxuriant growth of hair in women, the development of the mammary glands, the character of the voice. Asaconvenientmodeoftreatment,andforpractical rather than theoretical reasons, certain inherited characters, such as the development of muscular strength or of mental obstinacy may be reckoned as tertiary sexual characters. Under the designation "quaternary sexual characters" may be placed such accessories as relative social position, differ- ence in habit, mode of livelihood, the smoking and drinking habit in man, and the dom -stic duties of women. All these characters possess a- potent and direct sexual influence, and in my opinion often may be reckoned with the tertiary characters or even with the secondary. \This classification of sexual characters must not be taken as implying a defi- nite chain of sequence, nor must it be assumed that the mental sexual characters either determine the bodily charac- tersoraredeterminedbytheminsomecausalnexus. The classification relates only to the strength of the exciting influence on the other sex, to the order in time in which this influence is exerted, and to the degree of certainty with
which the extent of the influence may be predicted. ^
Study of secondary sexual characters is bound up with consideration of the eflfect of internal secretions of the genital glands on general metabolism. The relation of this influence or its absence (as in the case of artificially cas- trated animals) has been traced out in the degree of de- velopment of the secondary characters. The internal secretions, however, undoubtedly have an influence on all thecellsofthebody. Thisisclearlyshownbythechanges which occur at puberty in all parts of the body, and not only in the s ;- of the secondary sexual characters. As a matter of fact, ! internal secretions of all the glands must be
regard"(^ r iffecting all the tissues.
The inter'ial secretions of the genital glands must be
regarded as completing the sexuality of the individual. Every eel' must be considered as possessing an original sexuality, 10 which the influence of the internal secretion in
15
? i6 SEX AND CHARACTER
sufficient quantity is the final determining condition under the influence of which the cell acquires its final determinate character as male or female.
The genital glands are the organs in which the sex of the individual is most obvious, and in the component cells of which it is most conspicuously visible. At the same time it must be noted that the distinguishing characters of the species, race and family to which an organism belongs are alsobestmarkedinthegenitalcells. JustasSteenstrup,on the one hand, was right in teaching that sex extends all over
the body and is not confined to the genital organs, so, on the other hand, Naegeli, de Vries, Oskar Hertwig and others have propounded the important theory, and supported it by weighty arguments, that every cell in a multi-cellular organism possesses a combination of the characters of its species and race, but that these characters are, as it were, specially condensed in the sexual cells. Probably this view of the case will come to be accepted by all investigators, since every living being owes its origin to the cleavage and multiplication of a single cell.
Many phenomena, amongst which may be noticed specially experiments on the regeneration of lost parts and investigations into the chemical differences between the corresponding tissues of nearly allied animals, have led the investigators to whom I have just referred to conceive the existence of an " Idioplasm," which is the bearer of the specific characters, and which exists in all the cells of a multi-cellular animal, quite apart from the purposes of re- production. In a similar fashion I have been led to the conception of an "Arrhenoplasm" (male plasm) and a " Thelyplasm " (female plasm) as the two modes in which
the idioplasm of every bisexual organism may appear, and which are to be considered, because of reasons which I shall explain, as ideal conditions between which the actual conditions always lie. Actually existing protoplasm is to be thought of as moving from an ideal arrhenoplasm through a real or imaginary indifferent condition (true hermaphro- ditism) towards a protoplasm that approaches, but never
? MALE AND FEMALE PLASMAS
actually reaches, an ideal thelyplasm. This conception brings to a point what I have been trying to say. I apolo- gise for the new terms, but they are more than devices to call attention to a new idea.
The proof that every single organ, and further, that every single cell possesses a sexuality lying somewhere between arrhenoplasm and thelyplasm, and further, that every cell received an original sexual endowment definite in kind and degree, is to be found in the fact that even in the same organism the different cells do not always possess their sexuality identical in kind and degree. In fact each cell of a body neither contains the same proportion of M and W nor is at the same approximation to arrhenoplasm or thelyplasm ; similar cells of the same body may indeed lie on different sides of the sexually neutral point. If, instead of writing "masculinity" and "femininity" at length, we choose signs to express these, and without any malicious intention choose the positive sign ( + ) for M and the negative ( -- ) for W, then our proposition may be ex- pressed as follows : The sexuality of the different cells of the same organism differs not only in absolute quantity but is to be expressed by a different sign. There are many men with a poor growth of beard and a weak muscular develop- ment who are otherwise t)^ically males ; and so also many women with badly developed breasts are otherwise typically womanly. There are womanish men with strong beards and masculine women with abnormally short hair who none the less possess well-developed breasts and broad pelves. I know several men who have the upper part of
the thigh of a female with a normally male under part, and some with the right hip of a male and the left of a female. In most cases these local variations of the sexual character affect both sides of the body, although of course it is only in ideal bodies that there is complete symmetry about the middle line. The degree to which sexuality displays itself, however, as, for instance, in the growth of hair, is very often unsymmetrical. This want of uniformity (and the sexual manifestations never show complete uniformity) can hardly
B
17
8
? SEX AND CHARACTER
depend on differences of the internal secretion ; for the blood goes to all the organs, having in it the same amount of the internal secretion; although different organs may receive different quantities of blood, in all normal cases its quality and quantity being proportioned to the needs of the part.
Were we not to assume as the cause of these variations the presence of a sexual determinant generally different in every cell but stable from its earliest embryonic development, then it would be simple to describe the sexuality of any individual by estimating how far its sexual glands conformed to the normal type of its sex, and the facts would be much simpler thantheyreallyare. Sexuality,however,cannotberegarded as occurring in an imaginary normal quantity distributed equally all over an individual so that the sexual character of any cell would be a measure of the sexual characters of any other cells. Whilst, as an exception, there may occur wide differences in the sexual characters of different cells or organs of the same body, still as a rule there is the same specific sexuality for all the cells. In fact it may be taken as certain that an approximation to a complete uniformity of sexual character over the whole body is much more common than the tendency to any considerable divergences amongst the different organs or still more amongst the different cells. How far these possible variations may go
can be determined only by the investigation of individual cases.
There is a popular view, dating back to Aristotle and supported by many doctors and zoologists, that the castra- tion of an animal is followed by the sudden appearance of the characters of the other sex ; if the gelding of a male were to bring about the appearance of female characteristics then doubt would be thrown on the existence in every cell of a primordial sexuality independent of the genital glands. The most recent experimental results of Sellheim and Foges, however, have shown that the type of a gelded male is distinct from the female type, that gelding does not induce the feminine character. It is better to avoid too
1
? MALE AND FEMALE PLASMAS
far-reaching and radical conclusions on this matter ; it may be that a second latent gland of the other sex may awake into activity and sexually dominate the deteriorating organ- ism after the removal or atrophy of the normal gland. There are many cases (too readily interpreted as instances of complete assumption of the male character) in which after the involution of the female sexual glands at the climacteric the secondary sexual characters of the male are acquired. Instances of this are the beard of the human
grandam, the occasional appearance of short antlers in old does, or of a cock's plumage in an old hen. But such changes are practically never seen except in association with senile decay or with operative interference.
In the case of certain crustacean parasites of fish, how- ever (the genera Cymothoa, Anilocra and Nerocila of the family Cytnothoidce), the changes I have just mentioned are part of the normal life history. These creatures are her- maphroditesofapeculiarkind; themaleandfemaleorgans co-exist in them but are not functional at the same period. A sort of protandry exists ; each individual exercises first the functions of a male and afterwards those of the female. During the time of their activity as males they possess ordinary male reproductive organs which are cast off when thefemalegenitalductsandbroodorgansdevelop. That similar conditions may exist in man has been shown by those cases of "eviratio" and "effeminatio" which the sexual pathology of the old age of men has brought to light. So also we cannot deny altogether the actual occur- rence of a certain degree of effeminacy when the crucial operation of extirpation of the human testes has been performed. * On the other hand, the fact that the relation is not universal or inevitable, that the castration of an individual does not certainly result in the appearance of the characters of the other sex, may be taken as a proof that it is necessary to assume the original presence through-
* So also in the opposite case ; it cannot be wholly denied that ovariotomy is followed by the appearance of masculine characters.
19
? 20 SEX AND CHARACTER
out the body of cells determined by arrhenoplastn or thelyplasm.
The possession by every cell of primitive sexuality on which the secretion of the sexual glands has little effect might be shown further by consideration of the effects of graftingmalegenitalglandsonfemaleorganisms. Forsuch an experiment to be accurate it would be necessary that the animal from which the testis was to be transplanted should be as near akin as possible to the female on which the testis was to be grafted, as, for instance, in the case of a brother and sister; theidioplasmofthetwoshouldbeasalikeaspossible. In this experiment much would depend on limiting the conditions of the experiment as much as possible so that the results would not be confused by conflicting factors. Experiments made in Vienna have shown that when an exchange of the ovaries has been made between unrelated female animals (chosen at random) the atrophy of the ovaries follows, but that there is no failure of the secondary sexual characters {e. g. , degeneration of the mammae). More- over, when the genital glands of an animal are removed from their natural position and grafted in a new position in the same animal (so that it still retains its own tissues) the full development of the secondary sexual characters goes on precisely as if there had been no interference, at least in cases where the operation is successful. The failure of the transplantation of ovaries from one animal to another may be due to the absence of family relationship between the tissues; theinfluenceoftheidioplasmprobablyisofprimary importance.
These experiments closely resemble those made in the transfusion of alien blood. It is a practical rule with surgeons that when a dangerous loss of blood has to be made good, the blood required for transfusion must be obtained from an individual not only of the same species and family, but also of the same sex as that of the patient. The parallel between transfusion and transplantation is at once evident. If I am correct in my views, when surgeons seek to transfuse blood, instead of being content with injec-
? MALE AND FEMALE PLASMAS
tions of normal salt solution they must take the blood not merely from one of the same species, family and sex, but of a similar degree of masculinity or femininity.
Experiments on transfusion not only lend support to my belief in the existence of sex characters in the blood cor- puscles, but they furnish additional explanations of the failure of experiments in grafting ovaries or testis on indi- viduals of the opposite sex. The internal secretions of the genital glands are operative only in their appropriate en-
t'ironment of arrhenoplasm or thelyplasm.
In this connection, I may say a word as to the curative
value of organotherapy. Although, as I have shown to be the case, the transplantation of freshly extirpated genital glands into subjects of the opposite sex has no effect, it does not follow that the injection of the ovarian secretion into the blood of a male might not have a most injurious effect. On the other hand, the principle of organotherapy has been opposed on the ground that organic preparations procured from non-allied species could not possibly be expected to yield good results. It is more than likely that the medical exponents of organotherapy have lost many valuable dis- coveries in healing because of their neglect of the biological theory of idioplasm.
The theory of an idioplasm, the presence of which gives the specific race characters to those tissues and cells which have lost the reproductive faculty, is by no means generally accepted. But at the least all must admit that the race characters are collected in the genital glands, and that if experiments with extracts from these are to provide more than a good tonic, the nearest possible relationship between theanimalsexperimenteduponmustbeobserved. Parallel experiments might be made as to the effect of transplantation of the genital glands and injections of their extracts on two
castrated cocks of the same strain. For instance, the effects of the transplantation of the testes of one of them into any other part of its own body or peritoneal cavity or into any similar part of the other cock might be compared with the efifects of intravenous injection of testis extract of the one on
21
? 22 SEX AND CHARACTER
the other. Such parallel investigations would also increase our knowledge as to the most suitable media and quantities of the extracts. It is also to be desired, from the theoretical point of view, that knowledge may be gained as to whether the internal secretion of the genital glands enters into chemical union with the protoplasm of the cells or whether it acts as a physiological stimulus independent of the quantity supplied. So far we know nothing that would enable us to come to a definite opinion on this point.
The limited influence of the internal secretions of the sexual glands in formmg the sexual characters must be realised to warrant the theory of a primary, generally slight, difference in each cell, but still determinate sexual influence. * If the existence of distinct graduations of these primary characteristics in all the cells and tissues can be recognised, there follow many important and far-reaching conclusions. The individual egg-cells and spermatozoa may be found to possess different degrees of maleness and femaleness, not only in different individuals, but in the ovaries and testes of the same individual, especially at different times ; for instance, the spermatozoa differ in size and activity. We are still quite ignorant on these matters, as no one has worked on the requisite lines.
It is extremely interesting to recall in this connection that many times different investigators have observed in the testes of amphibia not only the different stages in the developmentofspermatozoa,butmatureeggs. Thisinter- pretation of the observations was at first disputed, and it was suggested that the presence of unusually large cells in the tubes of the testes had given rise to the error, but the matterhasnowbeenfullyconfirmed. Moreover,inthese Amphibia, sexually intermediate conditions are very common, and this should lead us to be careful in making statements as to the uniform presence of arrhenoplasm or thelyplasm in a body. The methods of assigning sex to a new-born
* The existence of sexual distinctions before puberty shows that the power of the internal secretions of the sexual glands does not account for everything.
? MALE AND FEMALE PLASMAS
infant seem most unsatisfactory in the light of these facts. If the child is observed to possess a male organ, even although there may be complete epi- or hypo-spadism, or a double failure of descent of the testes, it is at once described as a boy and is henceforth treated as one, although in other parts of the body, for instance in the brain, the sexual determinant may be much nearer thelyplasm than arrheno- plasm. The so> >>ner a more exact method of sex discrimina- tion is insisted upon the better.
As a result of these long mductions and deductions we may rest assured that all the cells possess a definite primary sexual determinant which mu-^t not be assumed to be alike ornearlyalikethroughoutthesamebody. Everycell,every cell-complex, and every organ have their distinctive indices on the scale between thelyplasm and arrhenoplasm. For the exact definition of the sex, an estimation of the indices over the whole body would be necessary. I should be con- tent to bear the blame of all the theoretical and practical errors in this book did I believe myself to have made the working out of a single case possible.
Differences in the primary sexual determinants, together with the varying internal secretions (which differ in quantity and quality in different individuals) produce the pheno- mena of sexually intermediate forms. Arrhenoplasm and thelyplasm, in their countless modifications, are the micro- scopic agencies which, in co-operation with the internal secretions, give rise to the macroscopic differences cited m the last chapter.
If the correctness of the conclusions so far stated maybe assumed, the necessity is at once evident for a whole series of anatomical, physiological, histological and histo-chemical investigations into those differences between male and female types, in the structure and function of the individual organs by which tue dowers of arrhenoplasm and thelyplasm express themselvesinthetissues. Theknowledgewepossessatthe present time on these matters comes from the study o averages, but averages fail to satisfy the modern statistician, and their scientific value is very small. Investigations into
23
? SEX AND CHARACTER
the sex-differences in the weight of the brain, for instance, have so far proved very little, probably because no care was taken to choose typical conditions, the assignment of sex being dependent on baptismal certificates or on super- ficial glances at the outward appearance. As if every " John " or " Mary " were representative of their sexes because they had been dubbed " male " and " female ! " It would have been well, even if exact physiological data were thought unnecessary, at least to make certain as to a few facts as to the general condition of the body, which might serve as guides to the male or female condition, such as, for instance, the distance between the great trochanters, the iliac spines, and so forth, for a sexual harmony in the different parts of the body is certainly more common than great sexual divergence.
This source of error, the careless acceptance of sexually intermediate forms as representative subjects for measure- ment, has maimed other investigations and seriously retarded the attainment of genuine and useful results. Those, for instance, who wish to speculate about the cause of the superfluity of male births have to reckon with this source of error. In a special way this carelessness will revenge itself on those who are investigating the ultimate causes that de- termine sex. Until the exact degree of maleness or female- ness of all the living individuals of the group on which he is working can be determined, the investigator will have reasontodistrustbothhismethodsandhishypotheses. If he classify sexually intermediate forms, for instance, accord- ing to their external appearance, as has been done hitherto, he will come across cases which fuller investigation would show to be on the wrong side of his results, whilst other instances, apparently on the wrong side, would right them- selves. Without the conception of an ideal male and an ideal female, he lacks a standard according to which to estimate his real cases, and he gropes forward to a super- ficial and doubtful conclusion. Maupas, for instance, who made experiments on the determination of sex in Hydatina senta, a Rotifer, found that there was always an experimental
24
? MALE AND FEMALE PLASMAS
error of from three to five per cent. At low temperatures the production of females was expected, but always about the above proportion of males appeared ; so also at the higher temperatures a similar proportion of females appeared. It is probable that this error was due to sexually intermediate stages, arrhenoplasmic females at the high temperature, thelyplastic males at the low temperature. Where the problem is more complicated, as in the case of cattle, to say nothing of human beings, the process of investigation will yield still less harmonious results, and the correction of the interpretation which will have to be made by allowing for the disturbance due to the existence of sexually intermediate forms will be much more difficult.
The study of comparative pathology of the sexual types is as necessary as their morphology, physiology and develop- ment. In this region of inquiry as elsewhere, statistics would yield certain results. Diseases manifestly much more abundant in one sex might be described as peculiar to or idiopathicofthelyplasmorarrhenoplasm. Myxoedema,for instance, is idiopathic of the female, hydrocele of the male.
But no statistics, however numerous and accurate, can be regarded as avoiding a source of theoretical error until it has been shown from the nature of any particular affection dealt with that it is in indissoluble, functional relation with maleness or femaleness. The theory of such associated diseases must supply a reason why they occur almost ex- clusively in the one sex, that is to say, in the phrase of this treatise, why they are thelyplasmic or arrhenoplasmic.
25
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? CHAPTER III
THE LAWS OF SEXUAL ATTRACTION
Carmen :
" L'amour est un oiseau rebelle,
Que nul ne peut apprivoiser :
Et c'est bien en vain qu'on I'appelle S'il lui convient de refuser.
Rien n'y fait ; menace ou priere : L'un parle, I'autre se tait
Et c'est I'autre que je prefere II n'a rien dit, mais il me plait.
L'amour est enfant de Boheme II n'a jamais connu de loi. "
It has been recognised from time immemorial that, in all forms of sexually differentiated life, there exists an attrac- tion between males and females, between the male and the female, the object of which is procreation. But as the male and the female are merely abstract conceptions which never appear in the real world, we cannot speak of sexual attraction as a simple attempt of the masculine and the feminine to come together. The theory which I am develop- ing must take into account all the facts of sexual relations if it is to be complete ; indeed, if it is to be accepted instead of the older views, it must give a better interpretation of all thesesexualphenomena. MyrecognitionofthefactthatM and F (maleness and femaleness) are distributed in the living world in every possible proportion has led me to the dis- covery of an unknown natural law, of a law not yet sus- pectedbyanyphilosopher,alawofsexualattraction. As
? THE LAWS Uf SEXUAL ATTRACTION 27
observations on human beings first led me to my results, I. shall begin with this side of the subject.
Every one possesses a definite, individual taste of his own with regard to the other sex. If we compare the portrait of the women which some famous man has been known to love, we shall nearly always find that they are all closely alike, the similarity being most obvious in the contour (more precisely in the " figure ") or in the face, but on closer examination being found to extend to the minutest details, ad unguem, to the finger-tips. It is precisely the same with every one else. So, also, every girl who strongly attracts a man recalls to him the other girls he has loved before. '<< We see another side of the same phenomenon when we re- call how often we have said of some acquaintance or another, " I can't imagine how that type of woman pleases him. " Darwin, in the " Descent of Man," collected many instances of the existence of this individuality of the sexual taste amongst animals, and I shall be able to show that there are analogous phenomena even amongst plants.
(Sexual attraction is nearly always, as in the case of gravi- tation, reciprocal. / Where there appear to be exceptions to this rule, there is nearly always evidence of the presence of special influences which have been capable of preventing the direct action of the special taste, which is almost always reciprocal, or which have left an unsatisfied craving, if the direct taste were not allowed its play.
The common saying, " Waiting for Mr. Right," or state- ments such as that " So-and-so are quite unsuitable for one another," show the existence of an obscure presenti- ment of the fact that every man or woman possesses certain individual peculiarities which qualify or disqualify him or her for marriage with any particular member of the opposite sex ; and that this man cannot be substituted for that, or this woman for the other without creating a disharmony.
It is a common personal experience that certain individuals of the opposite sex are distasteful to us, that others leave us cold ; whilst others again may stimulate us until, at last,
? 28 SEX AND CHARACTER
some one appears who seems so desirable that everything in the world is worthless and empty compared with union with such a one. What are the qualifications of that per- son ? What are his or her peculiarities ?
If it really be the case--and I think it is--that every male type has its female counterpart with regard to sexual affinity, it looks as if there were some definite law. What is this law ? How does it act ? " Like poles repel, unlike attract," was what I was told when, already armed with my own answer, I resolutely importuned different kinds of men for a statement, and sub- mitted instances to their power of generalisation. The formula, no doubt, is true in a limited sense and for a cer- tain number of cases. But it is at once too general and too vague ; it would be applied differently by different persons, and it is incapable of being stated in mathematical terms.
This book does not claim to state all the laws of sexual affinity, for there are many ; nor does it pretend to be able to tell every one exactly which individual of the opposite sex will best suit his taste, for that would imply a complete knowledge of all the laws in question. In this chapter only one of these laws will be considered--the law which stands in organic relation to the rest of the book. I am working at a number of other laws, but the following is that to which I have given most investigation, and which ismostelaborated. Incriticisingthiswork,allowancemust be made for the incomplete nature of the material conse- quent on the novelty and difficulty of the subject.
Fortunately it is not necessary for me to cite at length either the facts from which I originally derived this law of sexual affinity or to set out in detail the evidence I obtained from personal statements. I asked each of those who helped me, to make out his own case first, and then to carry out observations in his circle of acquaintances. I have paid special attention to those cases which have been notice and remembered, in which the taste of a friend has not been understood, or appeared not to be present, or was differentfromthatoftheobserver. Theminutedegreeof knowledge of the external form of the human body which
? THE LAWS OF SEXUAL ATTRACTION
29
is necessary for the investigation is possessed by every one.
I have come to the law which I shall now formulate by a method the validity of which I shall now have to prove.
The law runs as follows :("For true sexual union it is necessary that there come together a complete male (M) and a complete female (F), even although in different cases the M and F are distributed between the two individuals in different proportions. )
The law may be expressed otherwise as follows :
if we take fx, any individual regarded in the ordinary way as a male, and denote his real sexual constitution as M^u, so many parts really male, plus Wfx, so many parts really female ; if we also take a>, any individual regarded in the ordinary way as a female, and denote her real sexual con- stitution as W(u, so many parts really female, plus Mw, so many parts really male ; then, if there be complete sexual affinity, the greatest possible sexual attraction between the
two individuals, jn and w,
(i) M/u (the truly male part in the "male") + Mw (the truly male part in the " female ") will equal a con- stant quantity, M, the ideal male ; and
(2) Wfx + W(u (the ideal female parts in respectively the " male " and the " female ") will equal a second constant quantity, W, the ideal female.
This statement must not be misunderstood. Both formulas refer to one case, to a single sexual relation, the second following directly from the first and adding nothing to it, as I set out from the point of view of an individual possessing justasmuchfemalenessashelacksofmaleness. Werehe completely male, his requisite complement would be a complete female, and vice versa. If, however, he is com- posed of a definite inheritance of maleness, and also an inheritance of femaleness (which must not be neglected), then, to complete the individual, his maleness must be com- pleted to make a unit ; but so also must his femaleness be completed.
? SEX AND CHARACTER
If; for instance, an individual be composed thus :
[fM ft i and
Uw,
then the best sexual complement of that individual will be another compound as follows :
[iM (t) i and
if W.
It can be seen at once that this view is wider in its reach than the common statement of the case. That male and female, as sexual types, attract each other is only one instance of my general law, an instance in which an imaginary individual,
30
IM ^\o W
finds its complement in an equally imaginary individual, (oM
There can be no hesitation in admittin^j the existence of definite, individual sexual preferences, and such an admission carries with it approval of the necessity of mvestigating the laws of the preference, and its relation to the rest of the bodily and mental characters of an individual. The law, as I have stated it, can encounter no initial sense of impossi- bility, and is contrary neither to scientific nor common experience. But it is not self-evident. It might be that the law, which cannot yet be regarded as fully worked out, might run as follows :
M/i -- Mfu? = a constant ;
that is to say, it may be the difference between the degrees of masculinity and not the sum of the degrees of ma-;cu- linity that is a constant quality, so that the most masculine man would stand just as far removed from his complement
J
? THE LAWS OF SEXUAL ATTRACTION
31
(who in this case would he nearly midway between mascu- hnity and femininity) as the most feminine man would be removed from his complement who would be near the extreme of femininity. Althouj^h, as I have said, this is conceivable, it is not borne oui by experience. Recognising that we have to do here witli an empirical law, and trying to observe a wise scientilic re-. traint, we shall do well to avoid speaking as if there were any " force " pulling the two individuals together as if they were puppets ; the law is no more than the statement tliat an identicnl relation can
be made out in each case of maximum sexual attraction. We are dealing, in fact, with what Ostwald termed an *' invariant" and Avenarius a " multiponible "; and this is the constant sum formed by the total masculinity and the total femininity in all cases where a pair of living beings come together with the maximum sexual attraction.
In this matter we may neglect altogether the so-called aesthetic factor, the stimulus of beauty. For does it not frequently happen that one man is completely captivated by a particular woman and raves about her beauty, whilst another, who is not the sexual complement of the woman in question, cannot imagine what his friend sees in her to admire. (Without discussing the laws of aesthetics or attempting to gather together examples of relative values, it may readily be admitted that a man may consider a woman beautiful who, from tlie aesthetic standpoint, is not merely indifferent but actually ugly, that in fact pure aesthetics deal not with absolute beauty, but merely with conceptions of beauty from which the sexual factor has been eliminatedJ
I have myseh worked out the law in, at the lowest, many hundred cases, and I have found that the exceptions were only apparent. Almost every couple one meets in the streetfurnishesanewproof. Theexceptionswerespecially instructive, as they not only suggested but led to the investi- gation of other laws of sexuality. (l myself made special investigations in the followmg way. I obtained a set of photographs of aesthetically beautiful women of blameless
? SEX AND CHARACTER
character, each of which was a good example of some definiteproportionoffemininity,andI askedanumberof my friends to inspect these and select the most beautiful. The selection made was invariably that which I had pre- dicted. With other male friends, who knew on what I was engaged, I set about in another fashion. They provided mewithphotographsfromamongstwhichI wastochoose the one I should expect them to think most beautiful. Here, too, 1 was uniformly successful. With others, I was able to describe most accurately their ideal of the opposite sex, independently of any suggestions unconsciously given by them, often in minuter detail than they had realised. Sometimes, too, I was able to point out to them, for the first time, the qualities that repelled them in individuals of
the opposite sex, although for the most part men realise more readily the characters that repel them than the characters that attract them. /
I believethatwithalittlepracticeanyonecouldreadily acquire and exercise this art on any circle of friends. A knowledge of other laws of sexual affinity would be of great importance. Anumberofspecialconstantsmightbetaken astestsoftheexistenceofcomplementaryindividuals. For instance, the law might be caricatured so as to require that the sum of the length of the hairs of any two perfect lovers should always be the same. But, as I have already shown in chapter ii. , this result is not to be expected, because all the organs of the same body do not necessarily possess the same degree of maleness or femaleness. Such heuristic rules would soon multiply and bring the whole subject into ridicule,andI shallthereforeabstainfromfurthersugges- tions of the kind.
I do not deny that my exposition of the law is somewhat dogmatical and lacks confirmation by exact detail. But I am not so anxious to claim finished results as to incite others to the study, the more so as the means for scientific investi- gations are lacking in my own case. But even if much remains theoretical, I hope that I shall have firmly riveted the chief beams in my edifice of theory by showing how it
32
? THE LAWS OF SEXUAL ATTRACTION
33
explains much that hitherto has found no explanation, and so shall have, in a fashion, proved it retrospectively by ihowing how much it would explain if it were true.
A most remarkable confirmation of my law may be found in the vegetable kingdom, in a group of facts hitherto regarded as isolated and to be so strange as to have no parallel. Every botanist must have guessed already that I have in mind the phenomena of heterostylism, first discovered by Persoon, then described by Darwin and named by Hilde- brand. ManyDicotyledons,andafewMonocotyledons,for instance, species of Primulaceae and Geraneaceae and many Rubiaceas, phanerogams in the flowers of which both the pollen and the stigma are functional, although only in cross- fertilisation, so that the flowers are hermaphrodite in struc-
ture but unisexual physiologically, display the peculiarity that in different individuals the stamens and the stigma have different lengths. The individuals, all the flowers of which have long styles and therefore high stigmas and short anthers, are, in my judgment, the more female, whilst the individuals with short styles and long anthers are more male. In addition to such dimorphic plants, there are also trimor- phic plants, such as Lythriim salicaria, in which the sexual organs display three forms differing in length. There are not only long-styled and short-styled forms, but flowers with
styles of a medium length.
Although only dimorphism and trimorphism have been
recognised in the books, these conditions do not exhaust the actual complexities of structure. Darwin himself pointed out that if small differences were taken into account, no less than five different situations of the anthers could be distinguished. Alongsidesuchplaincasesofdiscontinuity, of the separation of the different degrees of maleness and femaleness in plainly distinct individuals, there are also cases in which the different degrees grade into each other without breaks in the series. There are analogous cases of discon- tinuity in the animal kingdom, although they have always been thought of as unique and isolated phenomena, as the parallel with heterostylism had not been suggested, in
c
? SEX AND CHARACTER
34
several genera of insects, as, for instance, some Earwigs (Forficulce) and Lamellicorn Beetles {Lucanus cervus), the Sta. g-heet\e (Dynasies hercules), and Xylotrupes gideon, there are some males in which the antennae, the secondary sexual characters by which they differ most markedly from the females, are extremely long, and others in which they are very short. Bateson, who has written most on this subject, distinguishes the two forms as " high males " and " low males. " It is true that a continuous series of intermediate forms links the extreme types, but, none the less, the vast majority of the individuals are at one extreme or the other. Unfortunately, Bateson did not investigate the relations between these different types of males and the females, and so it is not known if there be female types with special sexual affinity for these male types. Thus these observa- tions can be taken only as a morphological parallel to heterostylism and not as cases of the law of complementary sexual attraction.
Heterostylous plants may possibly be the means of estab<< lishing my view that the law of sexual complements holds good for every kind of living thing. Darwin first, and after him many other investigators have proved that in heterosty- lous plants fertilisation has the best results, or, indeed, may be possible only when the pollen from a macrostylous flower (a flower with the shortest form of anthers and longest pistil) falls on the stigma of a microstylous blossom (one where the pistil is the shortest possible and the stamens at their greatest length), or vice versa. In other words, if the best result is to be attained by the cross-fertilisation of a pair of flowers, one flower with a long pistil, and there-
fore high degree of femaleness, and short stamens must be mated with another possessing a correspondingly short pistil, and so, with the amount of femaleness complementary to the first flower, and with long stamens complementary to the short stamens of the first flower. In the case of flowers where there are three pistil lengths, the best results may be expected when the pollen of one blossom is transmitted to another blossom in which the stigma is the nearest comple.
? THE LAWS OF SEXUAL ATTRACTION
35
ment of the stigma of the flower from which the pollen came ; if another combination is made, either naturally or by artificial fertilisation, then, if a result follows at all, the seedlings are scanty, dwarfed and sometimes infertile, much as when hybrids between species are formed.
It is to be noticed that the authors who have discussed heterostylism are not satisfied with the usual explanation, which is that the insects which visit the flowers carry the pollen at different relative positions on their bodies corre- sponding to the different lengths of the sexual organs and so produce the wonderful result. Darwin, moreover, admits that bees carry all sorts of pollen on every part of their bodies ; so that it has still to be made clear how the female organs dusted with two or three kinds of pollen make their choice of the most suitable. The supposition of a power of choice, however interesting and wonderful it is, does not account for the bad results which follow artificial dusting with the wrong kind of pollen (so-called " illegitimate fertilisation "). The theory that the stigmas can only make use of, or are capable of receiving only " legitimate pollen " has been proved by Darwin to be erroneous, inas-
much as the insects which act as fertilisers certainly some- times start various cross-breedings.
The hypothesis that the reason for this selective retention on the part of individuals is a special quality, deep-seated in the flowers themselves, seems more probable. CWe have probably here to do with the presence, just as in human beings, of a maximum degree of sexual attraction between individuals, one of which possesses just as much femaleness as the other possesses maleness, and this is merely another mode of stating my sexual law. > The probability of this interpreta- tion is increased by the fact that in the short-styled, long- anthered, more male flowers, the pollen grains are larger
and the papillae on the stigmas are smaller than the corre- sponding parts of the long-styled, short-anthered, more femaleflowers. Herewehavecertainlytodowithdifferent degreesofmalenessandfemaleness. Thesecircumstances supply a stong corroboration of my law of sexual affinity,
? SEX AND CHARACTER
that in the vegetable kingdom as well as in the animal kingdom (I shall return later to this point) fertilisation has the best results when it occurs between parents with maximum sexual affinity. *
Consideration of sexual aversion affords the readiest proof thatthelawholdsgoodthroughouttheanimalkingdom. I should like to suggest here that it would be extremely interesting to make observations as to whether the larger, heavier and less active egg-cells exert a special attraction on the smaller and more active spermatozoa, whilst those egg- cells with less food-yolk attract more strongly the larger and less active spermatozoa. It may be the case, as L. Weill has already suggested in a speculation as to the factors that determine sex, that there is a correlation between the rates of motion or kinetic energies of conjugating sexual cells. It has not yet been determined, although indeed it would be difficult to determine, if the sexual cells, apart from the streams and eddies of their fluid medium, approach each other with equal velocities or sometimes display special activity. There is a wide field for investigation here.
^s I have repeatedly remarked, my law is not the only law of sexual affinity, otherwise, no doubt, it would have been discovered long ago. Just because so many other factors are bound up with it,t because another, perhaps manv other laws sometimes overshadow it, cases of undis- turbed action of sexual affinity are rareJ As the necessary investigations have not yet been finished, I will not speak at length of such laws, but rather by way of illustration I shall refer to a few factors which as yet cannot be demon- strated mathematically.
I shall begin with some phenomena which are pretty
* For special purposes the breeder, whose object frequently is to modify natural tendencies, will often disregard this law.
f In speaking of the sexual taste in men and women, one thinks at once of the usual but not invariable preference individuals show for a particular colour of hair. It would certainly seem as if the reason for so strongly marked a preference must lie deep in human nature.
36
? If
THE LAWS OF SEXUAL ATTRACTION
37
generally recognised. Men when quite young, say under twenty, are attracted by much older women (say those of thirty-five and so on), whilst men of thirty-five are attracted bywomenmuchyoungerthanthemselves. Soalso,onthe other hand, quite young girls (sweet seventeen) generally prefer much older men, but, later in life, may marry strip- lings. The whole subject deserves close attention and is both popular and easily noticed.
In spite of the necessary limitation of this work to the consideration of a single law, it will make for exactness if I try to state the formula in a more definite fashion, without the deceptive element of simplicity. Even without being able to state in definite quantities the other factors and the co-operating laws, we may reach a satisfactory exactness by the use of a variable factor.
The first formula was only an abstract general statement of what is common to all cases of maximum sexual attrac- tion so far as the sexual relation is governed by the law. I must now try to find an expression for the strength of the sexual affinity in any conceivable case, an expression which, on account of its general form, can be used to describe the relationship between any two living beings, even if these belong to different species or to the same sex.
aM f
'
( ssW ss' M
(where a, a', ss, and ss' are each greater than o and less than unity) define the sexual constitutions of any two living beings between which there is an attraction, then the strength of the attraction may be expressed thus :
a-ss
where /' is an empirical or analytical function of the period during which it is possible for the individuals to act upon one another, what may be called the "reaction-time"; whilst K is the variable factor in which we place all the
? SEX AND CHARACTER
known and unknown laws of sexual affinity, and which also varies with the degree of specific, racial and family relation- ship, and with the health and absence of deformity in the two individuals, and which, finally, will become smaller as the actual spacial distance between the two is greater, and which can be determined in any individual case.
When in this formula a = /3 A must be infinity ; this is the extreme case ; it is sexual attraction as an elemental force, as it has been described with a weird mastercrait by Lynkeus in the novel "Im Postwangen. " Such sexual attraction is as much a natural law as the downward growth of a rootlet towards the earth, or the migration of bacteria to the oxygen at the edge of a microscopic cover-glass.
But it takes some time to grow accustomed to such a view. I shall refer to this point again.
li a -- ss has its maximun value, which is when it equals unity, then A=K . /.
This would be the extreme case of the action of all the sympathetic and antipathetic relations between human beings (leaving out of account social relations in their narrowest sense, which are merely the safeguards of communities) which are not included in the l. iw of sexual affinity. As K generally increases with the strength of congenital relation- ship, A has a greater value when the individuals are of the same nationality than when they belong to different nation- alities. The value of f is great in this case, and onr; can investigate its fluctuations, as, for instance, when two domestic animals of different species are in association ; at first it usually stands for violent enmity, or fear of each other (and A has a negative value), whilst later on a friendship may come about.
When K = o in the formula
K. /'
then A = o, which means that between two living beings of origin too remote there may be no trace of sexual attraction.
38
_ A=
? THE LAWS OF SEXUAL ATTRACTION
39
The provisions of the criminal statute-books, however, in reference to sodomy and bestiality show plainly that even in the case of very remote species K has a value greater thannothing. Theformulamayapplytotwoindividuals not only not of the same species, but even not of the same order.
It is a new theory that the union of male and female organisms is no mere matter of chance, but is guided by a definite law ; and the actual complexities which I have merely suggested show the need for complete investigation into the mysterious nature of sexual attraction.
The experiments of Wilhelm Pfeffer have shown that the male cells of many cryptogams are naturally attracted not merely by the female cells, but also by substances which they have come in contact with under natural conditions, or which have been nitroduced to them experimentally, in the latter case the substances being sometimes of a kind with which they could not possibly have come in contact, except under theconditionsofexperiment. Thusthemalecellsofferns are attracted not only by the malic acid secreted naturally by the archegonia, but by synthetically prepared malic acid, whilst the male cells of mosses are attracted either by the natural acid of the female cells or by acid prepared from cane sugar. A male cell, which, we know not how, is influenced by the degree of concentration of a solution, moves towards the most concentrated part of the fluid. Pfeffer named such movements " chemotactic " and coined the word " chemotropism " to include these and many other asexual cases of motion stimulated by chemical bodies. There is much to support the view that the attraction exercised by females on males which perceive them at a distance by sense organs is to be regarded as analogous in certain respects with chemotropism.
It seems highly probable that chemotropism is also the explanation of the restless and persistent energy with which for days together the mammalian spermatozoa seek the entrance to the uterus, although the natural current pro- duced from the mucous membrane of the uterus is frorO
? SEX AND CHARACTER
within outwards. The spermatozoon, in spite of all me- chanical and other hindrances, makes for the egg-cell with an almost incredible certainty. In this connection we may call to mind the prodigious journeys made by many fish
; salmon travel for months together, practically without taking
any food, from the open sea to the sources of the Rhine, against the current of the river, in order to spawn in locali- ties that are safe and well provided with food.
I have recently been looking at the beautiful sketches which P. Falkenberg has made of the processes of fertilisa- tion in some of the Mediterranean seaweeds. When we speak of the lines of force between the opposite poles of magnets we are dealing with a force no more natural than that which irresistibly attracts the spermatozoon and the egg-cell. The chief jdifference seems to be that in the case of the attraction between the inorganic substances, strains are set up in the media between the two poles, whilst in the living matter the forces seem confined to the organisms themselves. According to Falkenberg's observations, the spermatozoa, in moving towards the egg-cells, are able to overcome the force which otherwise would be exercised upon them by a source of light. The sexual attraction, the chemotactic force, is stronger than the phototactic force.
/when a union has taken place between two individuals wno, according to my formula, are not adapted to each other, if later, the natural complement of either appears, the inclination to desert the makeshift at once asserts itself, in accordance with an inevitable law of nature. A divorce takes place, as much constitutional, depending on the nature of things, as when, if iron sulphate and caustic potash are brought together, the SO4 ions leave the iron to unite with the potassium. When in nature an adjustment of such differences of potential is about to take place, he who would approve or disapprove of the process from the moral point of view would appear to most to play a ridiculous partf
This is the fundamental idea in Goethe's "Wahlver- wandtschaften " (Elective Affinities), and in the fourth
40
? THE LAWS OF SEXUAL ATTRACTION 41
cnapter of the first part of that work he makes it the subject of a playful introduction which was full of un- dreamed of future significance, and the full force of which he was fated himself to experience in later life. I must con- fess to being proud that this book is the first work to take up hisideas. Nonetheless,itisaslittlemyintentionasitwas the intention of Goethe to advocate divorce ; I hope only to explain it. There are human motives which indispose man to divorce and enable him to withstand it. This I shall discuss later on. The physical side of sex in man is less completely ruled by natural law than is the case with lower animals. Wegetanindicationofthisinthefactthatman is sexual throughout the year, and that in him there is less trace than even in domestic animals of the existence of a special spring breeding-season.
The law of sexual affinity is analogous in another respect to a well-known law of theoretical chemistry, although, indeed, there are marked differences. The violence of a chemical reaction is proportionate to the mass of the sub- stances involved, as, for instance, a stronger acid solution unites with a stronger basic solution with greater avidity, just as in the case of the union of a pair of living beings with strong maleness and femaleness. But there is an essential difference between the living process and the reaction of the lifeless chemical substances. The living organism is not homogeneous and isotropic in its composi- tion ; it is not divisible into a number of small parts of identical properties. The difference depends on the principle of individuality, on the fact that every living thing is an individual, and that its individuality is essen- tially structural. And so in the vital process it is not as in inorganic chemistry ; there is no possibility of a larger pro- portion forming one compound, a smaller proportion form- ing another. The organic chemotropism, moreover, may be negative. In certain cases the value of A may result in
a negative quantity, that is to say, the sexual attraction may appear in the form of sexual repulsion. It is true that in purely chemical processes the same reaction may take place
? SEX AND CHARACTER
atdifferentrates. Taking,however,thetotalfailureofsome reaction by catalytic interference as the equivalent of a sexual repulsion, it never happens, according to the latest investigations at least, that the interference merely induces thereactionafteralongerorshorterinterval. Ontheother hand, it happens frequently that a compound which is formed at one temperature breaks up at another tempera- ture. /Here the " direction " of the reaction is a function of the temperature, as, in the vital process, it may be a function of time.
In the value of the factor " /," the time of reaction, a final analogy of sexual attraction with chemical processes may be found, if we are willing to trace the comparison without laying too much stress upon ity Consider the formula for the rapidity of the reaction, the different degrees of rapidity with which a sexual attraction between two individuals is established, and reflect how the value of "A" varies with the value of " t. " However, what Kant termed mathematical vanity must not tempt us to read into our equations complicated and difficult processes, the validity of which is uncertain. All that can be implied is simple enough ; sensual desire increases with the time during which two individuals are in propinquity ; if they were shut up together, it would develop if there were no repulsion, or practically no repulsion between them, in the fashion of some slow chemical process which takes much time before its result is visible. Such a case is the confi- dence with which it is said of a marriage arranged without love, " Love will come later ; time will bring it. "
It is plain that too much stress must not be laid on the analogy between sexual affinity and purely chemical pro- cesses. None the less, I thought it illuminating to make the comparison. It is not yet quite clear if the sexual attrac- tion is to be ranked with the " tropisms," and the matter cannot be settled without going beyond mere sexuality to discuss the general problem of erotics. The phenomena of love require a different treatment, and I sliall return to theminthesecondpartofthisbook. Nonetheless,there
42
? THE LAWS OF SEXUAL ATTRACTION
43
are analogies that cannot be denied when human attractions andchemotropismarecompared. I mayreferasaninstance to the relation between Edward and Ottilie in Goethe's " Wahlverwandtschaften. "
Mention of Goethe's romance leads naturally to a dis- cussion of the marriage problem, and I may here give a few of the practical inferences which would seem to follow from the theoretical considerations of this chapter. It is clear that a natural law, not dissimilar to other natural laws, exists with regard to sexual attraction ; this law shows that, whilst innumerable gradations of sexuality exist, there always may be found pairs of beings the members of which are almostperfectlyadaptedtooneanother. Sofar,marriage has its justification, and, from the standpoint of biology, free love is condemned. Monogamy, however, is a more difficult problem, the solution of which involves other con- siderations, such as periodicity, to which I shall refer later, and the change of the sexual taste with advancing years.
^A second conclusion may be derived from heterostylism, especially with reference to the fact that " illegitimate fertili- sation " almost invariably produces less fertile offspring. This leads to the consideration that amongst other forms of life the strongest and healthiest offspring will result from unions in which there is the maximum of sexual suitability. As the old saying has it, " love-children " turn out to be the finest, strongest, and most vigorous of human beings. Those who are interested in the improvement of mankind must therefore, on purely hygienic grounds, oppose the ordinary mercenary marriages of convenience. }
It is more than probable that the law of sexual attraction may yield useful results when applied to the breeding of animals. More attention will have to be given to the secondary sexual characters of the animals which it is proposed to mate. The artificial methods made use of to secure the serving of mares by stallions unattractive to them do not always fail, but are followed by indifferent results. Probably an obvious result of the use of a substituted stallion in impregnating a mare is the extreme nervousness
? SEX AND CHARACTER
44
of the progeny, which must be treated with bromide and other drugs. So, also, the degeneration of modern Jews may be traced in part to the fact that amongst them marriages for other reasons than love are specially common.
Amongst the many fundamental principles established by the careful observations and experiments of Darwin, and since confirmed by other investigators, is the fact that both very closely related individuals, and those whose specific characters are too unlike, have little sexual attraction for each other, and that if in spite of this sexual union occurs, the offspring usually die at an early stage or are very feeble, or are practically infertile. So also, in heterostylous plants " legitimate fertilisation " brings about more numerous and vigorous seeds than come from other unions.
^t may be said in general that the offspring of those parents which showed the greatest sexual attraction succeed best^
Tnis rule, which is certainly universal, implies the correct, ness of a conclusion which might be drawn from the earlier part of this book, When a marriage has taken place and children have been produced, these have gained nothing from the conquest of sexual repulsion by the parents, for such a conquest could not take place without damage to the mental and bodily characters of the children that would come of it. ^t is certain, however, that many childless marriageshavebeenlovelessmarriages. Theoldideathat the chance of conception is increased where there is a mutual participation in the sexual act is closely connected with what we have been considering as to the greater intensity of the sexual attraction between two comple- mentary individuals^
? CHAPTER IV
HOMO-SEXUALITY AND PEDERASTY
The law of Sexual Attraction gives the long-sought-for explanation of sexual inversion, of sexual inclination towards members of the same sex, whether or no that be accompanied by aversion from members of the opposite sex. Without reference to a distinction which I shall deal with later on, I may say at once that it is exceedingly probable that, in all cases of sexual inversion, there will be found indications of the anatomical characters of the other sex. There is no such thing as a genuine "psycho-sexual her-
maphroditism "
the men who are sexually attracted by men have outward marks of effeminacy, just as women of a similar disposition to those of their own sex exhibit male characters.