In examining the characteristics of sex in Man under its dual aspect, male and female, Nature’s primary or rudimentary aim in establishing sex must be clearly recognised. This aim is the reproduction of the species.
Pleasure in sexual congress is an incident depending largely on mental constitution. In the varying ranks of the animal creation it may or may not exist in connection with reproduction; for it is not essential to the one all-important dominating fact in nature, viz., parentage.
Reproduction is accomplished in various ways in the widely differing ranks of living creatures. Man, owing to certain general resemblances of physical structure, belongs to the higher class of animals, the Mammalia. In this class the two factors necessary to reproduction, viz., ova and semen or sperm, exist in separate individuals. The ova or seed are formed in the ovaries, two small bodies placed within the pelvis of the female; whilst the sperm or vitalizing fluid is formed in the testes, two small bodies placed outside the pelvis of the male.
The organs or parts which produce the ova and semen are strictly analogous in the two sexes. Each part in the female corresponds to a similar part in the male; and at an early period of existence before birth it is impossible to determine whether the sex of the embryo is male or female.
Whilst the male and female organs concerned in the production of semen and of ova are parallel and in strict correspondence, there is one striking deficiency in the male structure. The organ essential to the development of the human being, the organ into which the fertilized ovum (or human seed) must be brought for growth, is wanting in the male structure. This deficiency or difference between the sexes produces important physiological results. The special part which the male has to perform physically in the all-important reproductive function of sex finishes with the act of sexual congress, but it continues in the female. If conception has taken place, the results of this act become increasingly important. The life of sex, or all that belongs to the life of the race, as distinguished from the existence of the individual, becomes continuously and for a long time inseparable from the woman’s personal existence. Thus, all the relations of sex form a more important part of the woman’s than of the man’s life. Another important fact in sexual construction must be noted—viz., the nervous connections of the sexual organs. All the parts concerned in reproduction are in close communication with the brain by means of the nervous system and that enlargement of the spinal cord at the base of the brain, the medulla oblongata. If the nervous connection between the generative organs and the brain be severed, no consciousness of those parts will remain. But whilst the natural nervous connection exists, the influence of the brain upon those organs is continually felt, and information as to their changes is sent to the brain. This nerve connection exists from birth, although the formation of ova and semen (on which the power of reproduction depends) does not take place until a later date. Keen nervous sensation may, therefore, be perceived at any time after birth, although offspring cannot be produced until the more or less perfect establishment of reproductive power at puberty.
It is of great importance to recognise this fact in the education of children.
The above general statements respecting the division and correspondence of the sexual organs in the male and female, and their connection with the brain through the nervous system, are true of all the Mammalia, where, as in man, the reproductive power exists in two separate individuals. When, however, we consider the way in which these functions act in the work of reproduction, an important difference is observed between their action in man and in the lower animals. This difference places man physically in a different and superior category from the brute creation.
The physiological arrangement of physical sex in man corresponds to the demands made by the increasing complexity of the sentiment of mental sex.
As already stated, the two essential features of physical sex are ovulation and sperm-formation. These two important factors in the joint work of reproduction are governed by a different rule in human and in brute life. In man they exist under the rule of continuity and of self-adjustment—i.e., these functions are always existent—but at the same time they adapt themselves to the higher needs of the individual. These two laws under which the functions exist—viz., 1st, continuity of action; 2nd, power of self-adjustment—are distinctive marks of superior human sexual function. Both are necessitated by the growth of reason—i.e., by a progressive civilization.
This will be understood clearly by dwelling more in detail on the way in which these two essential parts of reproduction—viz., sperm-formation and ovulation—are established in the human race. In reproduction, the ova which are constantly produced in the female require to be fertilized by contact with the semen, which is constantly produced by the male, before they can commence the remarkable series of changes and transformations which result in the formation of the embryo, the rudimentary human being.
Semen is a highly vitalized fluid, slowly but constantly secreted or formed by the male. As is the case with all organized living fluids, it is filled with rapidly-moving particles (spermatozoa), and its vitality appears to be in direct ratio to the quantity and activity of such movement. Motion seems to be inseparably connected with life, and is distinctive of any highly vitalized fluid. Thus, in the important and highly organized fluid, the blood, we observe constant motion and change in the active little bodies with which it is filled.
This quality of great and active vitality appears to be indispensable to the spermatozoon which in the work of procreation is obliged to traverse long and winding passages in order to come in contact with the ovum which is advancing to meet it. An intense energy in the special act of procreation is needed to overcome the difficulties which may prevent conception.
It is here necessary to note a common but mischievous fallacy. This necessary energy on the part of the male, in order to overcome anatomical difference of structure in sexual congress, is commonly considered an indication or measurement of the superior force of sexual attraction or passion in the male.
This superficial judgment is not unnatural, as facts which are patent to the senses suggest the first crude thought. The chief structures of the male are external, but they are internal in the female. This difference of structure first suggests to the boy the meaning of actions of the lower animals, whilst the girl may grow up to full womanhood in complete unconsciousness of their signification.
This failure to recognise the equivalent value of internal with external structure has led to such crude fallacy as a comparison of the penis with such a vestige as the clitoris, whilst failing to recognise that vast amount of erectile tissue, mostly internal, in the female, which is the direct seat of special sexual spasm; such superficial observation also fails to realize that sexual attraction is not limited by any isolated physical act.
The true nature of semen remained unknown during ages of physiological ignorance. It was regarded as the one essential element in reproduction, planted for growth in the uterus, where it was simply nourished by the female. The moving particles contained in it were regarded as animalculæ, and fanciful theories as to these particles forming the brain and nervous system, etc., of the embryo were entertained. But all these theories have been swept away by modern investigation. It is now proved that when the substances of spermatozoa and ova mingle a new action is set up, and an entirely new substance created. Life, in the true sense of separate individuality, only begins with the mingling of the male and female elements, the commencement of a new existence then taking place when the living ovum fixes itself in the uterus, and remains there for full growth and final birth. The substance of spermatozoa and the substance of ova possess no sanctity of life apart from their union. They are both produced in lavish abundance, and thrown off from the body in the same way as other unused secretions are thrown off.
At the periods of menstruation unused ova are discharged. In a similar manner unused semen is thrown off from time to time, in an entirely healthy and beneficent way, by spontaneous natural action.
As ovulation in the female and sperm-formation in the male are equivalent productions, so menstruation in the female and natural sperm-emission in the male are analogous and beneficial functions.
It is in the arrangement of these two functions in man that the physical sexual superiority of mankind to the brute creation lies. The reason of the two distinctive laws which govern human sex is evident. Thus:
1st. Continuity of action. Procreation in man is not limited to any special season.[1] Men and women can be governed by reason as to the time and circumstances when they select one another and commence the important work of founding a family. The physical organs are maintained in fit condition for reproduction by these functions of ovulation and spermation, as servants ready to obey at any time the superior intelligence of the master Will.
2nd. The power of self-adjustment. These two functions, whilst maintaining aptitude for procreation in the activities of ovaries and testes, by occasional spontaneous action secure also the independence of the individual by such natural action. In the exercise of a faculty which requires the concurrence of two intelligent beings endowed with free will and reason, individual independence must be secured. It would strike at the root of human progress, and convert society into slavery, if the life and health of an adult could not be maintained by the self-guidance and independence of the individual. The natural occasional spontaneous action of the structures concerned in reproduction secures individual independence whilst awaiting the beneficial ordinance of marriage.
Thus in the female the constant formation of ova is subordinated to the needs of individual freedom and to the power of mental self-government by the function of menstruation, which only in exhausting excess becomes menorrhœa. In the male the slower secretion of semen is adapted to the same individual freedom and power of self-control by the natural function of sperm-emission, which only in exhausting excess becomes spermatorrhœa.
As menstruation in the female is the means adopted by our organization for securing both the permanent integrity of the various essential generative structures and their relief from any excess of vitality, so sperm-emission is the natural relief and independent outlet of that steady action of the generative organs in the male, which secures through adult life the constant aptitude for reproduction distinctive of the human race. The parallel in the two sexes is exact. Menstruation and sperm-emission are the natural healthy actions of self-balance, established by the economy for preserving the mastership of each individual over her or his own nature. At the same time the integrity of the structure is maintained by the steady action of these two functions of ovulation and spermation. These natural functions only degenerate into states of disease through ignorance of physiological law and faulty hygienic conditions on the one hand, or through impure thoughts and bad habits acting through the nervous system on the other. When these natural functions are either injured or unduly stimulated through the brain and nervous system, then only do they become diseased, producing menorrhœa or leucorrhœa in the female, and spermatorrhœa in the male.
It is impossible to overrate the wide importance of this law of self-adjustment, under which human function is carried on. The abuses of sex and the misunderstanding of actual facts, which have led to widespread error on this subject, will be dwelt on later. Every parent, however, who has been able to fulfil the true parental relationship to the child will realize the beneficence of this law. The obligatory and premature marriage of daughters, so largely the custom abroad, is one result of error on this subject. A still more dangerous error is the cruel advice sometimes given to a young man to degrade a woman, and sin against his own higher nature by taking a mistress or resorting to harlots.
I have often been consulted by anxious mothers who have observed or been told by their boys of fourteen or fifteen that an unusual discharge had taken place. It is of vital importance to the parent to know that such action is as natural and healthy in the growing lad as in the growing girl, but that in both it is a time requiring guidance, both moral and physical. Respectful, earnest words of hygienic counsel, including mind and body, are indispensable at this critical time of youth. Parents, particularly mothers, live too often in fatal ignorance of the conditions of sexual health and disease in their children. My advice is constantly asked in such cases as the following: A careful mother, who had brought up her son, a strong and healthy young man, to the age of twenty, learned from him of this natural sign of vitality, which both supposed to indicate disease! It was with pain and dismay that she replied to his confidence, ‘Alas! then, my son, I fear you must consult a doctor.’ The joyful light of gratitude and renewed hope with which she learned the truth on this important subject—viz., that the occasional spontaneous action of the organs (not voluntarily forced by corrupt thought and action) is natural and beneficial—will not be easily forgotten. It was like the gleam of transcendent joy which I have seen illuminate the face of a young mother at the shrill cry of her first-born infant.
The measureless evil caused, not only by their ignorance, but by the false information given to mothers, is illustrated by the inquiry made of a friend of mine, a clergyman, by an intelligent French mother about to move to Paris with her son. This lady, sensible and even pious, wrote to the clergyman to inquire ‘if providing a mistress for her son would be very costly in Paris.’ She had accepted as a fact what she had been taught, viz., that no young man who could not marry early could remain healthy without resorting to vice.
From lack of true knowledge of the natural facts of their own physical organization, young men are often terrified into a resort to quacks, who impose on their ignorance. The young also of both sexes may be tempted into bad habits of self-abuse at the outset of this new life, from being unacquainted with the evils and dangers of vicious indulgence.
It is the grave parental duty of both father and mother to be able to direct a child at its first entrance into adult life. At an age varying with climate, race, and temperament, the young man as well as the young woman will experience the healthy discharge, which is a sign that the gradual development of the reproductive organs has attained its final stage. In both its sudden appearance often produces fright; in both it may appear once, with long intervals of recurrence. In the girl it tends gradually (for important natural reasons) to the establishment of a frequent and regularly returning function. In the young man and in the continent unmarried adult, the natural action of these organs is of far less frequent recurrence; it may be of slow and uncertain return, dependent greatly upon the occupation of the mind and general physical state of the individual. In the natural healthy young man, the occasional return of this function, even with a certain degree of periodicity, is a valuable aid to adult self-government.
It is impossible to reprobate too strongly the false views of physiology held by those who make no distinction between the natural healthy growth of these functions and their abuse. No Christian physiologist whose observation of facts is enlightened by a knowledge of the possibility of moral growth can commit so fatal an error. It is an insult to the male nature to infer that it is inferior to the female nature because it does not fully possess the power of individual self-balance. The assertion that one human being is dependent on the degradation of another human being for the maintenance of personal health is contradicted by physiological facts as well as social experience.
The greater complication and elaboration of sexual structure and function belonging to the female nature is due to the more important share given to woman in the work of parentage. The constant production in the female of living germs (ova), which require only a passing act of stimulation by the male to enter into a state of active and astonishingly rapid growth; the unique change of the small uterus into an enormous and powerful structure, capable of containing a perfect child, and sending it forth by tremendous efforts into the outer world; the changes in all the surrounding organs and tissues necessitated by the accomplishment of such a remarkable work in the short space of nine months; and the subjection of this great physical work to the law of individual freedom and perfection, are facts which show the superior complication and importance of the female sexual organization. The more elaborate processes of menstruation, as compared with the lesser work of sperm-emission, show the greater complication of the organs to be kept in good working order in the female than in the male.
So extensive and important are the physical structures that must be kept in readiness for use in the mothers of the race, that their action is more withdrawn from the dominion of the will than is the case with men. In relation to the male, it is well known that the secretion of semen is very much controlled by the mental condition of the individual. Thus many a young man during keen nervous excitement (or during the strain of examinations) becomes alarmed by the appearance of unusual action never before noticed.
It is a fact to be carefully noted that sufficient healthy action to insure reproductive aptitude is always maintained in the secreting organs throughout adult life, quite independently of the will. Nature never allows the male, any more than the female, to become impotent through abeyance of function. No such fear need ever disturb the mind. The utmost devotion to intellectual life, to lofty thought, to beneficent action, never injures the procreative power, which always remains intact, capable of its special faculty throughout the virile age. But the active exercise of the intellectual and moral faculties has remarkable power of diminishing the formation of semen, and limiting the necessity of its natural removal, the demand for such relief becoming rarer under ennobling and healthy influences. As Dr. Acton remarks, ‘sexual distress affects particularly the semi-continent—those who indeed see the better course and approve of it, but follow the worse; who, without the recklessness of the hardened or the strength of the pure, endure at once the sufferings of self-denial and the remorse of self-indulgence.’[2]
The healthy limitation of sexual secretion in men sets free a vast store of nervous force for employment in intellectual and active practical pursuits. The amount of nervous energy expended by the male in the temporary act of sexual congress is very great, out of all apparent proportion to its physical results, and is an act not to be too often repeated. In the fully matured and strong adult the nature is adapted to such occasional expenditure, but it is a serious evil to the growing or unconsolidated nature. Even in strong adult life there is a great loss of social power through the squandering of adult energy, which results from any unnatural stimulus given to the appetite of sex in the male. The barbarous custom of polygamy, the degrading habit of promiscuous intercourse, selfish license in marriage, and all artificial excitements which give undue stimulus to the passion of sex, divert an immeasurable amount of mental and moral force from the great work of human advancement.
The control possessed so largely by the male over the physical function of sperm-formation is not possessed by the female over the corresponding function of ovulation. In the female, Nature apparently cannot venture to subordinate the simple physical functions of sex to the will, to as great an extent as in the male. A more unyielding rule is needed in these physical activities, because the work to be accomplished for the race by the female is so much more elaborate and long continued. A greater amount of varied action in the complicated organs is necessitated in order to maintain their adult aptitude. The function of ovulation (formation of ova) is not increased or diminished by the will, or by the dwelling of the mind upon sexual objects, at all to the same extent that spermation (formation of sperm) may be affected by the same mental action. Ovulation, and its natural accompaniment, menstruation, is much more of a necessary fixed quantity than spermation and its natural accompaniment, sperm-emission.[3]
It is thus seen that the laws guiding the human sexual functions as established by Creative Power are as conducive to health, and as consistent with the freedom and perfection of human growth, in one sex as in the other. Each sex, obeying the Governing Law, is created to help, not destroy the other. The general outline of arrangement is the same in each, viz., power of mental and physical self-balance, strictly guarded potency, and a certain degree of periodicity.
I repeat that parents, and especially mothers, should be acquainted with the truths of physiology. There is in the pure sentiment of maternity a special Divine gift of unselfishness and profound devotion to the well-being of husband and children. This God-given power enables a wife and mother to comprehend and apply this knowledge with the impersonality of wisdom. The awful aberrations of our sexual nature excite a deep pity which inevitably seeks for a remedy. When this special aptitude given to women by the power of maternity is fully realized, the enlarged intelligence of mothers will be welcomed as the brightest harbinger of sexual regeneration.