34 WALTER HE APE. 



The ideas on this subject which have for so long prevailed 

 and which even now are taught, namely, the identity of 

 '^ menstruation" ^ and of oestrus with ovulation, would make 

 this view impossible ; but since it is known that, in various 

 animals, either '' menstruation'^ or oestrus may take place 

 without ovulation, and that ovulation may occur without the 

 coincidence of '' menstruation" (Leopold and Mironoff, 1894) 

 or of oestrus (bat), the possibility of isolating these func- 

 tions is demonstrated. Thus it is no louger impossible to 

 suppose that, while they are both due to similar stimulating 

 influences, one of them may be developed in excess of the 

 other. In this respect monkeys stand in an intermediate 

 position between the lower mammals and man. 



The Sexual Season in Man. — In the human female 

 this question of the simultaneity of ovulation and oestrus 

 (" menstruation," as it has been wrongly called) has given 

 rise to wide discussion. I have referred to the question 

 somewhat fully elsewhere (Heape, 1894, 1897, 1898), and 

 have shown that the majority of modern writers on the sub- 

 ject are in favour of the view that the two functions ai-e not 

 necessai'ily coincident in the human female, the correctness 

 of which conclusion it seems to me impossible to doubt. 



With regard to the existence of a special limited sexual 

 season or seasons, it is interesting to note that there is some 

 evidence of such in the human female; evidence both of a 

 time in the past when such special seasons were common to 

 all, and of a time in the present day to which certain peoples 

 confine such matters and during which most peoples exhibit 

 special generative activity. 



Here again we are upon the edge of a very wide field of 

 research which it is impossible to do more than touch. I 

 may, however, briefly draw attention to certain facts which 

 in my opinion throw some light upon the matter. 



Feasts, similar to the erotic feasts which were indulged 

 in by the ancients—Babylonians, Phoenicians, Egyptians, 

 Greeks, and Romans (Ploss, 1887), — were still practised to 

 * " Menstruation " is used here in its oriorinal sense. 



