956 OP CxENERATION. 



passion, having been observed in children of but a few years old. The procre- 

 ative power may last, if not abused, during a very prolonged period. Un- 

 doubted instances of virility at the age of more than 100 years are on record ; 

 but in these cases, the general bodily vigor was preserved in a very remarkable 

 degree. The ordinary rule seems to be that sexual power is not retained by 

 the male to any considerable amount, after the age of 60 or 65 years. To the 

 use of the sexual organs for the continuance of his race, Man is prompted by a 

 powerful instinctive desire ( 772), which he shares with the lower animals. 

 This Instinct, like the other propensities, is excited by sensations; and these 

 may either originate in the sexual organs themselves, or may be excited through 

 the organs of special sensation. Thus in Man it is most powerfully aroused 

 by impressions conveyed through the sight or the touch; but in many other 

 animals, the auditory and olfactive organs communicate impressions which have 

 an equal power; and it is not improbable that, in certain morbidly-excited 

 states of feeling, the same may be the case in ourselves. That local impressions 

 have also a very powerful effect in exciting sexual desire, must have been within 

 the experience of almost every one ; the fact is most remarkable, however, in 

 cases of Satyriasis, which disease is generally found to be connected with some 

 obvious cause of irritation of the generative system, such as pruritus, active 

 congestion, &c. That some part of the Encephalon is the seat of this as of 

 other instinctive propensities, appears from the considerations formerly ad- 

 duced; but that the Cerebellum is the part in which this function is specially 

 located, cannot be regarded as by any means sufficiently proved ( 707 772). 

 The instinct, when once aroused (even though very obscurely felt), acts upon 

 the mental faculties and moral feelings ; and thus becomes the source, though 

 almost unconsciously so to the individual, of the tendency to form that kind of 

 attachment towards one of the opposite sex which is known as love. This tend- 

 ency cannot be regarded as a simple passion or emotion, since it is the result 

 of the combined operations of the reason, the imagination, and the moral feel- 

 ings ; and it is in this engraftment (so to speak) of the psychical attachment, 

 upon the mere corporeal instinct, that a difference exists between the sexual 

 relations of Man and those of the lower animals. In proportion as the Human 

 being makes the temporary gratification of the mere sexual appetite his chief 

 object, and overlooks the happiness arising from spiritual communion, which is 

 not only purer but more permanent, and of which a renewal may be anticipated 

 in another world does he degrade himself to the level of the brutes that perish. 

 Yet how lamentably frequent is this degradation ! 



961. When impelled by sexual excitement, the Male seeks intercourse with 

 the Female, the erectile tissue of the genital organs becomes turgid with blood 

 ( 534), and the surface acquires a much increased sensibility ; this is especially 

 acute in the Glans penis. By the friction of the Glans against the rugous walls 

 of the Vagina, the excitement is increased; and the impression which is thus 

 produced at last becomes so strong, that it calls forth, through the medium of 

 the Spinal Cord, a reflex contraction of the muscles which surround the Vesi- 

 culae Seminales. These receptacles discharge their contents (partly consisting 

 of semen and partly of a secretion of their own) into the Urethra; and from 

 this they are expelled with some degree of force, and with a kind of convulsive 

 action, by its own Compressor muscles. Now although the sensations con- 

 cerned in this act are ordinarily most acutely pleasurable, there appears suffi- 

 cient evidence that they are by no means essential to its performance ; and that 

 the impression which is conveyed to the Spinal Cord need not give rise to a 

 sensation, in order to produce the reflex contraction of the Ejaculator muscles 

 ( 723). The high degree of nervous excitement which the act of coition in- 

 volves produces a subsequent depression of corresponding amount; and the too 

 frequent repetition of it is productive of consequences very injurious to the 



