Psychology of sex - Total No. of Records in System :: 2032

THE BIOLOGY OF SEXworld. It represents the psychic aspect of the slow attainmentof tumescence, the method of securing contrectation.Even among the hermaphroditic slugs an elaboratecourtship is found; each partner slowly follows the other'smovements; they crawl round one another; one rests itsmouth on the caudal end of the other; they emit largequantities of mucus; finally the organs of generation areprotruded, to twist and curve around each other, assumingbeautiful shapes and taking on iridescent colors untiltumescence is completed. That is the manifestation of aprocess which we may trace throughout Nature, even, inits psychic aspects, in the highest stages of civilization.The phenomena of courtship are most conspicuous, andhave been most carefully studied, among various speciesof birds in widely different parts of the world. The beautifulplumage of birds, their song, their self -display, theirparades, their dances, are all(as most authorities nowagree) primarily a part of courtship, a method of attainingin the male himself, and exciting in the female hedesires for his partner, an adequate stimulation of thepairing impulse. The same influence survives in civilization.A Dutchman at the Hague told Hirschfeld thatduring the Great War, when English troops were frequentlythere, several hundred Dutch girlshad becomemothers through the fascinating walk of the Englishsoldiers; referring to their special swift and light step.In civilization, indeed, owing to the idleness, luxury,and over-nutrition which make sexual erethism comparativelyeasy, and tumescence sometimes almost constant,the phenomena of courtship become less important. Yetthey still prevail, though in more varied, delicate, andoften mainly psychic forms.The phenomena of courtship are biologically connectedwith the fact that in animals, in savage man, to some ex-[31]