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

THE BIOLOGY OF SEXlege of refreshing the Czarina, when exhausted from excesses,by smacking the Imperial buttocks. This office wasof course reserved for ladies of aristocratic birth. Thephysiological ground of the proceeding lies in the factthat, as Fer6 has demonstrated, tickling is in moderationa stimulant increasing energy, though in excess it is adepressant.The relationship between ticklishness and sexual feelingis indicated by the experience of a lady who statesthat if she is touched in the sexual region when not inclinedfor sexual relationships, ticklishness isaroused, butthat when sexual desire arises ticklishness disappears. Itis, we see, a vicarious sexual feeling, or we may say thatsexual feeling is a transmuted form of ticklishness. In itsoriginal aspect a sentinel to repel contact, it becomesunder another aspect a minister to attraction.The intimate connection between the skin and thesexual sphereis indicated, not only by the phenomena oftickling, but by the behavior of the sebaceous glands,which are the vestiges of former hair glands, and survivefrom a period when hair covered the body. The attemptsof these glands at puberty, or when the sexual system isdisturbed, to produce hairs frequently lead to pimples,and actual hairs often appear in women after the menopause.Thus the hair itself and itsdisturbances are associatedwith the sexual system. Partial baldness or alopecia areata,about theas Sabouraud pointed out, tends to occur with specialfrequencyin women towards puberty and againage of 50, though in men there is no corresponding frequencycurve. It may also occur after suppression of themenses, as after ovariotomy, and sometimes even in pregnancy.While the sexual embrace itself is,[45]in large measure, a