The evolution and dissolution of the sexual instinct / by Charles Féré.

  • Charles Féré
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The evolution and dissolution of the sexual instinct / by Charles Féré. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    instinct remain in many women after the menopause ; and sometimes the menopause even excites them intensely, just as in the case of castration. If after castration all goes on working just as if peripheral excitation still started from the amputated organ, it may be attributed to the fact that the nerves of the organ are still capable of being excited in the tissue of the cicatrix, causing specific sensations analogous to those which are observed amongst people who have undergone amputation and are subject, sometimes throughout their lives, to illusions everybody has heard of.1 It has been argued that sexual needs are independent of the state of the genital organs, because it is possible for sexual desire to continue after the genital organs have been satisfied, and when it is even impossible for them to repeat the sexual act.2 This may be explained by the continuance of the local irritation caused by the congestion connected with the recent functioning of the organ as well as by the continuance of the central irritation. On the other hand, it is well known that when an organ has reached a condition of normal or abnormal activity under the influence of outward or inward excitation, this activity, connected with the stimulation of nervous elements, does not always depart merely because the cause of irritation disappears. For example, in cases of what is called sympathetic insanity, when the exciting cause has vanished, there remains in the brain an affection so deeply-seated that it becomes independent and permanent. The researches of Duplay,3 which have been in great 1 A. Pitres. Etude sur les sensations illusoires des amputés, (Ann. med. psyck. 1877, 8th series, vol. V, pp. 5, 177.) 2 J. Roux. Psychologie de Vinstinct sexuel, 1899, p. 21. 3 Duplay. Rech. sur le sperme des vieillards, {Arch. gén. de méd., 1352, XXX, 4e série, p. 385.)
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