nterior coitus. Adler observes
that it thus comes about that the human method of coitus, while by
bringing breast to breast and face to face it has added a new dignity and
refinement, a fresh source of enjoyment, to the embrace of the sexes, has
not been an unmixed advantage to woman, for while man has lost nothing by
the change, woman has now to contend with an increased difficulty in
attaining an adequate amount of pressure on that "electric button" which
normally sets the whole mechanism in operation.[88]

We may well bring into connection with the changed conditions brought
about by anterior coitus the interesting fact that while the clitoris
remains the most exquisitely sensitive of the sexual centers in woman,
voluptuous sensitivity is much more widely diffused in woman than in man.
Over the whole body, indeed, it is apt to be more distinctly marked than
is usually the case in man. But even if we confine ourselves to the
genital region, while in man that portion of the penis which enters the
vagina, and especially the glans, is normally the only portion which, even
during turgescence, is sensitive to voluptuous contacts, in woman the
whole of the region comprised within the larger lips, including even the
anus and internally the vagina and the vaginal portion of the womb,[89]
become sensitive to voluptuous contacts. Deprived of the penis the ability
of a man to experience specifically sexual sensations becomes very limited
indeed. But the loss of the clitoris or of any other structure involves no
correspondingly serious disability on women. Ablation of the clitoris for
sexual hyperaesthesia has for this reason been abandoned, except under
special circumstances. The members of the Russian Skoptzy sect habitually
amputate the clitoris, nymphae, and breasts, yet many young Skoptzy women
told the Russian physician, Guttceit, that they were perfectly well able
to enjoy coitus.

Freud believes that in very young girls the clitoris is the
exclusive seat of sexual sensation, masturbation at this age
being directed to the clitoris alone, and spontaneous sexual
excitement being confined to twitchings and erection of this
organ, so that young girls are able, from their own experience,
to recognize without instruction the signs of sexual excitement
in boys. At a later age sexual excitability spreads from the
clitoris to other regions--just as the easy inflammability of
wood sets light to c