many
references to this supposed virtue. As we know, potatoes, even
when taken in the largest doses, have not the slightest
aphrodisiac effect, and the Irish peasantry, whose diet consists
very largely of potatoes, are even regarded as possessing an
unusually small measure of sexual feeling. It is probable that
the mistake arose from the fact that potatoes were originally a
luxury, and luxuries frequently tend to be regarded as
aphrodisiacs, since they are consumed under circumstances which
tend to arouse the sexual desires. It is possible also that, as
has been plausibly suggested, the misunderstanding may have been
due to sailors--the first to be familiar with the potato--who
attributed to this particular element of their diet ashore the
generally stimulating qualities of their life in port. The eryngo
(_Eryngium maritimum_), or sea holly, which also had an erotic
reputation in Elizabethan times, may well have acquired it in the
same way. Many other vegetables have a similar reputation, which
they still retain. Thus onions are regarded as aphrodisiacal, and
were so regarded by the Greeks, as we learn from Aristophanes. It
is noteworthy that Marro, a reliable observer, has found that in
Italy, both in prisons and asylums, lascivious people are fond of
onions (_La Puberta_, p. 297), and it may perhaps be worth while
to recall the observation of Serieux that in a woman in whom the
sexual instinct only awoke in middle age there was a horror of
leeks. In some countries, and especially in Belgium, celery is
popularly looked upon as a sexual stimulant. Various condiments,
again, have the same reputation, perhaps because they are hot and
because sexual desire is regarded, rightly enough, as a kind of
heat. Fish--skate, for instance, and notably oysters and other
shellfish--are very widely regarded as aphrodisiacs, and Kisch
attributes this property to caviar. It is probable that all these
and other foods which have obtained this reputation, in so far as
they have any action whatever on the sexual appetite, only
possess it by virtue of their generally nutritious and
stimulating qualities, and not by the presence of any special
principle having a selective action on the sexual sphere. A
beefsteak is probably as powerful a sexual stimulant as any food;
a nutritious food, however, whi