arousing
disgust has developed. Its probably wide extension is indicated not only
by the strong feeling attached to the constant presence of clothing on
this part of the body,--such constant presence being quite uncalled for if
the garment or ornament is merely a sort of sexual war-paint,--but by the
repugnance felt by many savages very low down in the scale to the public
satisfaction of natural needs, and to their more than civilized
cleanliness in this connection;[36] it is further of interest to note that
in some parts of the world the covering is not in front, but behind;
though of this fact there are probably other explanations. Among civilized
people, also, it may be added, the final and invincible seat of modesty is
sometimes not around the pubes, but the anus; that is to say, that in such
cases the fear of arousing disgust is the ultimate and most fundamental
element of modesty.[37]

The concentration of modesty around the anus is sometimes very
marked. Many women feel so high a degree of shame and reserve
with regard to this region, that they are comparatively
indifferent to an anterior examination of the sexual organs. A
similar feeling is not seldom found in men. "I would permit of an
examination of my genitals by a medical man, without any feeling
of discomfort," a correspondent writes, "but I think I would
rather die than submit to any rectal examination." Even
physicians have been known to endure painful rectal disorders for
years, rather than undergo examination.

"Among ordinary English girls," a medical correspondent writes,
"I have often noticed that the dislike and shame of allowing a
man to have sexual intercourse with them, when newly married, is
simply due to the fact that the sexual aperture is so closely
apposed to the anus and bladder. If the vulva and vagina were
situated between a woman's shoulder blades, and a man had a
separate instrument for coitus, not used for any excretory
purpose, I do not think women would feel about intercourse as
they sometimes do. Again, in their ignorance of anatomy, women
often look upon the vagina and womb as part of the bowel and its
exit of discharge, and sometimes say, for instance,
'inflammation of the _bowel_', when they mean _womb_. Again,
many, perhaps most, women believe that they pass water through
the vagina, and are ignorant of the existence of the separat