f the thighs on the trunk; by a special
adjustment of the body, and sometimes perhaps merely in the presence of
sexual hyperaesthesia, it is thus possible to act upon the sexual organs;
but this is by no means a necessary result of using the sewing-machine,
and inquiry of various women, with well-developed sexual feelings, who are
accustomed to work the treadle, has not shown the presence of any tendency
in this direction.

Sexual irritation may also be produced by the bicycle in women. Thus,
Moll[210] remarks that he knows many married women, and some unmarried,
who experience sexual excitement when cycling; in several cases he has
ascertained that the excitement is carried as far as complete orgasm. This
result cannot, however, easily happen unless the seat is too high, the
peak in contact with the organs, and a rolling movement is adopted; in the
absence of marked hyperaesthesia these results are only effected by a bad
seat or an improper attitude, the body during cycling resting under proper
conditions on the buttocks, and the work being mainly done by the muscles
of the thighs and legs which control the ankles, flexion of the thigh on
the pelvis being very small. Most medical authorities on cycling are of
opinion that when cycling leads to sexual excitement the fault lies more
with the woman than with the machine. This conclusion does not appear to
me to be absolutely correct. I find on inquiry that with the old-fashioned
saddle, with an elevated peak rising toward the pubes, a certain degree of
sexual excitement, not usually producing the orgasm (but, as one lady
expressed it, making one feel quite ready for it), is fairly common among
women. Lydston finds that irritation of the genital organs may
unquestionably be produced in both males and females by cycling. The
aggravation of haemorrhoids sometimes produced by cycling indicates also
the tendency to local congestion. With the improved flat saddles, however,
constructed with more definite adjustment to the anatomical formation of
the parts, this general tendency is reduced to a negligible minimum.

Reference may be made at this point to the influence of tight-lacing. This
has been recognized by gynaecologists as a factor of sexual excitement and
a method of masturbation.[211] Women who have never worn corsets sometimes
find that, on first putting them on, sexual feeling is so intensified that
it is necessary to abandon their use.[212] The reason of this (as Siebe