festations, I
may mention the case of a man of 57, a somewhat eccentric preacher, etc.,
who writes: "My whole nature goes out so to some persons, and they thrill
and stir me so that I have an emission while sitting by them with no
thought of sex, only the gladness of soul found its way out thus, and a
glow of health suffused the whole body. There was no spasmodic conclusion,
but a pleasing gentle sensation as the few drops of semen passed." (In
reality, no doubt, not semen, but urethral fluid.) This man's condition
may certainly be considered somewhat morbid; he is attracted to both men
and women, and the sexual impulse seems to be irritable and weak; but a
similar state of things exists so often in women, no doubt due to sexual
repression, and in individuals who are in a general state of normal and
good health, that in these it can scarcely be called morbid. Brooding on
sexual images, which the theologians termed _delectatio morosa_, may lead
to spontaneous orgasm in either sex, even in perfectly normal persons.
Hammond described as a not uncommon form of "psychic coitus," a condition
in which the simple act of imagination alone, in the presence of the
desired object, suffices to produce orgasm. In some public conveyance,
theatre, or elsewhere, the man sees a desirable woman and by concentrating
his attention on her person and imagining all the stages of intimacy he
quickly succeeds in producing orgasm.[222] Niceforo refers to an Italian
work-girl of 14 who could obtain ejaculation of mucus four times a day, in
the workroom in the presence of the other girls, without touching herself
or moving her body, by simply thinking of sexual things.[223]

If the orgasm occurs spontaneously, without the aid of mental impressions,
or any manipulations _ad hoc_, though under such conditions it ceases to
be sinful from the theological standpoint, it certainly ceases also to be
normal. Serieux records the case of a somewhat neurotic woman of 50, who
had been separated from her husband for ten years, and since lived a
chaste life; at this age, however, she became subject to violent crises of
sexual orgasm, which would come on without any accompaniment of voluptuous
thoughts. MacGillicuddy records three cases of spontaneous orgasm in women
coming under his notice.[224] Such crises are frequently found in both men
and women, who, from moral reasons, ignorance, or on other grounds are
restrained from attaining the complete sexual orgasm, b