frequency of 37 spontaneous discharges, the
desired multiple may be in one case X and in the other 2X.[378] Our data,
however, do clearly denote that the frequency in the six or eight summer
months should bear to the frequency of the six or four winter months the
proportion of three or four to two.[379] It should never be forgotten,
however, that, under all conditions, both man and wife should exercise
prudence, both _selfward_ and _otherward_, and that each should utterly
refuse to gratify self by accepting a sacrifice, however willingly
offered, that may be gravely prejudicial to the health of the other; for
only experience can show whether, in any union, the receptivity of the
woman be greater or less than, or equal to, the _physical_ desire of the
man. To those, of course, who regard marriage from the old-fashioned and
grossly immoral standpoint of Melancthon and other theologians, and who
consider a wife as the divinely ordained vehicle for the chartered
intemperance of her husband, it will seem grotesque in the highest degree
that a physiological inquirer should attempt to advise them how often to
seek the embraces of their wives; but those who regard woman from the
standpoint of a higher ethics, who abhor the notion that she should be
only the vehicle for her husband's passions, and who demand that she shall
be mistress of her own body, will not be ungrateful for any guidance that
physiology can afford them. It will be seen presently, moreover, that the
study of the weekly rhythm does afford us some less inexact clue to the
desired solution.

One curious fact may be mentioned before we quit this interesting
question. It is stated that "Solon required [of the husband] three
_payments_ per month. By the Misna a daily debt was imposed upon an idle
vigorous young husband; _twice a week_ on a citizen; once in thirty days
on a camel-driver; once in six months on a seaman."[380] Now it is
certainly striking that Solon's "three payments per month" exactly
correspond with my records of 37 discharges annually. Had Solon similarly
recorded a series of observations upon himself?

THE LUNAR-MONTHLY RHYTHM.

We now come to that division of the inquiry which is of the greatest
physiological interest, although of little social import. Is there a
monthly period in man as well as in woman? My records indicate clearly
that there is.

In searching for this monthly rhythm I have utilized not only the data of
the eight completel