(1906) that certain notes that I have kept with scrupulous exactness
during eight years of married life, lend almost no support to the
suggestion made in the text--i.e., that sexual desire is greater at one
season of the year than at another. The nature of these notes I cannot
discuss; but, they clearly indicate that, although there is a slight
degree more of sexual desire in the second and third quarters of the year,
than in the first and fourth, yet, this difference is so slight as to be
almost negligible. Even if the months be rearranged in the
triplets--November-December-January, etc.,--so as to bring the maximum
months of May, June, and July together, the difference between the highest
quarter and the lowest amounts to an increase of only ten per cent, upon
the latter--after allowing, of course, for the abnormal shortness of
February; and, neglecting February, the increase in the maximum months
(June and July) over the minimum (November) is equal to an increase of
under 14 per cent, upon the latter. These differences are so vastly less
than those shown on Chart 7 that they possess almost no significance: but,
lest too much stress be laid upon the apparently _equalizing_ influence of
married life, it must be added that the records discussed in the text were
obtained during residence in London, whereas, since my marriage, I have
lived in South Cornwall, where the climate is both milder and more
equable.]

[380] Selden's _Uxor Hebraica_ as quoted in Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_,
vol. v, p. 52, of Bonn's edition.

[381] I may add that the curve yielded by 1896-97 is remarkably parallel
with that yielded by the preceding nine years, but I have not thought it
worth while to chart these two additional curves.

[382] See "Rhythm of the Pulse," Chart 4.

[383] As will be observed, I have omitted the results of the incompletely
recorded years of 1889 and 1891. The apparent explanation of this curious
oscillation will be given directly.

[384] See "Rhythm of the Pulse," p. 21.

APPENDIX C.

THE AUTO-EROTIC FACTOR IN RELIGION.

The intimate association between the emotions of love and religion is well
known to all those who are habitually brought into close contact with the
phenomena of the religious life. Love and religion are the two most
volcanic emotions to which the human organism is liable, and it is not
surprising that, when there is a disturbance in one of these spheres, the
vibrations should readily