likewise suggested by the fact that
the same subject is also sexually affected by various perfumes and odorous
flowers not recalling leather.[70]

It has been suggested to me by a lady that the odor of leather suggests
that of the sexual organs. The same suggestion is made by Hagen,[72] and I
find it stated by Gould and Pyle that menstruating girls sometimes smell
of leather. The secret of its influence may thus be not altogether
obscure; in the fact that leather is animal skin, and that it may thus
vaguely stir the olfactory sensibilities which had been ancestrally
affected by the sexual stimulus of the skin odor lies the probable
foundation of the mystery.

In the absence of all suggestion of personal or animal odors, in its most
exquisite forms in the fragrance of flowers, olfactory sensations are
still very frequently of a voluptuous character. Mantegazza has remarked
that it is a proof of the close connection between the sense of smell and
the sexual organs that the expression of pleasure produced by olfaction
resembles the expression of sexual pleasures.[73] Make the chastest woman
smell the flowers she likes best, he remarks, and she will close her eyes,
breathe deeply, and, if very sensitive, tremble all over, presenting an
intimate picture which otherwise she never shows, except perhaps to her
lover. He mentions a lady who said: "I sometimes feel such pleasure in
smelling flowers that I seem to be committing a sin."[74] It is really the
case that in many persons--usually, if not exclusively, women--the odor of
flowers produces not only a highly pleasurable, but a distinctly and
specifically sexual, effect. I have met with numerous cases in which this
effect was well marked. It is usually white flowers with heavy,
penetrating odors which exert this influence. Thus, one lady (who is
similarly affected by various perfumes, forget-me-nots, ylang-ylang,
etc.) finds that a number of flowers produce on her a definite sexual
effect, with moistening of the pudenda. This effect is especially produced
by white flowers like the gardenia, tuberose, etc. Another lady, who lives
in India, has a similar experience with flowers. She writes: A scent to
cause me sexual excitement must be somewhat heavy and _penetrating_.
Nearly all white flowers so affect me and many Indian flowers with heavy,
almost pungent scents. (All the flower scents are quite unconnected with
me with any individual.) Tuberose, lilies of the valley, and fra