I explained the matter
to him, made him understand that the fault was entirely on his
side, and that his first duty was to show affection for his
wife, or if not, to accept divorce. The effect was purely
psychical, and from this moment he became amiable and
affectionate toward his wife. This was sufficient to cause the
wife to give up the idea of divorce. I then told her that, on
account of her husband's timidity and anomaly, the only thing to
do was to reverse their roles, and for her to make the sexual
advances. I have not heard anything more from this singular
couple.

(3). A young man who had never had sexual connection before
marriage, in spite of a strong sexual appetite, made the
acquaintance of an intelligent young girl of excellent
character. Marriage followed, and the wife was loyal to her
husband, but remained sexually cold. She was insensible to
coitus and only regarded it as a disagreeable complement of
love. In spite of this she was fond of caresses, devoted to her
husband, and had several children.

(4). An intelligent and cultured man, normal from the sexual
point of view, who had frequented prostitutes in his youth, but
not excessively, married a rather nervous but apparently very
amorous young woman. The marriage night produced on her the
effect of a cold douche, and coitus offended and horrified her.
The husband in his discomfiture took patience; but his love,
which was never very strong, became shattered. To avoid all
scandal each of the conjoints practiced dissimulation and
adapted themselves more or less to each other. The wife allowed
coitus, the husband tolerated her coldness. Several children
were born, but the family was unhappy, and after a few years
divorce put an end to it.

SEXUAL HYPERAESTHESIA, OR EXAGGERATION OF THE SEXUAL APPETITE

This anomaly may be congenital, for example, in the sexual paradoxy of
children. Every one knows the Don Juans and Messalinas with their
insatiable appetites. These types of sexual hyperaesthesia are
certainly less frequent and more abnormal in women than in men, but
the intensity is as great or greater.

Sexual hyperaesthesia manifests itself by desires excited by every
sensorial perception relating to the opposite sex, or simply by
objects which recall it to the imagination; so that fetichism plays a
great part in this condition.