now its quivering strings,
study the pose of it, its timid keyboard, the changing and
capricious fingering. How many orangs--men, I mean, marry without
knowing what a woman is!... Nearly all men marry in the most
profound ignorance of women and of love" (Balzac, _Physiologie du
Mariage_, Meditation VII).

Neugebauer (_Monatsschrift fuer Geburtshuelfe_, 1889, Bk. ix, pp.
221 et seq.) has collected over one hundred and fifty cases of
injury to women in coitus inflicted by the penis. The causes were
brutality, drunkenness of one or both parties, unusual position
in coitus, disproportion of the organs, pathological conditions
of the woman's organs (Cf. R.W. Taylor, _Practical Treatise on
Sexual Disorders_, Ch. XXXV). Blumreich also discusses the
injuries produced by violent coitus (Senator and Kaminer, _Health
and Disease in Relation to Marriage_, vol. ii, pp. 770-779). C.M.
Green (_Boston Medical and Surgical Journal_, 13 Ap., 1893)
records two cases of rupture of vagina by sexual intercourse in
newly-married ladies, without evidence of any great violence.
Mylott (_British Medical Journal_, Sept. 16, 1899) records a
similar case occurring on the wedding night. The amount of force
sometimes exerted in coitus is evidenced by the cases, occurring
from time to time, in which intercourse takes place by the
urethra.

Eulenburg finds (_Sexuale Neuropathie_, p. 69) that vaginismus, a
condition of spasmodic contraction of the vulva and exaggerated
sensibility on the attempt to effect coitus, is due to forcible
and unskilful attempts at the first coitus. Adler (_Die
Mangelhafte Geschlechtsempfindung des Weibes_, p. 160) also
believes that the scarred remains of the hymen, together with
painful memories of a violent first coitus, are the most frequent
cause of vaginismus.

The occasional cases, however, of physical injury or of
pathological condition produced by violent coitus at the
beginning of marriage constitute but a very small portion of the
evidence which witnesses to the evil results of the prevalent
ignorance regarding the art of love. As regards Germany,
Fuerbringer writes (Senator and Kaminer, _Health and Disease in
Relation to Marriage_, vol. i, p. 215): "I am perfectly satisfied
that the number of young married women who have a lasting painful
recollection of the