that sexual excitement is the
only remedy for amenorrhoea; "the only emmenagogue medicine that
I know of," he wrote (_Medical Times_, Feb. 2, 1884), "is not to
be found in the Pharmacopoeia: it is erotic excitement. Of the
value of erotic excitement there is no doubt." Anstie, in his
work on _Neuralgia_, refers to the beneficial effect of sexual
intercourse on dysmenorrhoea, remarking that the necessity of the
full natural exercise of the sexual function is shown by the
great improvement in such cases after marriage, and especially
after childbirth. (It may be remarked that not all authorities
find dysmenorrhoea benefited by marriage, and some consider that
the disease is often thereby aggravated; see, e.g., Wythe Cook,
_American Journal Obstetrics_, Dec., 1893.) The distinguished
gynaecologist, Tilt, at a somewhat earlier date (_On Uterine and
Ovarian Inflammation_, 1862, p. 309), insisted on the evil
results of sexual abstinence in producing ovarian irritation, and
perhaps subacute ovaritis, remarking that this was specially
pronounced in young widows, and in prostitutes placed in
penitentiaries. Intense desire, he pointed out, determines
organic movements resembling those required for the gratification
of the desire. These burning desires, which can only be quenched
by their legitimate satisfaction, are still further heightened by
the erotic influence of thoughts, books, pictures, music, which
are often even more sexually stimulating than social intercourse
with men, but the excitement thus produced is not relieved by
that natural collapse which should follow a state of vital
turgescence. After referring to the biological facts which show
the effect of psychic influences on the formative powers of the
ovario-uterine organs in animals, Tilt continues: "I may fairly
infer that similar incitements on the mind of females may have a
stimulating effect on the organs of ovulation. I have frequently
known menstruation to be irregular, profuse, or abnormal in type
during courtship in women in whom nothing similar had previously
occurred, and that this protracted the treatment of chronic
ovaritis and of uterine inflammation." Bonnifield, of Cincinnati
(_Medical Standard_, Dec., 1896), considers that unsatisfied
sexual desire is an important cause of catarrhal endometritis. It
is w