wife eighty-seven times
during the night, spilling much sperm on the sleeping-bed. Cabrolius
was called to see this man in the morning, and found him in a most
exhausted condition, but still having the supposed consecutive
ejaculations. Exhaustion progressed rapidly, and death soon terminated
this erotic crisis. Lawson is accredited with saying that among the
Marquesan tribe he knew of a woman who during a single night had
intercourse with 103 men.
Among the older writers there are instances reported in which erection
and ejaculation took place without the slightest pleasurable sensation.
Claudius exemplifies this fact in his report of a Venetian merchant who
had vigorous erections and ejaculations of thick and abundant semen
without either tingling or pleasure.
Attila, King of the Huns, and one of the most celebrated leaders of the
German hosts which overran the Roman Empire in its decline, and whose
enormous army and name inspired such terror that he was called the
"Scourge of God," was supposed to have died in coitus. Apoplexy,
organic heart disorders, aneurysms, and other like disorders are in
such cases generally the direct cause of death, coitus causing the
death indirectly by the excitement and exertion accompanying the act.
Bartholinus, Benedictus, Borellus, Pliny, Morgagni, Plater, a Castro,
Forestus, Marcellus Donatus, Schurig, Sinibaldus, Schenck, the
Ephemerides, and many others mention death during coitus; the older
writers in some cases attributed the fatal issue to excessive sexual
indulgence, not considering the possibility of the associate direct
cause, which most likely would have been found in case of a necropsy.
Suspended Animation.--Various opinions have been expressed as to the
length of time compatible with life during which a person can stay
under water. Recoveries from drowning furnish interesting examples of
the suspension of animation for a protracted period, but are hardly
ever reliable, as the subject at short intervals almost invariably
rises to the surface of the water, allowing occasional respiration.
Taylor mentions a child of two who recovered after ten minutes'
submersion; in another case a man recovered after fourteen minutes'
submersion. There is a case reported in this country of a woman who was
said to have been submerged twenty minutes. Guerard quotes a case
happening in 1774, in which there was submersion for an hour with
subsequent recovery; but there hardly seems suffi
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