in moderate amount it has a tonic effect,
and as such has a general beneficial result in stimulating the whole body.
This fact was, indeed, recognized by the classic physicians, and Galen
regarded flagellation as a tonic.[115] Thus, not only must it be said that
whipping, when applied to the gluteal region, has a direct influence in
stimulating the sexual organs, but its general tonic influence must
naturally extend to the sexual system.

It is possible that we must take into account here a biological
factor, such as we have found involved in other forms of sadism
and masochism. In this connection a lady writes to me: "With
regard to the theory which connects the desire for whipping with
the way in which animals make love, where blows or pressure on
the hindquarters are almost a necessary preliminary to pleasure,
have you ever noticed the way in which stags behave? Their does
seem as timid as the males are excitable, and the blows inflicted
on them by the horns of their mates to reduce them to submission
must be, I should think, an exact equivalent to being beaten with
a stick."

It is remarkable that in some cases the whip would even appear to
have a psychic influence in producing sexual excitement in
animals accustomed to its application as a stimulant to action.
Thus, Professor Cornevin, of Lyons, describes the case of a
Hungarian stallion, otherwise quite potent, in whom erection
could only be produced in the presence of a mare in heat when a
whip was cracked near him, and occasionally applied gently to his
legs. (Cornevin, _Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle_, January,
1896.)

Here, undoubtedly, we have a definite anatomical and physiological
relationship which often serves as a starting-point for the turning of the
sexual feelings in this direction, and will sometimes support the
perversion when it has otherwise arisen. But this relationship, even if we
regard it as a fairly frequent channel by which sexual emotion is aroused,
will not suffice to account for most, or even many, of the cases in which
whipping exerts a sexual fascination. In many, if not most, cases it is
found that the idea of whipping asserts its sexual significance quite
apart from any personal experience, even in persons who have never been
whipped;[116] not seldom also in persons who have been whipped and who
feel nothing but repugnance for the actual performanc