Let us consider the physiology of the sex organs in their relation to continence. The mistake should not be made to think of the sexual organs as dormant excepting at a certain period in life. They begin to functionate before the child is born, and continue thruout life. The internal secretions of these organs, circulating in the blood, influence all the cells of the body. They modify the shape, growth, and texture of other structures, powerfully influence the central nerve cells, and are potent factors in stamping the individual with character.
Sigmund Freud, in "Infantile Sexuality" ("Three contributions to the Sexual Theory"),
describes the early signs of sexuality. The earliness of their beginning cannot be identified.
At the other end of life they are illustrated by the reply of the aged French savant, who, upon
being asked, "When does a man cease to love?" replied, "You must ask some one older than I".
Sexuality and sexual impulses begin and end with life. Nor should the mistake be made
to think of the pelvic organs as constituting the whole sexual system. The internal secretions
which have a strong influence upon sexual character come not only from the ovaries,
testicles, uterus, and prostate, but also from the thyroid, and, perhaps, from the hypophysis,
suprarenals, parathyroids, thymus, and other organs of which little is known. Sexuality is
general, not local; and, properly speaking, the sexual organs are all the organs of the body.
The fact that there are certain highly specialized parts, and that there are superficial areas
which are especially sensitive to erogenous impulses, has given these regions special sexual
significance, while but little is known of the other organs as sexual centers. I desire to bring
out the fact that the sexual organs are constantly in action, and that repression is both
impossible and undesirable.
External sexual excitements have the power to cause a precocious or premature
development of the sexual activities in both boys and girls, just as intellectual excitements
or stimuli have the power to heighten the intellectual functions. Excessive, continuous, or
prolonged stimulation of the erogenous zones results in exaggeration, or later exhaustion, of
the libidinous impulses. Testicular fluid in the seminal vesicles, under unexciting conditions,
does not require to be discharged at intervals. I have not been able to find in the studies of
the physiologists that its retention is abnormal or unhygienic. I do not believe it is.
The ejaculation of this fluid takes place as a result of erogenous excitement or local
stimulation. Involuntary emissions, masturbation, or coitus empty the vesicles; but without
some preliminary causative influence ejaculation does not take place. The dogmatic
statement is sometimes made that these emissions are necessary for the health of the man.
This contention is not substantiated. The idea is kept alive by those who wish to believe it
in order to justify their own practices, by those who perpetuate a tradition, and by those who
actually regard it as a scientific fact. I do not believe that continence is injurious to the male,
provided that his continence is real.
The common mistake is to think of coitus as synonymous with incontinence. I have tried
to show the difference. It is undoubtedly true that idle men, living under the abnormal and
unhealthful conditions of city life, lending themselves to erotic stimuli of great variety,
thinking lustfully of women, and rolling their eyes about for libidinous suggestions, are
promoted in health by completing the sexual act which they always have in process of
beginning. It is not coitus that preserves their health; it is the preliminary vicious habits that
are damaging it. Coitus is called upon as the remedy. Having begun the sexual act, it is
normal that it should be completed.
But the healthy man, whose mind is occupied with wholesome thoughts, who has
interests and activities for the working hours and enough knowledge and intellect to make
relaxation a joy such a man does not suffer from mere lack of coitus. The vacant mind,
ennui, tobacco, alcohol, and other promoters of defective oxidation are often the precursors
of the sexual necessity.