tant, and vaginismus occurred on each
attempt at coitus. These attempts failed constantly in spite of
the most intense love and the most ardent desire for children on
both sides. The husband's erections were incomplete, and he
never had an ejaculation except when asleep. By the aid of
hypnotism I succeeded in strengthening his erections, and an
operation on the hymen cured his wife's vaginismus. The first
attempts at coitus were not immediately successful, but
suggestion acted after a time; finally the attempts were crowned
with success, and followed by a first and second pregnancy. The
children were healthy.

In this case, the impotence, which had lasted about eighteen
months, did not affect the mutual love and respect of the
couple, because the husband's affection combined with his sexual
appetite had sufficed for the happiness of a woman who was on
the whole normal.

This case is very instructive in several ways, for it gives a good
example of the nature of the sexual instinct in woman; it also shows
how the auto-suggestion of emissions occurring only during sleep may
hinder copulation in the waking state. But such phenomena are
extremely rare.

It is hardly necessary to say that there is no true impotence in
woman; but the same mental paralysis may occur as in man, preventing
orgasm and often causing disgust.

SEXUAL PARADOXY

By this term is understood the appearance of the sexual appetite, or
even of love, at an abnormal age. Infantile paradoxy is, however, very
different to senile paradoxy.

Infantile paradoxy must not be confounded with certain forms of
masturbation, to which we shall return. Some races, especially in the
tropics, have a much earlier sexual development than others; depending
more on race than climate. In some, sexual maturity occurs in boys
between the age of twelve and fourteen, and in girls between nine and
ten years, while in others the former are hardly mature at twenty and
the latter before seventeen or eighteen. Again, individual variations
may be very great in the same race. But, owing to hereditary
satyriasis or nymphomania, we sometimes in our own country see sexual
appetite appear in children of eight, seven, or even three or four
years of age, in a spontaneous manner without any external excitation.
Lombroso mentions the case of a girl three years old who had an
irresistible tendency to onanism. I have myself obser