ss has, in the primitive stages of its
evolution, been reduced. But we may probably find one of the germs of the
love-bite in the attitude of many mammals during or before coitus; in
attaining a firm grip of the female it is not uncommon (as may be observed
in the donkey) for the male to seize the female's neck between his teeth.
The horse sometimes bites the mare before coitus and it is said that among
the Arabs when a mare is not apt for coitus she is sent to pasture with a
small ardent horse, who excites her by playing with her and biting
her.[77] It may be noted, also, that dogs often show their affection for
their masters by gentle bites. Children also, as Stanley Hall has pointed
out, are similarly fond of biting.

Perhaps a still more important factor is the element of combat in
tumescence, since the primitive conditions associated with tumescence
provide a reservoir of emotions which are constantly drawn on even in the
sexual excitement of individuals belonging to civilization. The tendency
to show affection by biting is, indeed, commoner among women than among
men and not only in civilization. It has been noted among idiot girls as
well as among the women of various savage races. It may thus be that the
conservative instincts of women have preserved a primitive tendency that
at its origin marked the male more than the female. But in any case the
tendency to bite at the climax of sexual excitement is so common and
widespread that it must be regarded, when occurring in women, as coming
within the normal range of variation in such manifestations. The
gradations are of wide extent; while in its slight forms it is more or
less normal and is one of the origins of the kiss,[78] in its extreme
forms it tends to become one of the most violent and antisocial of sexual
aberrations.

A correspondent writes regarding his experience of biting and
being bitten: "I have often felt inclination to bite a woman I
love, even when not in coitus or even excited. (I like doing so
also with my little boy, playfully, as a cat and kittens.) There
seem to be several reasons for this: (1) the muscular effect
relieves me; (2) I imagine I am giving the woman pleasure; (3) I
seem to attain to a more intimate possession of the loved one. I
cannot remember when I first felt desire to be bitten in coitus,
or whether the idea was first suggested to me. I was initiated
into pinching by a French prostitute