avoid the contact of the light. The respiration is hurried, some-
times interrupted, and may be suspended by the spasmodic con-
traction of the larynx, and the air, for a time compressed, is at
last emitted in broken and meaningless words. The congested
nervous centers- only communicate confused sensations and voli-
tions; mobility and sensation show extreme disorder; the limbs
are seized by convulsions and sometimes by cramps, or are
thrown wildly about or become stifiE like iron bars. The jaws,
tightly pressed, grind the teeth, and in some persons the delir-
ium is carried so far that they bite to bleeding the shoulders
their companions have imprudently abandoned to them. This
frantic state of epilepsy lasts but a short time, but it suffices to
exhaust the forces of the organism, especially in man. It is,
I believe, Galen, who said: 'Omne animal post coitum triste
prseter mulierem gallumque.' "^ Most of the elements that
make up this typical picture of the state of coitus are not abso-
lutely essential to that state, but they all come within the nor-
mal range of variation. There can be no doubt that this range
is considerable. There would appear to be not only individual,
but also racial, differences; there is a remarkable passage in
Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra describing the varying behavior of
the women of different races in India under the stress of sexual
excitement — Dravidian women with difficulty attaining ereth-
ism, women of the Punjaub fond of being caressed with the
tongue, women of Oude with impetuous desire and profuse flow
of mucus, etc. — and it is highly probable, Ploss and Bartels
remark, that these characterizations are founded on exact ob-
|i servations.^

The various phenomena included in Eoubaud's description
of the condition during coitus may all be directly or indirectly
reduced to two groups: the first circulatory and respiratory,
the second motor. It is necessary to consider both these aspects
of the process of detumescence in somewhat greater detail, al-
though while it is most convenient to discuss them separately.
