) But the cycle in these cases is not always, or even
usually, of a menstrual type.
It is now possible to turn to an investigation which, although of very
limited extent, serves to place the question of a male menstrual cycle for
the first time on a sound basis. If there is such a cycle analogous to
menstruation in women, it must be a recurring period of nervous erethism,
and it must be demonstrably accompanied by greater sexual activity. In the
_American Journal of Psychology_ for 1888, Mr. Julius Nelson, afterward
Professor of Biology at the Rutgers College of Agriculture, New Brunswick,
published a study of dreams in which he recorded the results of detailed
observations of his dreams, and also of seminal emissions during sleep (by
him termed "gonekbole" or "ecbole"), during a period of something over two
years. Mr. Nelson found that both dreams and ecboles fell into a
physiological cycle of 28 days. The climax of maximum dreaming (as
determined by the number of words in the dream record) and the climax of
maximum ecbole fell at the same point of the cycle, the ecbolic climax
being more distinctly marked than the dream climax.
The question of cyclic physiological changes is considerably
complicated by our uncertainty regarding the precise length of
the cycle we may expect to find. Nelson finds a 28-day cycle
satisfactory. Perry-Coste, as we shall see, accepts a strictly
lunar cycle of 291/2 days.
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