APPENDIX B.
SEXUAL PERIODICITY IN MEN.
BY F.H. PERRY-COSTE, B. Sc. (LOND.).
In a recent _brochure_ on the "Rhythm of the Pulse"[373] I showed _inter
alia_ that the readings of the pulse, in both man and woman, if arranged
in lunar monthly periods, and averaged over several years, displayed a
clear, and sometimes very strongly marked and symmetrical, rhythm.[374]
After pointing out that, in at any rate some cases, the male and female
pulse-curves, both monthly and annual, seemed to be converse to one
another, I added: "It is difficult to ignore the suggestion that in this
tracing of the monthly rhythm of the pulse we have a history of the
monthly function in women; and that, if so, the tracing of the male pulse
may eventually afford us some help in discovering a corresponding monthly
period in men: the existence of which has been suggested by Mr. Havelock
Ellis and Professor Stanley Hall, among other writers. Certainly the mere
fact that we can trace a clear monthly rhythm in man's pulse seems to
point strongly to the existence of a monthly physiological period in him
also."
Obviously, however, it is only indirectly and by inference that we can
argue from a monthly rhythm of the pulse in men to a male sexual
periodicity; but I am now able to adduce more direct evidence that will
fairly demonstrate the existence of a sexual periodicity in men.
We will start from the fact that celibacy is profoundly unnatural,
and is, therefore, a physical--as well as an emotional and
intellectual--abnormality.
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