[117] Even counting the pulse is a comparatively recent method of physiological examination. It was not until 1450 that Nicolas of Cusa advocated counting the pulse-beats. (Binz, _Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift_, October 6, 1898.)
[118] I leave this statement as it stands, though since the first publication of this book it has ceased to be strictly accurate.
[119] Sanctorius, _Medicina Statica_, Sect. I, aph. lxv.
[120] _American Journal of Obstetrics_, xiv, 1882.
[122] I reproduced these notes in full in earlier editions of this volume.
[123] Moll refers to the case of a man whose erotic dreams occurred every fortnight, and always on Friday night (_Libido Sexualis_, Band I, p. 136). One is inclined to suspect an element of autosuggestion in such a case; still, the coincidence is noteworthy.
[124] See Durkheim, _Le Suicide_, p. 101.
[125] We must, of course, see here the results of the disorganization produced by holidays, and the exhaustion produced by the week's labor; but such influences are still the social effects of the cosmic week.
[126] E. Smith, _Health and Disease_, Chapter III. I may remark that, according to Kemsoes (_Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift_, January 20, 1908, and _British Medical Journal_, January 29, 1898), school-children work best on Monday and Tuesday.
The Annual Sexual Rhythm--In Animals--In Man--Tendency of the Sexual Impulse to become Heightened in Spring and Autumn--The Prevalence of Seasonal Erotic Festivals--The Feast of Fools--The Easter and Midsummer Bonfires--The Seasonal Variations in Birthrate--The Causes of those Variations--The Typical Conception-rate Curve for Europe--The Seasonal Periodicity of Seminal Emissions During Sleep--Original Observations--Spring and Autumn the Chief Periods of Involuntary Sexual Excitement--The Seasonal Periodicity of Rapes--Of Outbreaks among Prisoners--The Seasonal Curves of Insanity and Suicide--The Growth of Children According to Season--The Annual Curve of Bread-consumption in Prisons--Seasonal Periodicity of Scarlet Fever--The Underlying Causes of these Seasonal Phenomena.
That there are annual seasonal changes in the human organism, especially connected with the sexual function, is a statement that has been made by physiologists and others from time to time, and the statement has even reached the poets, who have frequently declared that spring is the season of love.