Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction   By: John Davenport (1789-1877)

THREE ESSAYS ON THE POWERS OF REPRODUCTION.

[Illustration: Frontispiece. VOTIVE COLUMNS Of the Ancient Oscans.]

Aphrodisiacs and Anti Aphrodisiacs:

THREE ESSAYS ON THE POWERS OF REPRODUCTION;

WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE JUDICIAL "CONGRESS" AS PRACTISED IN FRANCE DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

BY JOHN DAVENPORT.

Ubi stimulus, ibi fluxus. HIPPOCRATES.

LONDON: PRIVATELY PRINTED. 1869.

PREFACE.

The reproductive powers of Nature were regarded by the nations of remote antiquity with an awe and reverence so great, as to form an object of worship, under a symbol, of all others the most significant, the Phallus ; and thus was founded a religion, of which the traces exist to this day, not in Asia only, but even in Europe itself.

That scarcely any notices of this worship should appear in modern works, except in the erudite pages of a few antiquarians may be accounted for by considering the difference of opinion between the ancients and the moderns as to what constitutes modesty; the former being unable to see any moral turpitude in actions they regarded was the designs of nature, while the latter, by their over strained notions of delicacy, render themselves, in some degree at least, obnoxious to the charge that, in proportion as manners becomes corrupt, language becomes more guarded, modesty, when banished from the heart, taking refuge on the lips.

To supply, to some extent, this lacuna in our popular literature has been the object of the present work, in which, it is hoped, may be found much curious and interesting physiological information, interspersed with recherché and festivous anecdotes.

The text is illustrated by a few plates, drawn from antiquarian sources.

J. D.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

NOTE. As it was found impossible always to insert the illustrations opposite the explanatory text, the following List will assist the reader to those pages which explain the objects represented :

Plate Described on page

FRONTISPIECE, INSCRIBED VOTIVE COLUMNS Facing title Of small size and of great antiquity; in use amongst the Oscan people, who were finally subjugated by the Sabines.

I. Figure 1, EGYPTIAN PHALLUS 1, 2, 3 From "Recueil d'Antiquités Egyptiennes, &c., par le Comte de Caylus."

" 2, DO., different view 1, 2, 3

" 3, Two views of a double figure 1, 2, 3

" 4, ROMAN PRIAPUS over a baker's door at Pompeii 11 From "Musée secret de Naples."

II. Figure 1, LINGHAM 1, 2, 3

From M. Sonnerat's "Voyage aux Indes Orientales."

" 2, PAN'S HEAD 9, 10