In the light of the evidence which has thus accumulated, we may conclude that the existence of an annual ecbolic curve, with its spring and autumn climaxes, as described in the first edition of this book, is now definitely established.

If we are to believe, as these records tend to show, that the nocturnal and involuntary voice of the sexual impulse usually speaks at least as loudly in autumn as in spring, we are confronted by a certain divergence of the sleeping sexual impulse from the waking sexual instinct, as witnessed by the conception-curve, and also, it may be added, by the general voice of tradition, and, indeed, of individual feeling, which concur, on the whole, in placing the chief epoch of sexual activity in spring and early summer, more especially as regards women.[159] It is not impossible to reconcile the contradiction, assuming it to be real, but I will refrain here from suggesting the various explanations which arise.  We need a broader basis of facts.

There are many facts to show that early spring and, to a certain extent, autumn are periods of visible excitement, mainly sexual in character.  We have already seen that among the Eskimo menstruation and sexual desire occur chiefly in spring, but cases are known of healthy women in temperate climes who only menstruate twice a year, and in such cases the menstrual epochs appear to be usually in spring and autumn.  Such, at all events, was the case in a girl of 20, whose history has been recorded by Dr. Mary Wenck, of Philadelphia.[160] She menstruated first when 15 years old.  Six months later the flow again appeared for the second time, and lasted three weeks, without cessation.  Since then, for five years, she menstruated during March and September only, each time for three weeks, the flow being profuse, but not exhaustingly so, without pain or systemic disturbance.  Examination revealed perfectly normal uterus and ovarian organs.  Treatment, accompanied by sitz-baths during the time of month the flow should appear, accomplished nothing.  The semi-annual flow continued and the girl seemed in excellent health.

It is a remarkable fact that, as noted by Dr. Hamilton Wey at Elmira, sexual outbursts among prisoners appear to occur at about March and October.  “Beginning with the middle of February,” writes Dr. Wey in a private letter, “and continuing for about two months, is a season of ascending sexual wave; also the latter half of September and the month of October.  We are now (March 30th) in the midst of a wave.”

According to Chinese medicine, it is the spring which awakens human passions.  In early Greek tradition, spring and summer were noted as the time of greatest wantonness.  “In the season of toilsome summer,” says Hesiod (Works and Days, xi, 569-90), “the goats are fattest, wine is best, women most wanton, and men weakest.”  It was so, also, in the experience of the Romans.  Pliny (Natural History, Bk.  XII, Ch.  XLIII) states that