It is on this animal basis that the human and social fear of arousing disgust has developed.  Its probably wide extension is indicated not only by the strong feeling attached to the constant presence of clothing on this part of the body,—­such constant presence being quite uncalled for if the garment or ornament is merely a sort of sexual war-paint,—­but by the repugnance felt by many savages very low down in the scale to the public satisfaction of natural needs, and to their more than civilized cleanliness in this connection;[36] it is further of interest to note that in some parts of the world the covering is not in front, but behind; though of this fact there are probably other explanations.  Among civilized people, also, it may be added, the final and invincible seat of modesty is sometimes not around the pubes, but the anus; that is to say, that in such cases the fear of arousing disgust is the ultimate and most fundamental element of modesty.[37]

The concentration of modesty around the anus is sometimes very marked.  Many women feel so high a degree of shame and reserve with regard to this region, that they are comparatively indifferent to an anterior examination of the sexual organs.  A similar feeling is not seldom found in men.  “I would permit of an examination of my genitals by a medical man, without any feeling of discomfort,” a correspondent writes, “but I think I would rather die than submit to any rectal examination.”  Even physicians have been known to endure painful rectal disorders for years, rather than undergo examination.

“Among ordinary English girls,” a medical correspondent writes, “I have often noticed that the dislike and shame of allowing a man to have sexual intercourse with them, when newly married, is simply due to the fact that the sexual aperture is so closely apposed to the anus and bladder.  If the vulva and vagina were situated between a woman’s shoulder blades, and a man had a separate instrument for coitus, not used for any excretory purpose, I do not think women would feel about intercourse as they sometimes do.  Again, in their ignorance of anatomy, women often look upon the vagina and womb as part of the bowel and its exit of discharge, and sometimes say, for instance, ‘inflammation of the bowel’, when they mean womb.  Again, many, perhaps most, women believe that they pass water through the vagina, and are ignorant of the existence of the separate urethral orifice.  Again, women associate the vulva with the anus, and so feel ashamed of it; even when speaking to their husbands, or to a doctor, or among themselves; they have absolutely no name for the vulva (I mean among the upper classes, and people of gentle birth), but speak of it as ‘down below,’ ‘low down,’ etc.”

Even though this feeling is largely based on wrong and ignorant ideas, it must still be recognized that it is to some extent natural and inevitable.  “How much is risked,”