and when she gets up, be very temperate in eating and drinking, and not run or jump, pretending that she has a headache.  It was the belief in feminine semen which led some theologians to lay down that a woman might masturbate if she had not experienced orgasm in coitus.  Schurig in his Muliebria (1729, pp. 159, et seq.) discusses the opinions of old authors regarding the nature, source, and uses of the female genital secretions, and quotes authorities against the old view that it was female semen.  In a subsequent work (Syllepsilogia, 1731, pp. 3, et seq.) he returns to the same question, quotes authors who accept a feminine semen, shows that Harvey denied it any significance, and himself decides against it.  It has not seriously been brought forward since.

When erection is completed in both the man and the woman the conditions necessary for conjugation have at last been fulfilled.  In all animals, even those most nearly allied to man, coitus is effected by the male approaching the female posteriorly.  In man the normal method of male approach is anteriorly, face to face.  Leonardo da Vinci, in a well-known drawing representing a sagittal section of a man and a woman connected in this position of so-called Venus obversa; has shown how well adapted the position is to the normal position of the organs in the human species.[105]

Among monkeys, it is stated, congress is sometimes performed when the female is on all fours; at other times the male brings the female between his thighs when he is sitting, holding her with his forepaws.  Froriep informed Lawrence that the male sometimes supported his feet on the female’s calves. (Sir W. Lawrence, Lectures on Physiology, 1823, p. 186.) A summary of the methods of congress practiced by the various animals below mammals will be found in the article “Copulation” by H. de Varigny in Richet’s Dictionnaire de Physiologie, vol. iv.

The anterior position in coitus, with the female partner lying supine, is so widespread throughout the world that it may fairly be termed the most typically human attitude in sexual congress.  It is found represented in Egyptian graves at Benihassan, belonging to the Twelfth Dynasty; it is regarded by Mohammedans as the normal position, although other positions are permitted by the Prophet:  “Your wives are your tillage:  go in unto your tillage in what manner soever you will;” it is that adopted in Malacca; it appears, from Peruvian antiquities, to have been the position generally, though not exclusively, adopted in ancient Peru; it is found in many parts of Africa, and seems also to have been the most usual position among the American aborigines.

Various modifications of this position are, however, found.  Thus, in some parts of the world, as among the Suahelis in Zanzibar, the male partner adopts the supine position.  In Loango, according to Pechuel-Loesche, coitus is performed