Hypertrichosis universalis, a general hairiness of body, has been described by Cascella in a woman with very strong sexual desires, who eventually became insane. (Revista Mensile di Psichiatria, 1903, p. 408.) Bucknill and Tuke give the case of a religiously minded girl, with very strong and repressed sexual desires, who became insane; the only abnormal feature in her physical development was the marked growth of hair over the body.

Brantome refers to a great lady known to him whose body was very hairy, and quotes a saying to the effect that hairy people are either rich or wanton; the lady in question, he adds, was both.  (Brantome, Vie des Dames Galantes, Discours II.)

De Sade, whose writings are now regarded as a treasure house of true observations in the domain of sexual psychology, makes the Rodin of Justine dark, with much hair and thick eyebrows, while his very sexual sister is described as dark, thin and very hairy.  (Duehren, Der Marquis de Sade, third edition, p. 440.)

A correspondent who has always taken a special interest in the condition as regards hairiness of the women to whom he has been attracted, has sent me notes concerning a series of 12 women.  It may be gathered from these notes that 5 women were neither markedly sexual nor markedly hairy (either as regards head or pubes), 6 cases both hairy and sexual, 1 was sexual and not hairy, none were hairy and not sexual.  My correspondent remarks:  “There may be women with scanty pubic hair possessing very strong sexual emotions.  My own experience is quite the opposite.”  He has also independently reached the conclusion, arrived at by many medical observers and clearly suggested by some of the facts here brought together, that profuse hair frequently denotes a neurotic temperament.

    It may be added that Mirabeau, as we learn from an anecdote told
    by an eyewitness and recorded by Legouve, had a very hairy chest,
    while the same is recorded of Restif de la Bretonne.

It is a very ancient and popular belief that if a hairy man is not sensual he is strong:  vir pilosus aut libidinosus aut fortis.  The Greeks insisted on the hairy nates of Hercules, and Ninon de l’Enclos, when the great Conde shared her bed without touching her, remarked, on seeing his hairy body:  “Ah, Monseigneur, que vous devez etre fort!” It may be doubted whether there is any exact parallelism between muscular strength and hairiness, for strength is largely a matter of training, but there can be no doubt that hairiness really tends to be associated with a generally vigorous development of the body.