Manhood: The Rise and Fall of the Penis (34 page)

The white-robed Druids cut the mistletoe at New Year ceremonies, probably the origin of the English custom of hanging mistletoe in the home at Christmas. The plant also had medicinal uses. Panoramix, the old, venerable druid from the village of Asterix and Obelix, would cut the mistletoe with his gold pruning knife to prepare the magic potion 177

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with which he made his people invincible. ‘But he knows many other recipes . . .’ says the writer, expressing the unspoken thoughts of the adult comic-book reader.

Things were different again with the Romans. Alongside the official physicians there were the so-called
sagae
, most elderly prostitutes. They operated in two areas: as unauthorized midwives who performed abortions or prepared magic potions with an aphrodisiac effect. Just like today abortions were carried out for a variety of reasons (other than because of a prenatally diagnosed harelip): a married woman, for instance, wanted to erase the traces of adultery, or a promiscuous woman was frightened of having her style cramped by lack of libido due to pregnancy. A few women took a different view: Julia, the daughter of the emperor Augustus, would only tolerate lovers when pregnant by her husband Agrippa. If people expressed astonishment that despite all her debauches her children always resembled her husband, then according to Macrobius she always said: ‘I never take passengers, except when the ship is fully laden!’ (
Etenim nunquam nisi navi plena
tollo vectorem!
)

Though the abortions gave the
sagae
plenty to do, they still made up only a small proportion of their work. Normally these potion -

makers came at night to the Esquiline Hill, which was the scene of magic spells and sacrifices, and the site of the cemetery for slaves, who were buried at random without even a shroud. It was unsafe there at night, and at the bottom of the hill close to the Porta Metia, stood the gallows and the crosses, from which hung the bodies of those executed.

The executioner’s house was naturally close by, since he had to watch over his victims. In these macabre surroundings the
sagae
did their work. By moonlight they picked their magic herbs and gathered hairs and bones and fat from those who had been hanged. According to Dufour there were even child sacrifices, particularly when very potent drinks had to be brewed. The
sagae
were paid handsomely for these dreadful practices. The child in question had first to be stolen from its wet nurse or parents, then buried alive and finally butchered. Otherwise the liver, the gall, the prepubescent testicles and the bone marrow would lack the true aphrodisiac power . . . Some
sagae
had the ability to produce potions that could make a man completely impotent, a fate that Romans dreaded.

The official, respectable physicians strongly disapproved of the use of all these potions, and countered by recommending natural mineral water rich in sulphur and iron, which must, though, be drunk close to the source. These
aquae amatrices
, as these invigorating drinks were called, lost their strength the further away from the spring they were drunk. So much for the Romans.

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Since time immemorial musk has been considered an aphrodisiac scent. It is the secretion of the glands in a deer’s foreskin, and the name derives from the Sanskrit word for testicle, an allusion to the fact that the substance comes from the sex organ. In nature musk smells are found in many places: the musk mole, the musk ox, the musk duck, the musk hyacinth, the musk cherry, musk wood, etc. In the mating season lizards and crocodiles secrete musk through glands in their lower jaw, and elephants do the same through glands in their head.

The mustard plaster was invented by Hammond, a nineteenth -

century expert, who believed that this form of therapy must be used with caution, since it might cause inflammation or even cancer.

Occasionally there is a scientific explanation for the effect of a supposed aphrodisiac. In evolution it was the male boars who with their rooting and trampling spread truffles through a large part of France.

Truffles are a type of fungus that grow underground among the roots of oaks and hazel trees. They are considered a delicacy and nowadays truffles are hunted with specially trained sows or bitches, the only creatures capable of detecting where the fungi are located. The clue to their ability is alpha-androsterone – a hormone – which makes these females wrongly think that they are on the track of a male. Since alpha -

androsterone is also found in men’s armpit sweat and women’s urine, it is possible that it has an unconscious effect on sexuality.

The Chinese regard soup made from a sea swallow’s nest as the ultimate aphrodisiac. The nest is made of sea grass held together with roe, a rejuvenating substance. In addition, sea grass contains a great deal of the previously mentioned phosphorus.

The Japanese walnut (
Ginkgo biloba
) is another medicinal source well known to the Chinese. The extract of the leaves is supposed to help the smooth muscle cells in the erectile tissue compartments relax and hence bring about an erection. The ginkgo has existed for hundreds of millions of years, originating in the Permian period, which means that herbivores like dinosaurs already grazed on ginkgo leaves in the Jurassic period. The tree is the only surviving intermediate form between the higher and lower plants, between the ferns and the conifers, though it is not a conifer but a deciduous tree. Fossil remains show that today’s ginkgo has scarcely changed in the last 65 million years. A different, but scientifically interesting aspect, is that its swimming spermatozoids play a part in reproduction – an exceptionally rare occurrence in plants and trees. The ripe seed has a soft, fleshy yellow outer layer and the unpleasant smell of rancid butter. These seeds (‘nuts’) are prized as a delicacy in the Far East. The ginkgo disappeared from Europe in the Ice Age, and it was not until 1691 that the German doctor and botanist Engelbert Kämpfer, who worked for the Dutch 179

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Gingko biloba

leaves.

East India Company, rediscovered the tree in Japan. In the Far East ginkgos were regarded as very special trees, and in China had been planted from time immemorial in Buddhist temple and monastery gardens, where they were regarded as sacred.

In the temperate climate of Western Europe ginkgos grow quite slowly. The trees in say, Kew Gardens, are far older than most in Europe, but even they pale before the temple ginkgos of the Far East, some of them between two and three thousand years old, up to 20 metres in circumference and 60 metres high. The unique fan-shaped leaves, with a notch in the middle, turn a wonderful yellow colour in autumn. No wonder that Goethe devoted a fine poem to the tree. Ginkgos are no longer a rarity to be seen only in historical parks and botanic gardens: nowadays some can even be found lining suburban streets. The tree is indestructible, not even succumbing to an atom bomb. The death toll in Hiroshima was huge and massive buildings were completely destroyed, but the
Ginkgo biloba
only one kilometre from where the bomb landed simply went on growing.

Ginseng root comes from traditional Chinese medicine and is mainly used in Western phytotherapy to increase stamina. The major supplier is Pannax Ginseng from Korea. Its effect is supposedly based on an increased production of nitrogen oxide in the erectile tissue 180

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compartments in the penis. Nitrogen oxide is a potent vasodilatory molecule and the discoverers of that fact were awarded the Nobel Prize.

With a little imagination one can see a little man in the shape of the ginseng root. So according to the doctrine of signatures, according to which the form and medical application of a plant are linked, ginseng is suitable for use with men.

In Asia the enduring interest in all kinds of aphrodisiacs has unfortunately resulted in the virtual extinction of both the Javanese and the Sumatran rhinoceros; the African rhino is also seriously under threat. It is widely believed, especially in East Asia and the Middle East, that the use of ground horn can restore potency, which may be associated with the fact that the act of mating in rhinoceroses takes almost an hour and involves multiple ejaculations. The horn commands as-tronomical prices and in Europe in the autumn of 1994 it reached the point where on the advice of Interpol rhinos in zoos were kept under close surveillance, since information had been received that poachers –

a ruthless bunch anyway – were targeting animals in captivity.

Not so very long ago, on the island of Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles, the iguana was in danger of extinction. Soup made from this splendid creature was supposed to eliminate potency problems. The iguana’s sex organ is so shaped that it appears to have two penises, and a similar abnormal shape was once diagnosed in a human being, the 22-year-old Portuguese gypsy João Batista dos Santos. According to the doctors both penises functioned properly, and once he had climaxed with one he immediately continued with the other. The patient preferred the left-hand one, which was thicker.

There is a rice-based alcoholic drink in China that includes one lizard per bottle. This is a gecko (
Japaloua Polygonata
), a large species of Asian lizard, and the potent beverage is called Ha Kai Chiew. The Chinese attribute a salutary effect to the juices of the quick and agile gecko, especially in cases of impotence. The so-called ‘preserving’ of animals is traditional in many countries: in France adders disappear into eau de vie, in Spain frogs and in Mexico worms.

Traditionally chocolate is also considered an aphrodisiac. This probably originates from the time when chocolate was scarce and hence expensive. It contains phenylethylamine, related in structure to the so-called neuro-transmitters, but it is broken down before it reaches the brain. In addition there are minimal quantities of caffeine, thebromine and anadomine
.
None of these ingredients can explain the reviving effect of chocolate. Women are supposed to experience a pacifying and hormone-calming effect, for example when sexually aroused.

Avocados, oysters, mussels and asparagus are also considered to be aphrodisiacs, and when they appear on the menu are meant to herald 181

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fireworks in bed. This hypothesis rests solely on the supposed similarity of these foods to genitalia, which can also be found in bananas, carrots, figs, peaches and coconuts. Avocados grow in pairs and are supposedly reminiscent of testicles. The durian is fruit the size of a football with spines, which grows on huge trees in South-East Asia. It has a distinctive flavour and is held to be aphrodisiac. As a Malay proverb puts it: ‘When the durians are down, the sarongs are up.’

Training apparatus

In the 1920s various theories were developed on the anatomy and physi -

ology of the erection; drive rods and Magdeburg hemispheres were used as analogies. Therapeutically, however, things did not advance beyond the prescription of testosterone preparations. In the Dutch
Journal of Sexology
of December 1994 there is description of how papaverine and yohimbine was already in use in 1921 in the treatment of men with erection problems. The two substances, which were already believed to improve erection quality, were combined by a German researcher to form pyt (papaverine-yohimbine-tartrate).

Extensive animal research was carried out on this compound.

According to the researcher tomcats displayed ‘typical on-heat behaviour’ after systematic administration, while in anaesthetized rats

‘maximum vasodilation in the pelvis minor’ was observed. It was also established what doses were fatal to a cat, a frog, a rabbit and a mouse.

Male impotence cost the lives of so many animals! Without their knowledge, male syphilis patients became the first human guinea pigs: these were the days before committees on medical research ethics. The results of the pilot study were never published.

From 1940 to 1960, convinced that the traditional psychothera-peutic approach sometimes had no effect, the English psychiatrists Russell and Loewenstein used so-called coitus-training apparatus, with which the penis could be supported, enabling the man to have intercourse without an erection. The apparatus had an eye bolt with a rotatable link so that everything could be fastened as high as possible under the scrotum. In tightening the bolts care had to be taken that the pubic hairs were not trapped. The other end was placed around the penis in such a way that the scrotum could hang freely, but the glans could at the same time rest in a kind of ring, which was made of ebony and had five metal plates in the inside.

The theory was that the acidity and moisture level of the penis could be raised by an electric current, which would provide an effective stimulus. The purpose of this apparatus was to break the vicious circle of fear of failure and impotence, since it was evident even at that time 182