Sex efficiency through exercises : special physical culture for women / by Th. H. van de Velde ; [photos, by E. Steinemann].

all women were fully aware of and in control of the muscular actions of their pelvic floor. Women have a special organ of sensation situated in the pelvic floor, and termed the Clitoris. Its tip is extra- ordinarily sensitive to the slightest contact. Certain muscular fibres of the pelvic floor should theoretically be able to draw the whole of this little organ, and especially its tip, the glans clitoridis, downwards towards the mouth of the vagina. In this manner the clitoris shares in the rhythmic friction by the phallus during coitus. It is not necessary to describe the clitoris in detail, nor is it shown accurately on the Plates, in order not to overload and confuse the diagram. Nevertheless, they show the muscular fibres to which I allude. Vignes (24) remarked that they—like all the other separate strands of the perivaginal system or group—act in combination, as a rule, but can also be set in motion separately. I do not doubt that this may actually be the case with the particular group that draws the clitoris down- wards. I have also received accounts of deliberate and voluntary control in this direction, and of the enhanced pleasurable result, especially in the first phase of coitus. This clitoridal action appears to me very important as compensating and counteracting the greater slowness with which the woman tends to reach the climax, and enabling her to increase the stimuli she receives quite independently of action by her partner. This may even enable her, if neces- sary, to dispense with any prelude of what I have termed genital stimulation. The complex mutual interplay is, in itself, sufficient justification for the culture and mastery of these superficial muscles of the pelvic floor. There are, however, great structural variations in the genital organs of women, and voluntarily directed downward motion of the clitoris will not, in my opinion, be found possible for any and every woman, however great her pelvic efficiency in other respects. For the clitoris is fixed to the pubic arch in a manner which greatly limits any change of position : it is very small in all cases, and in some it is even below average dimensions. A certain degree of infantilism, or arrested growth, here is even quite usual before full sexual intercourse is experienced.