This circumstance, indeed, probably aided in the
very marked disfavor in which coitus _a posteriori_ fell after
the decay of classic influences. The mediaeval physicians
described it as _mos diabolicus_ and mistakenly supposed that it
produced abortion (Hyrtl, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 87). The
theologians, needless to say, were opposed to the _mos
diabolicus_, and already in the Anglo-Saxon Penitential of
Theodore, at the end of the seventh century, 40 days' penance is
prescribed for this method of coitus.
From the frequency with which they have been adopted by various
peoples as national customs, most of the postures in coitus here
referred to must be said to come within the normal range of
variation. It is a mistake to regard them as vicious perversions.
Up to the point to which we have so far considered it, the process of
detumescence has been mainly nervous and vascular in character; it has, in
fact, been but the more acute stage of a process which has been going on
throughout tumescence. But now we reach the point at which a new element
comes in: muscular action. With the onset of muscular action, which is
mainly involuntary, even when it affects the voluntary muscles,
detumescence proper begins to take place.
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