In some countries, and especially in Belgium, celery is
popularly looked upon as a sexual stimulant. Various condiments,
again, have the same reputation, perhaps because they are hot and
because sexual desire is regarded, rightly enough, as a kind of
heat. Fish--skate, for instance, and notably oysters and other
shellfish--are very widely regarded as aphrodisiacs, and Kisch
attributes this property to caviar. It is probable that all these
and other foods which have obtained this reputation, in so far as
they have any action whatever on the sexual appetite, only
possess it by virtue of their generally nutritious and
stimulating qualities, and not by the presence of any special
principle having a selective action on the sexual sphere. A
beefsteak is probably as powerful a sexual stimulant as any food;
a nutritious food, however, which is at the same time easily
digestible, and thus requiring less expenditure of energy for its
absorption, may well exert a specially rapid and conspicuous
stimulant effect. But it is not possible to draw a line, and, as
Aquinas long since said, if we wish to maintain ourselves in a
state of purity we shall fear even an immoderate use of bread and
water.
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