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.
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