ABSTRACT
Reasons for paucity of references in literature to sexual stimulation induced by flagellation—Nature of erotic flagellation—Effects of whipping by a member of the opposite sex—Persons who experience pleasure as a result of flagellation—Reference in the Satyricon of Petronius to flogging with nettles as a remedy for sexual impotence —Erotic whipping among the Romans—Practice of flogging maidservants at one time a vice of the English gentry—Remarkable “whipping” charge brought against Sir Eyre Coote in 1815—Notorious London “flagellating brothels” of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—The famous “Berkley Horse”—“Whipping establishments” which exist under euphemized names—Extent of the vice—Various hypotheses advanced to account for flagellation existing to-day—The modern plea of insanity—Early theories respecting influence of the stars—The Aristotlian hypothesis of flagellation as a habit—Hypothesis advanced by Meibomius that flagellation increases sexual capacity by stimulating the genital apparatus—Ancient belief that the loins and kidneys are the seats of venereal and generative power—References in the Bible—Various remedies advocated for sexual disorders—Scientific explanation of sexual excitation induced by whipping—Essential elements in connection with erotic flagellation—Dangers connected with the whipping of children and adolescents.
