The wedding ritual has been accompanied, from one society to another, by a wide range of coital activities.

In various countries feudal lords were apparently entitled to deflower the young bride before releasing her to her husband. This "right of the first night" (jus primae noctis), known also in France as jus cunni and in England as marchette, appears to have been established on the historical evidence. Monks sometimes held the right: thus the monks of St. Thiodard enjoyed this right over the inhabitants of Mount Auriol.

Marriages between young children and old men were not unknown at various times in history, nor - more recently - are marriages between people of the same sex. More strange than any of these is surely marriage between a human being and an animal (which history has recorded) or between a human being and a tree! Tree marriages were prevalent in various parts of India. Among the Brahmans of southern India it was the custom that a younger brother should not marry before an older one. To satisfy the requirement, when there is no bride in sight for a

The masturbation belt, an expression of hysterical opposition to selfish pleasure

The case of Neville George Clevely Heath - tried at the Central Criminal Court London, on 24th September 1946, on the charge of murder - has been represented by Morland in "An Outline of Sexual Criminology" as "the classic example of the sexual psychopath, almost a human blueprint of the type. One of Heath's victims was found with her ankles tied. Seventeen lash blows from a riding switch were counted on the body. And the breasts had been bitten until the nipples were almost severed. A second woman was found with similar breast injuries; and

Vasectomy, nervously seen by some males as akin to forcible castration and the consequent surrender of virility, has often been opposed in law. For a number of years vasectomy has been legal when performed under conditions of appropriate medical control. It was in 1972 that Parliament added vasectomy to the methods of contraception which may be provided by local authorities. This was largely due to the sustained advocacy of the Simon Population Trust.

Superstition persists. In Britain there are still many old beliefs that had currency hundreds of years ago. Some of the popular newspaper and magazine advice columns are deluged with questions and worries revealing a superstitious orientation on sexual matters.

According to Marjorie Proops (in a letter to me, May 10, 1972, for which I am grateful) the commonest myths cropping up in correspondence from readers are:

• A man with a small penis is always sexually inadequate.
• Masturbation will cause hair to grow on palms of hands, make men impotent women frigid

As late as 16 March 1903, Frau Emilie Schafer, of 26 Rigaerstrasse, Berlin, applied for a patent (Sch. 16096: Gebrauchmuster 30. d. 204538) for a "Verschliessbares Schutznetz fur Frauen gegen echeliche Untreue" (Girdle with lock and key as a protection against conjugal infidelity). Writing in about 1930 Dingwall noted that enquiries about the availability of chastity belts were still being made of surgical instrument makers in London - "and doubtless such sometimes supplied."

As early as the Eastern Han Dynasty (A.D. 25-220), a school of Taoists created the Yin Taoism which proposed a theoretical basis for immortality through sex. The theory and practice were seized upon by the emperors as the key to longevity, if not immortality. One of the Taoist manuals asserted that the Yellow Emperor became immortal after having had sexual relations with 1200 women and that Peng Tsu, through the "correct way of making love in ten to twenty girls every single night', was able to live to a good old age. Peng Tsu thought it a

Like men, women were also forced to undergo spinal and genital cauterisation and to wear chastity belts in a vain attempt to prevent masturbation.

Krafft-Ebing refers to a girl who "at the age of ten was giving up to the most revolting vices." e.g. masturbation. He adds that "Even a white hot iron applied to the clitoris had no effect in overcoming this practice."

1890; the scene, Whitechapel, East London. A victim of the infamous Jack the Ripper.