Love, flattery, vanity, irreligion, indolence, intemperance, necessity, seduction, postponement of marriage, peculiar stress of temptation, and many other impulses lead her into it. The sweets come first, while the bitterness is lost sight of. In the study of the factors which lead to prostitution we must recognize that a certain proportion of women are "strumpets at heart", as men so often say though without understanding why they say it.
Lombroso, in "The Female Offender", has shown that there is "an intimate correlation between bodily and mental conditions and processes", and criminologists recognize certain stigmata, or anatomical defects and peculiarities in habitual malefactors, which are much more common among them than among the normal individuals of society.
Among criminals, especially habitual criminals, we find physical anomalies of various parts of the anatomy, such as abnormal crania, misshapen ears, eyes on a different level, or eyes too near together or too wide apart, crooked noses, hare lips, cleft palates, highly arched palates, malformations of the teeth or tongue, supernumerary digits, abnormal limbs and bodies, etc. In fact, there is found to be a distinct correlation between the physical defects and the mental processes. This is a law in criminology.
Lombroso classifies courtezans along with criminals, and shows by strong evidence that a natural courtezan is more clearly marked by stigmata as an offender than any other class of criminals. "Almost all anomalies occur more frequently in prostitutes than in female offenders, and both classes have a larger number of the characteristics of degeneration than normal women".
From measurements of a large number of harlots, Lombroso shows that they are remarkable for their small cranial capacities. Heredity and atavism have inclined many to this sort of life, and thus many harlots have "fallen victims to their grandfathers excesses"; or, as South says, they have been "not so much born, as damned, into the world" through the sins of their parents.
Hysteria is exceedingly common among harlots; and it is well known that hysterical women are often intensely erotic, not always so much on account of strong lustful desire as on account of a passion for new emotions and an intense longing for stimuli out of a spirit of adventure. " Legrand du Saulle observed that 12 per cent, of hysterical women took to prostitution out of sheer dilettantism without any pressure from misery, and Madame Tarnowsky found that fifteen per cent, of prostitutes were hysterical".
The Lustful Passion in Women. In the vast majority of cases the desire which is felt by women for sexual gratification, regarded merely as a lustful longing, is not nearly so strong as in men, but to this rule there are exceptions which we must briefly consider.
In both sexes we occasionally meet with a pathological increase of this passion which irresistibly impels them to seek sexual satisfaction without any moral deterring influence being exercised.
In man, this condition is called Satyriasis; in woman, Nymphomania. Both of these conditions stand on the borderland of insanity and often lead to maniacal outbursts.
Of course, there are varying degrees of intensity of satyriasis and nymphomania, dependent sometimes upon local causes, sometimes upon constitutional disease, or following upon unnatural stimulation of the sexual sphere by masturbation or other gross perversions. Such cases are not infrequent in every insane asylum.
A woman with nymphomania is more excessive in her demands than a man who is the subject of satyriasis, partly because he can find some relief by the discharge of semen, while she, having no corresponding alleviation, is driven to any or all means to satisfy her intolerable cravings. Such women will accept the embraces of any man whatsoever, or practise almost continual masturbation, or even resort to bestiality; and so intense is the lustful feeling that it sometimes clouds all conscience, or even consciousness. The poor victims of this malady are acutely insane on the subject, if not upon others as well. The disease being probably due to a cerebral lesion, little good can be done by removal of the clitoris and ovaries.