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Sex aids and aphrodisiacs

A variety of sex aids or toys are sold over-the-counter in sex shops or by mail order through magazines. These include Chinese balls (a woman can wear them in her vagina where they vibrate slightly as she moves about during the day) and condoms with various protrusions on them, which are designed to stimulate the clitoris during intercourse. Other condoms are brightly colored and flavored with fruit.

The vibrator is by far the most popular sex toy. Shaped like a penis and battery-ope rated, it can be used in love play or for female masturbation. Some vibrators have an ejaculation mechanism. Many sex therapists advise the use of a vibrator for women learning to give themselves orgasms.

To help maintain erection, the simple ring designed to fit at the base of the penis is probably the only useful device. A piece of ribbon will do equally well. Tied fairly tightly around the penis, it acts as a one-way valve. Blood enters the penis but is prevented from leaving it, and thus the erection is maintained for a little longer. A variety of creams and sprays that claim to prolong erections or to trigger orgasms are also available.

Named after Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, aphrodisiacs are drugs claimed to excite lust. They may also be taken to stave off exhaustion or heighten pleasure during sex. The popularity of these drugs throughout history is a testimony to the fickleness of human sexual chemistry.

In some civilizations, highly nutritious foods were regarded as the most reliable stimulants, and may indeed have had a beneficial effect on people whose diet was usually poor. The Greeks went for eggs, honey, snails, and shellfish such as mussels and crabs. One Arab recipe from The Perfumed Garden recommends a glass of very thick honey, twenty almonds and a hundred pine nuts to be taken for three nights on retiring. Other recipes were to be applied externally. In order to increase the dimensions of small members and make them splendid', the author of The Perfumed Garden advised rubbing the penis with the melted down fat from the hump of a camel, bruised leeches, asses' members, and even hot pitch. These 'rubs' were probably less effective than the treatment of rubbing itself.

The Chinese were more scientific in their approach. They measured and blended the powdered roots of plants, then gave them colorful names like 'the bald chicken drug'. This drug got its name when a septuagenarian civil servant who took it regularly, fathered three sons and paid so much attention to his wife that she could no longer either sit or lie down. He was forced to throw the remains of the drug out into the yard, where it was gobbled up by the cockerel. The cock jumped on a hen straight away, and continued mating with it for several days without interruption, all the while pecking at its head to keep its balance, until the chicken was completely bald, whereupon the cockerel fell off. The proud inventor of the drug claimed that if it were taken three times a day for sixty days, a man would be able to satisfy 40 women.

Horns have long been thought to, have aphrodisiac properties because of their obvious phallic shape. Continuing belief in the potency of rhinoceros horn has brought the single-horned African rhinoceros to the brink of extinction. In fact horn consists of fibrous tissue, similar in construction to hair and nails. Like them, rhino horn contains the protein keratin, and the minerals sulfur, calcium and phosphorus. The addition of these elements to a poor diet might improve vigor, but a cheese sandwich would do just as well.

Another famous aphrodisiac is Spanish fly, the common name of the beetle cantharides. The beetle is dried and the active principal, cantharidin, is extracted. If swallowed, cantharidin causes an intense burning sensation in the throat, followed by diarrhea. Then the urinogenital tract becomes so inflamed that urination becomes impossible. The penis ends up engorged and throbbing, but this is due to excruciating pain rather than to sexual urgency. Taking Spanish fly can sometimes be fatal.

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