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November 21, 1900
IX., Berggasse 19
Dear Wilhelm,
You will find several items of interest in the recently published Geschlechtstrieb und Schamgefühl by Havelock Ellis; [for example,] p. 113:1 “It is somewhat curious, however, that at the same time as Fliess, though in apparent independence, and from a different point of view, another worker also suggested that there is a 23-day physiological cycle (, The Span of Gestation and the Cause of Birth, Jena, 1897). Beard approaches the question from the embryological standpoint, and argues that there is what he terms an ‘ovulation unit’ of about 23 1/2 days, in the interval from the end of one menstruation to the beginning of the next. Two ‘ovulation units’ make up one ‘critical unit,’ and the length of pregnancy, according to Beard, is always a multiple of the ‘critical unit’; in man, the gestation period amounts to six critical units.”
I have not heard from you and yours for an eternally long time. As for me, nothing but monotony, not without worries.
Cordial greetings.
Your
Sigm.
I have substituted the original English passage, rather than retranslate the German. See , Studies in the Psychology of Sex, vol. I, The Evolution of Modesty, … (Philadelphia: J. A. Davis, 1900). The quotation is from p. 113 in the English also. The sentence before it reads, “Although Fliess brings forward a number
of minutely-observed cases, I cannot say that I am yet convinced of the reality of this 23-day cycle.”