José Rizal’s spermatic thrift

AT the beginning of 1890, Rizal moved to Brussels, where he stayed for eight months in order to finish his second novel, El Filibusterismo. Rizal was living on very little money, and his move to the Belgian capital was likely due to practical reasons: the city was cheaper than Paris or Madrid and printers in nearby Ghent charged far less. Rizal lodged with José Alejandrino, a friend and fellow Filipino expat, on the Rue Philippe de Champagne. In his memoirs, La Senda del Sacrificio (1933), Alejandrino recalled his friend’s austere and thrifty ways. Rizal, he observed, followed a regimented routine in which time, money, and energy were carefully managed and directed toward useful pursuits that were mentally and physically beneficial—studying, writing, exercising, shooting, fencing, and, it appears, a strictly regulated sex life.

During the late nineteenth century, sexology was all the rage in Europe. Sex manuals by French, German, and English physicians proliferated and were veritable bestsellers. Intended for the urbane modern gentleman, these manuals sought to make sex safe and hygienic. They dispensed advice on genital cleanliness, venereal diseases, the calamitous effects of masturbation, remedies for male impotence and sterility, condoms and other forms of prophylactic contraception, physical indications of female virginity, and the proper etiquette for the conjugal bed. The books promised their readers an accessible yet purportedly scientific basis for understanding sexuality and sexual pleasure.