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Much of this column's male readership is now thinking: Gosh, Unca Cecil, can I help with the research? Down, boys. The nymphomaniac of legend was probably best defined by sex research pioneer Alfred Kinsey: "someone who has more sex than you do." Although wacky theories about female sexuality have circulated since ancient times, as a medical diagnosis nymphomania is only a couple centuries old. According to Carol Groneman, author of Nymphomania: A History (2000), the concept of nymphomania was first laid out by the French physician Bienville in his 1771 treatise, Nymphomania, or a Dissertation Concerning the Furor Uterinus. Among the behaviors Bienvillle cited as conducive to or symptomatic of nymphomania: dwelling on impure thoughts, reading novels, and eating too much chocolate. Oh, and indulging in "secret pollutions" (masturbation). Scientific thought on the subject didn't advance much for the next 175 years. Victorian medical literature is peppered with anecdotes about female patients exhibiting what we would regard as simple horniness but which back then could be a ticket to the insane asylum, especially if accompanied by physical symptoms like an "overheated" vagina or an enlarged clitoris or uterus. Treatments ranged from the comical to the downright criminal: cold baths and enemas, leeches applied to the perineum (the area between the vagina and rectum), and clitoridectomy (surgical removal of the clitoris).

Reading Carol Groneman's new book "Nymphomania" in a public place elicits reactions from people ranging from bewildered stares to lewd grins. These responses confirm everything she has written on the pages behind the simple and erotic line drawing on the cover. That is, we still don't know what to make of nymphomania. Anyone who has ever wondered how much sex is too much sex -- and who decides -- will be fascinated by this thoroughly researched and well-executed book. Groneman guides the reader through the history of nymphomania as a medical illness, mental disorder, legal construct, cultural perception and off-color joke. In chronicling the transformation of the term, the author begins with the medical model of the 1800s, when strong sexual desire in a woman was considered a disease stemming from lack of morals and willpower. Groneman's analysis continues to the present day as she describes how new attitudes are colliding with persistent stereotypes surrounding female sexuality. "Nymphomania is a metaphor which embodies the fantasies and fears, anxieties and dangers connected to female sexuality," she writes. "By tracing its many meanings over two hundred years, we see how clearly it is reflected in the eye of the beholder."