On the evening of Wednesday the 15th of January, 1823, the Reverend Dr Thomas Quigley delivered a paper to the Royal Society. The title of his paper was
On the Possibilities of Artificial Insemination as a Means to Improving the Quality of Rural Populations
.
Dr Quigley was concerned that the quality of the breeding stock of many of Britain's rural villages was declining at an alarming rate. Men and women who were both stupid and lazy were producing offspring of even lesser quality. Just as herds of sheep and cattle needed to be revitalised from time to time, Dr Quigley believed that village populations also needed an injection of fresh blood.
The answer, as outlined in Dr Quigley's paper, would be a troupe of eager, fit, intelligent young men whose semen could be introduced into village women. As a man of the cloth, Dr Quigley could, of course, not countenance adultery. And suitable young men would be unlikely to want to marry the lazy, stupid, (and often ugly) women who needed what the chosen few had to offer. But artificial insemination? Now that might be an altogether different matter.
At almost the exact moment that Dr Quigley was stepping up to the podium to deliver his address, his daughter, Miss Emmeline Quigley, an aspiring novelist, who had accompanied her father to London, was admitting a man into the sitting room of their temporary accommodation in Covent Garden, just a short walk away from the Royal Society's rooms.
'Thank you for making yourself available at such short notice, Mr Cockman,' she said.
'The pleasure is entirely mine, Miss Quigley,' the man said.
'I believe Mrs Herbertson said that your fee will be half a guinea. Is that correct?'
'It is, Miss,' the man said. 'I trust that that is acceptable.'
Miss Quigley went into the adjoining room and returned, almost immediately, with some coins. 'Half a guinea,' she said. 'I shall put it here. On the sideboard.'
The man bowed slightly. 'Thank you, Miss.'
'Our time is somewhat limited,' Miss Quigley said. 'It would not be good if my father should return from his meeting at the Royal Society before we had completed our business. So I think that we should begin without delay.' Miss Quigley picked up a notebook and a pencil, and rearranged one of the side chairs so that it was facing the man. 'I think that I shall observe from here,' she said. 'And if you remain ... well, where you are presently standing ... I think that you will benefit from the light from the lamp.'
The man nodded.
Miss Quigley opened the notebook at a fresh page. 'I shall be taking notes,' she said, tapping her pencil on the notebook. 'When I come to use the, umm,
information
, I wish to be as reliable a witness as possible. My characters may be fictional; but I want their actions to have a certain verisimilitude.' And she smiled. 'Now ... I am ready when you are, sir.'
Mr Cockman looked to be about 30 years of age. Not too young. But by no means old. He was perhaps a little taller than average, with a pleasant countenance, and a handsome shock of dark brown hair. He had already removed his top hat and frock coat, and he was standing before Miss Quigley dressed in tan-coloured breeches, a white shirt (with exaggerated cuffs), a white cravat, and a black waistcoat that barely reached to his waist.
With his eyes fixed firmly on Miss Quigley, he unbuttoned his breeches and slowly lowered them. He was not wearing any undergarments. It was as though everything had been designed to get to the object of Miss Quigley's curiosity and inquiry with the least possible delay.
'My word,' Miss Quigley said. 'It is ... well ... somewhat larger than I expected. If I am honest. My expectation - based on stone and marble statues, et cetera - was of something slightly smaller, something a little less ... well ... substantial.'
Mr Cockman nodded. 'It may be a little in excess of average, Miss. Penises vary a good deal. Or so I am given to believe. Some men get by with but two or three inches in length overall. On the other hand, the prize fighter Black Jack Horntree was said to have a penis that exceeded ten-and-three-quarter inches when fully aroused. It must have been quite a sight.'
Miss Quigley nodded and wrote something in her notebook. 'I am not in any way suggesting that your ...' she made a rolling motion with the forefinger of her right hand, 'I am not suggesting that your ... should be compared to that of a horse,' she said. 'But it is still ...' And she made another note in her notebook.
'Shall I continue, Miss?'
Miss Quigley glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. 'Yes. Thank you.' But then she said: 'However, perhaps - with your consent - I might first test its weight?'
'By all means, Miss,' the man said.
Miss Quigley stood up, placed her notebook and pencil on her chair, and moved to within a foot or so of the man. At first, she didn't seem to be sure what to do next. But then she reached out and took the weight of his penis in the upturned fingers of her right hand. She tested its weight a couple of times and, almost immediately, the penis began to grow.
To say that Miss Quigley was alarmed would be to over-state her response. But she was a little surprised. 'Oh! Is this normal?' she asked.
'Normal?'
'I perceive that it just, well, grew. In every direction.'
'In my experience, Miss Quigley, yes, that is totally normal.'
'Oh. Good.' And she nodded slightly. 'Good.'
Miss Quigley allowed the 'growing' penis to revert to supporting its own weight and she returned to her chair. 'Interesting,' she said. 'Yes. Interesting.' And she made another note in her notebook.
'Shall I precede, Miss?'
'Oh, yes. Yes. Of course.'
Mr Cockman took his growing penis in the upturned fingers of his right hand, rather in the way in which Miss Quigley had. His right thumb he placed on top of his penis. And then he moved his whole hand towards his penis's purple-pink helmet-shaped head.