No. 04 - Manly Members

Molly Edmonds, HowStuffWorks.com

The power of many aphrodisiacs relies upon a medieval philosophy known as the "Doctrine of Signatures." People believed that God designated his purpose for things by their appearance; for example, if an herb was meant to treat the liver, then it would resemble a liver. For that reason, many of the aphrodisiacs on our list resemble genitalia.

While certain aphrodisiacs on this list gain their status by resembling a phallus, this entry takes the idea one step further. In some cultures, it's encouraged to consume the actual penis of other animals. You might, for example, want to take a bite of tiger penis, should you want to emulate the masculine prowess that the tiger represents. Perhaps you associate certain animals, like dogs, with a particularly randy lifestyle. You might be interested in having a dog's reproductive organs. It's thought that by eating these animals' organs, you take on some of the animals' powers. There's no reason to stop with a phallus, though; Rocky Mountain oysters, or a bull's testicles, are also considered an aphrodisiac.

If you have doubts about eating another animal's penis, how about an animal that looks like your penis? Because a human male's penis is often likened to a snake, snake's blood has been used as an aphrodisiac, though some have made do with any long-tailed reptile's blood in a pinch.

HowStuffWorks: Before you start drinking snake's blood, you might want to brush up on snake safety. Let's say you get bitten -- will sucking the venom out of a snake bite keep you alive?