Page:Psychopathia Sexualis (tr. Chaddock, 1892).djvu/201

Rh “In conclusion, I will mention that somewhere I read an article by Carl Vogt on microcephalic men, according to which these creatures, at the sight of furs, rushed for them and stroked them with every manifestation of delight. I am far from any thought, on this ground, to see in wide-spread fur-fetichism an atavistic retrogression to the taste of our hairy ancestors. Every cretin, with that simplicity belonging to his condition, touches anything that pleases him; and the act is not necessarily of a sexual nature; just as many normal men like to stroke a cat and the like, or even velvet and furs, and are not thus excited sexually.”

In the literature of this subject, there are a few cases belonging here:—

Case 91. A boy, aged 12, became powerfully excited sexually when he chanced to put on a fox-skin. From that time there was masturbation with the employment of furs, or by means of taking a furry dog to bed. Ejaculation would result, sometimes followed by an hysterical attack. His nocturnal pollutions were induced by dreaming that he lay entirely covered up in a white skin. He was absolutely insusceptible to stimuli coming from men or women. He was neurasthenic, suffered with delusions of being watched, and thought that every one noticed his sexual anomaly. He had tædium vitæ on account of this, and finally became insane. He had marked taint; his genitals were imperfectly formed, and he presented other signs of degeneration. (Tarnowsky, op. cit., p. 22.)

Case 92. C. is an especial lover of velvet. He is attracted in a normal way by beautiful women, but it particularly excites him to have the person with whom he has sexual intercourse dressed in velvet. In this, it is remarkable that it is not so much the sight as the touch of the velvet that causes the excitation. C. told me that stroking a woman’s velvet jacket would excite him sexually to an extent scarcely possible in any other way. (Dr. Moll, op. cit., p. 127.)

The following is a very peculiar case of material-fetichism. It is combined with the impulse to injure the fetich, which, in this case, represents an element of sadism toward the woman wearing the fetich, or impersonal sadism toward objects, which is of frequent occurrence in fetichists (comp. p. 170). This impulse to injure made this a remarkable criminal case:—

Case 93. In July, 1891, Alfred Bachmann, aged 25, locksmith, was brought before Judge I., in the second term of the criminal court, in Berlin. In April, 1891, the police had had numerous complaints, according to which some evil hand had cut women’s dresses with a very sharp instrument. On April 25, they were successful in arresting the