Page:Psychopathia Sexualis (tr. Chaddock, 1892).djvu/415

Rh get sight of coitus, in order to assist their virility; or who seek to have orgasm and ejaculation at the sight of an excited woman. Concerning this moral aberration, which, for various reasons, cannot be further described here, it will suffice to refer to Coffignon's book, "La Corruption à Paris." The revelations, in the domain of sexual perversity, and also perversion, which this book makes, are horrible.

By the term rape, the jurist understands coitus, outside of the marriage relation, with an adult, enforced by means of threats or violence; or with an adult in a condition of defenselessness or unconsciousness; or with a girl under the age of fourteen years. Immissio penis, or, at least, conjunctio membrorum (Schütze), is necessary to establish the fact. To-day, rape on children is remarkably frequent. Hofmann ("Ger. Med.," i, p. 155) and Tardieu ("Attentats") report horrible cases.

The latter establishes the fact that, from 1851 to 1875 inclusive, 22,017 cases of rape came before the courts in France, and, of these, 17,657 were committed on children.

The crime of rape presumes a temporary, powerful excitation of sexual desire, induced by excess in alcohol, or by some other condition. It is highly improbable that a man morally intact would commit this most brutal crime. Lombroso (Goltdammer's Arch.) considers the majority of men who commit rape to be degenerate, particularly when the crime is done on children or old women. He asserts that, in many such men, he has found actual signs of degeneracy.

It is a fact that rape is very often the act of degenerate male imbeciles, where, under some circumstances, the bond of blood is not respected.

Cases as a result of mania, satyriasis, and epilepsy, have occurred, and are to be kept in mind.